Unit Combat

[DougRed4]

Eventually on my players' current mission, I'd like to do some larger-scale combat. You know, where instead of dealing with things on a character scale, you instead deal with entire squadrons, or regiments, or whatever.

Anybody seen any rules that spell out how to do such a thing? I just picked up the Imperial Sourcebook (2E) and it shows stuff for an "Army Order of Battle", where it gives little symbols for the various companies, platoons, etc. and what order they go in (they look like they could be used in a board game). I haven't delved into whether or not there's any actual rules for doing battles in this way, though.

Any of you know of any rules or supplements for doing this?
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[atgxtg]

The RAW basicallly has the GM wing it . You set up a few important goals and decide the outcome based on the script and how well they did against the goals.

I think I did up a PC centric battle system about a year ago. I'll see if I can find my notes.

[garhkal]

You also have battlesystems, which has rules for running large scale battles.
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Confucious sayeth, don't wash cat while drunk!

[Luwingo_Spince]

The rules companion has a chapter on capital ship combat though not what you are looking for. It discussed how to run large numbers of units together, perhaps you can modify those rules for large scale combat.

[Ral_Brelt]

I've never messed with it but isn't there a Star Wars Miniatures book out there somewhere? I assume that would be a good dovetail to the RPG.

[atgxtg]

[Ral_Brelt]

Well then, they could split the difference. They could be a focused section in the larger scale battle, commanding squads and having the PCs as a heroic squad in that fight as well. The fight could hinge on their actions/outcome. Defending/assaulting the base/shield generator for example.

As for the minis, hordes of troopers etc are easy to acquire. The star wars mini game has tons of figs that conveniently fit on a 1x1 grid. If your FLGS doesn't have a surplus bin of em, there's eBay or various card vault companies that trade in them.

[atgxtg]

[DougRed4]

Loving the various ideas here, and I'm considering making up such a system myself, incorporating some of your thoughts.

There's a system in one of the published modules of the supers game I run (Villains & Vigilantes), so I might look to that for a starting point. IIRC there's some stuff for The One Ring, too, and I know there's a whole section on unit combat for the CODA system (more of a medieval system, like seiging castles) for their Lord of the Rings game.

I like the idea of making units that are a certain amount (perhaps a dozen people each), and then having the PCs be their own unit. I like the ToB concept, too.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[Ral_Brelt]

I know in Pathfinder, the campaign book has rules for army battles that assign bonuses to a baseline based on equipment and training. Like a heavy weapons squad would get a bonus to their offense roll but their defense would be less cause they can't move around as easily. The forces have turns targeting a set defense or you could go opposed rolls. If they exceed the defense, the difference goes off the force's health which is also predetermined. Once heath gets so low, there's a loyalty check or just play to their wipeout.

[DougRed4]

Bumping this up, as it's been a few weeks (and hoping atgxtg might have found his notes, being as it sounds very much like what I'm looking for).

I've looked over the rules in that V&V module, plus read over the rules in The Lord of the Rings RPG, but either would be tough to modify (almost starting from scratch).

I've also found a webpage showing Mass Combat in D&D and another on War and Large Scale Battle:

http://www.dandwiki.com/wiki/War_and_Large_Scale_Battle_(3.5e_Variant_Rule)

but I'm not very familiar with D&D (or D20).
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green

[atgxtg]

Hi Doug,
Sorry for the delay. I just started a job working 3rd shift and am having difficulty finding the time to be conscious and posting.

Some good news is that I did find my notes- or at least the emails I sent to the other GM in my group. I'll see about forwarding some of it when I recover from "hibernation sickness".

[DougRed4]

Sounds great! Thanks, and good timing. I just headed to this site today to look at things again today, in preparation for our game this coming weekend.
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Currently Running: Villains & Vigilantes (a 32-year-old campaign with multiple groups) and D6 Star Wars; mostly on hiatus are Adventures in Middle-earth and Delta Green