Mass Combat/ Warfare?

[HeapThaumaturgist]

Is there a book out that details mass combat rules that -isn't- tied to minis rules? Long time ago I heard something about a few books like this being produced, but haven't really heard anything since.

Granted, I've been involved with D20Modern and stuff and haven't been keeping up on D&D until recently. I'm planning on running a campaign that'll be influenced heavily by warfare. High fantasy warfare.

Any products out there for me?

--fje

 

[Mercule]

Maybe you could elaborate more? I'm really not sure how you do mass combat without minis in some form.

Actually, my complaints since 3E came out have boiled down to the fact that there weren't any mass combats that made good enough use of minis.

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

I mean based AROUND the minis.

IE: Buy Our Minis, Use Our System. I don't want to buy a thousand specific minis with specific rules and try to run combat.

I'd like a scalable system where I can sit down with the ol' battlemat and run a large battle, dial down to a specific tactical engament if I want, and dial down again to a regular PC vs. Bad Guys engagement.

Using my own minis/trackers/counters etc.

--fje

 

[Desdichado]

Quintessential Fighter has some pretty good rules. They're not very clearly written, but once you figure them out, they seem pretty good. We're about to use them in our next session.

 

[frankthedm]

I mean based AROUND the minis.

IE: Buy Our Minis, Use Our System. I don't want to buy a thousand specific minis with specific rules and try to run combat.
...........

Using my own minis/trackers/counters etc.

--fje

I quest for the same thing. FASA's Vor game was going to have formula to stat any mini, but after wizzkids bought them little else has been done with the game. If you look for the old TSR 70's chainmail game along with the magic system booklet that the D&D game grew from that might be useful.

Reaper is jelously guarding their point system for the upcoming worlord game as wotc did for thier chainmail game. Reaper's Beta rules are a free DL right now at least.

I really am being annoyed by reaper's scale bloat, how bout you?

 

[HeapThaumaturgist]

My current minis are home-made counters, for the most part. I'm much better with photoshop than a paint brush on pewter.

Anybody interested in "Cry Havoc!" from Malhavoc Press? I started looking around ... this is what I heard about eons ago. Seems like the PDF is out now and the hardbound is coming out this month. Anybody playtesting this? Using this?

I'm a little leary of using the PDF. For something that would be this integral to the campaign, I want to be able to have it at the table. Printing it out in B&W on the laser and then trying to self-bind it sounds like a massive pain in the keister. Any hard release dates for this puppy, etc etc?

--fje

 

[Sabaron]

I have Cry Havoc, but haven't playtested it yet. I'll likely get around to that by the weekend. I'll let you know how it goes.

 

[MerricB]

Cry Havoc
D&D Miniatures Handbook

would be the two options I'd investigate at this point. I doubt the MHb requires you to use the actual D&D miniatures for mass combat battles. At least not for non-Organised Play (if such exists for that form of the game).

Cheers!

 

[S'mon]

I couldn't find any decent tactical mass-battle rules for the scale I want - several thousand combatants per side - so I've put my 2 decades of RPG and wargame experience to use and am developing my own. It's intended to scale up the regular D&D rules as precisely as possible to the larger scale. See:

http://www.randomlingshouse.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=2130

The system uses a calculator but no dice, except for morale checks!
I'm very happy with it so far, but I'll be giving it its field test in our game this Sunday so we'll see how it goes.

 

[diaglo]

you can use the Companion Rules boxed set without minis.

but mostly i prefer minis, so i would suggest. The Original $5.00 Chainmail booklet by Perren & Gygax

or Battlesystem Boxed set