I've got a scenario coming up in a month or so in my game which will have the PC party visiting a dwarven fort while it is besieged by gnolls. I've read through a bunch of different mass combat systems, but they all seem overly heavyweight to me. I've come up with what I think will be a fun light-weight way to run the scenario, and was wondering if anyone had any ideas or feedback to offer.
The pcs will be assigned one of the main gates of the fort to defend. They'll fight 3 or 4 separate encounters of the usual size, against small waves of enemies -- gnolls, demons, and some interesting monsters they've impressed into their army, such as a gauth. The terrain will shift over the course of those encounters, as enemy sappers cause cave ins and collapse walls and such. Between each fight, allies will relieve the PCs, so they can fall back and take short rests to spend surges and regain encounter powers.
At the same time, I'll be showing the larger battle on a separate map, at a larger scale, with minis representing platoon or company sized units on both sides. I'll use simple opposed d20 checks (skill checks?) between units to resolve the mass combat, once per round.
During their fights, the PCs will be able to use minor actions to make skill checks, to relay orders to various units on the large map. So for example, an Intimidate check to whip up a unit to fight harder, a Heal check to send combat medics to back up a unit that's taking a pounding, or a Bluff check to order a unit to feint and flank an enemy unit. They'll also get a chance to use one minor each for orders between each fight.
So, any ideas or advice on how to improve this? The one part of this that still feels a bit weak to me, where I'd really like some tips, is how to resolve the unit-vs-unit fights, as simply as possible. I definitely don't want to go with detailed hit points and attacks for units -- I'd like something lighter weight than that.
The pcs will be assigned one of the main gates of the fort to defend. They'll fight 3 or 4 separate encounters of the usual size, against small waves of enemies -- gnolls, demons, and some interesting monsters they've impressed into their army, such as a gauth. The terrain will shift over the course of those encounters, as enemy sappers cause cave ins and collapse walls and such. Between each fight, allies will relieve the PCs, so they can fall back and take short rests to spend surges and regain encounter powers.
At the same time, I'll be showing the larger battle on a separate map, at a larger scale, with minis representing platoon or company sized units on both sides. I'll use simple opposed d20 checks (skill checks?) between units to resolve the mass combat, once per round.
During their fights, the PCs will be able to use minor actions to make skill checks, to relay orders to various units on the large map. So for example, an Intimidate check to whip up a unit to fight harder, a Heal check to send combat medics to back up a unit that's taking a pounding, or a Bluff check to order a unit to feint and flank an enemy unit. They'll also get a chance to use one minor each for orders between each fight.
So, any ideas or advice on how to improve this? The one part of this that still feels a bit weak to me, where I'd really like some tips, is how to resolve the unit-vs-unit fights, as simply as possible. I definitely don't want to go with detailed hit points and attacks for units -- I'd like something lighter weight than that.