Sea Wyvern vs Crimson Fleet in Tides of Dread... wth? (Spoilers ahoy!)

blargney the second · Dec 13, 2008

I'm preparing the Crimson Fleet invasion at the end of Tides of Dread, and trying to come up with descriptions of how the town's defenses affect the invaders.

So far I've got phanatons doing strafing runs with alchemist's fire, fortifications for archers on the roofs of the warehouses, and some other fun stuff based on what the PCs achieved or failed to achieve in the run-up.

But I can't for the life of me figure out how the Sea Wyvern could be 200 VP worth of useful all by her lonesome against five enemy ships. I suppose she could try to take out another ship with a kamikaze run, but is there anything else/better you can think of?
-blarg

Festivus · Dec 13, 2008

Steal a page from Captain Nemo (or was it 20,000 leagues under the sea), have them craft a iron ram over the top of the hull and use submerge ship to make it into a submarine that can ram the hulls of the enemy fleet and scuttle several ships during the battle.

Wik · Dec 13, 2008

Really, it's simple - the Sea Wyvern has been introduced earlier, making it worth 5 mook ships. Common-sense cinema there... even if you're an old man introduced in the first ten minutes of the plot, you're worth at least one ninja when they attack.

If you wanna go further than that, the Wyvern is a mobile weapons platform, and since the Crimson Fleet ships are probably heavily-laden with equipment (and ill maintained), the Wyvern can move quickly among them, taking pot shots and then twisting away. A well-crewed ship is worth MUCH more than what the 'fleet are throwing; in real life, during the time of the Spanish Armada (the spanish attempt to invade England in the 1600s through a huge naval attack), the better-trained and equipped English fought off the spanish fleet despite being vastly outnumbered by sailing really close and firing at will - every target was a spanish ship, while if the spanish shot back and missed, they'd be hitting the spanish craft on the other side of the English ship. Coupled with judicious use of fire, the English were able to scatter the Spanish fleet.

I could see the Wyvern doing something like that, getting close and having some trained crossbowmen (with fire arrows!) picking shots at Fleet ships, while easily avoiding the worst of the Fleet's attacks.

Haffrung Helleyes · Dec 13, 2008

Crimson Fleet attack - what I did

Here's an account of how I played out the entire crimson fleet battle. I highly recommend that you do something similar!

Ken

paizo.com - Paizo / Messageboards / Paizo Publishing / Older Products / Dungeon Magazine / Savage Tide Adventure Path / My Tides of Dread Crimson Fleet attack

Haffrung Helleyes · Dec 13, 2008

in other words

Just ditch the whole victory points concept, and play out the whole battle, letting the players control the Farshore side. They'll love it.

Ken

blargney the second · Dec 14, 2008

Thanks for the advice, everybody!

Haffrung Helleyes said:
Just ditch the whole victory points concept, and play out the whole battle, letting the players control the Farshore side. They'll love it.

If Lavinia had won the election, I would totally do that. As it is, Manthalay won, so Avner's in charge of the town's defence. His incompetence needs to be demonstrated, then potentially rectified by the PCs...

I've decided that the fleet will leave any ships the Wyvern engages to fend for themselves. The others will continue on with the invasion, maybe taking a couple of potshots as they sail by. (Rationale: their goal is the razing of Farshore - what could a single ship do against all of them?)
-blarg

Haffrung Helleyes · Dec 14, 2008

I wouldn't be so sure that you can expect your players to stay on the Sea Wyvern. My PCs cast Fly on a Gargantuan Skeleton Anaconda that the Dread Necromancer had animated, then rode it to a pirate ship and crashed on the deck. Try anticipating that!

Ken

Wycen · Dec 14, 2008

What if the players tow the Devil Fish (the ship used by the scouts at Rat's End) out into the bay to use as another firing platform or to block the entrance, via scuttling?

blargney the second · Dec 15, 2008

Here's how the naval battle played out:
An Olman war canoe patrol boat spotted the pirates and lit their flare, alerting Farshore to the imminent attack. They used a one-shot whispering wind magic item to send a message to the chapel in town. "Seven vessels spotted. Smallest one pursuing us, will catch before we arrive. Please send help." The PCs did the natural thing: they hopped on the Sea Wyvern and went to the rescue.

The Wyvern's ballista shot at the enemy pinnace, while the pirate's ballista bolts brought the war canoe to a halt a few seconds before the Wyvern interposed herself. The PCs made short work of the relatively small crew, with one notable event happening: the scout used her rod of wonder, causing grass to grow on every surface of both ships. I dubbed their vessel the Chia Wyvern.

I think the ease with which they disposed of the dozen pirates made them cocky, because they decided to take on all of the ships at once. They watched and waited as a half dozen ships that were bigger than the pinnace approached, and once the distance was down to ~700 ft, the PCs opened fire with their sole ballista. The return fire consisted of six times as many projectiles that all hit the Chia's main sail and a fireball that blasted the hell out of the PCs on the front deck.

Fortunately for them, the player who was captaining recognized the inevitable TPK and hightailed it out of there. To the dismay of the other players... who still thought they were going to trash the pirates at this point. By the time they got away, the front and rear sails had 10 hps between them, tops. Even then the non-captains were totally mystified. I think they need to learn about Lanchester!

It was a fun game, where they got both a little cakewalk and the beginnings of a severe spanking.
-blarg