Run Date: November 1st, 2022
The activities of today's session actually took place yesterday (Oct 31st), but the group wanted to play things out in session time.
PCs
Rebel: Lv3 Monk
Baldur: Lv2 Barbarian
Richard: Lv2 Fighter
Battle of Oldtown Graveyard
Admittedly, I'm at a bit of a loss as to how I want to write this out. The long and short is that the entirety of the session was consumed by the battle, and the various rounds/turns kind of melted together at some point. Perhaps I should start with the idea:
The Experiment:
I haven't familiarized myself with LFG's Mass Battle rules yet, but I didn't want to stave off the Battle of OG until I read them. Thus I decided to try an experiment: Will LFG run fine with direct scaling? Each unit, with the exception of PCs/Heroes, counted as 5 (thus 1:5 scaling). I didn't have the space or tiles to create a massive battle area so I knocked the last 0 off of everything (30 move becomes 3: 200 range becomes 20). HP was the average HD x 5 (15 for militia) and the AC, etc was taken from the appropriate stat blocks. Initiative was a simple d6 for each side, higher goes first.
Riversmeet Guard |
Sons of Lazarus |
Heroes Captain Deckart Rebel Baldur Richard Dobermann
Army 60 Militia 20 Guardsmen 10 Guardsmen (H.Crossbow)
Notes: 15 Ghosteel Spears 150 Ghosteel Bolts/Arrows |
Bosses Hallow (Former PC) Aldrich Lancaster (Former Lord) Saint Laurenia (Animated Statuary)
Army 20 Shades (4 HD) 30 Zombies (2+2 HD) 20 Ghouls (3 HD) 30 Skeletons (1 HD) |
The Battle
The objective of the battle was to defend the gate. The Riversmeet Guard had been slowly building a defensive barricade over the past month or so. This past week they managed to finish a pair of sniper nests for their Heavy Crossbowmen. Thanks to the investments of the players, those nests were stocked with Ghosteel bolts (+1 atk/damage vs undead). Behind the gate was Dobermann with a retinue of guards ready to get stuck in should the battle skew in the enemy's favor. Meanwhile, the players set themselves up just inside the walls to mount a proper defense. Rebel took most of the remaining guardsmen available and combined them with a group of henchmen. The 15 Ghosteel spears went to this group. Across from them, coming down the hills in the graveyard, were the enemy army. The animated statue of Saint Laurenia took the lead and only pointed to the target: the gate. The undead army gave a rallying hiss and the fight began.
The first round was a review of the experiment's various mechanics (ie: play as normal with some adjustments to scale, take notes on weird situations). The players won initiative, went over their immediate plans, and moved into position. The enemy army did the same.
The second round began with the PC army, specifically the Heavy Crossbowmen. They fired a solid volley into the Shades, dealing just short of enough damage to wipe out a unit. Rebel's group marches forward and sets their spears for the incoming Ghoul charge. The rest of the army marched forward to meet their adversaries. Enemy turn, and they oblige. The Shades rush into Baldur's contingent of militiamen and annihilates two units of them. They hold steady (Morale: S). The ghouls charge straight into Rebel's line and annihilate themselves. The rest can't quite close the gap to the center.
Third round, players continue their streak on initiative. The center line marches forward and engages the zombies and skeletons. A wave of hits flies from the player side, but the enemy armies negate the attacks (shield negate: yes, even the zombies). Baldur's barbarians and militia try to rush down the Saint, but it, too negates the strike. Worse yet, the Saint's Shattering Aegis spills black acid onto Baldur and his men. 10 more militia men fall and they fall back (Morale: F). Rebel begins moving around to flank the skeletons. On the enemy turn, the Shades miss their attacks against Baldur, but the Saint manages to clip him for some chip damage. The skeleton and zombie army retaliate against Richard and Deckart's soldiers, killing many and forcing them back (Morale: F).
Fourth round, players start. The Heavy Crossbowmen fire another volley again into the Shades. They finish off the weakened unit and take out two more. Baldur's warriors recover from their previous morale break and return to Baldur's side to assault the Saint. Without defenses, it melts under a wave of raging barbarians. Rebel completes her flanking maneuver and eliminates a significant number of skeletons (4-5 units). She also takes the opportunity to strike at Lancaster and disarm him. Deckart rallies what's left of his men, but can't fell any enemy units. Richard, meanwhile, is still trying to deal with the zombie contingent he's stuck against that managed to raise some of his fallen allies to their side. On the enemy's turn, blood was shed. Deckart lost the last of his men and Richard lost all but one final unit (including Vance, the glorious bastard).
Round five, and the enemies get to finally go first. The zombiez force Deckart and Richard off the field, but not before the duo take down Hallow and Lancaster via counterattacks (Nat 1). Vance (Richard's final unit) holds on. On the player turn, Rebel's units finish the skeletons and start chipping at zombies. She takes the opportunity to use a Major Exploit and execute an entire unit of zombies by herself (Crit).
Finally, round six (I probably missed a few but oh well): The Heavy Crossbowmen wipe out the last of the shades and Rebel's units finish the zombie menace. Victory to the players.
The army recovered those they could and pulled them into the safety of the streets. Over the course of a short rest, and after some ADMD checks (need to figure out if henches even get these), the party took their forces and a battering ram to the central mausoleum. We were short on time so we rolled a few more of the previous mass battle sets. The players cleared out the mausoleum's primary floor and raided the valuables left. In the chest in the workshop (from however many sessions back), they discovered a bunch of collected coins (Hallow and Thorin's gold) and several potions from Arken. This was added to the loot pile (Lair Loot: 4HD)
Jumbled Jottings
Over the course of the battle, a variety of thoughts and questions crept up. Some things required rulings, and others further experimentations.
Morale: Mass Battle rules use 2d6. I used the 1:1 scaling option of Willpower checks. To this end, I want to try 2 ranks of Morale failure. A Failure is battered; unit falls back its movement (no free attacks because mass battle) until they succeed or a Hero rallies them via Leadership. A Terrible Failure is Destroyed/Routed (removed from play). If a Hero is attached to the unit, they can instead make a Leadership check (using the Hero's stats).
Shield Negate/Shattershield: Mass Battle rules use an Armor stat (2d6 roll under, I think). During the battle, 1 unit could negate 1 attack via the negation rules (same as 1:1). Initial observations: The benefit of shield negate is that it extends the battle for both sides. this means more time for reloads on crossbows (note on that later). However, it also means tracking which units have shields and which do not, as well as feeling like a dead turn. Consideration: Shatter Shield for 1/2 damage: Shields still provide benefits other than AC, battle continues to move slowly instead of stop. Unfortunately, tracking unit shields still necessary.
Crossbows/Reload: In 1:1, Crossbows take 1 turn to reload. Initial impressions: I think this is actually fine scaling up. Crossbows can't arc, but deal significant damage (HC is 2d8). High ground is imperative. Meanwhile, Archers could fire every turn for "less" damage as well as arc their shots. This whole thing would need more long term testing, though.
Initiative aka WTF Boss: Bosses usually get Off Turn Attacks, and act above everything unless the players roll a Great Success. The lack of specific initiatives means OTAs don't really come up, but I did consider giving units with a boss a bonus to initiative. Frankly, I should have experimented with using the 1:1 initiative instead as it would have made for proper OTA testing. However, I wanted to keep things going as quick and simple as I could for the players. OTAs at even a 1:5 scale would be fun to play with since a Boss doesn't want to walk into 5+guys without security. (Note: I typically use Max HD for Bosses instead of adding more or doubling their HP)
Spears/Reach: This is one I wrestled with even before the game started. I knew spears had reach and I liked the idea of sticking with the 1:1 idea of being able to strike from the second rank. Boy howdy did it result in Rebel's doomstack wrecking face. 6 attacks, half of which had Ghosteel, meant that Rebel could walk all over these enemies. That said, the players paid out of pocket for the advantage so far be it from me to take it.
Mixed Troops aka TIL henchmen are in the monster section: So this one was a bit of me being dumb as a rock. I had no idea henchmen had stats, I was always just randomizing them as Lv1 classes. Ironically, this would solve some of my concerns about henchmen being as strong as the PCs at times. Nonetheless, where things became an issue was the actual group building using the henches. When you have a unit of 5 mixed with a bunch of weird types, it makes it hard to design their layout. To this end, I just eyeballed some averages eg; average weapon die (d8 or whatever), AC, and add their HP together.
Afterword
The players seemed to overall enjoy the experiment. It took some time to get into a flow, and for the players to remember they could still act on their own in addition to their army's actions. Still, I think their major point of interest was the fact that they owned this. Today's battle was something that has been growing for some time, something they invested chunks of their own money and time into; a part of the world they can leave their mark on.
Rewards
8 XP
275gp (personal- party)
4 Minor Potions of Aegis
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