Mass combat rules?

[superbeast2k1]

I've been trying to find them for some time but it's really difficult or they don't exist, mass combat rules for 3.0 and 3.5 DND if any one knows where i can find the rules i would greatly appreciate it

[Rudar Dimble]

Next month Heroes of Battle will be released. This book should provide some rules on massive battles.

[Ripe]

That's good news, at my game we still use 2nd ed Player's Option: Combat and Tactics to cover rules about mass combat.

[Grimar]

not sure, but doesn't Complete Warrior have rules about battles and mass combat?

[thekyngdoms]

Yep, as Rudar says, all your troubles should be over next month. I'm quite looking forward to this release, I have to say. I have some ideas (for a future game) which would involve a scenario in which the players would basically find themselves having to face their enemy while a massive battle takes place around them. I'm hoping this book will supply some nice easy rules for keeping the battle going, while allowing me to concentrate on the PCs and their adventures.

[thekyngdoms]

[QUOTE=Grimar]not sure, but doesn't Complete Warrior have rules about battles and mass combat?[/QUOTE]

Yes, but it's not very comprehensive. It certainly won't help in actually orchastrating the outcome of a large scale battle, though what is there is reasonable enough.

[Aramant]

If you have the D&D Miniatures game, you could just run large scale battles like that until the book comes out, and have each individual miniature represent an entire military unit. Ie. an archer miniature is a squadron of archers, etc.

[Math Mannaman]

The 2e Combat and Tactics book i belive had some rules on that, im sure you can find digital copies of that online at this point. Also, many other books like warhammer are compatable with D&D, or will at least give you some basis for running your battle.

ya like he said....{Ripe}

[Rob-hin]

Also, this might also be an interesting book.
Though I have no experience with it so I don't know if it's any good.

[jopperm2]

Has anyone ever tried to do a mass combat with regular rules? We tried it once and it took 12 hours. It was way fun though.

[Rudar Dimble]

[QUOTE=jopperm2]Has anyone ever tried to do a mass combat with regular rules? We tried it once and it took 12 hours. It was way fun though.[/QUOTE]
Yeah, we did it once or twice, although we just made up our own rules. For instance a ranger was leading an archer unit, so that archer unit gained (a part of) the ranger's attack bonus. It was fun, but things didn't went very smoothly. Epic battlefields sound pretty cool, but they are extremely tough to handle.

BTW: nice link Rob! How did you find it?

[Grimar]

i once led a pack of 20 archers, and we solved the problem this way: i was an archer, and when i shot at someone, all other archers fired at the same guy. the DM then rolled a % to see where the other hit, pluss that if i rolled a good hit, my archers got a bonus to hit to. it worked quite well!

[Rob-hin]

[QUOTE=Rudar Dimble]
BTW: nice link Rob! How did you find it?[/QUOTE]

I found out about the product and did a search to find some information about it tht I could link.
Gotta love google.

[thekyngdoms]

I've just purcahsed a copy of Green Ronin's Trojan War and they have a chapter for mass combat. It's certainly a workable option and very simple to implement.

[Rudar Dimble]

[QUOTE=thekyngdoms]I've just purcahsed a copy of Green Ronin's Trojan War and they have a chapter for mass combat. It's certainly a workable option and very simple to implement.[/QUOTE]
Could you, in short, explain the basics of their system (without doing illegal stuff )?

[thekyngdoms]

[QUOTE=Rudar Dimble]Could you, in short, explain the basics of their system (without doing illegal stuff )?[/QUOTE]

Basically, an army is divided up into Forces, which are made up of either untrained, trained, verteran or legendry troops. Each Force has an AC, hit points, BA, Base Damage etc and acts as a single entity within the usual iniative rounds (though each round represents a longer amount of time than usual). There are also Captains, who can manipulate events on the batlefield and help the morale of the troops. If a Force take a certain amount of damage, they retreat from the battlefield if they fail a morale save (which is modified by the Captain's presence).

There is obviously more to it than that, but that pretty much sums it up. It seems pretty simple to implement and you could always apply the ideas in Complete Warrior (such as arrow volley, phalanx etc) to add more flavor without adding too much to the complexity.

It'll certainly be interesting to see how the Heroes of Battle deals with mass combat.

[jopperm2]

I suspect it will either be very similar or completely different. IIRC the original mass combat was pretty much just add up what side A has, add up what side B has, roll a die each, add you modifiers, and voila! Instant battle results!

[Rudar Dimble]

I think in the end, almost all mass battles will be handled quite the same. Or you'll have to roll for each individual on the battlefield

[thekyngdoms]

I've just picked up a copy of Heroes of Battle. I haven't had a chance to have a detailed look yet, but at a casual glance it seems quite interesting. It basically sets up the battlefield so that adventures can take place while the battle unfolds around them. When I've read it in a bit more detail, I'll let you know what I think.

[Rudar Dimble]

Please let me know, I'm definately interested!