this is a very good guide, but could you put in links to those refrences of real-life wars? It would help very much. (Wikipedia links or whatnot)

ding ding ding! Thats one mistake self-proclaimed "expert katana" wielders today make. Katanas are not made to block, the sword is one giant razor. And if their is anything I know about, its razors. If a katana were to hit another katana which blocked the blow, both katanas would have damaged edges, edges that cannot be honed if the strike was a good one. Also a katana is extremely ineffective of cleaving. Thats right, no cleaving. Katanas are only effective when you hit the target, and pull the blade back down against it. Thats how they slice off limbs, thats how they do cool stuff.

Of course in RPs, we could get away with saying Ebony and Daedric katanas dont conform to these rules, since Ebony edges are reputed to cut through all, but the edge is still a razor and the sharper the razor, the easier it is to damage. Standard katanas, apply to realistic rules.

However I still feel Samurai were amazing warriors, but Knight vs Samurai is out of the question. Samurai's had many more open vital spots then a fully armored knight did, and the only way a samurai could win the fight with his katana is by finding an open spot (perhaps the arm pit) or penetrating the neck area of ringmail which would likely destroy the sword's edge, making the samurai even less effective against the enemy. Samurai could always whip out the jiu jitsu though, heavily armored knights on their back dont make for the best wrestlers.
--------------------------------------
As for political roleplays and battle roleplays, Crazyjoker hit the nail dead on. Political roleplays have more administrative and governance features, while a battle roleplay will be the actual armies campaigning and clashing. You can always expect to see a crossbreed between the two, a lot more lenient in details and the 'nitty gritty' of things. For example, you can basically look at this guide and know what you'll expect to read in a battle rp. Weather, cold or heat, mud, terrain and everything comes into play.

Political
Political roleplays will have a lot of interaction with roleplayers (almost know armies fighting would be the hallmark of a true political rp) and the action comes in other forms. Expect to see romancing between figures, drunkeness, and many flawed characters. Racism, alcoholism, drug addiction, cowardice, and sixual deviancy are all commonplace in many political roleplays. It gives life to the characters and also the tools to which create weapons against your rivals. Finding out the queen of Camlorn is having an affair with the Prince and her son in-law gives you the chance to exploit that knowledge via spys, and blackmailing her. Now you just earned yourself a forced ally in Camlorn's court and her life along with the Prince's political career and respect are at your mercy. Marriage is commonplace as that is how many houses and cities were united in similar eras.

One thing to look out for, is doing nothing but writing letters to form alliances out of the blue. It takes alot more then letters, this should be a redflag of what your going to get in the roleplay, most likely it will be one of these....(look directly below)

Political War
So the two vary greatly, but its never impossible to crossbreed them into their own roleplay. Political war roleplays usually have characters in administrative positions, throwing war around left and right, with less political motivations and actions then you'd see in a regular political roleplay. Although many roleplayers involved in these forget its a roleplay, and think it a RTS video game of just trying to be the guy in charge. Expect lots of betrayel.

This IMO a very realistic and sensible guide . But it is difficult to discern how much of it would apply to guerilla warfare. I do realize that supplies, armor, etc. rules apply, but it is a completely different style of fighting, focusing on stealth rather than numbers. If some of these differences could be shown, it would really help with my rp (Rise From the Marsh). BTW we should try to get this pinned along with Illusionary Nothing's Rping guide.

In response to Glass Argonian I say that open combat, well normal combat, is not based sheerly on numbers.

Already is my friend, its posted in the guide itself.

Maybe not, but they do help. Especially considering that in the open there is a higher focus on numbers, mainly because out in the open, you can see how many your fighting against, and can make decisions based on that. In guerilla warfare, however you have little or no idea about how many you're against.



Woops! must have missed it, sorry for my mistake

Numbers do not matter as much as manuevering, terrain, and other factors. For example, in our roleplay the Siege of Sentinel Gerald Duval, Heldwyn, Fed X and ImmortalBlood outnumbered the Redguards greatly. One large battle was when the Imperials had gotten the redguards to abandon the walls, all of the enemy charged and began scaling the walls. Now I believe the others outnumbered the Redguards 3-1. An unexpected attack from raider allies behind the legion trenches, was enough to allow a small group of redguards to exit the city and fill in the space between the Imperials on the walls, and the Imperials entrenched.

The entrenched legionares were enveloped from both sides and could escape nowhere, so they did what they could and called for a withdrawl, the legionares regretfully retreated from the walls and were flanked from their sides, and pinned against a wall, by a force of six hundred.

Ya see, numbers dont matter, its the moment, terrain, and daring that wins the wars. Soon after the Imperials retreated, their allies returned to their bases, unwilling to lose their own troops when the chances of winning were not on their side.

Now, guerilla warfare can be handled many ways. It does not mean, I hide in the bush, jump out and kill someone, then hide again. Guerilla warfare is simply unconventional war. Usually it consists of a very small force vs a much larger regime. Duval's guide is especially important to you because your rp is based in black marsh. The entire terrain has effect on anyone heavily armored, and only special equipment can be used in the bogs of Argonia. If your argonian you can move lithely through the mud, with hist sapped armor and light materials. Imperials, knights or anyonelse would be extremely hardpressed to traverse the disease infested, confusing landscaped, and dangerous flora and fauna Black marsh.

A good example of guerilla warfare would be...say a group of three hundred rebels land a ship on the coast strike a small village, kill as many as they can and steal, then return to their boats, hit the coast somewhere else. Viking style.

Guerilla warfare is using propaganda, fear, terrorism, biological warfare, and hit and run tactics against the bigger guy. Do the unexpected and fight dirty. In many ways, in order to have an effectively realistic guerilla warfare rp you NEED to follow the rules of this guide more then anyonelse.

Last thing you'd want is for 1,000 Breton Knights to charge their cavalry against your lightly armored, slightly smaller argonian force of twenty.

Like others have said, this will apply to a guerilla war as well. The guide is meant to expain the mechanics of battle weather its a 50,000 strong battle of armies or small groups of ten or twenty. The golden rule still applies, as well as everything else. If anything the section on Before the battle will become vital, since that is the campaign part that would be most used in your RP.

the whole point of a guerilla war would be to avoid pitched battles. So ambushing the baggage train, burning food supplies, and marching this way and that would be the bulk of the fight as the attackers tried to corner the defenders.

As for historical units and their effectiveness, everyone knows what happened to the "best military unit thread" so please, lets set those debates aside for the moment unless youre using it to prove a specific point. no knights vs. samurai arguments please.

Updated with sources added in as links...

Politics and Military have always and will always be intertwined

I was talking about something along the lines of you show weakness then your allies might turn on you

Very good stuff, the wikipedia articles are a good way to see how the mentioned examples worked, as well as tactical tips to use.

I thinkt he biggest point is you need to have an understanding of the tactics your troops should use based on their equipment. Samurai did block each other's blades at times, but the important point is they rotated their blades so that the dull back and side edges took the blow, not the delicate razor edge. Knights didn't give a damn, and blocked with any edge or let it scraqe away at their armor.

The heavy armor is actually one of the reasons the claymore was made, I believe. The length made dealing with pikemen easier, and the size of the blade gave it more power in a swing, so it could better penetrate the heavy metal armors.

So I would say the second biggest rule of battle rps is to know the uses of your equipment.

well if people want i can add an addendum to the guide and talk about swordmanship, styles, effectiveness and the like. I dont know if this is the right place for it though. I wanted to try and limit myself to just the performance of soldiers on campaign and in battle.

Most RPers seem to handle fighting ok, but the reason I made the guide was because once people moved away from single combat and got on to leading armies, thats where the realism (for the most part) drops and people start going crazy.

I suggest you simply add to the Equipment section that you should have a basic knowledge of how the equipment your men are handling should be used.

Excellent anolysis; now if only someone would do the same for Political RPs...

*rubs chin*

point taken!

In real life, they are indeed intertwined. No war is declared without a few politicians' guiding hands. However roleplays have the freedom to be whatever aspect they want. One regiment of men campaigning and fighting against the enemy would be battle roleplays. If there were allies with relationships that had to be maintained and a certain degree of mistrust between the two, thats politic.

True allies are there to help you when your going down, but thats one thing you see rarely.

Adding to what Duval has said a lot of realism drops during battle, one thing I hate to see is when people talk about how their armies turn in formations without a single word said, and know how to move as one without ever mentioning a thing. Fatigue,morale, and terrain never hindering them. Everybody's a tough guy.

I'll be happy to rescue you anytime buddy.

Good times brotha, Good times.

Siege of Sentinel has had lots of Guerilla warfare in the past, but it ended.

But as soon as Swims-in-Shadows can get back in the water with his new and improved force of 27 Argonians, it'll all start back up again...

Also, the reason I chose a small squad to command in Siege of Sentinel is because I didn't want to deal with the logistics of an army. But thanks to this guide, I might.

I took your warfare into consideration friend, and I have to say "Bring it on boiiiiiiiiii!"

Have special suprises waiting for you.

Guerrilla war in SOS will be reinvigorated once my camp is up and running. I have less forces than anyone else, I think...

I will be playing guerrilla-style, don't you worry. And in any event, Immortal's next roleplay looks to be prime material for a good guerrilla war.

This is great, Gerald. Even though I don't rp I will still use your advice for a fanfic I'll be writing in the future...

I have the smallest force. Five men, one woman. The Band is specialized in Guerrilla warfare and one-on-one duke-outs. But they can also fight alongside a legion of men rather well.

Once the BB get into fighting... Guerrilla, baby!

Yup, and I'm going to be the main guerilla since everyone wants big kingdoms and shiney castles. I never did like huge battles. But in the next one word is their will be no faction sheets with numbers, purely cinematic. So we can have a lot more fun, and chances are their will be smaller, more memorable battles.