You have always wanted to be an emperor. That ambition has burned dimly in the past, tempered by reality. Now the opportunity to realise your ambition has arrived and you are determined not to let it slip. Now is the time to build your empire and become an emperor.
Last Thread: You are the mercenary spellblade Saul Waise, in command of a mercenary company that is currently forming an empire and fighting off a vampire-controlled city-state. Last thread you took Darlesia.
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No thread next week as I'll be travelling for work.
Rolls are d100 and the best of the first three posters. I may sometimes ask for more dice to be rolled by each player, but same rules apply otherwise. Please quote the post you are voting for or rolling against. Note there are hard-to-replace points that can be used to offset failures in rolls. There is a mechanics document in the GDocs folder.
>Now, without further ado
>>45095361
Darlesia is a broken city. Between Taour’s invasion and your own there was little left of the majesty of the original city. The outskirts of the city lay mostly abandoned, the residents of the houses there having long since fled. Estimates were that almost a hundred thousand remained, however. For many people, Darlesia was all they had ever known. From cradle to grave.
With Volante closing in, only about five days away by your estimate, the city being in ruins made your job much harder. The walls were still a wreck, for whatever little protection they would offer given they only covered a fraction of the city. The keep you were in now was in ruins and the sheer amount of damage done to the city sprawl meant that it wasn’t really feasible to form chokepoints.
The question then came down to: would you try to fight off Volante from within the city to neutralise his cavalry, hoping that the chaos of the ruins didn’t throw you off; or would you engage the vampire general outside the city in an open battle and instead form your own traps and preparations? Theoretically he could go around you in the latter case, attacking the city directly but you didn’t know what he’d stand to gain by leaving his army open to a counter charge. Volante appears to have roughly even numbers but potentially superior troops.
You…
>1. Form your defence within the city itself.
>2. Form your defence outside the city.
>3. Custom
>>45095371
1 his cav are the larger issue
>>45095371
>1. Form your defence within the city itself.
>>45095371
>>2. Form your defence outside the city.
We can fall back to the city if need be. But we need to defend forwards, where he does not have any knowledge of where the battle will take place. Yes, his cavalry could be an issue, but I believe we should focus our mages on them initially. Seeing as we have a strong mage force, I think it's a strong possibility we'll neuter them.
>>45095371
>>2. Form your defence outside the city.
The city is fucked. We CANNOT defend it. Plus, he probably knows the city and its failings fairly well.
>>45095371
>>2. Form your defence outside the city.
>>45095371
>2. Form your defence outside the city.
>>45095371
>1. Form your defence within the city itself.
Strength of cavalry is their ability to manouver into position and strike. Being in the city makes that so much harder. It'll be a cluster fuck either way, but at least with the city we can trap the living hell out of it and use the remaining buildings as defensive positions.
As for chokepoints: Get gnome busy working on making some.
>>45095371
Couldn't we use traps anyway, even if we decide to meet him in the city?
>>45095424
We have Pharosians, traps, and Gnome.
We did well enough last time with just two of these three.
>>45095620
Of course, I was just trying to make clear that meeting him outside the city wasn't a real open field battle.
>>45095611
Choice of the field really prevents the cavalry's ability to maneuver. Think of Agincourt. The cavalry was unable to maneuver because of the choice of battlefield.
Agincourt is actually what we want. Murdering the cavalry and tiring out the knights that make it to us before we fucking wreck them with fresh troops.
>>45095371
>1. Form your defence within the city itself.
Since we earned ourselves a lot of time last thread we can be more thorough in our preperation now. I suggest we focus our efforts not on the walls but the city itself, build barricades, seal off some streets, set pit traps, have Gnome erect walls ramps and those mud traps back from the original quest. Make the city into a maze which we will draw enemy forces into. When Volante shows up, we make a show of holding him off at the walls first, but when they reach the walls we pull our forces back in to the streets so the enemy will be separated and bogged down. If this goes on long enough Volante should show up at where the fighting is the fiercest, or if not, we make a show of personally entering battle while challenging him to face us. After he commits himself against us we throw all our elites and heroes at him and mob him so we get a better chance at beating him for good.
>>45095371
>>2. Form your defence outside the city.
But try and clear the way for us to be able to retreat into the city, and set up some traps in there as well.
Always good to have a plan B.
>>45095652
The question therefore is: do we go with the city to funnel shit, or do we try find a good place outside the city to stage a fight from.
>>45095371
>1. Form your defence within the city itself.
He has murderous super cavalry.
Staying outside is a really poor choice.
>>45095495
You can't really fall back to the city in good order when vampiric supercavalry are murdering all you people and he stocked up on mages in Taour.
Furthermore, we can't actually fortify and trap the city all that well if we have to make it possible to retreat through those fortifiactions and traps and also have to prep the battlefield.
Even if we meet outside the city it'd probably be good to situate our archery on the outermost walls of the city, maybe with an underground tunnel connecting it to inside the city so they can flee.
It'd provide a higher and more protected vantage point, meaning larger range as well(I think).
Beyond that we could use ruined houses to hide troops of elites like Pharosians and BDK to burst out and slay enemy groups. Would need good intelligence and administration for that though, we can't really spend our time sitting inside personally dealing with it.
One more thing is that we could just try to collapse walls and buildings on cavalry especially since they're harder to deal with.
I'm basically thinking of drawing them into a semi-guerrilla situations where they will find it hard to deal one significant blow to us while we wear them down before starting a collected strike.
So, archers welcoming them, they retreat, we retreatfight a bit, ambushes/traps, then try to pincer them.
>>45095834
Sounds like a good plan.
We have gnome to do terrain shenanigins so, with the time we bought, good chance of working out.
I'm probably going to go with 1 as a tie-breaker due to the worries over cavalry and the plans for trapping the city. Writing.
>>45095801
Incorrect. Historically speaking, that's not the case. An ordered retreat can keep the cavalry back. A disordered rout would have the cavalry reign supreme, but when faced with organized resistance, especially when it is massed and they do not receive support, they will fall.
>>45095918
Good luck maintaining an ordered retreat against superhuman monster horses ridden by blood drinking blatantly superhuman vampires and lead by motherfucking Volante then.
>>45095898
>>45095918
We can still use the flying knights to harry the approaching forces. With luck it might buy us a midge more time.
>>45095985
Archers would probably be safer
>>45095967
He would have a good time coming up against our Pharosians. Yes, I believe it is certainly possible.
>>45096021
I agree with you, Pharosians were described explicitly as anticavalry, and we have both Gnome and traps, last time we did pretty well with just Gnome and the Pharosians against the cavalry.
>>45096058
Now put said pharosians in ambush positions.
Trapped in the confines of a street, the cavalry would be utterly fucked.
On a more meta note regarding the eventual fight with Volante himself.
This combat system /heavily/ encourages a series of low risk, low DC and likely low impact maneuvers to start any fight off, so you can accumulate some successes before you go for the offensive higher risk actions where you then chain successes by spending madly to finish the fight quickly.
Against an enemy like Volante, who starts regening if there's a pause in your attacks this goes doubly so.
Ideally we'll have at least two accumulated successes, preferably three, and no serious wounds before we actually try to kill him instead of just aiming to drive him off, but with the current stats that's probably not all that realistic.
In related news, I'm still immensely salty that people refused to buy the "get signficantly lower DCs in exchange for not dealing damage this round" skill, because that's honestly kind of overpowered with accumulated successes being a thing.
>>45096087
I highly doubt they'd be mounted in the city. Least of all leading the charge.
>>45096120
Shoulda made that argument before!
>>45096021
>>45096058
Considering how much more mobile his supercavalry is than our pharosians are, I'm not really sure why you'd assume we could force his cavalry to engage them when he's the one approaching our army and we have no chokepoints in the field we can force him to take.
It worked last time because we chose how to engage and could position the Pharosians so that he had to get through them to assisst his mages, this time he'll have the initiative.
>>45096120
Except mages, because the mages' riskiest move has to be their first in the battle.
Also I don't think anyone realized that Stand Your Ground(?) would be good for grinding accumulated successes, you should've mentioned it, especially since what people want to get is a worse version of Controlling the Flow.
>>45096120
Remind me, which skill was that? I keep an eye on it in the future.
>>45096169
Was asleep. European timezone over here.
I'm also not really that salty, because if that had actually worked, I might have asked Aspir to change it so that the ability can't accumulare successes, just because it could have turned most battled into: "Tank, tank, tank, tank, we have four suxx saved up so we win".
>>45096120
>>45096202
Last time no one voted for it and Aspie said it wouldnt appear as an option. Maybe if we asked nicely we could add it to the list again.
>>45096202
Stand Your Ground I think.
>>45096233
Would need enough successes for that. A pretty high tier foe could likely tear though in the long term.
>>45096202
>Swordsmanship, Hold Your Ground, 5xp
>in single combat against a foe equally skilled or worse but with a higher melee stat, you may reduce their melee stat to equal yours at the cost of being unable to strike back
It's still on the charsheet as an option.
>>45096182
>Considering how much more mobile his supercavalry is than our pharosians are, I'm not really sure why you'd assume we could force his cavalry to engage them when he's the one approaching our army and we have no chokepoints in the field we can force him to take.
The Pharosians don't need to move as far as the Pharosians. The Pharosians only have to react to the cavalry and move a fraction of the distance. Further, their mere presence dissuades cavalry.
Further, even a field battle can create chokepoints. That has historically been VERY important. Choosing the battlefield is a huge advantage. Think of Agincourt. The French cavalry was denied their ability to maneuver because the battle was canalled into a field with treelines along the sides. Rivers also form other such natural boundaries.
>>45096190
Expect that the worse version of controlling the flow was the less popular of the two remaining skills.
>>45096328
>The Pharosians don't need to move as far as the Pharosians
*As the cavalry. Sorry, it's been a long day.
>>45096190
Depends on how you mean worse there. Controlling the flow.
Considering it overrides skills like controlling the flow and the likes I'd say it works pretty nicely. Though has the weakness in forcing you to use the same skill as the foe.
>>45096332
Then what was more popular? The worse version of Reading the Battlefield?
>>45096328
This is assuming we have such defensible terrain out side the city, and even then Volante might circumvent us and try to charge the city itself.
Sorry for the really slow start, guys.
>1.
“Volante’s cavalry are the greatest threat he poses to us,” you say to your assembled officers. “I doubt he’ll overextend himself like he did near Trembin so we need to be prepared to deal not just with a cavalry charge but also supporting heavy knights.”
You’re standing around the war table you had set up in the keep’s great hall. Morning light streams in through the gaping hole in the keep, providing plenty of illumination for you and your officers.
“In other words, we’ll hole up in the city,” Cormann says, his gruff voice breaking the silence. “That’s going to need a lot of work to make defensible. Being defensive in this mess of a city makes it easier to get outmanoeuvred.”
“Why would we be defensive?” Lynn asks suddenly, tilting his head to one side as he looks at the map. “It’s not as though General Volante has any particular target – he needs to remove us from the city before he can begin imposing rule. And indiscriminately attacking the populace gains him nothing – we will still be here and a major threat.”
“He could attack the citizenry to try to make us act recklessly,” Gnome says. “Assuming he believes we’ll react to that or is that sort of man. I would say that it is still best to assume that letting Volante get to the centre of the city is a bad idea.”
You absently fiddled with the ring on your finger as you listened to Lynn and Gnome begin to argue over the merits of their strategies. They both had a point – Volante may begin to raze the city if he got into the heavily populated centre. On the other hand, if you decided not to defend a single front and let this turn into a mess of a city fight it could be to your advantage. The Taourans would make a lot of progress but given their ultimate goal is to wipe your army out it wouldn’t do them much good and you could continue to outmanoeuvre them and ambush them.
>continued
>>45096418
It overrides it but also doesn't provide that big an advantage.
CtF lets us keep use our best stat but makes the opponent use their worst if they're less skilled than us.
BC works on everyone not more skilled than us, but forces us to use the same stat as our enemy is using.
>>45096475
Bypassing an opponent without leaving a proper force to contain them is suicide.
And yes. Agincourt was literally a farm field. There's at least a few streams out there. There WILL be such defensive terrain unless you're in the middle of the Great Plains.
>>45096478
In the end it came down to what Volante had to stop you so you asked, “Do we have more intelligence on what Volante has in terms of forces?”
Lynn and Gnome both fell silent and turned towards your regular officers, as keenly interested in their answer as you were. Unfortunately, it looked grim.
“We have a rough idea of their numbers – close to four thousand now they’ve finished mustering at the Wall of Lesia,” Cormann begins, placing a finger on the wall itself on the map. “Unfortunately, it seems that Taour has some flying mage-knights of their own. Our scouts can’t get too close before they fly out and engage. Our intelligence gathering has been effectively neutralised.”
The room falls silent and you see very grim faces on the Darlesians – the advantage of controlling the air was now neutralised. It was also pretty solid proof in your mind that Shropham was aiding the Taourans – you can’t imagine that Taour was producing their own FMK plate, even knock-offs. It was considered one of the most complex templates devised and production required a small fortune in magical catalysts and crystals due to the nature of the gauntlets.
You need intelligence but weren’t sure how to get it. Alenier’s expert, Tsucchi, appeared to have some intelligence. Maloric claimed to know an intelligence expert. Even the League might have intelligence on the Taourans. The question was, who would you call on and potentially owe a favour?
>1. Alenier and Tsucchi. You already owed them something, though you didn’t know how good Tsucchi’s intel on the army would be.
>2. Maloric’s friend. Given his interest in moving on the RSK you will end up owing favours to this ‘friend’ if their intelligence comes through.
>3. The League. You doubted how good their intelligence was given this wasn’t their war but you could probably get it for free from Mercenie.
>4. Custom
>>45096560
>1. Alenier and Tsucchi. You already owed them something, though you didn’t know how good Tsucchi’s intel on the army would be.
>>45096490
Yeah. The big advantage for BC is that is just straight up overrides everything. While Controlling the Flow doesn't.
CtF is more useful against the average foe but BC is more useful against foes with stat switchro tricks. Though given Sauls lopsided stats he would basically always be going speed over strength.
>>45096560
Now ain't this a quandry. I don't think Tsucchi will have the sort of intelligence we need. She knows personalities more than army movements.
As for the RSK... Well, I suppose they might know something, I'm just rather hesitant about asking them for help.
The League might have some intel, but I doubt they have too much.
I guess I'll have to go with
>2
>>45096560
>2. Maloric’s friend. Given his interest in moving on the RSK you will end up owing favours to this ‘friend’ if their intelligence comes through.
>>45096560
>2. Maloric’s friend. Given his interest in moving on the RSK you will end up owing favours to this ‘friend’ if their intelligence comes through.
>>45096560
>>3. The League. You doubted how good their intelligence was given this wasn’t their war but you could probably get it for free from Mercenie.
I don't want to owe Tsucchi more, and I don't want to owe anyone in the RSK
>>45096560
>1. Alenier and Tsucchi. You already owed them something, though you didn’t know how good Tsucchi’s intel on the army would be.
>>45096644
BC is however neutralized by RtB as long as the latter is not lower level.
>>45096418
>>45096490
>>45096644
>>45096815
It will probably come down to the fact that we have more skills to spend magic XP on than we have for mundane XP.
>>45096560
>2
Throwing my vote in because I'm quite interested in what this 'friend' has to say.
>>45096560
>1. Alenier and Tsucchi. You already owed them something, though you didn’t know how good Tsucchi’s intel on the army would be.
>>45096923
>>45096782
>>45096610
Why them? They wont know anything about Volantes forces.
>>45096993
Neither will Mal's contact, to be fair
>>45096993
We dont know that. I assume the RSK has interest in the area so they need information.
>>45096993
They have guaranteed spies in the area, we haven't just associated with them even though we wanted to be neutralish and we haven't just annoyed them by making a deal with their enemies.
>2.
Setting up a meeting via sending device with Maloric’s friend was less work than you had expected. The only issue was that you needed to skip lunch – and you doubted that it would be appreciated if you had your mouth full half the time. Hopefully Gnome did at least secure you some food.
“Just a warning about Neir,” Maloric says as you enter the room where he’s setting up the sending device. “She trades in intelligence, so there’s a good chance she’ll try to get some from you or else require a favour in the future.”
“I figured that a favour would be the trade,” you say. “I’m only worried about what sort of favour.”
“I would hope that it would be the sort that would get her out from underneath Falwick and away from the front, but I suspect it may be the sort of thing that shores up her position,” Maloric says. “The League might not appreciate that favour.”
A choice between giving her intelligence on your movements or potentially aiding the RSK against the League. Not good choices. Assuming she had the intelligence you wanted.
The voice that comes over the sending device sounds young and you doubt this Neir is older than you are as she says, “It is good to speak with you, Lord Waise. I am Neir Gendarme, an old friend of Maloric’s.”
“Countess Gendarme, you mean,” you say, throwing Maloric a black look as you recognise the surname despite the complete lack of warning from the mage. “Your family is relatively well known.”
“I’m honoured to be recognised,” Neir replies in a voice that makes it clear she is anything but. Given the wince Maloric shows, you suspect he’s going to be in for it from his ‘friend’.
“Moving on to business, Mal has let me know about your need for Taouran intelligence. I can provide you with plenty of it, as the Taourans are less effective at counter-espionage than they think they are, but there is a price.”
>continued
>>45097415
Of course there is a price, you think. A noble wouldn’t just give away the use of their spies to a friend of a friend. “Name it,” you say.
“I want to know the details of your dealings with the League,” Neir says, asking something that you can’t really give the RSK. “I promise that I won’t onsell or report these to others within the RSK but knowing the position that my kingdom holds in the war is rather important given the territory I control around Melsouvven and Gratsee.”
A frown creases your face at those words. You had heard that the Gendarme’s youngest daughter had been granted the title of countess and lands to match but she made ti sound like she governed the land to Harrowmont’s immediate south. If that was the case, why on Gauron was Maloric asking you to capture it earlier? And for her to promise not to onsell the information seemed outright treasonous.
“Do you have another price?” you ask, feeling the waters and expecting an open-ended favour.
“A trade agreement favourable to my lands – if Passau falls and Worremburg comes under threat then I’ll need to secure the livelihoods of my people. Given the value of the intelligence, I would also expect some more assistance in the future,” Neir asks.
Well, she certainly knew what she wanted. Not one to hesitate before making demands – if she had the intelligence you wanted it would be worth it, and she seemed to think she did. You…
>1. Accept her first price of giving her the details regarding your arrangement with the League.
>2. Accept her second price of giving her a favourable trade agreement plus an open-ended favour.
>3. Refuse and try Alenier and Tsucchi instead. You won’t be able to get Neir’s info again.
>4. Custom
>>45097434
>1
I have literally 0 loyalty to the League, especially as they are the ones supplying our enemies.
>>45097434
>1. Accept her first price of giving her the details regarding your arrangement with the League.
>>45097434
>>2. Accept her second price of giving her a favourable trade agreement plus an open-ended favour.
>>45097434
>>1. Accept her first price of giving her the details regarding your arrangement with the League.
Fuck the League
>>45097434
>Ask Mal if she's trustworthy, if we can expect her to keep her word.
>If yes, 1
>>45097434
>2. Accept her second price of giving her a favourable trade agreement plus an open-ended favour.
>>45097434
>>1. Accept her first price of giving her the details regarding your arrangement with the League.
Open ended favors never end well.
The best part of this is we can be entirely honest without providing much. Our dealings with the league were really small scale, more just a basis for future cooperation of advantegous if I recall correctly.
>>45097434
Just to be certain, can you give a quick summary of what she's referring to by "dealings with the League"? Just our agreement, or every communication, can we keep the personal meeting with Merce a secret, etc.?
What IS our agreement with the league? Isn't it just trade in exchange for circumventing the Wall of Lesia?
>>45097677
Essentially they're moving troops through our land and we're moving troops through their land. They are hiding it as a trade agreement.
>>45097654
>Just to be certain, can you give a quick summary of what she's referring to by "dealings with the League"?
Mostly the fact you met them (you don't need to say who, but she might already know that) and what you agreed to (e.g. a 'trade agreement' through Darlesia in exchange for military access).
>>45097619
>Ask Mal if she's trustworthy, if we can expect her to keep her word.
You fire Mal off a sending to check with him whether Neir will keep her word and not pass on the information. He takes less than a second to fire back with a ‘she’s trustworthy’. You note there’s a lack of reasons and will need to check with him later – but you trust Mal and this is his friend, or perhaps more than a friend.
Anyway, this is 1. Writing.
>>45097434
vote seems to be in favor of >1
still going with >2
>>45097434
>1. Accept her first price of giving her the details regarding your arrangement with the League.
>>45097714
>she might already know that
Well, if she does then she already knew we met them anyway.
Our honesty should at least make any future dealings with her smoother, I hope. We seem to be pretty much neighbors, after all, good to have a decent relationship with them.
Alright so, once the time comes and the RSK is weakened significantly and the chance for our landgrab comes, I'm thinking of "capturing" Mal's friend and "imprisoning" her and taking control of her lands, so we'd have a diplomatic card up our sleeve if the RSK didn't try to full force retaliate against us in the future.
I'm also thinking we might want to send off a sending to our forces back in Vitria to march on Trembin, possibly along with the Farunese, when we begin to circumvent the wall of Lesia, as us doing so should have the Taour panic a bit and reposition forces against us, and if the force on Trembin is delayed enough they should meet with less well supplied resistance. I'd suggest having them march when we fight Volante, but Volante is too headstrong, I think Taour probably lets him do whatever he wants at times like these.
>tfw can only have 2 subskills at Swordsmanship level 3
Spellblade was worst option, we can't advance for into either mundane or magical skills.
Bit late for complaining to actually accomplish something here, but it doesn't necessarily matter if she's trustworthy.
The moment she reacts to this information it's possible that others start reacting as well, which could easily have further reaching consequences and make the League really damn pissed at us if anyone ever finds out we were the leak.
Of course the hope here is pretty much that Neir, being aware of the fact that not passing on this information is rather treasonous, will take steps to ensure that noone figures out she knew about this and that these steps actually suffice.
We should of course keep in mind that even if she can conceal this fact, passing this information on could still affect the League offensive rather negatively, though how bad or good for us that would be is of course somewhat open for interpretation and dependant on our further plans.
>>45098003
Yes but we got a dragon. I cant imagine that the wraith or Griffon being anywhere near as good. Feels like if we chose them we would be severely gimped.
>>45098003
Well, we could have gotten study material, possibly even training, if the negotiations hadn't been samefagged as hard, so we only have ourselves to blame.
Clearly we should have samefaggedmoreourselves.
>>45098016
Based on her actions so far, I've got a feeling/hope that she feels no particular loyalty to the RSK and would rather throw the ones west of her to the wolves than endanger her own people.
So she might totally let us "capture" and "imprison" her.
>>45098069
I still don't get why we didn't ask for study resources, even Merce thought our demands were surprisingly light.
I'm just hoping it will impact future dealings positively, like them thinking we don't ask for things willy nilly so being more likely to give us more significant stuff.
>>45098003
But we can advance both to an acceptable degree. Through proper synergies, we can accomplish greater things than either alone.
So I just realised that I gave Taour FMKs all along (there were some at Trembin). Not exactly smart on my part given it should be relatively hard to get a hold of them.
>1.
“I can tell you that I have met with the League and made a deal of sorts,” you say after some deliberation. “The details can wait until after I receive the intelligence on Volante’s army.”
“I’m offering you long-term intelligence and you’re trying to hold out on your price?” Neir says, sounding amused. “You realise who really has the upper hand here, right?”
“Me,” you say without hesitation, leaning back and crossing your arms over your chest. “I have another source I can check with who I know relatively well. Maloric vouches for you but you’re still part of a faction that has previously assaulted my lands.”
There’s no response from the other side of the sending device for some time. You’re not sure which part of your reply has silenced her or why but hope that she does keep her end of the deal. Hopefully you didn’t overplay your hand.
As it turns out, there’s some more back and forth on sharing the information with one another but you manage to piece it all together for now and let her know about the contents of your deal with the League. You didn’t explain the true details but have no doubt she knows that your ‘trade agreement’ with the League isn’t actually a trade agreement. Especially given you bought military access through League lands with the agreement.
She did come through with the intel on Volante’s army, however.
VOLANTE’S ARMY
>80 Noble Knights (cavalry)
>300 Flying Mage-Knights
>400 Heavy Mage-Knights
>200 Battlemages
>~2500 regular soldiers (mostly mage-knights)
YOUR ARMY
>200 Black Dragon Knights
>100 Flying mage-Knights
>200 Pharosian mercenaries
>150 Battlemages
>500 Arcane Archers
>~2300 regular soldiers (50/50 weak/decent)
>You have five days to make preparations in the city. Battle plans? Questions? Strategies?
>>45098069
What we could've done is at least ask for a duel with Rayza moonblade or someone else, not actually exert ourselves too much or use many spells, and just concentrate on learning from seeing her in action.
Mooblade might have been the best, actually seeing proper blade meld skills in action could've helped, since Saul basically made up his own Blade Meld skill just from books.
>>45098075
Again, she doesn't have full control over other people's actions.
If she takes a more conservative approach and manages to explain her actions away as simply a hunch or whatever, others could still decide that, yeah, that Neir has a good head on her shoulders, she's probably right and the League will probably have theory supply lines in order more quickly than we're expecting.
Our actions can have consequences even if they aren't traced back to us.
>>45098113
Like I said, I'm like very sure there was a single issue samefag that spammed the 1/3/3 options, which combined with things like 1/2/3 and 1/3/2 options won.
there were surprisingly many 1/3/3s for how retarded it was, we had 21 votes for 22 IPs or so and most of the 1/3/3 votes were formatted slightly differently.
>>45098146
Lots of FMKs and HMKs. This could be difficult. Obviously our Arcane Archers will have to ward off the FMKs.
Didn't we get more battlemages from the Darlesian mages? It doesn't seem like the number was updated.
>>45098146
Alright, well, I think the pharosians and our traps will take care of the 80 cavalry handily.
They've got a lot of mage knights, but we have Mal.
Even the battlemages aren't that big of a deal inside the city itself.
What I'm really worried about are those HMK and the fact that their regular soldiers are way better than ours.
>>45098233
Yeah, I forgot to add in the Darlesian resistance.
You have about an extra thousand regular soldiers plus another 150 battlemages.
YOUR ARMY (updated)
>200 Black Dragon Knights
>100 Flying mage-Knights
>200 Pharosian mercenaries
>300 Battlemages
>500 Arcane Archers
>~3300 regular soldiers (60/40 weak/decent)
>>45098146
Turn the area outside the city into scorched wastes?
I got nothing, I'll just make sacrifices to the Dice Gods now
>>45098146
>>45098267
Oh thank god, okay, so I think the enemy battle mages won't be too much of a problem considering that we have Mal and more mages than them by 100.
Our FMK would get overwhelmed in the air, so they should probably serve more as intelligence and bait for the enemy.
>>45098267
How do Pharosians measure up against HMK?
>>45098267
So we have the mage advantage plus Maloric. Excellent.
Do HMKs have strong magic defenses, I don't remember?
>>45098267
I don't remember, can Mal disable FMK flight once they're in the air?
>>45098146
The walls and the keep are both in ruins right? Could we make any significant progress on either one if we focus in the 5 days?
>>45098288
What's the point?
>>45098146
I think we can probably make some rather decent use of the Arcane Archers here to contest Taouran air superiority.
The risk of the FMKs actually getting to the Archers is kind of significant of course, but if we use some of our own for screening and somewhat rely upon their relative newness to ensure our FMKs are better at mid-air combat pound for pound we should probably be capable of dealing with any FMK detachments who try to take our Archers unaware.
And as long as the Archers are around in such numbers odds are we can prevent the enemy FMKs from truly taking to the sky, which allows our own that aren't screening the Archers to harrass and maintain an intelligence advantage thanks to birds eye view of the battlefield.
Might even be able to use this to force Volante to take his cavalry and try to assult the Archers from the ground, which would mean we can confront him and then at a location of our choosing with the Pharosians.
Remember mates, we have Inspire Mages. Use our mage superiority in some way to cause a winning advantage.
Other things- Their cavalry might be effected by muddy waters and tilled earth. Have Gnome work on doing that outside the city in order to canalize their cavalry. We'll use the Pharosians to counter their cavalry as soon as possible.
Other things... Evacuate civilians to a central location.
Obstacles should be made in the city in order to channel the enemy in certain direction. Heavily held strongpoints will cause them to flow around into ambushes.
Then, we'll need to use our Black Dragons to counter their HMKs. They'll need some heavy support. I'd attach Mal to them for this, as well as keeping Lynn with them. That leaves Gnome and us to hit Volante.
We need to preserve our mana pool for use against Volante. Try not to get involved with the battle before that decisive point.
Some operational things to consider- We can't abandon soldiers on the ground. That means they're dead. We want to try and reduce casualties as much as possible.
In order to accomplish this, I suggest we open the battle with a HEAVY mage bombardment on their HMK. Those are the real threat. The Pharosians and our heroes can probably deal with the cavalry and Volante himself.
>>45098347
HMKs are relatively tough in general, but the Taouran HMKs aren't super magic-resistant (that's the RSK ones).
>>45098373
You could restore the northern walls to a small extent (enough to force attackers to scale them).
>>45098318
>How do Pharosians measure up against HMK?
Pretty well - the Pharosians are good at defence but would face issues if they were outnumbered.
>>45098349
No. The enchantments are built into the suits so tehy can't easily be disrupted.
Already posted my battle plans before, so I'll summarize this time.
>Put up barricades, set up pit traps, create choke points, turn the city into a maze.
>Board up the houses, gather all civilians and put them in a relatively safe location.
>Get Gnome to make walls, ramps, and mud traps as needed.
>Make 'nests' of archers and mages in high buildings near traps and choke points so they can bombard enemies while they are stuck.
>Defend the walls first, but pull back immediately once a breach is formed.
>Divide and harass the enemy, draw them into the streets and traps to bog them down.
>This show draw Volante out, once we know where he is, we hit him with all our elites.
SO, I'm thinking of having our archers do an opening volley on the enemy FMK at first, try to thin their ranks, then fall back immediately, maybe have 100 Pharosians there to protect against the presumably leading cavalry, then fall back.
Have our shitty soldiers manning traps and minding tunnels or whatever.
Have our BDK situated on buildings to spring out of at chokepoints along with Pharosians nearby for cavalry.
Have our Mal disable the enemy mages, and have our mages all focus on killing the most HMK they can, if they aren't super ultra antimagic, along with the archers.
The mages can then start to work on the FMK, and the enemy mages will have hopefully been mostly dealt with by our regular soldiers, some archers and some Pharosians, if Mal managed to disable their magic, the FMK should probably be picked off by AA whenever possible, once 90% of the enemy mages are dead Mal can concentrate on whoever's left.
Otherwise of course Gnome and everyone else can work on traps, pitfalls, mudtraps, collapsible walls and buildings/bridges/etc..
If Mal can make the FMK flight stop then he should have them fall into melee/traps when/if possible.
We should try to stealth it around and wait for moments where we can go in, do a lot of damage, then weave back into the building again, until the time to face Volante comes.
>>45098476
Maybe we could situate our archers in an area protected from the ground so the enemy would send their FMK, and our own FMK hiding next to the archers could then begin a counterattack or something? Basically make them overextend, probably have like 15 mages there as well.
Honestly, I think the ideal first move is to remove their mage support. Without mages, we'll be able to pick apart their other forces freely.
>>45098487
We can probably try to funnel their FMK into meeting our Pharosians once the cavalry has been dealt with, and have our own BDK come in from the side while our mages bombard the HMK not engaged with our forces.
I think having Saul do a bit of guerrilla'ing might be good for accumulated successes though.
Maybe?
Essentially, we need to alpha down one aspect of their army first to give us a decisive advantage. The one question is what that part will be.
>>45098546
How many mages could Mal disable at once? Does it depend on how spread out they are?
>>45098670
I'd say the FMKs, but no easy way to deal with them.
>>45098709
They're only really a problem because of their numbers, HMK are probably more dangerous but easier to deal with because they have less mobility.
Alright, so there is one major part of the defensive strategy that will affect other choices so I'll do a vote on it first.
OVERALL DEFENSIVE APPROACH
>1. Form a proper defensive line based around the northern walls in the city. Will have Gnome focus on restoring the wall and your other troops on trying to funnel the Taourans towards the wall. Less ambushes, more making use of the restricted space in the city to bottleneck and pummel them.
>2. Don't worry about a strict defensive line and instead focus on ambushes, mazing and traps. Gnome will focus on traps, barricades and the like. You'll be relying more on your elite troops to do a lot of damage in melee with ambushes.
>3. Custom
Oh man Asp, I don't think most of our good plan makers are here today.
>>45098755
>>2. Don't worry about a strict defensive line and instead focus on ambushes, mazing and traps. Gnome will focus on traps, barricades and the like. You'll be relying more on your elite troops to do a lot of damage in melee with ambushes.
>>45098755
>>2. Don't worry about a strict defensive line and instead focus on ambushes, mazing and traps. Gnome will focus on traps, barricades and the like. You'll be relying more on your elite troops to do a lot of damage in melee with ambushes.
>>45098755
Hmm, can we focus on making just enough of a bottleneck that we could pummel them there after they come after our retreating forces, but otherwise focus on the 2nd option's contents?
Basically, 2, but make a single attempt at bottlenecking them once.
>>45098811
It would probably be having some(like half?) of our archers and some general soldiers forming a loose defensive line, then retreating and trying to lure the enemy into such a place. Volante might think we put them there to have first strike on our terms and as intel.
>>45098709
>>45098732
Fighting in the city does help us a little though, our troops will have more cover against their attacks.
>>45098755
>2. Don't worry about a strict defensive line and instead focus on ambushes, mazing and traps. Gnome will focus on traps, barricades and the like. You'll be relying more on your elite troops to do a lot of damage in melee with ambushes.
Are people to scared to vote?I understand, I made up a costum so I wouldn't have to make a decision ;_;
It still might be best use of our mages to have them bombard a choked up mass of enemies potentially taking out over 200 at once.
Are most generic enemy soldiers vampires? If not we could probably try to leave some alive and recruit them, nto sure how loyal Taourans are.
>>45098755
>2. Don't worry about a strict defensive line and instead focus on ambushes, mazing and traps. Gnome will focus on traps, barricades and the like. You'll be relying more on your elite troops to do a lot of damage in melee with ambushes.
But like >>45098811 and >>45098852
said, make a single attempt at bottlenecking.
>>45098770
There's no plan for this situation. City battles are massive chaotic messes. If this was a field battle I could have something to work with. As it stands, the terrain is not very conducive to the defense. The city is in ruins. There isn't an easy way to defend it. It has no boundaries we can really work with.
>B-but their cavalry
Can be easily dealt with on the field, especially with channelizing terrain.
>>45098903
I don't like either of them. I don't think either is a good solution.
>>45098755
>>1. Form a proper defensive line based around the northern walls in the city. Will have Gnome focus on restoring the wall and your other troops on trying to funnel the Taourans towards the wall. Less ambushes, more making use of the restricted space in the city to bottleneck and pummel them.
We channelize and bombard them to shit. We have limited numbers of elites, so we need them all in one location.
>>45098947
>opinions
>>45098935
Not really, we can have pockets of mages working individually, it'd still be one roll, and the enemy would be more likely to be caught in a bad position against mages.
>>45098947
Well anon, it is what it is, I also think anons were a bit too scared of the cavalry especially since Volante would've had to come after us, he didn't want to city itself but us out of the city, but I don't think a revote is possible.
>>45098975
>greentext
>5 votes
Where did the people go?
>>45099083
Its a hard vote. People dont want to be blamed if something bad happens
>>45099083
They're probably scared, but I'd like to at least hear opinions on the plan in
>>45098811
>>45098852
Though probably not with the archers.
Most people aren't planons.
Also, 16 IPs
>>45098755
>1. Form a proper defensive line based around the northern walls in the city. Will have Gnome focus on restoring the wall and your other troops on trying to funnel the Taourans towards the wall. Less ambushes, more making use of the restricted space in the city to bottleneck and pummel them
2 wins, so there is a focus on ambushes and the like rather than a defensive line.
RANGED UNITS VOTE
>1. Set-up an attempt at bottlenecking and bombarding the enemy's vanguard at the start of the battle with your mages and archers before returning to ambushes.
>2. Avoid big bottlenecks and instead set-up smaller ones to supplement your ambushes and focus down the enemy melee.
>3. Have your archers and mages form bastions around the city to target the enemy air and mages, limiting their intel and support.
>4. Custom
CAVALRY/VOLANTE VOTE
>1. Have the Pharosians focus on stopping the enemy charge, which may involve Volante's cavalry.
>2. Have the Pharosians join the rest of your melee in general ambushes.
>3. Custom
SAUL VOTE
>1. Have Saul join the infantry in ambushes.
>2. Have Saul hunt for Volante immediately.
>3. have Saul hang back at the start of the battle.
>4. Custom
Otherwise, the general strategy is to rely on your elite infantry and traps to funnel and ambush the enemies.
>>45099186
>2. Avoid big bottlenecks and instead set-up smaller ones to supplement your ambushes and focus down the enemy melee.
>2. Have the Pharosians join the rest of your melee in general ambushes.
>2. Have Saul hunt for Volante immediately.
>>45099186
>3.
>1
>2
>>45099186
>3.
>2.
>2.
>>45099186
Ranged:
>4.
Do >1. first, then have our FMK ferry them to >3.
Pharosians
>4.
Hold them in reserve for Volante and his guard
Saul
>3.
Enter once Volante commits himself.
>>45099186
>2. Avoid big bottlenecks and instead set-up smaller ones to supplement your ambushes and focus down the enemy melee.
>2. Have the Pharosians join the rest of your melee in general ambushes.
>3. have Saul hang back at the start of the battle.
>>45099186
>>3. Have your archers and mages form bastions around the city to target the enemy air and mages, limiting their intel and support.
>1. Have the Pharosians focus on stopping the enemy charge, which may involve Volante's cavalry.
>3. have Saul hang back at the start of the battle.
We need to remove their supporting assets. Our ambushes will easily be spotted by their FMKs if we don't get rid of them.
>>45099278
Whoops, I meant >3 for Pharosians, got used to 4 being custom choices.
>>45099186
>2
>2
>3
>>45099186
RANGED UNITS VOTE
>3. Have your archers and mages form bastions around the city to target the enemy air and mages, limiting their intel and support.
CAVALRY/VOLANTE VOTE
>1. Have the Pharosians focus on stopping the enemy charge, which may involve Volante's cavalry.
SAUL VOTE
>2. Have Saul hunt for Volante immediately.
Tentatively this, though I have to admit that I'm not quite sure how to picture the Pharosians stopping the enemy charge.
I'll just assume that this won't necessarily involve them being put in a position where they're heavily outnumbered, given that this would specifically be their weakness.
>>45099216
>>45099247
>>45099264
>>45099323
I just don't get the Saul vote, why would he hunt for Volante immediately? That makes no sense, we might as well have dueled him then.
>>45099186
>1 into 3
>2
>1 or 3
GUYS REMEMBER. Their FMK superiority will see our ambushes. We need to prevent their eyes from seeing so our ambushing will work. Further, once their mages and FMKs are destroyed, we can focus their fire on the HMKs.
>>45099373
Largely because Volante doesn't really suffer much from extended combat and I'm not sure we can really put a stop to him if Saul is exhausted elsewhere first.
I might be convinced to have Saul hang back first, but I'm not really convinced he won't wreak havoc on our troops in the meantime.
Our current strategy is largely based on numerous smallscale engagement where our Elites shine, but a regenerating super vampire kind of trumps them there.
Results are
>1 then 3
>2
>3
I ended up with a combined choice for the first one becaues of the Inspire Mages ability. Otherwise 3 won outright.
I'll be jumping straight into the battle/siege and am writing the beginning udpate now.
It looks like 3 or 1 into 3, 2, and a... 2? I don't know when the vote closes.
>>45099447
I was thinking we'd decrease his numbers before angaging him so we'd have more of our elites free to assist.
Mal, for example, would be very very useful in a fight against Volante.
>2. Don't worry about a strict defensive line and instead focus on ambushes, mazing and traps. Gnome will focus on traps, barricades and the like. You'll be relying more on your elite troops to do a lot of damage in melee with ambushes.
>1/3. Set-up an attempt at bottlenecking and bombarding the enemy's vanguard at the start of the battle with your mages and archers before refocusing on enemy air and mages.
>2. Have the Pharosians join the rest of your melee in general ambushes.
>3. Have Saul hang back at the start of the battle.
The past few days had passed rapidly as your men hurriedly made preparations to hold Volante off in the north of the city. Although your scouts would generally hold his off, you made no attempt to prevent him from seeing the fact you were mostly in the north of the city. If his target was you, and you were fairly certain it was, then he would engage you in your chosen territory. Arrogance would be his downfall.
This was certainly the case when he began his attack after a half-day’s march. The sky was a vivid red as the sun began to dip beneath the horizon. The fact that Volante had marched slowly one day and then done a short half-day’s march had tipped you off and you had Lieutenant Illon keeping a close eye on his activities. When his men began moving around a little too much as dusk fell you knew you were in for a busy night. The fact that a storm was forming overhead only made things more interesting.
>continued
>>45099748
Rain was bucketing down across the city as you found a vantage point in the middle of your ambush zone. The fog and vapour covering the city nearly obscured your vision, even with magical enhancement. You could only hope that the tower you stood on didn’t collapse underneath the rain – it was an old mage tower but lacking its top. Captain Glynn had told you that a Taouran trebuchet had taken the top off the tower off in the siege of Darlesia. Now it was your vantage point and, once the initial ambush passed, where some of your mages and archers would hole up to assault the enemy fliers.
“Well, at least you won’t have to worry about getting blood all through your hair,” Gnome says from behind you. She’s shivering a bit in the chill of the winter rain and you don’t blame her. If you were any further north it would be snowing and there was still a strong possibility of hail according to your mages. The last thing you needed was to be pelted with ice during the battle.
Sendings from your forward positions began streaming in, signalling the beginning of the battle. The Taourans were coming and it was mostly as you expected. A large ball of heavy mage-knights, supported by mages. The mages were unexpected – instead of forming a singular unit they were dispersing between the mage-knights. You had heard of the RSK doing this in order to protect their knights against enemy barrages from mages. Volante knew what you were planning, at least to start with – you would just need to overwhelm his defences then.
[DC70 Mage/Archer Assault; DC57 Fighting Retreat from Front]
[DC70 Opening Ambushes]
Rolled 31, 22, 12 = 65 (3d100)
>>45099760
Rolled 93, 39, 70 = 202 (3d100)
>>45099760
Rolled 41, 25, 7 = 73 (3d100)
>>45099760
Just gotta get that Retreat done
Rolled 8, 65, 12 = 85 (3d100)
>>45099760
That certainly looks like it's going to be bloody.
>>45099774
>>45099785
>>45099809
It's a good thing you have Inspire Mages, as that turns 'Fighting Retreat' into a success.
So all three succeed but you get no extra accumulated successes.
>>45099849
That works, I guess.
>Mage/Archer Assault: Target Met
You spot the lights in the distance a moment before the explosions and crashes greet your ears. The front is only visible through the fog thanks to the lances of light that your mages are filling the street with. No doubt there are hundreds of arrows pouring down the street as well but you can’t see or hear those. All you can do is hope they’re finding purchase in Taouran flesh – the more heavy knights that die in the charge, the less risk you’ll have when you start ambushing them.
It is literally seconds after the first clash of magic and enemy that you order the retreat to begin. Whether it succeeded or not, you won’t leave your mages and archers out in the open. You make it as clear as possible via sending that they need to get out now. The Taouran air will be coming in and blasting their position to pieces if their mages don’t do it first.
As the retreat begins you get the first estimate of damage from Illon as he begins ferrying some of the mages back. Perhaps a hundred heavy mage-knights neutralised at best – it’s hard to tell how many have just fallen and how many are actual casualties at a glance. It’s a good figure for a single attack, though.
>Fighting Retreat from Front: Target met using Inspire Mages
“They’re coming in too fast,” you curse as you spot figures soaring through the air towards your mages and archers. The Taouran flying mage-knights were reacting faster than you had expected them to and were jeopardising your retreat. A successful bombing run against your mages and archers would put a huge dent in your ability to control the battlefield.
>continued
>>45100257
As light begins to sear the guard tower your men occupy, the Taouran mages responding with their own attacks, you fire off sendings to your mages and Mal to keep things busy. Most of your archers were pulling out via the streets or tunnels that Gnome had reinforced but the mages mostly needed to be ferried and they needed to protect themselves.
A crescent field of light seems to suddenly wrap around the outside of the tower and you can sense Maloric working his magic. The illumination through the fog lets you see as countless Taouran flying mage-knights crash into the barrier and go flying, the remaining knights diving and rolling aside and abandoning their bombing run. Countless streams of magic and fire fill the air behind them as they try to reform. A good bombing run needed a solid formation and being peppered with magical blasts didn’t help that. You could see quite a few explosions ripple the tower from afar despite their efforts, but far less than a dedicated bombing run by a hundred flying mage-knights.
>Opening Ambushes: Target met
The enemy was still advancing even as your flying knight ferried your mages out and your archers fled, but you had ambushes waiting even at the edges. With no sign of Volante’s cavalry that meant Jirou’s Pharosian mercenaries could work their spiritual magics and show the Taourans how fighting was really done.
>continued
>>45100272
You were still standing back and watching even as flying knights began to drop off mages. Sendings were streaming in and you were trying to keep close track of what was going on below. Ambushes had to be short and swift, particularly as the Taourans got wise quickly and began breaking from formation. The fact that they were now going house to house in smaller numbers meant your ambushes were still effective, even as they pushed further in. The question was, how long could this hold?
The answer came quickly in the sight of a group of black armoured cavalry streaming down one of the main streets. Mages were mixed with the armoured knights and blasts of magic and fire were turning barriers and buildings to cinders and splinters. You could see Volante at their head, his enormous black greatsword held aloft. He was coming right for you – though you hadn’t the slightest clue how he knew where you were. You…
>1. Hold position and prepare to meet him with an ambush team of mage-knights in the tower.
>2. Go out and meet him, trying to get as many of your elites to join you against him and his cavalry.
>3. Relocate immediately, hoping to draw him away from this position and let you take him with Jirou’s Pharosians with you.
>4. Custom
>>45100288
>1. Hold position and prepare to meet him with an ambush team of mage-knights in the tower.
>>45100288
>3. Relocate immediately, hoping to draw him away from this position and let you take him with Jirou’s Pharosians with you.
>>45100288
>>1. Hold position and prepare to meet him with an ambush team of mage-knights in the tower.
>>45100288
>>3. Relocate immediately, hoping to draw him away from this position and let you take him with Jirou’s Pharosians with you.
This is a difficult one. I'm not fond of meeting Volante's cavalry without the proper forces. At the same time, relocating might be a bit of a struggle.
Fuck, I'd really like to stick around longer, but I'm hellishly tired and it's almost 4 AM over here.
Thread was fun so far, but I'm afraid I'lll have to catch up later.
Good luck, people!
>>45100288
>3. Relocate immediately, hoping to draw him away from this position and let you take him with Jirou’s Pharosians with you.
>>45100288
>3. Relocate immediately, hoping to draw him away from this position and let you take him with Jirou’s Pharosians with you.
>>45100288
>>3. Relocate immediately, hoping to draw him away from this position and let you take him with Jirou’s Pharosians with you.
>3.
“Gnome, we need to move,” you say.
Before your Champion can react you sweep her off her feet and into your arms, leaping off the tower and into the air. Gnome squawks in surprise and nearly throws herself out of your arms at first, before calming down with a glower. Ignoring her antics and glare you glance around from where you hover in the air, trying to place yourself relative to where you think Jirou’s unit is. Staying up here for too long isn’t a good idea, given the amount of Taouran air.
The fog and rain around you gives way to heat and light as several enemy flying knights open fire on you. You suck in a deep breath as you see a trio of black silhouettes doing a flying u-turn in the distance. As your hearing returns you hear the whistling of arrows as your archers fire upwards at the mage-knights. With Gnome in your arms you have no intention of getting involved in an aerial fight. Descending rapidly to Jirou’s position you hear Gnome sigh in relief.
“If you’re going to fly up in the air to fight, do so without me dangling in your arms,” she whines, right before the air is taken from her lungs as you do a sudden roll in mid-air. Streams of light sear the air where you had been and you hurriedly glance back to see Volante’s unit of cavalry are splitting up to keep up with you. How is he keeping such good track of you?
“I agree that I won’t take you mid-air in a fight again,” you say as you land, letting Gnome back on her feet as you catch your breath. “Doing aerial manoeuvres is hard while carrying you – you’re too big.”
You’re pretty sure that you’d be reduced to a smoking crater if Gnome’s glare was a weapon. It’s not your fault she’s so ridiculously tall and endowed. You don’t say that out loud, of course. She might actually hit you if you continue.
>continued
>>45100856
“General,” Jirou greets you, jogging towards you through the mud and rain. “The Taourans appear to be repositioning themselves. We control this street but need to keep moving. Are you here to join us?”
“I’m here for you to join me,” you say. “Volante and his cavalry are coming after me. I need you and your men to help hold them off.”
Jirou nods and barks orders in a different language. The Pharosians form up extremely quickly and you take position at their head. You and Gnome stick out like sore thumbs against their strange armour and weapons. They’re an effective unit however, and that’s all that matters.
Something strikes you in the back of the head relatively lightly and you look around you. The sudden clattering noises make it clear that the weather has turned. Hundreds of little balls of ice begin striking the ground and buildings all around you. You and your men need to maintain position in spite of them, especially as Volante and his cavalry begin to come through the entrances to this street. They’re not in a solid formation and begin to slow down and reposition. This could be an excellent chance for a counter attack, even if the Pharosians aren’t the fastest of units and the weather is poor for charging. You…
>1. Charge the cavalry unit while they’re out of formation.
>2. Hold position and wait for them to form up and attack. It will hopefully be a weaker charge.
>3. Wait for Volante to appear and then challenge him, hoping to buy time for Lynn and other knights nearby to arrive and reinforce you.
>4. Custo
>>45100880
>>1. Charge the cavalry unit while they’re out of formation.
You don't let the cavalry charge. You charge it before they get formed up, get them bogged down. Bogged down cavalry is dead cavalry.
>>45100880
>1. Charge the cavalry unit while they’re out of formation.
>>45100880
>1. Charge the cavalry unit while they’re out of formation.
>>45100880
>1. Charge the cavalry unit while they’re out of formation.
>>45100880
>1. Charge the cavalry unit while they’re out of formation.
>1.
>Accumulated successes: 1
You bellow out the order to charge, not wanting to let Volante’s cavalry assemble themselves. Jirou repeats the order an instant later in his own tongue but his men are already moving the speed and ease of experienced veterans. The problem you have is that Pharosians don’t have the lightening enchantments of your knights so they have a lot more weight to contend with despite their strength. Combined with the mud and hailstones all over the ground, the charge isn’t moving as rapidly as you would like.
A surge of power from Gnome greets your senses and you can feel the ground beneath you shift. An initial wave of panic gives way to relief as you realise what she’s done. The once muddy ground now supports your weight solidly and you and your men pick up speed. The Taouran cavalry are beginning to rapidly reassemble and a few even charge out ahead to slow you down.
Not letting yourself be deterred, you keep moving forwards and rely on the Pharosians to deal with the handful of knights counter-charging. A flick of your wrist deals with a mounted mage who thought he could cause you trouble, as his chest explodes where your magic lance impacted and his barrier shatters visibly from the other lances. There’s no sign of Volante yet so you leap forward as the cavalry come into range, your sword poised to strike.
[DC66 Charge]
Rolled 24 (1d100)
>>45101270
Rolled 8 (1d100)
>>45101270
Rolled 66 (1d100)
>>45101270
>>45101385
You son, are a savior.
>>45101385
That'll do pig.
>>45101385
Clinch save anon
>>45101385
this is like the third time I have done this in this quest and I sweet bullets everytime
>Target met
Accumulated successes: 1
Mana: 15
The water pouring down your face mixes with the blood of your enemies, blurring your vision. You can barely make out vague shapes and colours whirling around the battlefield. Fortunately, most of the ones above you are the enemy. You rely more than a small amount on your magical senses, mentally labelling those that are clearly wearing magical armour as Taourans and the others as your Pharosians.
A blur of magic ripples behind you, carrying a loud whine through the air and providing plenty of warning that you were being targeted by a mage. Spinning, you hurl your hand out and tear the magic apart with your disruption magic. The black lance of light that was flying towards you seems to split into two before exploding into iridescent light. The vision goes white as the rainbow light refracts on the water over your eyes.
Fighting blind was for the dogs so you wipe the water from your eyes and throw a barrier over the top of them. It’s not a very good barrier but it should let you keep your vision.
A sensation of dread overwhelms your earlier feelings of success and you find yourself diving to the ground automatically. Screams erupt from behind where you were just standing – Pharosian and Taouran. You hit the ground in a roll and rise to your feet. An enormous shadowy figure is charging towards you, barely visible in the darkness of the night even with enhanced vision. With the clouds out and rain bucketing down you can see that red rictus grin of light hanging in front of his helmet and his sword holding that frightening pitch black sheen. Volante is charging you head-on in the midst of this melee and you have nowhere to retreat.
Then again, you don’t care to retreat. You channel magic through your blade and thrust forwards to meet his charge with an explosive bang.
[DC77 Explosive Thrust]
Rolled 4 (1d100)
>>45101835
Rolled 35 (1d100)
>>45101835
Rolled 92 (1d100)
>>45101835
Rolled 3 (1d100)
>>45101835
>>45101903
You are my nigga
>>45101903
Deus Vult
>>45101903
Thank the maker.
>>45101903
>tfw AW FUCKIN YISS CLUTCH
>tfw wait, clutch, no extra successes
Bittersweet.
>Target met
The mud beneath your feet seems to melt away as you pump magic into your legs for your leaping thrust. You feel solid dirt beneath you for an instant and take the chance to leap, your muscles uncoiling like a spring and propelling you forward. Your sword snaps straight as you close the gap between you and the armoured behemoth that is Volante, red and orange magical light violently surging along the blade itself. Air slaps at your face and you ignore it, knowing that you’re going to strike true.
Volante’s lumbering charge suddenly shifts as he spots your thrust and, for what you believe to be the first time you’ve seen, he makes a mistake. With his reflexes he could have shifted to one side or dived but instead he attempts to best you with a show of both speed and strength. You watch, as if in slow-motion, as he leans slightly to one side and swings his sword across the gap between the two of you. He’s still in the path of your leap and his sword is being swung too early. At first you think he’s simply overestimated your speed. Then you realise…
Volante is trying to bat aside your thrust and then slam his shoulder into your face. If he succeeded it would be an instant end to the fight. If. In mid-air you have no choice but to hold your muscles tight and hope your magic wins over his strength.
Time resumes suddenly and you feel a slight force against your arm, trying to push your taut muscles to one side and misdirect your thrust. If it were just your strength against Volante’s then he would have it. The magic in your blade takes no shit from a mere vampire and his blade scrapes against yours as you strike true. You see black for an instant as Volante’s shoulder dips to greet your face.
>continued
>>45102438
Then there is nothing but light and the roar of a massive magical explosion. Heat washes over you but without force backing it you find yourself falling into a roll in the mud. Water and grime cover your new breastplate and ruin your hair in a way that blood never could. A nearby wall explodes inwards, spitting dust and fragments into the drenching rain. You try to focus on the wall, looking for Volante and nearly miss another knight striking down at you. Hurriedly raising your sword to block him you see blood red eyes and the unmistakable visage of a nightwalker. No wonder Volante had waited until nightfall.
A mailed fist collapses the vampire’s face and knocks him aside as Gnome steps in beside you. You take the moment to glance around you and see the Pharosians swarming around the intersection of streets, striking down with their enormous naginatas and finishing off the Taourans as they fall to the ground. Some of the cavalrymen are retreating and you spot a trio of flying knights soar overhead. The ground beneath the horses ripples and the riders are thrown across the street, to be left of the mercies of the handful of Pharosians chasing them. One of the horsemen escapes the blast and continues retreating. He is ended as a naginata, gleaming brightly with magical light, flies true down the street and takes him horse right through the rear.
You hear Jirou barking orders, now without a naginata and instead drawing a shorter curved blade similar to what Moonblade wore, and see several more Pharosians begin to chase down the cavalry as they break. This battle is as good as won but Volante is surely still here. You can’t see him coming out of the building, or even inside it. You…
>1. Chase Volante into the building to try to finish him off.
>2. Hold position here and wait for Volante to show himself.
>3. Take to air, assuming that Volante is doing something different, and try to find him.
>4. Custom
>>45102464
>1. Chase Volante into the building to try to finish him off. fuck I don't know but hitting him hard should be good
>>45102464
>>1. Chase Volante into the building to try to finish him off.
The auto updates aren't showing up on my computer. Very strange.
>>45102464
>3. Take to air, assuming that Volante is doing something different, and try to find him.
>>45102561
ya I had to come over a few time and do it the old way
>>45102464
>>2. Hold position here and wait for Volante to show himself.
He wants death, he'll come to us.
>1.
“Captain Jirou, resume the ambushes,” you shout over the din of the storm. The constant clatter of hailstones against the buildings was drowning out nearly everything and the thunder rapidly approaching only made things worse. The pouring rain only made things worse, as many soldiers inexperienced with sendings would have difficulty understanding them properly if they relied on reading them manually instead of having their brain process the message. You didn’t know if that would affect Jirou but didn’t want to take any chances.
Jirou snaps off a salute before raising his sword and bellowing out orders to his men. As you approach the building that Volante had been knocked into you saw many of the other Pharosians have swapped to swords as well. You hoped that you could replace their naginatas if they’d lost so many of them – the brutal ferocity they wielded them with combined with their discipline made the Pharosians a very effective unit.
Aware of the deep darkness within the building but unable to sense a vampiric presence you let loose a few wisps of magical light into the interior. You keep your guard up as you and Gnome enter the building, hunting for the vampire. Had you struck him so badly that he had retreated? Or was he abandoning his usual approach of fighting up front in the hopes of ambushing you? Either way, it was strange.
Then again, you thought as you spotted the stairwell in the building, perhaps he had simply gone on to find other targets. You would need to start searching for him if you didn’t want him to go after your other units – or ambush you.
[DC80 Vampire Hunting]
Rolled 9 (1d100)
>>45102805
Rolled 70 (1d100)
>>45102805
Rolled 4 (1d100)
>>45102805
dang
>Target not met
As you rushed upstairs and began scanning the building and surrounding areas, you began receiving sendings from your officers with odd news. The Taouran assault was already faltering, with much of the rearguard already beginning to pull out from the city. Combined with the fact that Volante was nowhere to be found and his cavalry unit broken, you realised that he was in fact retreating. He had homed in on you, picking a very deliberate target, and failed quickly due to being reckless and the poor weather. His cavalry never had a chance in this sodden weather.
Worrying that Volante wouldn’t necessarily just pull out immediately and may take some targets of opportunity you wondered if you should begin ordering your men to hunker down and take up defensive positions. Even Lynn and her Black Dragon Knights would find themselves in trouble if Volante himself tried to disrupt their pursuit. You…
>1. Let your men pursue the Taourans as far as you feasibly can – the more casualties you cause, the better, despite the risk.
>2. Drive the Taourans out of the city but no further. You don’t want to risk engaging Volante in open ground.
>3. Have your men fight to defend themselves but otherwise hunker down to protect themselves against a roaming Volante.
>4. Custom
Two updates after this.
>>45103044
>2. Drive the Taourans out of the city but no further. You don’t want to risk engaging Volante in open ground.
>>45103044
>3. Have your men fight to defend themselves but otherwise hunker down to protect themselves against a roaming Volante.
I don't want to risj it
>>45103044
>>2. Drive the Taourans out of the city but no further. You don’t want to risk engaging Volante in open ground.
>>45103044
>>2. Drive the Taourans out of the city but no further. You don’t want to risk engaging Volante in open ground.
>2.
You’ve won this battle but unless you assuredly push the Taourans out now you could find yourself bogged down for weeks. Taking the risk of Volante doing a significant amount of damage, you begin firing off sendings with the updated orders. Hopefully with dominance of the air you’ll be able to spot Volante before he causes any real trouble.
Or at least, that was the theory. In practice, Volante is as dangerous as a guerrilla fighter as he is in an open battle. Your losses weren’t immense, but his appearance at key locations to fend off your knights, including Lynn, prevented you from following through and doing as much damage as you would like. All you could really do was prevent them from pulling out with their severely wounded while avoiding severe casualties of your own.
So it was that you were left staring out from the guard tower in the north you had launched your first ambush from. Almost four thousand Taouran soldiers had come at sunset and only two thousand left, not long before dawn. The storm had finally passed and moonlight filtered through gaps in the clouds. The damage you had done to the Taouran elites was palpable – not only because Volante’s cavalry was done for. Then again, they would come back. Shropham was still backing them and they could always make more vampires. You hadn’t seen a large bulk of nightwalkers in Darlesia – perhaps they were out to the west?
By dawn you would know your own losses, which could be rather bad given how hectic the city fighting had gotten. The real issue was the inability to easily evacuate the injured, resulting in many having to remain behind in buildings until the battlefield was clear – trying to pull back while injured could easily result in running into enemies.
[DC57/73/89 Casualties]
Rolled 83 (1d100)
>>45103268
Rolled 48 (1d100)
>>45103268
Rolled 82 (1d100)
>>45103268
>>45103277
>>45103296
Solid, but not the top degree of success. I imagine this is the last of the scene, so I wonder if our degrees of success will allow us to upgrade this.
>>45103340
It's not a strict combat scene (there were no critfails or exceptionals either), so no.
>>45103360
So is Volante finally going to suck it up and ask another Daywalker to come to battle with him?
Because so far he has only lost ground since we came into the picture.
>>45103486
The daywalkers will start double-teaming you, yes.
>Middle target met
In the end the majority of your casualties are focused on your less experienced and, to be callous, less vital troops. Whilst there were a few dozen dead from the Pharosians, flying knights and Black Dragons, there were hundreds dead among the regular soldiers who had been caught up in the ambushing against superior troops. As you well knew, mundane armour, steel or otherwise, was next to meaningless against magical weapons and the enormous contingent of mage-knights in Volante’s force had made itself felt.
You felt heartened by the overall success, however. The opening barrage and ambushes, the neutralisation of Volante and his cavalry and the speed with which you robbed the Taourans of their dominance of the air had let you cause triple the casualties that you took yourself. You had struck a true blow against Taour, made Volante think twice before he disregarded your capabilities and now held Darlesia. To say that morale was high amongst your men and the resistance was an understatement, as send-offs to the dead mixed with jubilation.
Sadly, the world wouldn’t wait for you to celebrate. News reached you from the western front that the Taourans had launched two attacks overnight. The first against Darlesia, the second against the Argyle Estate. It would seem that the Taourans had finally decided to call Farun’s bluff and launch an assault against your forces.
>continued
>>45103513
Where things could have been a bloody mess in Vitria, your allies had come through and saved you. The assault against the estate had been repelled, albeit with some nasty losses due to the appearance of a powerful daywalker sorcerer named Darian. Farun had then marched south and besieged Trembin, going far beyond your expectations of them merely posturing on the borders. With their supply lines cut off, the Taouran forces find themselves between a rock and a hard place. They were currently encamped between the twice rivers to the south of Trembin. It was highly likely they would try to lift the siege and it was up to you as to your next move.
You still had a home front to manage, however. With a city in near complete ruins and food issues arising as the spring planting approached, you needed to truly establish your empire. You couldn’t merely be a general and a vampire hunter any more. You needed to become an emperor.
>That’s the thread
Thanks to those that participated, particularly when things slowed down immensely.
No thread next weekend as I’ll be travelling for work, so next thread will be on Saturday, 13th February.
>>45103526
dang farun ftw after this war they are getting something that someone smarter then me can come up with
>>45103513
>The daywalkers will start double-teaming you, yes.
Okay, pack it up, guys, we're done for.
>>45103513
>The daywalkers will start double-teaming you, yes.
Oh bother.
Thanks for running!
I guess it's time to march North with our Vitrian troops and crush the Taourans at Trembin
>>45103526
So what fancy thing is Lyria going to give us, next?
It's a beard, isn't it? So people stop thinking Saul is a twelve year old?
>>45103667
>So what fancy thing is Lyria going to give us, next?
You get a choice between regen, a big ranged AoE attack and the ability to refill your mana reserves once per day (which will become more useful during prolonged battles, such as proper sieges).
>>45103526
Also, as I didn't point it out, I updated the regional map again.
>>45104021
>regen, a big ranged AoE attack and the ability to refill your mana reserves once per day
I'm assuming the regen is low-tier at the start, and that the AoE attack uses mana as a catalyst.
But a 1/day mana pot? Fuck son.
It'll probably be a split between regen and mana surge, simply because people know how valuable any regen is, and because mana is a finite resource.
So what's everyone thinking for that upgrade? I'm gonna go for the "Mana Potion", as well as shill for focusing our magic lances on single targets. We'll have to deal with two daywalkers at once, and we probably can't do it without blowing a LOT of mana and having very good magic lances.
>>45104021
I'd honestly consider Regen a hell of a lot better then most on there. One of Sauls bigger issues is lack of staying power so being able to just stop fighting for a bit and come back strong would be amazing.
In comparison Mana surge while pretty good can only be used once a day and Saul has some pretty high mana in the first place.
>>45104565
regen since most things in this world don't have that giving us a big edge
>>45104595
Especially considering we have only two more magic stat upgrades before we are comparable to Tarren Hand. If we run out of Mana in that situation we are screwed no matter what.
>>45104565
Magic lances and Flow manipulation. Mundane wise I suggest saving up till we have enough for swordsmanship 4. As useful as subskills are most of them don't work on foes with higher combat skills. Not only that but each level of swordsmanship is like leveling up our combat stats twice.
After that focus on getting a bunch of switchro subskills. In the further future I"m thinking it could be a decent idea to look into getting some Channeling training from Maloric for Versatility.
>>45104565
>We'll have to deal with two daywalkers at once
We'll likely need to tag team with Gnome and Lynn. Also pure numbers always helps.
>>45104595
I think that Mana is honestly more important to our staying power than the regen is. With enough mana we don't need to get hurt in the first place.
Well, this was pretty disappointing, I was hoping to put an end to Volante here and now.
Ah well, for upgrades I'm thinking
>Endurance
>possibly leadership2, if not then save up for swords4, but I think most people will vote for a new subskill
>magic slashes&combat evo2
>>45104750
we nearly have the same magic stat as hand did
regen is a better skill
>>45104796
So what does it matter? We burn through mana rather quickly when we want to.
>>45104796
Why do people keep comparing Saul to Hand?
Even if we had the same raw power that Hand did, he is simply more capable at magic, and will always be better than us.
So it's not a fair comparison since we won't be able to use our magic, even if we had as much as he did, to the same degree that he did. He simply got more mileage because he was really fucking good.
One thing I will say about next thread is that there's finally going to be some proper management stuff. Nothing anywhere near as in-depth as the old numbers threads, but there'll be a binding vote on the empire name and title (e.g. emperor or imperator), what Saul chooses for his last name, whether he intends on forging a royal family or putting it off as well as some policy decisions regarding nobility, food, trade etc.
>>45104795
>Well, this was pretty disappointing, I was hoping to put an end to Volante here and now.
It was intended as a possibility but the thread kind of died and I figured things would end up more interesting if he's around later, so as to prevent Taour being a complete joke for the rest of the campaign.
>>45104654
>Especially considering we have only two more magic stat upgrades before we are comparable to Tarren Hand. If we run out of Mana in that situation we are screwed no matter what.
It's only comparable in a horsepower sense. Hand has a higher mana-to-magic ratio, decades of experience and training as a mage and much more magical efficiency. If Saul wanted to be doing a long siege, fight a couple of powerful foes or a couple of battles back to back (the latter being the rarest possibility) then he'd probably need to either ration his mana or use the mana-pot ability. It's an ability that won't have much longevity however, unless you use Saul to just pump out magic constatnyl.
>>45104898
We could become really fucking good as well.
>>45104898
Depends on how high ranking we get our magic skills.
Hand was good but he wasn't that good at combat. Even if he is likely always going to be better at us at structural magic and the likes.
He wasn't all that good at combat however and had to bullshit up spells on the fly during the rebellion.
>>45104875
The big advantage with the mana Surge is we could burn all our mana at once then surge. Even in the Aladria fight we really only ran out of Mana near the end due to her regen.
Mana surge is pretty high tier but in comparison Regen is useful all the time, Helps with our lack of healing magic, And also makes it easier for us to bounce back with a bit of rest instead of being bed ridden for days after a hard fight.
Mana Surge helps with conserving our mana in long term sieges and lets us blow our load on going all magic attacks at once. But we also already have a mana draining skill for these situations even if it has weaknesses.
So to me it's not as big a deal as Regen as long as we have the raw swordsmanship to deal damage to mooks to regen our mana in sieges.
>>45104899
Just as a question where does the Mana from Mana surge come from? Are we draining some of Lyria's mana or something?
>>45105046
That's where all this energy comes from, yes.
>>45105019
Let me put it this way, anon. We burned through most of our mana the previous time we fought Volante, as well as when we fought Aladria. Do you think this isn't going to happen again when we face two daywalkers at once?
>>45104899
Asp, I know Mana Leech technically has an at least 2 minute duration, but does that count even if we go BDR while using it, or does the latter disable the former?
>>45105092
Thing there is if we are fighting two at once I'd rather just take Lynn+Our Pharosians to keep them from double teaming. Then blow about half our mana weakening one with magic lances. Figure out if one of them has good Regen then switch over to our Mana devouring blademeld and stab that one in the face over and over.
Regen could keep our health up. Unless it's two vs one in which case we are fucked no matter what we do.
Regen gives us something we already can't do is what I"m mostly saying. We already have a decent solution to our Mana. Get good at close range combat and steal everythings mana. We don't have a solution to give our self more staying power in a health area other then not getting hit.
Though to be perfectly honest both are a fine addition to Sauls skills so I wouldn't mind either way. I however find Regen's ability to cover up a pretty big flaw in Saul's combat style a big draw since we don't have a solution there otherwise other then spend XP on Endurance.
>>45104899
>
>emperor
>Rorsgrov
>kind of irrelevant while we have no heir
>maybe make it so nobles don't GET higher positions by default, but they do by default have a chance to get them if they're good enough, and maybe give them a guarantee of some political/administrative/economical position or something?
Mainly so you'd have to be actually good to be a general and shit but don't make their title useless.
>rest I have no idea for
>>45104899
Personally for me I'm fine with nobles having to prove their skills by showing what they can do before taking a government job. I don't really care so much what they do with their own interests however.
I'm also amused now because I keep wanting to make our title Rex for some reason. Even though I"m pretty sure in setting they would have no idea what the fuck that means.
>>45105254
Probably because 'Rex Rorsgrov' and 'Rorsgrov Rex' sound kinda cool.
I'd just go with Emperor though.
>>45105204
Simply put, we should not ever use our Mana Leech in a boss fight. We completely gimp ourselves.
And no, we can't ask the Pharosians to fight one of the Daywalkers. Lynn and Gnome MIGHT be able to take one. Maybe.
Mana is honestly the best choice, as it complements his abilities far better. It allows us to actually use our mana quite extensively without fear of running out. This is excellent. Regen requires us to be hit in the first place, something we would ideally avoid. With proper application of mana, that is possible.
>>45105254
If you have an in-character reason then sure.
Otherwise, no.
What we need to know is how good the regen is. Is it the shrugging off arrow wounds type?
>>45105297
We only really gimp ourselves however if we don't level up our combat skills that well.
We are a mage-knight class effectively we shouldn't try to only fight as a mage or warrior but as a mixture. With enough raw melee combat skills we can keep up with most things If we have Mal or Gnome with us. It's why I like to focus on increasing our raw melee skill levels to the upper tiers. Per stat each level of Melee combat is more then double the increase of pure stat increases.
>And no, we can't ask the Pharosians to fight one of the Daywalkers.
Them plus Lynn could likely at least hold one back. Lynn plus Gnome would actually be more efficient then Saul against most of them given how much better their staying power is. At least as long as it isn't Darian.
>Regen requires us to be hit in the first place, something we would ideally avoid.
Mana surge requires us to go low on mana for full use. Something we would ideally avoid as well. The big thing I can see is in the case we are in a prolonged combat Regen could help our already fragile health with outlasting the foe when we do get hit. Mana surge while really good likely drains the dragon of mana in combat and also is one time a day use.
Of course if Regen is like a activated power or something then Mana surge wins out. On the other hand if it's a constant power then we get into the big advantage Talon showed being able just keep going no matter what is very overpowered in a setting where combat healing magic is so rare.
>>45105414
Yeah that is a good question to ask as well. A lot of the advantage of it comes from our already high dodge skill. So they'll have to constantly keep the pressure up or risk him just healing back up if they do hit.
If the Regen is pretty low tier though then that isn't as big of a deal compared to mid tier regen that would let him get back limb use or whatever if we get a bad hit.
>>45105433
ya regen turns us from a glass cannon into a iron cannon
>>45105433
I'm definitely in agreement. Also, while
>Regen requires us to be hit in the first place, something we would ideally avoid.
is true. It is also rather meaningless. We won't always beat the DCs. Invariably we will fail, perhaps badly. Regen will likely go a hell of a lot farther in compensating for our failures than a refill of our mana pool.
>>45105502
regen is one of those powers were you can't really argue that is bad
>>45105502
It also when I look at it helps with the spiraling down issue showed in Aladria's fight. When health gets lower it gets harder and harder to actually keep fighting because fighting with a halfway broken leg and a concussion is hard.
If we had Mana surge in the Aladria fight then we could have used it and blown tons of mana again. But if she survived then we would have issues.
On the other hand with Regen plus the Mana Leech. She would have had to focus a lot harder on keeping Saul down near the end instead of relying on his injuries because it only took one good hit to get mana back and he could just keep on going with her as long as she wasn't attacking him.
Couple of things to clarify.
1. The regen you'll be offered at first is the 'regen faster than humanly possible but not super-fast' variety. You'll heal relatively minor cuts and wounds within minutes and broken bones within hours. The skill levels up once over time to be a little better but you'll never be vampire-tier. Practically speaking, level 1 is pretty damned effective as you'll heal most wounds between fights, but you won't be healing during fights.
2. Mana leech locks out all other abilities. This includes draconic blessing abilities.
