PC participation in mass combat

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Knight of the Lady
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:04 am

Ok, so I've got a concept for a campaign down with the players playing mercenaries in the Old World and I think that I've straightened out most things for this campaign...

But for one issue: That is how to make mass combat where the players participate as combatants interesting, engaging and giving the players some agency? I'm very much not thinking of letting them turn the tide of battle themselves every time but it would be nice if they could make a more interesting and fun impact than slicing up a couple of enemy grunts, at best, while still retaining a gritty setting and staying away from HeroHammer.

If its of interest for ideas I'm thinking that the system that I should use is the Horde combat mechanic from the 40k RPGs when mass combat occurs. I know those rules pretty well and have access to most of the books from those RPGs. Or can get them as a PDF if needed. And regardless of edition, save perhaps 3ed, it shouldn't require much conversion work for me.

What I have thought about on the matter is to let the players do the dice rolls for their sides in the mass combat and possibly lay out the plan that the NPC commanders will enact (Here its important to separate between player and character. The players will have much say in how things are managed but the characters will not.) but I still need some ideas for how to engage my players in a mass combat situation.
Zisse
Posts: 127
Joined: Fri Aug 30, 2019 3:14 pm

Have you considered the mass combat rules from Archives of the Empire II?
Knight of the Lady
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:04 am

Zisse wrote: Tue Nov 22, 2022 9:23 am Have you considered the mass combat rules from Archives of the Empire II?
Not yet. I've used the 40k mass combat before but I'm afraid I don't yet have "Archives of the Empire II" in my possession. :(
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Hyarion
Posts: 260
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:56 am

I'll flesh this out a bit later if needed.

KotL, have you checked out Ben Scerri's Tides of War fan-supplement? Even if you don't use it verbatim, his list of Moments of Heroism is VERY handy.

This is heavily drawn from my years of experience playing WFB, but here goes.
Definitions: A troop or soldier is an individual. A unit or squad is a collection of troops.


Here is a doc I wrote to help add and organize narrative structure around military operations in WFRP.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1E_V ... sp=sharing

I'm posting this for now, but I'll come back later and add my thoughts about mass combat rules after they're written in a digital format (instead of scratch paper like so many of my notes).
I hold the glaive of Law against the Earth.
Knight of the Lady
Posts: 184
Joined: Mon Jan 07, 2019 11:04 am

Sorry for late reply.

I wasn't aware of this fan supplement but it looks really cool and useful for this campaign.

Thanks for sharing!
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