Supposing you simulate a large battle in D&D 4e, and you want to do it with minions (rather than, say, treating each unit as a swarm or using some special large-scale combat rules). The XP chart lets you fit, say, 40 level 1 minions into a level 5 combat, and you can use more by giving equal numbers to both the enemy's side and the PC's side, with the PCs given command of units.
But how many minions can you put in one combat before it either becomes too slow to track, or the combat system breaks down by being too easy, hard or swingy?
Best Answer
Are Large Scale battles feasable? Absolutely.
The largest I have run is 65 monsters, 4 different kinds and a huge block of minions, against 6 characters and the players were sweating. The battle area has over 100 by 100 squares in size and there was hindering terrain.
Since minions have a fixed damage amount for the most part, I did the following:
1. Non-minion creatures & characters all roll normal initiative.
2. Minions roll one initiative roll and all go at the same time.
3. During combat I would move and roll attacks for each minion, but would do all the minion movement and attacks that involved a single character. This allowed the characters to respond to the minions much as they would a single creature attack.
3a. To speed rolling I used 3 d20s at a time for attacks and saves and would indicate the 3 minions fopr each roll.
The biggest key I found that kept the combat moving was having minion stats and a simple goal ready when it was the minions turn. I also did not spend a lot of time on intricate movement for the minions. They just waded in and attacked and the other creatures did the special stuff. The whole combat took less than an hour.
As for adding character side minion units, I would just do the same thing in reverse. I would give the players the stat sheet or sheets for the friendly minions and have 1 or 2 players run them. Have them all act on the same initiative just like the monsters.
My players all agreed that there is nothing scarier than have 50+ plus monsters all move,and attack at once.