Darkness Rising v2.0 - 'Tenebris Unleashed' Campaign

[Werebiscuit]

As Fortune wanders around Dis City he finds T. Coil spelling up the tower. As Fortune watches the more experienced mage work he feels envious and decides to engage in a conversation "Hi. My name is Fortunes Chance. I'm kind of new around here and am looking for someone to show me the ropes.

You're assuming a few things... not least of which being that it's a healthy idea to casually approach a Mad Shockamancer like that.

Well, Fortunes *IS* a luckamancer, name of Chance... so he's obviously a chancer

He's no doubt a glass half full luckamancer as opposed to the half empty types...in fact more than that he's probably a "there's room for a bit more in that glass" luckamancer.

[ETheBoyce]

Power surges through the still maddened coil as he regards the Luckamancer with a baleful gaze. Then his eyes narrow and he lowers his arms from casting.

"A Luckamancer....and you wish to be "shown the ropes"? Hmmmm, very well Apprentice!"

Coil's eyes widen as new thoughts and possibilities writhe through his head, his anger is now subdued by the madness of greater pain for his enemies! A manic grin spreads across his face.

"Bless me! Or whatever it is you do to increase my already devastating abilities! Then go and hunt down our 'Chief Diplomat' Yuri. Tell him that I require his Ring for when I spell up our Tower! Then go to our Chief Warlord and tell him I need his bonus! This tower shall blast apart any flyer! Oh we shall go far together young one, the very Titans themselves shall tremble at what we do! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

The mad laughter of a now focused Coil echo throughout Dis City, likely chilling the more...benevolent members of the side.

(ooc: But seriously : "Any offensive spell can be stored in a Spell tower. Each tower can store 2 spells, +1 per City Level. All spell effects are based on the Caster's stats at the time of casting." This means, at least how I read it, that my Ickyprons could do 2d6+22 damage when they get used, and that we could possibly boost them with Luckamancy! Likewise for when we got to capture the Dollamancer having Lucky boost Coil's Hobokens seems like a good way to quickly reduce any doors to rubble!

[MarbitChow]

(ooc: But seriously : "Any offensive spell can be stored in a Spell tower. Each tower can store 2 spells, +1 per City Level. All spell effects are based on the Caster's stats at the time of casting." This means, at least how I read it, that my Ickyprons could do 2d6+22 damage when they get used, and that we could possibly boost them with Luckamancy! Likewise for when we got to capture the Dollamancer having Lucky boost Coil's Hobokens seems like a good way to quickly reduce any doors to rubble!

That is correct. Casting the spell into the tower will also embed the Lesser Boost, which means it will immediately drop from you. Whoever triggers the spell (which can be any Caster OR unit with Leadership now) will roll 2d6 twice, take the better roll, and add 22.

[Swodaems]

Swodaems, what is our overall plan here?

Currently, the plan is a bunch of discordant thoughts akin to a tree that needs pruning. There are several things we can follow up on and we need to decide what is and is not worth doing.

The new information about elven cities levels is interesting. I'm thinking Logan's run should be our next target. It's a lower level than our other two potential target cities and taking it closes off a line of attack to our capital. We can upgrade the city to suit our purposes after capturing it. A rough troop count for the city would be nice to have, so we should find a way to get that, if possible. (MarbitChow, can the imps be used to scout cities for troop info? Was there any info about which cities are Elven and which were captured Farkistan cities? As I recall, gaining the ability to pop more unit types was another benefit to capturing enemy cities. Was there no new information about the distances between elven cities? Knowing if the distance between Logan's Run and Tyrone is greater than 40 would be useful.)

But since you can pop equipment now (in the form of structures), let's say that popping a Mining Pick costs 0.5 UP. Thoughts?

My thoughts on this are to pop enough picks to arm our entire army with. The siege structures only have 4 overland hex move, but picks have no such limit to them. The increased speed of transport is enough to make me abandon notions of using siege structures. I'm thinking our standard tactic for taking cities should be sending in brickbat-screened, maybe mounted, archery to deal with their archers on the wall and then sending in siege/melee when the archery has been dealt with. City structures will take a while to get thru with only picks for damage, but I think time isn't as big an issue as turn.

We also need to figure out how we're going to deal with Lolly as we're taking cities. He has a backdoor to our capital that I would like closed. The biggest issue about any attack on Lolly is figuring out when to do it and with what. The site where the new batch encountered Lolly is 24 hexes NW of the capital, making it about 56 hexes away from Dis city. Hitting him will require a multi turn mission. Hitting Lolly could disrupt our attack plans on the elves by making the troops sent against him unavailable on certain turns.

The amount of living troops Lolly has access to is also concerning. He has more than just golems. He shouldn't be able to feed that many without a significant source of income. There is probably a decent mine somewhere in those tunnels.

We could use that mine. Our money concerns will soon begin to curtail our side's growth. Taking Elven cities is an option, but we should look into every avenue of increasing our income. The imps popped at Tenebris should help us find any undiscovered resources in the area. We can also try to take better advantage of what resources we have. Managers with the regent special, are a good start, but we need to do more. (MarbitChow, what use is the farm we captured at the start of the first thread? Is either of our cities in a mountain hex? (The mining special says it allows mining for gems in cities in a mountain hex.) Can we assign troops to forage in the surrounding area? Does popping siege structures and mining picks increase upkeep?)

Upon hearing T. Col's request for his presence, Tod is going to head up to the tower to grant T. Coil his bonus. It will be useful to the side and will give Tod a chance to apologize for not being able to give T. Coil a chance at Armolad.

[MarbitChow]

MarbitChow, can the imps be used to scout cities for troop info? Was there any info about which cities are Elven and which were captured Farkistan cities? As I recall, gaining the ability to pop more unit types was another benefit to capturing enemy cities. Was there no new information about the distances between elven cities? Knowing if the distance between Logan's Run and Tyrone is greater than 40 would be useful.

Note that Tenebris cannot pop either Farkistan or Breatheairian units, since the 'alignment' of those units is not compatible with your side. Captured cities need to be converted to Tenebris-type cities to be of any use to you.

Should you encounter a side that is more "dark-aligned", like you are, you will be able to pop similarly-aligned units from those cities.

My thoughts on this are to pop enough picks to arm our entire army with.

Picks will replace the weapon a unit is normally equipped with; arming an archer with a pick will replace his Fire action with an Assault/Smash action. I'll need to update the equipment description to reflect this. (It never occurred to me that you'd give picks to every unit; I figured it would mostly be expendable units like uncroaked and sappers.)

MarbitChow, what use is the farm we captured at the start of the first thread? Is either of our cities in a mountain hex? (The mining special says it allows mining for gems in cities in a mountain hex.) Can we assign troops to forage in the surrounding area? Does popping siege structures and mining picks increase upkeep?

Farms add a flat 200 shmuckers/turn to a side's income. The Farm is already factored into the side's current income. (Most of the upkeep of the side is currently going to the vague category of "Tenebris Capital Defense". I haven't enumerated exactly what is there because by the time you'll need to know what's there, the game is probably already almost over.)

Tenebris is in a mountain hex. Dis City is not. The World Map will be updated to make it more clear which cities are and are not in mountain hexes.

Popping siege structures require upkeep like normal units. I'm probably going to eliminate popping equipment, and instead introduce Fabricate as a special into the game. You'll be able to pop both Tenebris units and gobwins with the Fabricate special, which as we add more non-magical equipment will be more valuable, but since right now we've just got "Mining Pick" under the equipment section, I didn't bother yet. "Nets" and "Rally Banners" will probably be added, and I'll most likely add a requirement to Dollamancer Accessories that they have access to Fabricate in order to create them.

[Swodaems]

My thoughts on this are to pop enough picks to arm our entire army with.

Picks will replace the weapon a unit is normally equipped with; arming an archer with a pick will replace his Fire action with an Assault/Smash action. I'll need to update the equipment description to reflect this. (It never occurred to me that you'd give picks to every unit; I figured it would mostly be expendable units like uncroaked and sappers.)

Alright, are there any disadvantages to equipping an unit that already has Assault with a pick?

Tenebris is in a mountain hex. Dis City is not. The World Map will be updated to make it more clear which cities are and are not in mountain hexes.

Okay, how much money could we make from mining Tenebris? Would mining open Tenebris up to underground attack?

[MarbitChow]

Alright, are there any disadvantages to equipping an unit that already has Assault with a pick?

Nope. That's fine.

Okay, how much money could we make from mining Tenebris? Would mining open Tenebris up to underground attack?

It's randomly determined each turn. They may find no gems at all, they may find 100s of shmuckers in gems. The exact mechanics will not be exposed, but the more diggers you have, the better your chances are.

And yes, mining would expand the area under the city, which units with Digging or Dirtamancy could take advantage of. (Neither is currently implemented, however, so it wouldn't be a worry for the short-term.)

[Nnelg]

I'm thinking our standard tactic for taking cities should be sending in brickbat-screened, maybe mounted, archery to deal with their archers on the wall and then sending in siege/melee when the archery has been dealt with.

As Tod considers this, a seemingly random Aid de Camp leans over and whispers to him:

"If I may, sir, perhaps we could try a more bold approach first?

Set our forces on a large show of force, to draw the enemy to the walls. Then a small, elite force might slip by unnoticed, and take the garrison practically unopposed...

Certainly, it may seem wasteful to use such a powerful tactic upon a small level 1, but longer we linger the longer our 'mutual friend in blue' has to leak the knowledge that we have such capability to the enemy.

Additionally: the fewer watchful eyes garrison the ramparts, the less chance there is of attracting unwanted attention."

[WhirdCheese]

Fortune blesses T. Coil as many times as is nessasary. Then he goes and looks for Yuri requesting his ring.

[Nnelg]

Erm, wrong order.

But it's fine, we know what you mean.

[Exate]

The new information about elven cities levels is interesting. I'm thinking Logan's run should be our next target. It's a lower level than our other two potential target cities and taking it closes off a line of attack to our capital. We can upgrade the city to suit our purposes after capturing it. A rough troop count for the city would be nice to have, so we should find a way to get that, if possible.

Then the big question in my mind is, how quickly can we get an attack force together? That city is the closest and presumably most vulnerable of the targets nearby; if we want to go there the key will be to hit it as hard and fast as possible. I think we could hit it as soon as Turn 15, potentially; send out a mass of our units on Turn 10, pop a bunch of Mining Picks after they leave and have runners with mounts/balrugs catch up to them, and take the city before the elves have a chance to really react to our movements. Bill could accompany the assault group along with a lot of carried corpses and uncroak them madly along the way so that we arrive with a much larger number of troops than we left with.

I'm thinking our standard tactic for taking cities should be sending in brickbat-screened, maybe mounted, archery to deal with their archers on the wall and then sending in siege/melee when the archery has been dealt with.

If we could actually pop brickabat swarms, I would feel a lot more comfortable about using this as our primary tactic. How will we get more than the ones we currently have?

We also need to figure out how we're going to deal with Lolly as we're taking cities. He has a backdoor to our capital that I would like closed. The biggest issue about any attack on Lolly is figuring out when to do it and with what. The site where the new batch encountered Lolly is 24 hexes NW of the capital, making it about 56 hexes away from Dis city. Hitting him will require a multi turn mission. Hitting Lolly could disrupt our attack plans on the elves by making the troops sent against him unavailable on certain turns.

Honestly, I see Lolly as a minor problem at worst and an asset at best. Unless you're strongly opposed, Yuri would want to contact him by Thinkagram and see about purchasing heavy combat dolls- he builds them and orders them to turn to our side, we give him income or whatever, everyone wins. It's not quite the same as actually employing a capable dollamancer and he might not go for it, but if there's any chance we can use him as a potential source of troops I'm inclined to try and take it.

If that fails we croak him, of course.

Fortune blesses T. Coil as many times as is nessasary. Then he goes and looks for Yuri requesting his ring.

Yuri is pleased to lend ring to zapping man for purpose of slaying foolish enemy. Just bring back this turn, yes?

[0beron]

I want to point out that Marbit has declared nothing more occurs until Turn 16. So we can build up our forces, but you can't be planning to move out and hit an Elven city by turn 15.

[MarbitChow]

I want to point out that Marbit has declared nothing more occurs until Turn 16. So we can build up our forces, but you can't be planning to move out and hit an Elven city by turn 15.

Let me clarify that: nothing GM-inspired (such as populating random encounters, etc.) will occur before then. If the players can, with their existing and known resources, hit an existing target sooner than that, they will be allowed to.

[MarbitChow]

Yuri would want to contact him by Thinkagram and see about purchasing heavy combat dolls- he builds them and orders them to turn to our side, we give him income or whatever, everyone wins. It's not quite the same as actually employing a capable dollamancer and he might not go for it, but if there's any chance we can use him as a potential source of troops I'm inclined to try and take it.

[Nnelg]

Ooh boy... We (the New Batch) sure did manage to make a mess of things, didn't we.


Presumably Nemo would have given Yuri his personality assessment of Lolly before the call:

"I know not what to make of the Marbit Lolly Cholly; the internal workings of his mind are a mystery to me. But perhaps you will have more luck.

From what I could gather, Lolly is not the Elves' ally, but neither does he seem their enemy. I doubt he will outright ally with us, yet we may be able to keep him from joining with our enemy. He will certainly not be happy with the smash-and-grab op my expedition made, though. (If it is your design to win over him with kind words, I would advise disowning my actions.)

Regardless, be wary: Lolly Cholly is insane, there can be no doubt about that, but he is not stupid. You will need all of your guile when dealing with him."


And you can have no doubt that Nemo is listening in on this call in whatever way he can.


EDIT:
Oh, and more importantly: don't ever use the word "Foolamancer" over Thinkagram. In fact, make as little mention of Nemo as possible. We do not know who else may be listening... (I'll retroactively make sure Creeperum understands this before leaving the capitol.)

[ETheBoyce]

T Coil will be adamant on going along on any sort of military incursion or excursion, he lives to inflict pain after all, and the sooner he gets to level 8 the sooner he can lay waste to entire armies!

[Exate]

Oh goody goody goody! The new ones come a-calling! Hey now, ho now, hey nonney nonney. Smash my dolls and take my toys. How will you insult me next, young ones? What is it you wish?

The marbit caster's semi-coherent ramblings were clear enough about one thing; he wouldn't be forgetting his first meeting with the forces of Tenebris any time soon, and they had not gotten started peacefully. Yuri certainly didn't regret acquiring the gobwin, and from the foolamancer's description of this dollamancer he wasn't sure that there were any other real options available to the group, but it did make his current job rather inconvenient. At least he'd explained to the king that this was a long shot anyway.

Yuri began carefully, holding his beefy face neutral and speaking in what he hoped was a fairly convincing tone. "Is wishing... arrangement, not insults. You is living close by, yes? And is having own forces and wants. Smashing and takings not needed in coming turns if proper talkings are done and all are pleased."

[MarbitChow]

Yuri began carefully, holding his beefy face neutral and speaking in what he hoped was a fairly convincing tone. "Is wishing... arrangement, not insults. You is living close by, yes? And is having own forces and wants. Smashing and takings not needed in coming turns if proper talkings are done and all are pleased."

Lolly cackles. "One of mine you stole, and 9 of mine you croaked. Six of my dolls you smashed, and three of yours I broke. The scales are not yet balanced. How will proper talkings tip the scales?"

[tigerusthegreat]

I apologize for my absence, been very busy at work

[BLANDCorporatio]

Good thing William isn't handling the diplomacy, or he'd get to tell Lolly "you're not the first jumped up basement dweller we take out of its misery so pay attention".