Strategic challenges are used exclusively while commanding armies. They are a form of skill challenge; however, like duels, they take into account the abilities and skills of the enemy commanders.

Battles have generals and commanders; each battle, the players will choose a general. They make an initiative roll and the general with higher initiative CHOOSES whether to go first or second.

Each commander and general then takes turns successively performing strategic challenges. They perform a skill check, where the DC is a competing skill check by the opponent. Not all checks will use the same skills; Investigation or Insight are used to spot Deception or Stealth; Survival may be undone by knowing Nature or Animal Handling; even History may combat Persuasion.

These dictate the difficulty of the combat encounter, which will usually take place at the end of the strategic challenge. An example of such actions are found below;

• Two rival enemy generals make camp a few miles from each other. General 1 (G1) digs in, making a survival skill check (CON) to determine how effectively entrenched the encampment is. The General 2 (G2) loses the check; scouts report it will be difficult to meet them head on.
• G2 decides to attack and feign defeat, hoping to lure the opposition out into an ambush. G2 rolls a deception or performance (CHA) check. G1 beats the competing check; a flagpost snaps on the charge. Interpreting it as a ill omen, he retreats and refuses to engage.
• Commander 1 decides to taunt the enemy with a performance (CHA) skill check and lower their moral. He hangs from the stakes of the encampment and taunts them Commander 2 wins the competing check, and decides to shoot C1 in the hand, pinning him to the stake.
• C2, seeing the situation is not changing, offers to write a letter framing C1 as working with the enemy. This deception check succeeds against G1's investigation check, and C1 is executed for being an enemy spy.
• The score is tied; G2 charges into the encampment, and the lack of a second commander throws them into disarray. A slaughter is held on both sides. Only in the encounter can victory be decided. Without a commander however, G1 eventually loses.

Learning about your enemies will help you learn their strengths and weaknesses. Most enemy commanders will have 3 strong attributes and 3 weak one. Knowing your enemy is one such path to victory.

Knowing the terrain, and advantages of your own men, is another. It is the crafty general that wins more often than the martially inclined.

Below is the ruleset for duels, a reoccurring feature of single combat between two opponents. As duels are envisioned as quick, decisive battles, they use alternative rules to combat, and victory is not determined by damage dealt.

Each opponent or their allies can perform up to three 'Preparative' actions. These are skill checks, spells or, performed either before or during a duel to help tip the balance into your favour, and can include:

• An ally creating a distraction on a deception check, or casting a distracting spell requiring an insight or con save to pass
• Using acrobatics to jump over your opponent midfight.
• Taunting your opponent with performance or persuasion.
• Using survival to see advantage in the terrain outdoors, or investigation if indoors.
• Successes on Grappling, Dazing, knocking Prone, Paralyzing, Shoving or Restraining also skips one opponents Preparative action.

Each Preparative action can only be performed once per duel. For every Preparative success you gain an additional d20 to roll on your attack action, as though you had advantage. Once all Preparative actions are taken, both opponents roll simultaneously. Successful hits do not deal damage; instead they apply a -1 to their opponents CON modifier. If a creature's CON modifier is 0 or less, the creature drops to 0 HP and is considered Fallen; this can happen to both opponents simultaneously. If no creature has a CON modifier of 0 or less, the duel repeats.