D&D 4E Mass Combat--Anyone run some in 4e? Have practical advice?

[TheLordWinter]

A great example of this "turn a battle into a dungeon" strategy was shown in the "Savage Tide" adventure path during Paizo's last run with Dungeon magazine. The 5th adventure, Tides of Dread (to not give spoilers) features the PCs in a pitched battle against an enemy force. They've got time to set up their defenses, choose where and what to do and have a bunch of different factors which effect the outcome. Then when the fighting actually starts, they see how those decisions they made effect the enemy, and also have to rush about the battlefield and try to control key portions. It ends in a massive showdown against the leader of the enemy force. The entire adventure uses a "victory points" system, where if the PCs completed certain objectives they received such and such number of victory points - based upon the grand totals, the defense either went incredibly well, alright, they suffered some losses or it was a disaster.

 

[OchreJelly]

another good 4E example of a major battle exists in the new Troll adventure (can't remember the name). Not to get too spoilery, but there is a major fight and the player's involvement is broken into about 5 set-pieces. Each one basically plays out as it's own encounter but you are free to embellish what's happening in the rest of the battle.

 

[James McMurray]

If you have any of the Legend of the five Rings main books, they handle mass combats fairly well in that system. A rough translation to 4E would be to make the entire battle a skill challenge (possibly also rolling for the NPC general. Successes and failures trigger random events ranging from duels between a PC and a major opponent, loss of healing surges, or taking terrain / killing an enemy commander and thus gaining bonuses to future rounds.