Refuse All Personal Challenges: Order No. 215
"'Down on your knees in the road and ask pardon, or I will set this troll's bane in you!'... The ruffians gave back." (III)
Threats to characters come from many sources: random encounters, army combat, assassins, being doubled, and, of course, personal combat. Usually, by the time a character encounters one of these hazards, it is too late to do anything about it. The encounter will have a chance at killing the character even if "Flee" is chosen as the response. The enemy agent may get through all the guarding agents. The enemy's emissary may successfully convince the character to "share" vital information (in the name of peace and profit, of course).
Personal combat, however, is unique. It is the only source of danger a character never has to face. Even so, there are only three ways of avoiding personal combat. First, if a character is part of an army, that character can only be challenged by another character with an opposing army. Second, another character can challenge the challenger, possibly avoiding combat with the targeted character. Lastly, a character can issue Order No. 215, Refuse All Personal Challenges.
By issuing this order, the character steadfastly refuses to participate in any challenged combat. In fact, the order ONLY protects against actual challenges. It has no effect against encounters, assassins, doubling, or any other source of danger. Further, refusing to accept a personal challenge may result in a loss of army morale (5-15 points of morale loss for any army a character who refuses a challenge is travelling with). Additionally, issuing this order uses up one of the two orders a character can be issued, an important consideration for an army or company commander.
However, Refusing All Personal Challenges allows for an interesting tactic. An army commander can raise cheap troops, and throw this 'army' in the past of a much greater invader. This will stop the enemies advance. On the next turn, the defender can Refuse All Personal Challenges and simply move back to a friendly population center. Unless the enemy is lucky enough to have an agent present, this tactic will really slow down a campaign and use up valuable amounts of food.
The bottom line is to remember that issuing Order 215 may APPEAR to be the cowards way out of combat. But he who lives and runs away, lives to fight another day. Failing to issue this order as an army commander can potentially result in the loss of a hard gained and trained army at no loss to the enemy.
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.