Darkness Rising

[MarbitChow]

OOC Technically, you're right.. but... technically you can see through your uncroaked senses so technically you don't need to expose yourself to arrow fire to command or target , therefore technically you don't need one. But we'll let Marbit rule on that one, I think

Note that Croak-a-vision doesn't give you RLOS. You need to "see" the target with your own eyes to cast, although you can issue commands.

(MarbitChow, am I right to think that we're receiving 3 naughty kitties, 1 zed archer, and 4 heck pups from the capital on turn 9? (I assumed 3 of the 4 zeds being sent rode in on turn 8 with the mounts arriving then.))

Yes, that's correct.

We are getting a lot of potions out of this.

You'll get 8 "8-Ward" or "16 Hit" potions, plus 1 "8 Hit" potion (or 2 8-hit potions for each 2 Juice potion you swap out).

As for stacking, isn't that seriously "fudged" in this game? Units on opposite sides of the battlegrid have still be considered stacked together right...?

Sort-of, yes. I don't think we've ever gotten a hard definition of what stacking really means, or what its limits are, and Parson stacking w/ the Predictamancers who are all jumbled in amongst the other casters seems legit, so I don't think stacking is so much a function of distance or formation as much as it is just a formal grouping.

[MarbitChow]

Yeah I did kinda specify Warlords for that reason. Ideally, the CHIEF Warlord in fact, since command-wise he has final say.

(OOC Something I should point out here, because it might not have been made obvious, and especially new players may not have picked up on this yet: all PCs are free-willed - you've been 'released' by your King. You have NO compulsions on you - no duty, no loyalty, no command hierarchy other than what you choose to follow.)

[0beron]

Okay so given that Bill doesn't need to be in harm's way to command uncroaked and provide his bonus, Vinny will (for now) decline his request for a Fire Cloak. Vinny still defers to the Warlords' judgment on who should get cloaks, because they have more combat experience.

[ETheBoyce]

I'm all for me having a Fire Cloak, I'm also for me being on a Mount for additional protection. I think I should start on one of the towers, but near the back out of LOS to start with.

[Werebiscuit]

OOC Technically, you're right.. but... technically you can see through your uncroaked senses so technically you don't need to expose yourself to arrow fire to command or target , therefore technically you don't need one. But we'll let Marbit rule on that one, I think

Note that Croak-a-vision doesn't give you RLOS. You need to "see" the target with your own eyes to cast, although you can issue commands.

Noted for Spells ...but what about RLOS for skeleton archers ? Didn't we have skeleton archers raised on the front portion of the walls (within gound based RLOS) targeting the back rows where our own ground based archers couldn't target (out of ground based RLOS) in the first battle for Sunnydale/Dis ?

[Werebiscuit]

I'm all for me having a Fire Cloak, I'm also for me being on a Mount for additional protection. I think I should start on one of the towers, but near the back out of LOS to start with.

If you're out of RLOS you can't target elven forces as they enter the hex. Unfortunately we may need you to do that if we want to target the warlor...erm..warlady. That's why I'm for giving you all the protection possible.

[The Colonel]

But I need true RLOS to raise corpses for our standard ZOMBIE STEAMROLLER strategy.

[MarbitChow]

Noted for Spells ...but what about RLOS for skeleton archers ? Didn't we have skeleton archers raised on the front portion of the walls (within gound based RLOS) targeting the back rows where our own ground based archers couldn't target (out of ground based RLOS) in the first battle for Sunnydale/Dis ?

Yes, because those skeletons had RLOS on the back rows. Bill doesn't need to be able to see the targets to direct his units - they can target on their own. Bill can raise corpses that he can see, and all his uncroaked can target any units THEY can see. Uncroaked do have senses and limited "awareness" - they don't NEED to be told what to do, but if they aren't told, they'll just attack the nearest enemy each round.

[0beron]

I'm all for me having a Fire Cloak, I'm also for me being on a Mount for additional protection. I think I should start on one of the towers, but near the back out of LOS to start with.

I believe all units on the tower are considered to have RLOS to everything else on the ground? (despite the "stupidworld physics" of the fact that the tower front would normally block your sight of units close to the tower base) Though you benefit from the Elevation defense bonus.
I'm of the opinion that you should have every form of protection available, as you are a high priority target.

[MarbitChow]

I'm all for me having a Fire Cloak, I'm also for me being on a Mount for additional protection. I think I should start on one of the towers, but near the back out of LOS to start with.

I believe all units on the tower are considered to have RLOS to everything else on the ground? (despite the "stupidworld physics" of the fact that the tower front would normally block your sight of units close to the tower base) Though you benefit from the Elevation defense bonus.

The 1st two rows have RLOS on the ground in whatever direction they're facing, so the back 2 rows of the tower only have RLOS to the left or right, plus RLOS on the entire wall roof.

[0beron]

Okay so since the enemy leadership will likely be in the center of the field, we could put T. Coil on either tower in the back row on the side closer to the Gate.

[Swodaems]

Yeah I did kinda specify Warlords for that reason. Ideally, the CHIEF Warlord in fact, since command-wise he has final say. So no, Bill can't have a Fire Cloak unless Tod recommends it.

I was just going to let you decide how to dole out your wares, but if you want my opinion, then I think that the cloaks should probably go first to the casters and then to any other priority targets that have low def. There are fliers with fire attacks in the enemy force and those will be able to hit targets the ground archers can't.

Also, I realized that any units we have that popped with stereotypical Japanese accents will have trouble differentiating between Bill and Vinny. One is the croakamancer and the other is the cloakamancer.

Seeing as we don't have the ranged damage to keep the enemy from actually reaching the walls, this fight will probably result in a melee battle at some point. The question to ask is when. Do we start it out as a mixed melee/ranged fight? Do we do our best to hammer them from above with ranged while they're getting to the walls, then pour our melee out of the gate? Or do we keep the melee indoors until we either need them for clean up or the enemy breaks in? (The enemy reaches the Walls or gate in the 3rd round. The towers protrude 2 squares forward from the walls, so the Gumptons will be able to start smacking on them in round 2. The gumptons have seige(2), so they do ~7 damage per attack made on a city structure. City structures do have a large amount of health, so they may hold up to assault long enough for us to range down the gumptons.)

[HerbieRai]

I can fly down from the tower if I need to, so I'll (along with my archer brother) be in tower for now. If possible, I'd like a potion or something in case they consider my fly ability as a reason to fire at me. I'll also start in front of a caster in the tower to hopefully provide him some protection.

Edit for tactial recomendation from flying bergaid. I think we should put most of our melee inside the keep, with minimal on the walls to help with defending our archers and keeping the bolt throwers firing. Then, when they break through the walls, we send the men forward to fight, hopefully keeping them from flooding in (since they have to move before attacking, they shouldn't be able to advance that fast even if they 1 hit kill our men). The rest of their melee will be stuck outside getting shot by our ranged force (who hopefully can take out the attacking ranged forces).

[ETheBoyce]

Upon further reflection it does make more sense for me to start out in RLOS as long as I have bat protection with my plan of action consisting of Ickyproning the Leader and 2 archers preferably level 2, or 3 level 2 archers whichever appears first. Assuming I'm going to be their main target, and as long as I have bat protection, the quicker archers are stunned/die the better. I think Bill, Triage, and myself should all be in Tod's stack and that Bill/Triage should spend their first turn Ickyproning fliers as they appear on the map, Vinny and Junetta should be in a stack with Wanderus and should finish off any that aren't killed outright, or targeting uninjured ones, using tower juice as needed to insure kills. Between Cupid, Will, myself, and the ballista we should kill a minimum of 4 archers and stun 3 others potentially killing the level 2 stack outright or leaving it so our NPC archers can finish them off; on that note we have to make sure they go down past -5 otherwise the Elves will get them back on their feet the following round

[The Colonel]

Hey, a dude who can rollover victory into victory is also a priority target.

[0beron]

I was just going to let you decide how to dole out your wares, but if you want my opinion, then I think that the cloaks should probably go first to the casters and then to any other priority targets that have low def. There are fliers with fire attacks in the enemy force and those will be able to hit targets the ground archers can't.

I figure we only want to expose the units/casters who can deal damage to the key enemy targets like Leadership and Archers. As such, I figure our units who can help in that endeavor should get the Cloaks, since they'll suffer the most powerful attacks. As best I can tell, these key Offensive Units are:

• William
• Cupid
• T. Coil
• Whoever mans the Ballistas
• Our Warlords

We also have units who will be targeted, but do NOT need to be exposed to enemy Fire in order to do their jobs:

• Junetta & Triage
• Bill (not at first)

As such, I don't think these units need Fire Cloaks. Bill won't need to be on the Tower until the 2nd round, after which point we hope to have some of the key enemies croaked and ready for his spells.

this fight will probably result in a melee battle at some point. The question to ask is when.

I think it's to our benefit to have the fight occur inside our walls. The gates are an obvious weak point, so they should go there first. Once they're broken/open, it creates a choke-point the enemy melee will have to move through, so we can be fighting them 2-to-1. The Grumptons will likely try to take out the towers after this point, but focused fire should be able to take them out.

Thoughts? *Vinny looks up from the sketches he has been drawing and the little figurines carved from gourds to illustrate this*

[The Colonel]

Sounds good, smash all ranged units and smash the rest of the army when they move into the gates with ALIEN style melee. We're the ALIEN

EDIT: No Melee outside the gate, we're EXPECTING them to breach the gate. so that our melee can CRUSH THEM! If not, the melee can SALLY FORTH and KILL THEM.

[ETheBoyce]

Indeed, in fact our Warlords don't need Fire Cloaks, they have no reason to be in LOS of the enemy!

[0beron]

Indeed, in fact our Warlords don't need Fire Cloaks, they have no reason to be in LOS of the enemy!

Well yes and no. Our BEST Warlords should be on the towers and stacked with our most powerful ranged units, to provide a leadership bonus. Thus making them a target.

[Lord of Monies]

So what about the idea of the shallow-grave uncroaked lying in wait? If we're basically letting the elves come kicking our front door down, are the uncroaked a surprise ambush, a delayed flanking action, or something else?