A Professional Soldier (Mass combat for D3.5/PF, PEACH)

[BelGareth]

I am running an E6 Nations game and wanted a set of rules for mass combat that do not suck, not sure if I succeeded or not, but what I came up with exemplifies the Non Commissioned Officer role of small units, which scales up to large units/battlefields

Below is what I have, please comment, let me know if it sucks, needs changing, or whatever.

[BelGareth]

A professional Soldier
A unit must have a commander at all times, the failure to do so results in the immediate disbanding of the unit, or break in morale on the battlefield. Only special units can ignore this rule.

The unit uses the commanders Profession (soldier) check for battle initiative, morale checks and combat maneuvers.

The Profession (soldier) check represents the commanders ability to command, their experience at being a soldier on the battlefield and so forth.

Each soldier, combatant or warrior gains max Profession (soldier) ranks for free, some special units are the exception to this rule.

Spoiler: E6 bonuses

Show

Apply the following modifiers to soldiers of the appropriate rank if playing E6, this is specifically crafted for my game

Rank	Bonus	Equivalent rank
Captain	+15	Veteran Knight/Hunt master/Chieftain
Lieutenant	+10	Experienced Knight/Vet. Soldier/Champion
Sergeant	+5	Knight/Exp. Soldier/Vet. Tribesman
Corporal	+2	Green Knight/Ranger

Initiative
To initiate combat, each units ranking commander makes a Profession (soldier) check for units initiative. This acts just like regular initiative in DnD 3.5, the highest check goes first and then the next. This represents each commanders own ability to control and command their unit.

To perform an action in battle, the units commander must attempt a Profession (soldier) check, success results in performing the action, failure results in the unit standing still.

The size of the unit increases the difficulty in controlling them, some special units are the exception to this rule.

Unit Size	DC
Team element (4)	-10
Squad element (12)	-5
Platoon element (36)	+0
Company (100)	+5
Battalion (1000)	+10
Regiment (10,000)	+15
Division (100,000)	+20

If a unit is larger than a category, it gains the next level DC modifier.

Not on my watch!
Unit leaders, and special characters (to include PC’s and named NPC’s) are never killed from normal combat. If the unit leader is killed (due to special circumstances) another takes its place only with the ‘Take charge’ action, using the highest Profession (soldier) bonus of the unit. If the unit breaks morale and is swept, or the unit loses it’s last man, the PC’s/NPC’s are left on the battlefield at 0 hp’s.

Characters as part of units
Characters do not use their individual AC or attacks when secunded to a unit, they use their units numbers if 5HD or less, characters with 6HD or more however, affect combat differently. Characters with 6HD or more use their own attack bonus and damage to determine if they wound the enemy.

Characters as units
Characters have an amount of wounds equal to their HP/5. They use their own AC and attack bonus, and act like a single unit. They may make ranged attacks but cannot cause wounds to units with normal ranged attacks.

HP’s and wounds
A units wound count is equal to the units average HP/5 rounding down. (including the commander, secunded to the unit)

Units/Armies recover 1 wound a day.

Combat
Attacking a unit uses the units average attack to hit. Roll to wound, you deliver 1 wound per 5 damage dealt.

The enemy unit can only lose an amount of soldiers engaged, divide the total engaged by your units wound points, you lose this many soldiers every time you receive a wound.

Ranged attacks
Crossbows require LOS and only the first rank can fire. Shortbow’s and longbows can fire any rank. If ranged attacks hit but do not wound, it counts as a stalemate for the hit unit. If ranged attacks hit, divide the attacks by 5, this is how many soldiers the unit loses.

Stalemates
Stalemates in combat mean no one unit dealt wounds to the other and each unit loses 5% of its total or that both units dealt the same amount of wounds (which results in no additional loss)

Morale checks
The winning unit is the unit that dealt the most wounds, the losing unit must attempt a morale check. A morale check DC is 10 + unit size + wounds taken in this battle. If a unit fails a morale check, they break.

If a unit fails a morale check, they instantly retreat at full speed losing 10% of their numbers from the movement. The winning unit can choose to run them down if their speed is high enough with the appropriate check.

Broken units can regain morale in later turns, if they succeed they spend the whole turn regrouping and facing the enemy, you may choose the formation type. If they fail, they instantly retreat away from the enemy.

Any unit within 30’ of a unit that breaks must attempt a morale check. Certain units are immune to this.

Turn phases
The turn is broken down into the following phases -

1. Morale - check for any broken units
2. Movement - move units, including charges
3. Magic - Any spells cast by characters
4. Ranged - make any ranged attacks
5. Combat - make melee attacks

Actions	DC	Modifiers	DC
Charge	10	In combat	+5
Let them through	20	Lost 1 wound*	+5
Counter charge	15	Flank charged	+2
Change formation	20	Rear Charged	+5
Envelope	15	-	-
Withdraw	20	-	-
Brace	15	-	-
Fire	10	-	-
March	10	-	-
Take charge	20	-	-
Watch the skies	15	-	-
Run them down!	15	-	-

* = stacks for the duration of the battle

Actions

Charge
The unit charges another and receives the appropriate bonuses and penalties.

Let them through
This is an advanced technique used to avoid chariot charges and other similar special units, a successful command allows the unit to step aside and avoid the oncoming charge.

Counter charge
This must be a readied action and therefore commanded before another unit charges your own. Your unit charges the other just as they themselves charging, both units receive the benefits and penalties for charging.

Change formation
You can reform your units formation to any makeup, this includes changing rank and file composition (i.e 12x 4), about face commands to turn around, or to change direction left or right.

Envelope
If your unit is stuck in combat and your front rank is larger than the enemies unit, you may attempt to envelope it, this allows your front rank to effectively engage and counts for this round as a charge on both flanks.

Withdraw
This is a dangerous but extremely useful command, allowing you to withdraw from combat, this is different from fleeing as you do so tactically preventing overdue loss to your unit, if you successfully issue this command, you may move your unit out of combat directly away from the enemy unit suffering 0 penalties.

Brace
If you unit is armed and using a bracing weapon (Spear, longspear, Trident, Halberd, etc) you may command them to receive a charge, if you are successful in issuing this command, your unit deals double damage in the same round if they are charged. A unit may not brace and counter charge.

Fire
By successfully issuing this command, your unit may perform a ranged attack.

March
By successfully issuing this command, your unit may move during the movement phase.

Watch the skies
By successfully issuing this command, your unit uses their shields to cover them from projectile attacks, covering their heads and flanks with their shields. The unit gains a +4 ac bonus against ranged attacks for this round.

Run them down
If your unit is mounted and your opponents break, you may run them down killing the unit. If you successfully issue this command, you move your full movement and destroy the fleeing unit. You may not act again this round.

Take charge
If for some reason your leader has died, you may attempt a 'Take Charge' action in order for a soldier to take charge of the unit. This is a full round action which uses the units average Profession (soldier) bonus.

[BelGareth]

A soldiers Items

Masterwork Horn
This masterwork horn can be used to signal and command troops in battle, it provides the wielder a +2 circumstance bonus to profession (soldier) checks.

Price 50 gp; Weight 1 lb.

Command Banner
This banner accompanies the units commander allowing him to utilize it when issuing commands granting the commander a +5 competence bonus to profession (soldier) checks.

Faint transmutation; CL 5th; Craft Wondrous Item, creator must have 8 ranks in profession (soldier); Price 2,500 gp; Weight 10 lb.

Feats

[pending]

[Rebonack]

This may seem like a silly question, but how central to your game is the mass combat? Are you running a mass combat focused campaign? Or is this just a set piece that will be taking place in a larger game focused more on an adventuring party?

Basically, before I give a lot of detailed thoughts it would be nice to know how big of deal large-scale warfare is going to be.

[Dunkoro]

This may seem like a silly question, but how central to your game is the mass combat? Are you running a mass combat focused campaign? Or is this just a set piece that will be taking place in a larger game focused more on an adventuring party?

Basically, before I give a lot of detailed thoughts it would be nice to know how big of deal large-scale warfare is going to be.

I'm a player in Bel's game.
This is going to be mainly mass combat, small-scale encouncers will mainly be social ones.