Run Date: December 27th, 2022
PCs
Fay: Lv1 Fighter
Nameless One (Kara): Lv1 Barbarian
Kukuran (Cookie): Lv1 Rogue
Raid on Elton
After last week's scouting mission, the players decided they wanted to play out the Elton raid. They formulated a plan with the information they'd gathered and I checked the notes I had on the Crossroad Cavalry. 120 or so strong, the CC tends to field 30 men for a raid: 10 each of spearmen, archers, and cavalry.
Frankly, I know less than nothing about war games let alone what would qualify as "a proper battlefield." As such, I laid out some space for the iron mine then used "stepping stones" to note general positions around Elton (the lumber mill, village, and castle, respectively). The units were divided into groups of 5, then distributed at the player's direction. Cookie, with a group of Cav, was assigned to setting fire to the lumber mill. He was given a "bomb" the CC had raided in previous months; both for testing and to reinforce the distraction's threat. Meanwhile, Kara took a group of archers to knock out one of the guard towers on the NW side; and Fay lead the remaining forces from the NE side.
Rolls out: No detection across the board, I guess the guards were still sleepy after the last blizzard. Cookie hits the lumber mill and sets the charge. The charging Cav instantly breaks any resolve the lumberjacks may have had and they provide no resistance. Light 'em up.
Fay's group manages to execute their outpost without raising alarm, but Kara's group can't quite land a kill shot and the horns go out. This alerts Elton and they begin mobilization, and I roll some dice to determine which direction the various units will head (plus a couple turns to mobilize).
Following the explosive success of their attack, Cookie's Cav rush toward the village. Their assignment's completion meant they could do a bit of raiding, and the goatherds were their target. Unfortunately, the path drove them into range of two guard towers. These towers, by the way, are simple wooden platforms typically manned by 2 archers. 2x2 is 4, which I counted as a unit (1:5 scaling). I had earlier rolled the HP of each unit; the CC Cav ended up being the weakest. Unfortunately, this weakness forced them from the battlefield, and Cookie focused on a safe retreat.
Meanwhile, Kara is still stuck dealing with her guard tower. Neither side can seem to harm the other. Fay marches the rest of the army toward the mines where the miners and a group of guards are mobilizing.
The next round is more movement, and sees the arrival of the first waves from Elton: Two units each of guards and archers.
By this time, Kara manages to get into range with her archers and send a volley into Elton's units. Fay's ground troops continue toward the iron mine and her archers are commanded to fire. Meanwhile, Elton fires back and charges in.
I lost track of the specifics, but this initial wave lead to a lot of wounds on both sides. The Crossroads Cavalry pushed harder and managed to route both the miners and Elton's first wave of units. They then started their raid on the mines.
A few rounds later, the force that was sent to the lumber mill gets word of the enemies at the mines. They arrived quickly: 1 Cav, 1 Archer, 2 or 3 Guards. Elton had the initiative and laid into everything within their range. This signaled the retreat and Fay commanded her group to get the wagon rolling. The CC managed to hold back Elton's forces just long enough to escape into the woods.
Crossroad Cavalry (1:5) |
Elton (1:5) |
2 Cavalry 2 Archer 2 Spearmen |
1 Cavalry 6 Guard 3 Archer 3 Militia |
Losses (1:1) |
|
5 Cavalrymen 2 Spearmen |
11 Guards 3 Archers 8 Militia |
Notes: Afterword
I'm still experimenting with direct unit conversion. What this means is that instead of using the Mass Battle rules of Deluxe, I run the game as normal with a ratio. This combat had units at 1:5, and I will say that it can swing hard. Since I also rolled HD instead of taking an average, this ended up with some interesting results: A Cavalry with 10 HP (2 on the HD x 5 for the unit) and a Militia with 25HP. Archery range is also another thing I need to review since the current conversion (just remove the final 0) more or less allows "global" range on the table size I'm using.
The question I had to answer when sorting out the layout was "Is the raid a mechanic, or a result of successful battle?" I decided on attempting the former: Each round the CC spent raiding the mines would result in 1 unit per Unit (confusing eh?) of raw iron, with each round raiding increasing follow-up retrievals (moving from taking what is in the works to the tunnels themselves).
The second question was how to execute the plan without messing too much with adding more battlefield. I ended up laying out the mines for the actual fight and placing markers down for each "zone" outside of that: Elton, The Village, Lumber Mill, and the 6 guard posts. This had a couple different results. First, Cookie's Cavalry and explosive charge didn't do much, leaving Cookie managing a unit or two on the other side of the field. The Second, is that I had to figure out actual "movement" between zones. Elton rolled terrible on mobilization, and then their forces bought into the distraction and sent their Cav and better soldiers toward the mill.
All in all, these various mechanics worked out better than expected. The mobilization, the zones, and successful surprise/distraction actually made things quite easy for the CC while the "spend turns to gather iron" kept the threat of Time ever present.
Rewards
So what did everyone come out with? A lot less than I expected (or perhaps my numbers are skewed due to years of D&D). Each unit retrieved was a 1d4 roll for how many valuable bags of iron the raid retrieved. I used Trade Winds to sort the base value of 1 lb of Iron (Ingots), and knocked it down a 3rd for Raw. The result was 250gp of Raw Iron, later decided to be converted into bars at the CC camp and used or sold for profit. As for the party?
4xp
10gp/ea (with potential bonus pending sales results of Iron Ingots)
Downtime
Still not over, nope, but before downtime: The CC had to travel through the woods to and from Elton, they were lucky to not have crossed anything on the way there, but on the way back they found something truly unique. I gave the reigns to one of the players to create what that was: A strange field of ice flowers that do not melt. Fay gathered some up to study and sell.
Blackwater Cove Smugglers
The rapport with the smugglers continues to improve, but the scouting group was assaulted by Infused Hounds. The fight wrecked the Blackwater group, resulting in the PCs having to roll ADMD. Both survived with injuries. Both? Oh yeah, the third Blackwater PC is still locked in his cage after some wild DDM chaos. Unfortunately, Renaran continued to fail his rolls to settle the stacked Madnesses. The other PCs tried to vouch for their comrade, but gave up after the tensions came to a peak between the brigands. As of 12/30, Renaran's PCs was abandoned on a post-raid boat (eventually found and killed by authorities).
Red Water Sanctum
Negotiations are stalled, though the Baranklaw continue to be amenable to conversation. TAG's work is made easier after she manages to capture one of the Coldwalkers. The foreman will be sending the corpse for study, and TAG's continued assistance keeps him open for potential alliance.
No comments:
Post a Comment