Heroes of Battle

[Harmon]

Anyone get it? Anyone think Heroes of Battle was any good? Your thoughts on the book.

 

[sfgiants]

I liked it. It is useful if you want more detail and options in a war themed game. If not, I would pass on it. (example I have been having a lot of sieges in my setting as of late, and advanced rules for siege weapons have been very useful indeed).

 

[IronWolf]

I thought it was a good book. When I picked it up I thought there was a good chance that my campaign would end up crossing paths with a rather large battle or two that would span several months. The campaign ended due to a near TPK, but the book really would have helped out to run that phase of the campaign. I am certainly glad I picked it up.

 

[cignus_pfaccari]

It's very good for what it is, which is a book on running a game with a war theme.

It doesn't have a mass combat system, but that's okay, there are enough out there that if you really don't want to decide what happens for story purposes, you can find one to suit your purposes.

One of the things that I've heard is very popular is the vast appendix of stats for NPC soldiers. The PrCs and feats are okay, but not great (then again, how one can have a great PrC when it takes 5 pages and two sample characters to describe is beyond me, but that's a gripe for another time).

Brad

 

[Warden]

Excellent book. It's not a mass combat book, but a war campaign book, so it focuses on handling adventures in a war-themed story. Sending PCs to infiltrate an enemy camp to disable seige weapons the night before the battle, that kind of thing.

It also has some good recommendations for handling alternate XP rewards, considering that the army can't always consist of CR 13 troops.

If you're planning to have a pair of countries go to war, pick it up.

 

[delericho]

It's good, but not great. It really suffered (for me) in that just before I got it I ran the Dungeon adventure "Foundations of Flame", and used that the adopt a method of running large events in general, including massed battles. The system I came up with is similar to the one from HoB, but not quite the same, and I prefer my one.

Since that represents the main value of HoB (for me), I'm reluctant to recommend it.

 

[Bagpuss]

Since that represents the main value of HoB (for me), I'm reluctant to recommend it.

Even to someone that doesn't already have your house rules / system? :\

Personally I found it really good, but then I've not read/run Fountains of Flame, all the previous war themed books I've read seemed either to turn the game into a wargame or involve a lot of accountacy, and not focused enough on the PC's.

 

[delericho]

Even to someone that doesn't already have your house rules / system?

Good point.

Um, I don't know. I'm hesitant to recommend it, knowing that it's not (quite) the system I would use. Then again, it is pretty close. And it does avoid turning the battle into a wargame, which is a distinct plus.

I hope that's at least slightly helpful.

 

[Harmon]

Just by the sheer interest in this thread, I would say that this book can wait a while for me to get (if at all).

Thank you for your response.

 

[I'm A Banana]

If your PC's are gonna run into battlefields, get it.

If not, don't worry.