[FireHorse]

A battle with a Cast of Thousands is an ambitious goal, and I can imagine a variety of plausible excuses for such a thing. The Siege of _Wherever_ comes to mind, for example, and either side of such a fight would be equally interesting. (Defending is the obvious choice, because the Good Guys are generally supposed to protect things. But the Bad Guys build castles too, right?)

For the moment though, I'm aiming at a much easier target. My scenario requires a battle with only around a hundred or so combatants, counting both sides in total. The Players' side will be significantly outnumbered, too — in its current draft, perhaps three dozen versus five or six dozen. But they can still win of course, because it's Quality vs. Quantity, and everybody knows that a Hero is worth at least a few dozen Faceless Evil Thugs, unless they're accompanied by at least one Evil Lieutenant (with not just a face, but a Name). ;)

And in this scenario, a good portion of the Enemy combatants are literally slaves, pressed into the fight against their will — which is why I want Morale to play a crucial role.

The numbers are ultimately against the Players, and they would almost certainly lose the battle in the long run, just by attrition. And in fact, losing wouldn't end the story, unless the Players were stupid enough to insist upon fighting to the death. "Surrender" would be the saner choice, and all that does is send the Players down Branch B of the adventure, instead of the Branch A they'd have gotten by winning here.

But I want it to be possible to win, and go down Branch A, by seizing the initiative and doing something dramatic. Swiftly defeating the Evil Lieutenants might do it, for example — a sudden berserk assault that removes the Enemy's leaders and best fighters, scaring the crap out of the rest, so their Morale breaks and they surrender. Or perhaps doing something to persuade those Slave Troops to turn on their Masters…

But no! I shall say no more, lest I spoil the Story. :D