[Steve Plambeck]

In the late '70s my group used the rules from TSR's William the Conqueror - 1066 for this purpose. That's a venerable classic historical simulation that -- while I wouldn't use it again -- lent itself to the purpose for several reasons. It was diceless, and units were reduced or retreated more often than eliminated, so PCs were less likely to get killed off over something they couldn't control. "Leaders" were a big part of the rules, conferring plus 1 to plus 3 to the combat factor of the unit they were stacked with, so we simply made PCs (all high AP veterans) minor leaders in the battle. And if the unit they were with did get eliminated, the rules favored the leader escaping alive. On the negative side it was slow as molasses, and the PCs didn't really have anything to do besides confer that +1 or +2 to the unit they were with. I wouldn't use 1066 again but I would go with a classic or classic style historical wargame -- the rules for something set in the Bronze Age or early Roman period.

When I think about this problem more recently, I rather envision the big battle itself, this cast of NPCs fighting all around the PCs, more like a "terrain obstacle" the PCs, as a party, have to navigate through to carry out a quest or assignment (get to the enemy leader, escort a VIP to safety, get to the hilltop to signal for re-enforcement, or unleash the dragon the enemy has chained up so he'll join the battle on your side -- all kinds of things you could come up with!).

I see the PCs party represented as a single unit counter, a Player Character Party counter or PCP, just trying to survive and make its way through this hostile "terrain". It would slip between the fighting units, but the faster it moved (1-3 combat map hexes per game turn) the greater its risk of damage. If attacked by an enemy unit, the PCP would always be retreated, knocked "off course" rather than outright destroyed. And the party, rather than an individual, would take hits, and the designated leader of the PCP determines who takes how many of the hits rolled, and any that get through armor and shields are tallied on the character record sheets just as in melee. 10 hits to a party of 5 could be allocated as 2 hits each, or 5 hits each to the 2 guys in plate armor. It’s up to the leader (who COULD be contested, but that’s a bad idea once battle is underway).

And any time a PC might die, or any time the PCs ask for it, the action would "zoom in" and resolve combat in melee turns, preserving that element of self-determination.

TFT magic doesn't really scale up for big battles -- come up with some huge spell that works against units of hundreds, then you have an unbalanced situation when that wizard is back in regular play. But if you're zooming in for melee turns at just the critical points, then the wizards in the party could still prove invaluable.

There's so much to think about here.