Matt, I cannot tell you how happy the statement of “my sample size is not statistically significant” made me. On behalf of the communities that use such statistics, thank you.
That was me at my dnd table I was the king the Wizard was my battle mage that lead the Levis as are backup and the barbainan lead the right flank and I lead the middle with my elite troop only elite and the left was lead by the fighter he was giving not that much troops so he can retreat slowly and they took the bait and then my airbrone cav claped there cheeks from the back
I would want to become the villain of the campaign, Step 1. Become a Lich or some kind of powerful monster, like a death knight. Step 2. Raise an Army. Step 3. Take over the land. Step 4. Betray the other player characters. Step 5. Be defeated by the other players in an epic battle.
If I played with you at his table, I would definitely ask to be in that army and guard the king or be a frontline general :). Dragonborn samurai fighter please
"What kind of behavior are we trying to reward on the part of the players?" This is an excellent question that I hadn't thought to ask. It's not only good advice for DnD but for storytelling in general. Thanks so much for posing it, Matt!
I think a good cinematic example (correct me if I am wrong) is the in The Lord of The Rings, The Battle at Helm's Deep when you are referring to the idea of "Battle" and then "Encounter" being synced together. At least, that is what I immediately imagined, since you have the two forces of armies fighting against one another, while our heroes move about and deal with Encounter issues. Granted, there isn't much of a BBEG on the field in that particular example, but maybe that was just the GM trying to spice things up!
i have been thinking on this aswell. what i would do is make generals or commanders "add-ons" to units. you can add a commander to a unit, and now that unit gets special ability from that commander. so the commander him/herself is not a unit, but they still have a big impact in the battle. you could also make PCs themselves be commanders and give them unique bonuses.
If a single spellcaster could defeat an entire army, then who would bother raising armies? You'd have a spellcaster arms race. Which is a possibility, I suppose. As far as I am concerned, arcane spellcasters would be like the heavy artillery or air support in modern warfare. That is, their primary functions would be to prevent the enemy concentrating their forces at any one point and to soften up enemy lines in preparation for an attack. A single Wizard (etc) cannot themselves charge an army, occupy territory or successfully harry a routed force. A corollary of this is that opposing forces might have some kind of struggle to attain "arcane supemacy" on a battlefield before deploying ground troops in the same way that modern armies struggle for air supremacy. If this contest does not produce a clear victor, it's probably the case that the spellcasters on each side will basically cancel each other out. To put it another way, if you haven't established arcane supremacy before the battle, the spellcasters are likely to be occupied with fighting each other. You could have a magical duel (ie. an encounter) over the top of the battle (ie. mass combat) as the party's spellcaster takes on the court Wizard of the evil Duke. if the duel is resolved before the battle ends, one of the sides now has to deal with Cloudkills and Meteor Storms cast by the victor.
You would bother raising armies because those kinds of spellcasters are exceedingly rare, and even rarer still are the ones that would be interested in the political machinations that require armies. You also brought up a great point: a single spellcaster cannot control or conquer a large area. They need underlings.
Haha, that made me chuckle. Not condescendingly. Are you talking about players? Spellcasters are rare because not just anyone can be one, let alone a powerful one. Almost anyone could be a pikeman in an army. It doesn't take much to hold or thrust a pike. Edit: You are right though, the majority of spellcasters would function as you described. Heavy artillery and softening up armies. Just keep in mind it's much easier to kill a single man than an army.
My favorite part of this video is when you mentioned asking the players, "well I don't know, how *will* you get an army?". I LOVE that part of DnD, when you just place yourself in the world and try to solve a problem through your imagination and not with the character sheet or the Player's Handbook :)
When I was reading rules, I was a bit sad that Infantry cannot attack cavalery (thinking about pike troops sticking it to charging knights) Then i realised that, I can totally create reaction, whenever cavalery attacks them and they succeed their defense, they can strike back, maybe make it just power roll.
10:40 Dwarven Cavalry riding goats into battle is right out of The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies: ua-cam.com/video/TpsFWBzDHkk/v-deo.html So yes, despite those movies' flaws, it was pretty cool.
I also imagine a shock troop attack from dragonborns would be perticularly nasty as they could release their breath weapons in the first shock attack they do and really do some damage.
My players have just rallied the Cloud Druids, The newly formed Modron / Hobgoblin Enclave and the Dradukar - Vampiric Black Dragonborn, all in an effort to lay siege to the realm of Savage and Sentient Termite-humanoids who live in 300 foot tall mounds. So needed this!!
3rd edition had massive amounts of Mass battle rules. The official wotc D&D 3.5 SRD go to is the Miniatures Handbook. It has about 50 Pages only on mass combat.
The best MC rules I've played was written by Decipher for the LOTR RPG, and it was their second stab at it. Their system worked well, because it balanced hero impact with other factors of large scale battles (types of units, terrain, supplies, etc.). Heroes were also allowed to just do cool hero things without being unit commanders.
Thanks for discussing this. I am perhaps one of the outliers, but I'm actually really interested in a good mass combat system. So I am glad to hear there is a basic one in this book, and will certainly back your Kingdoms book.
Cannot wait for this and the next book now. The idea of holding huge battles with my friends or friends I make on the future is do exciting I'm giddy. Thanks again Matt for expanding the DnD verse
Have been world building for just over a year now and used the world for DnD from time to time. Warfare has been one of the greatest challenges to translate into the game. The way you describe your book resonates exactly with what I have been trying to make on my own. I will probably tailor many things to suit my setting but this has sparked my interest in finishing a part of my world I have postponed far too long. Thank you Matthew you are going to make my world much more immersive!
@@ohthreefiftyone Considering dwarves live underground, they must have a hard time keeping people fed, they could do like the Incas and terraform the mountains to be fertile (called an "andén"), and deep dwarves could have domesticated giant insects as cattle (maybe a giant cockroach, they ain't picky eaters and reproduce fast) and maybe warfare (could train rust monsters for destroying enemy weapons and armor, in direct combat or as sabotage)
Really enjoyed Priest, last couple of chapters really hit me, thank you for the experience Mr. Colville. Working on Thief now, keep up the amazing work!
Wow! I just downloaded and have been reading the PDF during quarantine. This is great material. In my homebrew setting I have a volcano that has blotted a swath of the map for 300 years to be uninhabitable and overrun with undead. I never knew what I wanted to do with that blank slice of the continent. I do now! So many ideas. I can't wait share this with my players. The cursed volcano will go dormant and there will be a blank country for them to do, well... Whatever they want. This book is gold! Thanks.
I just backed the Kickstarter! Really love your content. Will have to make a fake "stronghold" until I get your rules, my players just decided to make a tower with griffon riders to their base :) but luckily enough you gave us something to work with! Thx for giving me confidence to DM, your videos helped me a lot and my players send me last week a text the day after our game, about how much they loved the session, such a great compliment. Cheers from Austria.
It's incredible... I didn't think I would be this excited to try this system...it seems that you have the ability to get me hyped about almost everything... amazing, thanks Mr Colville
Gosh just reading "ELITE HEAVY INFANTRY" and abilities like "SHOCK TROOPS" makes me so friggin excited! So I guess it really fulfills it's purpose. It just sounds so damn cool.
I'm really excited for this book. I was getting ready to run a war a while ago and every one was excited. But it never happened and in retrospect I needed better rules. I can't wait to use this for my group! Thanks Matt for making this
i play a lot of war games myself and having run a major war scenario in my campaign the idea of having a battle and an encounter at the same time would have been so much better. i definately had lost a few players attention by the end of the battle and was feeling like running a war was something i would never do again. this makes me more confident that i could with more prep and a better system it could be fun for everyone. now i just want the full book on warfare rules. keep it up Matt you are an inspiration to the community!
This warfare system sounds incredible. When I first started war/RP gaming, I couldn't afford rule books and didn't know anybody who owned them, so I was constantly inventing and tweaking my own ground-up homebrews. This sounds like the warfare system I was always striving to create but never managed to come up with on my own. Brilliant.
When he started talking about shock troops, my mind immediately went to a troop of bugbear shock troop assassins that can gain advantage on elite troops, and specialize in dodging/avoiding some type of unit. Even if it's not in the book I now I can probably alter a unit to fit that role! Thank you Matt for making a reference for making battles more fun and easier.
I can already see ideas forming around some of the units that are listed. Some as they are, and some reskined. The more I hear about this, the more I am excited about it.
I feel you Matt, I would **LOVE** to do a D&D or Pathfinder game that has management elements. But finding a group that enjoys the same thing or is willing to "sit that part out" without feeling that they're losing out is next to impossible. It is horrible when half the group really doesn't want to do any management stuff, even if it's just loot processing and distribution. But then they insist on sticking through it (complaining every second they're not distracted on their phones) because they're afraid of "not getting a fair share".
Your videos are helping us build a great campaign and we can't wait to start our sessions after we finish our current campaign. We also can't wait to get your book and implement all the stuff you have in there.
With your system its easy enough to allow your players to influence the battle in the background. Say they're fighting the bad guy above his keep and the Wizard wants to launch a fireball into the valley below to help the army, you could give them a one-turn power buff to account for the wizards assistance. Or say the fighter flew into battle atop a metallic dragon, this gives your army a morale boost
What we used to do in 2nd edition was, if we wanted to wade into the melee of a mass combat, the DM would prepare a bunch of enemies and cut out small strips of paper of enemies names and stats on it, throw it in a coffee can and mix it up, and we would pull out 2 enemies each, for the players to fight individiaully. Then 1 more enemy per round would join, up to 5, and the players (who knew the rules well) would run their own combat scenarios between the enemies and could retreat, cast spells, etc. The DM would supervise, and sometimes hit players with a fireball from an enemy wizard, or maybe a bless or haste from a friendly buffing cleric or wizard. When all the monsters were defeated, we had won the combat. It was pretty darn fun the few times we did it.
A way that i was planning to do warfare rules would be just to play out the battles as best i can re-create it in Total War Warhammer, and then just narrative it out to the PC's, so they need to decide where to help out. I know pretty well how hero's change a battle in Total War, so i could figure out how their interference would likely change things. Paladin runs over to group of routing soldiers, and gives them a place to rally behind (Him), keeping them fighting and re-doubling their effort with the Paladin, so that side now holds and the enenmy can flood into the gap and close the door to flank the rest of the army. The Gunslinger can target the Cavalry that has been causing a lot of damage, harrying them back and slowing their charge long enough for the archers to get a volley into them and break the charge. The Rouge flies across the battlefield to harass the artillery crew that has been causing a lot of damage to the army. More a narrative fighting than the turn-based of normal D&D. Kind of like giving big buffs or de-buffs to a group they join.
No system could ever be exactly what I want. But i don't want a perfect system. I want you to do the work polishing details, and inspire me to think about what I do want.
Dwarves on steppe horses like Huns/Mongols. That was the transformational empire in the background of the West Marches game I am running (thanks to you). Mountain goat or mountain sheep or huge boats, all could be fun, but the vast cavalry of the Khazhad Khan, that was what fires my imagination. Looking forward very much to this book . . . and the next one!
Great first 10 minutes! Bought the book but wasn’t super interested in the warfare rules until this video! As DM, I like narrative adventuring, so warfare and units sounded too different, but you explained how they work together!
I don't think my players would be interested in managing an army or going to war - maybe help out in a war or take over one battle, but they would want to move onto the "find magic items and kill things" pretty quickly. However! I have always felt lacking in the army department. I have no idea how to run an army. If my players come across a battle or piss off a ruler well enough that they send troops after them, I wouldn't know how to implement that or make their actions seem like things soldiers would do. I think these rules would help me enrich that part of my world. Given that and your stronghold rules (something that I know my players would love), I'm buying your book. Thank you for putting in all of this effort!
I have given your war system a try in a big city battle and It did all the things you said it would, it also dragged the session to a stand still. I see now that this was my error! I had a map and tokens for every unit! I like the narrative system much more! I have backed the KS and looking forward to the book.
11:03 the thought about ethnic groups fighting and being different is so cool to me! Started reading the Witcher “They won’t believe, thought Cornet Aubry. They’ll never believe me when I tell them about it. This square is fighting in a total encirclement … Surrounded on all sides by cavalry, being torn, hacked, pounded and stabbed … And the square is marching. It’s marching in line, serried, pavise by pavise. It’s marching, trampling and stepping over corpses, pushing the élite Ard Feainn Division in front of it … And it’s marching.” The Mahakam Volunteer Army was ready to march through hell. The human Brugge Companies could not survive a heavy cavalry charge, but not only did the hardy dwarves, but they marched THROUGH them!
I'm really curious how a Druid stronghold would work. Druids are usually against Civilization to some degree, so it's fascinating how that would work from a role-playing perspective :D
bazooka Bruh A grove, I suppose. Just their patch of land that they keep and protects from outside influences. Maybe they can only raise monstrous or Ranger units, and is more likely to receive alchemist and herbalist followers compared to others.
The first idea I had was basically the giant tree from avatar haha. A grove could probably work but I wonder how that would work in terms of upgrading your stronghold and such. Super pumped to see what Mat has come up with! :D
I was reading Matt's Obsidian Portal site for his campaign setting, and there's a nature goddess who considers civilization to be a part of the natural world, to a degree. I imagine that sort of POV is going to effect it in some way.
This is awesome, man. I used your system before with some modifications that didn't work out as well as I would have liked, but the players seemed to enjoy controlling units in conjunction with their characters.
twistedironpaw I don't think that's true. Having some right-leaning beliefs does not automatically equate someone to being a Nazi and saying so is only going to lead to polarisation and actual violence/strife.
Something I noticed while looking over the unit cards the other day was that, while the system is quite simple, it has a little to much rolling dice for what is there. Namely I don't see the reason for having two attack stats (power and attack) and two defense stats (toughness and defense). These stats on most of the cards are similar on any unit, often only differing by 1 point. I don't see any reason these can't be rolled together and remove the idea of "missing or hitting" altogether (or more frankly if a unit fails to inflict a casualty that is the same thing). This would have the advantage of speeding up the abstraction of the battle without losing the core of what you are trying to do. Of course I concede that I may be missing something here but I suspect that it was included simply because that is how combat works between two characters and you wanted the system to rhyme.
To be fair I never have fallen into the camp of the "a 5th level caster can end armies" in no small part because a 5th level caster will run out of fireballs after 2 casts. (maybe around 5 if your using spell points like we do at my table.) I always felt that Battlemages (*units of mages around 5-6 level*) should be a thing, however they themselves wouldn't be able to single handedly change the tide of battle. Somewhat in countenance to my previous statement I do think that Champions (*9-12 level Fighters, Wizards the like*) should play pivotal roles in the battle. a 10th level Cleric can practically make a unit immortal for the period of that battle. A fighter of that level can decimate an enemey unit while just walking through, and a wizard, or sorcerer could either artillery barrage an enemy, summon more allies to field (less possible in 5e then say 3.5 but still is to a degree.), or altering the battlefield to their favor (turning a massive incline of land to mud when the enemey unit charges, and then having your archers, or magical adepts pummel them with projectiles)
This is really cool to find after going from watching Total War: Warhammer 2 gameplay, then to getting back into D&D right after and wondering about this sort of thing exactly. Might just pick up a copy :D
Great stuff Matt, looking forward to this & your next book. This stuff is dearly needed. War! War! What is it good for, absolutely, Gaming fun stuff, say it again!🎲🤣🎲
Great video, thanks! I started watching out of vague curiosity only, as I’ve never had the slightest interest in mass combat in D&D, but 3/4 of the way through I’m pretty much won over.
Holy crap. This isn't just good D&D stuff to play around with, it makes me think of my writing, too. How to write warfare better. This is just so cool. HYPE!
I'm only ten minutes into this video and I already feel way more equipped to run a skirmish with my mid-level players. I am so excited for the Strongholds book. Just hoping I can keep everybody busy until it comes out and they can use it!
Holy word count Batman fighting Armies to reduce their size of dice type is amazing!!! This describes what fifth edition DND is after all we’re not playing 3.5 this isn’t second edition this is a streamlined very fast to play version of dungeons and dragons!!!! Bravo!
I threw up a comment about the ancient crystal dragon reminding me of the beast from Outlander (2008) in the last video, but putting it out there one more time in case you missed it. Kind of cool idea for the movie. Also, since I let you know I was starting a campaign, I have ran two sessions. I found the Jackalwere in the MM and everything has kind of evolved from there. Players are having a ton of fun, I'm enjoying myself, and we are finding ourselves in the midst of a cultist situation. Thanks for all the great advice to help me start DM'ing!
I prefer having it in the background and the players are like some elite crack unit that needs to... land on endor and shut down the power shield so the main force can win the day... that kind of nonsense
I was very skeptical of warfare but my buddy's longtime friend who's a DnD fanatic asked me to at least try it out at his mancave. And I did. The first thing I noticed at this mancave was the ridiculously amazing looking and huge lego setup with hundreds of lego miniatures (that's when I realized legos are amazing for tabletop...though expensive). I also realized he had brought another 30 more players for his homebrew DnD script using legos. I later found out the guy was a super rich dude that had spent at least million on legos and DnD as a hobby and he was really into theatrics. this was the best Dm I've ever seen and everything that night was amazing. That being said, I still don't like warfare in tabletop...I just like going on a hard journey with my party...and just looting stuff and going on a quest.
Matt, I cannot tell you how happy the statement of “my sample size is not statistically significant” made me. On behalf of the communities that use such statistics, thank you.
If I played at your table, I would be that one player who always wanted to raise an army and create my own kingdom.
That was me at my dnd table I was the king the Wizard was my battle mage that lead the Levis as are backup and the barbainan lead the right flank and I lead the middle with my elite troop only elite and the left was lead by the fighter he was giving not that much troops so he can retreat slowly and they took the bait and then my airbrone cav claped there cheeks from the back
Nice scipii pfp
I would want to become the villain of the campaign,
Step 1. Become a Lich or some kind of powerful monster, like a death knight.
Step 2. Raise an Army.
Step 3. Take over the land.
Step 4. Betray the other player characters.
Step 5. Be defeated by the other players in an epic battle.
If I played with you at his table, I would definitely ask to be in that army and guard the king or be a frontline general :). Dragonborn samurai fighter please
Epic pfp 👌👌
"What kind of behavior are we trying to reward on the part of the players?" This is an excellent question that I hadn't thought to ask. It's not only good advice for DnD but for storytelling in general. Thanks so much for posing it, Matt!
That feel when you realize Matt almost got 2 million dollars from a Kickstarter just to print a book and run a Stream.
We love you, Mr Colville.
KingMelonGaming, how much gold does it cost to cross your bridge?
Kalen Kidd Haha, he's just mad he can't do the same thing.
We've done it. 2 mil.
@KingMelonGaming
My word, aren't we testy today.
Hey, nobody is to blame people can suck their own dick a little to profit off other people's disposable income!
“It takes men to hold the field” and “ Morale holds the day “. EXCELLENT
I think a good cinematic example (correct me if I am wrong) is the in The Lord of The Rings, The Battle at Helm's Deep when you are referring to the idea of "Battle" and then "Encounter" being synced together. At least, that is what I immediately imagined, since you have the two forces of armies fighting against one another, while our heroes move about and deal with Encounter issues. Granted, there isn't much of a BBEG on the field in that particular example, but maybe that was just the GM trying to spice things up!
'' An army of donkeys led by a lion is better than an army of lions led by a donkey. '' -Genghis Khan
Will there be general units and other officers?
I'm more interested in this 'army of donkeys' that you were proposing. Just going to create a stat card for that.
i have been thinking on this aswell.
what i would do is make generals or commanders "add-ons" to units.
you can add a commander to a unit, and now that unit gets special ability from that commander.
so the commander him/herself is not a unit, but they still have a big impact in the battle.
you could also make PCs themselves be commanders and give them unique bonuses.
Lord Scorch That's somewhat similar to my warfare system, where Special Characters can cancel a failed Morale roll
as far as i know, the players are the officers
For a donkey to lead an army of lions, it's gotta be a REALLY badass donkey
If a single spellcaster could defeat an entire army, then who would bother raising armies? You'd have a spellcaster arms race. Which is a possibility, I suppose.
As far as I am concerned, arcane spellcasters would be like the heavy artillery or air support in modern warfare. That is, their primary functions would be to prevent the enemy concentrating their forces at any one point and to soften up enemy lines in preparation for an attack. A single Wizard (etc) cannot themselves charge an army, occupy territory or successfully harry a routed force.
A corollary of this is that opposing forces might have some kind of struggle to attain "arcane supemacy" on a battlefield before deploying ground troops in the same way that modern armies struggle for air supremacy. If this contest does not produce a clear victor, it's probably the case that the spellcasters on each side will basically cancel each other out. To put it another way, if you haven't established arcane supremacy before the battle, the spellcasters are likely to be occupied with fighting each other.
You could have a magical duel (ie. an encounter) over the top of the battle (ie. mass combat) as the party's spellcaster takes on the court Wizard of the evil Duke. if the duel is resolved before the battle ends, one of the sides now has to deal with Cloudkills and Meteor Storms cast by the victor.
Makes sense and also explains why powerful necromancy is so prevalent amongst the big bad villains.
It's one way to get some troops on the field, that's for sure.
You would bother raising armies because those kinds of spellcasters are exceedingly rare, and even rarer still are the ones that would be interested in the political machinations that require armies. You also brought up a great point: a single spellcaster cannot control or conquer a large area. They need underlings.
"...those kinds of spellcasters are exceedingly rare..."
I promise you they would _not_ be rare if a single spellcaster could defeat an army.
Haha, that made me chuckle. Not condescendingly. Are you talking about players? Spellcasters are rare because not just anyone can be one, let alone a powerful one. Almost anyone could be a pikeman in an army. It doesn't take much to hold or thrust a pike.
Edit: You are right though, the majority of spellcasters would function as you described. Heavy artillery and softening up armies. Just keep in mind it's much easier to kill a single man than an army.
This sounds like so much fun. Matt Colville, only YOU have made me actually look forward to war in my worlds.
My favorite part of this video is when you mentioned asking the players, "well I don't know, how *will* you get an army?". I LOVE that part of DnD, when you just place yourself in the world and try to solve a problem through your imagination and not with the character sheet or the Player's Handbook :)
This sounds to me lot like Total War: Colhammer!
"It takes men to hold the field" reminds me of the quote "Shardbearers can't hold ground" from Brandon Sanderson's Stormlight Archives.
exactly what I thought when I heard it
I think the original was that tanks can’t hold a position.
I love the, "That just made them angry" ability.
When I was reading rules, I was a bit sad that Infantry cannot attack cavalery (thinking about pike troops sticking it to charging knights) Then i realised that, I can totally create reaction, whenever cavalery attacks them and they succeed their defense, they can strike back, maybe make it just power roll.
Brace action, but weaker.
10:40 Dwarven Cavalry riding goats into battle is right out of The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies:
ua-cam.com/video/TpsFWBzDHkk/v-deo.html
So yes, despite those movies' flaws, it was pretty cool.
I also imagine a shock troop attack from dragonborns would be perticularly nasty as they could release their breath weapons in the first shock attack they do and really do some damage.
Jakob Pope That first wave of flame and lightning coming from the enemy line will inevitably break the enemy moral.
2 Million LETS GO!
Why are you here!?
love your vids man
My players have just rallied the Cloud Druids, The newly formed Modron / Hobgoblin Enclave and the Dradukar - Vampiric Black Dragonborn, all in an effort to lay siege to the realm of Savage and Sentient Termite-humanoids who live in 300 foot tall mounds. So needed this!!
Mateo Barrett can you release a campaign setting?
I am on the process of making one. The biggest challenge currently is making a hexmap for a continent 2000 Miles across and 1000 miles wide.
Veterans of the Psychic Wars? Classic reference Matt. Well played
Shit needs to work, but shit also needs to be fun to read.
Generally unsure if the Ironheart defenders ability is a Megatron reference. Maybe Im being greedy
You, who are without mercy, now plead for it? I thought you were made of sterner stuff!
Alert!! The Kickstarter is ending 1 hour sooner than you think! 9AM PST = 8AM PDT. The United States enter Daylight Saving Time this Saturday evening!
Hey, I saw this shirt (and the guy in it) at that depressing mall today.
Nice meeting you!
3rd edition had massive amounts of Mass battle rules. The official wotc D&D 3.5 SRD go to is the Miniatures Handbook. It has about 50 Pages only on mass combat.
Become a Colvillain today! Get that Kickstarter to 2 million!
Holy crap thanks for the support Jay!
It's done! 2mil!
he meant Colvillager
@@Islacrusez I’m
@@mcolville I’m yeah that’s why uyyyyyx
Tall shirt sizes! Thank you to whoever made that happen
The best MC rules I've played was written by Decipher for the LOTR RPG, and it was their second stab at it. Their system worked well, because it balanced hero impact with other factors of large scale battles (types of units, terrain, supplies, etc.). Heroes were also allowed to just do cool hero things without being unit commanders.
Thanks for discussing this. I am perhaps one of the outliers, but I'm actually really interested in a good mass combat system. So I am glad to hear there is a basic one in this book, and will certainly back your Kingdoms book.
Cannot wait for this and the next book now.
The idea of holding huge battles with my friends or friends I make on the future is do exciting I'm giddy.
Thanks again Matt for expanding the DnD verse
Dwarven Calvary ride War Geese.
Dwarves on ostriches sounds cool too
I'm so excited to get this book! Thank you for your commitment and passion Matt! As well as everyone helping to make this project happen.
Have been world building for just over a year now and used the world for DnD from time to time. Warfare has been one of the greatest challenges to translate into the game. The way you describe your book resonates exactly with what I have been trying to make on my own. I will probably tailor many things to suit my setting but this has sparked my interest in finishing a part of my world I have postponed far too long. Thank you Matthew you are going to make my world much more immersive!
I think it should be giant ants for Dwarves... since they can also use them while tunneling their mines...
@@ohthreefiftyone Considering dwarves live underground, they must have a hard time keeping people fed, they could do like the Incas and terraform the mountains to be fertile (called an "andén"), and deep dwarves could have domesticated giant insects as cattle (maybe a giant cockroach, they ain't picky eaters and reproduce fast) and maybe warfare (could train rust monsters for destroying enemy weapons and armor, in direct combat or as sabotage)
@@Randomdudefromtheinternet they trade a lot for food.
i love your ability to make everything you do and are doing seem fun and interesting. Cant wait to try out this Risk-like war system!
5:30 All Craigs go "Huh?" at the same moment
I don't know when I'll be getting the book, but after this video, you've guaranteed that I'll using this in my campaigns for a long, long time.
Really enjoyed Priest, last couple of chapters really hit me, thank you for the experience Mr. Colville. Working on Thief now, keep up the amazing work!
Wow! I just downloaded and have been reading the PDF during quarantine. This is great material. In my homebrew setting I have a volcano that has blotted a swath of the map for 300 years to be uninhabitable and overrun with undead. I never knew what I wanted to do with that blank slice of the continent. I do now!
So many ideas. I can't wait share this with my players. The cursed volcano will go dormant and there will be a blank country for them to do, well... Whatever they want. This book is gold! Thanks.
Yay! Please pass along our gratitude to Lars. Appreciate how much of himself he's pouring into this.
I just backed the Kickstarter! Really love your content. Will have to make a fake "stronghold" until I get your rules, my players just decided to make a tower with griffon riders to their base :) but luckily enough you gave us something to work with!
Thx for giving me confidence to DM, your videos helped me a lot and my players send me last week a text the day after our game, about how much they loved the session, such a great compliment.
Cheers from Austria.
It's incredible... I didn't think I would be this excited to try this system...it seems that you have the ability to get me hyped about almost everything... amazing, thanks Mr Colville
As a huge Dominions fan, this warfare system sounds AMAZING.
I'm glad you've been making these for so long. Ive just been working through the backlog; they're extremely informative and useful.
Gosh just reading "ELITE HEAVY INFANTRY" and abilities like "SHOCK TROOPS" makes me so friggin excited! So I guess it really fulfills it's purpose. It just sounds so damn cool.
I'm really excited for this book. I was getting ready to run a war a while ago and every one was excited. But it never happened and in retrospect I needed better rules. I can't wait to use this for my group! Thanks Matt for making this
i play a lot of war games myself and having run a major war scenario in my campaign the idea of having a battle and an encounter at the same time would have been so much better. i definately had lost a few players attention by the end of the battle and was feeling like running a war was something i would never do again. this makes me more confident that i could with more prep and a better system it could be fun for everyone. now i just want the full book on warfare rules. keep it up Matt you are an inspiration to the community!
This is one of the things I've been most hyped for in following your channel
This warfare system sounds incredible. When I first started war/RP gaming, I couldn't afford rule books and didn't know anybody who owned them, so I was constantly inventing and tweaking my own ground-up homebrews. This sounds like the warfare system I was always striving to create but never managed to come up with on my own. Brilliant.
When he started talking about shock troops, my mind immediately went to a troop of bugbear shock troop assassins that can gain advantage on elite troops, and specialize in dodging/avoiding some type of unit. Even if it's not in the book I now I can probably alter a unit to fit that role! Thank you Matt for making a reference for making battles more fun and easier.
at the risk of the wrath of my waifu, i have ordered your book.
Zach Taylor if your waifu isn't a d and d fan I pity you
Zach Taylor I have done the same
You tell your waifu when you order stuff/back kickstarters? You're a braver man than me sir. o.0
Mine hasn't forgiven me for the dwarven forge kickstarter yet
ask your wife to join your game
"when they dont feel obligated to manage a unit... there's no positioning, we're not manipulating these units in 2d space..."
Matt, I just backed your kickstarter (all swag pledge). Keep up the good work, and I hope you make it to 2 million!
Thank you for keeping such a high standards in informing supporters about incoming project. And ... dwarven heavy cavalry rides on rams.
As a first time D&D player, I've allways been atracted to wargames. This is a great oportunity to try a mix of both and possibly make the jump to it
I made a pledge for your book on your Kickstarter, can't wait to get it! Congratulations on the huge amount you raised!
I can already see ideas forming around some of the units that are listed. Some as they are, and some reskined. The more I hear about this, the more I am excited about it.
Nearly $ 2 MILLION DOLLARS on your Kickstarter!!!
@Nero Wolfe You predicted the future!
I feel you Matt, I would **LOVE** to do a D&D or Pathfinder game that has management elements. But finding a group that enjoys the same thing or is willing to "sit that part out" without feeling that they're losing out is next to impossible.
It is horrible when half the group really doesn't want to do any management stuff, even if it's just loot processing and distribution. But then they insist on sticking through it (complaining every second they're not distracted on their phones) because they're afraid of "not getting a fair share".
Your videos are helping us build a great campaign and we can't wait to start our sessions after we finish our current campaign. We also can't wait to get your book and implement all the stuff you have in there.
So dang excited for Strongholds & Followers, the miniatures, and the stream!! You rock Matt!!!
With your system its easy enough to allow your players to influence the battle in the background. Say they're fighting the bad guy above his keep and the Wizard wants to launch a fireball into the valley below to help the army, you could give them a one-turn power buff to account for the wizards assistance.
Or say the fighter flew into battle atop a metallic dragon, this gives your army a morale boost
Warfare! The day has finally come, dawn has risen, and Matt's Idea's are legion!
Legion-dary?
Gage Frankel o
What we used to do in 2nd edition was, if we wanted to wade into the melee of a mass combat, the DM would prepare a bunch of enemies and cut out small strips of paper of enemies names and stats on it, throw it in a coffee can and mix it up, and we would pull out 2 enemies each, for the players to fight individiaully. Then 1 more enemy per round would join, up to 5, and the players (who knew the rules well) would run their own combat scenarios between the enemies and could retreat, cast spells, etc. The DM would supervise, and sometimes hit players with a fireball from an enemy wizard, or maybe a bless or haste from a friendly buffing cleric or wizard. When all the monsters were defeated, we had won the combat. It was pretty darn fun the few times we did it.
A way that i was planning to do warfare rules would be just to play out the battles as best i can re-create it in Total War Warhammer, and then just narrative it out to the PC's, so they need to decide where to help out. I know pretty well how hero's change a battle in Total War, so i could figure out how their interference would likely change things. Paladin runs over to group of routing soldiers, and gives them a place to rally behind (Him), keeping them fighting and re-doubling their effort with the Paladin, so that side now holds and the enenmy can flood into the gap and close the door to flank the rest of the army. The Gunslinger can target the Cavalry that has been causing a lot of damage, harrying them back and slowing their charge long enough for the archers to get a volley into them and break the charge. The Rouge flies across the battlefield to harass the artillery crew that has been causing a lot of damage to the army.
More a narrative fighting than the turn-based of normal D&D. Kind of like giving big buffs or de-buffs to a group they join.
No system could ever be exactly what I want. But i don't want a perfect system. I want you to do the work polishing details, and inspire me to think about what I do want.
The more you describe this project the more excited I get.
Dwarves on steppe horses like Huns/Mongols. That was the transformational empire in the background of the West Marches game I am running (thanks to you). Mountain goat or mountain sheep or huge boats, all could be fun, but the vast cavalry of the Khazhad Khan, that was what fires my imagination. Looking forward very much to this book . . . and the next one!
I love this! I'm currently running Tyranny of Dragons for my players and I definitely think these rules will help spice up the final battle!
I almost want to throw this into the game as a form of mini game. I love these ideas. Thanks Matt!
You know this, Matt. But your production quality is through the roof. It just pops out of my browser.
Great first 10 minutes! Bought the book but wasn’t super interested in the warfare rules until this video! As DM, I like narrative adventuring, so warfare and units sounded too different, but you explained how they work together!
I don't think my players would be interested in managing an army or going to war - maybe help out in a war or take over one battle, but they would want to move onto the "find magic items and kill things" pretty quickly. However! I have always felt lacking in the army department. I have no idea how to run an army. If my players come across a battle or piss off a ruler well enough that they send troops after them, I wouldn't know how to implement that or make their actions seem like things soldiers would do. I think these rules would help me enrich that part of my world.
Given that and your stronghold rules (something that I know my players would love), I'm buying your book. Thank you for putting in all of this effort!
I have given your war system a try in a big city battle and It did all the things you said it would, it also dragged the session to a stand still. I see now that this was my error! I had a map and tokens for every unit! I like the narrative system much more! I have backed the KS and looking forward to the book.
11:03 the thought about ethnic groups fighting and being different is so cool to me! Started reading the Witcher
“They won’t believe, thought Cornet Aubry. They’ll never believe me when I tell them about it. This square is fighting in a total encirclement … Surrounded on all sides by cavalry, being torn, hacked, pounded and stabbed … And the square is marching. It’s marching in line, serried, pavise by pavise. It’s marching, trampling and stepping over corpses, pushing the élite Ard Feainn Division in front of it … And it’s marching.”
The Mahakam Volunteer Army was ready to march through hell. The human Brugge Companies could not survive a heavy cavalry charge, but not only did the hardy dwarves, but they marched THROUGH them!
I'm really curious how a Druid stronghold would work. Druids are usually against Civilization to some degree, so it's fascinating how that would work from a role-playing perspective :D
bazooka Bruh A grove, I suppose. Just their patch of land that they keep and protects from outside influences.
Maybe they can only raise monstrous or Ranger units, and is more likely to receive alchemist and herbalist followers compared to others.
The first idea I had was basically the giant tree from avatar haha. A grove could probably work but I wonder how that would work in terms of upgrading your stronghold and such. Super pumped to see what Mat has come up with! :D
Well, the towers or temples could easily be modified, a large grove for a temple or a giant tree, it's just be a simple reskin
Tree houses!
I was reading Matt's Obsidian Portal site for his campaign setting, and there's a nature goddess who considers civilization to be a part of the natural world, to a degree. I imagine that sort of POV is going to effect it in some way.
This is awesome, man. I used your system before with some modifications that didn't work out as well as I would have liked, but the players seemed to enjoy controlling units in conjunction with their characters.
I love this channel so much.
Someone needs to recruit you for a D&D stream sometime. What class would you play?
Love your work, Sargon!
Well this is not a super glowing endorsement.
pezking124 you should take the opportunity to see eye to eye with someone you typically disagree with instead of defaulting to divisiveness.
twistedironpaw
I don't think that's true. Having some right-leaning beliefs does not automatically equate someone to being a Nazi and saying so is only going to lead to polarisation and actual violence/strife.
Something I noticed while looking over the unit cards the other day was that, while the system is quite simple, it has a little to much rolling dice for what is there. Namely I don't see the reason for having two attack stats (power and attack) and two defense stats (toughness and defense). These stats on most of the cards are similar on any unit, often only differing by 1 point. I don't see any reason these can't be rolled together and remove the idea of "missing or hitting" altogether (or more frankly if a unit fails to inflict a casualty that is the same thing). This would have the advantage of speeding up the abstraction of the battle without losing the core of what you are trying to do. Of course I concede that I may be missing something here but I suspect that it was included simply because that is how combat works between two characters and you wanted the system to rhyme.
This is brilliant Matt! I can’t wait to try this in my campaign. Thank you for all you do
I love the reference to Blue Oyster Cult in the description of the Dalrath Hounds
You know what, you convinced me!
You certainly deserve this, so have this!
To be fair I never have fallen into the camp of the "a 5th level caster can end armies" in no small part because a 5th level caster will run out of fireballs after 2 casts. (maybe around 5 if your using spell points like we do at my table.) I always felt that Battlemages (*units of mages around 5-6 level*) should be a thing, however they themselves wouldn't be able to single handedly change the tide of battle.
Somewhat in countenance to my previous statement I do think that Champions (*9-12 level Fighters, Wizards the like*) should play pivotal roles in the battle. a 10th level Cleric can practically make a unit immortal for the period of that battle. A fighter of that level can decimate an enemey unit while just walking through, and a wizard, or sorcerer could either artillery barrage an enemy, summon more allies to field (less possible in 5e then say 3.5 but still is to a degree.), or altering the battlefield to their favor (turning a massive incline of land to mud when the enemey unit charges, and then having your archers, or magical adepts pummel them with projectiles)
This is really cool to find after going from watching Total War: Warhammer 2 gameplay, then to getting back into D&D right after and wondering about this sort of thing exactly. Might just pick up a copy :D
Great stuff Matt, looking forward to this & your next book. This stuff is dearly needed. War! War! What is it good for, absolutely, Gaming fun stuff, say it again!🎲🤣🎲
Great video, thanks! I started watching out of vague curiosity only, as I’ve never had the slightest interest in mass combat in D&D, but 3/4 of the way through I’m pretty much won over.
I'd love to support you but I'm a poor college student.
Keep up the good work.
That1Dog rest assured, even if you don't buy now, you can buy later. He even mentions that. :D
Damn, I need to pre-order this book. You somehow managed to create my dream mix of D&D and Total War.
My day today ; is there another Colville video? No? Refresh an hour later.Yes? Yesssssss!
Holy crap. This isn't just good D&D stuff to play around with, it makes me think of my writing, too. How to write warfare better. This is just so cool. HYPE!
I'm only ten minutes into this video and I already feel way more equipped to run a skirmish with my mid-level players. I am so excited for the Strongholds book. Just hoping I can keep everybody busy until it comes out and they can use it!
Holy word count Batman fighting Armies to reduce their size of dice type is amazing!!! This describes what fifth edition DND is after all we’re not playing 3.5 this isn’t second edition this is a streamlined very fast to play version of dungeons and dragons!!!!
Bravo!
The more of your videos I watch, the more I want to work with you and game with you. My skill set works for your company setup.
Do a "the thing" video, u have mentioned u r fan before. It wpuld be great to get ur in depth thoughts on it.
Every one of these videos has so far confirmed for me that backing you was a good idea. I can't wait!
the dwarfs would clearly be rideing large boars :D
That’s more orcs
My guy wrote a wargame for dnd. What a legend!
Omg I love the art for the poster over his shoulder. The woman with the psudodragon.
I think I'm in love. Never realised I needed this in my game
This system sounds awesome. I already know a lot of my players will want to use it.
I threw up a comment about the ancient crystal dragon reminding me of the beast from Outlander (2008) in the last video, but putting it out there one more time in case you missed it. Kind of cool idea for the movie. Also, since I let you know I was starting a campaign, I have ran two sessions. I found the Jackalwere in the MM and everything has kind of evolved from there. Players are having a ton of fun, I'm enjoying myself, and we are finding ourselves in the midst of a cultist situation. Thanks for all the great advice to help me start DM'ing!
I prefer having it in the background and the players are like some elite crack unit that needs to... land on endor and shut down the power shield so the main force can win the day... that kind of nonsense
I was very skeptical of warfare but my buddy's longtime friend who's a DnD fanatic asked me to at least try it out at his mancave. And I did. The first thing I noticed at this mancave was the ridiculously amazing looking and huge lego setup with hundreds of lego miniatures (that's when I realized legos are amazing for tabletop...though expensive). I also realized he had brought another 30 more players for his homebrew DnD script using legos. I later found out the guy was a super rich dude that had spent at least million on legos and DnD as a hobby and he was really into theatrics. this was the best Dm I've ever seen and everything that night was amazing.
That being said, I still don't like warfare in tabletop...I just like going on a hard journey with my party...and just looting stuff and going on a quest.