Re: Monster Swarm War And Order
Ania Cozzolino
The Great Wall is a joint production between American and Chinese companies and feels like the perfect cross-national hybrid of two countries obsessed with monsters and blowing stuff up. Directed by Yimou Zhang (Raise the Red Lantern, Hero) and co-written by Max Brooks (World War Z), The Great Wall stars Matt Damon as a European mercenary named William and Tian Jing as Lin Mae, the commander of the Nameless Order. Lin Mae and her acrobatic army have pledged their lives to hold the Great Wall and defend southeastern China against the Taotie, a species of mega-lizards with skulls for faces and eyeballs in their shoulders.
Where do the Taotie come from? How did Lin Mae and her troops become such astonishing soldiers? What dynasty is in power? How did William and his sidekick Pero (Game of Thrones' Pedro Pascal) make it all the way to eastern China? Seriously, if you are asking these questions just get out of the theater. Get out of my review! Why are your eyes still here?
The point of The Great Wall is the glorious, gorgeous, sumptuous scenes of otherworldly battle. Director Zhang is known for his visuals, and he manages to bring mesmerizing gravitas to the kind of army vs. monsters battles I once waged with plastic toys on my bedspread as a kid. Each unit of Lin Mae's army has its own dazzling color of armor and looks like something out of Akira Kurosawa's Ran. They swoop off the wall, spear the Taotie, and leap away again. They whirl in formation, unleash burning arrows, clever bombs, and other explodey weapons.
To the extent that The Great Wall has a subplot, those weapons are at the center of it. We discover that William and Pero have journeyed from Spain to eastern China in search of gunpowder, a technology that far outstrips anything in the savage West. But the longer William stays with the Nameless Order, helping them fight the Taotie with his amazing bow-and-arrow skills, the more civilized he becomes. Instead of fighting just for money, the way Western warriors do, he decides to fight for something more.
In The Great Wall, Chinese society is clearly the pinnacle of enlightenment and badassery. Lin Mae and her soldiers have the best technology, the best military strategies, and the loftiest goals. Filled with admiration for their way of life, William slowly comes around to the idea that giving your life for a cause (even if that cause is "kill the lizard queen!") is better than being a mercenary who steals gunpowder.
Along the way, expect fun quippery and intense lizard action. Though I would have preferred a greater range of monster types, and especially some giant monsters, the Taotie are damn cool. The final showdown, with swarms of the beasts scaling walls and gobbling up everything in their path, is undeniably epic. Plus, the real standout spectacle here is the Nameless Order, using every kind of tactic to defeat the chompy hordes.
If you like range weapons, galloping monster swarms, fantastical militaries, and breathtaking Chinese scenery, The Great Wall will please you immensely. Plus, it's a great moment in the history of cross-cultural monster appreciation. Sure, the West is behind when it comes to monster-fighting technology, but we'll learn. One day.
A week ago for my Friday night session, my adventurers came across a pack of 18 Gnolls. 16 of them were your basic Gnoll fighter, one was a Gnoll Pack Leader, and the last was a Gnoll Fang of Yeenoghu (which was responsible for the rapid multiplying of the Gnoll Population).
I had planned that the group would meet these 18 Gnolls in 3 separate encounters, such that the group would only face six at a time. But the group decided to enter their area from 3 sides and, lo and behold, activated all 3 groups at once.
The Initiative order of 18 Gnolls plus my players was so extensive that one of my players fell asleep before his turn came around again (It was about 1am by that time). The next day me and one of the core players reflected a bit and it was brought to my attention that the encounter could have perhaps been handled differently.
While I am aware that I could create 3 enemies representing a group of Gnolls each, each a single mechanically strong enemy to ensure the encounter is just as hard, this does not give the right atmosphere if I want my players to feel overwhelmed by a multitude of lesser creatures. How do I give this overwhelming feeling, without an initiative round lasting for hours?
Add the mass of creatures to an encounter where something else needs to happen, not just kill them all. For example, the adventurers need to get to the other side of a large battlefield, not necessarily defeat everyone on their way there.
Make smaller minions die faster (give them less HP, instead of rolling dice or using the half + 1 suggestion, just use something smaller if they are disposable). Or make them retreat when weakened, which maybe allows adventurers to sneak in some opportunity attacks, ie. stuff to do while they wait for their turn.
I can give you an example of something I've done (in 5E no less). Its not perfectly balanced, I suspect it leaned a bit towards favoring the players, but it got the job done in a way that I was satisfied with.
Reducing the hit points so severely might seem unbalanced, but the idea here is that the "new" creature is still going to be taking two turns with Advantage even when its hit points are low (which would normally mean dead creatures with fewer actions to take.) This sort of thing was inspired by my experience with Numenera, which has much simpler rules for monsters such that combining them into one group is quite easy.
Note: While I love the idea of giving individual enemies their own initiative, I've found this to rarely be enjoyable in practice. Its easier to let all monsters act at the same time, though occasionally it may be worth letting spell-casters or important monsters have their own initiative count.
In the 5e DMG pg 250 it mentions Handling Mobs. It offers a table with which you determine the d20 roll required to hit a player (attack bonus - AC). This number determines how many attackers are needed for one to hit (refer to the table).
For example, let's say you have a hoard of 20 archer goblins all taking aim at the paladin that just entered a large chamber. The goblins have +5 to hit and the paladin has an AC of 18. This means that the d20 needed to hit the paladin is 13 (AC- hit bonus). The table states that if a 13 is needed to hit, it requires 3 attackers to make one hit. Now divide the 20 goblins by the 3 required to hit, and you have 6 successful hits. Just roll 6 damage rolls and you're done!
Instead of rolling an attack roll, determine the minimum d20 roll a creature needs in order to hit a target by subtracting its attack bonus from the target's AC... The table shows you how many creatures that need that die roll or higher must attack the target in order for one of them to hit...If the attacking creatures deal different amounts of damage, assume that the creature that deals the most damage is the one that hits...This This attack resolution system ignores critical hits in favour of reducing the number of die rolls.
I haven't tried this in my D&D 5e game, but it seems to fit your needs so exactly that it would be a shame not to offer it up. As part of the D&D Unearthed Arcana series, Wizards of the Coast offer some free Mass Combat rules.
Of relevance to your situation, the rules separate between solos (ie PCs) and stands (ie groups of 10 enemies), which seems to fit the scale you describe. There are also rules for units (groups of stands), but that then goes beyond 'skirmish' and into 'mass battle' territory. However, the rules as such can be used for skirmishes on the scale you describe, and will almost certainly run more quickly than managing everything in individual scale.
Note: These rules are more or less at 'beta' level, but still worth a shot as they come from the publishers of the game, and they're free of charge. The fact they're specifically designed for 5e is also speaks in their favour.
This page is a list of all Titans, Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organisms (MUTOs), superspecies, and other monsters and fictional creatures featured in Monsterverse-related media. Entries are divided by their in-universe category (or lack thereof) and organized in chronological order.
Residing at Outpost 49 in Loch Ness, Scotland, Leviathan was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. It was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
Residing at Outpost 92 in Angkor Wat, Cambodia, Typhon was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. It was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
Residing at Outpost 68 in Volubilis, Morocco, Baphomet was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. It was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
Residing at Outpost 65 in Cairo, Egypt, Sekhmet was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. She was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
Residing at Outpost 91 at Mount Fuji in Japan, Yamata no Orochi was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. It was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
Residing at Outpost 99, beneath Ayers Rock in Australia, Bunyip was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. It was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
Residing at Outpost 77, beneath Devils Tower in the U.S. state of Wyoming, Abaddon was one of the many Titans who began to attack humanity under the direction of King Ghidorah. It was later pacified when Madison Russell activated the Orca at Fenway Park.
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