Is Mass Combat seeing play?

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by hari

It's interesting that, although it's cannon GURPS, the majority of the crunch in it is so unrelated. What thoughts might anyone have on that? Would you like to see it expanded? Or see it revised? Or do you not care?

I note few people have commented on this aspect.

It's actually not as unrelated as you might think. The majority of the book deals with these crazy stats that you've never seen before, but the bulk of the actual Mass Combat play is: Say what you're going to do, decide how much risk you're going to take, and then roll Strategy against your opponent.

Most of those crazy mechanics just deals with figuring out what the Strategy modifiers are, and the consequences of said rolls. In practice, I find that, after you've figured out what force composition generally looks like, it's just a matter of adding some numbers up quickly. It was far simpler in practice than I initially suspected (I was tense, waiting to forget this and that, but it's really actually pretty easy).

I'm not sure what they could expand on, except perhaps to give us big, ready-to-go lists of what force compositions might look like. For example, what a Fuedal Japanese army might look like, european forces during the Enlightenment, WWII forces, and so on. I can't imagine there's much call for them, though. Even if they published one that I wanted, I'm not sure I'd buy it. Maybe a big book of examples, dunno, but there's so many possibilities I can't imagine that it would please a sufficient number of people to really sell.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I'm not sure what they could expand on

Spaceships 9: Mass Combat or Mass Combat: Spaceships

With specific examples and rough guidelines of how much boom equates to how much TS.

[Langy]

Spaceships 9: Mass Combat or Mass Combat: Spaceships

With specific examples and rough guidelines of how much boom equates to how much TS.

Oh god, I want that so hard. Mass Combat by itself is awesome - adding the ability to wage Space War with it would be super-excellent-stupendous.

[Crakkerjakk]

Originally Posted by Langy

Oh god, I want that so hard. Mass Combat by itself is awesome - adding the ability to wage Space War with it would be super-excellent-stupendous.

Yeah, it's certainly near the top of my "want" list after Low Tech.

[Mailanka]

Originally Posted by Crakkerjakk

Spaceships 9: Mass Combat or Mass Combat: Spaceships

With specific examples and rough guidelines of how much boom equates to how much TS.

Very nice.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I'm not sure what they could expand on, except perhaps to give us big, ready-to-go lists of what force compositions might look like. For example, what a Fuedal Japanese army might look like, european forces during the Enlightenment, WWII forces, and so on. I can't imagine there's much call for them, though. Even if they published one that I wanted, I'm not sure I'd buy it. Maybe a big book of examples, dunno, but there's so many possibilities I can't imagine that it would please a sufficient number of people to really sell.

I would like to second this entire paragraph.

And now I'm thinking... To that historical material I would add even some Dungeon Fantasy examples of mass combat forces, too.

[Gigermann]

Originally Posted by Mailanka

I'm not sure what they could expand on, except perhaps to give us big, ready-to-go lists of what force compositions might look like. For example, what a Fuedal Japanese army might look like, european forces during the Enlightenment, WWII forces, and so on. I can't imagine there's much call for them, though. Even if they published one that I wanted, I'm not sure I'd buy it. Maybe a big book of examples, dunno, but there's so many possibilities I can't imagine that it would please a sufficient number of people to really sell.

I think I prefer the way they have handled this in the past, by incorporating the Mass Combat stats in their associated sourcebooks. Of course, the ones that have been published before the Mass Combat rules were would need some additional consideration.

[demonsbane]

Originally Posted by Gigermann

I think I prefer the way they have handled this in the past, by incorporating the Mass Combat stats in their associated sourcebooks.

Of course I would love to see some of these books re-released for 4e, including the suitable Mass Combat stats for each historical (or not) setting.

However I still find them useful and valuable... but upgrades too 4e would be fine, too.

[Snoman314]

Originally Posted by Langy

Oh god, I want that so hard. Mass Combat by itself is awesome - adding the ability to wage Space War with it would be super-excellent-stupendous.

Seconded.

("The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters." <sigh>).

[hari]

Mailanka, you're right. This thread has gotten quite a few replies. More than I've ever gotten to be honest. I usually just lurk. I guess I should contribute as well.

I really like the idea of a campaign that involves both individual level intrigue with diplomacy and combat on the one hand, and then occasionally zooms out to give the players a chance to lead a small part of a larger force. I'm imagining something low tech, TL 3 or 4, and with a lower level of magic and the supernatural than typical fantasy, although not necessarily absent.

The one thing that gets to me the most about Mass Combat is that the different various classes of units are intrinsic to each unit and don't have any value in and of themselves. I mean, GURPS starts with a simple basic blank slate, every single character starts the same. And then you have an enormous number of options to expand on those. But with Mass Combat you start out with each unit already stated out in detail. I think that's better, much better, in terms of keeping things realistic or historically accurate. But I remember finding it a little limiting when I began stretching those units to their limits. That bothers me a little bit.