Help! Mass Combat Rules Suggestions Required

[meomwt]

I’ve been running a RuneQuest game for a little while (long story), however there are one or two in the group who’d like to wrap things up and get back to playing D&D 3.5.

The campaign has been revolving round the incursion of the Lunar Empire into the PC’s homelands. The original intent in the campaign was to have the players carry out a HeroQuest to retrieve an artefact which might turn the tide of battle, but there have been suggestions that they’d like to lead an army into battle and rout the invaders.

I was thinking of using the mass combat rules from the (O)D&D Rules Cyclopedia (with some tweaking), but it has vanished into my office under a ton of junk and I can’t get to it immediately. Please could anyone suggest a set of mass combat rules which are: (i) cheap, or better yet, free; (ii) easy to understand; & (iii) will allow the battle to be simulated by each player leading a block of troops of varying skill against the enemy.

All help and suggestions gratefully received.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I designed some easy to understand, easy to use mass combat rules for the Oathbound setting book Oathbound: Arena. Although it is included as part of a setting, the rules are intentionally setting neutral, so its an easy fit. You can pick these up for cheap if you buy the PDF. You can get that from RPGNow here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=2502&it=1&filters=0_0_0&manufacturers_id=41

The rules were pretty well received by the critics and I got some positive feedback from many of the fans who used it.

 

[kensanata]

Microlite 20 by Greywulf has a neat Mass Combat system that maps combat between various groups to combat between single combatants and just scales damage according to the numbers. I found that it worked quite well ie. it was easy to understand, fast & fun.

 

[Pinotage]

There are quite a few floating around, though I don't think any are free. Some suggestions include:

Cry Havoc (Malhavoc Press) - can get as pdf.
Fields of Blood (Eden Studios)
Gamemastering - Mass Combat (Bad Axe Games) - can get as pdf.
Miniatures Handbook (WotC)

There are probably a few others (Heroes of Battle, I think as well), but since I've already listed the one I'd recommened, both for good rules and cheapness, go for Bad Axe Games' Gamemastering - Mass Combat.

Pinotage

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Second that on the Bad Axe games rules. And I think it's like a $2 PDF. Not free, but pretty close.

 

[SavageRobby]

Savage Worlds has good mass combat rules. I don't think you can download just the Mass Combat rules, though - but the Explorer's Edition rulebook (the latest) is only $8-10.

 

[TerraDave]

Cry Havok, mentioned above, has a system similar to the DDRC war machine.

Green Ronin's Testement (and I think the Trojan War one) also have a nice, light, mass combat system.

 

[Aus_Snow]

Green Ronin's Testement (and I think the Trojan War one) also have a nice, light, mass combat system.

According to Trojan War's back cover, it contains an updated version of Testament's mass combat system. Having tried Testament to some extent, but niot Trojan War, I can't really comment on that.

But yeah, Testament is amazing in almost every darn way.

I'll have to pick up that Bad Axe PDF. Seems like a good deal, and probably worth it just to see what it's like.

 

[Janx]

or use my free method I whipped up for 2E when I needed mass combat:

figure out a manageable number of squads to have per side ( roughly 20 is OK, more is harder as it increases detail, minimum # is the number of distinctly different unit types gnoll archers and elven archers are seperate squads).

Let's say you have 200 men, 50 are archers, 50 are cavalry, 100 are swordsman. They all have pretty much the same stats (per unit type) We can build squads of 10 men, yielding 20 squads:
5 archer squads, 5 cavalry, 10 swordsmen

Then just use the same stats for the single man, as for the squad. As long as all squads on both sides have the same number of men, it works out. If a squad dies, it is assumed all men died.

If you can't have all squads the same size (uneven quantities), then the following adjustment will work:
the squad's HP is equal to the TOTAL HP of all men (# men times the unit type's HP)
when the squad does damage (say 1d6 for shortsword), multiply it by the number of men in the squad.

For squads of even size, it's the same result as before (using the single man to represent the entire squad), but for uneven squads, the larger squad will have more HP and do more damage.

If you want to get even more "realistic":
roll damage for each man in the squad (10 men is 10d6).
As your squad takes damage, it loses men (10 men at 8 HP is 80 HP, which means for every 8 damage, you lose a man).

If you're on a grid, a squad takes up as much space as the single man, times the number of men. Square that number, round up, and you've got the square shape of it's base on the grid (per 3.5E methods). 10 humans takes up 50 square feet (10 squares). Squared, that's 3.something, round up to 4, which means the squad's base is 4x4 squares.

That's it. Obviously, you can get more complex, incorporating morale, etc. But my method is probably comparable to other published methods, and mine is free.