Flying fortress

[marcq]

The person who draws the Stars "Minor Estates" card will be in charge of a flying fortress. Note that, at present, no one knows how to move these things but it will still be a large castle all the same with a wing of aerial troops.

I'll be sketching this out this week before trying to model it in 3D. While I'm kicking around ideas for the fortress, please share any thoughts you may have on this. Remember it might be your fortress

Here's a few of my thoughts so far:

• The aerial troops will have caves in the lower part of the floating rock with one or two entrances. These entrances will be on the underside of the rock. They will have drop down gates to block access with sally ports near the gates so that you can get a party out to defend them if needed.
• UNder side of the rock will have a few observation barbettes.
• Topside will have access to the aerial troop cave although that is just for emergencies and is not the prime entrance.
• Top side will have a garden and exercise yards.
• Quarters for all but the aerial mounts are on buildings on the top side.
• It is a fortress so everything will be defensible.
• May not put walls on the top, though, since the only way to get to the fortress is by air which makes walls kind of pointless.
• There will be various poles for putting out netting in battle.
• There will significant internal passages, including a huge cistern for rain water.
• The fortress was designed to serve as a floating base for aerial troops but also to send in foot soldiers so it can hold several thousand troops in a pinch.
• It will have some sort of boarding ramp for offloading troops in an attack.

Thoughts?

[sivousplay]

One quick thought on the defenses ... you still might like walls to give your missile troops something to hide behind if you are defending the fortress from incoming aerial troops. No reason to be out in the open if you don't have to be.

jim

[marcq]

Originally Posted by sivousplay

One quick thought on the defenses ... you still might like walls to give your missile troops something to hide behind if you are defending the fortress from incoming aerial troops. No reason to be out in the open if you don't have to be.

jim

I was planning on building some archery galleries into the rock mass and also having arrow slits in towers. But thinking more about the walls, I think I may add them back in for conventional troop defense as well (and for more arrow firing locations as you mention).

Since I put a boarding ramp on these things, walls might be useful for defense in case someone else attacks with their flying castle and boarding ramp. Even though these things do not move under control now, they used to and were designed for that.

I was partly being weaslly: of all the things to model, walls are actually the toughest because I need to make the crenallations appear in the right place and may wall segment 'quanta' really work out to be in the right lenght, especially when working with an irregular shape like this castle rock.

[sivousplay]

So, the more I thought about these things, the more I started to realize that they share a lot in common with sailing ships and should have some offensive and defensive capabilities that are similar ... namely if there is a mechanism for boarding, then there should probably also be mechanisms for grappling and then that got me to thinking about grappling and tearing down towers & walls. There should probably be some kind of defensive mechanisms to stop this, but I'm not sure what they'd be at the moment.

jim

[marcq]

Originally Posted by sivousplay

So, the more I thought about these things, the more I started to realize that they share a lot in common with sailing ships and should have some offensive and defensive capabilities that are similar ... namely if there is a mechanism for boarding, then there should probably also be mechanisms for grappling and then that got me to thinking about grappling and tearing down towers & walls. There should probably be some kind of defensive mechanisms to stop this, but I'm not sure what they'd be at the moment.

jim

Yeah, I've been thinking about this boarding thing as well. I think making the walls squat (which I was considering anyway) would make them near impossible to pull down. More likely is a battering operation where you just push your fort into the other guys fort. That actually suggests that you make sure there are bedrock spires and what not protecting your fortress from ramming (better rock-on-rock).

I guess it comes down to whether you think forts can maneuver against each other (like ships) and try to board or whether boarding is against stationary targets (like a town or the edge of a large island that can't move fast).

I wasn't thinking floating fortresses moved all that fast or nimbly which, barring surprise, means it is probably hard to get one to board another, assuming they are all the same speed. And that isn't a good assumption. Guess we do need to assume fort on fort.

I was also wondering whether it would be better to have your boarding ramp on the underside, not the top-side. If you put it on the underside, you can have archery galleries built into the overhanging rock to support the boarding action. You can also make the boarding ramp more of a ram created from the island bedrock with the disembarkation ports near the ram or back from the ram head (or above it for drop down on ropes.) You might need a topside ramp for the times you can't maneuver above the other fort but you would like prefer to come in from above with your arrows raining down on the other fort.

As I think about this, I'm tending to this sort of fortress:

• No lofty towers. These look cool but seem very vulnerable to being destroyed by the actions of another fortress. Or if there are towers, they are just spare, disposable lookout posts (perhaps wooden, maybe even dismantable).
• Everything is kind of squat with buildings and access points in the nooks and indentations of the bedrock so that these structures have some protection from ramming.
• Fewer external structures so that there is less exposed. Living quarters would now be inside the rock.
• External structure would exist for:
  • observation
  • access to the interior, including something for flying mounts to use (large with landing space)
  • missile weapon galleries. These might be some constructs but more often might be built into the bedrock
  • some gardens and practice spaces
  • no walls or towers (however there may be some bunker like stretches).

Also, the island bedrock would be shaped with at least one ram sticking out, maybe several (so you don't have to turn the entire island to ram).


Thoughts?

[sivousplay]

Another thing I was thinking about is the community on the fortress ... are the fortresses big enough to sustain crop growth? Or are they just re-supplied every so often? If there are crops, the defense and attack on them would be a big deal for obvious reasons.

If they are just re-supplied, then some sort of seige provisions would obviously be necessary because your enemies could surround you with sufficient aerial troops (on other fortresses) and prevent you from getting out. I know that with magic you could create some amount of supplies, but if that is your protection against seiges, then it should be built into the SOP for one of the fortresses.

jim

[sivousplay]

I thought about the ramming thing as well ... seemed to make some sense that fortresses with different speeds could be created and that there would be smaller, faster, fortresses with some sort of ram for destroying critical pieces of the other fortresses.

jim

[marcq]

Originally Posted by sivousplay

I thought about the ramming thing as well ... seemed to make some sense that fortresses with different speeds could be created and that there would be smaller, faster, fortresses with some sort of ram for destroying critical pieces of the other fortresses.

jim

If I was designing a fortress, I would try hard not have anything 'sticking out'. Unless you posit magic that makes constructions as strong as solid bedrock, then there is nothing that will protect your structures except for solid bedrock.

I like the airy, elegant towers on the flying rocks. One possibilty, is to make fort to fort collisions impossible or very unlikely so that people didn't have to worry about it. But rather than come up with some wierd rationale to prevent collisions, I'm inclined to just design the forts with ramming and collisions in mind. it fits my concept for the 'age of archons' better: a time of brutal, no holds barred warfare.

[marcq]

Originally Posted by sivousplay

Another thing I was thinking about is the community on the fortress ... are the fortresses big enough to sustain crop growth? Or are they just re-supplied every so often? If there are crops, the defense and attack on them would be a big deal for obvious reasons.

If they are just re-supplied, then some sort of seige provisions would obviously be necessary because your enemies could surround you with sufficient aerial troops (on other fortresses) and prevent you from getting out. I know that with magic you could create some amount of supplies, but if that is your protection against seiges, then it should be built into the SOP for one of the fortresses.

jim

Alright, you tipped my hand. I was thinking of keeping this secret from the players until after the draft but it will get in the way of the discussions:

The fortress has a portal on it that connects it to one of the mainland cities (haven't decided which). It is supplied through the portal.

I was thinking of putting some training spaces and some gardens on the top of the rock just as a way to use open top space (if I can fit that in now that I need rock ridges to protect the structures) but this is for the garrison's sanity, not for food supplies. I guess with the portal, you can always bug out to the mainland for R&R. We could then make the fortress a 'grim floating castle'.

[sivousplay]

Sorry to spoil your surprise ... guess I was at least thinking of the right kinds of things ... I wonder if anyone else is going to chime in? If not, I think my character should automatically get the fortress!!!!!

jim

[marcq]

Originally Posted by sivousplay

Sorry to spoil your surprise ... guess I was at least thinking of the right kinds of things ... I wonder if anyone else is going to chime in? If not, I think my character should automatically get the fortress!!!!!

jim

I figured you'd have a keen interest in such a thing.

But you've got to get the right card, stars suit, even.

[sivousplay]

Yeah, it fits well with either of my character class thoughts ... if I'm a mage, then learning the magic to fly the thing again is right on target and if I'm a hero, then using it to defeat evil would be right on target. It could be the sort of thing that could even convince me to play the old wizard ... a little more RP reason for him to have been researching this kinda thing for a LONG time.

jim

[marcq]

Originally Posted by sivousplay

Yeah, it fits well with either of my character class thoughts ... if I'm a mage, then learning the magic to fly the thing again is right on target and if I'm a hero, then using it to defeat evil would be right on target. It could be the sort of thing that could even convince me to play the old wizard ... a little more RP reason for him to have been researching this kinda thing for a LONG time.

jim

That would be an interesting take on the old wizard character. And a good reason to go for the stars suit (stats for the human).

I should reveal some important secret deep on one of these threads to see who is still paying attention

[Chris the Bigger]

Originally Posted by marcq

That would be an interesting take on the old wizard character. And a good reason to go for the stars suit (stats for the human).

I should reveal some important secret deep on one of these threads to see who is still paying attention

Yes you should reveall huge cool secrets. you never know who is reading and not replying.

After reading the conversation, i have a few thoughts.

if you have created these huge flying platforms for luanching attacks, it goes to reason that you would profit hugly by taking them by force. Jim's obcervation about the ships is most intersting since they simply float in the air and not the water. Defense would be critical. with the prominece of flying troops the fortress needs to be able to fend off large scale attacks. Ballista, catapult, and trebuchet seem to be approprate. Range and projectile mass seem important.

it doesn'tt sound like these things are meant to be longterm abodes. I like Marc's down and dirty perspective. Makes sense that these things were built all for business.

in the same thought, if these things have not flown for hundreds of years they may have be outfitted for more comfort.