Small-scale tactical troop battles within FG? (e.g. for Achtung! Cthulhu and similar)

[Magnimost]

Is there a way to run small-scale tactical troop battles within FG? I'm thinking squad, platoon, and perhaps slightly larger battles against similar foes, or Cthulhu Mythos creatures. But the same would be useful for any setting.

Achtung! Cthulhu ruleset includes some basic rules for that, but I haven't bought it yet to see if it's compatible with FG.

Was wondering if someone else is already running A!C or some other campaign which features such battles.

[Zacchaeus]

You could use Savage Worlds; there are rules for battles in that.

[chanceboon]

Several systems have supplemental rules for skirmishes. Reign (I am slightly biased, after all) is actually set up to have squads act like PC's. Which is something that my Reign group is going to get into shortly, now that we have a full troupe. I digress, however, Savage Worlds has good mass combat (as was already pointed out), Lord of the Rings (using the Helm's Deep Supplement) had great mass combat, another really good one (and I will date myself here) is the old Rolemaster War Law box set.

[Magnimost]

Savage Worlds would mean a change of game system. I'm also not sold on the wonky exploding dice with non-linear probability distribution, or a system which seems to frequently result in hits but no damage when fighting bosses which sounds really frustrating. We might give it a try, though, if it would work well with FG.

Most importantly, I am looking for a troop combat system that's compatible with FG. Does FG's SW add-on support group combat?

[Zacchaeus]

Well I've never played group combat in any FG but from what I've seen the SW system does support it and the FG version is pretty faithful. For example you can have a leader with several allies who can all fight as a group. And there are rules for large scale combats, including vehicles. You could even have Warhammer type skirmishes I would have thought (which is the only troop combat that I'm familiar with).

[JohnD]

Castles and Crusades has a supplement that supports rules for mass combat where the PCs are involved. I have it but I've never used it so I can't comment beyond that.

[Black Hammer]

Savage Worlds has several rulesets for mass combat. In my opinion, at least, Savage Worlds is the superior choice for Achtung! Cthulhu (compared to Call of Cthulhu).

In addition, the A!C book "Terrors of the Secret War" has another system for such engagements that I particularly like.

I have run an A!C campaign on FG in the past, and am looking to run one again soon. I haven't had a chance to run many large engagements, though.

[Magnimost]

Thanks, Hammer. I'll take a look at SW and see if the group is up for a change.

[Nyghtmare]

They also came out with a 9-page PDF for 5e on the Wizards site that covers some mass combat:

https://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/unearthed-arcana-when-armies-clash