Over a Mug of Ale [For A Better Age]

The battle has in fact started. Except for a handful of Varajtul, most of the horde has kept right on going past Anoke and the Wyld Mother. The ranged attacks are just a response to all of them entering range.
 
Do you want me to roll the effects of the Obsidian Butterflies now, or on a particular tick?
 
Sherwood said:
Do you want me to roll the effects of the Obsidian Butterflies now, or on a particular tick?
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Nagh, go ahead and roll, we will move to the official tick counter when we get into melee range. Just state if you are hitting some of the fresh Varajtul units, or the ones that have already been softened up.
 
MorkaisChosen said:
Archery!
Are any other units within 80 yards of Bjarn?
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I'll count the NPC Militia units just north and south of you to count. They just aren't on the map or anything (because I didn't feel like rolling dozens of actions between myself between my own NPCs).
 
Sherwood said:
Awesome descriptions on the fight, by the way.
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Happy to hear that you are enjoying them. It certainly takes a lot of time and effort to type this stuff up. So it is always good to know that people are liking what is going on.
 
Any signs of siege towers approaching the walls or just infantry with ladders?
 
Sherwood said:
Any signs of siege towers approaching the walls or just infantry with ladders?
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Just siege towers. The Varajtul lack the technical expertise to create proper siege towers.
 
Are we still doing mass combat or are we acting as solo units now?
 
Yeah, that's confusing me a little, because if we're in Mass Combat, I'm not really doing anything unless Morkais chooses to use Calypso.
 
Alright, just to clear some things up. We are still in Mass Combat.


If you are acting as a Special Character in a mass combat unit, you are still allowed to make your own actions. You have the Option of syncing up with the Commander of the unit and lending your abilities to the Commander, but you can also take your own actions.


When taking your own actions you just don’t get the advantage of the unit’s Might, Magnitude, and other combat stats, and have the enemy unit’s Mag (max of -3) subtracted from your attack roll successes. Also the number of dice you get from your Abilities is limited is limited by the Commander’s War that the Special Character is under. In the case of Bjarn that would be 5, and Maiden 7. Also, you can only attack units that the unit you are under has already engaged.


Hope that cleared some stuff up.
 
Explanation


I am having Hideous internet problems, where even trying to load pages is hit and miss. My provider can't seem to fix the problem, had 3 techs over, and consistently my dsl line is dropping...


Example I've spent an hour just tyring to put this post up.


I'll let you guys know when it's all back on base and I can be active again, right now I'm just struggling to get some actual work done.


Sorry
 
It’s cool Wuffy. I remember my own internet troubles when I was just starting this game, so I certainly emphasize with you. Thanks for keeping us updated on what is going on. Don’t worry about your seat at the table, I’m just keeping it warm at the moment.
 
Further to the special character thing: I'm not sure if Calypso's better off as a Hero or Sorcerer. It basically depends on whether the range on her Mind-Hand Manipulation is great enough to manage actual ranged attacks.
 
Archivist, Anoké should be acting again on Tick 9. Majestic Radiant Presence is a Reflexive Charm, and the social attack he made has a speed of 4 long ticks. Unless you decided a two-tick penalty was in order for something.


Also, on Calypso: She doesn't have the War to assume Bjarn's position in the (unlikely) event he dies, or to split off and form her own unit. She also lacks any martial skills so she has nothing to lend to Bjarn in terms of Close Combat or Ranged Combat. However, her attacks are ranged, so she qualifies as a Sorcerer.
 
Axelgear said:
Seems I'm waiting until the next turn, since I don't think there's anything I can do here.
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Sorry 'bout that, it was most unfair of me to massacre all the enemies in an orgy of bloody violence.
 
S'alright. There's still one group of them left, at least. Besides, this is Bjarn's environment, you deserve to grand-stand. Also, after this, we still have others to take care of.


Unless the ancestor ghosts just hide in the wall.


How anti-climactic would that be? The ancestor ghosts just hide inside the wall and wait a few days before slipping through the gate while everyone's asleep and slaughtering the entire city.


Come to think of it, it's a wonder why they didn't do that to begin with. If we'd not known they were coming and they'd stayed unmanifested, they could've walked right through the walls, slaughtered the civilians, demoralized the troops, and opened the gates all at once to let their descendants in.


Probably shouldn't have said that, actually...
 
Yyyyeeeaaaa, there are reasons why I didn’t do the whole dematerialization sneak attack. Partially because it would kinda make me a douchebag to use a pretty cheap trick like that just to slaughter civilians. I did consider it, but decided that was something that would be a bit mean on my part to pull without at least having an NPC warn you about (plus as a GM I do kind of want to make the game beatable). Though there are a number of in-character reasons for their behavior.


One reason is that they figured you would be doing exactly what you have done, put down salt along the walls to prevent them from pulling that (something I wanted you guys to suggest, and not have my NPCs necessarily tell you to do). Also due to the general threat of ghosts in the North, the gates themselves have been warded against a sudden attack by the undead just like that (Icehold has had this issue in the past in previous sieges with enemies friendly with the undead). Admittedly, this is something I never really went over in character at this point, but I infordump enough as it is.


It didn’t come up due to not having a Night Caste or someone with Stealth entering the Varajtul camp, but the Varajtul have developed a ritual that by sacrificing one of their descendants, they can allow their ancestor ghosts to be out in daylight for a handful of days. Though this does restrict them to staying materialized.


It’s possible they could have tried a night attack along Axel’s lines, but something like that requires pretty tight coordination in addition to stealth. And these guys are not military geniuses. Coordinating a surprise night attack on a city without it being noticed what you are doing is not easy for a relatively efficient, disciplined, and experienced army. The Varajtul lack many of those qualities.


Not meaning to sound defensive here. I do try and think of a number of factors for a battle like this, and I am probably going to miss some things and possible tactics a group might use. But for the Varajtul, I’m not playing them as intelligently as I could considering I don’t really consider them to be a top notch military in a lot of ways. Being a bunch of insane Wyld Barbarians and the like. Plus I do like to have enemies make the occasional mistake, especially if it is based on some hubris they have, general misinformation, or other problems. I do promise to play other opponents more intelligently when appropriate. Likely if you face a Realm Legion, and its competently lead, you will be facing a much tougher opponent.


Also once we get to time skip, sandbox mode after the battle I’m sure everyone will get the opportunity to shine in their areas of expertise. In addition to getting a bit more freedom of movement. It’s just kind of natural that a Dawn Solar is going to shine in a massive battle like this considering this is what they are made to do.
 
I'll have a post up for Asyk sometime tomorrow. It will give me some time to contimplate my next target and how to get the best results.
 
Are there any units of signifigance left that I can hit with another shot of Obsidian Butterflies? That's my best mass combat move since my archers are either low or out of arrows from the initial approach. I want to try and take down some of these monks or elite formations with a well placed spell. I probably need to learn Flying Guillotine too, to take out unit leaders.
 
Sherwood said:
Are there any units of signifigance left that I can hit with another shot of Obsidian Butterflies? That's my best mass combat move since my archers are either low or out of arrows from the initial approach. I want to try and take down some of these monks or elite formations with a well placed spell. I probably need to learn Flying Guillotine too, to take out unit leaders.
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If Asyk takes a dash action to the south he can attack the Warlord, Ancestor ghosts, or Monks.


Also your archers still have two more shots left. And you can attack immediatly with them.
 
Slightly unorthodox siege strategy here, perhaps, but it should be pretty effective, especially with a pair of Exalt-led units.


OK, let's be honest. Bjarn's feeling a little guilty that Volund's been stuck in reserve, which may have coloured his choice of tactical maneouvre a little.
 
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