In my game there has been one big battle and more are brewing. So inspired by this thread:
http://www.indie-rpgs.com/viewtopic.php?t=11668

I would like to pick your collective brains on an idea that popped into my head.

Mass Combat in BW could be handled just like regular combat.

Use scripting.

Each exchange represents half an hour, a volley 10 minutes for minor skirmishes, for larger battles a volley would be half an hour.

A general gets a number of actions similar to his strategy skill instead of reflexes. For larger battles involving more units this can futher distributed to each captain scripts his actions instead of the overall general, allowing the general to add his strategy skill as exstra die to the different captains to simulate his overall influence.

Actions would include the likes of :

Charge
Set for Charge
Collapse front and trap.
Disengage
Flank
Fire bows
Fight
and others.

Movement would have to be handled by the order Move, here lies the major difference. The reasoning is that it is one thing for a single warrior to leap about, another entirely for two hundred to do so.

The actual fighting is a two step process.

The Command Test
The general rolls his skill, this is the sucess of his order. Obstacle here would be say 10-the Will of his troops +/- bonuses for discipline, savagry and similar unit traits.

The second part would be actual fighting. Here it can get tricky, or . . .

there is no need to develop mass combat stats for the different units since one can just use their normal stat line, when resolving combat.
Assume the unit is in normal stance, roll its attack skill.
Extra dice from:

carry over sucesses from general/captains roll
one extra die for each character in the unit (more on this later)
bonus for outnumbering.
other situational modifiers.

Defender rolls his defense roll, modified with extra dice from:

carry over sucesses from general/captains roll
one extra die for each character in the unit (more on this later)
bonus for outnumbering.
other situational modifiers.

Attacker hits if he wins the contested roll.

IMS damage is based on the power of the unit and its weapons (plus outnumbering bonus?). Defender rolls his armour dice (plus outnumbering bonus?), subtracting from the result above to give a final damage value instead of just negating damage in its entirety.

Here we need a new stat: ML, Massive Losses.
Take the units MW and add the outnumbering bonus.
divvy this up into Small Losses, Light Losses, Medium Losses, Heavy Losses and Massive Losses, representing percentage losses (10, 25, 50, 75 and 100), both from wounds and deaths.

Compare the damage value to the above, and inflict suitable losses to the unit. (which may change the outnumbering bonus, but remember actions are simultaneous).

just like normal combat.

A unit taking casualties (or being forced to take steel test for other reasons like massive dragons attacking and so on) would roll normally. One roll for the entire unit.
Failed rolls forces the general/captain to roll a command test with an obstacle as defined above with an additional obstacle penalty given by the number of points of hesitation.
Failure on this roll can reflecting on his next order roll as an obstacle penalty equal to the amount missed by. Completely fibbing this will lead to a rout.

I've only include outnumbering bonus, no penalty for being outnumbered as this is covered by your opponent getting the bonus. Any ideas on the actual numbers?

There are many special cases that still need to be developed, like for instance that once engaged in combat, a unit remains so until its general/captain can sucessfully Disengage. Like a Get Outside manouver.

The role of player characters must be adressed.
My suggestion is that a unit with a character gets a bonus die, IF the character is better at fighting than the unit he is with, and can reasonably be expected to make an impact.
Any character involved in this sort of risky activity should roll his a Perception roll (double obstacle penalty if the character does not have the skill Battle-training). Obstacle being the avrage fighting value of the until he faces. Failure result in hits taken, a DOF to decide IMS (use arrow table) and any MW result becomes a TW instead (unless you want the characters to risk death on an abstract roll like this).

This would cover the avrage battling, but if the player asks for or tries to do something heroic (also read: stupid) like capturing a banner, killing the opposing general, then this should be roleplayed out, perhaps leading to the opposing unit having to pass a Steel test.

My books are at home, and keep in mind that this is very much a work in progress, yet I am hoping for some feedback here.

Wow, this seems like a great start. Did you have a notion for what constitutes a minimum unit size under these rules?

Not really,

I saw this more as an large scale conflict system, with units up in the hundreds, but I do not see anything wong with smaller units perhaps 25 as a minimum.

I'm leery of setting any numbers there yet, as it is too early in the process.

Before the next part I think a little definition is in order:

General: The overall force commander.

Captain: A unit commander.

Every battle begins a the planning stage, whether this is a coldly calculated attack plan worked out both paitently and carefully weeks in advance or a mad scrambel to react to an ambush it all begins with the same roll:

Strategy roll
Trying to work out a nominal battleplan before the battle the General rolls agains an Ob of 3. Every success granted gives him an extra die to distribute among his Captains every turn of the coming battle.

Modifiers here would be:
In an advantagous position -1ob
Local terrain knowledge -1ob
and other elements that may influence the roll.

I am in doubt whether to use the work hastily rules in an ambush situation or to use a default + ob penalty.

K

You've got some interesting stuff here. Have you written any of the actions up yet?


-Claymore

not yet, I've been too busy creating Draugi variants for my players to face. I'll get back to this when my vacation is done.

*edited, to add:

If you want to pipe in claymore, please do so.

Have you ever played the video game KESSEN? In it, you command the armies of Tokugawa Ieyasu and Ishida Mitsunari face off at the Battle of Sekigahara. What makes it so cool is the special effects that generals have on the units they are leading. Some generals are good at bolstering morale, others are loners who excel at duels, and others fly through the ranks of the foot troops and can disperse them single handedly. I always thought that there was something to be used from this game.

Yep I played Kessen, and agree, the generals/captains abilities are important.

This is why the captain's roll command to counter the effects of Hesitation.

You could use traits and fork with skills like Oratory, or similar to increase the command roll to negate hesitation.

Alternativly the commanders skills like conspicious, oratory and similar skills could fork the units Hesitation roll, representing the commanders effect on the battle.

In a similar vein the Captain may affect the units attack roll

. . . a unit with a character gets a bonus die, IF the character is better at fighting than the unit he is with, and can reasonably be expected to make an impact.
Any character involved in this sort of risky activity should roll his a Perception roll (double obstacle penalty if the character does not have the skill Battle-training). Obstacle being the avrage fighting value of the until he faces. Failure result in hits taken, a DOF to decide IMS (use arrow table) and any MW result becomes a TW instead (unless you want the characters to risk death on an abstract roll like this).