So has been training an army over the course of the campaign, and now my DM has given me leave to stat out my foot soldiers at level 3, and I'm just trying to figure out what the best build is. My preliminary thoughts are these:
Give every army member the shield wall and swap places teamwork feats. Equip one line of soldiers with tower shields. That way each round four rows of soilders may move up and attack, with the fith row then changing places with the front lines, and spending their standard action giving the army total cover with their tower shield.
Does anyone else have any other ideas or suggestions? Anything I'm missing?
Itd be nice to know whar class they are. I assume warriors?
Also unsure if the swap places trick work by RAW; the swapee has to have an immediate action, so one character can be displaced only once per round by this feat.
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Really depends on how many troopers you have. Along with what kind of army you are looking to build. Not every thing is created equal. There is a reason for kiss(Keep it simple stupid). Due to confusion in combat, and the complete understand that privets will get it wrong.
A few basic lay outs. Notice with both they are using tower shield to protect the archers in the back.
Heavy Army Slow movement
1/2 Front line tower shields, heavy armor, and short swords.
1/4 Second rank with heavy armor, and reach weapons.
1/4 Range light armor, and long bow.
Light Army fast movement
1/2 Fast light armor, and mix of two handed weapons, and weapon & shield.
1/4 High AC heavy armor, tower shield, and short swords
1/4 Range light armor, and long bow
Only NPC classes or can you take any class?
How many soldiers?
Do you have a way to buff your army (Bard, Spells)?
So I have three levels of fighter to work with, no deviations from that class (so no bards or casters) and 500 soldiers. But the army is mixed race. My DM never gave me specifics, but given the demographics of my city I would say about 50% human, 20% gnome and then 10% elf, 10% dwarf and then 5% halfling and 5% goblin.
Also the swap feat should work. In theory you would only need to displace each soldier only once per a round.
Make a two cohorts of tanks with heavy armor and the swap feat. Those can ready some polearms against charging enemies and block them.
And then proceed make MANY archers. They need Precise shot and then going by the rules everything should go down due to the fact, that many more archers can attack the enemy, than melee units.
If you got horses some Mounted Chargers might also be cool.
So I have three levels of fighter to work with, no deviations from that class (so no bards or casters) and 500 soldiers. But the army is mixed race. My DM never gave me specifics, but given the demographics of my city I would say about 50% human, 20% gnome and then 10% elf, 10% dwarf and then 5% halfling and 5% goblin.
Oooo...the levels might be nice if you can use archetypes. Phalanx Soldier could make a decent front line since they can combine tower shields and reach weapons. It might hurt their hit and damage, but it would be hard to simply get around for most challenges of their level. Hard to hit and they can still smack opponents before they come close.
I would suppose that humans and dwarves would be the most likely frontline. Dwarves in particular could combine heavy armor and towershields without being slowed down.
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I'd be inclined to split the army into racial task forces, to take advantage of racial (dis)advantages.
1) The humans have a bonus feat and there's a lot of them. Making a pure human battalion means a team of 5-feat fighters; you can do a lot with that. Let's say you give them Shield Focus, Shield Wall, Swap Places, Toughness and Weapon Focus (all easy-to-administer feats). Their main job is to catch the enemy army and absorb the blow. Tower shields are debatable; they do slow down the army. Using heavy shields, along with level 3 fighter's Armor Training, means they're moving at 30ft speed.
2) Elves are equipped with longbows, greatswords and take PBS, Precise Shot, Nimble Moves and Light Step as feats. They take the Fleet-Footed racial trait to get Run. They shoot at enemies and can physically fight enemies that get close, but try not to get into main melee fights. With Light Step and Run they should be able to use Difficult Terrain to great advantage.
3) Goblins, Halflings and Gnomes are all given Mounted Combat, Ride-By-Attack, Spirited Charge and Power Attack, and are equipped with horses and lances. Their goal is to swiftly attack weak and crucial enemy points, bringing a lot of power to bear on one enemy section.
4) Dwaves travel on horses pre-battle (to keep marching speed up), but dismount during battle. They're equipped with Dwarven Waraxes (which they can use one- and two-handed) and bucklers. They take Power Attack, Shield Wall, Cleave and Swap Places as feats. They work from inside the human formation, but move to the front to quickly break through troublesome enemy groups;
- lots of weaklings with Cleave
- giants with the racial bonuses against giants
- tough opponents with two-handed power attack
I'm not entirely convinced about Swap Places, though; I'm not sure it's really necessary.
Try to hire clerics to hide inside formations and Channel Energy once in a while; Swap Places might be useful to funnel wounded soldiers away from the front lines so they get inside channel range.
Skill Focus - Profession Soldier! Turn them into real pro's who know what they are doing.