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[ORE] REIGN: Mass Combat Rules (lengthy post)

Hello all,

I'm trying to find a middle ground between the larger Wars and the smaller fights where the players can directly lead and influence battles as generals/medics/specialists/etc, without it becoming a simple number crunch fiasco.

My current theory is this:

I figure out how many troops are coming in and what threat level they are as mooks/followers.  Depending on the total number of troops involved, I divide them into units, each unit representing a single point per threat level.

That point value is added together with any environmental or morale factors to have a total battle strength, and is then divided into a number of dice, not to go over 20.

At that point I enter the pre-combat phase:

Pre-combat allows the players or enemy generals to take actions to influence the fight.  Most importantly is the battle strategy which pits the lead tactician of each side against each other for a range of -10 to +10 to battle strength.

Other actions include inspiring the troops, intimidating the other side if possible, sneaking units into position, surveying the other forces to determine true strength and weakness, or other actions that would be appropriate.  These would involve a normal skill check with the height of the success adding to the battle strength, or countering an addition to the opponents.

Combat Round:

During a combat round, the players would declare what their actions would be:

1. Command the Fight (a tactics roll to increase battle strength or decrease the number of wounded soldiers)
2. Lead the Fight (an attack roll to increase battle strength)
3. Aid the Soldiers (Empathy, Medicine, Scrutiny, or other check)  gives bonus to pre-round checks.
4. Defend the Weak (Parry or Weapon roll to decrease the number of wounded soldiers)
5. Champion the Cause (morale attack)

After players declare, enemy generals get the same options.

After all generals have resolved, the battle strengths are rolled.  Unless specifically noted, both sides go for kills instead of breaking sets. (breaking sets caused a horrendous slow down)

Generally, threat 1 units die first and up from there.  Sets of 10 were kills, whereas anything lower was a wound.

Pre-Round:

After the first round, there are temporary breaks in the action for the players to recuperate or take other actions.  During this time the players can take similar actions to the first round with a few changes:

1. Strategy is no longer an option, although you can still make tactical adjustments, allowing the High General to lose the effects of his superior supply train and terrain to the General better able to adjust on the fly.
2. Medicine checks can now change a limited number of wounded soldiers to healthy soldiers.
3. Endurance checks can now be used to negate the effect of ongoing combat.

Permanent morale effects are also calculated:
-5 is automatically enforced each round because the combat is still ongoing.
+ 5 morale per unit or leader killed by army,
-5 morale per unit or leader lost.

A loss of 20 morale creates an automatic morale attack.  The General must roll inspire or intimidate to maintain order with a height difficulty equal to the number of units + leaders lost.

It continues on until the GM determined end point occurs, usually a tactics checks to determine the likelihood of success.  Most enemies will run when they have lost 25% of their units and the chance of success is below 50%, but there could be other end objectives like a number of rounds done, a number of leaders killed, or the bridge is destroyed, etc.

Final Round:

Generally, there can be 3 actions taken:

1. Recoup - the army recovers the wounded and gets them bandaged.  A medicine check can be rolled to save lives, with a successful roll increasing the number of soldiers healed by width.  This roll can be applied to wounded enemy soldiers as well.
2. Pursuit - the army pursues the fleeing force with another battle check.  If the fleeing force is intentionally fleeing, and has not broken, it can roll defensively, allowing it to break the offensive sets.  If the morale of the retreating force is 20 or below, the battle check is used only to run, and the wounds inflicted are reduced only by 3+ sets.

It seems very complicated already, but I can't seem to pare it down in anyway that keeps it interesting and engaging.  I want the players to feel like they have some control over the outcome without being in total control.  I also want them to be forced to flee n occasion.



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