homebrew mass combat????

[J Do Baggins]

I DM a game every week and my players are starting to aquire lots of followers through heroic deeds leadership feat and what not and they want to wage a mass strike on a neighbooring fortress and i don't know of a good way to handle this... keeping in mind not all followers are of thwe same level or class ... or even race. and one of my players is a powerful necromabncer and has built a nice undead army as well that will be fighting in this battle. So if anyone has any knowledge that would help me... it'd be appriciated.

[BRC]

I was working on one, but I kind of abandoned it and I don't really feel like finishing it, I could post what I have and let other people kick it around abit.

[SilveryCord]

Let's be honest, the PCs are probably going to win; you really only need to care about the losses. (Unless you specifically want them to lose)
Take the number of followers (excluding PCs), and subtract the number of opponents from that.
If the number is 0 or less than 0, then the PCs win! But their followers are slaughtered... Otherwise, you have that many survivors.

Don't DM it so obviously, though. Have the numbers all written down beneath your screen, and have a few people die there, a few people die here, and just be sure at the end it adds up.

Simple and easy.

[Gygaxphobia]

I think SilveryCord has a good point, though that system seems much too simplistic to me.
You could devise a few very simple stats to get the overall battle result, and then only play through the turns of the PCs.

i.e. something like Total HD of PC's army + 1d100 + X - Total HD of NPC's army + 1d100

So you have a few random variables, but where 'X' represents a number to account for the PC's tactics and use of terrain (their battleplan)

[Yeril]

Group Similar units together and upscale the area, a 5ft square suddenly becomes a 50ft square, a single unit becomes a batalion of 20 troops, a 5ft step becomes a 50ft swift rally, a Bullrush becomes a full on charge.

[Hasivel]

I have a tendency to treat squads of troops as individual characters and just use the normal rules with minor tweaks.

For instance imagine that you have 600 troops on each side. Call each group of 100 a platoon and have 6 platoons on each side. Instead of a 5-foot square they take up a 50-foot square. If there's a remainder have 1 platoon at partial strength. They can only take 5-foot steps (50-foot steps) and that's a full-round action. Multiply their damage and HP by 100 and take the average attributes for each (Usually just the bog standard level 1 unless they're elite troopers). Give a bard-like bonus for the PC's and BBEG's leadership based on whatever set of rules you'd care to use.

[Yeril]

@^ Ive got a great idea similar tot his that I can't put to paper, Im going to do a Bad guys vs Good guys fight off in that manner, Ill post it up when Im done.

[magic8BALL]

For a mass combat, the enemy force (the defending fortress in this case) should have a commanding force, either one BBEG or a group of NPC's (similar to an adventuring party). The PC's should fight this fight like any other, pehaps with some hack and slash through minions to get there.

As for the PC's followers vs minions, I sugest a method similar to SilveryCords, but including CR's. Add up the CR's of all the members of each army and find the difference. If the PC's army is bigger, they win, if not the PC's will need to deal with left over minions (who may even surrender when they find out their comander/s are dead). To find who survives, double the number left over and add up the followers CR's of the winning side (using largest followers first) and half all resourses (hp, spells, disposable items, etc.).

This should work quite well.

[J Do Baggins]

silverycord and gygax thanks those were very good ideas i think i'll use that system and use x as a variable to give a "home court" advantage to who ever is the defending army and a y variable to each army for use of tactics and morale, and how formally trained they are... for instance a dwarven army fighting in their tunnels versus an invading orc horde may be greatly out numbered, however homecourt to the dwarves deffinceable terrain and great formal training and moral that the orcsdo not have would grant like a 10 - 1 bonus for the dwarves versus the orcs. been reading the hunters blade trilogy ;-) Awsome books for ever hasn't read them drizzt is a god and dwarves rule