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Message: <blockquote data-quote="CRG" data-source="post: 337981" data-attributes="member: 5867">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-upThe 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 upDuring 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).</blockquote>

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