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Kenbert
2007-09-25, 09:08 AM
Have any of you ever actually done (run or played in) a massive battle, like those described in "Heroes of Battle?" Where you actually set up company after company of friend and foe, and have roles the PCs can play? I'm thinking of setting one up, but am looking for advice before I start. or just stories about the really massive ones you've done. Thanks!

Peace.

Darth Mario
2007-09-25, 10:33 AM
I ran a campaign that was focused around the massive battles described in HoB. The PCs were hired on as mercenaries, but were pretty much given free reign, besides general standing orders. I drew up an encounter flowchart for them, as well as a battlefield map. Didn't spend too much time with the rest of their own army, but skeched out a few units for the opposition that weren't on the chart, just in case the deviated.

All and all, it worked pretty well, until they died after charging a unit that was waaaay too powerful for them.

Shas aia Toriia
2007-09-25, 04:17 PM
That's the biggest problem, that the PC's will find foes too strong for them in the army.

Chaos Bringer
2007-09-25, 04:43 PM
In one of my first campaigns we had a town besieged by an army of bandits being controlled by a mind flayer or illithid, cant remember. we had 3 weeks to fortify the town and convince the peasants to fight. Since the rest of my group sucks at strategy I planned the whole thing out and directed the forces while fighting in the battle myself. I still say the most epic part of the battle was when the bandits tried blowing up the fortifacations we made with dynamite, my rogue ran down and pulled the explosives off the wall, but not with enough time to actually throw them. They literally blew up in my hand and i took no damage with improved evasion :smallbiggrin: Aside from that close call, I had the villagers hold off the bandits without taking a single casualty while my group killed the mind flayer or illithid.

Drider
2007-09-25, 05:25 PM
In one of my first campaigns we had a town besieged by an army of bandits being controlled by a mind flayer or illithid,

they're the same thing, i think

DraPrime
2007-09-25, 05:29 PM
It's a lot of work, but it's really fun, especially if you make all hell break loose during a battle. Literally. Nothing will freak out your players quite like saying in the middle of a battle "A rift in the air opens on the top of the hill, and fiends start marching out of it killing everyone in sight."

goat
2007-09-25, 06:15 PM
That's the biggest problem, that the PC's will find foes too strong for them in the army.

Well, that can be avoided by making them the most powerful people on the field by some margin. The difficulties that they then have to face come from their inability to be everywhere at once, and a need to choose which battles they'll actually fight. A protracted battlefield situation where the PCs are fighting almost non-stop for a full day can be one of those situations where a 4-encounter-per-day optimized wizard suddenly starts looking a lot weaker.

ocato
2007-09-25, 06:56 PM
Four armed balor leading an army into a castle of his ancient foes, this group of clerics. Half the party stuck by the balor, the other half (me and my friend) tried to help the cleric. It was a pretty epic battle.

The best part was when they breached the gate and I (spike chain fighter, not so much cheese, but pretty strong) was standing between the first wave (and my old party mates) and the citidel where the old cleric king they'd come to kill... wearing the special armor of the elite guard to the king, with the rest of the elite guard. We lost, but I didn't die. I used my chain to grappling hook climb up into a window of a tower, the other party followed, and learned what reach and a very small space (spiral staircase) can do to a rogue and a really poorly played wizard. Came into the throne room just as the balor killed the king, reclaimed his fourth sword (four arms, four swords) and became a demigod. The rest of my team rallied on me and we proceeded to fight a four armed balor wielding 4 very magical bastard swords. It went poorly.

....
2007-09-25, 07:07 PM
Red Hand of Doom has a semi-epic battle as it climax.

And one campaign I ran a few years back ended with the PCs (who had gone from level 1 to 17 or so) were tricked and betrayed by the ruler of a city-state. He used the blood of one of the PCs to release an evil demi-god of shadow and in doing so broke a large chunk of reality. The shards of reality formed into 'shade demons' that obeyed the BBEG.

PCs escaped the city and gathered the scattered remains of its millitary and people, rousing them to fight the evil growing in the city. After a few days they led a massive army up against the hordes of monsters the BBEG had summoned.

It was a pretty awesome climax. The PCs had to fight through the enemies lines while the soldiers had to hold off the demons long enough for the PCs to get into a desecrated temple of Pelor and kill the BBEG before the demi-god was fully awakened.

Some of the most fun I've ever had playing D&D.

Crow T. Robot
2007-09-25, 07:17 PM
I am about two sessions away from "The Big Fight" that I promiced way back when they were 1st level. They are now 13th (They are stating to doubt my sincerity).

(To Wy, Heath, Pete, Paul, and Kev. Please stop reading. Now.)

Most of the enemies will be Platoons (A modification to "Mob" template from DMGII). While the Platoons will be CR9 (Pretty Low), they will just keep comeing. After they take out one wave, the next, bigger one hits about two rounds later.

They also have to plan to keep the rest of the army alive, prevent enemies from setting rally points, prevent their own troops from dying (Probly the hardest part).

To make things worse, the enemy army will be 5,000 strong. They army will be 1,500 if they role play really really well. Other wise they get 800.

And the huge ammount of victory points they stand to win or lose before they even leave for the attack.

Kenbert
2007-09-25, 08:55 PM
Sounds like you guys are veterans with this stuff. I really like the "victory point" concept, so that PCs can actually track their progress towards turning the tide. I wouldn't let them know for sure what each thing was worth, and they wouldn't be able to see the paths they could take. it'd just be kinda guessing. "well, if we take this hill, we'll be stuck defending that the whole time, maybe we should take this bridge instead, then lead a couple of units over it to help flank the enemy front over here ... then we'll be free to move over and disable that trebuchet ..." sort of thing.

Lord Tataraus
2007-09-25, 09:16 PM
I know this is a little off topic, but has anyone tried to have a battle where the PCs are generals of the army and they direct the troops. More like a risk game, but real time and with magic. The PCs wouldn't actually fight, but instead would draw up statistics for each legion/squad/company/whatever and have mob combat or something. Instead of ability scores you would have stuff like Morale, Discipline, Experience, Skill, etc.

Kenbert
2007-09-25, 09:37 PM
That sounds like an interesting twist ... they are the generals on horseback watching from a hill?

It would be interesting to roleplay them into that position too. And there's always the possibility that half the party does a recon mission or something, or steps in to assist if the battle is going ill.

goat
2007-09-26, 04:40 AM
Once you get to that situation, you may as well play warhammer or some other war game, with the PCs as specially statted unique characters.

Krimm_Blackleaf
2007-09-26, 05:08 AM
I have a big epic battle I've been making all by myself, which will likely never see the light of day. Ever. But I made three teams, 6 good, 6 evil and 8 neutral mercenaries. The evil side has two locations, a small castle and a tower, the goodies have a massive castle they all bought together and the neutrals have some nice barracks on the ethereal plane and each team has at least one airship and someone to pilot it. These are all connected to each other through modified versions of Gate that will allow them to grant passage across a single plane(or a normal one for the N's). Each character is ECL 30 and the reigning warlords of this battle. Alot of people on the good and evil sides have leadership and/or epic leadership, this is the army of either side. The battle will take place in between these locations and the warlords will focus primarily on the opposing warlords and taking out lesser warriors if they can pull it off without hindering their hunt.
The neutrals will wait in the barracks until someone from either side hires any one of them(for a heft price of course) who will fight for the almighty gp. The winner will of course be whoever has at least one warlord alive while the rest of the opposing team lies dead(or dead for now).
The part that makes me sad is, all the characters I've made make me squeal with joy but I'll never get to use any one of them...:smallfrown:

Kenbert
2007-09-26, 12:10 PM
Sounds ... very high-powered. I find it hard to play characters who are ridiculously powerful, I kinda lose touch with them. but in this scenario it sounds like you are using them pretty well. I hope you find a way to get to play that battle.