Darkness Rising

[MarbitChow]

What if the target BEING guarded gets stunned? Can/Does the Bodyguard take that instead? or does it go to the intended target?

Bodyguard only protects against damage, not status effects. The intended target is still stunned, the bodyguards are not.

[0beron]

Okay I assumed so, just wanted to hear it confirmed.
Also, would you mind copying the Elves' Army stats to the reference post of events or putting a link to it in the events?

[MarbitChow]

Also, would you mind copying the Elves' Army stats to the reference post of events or putting a link to it in the events?

Sure. I've added the link in the Events section.

[Swodaems]

(MarbitChow, is this army attacking us from Logan's Run, Scarlet Hill, or Rainbow Springs? And how far from Dis city are they ending turns 7&8 at?)

We established during the taking of this city that a higher combat unit waiting for a lower combat unit to enter the hex will be able to fire on the entering unit before it gets a chance to fire back. Between Will, Cupid, the casters, and the NPC archers, I think we stand a good chance of taking all 16 fliers down before they can fire a shot if we want to.

Problem is, if we hold our fire for the enemy fliers to enter the hex, we have to worry about the enemy fliers not entering the hex at all, giving the ground troops a round of unmolested movement forward.

If we were to put our ground forces behind the door, how fast could we open that door and rush out of it in combat?

[MarbitChow]

(MarbitChow, is this army attacking us from Logan's Run, Scarlet Hill, or Rainbow Springs? And how far from Dis city are they ending turns 7&8 at?)

They are coming from Rainbow Springs. They are ending the turn exactly 16 Move and 8 Move away, respectively. Most units will not be able to flee the hex if things go bad for them. All listed elven non-mount units have an 8 {8} move, except the Faeries which have 12 {12} Flying.

If we were to put our ground forces behind the door, how fast could we open that door and rush out of it in combat?

(MarbitChow reaches into the the magical realm known as 'his butt' and pulls out a new set of rules: ) Opening or closing the gate requires one full round, and barring or unbarring the gate requires an additional round. You can keep the gate closed but unbarred if you choose, but you can't start barring it until the gate is closed. An unbarred gate is easier to break, allowing siege units to do 1.5x damage (rounded up) with their attacks. Unless otherwise specified gates are assumed to be shut and barred during a attack.

[Lord of Monies]

In regards to the worry of losing a turn by intended targets not entering, our readied actions can be vague. Simply put, ready fire for the first units that enter, and this has no major flaws. Altruist elves give their buff to all of their side within the same hex, so if they come in first and go down then that's a buff lost. After that, our hope is to get fliers so if they come through first then great. If not, I have a feeling a leadership u it of some kind may enter first, and failing that then it will be ground troops that would be better than hitting nothing.

[Werebiscuit]

Problem is, if we hold our fire for the enemy fliers to enter the hex, we have to worry about the enemy fliers not entering the hex at all, giving the ground troops a round of unmolested movement forward.

If we were to put our ground forces behind the door, how fast could we open that door and rush out of it in combat?

Now we're starting to ask the right questions. Thing is, the ground forces won't get a round of completely unmolested movement. If the fliers don't enter the hex the catapults will switch targets as a given. However if we can tempt their siege into the field unprotected by fire support we should hold our archers on the walls to remove their fliers as they come in Yes we will lose some archers as their archers will then enter the hex and fire but we can absorb some of that on the brickbats and losses can be raised. We then have next shot (Rolf, Yuri, Will, Cupid + Coil) to reduce their top archers ! As ours go at the same combat phase as their lesser.

[Swodaems]

(MarbitChow, is this army attacking us from Logan's Run, Scarlet Hill, or Rainbow Springs? And how far from Dis city are they ending turns 7&8 at?)

They are coming from Rainbow Springs. They are ending the turn exactly 16 Move and 8 Move away, respectively. Most units will not be able to flee the hex if things go bad for them. All listed elven non-mount units have an 8 {8} move, except the Faeries which have 12 {12} Flying.

I have 2 ideas:
1. We'll have 3 12 move mounts with full move at the start of turn 9. Myself and two other riders take the mounts to 6 hexes out and then dismount. We walk 1 hex towards the enemy and do the whole "parley thru the hex barrier" thing. We use our remaining 1 move to walk back to the mounts and get back on. They carry us home. (Cupid has 18 move, so he could join us.) The two other units I want to take: Vinny and Brick. (No in-character reason for choosing these two. If they want to level before the battle, they need more roleplaying XP.)
2. Uncroaked suicide charge on our turn 9, targeting the Altruistic elves. The bonus will wear off before the enemy attacks.

If we were to put our ground forces behind the door, how fast could we open that door and rush out of it in combat?

(MarbitChow reaches into the the magical realm known as 'his butt' and pulls out a new set of rules: ) Opening or closing the gate requires one full round, and barring or unbarring the gate requires an additional round. You can keep the gate closed but unbarred if you choose, but you can't start barring it until the gate is closed. An unbarred gate is easier to break, allowing siege units to do 1.5x damage (rounded up) with their attacks. Unless otherwise specified gates are assumed to be shut and barred during a attack.

I'm thinking we might as well keep the gate unbarred. If the Gumptons get to the wall, they'll make their own door even if we don't open ours.

We're also forgetting about some important new aspects of the rules in our plans.

Dodge: A unit gains a (+4 Base, +2 / Level) Dodge Defense Bonus, until the start of their next Action. (This allows a Dodge bonus to continue to be in effect if a unit delays its action.) Units that are Dodging do not cause enemy units to lose their move if those units move into an square adjacent to the Dodging unit. Dodging units automatically lose if Bull-Rushed.

Mount: Unit can carry another non-Heavy unit. All normal Attack, Strike, and Fire actions directed at the mounted unit strike the Mount instead. The mount and rider are considered to be Adjacent to each other, and all units that are Adjacent to the mount are also considered Adjacent to the rider. Dismounting: Any enemy unit adjacent to a mounted unit can choose to make a dismounting action. Attacker rolls 2d6, +1d6 for each additional enemy unit aiding in the dismount. If this number exceeds the Mount's modified defense, the Mounted unit is dismounted. Dodging: If a mount is Dodging, the rider is also considered to be Dodging.

We should expect to see alot of dodging from the approaching melee units.* We should also be telling our melee to dodge when out of range. (MarbitChow, can our units be dodging before the enemy enters the hex? If a dodging unit is stunned, does it stop dodging?)

The fact that the lvl 5 warlord is mounted changes alot about this battle. Unless we pull of a dismount, we can only hit the warlord directly with spells until we croak the mount. While dodging, that mount can get all the way up to 39 def. (Marbit, When you say that the rider is considered to be dodging when his mount dodges, do you mean that he must also use up his action to dodge? Or do you mean that he can still act on his own and gets a Def bonus from his mounts actions?) We may be unable to outdamage the potential healing that mount has from the alt elves. (To make matters worse, Altruistic elves placed next to the mount will also heal the warlord. If we can't down the mount in 1 round, we'll see all the alt elves swarming it.)

*If the Gumptons dodge while too close to an uncroaked, then this will happen to hilarious effect:

Spoiler: show

MY UNCROAKED MARBIT BULL-RUSHES THE GUMPTON.

[MarbitChow]

(No in-character reason for choosing these two. If they want to level before the battle, they need more roleplaying XP.)

Opportunities for RP XP are closed until after this combat. RP XP has already been awarded. (Also, just an FYI, leveling occurs after any fight in which you end the fight over the XP threshold for the next level, so you can't actually level off of RP XP.)

(MarbitChow, can our units be dodging before the enemy enters the hex? If a dodging unit is stunned, does it stop dodging?)

Yes, if you're on defense, you can all assume to be dodging prior to the start of combat, and the bonus goes away as soon as you take an action. Stunned units can still dodge.

(Marbit, When you say that the rider is considered to be dodging when his mount dodges, do you mean that he must also use up his action to dodge? Or do you mean that he can still act on his own and gets a Def bonus from his mounts actions?)

He can still act on his own. His defense increases, but since he can only be hit by spells (which ignore defense), that's not usually a factor. The main impact is that he can't stop adjacent enemies or resist a bull rush while his mount is dodging.

[0beron]

Opportunities for RP XP are closed until after this combat. RP XP has already been awarded.

Ummmm...is mine being amended in light of the "flash-backed" interactions designing Junetta (and possibly Triage's) Raiment? I don't mean to sound like wining, but I did put a good amount of work and thought into that, after being awarded the 2xp for the brief convos.

Stunned units can still dodge.

whaaaaat? That makes 0 sense. They lose their action and move, but they can still gain a buff that requires an action to gain?

[MarbitChow]

Ummmm...is mine being amended in light of the "flash-backed" interactions designing Junetta (and possibly Triage's) Raiment?

Keep in mind that 2XP for you is 40% of what you need to level. Previous RP rewards for low-level characters were usually only 1 pt. Higher-level characters can be awarded more because XP means proportionally less to them. But yes, the effort you made towards RP after the RP awards were announced does count towards the next RP session.

whaaaaat? That makes 0 sense. They lose their action and move, but they can still gain a buff that requires an action to gain?

Stunned means you cannot initiate actions. It doesn't mean you can't react; stunned fliers don't automatically drop out of the sky, for example.

[0beron]

Alrighty makes sense on both accounts.

[Swodaems]

(MarbitChow, how soon after the enemy warlord and mount enter the hex can they be considered dodging? If we have people waiting to fire on them as soon as they cross the hex barrier, can we hit them before they get into position to dodge?)

And Junetta said that the elves are fighting on another front. Does she know the name of the enemy or enemies the elves are fighting?

More importantly, why did she spend her entire alotment of points on juice? (And why does she only have 57 juice? (8*4+9*3=59))

[MarbitChow]

(MarbitChow, how soon after the enemy warlord and mount enter the hex can they be considered dodging? If we have people waiting to fire on them as soon as they cross the hex barrier, can we hit them before they get into position to dodge?)

They can cross the hex border while already dodging, since the modifier lasts until they act.

And Junetta said that the elves are fighting on another front. Does she know the name of the enemy or enemies the elves are fighting?

They are fighting with Ix (prounounced 'icks').

More importantly, why did she spend her entire alotment of points on juice? (And why does she only have 57 juice? (8*4+9*3=59))

Junetta is primarily a pacifist, so she wouldn't raise combat. She's not really concerned for her own safety as such, so defense and hits are a low priority for her. She spends the vast majority of her time warding and making potions, so having a high Juice makes her most efficient at that. And you're right - it should be 59.

[BLANDCorporatio]

They are fighting with Ix (prounounced 'icks').

Eh wot? The Elves are the allies of Tleilaxu? Well then I feel a lot less guilty about fighting Elves now, coz Tleilaxu are total dicks.

[Werebiscuit]

OOC The elves premier strategy is to do similar to our rammers and send in their gumptons guarded by their spearmen and enhance the formation by a couple of altruistic elves. They will probably not bring on their fliers till our archery has fired, similarly it makes sense for their archery to do likewise. This means we can probably hold heir fire support off the field by witholding our archery. The question is should we ?
Does it gain us more to negate their fire support than to have our fire support fire on the advancing siege ? Have we other means of dealing with their siege ? If we can take out their siege then they cannot hope to break through.

I think Will and Bill might be our aces-in-the-hole here. Rolf and Yuri will be hard pressed to take down a gumpton a turn given they are likely to have a 25+ def with leadership & guarding meaning Yuri will be doing around 4d6 X2 and Rolf slightly more. It gives the gumptons plenty of time to get to the wall. It means we will have to do more than just fire at them. Sending out our troops will secure us some time but we can be sure the gumptons will bull rush and the will have more bulk(dice) to do it. So it will only delay them not force a stop. This means we need to go out to meet them.
Will's 32+9 (+ lead) gives him 23 x2 a turn or another gumpton every couple of turns. We need to try to increase that if we can. Maybe bringing in cupid we can hope to account for 2 gumptons a turn. Will Bill's uncroak work on Gumptons ? If so then this is what we need to finally drive back the siege

[MarbitChow]

Will Bill's uncroak work on Gumptons ?

No, Gumptions are Inhuman. (I'll make sure that's added in the final stat list as well.)

[Werebiscuit]

Ah well... Still we probably can deal with the siege without committing our archery (or at least the vanguard). That means we can hold it in readiness to deal with theirs.

Do you think we are prepared to fight on 2 fronts ? I doubt the elves are. if we can leave bodies till their siege are past we can animate them to go into the next hex if archery don''t appear. I doubt they will be ready for that. if we have a few they can be backed by the heck pups which CAN penetrate the siege line or can turn on the backs of the siege.

[0beron]

We have the defensive advantage, so the "worst case" scenario with regard to arches is still good for us. If we hold most of our archers actions and focus spells on the siege, and the enemy waits until our archers have all fired to bring their main force into the hex, then they have wasted a turn, and we have as well but we've controlled the number of enemies who are attacking us at once. So really we still come out benefiting.

[MarbitChow]

if we can leave bodies till their siege are past we can animate them to go into the next hex if archery don''t appear.

You can't cross the hex border until it's your side's turn.