Here is my attempt at putting together some mass combat rules. I hope you enjoy them as much as I did writing them. If you would like to give me suggestions, I welcome that wholeheartedly.

Mass Combat Rules

This post has been edited by JamesRBrown on Mar 15 2012, 10:55 PM

I'll be trying them out today ... in less than an hour! Thanks, James!

<Edit> Unfortunately, we didn't get as far as I thought we would. That is, we didn't get to try them out ... we will, though. Oh, yes ... we will.

This post has been edited by Throrsgold on Jan 21 2012, 06:31 PM

I just updated the pdf to include modifiers for Parry rating. I left those out in the original document and just had an army's Parry rating equal to its Attribute level for simplicity. But after doing some more playtesting of my own, I think assigning a modifier between -2 and +3 to Parry rating is a good idea to represent defensive capabilities and make it more of a challenge to hit on Army attack tests.

So, an army's Parry rating is equal to its Attribute level + defensive modifier. If the army's Attribute level is decreased as a result of a Battle encounter, the Parry rating should also be modified.

When assigning Army statistics, keep in mind that the difference in Attribute level and Combat skill between the two armies really matters to the outcome. For instance, if The Free Peoples army has Attribute level 6 and Combat skill 3, they will get to make Army attack tests using a Feat die and 3 Success dice, modified by +6. On average, they are going to roll a 21 and a great success. That's a pretty strong force. They could destroy 300 normal-sized troops per hour. And, they would need to face an army with a Parry rating of 10 or higher to start needing above average attack rolls.

Very nice JRB. Have you considered how Hate and Hope might impact upon the proceedings? They have huge impact on player scale combats. It would be interesting to see how they might impact on the grand scale.
An example I was thinking of was that Hate score might keep the enemy in the battle beyond the limits of their normal endurance or it might add enemy equivalents to battle advantages. By the same token, if their hate was somehow diminished using,for example, a player action, the enemy might more easily be broken. Just a thought.
As in the vast majority of battles, the free people might be outnumbered by a large factor, their hope stat( or that of their commander) might keep them in the battle even when all goes awry and enable them to face the daunting odds even when facing certain death or disaster.

Would I be right in thinking that your intention with the diminishing Endurance as combat goes on not only represents casualties, but also warriors who are too weary to fight on and those whose courage fails them before they flee the field?

Good effort.

I did think about impact of Hope and Hate on a large scale, but I concluded that those two mechanics are best utilized during Battle encounters (which is character scale combat in the midst of mass combat, for those who have not read my rules). I could use some ideas on how to incorporate them without complicating things too much.

Yes, the intention for the interpretation of the loss of Endurance is not exclusively casualties. It can also be as you said, that warriors have fled the battlefield and given up or even surrendered. The Loremaster would need to help shape the narrative for this. So that even if the army of The Free Peoples was decimated, the heroes could escape or be captured (although if my players held out to the end, even though they knew they would lose, I would force them to fight in one last Battle encounter to escape the combat).

The ideas I am still considering are Shadow Army special abilities and whether or not to assign damage statistics to armies (instead of using 1 point for ordinary success OR Attribute level for great success and above) and raise the Endurance point values per division. If I did this, armies would do static damage unless they rolled a great or extraordinary success on the attack. In which case they would ADD their Attribute level in damage to the static amount.

For example, if a predominantly Orc army with an Attribute level of 3 caused 5 static points of damage on an ordinary success, they would do 8 points of damage with a great success or higher.

I'm also thinking about adding suggestions for giving each division in an army its own statistics and playing a combat round much like you would at character scale using combat stances.

What can I say? This was my first stab at it and I was trying to make it as simple as I could to maintain the flow of the game and the focus on the player-heroes.

I think that your first attempt is an excellent one, JRB. I know that almost anything else could be abstracted, but I prefer things like battle systems to have a defined mechanic to work within. I therefore, wholeheartedly, subscribe to any further innovations you may come up with regarding Hate, Hope, Base Damage and Shadow abilities an their impact on mass combat.

I just updated my Mass Combat Rules, adjusting the damage amounts and Endurance points a bit. Armies now cause a number of points of Endurance damage equal to their Attribute level. When they score a great or extraordinary success, they double their damage (which is the same as adding their Attribute level). This seemed like an easy fix, seeing that most creatures cause their Attribute level in damage for natural weapons. Hope you enjoy!

Mass Combat Rules

As always, you can access this file anytime by clicking the link in my signature.

This post has been edited by JamesRBrown on Mar 15 2012, 11:24 PM

Those rules look great! I have a slightly off-topic question. What font did you use for the text and how did you get all the dice and rune symbols into it? I would love to be able to create PDFs of that quality for my own scenario and campaign notes.

You sound so much like me back in August last year

I use:

Alois
Aniron
Ardagh
LibraBT
Livingstone
Dumbledor 1 (regular and small caps)

You'll have to hunt for these on the internet.

To get the rune symbols, download the aaatord font from the Pinned Resources thread on the forum. The artist for TOR, Jon Hodgson, has provided directions for using the font.

The other font in the rulebooks that I haven't purchased yet is Tolkienesque, which is a very nice looking font used for special blocks of information.

Thanks for that list, JamesRBrown (the Hardest Workin' Man in TOR?)! I just updated my font collection, including the Tolkienesque font ($12.73 after conversion from Euros).

Ohh, now I'm jealous!

Despite the reasonable pricing, I cannot spring for the Tolkinesque font right now. Surprisingly, I have not found an equivalent free font -- although I haven't looked that hard.

Now, I did not intend to make anyone green on St. Patrick's Day!

I bought it from the following site for those who want to see what it looks like.

It's very nice! To get the proper effect as to how I mean this, say this last sentence like the French Knight in Monty Python and the Holy Grail says the same line about the grail his master has.

Last night I stayed up late creating a nicer background for the pdf. Let me know what you think.

I also made a version with just a white background, available here.