Strategic Combat

Strategic combat plays out much like a regular combat, but on a much larger scale. Rather than individual characters duking it out, a strategic combat consists of large numbers of combatants grouped into individual combat units. Player characters and villains take the role of champions during a strategic combat, controlling a subset of their army's total units and having a limited set of available actions that can influence the course of a battle.

Preparing a Strategic Combat

Battles can take many forms, including siege assaults, city skirmishes, and organized battles on open fields. Regardless of the form of battle, one side will be considered the initiator, and the other the defender. Depending on the circumstances surrounding the battle, this distinction may be obvious, or may come down to the winner of the initiative roll. The initiators of the combat begins by placing their units down on the field, followed by the defenders. Units not placed down initially are held in reserve, and can be deployed later in the combat. Each side will have one or more reinforcement zones designated, and may not place any unit closer to an enemy reinforcement zone than one of their own, barring special circumstances, along with any other placement restrictions the DM may enact.
There may also be scenarios where one or more armies have the ability to prepare the field of battle before engaging in combat. In such circumstances, they can construct defenses, traps, barriers, and so forth before the battle actually begins. Any Battlefield Equipment or carried deployable equipment can be laid out and prepared during this time. All such opportunities are given by DM discretion.

Strategic Combat Rounds

Each round, every champion takes their turn according to the initiative order. On their turn, a champion can choose to take a character action (covered below) in addition to commanding their controlled units.
Each unit gets one move and one action each round. A move must be taken before an action unless explicitly stated otherwise. For most units, actions are used to make an attack, though some have special abilities that otherwise use their action in a round.

Unit Combat

There are some important keys to how units engage in strategic combat.
Engagement: Units must be Engaged in melee combat to make melee attacks, retaliate against enemy attacks, or take parting attacks on units moving out of their threatened squares. A unit may engage another in melee as a free action on their turn, provided they are adjacent to and facing them.
Attacking: To attack an enemy, a unit must expend their action, then make an attack roll (1d20 + the unit's attack bonus) against their opponent's defense. If the attack is equal to or greater than the opponent's defense, the unit deals damage to the opponent. If the attack beats the opponent's defense by 10 or more, the attack is a critical, and deals an extra 50% damage (rounded down). If the attack misses by 10 or less, it is considered a glancing blow, dealing half damage (rounded down). A natural 20 is a natural critical, and automatically deals double damage, regardless of the opponent's defense.
Facing Matters: Each unit tracks their facing, and can only attack an enemy directly in front of them (also excluding diagonals). A unit can make one free facing change before their action each turn. This rule applies to both melee and ranged attacks.
Retaliatory Attacks: Any time a unit attacks another in melee combat, the defending unit can make an attack in retaliation (assuming it can attack in melee). Each unit can only take one retaliatory attack per round, and must be facing their enemy to make a retaliatory attack.
Disengage: If a unit begins its turn Engaged in melee with another unit, it can disengage, allowing it to move away without taking attacks from the opposing unit(s). Performing a disengage uses the unit's move and action for the round. If a unit moves out of a melee engagement without taking a disengage, all Engaged units may take a free attack against it as it breaks away. A unit Engaged with three or more units can disengage from a maximum of two units of their choice. Any further units get a free attack.
Diminished Units: Any unit reduced to half their maximum hit points gains the Diminished condition. A Diminished unit must make a morale check immediately or gain the Broken condition. If a unit fails this morale check by 10 or more, they instead gain the Shattered condition.
Resting: A unit not Engaged in combat can take an action to rest, removing Winded, downgrading Debilitated to Winded, and removing any fear condition it may have (Unsettled, Wavering, or Terrorized).

Reinforcement Zones

Each army gets one or more reinforcement zones in a strategic combat. They may be predetermined or placed at the beginning of the battle, based on circumstances.
Any unit held in reserve can be placed on any of its side’s reinforcement zones at the end of its turn.
Any unit that ends their turn in a reinforcement zone may retreat, taking no additional damage and leaving the battlefield for the remainder of the fight.

Structures

One or more structures may be present on the field of battle that can be occupied. Each structure will have a maximum occupancy (how many units can simultaneously occupy it), may provide bonuses or penalties to units occupying it, and has a hit point value to destroy it. A structure with the protective quality prevents any damage dealt to it from affecting units within it until it is reduced below half hp, at which point a unit within takes half the damage it takes (if there are multiple units in a structure, one unit is chosen at random to take damage along with it). When a structure is destroyed, any occupying units are killed along with it. More details on structures are covered in the Battlefield Features Overview article.

Characters in Strategic Combat

While characters primarily take on an indirect leadership role during strategic combat, they still have ways to contribute to the combat, primarily through Character Bonuses and Character Actions. Details on player character and villain involvement in strategic combat is covered in the Battlefield Champions article.

Ending A Battle

There are a few circumstances which can lead to a strategic battle ending. An army can be routed, it can be wiped out, or a ceasefire may be negotiated. The DM ultimately decides when an army routes, but in the case of a PC led army, appropriate morale checks will precede a full route barring extreme circumstances.
When an army routs, all of its units immediately gain the Broken condition and disengage, leaving the battlefield.
At the end of the battle, the victorious army can regroup, potentially recovering some of their losses to rout or desertion. Any unit that was reduced to 0 and wiped out or Shattered can make a morale check using their base bonus and a -5 modifier. On a success, they are reformed with 1 HP. Additionally, any Diminished unit can make a morale check using their base bonus to regain 1 HP per veterancy rank. Units taken prisoner by the opposing army may be parlayed for or rescued depending on the circumstances of the battle. If they are not released in some fashion, those units are permanently destroyed.
A losing army retreats with what they have remaining on the battlefield, marking down casualties and lost units as they lay at the conclusion of the battle. Depending on the circumstances of the loss, the surviving forces may still be wiped out, whether by the conclusion of a siege they failed to defend against, or a victorious army determinedly hunting them down before they can escape to safer territory.