The Dungeon Masters Companion contains a 6-page section describing the War Machine rules, a versatile system to quickly resolve mass combat scenarios.
Illustration by Larry Elmore
Frank Mentzer credited Garry Spiegle, Doug Niles, Mark Acres, and Carl Smith for the development of the War Machine rules:
They merged years of experience in wargames with the current range of fantasy role playing styles. The resulting system can handle the clash of armies without miniatures or boardgames—and thus, the very roots of the D&D game surface once again.
Frank Mentzer, Preface to the Companion Set rules
The War Machine:
Each body of troops is given a rating for their quality. When combat occurs, this “Battle Rating” is modified for battle conditions (terrain, number of opponents, morale, etc.) and each player rolls d%, and adds the modified Battle Rating of the troops. The high roll wins the battle.
A mini-adventure in the Dungeon Masters Companion "The Fall of the Black Eagle" showcases the new rules. The setting is the Grand Duchy of Karameikos, and involves the defeat and destruction of the infamous Black Eagle Barony.
The rules also featured in X10 "Red Arrow, Black Shield", CM1 "Test of the Warlords", CM2 "Death's Ride", "Sinvel's Peril" (a D&D mini-module for a group of 4-7 characters of 12th-15th level, published in Imagine #19) and CM6 "Where Chaos Reigns"
Additional Reading:
Spiegle revisited the War Machine rules in Dragon #109 (May, 1986) in which he covered naval, scouting, and artillery rules, in addition to some refinements to prevent distortions during special cases.
*see also "Assembling Armies in the D&D Known World" by Bruce Heard, in Dragon #191 (March, 1993)
The one-roll resolution actually cares about the difference between rolls, and determines not just win/loss, but losses. The larger the difference, worse the loser's casualties The winner also has casualties, but theirs aren't necessarily better with higher results. For example, a difference of 30 in the rolls means winner suffers 10% losses to the loser's 30%. If the difference were instead 31, then losing side has 40% losses, but the winner also now has 20% losses. So if your goal is to win with as much of your army intact as possible, high rolls aren't always better.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's one of the things I like about the system. The table with various % losses keeps it interesting!
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