I'm going to be giving V3 a first run out next weekend (my group gets together for a whole weekend every couple of months) and I've been fiddling about with ways to run the beastmen fight which a) don't involve me rolling loads of combats between NPC's, and b) don't rely on me just making it up as I like the idea of not knowing how things will turn out. So I came up with this:

Each round roll a dice pool for the combatants (even if not directly engage with each other) using the following:

The Wargor +1 Challenge Die

Each Gor +1 Misfortune Die

Each Ungor Henchman Group +1 Challenge die (my group will be four strong, so three dice here)

Each Defending NPC +1 Characteristic die (assuming dinner's been served: Olver Gand, Pieter Koch, Albrecht Krug - the cultists are prtecting the ritual)

Each Hound +1 Expertise die

Any Beastmen who are engaged with or targeting the PC's (or are dead) do not contribute dice to the pool. So assuming the PC's are cultist chasing, in round one it's a pool of 4 Challenge Dice, 6 Misfortune Dice, 3 Characteristic Dice, 3 Expertise Dice.

At the end of each round roll the dice pool and apply the following results:

Success = The Ungors have been prevented from slaughtering a drugged character

Failure = The Ungors slaughter a drugged character (see below for details)

1 or more Boons = Gor killed, remove a Misfortune die (or Challenge dice if there are no Gors left)

1 or more Banes = Hound killed, remove an Expertise die (or Characteristic die if there are no Hounds left)

Sigmar's Comet = Ungors killed, remove a Challenge die OR cancel a Chaos Star OR count as Boon or Success

Chaos Star = NPC killed or flees, remove a Characteristic die

On failures one drugged character will be killed per turn, this will increase to two per turn if there are no defenders left. Characters are killed in the following order:

1. Sven Bleuler, 2. Manfred Klammerer, 3. Ernst Bohne, 4. Captain Anders Blucher, 5. Fritz Lange, 6. Hans Kurtz, 7. Gertie Hochen, 8. Sister Sonja, 9. Korden Kurgansson, 10. The Injured Guards, 11. Vern Hendrick, 12. Lord Rickard Aschaffenberg

If the dinner isn't drugged then the other Guards and Lord Rickard add another five Characteristic die to the defence, and Hendrick adds an enthusiastic fortune die. The PC's can affect the outcome of the battle by drawing Beastmen onto themselves (improving the dice pool), or taking actions which benefit the defence (which will add Fortune dice). The Beastmen will need to take a Discpline test on their highest WP when the Wargor is killed, the Daemon is destroyed, or they become outnumbered.

I've rolled through this conflict several times and it turns out that generally the fight lasts about five or six rounds with the Beastmen winning, which to my mind is how it should be unless the PC's intervene. However, the defenders did win once! If dinner isn't drugged the fight is very one sided and the Beastmen are routed quickly.

Anyway, this is what I'll be doing, but I thought I'd share as a way of using the dice pools for large scale combats.

That's pretty cool. I might be starting E4aE next session so will print this out.

Very well thought out and put together! I have a huge appreciation for the thought you put into this man - likely going to have to consider using it myself!

Better late than never.. I just want to jump back to this thread and add that I used your system Bertolac and it worked wonderfully. Very much appreciated for the work and effort you put into this,

Thanks for this post. I just started a campaign and Eye for an Eye will be the first scenario. I will surely give your proposal a try for the Beastmen attack.