Darkness Rising

[MarbitChow]

The one thing I'm uncertain about is how leadership/Dance Fighting interact with Mighty Blow et. al.because the archers Defense Score is only 3 meaning they can only use Mighty Blow once out of their base score

Leadership and Dance Fighting do not factor in, but other attack modifiers do. On their own, they'll only be able to use 1 might blow. Pairing them up with a bodyguard, on the other hand...

OOC No, Romana is not leading the attack on us...that would be Armolad, not that we've been able to find that out, or have we Marbit ?

As you've noticed, Bill has been able to drop a scout in their hex. Although you don't normally get names by default, Wandereus and Junetta are familiar with most of the high-level commanders in this region. If you can describe them, they can usually figure out who they are. Wandereus assumes that, at some point, they'll probably start pulling units from the front, which he and Junetta won't be able to do much about.

Before I forget... big shout out to you Marbit for the amount of work you're putting into this to keep us all entertained. Much appreciated !

Thanks! I'm glad you're enjoying it.

[Werebiscuit]

The one thing I'm uncertain about is how leadership/Dance Fighting interact with Mighty Blow et. al.because the archers Defense Score is only 3 meaning they can only use Mighty Blow once out of their base score; in addition at least 3 of them should die each round just From Cupid and Will alone, Factor in Rolf on a Ballista and our own archers and Hobobarbie and we could well take out the entire level 2 stack in the first round; not that I think it's all that likely.

OOC You've identified a weakness there that we can exploit. The archers must be led and in dance formation/numbers to use their skills to the max. We can target their leadership with Will and use area attacks from Rolf and Coil and the other catapult to thin their numbers so they can only use partial bonuses. On that note I'm assuming Rolf is a "stick-on" for manning one catapult but who will we be using to man the other ? Will would be an obvious choice but he is a glass cannon and I think more useful in the sniper role for taking down leadership. In saying that the walls and ballista DO provide defence and his bonus would be fearsome so he is perhaps a good choice after all. However the ballistas WILL come under heavy fire so a unit with reasonable attack/defence and hits should be chosen. I'm thinking Yuri would be a good choice. With Will targeting leadership and Yuri & Rolf on the catapults targeting archer numbers we can quickly bring their offensive score down to numbers that we can risk exposing the rest of the offensive mancers (Coil & Bill) to bear on them. Once we can intoduce Coil & Bill to removing archer stacks then the battle will turn in our favour.
I'm assuming Yuri can still provide a leadership bonus while manning a catapult but how do Rolf's skill bonuses work, Marbit ? Can he use block & mighty blow or co-ordinate & interpose ?
/OOC

[Werebiscuit]

Leadership and Dance Fighting do not factor in, but other attack modifiers do. On their own, they'll only be able to use 1 might blow. Pairing them up with a bodyguard, on the other hand...

Ah..maybe we can't exploit that weakness in that way, then. However choice of catapult manning still stacks up for tactical reasons.

[Werebiscuit]

BTW Marbit. I'm presuming that the Faeries have Fly as a special. It's not mentioned in their stats that I can see...but their wings are a giveaway.

[ETheBoyce]

Rolf and Yuri make the most sense to man the Ballistae since I'm pretty sure they can both fire it twice. On that note I think that Tod's Stack should basically be the PCs rather than the Garrison units, he provides a massive bonus and will allow us to one or two shot most enemies on the field as well as giving us a lot more survivability. Against the Archers even me with my normal 1 Defense will have 16 Defense against fire from the Archers (7 From leadership, 4 From Elevation, 4 from Crenelations).

Also Marbit you should update who has which items <_< I gave my strike cloak to...someone, my scrolls to Vinny, and my Healing Potion to Brick

[The Colonel]

Also, during the battle, I WANT MY STEEK BACK!

EDIT: Also a fire cloak.

[Werebiscuit]

Rolf and Yuri make the most sense to man the Ballistae since I'm pretty sure they can both fire it twice. On that note I think that Tod's Stack should basically be the PCs rather than the Garrison units, he provides a massive bonus and will allow us to one or two shot most enemies on the field as well as giving us a lot more survivability. Against the Archers even me with my normal 1 Defense will have 16 Defense against fire from the Archers (7 From leadership, 4 From Elevation, 4 from Crenelations).

Also Marbit you should update who has which items <_< I gave my strike cloak to...someone, my scrolls to Vinny, and my Healing Potion to Brick

The bolded & underlined reason is not as good as it sounds since that twice is on the same target... so if Rolf takes them out 1st shot (which is more than possible) his 2nd shot is wasted. Cupid would be a better choice in this case since he can switch targets for the 2nd shot.

About that 16 defence.. which would normally be good. Consider that the first level archers will have combat 7 + (a possible 4 dancing) + (a possible 9 from mighty blowX3) + (a possible 5 from leadership) giving them a possible max 25 combat score BEFORE they co-ordinate. They could be be doing 9+2d6 on you per shot for an AVERAGE 16 damage. Now I'm not saying they will as Armolad's bonus can't be everywhere but do you really want to expose yourself to that sort of damage ? A couple of arrows will take out your ward and cloak leaving you (and your mount) vulnerable.
Even with Rolf's high def I will be requesting a fire protecting cloak just in case, though I expect to be far down the list in terms of needing one.

No it's far better that you stay out of LOS until the archers have been thinned out enough that their bonus is much reduced.
It's Rolf and Yuri's DEF bonus that makes them candidates for the Catapults...not their attack bonus.

Consider 18 def + 7 (Lead) + 4 (Walls) + 4 (Elevation/catapult) = 33. The archers will have to roll better than average just to damage them.

[0beron]

I think that we should either croak the Altruistic Elves first, or last. If we croak them first, we can rely on the wards and cloaks to soak up some of the extra damage their dying cries will allow for. And of course croaking them last will make the fight a tiny bit trickier, but removes their last cry ability.
Of course we focus the heck out of their leadership first too.
Unless he hears otherwise, Vinny is crafting 6 Fire Cloaks, to be distributed as y'all dictate.

[The Colonel]

I think kill the ranged units first, then leadership. LEADERSHIP MUST DIE! NO NO TRYING TO CONVERT Armolad NO! Raise her as an uncroaked, maybe. Turn? NO!

[ETheBoyce]

You're forgetting we have brickbats that can negate 7 shots a piece or 28 shots total, and I'll be on a mount and we have some bodyguards, also I'll be stunning 2-3 of them. Further the reason we don't want Cupid or Will manning the Ballistae is that they already have ranged attacks, Using Yuri and Rolf to man the Ballistae gives us 6-8 high damage ranged attacks whereas using Cupid and Will to man them gives us no additional attacks and leaves them not doing anything until they break through the gate/walls.

Archers/Leaders first yes, but then healers!

[Werebiscuit]

I think that we should either croak the Altruistic Elves first, or last. If we croak them first, we can rely on the wards and cloaks to soak up some of the extra damage their dying cries will allow for. And of course croaking them last will make the fight a tiny bit trickier, but removes their last cry ability.
Of course we focus the heck out of their leadership first too.
Unless he hears otherwise, Vinny is crafting 6 Fire Cloaks, to be distributed as y'all dictate.

That depends on how they're distributed. I suspect there will be an altruistic elf (P.S.I called their healing powers right, even if they're not healomancers ) in each stack surrounded by warriors/archers/etc. I doubt we'll see them as a seperate stack so our area attacks will croak them along with others in the stack. I don't think we'll be targeting them.

[Werebiscuit]

You're forgetting we have brickbats that can negate 7 shots a piece or 28 shots total, and I'll be on a mount and we have some bodyguards, also I'll be stunning 2-3 of them. Further the reason we don't want Cupid or Will manning the Ballistae is that they already have ranged attacks, Using Yuri and Rolf to man the Ballistae gives us 6-8 high damage ranged attacks whereas using Cupid and Will to man them gives us no additional attacks and leaves them not doing anything until they break through the gate/walls.

Archers/Leaders first yes, but then healers!

I think you'll find that one of the 4 brickbat stacks that Swodaems was talking about consisted of 1 brickbat so although we may have 4 depending on Marbit's ruling we can't count on negating 28 shots.
Yes the brickbats are good for soaking up damage but between the faeries and archers (32 shots in total) I don't expect them to last out the 1st phase of fire. Wards and cloaks will go by the 2nd phase if you're exposed.

[Lord of Monies]

If slain by an enemy, every member of the Altruistic Elf's side in the hex gains a +2 Combat / +1 Defense Inspiration Bonus until the start of their next Turn

Ok, based on that, my vote goes to killed the Altruist Elves last if at all possible. Turn is capitalised, so we're not dealing with rounds. This means it will last the entirerity of the combat. The last thing we want is to increase their buffs when they still have the majority of their fighting force. Unfortunately, my guess is this isn't going to be an easy thing to achieve. The view we got of their forces had them in marching formation. When it comes to combat, those altruists are going to be put in the middle of stacks to ensure they get healed. This means are aoe attacks are likely to end up taking down an altruist or two along the way. We don't have the luxury of trying to capture their leadership here. That needs to go down first so we can afford to kill an few altruists as collateral damage. Further food for thought, warlord is holding items that we don't know what they do. Let's not find out until after the battle. Take down leadership first, then the archers.

[Swodaems]

My thoughts on the battle:
(MarbitChow, hasn't the AOE nature of the ballistaes been removed? There seems to be some confusion on the point.) Will should probably man 1 of the ballista and Rolf or Cupid the other. Primary targets should be the enemy's Lvl 2 dance leaders.
My leadership is best placed on units that can use it most often. That means the lvl 4 units on our side that can attack twice or that are targets. Yuri has his own leadership bonus to use, so he shouldn't be in my stack and Bill may want to abstain from stacking with me so he can lead his hoard in combat. That leaves Junetta, Will, Rolf, Triage, T. Coil, and Cupid with one spot left over.
We may want to save a few mounts for our level 2 dance leaders.
Junetta's space-out attack could be used to remove both Armolad and Amandaria from the fight by alternating between them. (Yes, I want them taken alive.)
We should pop 4 more dancing archers, but the extra AP should be spent on either well-armed or well-protected. (Between dancefighting, Wandereus, and my hex-wide bonus, they'll have +9/+9 bonuses.)
(MarbitChow, when you say Dying Cry ends at the start of their next Turn, are you talking about daily Turns?)

[0beron]

Do the leader's bonuses apply while they're Spaced-Out though? Because if so, keeping them Spaced but alive is a terrible idea I feel.

If Triage just wanted to recolor his raiment then he's free to do that, if however he wants Vinny to actually re-design his garb, I will not have the chance to draw up some ideas until tonight.

[Werebiscuit]

My thoughts on the battle:
(MarbitChow, hasn't the AOE nature of the ballistaes been removed? There seems to be some confusion on the point.)

Definitely some confusion on my part. I thought that was the point of the ballistae.
With your side & hexwide bonus Yuri's leadership is almost as effective as Tods so you may want Yuri to provide Rolf's plus to def bonus and save space in Tods for some of the lesser leadership. Initially I would advocate melee and casters that aren't offensively ranged staying out of LOS until we can deal with the fliers and archers. Once their ranged units are nullified ( effectively thinned & leaderless) we can afford to field melee and move archers to the outer walls.
initially we COULD all stay inside or well back on the walls (negating their archery)and leave only high def units to deal with their fliers. When fliers are out of the way we can concentrate on archery and when they are nullified then have our melee take the field.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Hah! Their leader is not much of an Archer. Will is quite confident that, were he and Armolad to duel, Will would emerge victorious.

(34 combat with no other bonuses, quickshot means two shots are fired for 68 damage- and that's without the dice adding anything! 22 of that is absorbed by Armolad's defense, 16 by the ward, leaving 30 inflicted on Armolad. In other words, if Will scored the minimum dice rolls (2) twice, he'd still do enough to croak Armolad).

This depends of course on how they'll be stacked when the actual combat happens, but Will would say, their leader is to be Will's quarry.

I see Werebiscuit is thinking the same. Presumably, so are the enemy. For that reason I'm a bit wary of having T.Coil AND Will together as one juicy target for their archers.

[Werebiscuit]

Hah! Their leader is not much of an Archer. Will is quite confident that, were he and Armolad to duel, Will would emerge victorious.

(34 combat with no other bonuses, quickshot means two shots are fired for 68 damage- and that's without the dice adding anything! 22 of that is absorbed by Armolad's defense, 16 by the ward, leaving 30 inflicted on Armolad. In other words, if Will scored the minimum dice rolls (2) twice, he'd still do enough to croak Armolad).

This depends of course on how they'll be stacked when the actual combat happens, but Will would say, their leader is to be Will's quarry.

I see Werebiscuit is thinking the same. Presumably, so are the enemy. For that reason I'm a bit wary of having T.Coil AND Will together as one juicy target for their archers.

Totally agreed ! That's why I see you in the sniper role !

[0beron]

This does raise the question....what is Vinny supposed to do during this...? His Juice is gonna be spent keeping his own Cloak charged, so he can negate multiple hits against himself...but beyond that where would Leadership like me? Can/should I be firing tower spells? Should I hang in cover until their range has been crippled? *Feels bad that he's kinda combat-useless until lvl 2*

[BLANDCorporatio]

Getting our ranged units out of the reach of their archers is obviously a good idea, but those fairies are rather dangerous regardless. We'll need to kill them quickly. And that 60H 20D mount looks like a prime target for Shocka.

That said, the army the scout saw seems fairly small. Am I wrong to assume that it would have serious trouble negotiating past our field defenses?