Has anybody developed a good set of rules for mass-combat?

[Dark Jezter]

Hello everyone. In the Scarred Lands campaign I'm currently taking part in, the players are fighting against an evil army of elite soldiers known as the Black Dragoons. One possibility is that we might have to face them army-to-army. So, my question is if anyone has developed a set of rules for battles involving hundreds (or thousands) of combatants. How about rules regarding sieges, or logistics for maintaining an army?

 

[Jeph]

Under my philosophy, never leave this kind of thing up to chance. Just decide the outcome of the battle beforehand. If the possability of the wrong side winning the battle would wreck your campaign, then it's just plain stupid to even give that side a chance at winning the battle. If it's not important, just make it 50/50, with a few modifications to the d100 roll based on army size, skill, and supply.

What I usually do is only play out the parts of the battle around the PCs. For everyone other than the PCs and their target's I just arbitrarily say weather the attacks hit or miss, if the struck dudes live or die. It really makes no difference, and sure as hell speeds up the game.

However, I do remember a thread a week or so ago about rules for battles on large scale. I can't remember the thread, but it should be in the House Rules section.

 

[angramainyu]

I've got a work in progress... see this thread:

http://enworld.cyberstreet.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=20323

 

[Dark Jezter]

Wow, thanks for the link, angramainyu. Those mass-combat rules look really great so far, and I'm sure they'll keep getting better as time goes on. Those rules will probably be applicable to the combat in our campaign.

 

[alsih2o]

there is a handy free download for group combat at creative mountain games.

 

[Bagpuss]

Slaine - The Roleplaying Game of Celtic Heroes has a chapter dedicated to mass-combat.

Its a pretty simple system and from reading through it, it seems to do the job. Although I've not playtested it myself yet.

As a bonus you get an excellent Celtic based roleplaying game, which amazing warped warriors as well.

Obviously it cost a little more than a free download.