Greetings gamers from all systems, places and timelines!
After two years and twenty-something sessions, our Journey to Ragnarok campaign has ended. Those familiar with my gaming style will find it no surprise that this went off-script. Not because the published material wasn’t excellent but because it’s hard to resist, at least for me, when it comes to customizing the experience for my players. Needless to say, all the stops needed to be pulled for the final game. While it would be impossible to delve into the story in depth, the critical takeaway is that all of Hell had broken loose, and both Earth (Midgard) and the heavens themselves (Asgard) were under siege. This poses the question mechanically: how do you run something like this in 5e?
Mechanically speaking, I drew on DM Thorin’s Mass Combat ruleset, which we have been continuing to update and revise. They have been working consistently for multiple campaigns with much success. In this article, I’ll delve more into how easy it is to use this Mass Combat system for your game, without having to teach an entirely new system.
The Defense of Midgard
To make a long story short, the heroes were defending the capital of the Norse kingdom from hordes of undead. So, the mission objective was to defend the city from an invasion successfully. Throughout the campaign, each of the players was given a chance to gain standing in their respective clans, and in the finale, representatives from all six kingdoms joined together to defend the city.
All six Characters were assigned a squad of nine elite troops from their kingdom, one of which looked like this:
Berserkers
- Unit Size: 9 warriors + their commander (PC)
- Armor Class: 13 (unarmored defense, shield)
- Hit points: 603 (9 warriors at 67 hp each)
- Attack: +5 (Greataxe)
- Damage: 1d12+3
- Movement: 30’
- Initiative modifier: +1
- Reach: 5’
- Passive Perception: 10
- Special Ability: Frenzy – The Berserkers can enter a frenzied state for the next ten rounds, increasing their damage by +2.
- Saving Throws: Str +3, Con +3, Dex +1, intelligence and Cha -1
This is how they would operate mechanically: At the start of combat, the squad would roll initiative, and the squad commander would go simultaneously as their squad. The team itself is made from three columns of three soldiers, and, on their turn, they would move as an entire squad while each of the three columns would make a single attack.
However, the damage of the column is multiplied by three, including all bonuses. In the example of the Berserkers, that would be 1d12+3 times 3 for a maximum damage output of 45. After all of the soldiers have attacked, the commander (PC) would take their turn as they usually would, with them having the freedom to disengage from their unit and have it operate independently.
The Hit Points of the Berserker squad at 603 is made from nine individual soldiers with 67 hit points each. Therefore, one of the berserkers dies for every 67 damage the squad receives. This would then be reflected in the team’s attack and damage output.
When a unit loses a column (3 entire soldiers), it has to make a Morale check. This is a Charisma or Wisdom Saving Throw by the PC commanding the unit (or a Saving Throw using the unit’s statistics if the PC has separated themselves) with escalating difficulty:
1 Column Lost: DC 14
2 Columns Lost: DC 18
If the Morale check is failed, the unit breaks apart and is routed. If the final column is destroyed, there are obviously no soldiers left to be routed, so the PC stands alone.
I ran the opposition hordes similarly, with the following being an example of the Ghouls:
Ghouls
- Unit Size: 1 Frost Giant Zombie and 9 Ghouls
- Armor Class: 12
- Hit points: 405 (9 ghouls at 45 hp each)
- Attack: +3
- Damage: 2d6+2
- Movement: 30’
- Initiative modifier: +0
- Reach: 5’
- Passive Perception: 10
- Darkvision: 60′
- Damage Immunities: Poison
- Condition Immunities: Charmed, Exhaustion, Poisoned
And while some of you might think this would be a walk in the park because the combatants are relatively even in stats, the heroes would easily tip the scales. This is why this elite unit was included.
Vampire Spawn ( Variant )
- Unit Size: Vampire and 9 Vampire Spawn
- Armor Class: 15
- Hit points: 738 (9 ghouls at 82 hp each)
- Attack: +6 – Attacks Twice
- Damage: 2d4+3
- Movement: 30’ including flight
- Initiative modifier: +6
- Reach: 5’
- Passive Perception: 13
- Darkvision: 60′
- Damage Resistance: Necrotic; Bludgeoning, Piercing, and Slashing From Non Magical Attacks
- Special Ability: Regeneration: 5 hit points each turn that they aren’t in sunlight.
This squad turned up the heat because it has multiple attacks and damage resistance. But those are expected. What caught my group off guard was when the vampires began flying over barricades as if they had just watched The Lost Boys. Because of this, their ability to regenerate was halved, as they would be hard enough to kill with soldiers using nonmagical weapons, no matter how elite.
Final Thoughts
Some of you may be asking why it was decided that the PC Heroes should be part of a squad instead of a larger force?
Regrettably, I didn’t have enough literal space to pull this off without either playing in our unheated garage in February or knocking down some walls. Admittedly, there was a learning curve, but all things considered, it flowed well in terms of how the rounds moved. However, it added a nice touch of epic with high stakes and all hands on deck.
This continued our adjusting and refining the Mass Combat rules initially developed by DM Thorin for our Woodstock Wanderers campaign. The prototype they originally were has continued to be tested and found to work quite well to help simulate the immense, epic struggles that many DMs would like to include in their campaigns.
So, how did these Mass Combat rules work for your games? We’d love to hear from you in the comments!
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