I was wondering if anyone else has used the Mass Combat rules in their games in a non-published scenario. I would like to hear how you integrated it.

So far, I have only used it once. My players were infiltrating an Imperial Base near a city, and they had a platoon of troops set to make a diversion to aid their escape. The troops were intended to perform hit and run attacks, maximizing noise, minimizing their own casualties.

The PC's started their infiltration, generally went well. When I called for the attack to start, they were just collecting what they came for.

Phase 1 consisted of the initial attack on sentry outposts. If I recall, the PC's had 2 Green for their force. Their troops received a single upgrade for a Sergeant in charge. They received a blue for a well prepared plan. The Imperials had 2 Purple for their force, and added 1 black for defensive positions. They did not have an active commander, yielding a roll of Y G Blue P P Black. The troops rolled phenomenally multiple success and advantage. I narrated that they overran the sentry posts, and set an ambush for the anticipated counterattack.

The PC's began their exfiltration, but had a mission related delay, causing them to need the troops to hold an extra phase. They were able to use the confusion from the alert to bluff past some guards. The PC commander started trying to coordinate the battle from inside the Imperial Base via radio.

Phase 2 was the initial Imperial response. The PC's maintained 2 green for their force. 4 upgrades for the PC's leadership, 1 blue for advantageous ambush positions. The Imperial forces increased to 3 Purple as additional troops and vehicles deployed, with 2 upgrades for a lieutenant. I assigned 3 black as a penalty for the Commander trying to operate in the field as well as in command. The roll was YYY Blue RRP BlackBlackBlack. They rolled success with threat. I narrated that their counterattack succeeded, destroying several Imperial transports. The Rebel forces started taking losses, and were forced to pull back from their ambush points.

The PC's meanwhile finish their extraction, and start heading out through the confusion of the city. The attack had pulled a large portion of the forces away from their exit as planned, allowing them to steal a vehicle and make good their escape.

Phase 3 was the full Imperial counterattack. The PC's continued to hold 2 green for their force, with 1 black representing their earlier losses. 4 upgrades for the PC's leadership. Imperial forces would have risen to 4 purple, but the losses of troop transports reduced the difficulty by 1. The lieutenant gave 2 upgrades. 3 black for commanding from the field. The roll was YYY RRP BlackBlackBlackBlack. The rebels rolled success, triumph, and despair. I narrated that the rebel troops were falling back according to plan, but as the PC's watched a TIE fighter fly by, their comms with the troops were lost. Despair destroyed their radio. After reaching the meeting place, the players found that while they had lost about 25% of their platoon, the infiltration was fully successful. Additionally, the Triumph was used to promote their sergeant to be a named Rival who I statted out for them.

You should ask Anthony @Nevermind about how he has run mass combat scenarios in his Roll20 game. I’ve been a player in some of those, and I can kinda semi sorta vaguely remember some of the stuff that has happened and why, but I’m sure he’s got a much better memory of the whole battle.

My PCs had the mission to destroy an orbital research station, and all in all had two choices: Infiltrate the station and sabotage the two reactors, or call in their starfighter support and destroy it in a mass combat scenario. They opted for infiltration and set up a bunch of explosives, but when they escaped to their ship, they still called in their reinforcements. Thus, the "mass combat" was just one phase, deciding how many tiefighters survived to give pursuit, while the station exploded in the background. Had they not sabotaged the reactors, I would have made it 2 or 3 phases, with one phase per reactor where they dodge fighters and turrets to destroy it.

Soon, I want to do another mass combat, where the PCs try to take back a village and nearby temple both taken over by the empire. I haven't planned anything specific yet, because I want to let the PCs make the battle plan based on their intel, and then create the encounters and phases based on what they thought of.