Kurgan wrote:Right, so the HQ heroes are like this fantasy world's elite special forces sent on special missions, not frontline combat troops fighting in big battles. I guess you could adapt them for use in Battlemasters, where they could basically take the place of Imperial lords (knights). I guess a knightly Wizard could throw spells around, like a one man artillery piece!
The ending of Against the Ogre Horde does imply the Heroes are taking part in the war, whether their leading means actual leading from the front or more as commanding troops into battle from their strategy tent.
This is typically the recommended style of play for any sort of party-based adventuring game. In WFB, they would be the Heroes and special characters, not the combat troops. WD had a WHQ article about converting your WHQ character for WFB, but a lot of it is basically ad-hoc, comparing character abilities to others with similar abilities, and working from there. The WD article was fairly good if you want the heroes to lead or take part an army, and mechanics wise, you can make comparable heroes, lords, and wizards to what we already see in WFB.
IF a party takes part in a battle, it should be staged so that it's not a standard battle. Focus on the named targets, use challenges and duels to get to the epic fights, and describe the general carnage as background noise. Often, troops are the diversion that allows the Heroes to do their jobs as heroes. In any type of war scenario, the Heroes are more likely to be dropped behind enemy lines to attack the HQ, rather than to face the frontline troops head-on.
Alternative scenarios include city sieges, either in attack or defence, or guerilla warfare. Anything where the Heroes can encounter a small part of an opposing army, so the advantage of numbers is minimalised. If you REALLY want to see a party in a battle scenario, then you might want to consider looking into a skirmish system like Mordheim.
None of this is really HQ specific, but it's very rare to fight epic battles in dungeons, as the confined spaces often help to tilt things in the favour of the superior units - which is typically the Heroes. The Heroes can wade through Orcs and Goblins, Skeletons and Zombies, and everything else, because the dungeon restricts and protects the Heroes from the numbers of monsters. The "meatgrinder" effect is more akin to a fantasy Tom Clancy game, especially when you get options for ranged attacks, as the common tactic is to clear room by room, regrouping after each breach.
There's very few reasons why any adventuring party would encounter a full army. Armies are big, and take a lot of logistical support, so the Heroes will be able to detect and avoid them. If the party HAS to attack an army, it's normally by tackling a small portion of it, such as a scout patrol, a skirmish group, or by setting an ambush or using terrain so that they can focus on the objective of their mission, such as harassing their supply lines or sabotaging artillery placements.
There's no reason why you can't set HQ outdoors in various wartime scenarios, but a pitched battle is not what the Heroes are there for. If you think only taking part in pitched battles is epic, then you are doing it wrong. HQ isn't about pitched battles. Sure, the Heroes might charge in to a room full of Orcs, but in all honesty, even a room full of Orcs is going to be hampered by the confines of the dungeon, and the fact that the Heroes are effectively in skirmish formation, and can not only use terrain to their advantage to funnel the enemy into kill zones, but can also put up a formidable defence if they have to...
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