((Hmm...So am i wrong in supposing that Amaryllis is loyal? Hm....))
Kain sat in his room reading his library, looking for any intelligent way to find the spies. Finally he sighs and looks out the window.
"Things are going to get bloody."
Have my scouting and spying rings executed, use their blood to write: "This Is What happens to Traitors." on a garrison wall. Form new ones from the regiment that survived the fight with the rebels and disband the regiment I recruited this year.
((Goddamn spies...))
[1] Your ruthless, bloody execution no doubt eliminates whatever spies were in those ranks, but morale crashes through the floor as a result. You have certainly not earned any love with your population for this. [3] The new scouting and spy rings certainly seem loyal enough, but it's hard to tell because absolutely nobody wants to be the bearer of bad news to you. [3] There is grumbling from your troops as they are disarmed, but nothing too loud. Lonemine is becoming a very quiet place, at least within your earshot.
Spy/Scout efficiency returned to normal. Strong chance that spies within Eelspine eradicated or driven into hiding. Population of Lonemine scared and dissatisfied.((Busy, can't do the usual fluff 
))
Dura knows she should poison the water supply, so if larger Preston armies use that outpost in the near future, they would suffer. Do a brief scouting outside the palisade to look for supplies of water, and if none are found, scale the walls to poison their main supply.
[1] Not only are there no supplies of water outside the camp, you realise with a sinking feeling that the only water source in the valley is a well dead in the centre of the camp. In fact, the well has a (rather new, from the construction) guardhouse built around it and is patrolled by a small number of standing guards. Apparently the Prestoners consider water supply as high a priority as you do.
[2] You make a few efforts to try and climb over the palisade, but the sharpened stakes are well-made and you are unable to make any headway getting over the wall. [4] Instead, you take a bit of time to watch the habits of the guards. There are four entrances to the camp guarded by two men each, and you pick the entrance with the least competent-looking guardsmen to watch. When you think the time is right, you signal one of your archer supporters to create a distraction.
[1] In retrospect, you should have given him specific instructions on what you meant by 'distraction'. He shoots one of the two guards in the chest and the other starts yelling and reaches for the alarm bell - [1+1] which even though another of the archers is able to shoot him down as well, he still reaches and starts ringing with his last breaths.
Risk fighting your way in, take advantage of the commotion caused by searching for you, or back off and try something else?Send out the fleet to isolate and engage targets of opportunity, priority on troop-carrying ships.
[3] You send the full force of the fleet in a wide search, looking for targets. You keep the fleet close rather than split it to cover more ground, so it takes over a week to find a target. Keeping the tight, large formation also makes the flotilla very visible, [2-1] enabling Preston ships that have sighted them to signal for help in plenty of time. [5] Fortunately, the fleet is fast enough to outpace their target before any other ships can meet them. [6] The target is a fine prize, Preston's lone carrack and flagship the
Expedition, and happens to be transporting a group of ballistae. It is also thus the strongest ship in their navy and its cargo is quite capable of packing a punch in a naval battle as well. One of the sailors would later explain to you that the
Expedition's captain was an infamous naval tactician, to boot.
Miring: 2 Carracks (3 Str, Heavy), 3 light warships (1 Str)
Preston: 1 Carrack (3 Str, Heavy, Tactician), 1 Ballista (2 Str vs ships)
Tactics!The
Expedition attempts to
split Miring's forces and take on the 3 light warships independently! [Roll: 3, Req: 4] The tactic proves insufficient and Miring is able to keep its fleet together, but the
Expedition continues with its design to try and
flank the warships anyway, [Roll: 1, Req: 4] but fails to account for the additional support of Miring's carracks. It is now flanked itself on both sides, suffering a -2 penalty to the battle!
Battle: [1+9 vs 5+5-2]
Had it not been for the tactical miscalculations of the
Expedition's captain, this battle might well have ended a
draw. As it was, Miring was able to declare a
victory after sinking both the
Expedition and the ballistae it was carrying. Fiery arrows rained upon the
Expedition from the ships flanking it on either side, setting it alight and leading to its demise, though not before the ballistae were able to launch sufficient bolts to breach the hull of one of the warships.
1 Warship lost, 1 Carrack & 1 Ballistae destroyed![4+1] Before the ships risk seeking out more targets, they return to Port Sleen for repairs and re-crewing. Upon arrival they find a pair of Suulian privateer sloops [Str 1, Oar Banks, Sea Raider] awaiting them in the bay. A fight seems likely to break out, but they are signalled to parley. It turns out that the privateers are here to assist! One of their captains meets you in the castle to explain:
"Heard your boys took down the Expedition. Good job, old Captain Hardcrass was one of the saltiest dogs on the sea and gave us no end of trouble. Archbishop Holzhoffen sent us to assist; one of your messengers came to Suul and negotiated an intervention - paid cash, too. Wherever you want us, we'll be happy to add our masts to your numbers."Two Privateer Sloops have joined Miring's forces under Terenos' command.
Tactical AnalysisThe
Expedition made a couple of risky gambits that didn't pay out, turning a lucky draw into a clear victory. But what if they had? The first Tactics check was to split Miring's navy. The base difficulty for this check would be 4 (+1 for splitting), but because they chose not to engage two of the units (the two carracks) the difficulty rose to 6. Their Tactician upgrade brought this back down to 4 again, making it an even chance of success. Had they succeeded, the
Expedition would be facing 3 light warships instead of 3 warships and 2 carracks; to put it another way, a Str 3 opponent instead of a Str 9 one.
On a success, their chances would have been even better. Because they failed to split the enemy, their next tactics roll (
flanking the warships) took a +1 difficulty hit. Had they succeeded, they would have had to beat base difficulty 5 (+2 for flanking), but with the Tactician bonus it would really only have needed a 3 or better to succeed - i.e. a 67% chance of success. Had they succeeded there, the flanking bonus would have brought up their effective Str to 6, more than sufficient to give them a fighting chance vs their Str 3 opponent. On a good enough roll, they could have wiped out two of the warships without casualties.
Since I gave the Expedition conditional orders to rinse-and-repeat with the Carracks on a success, it could have been physically possible (though not necessarily likely) to have pulled off a 6 vs 3, 6 vs 3, 6 vs 3, 6 vs 1 battle and
won, even outnumbered and outgunned, rather than an uncomfortable 6 vs 9 fight. But it would still have been risky - failing a Tactics roll pretty much always gives you a penalty to the next fight, and the Expedition needed every point it could get.
The important thing to consider with tactical manoeuvres is that you can only take out two units on a victory, even a crushing victory (3 with Force Rout), and you will always break the weakest units in a stack first. At the same time,
splitting the enemy's difficulty penalty for non-engaged units applies
per unit, not according to unit strength. You can thus try and outmanoeuvre the Tanks in a battle in favour of wiping out the more numerous (and harder to split without engaging) but generally weaker multitudes. Just remember that every failure costs you 16.67% of your chance of winning a fight.
Oar Banks: +1 Str when attacking. +1 to Tactics rolls involving this unit. Banks of oars for higher ramming speed during attacks and manoeuvres.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +1 Ducat/year
Sea Raider: On a victory or draw, sea raider units capture the Sailor specialist that was crewing the ship (if multiple specialists were crewing the ship due to upgrades, potentially all the Sailors can be captured), any non naval combat-capable units being transported (i.e. anything not able to fight in a sea battle) and any Cargo Goods being transported. Each Sailor, Cargo Good or Unit captured takes up 1 Transport space on the ship. If insufficient space exists, excess loot is left to the mercy of the sea.
Sailors not intended to be used in recruiting new ships and Units that the new owner does not desire to pay upkeep for can be sold as slaves for a return of 1 Ducat each. Cargo goods are typically worth 1 Ducat each, but this may vary.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: +0.5 Ducat/year
Cargo Hold: Adds +1 Transport space to a ship. Transport space is used to ferry units or cargo across the sea.
Special: This upgrade can be taken twice.
Upgrade Cost: 1 Ducat
Upkeep: No additional cost/year.
Capture Unit: Aim to capture a unit instead of outright destroy it. Unit must be one of the two weakest units in the fight. On a success, named unit (or if not valid, second-weakest unit) captured on a victory instead of being destroyed (any other units that would normally be destroyed are destroyed as normal). On a failure, -1 to battle roll.
Difficulty: +3
Author
Topic: You are King! (Spring 315a) (Read 185103 times)