21.10 Activity (ongoing) via specialist-skill deployment.

Syntax: ... ACTIONS/ACTIVITY <percentage>.
Declares the percentage of your legion to be on active deployment. Legionnaires can have four status: passive, active-deployed, proactive or melee. Passive is the default, active-deployed means those deployments requiring the above command and specific deployment to be acted upon. Proactive status is achieved by specialist-skills requiring individual commands (see HELP PROACTION) or circumstances that lead to legion autonomously using its skills in an appropriate way. Melee is the status governing a legion's destructive, conflict-based actions like close-proximity combat, archery offence, plundering and such (see HELP BATTLEFIELD).

The percentage you devote to ACTIONS will allocate that percentage of the legion's manpower to potential active deployment, skills associated with this being listed below. For instance if you have 50% of your legion ACTIVE then you could - for example - have 25% deployed on projectiles (working on mortar bombing enemies) and 25% minehunting (searching the locale for hidden mines/defusing any found).

Remember there is an order of priority for the four legionnaire status: melee comes first, then destructive, then active, then passive. So if you declare a MELEE of 80% and had previously set ACTIONS to 50% you will find your ACTIONS automatically reduced to 20% to give men over to the melee. MELEE being used (i.e. when a legion is actually engaged versus an opponent) cannot be taken away but MELEE percentage not currently used can be taken by your ACTIONS/ACTIVITY command. For example: legion of 250 troops has MELEE of 100% and is engaged against an opposing legion of 100 troops; thus it is possible to ACT up to 60%. So: 100 of its troops are locked in melee, 150 troops on the other hand can (if desired) be deployed to other activities.

Syntax: ... DEPLOY <specialist skill> <percentage> [<parameters>].
Under the assumption that you have declared some of your legion to be about the business of engaging an enemy, you may then deploy the use of specialist abilities (or enter into direct melee) in an effort to best your opponent, work your environment or take up more advantageous positions ready for future action. Deployment is often imperfect and requires a little experience managing the distribution of specialist-skills to maximise the percentile spread. Practice is recommended. Keep an eye on your legion's danger-level assessment (as shown in LEGION INFO) as when this figure goes ten or above, meaning urgent danger/enemy in locale, many deployments will be put on hold until the more important 'problem' is tackled.

You can deploy multiple skills at the same time, and providing you have enough legionnaires set to active deployment, they are able to proceed with many tasks concurrently. Below is a list of specialist-skills directly relating to combat and conflict:

"PROJECTILES" requiring spears or catapult and mortarbomb.
To inform your legion to devote some portion to working with projectile weapons (spears and the like for in-location battling, beyond the range of melee, and catapults for longer distance). The primary skill involved determining projectile damage is "projectiles" with "hawkeyes" as a secondary. "fieldequipment" is taken into account but need not be actively deployed.

"ARCHERS" requiring arrows/crossbow bolts and sufficient longbows or crossbows.
Arranges a portion of your legion into an archery formation, ready to engage distant enemies via the use of the longbow or crossbow. Damage done depends on numbers deployed, "archers" and lesserly "hawkeyes" skills, quality of bows, distance and armouring and formation of enemy, etc. You do not need to deploy "projectiles" to use bows and in fact doing so may confuse your legion attempting to use projectiles where the bow would be more appropriate/effective.

"FIELDEQUIPMENT" requires whatever components needed for future constructions.
See HELP CONSTRUCTION for detailed information but this deployment sets your legion working on fashioning fieldequipment via the CONSTRUCT order. You need to allocate at least some of a legion whenever you wish to construct else none will break formation to work at the task. Ideally you will find a balance of deployment if you wish a legion to work on construction on or near the battlefield, not leaving it completely undefended yet ensuring items are completed as quickly as possible nonetheless.

"MINEFIELDS" requires landmines or watermines.
Sets your legion about the task of laying mines. The mines are laid in the locale point, with a detonation capability based on the construction-potency of the mine itself, the "minefields" and "minehunting" skills of the legion and the number of mines already in the location. There can be, at most, a dozen mines in any locale, thus a hundred and eight total in a location. Mine damage is deflected, in part, by armour and legion agility but - other than the legion setting the mine - ALL other legions will be vulnerable to a minefield once the mines are concealed; even those sharing loyalty with the minelayer.

"MINEHUNTING" aided by iron rods or weapons (risky).
Employing, to an extent, the skill of 'minefields' and primarily 'minehunting' you can use this type of destruction to detonate mines in the immediate vicinity. It is generally used in conjunction with the MINEHUNT command order as described in the HELP SCOUTING helpfile since hunting out the mines initially places them vulnerable for controlled destruction. If you go sabotaging mines without first having unearthed them via hunting you risk detonating them unexpectedly or without proper precautions - and thus would be likely to cause harm to the legion. Find the mine first nd then sabotage becomes far more straightforward and likely to succeed.

"LUMBERJACKING" requires weapons or better, axes and saws.
Employing the specialist-skill of "lumberjacking" and greatly enhanced by use of the correct equipment (e.g. axes), the lumberjacking command-order directs the attentions of the legion against those targets suitable for cutting down (and thus speedier destruction) or cutting through (and thereby negate some undesirable influences on your locale. After the felling of trees, lumberjacking deployment includes logging and wood gathering. Targets for lumberjacking include trees, forest growth/obstructions, towers erected using stilts, etc - but not huorns or ents. Be cautious about lumberjacking in living woodland (i.e. by ents or huorns) since those sentient trees fight back - hard - and can cause much fatality. Huorns (enraged tree legions) are attacked using BESIEGE rather than LUMBERJACKING - take note.

"FORTS" requires fortifications in the locale-point.
Sets your legion, or a portion of it, about the task of actively manning fortifications in the locale-point, or if you specify a percentage less than the numbers already deployed to man, legionnaires will cease manning and rejoin the legion proper. Both options presume the fortifications share the same loyalty as the legion, i.e. are on the legion's homesoil. One of the main distinctions, remember, between fortifications and siegetowers is illustrated here: fortifications are homesoil defences, siegetowers are their battlefield offensive cousins. You will be able to view fortification levels by typing LOCALE or BANNER. Manned fortifications strike back with a far greater vigour, in addition to offering a measure of protection to those legions housed within. NOTE: There are techniques of manning to be experimented with and learned here for pacier deployment.

"SCORCHEDEARTH" requires means of firemaking.
The commmand-order of scorched earth uses the specialist-skill "scorchedearth" to bring about the destruction of fields, gardens, herbs, poisons, woodland and such suitable that might be the result of the farming or labours. Many use scorched earth as part of an invasion tactic to force a foe out onto the battlefield, while others employ its long-term destructive effects as part of a retreat pattern.

"LEVELGROUND" requires "levelground" skill and is aided by spades/shovels.
To fill up holes or render impassable tunnels you would use this command-order to set a legion about the task of, at the very least, redistributing the surrounding earth to negate tunnels, trenches or holes. If the legion stands on the surface, facing higher ground in the specified direction the landfilling will begin to fill in the localepoint (or raising it) by taking ground from the mound faced. The legion will, if it cannot find a mound where it faces, seek to retrieve suitable landfill from other easy-adjacent localepoints or from its own inventory. Number of feet shifted per round is determined by legion size, "levelground" skill deployed and legion innate "levelground" potency. BEWARE: subsistence from overzealous landfilling can be hazardous to legionnaire health.

"OILCAULDRONS" requires "oilcauldrons" skill and nearby oilcauldron.
Use this deployment to inform your legion to take into account the approach of enemies and, when within range, automatically direct and pour the contents of oilcauldrons onto the opponent. Boiling oil or burning oil are both extremely damaging attacks and using this deployment brings the form of attack into play without having to use the direct CAULDRON order (see HELP PROACTION).

"HEALINGHANDS" requires some 'healinghands' skill.
Determines a portion of the legion will, whenever the circumstances are sufficiently safe, carry out a healing on any wounded or seriously wounded members of the party. See HELP GUILDGOAL for details on intelligent healing.

* THE FOLLOWING ARE NOT YET SWITCHED ON **