However, because we so often have tightly-scripted encounters, we forget that sometimes it can be extremely fun to face a combat situation that's full of total chaos where players can really cut loose with a lot of their abilities, but which still rewards smart strategy and tactical planning.
I'm talking, of course, about the zerg rush.
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| They're everywhere! Fire at will! |
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They Just Keep Coming!
Even if you're not a Starcraft player, chances are good you've heard the term zerg rush before. It comes from the insectoid zerg faction, creatures reminiscent of both the tyranids of Warhammer 40K, but also of the bugs of Starship Troopers. Some players would build up as many warrior units as they could, and mass rush them over the enemy lines. While individually these creatures were weak, en masse they were a serious threat that would take stiff resistance to stand against. Over time the term grew to refer to basically any game where a mass frontal assault using overwhelming numbers was the strategy employed.
The reason I've had this particular strategy on my mind is that I've been sitting down and planning short-form missions for my RPG Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic. Some of those missions involve tracking down enemies out in the wild, some require getting hold of particular documents, and others require kicking in the doors and going in guns blazing! At least one or two, though, are going to deal with the squad of troopers being given a location to defend and hold.
And when that happens, a zerg rush is a great way to keep things feeling tense, and to keep your players on their toes.
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| You can use practically any enemies you want for this... |
Now, it doesn't matter if you are using the vespoinds in Army Men, goblins in traditional Dungeons and Dragons, or you want to send hordes of undead at your survivors in All Flesh Must Be Eaten, there are several key things to keep in mind in order to make defending against this kind of assault a thrilling encounter, rather than a tedious or frustrating one.
- Firstly, the players must have some kind of location to defend. Even if it's just a set of interlocking trenches on one side of No Man's Land, or a tumbledown castle with a wall full of holes, they need to have some kind of defense to make up for their lack of numbers.
- Secondly, the enemies need to be relatively weak as individuals. A single zombie, a single goblin, or a single Vespoid is not a great threat... but a dozen of them? 50 of them? A hundred? These are the sort of numbers that can make players sweat when they start closing the distance.
- Thirdly, players need to have the resources to fight this battle. If there are only a dozen arrows between all the bowmen, and there are 75 enemies approaching, that is not going to be a fun time; it's just going to feel unfair. You don't need to give them infinite ammunition along with rocket launchers, the ability to constantly replenish their spell slots, etc., but make sure that your players have enough tricks up their sleeve (whether it's calling in air support or artillery fire, or the sorcerer has a handful of fireballs and lightning bolts) to make a big show of things, but not so many that they can drop those big bombs every turn with impunity.
- Fourthly, the rush should be dynamic. Even if the enemy you're facing isn't known for strategy, it's important to divide the PCs' attention at least somewhat. For example, if they're guarding a fort, and the rush comes from two fronts, they now have to weigh the odds of which direction to focus more of their attention and firepower, redirecting and moving organically as the battle develops. If part of the rush breaches a gate, they have to weigh defending that position and stopping other gates from receiving the same treatment, and so on. If the party is just holding a narrow cave mouth, then it's just going to be a martial in the gap, bowmen and casters behind, and that can get boring quickly because it isn't changing. If the rush loses momentum it becomes a slog, and no one finds that fun.
- Fifthly, and this one is optional, consider doing a zerg rush in waves. Keep a counter in front of you as a GM, and every X number of rounds, bring in fresh numbers, or a force from a different direction. This keeps your players on their toes and helps stop you from getting too overwhelmed moving such a massive force as one. And, as a final piece of advice, it helps if the rush has limited ability to actually hurt the PCs from a distance. This allows the PCs to at first attack with impunity, but as the enemy draws nearer, and starts to press them, suddenly the threat becomes much more real than it was a few rounds ago!
There are a lot of different ways you can go with a zerg rush encounter. For example, you can have the rush continue for a certain period of time, requiring players to simply hold it back until a ritual is complete, the dawn breaks over the horizon, an air strike can swoop in, etc. Alternatively, the rush might be stopped by destroying a particular figure, such as the necromancer commanding the undead, the hobgoblin generals directing their troops, or the hive mind of a vespoid force. Or it might simply end when enemy morale breaks, and too many troops from their side have been lost.
With that said, it's important to make sure you budget the time for running something like this, and that you have some kind of loss condition if the rush does actually overwhelm the PCs. For example, can they withdraw to a narrow retreat that will save them from the foe, but put them in different danger (like retreating through underground tunnels haunted by other, dangerous creatures)? Will they be captured instead of killed if the rush overwhelms them (such as if the necromancer has plans for them that would be upset by them getting mostly eaten by a horde of zombies)? Is the rush more focused on retrieving a hostage (like a bandit leader being freed by his gang) than it is on actually fighting the PCs?
Sometimes the rush actually goes the way the antagonists want, which is something you need to plan for before you do it so that it doesn't just spell game over if the dice go against your players.
As a final reminder, if you're a fan of tactical tabletop games, and you want to try a ridiculous setting that evokes that gung-ho, anything goes feeling of a backyard game of make believe with your entire toy chest, then consider picking up your copy of Army Men: A Game of Tactical Plastic, along with the two supplements that have been released for it so far, Army Men: Threat Assessments, and Army Men: Medals of Honor!
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