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  1. #1
    brandes
    Guest

    The mechanics of mass combat

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    When I was running a full-time BR campaign (last year), the players =
    complained on a regular basis about the War Card battles. This went on =
    for a long time. I have recently seen on this mailing list a few posts =
    concerning the arguably unwieldy nature of War Cards. I would like to =
    chime in at this time.
    My personal solution essentially played off of the talent that I and one =
    of the PCs had for tactics, which I feel was considerably played down by =
    the War Card system. I looked at the rough estimates of the number and =
    type of troops controlled by the PCs and the type and number attacking. =
    Then the player dictates his orders and the enemy general responds, and =
    so forth, making the whole thing into a massive and bloody war of wits =
    (read: roleplaying encounter) between the player and myself. Anyone =
    else use this type of freeform system? Any special advice/comments? =
    (To open a possibly sore subject: I intend to run en masse battles in =
    the near future of my FR campaign. Good crosover time.)
    Brandes
    In whose heart FR and BR hold, i' faith, an equal place.

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    When I was running a full-time BR =
    campaign=20
    (last year), the players complained on a regular basis about the War =
    Card=20
    battles.  This went on for a long time.  I have recently seen =
    on this=20
    mailing list a few posts concerning the arguably unwieldy nature of War=20
    Cards.  I would like to chime in at this time.
    My personal solution essentially =
    played off of=20
    the talent that I and one of the PCs had for tactics, which I feel was=20
    considerably played down by the War Card system.  I looked at the =
    rough=20
    estimates of the number and type of troops controlled by the PCs and the =
    type=20
    and number attacking.  Then the player dictates his orders and the =
    enemy=20
    general responds, and so forth, making the whole thing into a massive =
    and bloody=20
    war of wits (read: roleplaying encounter) between the player and =
    myself. =20
    Anyone else use this type of freeform system?  Any special=20
    advice/comments?  (To open a possibly sore subject: I intend to run =
    en=20
    masse battles in the near future of my FR campaign.  Good crosover=20
    time.)
    Brandes
    In whose heart FR and BR hold, i' =
    faith, an=20
    equal place.

    - ------=_NextPart_000_004A_01BE5D20.D6F3EF80--

  2. #2
    Craig Greeson
    Guest

    The mechanics of mass combat

    > brandes wrote:
    > I have recently seen on this mailing list a few posts
    > concerning the arguably unwieldy nature of War Cards. I would like to
    > chime in at this time.
    > My personal solution essentially played off of the talent that I and one
    > of the PCs had for tactics, which I feel was considerably played down by
    > the War Card system. I looked at the rough estimates of the number and
    > type of troops controlled by the PCs and the type and number attacking.
    > Then the player dictates his orders and the enemy general responds, and
    > so forth, making the whole thing into a massive and bloody war of wits
    > (read: roleplaying encounter) between the player and myself. Anyone else
    > use this type of freeform system?

    I am also not much of a fan of the War Cards system. Your "role-playing"
    solution is largely what I did IMC. Recently I stumbled upon Solmyr's
    webpage at http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Fortress/2198/index.html
    On it he has some fairly detailed rules for determining battle outcomes
    without using the War Card battle map (you still use War Cards stats). In
    the future, what I'm planning to do is use this system as a baseline for
    determining the outcome and casualty levels of a battle. Then I'll take
    into account stated tactics, the caliber of the leaders, etc... to come up
    with the "official" outcome of a battle. I don't know how that would work
    in a face-to-face campaign, but I would think it might work fairly well in
    a PBeM, eliminating the need for the PBeM DM to play a War Cards battle
    with him/herself as the opponent.

    Regards
    Craig

  3. #3
    Aaron E Nowack
    Guest

    The mechanics of mass combat

    > Anyone =
    >else use this type of freeform system? Any special advice/comments?

    I've never used it in Birthright, but in another campaign (for those
    interested, it was on Mystara during the Master's invasion of Darokin) I
    used a similar system. Essentialy, what I did was I used the official
    map of the area and used counters from those Avalon Hill wargames to
    represent the overall situation. Then, when a battle happened, I drew
    out the terrain on a piece of paper, and fought a pretty freeform battle.
    Whenever a set of units fought, I rolled a d20 and interpreted the
    result.


    Aaron Nowack
    "Never let reality get in the way of a good hypothesis."
    http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Dungeon/5930/

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