If mass combat is very important to your story, then you need to make sure the game mechanics you use focus on that. That means you need as many different kinds of combat related skills as you can possibly imagine, to keep what you do every day (fight big battles) interesting and engaging for the players. If no one ever gets sent home unless they die, you have no need for any abilities or contests which are not related to army life. Sure, relationships are still very important, but "Love Family" is only useful for general morale boosting, while "Drinking Buddy of the Quartermaster Sergeant" is much more useful day to day.
> I see that bad guys don't have any stats, but... oh, well. I like to give
> them some abilities, like, developing them as a little community. I think of
> them story-wise and HQ is just so good at transforming that in stats!
Mix up the enemies: sometimes the opponents use Deadly When Stealthy, sometimes they use Reckless Charge, sometimes they use Overwhelm With Vast Numbers, sometimes they use Massive Artillery Bombardment. Each such choice calls for different responses; if your various PCs and their units each have different military specialities, then each of them gets some time in the spotlight. If it is long-running, then you should develop a recurring villain to be the heroes' favorite foe. When your players' spontaneously exclaim, "Oh, not these guys again!" or "Come on - now's our chance to get back at them for what they did to Sarge!", you have made an impression. Recurring opponents who are calculated to exploit the characters' weak points may inspire them to grow in unexpected ways. If you are telling a story in which individual unit identities are meaningful (from imperial Roman legions to WW2 Russian divisions earning the right to be called "Guards"), then the units have identity and continuity even when their consituent soldiers and commanders die, are captured or transferred to other units. HQ is particularly good at this: there's really no difference in how it treats "Colonel Gordon" or his command, "the Queen's Own Argyle Fusileers Regiment". Depending on the situation, either one could be the sidekick of the other.
Different levels of military units are also interesting. Are you making a war movie like The Big Red One, in which every player is an individual private in the same platoon; a war movie like Enemy at the Gates, which is mainly a one-on-one struggle which has the big war as just a backdrop; or a war movie like The Longest Day, in which you flit constantly between characters in completely different units at completely different levels of command? I'd really like to run a campaign in which each of the players is a captain commanding a different company in the same division -- very few movies are written this way, but some novels and many history books are -- and HeroQuest/HeroWars could be a very good approach for that.
> how could I create that table in excel or something like that?
> gave it a shot, no luck :(
If N is the number of people, and S is the size stat which represents them, use S = A * LOG(N, B) and N = B^(S/A), where A and B are constants of your choice. The examples I gave last time used A=10 and B=5, but I normally choose A=5 and B=2 for my own use. A=B=10 is the same thing as "decibels", which I recommend you look up on Wikipedia. These are set up so that no matter what A and B are, one lone guy equals Size zero; if you don't like that, the formulas get just a bit more complicated: S = A * LOG(N, B) + C and N = B^((S-C)/A), where C is the value of the Size stat you give to one guy.
Crucially important is that you NEVER ADD Size stats, because that would mean *multiplying* numbers. Always convert to N first, add there, and convert back to the resulting S. You can also make tables to speed your work; for example, adding two sizes is always equal to the larger size plus a number you look up based on how far apart the two numbers are. I like "S+5 = N * 2", so I know that if I combine two equal sizes, strengths, wealths, or whatever else, the result is always five more; 5+5=10, but 55+55=60, not 110.
Hope this helps,
Ryan
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