D&D 3E/3.5 3.5 Formation Fighting

[Sigurd]

I have a hobgoblin army patterned on something like the roman legion.

They have fighting formations as small as 7 soldiers. I was wondering if anyone knew of a good source for formation fighting rules and feats. This is the basic situation.

The arrow points forward (Towards the Enemy).
The players will face 7-10 hobgoblins. The front row will have shield fighters anchored by the best fighters on the ends. They might even fight defensively but I'm not sure.

The second rank will have reach weapons (pole arms) fighting over the shields of front line. Amidst the pole arms will be spell casters. I don't know how any sort of formation really works in D&D and I was curious what people think.


Has anyone seen this done well somewhere? I don't really want to reinvent the stuff if there's a game tested source out there.


Sigurd

 

[Shin Okada]

There are some feats which favor tight formation, especially soldiers with shields. Still, one Fireball spell may kill all of them at once. So basically, such an unit is an easy bait for a mage.

How high will be the level of PCs? And how high would be the EL of this encounter?

Maybe the caster should better work as a protection from enemy (PC) spells rather than to be an attacker. He can cast spells such as Mass Spell Resistance, Otiluke's Suppressing Field, Globe of Invulnerability, or use counter-spell.

 

[Darklone]

I usually use a phalanx build like the following, there are groups of four dudes in a clover pattern:

P T - P T -
A B - A B -
third row is empty for movement.
Bards and priests in the 4th row.

and so on.

P: Polearm dude with str 18 and good con. He's protected by his shieldmate buddy with AC 20 due to breastplate, dex 14 and shield bonus.
T: Towershield dude with the Shieldmate feats from the Miniatures handbook.
A: Hobgoblin archer with Rapid Shot, WS and mighty grandbow. Str/Dex 16 makes them really deadly (two shots with 1d10+6 at short distances).
B: Barbarian Bashers... these are sometimes halforcs with great strength and twohanded reach weapons... they have tumble ranks and move a lot within the formation. Their main purpose is to fill gaps and bash down opponents who break a hole into the phalanx

Put three priests and two bards into the 4th row for 12 clover teams. Bard songs (get song of the heart) and bless spells really make this level 3-4 phalanx extremely deadly. The archers should be fighters, the rest can be warriors with perhaps one level barbarian for the bashers.

Edit: there are twelve clovers in a normal unit plus a few officers (including the medic bards and clerics). 4 of these clovers are the reserve that fill the gaps in the two front rows.

 

[javcs]

A good resource to look at may be Heroes of Battle, and to a lesser extent Complete Warrior. Both contain information that may be useful, along with some feats that are good for this kind of thing, along with additional rules.


If they're going to be fighting primarily along a single axis, with definable edges, or just simply so many of them long that a flanking maneuver is impractical I have the following suggestion suggestion:
Front rank: Primarily tower shield troops, full defense, possibly even using the tower shields to generate cover against the front, weapon should be one-handed. These guys are tanking, they're to block off access to the damage dealers, and generally be meatshields.
Second rank: polearm/reach troops, these guys are to stick the people who attempt to beat through the front rank. Give them a decent Dex, hold the line, and combat reflexes as feats.
Third/fourth rank: Ranged guys/casters/support units.
Fifth Rank: (Optional) hole-plugging/counter-flankers - either mounted types (Worgs are typical) or barbarian foot troops. These guys, when available in sufficient numbers can also be employed to exploit gaps in enemy lines or rush vulnerable/valuable targets.

 

[Sigurd]

Fireball is a problem

Shin - I'm going to face the realities of the game so a fireball or other magic is going to do terrible things to any formation fighting. Still for things like herding civilians and making the best of low CR foes I think formation fighting is a good idea.

I had thought the caster in my formation might be trying to protect the formation from fireballs but I'm not sure how\if that would work.

Javcs - thanks for the references. Anything outside of core that anyone knows of?

Darklone - that looks really interesting. Any more description.
I'm trying to stick with random or elite stat NPCs.



I'm thinking that the unit would have

one 7th Level - Leader
two 5th Level - Lieutenants
four 3rd Level - Regulars.

Then I'll roll a d10 and add individual level bonuses based on merit etc...

All the soldiers have to be Hobgoblins, Undead, or Hobgoblin compatible. I'd like the strategy to feel organic and part of a system.


Sigurd

 

[Darklone]

Fireballs aren't that bad. Put one empty space between neighbouring clovers, give the bard the Antimage feat (Kalamar Players Guide) and a wand of Dispel Magic...

But even without that, those hobgoblins with dex+2 and con+2 have a lot of hitpoints, e.g. two fireballs won't kill them usually.

Descriptions:
All hobgoblins with elite stat array can get str 16, dex 16 and con 16. Push and mix a little bit and you'll have:
Polearm dude: warriors level 3 or 4 with Combat Reflexes and Weapon Focus, str 18 if possible, dex 14 and con 14.
Towershield dude: warriors level 3 or 4 with Shieldmate and Improved Shieldmate feats from the miniatures handbook. Con and dex 16.
Archer dude: Fighter 4, WS mighty composite bow, PBS, RS and Weapon Focus. Str, Dex, Con 16.
Basher dude: Halforc with str 18 or orcs with str 22, one level barbarian, 2 or 3 levels warrior. Big twohanded weapon, Power Attack and Cleave (or Weapon Focus).