Underdark fighting and possible D&D Mini rules?

[Otterscrubber]

Need some help with an Underdark campaign I'm running that might require some large fight rules. It is a 4e D&D campaign but it will have some large scale fights planned every other level or so and wanted to get some advice. Bascially our heroes are some special ops mercenaries who are in turn part of a larger army invading the Underdark.

So in this campaign the leader of the invasion force is a human paladin of bane. While not evil he does want to gain control of the surface of the campaign world and has decided that a successful campaign into the Underdark will garner him the rep and $$ he will need to unite the above ground races under his banner. He is kinda like Julius Ceasar going to Gaul. Our heroes are monkeys in his plans, althoguh important ones who will become even more imortant as time goes on. I have not yet decided if this leader will be a major villain yet for our heroes into the paragon levels, so I'm trying to keep that open.

In any event I do need some ideas on how to proceed. I thought about making a big flowchart that had many paths to the final Drow city, but filling out those paths is harder than I had first anticipated. This is my first campaign as a DM and the first time either me or my players is going to spend an extended time in the Underdark. I've set them up to conquer a Duergar fort now (the Horned Hold from Thunderspire Lab) and then onto the Duergar City behind it. Not sure how to do that though. Thought they might run into some Sniverblin along the way, maybe make some allies or at least some trading partners. I wasn't sure how to play out hte taking of hte city though, perhaps some small adventures, but eventually there is going to be a big fight and not sure how to do it. I am not famaliar with the D&D Miniatures rules but thought this might be useful. How well do they translate? would this be a huge undertaking? How would the heroes be able to stand out in such a setup?

[beverson]

Well, for any kind of mass combat that you might want to do, I would recommend taking a look at a new product that just released from One Bad Egg. It's called Hardboiled Armies, and it's their take on using the existing 4e ruleset to do mass combat. I bought it earlier today and I've only skimmed through it lightly, but I like what they've done (and I recommend all of their products for any GM running 4e). Anyway, I think it's worth a look.