Resolving large-scale NPC conflicts in D&D

Hairfoot

First Post
I need a way of resolving a small-scale war in which the PCs are influential, but not critical.

How can I generate random skirmishes, infiltrations, assaults, and misfortunes (plague, grain blight) between two evenly-matched forces of 1500-5000 troops?

I'm not sure how level/CR ratios will affect combat on a large scale. For instance, how would I establish victory and casualties for these NPC battles:

20 fighters (lvl 1) + 1 fighter (lvl 5)
VS
50 CR 1/2 monsters.


40 fighters (lvl 1), 5 fighters (lvl 3), 1 fighter (lvl 7), 1 cleric (lvl 5)
VS
150 CR 1/2 monsters

I'll probably have to table it myself, but I'd appreciate any input or stat tools for sorting it out.
 

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Black Company d20 has some kick-ass rules for large-scale combats. They're a little thick, but once you sort them out I don't think you can do any better.
 

There are lots and lots of books on this, with many options.
Personally, I saw two approaches I liked. One is basing it on EL (not HD!), the other is just winging it according to the needs of the story, using the battle as background instead of resolving it mecahnically.

For a fairly quick and easy EL-based combat resolution system, I admire Bad Axe Game's GT Mass Combat system. You'll also want to purchase their Gamemastering pdf for the EL calculations. (Total cost: 3.8 $) The latter alone can provide you with an estimate of casualties.

For a story-based resolution system, I hear good things of Heroes of Battle.

I'm not sure why you are interested in the encounters you listed given a 1500-5000 men army. If these are encounters between only NPCs, I'd arbitrarily make a ruling based on EL and tactics, perhaps using the GT Mass Combat system above.
If the encounters you listed are those where PCs are involved, they are not too lagre to handle with usual D&D rules without any real loss of speed. Have some 20 d20's on hand; that's an amount you can scoop up with both hands and throw. Divide the beasties into units of, say, 40 or less, and have all members of a unit use the same action in a round; make sure to have a small number of units. Make sure to do all the math before-hand, so you'll know all the DCs you need to reach with those d20's. Then it's just a matter of counting how many d20's reached the target number.
You can use average damage rolls to speed things up, or roll them when you feel like it (when, say, there is no DR so you just sum all things up); rolling a few and multiplying also works.
The thing that takes time is really determining DCs and actions and resolving spells, not throwing the dice. As long as you limit yourself to only a few units, you should be fine.

If you are asking for a generator for combat situation encounters, I think Heroes of Battle covers that. I don't know of another product that does.

Example of arbitrary ruling using just BAG's Gamemastering pdf:
40 fighters (lvl 1), 5 fighters (lvl 3), 1 fighter (lvl 7), 1 cleric (lvl 5)
VS
150 CR 1/2 monsters
The fighters have a Power of 159, the monsters 75 (just a quick CR-based calculation). The fighters should easily prevail, but lose half their resources. All things being equal, I'd cut this to a quarter and say the monsters suffer 25% casualties and the rest flee, while the fighters suffer 10% casualties (say, 4 level 1 and 1 level 3) and many wounded.
If the monsters had some truly brilliant tactics that effectively sprang a trap on the fighters, I would double their power so the conflict becomes 159 against 150. Their power is balanced. In this case I'd rule a fierce and balanced battle with 25% (or even 50% for a pyrrhic battle) casualties on both sides, and have both sides retreating. If a mutual retreat did not make sense, I'd be inclined to have the humans retreating after being so surprised, but could go with the monster's retreat if such a retreat was more easy tactically (as the humans still do have a slight advantage in power).
 
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I could simply decide who wins, but this campaign's heavy on strategy. It's up to the players to use their troops right if they want to win, which means mass combat.

I think I've found what I'm after in an excerpt from Skip Williams' Cry Havoc.

Just total the average hitpoints, BAB, and AC of the units fighting, and run it like regular combat. House-rule some bonuses for leaders, magic items, and terrain, and it works for units of any size.
 

Heroes of Battle has a lot of good ideas for hero-based mass combat... like establishing certain "adventures" within the battle (cutting the enemy's supply train, siezing an important hill/bridge/piece of land) and awarding "victory points" for the players' actions.

It is more in line with the "winging it" philosophy. The outcome of the battle in a role playing experience (in the Heroes of Battle theme) should be due to the actions of its heroes (think Homer's Iliad) rather than wargaming (which is not quite the same as roleplaying).

Heroes of Battle tries to boil down the experience of a war story or war movie to its individual participants... sort of like how Saving Private Ryan is about the soldiers, not about storming the beaches of Normandie.

All in all, I think it's worth reading if you want to run many roleplaying adventures in the overall theme of a war story... but not necessarily the best book if you want to run a war game within a roleplaying game.
 


Yeah, I think Heroes of Battle's method for mass combat's is best if you want to keep the game focused on the characters and not turn it into a war game.
 

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