A Proposed Battle System

The following system is largely taken from King Arthur Pendragon (KAP). The system is there to
encourage player characters interaction within a mass combat situation. As the characters are
becoming powerful, it would be of greater satisfaction to the game, if these characters can have a
significant impact rather than just being present just to add a few numbers to a final die roll.
This is not all fleshed out fully, and some “what does this effect have?” Questions will be expected
during the game.

Feudal Battles
Feudal battles and armies are not complex, following a traditional and predictable
pattern. The feudal lords have enough difficulty just getting the armies to the
field without having to maneuver them too! Battlefields are sometimes chosen in
advance, though accidental meetings also occur — usually because the ability to scout
for the enemy is poor. The Pendragon battle system assumes that the standard feudal
battle tactics are always followed. When a feudal lord goes to war, he first
summons his vassals. Rich lords might also hire mercenaries, especially specialty
troops such as archers, engineers, and spearmen, or simply affordable foot
soldiers if the campaign is going to last more than 40 days.

Kingmaker: The feudal length of service may not be appropriate for our particular game. Certainly the soldiers
employed by the kingdom will not fall into this. However, vassal states may.

Battalions
Medieval armies are organised into three sections. Each section is called a battaille
(or battalion), and has a fixed place to march and to set up for battle. Each
is labeled by the order in which it marched on the road.
 The “vanguard” marches first, commanded by the second-highest leader of the
army. On the battlefield, the vanguard lines up on the right side of the battle line.
 The main battalion marches in the center, led by the high commander of
the army, and assembles for combat in the center of the battle line.
 The rearward battalion is commanded by the third highest noble, marches
at the end of the line, and assembles on the left side of the field of combat.
Battalions are divided into organic portions called followings that are
commanded by their noble leaders Each following may then be sub-divided
into units; a noble might name his household officers or trusted veterans as
unit commanders. A unit is defined as any group of soldiers following a
designated unit commander; it generally numbers from 6 to 20 knights and
their squires.
Kingmaker: These groups are going to be kept in for convenience, as a quick and easy way of dividing up a battle
force. It also ties into the KAP battle system
Commanders
There are three main levels of command, all of which are important to the
player characters in any battle. During the battle, these leaders make Battle rolls
that affect the individual combat of the soldiers. The army commander is the individual
who commands everyone. His Battle roll is important only one time, when the
battle starts.
The battalion commander is one of three such officers in the army. Each
battalion commander’s Battle roll is important only once, the first time his
battalion enters combat. This usually occurs during the First round, and is
modified by the army commander’s Battle roll result.
The unit commander is the person to whom a soldier reports directly in the
battle.
Note that an army commander always has his own unit, generally composed of
his own hand-picked bodyguards; and he is also the battalion commander for
the main battalion. Likewise, a battalion commander has his own unit of bodyguards.
Remember that battlefield leaders are always determined by lordly ranks, in
order of precedence. It does not matter that the lord in question may be only
16 years old with a terrible Battle skill. Lordship is precisely about commanding
the military, and nobles are jealous of their prerogatives.
Two exceptions may exist. First, if the king’s Marshall is present, he outranks
the lords, since it is precisely his job to command the army. Secondly, although
a lord always commands, he may choose to take the advice of a trusted
companion or officer on the battlefield. Nonetheless, the noble must give the
orders and the success or failure is credited to the lord, not to his advisor. The rest
of the rigid feudal hierarchy defines the command structure. A knight is
always in the following of his liege lord, or of a unit commander assigned by that leader. If
a single individual commands the entire force and it is too small to be divided into
battalions, then the battle is handled as a skirmish.
Kingmaker: essentially we have a tiered system. The army general, then the battalion commanders (one of which
is also the army general), then finally the unit commanders within each battalion.
Normally, each commander would be expected to have some kind of bodyguard/retinue. With the player characters
however, I can see a situation where they may be operating on there own as an (super) elite unit trying to influence
the battle and take out the opposition leaders and key monsters.
kingmaker; let’s outline here what from Pathfinder Ultimate campaign we’re keeping. Mostly the unit
numbers and not the mechanics. So ACR, size of army (although I wouldn’t be personally calling 2,000
men a “Colossal” army!), Offensive Modifier and Defensive Value stay. Along with the majority of
actions, items, abilities that can further modify these values.
As the size of army is tied into the Ultimate Campaign building system, I didn’t want to divert away
from that too much. As what you, and the enemy can raise, perhaps over an extended period of time,
may become relevant.
The Battle System
Before the Battle.
Each of the following steps takes place only once, before the battle.
Determine the Enemy
Most likely, the campaign determines what armies are fighting and under what
circumstances (or the players might raise an army and attack some personal foe).
Regardless, the Gamemaster determines the precise makeup of the opposing army.

Decide commanders
Each army has a single high commander. Each of the three battalions also has
a battalion commander. These commanders may be either player characters or leaders
determined by the Gamemaster and the story line. If any of the commanders are player
knights, note their Battle skills. If commanders are determined randomly, the Battle
skill of an army or battalion commander equals 1d6+15. A unit commander, if
chosen at random, has a Battle skill of 2d6+8. Gamemasters should probably go into
a little more detail for the enemy battalion commander facing the player
characters , and also for an enemy hero or champion (whom the player knights
may encounter on the field). Normally these two would be Notable, Famous, or
Extraordinary warriors: Give each a name, and work up any statistics pertinent to a
personal encounter. Determine the enemy commander’s bodyguards as well, each of
whom should be at least possess decent combat skills.

Determine players characters units

Decide whether all player knights are in the same unit, and in what battalion.
Everyone in a battle must be with some unit, which is always assigned to a
battalion. For simplicity’s sake, assign all players’ units to the same battalion
unless compelling game reasons require otherwise. Find the unit leader(s) for the player
knights’ units (it might be one of them). You need know only his Battle skill.
Kingmaker: see note above regarding PCs forming an elite unit

Battle Duration
Each army commander secretly writes down the relative determination of his
side to fight to the finish, as indicated by the maximum amount of time (in
battle rounds) that his army is willing to fight per day. The number assigned
by each commander should be a number between 0 and 12, with 8 being the average.
Roughly speaking, the number recorded by each commander represents his
army’s attitude, morale, and willingness to fight, within the following guidelines:
0-2. Poor (fearful, outclassed)
3-5. Uncertain (cautious, doubtful)
6-10. Normal (determined, willing)
11-12. Good (reckless, hatred of foe, zealous)
Normally an army rises before sunrise, then arms and prepares at once, but
delays inevitably occur and slow the process. Depending on his or her sense of
drama and realism, the Gamemaster can subtract as much as 1d6 from each
commander’s chosen duration for the day, representing the time needed for the
armies to prepare and possibly other variables such as weather.
Kingmaker: each Battle round is a considerable length of time. Roughly about half an hour to an hour. Most of a
battle is spent simply waiting around. The rest of the turn is a combination of; moving into position, trying to get
the troops you actually want to be in the right place, and so on before groups commit to the fray.
The impact of this would be that some spells that have a short duration may not be practical for gaining a benefit
for that turn. For example, “Can I fly overhead to see where the enemy leader is?” Perhaps, but the target may not
be visible when you would like him/her/it to be, before your spell runs out. A wizard flying high for an entire Battle
round, would be considered a unit all on his own for that round.

Strategic Considerations
Selection of the battlefield is critical; some sites offer great advantages to one
army or the other. Many other manageable matters can affect the outcome of a
battle as well. The specific site may have been predetermined by the events or
considerations of the campaign, but in game terms, the leader of each force is
still entitled to make a Battle roll to affect his army’s effectiveness. In battle, as in a
skirmish, the primary commander of each force makes a Battle roll before any
direct hostilities begin.
A number of modifiers apply to each commander’s Battle roll. These are detailed within
Tactics modifier
Critical success. +5
Success 0
Failure -5
Fumble -10
These battle modifiers are then passed down to each battalion commander.
kingmaker: we start to divert away from some of the elements of the Pathfinder system here. Army Morale, as a
roll is being ditched and each commander will have a Leadership score, that then feeds into a Battle Score.
For each character Leadership = BAB of character + charisma modifier/2 + Professional Soldier score/3
+ Morale of troops (-4 to +4). This is the Battle score that is rolled for here to find the effectiveness of the
armies/battalions/units troops.
This score is then passed down to subordinate commanders. So, if the army general and the Battalion commanders
fails the Battle score roll, the unit commanders are on a -10 modifier.
Kingmaker: for the KAP rules a roll of equal or less the skill on a d20, means a normal success. Failure is rolling
above. A fumble is a natural roll of a 20. A critical is a natural roll of a 1.
If you have a score above 20, this increases your chances of a critical on a one for one basis. So having a score of 22
gives you the chance of a critical on an 18, 19, 20. If your score is above 20 you cannot fumble (unless other
modifiers bring it to below 21).

Melee
Melee Events
Roll 3d6 and check the following table for each player unit. The resulting modifier is applied to the
unit commander’s Battle and Followers’ Fate rolls for the round. If alone, an individual is treated as if he
were his own unit (he must make his own Melee Events roll) and the result is applied to the
character’s subsequent rolls this round. See the Unit Battle Roll section below).
Dice roll. Mod. Dramatic effect
3. -15. Player battalion routs
4. -10. Player unit retreats
5. -10. Surge of elite enemy forces
6 (triple 2’s). -5. Player battalion retreats
6. -5. Player battalion outnumbered
7. -5. Player battalion surrounded
8. -5. Enemy pushes forward
9-12. No modifier Could go either way
13. +5. Enemy is confused
14. +5. Enemy battalion outnumbered
15. +5. Enemy pulls away
15 (triple 5’s). +5. Enemy Battalion retreats
16. +10. Surge of victory
17. +10. Enemy unit retreats
18 +15. Enemy battalion routs
Note that the Gamemaster does not make separate Melee Event rolls for enemy units.

Unit Battle roll

This roll determines opportunities of the moment, or the lack of them, and whether the unit is
involuntarily engaged by the enemy or disengaged this round (see below). Only unit commanders
and knights who are alone make Battle rolls in melee, modified by the most recent Melee Events
result for that unit or knight.
Kingmaker: The Battle roll here has more modifiers. These are taken from the following different
sections in the Ultimate Campaign Battle system.
 Battlefield conditions; decided before the battle. See also the note about spells having strategic
effects. These would have to be active for the duration of a Battle turn. Benefits/penalties will stop
when the spell/condition ends.
 Army tactics; appropriate for the army troop type.
 Strategy Track; decided by the Army general. With a successful Leadership roll these can be
changed between Battle turns.
 Commander Boons (see also Kingdom army commander benefits).
 Army Resources
 Special Abilities

These values are added together and finally added to the Offensive Modifier for the Army. The enemies
Defensive Value, at a -10 modifier is subtracted from this to get a final modifier to the Generals and
commanders leadership score.
The Strategy track has the following modifiers and effects on casualties.

Strategy DV OM Damage Dealt

Defensive +4 —4 —30% casualties

Cautious +2 —2 —15% casaulties

Standard +0 +0 +0

Aggressive —2 +2 +15% casualties

Reckless —4 +4 +30% casualties

This modified Battle score is used for the Unit Battle roll and Followers Fate roll. The Melee Events
result will also affect the total too.
Once this number has been decided, it should be fairly static throughout the battle. There will be
occasions when one off abilities/events/conditions/etc. will modify the score for that round.

Kingmaker Example:
A medium army (100) of knights (fighter 3), with OM +5, DV +15, HP 11, with Improved armour,
weapons and mounts is fighting;
A gargantuan army(1,000) of skeletons. OM +3, DV +15, HP 13, with Darkvision, Mindless and
Undead.
So without any other modifiers (conditions, tactics, boons, etc), the knights are on 5 OM - (15
DV-10) = 0 modifier to Battle Score
The skeletons are 3 OM -(15DV - 10) = -2 to Battle score.

Further modifiers
Mounted against unmourned enemy. +5*
Flying against non-flying enemy. +5*
Unit can Teleport. +20
* modifiers are cumulative, but must be available/active for the whole Battle turn.
kingmaker; as this system is more player character focused, this is probably more important to them than enemy
units. Unless the enemy have an elite unit of powerful characters.

Disengaged Units
If a unit (or a lone knight acting as a unit) is disengaged, each member of that unit may perform one
of the following actions (or check with the Gamemaster for multiple actions):
 engage the enemy in hand to hand combat.
 Engage the enemy at distance (missile weapons/spells/effects) without being engaged in return.
 withdraw to the back of the battle
 get and/or give several treatments of first aid (see the First Aid skill)
 check a fallen character for signs of life, give him first aid, get him on a horse, and ride him to
the back of the battle
 pillage a corpse or living person of goods and armor
 take off or put on armor
 retreat to the back of the battle
 attempt to rally troops to himself
 look for his unit if he is alone
 look for and find a riderless horse
kingmaker; fireball, fireball, fireball. It’s going to happen and we know it. But how effective would it actually be?
Through spies, chances are the enemy will know that powerful spellcasters are present. Troops also march and
stand in fairly loose formation, locking together in a defensive formation only in the final moments before enemy
contact. Lobbing a fireball into a unit from a distance would usually have a good chance of hitting about twenty or
so targets on the first attempt. Each consecutive fireball attack would have a diminishing return as the troops
scatter into looser skirmishing formations.
You could try and assist another engaged unit by targeting the densely packed enemy fighting there. However, the
pinpoint accuracy that our spellcasters can achieve on the tactical map, is not something that is likely to be
understood, or perhaps even practical on a battlefield in the crush of fighting. Some of your allies might object to
explosions going off in their face.

Engage the Enemy

A disengaged unit that received a success on its Battle roll this round may
attack a disengaged enemy unit as normal. A unit that received a critical success on
its Battle roll may engage enemy units in any one of the following ways:
 attack a disengaged enemy unit,
 assist an allied unit,
 seek a special melee event.
Kingmaker; remember that although a “20” is needed for a critical, modifiers can take your Battle Score over 20
(Melee Events results, Teleporting, etc). Reducing the target number needed for a critical.

Attack Disengaged Enemy:

Units that are disengaged can attack an enemy unit determined by the Gamemaster or by using
the appropriate Battle Enemy table.
kingmaker: the standard kingmaker army is a number of troops all of the same ability. We are now going to
assume that any army is comprised of a collection of soldiers of different ability, talents and even creatures. The
Enemy Battle table will list the potential foes the characters could meet on the field of battle.

Assist a Unit:
A disengaged unit can choose to help another allied unit. The assisting unit enters
combat against whatever enemy unit is attacking the allied one (the Gamemaster
will have determined the foe already), forcing it to divide its combat rolls.

Seek Special Event

Unit commanders or lone knights who got a critical success on their Battle roll
this round may roll 1d20 on the special event table.
1-5. Disadvantageous result: player unit is engaged by an enemy unit of the gamesmasters choice
6-10. Normal targets only: roll on the battle encounter table.
11-15. Advantageous result. Player unit can choose which unit to attack from battle encounter table.
16-18 Enemy noble or hero (usually accompanied by bodyguard retinue).
19. Enemy standard (usually accompanied by bodyguard retinue).
20. Enemy commander (usually accompanied by elite bodyguard retinue).

Next, as usual, roll on the appropriate Battle Enemy table, but with modifiers as
noted above.

Engaged units
Engaged units and warriors on foot who are engaged by mounted troops cannot
attempt to flee, but must fight. Lone warriors who are mounted or who are
afoot but fighting others afoot may choose either to fight or to flee.

Melee
Battle melee is handled just as a normal combat encounter, applying only to player
knights. Players must keep track of their results each round.
Kingmaker; so how much preparation time do the Player characters get before they engage in personal combat?
To be honest, as much as they want. With the Battle turns lasting as long as an hour and, unless an ambush
occurs, warriors have a fairly good idea when and where they will be fighting. So, it would not be unreasonable for
the characters to have up to ten rounds of preparation before engaging with an enemy. Suitable spells would be
those planting minutes per level and longer.
Of course enemy groups can also do the same, and the battle can last a long time.

Followers Fates
After each complete battle round, each unit commander must roll on the
Followers’ Fates table to see what has happened to the troops under his command
(unit/battalion).

Followers Fates table

Roll. Result
Critical success. One enemy of appropriate rank is captured per 5 subordinates. No losses
Normal success. 10% losses (2% killed, 8% wounded).
Failure. 50% losses (10% killed, 25% wounded, 15% captured).
Fumble. 75% losses (50% killed, 25% captured).

Kingmaker; Each army has a HP value. The percentage losses can be taken straight from the HP total to give an
indication of how hurt the troops are, and even what has happened to them.
This is where characters actions can directly affect the battle. Whatever casualties the characters inflict are added
to the losses taken by the enemy. Conversely, if the player characters are forced into a retreat, their army will suffer
penalties.

Retreat, Rout, Pursuit

Some results of the Melee Events table have special results, as detailed here.
Retreat
Retreat indicates an orderly withdrawal of forces from the battlefield. The armies
still fight as they retreat, if necessary, possibly with a designated rear guard
sacrificing itself (i.e., being ordered to the retreating army’s rear…) for the benefit
of the rest. Note that battalions can be forced to retreat only on a roll of triple
5s or triple 2s on the Melee Events roll. Units are not required to retreat
when their battalion does, but it is recommended. If they do not, then their
subsequent Battle rolls suffer a –5 modifier because the unit is isolated. Retreats are treated as
part of normal battle. Units in retreat are likely to rally again and re-enter
the battle, probably based on the actions of their commanders.

Rout
A rout is a panicked withdrawal from the field. Soldiers, even knights and
nobles, abandon the field in reckless haste, often throwing away their
encumbering equipment as they go. Only battalions rout. Warriors are not required to
rout when their battalion does, but it is recommended. If they do not, then
their subsequent Battle rolls suffer a –10 modifier because the unit is isolated. Warriors
whose battalions rout have a choice of action depending on whether they are
engaged or disengaged: Disengaged soldiers may escape, run away, or stand, while
engaged troops may only run away or stand.

Pursuit
If the enemy has routed, a player knight may choose to be among those who
have broken ranks to run them down. By its very nature, pursuit breaks the
integrity of a unit rendering all pursuers alone, even if the leader of the unit
orders the pursuit. Only troops who are mounted may pursue a mounted foe. Men on
foot may pursue dismounted foes. Only two battle rounds of pursuit are possible
during each single instance of a rout. Once a soldier has pursued a routed
enemy (even for 1 round), he may not rejoin the original battle this day, even
if the battle continues among other battalions.

I. First Pursuit Round: The first round of pursuit is handled like a normal battle
round of melee. This simulates chasing the enemy off the battlefield.
ii. Second Pursuit Round: Once the foe has fled, the pursuit is more like a hunt.
Kingmaker; most of the above (retreat, rout, pursuit) 8 haven’t really had a chance to fully work
through yet.

After the Battle

Determine the Victor
Determine whether the battle was a clear victory, indecisive, or a loss for the
players’ side. If the story has not determined the results, the Gamemaster rolls
1d20 on the Battle Results table for the results of the player’s army.
Modifiers to the Battle Results roll are as follows:
Battalion on the players side routed. -10
Battalion on the players side retreated. -5
Enemy side routed. +10
Enemy side retreated. +5

Battle Results. Fate Modifier

2 or less. Decisive defeat. +5
3 to 18. Indecisive result. 0
19. Decisive victory. -5

The total number of casualties for each army is determined by a final Battle
roll made by the army commander, with the Fate Modifier from the chart
above. Compare the result with the Follower Fates table to find the total numbers
lost.
Kingmaker; this is where the casualties for the army are decided. Again this can be taken directly off the HPs
total of the army.