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[Kashyyk]

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Environment :
(1) Gusts and Eddies : Kashyyk

[Madman198237]

Somebody please read specifically the design description for Gusts and Eddies and see if you can figure out the priorities, would you? I'm not entirely confident in it. I feel like there should be more fluff, but I also feel like additional fluff is going to confuse things.

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Environment :
(2) Gusts and Eddies : Kashyyk, Madman198237

[NUKE9.13]

Hmm. My question is how. How does it decrease their range further? It doesn't sound like 'push harder' is going to work.
Might I recommend that instead of trying to decrease their range directly, you instead decrease their effective range by making their shots less accurate- or rather, directing their shots away from our troops. Combine downwards deflection with sideways deflection, you know?
Something like

Storm Composer: The wind dances to our tune, and what a merry tune it is. By forcing shells downwards, we have drastically decreased their range. But not enough. The tune is merry, but amateurish. We need a composer. The spell is modified so that one mage 'leads' the others, whilst not actually having to cast themselves. With all their attention directed towards control, we are able to further fine-tune the storm. This shall be applied to not only force shells downwards, but also deflect them sideways, away from our forces, creating safe spaces where Arstotzkan shells never fall, despite being only at long range. (Incidental benefits may include a reduction in distractions)

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Envelopment :
(2) Gusts and Eddies : Kashyyk, Madman198237
(1) Storm Composer : NUKE9.13

[Detoxicated]

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Envelopment :
(2) Gusts and Eddies : Kashyyk, Madman198237
(2) Storm Composer : NUKE9.13, Detoxicated

[Kashyyk]

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Envelopment :
(1) Gusts and Eddies : Madman198237
(3) Storm Composer : NUKE9.13, Detoxicated, Kashyyk

I like the explanation of how this spell is supposed to work, and I now have an image of a load of wizards miming musical instruments in front of a conductor.

[Madman198237]

Because it won't work, NUKE.

Once again: They rely on mass-fire. They don't need accuracy, and they frankly don't care if their shells go sideway, because they'll still be killing us.

We can get another level of range reduction. The original (Mistaken) design post would've done much more than that (Stopped shells in midflight). I see no reason why we can't do something significantly less powerful in a design AND a revision. And we've already given it the design. Basically, NUKE, I have no faith in sideways deflection. It's not good enough. Marching in columns is suicide, especially if just a few (5% or even less) cannonballs get through.

So, I say again: Dropping them by one more bracket is very doable, and will even out artillery again. We NEED that. Basically, increasing the strength of our new spell, by just one bracket, will give us the capability to go back to shooting them with our enchanted ballistae. And our regular ballistae can move up into the range of their regular cannons, and start firing again.


EDIT:
Also, my plan uses gravity to help it out. Why is sending them sideways any easier than adjusting their course DOWNWARDS?

[NUKE9.13]

Madman. Please. You don't need to convince me that this spell would be useful. My problem is with this:

Dropping them by one more bracket is very doable

How. Explain to me how, if a SIX is not good enough, you are going to make the wind powerful enough to push shells hard enough to drop them another range bracket.

I realise that deflecting shells is not perfect. But, see, perfection is not within our grasp. To literally nullify their artillery in a single turn would be unbalanced AF. So, yeah, maybe we need to march in slightly sub-optimal formations. If that's what it takes to let us actually do anything, that's what it takes.

EDIT:

EDIT:
Also, my plan uses gravity to help it out. Why is sending them sideways any easier than adjusting their course DOWNWARDS?

Oh. Well, uh, I thought this was obvious.

See, a shell is designed for aerodynamicness in a forwards direction; to minimise wind resistance. As such, pushing a shell backwards with air is substantially harder than pushing it to one side.

[Madman198237]

No, we rolled a 6 and got a semi-intelligent storm that won't mess with our own projectiles and soldiers. Again, I mentioned it: Communications failure. I did not explain and emphasize what was important about the plan, and so we got something different.


My problem is that you're not proposing to do anything about their artillery, and I'm not proposing anything that completely nullifies it. You're proposing that we trust in 100% reliability of your spell, because if we get anything LESS than that we're going to get killed in huge numbers. Cannonballs firing through ranks of soldiers like this can kill upwards of 40 men per shot.

I'm not trying to convince you that my spell is useful, we're all smart enough to understand that both spells, theoretically, might work. However, the problem is that practice says that marching in columns towards enemy artillery is voluntary suicide. The six was, effectively, wasted in making the storm intelligent.

That said, on Discord, SMMI has had some fun ideas about what you can do with intelligent storms. Namely, storm elementals are probably two turns out. Next turn we use another design to separate further our wizards from the storm/perfect our control, and then the turn after we design ourselves a spell that allows a mage to summon and control what amounts to a swirly troll-shaped mass of wind and lightning. Which will be extremely fun.

[evictedSaint]

Seems like storm composer is winning. Revision soon.

[somemildmanneredidiot]

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Envelopment :
(2) Gusts and Eddies : Madman198237, SMMI
(3) Storm Composer : NUKE9.13, Detoxicated, Kashyyk

I like the explanation of how this spell is supposed to work, and I now have an image of a load of wizards miming musical instruments in front of a conductor.

Voted. I don't see a discernable difference between the two except I know that more raw wind power equals more potential for damage to the Arsty

[Taricus]

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Envelopment :
(2) Gusts and Eddies : Madman198237, SMMI
(4) Storm Composer : NUKE9.13, Detoxicated, Kashyyk, Taricus

[Atomic Chicken]

(0) Flight Sails :
(0) Pegasi Envelopment :
(3) Gusts and Eddies : Madman198237, SMMI, AC
(4) Storm Composer : NUKE9.13, Detoxicated, Kashyyk, Taricus

[evictedSaint]

Revision: Storm Composer [2+1]

By relying on a single leader to provide the majority of the intent to the storm, the weather gains greater focus.  Enemy artillery loses one additional range, so long as he maintains focus.  The leader is still not immune to distractions; there are fewer flaws without every wizard providing their own wandering thoughts, but it's not perfect.

Still, it should do just fine for the time being.

[evictedSaint]

Where are you wanting to send Hayat this year?

[NUKE9.13]

I'm thinking the desert. Home-terrain advantage gives her the best chance of surviving... I mean, uh, not that I doubt our ability to win this war or anything.

(1) Desert: NUKE9.13