Fields of Blood or Cry Havoc?

[SurfMonkey01]

I've been working on a high-level Forgotten Realms game for a few days now... one of the things I want to include is some Realm management stuff, as well as some neato mass combats. The problem is, I can't decide which one of these two books I want to get for that. What's the popular opinion?

 

[Eosin the Red]

FoB has by far the better management system while it is only a little below CH in the war department.

The better book imo is FoB.

You couldalso give Birthright 3E a look....It is a free PDF but conversion might give you a headache.

 

[mac1504]

I can't comment on Cry Havoc as I do not currently own that book, but Fields of Blood was a worthy purchase. I think there needs to be a few tweaks to the system, but ultimately it seems to be a good system for handling realm management.

I believe Silveras is the resident expert on this material- he did a few comparative reviews between the few publication currently out there on these books. I would read over his threads and the reviews as well.


mac1504

 

[Ranger REG]

I don't recall Cry Havoc containing some kind of realm management rules.

 

[Cam Banks]

Fields of Blood all the way. Cry Havoc is a good book, but it doesn't have nearly as much of the large-scale campaign information as FoB does.

Cheers,
Cam

 

[Arnwyn]

Fields of Blood is the better all-around book. (Cry Havoc does not have any realm-management info.)

 

[Silveras]

Some threads that may help your decision:

Discussion of Empire from AEG
Discussion of Fields of Blood
Discussion of Book of Strongholds & Dynasties from Mongoose
Comparison of Birthright, Strongholds & Dynasties, Empire, Fields of Blood, and more
My notes on modifying Birthright to other worlds

As mentioned before, Cry Havoc has no domain management rules. It does offer some good advice on treating War as an "Event" in your campaign world -- discussing how to run a War-based campaign, how the War could provide adventure hooks, and so on.

 

[jasamcarl]

I actually ordered FoB over the weekend. The dwarf in my game wants to go for the classic 'refound anscenstral home' thing. In addition, my party somewhat dislikes the leadership of their home town and I figured this would be a good way to give them some control. I doubt they will want to get into the numbers, but I can alteast translate their general actions into game terms and generate some (hopefully) consistent effects.

As for Cry Havoc, I have it and like it. Given that FoB works at a more abstract 100 per unit scale, I'll probably use Cry Havoc for the under 100 combat. It is crunchy enough that I think it would simulate the hordes of low hd beasties combat pretty well, allowing me to award xp and treasure normally.