Testament/Trojan War D&D Mass Combat System

[ptolemy18]

Hello,

Has anyone ran a battle using the ancient-world "mass combat system" described in Green Ronin's books TESTAMENT and TROJAN WAR?

I'm curious if it made sense and worked well. It seems pretty basic (x number of 'hit points' = x number of troops) but I was wondering if there are any obvious weaknesses in the system.

Really, I'd be interested in hearing if anyone has used it, and if so, for what. It seems worth using to me, though I haven't totally scrutinized it.

Actually, I'm not thinking of having the PCs *command* an army, or even be champions wading through the battle & killing multiple opponents every round, as the TESTAMENT and TROJAN WAR rules seem to assume... they're low-level, so I'm thinking of having them fight their own small part of the war using the regular D&D 3.5 miniatures rules, while *meanwhile*, I'll use the TESTAMENT and TROJAN WAR rules for the forces they're not directly involved with, to see whether the friendly or unfriendly NPCs win the rest of the war. (And if the unfriendly NPCs win, the players will find themselves with hordes of additional opponents to fight...)

Jason

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

It's not bad, compared to the other mass combat systems I've used (none). It sure beats the heck out of doing it all with the normal combat system, but it can take a little while to make up the armies, and since it's designed for a low-magic, humans-only campaign there are some difficulties with normal D&D.

 

[ptolemy18]

More Mass Combat

It's not bad, compared to the other mass combat systems I've used (none). It sure beats the heck out of doing it all with the normal combat system, but it can take a little while to make up the armies, and since it's designed for a low-magic, humans-only campaign there are some difficulties with normal D&D.

Out of curiosity, what were some of the scenarios you used it for? My campaign is fairly low-magic, so it might work out.

I think it sounds kind of dramatic, and if the campaign lasts that long, I'm looking forward to pitting high-level monsters against hordes of troops designed using the TESTAMENT/TROJAN WAR system ("That dragon killed 15,000 men! There's no way you player-characters can kill it!")

Jason

 

[John Q. Mayhem]

Out of curiosity, what were some of the scenarios you used it for? My campaign is fairly low-magic, so it might work out.

I think it sounds kind of dramatic, and if the campaign lasts that long, I'm looking forward to pitting high-level monsters against hordes of troops designed using the TESTAMENT/TROJAN WAR system ("That dragon killed 15,000 men! There's no way you player-characters can kill it!")

Mostly fairly basic army-on-army combat scenarios, with some complications for fortifications and such. The dragon thing should work out nicely; the closest I got was a nephilim blackguard tearing into a side. If you've got a low-magic campaign, it should work out. Keeping track of the stats of armies between fights is important.