NPG Character and PIP Usage

So, now that we have established that the Non-Player General (NPG) can have a Character value of Aggressive, Bold, or Cautious, and under what circumstances those values change (see last blog entry), what does each value mean.

I have always viewed the use of PIPs in DBA as for one of three reasons:

• To maneuver into combat ¹.
• To maneuver out of combat.
• To maneuver, but neither starting nor ending in combat.

¹ Typically the maneuver is into or out of contact, but could be into or out of Bow and Artillery range and fire arc too.

For simplicity, I call these three types of maneuvers Combat, Defensive, and Positioning, respectively. These three types provide an order of precedence that can be aligned with the NPG Character into Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary choices, as shown in the table below.

Character	Precedence
	Primary	Secondary	Tertiary
Cautious	Defensive	Positioning	Combat
Bold	Positioning	Combat	Defensive
Aggressive	Combat	Positioning	Defensive

Note that there is a fourth possibility for a Character value, between Cautious and Bold, which would produce the precedence of Positioning, Defensive, Combat. But I decided to set that aside for the time being.

So, now we have an order to using our PIPs. If the NPG is Cautious, all Defensive maneuvers will be considered first, with Positioning maneuvers second, and if there are any PIPs remaining, Combat maneuvers last.

The next few posts will consider each maneuver type and provide a set of rules for determining the "best" PIP use within each type, hopefully tying it back to the movement scoring entries I started back in October 2010.