Darkness Rising

[MarbitChow]

shouldn't the loss of a 1 UP imp during turn 7 have decreased our upkeep by 5 during turns 8&9?

I've stated before that I'm not going to fully define or micromanage upkeep, and all numbers are approximate. If it makes you feel better, you can imagine that you're actually getting a few extra shmuckers each turn, but it doesn't really matter.

If Bill starts a round stacked with a Warlord and some uncroaked, will the stack automatically become a hoard if the Warlord uses his action to destack? Or would Bill need to use his action to recreate the stack as a hoard?

Bill will need to use his action to take over the horde.

If a dodging unit is Bull rushed, does it stop dodging?

No.

Will a stunned, calmed, immobilized, or incapacitated unit still be able to stop enemy units from passing thru adjacent squares? And how do units with those conditions react if bull-rushed?

Stunned, Calmed, Immobilized: Stops enemy units. Resolve Bull Rush as normal. Bull Rushing a Calmed unit breaks the Calm. Incapacitated: Does not stop enemy units. Bull Rush as if Dodging. (Since rules are locked down right now, I'm not going to make any additional changes, but we can discuss adding modifiers to Bull Rush based on these actions in the future.)

Results of Tod's & Creperum's Info Gathering and Tactical Diplomacy
Tod had his bracer the entire time, but kept it hidden in his Purse except when he was securely away from prying eyes.

Turn 6: Creperum contacts the Ixian ruler, a female Queen named Maude Dibs. Creperum introduces himself, stating that they appear to have a mutual enemy in the Breatheairians, and hints that some mutually-beneficial arrangements might be made in the near future. He informs Tod that Maude expresses interest but appears very cautious, as she has never heard of the Tenebrisians before now. Maude suggests that she be allowed to send a few units into the region to substantiate the claims, and Creperum replied that he will consider the offer and respond in a few turns. Buffy informs you that Charlie can provide a detailed dossier on Ix for the low, low price of 25,000 shmuckers, non-negotiable. Partial information will not be released, Buffy informs Tod, because she's sure that Tod is such a capable and intelligent Warlord that, given limited information, he'll surely be able to fill in most of the blanks on his own, gaining the full value of the dossier for a fraction of the cost. She smiles and bats her eyelashes.

Turn 7: Tod sends a Thinkagram to Zoltarus. Tod is barely able to begin introducing himself before Zoltarus sharply cuts him off, shouting "Too soon, too soon!" and breaks the connection. Attempting to initiate a Thinkagram to Amandaria simply fails; beasts are not capable of higher-order thinking that Thinkagrams require.

Turn 8: Charlie agrees to unconditionally convert a single turn of the non-agression pact to an alliance that will terminate at the beginning of the Breatheairian turn on Turn 9.

Turn 9: Cupid, Tod, Brick, Bill and Rona make their way out towards the Elven army. Once parley commences, Armolad glares haughtily at Tod's request, but after a few long moments, Tod receives a Thinkagram from the King In Green.

Tod: "I'm going to be blunt and tell you that I'm here to seek peace terms that are more favorable to us than to you. If the force I'm looking at is any indication, you can't really afford to be fighting us at the moment. You have another war going on with the side of Ix that is eating up your resources. ... My offer amounts to this: peace for 50 turns in exchange for Rainbow Springs and agreements to sell Logan's Run and Scarlet Hills with its associated mine relatively cheaply should we raise the funds during those 50 turns."

The King In Green: "You arrogant upstarts! I will crush your pathetic side!" The King terminates the Thinkagram.

Tod and company mount up and head back to Dis. Shortly after arriving, Tod receives a Thinkagram from King Creperum:

Spoiler: show

[Werebiscuit]

Need to delete this post - misclick on quote button

shouldn't the loss of a 1 UP imp during turn 7 have decreased our upkeep by 5 during turns 8&9?

I've stated before that I'm not going to fully define or micromanage upkeep, and all numbers are approximate. If it makes you feel better, you can imagine that you're actually getting a few extra shmuckers each turn, but it doesn't really matter.

If Bill starts a round stacked with a Warlord and some uncroaked, will the stack automatically become a hoard if the Warlord uses his action to destack? Or would Bill need to use his action to recreate the stack as a hoard?

Bill will need to use his action to take over the horde.

If a dodging unit is Bull rushed, does it stop dodging?

No.

Will a stunned, calmed, immobilized, or incapacitated unit still be able to stop enemy units from passing thru adjacent squares? And how do units with those conditions react if bull-rushed?

Stunned, Calmed, Immobilized: Stops enemy units. Resolve Bull Rush as normal. Bull Rushing a Calmed unit breaks the Calm. Incapacitated: Does not stop enemy units. Bull Rush as if Dodging. (Since rules are locked down right now, I'm not going to make any additional changes, but we can discuss adding modifiers to Bull Rush based on these actions in the future.)

Results of Tod's & Creperum's Info Gathering and Tactical Diplomacy
Tod had his bracer the entire time, but kept it hidden in his Purse except when he was securely away from prying eyes.

Turn 6: Creperum contacts the Ixian ruler, a female Queen named Maude Dibs. Creperum introduces himself, stating that they appear to have a mutual enemy in the Breatheairians, and hints that some mutually-beneficial arrangements might be made in the near future. He informs Tod that Maude expresses interest but appears very cautious, as she has never heard of the Tenebrisians before now. Maude suggests that she be allowed to send a few units into the region to substantiate the claims, and Creperum replied that he will consider the offer and respond in a few turns. Buffy informs you that Charlie can provide a detailed dossier on Ix for the low, low price of 25,000 shmuckers, non-negotiable. Partial information will not be released, Buffy informs Tod, because she's sure that Tod is such a capable and intelligent Warlord that, given limited information, he'll surely be able to fill in most of the blanks on his own, gaining the full value of the dossier for a fraction of the cost. She smiles and bats her eyelashes.

Turn 7: Tod sends a Thinkagram to Zoltarus. Tod is barely able to begin introducing himself before Zoltarus sharply cuts him off, shouting "Too soon, too soon!" and breaks the connection. Attempting to initiate a Thinkagram to Amandaria simply fails; beasts are not capable of higher-order thinking that Thinkagrams require.

Turn 8: Charlie agrees to unconditionally convert a single turn of the non-agression pact to an alliance that will terminate at the beginning of the Breatheairian turn on Turn 9.

Turn 9: Cupid, Tod, Brick, Bill and Rona make their way out towards the Elven army. Once parley commences, Armolad glares haughtily at Tod's request, but after a few long moments, Tod receives a Thinkagram from the King In Green.

Tod: "I'm going to be blunt and tell you that I'm here to seek peace terms that are more favorable to us than to you. If the force I'm looking at is any indication, you can't really afford to be fighting us at the moment. You have another war going on with the side of Ix that is eating up your resources. ... My offer amounts to this: peace for 50 turns in exchange for Rainbow Springs and agreements to sell Logan's Run and Scarlet Hills with its associated mine relatively cheaply should we raise the funds during those 50 turns."

The King In Green: "You arrogant upstarts! I will crush your pathetic side!" The King terminates the Thinkagram.

Tod and company mount up and head back to Dis. Shortly after arriving, Tod receives a Thinkagram from King Creperum:

Spoiler: show

[The Colonel]

Why do I feel like we're going to end up a proxy state in a proxy war?

[Werebiscuit]

OOC Cr*p in a sandwich... we really don't have a good handle on information security. Oh well.. that's what comes of trying to play one side against the other, sometimes they both decide to work against you instead. At least the damage is long-term. We'll probably have chances to ruin their cease fire.

However it doesn't help us with our short-term problem. We now need to focus on who we target....and how...when their siege begins /OOC

[ETheBoyce]

So Tod just screwed us <_< but that aside I think Ix oculd probably provide ud with some major support even from the other side of the Elves assuming they're willing to spend some money. Their casters probably have better relations with the MK so I they could probably provide for a number of NPC casters to join us, a Lookamancer so we can choose which city is least defended or just providing for the use of the Turnamancer for a while could give us some major advantages.

T. Coil will approach both Wanderus and Junetta with questions about the leadership they are about to face as well as calling upon his own memory about any usual tactics of Armolad.

[0beron]

So Tod just screwed us <_<

yuuuuuup! *scowls* Vinny hopes that if diplomacy is ever required again, Yuri is in charge of it again.

[Lord of Monies]

An interesting meeting for Brick to have witnessed. First off, would any of us had a better look at their warlord to see if she was holding any magic items? That was something the sacrifical Zed never got the chance to check for. With 5 of us there, one of us must have been able to tell, surely.

Also, technical question here. Can I guard, interpose, AND bodyguard the same target in a single round? Would make for some pretty big protection to Coil if I can.

[MarbitChow]

An interesting meeting for Brick to have witnessed. First off, would any of us had a better look at their warlord to see if she was holding any magic items? That was something the sacrifical Zed never got the chance to check for. With 5 of us there, one of us must have been able to tell, surely.

Yes. Armolad is wearing a Shockamancy-negating dollamancy cloak, and a Ward potion and a pair of Renew potions are on her belt.

Also, technical question here. Can I guard, interpose, AND bodyguard the same target in a single round? Would make for some pretty big protection to Coil if I can.

From Bodyguard: Cannot be used with Guard and Interpose. (Link to the rules is in my signature, and Bodyguard is in the Additional Abilities section.)

[The Colonel]

Did we get a full glance at the enemy stats?

[0beron]

Armolad is wearing a Shockamancy-negating dollamancy cloak.

Marbit, can you explain the details about that based on Vinny's knowledge? Is it like the single-charge cloaks I make (like Slately's in fact haha?) or is it a custom magic item that'd be permanent?

[MarbitChow]

Is it like the single-charge cloaks I make (like Slately's in fact haha?)

Single charge.

[0beron]

"Since the cloak is single charge, then I think our best choice is to have me use up a single charge from the tower to hit her with Shockamancy. That way I have something to do, and we don't waste a more valuable caster's action to strip the cloak from her. After I do, T. Coil can open up a can o' whop ash on her."

[MarbitChow]

"Since the cloak is single charge, then I think our best choice is to have me use up a single charge from the tower to hit her with Shockamancy. That way I have something to do, and we don't waste a more valuable caster's action to strip the cloak from her. After I do, T. Coil can open up a can o' whop ash on her."

Note that Tower spells and stored energy can only be used against Flying units.

[The Colonel]

Bill waves a heartfelt goodbye to Rona on the turn the alliance breaks.

Tod, how many uncroaked archers are needed to shoot and how many uncroaked "mines" are needed?

[0beron]

Note that Tower spells and stored energy can only be used against Flying units.

-_- nevvvvvvermind then, I'll stand around and be useless instead as previously planned. *throws tiny pebbles at crudely carved representations of fairies, in a sad analogy of how effective I'll be in combat against them*

[WaterMonkey314]

MarbitChow, is the unit reference with all units we currently have in Dis City up-to-date?

From Tod's math, I have 7 16-hit Wards to lay per turn - proposed wards are below:
Turn 6:
3 x L2 Warlords (Rowan, Tyler, Lian).
DF-8
2 x Royal Guard (Bert and Ernie)
1 x Archer

Turn 7:
7 x Archer (whole Archer stack should now be warded)

Turn 8:
7 x Melee unit = Tod, please specify which you think are most strategically important.

Turn 9:
Tod, is it better to conserve juice for the battle or to ward some of the newly arrived units?

Revision on warding, taking into account the new units:
Turn 7:
2 x Archer, 5 x Garrison Archer

Turn 8:
Ward 3 x Naughty Kitty, Garrison Warlord Reginald, and 3 more Archers.

Turn 9:
no wards - save all juice for the battle.

Also, what are our thoughts on expected combat losses? Are we likely to want to keep healing low-level units (in which case Junetta perhaps should get the Staff), or to focus on preserving critical units (that is, preserving Wards, in which case I should keep the staff)?

Also, 0beron, can't you just regular Fire attack Armolad?

[ETheBoyce]

That would put him in LOS of being fired upon and would do probably no damage

[0beron]

[Regular Fire attacking Armolad] would put him in LOS of being fired upon and would do probably no damage

Yeah, this. My job this battle is going to be to simply survive. Plus I will transport the spare cloaks I have to key units who lose theirs, and spend Juice to make new ones if need be. I might poke my head up to fire on some targets once the initial barrage has passed, but mostly I'm pretty ineffective.

[Lord of Monies]

You can use the tower spells, though, and considering all the other casters have jobs of their own you'll be useful up there dealing with the air defence.

[Swodaems]

OOC That went about as well as I was expecting it to. Well, at least the elves are nice and pissed off now. Time to see if that has benefits. And here's to hoping that flaming gump is an actual seperate unit type and not something we can create using the heck pup's pyrohalitosis./OOC

After Creperum shows me the image of the unit, I tell him, "At least we have given Queen Dibs reason to believe that we truely are an enemy of the elves. Did she give the name or location of the city the elves are returnng? This may affect our long-term plans if it is relatively nearby."

"You told me earlier that Queen Dibs desired to send a small force to learn more about us. Please arrange for them to have a chance to visit as soon as possible and ask Her Majesty to please hold off on taking the elves up on their offer until that visit has concluded. You may also want to ask if it would be possible for us to send a small force to Ix in turn. With more information shared between us and Ix, an arrangement more beneficial to both our side and their's may present itself. The elves gave up on their war with Ix far too easily."

On turn 7, after the call to Zoltarus: At some point when the Archons aren't in hearing range, I tell Junetta about the call and ask her opinion on the fact that Zoltarus is still alive. I also ask that she read over his diary and see if there is anything in it that does not make sense to her as a former Breathearian caster. (Did the Diary give the names of any other Breathearian casters that Junetta did not include in the group of currently alive ones that she knows about? Did it name a former chief warlord or ruler?)

Bill waves a heartfelt goodbye to Rona on the turn the alliance breaks.

Tod, how many uncroaked archers are needed to shoot and how many uncroaked "mines" are needed?

Given the fact that you'll have your staff back, I think we're better off with having you use pall raiser create 8 well armed Skele Archers during the morning of turn 9. More ranged damage pouring down from above on their ranged may be more useful to us than 16 more lesser uncroaked warriors. (The skele archers could attack at the same time as the lvl 2 elven archers. With Bill's hoard bonus and my hex-wide, the skele archers reach 16 com to use to poaur on the damage. (They can reach higher by layering attack modifiers on a single member of the group,) With those same bonuses, plus elevation and cover bonuses received from being on the wall, and +6 vs fire for being skeles, they should have about 23 def versus return fire from ground targets, so they'll survive a hit) Without using a potion, this will only leave Bill with 7 juice, but that will be enough to let him partake in the battle against the faeries.

(Alternative for Bill I want people's opinion on: Depending on corpse availibility, Bill can raise up to 8 skeles or 16 lesser uncroaked using pall raiser. (+1 extra lesser with his normal reanimator spell) With the 5 lessers and 1 skele he already has, he could create a full hoard (he takes up 1 of the 24 spots) of 23 warriors to place on the field. The 17 he raises in the morning can have 11(5+2+4) def and 22 hits if they take beefy. That should be enough for them to require a couple strikes from most of the enemy's units before going down. However, the potential for these units to be laying on the damage is low. Many enemy units will also have 11+ def and wards, and several will be able to attack the uncroaked before the uncroaked can attack. Bill can make the uncroaked attack faster and harder by giving them well armed, but the com 10 archers will likely be attacking with either 20 or 23 effective com if they layer their support and coorinates evenly. If the uncroaked sacrifice beefy for well armed, they'll only have 11def/14hits and will likely dust to a fire attack to a 20 or 23. (If the enemy doesn't layer its supports and coordinate evenly, then all bets are off.))

(MarbitChow, you've said that we can start the battle dodging, but I take it that having any delayed actions ready to go at Maxcombat+1 on round 1 would be out of the question.)

Pre-battle: Everyone starts dodging. for the lvl 4 units, this is a boost of 12 def. For Wandereus, 10 def. lvl 2s get 8 and level 1s get 6. If we have only select members of the lvl 4 units, the skeles, the brickbats and maybe the body guards in RLOS of the ground, but every other ranged unit is waiting back out side of RLOS, prepared to move forward. Dodging at lvl 4 (+12 def) + elevation (+4) + cover from crenelations (+4) + Varied leadership bonuses(2,5,7) gives the worst protected of them (Bill, who should only have 3+22 because of his need to not be stacked with a warlord,) 25 def versus the ground archers. (May want to tell bodyguard units to use Guard and interpose instead of bodyguard, so their target's def raises by 6. giving our worst defended unit in rlos a def of 31.)

(Sadly, a def of 30+ can be overcome, both by us and by them. They don't have to stack their modifiers evenly. A single archer unit could increase its attack drastically this way. Those skele archers I want Bill to make may be better of boosting the ballista captains with support/coordinate stacking.)

An interesting meeting for Brick to have witnessed. First off, would any of us had a better look at their warlord to see if she was holding any magic items? That was something the sacrifical Zed never got the chance to check for. With 5 of us there, one of us must have been able to tell, surely.

Yes. Armolad is wearing a Shockamancy-negating dollamancy cloak, and a Ward potion and a pair of Renew potions are on her belt.

That cloak protects against the effect of any single shockamancy spell? Not just hiya or hoboken like the cloaks Vinny can make?

(If I order the gate opened, Can I order it to stop opening and close before it finishes?)