Mass combat winner
Hi, I'm about to play the end of the Hare clan, with the following mass battle. I dont' find the rules about who wins the battle in the 3ed book :shock: Someone get a clue for me ? Thanks :)

The outcome of mass battles is completely decided by the GM. No other rule applies.

Hum, AEG made a huge work on cinematic mass battle with a lot of details, situation, opportunities, and there is no influence on winning side ? I don't buy it. Perhaps something on faqs or erratas ? I see only homebews on the offcial forum :?

I don't have my book handy, but I seem to remember that there are certain number of "turns" that the GM sets for the battle. Then it was like the first side that wins a certain number of consecutive turns is probably the victor.

I get an anwser on AEG from Cooper : It's only Gm's choice :shock: So I suppose you must be fair, and don't let win a group with coward-sitting ducks-ashigaru ; but I'm suprised that with all the details for the duration of the turn they don't point who wins at the end :| I like story telling but my tactician player would be upset :?

Those rules are really intended to put the focus on the PC's in battle. The winning a losing is more up to you as the GM. I have only used them once and the PC's commanded their army. I think I decided who ever won two consecutive rolls would carry the day. The players loved it.

Yeah, The solution lays in this way of interpretation I think. Two Consecutive Wins or to the one's side with the more winning turns in the end.

Don't the PC's "win" every encounter? Or do sometimes you have a TPK?

TPK ?

Total party kill. When every PC is dead or dying.

Heroic opportunities made the TPK if players act stupidly. At least in 3rd ed. no more automatics dices of wounds. (It really pissed my player off)

Here is the way I had the battle go for the biggest mass battle of my campaign thus far and the system worked perfect. There was a couple sessions of political/investigative work done in the traditional 4 man wrecking crue style familiar to gamers everywhere. Finally they found the secret location of a group of outcastes calling themselves the Bear Clan. Numbering 1000 Samurai and 3000 Ashigaru (and bandits) the PC army had a tough road ahead. They'd holed up in a canyon country where tall pillars of granite 5-50 ft wide rose into the sky with narrow passages between them (Ever been to Prescott, AZ? ) The PC army had to march through these pillars where the enemies tried to slow them down and divide them. Then in the clearing in the center where the city was was the bulk of the enemies who were hoping that the good guys would come trickle in peicemeal and get destroyed. The center of the town had a giant stone "castle" or basically just a fortified stone building. I decided it'd be 10 mass combat battles long. 3 of them at disengaged while the PC's marched through the forest followed by one encounter of engaged once they got to the edge of the clearing and then 1 HE to break the lines, 1 HE to route them, 1HE to chase them inwards, and 1HE at the fortified building. I decided that if the PC's lived through the whole thing then the battle would be won. If they were all knocked out, etc then the Bear clan would have forced the good guys back out of the clearing and stalled for time or disappeared into the hills. The system works very well if you're trying to tell a story via mass battle but still give the PC's something to do without being able to drastically alter the course of the battle. And a good DM will have the PC's actions affect the course too. For instance I was planning on an important enemy getting away but the PC's rolled the battle to target the enemy general. It was for archery but the shugenja went for a high level fire spell and burned void to get it off in one round instead. Mega-damage and I had that NPC be incredibly wounded and without his elite guard later in the campaign.

I think that when planning a mass battle session the GM needs to set up what the 'victory conditions' will be. People are kind of saying this in previous posts, but I wanted to say it as clearly as possible: Q: What does it take to win the battle? A: It depends Now, what sort of conditions might the GM set? Here's what I came up with off the top of my head: • Defending army lasts X turns. • PC's accomplish X Heroic Opportunities. • PC's accomplish a specific Heroic Opportunity. • One general wins X battle rolls total • One general wins X battle rolls in a row • One general wins a battle roll by a margin of X (If you can think of others, post them in this thread) Obviously, the GM wouldn't set a requirement for all of these. But, the GM could have more than one way to win. (For example: Succeed in 4 opportunities OR win 3 consecutive rolls) I would suggest the GM also sets a "Stalemate" limit in case the battle seems to go on forever. Something like, after 6 turns, both armies withdraw and send out negotiators. This would not only give the story to move on a bit after hours of inconclusive fighting, but also it allows the courtiers a chance to do something other than hope they don't get shredded in Heroic Opportunities.