Ideas for a more "Tactical War Game" D&D

[Mr. T]

No, I'm not saying simpler D&D is bad, but I wanted to run a campaign/adventure where the players had to use some strategy and thinking in order to win/survive (more then the useal encounter). Any suggestions using 3.5v D&D welcome, ranging from the encounter itself, to changing the basic game mechcanics. Currently, I have no ideas how exactly to this. Yet...

 

[Pyrex]

The PC's should be stronger than their opponents, but not superheroes (i.e., lvl 4 to 8 or so).

Give the PC's some supporting troops (say a squad of 2nd lvl warriors)

Make sure they're significantly outnumbered (4 pc's + a squad of 8 warriors = ~40 enemies), but make sure that most of the enemies are 1 to 2 CR lower than the PC's lvl.

Give them an objective other than "kill them all" (i.e., save as many townfolk as possible, or get the McGuffin at the heart of the dungeon before the opposing leader does)

Add terrain features that the opponents can use tactically (Small creatures in a 2.5' narrow tunnel. Medium size creatures are penalized for Squeezing) and then add some that the PC's can use (cover, high ground, caltrops, etc)

 

[the Jester]

I find that simply using strategy against the pcs makes them use strategy back or suffer. When they recently fought a battle that opened at considerable range against some uber-boulder throwing hulking hurlers (think Quickdraw + Rapid Shot with masterwork boulders ), they dashed forward a bit at a time, moving from cover to cover as they did instead of just rushing forward blindly. (They tried that at first but took tons of damage.)