Many Hands

As in, 'many hands make light work'.

This replaces the Mass Combat system in Exalted with something saner. The purpose of this is to provide a streamlined system for cooperative rules that are simple, easy to use and at the same time, descriptive.

These rules make the assumption that your combat involves the Exalted, or other high-powered beings. Combat is very modern - traditional, rank and file unit formations are going to get torn to shreds in this system, just like they would against a modern force. You will notice that these rules heavily penalize "One direct commander over hundreds of troops." Starting now.

Squads

This idea draws in part from the idea of Brute Squads in 7th Sea. A Squad can be one person or several, but always, they act like a single character, and for all intents and purposes, essentially are. Squads have an additional Trait, called Drill, which limits the die bonus they get from leadership.

They are constructed as follows. You will notice that this is a lot more straightforward for identical troops.

1. Note the leader of the Squad. They should have the highest appropriate Ability - typically War or Bureaucracy, but sometimes a different trait will be required, or a person unfit for command is given the post.
2. The commander's rating in this ability limits the number of people they can directly coordinate with maximum efficiency. Each additional person 'gets in the way', instead, subtracting one die from the following bonus, instead of adding.
3. For each trait, find the corresponding lowest value in the squad. This is the squad's base value. Add up the remaining values, and quarter them. This is the squad's 'bonus' to said value, which is limited by their Drill score. Virtues (like compassion) may have restricted bonuses at the discretion of the commander.
4. Add up the health levels of the squad. Only 1 + the squad's Valor in members may be counted in this manner.
5. Calculate all derived values, including Essence pools if necessary. Movement speed alone is limited by the slowest member.
6. Find the average equipment statistics of the squad's members, and apply them normally.
7. Do the same with Charm lists. If half or more of the squad will benefit from a Charm (because they all have it, or because one Charm benefits them all), the Squad has the Charm.

The result is a group of people who act as a single character. The Squad acts in normal time. This suffices for small units, but not for mass combat. That follows.

Companies

Companies are larger units, made up of Squads. They have a Command Squad, which can command a number of smaller Squads equal to their (modified) appropriate Ability score.

Companies, too, function as characters, but their traits (if you are a sadist and using significantly different kinds of units) are averaged instead, except for health levels, which are added together, and then divided by sixty (because a long tick is one minute). In addition, find the slowest squad, multiply by sixty, and that is the speed of the company.

This still over-abstracts the combat a great deal, and the players should keep that in mind when the dice are rolling. An attack is an extended roll representing sixty attacks from everyone in the company capable of doing so, after all.

Under this system, there is no Join Battle roll - everything occurs simultaneously. The company that wins the Join Battle roll goes first, but the consequences of a long tick are not felt until that tick has actually passed.