Can we cut the arms budget by, I don't know, two percent? Enough to hang a few air fresheners up in here?

Adding a Barracks to a base lets you command squads of soldiers in its defense (and also sends a message to your referee that that's the kind of thing you'd be interested in doing). Squad combat also comes with its own tweaks on the standard battle system, to make commanding a hundred guys at once a little bit less arduous without abstracting away too much control over tactics. If you would like to take your adventurer out into battle with their troops, consider investing in the Commander archetype.

Barracks		Field soldiers.	Vitality
caret-right	Diversified	More troop types.	Influence
caret-right	Lieutenants	Squad leaders.	Influence
caret-right	Quartermastery	Mass resource refills.	Economy
caret-right	Reserves	Replenish the ranks.	Vitality
caret-right	Veterancy	They can get stronger.	Influence

Barracks


Vitality		plus-circleMilitary: The base supports, trains, and outfits one squad of soldiers per point of Vitality rating. A base's soldiers will gladly defend the base or fight for its interests afield, and serve as the first line of defense against soldier squads fielded by other bases. See the Squads and Scaled Combat sidebars at the bottom of this page for the ways in which a squad acts and fights differently than an individual. plus-circleSoldier Stats: All soldiers produced by a given base are level 5 and have a single shared statistic block, making them all functionally identical. Any archetypes known by the squads must be unlocked for general use in your campaign. Squads are prohibited from having any levels in Commander and any other archetypes that the referee feels aren't plausible for mass-production in your campaign world. minus-circleNot Adventurers: Squads of soldiers are trained for combat against other squads or perhaps the occasional lone rampaging megabeast. They do not do well in a typical dungeon environment or other circumstances requiring uncommon courage, subtlety, and cleverness. More importantly, squads are a tool for having a specific type of fun with the game and can actively interfere with the normal type of fun (unless players really love the idea of sitting around doing nothing while NPCs do all the work and claim all the glory, I guess). The referee has the right to tell you no if you want to bring squads into situations that they're not meant for. minus-circleNo Sharesies: You may directly control the actions of squads under your command as if they were followers, but unlike true followers a squad does not and cannot share its resources (Provisions, Supplies, Mojo) with you even if you ask nicely.

None		plus-circleRestoration: Lost members of a squad can be restored to it by spending 2 Dosh per member (up to a maximum of 10 members per squad as normal). This is the only way to replenish lost squad members. minus-circleHomebound: Both the squad and whoever's paying to replenish it must physically be present inside its home base in order to have its lost members restored in this way.

Diversified


Influence		plus-circleVaried Troops: The base has multiple different training tracks for its armed forces, allowing it to field different types of troop. Create +1 soldier statistic block for every 2 points of Influence rating the base has. For example, a base with an Influence rating of 2 could have one default troop type focused on melee combat named “Axemen” and a second troop type focused on archery named “Amazons.” Once the base gains an Influence rating of 4, they could add a third troop type (maybe an amphibious striketeam called “Fishmen”, or a mounted type called “Skirmishers”, or whatever else they wanted.) Every time the base creates a new squad (by gaining another point of Vitality rating), they can choose for it to be composed of troops of any kind they have available. plus-circleLieutenants: If the base also has the Lieutenants facility, it is possible to have an equal number of different types of officer as well as multiple different types of squad. You can mix and match any officer type with any squad type if you wanna.

None		plus-circleRetraining: If desired, a pre-existing soldier statistic block can be altered in the base by switching out known archetypes/abilities or the allocation of combat/resource ratings. Changes made in this way are instantly applied to all active squads of that type. minus-circleProving Fee: Altering a squad template in this way costs 5 Dosh per squad level you wish to change (e.g. changing one level costs 5, changing two levels costs 10, and so forth).

Lieutenants


Influence		plus-circleField Commanders: The base trains a few of its soldiers as officers instead of regular rank-and-file troops. Officers have their own separate statistic block of level 5 that is subject to all the same limitations as squad stat blocks and must include at least one level in the Commander archetype. All officers have the same statistics and are identical to each other, just like all squads are identical to each other. minus-circleSmall Graduating Classes: A base has as many officers as its points of Influence rating. plus-circleReplacements: If a commander dies in the line of duty (or for whatever other reason) they can be replaced with a new, identical one by spending 5 Dosh.

Quartermastery


Economy		plus-circleResource Multiplier: Gifting a squad 1 point of any resource (Provisions, Supplies, or Mojo) furnishes every member of the squad with their own copy of the resource. minus-circleLimited Zap: This establishment can be used to refill a squad's resources a maximum number of times per session equal to the base's Economy rating.

Reserves


Vitality		plus-circleGrist for the Mill: Continual training efforts, judicial conscription, or perhaps more advanced battlefield medicine allow for much easier replacement of any incurred losses. At the beginning of every session the base automatically replaces a number of lost squad members equal to the base's Vitality rating for free. More lost members can be replaced by spending the usual fee of 2 Dosh apiece if desired. plus-circleLieutenants: If the base also has the Lieutenants facility, the base also automatically replaces one lost officer per session for free. This is in addition to the regular soldier replacements.

Veterancy


Influence		plus-circleNew Tricks: When a squad is used in action against an appropriate threat and survives until the end of the session, they gain +1 level. plus-circleLegacy of Excellence: If a leveled-up squad loses members or gets wiped out, its replacement members are still leveled-up. You don't have to restart at level 5 if you lose your champions. minus-circleParallel Tracks: All your squads level up in the same way (gain the same new archetype/ability and the same increase to combat/resource ratings). If the base also has the Diversified facility, then each different troop type has its own unique advancement track that is nonetheless identical for all squads of that type. minus-circleLevel Cap: Squads can gain a maximum of +1 level in this way per 3 points of total Influence rating the base has. plus-circleLieutenants: If the base also has the Lieutenants facility, any officer embedded in a squad that earns a level-up will also level up (to the same maximum level as regular squads).
caret-right	Alternative	plus-circleHard Drilling: A squad can be leveled up without needing to risk them in actual battle. Maximum level attainable is still limited by Influence as normal. minus-circleDrilling Fee: Leveling up squads in this way costs 5 Dosh per level per squad.

Sidebar: Squads

plus-circleWhat's a Squad?: A squad is a group of 10 identical soldiers that move, fight, live and die as a single unit. This abstraction is a way for the game to simulate mass combat between many individuals without slowing the action down to a crawl.

plus-circleSize: Squads occupy space, carry weight, and crew vehicles as a single creature two sizes larger than the squad's constituent members. In scaled combat, this means that they occupy space as a single creature of their size would do normally.

plus-circleMultiattack: Unlike a creature with levels in the Swarm archetype, every member of a squad is a fully-competent and contributing member to its success. When a squad takes an action, that action's effects are multiplied by the total members of that squad. This means that a fully-staffed squad's attacks hit 10 times simultaneously.

plus-circleStacked Health: A squad has 50 Attention, Energy, and Flesh. However, every time Attention hits a breakpoint equal to a multiple of 5 (45, 40, 35, 30, etc) then any additional damage is dealt to Energy instead. Damage is similarly dealt to Flesh when Energy hits the same breakpoints. For every 5 total Flesh lost by a squad, the squad loses 1 member. Lost squad members do not make death&dismemberment rolls; they simply die.

Sidebar: Scaled Combat

plus-circleSquad Scale: Squads operate on a larger, more zoomed-out scale than single-creature skirmishes do. When running a combat that involves one or more squads, every hex represents 5 meters instead of one meter. This can also be useful when running battles involving extremely large participants (like kaiju fights) or extremely long distances (like if adventurers must approach a distant position with very long-range weaponry being used against them).

plus-circleTL;DR: Reduce all distance/size measurements in the game by two steps on the 1 → 2 → 5 → 10 → 20 → 50 → 100 → etc scale. That's 90% of the idea here; all else is clarification.

minus-circleA Note Before We Begin: The Annulus ruleset, while simple in structure, is also very large. There will no doubt be a few random edge-cases and ambiguous situations that crop up that aren't clearly covered by the following rules. The best thing to do when this happens is for the referee to simply make a call (with deliberation among the other players if necessary/desired) so that the game can resume with a minimum of fuss.

plus-circleScaled Movement: Taking a move action while in scaled combat allows a creature to move 1 space instead of 5, or 2 spaces if they take a dash action. If a creature has an impairment to movement for whatever reason, it takes two actions to move 1 space instead of the normal 1 action. If a creature has two impairments to movement, they must take a total of 5 movement actions in order to move a single space. When multiple actions are required to move a space, these actions can be taken over multiple successive rounds if necessary/desired.

plus-circleScaled Reach: All distances and measurements are dropped two steps on the 1 → 2 → 5 → 10 → 20 → 50 → 100 → etc scale in terms of how many hexes away they extend. For example, an Archer attack (which normally has a range of 20 meters/hexes) now has a range of 5 hexes instead.

plus-circleEngagement: Attacks and effects with a reach of less than 5 meters now require their user to physically enter the same space as their target in order to use them, or use a special “Engage” action against any target in an adjacent space. By making a single Engage action, engager and engagee are considered to be 2 meters apart (partial engagement). Two Engage actions reduces this effective distance to 1 meter (full engagement). Engagement can be canceled by either engager or engagee taking an action to “Disengage”, which reduces full engagement to partial engagement or completely removes partial engagement. If either side is wiped out/killed, engagement is removed automatically. When engaged, neither side can make movement actions without disengaging first.

plus-circleScaled Space: Squads occupy space as creatures two sizes larger than they actually are. Creatures occupy space in squad scale as if they were two sizes smaller than they actually are. A squad of human-sized soldiers (size 5) or a single size 7 creature would therefore occupy a single space in squad scale, but a lone human would occupy 1/5 of a space (and therefore be able to comfortably share a space with up to four allies). A squad of size 6 soldiers (or regular size 5 soldiers mounted on size 6 warbeasts) would occupy a single space and all adjacent spaces, but a single size 6 fighter would occupy only 1/2 a space.

plus-circleScaled Area of Effect: Attacks and effects with an area of effect greater than a single space/target are similarly reduced in scaled combat by two steps on the 1 → 2 → 5 → 10 → 20 → 50 → 100 → etc scale. This sometimes causes an effect to strike only part of an entire space- see the Scaled Radial AoE sidebar below for a full conversion chart. If a space is only half struck by a scaled area of effect, then it effects only half of the total occupants of that space by volume (rounded up). If it's important/you don't mind a little extra work, a creature is equal to two creatures of a size one category smaller than itself for purposes of this calculation.

Sidebar: Scaled Radial AoEs
Normal AoE	Scaled
1 +1 adjacent	Half
1 +2 adjacent	Full
1 +5 adjacent	Full +1 Half adjacent
1 +10 adjacent	Full +1 Full adjacent
1 +20 adjacent	Full +2 Full adjacent
1 +50 adjacent	Full +5 Full adjacent
etc	etc

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