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<blockquote data-quote="Quickleaf" data-source="post: 8525537" data-attributes="member: 20323">There are many ways to handle mass combat, depending on your group's tastes &amp; the needs of the scenario / role of PCs. I'll speak to the scenario / role question first...What role do the PCs take in these large-scale combats? Are they leading the &quot;good peoples&quot; army? Are they grunts participating and taking orders? Are they independent actors / special forces attempting to achieve a specific objective independent of the surrounding melee?Each of these has different needs:<ul>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs in a leadership role need to have meaningful tactical choices about how to engage their forces, but you don't necessarily need to have stats for an &quot;orc horde&quot; (or even standard D&amp;D combat) as their soldiers are doing the fighting for them, and what's being tested is their leadership acumen.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs in the thick of the fight function more like the wargaming &quot;roving heroes&quot; who can operate independently or attach to a unit (for protection from missiles &amp; to temporarily control/bolster that unit). I believe the Unearthed Arcana for mass combat presented an example of this. You'll probably want to employ standard D&amp;D combat for the most part, with just a few twists.</li>
<li data-xf-list-type="ul">PCs who are involved, but have a specific objective independent from the mass combat (e.g. sabotage the siege weapons or get the diplomat inside the fortress alive), are probably actively avoiding combat. You want a list of &quot;random battlefield events&quot; that create complications (which narratively reinforce your conception of that battle) as the PCs go about their quest. </li>
</ul>As for the tastes of your group...Do your players want to focus on logistics and strategy of how to allocate troops? Or are they more focused on the big picture? Do they want to step back and play fantasy generals? Or do they want to be in the thick of things? Are they comfortable breaking away from the normal D&amp;D initiative combat? Or do they prefer to stay within their comfort zone regarding combat?</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Quickleaf, post: 8525537, member: 20323"] There are many ways to handle mass combat, depending on your group's tastes & the needs of the scenario / role of PCs. I'll speak to the scenario / role question first... What role do the PCs take in these large-scale combats? Are they leading the "good peoples" army? Are they grunts participating and taking orders? Are they independent actors / special forces attempting to achieve a specific objective independent of the surrounding melee? Each of these has different needs: [LIST] [*]PCs in a leadership role need to have meaningful tactical choices about how to engage their forces, but you don't necessarily need to have stats for an "orc horde" (or even standard D&D combat) as their soldiers are doing the fighting for them, and what's being tested is their leadership acumen. [*]PCs in the thick of the fight function more like the wargaming "roving heroes" who can operate independently or attach to a unit (for protection from missiles & to temporarily control/bolster that unit). I believe the Unearthed Arcana for mass combat presented an example of this. You'll probably want to employ standard D&D combat for the most part, with just a few twists. [*]PCs who are involved, but have a specific objective independent from the mass combat (e.g. sabotage the siege weapons or get the diplomat inside the fortress alive), are probably actively avoiding combat. You want a list of "random battlefield events" that create complications (which narratively reinforce your conception of that battle) as the PCs go about their quest. [/LIST] As for the tastes of your group... Do your players want to focus on logistics and strategy of how to allocate troops? Or are they more focused on the big picture? Do they want to step back and play fantasy generals? Or do they want to be in the thick of things? Are they comfortable breaking away from the normal D&D initiative combat? Or do they prefer to stay within their comfort zone regarding combat? [/QUOTE]

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