Darkness Rising

[MarbitChow]

Just a few quick notes, mostly as an FYI to newer players:

Tod (mounted, and manning the Balista)

Ballistas can't be fired by regular units, only heavy.

William (mounted?)

William is a Heavy unit, and can't ride a mount.
I realize the rules set has grown quite complex over time, and the next set of changes are going to make it even more so. (Healamancy, Dirtamancy, and Seige fighting are probably the targets of the next major overhaul.)

[0beron]

Ah thanks. I did know the Heavies can't Ride rule, I just missed the fact that Will was a Heavy. I went back and edited my post guys, feedback/changes are welcome, I just wanted to give some suggestions to get us moving and into combat asap.

[BLANDCorporatio]

William (mounted?)

William is a Heavy unit, and can't ride a mount.

This is only temporarily correct. William will, eventually, ride into the sunset with Romana and her rulesbreaking mount.

[MarbitChow]

This is only temporarily correct. William will, eventually, ride into the sunset with Romana and her rulesbreaking mount.

It's only rules-breaking until the next rules update.

[BLANDCorporatio]

On who William shall attack- I take it that William can't delay action without forfeiting it for the turn, right? If that is so, then he'll strike at whoever enters the hex and is a likely kill (he can fire twice, correct?). Preference of targets- healers first, winged ranged second, ground archers, heavy melee a-la Gumps, light melee.

I see there's a melee unit (Rolf) that's near Will. Rolf then shall use the ballista?

[0beron]

On who William shall attack.....Healer

Healers are a VERY low priority, we want them to get croaked last because of that bonus on death. If they get killed by AOE so be it, but I think we want to avoid directly TARGETING them.

I see there's a melee unit (Rolf) that's near Will. Rolf then shall use the ballista?

That is what I assumed.

[Werebiscuit]

On who William shall attack.....Healer

Healers are a VERY low priority, we want them to get croaked last because of that bonus on death. If they get killed by AOE so be it, but I think we want to avoid directly TARGETING them.

Because of Wills bonus Bland has the preference list almost back to front. We don't want Will killing the altruistic elves and his shots would be wasted taking out fliers. Archers are a bit more his style but only the level 2 as they're likely to have the hits and def combo that does Will's 41 attack justice. However his talents would really be put to the test against the gumptions as we'll be hard put to take one down without aid from Will as they're likely to have defences in the 30's.

[WaterMonkey314]

On who William shall attack.....Healer

Healers are a VERY low priority, we want them to get croaked last because of that bonus on death. If they get killed by AOE so be it, but I think we want to avoid directly TARGETING them.

Because of Wills bonus Bland has the preference list almost back to front. We don't want Will killing the altruistic elves and his shots would be wasted taking out fliers. Archers are a bit more his style but only the level 2 as they're likely to have the hits and def combo that does Will's 41 attack justice. However his talents would really be put to the test against the gumptions as we'll be hard put to take one down without aid from Will as they're likely to have defences in the 30's.

Though if the healer is first in the hex, it doesn't give anyone its boost.

[Werebiscuit]

if you let me know your strategy for slowing/impairing the gumptions then maybe, just maybe it can work.
Ickypron will help but it will only buy us a round. I believe we need more than that. /OOC

With focussed fire from both ballistae and both Will and Cupid aiming at gumptions I believe we can take down 2 if we delay and have archers take out their guards first. Attack/damage of

(Rolf 7+21 +14) minus def of 26 means Rolf is doing 16 damage per shot on average for 32 over 2 shots
(Yuri 5+16+14) minus def of 26 means Yuri is doing 9 damage per shot on average for 18 over 2 shots
(Will 7+34+7) minus def of 26 means Willis doing 22 damage per shot on average for 44 over 2 shots
(Cupid 7 +13+7)minus def of 26 means Cupid is doing 1 damage per shot on average for 2 over 2 shots

Taking out a guard on a gumption means we can add 6 damage per shot so Rolf does 22, Yuri 15, Will 28 and Cupid 7 So pairing Rolf & Yuri causes 74 over their 2 shots and Cupid & Will 70 over their 2 so each pair does enough damage to take out a gumption. Combine that with 3 stunned gumptions and we may have enough to allow your gates to open without trashing them.
I' d still like uncroaked Marbits in the field running interference however as if the gumptions are bull rushing them they cannot also be dodging. We can risk uncroaked Marbits cant we ?
However this would mean we have to have archery take out a gumption guards and thus cannot concentrate on both their fliers and archery. The Tower spells will take out some fliers but we would leave their archery only lightly damaged.

[MarbitChow]

[ETheBoyce]

I've got a better idea than opening the gate, we don't open the gate. Armolad plans to take the city not lose the fight, so why should she knock it down to a level 2 if she's trying to take it from us?

[0beron]

Armolad plans to take the city not lose the fight, so why should she knock it down to a level 2 if she's trying to take it from us?

Ooooooh I don't know...perhaps because our Chief Warlord pissed off her King and has made him determined to squash us like a bug?

All jokes and jabs aside though, can we please agree that we are as prepared as we can be? There is only so much strategy we can discuss using hypothetical plans, and I feel like we have done enough of that to be prepared for whatever actually happens. Let's just start with the Gates closed but unbarred, and see what the enemy does. I don't think waiting an extra round is going to be such a terrible thing, especially not if we focus our attention on the Gumps from Range, if they do indeed get sent in first. So, take a look at my suggestion for how we stack, offer any comments and place ourselves in specific squares, and start already!

[Werebiscuit]

I've got a better idea than opening the gate, we don't open the gate. Armolad plans to take the city not lose the fight, so why should she knock it down to a level 2 if she's trying to take it from us?

I must admit that 'Gate closed' would be my preferred option but it actually forces Armolad to attack the gates or the towers to gain entrance as they're weaker than the walls. Attacking the towers also has the added benefit of destroying the ballistae which will cause her side so much damage. She may not want to reduce the city level but sometimes you have to scrap the good to get rid of the bad and besides Sunnydale was only level 2 when the elves lost it so really they would be getting back what they lost.

If we don't open the gate then we need to have our melee in the field to be effective...however if they're there they are in LOS of the elven archery. They will take big losses by taking hits from siege and elven archery. They can and will interfere with the siege movement which gives our ranged a chance to deal with their archery as it enters the hex but we cannot hope to take out all their archery in one turn. Giving their remaining archery and siege the chance to concentrate on our melee.

Tod is trying to stop melee losses by having their siege concentrate on the city and our ranged take out most of their archery (I think) before we put melee in the field. So the gates need to deny LOS then open quickly on demand.

[The Colonel]

Gate closed but unbarred sounds good.

Hell, off the siege and archery, leave the gate cracked open, to show them that it's unbarred.

[Werebiscuit]

Ah ok, yeah I sympathize....people need to start finalizing stuff. Here is a suggestion of where to put people (each list is stacked together), just to get the ball rolling:
Left Tower

• Tod (mounted)
• T. Coil (mounted)
• Vinny
• Junetta
• Brick
• A Heavy for the Balista

Right Tower

• Yuri
• William
• Rolf
• Triage
• 2 Bodyguard?
• Cupid & other Flier(stacked but not on the tower)

Ground Force
Led by Wanderus, stack as you guys see fit.
Colonel stacks with Wanderus or his horde, depending on the situation, and will climb the Right Tower when he needs RLOS.
This puts our most valuable/weak units with Tod to get the highest bonus, next most valuable units with our 2nd best leadership, and puts expendable units on the ground.

For best attack/damage to take down the siege as fast as possible we would want Rolf, T coil, Will and Cupid stacked with Tod. Unfortunately Yuri cannot stack with Tod then have his own stack so if we want Yuri to command (and I think we need him to do that) he cannot have Tod's bonus and must depend on his own lower bonus. Rolf should also command a ballista so should not be on the same tower as Yuri anyway.

Tod's Stack Tod, Will, Rolf, Cupid, T Coil (mounted), Brick, Vinny, Royal guard

Yuri's stack Yuri & the 7 Garrison archers

Wandreus Stack Wandreus & 7 zed archers

Bills Horde Bill ( mounted) 9 Skeleton archers, 5 Uncroaked Marbits and skeleton ( marbits & Skeleton start in c11, g11 k11 o11 s11 & w11 on the field)

Archer stack 1st lvl commander (mounted) 5 remaining zed archers & Junettaa & Triage

Melee stack 1 1st lvl commander (mounted) 5 heavies & 2 bodyguards
Melee stack 2 1st lvl commander (mounted) 5 warriors, Royal guard & remaining bodyguard

This leaves the spearmen and 3 warriors plus the heck pups unled... oh and we still have a mount to distribute

[0beron]

I see a few small problems:
~Tod's stack has 9 units (assuming the Mount is also stacked....can someone ride a mount and be stacked while their Mount is not? If so that'd be awesome)
~I don't see Junetta stacked anywhere.
~The other Flier is unaccounted for

Other than these hickups, I like this plan.

[MarbitChow]

can someone ride a mount and be stacked while their Mount is not? If so that'd be awesome)

Under the current implementation of the rules, mount and rider are not required to be in the same stack. (I like it when players exploit rules loopholes, so I don't fix them mid-scenario. We do rules updates after each major scenario to introduce new features after we've play-tested the current rules a bit. This will *probably* be fixed in the next update.)

[Werebiscuit]

I see a few small problems:
~Tod's stack has 9 units (assuming the Mount is also stacked....can someone ride a mount and be stacked while their Mount is not? If so that'd be awesome)
~I don't see Junetta stacked anywhere.
~The other Flier is unaccounted for

Other than these hickups, I like this plan.

I assumed as units do not have to be in the same group to be stacked that all mounts were unstacked. I forgot about Junetta but added her in. The dark flier should join the archery stack at the expense of Junetta or Triage ( who should be out of RLOS anyway)

[0beron]

I think the Flier should be where he can get the best possible bonus, since I assume he's better than even the Garrison Archers in Yuri's stack? If so, I'd put him there, and move the displaced Archer to the ground Archer stack. I would leave Triage unstacked, since he is pure heal whereas Junetta has Flower Power, so she may need to go into combat RLOS.

[Werebiscuit]

I think the Flier should be where he can get the best possible bonus, since I assume he's better than even the Garrison Archers in Yuri's stack? If so, I'd put him there, and move the displaced Archer to the ground Archer stack. I would leave Triage unstacked, since he is pure heal whereas Junetta has Flower Power, so she may need to go into combat RLOS.

Comet : (DF-8) Dark Flier {Level 1, 0 XP} [ 4 Combat / 4 Defense / 8 Hits. Fire. Special: Fly] (Ward-16)

Abe : Garrison Archer {Level 1, 0 XP} [ 7 Combat / 3 Defense / 18 Hits / 8 {8} Move. Fire. Specials: Dance Fighting, Beefy] (Ward-16)
Yuri got the best archers

Oh yeah and the final mount... Vinny and Tod can arm wrestle for it