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[Naryar]

yeah, i fell asleep.

Seems it's my turn to go and save the party, along with elias.

[Leatra]

So, what are we gonna do? Relocate the camp?

[DoomOnion]

It's midnight, and we are all fatigued at the moment, that's why I'm saying we should just stay.
Relocating wouldn't do anything. The goblin harriers will hit us regardless of our location, so we're better off letting some of our men rest than to just wander around through the night like a bunch of baffoons and get slaughtered in the morning.

I know movement speed is not considered in mass combat, but at this rate we can't even start the damn mass combat. We wait till the dawnbreak, and then we act.
We don't even have hounds, we can't really track them on our own, and the scryers are just going 'Go east! I mean, left! I mean, west!'.
We are slower than them.
We are outmanned.
They are mounted.
We don't know their location, but they do. Even if we move our camp, they'll find us out again, because you know, wolves can track.

Everything is against our odds, and we have no idea what is going on.
I mean, what kind of a dumb cunt sends heavily armored spearmen after skirmish light cavalry?
I'm really curious what the 'twist' is in this encounter design.
If it's some sort of, 'You have magic ring of slay goblin, you can just activate it and all goblins within 100ft radius will die', kind of a logic twist,
I will be throughly disappointed.

Quite frankly the current situation is not even describable as grim, it's beyond grim.

[Naryar]

So we are using mass combat rules ? I have seen a bit of it in War of the River Kings #5 (and it looks like the combat between 2 creatures, but overly simplified) but...

Besides, how will I and Elias arrive ?

[DoomOnion]

So we are using mass combat rules ? I have seen a bit of it in War of the River Kings #5 (and it looks like the combat between 2 creatures, but overly simplified) but...

Besides, how will I and Elias arrive ?

I have no idea, the GM will figure it out.

[Naryar]

Besides I don't see why you are complaining. Heavily armored spearmen are like the counter to cavalry, in proper formations.

Unless they are not strictly melee and all go Genghis Khan on us and pelt us with arrows or javelins and shit. Ranged cavalry is by far the best military unit in open battlefields.

But yet again there's the thing of pretty high maluses to aim when doing archery on a moving mount... i don't think it counts on mass combat.

[DoomOnion]

I don't see why you are not seeing this.
Do you realize we are not doing a battle right now?
The goblin riders are pillaging everything as we speak and we are supposed to chase after them.
Yeah, have fun with the counter to cavalry.

Basically we spend the whole day reenacting wile e coyote show chasing after the goblins, and when it becomes night, they hit us and slowly thin us out.
If you still can't understand me I have nothing more to say.

We were given a search and destroy mission, and were given a defensive unit without any means to actually search for them. There's another paraphrase so that it's easier to understand.

This isn't a rock paper scissors game, it's not as simple as, SPEAR BEATS CAVALRY, CAVALRY BEATS SWORD, SWORD BEATS ARROWS HURR DURR DURR.



So unless we can come up with a better idea when you two arrive, or unless we actually do find the ring of slay goblin in the deceased captain's camp, there is no way out.
and since you are the tactical genius, I have high hopes for you.

[Naryar]

Well, I wasn't here when stuff happened, I thought they were attacking us. I still have barely half of the info needed to take a decision.

Besides, chasing cavalry with heavy armored foot troops in open spaces is really stupid. Clearly foot spearmen with heavy armor are not fitted to chase goblins on wolves, so why are you guys even attempting it ?

Do we have ranged weapons other than what we have in the group ? Can we requisition horses somewhere ? Can we not attempt to take them by stealth with your stealth synergy and amaranth's stealth skill and wage a war of attrition ? Do we have mobility-restraining objects apart from 5 bags of caltrops and a few alchemist's fire ? Can we not attempt pincer maneuvers, flanking, surrounding enemies (especially next to water) and attempt traps, sacrificing parts of the land (and maybe villagers, hey war isn't pretty) as bait if we have to ?

Clearly we can't fight a direct fight if we cannot reach them, and are limited to melee. They are using skirmish tactics, charging blindly forward won't work.

We'll need to employ indirect tactics.

[DoomOnion]

FINALLY! Someone starts speaking words of wisdom! Good heavens!

Here's the mission briefing:

1. We are given 25 men, well, 24 now. a few officers armed with half plates and swords, and most of them are in chainmail with heavy shields, but given how officers are in half plates, the entire army cannot move faster than 20ft per round. We were not really in command of them, but now the captain is dead, we are. Up until now, we were just tagging along.

2. The soldiers are armed with heavy steel shields and spears, they are riot guards from Grand South, we are deep into the wilds and we cannot acquire any horses. Gillen is the only one mobile enough, and we still have that light horse attached to our wagon, but no one really has enough ride to attempt riding it without a saddle.

3. During the day, we can clearly hear and see several goblin riders circling us from time to time, we KNOW they are watching us, yet the captain just decided to make camp and rest with a handful of guards on watch. The gist is that the goblins know where we are, but we don't know where they are. They can hit us anytime anywhere.

That's about it.

[Naryar]

Then we'll need to apply ingenuity to this situation, clearly enough. Time to roll sneak and take gobs via surprise.

also gillen you may as well pick up all our stock of potions of cure light wounds and kill goblins. You're the only one as fast as them and have very nice armor overall.

See when I said to get ranged weapons ? This is where they are useful.

[DoomOnion]

Then we'll need to apply ingenuity to this situation, clearly enough. Time to roll sneak and take gobs via surprise.

also gillen you may as well pick up all our stock of potions of cure light wounds and kill goblins. You're the only one as fast as them.

See when I said to get ranged weapons ? This is where they are useful.

For you petty footsoldiers, ha!
Also stealth synergy only lasts about 3 rounds.

[Naryar]

Then we'll need to apply ingenuity to this situation, clearly enough. Time to roll sneak and take gobs via surprise.

also gillen you may as well pick up all our stock of potions of cure light wounds and kill goblins. You're the only one as fast as them.

See when I said to get ranged weapons ? This is where they are useful.

For you petty footsoldiers, ha!
Also stealth synergy only lasts about 3 rounds.

3 rounds is 90 feet worth of movement for the chainmail soldiers and most of us... it should be more than enough given involved distances.

[DoomOnion]

..Also, it works like this.
All the participants roll stealth, and take the highest roll and apply modifiers.
In other words.
It's... not going to work. Because many of us will end up with something around 10 or 12 even we get a nat 20.

and the goblins are actively searching for us, meaning they will most definitely roll perception.

[Naryar]

Then we'll need to surround them when a goblin group is pillaging. I mean, they're not pillaging while moving, right ?

Each man can threaten a 15-foot square (or 25-foot square if longspear) with their spears. We can make a net out of it.

[DoomOnion]

Then we'll need to surround them when a goblin group is pillaging. I mean, they're not pillaging while moving, right ?

Each man can threaten a 15-foot square (or 25-foot square if longspear) with their spears. We can make a net out of it.

Yeah, and it is also worth mentioning that they're probably pilling up all the looted goods somewhere, so we can track them down if necessary. Our barbarian,, can provide limited 'sniffing at the ground and point at the general direction' kind of tracking.