This is a battle I've been planning on doing but haven’t been able to until now. The Example battle in Swords & Spells by Gary Gygax and editted by Tim kask has always made me wonder about how cool it would be to lead an army in “the first roleplaying game” and its OSR variants. This is the only official mass combat system introduced in the classic era of TSR, straddling the fence of OD&D becoming Holmes basic and the release of AD&D. Until the release of the Mentzer’s Companion Set for his take on Basic D&D, there wasn’t any official mass combat support for D&D, but is alluded to in AD&D without any procedures on how to do it. So between the Release of Swords & Spells in 1976 and Mentzer’s Companion Rules in 1984, there is an EIGHT YEAR GAP in the support of such rules.
I feel like the lack of these type of rules and for having a domain (again, alluded to in AD&D with scattered rules in the DMG) I think lead to a public perception on that the type of fantasy conflicts read about in classic fantasy novels wasn’t doable (or dare I say desirable) with the D&D system during its golden years when the game arguably made its largest impact in the cultural zeitgeist and the impression on the hobby. I’m sure to the average kid consumer in the early 80s, getting your hands on chainmail was underwhelming or getting a copy of Swords & Spells plainly confusing. Later attempts at mass combat were different systems which I felt added the burden of new concepts and rules to players who also would have to buy a new box set just to try out, with combat that felt disconnected to the combat procedures players are already familiar with. Bastlesystem is playable but not without its own burdens while Mentzer's War Machine feels dull and not fun. Both of these commercial attempts by TSR to sell rules that didn't seem playtested to consumers who probably didn't wholeheartedly enjoy their new acquisitions.
All of this, I feel like disconnects the hobby from its roots in wargaming and sets up the assumption that you can’t do mass combat in D&D; and OSR games by extension. This was a main motivating factor for me to write demesnes & domination. Having said all that, the following post is a combination of an example of play, an analysis of game systems, and the execution of a fantasy battle concept from 1976 using modified b/x combat. If anything, it's a tribute to the pioneers of the hobby and to the imagination of Gygax & Kask and their influence on my own gaming table.
You can find Demesnes & Domination Mass Combat Errata here
Part One: Introduction
Overview: I converted the army lists from Swords & Spells but modified them using the Basic Fantasy stats for monsters and mercenaries since Basic Fantasy RPG is my OSR game system of choice. However, I will keep the calculated AC listings from Swords & Spells with some minor rulings. Originally I was going to have any “stock” Sword & Spell units using zero level fighter stats from Demesnes & Domination, but I decided to use them as 1st level fighters as if they were mercenaries from BFRPG to provide them with more of a fighting chance.
Rulings: The following are rulings made to “convert” the armies in Sword & Spells to fit within the ruleset of Mass Combat in Demesne & Domination.
Calculating AC: Converting descending AC to Ascending AC used in Basic Fantasy I used the following: AC 0 in Descending Armor Class found in b/x, OD&D, etc. to equal AC 20 in Basic Fantasy. Using that as a metric, the Elven Spearmen with AC 4 in Swords & Spells are AC 16 in Basic Fantasy.
Ballistas: I’m “rebranding” the ballistas to be springalds. Ballistas are usually stationary, while springalds can be moved albeit slowly. Springalds would also be more accurate in a medieval game, due to ballistas being an ancient war machine.
Springald: AC 11, Movement 30’ per MC Round (5’ per combat round), ATK +0 (can be modified with operator’s attack bonus with WIS mod applied). DMG: 2d8, HP 20. Short Range (+1) is 50ft or less, Medium Range (+0) is 55-100ft, and Long Range (-2) is 105-200 ft. Each springald will have 5 bolts. Springalds are only capable of hitting ONE soldier or monster but its damage can be split between rider and mount, with the intended target (such as the rider) taking the main damage until death and the secondary target (such as the mount) absorbing any remaining damage. Springalds can only more OR shoot during a Mass Combat round.
I removed the -3 to attack rolls for the ballistas since in BFRPG, it's assumed that the player character is firing them, while I will assume that a trained crew from a war machine would have a better idea on how to use it appropriately.
Standard Bearer: I have removed the Standard Bearer as a unit, since I did not include the concept in the mass combat rules in Demesnes & Domination. Instead, the Standard will be used as an objective, where a victory for a player’s army would be capturing the enemy army’s standard. However the standard can be moved by a unit or hero if the player desires, making them function as a type of standard bearer if the player desires.
Commanders and Sub-Commanders: The Heroes in each army will be commanders as explained in Demesnes & Domination and are able to move between different units. Damage from their melee weapons and spells affects that many Hit Die in a target unit if they are in the front ranks, but also take weapon damage normally if hit, instead of that many Hit Die worth of damage
Example 1: A Hero with a longsword with a unit of 10 spearmen attacks separately from the unit. Both the hero and the unit successfully hit a unit of 20 orc swordsmen, with the spear unit rolling 1d6 (result of 4) and the hero rolling 1d8 (6) for a total of 10 HD worth of orc swordsmen removed from the unit.
Example 2: The Hero is supporting the front rank of the spearmen, which subjects the hero to harm. The enemy orc swordsmen unit attack, with their attack roll beating both the spearmen and the hero’s AC. The orc unit rolls 1d8 (result of 5), dealing 5 HD damage to the spearmen unit and 5 normal damage to the Hero’s hit points.
Heroes and monsters not in a unit can seek out and fight enemy heroes and monsters if desired but units of soldiers cannot specifically target heroes. I determined each hero’s level based on their title in Spells & Scrolls and looked up their equivalent numerical level by title in OD&D (“Necromancer” is a 10th level Magic-User, “Swashbuckler” is a 5th level fighter, etc. I’m not using specific sub-classes with similar names such as the swashbuckler class in Demesnes & Domination.)
Fire Giants: These are exceptionally powerful monsters, with the ability to deal high level of melee damage and thrown damage. Since they start on an elevated ground, I rule that they have +2 to their attack rolls for being on higher ground that is approximately 20’ above the battleground. I will rule however that each giant will start with 1d3 boulders.
Hypotheses: The army of the Evil High Priest will probably crush the Wizard army due to the fact that the monsters being used will give a significant advantage.
The fire giants are a whopping 11 +2 Hit die and can throw boulders that each deal 3d6 damage while starting on an elevated terrain. This makes them trebuchet that can also engage in hand-to-hand.
The Manticores have the ability to fire up to six projectiles before needed to close engagement, where they have a multi-attack in hand-to-hand.
The Evil Cleric can probably raise dead if needed, and undead has morale 12. This will depend on the randomization of the character generation.
The Necromancer can probably cast a destructive spell, such as fireball and/or lightning bolt. This also will depend on the randomization of the character generation. Since they have access to 1-5th level spells that include a large range of spells that can be used in creative ways in a mass combat battle.
The Evil Cleric army’s Hit Die total without including the heroes is 301. This number was determined by combining any - or + numbers next to the monster’s hit die. The Wizard’s army’s total hit die without counting the heroes is 201, a full 100 Hit Die less than the evil army. However, there are three heroes in the wizard army, which would provide an additional bonus to total damage dealt in combat. The Wizard might also have more effective spells than the cleric, but that will be determined by the generator.
The Wizard’s army does have some tricks up its sleeves that could help balance out their chances
The Wizard is level 11 which has access up to level 6 magic user spells. That in itself is a major boon. It is in addition to the chance of having direct damaging spells (fireball, lightning bolt, Ice Storm, etc.) or spells that can control the battlefield (Sleep, web, massmorph) or provide defenses (protection from normal missiles, Wall of fire, wall of Iron, wall of stone), or other utility spells (teleport, levitate, fly, etc) but all of this is dependent on the random generation of the wizard’s spells.
One of the Hero fighters has access to two javelins of lightning, which will allow them to cast lightning bolts into a unit. This will cause any soldiers or monsters to automatically take damage, but the damage is only applied to individual soldiers or monsters. Any targets with multiple hit dice can make a save vs. spells to half the damage. The lighting bolt deals 5d6 damage in a 50ft ray from the intended target. Missed attacks will result in the splash damage table to determine which square the javelin is thrown and discharges in a line. The thrown range of the item is equal to that of a throwing spear with the attack roll modified with the attacker’s attack bonus. Missed attacks result in determining the unintended target of the attack using the grenade-like missile table in BFRPG.
The Spingalds could potentially one-hit kill a monster
Unicorns have a natural weapon that can be used in the charge along with the rider’s charge. The riders are capable of couching their lances, dealing triple weapon damage. I will rule that a lance deals 1d8 damage (spears deal 1d6, polearms deal 1d10), so a couched lance deals 3d8.
The Lord (10th level fighter) and two Swashbucklers (5th level fighters) can add significant damage output for any unit they are attached to or seek out fighting the enemy’s heroes and/or monsters.
Math: Calculating the points for each army using pages 50-51 in Demesnes & Domination, the current point average is:
Forces of the Wizard: 2,819
Forces of the Evil High Cleric: 2,963
This difference makes the armies seem a little more balanced, with the evil cleric’s army having a slight advantage of 144 points, or a difference of 4.891%, or rounded up to 5% advantage in the battle.
Compared to the total calculated listings in Swords & Spells:
Forces of the Wizard: 16,862
Forces of the Evil High Cleric: 16,874
This calculated amount has 0.071% difference with the Wizard’s army having just barely a 1% advantage.
The Takeaway from this math is that the point buy system I developed for Demesnes & Domination would be in line with my intended goal of possibly using it as a wargame where players invest in what forces they want, with both armies adding up to a 3,000 point army not unlike modern war games for playing out the battle with OSR systems. The system in Sword & Spells feels a little too in the weeds and overblown for calculating army strength which might make it seem more like an artifact of its period, especially since Swords & Spells is a lot of math for a not-so-exciting determination of victory as opposed to playing out the battle. Even the calculating of both of these armies in the S&S system feels like stopping a D&D game and doing math homework. This was something I struggled with years ago which inspired me to create something a little less complicated and specific for determining similar armies in OSR games.
Having said that, calculating the army with Demesnes & Domination wasn’t very fast, but it was easy and able to be done in a reasonable amount of time. It's worth mentioning that the point system is optional and not intended to be used in an ongoing campaign but if players wanted to play a wargame with characters and monsters found in their preferred OSR system. An unexpected use of the point-buy system in Demesnes & Domination was using it as a metric to determine the odds of success for playing out the battle which I found interesting. However, let’s take a look at determining the odds of success when using the more simplified Quick Mass Combat rules.
Quick Mass Combat results: Since Quick Mass Combat is designed to be based on the player characters controlling one army against an NPC army, the following entries will be used to determine the results of a player controlling either army against an NPC opponent.
Wizard Army: average morale is 8, strength of 242. -2 to morale for a total of 6.
Rolled a 5, victory! The Cleric army takes 60% losses and -1 to their morale, while the Wizard army loses 30% of their fighting strength and gains +1 morale.
Let’s take a looking at the odds rolling 10 times to determine a simple percentage:
7 (5,2); failure- 20% loss of units, cleric loses 10%
6 (4,2); victory- 10% loss of units, cleric loses 20%
4 (2,2) pyrrhic- 40% loss of units, cleric loses 50% of army
6 (5,1); victory- 20% loss of army, cleric loses 40%
5 (3,2); victory- 20% loss of army, cleric loses 40%
7 (6,1); failure- 20% loss of army, cleric loses 10%
11 (6,5) failure- 40% loss of army, cleric loses 20%
4 (3,1); victory- 20% loss of army, cleric loses 40%
10 (5,5); pyrrhic - 60% loss of army, cleric loses 50%
6 (3,3): pyrrhic - 60% loss, cleric loses 50%
40% chance of victory, 30% chance of defeat, and 30% chance of pyrrhic results. No critical successes or failures.
Cleric army- average morale is 9, strength is 361. +2 to morale for a total of 11.
The Cleric army rolls an 8 (6,2) resulting in a victory! The Wizard army loses 40% and -1 morale and the Cleric army loses 20% of their army and gains +1 morale.
Here are the Cleric army’s odds when rolling 10 times in a row to determine a simple percentage:
11 (6,5); Victory; 20% loss of units, 40% for Wizard’s army
5 (4,1); Victory; 20% loss of units, 40% for Wizard’s army
8 (6,2); Victory; 20% loss of units, 40% for Wizard’s army
7 (6,1); Victory; 10% loss of units, 20% for Wizard’s army
5 (3,2); Victory; 20% loss of units, 40% for Wizard’s army
7 (4,3); Victory; 30% loss of units, 60% for Wizard’s army
9 (5,4); Victory; 30% loss of units, 60% for Wizard’s army
5 (4,1); Victory; 30% loss of units, 60% for Wizard’s army
7 (6,1); Victory, 30% loss of units, 60% for Wizard’s army
8 (5,3); Victory; 10% loss of units, 20% for Wizard’s army
100% of victory, 0% defeat, 0 pyrrhic result. No critical successes or failures
As a standalone battle, the odds of the Wizard’s army winning aren’t great with a fairly good chance of significant losses in the battle. In an ongoing campaign, the army could retreat after their loss and regroup. It’s worth mentioning that In a campaign, the players would approach battle where they could get any possible advantage before the dice are rolled, much like how player’s would encounter a possible combat encounter while dungeon crawling. Resourcefulness and planning can help mitigate the strength advantage of the evil cleric’s army. Quick mass combat shows the impact of warfare and how damaging it can be. Even the evil cleric’s army had a 40% chance of losing 30% of their fighting strength in battle and winning. Overall, Quick Mass Combat is designed to be an “auto calculation” option for military engagements if the party of players aren’t interested in playing out the combat so there are less options to mitigate losses while playing out the battle allows players to use strategy and planning to win a battle.
Part II: Army breakdown for Mass Combat
Army 1: Forces of The Wizard
40 Pikemen: AC 17, ATK +1, DMG 1d10 (Polearm), F1, M8. 240+120+80= 440.
10 Elite Guard: AC 18, ATK: +2, DMG 1d10 (Greatsword), F2, M8. 70+40+30= 140
Lord: AC 20 (Plate and shield +2), ATK: 11, DMG: 1d8+5 (+5 longsword), F10 (commander), M10. 27+100+52= 179
10 Light Crossbowmen: AC 15, ATK: +1, DMG 1d6, F1, M8. 20+80+10= 110
10 Heavy Crossbowmen: AC 15, ATK: +1, DMG 1d8, F1, M8 20+80+20= 120
20 elven Spearmen: AC 16, ATK: +1, DMG 1d6+1, F1, M8 44+20+100+ 164
The Wizard: AC 12 (+1 ring of protection), MU 11 (commander), M10. 25+121+45= 191
5 Unicorns: AC 19, ATK: +4, DMG: 1d8/1d8/1d6+3 (2 hooves, Horn with +3), 4HD, M7. 12+40= 52
- Riders: AC 16, ATK: +1, DMG 1d10 (Polearm), F1, M8. 10+30+25= 65
3 ballistas with crew (modified from three crewmen)
- 3 Crews: AC 13, ATK: +1, DMG 1d6 (spears), F1, M8; 20+10= 30 x 3= 90
- 3 Ballistas: AC 11, ATK: -3, DMG 2d8. 30
2 Treants: AC 19, ATK: +8, DMG 2d6/2d6 (fists), 8HD, M9. 64+12+8= 84x2= 168
30 Battleaxe Men: AC 18, ATK: +1, DMG: 1d8, F1, M8. 60+210+60= 330
Hero Fighter 1: AC 17 (+1 Chain Armor & Shield), ATK: +4, DMG: 1d6 (Warhammer), Javelin of Lightning x2, F5, Commander, M10. 19+25+1+600= 645
Hero Fighter 2: AC 17 (Plate), ATK: +5, DMG: 1d8+1 (Magic Longbow +1, 10 magic arrows), F5, Commander, M10. 6+25+14+50 (for arrows)= 95
Point total based on the unit costs found on pages 50-51 in Demesnes in Domination= 2,819
Quick Mass Combat Results: 8 Morale, strength of 242
Total model count: 150 soldiers, 4 Heroes, 5 Mounts with riders, 2 monsters, 3 springalds.
For Sprinalds i used "tomb" scatter terrain
I made Treants from Woodland Scenics 3"-5" tree armatures
Axemen were plastic dwarf axemen miniatures used with Fantasy Warriors.
Unicorn riders and "unicorns" used Light Cavalry 1450-1500
Pikemen were a mix of Plastic Wars of the Roses Infantry 1450-1500 and Agincourt French Infantry 1415-29
Light crossbowmen and heavy crossbowmen were a mix of ‘Mercenaries’, European Infantry 1450-1500 and Agincourt French Infantry 1415-29
- Elite swordsmen I used Landsknechts with Zweihanders
Elves were originally going to be Elf Infantry but they arrived on the day of the battle
Notes:
As written, the non-elite unit listing were meant to be entry level soldiers, which I would have ruled to be zero-level fighters, however that means they would have been less than 1HD, meaning any damage taken to the unit would have double the amount of models removed allowing the 1HD monster units to literally plow through the ranks in a single round. I opted to make all humans to be mercenaries in Basic Fantasy making them first level fighters.
Elite Guards are described as veteran fighters at 1st level. I decided to bump their level to 2nd level since i made all of the other fighters level 1.
For elite guards, the listed amount in S&S says 6, but the illustration of the battlefield has 10. I ruled to make their total be ten and armed them with greatswords for the flavor of it and to mimic the idea of “dopplesoldiers” of the italian wars.
For the Ballista crews: Each machine has 4 crew men with 6 guards as described in Demesnes & Domination.
Unicorn riders are described as “maidens” which is a fun flavor idea, but I decided that i’ll use heavy cavalry miniatures with lances mounted on unicorns. Roleplaying-wise, the women are armored like knights but on unicorns
For Hero Fighter 1; I armed them with a warhammer since their original listing only has them with two lightning javelin.
- Javelin of Lightning is a javelin (throwing spear) that discharges a lightning bolt upon impact in the direction it travels.
Hero units will be used with classic adventurer miniatures and will be generated with the Basic Fantasy NPC generator tool on the website.
Army 2: Forces of the Evil High Priest
20 Goblin Cavalry on Wolves:
- Goblins: AC 14, ATK: -1, DMG 1d6 (spears), 1-1HD, M7. 19+20+60= 99
- Dire Wolves: AC 14, ATK: +4, DMG 2d4 (bite), 4HD, M9. 320+60+80= 460
6 Manticores: AC 18, ATK: +7, DMG 1d4/1d4/2d4 (2 claw/1 bite) OR 1d6 (Spikes x6 range attack, 180’ range), 6+1 HD, M9. 24+18+6+120= 168
4 Ogres: AC 15, ATK: +5, DMG 2d6, 4+1 HD, M10. 16+24+64= 104
The Evil High Priest: AC 17 (+1 Chain Armor & Shield), ATK: +9 (+6 w/o mace), DMG: 1d6+3 (+3 Mace), C12, M10. 15+27+144+37= 223
10 Hobgoblins: AC 14, ATK: +1, DMG: 1d10 (Polearms), 1 HD, M8. 30+30+20= 80
80 Orcs: AC 16, ATK: +1, DMG: 1d8, 1 HD, M8. 400+160+160= 720
Necromancer: AC 11, Displacer Cloak, MU 10, M10. 200+100+32= 332
30 Orcs: AC 15, ATK: +1, DMG: 1d6 (Short bows), 1 HD, M8. 120+60+30= 210
3 Fire Giants: AC 17, ATK: +11 , DMG: 5d6 (giant weapon) or 3d6 (thrown rock), 11+2 HD, M9. 18+495+30+24= 567
Point total based on the unit costs found on pages 50-51 in Demesnes in Domination= 2,963
Quick Mass Combat Results: 8.8, or 9 Morale. Strength is 361
Total model count: 116 near-humans, 20 Goblins w/ mounts, 13 monster units, 2 heroes.
The ogres were made with a sprue of Landsknecht Ogres
Wolf riders and goblins were made with a box and extra sprue of Goblin Wolf Rider
Orcs will be using the Grenadier Orc plastic minis from Fantasy warriors. Orc Swordsmen and Orc bowmen
Manticores will be proxies of “Toob” dragon
- Hero units will be used with classic adventurer miniatures
- The fire giants i used the barbarian/viking figures from Dragonriders of the Styx
Notes:
The Hobgoblins original amount was 6, but I rounded it up to 10 to fit with Demesnes & Domination
Both the Evil High Priest and Necromancer will be generated using the Basic Fantasy NPC generator tool on the website.
The cloak of displacement I ruled is similar to the spell mirror image, which is a second level spell to help determine the point cost.
Part III: Playing out the battle using the Mass Combat in Demesnes & Domination
The Set up: I applied a house rule and two victory conditions
The House rule is that any unit that moves less than their movement distance doesn’t incur exhaustion from movement
The victory Conditions are 1) Eliminate the enemy leader and/or 2) Capture the opposing army’s Battle Standard. I set up the standard to be an object that is attached to a unit but is dropped if the unit retreats or can be transferred between adjacent units/heroes. The victory conditions were set up to see how long the battle could go instead of having zones of control that had to be held for a number of rounds like in other war games. I was originally interested in having the standard function as a fixed point like that, i decided I wanted to see how stretched out the battle could potentially go in a head-to-head conflict with dynamic victory conditions instead of a static one.
To help me play out this battle I had my friend and fellow gaming enthusiast and designer Ben as the second player. We rolled off to see which army we would play as. I got the Evil high Cleric and he got the Wizard. We then spend about 20-30 minutes generating the stats for our hero units and their spells. Since we used randomized generation of the spells, it resulted in a mixed bag of spells that might not be effective in mass combat (wizard lock) but surprising options that could be helpful (flesh to stone). Once we had our armies ready to go, we went at it.
Play Aids: I assembled a number of miniature models for this battle along with providing some existing models I already made and Ben brought his own colorful collection of painted Perry miniatures. To fill in model gaps, I made tokens by using metal disks and washers with colored stickers to color coat the units so it's easy to determine what each unit is at a glance. I applied the same colors to the unit listing on the army sheet to aid with keeping track of specific details. To help with the movement of the units I made movement trays with note cards and placed the models and tokens on them. To help keep track of exhaustion, we used small d6s next to the base of each unit/hero/monster to have a nice visual to help streamline any bookkeeping.
The Results of the Battle: Instead of doing a blow-by-blow play, I'll do a general summary of each round.
Round One: The Evil Cleric’s army show of force started very strong. While the Wizard’s army won initiative, that army’s strength was in melee (and magic as we will see soon) while the Cleric army had far more ranged and mounted options. The hill with 30 orc archers and three fire giants bombarded the axemen and Treants, with the hill giants throwing boulders at the Treants with one Treant being wiped out immediately. The goblin wolf riders charged into the pikemen where the pikemen were braced against charge but missed but so did the wolf riders so the wolves jumped over the rank and headed towards their crossbowmen. The orcs engaged the elven spearmen and wiped out a whole unit of them. Ogres came marching in with the evil cleric and started pounding on the elite soldiers. I forgot to move the manticores on the movement step so I had them shoot spikes into the pikemen. Overall, the Wizards army took a hard hit right off the bat.
Round two: The Cleric army won the initiative this time, so I moved my units forward. One thing i found was the river basically isolated the fire giants and orc archers, ruling that moving through the river would reduce movement to ¼ their movement speed, or ⅛ if i didn't want them to incur exhaustion which would further isolate the units, making them vulnerable to the axemen and two hero units. The dire wolves were far more effective than the goblin riders with the wolves tearing into an enemy unit while the goblin is along for the ride, the Unicorn riding maidens charged forward and killed some of the goblins but the wolves kept their morale. While the ogres were decimating the field, the Wizard had a few tricks up their sleeve. The first being the lightning javelin, with one hitting a fire giant. The second being the Wizard casting their only fireball into the ranks of the cleric's orc swordsmen. This was very clever because I changed their formation allowing the orcs to change from a 4x2 formation to a 2x4 formation to have them split off and fight different enemy units with the standard-bearing hobgoblins bringing up their rear. Because of this, the fireball effectively dealt 48 damage, which within its damaging range wiped out 20 HD worth of orcs, making a hole in their formation. This also caused all of the units adjacent to them to make a morale check, which did cause some to retreat, including the hobgoblins who dropped the standard and fled the field. While this a massive blow to the cleric’s army, I saw it as a situation I could take advantage of since my necromancer generated Animate Dead and my cleric was close enough to command any raised skeletons, but that will be next turn so made sure to cast fly on my necromancer so he could fly over and cast animate dead. This was the turn where I remembered that manticores can fly, but again only at the end of the round after they acted.
Round 3: The Wizard won initiative, allowing them to essentially have two turns in a row which Ben took full advantage of. While he positioned his units to occupy my units to prevent parting shots from my units against their passing units (which included a single elite swordsman going toe-to-toe with three ogres after succeeding on a morale check!) He was able to push in an unoccupied unit of 10 elven spearmen to capture the fallen standard and retreat back into the tree line while simultaneously moving pikemen to close in on the cleric AND have the chance for the leader wizard to get close enough to the Cleric. We ruled that the army had to survive to the end of the whole mass combat round with the standard to win. After the movement step, the range step was the springalds firing at the fire giants and one at the orc swordsmen who are now going head-to-head with the remaining Treant and the hero throwing the second and final lightning javelin at the fire giants wiping out one of them. Now the magic step: The wizard casts Flesh to Stone on the cleric who FAILED the save, resulting in him becoming a statue. And then, on the melee step the pikemen pushed the statue over, crumbling the cleric statue effectively killing the cleric and winning the battle! Not only did the wizard’s army capture the standard but then also killed the leader.
The Battle in action!
Aftermath and Reflections: The time it took up to play the battle was approximately an hour and a half, not too lengthy for a wargame skirmish. But each turn got faster to run with the first turn making up double and triple check both basic Fantasy to make sure we understood the spells we could use, our monster’s abilities, and check in Demesnes & Domination to refer to tactics. A couple takeaways:
- Gaining Initiative and the strategic use of spells made the quick victory possible. If Ben didn't win initiative on the third round, then there is a chance the battle could have turned in favor of the cleric. id be curious to see how the use of magic could play out if the victory objectives were to hold a 'zone of control" point for a number of rounds.
- As written in Demesnes & Domination; I ruled that units of under ten soldiers can’t attack unless they merge with another unit. Ben made a good point that that is easy to exploit since I split up my orcs and he was able to pick off one or two in some units, essentially making them non-effective until the next round when they could merge together. I originally thought that was fine, especially for battles with hundreds of soldiers as we’ve tested before, this time with a more zoomed in battle could be easy to exploit. So he suggested a -1 penalty to morale and attacks, which I agree with, but I modified it so whenever a unit below 10 takes damage they have to make a morale check, so there is an increased chance of them fleeing if they don’t combine with another unit. This has since been added to the the Mass Combat errata for Demesnes & Domination.
The bookkeeping was very minimal. The exhaustion dice helped visualize each unit and made it easier to make informed strategic decisions on what to do each round. Since most soldiers were 1 hit die, the removal of those models and tokens was an easy way to track the fighting strength of a unit. The only time I wrote down damage was with the monsters and any unit with more than 1 hit die. The Hit Die functioned as Hit Points in Demesnes & Domination's mass combat which was inspired by Chainmail so the bookkeeping was very minimal and allowed us to focus waaaaay more on play.
Movement was interesting because this battle essentially starts within engagement distance. So that helps speed up the game, but a unit that can move 24 inches (or 120 feet per mass combat round) made the battle feel extremely close and allowed for anything to happen. If you consider charging mounts, things get intense very fast. Using defensive retreats and the ruling of moving less than ½ a unit’s movement doesn’t incur exhaustion helped apply more defensive tactics that were effective.
The minor battles that emerged in the battle were incredibly fun. The single elite swordsman with a two-handed sword charging into the three ogres to occupy them from making a parting shot on attacking other units was incredible, same with the remaining treant pounding the orcs, feeling reminiscent of the Two Towers.
I was never able to make my third round action due to my leader being killed, But i was going to have the necromancer reanimate the fallen soldiers from the prior two rounds and have the cleric cast wall of fire to damage all of the enemies (and a couple orcs).
Playing out this battle was incredibly fun and eye-opening to a couple minor issues that might occur but in the spirit of “rulings not rules” in old school roleplaying it's easy to modify whatever the players agree upon to best suit the game. I’ve always enjoyed the concept behind Swords & Spells and found the ideas to be more exciting than the proposed rules, so this was a way to interact with the concepts introduced in that supplement but with the experiences of 45+ years of reflection in the hobby that drives the OSR. Swords & Spells is certainly of its time, with its flavor and artwork dripping with inspiration so I was delighted to finally play out this example battle that essentially inspired me to scale up b/x combat to mass combat for Demesnes & Domination. I'm curious to know if anyone else has ever played out this sample battle using other systems like Chainmail with the fantasy supplement, BattleSystem, Warmachine from BECMI, Classic Warhammer, or any other old fantasy wargaming rules. Please leave a comment if so!
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