Climactic Moments: A Mass Combat System
An excerpt from the Zine that I and Canyon made.
Mass Combat often runs into the issue of Player Characters feel inconsequential in the movement of dozens or hundreds of men. This can be alleviated by doing things like letting battles just be a dressing in the background but also know many players enjoy the army building aspects and strategy of building an army and deploying against one’s foes. CMMC attempts to address both these points by allowing army building to have an impact but in the end also focuses combat in on the individual PCs and how they impact the battle overall.
The core loop of CMMC is essentially the players build their armies which have a numerical value based on the units they have added. They can add additional value by selecting a good battlefield, fighting in good weather conditions, demoralizing enemy troops, or any of a dozen other scenarios that may pop up.
The two armies will both do this and then when they both meet on the field of battle the system is simply to roll contested 1d100 checks adding the numerical value of their army and its modifiers to this roll. If one side doubles the other the battle is won in their favor and the other side flees the field in defeat.
If neither side doubles the other, we have a climactic moment in the battle. In this case the Game’s referee would look at which side is leading and what is likely to be happening in the battle at that moment that would create an epic tide turning moment in the battle. They then will create a small-scale battle between the player characters as champions and some number of the enemy with a clear goal. Maybe they are a sieging army, and they must take this fortified tower to protect the troops placing ladders, maybe they must slay the war beast that is tearing down the gates of a city they are protecting, maybe the enemy has an assassin hunting an allied king and he must be stopped as he moves through the tumultuous battlefield. It is up to the GM to decide what is appropriate for any given battle as there are too many hundreds of potentially great scenarios that make great adventures. Once this scenario is completed the victorious side gains a compounding 1.5x modifier for all their values for the adding to the next 1d100 roll and the roll is repeated.
This is repeated until one side is routed from the field. At this point you determine the losses among the total troops. For every time there was a d100 roll each side takes 1d10% losses among their troops. The losing side takes an additional 3d10% losses in killed, deserted, and captured troops. If there is nowhere for the losing side to retreat, they are completely destroyed. In the event of significant characters in the losing side each must make a save vs death (or relevant stat depending on situation). If they fail by 10 or more, they die. If they fail by less they are captured by the enemy.
| Unit Type | Value Added per 10 units | Modifiers |
|---|---|---|
| Light Infantry | 4 | 1.5x Modifier in Forests |
| Medium Infantry | 6 | |
| Heavy Infantry | 8 | 0.75x modifier in swamps |
| Archers | 6 | 0.5x modifier in rain |
| Light Cavalry | 8 | |
| Armored Cavalry | 10 | 1.5x Modifier in Plains |
| Monsters and Demihumans | +5 per HD (+1 per extra HP) | See Notes |
Notes:
Infantry: All infantry has a 1.5x modifier if in fortified positions. Each unit of infantry in the open takes 3 days to prepare defenses for 1 unit of infantry. So a force of infantry can always entrench itself in 3 days.
Cavalry: All Cavalry has a 0.75x modifier in rough terrain as they have issues maneuvering.
Ambush: An ambushing force has a 2x modifier for all troops on the first 1d100 roll of the battle.
Monsters: Many types of monsters have different modifiers depending on the situation. A merfolk raider may have a 1.5x modifier on any coast, by rivers, or in swamps for instance. A Troll may take a 0.75x modifier if the enemy has prepared fire defenses beforehand. It is hard to quantify the many thousands of ways an enemy may be adapted to the battlefield, and it is important to be flexible.