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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Greenfield" data-source="post: 6023487" data-attributes="member: 6669384">Of course the legend version is a gross simplification.  And that works just fine for a game.  I have no intentions of trying to manage a battle involving a few hundred thousand men using D&D combat rules.I mean, I may be crazy, but I ain't nuts.No, the simplified version is pretty much all that will fit on a battle mat.The key fact is that at that point the pass is too narrow for more than a few men to meet in battle.  That takes away a lot of the advantage greater numbers bring.  You might outlast in a battle of attrition, but you won't be able to overwhelm with sheer force.The PCs, in my case, have opted to defend the Anopaean pass, described as a "goat path".  It's how the Persians got behind the Greeks the first time.Since I've included various magical beasts, it does change the face of things, but while giant eagles can carry people (as can dragons), they really can't carry enough people to make a difference.I've also specified that the sea gods of the two empires are fighting each other, and the resultant storms provide the happy coincidence that keep the Persian fleet bottled up in port.  Since gods depend on their worshippers, and the worshippers depend on their gods at times like these, a simple truth becomes evident: If you want to bring down an empire, you have to take down their gods as well.   That factoid is kind of basic to the mega-plot of our world.  And it follows that when you attack the followers, you're attacking the deity's power base, and the deity will act to defend himself.So what the PCs need to do is settle with the force sent to secure the secondary pass.  Put them down or drive them back so solidly that the enemy will consider that route impassable.And, for fun, the party Druid, who the others refer to as an "eco-terrorist" decided to  try the Contagion, Mass spell on the invading army.  A military camp is a horrible place to start a plague.The down side of this type of bio-warfare is that the spell isn't even a little subtle (a cloud of red and black swirling mists), and has zero incubation time, so the enemy can tell immediately what's going on.  The infected don't have any time to infect anyone else, and can be isolated at once.Or, plan B, the area of the Contagion spell is exactly the same area as a Fireball.  It's a hard decision, but a commander who can't make the hard decisions isn't fit to command.</blockquote>

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