Dealing with large-scale fights.

[Ragnarok]

Hey everyone. I wanted to get your advice on how to deal with large-scale fights such as pitched battles and sieges. How do you deal with the flow of combat in a relatively simple and efficient way, and how do you keep track of damage on a high number of NPCs? I want to eventually be able to conduct large-scale conflicts smoothly, so if any of you have a system that works, please let me know. Thanks!

Ragnarok

[mvoncannon]

No real system. Just play it by ear. A few from each side go down, a major NPC goes down on either side after a few minutes, and so forth. If the individual details are not important, then just wing it.

Leave the detail for the PCs and possibly the Named Major NPCs.

[CTaylor]

The Mass Combat system in the Fantasy Hero Sourcebook works well for that kind of thing: there's even rules for the PCs to act independently of troops

[Captain Obvious]

Mass Combat rules from FH. Totally.

[Manic Typist]

If you recall the "battle of the pennies," Rag, you'll note that I played it very fast and loose.

If a mook received 4 or less body in a single hit, I put a dot on the marker. Two dots= out of the fight.

I believe I gave the Imperial soldiers a little bit more leeway because they were superior soldiers. The shields helped a lot on that front.

[Killer Shrike]

Alternate Mass Combat

[JohnTaber]

I setup certain critical battle where the PC will play a part. For the rest I decide ahead of time. Shhh....don't tell my players.

[Doc Democracy]

I setup certain critical battle where the PC will play a part. For the rest I decide ahead of time. Shhh....don't tell my players.

Absolutely - IMO the biggest game night killer is the GM rolling dice to decide effects between two NOC characters.

If there is a conflict that the PCs are not involved in then I decide beforehand how that will turn out. I will list a few things that might influence events one way or another but the action revolves (at all times) around the actions of the PCs.

If PCs are heroic leaders then their actions may turn the tide of the battle, if they are drafted combatants then they may affect the outcomes for individual NPC leaders but probably not the overall tide of the battle.


Doc

[BlackSword]

We use a modified version of the mass combat rules in Legend of the Five Rings. One of my computer savvy friend made up several Excel macros to do most of the rolling for him. If two NPCs met and fought then he would usually give an ally PC to one of the players with a non-combat PC and run the opponent NPC himself.

[Eosin]

I use an event driven system similar to the one found in 7th Sea.

Basically, players decide how they will approach the battle (reckless, aggressive, calculating, cautiously, detached, or in Reserve). I decide how many "combat turns" the greater battle takes which may be days. Each combat turn generally equals an hour but for battles that last longer than a few days this will get altered. Each combat turn a player has the opportunity for an encounter based on their "approach" - Reckless players may have 1d3+1, Reserve characters have none but also don't count towards winning the battle.

I have a list of around a few dozen events that can occur during the battle and the players randomly roll on on the table... this includes things like facing other champions, getting cut off, saving a important team mate, overrunning a position, trap!, survive an assassination, ect...

The events are encounters designed to make the battle personal. Each player adds victory points based on their approach but the wounds from each battle carry over so it becomes increasingly more dangerous while the need for victory points increases (or slacken if the PC team is winning). It works pretty well without running pitched battles between hundreds of people.


Battle length (assuming army sizes within 15% of each other)
Total Combatants 200 - 30 minutes
Total Combatants 1,000 - 2 hours
Total Combatants 5,000 - 6 hours
Total Combatants 10,000 - 12 hours
Total Combatants 20,000 - 2 days
Total Combatants 50,000 - 5 day

[BlackSword]

I use an event driven system similar to the one found in 7th Sea.

Here is the post that summarizes our custom mass combat rules. Its has some similarities to Eosin's since they are modified from the same publisher.
http://www.herogames.com/forums/show...7&postcount=35

[pruttm]

I used Hero Combat Simulator. I made sure that each player gave me all the specific information for each action in a very concise format for each of the people he controlled. There were about 50 soldiers in the combat along with walls and seige weapons.

Generally, you can assume each soldier stood for more than 1 depending on the size of the battle you were simulating. I also removed soldiers that fell from the castle or were injuried heavily instead of having them stick around slowing down combat.

Pete

[Eosin]

Here is the post that summarizes our custom mass combat rules. Its has some similarities to Eosin's since they are modified from the same publisher.
http://www.herogames.com/forums/show...7&postcount=35

Nice, how come I never saw that before. I must be blind.