It's like "300," but without the half-naked men...

[Darkxarth]

Okay, my current campaign has taken a little misstep, and now there's an army of 10,000 Hobgoblins advancing on the kingdom my PCs live in. This was sort of the plan all along, but I expected the PCs to disobey the king's orders and go try to slow it down (after sending him some sort of magical message) when they found out how close the army was to the kingdom. Instead, like good little citizens, they followed his orders to the letter and returned the capital and gave the king the bad news.

The news is this: in less than 9 days (I've decided on 7, but the PCs don't know that) the army will arrive at the kingdom's border. It is approximately 10,000 warriors strong, and is composed mainly of well-trained Hobgoblin soldiers, with a few Goblin/Bugbear scouting parties, Ogre bruisers, and a couple of Trolls. The kingdom has about 2500 trained soldiers that are spread across the land, the king has informed the PCs that he can get his troops to the capital city in 5 days and to the border in 7 days.

The kingdoms army is so small because it is bordered by two peaceful kingdoms (one of Dwarves to the north and one of Elves to the south) both of which rarely speak with the king, each thinking themselves above the human. In any event, they can be reached by magical means, but there's no guarantee they'll send many (if any) troops, likely preferring to barricade themselves in and prepare their own defenses.

So, my question is this: how can a party of level 5 characters, with an army of 2500 lower-level soldiers, stop an army of 10,000 Hobgoblins with less than a week to prepare (it would take them time to return to the border).

Here are what I would consider their assets:

*One level 5 Human Knight (PC) One tough son of a gun.
*One level 5 Human Cleric (NPC party member) Good healer, great against undead.
*One level 5 Elven Rogue (PC) Fantastic stealth and alertness skills.
*One level 5 Human Bard (PC) Good diplomacy, a couple of illusion spells.
*One level 6 Human Cleric (NPC, Grand Priest)
*20+ level 1 Clerics (Lesser priests)
*One level 6 Fighter (NPC, General)
*2400+ level 1 warriors (Army Grunts)
*Less than 100 level 2 warriors (Officers, Veterans)
*Various level-appropriate magic items (Mainly Potions and Wands)
*4 mid-level magical items to be given to the PCs by an Outside Force (Who will of course not be helping fight)

I think that's pretty much it, though if someone sees something obvious they should have and don't, I may have merely forgotten it.

I'm sure the players will have a couple of ideas, but I really need something for the General, Grand Priest, or King to suggest, just in case the players can't think of anything.

Thanks.

- DX

[Emperor Tippy]

How's the terrain?

[Balkash]

Any forrests, and that said, any archers? Do they have any archers?

I'm thinking, if possible, use the grunts as a meat shield, then have the clerics drop area spells on the hobos.

Any siege preparations at the capital? Helms Deep? Any war machines?

[Neon Knight]

I'm thinking, if possible, use the grunts as a meat shield, then have the clerics drop area spells on the hobos.

What sort of area spells do Level 1 Clerics have?

Back to the OP, when you say well trained hobgoblins, what do you mean by that? Level 1 dudes that are extremely loyal, follow orders well, and maintain formation, or do you mean they have lots of levels?

[Dausuul]

How's the terrain?

Yeah, terrain is really the key here. Is there some sort of bottleneck they could use? Preferably with some other way to stack the terrain in their favor, e.g., by churning the ground outside the bottleneck to mud a la Agincourt? Hobgoblins rely mainly on javelins for ranged attacks (at least according to the one in the MM), so if your kingdom can field a good number of archers, they can rain death on the hobs as they advance, then withdraw, screened by the elite forces and the PCs.

[TheElfLord]

What season is it?

What is the weather like?

How long are the hobgoblins supply lines and how much food do they carry with them?

Depending on the answeres any of these could be developed into a workable defense stratagy.


To echo a point mentioned about, what are the capital's defenses? castles can equalize a lot.

[Emperor Tippy]

If this kingdom is located in an area like the great plains, almost perfectly flat, dry, land then its preexisting natural defenses are minimal and any ones created by the kingdom are very important.

Now if the kingdom is surrounded on all 4 sides by 20,000 foot tall impassible mountains and only a single, small pass (100 feet wide at most) pass exists to get through then the preexisting defenses are almost impenetrable.

[Blasterfire]

If they wait to stop them at the capitol city, do the hobgoblins ravage the outlying areas? (i.e. is it a viable strategy to execute some sort of defense in depth in the capitol city?) If this is not the case, and even if each human warrior were to make double his points back and kills 2 hobgoblins (assuming that the hobgoblins have no class levels) before dying, that still leave ~5000 for a force 100 strong to deal with. (Note that this is highly unlikely. The more likely scenario is that each warrior kills 1 hobgoblin before dying.) That being said, the characters need some way of leveling the playing field. One way to do this is to use some kind of guerilla warfare. Because open combat is similar to walking of a cliff in this case, the army needs to be small and mobile and ideally, should only try to hamper the progress of the hobgoblin army while the core of the high level characters attempt to attack on the opposite flank with aoe spells and similar. I dont know the terrain, but if its average terrain this is what I would do. If a bottleneck is available, plug it with pcs/elite knights and put the clerics on sleep rotations.

[Darkxarth]

Terrain: Well, the border is mainly plains and low hills, but their is a small woods near one of the larger towns. However, since the PCs know there's a big Red Dragon there, they are unlikely to suggest using the woods as cover.

The capital is also surrounded by plains, but is a decent sized city, and has its own walls and a small castle (the royal palace) inside. However, making a stand at the capital means abandoning several small villages and at least one small town between the border and the capital.

Archers: There are archers on both sides. The Hobgoblins are trained in shortbows and longbows, while the king's army generally uses light and heavy crossbows.

Priests: The less priests are Clerics of Pelor, and the Grand Priest will almost definitely push to have his priests be battlefield healers, instead of blasters.

The Hobgoblins have what I described as "savage priests" which means a number of Adepts and a handful of evil Clerics.

Seige: The Hobgoblins bring no seige weapons with them, but hiding out in the castle means abandoning the rest of the kingdom to the west, which isn't likely to fly well. And, if it comes to that, there are a number of Ogres and even a couple of Trolls who could cause problems.

Helm's Deep: The border town (which is likely to be the first target) has wooden pallisades and a small town guard (20+ level 1 Warriors), but is unlikely to have the defenses to become a Helm's Deep.

The capital city, however, is well defended, and has the supplies to last for quite a while. If the Hobgoblins overrun the border defenses (or are somehow convinced to go straight to the capital) there could be a similar battle there, though it's unlikely a high level Wizard is going to show up and save the day.

EDIT:

Hobgoblins: The Hobgoblins are well-trained, but not overly powerful. By which I mean they are level 1 Warriors, but they follow commands and won't just scatter if things look bad (unless given an order to do so).

Bottleneck: There is no good place to create a bottleneck situation between the border and the capital. Or outside the border between the army and the border town.

Environment: It is late summer, so things are warm, but not too hot. There has not been any particularly heavy rain to create mud, but if this could be used to assist the PCs, I might make it rain.

Supplies: The Hobgoblins are being supplies by a great number of Goblins working underground. They are farming and crafting weaponry in caves and mines, which is being supplied to the army via defended (but not too tough) supply trains. In addition, once the Hobgoblins cross the border, they will likely take supplies from nearby towns and villages, as well as sending parties to the local woods and rivers.

Defenses: The Castle, as mentioned above, is very well defended, but the majority of the kingdom is plains, with no significant defenses. The kingdom has not had a major war in hundreds of years, and the royal army is maintained mainly to deal with Kobold raiders in the east.

Guerilla Warfare: I was kind of hoping the PCs would go for this before the army reached the border, but they didn't take the bait. So, while it could be suggested by one of the NPCs, there is not a lot of time for them to put it into action anymore.

[Azerian Kelimon]

No need to know much. Get many scrolls of Solid Fog, then spam arrow barrages or orbs or some other effect of the sort.

[Chronos]

Here are what I would consider their assets:

Do they have a wheelbarrow?

Seriously, though, a few level 5 characters won't be able to do much to turn the tide of a battle vs. 10,000 soldiers. About the only hope I see for them is to infiltrate the enemy army's command structure, either assassinating generals, or intercepting and re-writing orders, and even there, you'd probably need a good dose of Deus ex DM. Do the rogue and/or bard have many ranks in Disguise, Bluff, or Forgery?

When it comes to the actual battle, the best I can recommend is Entangles from any clerics who happen to have the Plant domain, and Bless (plus your bard's Inspire Courage). This will be something of a force multiplier, but it won't be nearly enough unless your players have already managed to sow a lot of confusion in the enemy ranks.

[Neon Knight]

Wait. They have a big red dragon sitting around?

Send the bard with a bride. Tell the dragon that they will pay him tons of money to smash up the hobgoblins. If he says, "Why don't I just take it from you?" mention that the kingdom could probably disseminate and hide its wealth all over the place, thus making the dragon have to search high and low. Being a lazy, greedy lizard, the blighter will most likely prefer to have his treasure served on a gold platter to him rather than having to look everywhere for it.

[Blasterfire]

How big is the red dragon? A dragon old enough to fight well but relatively young and foolish enough to fall for illusion magic (hobgoblins poking about his lair etc) could put a respectable dent in an army.

EDIT: Beat by a minute. Same strategy, different implementation

[Sstoopidtallkid]

The rouge needs to make a solo run. Or 10. And kill the entire command structure in one night. I suggest poison and coup-de-grace. The King should have a couple of mages working for him, and they can pull the "Book of Explosive Runes" trick. Really, cheese or running is their only hope. But, the Hobo's can be lead by idiots, and as GM, the king can be a tactical genius.

[Darkxarth]

I was afraid my mentioning him might cause a stir.

Big Red Dragon: The problem is that he has secretly spoken to the leader of the Hobgoblin army, and has already agreed not to 'directly interfere' with the army itself. Now, though he's evil, he's already made a deal with the PCs once, and might be convinced to do so again, if there's a good price involved or he it's highly amusing. However, the PCs would have to circumvent the phrase "directly interfere with the hobgoblin army" before the dragon would even consider doing anything.

That being said, there are a lot of intelligent people here and it's likely someone will think of some way to involve him, so here he is.

He's a Mature Adult, so that gives him 18 Int, 19 Wis, and 18 Cha. He's unlikely to be tricked or fooled, but as I said he has a sense of humor and has already met the PCs (on as good of terms as you can have with a Red Dragon) so he might be agreeable to a deal of some sort. He's got a number of useful little magical items, but nothing that could directly deal with a 10,000 strong army. Mostly Wondrous items with a few +1 weapons thrown in, and of course a huge pile of gold, silver, platinum, diamonds, and other precious gems/metals.

[Emperor Tippy]

Option 1: Bring all of the outlieing villagers into the capital and use the villages as traps (the goblins come rushing into the place and it goes up in flames). The PC's take the higher level soldiers and at least 1 spare horse for each solider with them and harry the enemy all the way to the capital. They kill the scouts, launch a few arrows into the enemy camp, etc. Stampeding a large amount of cattle right through the goblin camp will do wonders as well.

Your forces hold at the capital where the walls and defenses actually give them a chance of winning. But keep the PC's and about 50 men outside the walls. These guys continue to harry the enemy forces who are laying siege and destroy supply lines.

Option 2: You lead the goblin force to the red dragons area and let him deal with them.

Option 3: You convince the red dragon to attack the goblin army. If it is adult or older it can likely destroy the army all on its own.

[henebry]

Yeah, terrain is really the key here. Is there some sort of bottleneck they could use?

If (and only if) this is the case, the situation really IS like in 300. Go read the Frank Miller comicbook, the importance of terrain is made quite clear.

[Darkxarth]

If (and only if) this is the case, the situation really IS like in 300. Go read the Frank Miller comicbook, the importance of terrain is made quite clear.

My point was that it was an extremely difficult battle, with large odds stacked against the "good guys" and little chance of victory.

[Mr.Bookworm]

I would advise evacuating the entire kingdom, and pulling all of the citizens back into the capitol. Make the place look like Fort Knox. Pile up on supplies, and immediatly begin training able civilians as soldiers.

Once the hobgoblins try to siege you, use guerilla warfare. Hassle them, don't let a day go by where they don't lose goblins.

Also, I'm sure there's an alchemist or two in town. Build the biggest bombs you can and drop them on the goblins.

As a fallback position, fortify the palace heavily. If the goblins manage to breach the city, go there and hole up.

If all else fails, get all of the soldiers together and try to kill the goblins as best you can.

Alternatively: You could evacuate all of the civilians, not just to the capitol, but to the Dwarven and Elven nations. See if they would take refugees, and allow any civilian who wants to fight to become a soldier.

Once that's done, go guerilla with your army. If you decide that you can't win, you can probably escape.

EDIT:

Oh, yeah, use the dragon. See what you have available for trade.

If you can't get him to attack the army, try trading for some of his loot. It could be useful.

[evisiron]

Crazy mission for the PC's to take out the command structure for the army.

Once that is removed, inform the Dragon that the one he made the deal with is dead. And besides... its not an 'army' as such. More a bunch of delicious hobgoblins standing together.

[Stormthorn]

I had an idea. If the ground was wet, like a swamp or an area turned to runny mud pits by rain, then you could slick oil over the water and light it when the first baddies get most of the way accross. Those already in the flames will be slowed down by the water and get burned up. Also, armies have huge momentum. If you do this while they charge several additional rows of soldiers will by pushed into the flames or crushed by those behind them. The fire is also good for taking out trolls and if carefully controled can make artificial bottlenecks. This tactic of course requires a lot of oil.
I would suggest a supply caravan of dwarves or gnomes fleeing fromt he advancing army. They seem like the types of races that would consider hundreds of gallons of oil somehting to saddle a big caravan with. Also might get you primitive explosives and a few tougher-than-average caravan guards to buff up your defenses.

Even without that (or perhaps in addition to that) the dragon could use his breath to turn said wet ground (Im assuming you will allow for wet ground) into boiling steaming ground that will painfully slow down and blind an advancing army, and all the dragon did was breathe fire at some water. Clearly not interfearing with anyone.

[nooblade]

The PCs could take out hundreds of these hobos in a day, shame they didn't seem to figure that out. Especially with a Knight! This is what that guy was made for. The villagers should call them cowards when they find out the troupe decided to go back to the capitol instead of just sending a disposable messenger.

Or I don't know, don't be too hard on them if they're young. When you read about this kind of thing in books the "PCs" hardly seem to do anything.

I think it's really neat that the group doesn't have a Mage. I could think of a few ways of doing fun stuff about that, but I don't have the hours to spend thinking through all of this setting, really. Those disposables, Alchemist's Fire and similar things, those are great. Set stuff on fire, cause some havoc, it doesn't really matter if you kill all the hobos, just cause huge amounts of destruction to really send them running.

Or I don't know, it's not my setting.

[Drider]

re-roll character as lvl 9 wizards?...

[Neon Knight]

However, the PCs would have to circumvent the phrase "directly interfere with the hobgoblin army" before the dragon would even consider doing anything.

Red dragon

Alignment: Always chaotic evil.

Seriously. If he's a standard dragon, he's a backstabbing jerk by nature. You are the DM, but I'd consider it odd behavior if I was a player if a chaotic evil dragon was a stickler to his word when offered shinies.

If he were a blue or green, that would be different. They're lawful evil.

Come to think of it, a green dragon would make alot more sense. Reds live in mountains; greens are the forest dwelling type. A green dragon would have been perfect for this situation. Probably lawful enough to force the PCs to avoid the "directly interfere with the hobgoblin army" clause, but enough of a jerk to help them out if they are clever enough.

EDIT: Assuming your going with standard DND as laid out in the books unless specified.

[Alleine]

Get the dragon to fly over them a few times at a very low altitude. Flying isn't directly interfering.
Oh, the frightful presence that sends 19/20 hobgoblins into a blind panic? An "unfortunate" side effect.

Another way to coerce the dragon is the whole "Well, they're an army of 10,000, they have to have some gold on them. Especially those delicious looking commanders. Also, we'll pay you on top of that."

[Blasterfire]

I dont see why the dragon needs to be reasoned with at all, this is basically your no strings attached get out of jail free. Since hobgoblin Illusions to trick the red dragon are out, use illusions to trick the hobgoblins. There is no mage, but wands and such are available I assume? One night, when theyre camping next to the forest, magically trick some hobos into going near the dragons lair all riled and armored up. Id consider it likely that the rank and file hobos dont know about the dragon, and the dragon might think hes being swindled. Better yet, have the PCs actually cause havoc in the camp before hiding in the forest and using illusioned versions of themselves to lead the hobos in.they are much more likely to respond in numbers that would mean something to the dragon.

[Doresain]

have the king open a gate to the lower planes and make a pact with some powerful demon or devil(preferably Belhifet) to fight the hobos...when said denizens of the lower planes finally turn on you/demand payment have Everard the battle-priest of Tempus heroically sacrifice himself to close the gate you created...

and if that doesnt work, then there are a number of fine suggestions listed above mine...also have the PCs and as many NPCs as possible set up a number of traps outside the castle walls and stretching out towards the direction that the hobos are coming from...Macaulay Culkin did it, and it worked wonders for him

[tyckspoon]

Sounds like a scorched-earth situation to me. The human kingdom doesn't have the numbers to meet the enemy in open battle, so the only practical place to fight is from behind the castle fortifications. 10,000 bodies concentrated in one place can't support themselves by scavenging the land; they'll be dependent on whatever they can loot from the human settlements and their own supply trains. Have any villages in reach of the castle evacuated except for perhaps a skeleton garrison of people who are willing to risk losing their lives in order to do some damage to the army. Burn any crops that can't be quickly harvested and carried out and herd any livestock to the castle to add to the supplies for the possible siege.

Trap as much of the emptied villages as possible. If the chance arrives, make them look like fortifications going up; that'll tempt the hobs to investigate and destroy them in order to avoid leaving enemy strongpoints in their rearguard.

Have the Rogue go out along with a handpicked assortment of the stealthiest soldiers (practically speaking, this probably just means the ones with the highest Dex.) They'll hide out in the wilderness until the hobgoblins are far enough into the kingdom that their supply lines are starting to become over-stretched. They should take along as much alchemist's fire/torches/oil as they can get their hands on and use it on the supply trains. They don't need to kill the guards or even destroy the wagons/whatever is being used for transport; just burn as much of the eminently flammable foodstuffs as can be reached. Let the soldiers handle the burning while the Rogue Disable Devices the wheels of the transports. Bonus points if they manage to spook any beasts of burden into running away.

If it's possible for the Bard to personally manage the diplomacy, he should make the case for help to the Elves and the Dwarves. It shouldn't be too hard of a sell, especially if it can truthfully be said that all they need to do is show up in force to scare off the demoralized, hungry (cause you've made sure they've only got enough food for around a quarter of them, see?) hobgoblin army.

The dragon.. is going to depend on how far "directly interfere with the hobgoblin army" can be stretched. Having him strafe them with fire breath is obviously out; could he be persuaded to simply fly over them on his way somewhere else so that his fear aura can scatter a bunch? Seeing your commander pissing his pants in terror after the dragon flys by a hundred feet overhead would really help wreck the discipline the hobgoblin army needs. What about screwing with the supply lines? Might the dragon agree to raid a couple of the supply trains (he gets to keep anything in them he's interested in, of course) or strike into the hobgoblin's homeland and destroy a few of those farms and mines the goblins are using as an economic base?

If another bargaining chip is needed, the dragon could be offered taxing rights over one of the outlying villages and its nearby lands. It's probably a little extreme, but it would give the dragon a stake in defending 'his' land from the hobgoblins and appeal to his pride. And when the party is high enough level, they have a ready hook to come back and free the land from the tyrannical tax rates of the dragon.

Edit:
Weather- there are two conditions that could really help the defenders: very wet and very dry. Very wet means mud, lots of it. Which means the approaching army can't march as fast, so your defenders have more time to set up any tricks they want, and if it's still muddy when it comes to the big set-piece battle, the defender's missile troops have more time to pump shots into the giant unmissable horde of hobgoblins (Protip: Give every able-bodied defender on the walls a sling, at least. They're dirt cheap, take advantage of it. Make 'em from the hides of the cows you're slaughtering to lay in as saltbeef and jerky.)

Very dry in the plains means fire, and lots of it. This is something of a desperation tactic, but it's there. Have the defenders dig out a big firebreak/killzone around the capitol defenses. Send some riders out in front and to the sides of the hobgoblin army with some lit torches and vials of alchemist's fire. Drop fire-starters and run. By the time the grass stops burning, there should be: Many dead hobgoblins and little to no available food in the wild (creatures usually have the sense to run away from wildfires.) An additional bonus is that your capitol, which was probably built on or near a permanent water source, has water, while smaller sources in the wild have dried up. It takes a stretch of continued dryness for conditions to get that bad, however, and since the conditions aren't already that way it probably won't realistically happen before the hobgoblins show up.

[Mezzalli]

Any chance to train people? If so, then the Army of Commoners/ Horror Campaign has some ideas.

If not, I would send the more stealthy types for some assassinations of key hobgoblin leaders while others disrupt the army's supply lines. Evacuate the civilians either to the capitol or the other nations if they will take them and adopt a scorched-earth policy. An army of that size needs to be constantly resupplied or it will run out of food in a few days.

EDIT: ninja'd.

EDIT 2: I just thought of something. Why not go to the hobgoblin homeland and start a goblin rebellion. Take away their production base and force them to divert troops to deal with the rebellion. Assuming they have the time to do it, they could try.

[Stormthorn]

I would like to point out that my "when the fighting starts" strategy can be used in conjunction with many of these other ones so that niether has to be stretched so far as to seem like your trying too desperatly to bail them out.

If all else fails: Just have the PCs run away. Have em kidnapped by very skilled bad dudes with sleep spells and wake up a week later in another kingdom if they wont go willingly.