I'm curious if others have dabbled with the new rules for creating, managing and "warring" with Armies - introduced in the AP?
My group is currently kicking off Part 5, War of the River Kings.
The players recruited a few specialized (faction specific) armies.
(Centaurs, Lizard-kin and Kobolds)
As well as a general Cavalry from their citizens.
The combat rules are fairly simple, although it was difficult to figure out the appropriate DC for most WAR actions.
Eventually was able to determine its just an opposed skill check.
So to make a morale action, the DC is the targets Morale bonus + 10.
Same for any other skill check, except combat (which simply uses AC)
Running combat was fairly simple using initiative order and 3 actions like PF2.
Damage is very simple to track, just remember to make Route checks as needed.
As an example of gameplay:
Our last battle, the parties "elite kobold archers" where fortified in their castle. They were attacked by (3) armies at once ... which technically meant the could not be attacked until the castle was breached.
Since it would have been a boring session, I decided to let (2) of the attacking armies use their ranged attacks ... to attempt to damage the castle.
The 3 attacking armies had a tough time. The bandits never succeeded at their checks to advance / since the kobolds stayed fortified. Eventually they fled.
The horde of giants used their ranged attacks against the castle for a total of 3 damage before their used all their ranged attacks and had to flee as well.
And the ranged attackers dropped "explosive barrels" (so their ranged attacks could justify targeting a structure) ... and managed to do 3 more points of damage before running out of ammo.
Meanwhile, every round, the defenders spent 2-3 actions to attack from range and stay fortified. Even with the cumulative -5 and -10 penalty for multiple attacks in same round, they managed to do a lot of damage.
So, I had to "ad lib" a bit to keep the story moving ... and let the enemies feel like a threat. If they had more lucky roles, they would have made it through the castle walls and quickly dispatched the archers.
But the experience did leave me wondering ... if anyone else has had success with the army rules ?
I've read through the rules once and have no interest in using them. Abstract large battles are really difficult to do in TTRPGs, and unfortunately the Kingmaker rules go the wrong direction with them and make them more crunchy and clunky than they need to be. I'm thinking of establishing some sort of system where my PC rulers give "major orders" to their armies, and then I play it all out in the downtime between sessions.
What did your players think? Were they engaged by the warfare rules? Or just kind of bored?