War Between Factions

Broad procedures to adjudicate a war between non-player factions

Jun 21, 2026

In a campaign world, there should exist differing factions that may be allies, indifferent to each other’s existence, or actively jockeying for power against one another. There are many ways to determine the results of those times when differing factions come to blows.

Faction War Procedures

Below I have transcribed the procedures I’ve recently been using to determine the outcomes of a war between the Kingdom and the Orcs. They are informed by the AD&D combat rules and have been good enough for figuring what is happening on the front line of the war - though I will warn that they are still new and being developed as circumstances arise…it’s possible that I either tweak them from their current form or abandon them entirely if a better method presents itself. There are no Player Characters in the thick of the action in the contested area on my campaign map, but if PCs were to ever get involved directly I would run the war as the primary focus as a true wargames campaign and not in the broad strokes described below.

As it stands, broadly adjudicating non-player action on a bi-weekly basis has allowed for the results to affect the overall campaign world and helped me move affiliated factions organically around the map during wartime.

My procedures are as follows:

Determining the Outcome of War Between Factions

Determine faction targets, usually a specific hex. Determine faction reason for securing target.
Determine commanders: effective commanders may carry a bonus to assault roll; likewise ineffective commanders may carry a penalty.
Determine initiative: a faction that achieves its goal first may cause their opponent to lose their attempt at territorial gain. As with typical combat, an initiative roll of 1-2 indicates that assault occurred before the defending army was ready, allowing 1 free assault roll in the event that the first assault roll is a failure. Tied initiative indicates both armies have fully committed and will trade assault rolls until one side fails the requisite number of morale checks in a pitched battle.
Roll for assault: roll 1d20 for the attacking army. The following modifiers apply:
1. Commander ability ranges between “Useless” and “Excellent”, which carries -2 to +2.
2. Significantly outnumbered (at least 3:1) forces have a -1 to assault roll.
3. THAC0 and AC used is determined by the bulk of the soldiers comprising an army.
Successful assaults cause their opponent to make a morale check. The morale check is made with no modifiers the first time an assault is successful, the second success is with +10%, the third success is made with an additional +10%. The battle continues until a defending army fails 1-3 morale checks, depending on the ability of their commander.
NOTE: if the defending army is outnumbered 3:1, then they have a +20% penalty to morale checks from the start.
If a defending army’s morale totally fails, then roll on the MORALE FAILURE table on pg. 67 of the DMG to determine the level of loss. If “flee in panic” or “surrender” is indicated, then the defending faction will not be able to counterattack. A defending army that loses its position, but was able to “disengage” or “fall back, fighting” may attempt to regain the lost hex. Regardless, the original objective marker is nullified when the defending army was thrown back in disarray.
1. If “flee in panic” or “surrender” is indicated, roll 1d6: on a result of 1, the retreating commander has been captured.
The attacking army must make a morale check after each failed assault in order to continue the attack.
1. If the attacking army is repelled, the defending army may attempt to chase them down if the attacker’s morale failure indicates “flee in panic” or “surrender”. If the pursuing defenders fail to meet or exceed the fleeing attacker’s AC, then the pursuit fails. Success indicates a 1-6 chance of capturing the attacking commander.
Assaults may be declared and determined on a bi-weekly basis.

Commander Ability

Commanders provide their armies with a bonus to an assault roll and increase the number of potential morale failures their army can sustain before retreat, as indicated in the chart below. A commander’s ability also provides a -5% bonus to morale checks per level of ability, likewise a poor commander provides a penalty to morale checks per level of ability.

Useless: -2 (1 morale check before army retreat, +10% to morale checks)

Poor: -1 (1 morale check before army retreat, +5% to morale checks)

Average: +0 (1 morale check before army retreat, no bonus/penalty to morale checks)

Good: +1 (2 morale checks before army retreat, -5% to morale checks)

Excellent: +2 (3 morale checks before army retreat, -10% to morale checks)

NOTE

^{The Dungeon Master can add or subtract modifiers as appropriate to the circumstances, maybe the defenders are safely behind thick walls? Then they probably ought to get bonuses to their AC per the rules for cover on pg. 64 of the}^{Dungeon Masters Guide}^{. They could also reduce/increase the frequency of potential assaults up or down from bi-weekly; for example, if one side is digging in for a siege, then they might only get one assault attempt per month.}