Heroes of Battle: worth its cost?

[Cicciograna]

I'm planning to buy Heroes of Battle, as I feel the need for a system to handle large-scale battles. My question is: is it HoB actually a good system to handle large-scale battles?
Does it describes coherent rules to easily manage the battles, recreating the atmosphere of fantasy capital battles and allowing an enjoyable game experience?
Or is it just a bunch of confuse rules, never playtested and hastily made up to sell another handbook?
Should I buy it or not? Please, give me your opinion.

[HamHam]

Yes, in that it has little to no rules for mass combat but rather guidelines for incorporating the normal encounters per day model into a large battle. You have an encounter, and the party's performance in that encounter will achieve some amount of Victory Points and determine the next encounter. And then how many Victory Points the party got will determine what effect they had on the battle and how it went.

It also has a lot of sample maps, sample armies, sample NPC soldiers, and PrCs, items, and so forth.

[Kroy]

It's a very nice book that is well worth its cost. Buy it. Now:smalltongue:

[Akal Saris]

The rules in it are good, but not what you're looking for. They're for small units in a large war - think Band of Brothers or the Dirty Dozen - who specialize in reconnaissance or assassinations (or whatever else an adventuring party can do in a war).

For mass battles, you'd be better off working some other system into D&D or making something up yourself. I currently use the rules from Birthright d20, but they're a bit clunky and under-whelming as well.

[Zeta Kai]

It's a great book, & I use it in almost every campaign since I got it, but if you're looking for large-scale conflict-resolution rules, then you should look elsewhere.

[PhoenixRivers]

It is a good option. It doesn't let you simulate a large battle. Rather, it provides rules for incorporating PC's into a large battle, and for making their actions make an actual difference. It has over a hundred or so scenarios, it has rules for large archer volleys, aerial bombardment (think giant eagles dropping rocks and stuff) and has a lot to really add a good "large scale feel" to a game.

[Cicciograna]

Okay, I will definitely buy it. Reading your answers I realized that not only this is what I need, but it is what I really like: I expected to find rules a la Exalted, in which one switches from "first person mode" to "unit mode". But in fact, the "elite unit" way of gaming is what suits best my idea of adventurers in a war. Thank you all!

[bosssmiley]

It's OK, but an unnecessary purchase given that the Races of War and Birthright d20 homebrew mass combat systems are both free and perfectly adequate.

The rest of HoB can by replaced by watching a few war movies and learning a bit about late medieval warfare.