Mass Combat Idea!

[requiem225]

It’s me again, with another idea that may work for RP events.

Since this is a game that is defined by war. Just look at the name of the universe “World of Warcraft”, and since there are a number of people who rolled some kind of commander, I thought it might make for an interesting idea to implement some kind of rule set for mass combat (assuming there is not one already), after all, the remnants of the forsaken are not always going to attack in small numbers.

This is a very simplified form of “White Wolf’s” mass combat rules so bear with me, and keep in mind this may work best with a smaller group involved with the RP event.

The idea is basic in concept, a unit commander is going to have some number of personnel under their command, and this would be defined by the number of hit-points said person has, where each hit-point would represent a set number of units (say 10 units per one hit-point).
This set of troops defined by hit-points would be defined as magnitude. So a character with 5 hit-points would be magnitude 5 with 50 units, and 10 hit-points would be magnitude 10 with 100 units. All units under the command of someone would be equipped to similarly to their commander. I.e. a riffle man would likely have a unit of rifle men, where a frontlines man would have units of melee troops.

The person running the event would define any unit cap any one person may have.

How it works, the down and dirty.
At this point the battle would play out mush like any other combat. They would roll their attacks against the enemy’s defense, and vice versa. Only real difference is that there emotes would reflect a mass combat scenario instead of a small combat event (1v1, 1v2 2v2 and so on). Each hit would deplete them or their enemy by 1 magnitude leaving 10 units dead, injured, or otherwise combat ineffective. This would continue until there magnitude reaches zero.

What happens when your magnitude hits zero?
If your enemy’s magnitude reaches zero it is a route, the enemy flees and you slaughter any that remains battle done.

When you reach zero magnitude, though, there are some differences. Like the enemy your unit is considered routed and will flee. Unlike your enemy, though, there is a chance that your unit may rally. This would be determined by a roll, the difficulty set by the GM. When your unit rallies, they return to battle with 1 less magnitude then when they started, so a magnitude 5 infantry would rally back as a magnitude 4. This would continue until you are routed as a magnitude 1. The loss of magnitude would represent the number of units that died or are otherwise unable to fight.

I.e.
Little Timmy started battle as a magnitude 5 unit, but during the fight was routed. He managed to rally soon after the route but comes back as a magnitude 4 unit. If he is routed again he would rally back as a magnitude 3, and so on and so forth till he comes back as a magnitude 1. If he is routed at a magnitude 1, he would come back as a solo unit.
(Combating as a single unit will be explained latter).

What about tactical maneuvers?
This style of mass combat would open the door for multiple tactical maneuvers. This can take the form of flanking, attacks from the rear and more. Any maneuvers that are used would decrease the difficulty of hitting the enemy for the unit performing the maneuver only. The difficulty determined, of course by the GM.

I.e.
Little Timmy’s line infantry are engaging a mass of undead from the front in normal line infantry fashion. However, Big Bill’s cavalry comes crashing into the undead’s exposed flank. Since a flank attack would throw off any unit, it would be easier for Big Bill to hit them. So where Little Timmy would need, say a 60+ to hit, Big Bill may only need a 40+.

Any army you manage to completely surround would lower the difficulty of all attacks across the board for all engaged with it, as panic starts to ensue among the enemies ranks. Note, it takes at least 4 characters in command of units to surround a single enemy unit. As well it takes at least 2 units to flank, 1 to attack from the front, the other to attack from the side.

So what about single units?
If during the battle you are routed past a starting magnitude of 1, or if you start the battle without a magnitude, then you are acting as a solo unit. In that event you have 5 hp and are joined to an already pre-existing unit as a hero (for lack of a better term). You would attack at the same turn as the unit you are attached, but the enemy then has a chance of attacking you directly.

I.e.
Little Timmy had a bad day, his unit was routed 5 times and has come back as a solo unit joined to Swift Floe’s group of spearmen. Although he attacks at the same turn as her, any damage inflicted on him, wound him directly.

And like any other combat event, once your HP reaches zero, you are knocked unconscious… or otherwise combat ineffective.

So you read my idea, now let’s see what a round of combat may look like.

The cast:

Little Timmy (LT): Magnitude 5 infantry armed with sword and shield
Big Bill (BB): Magnitude 3 cavalry armed with lance and shield
Swift Floe (SF): Magnitude 4 infantry armed with spears
Mystic Mike (MM): Magnitude 1 mages, armed with spells.

Vs.

Undead 1: Magnitude 4 ghoulish horde
Undead 2: Magnitude 10 skeletal infantry armed with sword and shield
Undead 3: Magnitude 2 skeletal archers

The setting:

Little Timmy and friends have been asked to investigate reports of scourge gathering in the Eastern Plague lands. During the investigation they come across a horde of undead; we join them as the battle starts.

LT: With a loud battle cry and raised sword, Little Timmy commands his men to charge the skeletal infantry head on, leading the charge from the front.

GM: Roll 60+ to hit. (Little Timmy rolls a 73)—The skeletal infantry is caught off guard by the charge as you see a number of them fall into a pile of bones.—Big Bill you’re up.

BB: Big Bill moves his cavalry around to the skeletal Infantries flank, he would then charge into them lances level.

GM: 40+ to hit. (BB rolls a 39)—The skeletal infantry manage to stop the charge in its tracks as the cavalry is met with sword and shield.—Swift Floe your go.

SF: Swift floe brings her spearmen up to a position to defend Little Timmy’s flank, she holds here.

GM: Ok, Mystic Mike, go.

MM: Mystic Mike combines the power of all his mages to launch a large fireball at the ghoulish horde.

GM: 60+ (MM rolls a 97)—The fireball comes crashing down on the ghoulish horde, killing many within its ranks

At this point the skeletal infantry would be down to 9 magnitude; the ghoulish horde down to 3 while the archers are left unscathed. Now for the GM’s turn

GM: The skeletal infantry push forward on Little Timmy’s infantry, meeting his attack with sword and shield. Roll above a 50 to defend (LT rolls a 52).

LT: The enemy’s attacks strike harmlessly against his units shields.


GM: The ghouls charge headlong into Swift Floe’s spearmen attacking tooth and claw. Roll 50+ to defend (SF rolls a 32).

SF: The ghouls manage to make it past her spears, causing her front rank to fall.

GM: The unit of archers takes a pot shot at the group of mages. Roll 50+ to defend (MM rolls a 77)

MM: As the arrows come soaring in his mages manage to deflect the attack with an arcane shield.

At this point Swift Flow would be down to 3 magnitude while the others would be fine from the attack.

Final Words

This is yet another idea I had that I thought could be milled over by the CotH community. The rules of the idea would of course change depending on scenario. This has not been play tested by any means and some flaws in the system may arise if or when it is. I would love to see your comments below, any ideas you have to improve my idea, or any comments of how something similar was already tried I will read and consider. Also if there is already rules concerning mass combat I would love to see them. And, as always, the GM has final say.

[Geoni]

If it's only a few players, say for example, the only player controlled characters are Little Timmy, Big Bill, Swift Floe, and Mystic Mike (thought of Magic Mike haha), then these players would simply be emoting for themselves and the units they lead? (this is how I'm reading into it, I might be reading into it wrong) If it is, then it's a great system for people who want to play an event that requires a large number of characters when there are only a few players up to doing it.

Thought: It would require the characters to be the leader types, and not a lot are, and the players involved might want to put thought into mistakes by individuals within their unit during some of the emotes since sometimes one person can screw a lot up.

[Holynexus]

Well, in STO we actually led such a system for a big ground 300-style battle RP, and it was rather messy. But with 2 GMs and such, well, why not? I'd enjoy seeing mass battles occuring in CotH!

[Roxas65]

Mass battles are generally a bad idea in RP because they all just turn into giant clusterbucks.

[Beltharean]

I've been doing something similar for a long time, originally with minions for Necromancers. I never viewed a Necromancer like a death knight; Having one strong minion. So I would have Tress raised, say, three undead if his minion was given three HP. Each slot of damage taken would be equal to one skeleton dying. I took this idea and started using it in events. It works really well, so I can vouch for a system like this working, if anyone ends up using it.

[Harmonic]

I have a character that was raised by a necromancer, that's a Ghoul that's rather strong. It's possible.

However, that's apples and oranges at the moment compared to the topic at hand. While I think it's a great idea to try to come up with fresh and new opinions on how large battles should be done... I've got to agree with Roxas. For the past however long, it's been a real pain to get a large group of people organized and together in order to do a large event. THe bigger the event, the more people will communicate amongst themselves, or decide to do their own thing... and then it just becomes this unwieldy monolith of agony for the person running it.

[requiem225]

I can understand you concern of the event turning into a cluster f$#&.

However, I believe I addressed it already by stating that the combat would play out like any other RP combat save that your HP counts as troops and you emotes for a unit instead of strictly yourself.

As for the issue of not having enough players with commander characters, this can be easily worked around. Say for the event an argent crusader gave you temp.command of some troops, or a silvermoon captain gave you a contingent of soldiers. All transfers of authority would be controlled by a gmt of course. And such transfers could help in building a soldier type character for a future promotion.

[Holynexus]

I have a character that was raised by a necromancer, that's a Ghoul that's rather strong. It's possible.

However, that's apples and oranges at the moment compared to the topic at hand.

I believe in Dutch both apples and oranges are different kinds of "apples". :P

Yes this kind of event can turn in messy if not handled properly but eh why not trying. :P However I suppose it would OOCly be a 2 vs 2 battle or something, each with as many hitpoints as the unit they lead, or something similar. The difficulty would certainly more be in keeping track of the action, than of the score.