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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Truename" data-source="post: 5749978" data-attributes="member: 78255">Thanks for the suggestions! I kept the squads and swarms because I want the "big battle" feel that they give me, but I leveled them up to level 14 to reinforce that the PCs (who are level 12) aren't yet as powerful as a whole squad. (At this point, they know that they can generally take out a normal soldier in one hit, and that only elite forces and unit commanders are as powerful as they. However, they also know that people like Kelkin Thranavost completely outclass them--they faced him last night, too. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" /> ) I'll probably use some of OnlineDMs monsters for the enemies as well.I'm not sure what I'll do about the epic tier, but I'll cross that bridge when I get to it.We played the "set up" for the battle last night. It took place while Steppengard's army was traveling. Commander Hertiage (who I promoted to commander of all infantry forces, since I hadn't used him before) introduced the line commanders (including the PCs) to the basics of military warfare, with a big drill-sergeant voice:"For some of you, this is your first command. So, tell me, what's the most important unit on the battlefield?" A PC answered, "infantry, of course!""Heh. Good answer. Now, tell me WHY the infantry is the most important unit!" Silence."Heavy air calvary may be the most powerful forces out there. Those dragons ARE scary. But our ballista will turn them into dragon-onna-stick before they even get close! So Steppengard's gotta take out our siege towers."Now, you might think that he'd send in his ground calvary to get the job done. And there is nothing more frightenin' than several tons of horseflesh charginging you with a tin can sitting on top wielding a ten foot pole pointed at your heart! But our pike squares will take that charge and turn it into tinned horsemeat!"What that means is that if Steppengard wants to take our siege towers, he's gotta break our lines. And the only way to do that is to send in his infantry. That makes infantry the most important unit on the field! Infantry stops the calvary from coming in and savaging our archers and commanders--that's you! Without infantry, the ground calvary would take our siege towers and the heavy air would take the day. So hold those lines!"One last thing: our ballista will keep the enemy's heavy air calvary out of the fight, but watch out for their light air. They'll hop over your lines and take out your support. I also hear that Steppengard's hired some monstrous mercenaries, so watch out for them, too."Now, go put together your plans of battle. I want to see what you have in 45 minutes!"At this point, I gave the players the rules for setting up the battle:<ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They had 45 minutes real time to make their plans.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They get 6000 XP to spend on pike squares (1000 ea) and archers (500 ea). (Handout with updated stat blocks attached.)</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They get two chaplains. The allied units have two healing surges each per day.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">They'll have two hours to cast rituals. The "earthen ramparts" ritual creates a ten-foot high wall, which will take four squares of movement to climb on the enemies' side.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">Their soldiers can take 32 actions during that time. A single action can move a 5' cube of earth (creating difficult terrain), create a square of damaging terrain (does 2d6 damage to units entering or starting their turn there, and is difficult terrain), or create a square of fraise (does 1d6 damage to units entering or starting there turn there, and ends a units' move action when entered).</li> </ul>After they set up their plan, Commander Hertiage critiqued it (asking about how the archers would be protected, and asking about how they intended to respond to light air calvary), and then we moved on to the Mage Assassination episode.We're going to play out the battle in an extended session on New Year's weekend. Now I need to figure out the opposing forces. <img src="http://www.enworld.org/forum/images/smilies/devil.png"  class="smilie" loading="lazy" alt=":devil:" title="Devil    :devil:" data-shortname=":devil:" /></blockquote>

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