Hi so I've been writing my own campaign and so far I've completed one part of hopefully 3. Part one is set up as a focus on leveling up, getting comfortable with each other's characters and getting my players introduced and familiar with the area as they scout it out. The second part is going to include some kind of mass combat and war with the enemies of the area and the final part will be more story and puzzles to figure out how to defeat a 'final boss' so to speak. But for part two I'm having difficulty deciding if using Paizo's structure of 'warring' would work well in this setting. The players are coming into this area as a tipping point for the beginning of a war- so I'm not sure if I should have them use a kingdom I've prepared for 'their side' in advance as the proxy for their being able to compete in this war or just leave out the kingdom part of Paizo's war structure completely and figure out an alternate way of running a war. The problem is I'm not sure how I would structure my own 'rules of war' and I wonder if any one has some ideas for this.
Some context, I've been playing since July with the same group and this is my first time as a GM. A lot of what I've created so far is touch and go, but seeing as I hope this to be a moderately sized campaign I'm trying to do some more in depth research to make this what I want and something enjoyable for my friends.
It depends on two things.
1)What your players enjoy
2)The role of the war in the story.
The options are that the war is happening in the background while the players carry on with their quests with only limited interaction with the warring parties.
Or
The characters work as elite soldiers for one faction in the war carrying out vital missions to defend or destroy key targets, eliminate or protect leaders that sortof thing. They will have a key role in the war but not command units or direct the war.
In both these cases there is no need for rules for the war, you decide what happens and just make sure that the players actions have an appropriate effect on how the war turns out. In other words the war is just another narrative element.
Only if the players will need to and want to command the armies at war should you consider using rules for the armies and then decide on the level of detail you and they want and get a suitable system for it