Mass Combat Rules variant 1 (Optional, non-official)
By Paul Mitchener
Mass combat involves the commanders’ skills of the two opposing sides, modified by the armies involved. The command skills involved are Lore (Military Tactics), and either Influence or Performance.
The actual battle is resolved by opposed Lore (Military Tactics) checks made by the leaders. A successful check means a force inflicts casualties equal half its size on the opposition. Half of these casualties are deaths; the other half are injuries. These numbers are doubled on a critical success.
Further, the commander of a losing side in a battle must make an Influence or Performance check to prevent a rout. Routing troops either flee in panic, or surrender when they cannot flee. A further 10% of an army’s numbers are lost in a rout. Further a critical success on the Influence or Performance check is needed for a force to continue fighting rather than retreating in a more orderly manner. If a force has nowhere to retreat to, it can continue to fight.
The Lore (Military Tactics) check is modified by various situational factors.
- Better equipped than enemy :+25% bonus
- Better trained than enemy: +25% bonus.
- Has special forces (eg: artillery, cavalry, combat mages) that the enemy lacks: +25% bonus for each.
- Outnumber enemy by two to one or more: +25%
- Enemy in defensive position: -25% penalty
- Enemy fortifications: -50% penalty.
- Player character heroics (eg: taking out significant enemy, capturing strategic position): +25% bonus.
Larger forces might split into several armies, each with their own commander. The rules are still as above, but each army must pick another force to attack.
Editor’s Note
This is the first variant of Mass Combat rules that has been sent to me.
It needs more extensive playtesting.
July 27th, 2010 at 10:52 am
For what it’s worth, I’ve now tested this in my OpenQuest: Ancient Rome game. It works very much as I would want it to. One could further abstract the “list” of modifiers by giving a +25% bonus (or -25% penalty to the other side) per situational modifier.
Incidentally, the PCs can attempt do something clever (probably gaining a +25% bonus) and something risky in the battle (for another +25% bonus) which should be enough to swing the tide of a fight without guaranteeing anything- exactly what I wanted.