In my opinion however Radiant Citadel was cool and Nu Ravenloft was better than the old version and I say that as a fan of the old one.
Like I said in my first post on this thread; WotC has largely judged their audience correctly...
I was probably 9 or 10 when I got my hands on the 1E AD&D core books, so me and my friends had a hard time making heads or tails of most of what EGG was trying to say due to his writing style let alone pick up on an obscure inferred reference to mass combat.
Gygax assumed a lot of underlying knowledge from his reader for sure. And he didn't help matters when the PHB came out
edit a year before the DMG...
As someone who never played the original Battlesystem rules could you clarify this further?
Are you saying that all BS really was was just "have one orc battle one knight and then multiple those results by 100?" So each round instead of one orc or knight falling they'd be going down 100 at a time? Or is it not quite that simple, lol.
I'll do my best. There is of course a degree of interpretation here as Gygax never explicitly spells out how to do it. He assumed you had the wargaming knowledge to extrapolate things for yourself...
p.39 from the PHB, under DISTANCE - 4th paragraph:
"Distance scale and area effects for spells (and missiles) are designed to fit the game. The tripling of range outdoors is reasonable, as it allows for recreation of actual ranges of hurled javelins, arrows fired from longbows, or whatever. In order to keep magic spells on par, their range is also tripled. IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT OUTDOOR SCALE BE USED FOR RANGE ONLY, NEVER FOR SPELL ARE EFFECT (Which is kept at 1"=10') UNLESS A FIGURE RATIO OF 1:10 OR 1:20 (1casting equals 10 or 20 actual creatures or things in most cases) IS USED, AND CONSTRUCTIONS SUCH AS BUILDINGS, CASTLES, WALLS, ETC. ARE SCALED TO FIGURES RATHER THAN TO GROUND SCALE. Not the the foregoing assumes that a ground scale of 1" to 10 yards is used."
Crystal clear right? So, by Figure ratio - he is assuming that you are using some type of minis at the table.
Lets assume Orcs AD&D MM p.76 No. Appearing: 30-300. So how do we deal with even 30 orcs?
Every monster in the DMG has the same HD - only the number changes to make monsters tougher. This is by design as you will be adapting the 1HD = 1 hit rule.
30 orcs adjusted to 1:10 Scale: You have 3 groups of 10 orcs each. So each orc mini or counter will represent 10 orcs. Each group has 10hp because you are scaling 1HD = 1 hit. These groups do 1-8 damage, or by weapon type.
1:10 Orc unit:
10 hp
1d8 dmg
Move 9"
To have them fight other units you just do combat as normal, just taking damage by unit.
My interpretation: if a unit is at half strength it does 1/2 dmg until it has 2 or less orcs left in which case it will be folded into a bigger unit. (unless they flee earlier due to morale)
Notice how all movement in AD&D is given in inches, like a wargame... So you have the units moving across the table in inches when you zoom out to the mass combat level. You don't have to change that because you scaled to 1" = 10' for outdoor movement.
What about PC's - They are "Hero units", with 1hd = 1hit. So a 4th level PC would have 4 hits. Yes PC classes use different HD than 1d8.
My interpretation: In mass combat some PC's will get a bump.
A 4th level fighter PC will have 4 hits but also get to do 1d8 sword damage against a group of ten orcs. Awesome right? Yes, it is, but they are also very vulnerable to being swarmed by orcs as well and dying in one round! So you make them part of a unit of good guys, where their 4 hp will be deducted last, or have them seek out the enemy "hero" units, and fight them in the 1:1 standard combat level where things are more in the PC's favor survival wise.
And yes, Magic users become absolute game changers on the battlefield as their spell effects are magnified from a single target to a figure of 10, and their area effects spells go from feet to yards.
Evidently stuff like AD&D's weapon speeds, and weapon AC adjustments have big effects on the unit level when you do this. Epecially if you have units with weapons that can hit from the 2nd rank like spears. So the 30 orcs can form ranks 3 deep and the first 2 ranks can attack the front rank of an opposing unit. Making polearms dominant on the 1:10 mass combat level.
The 1:10 or 1:20 abstraction is to make mass combat play fast at the table using the same to hit rolls as regular combat. And it's baked into the game from the PHB, to MM, to the DMG with it's siege rules.
