Darkness Rising

[ETheBoyce]

Well this battle is just about wrapped up and our towers are no longer in danger of both being destroyed, T. Coil's orders will be much like his have been whenever facing enemies that can't threaten him: Any non-elf enemy with hits+ward equal to or less than 21 shall be hit with a Hiya, otherwise target the lowest hit non-elf enemy with a Hoboken; unless leadership thinks this battle with last more then 3 rounds; also I shall cease with the T. Coil shuffle as none can hit me, moving into LOS of the enemy and then just parking there.

[The Colonel]

FIRE AWAY MY ARCHERS FIRE AWAY! Weaken the melee then melee, CHAAARGE!

[Swodaems]

Shouldn't WE07 still be further out in the field? Didn't it use up its delayed move while trying to attack WH05?

I'm pretty sure the warriors are going to try and come inside. The question facing us now is "How are they going to do that?".

The gate is partially open, so they can get a limited amount of units thru it per phase.

Alternatively, the enemy warriors can use their delayed actions to try and down the gate at phase 19. They have to do it then or lose their delayed actions at phase 18. They will be able to do some severe damage to it, and may even down it with just their phase 19 attacks. (Cupid may be able to use his action to take advantage of this moment of weakness to down a warrior, but he could just as easily wait to fire at com 18.)


For his safety, Vinny should back away from the wall now. (He fired using a delayed action at phase 7, so he got new actions at phase 3.) Armolad should have recovered from her stun by now, and may have a delayed action. Vinny can use his cape to take 2 shots, but not 4.

I also think it is time for me to get into position to personally take to the field. I would like to have Tyler move his mount one square to the left, creating a 2x2 square for my mount to get into. I'll get dropped off in the square recently vacated in the 3rd rank (U22, I believe).


I don't think an infinite dodge strategy is the way to go for this battle. We don't want the entire enemy force to abuse the dodge vs bullrush rule to get inside.

My instinct for this battle is to only give WH02 and WH03 orders to maintain dodge. All the other melee units get orders to attack or strike anything that gets into range, provided it isn't dodging. WH01 and WH04 are capable of safely surviving 2 hits each from the warriors and the other melee can safely take 1 each. These orders should lock most of the enemy outside for the round while making sure nobody takes an amount of attacks they don't have a decent chance of surviving. We'll also start getting some decent damage in on the enemy warriors.

The problem with the plan is that it could go to pieces if Armolad reenters the field. Her leadership and a full dance stack could bring the enemy warriors to 27 com, maybe more if the archons succeed in croaking another alt elf this round. WH01 and WH04 will have 19 def while not dodging, (they would survive 2 attacks from the warriors at either 20, 21, or 22 com), so asking them to take 2 attacks from com 27 units gives them a 66.44 chance of croaking.


(MarbitChow, I noticed that the stats for all the WA and SA don't reflect that they have beefy and well-protected. Also, we need to nail down the melee stacks in the next round, since they're about to come into play. With the loss of WH05, we can only only make 2 full dancefighting stacks with the melee. I'd like to have all the W, WH, WA, and SA units in the 2 full dance-fighting stacks. The 3rd stack is made of the 4 S units and the 3 dancing bodyguards.)

[MarbitChow]

Shouldn't WE07 still be further out in the field? Didn't it use up its delayed move while trying to attack WH05?

Crap. Yup, got carried away moving the units; forgot that you didn't wipe out all the units that had attacked. He'll be moved back in the next update.

([b]MarbitChow, I noticed that the stats for all the WA and SA don't reflect that they have beefy and well-protected.

Yup. They've been incorrect pretty much the entire time. Those will also be corrected in the next patch.

[0beron]

Vinny will move to N25

[ETheBoyce]

I don't think Armolad will reappear on the field,, taking the city at this juncture seems unfeasible and she'd be opening herself up to a fairly massive counter attack from us if she shows her face

[BLANDCorporatio]

Not to mention a couple of well placed arrows.

Using defense from other units is fine, but cowering at the first sign of danger brings disgrace to all Archerkind.

So yeah Will's very unhappy with that.

[Exate]

If Armolad is delaying her action, what's the feasibility of her using one action to pop in and stack with the infantry, have them take their action and maul us, and then have Armolad use a second action to retreat out of the hex before we can fire on her? Unless we're having our archers hold their fire until the very last minute all the time- which slows down the croaking of the enemy forces- I don't see any reason why she wouldn't be able to pull that off.

[0beron]

True Exate, however Leadership doesn't apply to siege attacks. So he coming back in to apply leadership is pretty useless. She would either be boosting the 2 units who can get through the almost closed gate so they make good attacks and we maybe lose a melee or 2....oh so scary....or she is applying her leadership uselessly against their attacks against a now closed gate. Ultimately it's not worth the risk to her because she has no chance of taking Dis City, and her only hope now is her mount's high remaining Hex Move.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Unless a major surprise happens, the day is ours, and the question is one of losses and spoils.

So, given that Will will NOT hold fire, but attack targets of opportunity in subsequent rounds, and given that the remaining archery (presumably) is going to try and dent the offending infantry, that our own infantry will go in and dish a few blows, and that our not-necessarily lethal casters will attempt to maximize Alt Elf survival, how does this battle end?

Because unless I'm again mistaken, there is no more major tactical decision to make, the question is how much we lose, how much we need to rebuild, and how many Alt. Elves we may capture.

[ETheBoyce]

We will capture 0 Alt elves as the archons will zap them all, and I at least am our third best ranged unit when I have no juice (or 5th if you count ballistae)

[0beron]

We will capture 0 Alt elves as the archons will zap them all.

Will they though? With Triage Warding them, and Junetta Spacing Out the Archons, isn't there a chance we save one Alt Elf?

[ETheBoyce]

Not if the Archons are at all smart (which they are); on Faith's turn she moves next to the other two and given their current defense she Hiyas one of the Elves she has a 50% chance of killing it, then Rona can either awaken Buffy or Hiya another elf/the same elf. Then Junetta knocks one out again and we repeat the process, each time Rona/Faith can act they have a 50% chance of killing an elf with Hiya (more if they hit it in the previous round) and I think it will take more than three rounds to kill all the elven forces.

[0beron]

So if I understand correctly...if we're lucky we could still conceivably save 1 Alt Elf. It depends on us dropping the enemies quickly, and the Archons rolling poorly, but I think it's still possible so let's keep trying.
To further enhance our chances of saving one...Marbit, is it possible to grab an enemy and pull them inside the Gate....? It might be a silly attempt, but it's never hurts to consider it. Because provided we time it right, we could kill those units right in front of the gate and make a grab for the nearby Elf.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Seriously. Until/unless something happens to further alter the odds, we can afford to try something 'interesting'/challenging like trying to secure one more healer for our side.

Yeah, it's not likely that we would capture an Elf ... that's the point.

[MarbitChow]

Marbit, is it possible to grab an enemy and pull them inside the Gate....?

Under the current rules, no. Calming units is the only way to capture an enemy currently.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Since the Alt. Elves have no combat, bullrushing one into our city is effectively the same thing.

But rather cumbersome to pull off.

[ETheBoyce]

Elves won't join our side anywway

[0beron]

They won't join us as natural allies, but that doesn't mean they're immune to full-blown Turnamancy. We'd never be able to pop more, but if it's possible it'd be fun to have just the one. And if they do indeed prove to be even Turnamancy immune (which I think would be unfair b.s.) then one of the PCs can execute them for bonus XP, so either way it's a win for us.

[BLANDCorporatio]

Elves won't join our side anywway

Oh come on, Coil. I understand your distaste for your previous employer, but your ... charms ... have been sufficient to convert two elven units so far. One of them a caster, no less.