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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Angelus789" data-source="post: 5285050" data-attributes="member: 89505">The second big warFast forward from Mystara and enter Forgotten Realms, 2nd ed ADnD and the great Combat and Tactics book from TSR. The backgroundWe had been playing every weekend for about 2 years time. The players had worked their way up from level 1 to the high levels. Along the way they had made some enemies with the Zentharims as well as random brigands of bandits etc etc. Most importantly was the romantic interest towards an elven female wizard with ties to the War Wizard of Cormyr. The planIn her youth, the female wizard had been forcefully separated from her father and neither had no idea what happened to the other after the separation. Over the years, the father had developed a strong hate towards Cormyr, the country he (wrongfully) accused for the separation. As a High Priest (Clr 18) he had managed to gather a horde of fanatical (and suicidal) followers to wage war against Cormyr. The starting point of this horde was Amn and they intended to go through Scornubel for supplies before crossing the mountains of Cormyr's eastern border. Other high level NPCs also joined in the "crusade".The players would hear about this horde from their contacts in Cormyr. Since the horde was far away it was not yet deemed a threat to the Kingdom. So instead of sending the entire army, a small group of spies (the players + efm wiz) was sent. The conclusionOnce the players realized who the leader of the opposing horde was, things got more interesting. The efm wiz got torn between helping her new friends and helping her father. The players got a bit more cautious since they now knew they were not just up against 295720357230 1st level Fighters.As the players realized this, they hired bands of mercenaries to deal with the lowlife while they started hunting for the big fish themselves. The use of the Mass Combat Rules from the Combat and Tactics rulebook was used when some of the players decided to lead from the front. It worked well, thanks to the rules outlined in the book. We had tried mass combat with separate rolls before and it was like dragging a wheelchair through a swamp.Lesson learnedAs a GM, focus on the upper echelon of the army, these are the ones that the players will be facing, not mr Leon the level 1 fighter with a sword his father gave him on his 18th birthday.In the heat of battle, a level 1 warrior with 40 of his friends is nothing but a bug that a Flying wizard will blast off the planet with his Fireball. In the starting phases of a war, it's OK for the players to wield such power, but remind them quickly that this can go both ways. As the PC's wizard lobbed Fireballs into the opposing horde they also made a clear target for the wizards of the opposing force to single them out with 7th and 8th level spell. However be sure that you have some good rules to back you up when two armies collide. You want to have the dice have some influence on the outcome if the players  aren't around to save the day.Don't hold back with your army when going against the players. Have the wizards gang up on the lone player ranger who is out scouting. Have the pet demon of the high priest go after the player wizard. Do remember to make some agenda for the enemy leaders. What are they fighting for? <ul> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">bloodthirsty rampage through foreign land?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">conquering of new land? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">some fair lady that needs to be impressed?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">an old feud that has escalated? </li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">someone insulted the wrong person?</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ul">to preserve status qou?</li> </ul>Also, make sure you justify how the army was formed. Using the old "charismatic leader" gets old after a while. Last lesson learned from this war: - always have a clear idea of the "end battle" in mind. For this adventure I wanted the last battle to be between the players and the High Priest with the fm wiz between them. In the end what happened was that she Teleported both her and her father away. When she returned she never told the players what happened to her father. They remember this episode to this day, several years later.</blockquote>

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