Nation Armies (automation for kingdom Armies from Kingmaker AP for pf1,pf2 and 5e)

[sgtwhy]

Hello adventurers!

Welcome to those interested in using the new kingmaker rules (2022) with fantasy grounds unity.

It's been over a years since I started my first "side quest"; Nation Builder extension
https://www.fantasygrounds.com/forums/showthread.php?77602

The "builder" app is fully flushed out now, allowing me to start working on the next part;
Nation Armies!

This next mini-expansion can be used together or as a stand alone product -
if used "stand alone" many of the nation actions, etc. will be disabled.
However, you can still create and manage armies, can still conduct battles, etc.

For those with both extensions, this will add new nation army and war actions to the kingdom turns.
And it will use your nation skills and abilities to determine success of the new actions attempted.

In either case, this extension adds (2) new menu options;

Army Actions
War Actions


Army Actions
This will allow you to create new armies, manage the armies tactics and gear and level up the armies over time.
It also adds another "phase" to the nation turns (aka kingdom phases) ... for "Army Actions";
Each of your armies is allowed to attempt (1) army action each month, at the end of the nation turn phase.

note: since these actions are based on nation skill bonuses, its depends on the synergy of both apps installed.
otherwise, it assumes all skills have a default bonus of (0) ... which is checked upon loading.

Upgrades
In addition to creating and managing armies, there is a second tab that is essentially the "store" for armies;
It allows the GM to easily add new tactics or gear to the armies, by selecting an army and clicking to add gear/tactics.


War Actions
This automation focuses around battles between the nation armies. It's a barebones "combat tracker" of sorts.
However, keep in mind that army battles are essentially "theater of mind" ... and do not require a battle map.

So unlike the "true" combat tracker, it is not "map or token, aware" ... but it does manage the relevant meta data.
You kick off a army combat "round" the usual way, by rolling for initiatives ... and then going in high-to-low order.

Each army is allowed (3) basic actions and the bonuses for actions are all calculated based on the selected army.
The tool helps you correlate the relevant bonuses and track the outcomes of actions such as wounds or routing.

Conditions
In addition to tracking the war actions of armies, there is a second tab with all of the "conditions" for armies;
You can easily track / add conditions to the selected army, from the conditions tab ... which adds (1) instance.
Multiple condition instances will stack, up to the hard limit of (4 or less) ... and the GM can click the counter to reduce it by (1).

Current status:
(as of 1-22-2024)
currently at build v0.1.22 ... almost feature complete and ready for user testing.
Will set it up on Forge and add a link here, as soon as its in a "customer ready" state.

For now, my group and I are putting it through testing as we move into the 4th book of the AP.
Screenshots and more, to come shortly!

Feel free to drop any feature requests or other questions in the meanwhile.

[sgtwhy]

Here are screenshots to provide more context;

ARMY Actions
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Creating a new army
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Adding gear to an army
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Adding tactics to an army
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WAR Actions
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[Morenu]

Nice! will definitely purchase to go with your original

[sgtwhy]

Hi folks -

Just wanted to share a new video (with audio this time)
... Nation Armies (w/o Nation Builder)

It walks thru the creation of kingdom armies, for a new campaign ... "without" the Nation Builder app.
LR2AtOBxvW8

Here is an alternative, short URL;
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LR2AtOBxvW8

Next, will be on how to use the new WAR ACTIONS automation.

[sgtwhy]

Quick update:

The app should now be listed, they resolved the upload issues with the forge.

It works stand alone or in combination with the Nation Builder --
And I am working on more video examples of how to use the tools.

NOTE -- On Sale 03/01 11am through 03/06 11pm
I decided to list the extension at 50% off to encourage folks to pick it up and give it a try.

The tools are fully functional, but targeting is a bit manual until I work out methods to streamline it.

So, during army combat the GM needs to set the DC level of each task manually ...
by updating the DC field based on the actions and targets chosen.

I will add videos shortly to demonstrate how to WAR (Army combat)

[sgtwhy]

Looks like there is not a lot of interest in this toolset and it works for my needs as is.

Since I likely wont have to do much further work on this, going to reduce the price to $5 to match the sale price.

[sgtwhy]

Another demo video is up!

This recording demonstrates the "combat tracker" for the Nation Armies.
It can be used "stand alone" or as part of the "Nation Builder" toolset.

8YrbraUCp1E


The rules are included in the free updated players guide from Paizo --
and I'd recommend reading them over, for those curious.

[sgtwhy]

lots of minor tweaks and updates
* rework of graphics (icons, frames, tabs)
* prep work for theme compatibility
* fixed a few logic errors
* set default to DC 10 (for non-nation builder users)

Army combat damage ...
It will show up on the Army details if/when any damage is taken.
(otherwise its hidden from view)

Ranged Ammo
Added a second box to track the remaining ranged shots left ... since during combat encounters, the armies are usually limited to [5] in total.


GUARD or FORTIFY
Added (2) check boxes for both situations.
Guard adds +2 AC vs attacks from other armies.
Fortify adds +4 AC to those inside.

[Miloh]

Hi Sgtwhy,

Wanted to add some things to the wish list.

When I create armies in the army tab, all my players can see them. That means if I create all the armies around their kingdom, well, its TMI.Is it possible to add a "hidden" check box on the army list so that a DM can hide other armies from players?

Second thing, is I accidentally deleated an army from the Battle tab, and it deleated the army completely. Maybe have it so armies can only be deleted from the Army tab.

Third thing is, it would be nice to have a check box in army tab to say if I want to add the army to the battle tab or not. Currently I do this by setting unwanted army factions to "none" but the reality is my players have about 6 armies, and typically only 1 or 2 of them will be in any given battle. That means I have to set all their factions to "none" except for the ones that will be in the battle.

Food for thought.

Miloh.

[sgtwhy]

Lots of minor improvements in this latest update.

We have been extensively play testing this in our campaign.
Specifically, using the toolset to manage WAR encounters.

As a result, have found a number of ways to improve the gameplay.
Also identified a lot more areas of potential "automation".


Here are a few highlights;


battle selector
On the WAR actions sheet, added a popup list to select "combatants".
(previously, it filtered on all FRIEND/FOE armies)

conditions
Selecting an army in the WAR sheet, will also "apply" any conditional modifiers.
so, if an army is "fortified" it now adds +4 AC to their sheet.
of if they have (1) Shaken counter, it subtracts (1) from all their Morale checks.

war vs army popups
The popup for armies differs between the sheets now, to focus on what is relevant.
i.e. the army sheet popups are intended for modifying the gear and other values.
While the WAR actions popups are for managing units during combat.

PF critical success / failures
Use the result to determine success, except a 20 increases success by 1 tier;
and a critical failure (1) reduce the resulting success by 1 tier.

tooltips
updated a bunch of tooltips ... that were previously missing and/or incorrect.
hovering over the army selection button should now say "select army".

instructional videos
previous feedback requested more videos. So I put together a couple more.
The latest videos explain the usage of each extension, rather than just gameplay.






TO-DO:

tracking target(s) for each army
auto-determining DC (based on target, etc.)
applying damage based on success (requires all the above)
impact of conditions on "army events" (outside of combat)

[sgtwhy]

links to new videos

https://youtu.be/O8irxnFl6MU
https://youtu.be/icx1WiQ7pus

or (inline)
O8irxnFl6MU

icx1WiQ7pus

[sgtwhy]

Here is a screenshot to show how the new army selector works ...

60759


And this one shows the differences in ARMY popup layout ... for WAR events.

60760

[sgtwhy]

Hi Sgtwhy,

Wanted to add some things to the wish list.

When I create armies in the army tab, all my players can see them. That means if I create all the armies around their kingdom, well, its TMI.Is it possible to add a "hidden" check box on the army list so that a DM can hide other armies from players?

Second thing, is I accidentally deleated an army from the Battle tab, and it deleated the army completely. Maybe have it so armies can only be deleted from the Army tab.

Third thing is, it would be nice to have a check box in army tab to say if I want to add the army to the battle tab or not. Currently I do this by setting unwanted army factions to "none" but the reality is my players have about 6 armies, and typically only 1 or 2 of them will be in any given battle. That means I have to set all their factions to "none" except for the ones that will be in the battle.

Food for thought.

Miloh.

Hey Milo - great suggestions. As of the 0.5.5 update 2/3 of these are resolved ... working on the third.

1. Hiding ... hmm. I had not considered that. In theory, I could make the entire thing "GM only" but then players cant see their armies.
>> I have a lot of client side work to do. will see if perhaps I can limit their "view" to ONLY those with the FRIENDLY faction.

2. Delete protection! definitely. I already working on updating the WAR Actions sheets to be basically "read only".
>> Since there should be no changing gear or other army features during War events. (those should only happen during Army actions.)

3. great idea and its done, in current (0.5.5) release updates.
>> There is now a popup listing "all armies" and GM gets to select which ones are in the pending combat. (i.e. which appear in the War events sheet)

[sgtwhy]

Lots of changes wrapped into this release.

1. client vs GM "army list"
Now the players have a different view into the "armies" sheet.
It only shows armies with "friend" faction, no longer (all) armies.
This way, the GM can create armies without players awareness.

2. Delete protection
Only the GM can delete armies. And now, only from the ARMY Events page.
Its no longer possible to delete armies from the WAR events page.

3. Army selector
The WAR tracker page is now empty, until the GM selects units to enter combat.
note: players will be able to view details on all units in the WAR tracker sheet.

4. Player console error logs cleaned up
Addressed about 2 dozen console errors caused by clients lacking permissions.
They have all been updated (where relevant) to only happen for the GM.

over-all progress ... is very near "feature complete".

So, speak up now ... if there are more feature requests!
(and especially, if you find bugs that need to be fixed)

[sgtwhy]

This includes the fixes to tabs and such, for the "dark mode" changes now part of Core RPG.
While it wont hurt anything, the theme is no longer needed / relevant.

However, I am leaving it available (free) for those inspired to create there own theme over-rides for both of my extensions.


Change Summary

QoLFeatures
* New records “Popup”: this brings new records into focus, making it easier to update. (armies, actions, gear, tactics, conditions)
... when a window loads or a new record is added, it will popup into focus if the "name" field remains empty.
* Conditions: the automation will attempt to calculate the effects caused by any associated army conditions.

Bug Fixes
* Dark mode fixes now included (plus a few I missed when creating the theme such as those shared with the Nation Builder extension)
* stand alone usage: I've also added "checks" to suppress the errors that can occur for using this without the NB extension.

[sgtwhy]

50% off both products, for the next 7 days.



from: 2024-12-02 11:00:00 EST
... to: 2024-12-09 11:00:00 EST



If you cant be King, be a King Maker!
https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1180/view
https://forge.fantasygrounds.com/shop/items/1625/view


Includes all the major QoL updates released over the last two years.
All aspects of turn management are tracked and automated in some manner.

It supports all Pathfinder 1e, 2e as well 5e DnD --- or any other ruleset based on Core RPG.
And a half dozen popular optional "rule fixes" to address common issues with the game mechanics.

The nation army rules are independent of any ruleset used for your campaign.
It lets the players manage and battle their nations armies, at a pace akin to PC combat.

[sgtwhy]

minor bug fixes;
* minor bug fixes
* reduced "client side" log errors

new features;
* War actions (used) ... (gameplay allows 3 per army, per turn)

The "war combat tracker" now tracks the actions taken for each army per turn.
In PF2 style, each unit is allowed "3 actions" per turn.

On each armies turn, the counter (actions taken) is reset ...
and then increases as "War Actions" are executed.

This should help when tracking ongoing WAR battles.

(screenshot to demonstrate; sorry for the over-saturation, its a windows11 HDR bug)

64824

[sgtwhy]

Nation Armies – Reference Guide
This thread provides a detailed reference for the War Actions and Army Details systems included in the Nation Armies extension. The Forge store page gives a high-level overview, but this post is meant as a deeper rules companion for GMs and players who want to understand the mechanics in full.

War Actions
The War Actions tool functions like a large-scale Combat Tracker for armies. It allows GMs to manage battles between multiple armies, track initiative, apply conditions, and resolve outcomes.

Setup & Flow
• Armies begin at Near distance and roll initiative using their Scouting score.
• Combat proceeds in rounds until one side is routed or destroyed.
• Each army may take up to three actions per round.

Common Actions
• Advance – Move closer to engage in melee.
• Battle – Make a standard attack.
• Retreat – Attempt to disengage from combat.
• Tactical Actions – Armies can learn special tactics that expand their options.

Damage & Routing
• Successful attacks typically deal 1 HP damage (2 on a critical).
• Damage persists after combat until recovered.
• At the end of each round, armies below their route threshold must check to avoid routing.
• Routed armies may only retreat until they recover or are destroyed.

Victory & Aftermath
• Once one side is defeated, the winners may attempt to Distribute Gear, looting fallen armies for equipment.

War Conditions
The Conditions Tab in the War Actions tool allows GMs to apply ongoing effects to armies.
• Conditions automatically apply bonuses or penalties.
• This reduces bookkeeping and ensures effects persist across rounds.
• Examples: morale boosts, terrain penalties, tactical advantages.

Army Details
Recruiting
• Armies are recruited via a leadership action.
• Standard armies have a base DC; unique armies have higher DCs set by the GM.

Consumption
• Armies require monthly food resources.
• Failure to feed armies increases unrest and may cause mass disbanding.

Types of Armies
• Infantry (Level 1+)
• Skirmishers (Level 3+)
• Cavalry (Level 5+)
• Siege Engines (Level 7+)
Each type has unique attributes, bonuses, and potential tactics.

Army Attributes
Armies function like simplified characters with their own stats:
• Scouting – Initiative and contested actions.
• Maneuver / Morale – Defensive saves.
• Hit Points & Armor Class – Durability in combat.
• Melee / Ranged Attacks – Offensive capability.
• Gear & Tactics – Customizable upgrades that expand options.

Gear & Tactics
Armies can be equipped with gear and trained in tactics.
• Gear: Weapons, armor, potions, and other upgrades.
• Tactics: Special abilities such as High Ground, Overrun, Live off the Land, or Toughened Soldiers.
• Some tactics can be taken multiple times for stacking benefits.

Integration with Nation Builder
When used with Nation Builder, armies become part of the monthly nation turn cycle:
• Upkeep Phase: Armies consume food.
• Unrest: Starving armies increase unrest and may mutiny.
• Strategic Impact: Armies influence stability, diplomacy, and expansion.

Closing Note
This reference is intended as a rules companion for GMs and players who want the full detail behind Nation Armies. For a streamlined overview, see the Forge store page.



If you can’t be a king, be a king maker — and command their armies too.

[sgtwhy]

working on an update to be compatible with v2 of the Nation Builder extension.