Santiago22
First Post
I am looking for any rules wether te are official or house for Mass combat fro DnD 3.5 can any one help me 
Mass Combat
- Thread starter Santiago22
- Start date
Yair
Community Supporter
I never played in a war so never used any such system, but here is what I know.
Official rules at this point are limited to the Miniatures Handbook, which I hear is not that great and fails completely beyond skirmish level. An upcoming book from WotC will cover the topic, but that will take some time to publish.
There are a number of unofficial 3rd party suppluments covering the topic. These include Fields of Blood, Empires & Strongholds, Cry Havoc, the Slavelords of Cydonia + Grim Tales system, Merceneries, and probably more. The one to choose depends on your preferences.
If you want a greatly detailed system for relatively small armies Cry Havoc I think is good. It also includes a more abstract system, for faster war resolution. I personally don't like it's "d20 combat enlarged" approach.
If you want an abstract system for quick combat resolution that still allows some strategy, I am imressed with the Slavelords of Cydonia approach (using EL to determine strength).
I have heared raving reviews on Fields of Blood, so you might want to look there too. I caution you that the book also entails a kingdom-management system (as does Empires and Strongholds), which maybe hard to entangle from the war rules (or not, I don't know).
Of course, Diaglo undoubtebly will swear by the 1e system
I'm sure people more experienced in the matter than little old me will come by shortly and correct my mistakes. At any rate, there are several products available but none are official, and I'm not familiar with house rules on the subject.
Official rules at this point are limited to the Miniatures Handbook, which I hear is not that great and fails completely beyond skirmish level. An upcoming book from WotC will cover the topic, but that will take some time to publish.
There are a number of unofficial 3rd party suppluments covering the topic. These include Fields of Blood, Empires & Strongholds, Cry Havoc, the Slavelords of Cydonia + Grim Tales system, Merceneries, and probably more. The one to choose depends on your preferences.
If you want a greatly detailed system for relatively small armies Cry Havoc I think is good. It also includes a more abstract system, for faster war resolution. I personally don't like it's "d20 combat enlarged" approach.
If you want an abstract system for quick combat resolution that still allows some strategy, I am imressed with the Slavelords of Cydonia approach (using EL to determine strength).
I have heared raving reviews on Fields of Blood, so you might want to look there too. I caution you that the book also entails a kingdom-management system (as does Empires and Strongholds), which maybe hard to entangle from the war rules (or not, I don't know).
Of course, Diaglo undoubtebly will swear by the 1e system
I'm sure people more experienced in the matter than little old me will come by shortly and correct my mistakes. At any rate, there are several products available but none are official, and I'm not familiar with house rules on the subject.
Yair
Community Supporter
I just thought I'll add some links.
Slavelords of Cydonia's Mass Combat System is available for 1.95$ at RPGNow. I'd strongly recommend purchasing the Grim Tales EL System for another 1.95$ along with it, as it is based on EL and so should work best with the best EL system. And that is definitely the best EL treatment around (the system was written by Upper Krust, a member of these forums). I caution you that you can't make a purchase at RPGNow under 6$ (IIRC), but I'm sure you could find other products that will interest you to make up the slack.
Battlesystem was the 2nd edition solution, and the Rules Cyclopedia or the Companion Set was basic D&D's solution. Both are available for 5$ at RPGNow but are not so compatible with 3rd edition; you might be interested in converting them, or just downloading them for ideas and to increase the total price past 6$. Battlefield Adventures will probably contain the 3rd edition solution.
Cry Havoc for 10$ as a pdf from Malhavoc Press (it's available in book form too). It's a 140 page book all about mass combat, so should be useful.
Fields of Blood as a DRM pdf for 15$. I heared it has an excellent system. (I don't purchase DRM products, but that's a whole other can of worms. You can get it in print, of course.)
The Book of Strongholds and Dynasties includes the Open Combat System 2.0, which I believe is the latest offering from Mongoose on mass combat. I'm not sure how it goes.
There once was a massive thread comparing the different systems, but as I'm cheap (read: don't have full membership) I can't search.
I believe this topic deserves to be on the General forum, where it will see more traffic.
Oh, and BUMP.
Slavelords of Cydonia's Mass Combat System is available for 1.95$ at RPGNow. I'd strongly recommend purchasing the Grim Tales EL System for another 1.95$ along with it, as it is based on EL and so should work best with the best EL system. And that is definitely the best EL treatment around (the system was written by Upper Krust, a member of these forums). I caution you that you can't make a purchase at RPGNow under 6$ (IIRC), but I'm sure you could find other products that will interest you to make up the slack.
Battlesystem was the 2nd edition solution, and the Rules Cyclopedia or the Companion Set was basic D&D's solution. Both are available for 5$ at RPGNow but are not so compatible with 3rd edition; you might be interested in converting them, or just downloading them for ideas and to increase the total price past 6$. Battlefield Adventures will probably contain the 3rd edition solution.
Cry Havoc for 10$ as a pdf from Malhavoc Press (it's available in book form too). It's a 140 page book all about mass combat, so should be useful.
Fields of Blood as a DRM pdf for 15$. I heared it has an excellent system. (I don't purchase DRM products, but that's a whole other can of worms. You can get it in print, of course.)
The Book of Strongholds and Dynasties includes the Open Combat System 2.0, which I believe is the latest offering from Mongoose on mass combat. I'm not sure how it goes.
There once was a massive thread comparing the different systems, but as I'm cheap (read: don't have full membership) I can't search.
I believe this topic deserves to be on the General forum, where it will see more traffic.
Oh, and BUMP.
There was a recent poll on the general thread on best rules for mass combat, IIRC.
Another set is the BRCS-playtest. That is the Birthright Campaign Setting on Birthright.net.
Birthright was a 2nd ed TSR setting that focused on ruling and wars. The above is the "Official" site for the setting and has been granted the ability to call what they publish (on free downoadable pdf files) as "official" from WotC.
IIRC the polls had Fields of Blood and Cry Havoc coming in neck and neck on which system was favored.
Another set is the BRCS-playtest. That is the Birthright Campaign Setting on Birthright.net.
Birthright was a 2nd ed TSR setting that focused on ruling and wars. The above is the "Official" site for the setting and has been granted the ability to call what they publish (on free downoadable pdf files) as "official" from WotC.
IIRC the polls had Fields of Blood and Cry Havoc coming in neck and neck on which system was favored.
DM_Jeff
Explorer
The Mass Combat System that worked best for my group when we played in Midnight was the 3-4 page treatment of the subject in AEG's "Swashbuckling Adventures" d20-7th Sea conversion hardcover. Obviously you wouldn't want to spend the $35 or so for 4 pages of rules, but if you have access to the book they are the easiest thing to use and provide great results without a lot of all-or-nothing rolls.
-DM Jeff
-DM Jeff
