Your the king!

[jgbrowning]

yep, the problem i've always had with any DnD mass combat system is how you gonna deal with an improved invised, flying, wizard with a wand of fireballs?

there is so much variance that did not exist in the medieval period. hell stuff like that would even make our modern warfare difficult.

joe b.

 

[SoulsFury]

yep, the problem i've always had with any DnD mass combat system is how you gonna deal with an improved invised, flying, wizard with a wand of fireballs?

there is so much variance that did not exist in the medieval period. hell stuff like that would even make our modern warfare difficult.

joe b.

This was the first problem I encountered when thinking of game mechanics. I couldn't fanthom a large battle in a world like Forgotten Realms where wizards don't play a major roll or could run rampant and do anything. So I'm leaning more towards a world without magic, or very little. Most likely there will be divine magic and it will be fairly religious where the pope has actual powers. Just a quick thinking of mass combat will be something like d100+ soldier points+ morale modifier+ leadership modifier. Of course it will probably vary greatly from combat to combat. Sieging rules will be differant and of course each battle the leaders will have differant tactics, differant war machines, etc. Of course in a medieval society you have your standard soldiers, and you can make your vassels fight for you as well but not as well as a normal soldier. Plus you have your cavalary, and of course there are differant types of armor and weapons to account for. Anyway, if anyone wants to play test before I start a game (once I get the mechanics done pat, that is) send me an email at ncs966@aol.com. Keep the suggestions coming.

Nik

 

[Sir Hawkeye]

Always remember,
It's good to be the king.

 

[Storminator]

yep, the problem i've always had with any DnD mass combat system is how you gonna deal with an improved invised, flying, wizard with a wand of fireballs?

there is so much variance that did not exist in the medieval period. hell stuff like that would even make our modern warfare difficult.

joe b.

I have t his in my PBeM D&D game right now. Our heroes hunkered down in the castle with a couple hundred guys, the enemy with ~1000 goblins, both sides with some powerful spellcasters...

It's really just a fight between big time casters, cause the little guys get eaten up. How do you assault a castle that's defended by Forbiddance? Not with a bunch of goblins, I'll tell ya that!

PS

 

[Tonguez]

How I did it was

Each 'faction (group, village, barony, duchy, country) has 4 stats (3d6)
- Economics - used for harvesting and build actions
- Culture - used for Research and training, and 'religious' actions
- Enforcement -used for Political actions
- Military - used for combat and civil defense actions

I also used a military system based on a standard unit of 100 and then modifieed to get a set Unit Rating

eg 500 Hardened* Warriors (Hardened* = Unit Level 3)
500/100 = 5 x 3 = Unit Rating of +15
The UR then becomes your modifier for the PC/NPC leaders actions
eg BAB = base+ UR vs opponents AC+UR

 

[jgbrowning]

I have t his in my PBeM D&D game right now. Our heroes hunkered down in the castle with a couple hundred guys, the enemy with ~1000 goblins, both sides with some powerful spellcasters...

It's really just a fight between big time casters, cause the little guys get eaten up. How do you assault a castle that's defended by Forbiddance? Not with a bunch of goblins, I'll tell ya that!

PS

Well i'm writing a d20 supplement that has a big section concerning war in it. I'm trying to come up with what real warfare would be like in a DnD world. So far i've got 25 or so pages and expect a bit more. It's a nice read and should have lots of information for DM's and players. It should be out next spring, i wish i could do it faster but ah well...

I fully expect to get flamed for just about every other sentance, but it will hopefully serve its purpose... get people to thinking about war in their campaigns and how every campaign is really unique. It should also help DM's who want to run a war setting for a campaign.

joe b.

 

[Creamsteak]

The IRs have always tried to break down mass combat on a world-wide scale, and the more precise you get -the more precision you can allow. If your just dealing with counties (which tend to have no more than one major battle at any given time) you can really get into the heart of tactics... but with countries and such you lose sight of that as you can't deal with every minor confrontation.

Anyway, I wish you all luck with such.