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[Roboson]

Revision: Less Evil Summoning Methods Less Evil Seeming Summoning Methods

For some reason you feel as if you have been frozen in time. A thick layer of dust coats you and your fellow summoners. One summoner happened to be speaking and it seems as if a spider built a nest in his mouth halfway through his word. Rather unpleasant for them. Rather stunned at this random hiccup in time, you decide not to think about it too hard, as the more you do, the more your head begins to hurt due to the incomprehensible nature of time. Vowing not to dwell on this inexplicable anomaly, you resume working on your revision.

[16] Demon is such a harsh word. It has so many negative connotations and draws forth images of the world burning in an endless tidal wave of fire, blood, and brimstone. And those aren't totally unfounded conceptions, as your demons do sort of love to rip the entrails out your apprentices enemies and use them to strangle their compatriots while the gutted man watches in horror and agony. And the blood sacrifice required to bring them into this world gives your men terrible nightmares as the demons anchor their being to the bodies and souls of your men. Its really dark powerful shit you all got yourselves into here, and your men are horrified.

So you decide to do a few minor tweaks to the whole "dark ritual" thing so that the men will stop whining. First you ameliorate the actual summoning of the demons. Instead of fire, sulfur, and the distant sound of souls screaming out in eternal pain and agony, you make a few tweaks so the demons appear in a flash of golden fire with bit of ancestral Vunico chanting in the background. Furthermore, the nightmares and general fear that using your blood to tie a demon to this would is done away with entirely. Now soldiers who volunteer for the process have deep restful sleep that leaves them energized and ready for battle. They no longer dream for some reason, but given that a demonic force is partially chained to their soul, you agree that it's for the best.

This seems to have done the trick for now, and your big baby's soldier's worries and paranoia are put to rest. However you hypothesize that if you were to make these demons more powerful, it may reduce the effectiveness of this make-over.


I'm implementing an experimental additional phase: The Strategy Phase.

Basically during this phase you decide which units will go to each theater. Furthermore, this will be the time for you to give any orders/strategies that you'd like to use in that theater. Order rules are changing a little bit due to this. They will get two effectiveness rolls, and will take the average of the two, plus a modifier based on how reasonable I think it is (so an order like "use our archers/[inert ranged unit here] to take our supporting troops" would probably get +2 to +3 because its a simple strategy, but an order like "have our soldiers use their weapons to break shit and litter the battlefield with debris" likely would get a -1 or something like that). I'm still a little iffy on this bit, especially the orders section, but I really wanted to give the players the ability to strategize their actual combat instead of me just doing it for you. So we're gonna give it a go for a turn or two and see if you all like it, or if we should not fix-what-isn't-broken.

It is now the Strategy Phase.

Edit: Basically you just propose which units for each expense tier for each theater and any orders you want.

[RAM]

Spoiler: Vunico Starting Equipment (click to show/hide)

Woodcutting axe: A small axe previously used to split wood in preparation for harsh Vuncian winters. Equally good at splitting skills. Inexpensive.

Crossbow: A small wooden crossbow. Very steady and easy to use, but takes a long time to reload. Inexpensive.

Fur armor: Armor made from the furs and hides of various animals. Inexpensive.

Wooden shield: A shield made of wood. Pretty straightforward. Inexpensive.

Brog: A giant frog with a little bit of bear mixed in. It is larger than a bear and hairy like a bear, and has large tusks, but all in the shape of a wide mouthed frog. Its long tongue has been the death of many who wander too deeply into Vuncio's swamps.

Plate mail: Officer armor. A large metal plate designed to cover the chest and neck. Great armor. Very Expensive.

Broadsword: Officer weapon. A large straight sword. Expensive.

Summoning Circle: A magical device located at the entrance to your dungeon (from your country). Allows you to summon creatures to aid in the war effort.
 

Spoiler: Starting Bosses and Minions (click to show/hide)

Each country starts with one boss monster and one set of minions. Each player gets one vote for each of these. Note: Both summoning circles can summon anything you design, this is just what they were set to when you found them (and thus what you start with).

Enchanted Summoning Circle
Mechanical spider: Mechanical spiders the size of small dogs. Inexpensive.
Sentient Sword: Magical floating weapons that fights on its own. Expensive.
Flying carpet: Magical carpets capable of flying continuously inside of the dungeon. Very expensive.
++Larger Carpets: Very expensive

Sentient Shield: Expensive
Flame bolts: Negligible?
++Patriotic Flame Bolts: Same?
Lesser Demons: Very expensive?
++Less Evil Seeming Summoning Methods: Bobblehead

Bosses:
Fell Lord: A large demon. It glows with black and green fire. Its presence intimidates enemy troops and bolsters your own. National effort.

Spoiler: New designs (click to show/hide)

Design: Sentient Shield - Expensive

[18,14,3!] (I only had a d20 on hand when I did the initial rolls, so everything is in d20).

You manage, after great experimentation and numerous trials, to create a magical shield that moves on its own. Its a wooden shield, as are all of your shields, and it is fairly great at deflecting blows and arrows alike. All and all, when it works properly, its as if soldiers near the shields have two shields to protect them instead of one. The issue is that it does not always work properly. After taking a couple hits, the shields seem to become enraged (and if you think that a faceless shield cannot express rage, you simply have no idea) and begin attacking the enemy soldiers. This enraged shield onslaught actually injured several apprentice summoners and the soldiers that were assigned to test the shields, but this was most likely do to surprise and a lack of armor and almost definitely wouldn't do much damage against enemy soldiers in the heat of battle.

It is now the revision phase for 513.

Revision- Larger Carpets

[14] It takes you a few months, and the lives of half a dozen tailors, but you manage to find a way to make the magic carpets larger. While before they could only carry three or so troops per carpet (four in a pinch), now they can carry six people and have a max capacity of eight people. The carpets are not any more expensive to summon, but you find that they are slower due to the extra weight.

Combat phase is up next.

Design- Flame bolts

[3, 18, 9] You have a stroke of terrible luck in designing these poor little guys. I mean really, you find it incredibly hard to get this spell to work for some reason. Its not the mana cost, because these would be incredibly cheap and easy to make. And there aren't really any bugs in the spell either that would cause random things like shields pretending to be swords. The problem is more that you can't scale down the intelligence level far enough for this design. You end up with bolts that are too intelligent to let you fire them to their death! The little bastards do their best to fight against your archers every step of the way, even going so far as to burst into flames while on your crossbows! Really annoying little buggers.

Revision phase 514

Revision Patriotic Flame Bolts

[16] You try to lower the intelligence of the bolts to no avail. At some point they stopped being able to maintain consciousness due to lack of brain power, and simply died. At some point you discovered that if one of the bolts died before igniting, it causes it to become very floppy. While interesting, it is not useful at all. After multiple attempts, all seemed lost, and you were ready to scrap the project and hire blacksmith to make your bolts. Then you heard a strange noise. It sounds like someone shouting For Vunico! in the tiniest little voice you've ever heard. Apparently one of the apprentice summoners took it upon herself to talk to the bolts about patriotism and the glory of your fine nation. Then the living ammunition held a large meeting to discuss whether or not they'd assist in your fight. After a great deal of discussion, and three versions of a Bill of Rights for Living Ammunition, the Flame Bolts decide to enlist in your army!

Design Phase- Lesser Demons

[14, 9, 6] After much discussion, ritual, and reading, you find a way to summon lesser demons. However, theyre not exactly the same kind of demon as your Fell Lord. These rank-and-file demons have that same burnt skin and evil fire combo that you all know and love from your Fel Lord. Their skin is a light cracked grey, and they only have fire instead of eyes, whereas your Fel Lord has fire burning across its entire body. Summoning these guys is easier, but not a simple matter. This is a very different kind of magic than your enchanting magic, which (hypothetically, as your mages have been unable to prove this definitely) probably summon some sort of spirit to inhabit or wield the item. These demons require a blood sacrifice to summon, and a goat wont do the trick. In order to get one of these guys into your army, a soldier has to give some of his blood to summon the demon and bind it to this world. This isn't a lethal amount, but the process is obviously evil, and whispers have spread among the general army that the mages plan on sacrificing the god men of Vunico to demons. You manage to get enough volunteers to get a fair number of these demons summoned. They are truely potent killing machines, but the men are worried about and distrustful of your new warmachines.

It is now the Revision Phase.

Revision: Less Evil Summoning Methods Less Evil Seeming Summoning Methods

For some reason you feel as if you have been frozen in time. A thick layer of dust coats you and your fellow summoners. One summoner happened to be speaking and it seems as if a spider built a nest in his mouth halfway through his word. Rather unpleasant for them. Rather stunned at this random hiccup in time, you decide not to think about it too hard, as the more you do, the more your head begins to hurt due to the incomprehensible nature of time. Vowing not to dwell on this inexplicable anomaly, you resume working on your revision.

[16] Demon is such a harsh word. It has so many negative connotations and draws forth images of the world burning in an endless tidal wave of fire, blood, and brimstone. And those aren't totally unfounded conceptions, as your demons do sort of love to rip the entrails out your apprentices enemies and use them to strangle their compatriots while the gutted man watches in horror and agony. And the blood sacrifice required to bring them into this world gives your men terrible nightmares as the demons anchor their being to the bodies and souls of your men. Its really dark powerful shit you all got yourselves into here, and your men are horrified.

So you decide to do a few minor tweaks to the whole "dark ritual" thing so that the men will stop whining. First you ameliorate the actual summoning of the demons. Instead of fire, sulfur, and the distant sound of souls screaming out in eternal pain and agony, you make a few tweaks so the demons appear in a flash of golden fire with bit of ancestral Vunico chanting in the background. Furthermore, the nightmares and general fear that using your blood to tie a demon to this would is done away with entirely. Now soldiers who volunteer for the process have deep restful sleep that leaves them energized and ready for battle. They no longer dream for some reason, but given that a demonic force is partially chained to their soul, you agree that it's for the best.

This seems to have done the trick for now, and your big baby's soldier's worries and paranoia are put to rest. However you hypothesize that if you were to make these demons more powerful, it may reduce the effectiveness of this make-over.

Spoiler: updates (click to show/hide)

http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163353.msg7400180#msg7400180
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163353.msg7402672#msg7402672
http://www.bay12forums.com/smf/index.php?topic=163353.msg7406183#msg7406183
Look up

I am vaguely thinking about sacrificing the frozen tunnels and only sending Lesser demons to the other three fronts. But I really don't feel comforatable with that.
For next round I had a couple of vague ideas... Does anyone remember a scene, umm, from Larbyrinth maybe? Where the protagonists are, umm, rscued? By sentient rocks? We could do that...
And we could make the obvious observation and realise that hour shields have been corrupted by demonic influences, and go all-out to makethem full homicidal maniacs that charge into enemy formations, radiating dread auras and using every dirty trick in the book to satisfy their sadistic urges... I mean, we 'could' give them hell-flames and claws and horns and fangs and spines and such, but I think that it would be more entertaining to see an ordinary shield smacksomeone in the face, crush their foot, drive itself into their groin, break the back of their ankle, then charge off behind them to knock a na opponents dart into their chin then push down on the other end of their atlatl...

I guess, for now...
Order: Use volley-fire against the giant slimes to hit them with lots of fire all at once rather than spread out over a while.

[Roboson]

That is extremely convenient. Thanks RAM. Also your pricing is correct. Comical Suicidal Patriotic Flame bolts are cheap. Lesser demons are very expensive. No idea what bobblehead means, but the price is unchanged.

[NUKE9.13]

Hmm. I'm not 100% clear on what we're supposed to be doing here. Is this like the Intercontinental Arms Race, where we select two fronts to attack on?

[10ebbor10]

As far as I understand, we're supposed to be making attack plans, and deciding what troops should go where.

Spoiler:  Big List (click to show/hide)

Cheap

Woodcutting axe: A small axe previously used to split wood in preparation for harsh Vuncian winters. Equally good at splitting skills. Inexpensive.

Crossbow: A small wooden crossbow. Very steady and easy to use, but takes a long time to reload. Inexpensive.

Fur armor: Armor made from the furs and hides of various animals. Inexpensive.

Wooden shield: A shield made of wood. Pretty straightforward. Inexpensive.

Patriotic Flame Bolts :

Mechanical spider:

Expensive

Brog: A giant frog with a little bit of bear mixed in. It is larger than a bear and hairy like a bear, and has large tusks, but all in the shape of a wide mouthed frog. Its long tongue has been the death of many who wander too deeply into Vuncio's swamps.

Broadsword: Officer weapon. A large straight sword. Expensive.

Sentient Sword :

Sentient Shield

Very Expensive

Plate mail: Officer armor. A large metal plate designed to cover the chest and neck. Great armor. Very Expensive.

Lesser Demon

Flying Carpet

Large Flying Carpet

National Effort

Fell Lord:

The Boiler Room
Cheap : Mechanical spiders
Expensive : Brog, Sentient Sword
Very Expensive : Lesser Demon
National effort :  None

Reasoning : The heat puts our normal forces at disadvantage. Thus, I focus on our summoned and Elite Forces. Their explosive dragons will not have people to attack, and they'll continually be hampered by Ambushes that are excellent for this area.

The Expanse
Cheap : Massed Archers with Patriotic Bolts
Expensive : Sentient Sword and Shields
Very Expensive : Lesser Demons Airdropping via carpets
National effort : Fell Lord

Reasoning : This place here is incredibly open. As such, we deploy massed Archers with Patriotic Bolts, and use Lesser Demons to disrupt the enemy lines. Sentient Sword and Shields are needed to bolster the line.

The Mushroom caverns
Cheap : Mechanical spiders + Archers on carpets
Expensive : Sentient Swords
Very Expensive : Large Carpets With Lesser Demons
National effort : None

In this area, our archers are still decent, especially by attacking from above. We deploy our strong Lesser Demons via large carpets because the enemy can slow down our normal forces too much, and use the flying sentient Swords  as well as Mechanical Spiders to hold the line. Neither are easily affected by slime or suicide frost dragon.

Frozen tunnels.
Cheap : Normal axe soldiers, + occassion crossbow.
Expensive : Shields + Swords + Broadswords
Very Expensive : Lesser Demons + Armored Officers
National effort : None

Here we have no option to effectively deploy our ranged forces or our aerial forces. Hence, focus on strong melee troops, with officers, swords and everything else.

Order: Use volley-fire against the giant slimes to hit them with lots of fire all at once rather than spread out over a while.
Order : Attach Flaming bolts to our shields. When the shield is hit and goes on it's rampage, the bolt can guide it, and then they can go out together in a blaze of glory.

[S34N1C]

I'm not sure about the implementation of the Strategy Phase in this game. You probably got the idea for it from Sensei's game, which has like 8-10 different theatres. Since this one only has three, I don't really see the need for it.

[Roboson]

I haven't seen Sensei's game. I mostly wanted to implement it as way to allow players to direct their forces better, which was a major source of salt in Wands race.

10ebbor10 is correct. That looks pretty much perfect in terms of what I was looking for. Basically an outline of who you want in each theater and what you want out of them.

I'm not super sure I'll do it again after this phase, unless people like the idea.

Also, I'd like to direct your attention to:

Strange glowing symbols have appeared in the expanse. They are on the walls, the floor, and some even float midair. It seems some long forgotten artifact is activating in the Expanse next year. You have no idea what it means, but some of the symbols are similar to those you found in your notes.

[10ebbor10]

I knew about that. It's the reason I threw our Fell Lord in the Expanse, compared with Lesser Demon airdrops to conquer stuff.

I'm not super sure I'll do it again after this phase, unless people like the idea.

I would only do it if you keep a convenient list of all designs. It would not be fun to have to filter through all updates to figure out what troops we actually have.

[S34N1C]

I haven't seen Sensei's game. I mostly wanted to implement it as way to allow players to direct their forces better, which was a major source of salt in Wands race.

10ebbor10 is correct. That looks pretty much perfect in terms of what I was looking for. Basically an outline of who you want in each theater and what you want out of them.

I'm not super sure I'll do it again after this phase, unless people like the idea.

Also, I'd like to direct your attention to:

Strange glowing symbols have appeared in the expanse. They are on the walls, the floor, and some even float midair. It seems some long forgotten artifact is activating in the Expanse next year. You have no idea what it means, but some of the symbols are similar to those you found in your notes.

Ah, ok. Also, I apperantly misunderstood what the Strategy Phase actually did. Please disregard my previous comment.

[Roboson]

scvadf

[Roboson]

Ignore all this.

[RAM]

Dropping some design ideas while I recall them.
Summoning bolts that summon demons using enemy blood. The demons may be loyal to the summoner, so make them the most rampant demons possible so that they kill whatever is closest regardless. Also, with the summoner gone in a burst of flame and the sacrifice reduced to a cloud of gore, tune the summoning to self-sustaining but temporary. Like running on batteries after the power goes off...

Rocket-bolts. Try to make the flames work as jet-propulsion. Give them standard animated object mobility, train their combat skills and have them built out of some sort of mystical heavy-and-strong material. "VUNICO STRIKES FROM ABOVE!" The soldier raised his shield, happy, at least, that he can hear them coming. The shield creaks and his arm is battered. He hears clattering as a chunk of his shield and bits of metal fall to the ground. "VUNICO SHALL ALWAYS RISE!". He looks down to see steam billowing from flames pouring out from behind an erect crossbow bolt, gleaming with an unnatural sheen and donning a crudely-hooked head, as though the bolt had taken its perfectly-shaped head to a grindstone to better torment its victims. A great and terrible yelp erupted accross the battlefield, as though a dog had been cloven in two, and given one final cry before falling. So goes the tale of the last time a Gorian was glad to hear those bolts...

Such things would obviously be more expensive specialty ammunition...

Summoned imps with short-range long-recharge teleport, minor fire powers, and a habit of going for the eyes?

Enchanted helmets for our commanders. They could communicate with one another by using coloured wings, or very high or low frequency sounds or both. They could observe the surroundings for ambushes, snipers, or signs of invisible foes. And they could act as an advisor and critic, observing the battlefield and commenting on possible risks to a plan. Done well they could serve as communications, bodyguard, scout, and assistant...

And the previously mentioned animated rocks and demonic shields. Rocks would be a step towards golems and would be difficult to kill, even though all they could do is roll into/over people. Also they would be good at ambushing, given that they are, well, rocks, not exactly the most unexpected of things to find in a dungeon... Could serve as cover for archers too... I mean, it is just a rock that rolls, but it would be surprisingly versatile and would not lack in force once it got its momentum up.

I like 10Ebbor10's plan, but I worry that the Brogs might not do well without handlers.