Issue Personal Challenge: Order No. 210
"Thus he came alone to Angband's gates, and he sounded his horn, and smote once more upon the brazen doors, and challenged Morgoth to come forth to single combat. And Morgoth came." (S)
Personal combat is the last act of the deparate, the cunning ploy of the tactician, and the epic deed of the heroic, all rolled into one. If a character is about to meet certain doom at the hands of an agent, issuing a challenge may be the only hope of salvation. A commander of a garrison force facing a huge army, laden with warmachines, dragons and other terrors, may gamble on single fight with the opposing general: winner take all. Faced with a dreaded game-long foe, a character may choose to settle things once and for all. In MEPBM issuing a personal challenge is one of the few chance to really role-play a character.
However, personal combat, is extremely deadly. Only one combatant will walk away. Further, a lucky (or unlucky) set of die rolls can cause a much weaker character to kill a much stronger one. Only artifacts and natural bonuses to the challenge skill will modify the odds. There are no spells to help defend or enhance a combat, no method of having multiple characters fight a single opponent. Once the challenge is underway, it is a fight to the finish.
Interestingly enough, except for random encounters (which strictly involves combat only between characters and NPC's), issuing a personal challenge is the ONLY method by which two characters will fight each other. Additionally, issuing the order does not mean there will be a fight. The enemy might issue order 215: Refuse All Personal Combat. The challenger might not be with an army, and the challenged character is. Further, there might be a fight with an unexpected character who issued their own challenge (this is because the highest ranking character gets to challenge first)!
This order has a unique twist that it shares with only three other "sets" of orders: casting "Curse" spells (Order 330 - Spirit Mastery), "influence" orders (Recruit Double Agent - 500, Bribe/Recruit Character - 505, Influence Other -525), and "agent" orders (Assassinate Character - 615, Kidnap Character - 620, Sabatoge Bridge/Fortifications/Harbor or Port/Production Stores - 665/670/675/680, Steal Artifact/Gold - 685/690). These orders share in common one trait. They allow a nation to conduct hostile acts against allies. Theoretically, two nations could even agree to send warriors to an 'arena' for the purposes of toughening one of them up. More likely, this order will be used against friendly nations to help satisfy some particular victory condition, or to settle a grudge.
Like most of the agressive orders, careful understanding and use of the order is critical to the greatest success. For example, some players will "sandbag" an army. That means they will make a weak character the Army Commander, and make some big heater of a character the backup. Then, when they clash with an enemy, they gamble that only the weak character was detected, lulling the opponent into NOT issuing 215, refuse all personal combat. Thats when the big character comes out of the ranks and issues personal challenge to the unsuspecting (and unprepared) foe.
There are a few things to remember. First, there are not very many defenses to the use of this order (no agents, spells, or emissary actions will help). Second, use of this order may be issued against any nation, even an ally! Finally, clever use of this order may result in big battlefield results. Failure to understand these principals will eventually cause the loss of more than one character.
Return to Firebrand's Order Analysis
Text Copyright 1998 by Jeffery A. Dobberpuhl. All game mechanics and terms are Copyright 1993 by Tolkien Enterprises, as produced, designed and distributed by Game Systems, Inc.