The Arkentool War - Prologue: "Gathering Clouds"

[WaterMonkey314]

Lily awoke before dawn in Oldcastle. In the dim light, the broken statues surrounding her looked remarkably spook-

Wait. Had one of them just moved? And what was the King doing standing on that balcony in the tower?

Up on the shattered tower, the King stood on a once-grand balcony that now looked more like a levitating Dirtamancy trap. He held some sort of large, dark parcel in his left hand and a scepter in his right; he spread his arms wide as he began to shout.

"This city is in danger! Guardians, you know what to do! By the Will of the Titans, awake and defend this city and her power against her enemies! To arms, to arms, to arms!"

'Twas a fine and noble speech, yes, but why did the King have to stand on top of the tower and bellow, instead of just telling it to all three of them? Or even better, have Miranda broadcast it to every--

That statue totally just moved.

And that one too.

All around Lily, statues were rising up, and the gargoyles atop the tower suddenly took flight. With a great rumble, a pair of statues from the far part of the city took to the air, silhouetted against the rising sun to the east.

"They're reinforcements," said a voice behind her. Lily turned to find the King smiling at her, the dark parcel replaced by a spear of some sort. "An excellent way to start the morning, don't you think? And now, let us plan the survival of my kingdom..."


Additional reinforcements... spawn? arise? awake? ... in Oldcastle:

8 x Stone Knight (Gawaine, L6; Lancelot, L7; Percival, L6; Galahad, L7; Bors, L5; Bedivere, L5; Pellinor, L4; Tristan, L6)
12 x Gargoyle
2 x Stone Gryphon

Stats:
Stone Knight: Hits 8, Attack 16, Defense 4, Move 2 (Walker), Commander
A larger-than-life-sized statue with a commanding presence.

Gargoyle: Hits 4, Attack 4, Defense 4, Move 2 (Flier)
A small, impish flying statue.

Stone Gryphon: Hits 10, Attack 12, Defense 4, Move 2 (Flier), Cargo 6
A large, dignified beast fit for a king or other great hero.

The King has discovered a new item:

Ascalon
Supposedly the lance of St George, this item gives its wielder double his/her normal attack when fighting dwagons. It also grants its wielder a fifty percent damage reduction from dwagons. These bonuses do not apply to other units that may be stacked with the dwagons.

[Stryke]

"Good greif as stone army" Deus mused, "Miranda group call, the king, the chief myself and anyone else the deem appropriate."
"As you wish deus"

"Ok since we survived the last turn. This is how i see our options.

Conventional siege: pull back to old castle and see what other deus ex parsons the king'll come up with.
Attrition: mass hit and run attacks, wont level anything but we'll do some damage if we choose the right targets.
Lord of the rings: some how everything always comes down to an enourmous battle for some reason.

Personally i think a retreating war of attrition falling back to old castle then digging in for a seige. If so additionally i think we should go for weaker targets to reduce their base damage capabilities, remeber that warlord bonus aint any good if it aint a pllied to anything. Alternativly max stacks targetting choice targets taking out leadership and seige would make a final battle at oldcastle more appealing.

Spoiler: show

Or, if the DM will allow, theres option 4) raise all cities but oldcastle and build and win with the enourmous army that results.
Also i've been concidering a mechanic involving directioinal defense, along the lines of "this unit is facing this way, any units attacking from that hex must pass this unit to get anywhere, requires leadership in the hex. if you think it shows promise let me know and i'll flesh it out a bit

[BLANDCorporatio]

Joan almost spat her morning coffee at the news. The King surely should brief warlords over surprises like this, as it would really change planning. On the other hand, this wasn't the first mentally challenged king she served under. She thought that really, she should be handling these things better by now.

Taking another sip of coffee, Joan sent a message to Miranda:

"I see that Oldcastle has a strong defensive force. Given that, it would be wiser to boost the troops in the other two major cities. Would his Majesty agree to redistribute our 7400 points in the treasury, equally among Neufchatel and Castlenau?"

Hopefully the King would see sense. Retreat was an option, but for once things were looking up. They may have a good chance to repel the invaders after all!

Oh right, scouts. I'll be AFK for tomorrow, and I'm not feeling up to plotting scout patterns right now. Could someone else take care of that please?

[WaterMonkey314]

If you want to leave scouting the same, I can run those results fairly easily (keep in mind your active space lost a pretty hefty chunk with the fall of Outpost and Newcastle).

Anyway, preliminary info for Chap. 1 is up! And a solution to the pesky scouting is included!

[BLANDCorporatio]

If it's easy, then leave scouting the same. We should have some scouts looking westwards (where the enemy stacks, presumably, are), so all should be decent.

[tigerusthegreat]

Are we still restricted to our initial units, or can we pop things like ranged warlords?

[WaterMonkey314]

You're still restricted to initial units here.

You can, however, start planning your own custom units for Chapter 1, which will begin soon (I think).

tigerusthegreat, how do you want to use your scouts in Castlenau?

[tigerusthegreat]

Scouts:
1: K9 K10 K11 L12 M12 (N13 if I get an extra for roads)
3: J8 J9 I8 I7 H7

[WaterMonkey314]

Oh - and you guys need to get on your popping orders.

Per BLAND's allocation, Castlenau and Neufchatel each get 3700 points.

[tigerusthegreat]

Definately going to get 3 horses (800 pts each; 2400 total) for my warlords, and investing the remaining 1300 in 7 archers (103 points to refund to the central command to reassign as they see fit.)

[Nihila]

So, if we're more interested in just inflicting damage on enemy stacks than anything else, we could pop 3 full stacks of Stabbers at Neufchatel, then fling those at enemy melee stacks--like the ones that passed through Castlenau.

[BLANDCorporatio]

That looks like a good plan, but one question first- we must pop, and then receive scout results, correct?

If not, of course we'll wait for Scout results first

But if we need to pop now, what Nihila says is ok. Either Stabbers or Archers.

EDIT: and I guess Stabbers is the better choice. Most enemy stacks are not ranged, and it's not like we can seriously think about eliminating all of them this turn. So we'll try to stick to melee vs. melee battles, and therefore Stabbers is what Neufchatel will pop.

[tigerusthegreat]

I'm pretty sure Castlenau has ranged units covered, now that I have 3 stacks.

[WaterMonkey314]

Yes, you must pop first, then scout. (At least with this iteration of the rules; I'm thinking about moving to a RtGB popping system too.)

[BLANDCorporatio]

Well, Stabbers are the cheapest unit on the roster. So if Neufchatel goes all-Stabber on 3700, there's not an issue of what to pop with the left-overs.

So- pop as many Stabbers as possible out of the 3700 points.

[Nihila]

Okay, as far as I can tell, the orders, as they stand now, are:
Popping:
At Castlenau:
3 Horses, 7 Archers
103 pop points left over.

At Neufchatel:
25 Stabbers
25 pop points left over.

Scouting:
Neufchatel:
S1: G7 - G8 - G9 - F10 - G10
S2: H7 - H8 - H9 - H10 - I9
S3: H6 - H5 - I4 - J4 - K3
S4: H6 - I5 - J5 - K4 - L5

Castlenau:
1: K9 K10 K11 L12 M12 (N13 if I get an extra for roads)
2: J8 J9 I8 I7 H7

Bailey:
wa-Had: G1->F1->E1->D2->C1
Zwei: F2->E2->D3->C2->B2
Trois: F3->E3->D4->C3->B3
Tetra: G3->F4->E4->D5->C4
Pancha: H2->I1->J2->K2->L3
Hat: H3->H4->I3->J3->I2

Alkminian:
S1: G5 - G4 - F5 - E5 - D6
S2: F6 - E6 - D7 - D8 - D9
S3: F7 - E7 - F8 - F9 - E9

[WaterMonkey314]

OK - I'll be processing those scouting orders shortly.

(I can't wait till we upgrade to the RtGB auto-scouting; that'll make my life so much easier as a GM...)

[BLANDCorporatio]

Heads-up, I will be away for the weekend. Monday however I'm back, so that's not too far off.

[WaterMonkey314]

Miranda was prepared for the worst when the scouting report came in... and even that wasn't enough. Thank the Titans she'd spat out her gum, or else the King would have to resuscitate her again - and she'd lost track of him among all the stone guardians roaming around Oldcastle.

Scouting Results:
J5:
More Dwagons of Doom!
==== Yellow Dwagon {Archer, Archer}
==== Yellow Dwagon {Archer, Archer}
==== Purple Dwagon {Decrypted Scout, Knight Sir Loves-a-laugh, lvl 4}

H7:
Assault Column Head:
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
6 x Stabber, Spidew {Warlord Capt. Crunch (lvl 2)}

I7:
Yellow Support Dwagon
=== 1 x Yellow Dwagon {Decrypted Scout, Warlord Capt. Sale, lvl 2**}

Assault Column:
5 x Stabber, 2 x Battle Bear, Warlord Capt. Discount, lvl 3*
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
7 x Archer, Spidew {Warlord Capt. Morgan (lvl 3)}

H6:
Battlegroup Red
== Red Dwagon, lvl 4 {2 x Hobgobwin Knight, lvl 3}
== Red Dwagon, lvl 4 {2 x Hobgobwin Knight, lvl 3}
== Red Dwagon, lvl 6 {Hobgobwin Knight, Knight Captain Kirk, lvl 5}

G5:
Battlegroup Purple
== Purple Dwagon, lvl 3 {2 x Hobgobwin Knight, lvl 2}
== Purple Dwagon, lvl 3 {2 x Hobgobwin Knight, lvl 2}
== Purple Dwagon, lvl 5 {Hobgobwin Knight, Knight Captain Sully, lvl 5, *item*}
*item* - Captain Sully's wings: allows the unit, its mount, and any additional riders to fall without taking any damage!

K9:
Support Column Head
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
3 x Spidew {Hobgobwin Knight}, Spidew {Knight General Specific, lvl 5}
7 x Battle Bear, Knight General Quarters, lvl 5

K10:
Support Column
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
6 x Piker (lvl 5), Spidew {Knight Sir Mordred, lvl 6}

K11:
Support Column
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
8 x Battle Bear
4 x Spidew {Hobgobwin Knight}
3 x Spidew {Hobgobwin Knight}, Spidew {Knight Sir Needs-a-Name, lvl 4}

L12:
Support Column
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
8 x Battle Bear
8 x Battle Bear

M12:
Support Column
8 x Stabber
8 x Stabber
8 x Archer
8 x Archer
3 x Spidew {Hobgobwin Knight}, Spidew {Knight Lt. Surge, lvl 3}

Unit Stats:
Piker, Stabber, Archer, and Knight are the same as Camerian units.

Hobgobwin Knight:
Hits 6, Attack 10, Defense 2, Move 2 (Walker)
Battle Bear:
Hits 15, Attack 20, Defense 0, Move 2 (Walker), Siege

Yellow Dwagon
Hits 20, Attack 40, Defense 0, Move 10 (Flyer), Cargo 12, Ranged, Siege
Red Dwagon
Hits 25, Attack 75, Defense 4, Move 10 (Flyer), Cargo 12, Siege
Purple Dwagon
Hits 25, Attack 60, Defense 0, Move 10 (Flyer), Cargo 12, Ranged, Siege
Pink Dwagon
Hits 20, Attack 40, Defense 0, Move 10 (Flyer), Cargo 12, Shockamancy

Spidew
Hits 12, Attack 24, Defense 2, Move 5 (Walker), Cargo 6

[WaterMonkey314]

Map:

Spoiler: show