Battle for Gobwin Bump V

[Swodaems]

Will some of those non-casting abilites be limited by unit type? Parry in particular seems like a odd skill for an archer or caster to have access to.

Another question. Will the new Lvl 0 units be starting out with the same class dependant stats as the old lvl 1 chars we claimed? (My knight had the warrior completely matched or beat statwise, so with the new option for choosing a character's abilities, the warrior class becomes obsolete. A knight with an offensive build would be everyone's choice for close up melee damage.)

[HerbieRai]

This is a good idea, if only because (at the moment) the enemies don't really get to choose an opponent - you guys move, and they hit whatever is in front of them. It would mean extra work making pretty pictures... I'll think on it.

I think you'd still only have to do 1 picture a round. You'd just let us get our attacks and moves in first, then let them have theirs. Then update the picture and post all the results to us.

[LTDave]

All good suggestions. Keep 'em coming.

Might need to limit Parry to sword wielding characters.
And I intend to limit the number of Knights, so Warriors are still a valid choice. How best to do this?

[MarbitChow]

If you want to make warriors into a valid choice, buff them so that they're as appealing as the Knights. For example...

Old stats:
Knight: Combat 4 , Defense 6 , Hits 10 /10 {Strike, Block, Piercing Blow}
Warrior: Combat 4 , Defense 4 , Hits 8 /8 {Strike, Parry, Lunge}

New stats:
Knight: Combat 4 , Defense 6 , Hits 10 /10 [3 Abilities]
Warrior: Combat 6 , Defense 4 , Hits 9 / 9 [Berserker + 3 Abilities]

Warriors will probably level faster than knights, since they're more likely to get the kill.

[LTDave]

"Ok, so this is you. From those trees, to the back of this Palace. The enemy will be along any time now, so get ready.
I'm combining two groups, so take the time to introduce yourselves to your new stackmates. Some of you are still injured, so get your caster working on that.

This building is one of the Overlord's summer homes. He has some important items in here that we are still evacuating. You need to keep the Hay'tas and their allies from destroying the Palace before we get everything out. That'll take about six or seven phases.

Hold the line. I'll come get you when it is time to fall back. Any questions? Good."

Stats:

Spoiler: show

(Swodaems) Warrior, Level 0 : COM 4 , DEF 4 , HIT 7 /8 {}
Anday (MarbitChow} Knight, Level 0 : COM 4 , DEF 6 , HIT 7 /10 {}
Numma To (HerbieRae) Archer, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 2 , HIT 8 /8 {}
Numma Trois (Exate) Archer, Level 1.1 : COM 3 , DEF 2 , HIT 7 /9 {}
Tim (The Colonel) Blue Caster, Level 1 : COM 2 , DEF 3 , HIT 9 /9 {}
Derek (A.B.C.) Halberdier, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 4 , HIT 8 /8 {}
Otto (five-thirteen) Halberdier, Level 1 : COM 2 , DEF 5 , HIT 7 /9 {}
Ian Marius Stanley (BLANDCorporatio) Halberdier, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 4 , HIT 7 /8 {}

[LTDave]

Rules As They Are Yet Known:

The Random Number will now be a d4, rather than a d6.

All Characters have as default:
Attack / Fire – Hit an adjacent opponent. Combat and Defence normal. Halberdiers may Strike an opponent from the second rank. Archers and Casters may target any enemy on screen.

Abilities: Each character chooses 3 of the abilities below:
(Only one ability can be used each turn. No more "not twice in a row")

Block – Defence +2, Combat -2. Unit may still attack while Blocking.

Precise Blow – attack / fire at a weak spot – Combat ignores Defence value of opponent, but does not add Random to value.

Parry - deflect all opponents’ melee attacks against you for the phase (you cannot parry Arrows or Spells) (only Characters with Swords)

Mighty Blow - Combat +2, Defence -2

Guard - +2 to Defence of a specific Adjacent character. -2 to your Combat. Character may still attack enemies.

Support - +2 to Combat of a specific Adjacent character.

Berserker - Combat +X (where X is the number of hits you have lost) Defence is reduced to 0.



Caster Specials:

Heal Wounds - restore half the target’s lost hits on touch (rounded up).

Spark - summon fire without flint nor tinder. Effect: can light candles if needed.

Shield – +4 Defence of any Character for the turn.

Illusion – All enemies have combat -1 for the rest of the turn as they are distracted…

[LTDave]

Six hours or so until the enemies appear, then 24 hours to get your orders in.
Make sure you choose your three abilities...

[The Colonel]

I add Heal Wounds, shield and Illusion. And get to healing people.

[five-thirteen]

I'll take mighty blow, guard, and berseker
Avery will be avenged!

[Werebiscuit]

Spoiler: show

You could easily spread the love by giving out the roles of the enemy with very little extra work. in fact it would save you some decision making, with possibly foreknowledge of the results. The only real change is that orders would have to be pm'd to stop the "oh , Anday is going to parry so no-one attack him" syndrome. All you need would be some more willing participants (pick me , pick me !

[MarbitChow]

Anday takes [Block, Parry, Mighty Blow]. I'll position myself front and center.

/ooc The Colonel: since Heal cures 1/2 the inflicted HP, I'd hold off on healing until people are more seriously wounded.
If there are a lot of attackers (especially ranged), Illusion is a much better bet.
If there are only a few, I'd suggest casting shield on the lowest-defense teammate who can be attacked.

You can only heal 1 or 2 pts max currently, but you could negate 3+ damage w/ illusion or shield if used properly.
If you shield a melee who can use Might Blow (currently me and five-thirteen), our combat /def could be +2 / +2 instead of +2 / -2, significantly improving both damage output and survival.

[HerbieRai]

Numma To will take Precise Blow, Might Blow, and Block.

[LTDave]

The Enemy have arrived on the scene.
(As an attempt towards the move / counter move idea suggested elsewhere, each side will get to move / change formation every second phase. Combat will still be simultaneous. I'll post a picture (like this one) and in your orders you say where you are moving / what you are doing. Your formation will then be fixed - in the next picture I will choose where the Enemies are. You still get to pick an action, even though you didn't move. Your target might not be valid, in which case you'll just attack the next best enemy. Make sense? Probably not.)

Character Stats

Spoiler: show

(Swodaems) Warrior, Level 0 : COM 4 , DEF 4 , HIT 7 /8 {}
Anday (MarbitChow} Knight, Level 0 : COM 4 , DEF 6 , HIT 7 /10 {Block, Parry, Mighty Blow}
Numma To (HerbieRae) Archer, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 2 , HIT 8 /8 {Precise Blow, Mighty Blow, Block}
Numma Trois (Exate) Archer, Level 1.1 : COM 3 , DEF 2 , HIT 7 /9 {}
Tim (The Colonel) Blue Caster, Level 1 : COM 2 , DEF 3 , HIT 9 /9 {Heal Wounds, Shield, Illusion}
Derek (A.B.C.) Halberdier, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 4 , HIT 8 /8 {}
Otto (five-thirteen) Halberdier, Level 1 : COM 2 , DEF 5 , HIT 7 /9 {Mighty Blow, Guard, Berserker}
Ian Marius Stanley (BLANDCorporatio) Halberdier, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 4 , HIT 7 /8 {}

Enemy S Krit'ik 0 : COM 2 , DEF 2 , Hits 0 /10 {Precise Blow, Mighty Blow, Guard}
Enemy T Bit'ya, Level 0 : COM 2 , DEF 2 , Hits 0 /10 {Precise Blow, Heal Wounds, Shield}
Enemy U Bag'ga 0 : COM 3 , DEF 5 , Hits 0 /12 {Block, Mighty Blow, Guard}
Enemy V Bag'ga 0 : COM 3 , DEF 5 , Hits 0 /12 {Block, Mighty Blow, Guard}
Enemy W Champion Hay'ta 3 : COM 5 , DEF 6 , Hits 0 /13 {Precise Blow, Parry, Mighty Blow}
Enemy X Wyn'a 0 : COM 2 , DEF 3 , Hits 0 /10 {Support, Guard, Block}
Enemy Y Wyn'a 0 : COM 2 , DEF 3 , Hits 0 /10 {Support, Guard, Block}
Enemy Z Wyn'a 0 : COM 2 , DEF 3 , Hits 0 /10 {Support, Guard, Block}

24 hours for orders to be submitted. Go!

[BLANDCorporatio]

Ian Marius Stanley chooses the abilities that all Halberdiers should have: Support, Guard, and Block. He also asks how come his level is 0, and not even 1.

OOC: yeah, bit of a gimping here, as I picked no offensive skills. Flavourwise though, the combo makes sense for a halberdier, and one more similarly support oriented unit, for example A.B.C's, and we can make a proper wall of spears. One more char with Support for example, and that person and Ian Marius Stanley can give each other +2 to combat.

I see not everyone has selected their abilities, I'll wait until everyone does so to decide on the move to make.
/OOC

[Exate]

Numma Trois will take Precise Blow, Guard, and Block.


My suggestion for moves this round would be for both archers to focus fire on either the enemy caster or archer. Their Precise Blow ability could be murder if we're trying to save someone who is injured with Guard moves or Shield spells, and taking out enemy ranged is generally good. Our caster can Illusion to reduce overall damage that we take, and the melee team... I'm not sure whether it would be better for them to focus fire on an enemy and try to maximize damage or to play it cautious with parries and blocks, actually. The enemy melee units have a lot of Hits, which makes me a bit nervous, and the Bag'gas and Hay'ta have impressive stats on top of that relative to us.

[The Colonel]

Tim opens with a Blue Dart at the enemy called T BTW, I just realized something, Can I switch out Shield for Blue Dart.

[Swodaems]

Name: Chess (Let's set a standard for naming warriors after games that can be played on a checkerboard. Mak (Makruk), Ari (Arimaa), and Chap (Chapayev) are all possibilities. Wikipedia has more.)

I have a few questions before I choose my abilities.
1. Exactly how many units are required in the front line to prevent melee enemies from having access to the second row? (In the previous battle, Marbitchow and I held the enemy back with just us two. But later, the enemy has two people in his front line at the start of the phase, but one of our guys proceeds to bypass the frontline to attack the enemy halbrediers.) Would my warrior's presence actually be needed on the front line to control enemy movements or could Anday conceivably do that task alone so long as he managed to keep alive?
2. Aside from the caster specials, alot of the other abilities seem to be variations on the basic attack skill or have specific mention of your ability to attack while using them. Which ones prevent the user from attacking the enemy? (This needs to be defined for parry and support in particular. Could a pair of characters support trading boost both their COM scores by 2, without suffering mighty blows def penalty, and still attack?)
3. Are halbrediers still limited to only the basic attack from the second row? Can they still do that when they use an ability that boosts an ally's stats?
4. Are buffs from other characters stackable? (Support stacking on the archers may be the best option for taking out that caster of theirs asap. The enemies' higher starting hits means his healing is greater than Tim's.)
5. What limits are there to changing ability lists?
6. The heal spell was a touch skill last time. Is it this time? What about Shield?

(So I see dying means the loss of one unit's worth of Exp. Oh well, at least I didn't lose anything.)

[HerbieRai]

I think the Champion should be the biggest concern. He can Precise Blow one of use for 5 damage every phase, which leaves 1 of us dying every other round no matter our actions. Combine that with all the enemies with "support" ability and we're losing someone every phase to his attack alone. He also has 6 defense, so precise attacks are probably going to be the only way to take the monster down.

I Currently we have 5 damage from the 2 archers base, and 2 extra from Ian's support. That will be enough to down him next turn, unless we can get 6 more precise damage off this round. Upon looking, I don't think that is possible with only 2 characters that don't have abilities chosen, so I think Ian should boost one of the archers this and next turn so we can take out the big nasty quickly.

Edit: Even though the caster has heal, I still think the champ should be the primary target, He has 5 attack compared to the 4 of the 2 others combinded.

[BLANDCorporatio]

As I understand it, two units with Support are capable of boosting each other's Combat score. I'd love for another unit, preferably a Halberdier, to have support beside Ian Marius Stanley. (I am assuming of course that this allows the two to also attack).

[MarbitChow]

I think the Champion should be the biggest concern.

Agreed. I'll stand directly in front of him and Parry.