Mass Combat

[Kane0]

Hey guys, our campaign recently came up to a situation where we have a bundle of soldiers and a fort to take, and started looking into the mass combat unearthed arcana.
Can anyone vouch for it? Pros, cons, shortfalls, improvements?
Has anybody taken the UA rules and adapted or reworked them? Are they aby good?

Thanks in advance!

[MaxWilson]

I gave it a look way back when. Thought it over, decided that I hated it. It gives goofy results.

[Belac93]

I makes some really strange results. Character in it will last better against a squad (about 10 creatures) of dragons, than they would against 2 of them.

[MaxWilson]

I makes some really strange results. Character in it will last better against a squad (about 10 creatures) of dragons, than they would against 2 of them.

Hahaha, well-put.

And the action economy for spellcasters gets all messed up too.

[Dralnu]

Tried it. Really bad.

Had this typed up as a response before for Mass Combat in 5e:


For a big battle like a siege, I think 13th Age Mass Combat Rules (http://pelgranepress.com/site/?p=17221) is absolutely fantastic.

>These mechanics are useful when you want to run mass combat like a battle in a Shakespeare play: the focus is on the fight between the PCs and their enemies. The larger conflict takes place offstage, and is only relevant to the extent that it helps or hinders the characters.

Mechanically, that means that the PCs are sort of like the "special forces" troops of the battle, and their role is to take out key enemies and/or secure key positions (hold the gate! destroy the siege engine!). Their success/failure in these objectives plays a big part in the overall conclusion of the battle. The rest of the fight takes place in the background. At the end of each round you can say a sentence or two about how the battle progresses around them. You can also use Influence Dice (see the article) to see how the background fight affects the PCs without getting bogged down with mechanics.

I took 13th Age mechanics and married it to a Siege Scenario similar to one found in a popular adventure called Red Hand of Doom. The PCs are given a string of objectives, and depending on how they deal with the objectives the siege progresses differently. If they succeed on enough objectives, they overcome the siege, if not then the invading force wins.

Here's my adventure (https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B1pdYIcfHauwdEVBYUhrdGdZaW8/view) if you want to see how I did it. Go to Chapter 3 for the siege.