Mass Combat Rules

Warcraft is all about the war. In fact, war half of the game’s name. Often, armies can range in the thousands, or even greater, far beyond what’s sane in a miniatures-based tabletop setting. These rules provide a fast and easy method to determine the outcome of a great battle, when the GM doesn’t exactly know who will come out on top.

The Battle Round

Mass combat is divided into one minute rounds (rather than the typical six second rounds). Before you do mass combat, you must perform a small number of steps. Combat continues until either the opposition breaks ranks and flees, or is utterly destroyed.

Step One: Determine Army Power

The first step in mass combat is generally the most difficult. Thankfully, you only need to do this once per battle, and the GM can simply determine this prior to battle with a little prep work. Each army calculates its Army Power score, which determines which is the greater force. To determine an army’s score, simply multiply the number of troops by their CR. If you have multiple CR’s, multiply each group by its CR and add them all together.

The greater army is the one with the higher score. This score gains 10 tokens, which are used throughout mass combat to determine that army’s relative strength at that time. Then divide the smaller army by the larger army, and multiply by 10 (round down to the nearest whole number) to get the smaller army’s tokens. For instance, if the larger army had a score of 1,000, and the smaller 600, the smaller army would get 6 tokens.

Step Two: Modifiers

Now, add up situational modifiers for each side. This may change in battle, due to tactics and length.

Situation	Modifier
Battle Tokens
Army has more tokens	+ the difference in tokens
Terrain
Foe has slight advantage (bunkers, rolling hills)	-1
Foe has minor advantage (high hills, fortifications, trenches)	-2
Foe has major advantage (cliffs, castle)	-3
Other
Battle Plan	(GM’s Call – determined each round)

The army gains a bonus or penalty depending on the tactical decisions made by the leader. Springing a flank attack, sending reserves to the battle front, and so on, all add to the battle roll. Likewise, making poor battle choices, such as fighting with tired or hungry troops, attacking directly through a killing zone, the army is retreating, and so on subtracts from his battle roll.

Heroes in Mass Combat

Your heroes can participate in mass combat as well, directly influencing the battle with their own heroic efforts.

Each round, the character can make a touch, melee, or ranged attack roll (depending on the choice of attacks for the round), against an AC of 15 plus the difference between his army’s and the foe’s tokens.

Obviously, higher level characters will have a much easier time in mass combat than lower level characters. Note that all damage suffered in mass combat ignores the hero’s damage reduction or resistances, as the opposition is assumed to find the hero’s weak point.

Results

Critical Failure (rolled a natural 1): The hero seriously messes up. Not only does he fail in aiding his side, he suffers 6d6 points of damage as well.

Failure: The hero is stopped by overwhelming opposition, and suffers 4d6 points of damage.

Success: The hero manages to fight well, despite injury. He adds +2 to the battle roll, but suffers 3d6 points of damage.

Critical Hit: If the hero manages to get a critical hit in battle by rolling a natural 20 (for purposes of mass combat, ignore his weapons’ lower critical threat range) and succeeding on the critical threat roll, he decimates all those in his path, emerging triumphantly. He adds +5 to the battle roll, and only suffers 2d6 points of damage.

If the hero manages to roll a natural 20 on the critical threat roll as well, not only does he waste the opposition, he emerges untouched in battle, suffering no damage at all. A hero may also choose to spend a hero point and gain this effect immediately, without a roll.

Ammo: Each round the character enters battle using ranged weapons or spells, he uses up some of his reserves. Spellcasters use up 2d6 spell levels per round, while ranged warriors use 3d6 points of ammo per round (wand/staves are considered ranged weapons, and use up charges like ammo). If the character runs out of ammo or spells in mass combat, he must switch tactics.

Heroic Challenges

The PC’s are not the only heroes in battle at times, and the opposing forces may have their own unique heroes in battle, influencing the war efforts in exactly the same way as PC’s. Or the hero may choose to target the general directly, wishing to cut off the head of the army in one fell swoop. If the hero succeeds on his attack roll, instead of adding a bonus to the Battle Roll, he may issue a heroic challenge to an opposing hero or general. Any number of heroes may choose to issue heroic challenges to the opposing hero or general, and the opposing forces may counter with joining a heroic challenge to defend the NPC.

Those entering a heroic challenge drop into normal combat, fighting as normal. A heroic challenge ends either with the opponent defeated, retreating (provoking an AoO from those in melee as normal), or 10 rounds have passed, after which mass combat resumes. The hero may choose to continue mass combat, or issue another heroic challenge as he wishes. Defeating a hero or general in a heroic challenge can sway morale, and perhaps even cause the opposition to break.

Step Three: The Battle Roll

Each round, the generals of each army make a Knowledge (Military Tactics) roll, adding all modifiers earned that round, against a DC of 15. Success causes the other side to loose 1 token, plus one additional token for every five points above the DC.

Step Four: Morale

Each round that an army looses a token, the general must make a Charisma check against DC 10, adding modifiers below.

Situation	Modifier
Army is made up of enlisted, selfish, and/or cowardly races	-2
Army looses a hero or general1	-2
For each token loss	-1
General has the Leadership feat	+1
Army is made up predominantly (75% or more) of mindless or fear-resistant creatures (such as constructs or undead)	+2
Army is within major fortifications, such as a fortress or prepared position	+2
Army cannot retreat	+2
1 If the general is lost, a new general must be chosen, as well, most likely a hero among the forces. If no likely candidates to lead the army are present, then the army is routed instead.

If the general succeeds, he manages to keep his army together and both sides return to Step Two. Failure means the army is defeated but the troops conduct an orderly retreat. Make one more Battle Roll and then end the fight. (A leader may voluntarily choose to make an ordered retreat as well.) On a result of 5 or less than the DC, the army is routed, scattering to the five winds, and the battle is over immediately. The battle is also over if one side is reduced to 0 tokens.

Aftermath

If an army is routed, retreats, or looses all tokens, then the battle is over, and it’s time to divvy up casualties. Some tokens may be recovered, due to first aid and spells.

Roll 1d6 for each token lost in the fight. The victorious army recovers the token on a result of 4-6, while the loosing army recovers only on a result of 5 or 6. A completely routed army recovers only on a 6. The army looses troops equal to 10% for every lost token that is not recovered, divided evenly along the troop’s Army Score. For instance, if an army with a score of 600 lost 40% of its forces, it must remove 240 points worth of troops as evenly as possible. (Remember, a troop is worth a number of points equal to its CR.)