The Battle for Gobwin Bump

[Sinrus]

Just for the record, paragraphs are your friends. Anyway, on to business.

"Okay, so. We have no idea of the positions of enemy forces. They could be inside the city, scattered throughout the countryside, anything. We don't even know if they have dwagons or indeed anything besides gobwins. That means that the first turn should be spent scouting. There are nine hexes on our side of the river; scouts will be sent out and they will make sure that our position is secure. If any Gobwin Knob units are found in this area, Graf Zeppelin will take his diwigible and the air guns to wipe them out. Once we are secure, Lord Mar Bull of Jetstone will lead 7 gumps and defend the first bridge.

"So from that point onwards, our goal is to DEFEND THE DIWIGIBLE! It must NEVER me exposed to enemy attack. Like you said, Etna, it should always use exploration to move and if enemies are seen they need to be taken down. Gumps can do the real heavy lifting, the diwigible only should be brought in when we reach Gobwin Bump and if there is a heavy stack defending a bridge. Jetstone's Unipeagtaurs are assigned to defend Graf's flanks at every turn. My loggators and hippipos can help with that too.

"We'll improvise each turn as we go along. No sense in making further plans when we have this little information. Any objections?"

[Ehbobo]

Lord Mar Bull gives a powerful salute. "Yes ma'am! Jetstone will do its job well. Nothing will touch that diwigible with our forces protecting it."

[turbler]

forgot my paragraphs, huh. oops.

"Works for me, Chief. I think I'll start heading north myself, the Manticowes can carry me and the Prinnies up, and the Imps will scout for us. I think I'll let the Shadows stay with the Diwigible." Responded Etna, wishing that The RCC sent some casters. As an afterthought she followed with " The Diwigible is a flyer, and I figure we ought to keep it out of engagements. as long as it has the time to, it could most likely solo the walls of Gobwin Bump. if we do know the stack is weak enough, I guess we could use the Diwigible. All I'm really trying to say, is that if that Diwigible croaks, we'll be the ones under siege."

[Crovius]

So with 200 points I'll start with my commander Dagnabit, two Delvers, eight Fodderman and 4 Egg Breakers.

Dagnabit sits on the side with several of his Fodderman and a pair of Delvers. The small group of Egg Breakers were already on the wall, keeping watch. Dagnabit drags a small stoen over the blade of his axe while his Fodderman shine their armor.

"My Delvers are ready to head out and scout the countryside. They are fast and if an enemy finds them they'll put up a fight. My Egg Breakers are garrisoned on the walls. Me and my men are ready to advance to the bridges. We will hold any bridges against any enemy that chooses to advance. If anythign we'll set up safety check points so our siege can move safely along the roads.

[Sinrus]

"Sounds good to me. Other than the diwigible, your delvers are the strongest scouts we've got and we're going to rely on them quite a bit."

[Doug]

Okay, cool- then if I'm not too behind the curve I'll be playing for the armies of NovaKing.

Imperial Guards (Infantry) x4, 40
Hits: 4
Attack: 1
Defense: 4
Move: 1
Total Cost: 10

Royal Lancers (Cavalry) x 4, 68
Hits: 5
Attack: 5
Defense: 4
Move: 3
Total Cost: 17

Prince Chevy (Cavalry) x1, 32
Hits: 5
Attack: 5
Defense: 3
Move: 3
Special: Leadership lv5

Total Cost: 32

Foe-Hammer Ballistas (siege) x4, 60
Hits:6
Attack: 6
Defense: 2
Move: 1
Total Cost: 15

Running total- 200

Though this lineup won't bring any scouting to the fight, the Lancers can be distributed as needed to add some additional punch to fights on the front, while the Guards and Ballistas can move in the rear as Allied advances are shored up.

[LTDave]

So, wait, what? You guys are ready to start?

I count five players -
turbler
Crovius
Ehbobo
Sinrus
BLANDCorporatio

Did I miss anyone? Players can join as we go.

I don't want to leave you completely in the dark, so here's the Gobwin Units' Stats known at the beginning of the game:

Unit Name Move Attack Defence Hits Special Cost

Twoll 2 6 8 9 None 25
Gobwin 2 2 3 3 None 10
Dwagon 5 20 7 18 None 50
Spidew 3 9 4 9 None 25
Commander 3 3 3 3 Commander 24


And it looks like Sinrus is Chief Warlord - was there a vote, or did that just happen? Either way is fine.
Let's say the Chief Warlord can be replaced if a majority of active players vote for someone else as Warlord. PM your votes to me.

What I'm particularly upset about is the Commander thing. Shouldn't scouts be reasonably independent? It does have some precedent in Erfworld after all, see Vinny's Bats.

If you need a Commander in the same hex as a Scout to start scouting, well that either makes having more scouts than commanders useless or tedious, your pick. Tedious because ok, you have several scouts in a stack to inspect the neighbouring hexes. Each inspects, and reports clear, and moves to the hex in question (and cannot scout again). So in the next turns, the Commander will have to move around and recollect the scouts.

Saying, because if this is the case then I'd rather replace the Gyroscopes and an Air Gun or two with Otto Motors; the Diwigible is a Scout anyway.

This is deliberately annoying. I want the players to be relatively blind, it'll help make up for the Gobwin's limited numbers.

Plus, there's inspect and explore. Inspect is look into the next hex, stay where you are. Explore is look into the next hex, move in if there's nothing there - and remember, scouts with movement left can move in the move/combat phase, so you can bring them all back to your commander.

I'll have a look at the scout rules in a turn or two, maybe expand the area of influence of Commanders to issue orders.

On Commanders, players can have more than one.

On A-Mancy stuff, I'm going to allow free Think-A-Grams between all players. How nice of me.
You'll note that none of the Gobwin units have scout - think about it from a comic perspective, and it makes sense.

BLAND - your comments on the stack bonus are true, except - 8 units with 1 attack each stacked together come to 13 attacks (rounddown). 16 of the same units stacked together come to 16 attacks. BUT 16 units in two stacks of 8 have 26 attacks in total. Which is the point of the stacking bonus.

BLAND - love the pictures. Very nice.

All Alliance units begin the game in Alliance Town.
I'm happy for the Scout phase to begin... wait for it... NOW!

[Sinrus]

So, wait, what? You guys are ready to start?

I count five players -
turbler
Crovius
Ehbobo
Sinrus
BLANDCorporatio

Did I miss anyone? Players can join as we go.

Doug, but he hasn't made a side yet.

And it looks like Sinrus is Chief Warlord - was there a vote, or did that just happen? Either way is fine.
Let's say the Chief Warlord can be replaced if a majority of active players vote for someone else as Warlord. PM your votes to me.

I volunteered and everybody acknowledged my superiority.

All Alliance units begin the game in Alliance Town.
I'm happy for the Scout phase to begin... wait for it... NOW!

Not quite yet. We need to wait for Doug, first off, and I have a question. Do units need to be with commanders in order to receive orders?

[turbler]

"Alright, Imps, get out here!" Ordered Etna. The 4 Imps gathered around their commander, as she continued. "Alright, Explore your way North 3 hexes, then head Northwest a Hex. From there, inspect the Mountains nearby (NW) and also inspect SW, N, and NE(4 directions 4 Imps, they do the inspections seperately), just in case there are some Dwagons camping out there. Got that?" The Imps nod as she finishes "When the rest of the Scouts leave so do you guys, so get ready!" Etna walked off to talk with the Prinnies, as the Imps prepared to leave for scouting.
(he said people can join as we go, so Doug will be one of those.)

[Sinrus]

Oh, Doug made his side. Great, welcome.

After overseeing Etna command her troops, Hippotyla gives orders to her Psittacines. "Okay guys, explore the bridge to the northwest, then explore the southwest river hex. After that turn south into the forest and then northeast, back towards the town."

Her orders having been given, the Zamoan Princess turns to Graf Zeppelin. "Graf, the diwigible is staying here in case we locate a stack of dwagons or something. But your gyroscopes should head south, then turn northwest onto the road and then explore north for the extent of their move.

"Dagnabbit, the delvers should move northwest onto the bridge and then explore it for their total move, moving north and west but stay above water."

[Doug]

"The forces of the NovaKing have arrived!" shouts the young prince as he and his riders come thundering into the Alliance base. "Don't tell me Lady Hippotyla has begun the battle without us; we bring Lancers, Siege, and Guardsmen to this fight."

(Stats for the NovaKing forces are listed in my earlier post. Sadly, I've got nothing to scout with during this phase hopefully I can be more useful once we find the enemy)

[LTDave]

Q. Do units need to be with commanders in order to receive orders?
A. Players may issue orders to units in the same hex as a Commander - but not necessarily at the start of the turn. Commanders can move into a hex, issue some orders, move off again, issues order in a new hex, etc.

Doug,
In the Design your force section there is point 4:
4. Units may not have Attack or Defence values higher than hits.
You need to adjust your ballistas and Commander.

But otherwise, welcome.

Sinrus, I'll need you to help keep track of where the Alliance units are.

[LTDave]

Oh, and Alliance Town has level 3 Defences - that is, it counts as a 3.0 in Terrain Bonus.

[turbler]

by the wave, Dave, did you get that suggestion I gave ya, about random minor magic items on the map, jus for a little extra factor? if you don't like it that's fine, but I just wanted to letcha know.

"I'm not so sure Hippotyla, I mean the Diwigible has 51 hits, 21 defense, and heals at dawn, it'll take more that a couple Dwagons to take down, no? besides if we move it as a scout, it won't engage anything. the sooner we get the Diwigible to the walls of Gobwin Bump, the better. It's your call though... and then again, maybe I'm just being impatient..." Etna stated, trailing off as she thought to herself about impatience.

[BLANDCorporatio]

"Those were all splendid suggestions you all have made, but I do believe you err too much on the side of caution.

The Diwigible is sturdy enough to survive encounters with most stacks save for massed heavies like dwagons, and while it is of course folly to place it in unnecessary risk, having it eventually patrol the plains between the two bridges is probably better. It can then rush to defend or to the front if needed."

"Also, I would gladly lend my Gyroscopes to the Commanders of NovaKing and Jetstone as the battle progresses, but for now I will issue these orders:"

*fiddling with the map*

"where's North on this thing"

"one gyroscope will go
Explore (Alliance Town -> South West) to Forest;
if free and moving to forest, Explore (Forest->SW) to Forest;
if free Explore(Forest-> NW) River;
if free Explore (River->NW) Forest;
if free Explore (Forest->NW) Forest"

"a second gyroscope will go
Explore (Alliance Town->NW) to Bridge;
if free Explore(Bridge->NW) to Road;
if free Explore(Road->NW) to Road;
if free Inspect(Road->NW) to Open (meaning stay put after scouting) AND
Explore (Road->NE) to Forest;"

"the third gyroscope will go
Explore(Alliance Town->N) to Open;
if free Explore(Open->N) to Open;
if free Inspect(Open->SE) Forest AND
Inspect(Open->NE) Open AND
Explore(Open->N) River bifurcation"

"Diwigible waits in Town for Combat Phase"

[Crovius]

"Shall my forces go and move along the road? We'll make our way bridge to bridge, securing them as we go. Or we could escort siege units that will need to travel by road. One of our Delvers will go NE, then N as far as they can, stopping only if they encounter enemies. The other will go NW, then North, following the river as north as it can, then look into the mountain NW."

Delver one: NE, N, N, N, N
Delver two: NW, N, N, N, N

If the Chief Warlord agrees, Commander Dagnabit and his stack of 8 will go NW, NW, NW, SW.

[Sinrus]

Alright then, do that. I will take my 4 hippipotosturapuses and three loggators and move Northwest, Northwest, North into the forest hex.

[Crovius]

Gonna design one more units since I only made the Commander, the Foddermen, the Delvers and the Egg Breakers.

Schlep
Hits = 2
Defense = 2
Combat = 2
Move = 2

Schleps are Infantry, but they have the special ability of being Water Capable and Ranged, so they can move across water Hexes, suffer no penalty traveling through river hexes, and can hit Flying. They are also the last stack to by be hit when grouped with other stacks. Schleps were origionally discovered by Dagnabit and his Foddermen living in lakes surrounded by mountains. Schleps love gliding across the surface of the watter, pulling water up through their 4 tube-shaped limbs. They can forcefully expel this water to strike enemies at a distance.

Cost... 10? (8 for stats, 2 for specials)

[BLANDCorporatio]

"I dare not presume to order my allies what to do, but permit some advice: issue move/combat orders only after our scouts report".

[Sinrus]

Probably a smart idea.