Mass Combat Rules? - Downloaded from the Wizards Community, all coding removed by Solauren

Human Maniple level 4 army brute medium natural humanoid XP 175 HP: 120; Bloodied: 60; AC: 16 Fort: 15 Ref: 14 Wil: 14 Speed 6 [b]melee[/b] (standard at will) [b]weapon[/b] +7 vs AC; 10 damage [b]ranged[/b] (standard at will) [b]weapon[/b] ranged 10/20; +5 vs AC; 8 damage [b]Morale Check[/b] (free; when first bloodied; encounter) [b]weapon[/b] +10 vs AC; 5 damage - if this attack misses, Human Maniple becomes helpless (save ends) [b]Overrun[/b] (standard, encounter) [b]weapon[/b] +5 vs AC; 15 damage - if this attacks hits, Human Maniple may shift up to 2 squares, pushing the target the same distance in the same direction. [b]Alignment[/b] Any [b]language[/b] common [b]skills[/b] endurance +9 STR 17 (+5) DEX 12 (+3) WIS 11 (+2) CON 16 (+5) INT 10 (+2) CHA 12 (+3) [b]equipment:[/b] chain armor x120, greatsword x120, longbow x120, battlestandard [b]special:[/b] aoe attacks from non-army creatures do a maximum of 1hp per square of Human Maniple that the attack hits. [b]special:[/b] targeted attacks from non-army creatures do a maximum of 1hp damage per hit. [b]special:[/b] army units occupy a number of squares equal to their current HP. [b]special:[/b] like minions, army units take no damage on a miss.

Post/Author/DateTime	Post
#1 nostromo Jun 12, 2008 19:33:05	Anybody know if they are going to produce mass combat rules to run quick mass battles? Or something more along the lines of Tome of Battle (which i thought was a great book BTW). Anyone?
#2 Dreamstryder Jun 13, 2008 0:02:53	Dunno about mass combat. 4e's exploits are akin to ToB's maneuvers and Legacy weapons I thought are covered in the 4e DMG. ToB was a good idea, but I found some maneuvers too similar (Setting Sun for example; probably because one could only use each 1/encounter), and at higher levels I sometimes felt I had too many of them for smooth playing (that and those awesome Crusader abilities, such thorns...) Anyway, I thought 4e already has a smoother version of ToB built-in, but I haven't read thru the PHB enough to know certainly yet.
#3 nostromo Jun 13, 2008 0:32:35	I'm a jack ass. I meant Heroes of Battle. I thought HoB did a good job of 'changing up' the environment. I am so tired of the "ok let's enter this keep and walk through 15 encounters and 5 traps". Throwing some other elements into the campaign is always nice so I was hoping for a 4e rendition of HoB. But it looks like we will get the typical splat books for the next 12-18 months. Thanks.
#4 jerichoalar Jun 13, 2008 10:33:11	mass combat comes down to two possible methods basically: 1) the players are part of the army and not the leaders; or 2) the players are commanding the army and not really in the thick of the fighting. in the first case, just describe the battle flowing around them - run the specific fights and encounters (or one long string of reinforcements in a single encounter) that the characters are actually involved in, and let the needs of the story dictate the flow of the larger battle. in the second case, I'd use the monster creation rules to create 'monsters' that represent each discrete military unit (based on scale of conflict, this could be squads, or brigades, or phalanxes, etc.) basically the minion system writ large. - in this situation, because the players are directing these units as 'single' allies, defeating one is the same experience as any normal encounter of the same level. etc. like:
#5 theordus_donnerschlag Jun 14, 2008 12:00:55	Are there any rules for making such an army. Can I calculete an army of mabye 100 level 10? THX
#6 jerichoalar Jun 16, 2008 14:59:26	sure. figure out what a level 10 minion would be, give it some army like abilities in addition to whatever normal moves still make sense and give it 100hp (and similar special abilities to reflect the 1hp = 1 body idea) this is homebrew territory obv. I appreciate the compliment that it seems credible enough to maybe have real rules behind it.