Deuce Traveler's Last Stand of the Dorinthians

OOC2: If the ‘Barricade Orc Force’ can be eliminated. The civilians do not have to move. They could stay put. They will in effect be unseen and in turn protected by the surrounding darkness. A small band of troops (24ppl, 2 squads) could be left with the civilians while the remaining forces join Dartis and create a distracting and even possibly a successful counter offensive. My thought process is that such a large attacking force, especially one comprised of Orcs, would not think that a counter attack would be possible from such a small force. And if it is not possible, why prepare for it?

--Just my thoughts.


-Blood

Bloodweaver1 said:

My thought process is that such a large attacking force, especially one comprised of Orcs, would not think that a counter attack would be possible from such a small force. And if it is not possible, why prepare for it?

Click to expand...

Which is why Barok will try to torch their supply camp (which he doesn't even know wether it exists or in that case where it is... ).

Oh it exists. We'll wait to get one or two more of the players to post when Barok finds what he's looking for.

What are everyone’s thoughts on the next course of action? Mine would be to have the new Southern Force occupy the surrounding buildings near the town square. Using urban tactics, they could use the cover of windows and doorways in conjunction with their bows to rain down DOOM upon the main Orc Force. Using our advantage of range weapons against their disadvantage of being melee focused.


-Blood

Bloodweaver1 said:

What are everyone’s thoughts on the next course of action? Mine would be to have the new Southern Force occupy the surrounding buildings near the town square. Using urban tactics, they could use the cover of windows and doorways in conjunction with their bows to rain down DOOM upon the main Orc Force. Using our advantage of range weapons against their disadvantage of being melee focused.


-Blood

Click to expand...

If all we had was the militia that would be great, but we'd have to stick all the non-coms there as well and then that splits them up with little protection.

I would like to get the two forces united. Perhaps we could driven the militia into the flank of the main host?

In any case I think we need to move everyone closer to the city square and see what the situation is then, once there we can either engage or split up for ranged work depending upon what we see.

I just wanted to take the time to briefly summarize where your forces stand right now.

Barok has currently found the main camp of the orcs on a hill. There is a war chief that he can see, surrounded by about a dozen fellow warriors, some looking like mere ambitious bootlicks, but the rest seasoned veterans. There is also an older shaman near the war chief and two adepts. There are also numerous servants and camp followers. It is unlikely that Barok and a group of a couple dozen kobolds can mount a serious direct attack against these orcs. He does have enough tree and brush cover to get these two dozen kobolds into attack positions, along with fire starting equipment. They can easily hit outlying tents and supply wagons, though maybe not the group of orc commanders, and get out safely. Barok never did buy or recover healing potions.

Ventus, Nikolos, and Danica are still fighting in the center of the town, but they had to pull back to their interior defenses once they attempted a counter-attack. This isn't to say that the counter-attack did badly. In fact, it did quite well in damaging the invaders, but the orcs outnumbered them too heavily and they had to pull back to a more defensible position. They were able to fall back without heavy casualties. There are still about 500 fighting men and roughly 200 civilians hiding within the buildings in the center. Although they could break out and drive to the southern defenses, it may be tricky to defend the civilians.

Caramip, Dartis, and Silas have joined up and have about 60 militia members ready to fight, 10 horsed archers, and a couple hundred civilians that picked up weapons from the fallen. There are also 1800 civilians they are still protecting. With such a small armed force, it is unlikely that they will be able to make it into the center of the town with all the civilians in tow. To break the encircling line of invaders, most of the forces would have to be put at the head of the column, which would leave the trailing civilians unprotected on the flanks. Another idea would be to leave the civilians behind and take a token force to harrass the encircling orcs to relieve pressure from the central defenders.

You guys have done surprisingly well so far, despite my attempts to up the level of challenge that I threw at you. I'm enjoying the ideas you've come up with so far to beat off my offensive to take out the Dorinthians.

Given the disparity of forces, I don't think we're going to win this by beating up the orc horde en masse. We don't have enough people, even if both forces combined, without regard to the fate of the non-combatants.

As far as using urban warfare, the orcs are actually a lot better suited to it then the Dorinthians are. On foot, the main Dorinthian weapon is the longspear, and fighting indoors is going to be close quarters. Where the big orc axes are going to be ugly. If this fight degenerates into a dozen house to house small unit actions, the Dorinthians are going to get cut to small steaming bits, whether by attrition or just by being outmatched at close quarters.

That said, if we can get the horsemen from both forces out and mobile, it will give us a big edge. The footmen, with the reduced area of the inner defenses, should be able to hold them. If Cal Dorin and his horsemen break out, to hook up with Dartis, Silas, and Caramip, then things go back to favoring the Dorinthians.

The horse archers can move quickly from place to place, butchering and bolting, to use Mr. Churchill's phraseology, while the orcs are deployed to surround and assault the inner stronghold. Basically, rather then fighting the whole horde as a chunk, the horse archers can move around the outside edge of the orc forces, chewing up what they can, and then fading away at mounted speed when the orcs mass enough to fight them on even or superior terms.

If Barok can harass their main camp, the two threats together might be enough to make them draw off. Or we could get insanely lucky and the mounted column could strike at the main camp, and take out the leadership, using Barok's efforts to assist and distract.

Deuce Traveler said:

I just wanted to take the time to briefly summarize where your forces stand right now.

Barok has currently found the main camp of the orcs on a hill. There is a war chief that he can see, surrounded by about a dozen fellow warriors, some looking like mere ambitious bootlicks, but the rest seasoned veterans. There is also an older shaman near the war chief and two adepts. There are also numerous servants and camp followers. It is unlikely that Barok and a group of a couple dozen kobolds can mount a serious direct attack against these orcs. He does have enough tree and brush cover to get these two dozen kobolds into attack positions, along with fire starting equipment. They can easily hit outlying tents and supply wagons, though maybe not the group of orc commanders, and get out safely. Barok never did buy or recover healing potions.

Click to expand...

So the numbers on the hilltop are about 2 to 1 in our favor, worse if the orc civilians put up a fight, but we can assume that the kobolds are lower level than the orcs and we cannot fight all of them at once and win. Do the Kobolds have any sorcerors, or shamen of their own? A couple of sleep spells would be invaluable.

How big is the camp? Is it possible that the arsonist kobolds can draw away enough of the orcs guarding the chief for long enough time that the main force with Barok will have a chance to slay the chief and the shaman?
Or would it be better to use the entire kobold force for hit and run tactics, knowing that the orcs are too few to pursue them when they disengage from the camp? The problem then might be that the chief may be able to send for reinforcements from town, and even another dozen orcs would make any later assault impossible. Well, even that isn't too bad, since it would still disorganise the orcs.
It's a damn shame I've not prepared Barok better for battle. With a couple of potions of Expeditious retreat, Invisibility and some tanglefoot bags he could have taken out the shaman and chief by himself...

It is possible that you might draw away some of the orcs around the chief if you started a fire from the other side, or they might instead call in reinforcements back to help the camp. Unfortunately, you do not have Nikolos with you who might be able to read their intentions via magic once the fun starts. The kobolds are simple kobolds with no levels amongst them, while the orcs have levels in barbarian, warrior, cleric, and adept. Therefore, the kobolds would get slaughtered in a direct engagement.

All right, then we'll just get the supplies burning and then we'll take any opportunities as they come along.