"Morale Clock: fighting a war on two fronts. Suggestions?" Topic

I'm planning a 2nd Ed. BattleSystem game with a Lich's skeletal army attacking a city wall, defended by Humans. The Lich will be using an artifact, which will activate one unit of skeletons, anywhere on the table, per Turn. He basically gives them a command, and sends them off, like a land torpedo. If they stop, they stop, until he re-takes command. Otherwise, they continue until they are destroyed, or they run off of the table.

Secondly, the table will feature a section of the city wall, defended by Humans, with very little behind the wall, for simplification. Here is where it gets interesting: the Lich will send a unit of Zombie-Wyvern riding Undead to fly into the city's neighborhoods, to attack the hapless civilians, who are virtually defenseless. Their screams will be heard by the wall defenders. The wall defenders can either man the wall, or leave, to defend their loved ones, within the city proper…

I need to come up with an idea of how to use a Morale Clock which counts down periodically, for civilian casualties inside of the city, such that the wall defenders will abandon their post leaving the wall section undefended. I plan on giving some Human heroes a couple of Wands of Illumination, to destroy the Undead with, however, these wands will not destroy entire units, just one figure per charge expended, per Magic Phase, per Turn. I figure the Heroes can run into the city, to deal with the flying Undead, to save the citizens, leaving the Regular Army to defend the walls. I expect that the destruction of Undead within the city would reverse the Moral Clock a bit, preventing the Regular Army from abandoning their post on the wall. Ideas? Suggestions? Thanks in advance.

By the way, the Humans will not know that the Lich is only able to command one Undead unit per Turn, using the artifact -- they will figure it out during play. They will also eventually figure out that the Undead are land torpedoes through play: if the Humans abandon the Undead, the Undead may just stand there, until commanded to act again. I figure these limitations should result in interesting play for all parties involved. Cheers!

Forgot to mention, the city wall will be on the Ping Pong Table, running the long way. The center of the city, where the civilians are being attacked, will be on a side table. It may prove cumbersome, but I don't want to try and jam too much onto the 9' x 5' Ping Pong Table.

The Lich will have some intelligent sub-commanders, to run some of his undead units, but I plan to limit communication between them, and the Lich, using the artifact as a walkie-talkie, so he can issue commands. Otherwise, they will have their orders, and they will be expected to follow them, more or less. This should allow for individual players to be creative, on their own, on the Undead side. Cheers!

Simple Morale Clock:

Once Undead are among the civilians (and the wall defenders know it), roll 2d6 each turn that Undead are in the city. Give the wall defenders a set morale number they have to roll lower than to stay and fight, reflecting their morale value and discipline. This can vary by unit to unit, but only one roll of 2d6 is made per turn for the entire army. Values would range from 7 (really bad) to 15 (exceptional), BUT the dice are modified as follows; +1 penalty cumulative per turn for every Undead known to be in the civilian area (whether attacking or not), +1 for every civilian death in each turn (cumulative), +1 to result to each specific unit only for every unit adjacent to that unit that has failed morale and left the wall.
Bonuses: -1 for each specific unit for every hero within a set range of that unit. -1 for each hero who has gone to protect the civilians. -1 for each Undead destroyed in a turn (or the previous turn, depending on when you make the morale check).

Possible drastic disaster penalty: +2 if a hero is killed fighting the Undead.

Also, you might want to allow for the possibility of the civilians killing uncommanded Undead. A mom out to protect her babies is a dangerous foe! The chance should be rare; calc as you wish, but it should be a chance thing, not strategy or tactics. But give a -1 morale roll bonus if the civilians pull this off, in addition to the bonus for a slain Undead.

So each turn you simply roll 2d6, modify the result as above, and pull the units which fail. You might want to include some mechanizm for a hero to rally these forces back to the wall once an Undead has been dealt with.

Off the top of my head, and be careful less the calculations become burdensome…