Ideas for a Warforged Army.

[LanSlyde]

So I've introduced into my campaign the knowledge of a band of mercenaries known as the Iron Angels. The company itself is 300 strong composed entirely of Warforged. Now, in this particular world of mine Warforged are practically nonexistent outside the Iron Angels. The first recorded history to depict these guys dates back 500 years.

They themselves, despite being a mercenary company, have never actually allied themselves with any of the nations within my campaign world. Instead they roam across the continent, settling minor disputes and helping the little guys. However, when any major conflict breaks out they always retreat to the western plains and their stronghold there. Infact, the only time they have ever took part in any full scale war was 200 years ago, when the people of the southern islands united under one flag and pushed north into the main continent.

Even then they only entered the fight due to the islanders exceptionally brutal treatment of the commoners and noncombatants. In fact, it was due to the Iron Angels intervention that the other nations were able to regroup and push the Confederacy back and eventually off the main continent.

The commander of the Iron Angels is known as Grave. Specifically, he is a Warforged Paladin3 / Fighter 10 / Juggernaut 5 / Witch Slayer2. As far as anyone is aware he has been leading the Iron Angels since they first appeared in the history books. His lieutenants and personal guard are known as "The Schaffung Guard". Specifically consist of 30 Warforged Artificer 16 / Spellcarved Soldier 4.

The long and short of it is I'm looking for ideas for creating a functional fighting force out of the 300 Warforged. While the setting isn't quite High Arcana (spellcasters exist, but with a few exceptions practically no magic user is beyond level 8), these guys are. Assume item acquisition isn't a problem. What would you people do to make a 300 strong fighting force the most effective military in the world?

[SilverLeaf167]

Are you sure you want the commander and the lieutenants to be the same level? Most people would make the commander stronger (actually, any single one of the lieutenants could kick his ass, because duh, they're Artificers).

That aside, what level do you want most soldiers to be?

Things I would include:

Bards. Preferably with Dragonfire Inspiration, if you can either justify it to yourself or refluff it, which shouldn't be hard. Give them alphorns or some other really loud instrument and watch them buff the entire army.
Diviners, at least a few of them. They can easily take care of all your scouting needs, and also get access to other really useful stuff. They double as healers thanks to the Repair line of spells.
Warblades and/or Crusaders could kick ass in melee and buff their allies and heal them.
Warlocks, preferably with Eldritch Spear and some battlefield control invocations.
There are some other things you might like to include, but I think these four squads fill the typical roles better than any other alternatives.

[Bakeru]

His lieutenants and personal guard are known as "The Schaffung Guard".Sorry to be a bit OT here, but it seems like you were trying to go for a (pseudo-)german name.
"Schaffung" is a german word, but pretty much only used in dictionaries. I'd suggest "Schöpfung" ("Creation", used for works of art (or things seen as art, Frankenstein's monster would still be his "Schöpfung"), or in a religious context), which is far more common. Oh, and to make it slightly less... weird-sounding, ad an -s behind it. "The Schöpfungs Guard" would probably as grammatically correct as a hideous chimaera made of two languages can be =P

[Stone Heart]

As soon as I read the topic title I imagined the warforged army I had created for one of my campaigns, with heavy Spartan Influences, and then you had to specify that there are 300 of them.

What would make them the most effective fighting force I believe would be not needing to rest as well as being their own armor. How many of them are adamantine bodied? You could even just have a select number of them be Adamantine but have them be the front line for defense sake.

With High level casters so rare, but a ready set of artificers, they could have Armor enchantments of a higher level than any one else might have, especially with the numbers for a military.

You can always use things that living races never could, you know physically changing their bodies to accommodate equipment in a manner you could not do with a human, like adding extra arms for the sake of holding an extra weapon or a shield, or both, having certain sections.

You can also make them non humanoid which would be hard for people trained in traditional combat. Think Warforged Drider, impossible to trip, but you can't hurt them the same way you might a drider because of how armored they are. Not to mention that you can go crazy with this idea and include extra arms on the legs, to wield weapons and defends the legs. I may be rambling here but it gives me ideas for my campaigns.

[Juntao112]

http://www.entertainmentgeekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/B-2superbattledroid_1.jpg

[LanSlyde]

Are you sure you want the commander and the lieutenants to be the same level? Most people would make the commander stronger (actually, any single one of the lieutenants could kick his ass, because duh, they're Artificers).

That aside, what level do you want most soldiers to be?

Things I would include:

Bards. Preferably with Dragonfire Inspiration, if you can either justify it to yourself or refluff it, which shouldn't be hard. Give them alphorns or some other really loud instrument and watch them buff the entire army.
Diviners, at least a few of them. They can easily take care of all your scouting needs, and also get access to other really useful stuff. They double as healers thanks to the Repair line of spells.
Warblades and/or Crusaders could kick ass in melee and buff their allies and heal them.
Warlocks, preferably with Eldritch Spear and some battlefield control invocations.
There are some other things you might like to include, but I think these four squads fill the typical roles better than any other alternatives.

Yes, yes I do want them the same level. No, I'm not scared they will attempted to overthrow his rule. The actual makeup beyond Grave + Guard I've mulling over in my head for a while, but if each Guardsman(bot?) was given an equal number of units under their own command, then their would be 30 squads consisting of 9 + 1 Guardsman.

I like those ideas, the Bard thing may be a stretch however. As for warlocks, they themselves are already used extensively by another group of mine. But To break it down, So far I am thinking:


Artificer

Warblade

Crusader (Maybe)

Bard (Maybe)

Diviner


That 5 out of 10 positions possibly filled.


Sorry to be a bit OT here, but it seems like you were trying to go for a (pseudo-)german name.
"Schaffung" is a german word, but pretty much only used in dictionaries. I'd suggest "Schöpfung" ("Creation", used for works of art (or things seen as art, Frankenstein's monster would still be his "Schöpfung"), or in a religious context), which is far more common. Oh, and to make it slightly less... weird-sounding, ad an -s behind it. "The Schöpfungs Guard" would probably as grammatically correct as a hideous chimaera made of two languages can be =P

Yay! Someone who has a better grasp of German than me!



As soon as I read the topic title I imagined the warforged army I had created for one of my campaigns, with heavy Spartan Influences, and then you had to specify that there are 300 of them.

What would make them the most effective fighting force I believe would be not needing to rest as well as being their own armor. How many of them are adamantine bodied? You could even just have a select number of them be Adamantine but have them be the front line for defense sake.

With High level casters so rare, but a ready set of artificers, they could have Armor enchantments of a higher level than any one else might have, especially with the numbers for a military.

You can always use things that living races never could, you know physically changing their bodies to accommodate equipment in a manner you could not do with a human, like adding extra arms for the sake of holding an extra weapon or a shield, or both, having certain sections.

You can also make them non humanoid which would be hard for people trained in traditional combat. Think Warforged Drider, impossible to trip, but you can't hurt them the same way you might a drider because of how armored they are. Not to mention that you can go crazy with this idea and include extra arms on the legs, to wield weapons and defends the legs. I may be rambling here but it gives me ideas for my campaigns.

I can give them whatever feats I need to, but I'm not really keen on altering current warforged architypes. Of course, suddenly making Warhulks out of Warforged Titans sounds fun.



http://www.entertainmentgeekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/B-2superbattledroid_1.jpg

No... just... no.:smalltongue:

[Nizaris]

You have artificers, custom spell clock components for all of them that cast Repair Construct. Since they just go inactive below 0 you now have the Golden Army. Splitting Heavy Repeating Crossbows would let you full attack with a massive cloud of arrows, mount to arm or shoulder turret. I would say on the arms because then you can dual wield them.

[Vknight]

Hidden Compartments installed into there bodies full of wands!!
Hidden Weapons like knives even if your not good with it suddenly the warblade that you thought you could take pulls a knife
With the ability to be equipped with naturally good armor
Several places to hide weapons to disarming is simply what does he pull out next.

Also Grafts if you can. Why not have a group of Warforged with the Vrock Wing Graft. Now you have aerial scouts, something to be invisible and you have a invisible flying scout.

As for the Artificers I really agree they should be toned down but it is all up to you.
And teams of 9 + 1 Leader
Hmmmm

Warblades 2, Bard 1, Crusader 1, Diviner 1, secondary Artificer 1

Warblade with grafts or Beguiler with Grafts(or Scout?) 1
Main use would be secondary scout or something but yeah invisible flying robot is just fun

That is 7 out of the 9 for each team

Depending on there level I'd ask about things like Sublime Chord for the bards

Ummm for the last two slots got no ideas

[LanSlyde]

You have artificers, custom spell clock components for all of them that cast Repair Construct. Since they just go inactive below 0 you now have the Golden Army. Splitting Heavy Repeating Crossbows would let you full attack with a massive cloud of arrows, mount to arm or shoulder turret. I would say on the arms because then you can dual wield them.

Hmm, I like the spell clock idea. It actually reminds me less of the Golden Army and more of the Necrons. I might go with the some customized Armbows.


Hidden Compartments installed into there bodies full of wands!!
Hidden Weapons like knives even if your not good with it suddenly the warblade that you thought you could take pulls a knife
With the ability to be equipped with naturally good armor
Several places to hide weapons to disarming is simply what does he pull out next.

Also Grafts if you can. Why not have a group of Warforged with the Vrock Wing Graft. Now you have aerial scouts, something to be invisible and you have a invisible flying scout.

As for the Artificers I really agree they should be toned down but it is all up to you.
And teams of 9 + 1 Leader
Hmmmm

Warblades 2, Bard 1, Crusader 1, Diviner 1, secondary Artificer 1

Warblade with grafts or Beguiler with Grafts(or Scout?) 1
Main use would be secondary scout or something but yeah invisible flying robot is just fun

That is 7 out of the 9 for each team

Depending on there level I'd ask about things like Sublime Chord for the bards

Ummm for the last two slots got no ideas

Wand Chambers are kind of a thing I only want the artificers to have. Also, no grafts, personal reasons. :smallyuk:

I like the idea of Warforged beguilers as secondary scouts. As for bards, probably going with Swiftblade as the PrC of choice.

So Guardsman (leader), Secondary Artificer (maybe), 2 Warblades, 1 Crusader, 1 Bard, 1 Diviner, 1 Beguiler. One more...

[Vknight]

Hmm, I like the spell clock idea. It actually reminds me less of the Golden Army and more of the Necrons. I might go with the some customized Armbows.

Wand Chambers are kind of a thing I only want the artificers to have. Also, no grafts, personal reasons. :smallyuk:

I like the idea of Warforged beguilers as secondary scouts. As for bards, probably going with Swiftblade as the PrC of choice.

So Guardsman (leader), Secondary Artificer (maybe), 2 Warblades, 1 Crusader, 1 Bard, 1 Diviner, 1 Beguiler. One more...

Duskblade? Martial + Magic fun to throw a guy like that into the mix

Also No Grafts awwww.
But yeah wand chambers should be a thing but up to you
Though I still say chambers holding daggers, knives, knee blades, elbow blades(complete scoundrel), can give them a few surprises
I also just love the idea of walking up to a guy then one of his men comes up behind the warforged gets elbowed in the gut and a knife stabs him and he has no idea how why etc

Yes custom Armbows become the Golden Army rain death!

[LanSlyde]

Duskblade? Martial + Magic fun to throw a guy like that into the mix

Also No Grafts awwww.
But yeah wand chambers should be a thing but up to you
Though I still say chambers holding daggers, knives, knee blades, elbow blades(complete scoundrel), can give them a few surprises
I also just love the idea of walking up to a guy then one of his men comes up behind the warforged gets elbowed in the gut and a knife stabs him and he has no idea how why etc

Yes custom Armbows become the Golden Army rain death!

I like it. But I'm dropping the secondary artificer. Also, as far as I remember the kneeblades and elbow elbow blades (etc) require Exotic Weapon Proficiency. Finally, no Golden Army, mostly because I'm a Necron kind of guy. :smalltongue:

[Bakeru]

Yay! Someone who has a better grasp of German than me!Native speaker, glad to help (especially since I get annoyed whenever I see something badly germanised - the manga Ubel Blatt still gives me hissyfits).

If you want to give them a fully German name (maybe used in more obscure texts, or a more archaic term, or whatever), the fully German translation would be "Die Schöpfungswache", which I think sounds awesome.

[navar100]

Crusaders - half in Iron Guard's Glare stance, half in Martial Spirit stance, can switch between them as necessary

[LanSlyde]

Native speaker, glad to help (especially since I get annoyed whenever I see something badly germanised - the manga Ubel Blatt still gives me hissyfits).

If you want to give them a fully German name (maybe used in more obscure texts, or a more archaic term, or whatever), the fully German translation would be "Die Schöpfungswache", which I think sounds awesome.

Promptly stolen. Thanks!:smallbiggrin:



Crusaders - half in Iron Guard's Glare stance, half in Martial Spirit stance, can switch between them as necessary

Crusaders have already been integrated. But thank you anyway.:smallwink:

[Suddo]

Marshals need to be integrated into the army. The question becomes if you want them to be an army (roam as 300) or elite tactical squads? The squad system would have to be self sufficient and be slightly different for different tasks.

I personally though a lot about army tactics with regards to D&D. I personally did it in more of an E6 setting (no one leveled past it some people had templates).
Supports are useful: Bards (Dragonfire and normal) need to be spread across the whole army preferably at intervals of 80% cover (so like you have 4/5 of the types covering the army). Marshals have the same basic idea and depending on the idea you can splash them into other builds. You can also splash crusader into these builds it will help with Will Save and HP.

After that it kind of depends like I said you can do squad based but it depends if you want the squads to be self sufficient or dependent on each other.

[LanSlyde]

So I have gotten this far with the unit composition.


Warforged ArtificerX1

Warforged Warbladex2

Warforged Crusader

Warforged Charger Barbarian

Warforged Scout Beguiler

Warforged Bard

Warforged Duskblade

Psyforged Seer


I need one more idea. Any thoughts?

[LanSlyde]

Marshals need to be integrated into the army. The question becomes if you want them to be an army (roam as 300) or elite tactical squads? The squad system would have to be self sufficient and be slightly different for different tasks.

I personally though a lot about army tactics with regards to D&D. I personally did it in more of an E6 setting (no one leveled past it some people had templates).
Supports are useful: Bards (Dragonfire and normal) need to be spread across the whole army preferably at intervals of 80% cover (so like you have 4/5 of the types covering the army). Marshals have the same basic idea and depending on the idea you can splash them into other builds. You can also splash crusader into these builds it will help with Will Save and HP.

After that it kind of depends like I said you can do squad based but it depends if you want the squads to be self sufficient or dependent on each other.

Assume the whole 300 will never be together, instead divided into squads of 10.

[Kane0]

Has anyone already suggested Warforged Scouts with Scout levels?

Give them crossbows that they can reload as free actions (rapid reload, self loading enhancement, etc) and some kind if magic item that allows extra movement or some other way of triggering skirmish.

[Suddo]

Assume the whole 300 will never be together, instead divided into squads of 10.

Okay. Have you said what you want the average level to be? Oh and do you enforce multiclass penalty.

Basically I would make 2 support roles. 1 is a Warlock that flies around shoot bolts and singing. The other is a tankier (crusader) that runs around singing. Both will have 2 Marshal, levels of bard (if you don't mind one being dragonfire).

Edit: Oh I just saw you had a seer. Hmmm...

[Vknight]

OP said that Warlocks are a special group of people or something.

This is a fun little topic, and has given ideas for my most recent asking for help thing.

Marshal hmmmmm

[LanSlyde]

I might throw in a Factotum. Not entirely sure yet. Either that or another Warforged Scout with some combination of rogue/swordsage/assassin. Unless anyone has any better ideas.

[DMVerdandi]

Personally, I think in such a small unit, Uniformity would be pretty cool.
Maybe think about maybe having two classes. It is a Brigade, not a standing army, and more often than not, brigades have a sort of... specialization.

Now from what it sounds, this brigade is an elite fighting force. Something that moves through quickly and powerfully.

I say have each warforged have a single class, with the possibility of prestige class, BUT all of them share the same builds. After all, a true army can't function without preconceived generality of training and armaments. If everyone had the different weapons, skills, and education, no one would be able to make quick and generalized statements.

Two ideas?

1. Divine Classes.
Clerics and Archivists. Everyone is either one or the other. Honestly a whole force of nothing but clerics would be awesome. Instead of having them gain power from a deity, have them gain power from the Brigade itself.
Their faith in their fellow soldiers, the ideals that the Iron Angels personifies empowering them would be SICK.
Have a domain list of maybe 5-8 seperate domains that Iron Angels can have
(Artifice,War, protection, Spell,Metal, strength, knowledge,Glory)
And have every one take the spontaneous domain casting ACF.
Now you have 8 different styles of caster in one due to the spontaneous casting, and each unit can represent an ideal of the Iron Angels, while still being unified by the single class.

If you want to go TOB, Clerics and Crusaders as the two standard classes would be cool as well (Though less potent and awesome)


2. Psionics
Have Psions, Psychic warriors and Psychic rogues.
There is your commandos, infantry, and special ops.
Each one is unified by the theme of being psionic, yet it all manifests in different ways.





As in number one, the key is unifying the source of power and method of fighting. By doing that, it gives the feeling that the Iron Angels are more than just a bunch of yahoos without any discipline that joined together for whatever. They are singleminded and devoted in their aims, and require dedication to a standard that trades in individual freedom of occupation for something greater, and that is the banner they rally behind.

[LanSlyde]

Personally, I think in such a small unit, Uniformity would be pretty cool.
Maybe think about maybe having two classes. It is a Brigade, not a standing army, and more often than not, brigades have a sort of... specialization.

Now from what it sounds, this brigade is an elite fighting force. Something that moves through quickly and powerfully.

I say have each warforged have a single class, with the possibility of prestige class, BUT all of them share the same builds. After all, a true army can't function without preconceived generality of training and armaments. If everyone had the different weapons, skills, and education, no one would be able to make quick and generalized statements.

Two ideas?

1. Divine Classes.
Clerics and Archivists. Everyone is either one or the other. Honestly a whole force of nothing but clerics would be awesome. Instead of having them gain power from a deity, have them gain power from the Brigade itself.
Their faith in their fellow soldiers, the ideals that the Iron Angels personifies empowering them would be SICK.
Have a domain list of maybe 5-8 seperate domains that Iron Angels can have
(Artifice,War, protection, Spell,Metal, strength, knowledge,Glory)
And have every one take the spontaneous domain casting ACF.
Now you have 8 different styles of caster in one due to the spontaneous casting, and each unit can represent an ideal of the Iron Angels, while still being unified by the single class.

If you want to go TOB, Clerics and Crusaders as the two standard classes would be cool as well (Though less potent and awesome)

2. Psionics
Have Psions, Psychic warriors and Psychic rogues.
There is your commandos, infantry, and special ops.
Each one is unified by the theme of being psionic, yet it all manifests in different ways.


As in number one, the key is unifying the source of power and method of fighting. By doing that, it gives the feeling that the Iron Angels are more than just a bunch of yahoos without any discipline that joined together for whatever. They are singleminded and devoted in their aims, and require dedication to a standard that trades in individual freedom of occupation for something greater, and that is the banner they rally behind.


Maybe, but really my Holy City is in the far northern mountains on the coast of the equivalent of the Arctic Ocean. So while the idea is nice, making an army of robot clerics is kinda against the feel of it.



They do indeed have Psyforged amongst them. But they are new in number. Instead of lumping them into a single special group instead they a spread amongst the rest of the units so as to better support their brethren.


Of course, this is when they are in a squad configuration, if full scale ware breaks out they retreat to their stronghold, reorganize, and begin functioning as a single cohesive unit.

[DMVerdandi]

Maybe, but really my Holy City is in the far northern mountains on the coast of the equivalent of the Arctic Ocean. So while the idea is nice, making an army of robot clerics is kinda against the feel of it.



They do indeed have Psyforged amongst them. But they are new in number. Instead of lumping them into a single special group instead they a spread amongst the rest of the units so as to better support their brethren.


Of course, this is when they are in a squad configuration, if full scale ware breaks out they retreat to their stronghold, reorganize, and begin functioning as a single cohesive unit.

Well for the Cleric idea, Don't think of it as "robots for god" or something silly like that. Think of it more along the lines of like "the spark" from transformers. All the warforged aligning their "core" to the same wavelength and being empowered by it.

Remember, this is divine energy without deity, so it is pure conceptual spirit energy. These warforged then take this energy and adjust it's wavelength towards their strongest conceptual foundation, which is the squad itself. Their "faith" in the squad empowers the internal engine of their core.

Divine magic for them isn't a miraculous gift from a deity, It is the power they produce directly from their own spirit. Life energy itself, transformed by willpower.

[LanSlyde]

Well for the Cleric idea, Don't think of it as "robots for god" or something silly like that. Think of it more along the lines of like "the spark" from transformers. All the warforged aligning their "core" to the same wavelength and being empowered by it.

Remember, this is divine energy without deity, so it is pure conceptual spirit energy. These warforged then take this energy and adjust it's wavelength towards their strongest conceptual foundation, which is the squad itself. Their "faith" in the squad empowers the internal engine of their core.

Divine magic for them isn't a miraculous gift from a deity, It is the power they produce directly from their own spirit. Life energy itself, transformed by willpower.

I see. Still probably not going to do it. I'm old and set in my ways :smallannoyed: and to me living constructs using divine energy in any fashion is silly. Besides, aside from the Beast Wars I hated the Transformers. Including Micheal Bays rehash.

[Man on Fire]

The long and short of it is I'm looking for ideas for creating a functional fighting force out of the 300 Warforged. While the setting isn't quite High Arcana (spellcasters exist, but with a few exceptions practically no magic user is beyond level 8), these guys are. Assume item acquisition isn't a problem. What would you people do to make a 300 strong fighting force the most effective military in the world?

I'll bite. Be warned, I'm quite a fan of Black Company.

First of all, I think you need to estabilish role of spellcasters in the army. I think the good way is to have small, but sort of specialised number of them. You could use some specialist wizards/sorcerers who are set on specific taksks - battles are long, it's better to have a guy who can do one thing very well through entire battle, than do many things for some time.
Suggestions here would be
- Illusionist, who is supposed to work on misinforming the enemy and dealign with psychological warfare.
- Diviner - he is gathering the information for the army
- Conjurer and Evoker as a sort of way for supporting the army.

Now, second Idea I have is to have some group of tier 3s - Duskblades, Psychic Warriors, Dread Necromancers and similiar - who are special task force send into combat to eliminate enemy casters. As it's low level, they should be enough to deal with them.

Another idea - an unit of Frenzied Berserkers, who are dispatched into the place of highest enemy number. When everything on that place seems to be lost, they send bunch of guys who will murder anything in sight, because they probably won't run out of enemies. Their motto is simple: "Of course it's a lost cause! That why we're here."

Regular units should be mostly fighters, you can vary them with some variant class features. Their leaders should be however varied - I woudl go with ToB classes and PrCs. Bards could also be good options, with rank in Perform (Oratory and abilities to inspire courage and competence.

Divine Unit. It's an unit composed of low-level clerics, paladins and healers, who specialise in healing wounded soldiers. Clerics are dipatched to most crucial units before the battle, while paladins and healers are divided in groups of 4, two of each class, traveling the battlefield and healing the ones in need (Paladins also provide protection to healers). Doubles as anti-undead unit.

And of course some Scout unit, with few rogues and rangers for support.

[Shining Wrath]

I'd throw in at least a few Warblade 10 / Bloodstorm Blade 10. With magic swords. That they can throw and hit everything they can see, every round. Imagine 20 of those guys advancing, line abreast, 50' apart, and then 1000' feet of the enemy front gets hit by Blade Storm. Next round, they do it again. They'd need to have the Far Shot feat to double their throwing range.

How many normal soldiers can take a single hit from a 20th level Warblade? Using Power Attack?

How many of the rear lines are going to stick around for the 2nd iteration?

Given that you have access to lots of artificer goodness, consider Warforged Titans. If you don't like the big dumb guys, consider Warforged Juggernauts, and the artificers have built special clockwork chargers for them. This is the unit that simply crushes enemy strong points - imagine 50 10th level Juggernauts astride adamantine mounts, lances set, charging damn near anything that doesn't have the ability to create deep mud in front of them. Use some DM goodness and decree that because of their special mounts their [Greater] Powerful Charge works while mounted. Give them the mounted combat line of feats. Enjoy.

As for religion, suggest reading up on the Lord of Blades in the Eberron texts. A warforged - unique religion, albeit an evilish one. Refluff.


So I have gotten this far with the unit composition.


Warforged ArtificerX1

Warforged Warbladex2

Warforged Crusader

Warforged Charger Barbarian

Warforged Scout Beguiler

Warforged Bard

Warforged Duskblade

Psyforged Seer


I need one more idea. Any thoughts?

Mounted Juggernaut. Dismounts for combat (think the original meaning of Dragoon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragoon)), so the mount is just to let him keep up with the rest. This is the guy who can anchor the line. Combine with Crusader for added toughness?

Maybe a second artificer for quick repair. If your single artificer goes down you are reliant upon the Bard UMD and a wand of healing to keep everyone on their feet.

[LanSlyde]

I'll bite. Be warned, I'm quite a fan of Black Company.

First of all, I think you need to estabilish role of spellcasters in the army. I think the good way is to have small, but sort of specialised number of them. You could use some specialist wizards/sorcerers who are set on specific taksks - battles are long, it's better to have a guy who can do one thing very well through entire battle, than do many things for some time.
Suggestions here would be
- Illusionist, who is supposed to work on misinforming the enemy and dealign with psychological warfare.
- Diviner - he is gathering the information for the army
- Conjurer and Evoker as a sort of way for supporting the army.

Now, second Idea I have is to have some group of tier 3s - Duskblades, Psychic Warriors, Dread Necromancers and similiar - who are special task force send into combat to eliminate enemy casters. As it's low level, they should be enough to deal with them.

Another idea - an unit of Frenzied Berserkers, who are dispatched into the place of highest enemy number. When everything on that place seems to be lost, they send bunch of guys who will murder anything in sight, because they probably won't run out of enemies. Their motto is simple: "Of course it's a lost cause! That why we're here."

Regular units should be mostly fighters, you can vary them with some variant class features. Their leaders should be however varied - I woudl go with ToB classes and PrCs. Bards could also be good options, with rank in Perform (Oratory and abilities to inspire courage and competence.

Divine Unit. It's an unit composed of low-level clerics, paladins and healers, who specialise in healing wounded soldiers. Clerics are dipatched to most crucial units before the battle, while paladins and healers are divided in groups of 4, two of each class, traveling the battlefield and healing the ones in need (Paladins also provide protection to healers). Doubles as anti-undead unit.

And of course some Scout unit, with few rogues and rangers for support.

1, Mystic support will be in the form of Artificers, Beguilers, and Psions.

2nd, Frontline combat will be handled by the Warblades, Crusaders, Bard/Swiftblades.

3rd, I thought about the frenzied berzerker route, instead I am using Warforged Chargers with levels of Warhulk.

4th, As the army is spread thin across the coninent, their are no 'regular units.' That said, If things pick up in the campaign I may have Grave and Die Schöpfungswache create new Warforged.

5th, No divine casting. Campaign reasons.



I'd throw in at least a few Warblade 10 / Bloodstorm Blade 10. With magic swords. That they can throw and hit everything they can see, every round. Imagine 20 of those guys advancing, line abreast, 50' apart, and then 1000' feet of the enemy front gets hit by Blade Storm. Next round, they do it again. They'd need to have the Far Shot feat to double their throwing range.

How many normal soldiers can take a single hit from a 20th level Warblade? Using Power Attack?

How many of the rear lines are going to stick around for the 2nd iteration?

Given that you have access to lots of artificer goodness, consider Warforged Titans. If you don't like the big dumb guys, consider Warforged Juggernauts, and the artificers have built special clockwork chargers for them. This is the unit that simply crushes enemy strong points - imagine 50 10th level Juggernauts astride adamantine mounts, lances set, charging damn near anything that doesn't have the ability to create deep mud in front of them. Use some DM goodness and decree that because of their special mounts their [Greater] Powerful Charge works while mounted. Give them the mounted combat line of feats. Enjoy.

As for religion, suggest reading up on the Lord of Blades in the Eberron texts. A warforged - unique religion, albeit an evilish one. Refluff.



Mounted Juggernaut. Dismounts for combat (think the original meaning of Dragoon (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragoon)), so the mount is just to let him keep up with the rest. This is the guy who can anchor the line. Combine with Crusader for added toughness?

Maybe a second artificer for quick repair. If your single artificer goes down you are reliant upon the Bard UMD and a wand of healing to keep everyone on their feet.

I thought about going the bloodstorm blade route, instead my Warblades have +5 Quickloading, Selfloading, Splitting Armbows of Force.

I am employing juggernauts, but in the form of Warforged Chargers with levels of Warhulk. The Titans are currently in lockup.

I am fully aware of the Lord of Blades, I've killed him once. But no, no religion in the Iron Angels. Campaign Reasons.

[Man on Fire]

1, Mystic support will be in the form of Artificers, Beguilers, and Psions.

Okay, the roles I listed still stand - in long battle it's better to have few, say, psions, who can do specific kind of tricks through entire battle, than your normal wizard, who can do everything, unti lthey'll run out of spells in that particular field.


2nd, Frontline combat will be handled by the Warblades, Crusaders, Bard/Swiftblades.

Then what about commanding officers? Because those guys should reflect in some way on the fact they're regular soldiers, who crawled their way to the top. Maybe ToB classes with PrCs and dip in Bard for Inspire Courage?


3rd, I thought about the frenzied berzerker route, instead I am using Warforged Chargers with levels of Warhulk.

What stops you from having both? You could have one group of Frenzied Berserkers, send from one place to another, whenever they need their last resort group, rather than normal group.


4th, As the army is spread thin across the coninent, their are no 'regular units.'

Okay. Through, in any larger group of soldiers I could still see Scouts or medics assigned by the command.

[Shining Wrath]

4th, As the army is spread thin across the coninent, their are no 'regular units.' That said, If things pick up in the campaign I may have Grave and Die Schöpfungswache create new Warforged.



There ought to be forward operating bases of some sort where a unit can go for a safe haven / repairs / new equipment. They shouldn't have to go all the way "home".

[LanSlyde]

Okay, the roles I listed still stand - in long battle it's better to have few, say, psions, who can do specific kind of tricks through entire battle, than your normal wizard, who can do everything, unti lthey'll run out of spells in that particular field.



Then what about commanding officers? Because those guys should reflect in some way on the fact they're regular soldiers, who crawled their way to the top. Maybe ToB classes with PrCs and dip in Bard for Inspire Courage?



What stops you from having both? You could have one group of Frenzied Berserkers, send from one place to another, whenever they need their last resort group, rather than normal group.



Okay. Through, in any larger group of soldiers I could still see Scouts or medics assigned by the command.

Seeing as how the sights been down for days, I figured I would update things.

Unit composition is as follows;


Artificers as squad commanders

Assassins as part of the infiltration subteam

Beguilers fall in line with the assassins

Crusaders as squad vanguards.

Duskblades as 2nd in command and tactical support

Seers as diviners and main information gatherers

Swiftblades as subcommanders of the infiltration subteam

Warblades as main the frontline soldiers

Warhulks as shocktroopers


Nothing stops me from having both warhulks and berzerkers beyond my own personal refusal to add frenzied berzerkers to my warforged army.

As for medics, that is accomplished via the crusaders and artificers.


There ought to be forward operating bases of some sort where a unit can go for a safe haven / repairs / new equipment. They shouldn't have to go all the way "home".

As they are living constructs they have no need for permanent save havens beyond the main stronghold. They do not eat, sleep, or breath for that matter. As such the only time they need a "safe haven" is when they need repairs or new equipment. Repair time is minimal, and unless something goes horrendously wrong they never really need new gear. If that is the case then it would be a simple matter of setting up a temporary safe zone while the Artificer works his magic.