First a little background, the BroXT has been recently experimenting with approaching old school D&D as a wargame as well as whether or not it can handle battles larger than the Adventurers vs. the Dungeon's Denizens. Due to my impeccable takes on old Elon's House of Gentlemanly Discourse, I was brought in to play one of these battles, the results of which would affect an ongoing AD&D 1st Edition campaign (Trollopulous). My opponent for this exercise was Jake Letourneau. I was given the command of Lord Fenrir and the task of defending Fort Fenrir from the marauding Severed Head Orcs commanded by Jake. The Rules used were the tips from Jeffro Johnson's article on scaling combat from BROZER as well as AD&D's rules and suggestions on how to play out mass battles as scattered in the unparalleled Dungeon Master's Guide. Due to the fact that we live about 2,000 miles apart from each other we played the game last night over video chat in Discord, with Jake hosting the table and armies (represented by colored cubes marked to show the unit type). We set the figure scale at 1:10 and got to work, it took us about two-and-a-half hours to resolve, and while some mistakes were made and things forgotten in the heat of the moment (due to both of us still learning the intricaces of 1st Edition AD&D), a good time was had by all and a very reasonable outcome was produced in a short amount of time.
Fort Fenrir is a small keep supporting and protecting about 1,000 local inhabitants. The fate of this battle would decide the fates of many. The Orders of Battle were:
Lord Fenrir's Host:
Lord Fenrir, a 9th level Lawful-Good Fighter
His 5 retainers (1 4th level Magic-User, 1 5th level Cleric, 1 5th level Fighter, 2 4th level Fighters) and a 6th level Captain (all except the Magic-User were assigned as Leaders of various formations in the host)
The fort's garrison:
12 Heavy Cavalry
16 Light Cavalry
20 Spearmen
8 Armored Heavy Crossbowmen
and his personal army:
20 Medium Cavalry
20 Light Cavarly
20 Heavy Foot
20 Light Foot
40 Heavy Crossbowmen
20 Light Crossbowmen
The Severed Head Orcs (as best as I can remember and approximate):
Grok'narr their chieftain
Sikks their shaman
5 Assassins
15 Orc leaders
5 Ogres
90 Orcs with Ranseurs
30 Orcs with Longbows
30 Orcs with Heavy Crossbows
We arranged our troops thusly:
The Orcish horde arrived outside the gates as dusk approached, Lord Fenrir wisely decided to sally forth and bring the fight to the foe rather than wait until night fell and their infravision gave them a large advantage. He had the initiative on the first turn, but decided to be prudent and cautious, the Crossbowmen were ordered to ready themselves for when the foe came in range, and the Light Horse sent out to the flanks in the hopes of forcing the advancing scum to spread themselves thinner. And advance they did, the Crossbowmen let their bolts fly to minimal damage and the battle was soon begun!
The Orcish arrows and bolts did some light damage to the Light Horse and Heavy Foot, one company of Orcish infantry with Grok'narr at their head charged headlong into the Heavy Foot and Lord Fenrir being able to get in a free shot due to the extra length of the Ranseurs vs. the Heavy Foot's Lucern Hammers, one Stand of Heavy Foot was taken down and Lord Fenrir charged in to challenge Grok'narr to single combat! The Magic-User's Magic Missile was confounded the Orc Chieftain, as he squared off with our gallant hero. Due to his impressive attacks and +1 Long Sword, the Chieftain was quickly cut down by Fenrir, and with his demise the magical aura emanating from the Severed Head banner he carried (which gave the entire horde +1 Hit Dice) ceased and the battle seemed assured to go in Fenrir's favor! While this was occuring, the Cavalry maneuvered to charge and engage various factions of the Orcish horde. The Heavy Cavalry and the Cleric managed to get in the rear of the Heavy Crossbowmen, the Medium Cavalry made a gallant charge with lances down against a unit of Ranseur armed Orcs, the Light Cavalry and their attached leveled leaders dashed into the the Assassins and longbow Orcs; and the Crossbowmen fired over the melee in front of them at the advancing Ogres, while the left flank Spears set themselves to receive a charge from the lumbering brutes. The Cavalry charges all bore fruit, except for the Medium Horse, who were dismounted by the fiendish Ranseurs.
The Battle Rages
As the melees raged, the Crossbowmen were able to bring down the Ogres. Victory seemed assured, but before the day was done the tides of battle would turn again and again. The Orcs engaging the Heavy Foot and Fenrir were aided by another company of their foul compatriots, the Spearmen of the garrison were cut down by crossbow fire (due to the small size of the cavalry detachments we agreed that they were busily entangling the Orc leaders in the rear giving the Orcish Crossbows one last chance to fire), and the Spear-armed Light Foot of the army charged to help their comrades. The Orcs were able to take down Stand after Stand of our courageous forces, while in return only Fenrir's blows seemed to find purchase as he cut a swath through the enemy. The now dismounted Medium Foot were disarmed by the Ranseurs of their foes, while the other Cavalry began to make short work of their opponents. The death of the Chieftain triggered the first of many morale checks and the Orcs were out for revenge (only the Ranseur armed Orcs who had disarmed the Medium Horse fled the field the rest resolved to fight it out)!
The tide of battle turned yet again. The Light Cavarly slew the Assassins and wheeled around to engage with the main scrum, the other Light Cavalry charged in to help the dismounted and disarmed Medium Cavalry (who had now been engaged by the opportunistic Longbow Orcs), the Magic-User's last Magic Missile struck down Snikk the Orcish Shaman. As the last of our infantry fell around their courageous lord, our remaining retainers and the Crossbowmen charged in to his aid. By the end of the turn morale was checked again, the Longbow and Crossbow Orcs had fled. Our own casualties now reached the point where our morale was shaken, the Medium (now dismounted) Cavalry also decided discretion was the better part of valor and quietly left the field, the remaining Light and Heavy Cavalry did also (in retrospect I may have botched a couple of these rolls and not accounted for some modifiers). But the main scrum held on as the last of the Orc Infantry charged the unprotected Heavy Crossbows. Blow after blow was struck, Orcs and men fell slain, the last of the charging Orcs surrendered to the brave and victorious Crossbowmen and soon all that was left was 20 Orcs with Ranseurs, 5 Orc leaders facing off against Fenrir and 2 leveled Fighters. In his +1 Plate Fenrir was nigh invincible, but the foul pig-faced monstrosities caught a lucky blow and he was knocked unconscious! One last turn would decide the fate of all, and what had seemed like an assured and easy victory moments ago now turned into a real nail-biter.
The Crossbowmen failed their morale check and disengaged back toward the safety of the fort, the Orcs seeing a chance to turn this embarrassing and costly defeat into a victory rallied in attempt to drive back the Fighters and capture the downed lord. The Magic-User knew it was his time to defend his liege and rushed forward to engage the last of the Orc captains, muttering the arcane words of Blazing Hands he slew them in fiery death! The 6th level Captain cut down the 10 Orcs who had downed Fenrir and the 4th level Fighter chased off the last of the foes! The day was won, but at what cost. The Cavalry would need to be recalled and rested, the Infantry would need to be tended and replaced, a hard lesson was learned about giving Crossbowmen more protection than just the shirts on their back, and the wounded Fenrir would need lots of bedrest while he decided what was to be done with his 10 prisoners. But those would be questions for another day and another player, for now there was toasts to be had, wounds to be tended, and feasting to a glorious victory over the forces of evil!
The final tally of casualties were:
1 Unconscious Lord Fenrir
16 Light Horse wounded/killed (20 Light Horse fled and to be reprimanded)
10 Medium Horse wounded/killed (10 fled)
20 Spearmen
20 Light Foot
20 Heavy Foot
10 Heavy Crossbowmen
10 Light Crossbowmen
Surviving:
20 Heavy Crossbowmen
10 Armored Crossbowmen from the Garrison
10 Light Crossbowmen
All the Orcs and Ogres and leaders were slain except
10 Capture Orcs with Ranseurs
1 Leader and his assistants fled
20 Orc Longbows fled
10 Orc Crossbows fled
10 Orc Ranseurs fled
In conclusion, I think the experiment was a success. While I wouldn't consider this a true wargame or something I'd run on a whim (I think there's better fantasy battle rules out there). This simple scaling system will give you results that can play out at a table session of your RPG group without requiring players to learn a whole new system that they'll probably rarely use. It produced an adequate battle with a story that will be remembered by all involved, triumphs and defeats not just of the army but of individual units as well, which will increase player investment in their imagined characters and forces. I would wholeheartedly recommend trying this at your table, so that your PCs can have their “Theoden at the Pelennor Fields” moments and not just have those happen off screen. The ability to zoom in and out of scale is a boon to the system as well (allowing for the mass combat of units while simultaneously allowing single combats like between Fenrir and Grok'narr, while still allowing for Fenrir to cut down swaths of enemy mooks like a true hero). And for those more enterprising RPG players it serves as a good introduction to the wonderful world of wargaming, hopefully to inspire them to take up another fascinating and fulfilling hobby!
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