D&D 5E Your favourite mass combat rules system to mix with D&D?

[Li Shenron]

For me it's a recurring interest, that of trying to incorporate an occasional mass battle into a game of D&D, and let the players command one side. I've never actually done it yet, just tried to study a few systems such as:

- the war machine module from Dark Dungeon retroclone
- the UA mass battle rules (2 versions)
- Fantasy Battles: The 9th Age

The last one is actually its own miniatures game we've seen played in Finland's largest RPG convention last week. We're not interested in collecting minis, but only in using the rules (which are free BTW), they seemed really interesting but it might be an overkill.

What is your own opinion on the idea, and what systems have you tried?

I must add that I am not necessarily looking for a solution that faithfully represents the PCs during the battle.

 

[Nagol]

Depends on the edition. I favour subsystems that do not require miniatures or grids.

For 3.5, I took the system presented by Paizo for Kingmaker and gave it some heavy modification. It ran well and gave each high-level PC a decent feel.

For 1e, I took the mass combat system from C&S 1e and gave it some changes to match D&D's expectations. It worked OK.

 

[guachi]

War Machine from the D&D Companion book is my #1 favorite.

I've played Battlesystem a few times and that requires at least one person to know the rules/units well enough to play it fast. In my most recent usage of it, from module X10, I made sure to be that person since I was the DM. When the battle came I placed the units and basically told the players to move around and do stuff. With six players it was easy enough for each PC to place his hero in a stack of units and move them around. It's intuitive enough to get an idea of what works and what doesn't. Most importantly, it got the battle over quickly.

 

[Swarmkeeper]

The forthcoming Strongholds and Followers TPP by that guy with the kickstarter will have basic Warfare Rules. I'm gonna guess the rule set will be elegant and quite good.

 

[Treantmonklvl20]

The forthcoming Strongholds and Followers TPP by that guy with the kickstarter will have basic Warfare Rules. I'm gonna guess the rule set will be elegant and quite good.

I'm watching this as well. The Kickstarter was crazy. He was asking for 50 grand and got over 2 million dollars.

 

[Gwarok]

I actually really like the old mass combat rules from basic DND Companion's Set. Very simple, although obviously needs a fair bit of tweaking to be used with 5E, but what doesn't? Boils two forces down to a number, roll a D100 for each, consult the table to see the results. I usually use the actual result as the backdrop against which the PC's fight, providing the narrative for how the battle is going and who's course maybe altered by heroic actions of the PC's!

 

[ccs]

I just played a demo of the Game of Thrones minis battle game by CMON at GenCon. It was fast, simple, & I think I could adapt it easily enough for D&D use.