Battlefield Scenarios

[Maerdwyn]

If I were doing this, I would first decide early on whether the actual troops vs. troop battle is the challenge/adventure, or merely the setting of the adventure.

If the former, miniatures, or counters, representing units are, IMHO, a must, because I'd need to able to track where generals are moving troops around, exactly how strong each force is at what point in the battle, etc. In this case, I'd make an encounter for each mini/counter, and give XP out for each encounter defeated, with the situations outlined in previous posts merely other encountersmixed in with these. This can get to be very difficult (both for characters and players/DMs) is the battle is too large. At some point, switching to wargame\mass combat rules is indicated.

If it's the latter, the battles itself can be adjusted a little more freely, and becomes, in some respects, much like difficult terrain. So, if you are crossing a room full of poison gas, you might take a certain amount of damage per round. Similarly, if crossing an area full of battling soldiers, you take a certain amount of damage from stray sword strokes and arrows. If the fighting is really thick, the PC should take damage in every square/hex. If it's lighter, maybe every three or four hexes. Suggestion - if the soldiers are using short swords, for example, the PC takes 1dx points of damage per point of AC below 20, for a minimum of 1dx damage (REF Save DC 15 for half damage), where x is the damage dice of the weapon used by the grunts. Assign a CR to each hex or region that does damage to the PCs.

In this case, the major battle is basically scripted, but it's outcome is affected by how many of the missions that PCs accomplish during the battle. I think is was Kaptain Kantrip who came up with a system like the follwing a few month ago - if not, apologies to whomever came up with it.

Start with the chance the PC's side has to win the battle without the PC's help. Assign a modifier to each mission the PC's have in the battle. For each mission they complete, add that encounter's percent modifier to the base percentage. When the PC's are done (either because they've exhausted their resources or because they are out of time). Roll against the new percentage to determine the outcome of the battle.

 

[Eben]

You have been engaged by the enemy sooner than expected. The army command had meant to take up positions on a hill a few miles north. The battle has already started, but the much needed cavalry reserve still has not arrived. During the afternoon the general gets reports from his scouts: the cavalry has been spotted behind the enemy lines, probably somewhere near the origal rendevouz point. Somebody has to get a message to them, but who ...
Alternatively, the PC's could be in charge of the lost cavalry brigade: you arrrive at the rendez-vous point, but still no sign of the main body of the army. All of a sudden you hear a roar and the clash of steel against steel south of you position. As you turn to face the noise, you see the enemy's banners naer to you, farther south you see the banners of your commrades, being engaged.

(This is actually quite realistic: Napoleon had a whole brigade that never made it to St-Jean (Waterloo if you were wondering.))

 

[mmadsen]

Lay out the battle field on paper, and put a grid over it, numbering the squares. Have an encounter for each grid. The players start in one grid, and as that encounter is finished, you can describe what's going on around them. That'll give them the opportunity to react or decide where to move on the field.

That sounds like it would mesh well with some of DrSkull's ideas:

Set up the game table with several important targets (commanders, battle-standards, wizards, priests etc) and their guards. Spread around clumps of average-joe bad guys too.

So far, it sounds easy enough, but even a small unit on the battlefield is probably 100 men (or orcs). Do we pit the PCs and 100 allies against 100 enemies plus a champion or two? If we divide things into small enough encounters, we end up with the PCs wiping out their enemies while reinforcements should be flowing in from either side.

Likewise, you can roughly determine how certain encounters are going to go. Perhaps the enemy is going to overwhelm the party's allies in the next grid, and now are going to turn towards the party, or the generals see that one encounter is doing poorly and will pour more troops to that area of the field.

You easily make the encounters that don't involve the PCs as simple as a single die roll to determine who's winning. As the PC's and their army win certain squares, it represents the ground they are gaining on the field.

That all sounds reasonable.

 

[SHARK]

Greetings!

Hmmm...well, off the top of my head, I can think of several that I don't think have been mentioned so far! (Many excellent ideas by everyone by the way!)

(1) The High Command has learned of a reclusive Wizard that lives in an isolated fortress in a foreign land. It is believed that this wizard is researching some new spells and artifacts that could very well add great advantage to whatever side that can acquire them. The players mission is to find the strange wizard, and recover the artifacts and spell research. Preferably with the cooperation of the strange wizard, but if necessary, he may be killed. The party must also expect that the forces of darkness currently fighting their homeland are also sending several assault teams to get to this valuable research before they do!

(2) The party is tasked with escaping through a wilderness carrying secret documents that must reach headquarters. In this case, the enemy has overrun the various army positions, and all is in chaos. The army commander is putting his faith in you!

(3) The enemy is working on opening a huge, thousand-mile wide gate to the Abyss, which will allow armies of demons to sweep in and contribute to their forces on the battlefield in a decisive manner. This must be stopped, and the Necromancers working on it are doing so from an isolated, fortified citadel deep in enemy territory...

(4) The players have a mission of dropping into an isolated mountaintop citadel that is under siege by the enemy forces. They are to orchestrate and coordinate the fortress defense in this desperate hour!

(5) The enemy has developed a new kind of enchanted warship. The players are going to be dropped into enemy territory at night, and they are to infiltrate the secret naval base and make their way to the secret dock where the enchanted warship is at anchor. The players are to sieze the ship, and escape with it, back to their own lines. Failing that, they are to die in every attempt to scuttle the enemy warship.

(6) The party fight through enemy lines to reach a mysterious citadel, where a wizard lives. This wizard desires to defect to the forces of Good, and must be captured, and brought out alive.

(7) The party is sent on a dangerous mission deep into enemy lands. The operation is accompanied by a team of six other individual specialists. The mission really, is secondary. Through a complex series of meetings and operations, the party is to ferret out the traitor in their midst--a double agent--and kill him, and any accomplices. Some of the specialists, however, are not under suspicion. Then again, who exactly is the spy may be a mystery. On the journey, the party must determine who that is--because the double agent is already planning on the party's entrapment and demise! Time is running, and the party must be very careful!

How's that?

Semper Fidelis,

SHARK

 

[TiQuinn]

So far, it sounds easy enough, but even a small unit on the battlefield is probably 100 men (or orcs). Do we pit the PCs and 100 allies against 100 enemies plus a champion or two? If we divide things into small enough encounters, we end up with the PCs wiping out their enemies while reinforcements should be flowing in from either side.

What I'd probably do is count off a number of reinforcements to insert into particular encounters, as if the generals were seeing what was happening, and giving orders for them to advance on another position. In a sense, you're almost determining the battle ahead of time, with a few divergences that can occur based on the party's actions. The main reason why you want to stay away from trying to represent an entire unit of orcs is that the party is your primary concern, and they will not be fighting every single orc on that field. They'll be fighting a handful of them at any given time, and others are being engaged and defeated while their own battles progress.

 

[mmadsen]

Hmmm...well, off the top of my head, I can think of several that I don't think have been mentioned so far!

Now I just have to match them up with their WWII- (or Cold War-)movie originals... Number five looks an awful lot like Firefox (1983).

 

[TiQuinn]

Now I just have to match them up with their WWII- (or Cold War-)movie originals... Number five looks an awful lot like Firefox (1983).

I think Alistair MacLean wrote the rest!

 

[CRG]

"The small outpost of Bribinsburg occupies a significant position from which scouting parties could easily be deployed through the entire region. Whoever holds this tower has the scouting advantage in this conflict."
"The pass of Riftholm leads to the Clan-Halls of Kazarud. My dwarven brothers ... we must hold this pass and let none of the goblin horde past!"
"The bridge at Mabden Falls must be destroyed so that the vampire-legions of the Whispering Tower can not easily strike at our back door."
"The elves must die! Burn the forest! Hack it down! Do not allow them any place of refuge!"
"The road ahead is key to our ultimate domination of the humans. Possess the road and we can drive deep into their territory."
Return of the Jedi - "A lightly armored group can slip into enemy territory and hopefully take out the shield generator (or comparable, like the Arcane Foci Pyramid of Doom) ... allowing us to bring our battleships (or comparable, our Wizards) to bear upon the might of their army"
Empire Strikes Back - "We must hold our foes here long enough for our main forces to retreat" ... after a period of rounds / turns / minutes, the defending group may withdraw...also "We must delay the armies of Kryphon the Silent. If we can not delay his forces for more than (x rounds) then surely all is lost!"
Star Wars - The characters possess some number of "giant killer" items that can destroy the monolithic enemy war machine / golem / lich / demon / death star and must fight to get they key bearers of this "giant killer" item into range and (hopefully) destroy the thing.
"The side that wins the field controls the fiefdom of Gyarll!"
Kelly's Heroes - "We figure here, deep in the contested region of the Pomarj - is a stash of stolen treasure from the Gran March."

 

[CRG]

Last summer my group was playing in a D&D Greyhawk game set somewhat during the war with Iuz time period. The party played characters from the Shield Lands, Furyondy and other places that were essentially the "good" kingdoms.


Some small splinter army of Iuz was making advances into (I forget which country). The PCs helped fund and build some additional fortifications at / near a town called Ironstead. The DM wanted to do some miniautures battles to simulate the "war" aspect and asked me to help - he and I often trade-off DM duties, etc.


We didn't have a system that directly translated so we (yet again) used Warhammer. Fun, but really not D&D ... we used it anyway.


The idea was simple. We'd run somewhere between 3 and six battles. The battles followed a linear path and dealt with a division / group of the army led by a particular Death Knight. The linear path was a road leading into Iron Stead ... the general background being who ever controlled the road essentially was going to get the upper hand concerning the invasion of Iuz into this country. Each individual battle would be between roughly balanced sides. Models "incapacitated" during the battle were "incapable of continuing to fight" ... character death (for PCs and NPCs) was evaluated after the battle by the subjective DM. In general though, if your character dropped, no big deal. Characters played some sort of role in the battle, either leading units, acting as individual trouble makers or were busy off the battlefield doing something else (like magical research into another problem going on in the background dealing with an evil artifiact).
(a) Siege of Ironstead - defenders would have walls, etc.
(b) Outskirts of Ironstead - the PC's home turf, they defend
(c) Bridge along the road representing key ford
(d) Hills of (xxxxx - name escapes me) - the Death Knight on the defense
(e) Ruin in the swamps - the Death Knight's hold in the area, similar to the Siege of Ironstead in set-up


The defending armies typically had a slightly different troop composition and the basic layout of the land favored them slightly (not loads, but enough to make it challenging).


Essentially we'd play a minimum of 3 battles and maximum of 6 starting with (c). The DM would build a story around the results of each battle. Here's how it turned out. Some of the PCs or other friends of the players would show up and act as the commanders for the evil army. The DM(s) would arbitrate and keep things friendly.


The first battle was at the bridge and won by the Death Knight and his forces.
- "Iuz's armies press closer into the Shield Lands making small gains..."


The second battle was fought in the outskirts of Ironstead. Any units spectacularly destroyed or routed, etc. were generally unavailable for future battles. In addition, units that survived maybe got a bit of a boost in ability, etc. The winner was (again) the Death Knight.
- "Iuz's armies, gaining strength, have been able to use the ford over the river (whatever) to their advantage and have struck deep inside your territories"
- To make things fun, life sucked for the PCs while under siege - everything was harder - magical research, etc. Also, DMs inflicted some morale changes on some of the troops to reflect this...


The third battle, the siege of Ironstead was won by the good guys.
- "A stunning counter attack by the folk of Shield Lands has pressed Iuz back beyond the walls of Ironstead and broken its siege".
- Morale for the good guys goes up


During the fourth battle the good guys force the army of Iuz back to the bridge.
- "Pressing their advantage, the Shield Lands force the armies of Iuz back."
- Much rejoicing in the nation, in general the nation repels a large portion of the invaders.


We stopped after this ... as the DMs we were worn out and frankly had enough to describe the war and its results in a reasonable way. The PCs were tired of playing nifty games that were only moderately centered around their characters (see the note about a lack of a decent translation from D&D below).

 

[Kyramus]

<thinks for a moment as he ust finished the thread>

Ok, there are a lot of good ideas. I like the one about gaining a square.

Personally, There are two ways that I would do this.

1) Get a scrabble board.
You'll notice that the tripple word score then double word score, etc is in a pattern. If you think 3 dimensions from highest point to lowest point, the scrabble board is downsloped towards the center. The star would be the main enemy or allied base.

If that is the terrain you have then the scrabble board will work for you as the terrain. the squares are close enough to be 1in by one inch.

Set up encounters in each square. like a chess board. Which has the friendly troops and which has the enemy. If you use the scrabble tiles, mark the blanks as evil and markings/letters as good.

Add party members into an associated square, either leading or not, then let them slowly advance or defend.

2) set up the enemy side of the board. Give the pc's leading positions and hand them the tiles to put down into the spaces. give them the number of troops and what levels etc. And then run the war.

each unit can move only one square at a time. an archer unit can fire only one square away. A melee unit MUST go into the same square to engage.

even unit strength <both sides with equal level leader>= no modification to d20 roll, high roll wins that square. (in the case of archers, high roll difference is the damage done to opposing unit)


One side has higher level unit leader= +1 bonus to roll for morale.
Both sides add their HD to their roll.
If one side has less units, -1 morale.

example.
10 Orcs FTlevel 2 with Ft level 5 leader. vs. 10 Human ft level 1 and 8th level fighter leader.
Orcs roll d20+(+2 for hd, )
Humans roll d20 + (+1 for hd, +1 for higher level leader)

The orc leader is not as strong a presence as the human leader, there fore the advantage is to the humans.
Orcs rolled 12 +2=14
Humans rolled 12+2=14
Match is even, 1 orc and 1 human die in this round.

next round.
orcs rolled 11+2=13
humans rolled 14+2=16
Humans rallied with a superior leader and kills 3 orcs this round.

7 orcs vs 10 humans.
orcs rolled a 14+2-1=15 (+2 for hd, -1 for lower number in units)
Humans rolled 12+2=14.
orcs killed one human this round.

Repeat til one side has no troops.

The above is the long form of the combat.

Short form is one roll, same modifications as above.
Determine damage to the unit by the difference in the roll then high roll wins. low roll gets routed <survivors runs away, etc>