I have a small problem in my campaign. I have a large bunch of kobolds who have taken over a small-ish town and are now prepared to defend it against a counterattack by the humans who own the town. What I don't know is how would kobolds defend the town against such a large group of enemies, especially since it's not a cave or other tight space that's easy to simply fill with traps. Anyone have any ideas?
The kobolds don't care about the town, only the cave system it was built on top of.
>>47006918
Maybe I should have been a bit more specific about their motivations. The kobolds don't actually care about the town, they work as a distraction for the real invasion force and their objective is simply to occupy the counterattacking army as long as possible.
>>47006875
I would assume they would go all guerrilla warfare
also punji sticks would be an effective trap in a jungle/forest enviroment
>>47006875
Does the town have canon surroundings? Give us a map OP, can't properly plan >>47007008
w/o one.
>>47009345
The village is in an area that's basically scandinavia during winter. I don't have a map since I was planning on making one after I got the sense of what kind of defenses they might have. I don't need anything specific, ideas like the punji stick traps was more what I had in mind.
>>47006948
Sounds like something they're ill-suited for and are expected to fail at. A perfectly valid use of kobold labor (this kind of stuff is what they should be the best at!) but I do hope the suicide-mission aspect is portrayed somehow. Either in that they have low morale or that there's a berserk lizard with nothing left to lose behind every blade of grass.
Their chance of succes change drastically depending on the density of the town's building and nearby vegetation. Since you said smallish town I'm imagining it's not that great. Probably a relative handful of scattered buildings, none particularly large and too far from each other for them to be used in succession. The kobolds would also be greatly benefited by fighting at night but being the defenders they most likely don't have a great way of influencing that.
I think their course of action in this situation is to turn every house into a murder hole and rely on the villagers' reluctance to burn their own homes down. Block all the windows and smash up the place, leaving debris and obstacles all over the floor. Hang heavy curtains from the ceiling to block lines of sight. Fill the rooms with smoke if they have the alchemical or magical means to do so. Depending on the foundation style of the buildings, pitfall traps in doorways are a great idea. Honestly, small burrows and tunnels between buildings would be absolutely perfect. If they have the time for any significant digging then rudimentary earthworks around the perimeter of the town and mounds of dirt to mask maneuvers between buildings would be helpful.
The idea is to make each house a hell in a half to clear. Of course, if you go too far and throw every trick in at once then at some point it's just going to be easier for the villagers to burn them down in the end. That still might be a victory of some sort.
>>47009454
Well that's going to be fucking awful for any sort of digging. It might not even be possible on a short notice without good tools.
>Tunnels
They immediately put several diggers on excavating a network of escape tunnels and living chambers deep under the village.
>Traps
EVERYTHING gets trapped. And not just trapped, the traps have traps. Every approach, every path, every door and window, every rock and tree and patch of anything: trap. It's Ackbarland. They won't fight, they just have to occupy the humans. Don't make 'em too deadly or it won't be fun.
>Deception
This is where the players' speculations and fears come true, literally. Complex mind games including props, false voices, smoke and fireworks, coconuts that sound like galloping horses, the works. The Kobolds are now the GM and they're telling a story. Whatever works. Wounded warriors? Maiden in distress? Superior forces approaching fast? A Dragon? Magic? Zombies? They're inventive little bastards, and their objective is of course to direct the humans into the worst of the traps. Decimate any forces with knockouts, dangerously low HP, just put them out of the action without provoking vengeance.
Now the Kobolds withdraw into their well secured tunnels and let the humans have fun upstairs for a while. Just make it seem like there is a key element always around the next corner, and the way there is just excruciatingly trapped.
Ah yeah, I had an idea for a pit trap that could work in situations ill suited for digging (I'm not an expert on Scandinavian soils but I'm imagining permafrost in the winter is going to be a bitch to dig through) and I was confusingly pleased to see humans had already invented and documented it.
Put a ton of these fucking assholes all over the place. Each one will keep several people occupied for a long time digging out the trapped person and tending to some pretty gruesome wounds. Really that's the key here. Incapacitation rather than death, as each wounded person represents multiple people and significant resources to deal with.
Disease would be a good bet, but probably operates on timetables too long for what it sounds like the kobolds' needs are.
>>47010661
Maybe it'd help if I posted the picture, eh?
These are great, thanks for that.
I'm assuming they don't have acess to gunpowder.
But one thing that could work is to hang venomous animals and nasty stuff like pepper/acid/venom at head heights inside the houses. The kobolds know where those are, and would direct people to it. They run in the dark beneath the trap, but the pursuer hits it with his face.
Even bits of sharp metal or wood smeared with feces and rust result in infections.
