Fantasy Arms Race, Round Two

If you missed round one, you can see it here.

For round two, we're going to take what we ended with in round one, run it forward several hundred years, and enter the agricultural age.

The Cresians, descended from the plainsfolk, have settled in a coastal area, on the southern edge of the continent, something akin to southern Italy in the Meditteranean. The Cresians live in a fairly lush area, ranging through a large river delta to the coast, including several small villages and one large town. Their largest town has grown to three thousand people, and is situated in the middle of many square miles of cultivated farmland. Throughout the entire basin, there are probably twenty thousand people.

The religious center of these people is a temple town in the northern reaches of their land, in the middle of a wide plain where they revere the continually reincarnated avatar of the Dog God (always female). They have gotten over their fear of fire and now they use it like any primitive culture, but they still view fire as a destructive force. Once the current reincarnation of the Dog God gives birth to a new litter, all the male children are burned as an offering for greater fertility for the land.

The culture's focus on animalistic power has also spread to plant-life, and priests are trained to wield plant-based magic, such as crop-growth spells and woodshaping magic. Priestesses learn the majority of animal-based magic, including recently the ability to conjure creatures from realms unknown. Warriors are not as revered as they once were, but there is a small cult devoted to taking on animalistic aspects, and their champions gain the ability to transform into huge, savage dogs on the full moon, when the land is believed to be most fertile. The experience of becoming a beast is said to be exilharating, but because of how dangerous these beastmen become when they have nothing to kill, now it is highly regulated, with those capable of such a transformation being locked in thickly-walled rooms during the full moon. They are able to see the moon through an open roof, but the walls are too high for the person to escape. Once per year, near the winter solstice, the shapeshifters go on a ritualized hunt on the full moon, turning their savage tendencies to the benefit of the people by killing enough game for dozens of people.

Only rarely have humans been killed in this ritual, and this past winter, a strange foreign man's body was brought back from the hunt. Since the beastman could not recall the hunt, he doesn't know who the man was or where he was from, but he was somehow able to hurt the beastman before being killed. This is the first time a champion of the warrior dog cult has been injured in a hunt, since they are normally impervious to most injuries.



In early summer, a foreign fleet lands on the southern Cresian coast, off-loading several hundred soldiers, who slaughter all the inhabitants of a fishing village and start marching toward the heartland of the Cresian delta. They fight in organized groups of twenty men in a line, holding wooden shields and fighting with bronze swords. They seem to have only three skilled magic-users with them, each of which is always accompanied with a half-dozen bodyguards. They do not make up part of any of the larger formations, but instead travel quickly into smaller, fortified areas that the formations are not useful against. Their magic-users have the unusual power that their song seems to empower their fellow warriors, making them very effective against small groups in enclosed areas, while the sheer force of numbers in the formations can handle any attempt to fight them on open terrain.

The Cresians have not been attacked by outsiders for longer than anyone's memory, so they only mount an awkward defense, fighting with barbed fishing spears made entirely out of wood, or occasionally wood-chopping axes or skinning knives made of soft metal. Through sheer force of numbers they finally manage to stop the advance of the foreigners. After losing about half their men and one of their magic-users, the foreigners retreat, leaving two days before the full moon.

The Cresians wonder if these foreigners will return. How will they be better prepared if they do?

Responses

Assuming they think like "Western Man", they'll probably start by copying all the good ideas they can.

So they'll start by developing shields of their own.
Next they'll look at the swords: they may be able to reverse engineer bronze from the swords: it depends on how good their metallurgy is. Even if they do reverse engineer it, they still need the copper and tin to make it.
Since you've described them as being on a river delta, that means generally sedimentary soil with a lot of organic components...good for farming, not, I think, so good for copper, though they can probably placer mine casseterite and smelt it for tin. (Like in Wales.)
If they have a religious distaste for fire, I might add, it's unlikely they will be very happy with the smelting and smithing processes. If they're being done on a regular basis, it might be that smiths, miners, and the warriors who use their products all become members of a specialized religious caste: sort of the "unpleasant necessary" caste.

Assuming geology and religion allow them to duplicate bronze, they'll probably then use it to improve the tools they know: evolutionary advancement, not revolutionary. They'll make bronze-tipped spears and knives, using them for hunting and working as they always have, but always keeping one eye on how well they'd handle in a fight. Not that this would be much of a challenge, mind: if your spear can stop a charging boar, one man won't be a significant problem.
But HERE's an interesting side point: what if bronze was an "evil unnatural metal" made and used by the Cresian equivalent of the untouchables to do wicked deeds like murder men, just like the "evil invaders from across the sea".
You might get a split society, one group non-metallic, peaceful, and committed to working the land with farming and husbandry while the other group mined, created weapons, and fought/hunted.
The relationships between the two types of Cresians might be well understood by both sides at first, but generations later, the knowledge might be lost, creating tension between the "twisted unnatural unproductive warriors" and the "soft foolish farmers".
Let's assume that doesn't happen, however. The next decision would be a political one: do the Cresians prepare themselves for this to happen again, do nothing (assuming the invaders learned their lesson), or go after them?
Given their sedentary nature, I'm betting they lack the open ocean navigation skills to chase the invaders home, so they will prepare themselves with bigger fortifications, including watchtowers to see ships or invaders coming from farther off. They'll also start a militia: there'd be limited training and no real tactics other than ambush, gang up, and take cover.

That covers the mundane stuff. Magically, the priests will probably get together and invent the concept of magical force multiplication: they'll get their own guards and join the armies. The next time someone tries to outnumber them, they're going to get buried in celestial badgers and war dogs.
Buffing spells will be in: when the enemy magicians enhance the prowess of their small teams of warriors, they'll be met by a champion under the influence of bull strength, cat's grace, and maybe a barkskin spell.
Somebody will start having the biggest fighters develop the Precise Shot feat, allowing them to lob sling bullets and spears into the enhanced enemies engaging the champion...hopefully allowing the Cresians to get some extra numbers into these conflicts themselves.

Conspicuously absent will be the use of the proto-lycanthropes: they don't retain enough intelligence to take orders, make plans, or even distinguish friend from foe. If this evolved into berserker rage, somebody might start to direct it into the first army unit, the Wolf Guard.
As it is, they're just wild lycanthropes killing everything they see. The enemy might get the surprise of their lives the first time they try to kill one, but unless they're extremely cowardly they'll need to be faced and beaten using more organized methods

First of all, I'd like to tip my hat to RangerWickett for a perfect scenario for the sequel to Arms Race I. There is no way I could have thought of a better way to continue the conversation into more complex civilizations without making every post way too long and complicated.

I agree that the Plains people are likely to pick up a good few tactics from their adversaries. Shields seem to me to be the most likely migration. Bronze should be near impossible for them to reverse engineer unless they have much better knowledge of mining then your scenario implies.

But I would think that the quest for bronze would lead them to attempt to find a culture that knew about it and was either willing to teach them or had bronze smiths that were acquirable either through defection or espionage. This would lead to greater exploration at the least and possibly both boats or some mystical or ritual means of contacting some knowing entity such as a dragon or genie.

Now, an additional effect that is certain to occur is a drastic restructuring of the society given their loss of manpower. With several important effects:

First, they're going to develop infrastructure so they can watch their borders, negotiate, make fortification, and train militias.

Second, they're going to have to develop central organization in order to do so. For taxes, administration, and coordination.

Third, some element of the prior society will gain a lot of power.

The priests are a likely beneficiary from principal three: They are already pretty powerful and they were key to getting people organized enough to turn back the invaders.

If they or their clients win out then:
The infrastructure is likely to be fairly magical and conservative in nature, as they seek to regrow the population, use their own talents, and keep their people safe and unchanged.

In order to keep people safe from invaders they will probably use their druidic powers to change the country side. The Coastline and borders will be sprinkled with magicly shaped watch tower trees, coastal villages will be surrounded by cleverly engineered marshes through which there will be hidden safe paths, and hidden strongholds will be constructed out of earth and briar works. A communication network will be established based on homing pigeons. When an invading army is spotted, word will be sent to all the threatened villages. The population will then fall back to the strongholds while the militias organize to use the swamps against the adversary.

Buff, camauflage, trap, and information spells will see increased development, and orders of druids trained in wilderness maintenance and fighting will become the officers of the nation. Military forces will be formed into orders that will enforce specialized training and division so that the druids and people won't be threatened by a unified military coup. Fairs and religious competitions will encourage men to train in skills useful in guerrilla warfare, in the tradition of their plainsmen forebears, while a select few are then selected for the military orders. The druids will also encourage training with combat animals, which leads to such peacetime benefits as new methods of wildlife management, beasts of burden, exotic guard beasts, new food beasts, and beasts of labor. All on a scale unknown by most societies as the value of labor in the wake of invasion increases.

The order of the Dog and Stag will be the most independent order. It's members will be trained for patrolling the wilderness, and not only will they be excellent scouts but they will also keep the wilderness safe by identifying and eliminating wild threats. The Druids feel that they will not disturb the society as they spend so much time away from it, though they maintain strong ties as hunters and heroes. They develop their own mystic traditions in order to promote internal unity. In times of conflict they will be the first alert and the rank and file will constantly harrass and confuse the enemy. They will also support the druid lead guerrilla militias, and make heavy use of animal companions.

The order of the Wolf and Bear will be intimately tied to the druids. They will spend peacetime as Temple guards and peacekeepers, and will be trained to use what heavy equipment the druids allow and rely on magical support in combat. In the event of invasion, they will be the organizers of stronghold defense and the core of any large military formations that the druids must form. This order will attempt to learn from and use the secrets of the blessed dog warriors. At once they become handlers of the lycanthropes learning how to use their fits to harass enemies at night and over long ranges, and they gain transformational techniques themselves, gaining the ability to rage. They will be trained to fight alongside animals, but only while the druids they revere control them.

The society as a whole becomes more xenophobic and anti-technological, viewing metal weapons with great distrust, but the new levels of prosperity brought by their greater understanding of nature and use of animals combines with the Druid desire to see what other nations might be a threat to create an order of merchants/ explorers/diplomats. These individuals are kept largely ignorant of the druids magical techniques in order to prevent military secrets from leaking, but they become highly skilled in travel, espionage, and trade. Their relationship with the Druids becomes very close as the Druids become the major supporters of their venture in order to protect the people from heavy taxation. Some druids even participate in this venture resulting in a great deal of cross training and friendship, though also a certain amount of friendly tension in situations where command is in question. Both druids and traders are careful to show the benefit from these ventures to the populace in limited ways. They want them to benefit, but do not want them to develop a spirit of materialist greed and individualism that would lead to both increased competition and societal breakdown. In fact the countryside becomes rife with hidden structures as the traders seek to enjoy their wealth in secret and the druids use the often abandoned strongholds as settings for magical experimentation, working to limit the results of failures and maximize the benefits of successes for the defense of the people. Not too mention the secret outposts of the Dog order and the 'holds' in which the Wolf order keep their dog soldiers and practice their rage techniques.

To outsiders the nation appears to be a sort of Shangri-La in which the people live in harmony with nature, practice fabulous games, and seem largely untroubled by grim professions. At the same time, they will gain the distinct impression that all is not what it seems and that there are places and answers to which they are not welcome.

Another scenario would be for the military side of society to gain power as the druids lose prestige for not stopping the invasion earlier. No need to go into as much detail, but the character of the society itself changes as they become far more technological looking to craft things without as much reliance on druid mysteries and to capitalize on what they learned from the invaders. Everyone spends time in the militia, villages are walled and connected by broad roads, fortresses appear in which the military elite are housed and trained. Magic focuses on gaining concrete and long term advantages. As the expense grows the society becomes actively expansionistic. Looking to loot and raid. At first they target local threats such as unfriendly dragons and monsters with their most elite and changed heroes. After they learnd about metal they force local groups of goblinoids to mine for them. And they begin to look for targets that will be less threatening to their commanders and hold larger and more human profits.

The society becomes very spartan and the church limits itself to very prestigious oracular pronouncements. Learning a great deal about divination, summoning, and spell and item creation. Turning increasingly arcane and 'scientific.'

I prefer the first option, but find the contrasting evolutions interesting.

RangerWickett said:

They fight in organized groups of twenty men in a line, holding wooden shields and fighting with bronze swords. They seem to have only three skilled magic-users with them, each of which is always accompanied with a half-dozen bodyguards. They do not make up part of any of the larger formations, but instead travel quickly into smaller, fortified areas that the formations are not useful against. Their magic-users have the unusual power that their song seems to empower their fellow warriors, making them very effective against small groups in enclosed areas, while the sheer force of numbers in the formations can handle any attempt to fight them on open terrain.

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The Foreigners fight in small unit formations with the magic users using Buff spells.

The obvious answer then is to break the formations so that the units are scattered and the break through and attack the Magic users!

First the Cresians use their terrain to advantage especially the large Delta area - which implies soft marshy ground. This area becomes a place of refuge for to which much of the non-combatant population can retreat in case of attack. As Dr Starngemonkey has suggested the Druids use their abilities to turn the Swamp into both a refuge for the Cresians and a vast death trap for Invaders. Besides the natural dangers of boggy uneven ground and quicksand are also various tanglevines, traps and of course Rangers armed with bows. The Delta itself is rich with foodstuffs and obviously water so seige isn't too much of an issue.

On the Combat side:

On a mundane level the Cresian warriors develop guerilla tactics, based on fast moving skirmish units. They do not face the Invaders on the open battle feild but instead strike from cover, - they will rise up from the swamp or run amidst the trees, often during the night and generally attack when the Invaders least expect it. Barbarians are the favoured Class (increase speed and rage enhancement it offers is an advantage) followed by Ranger

When forced to face the Invading armys' units directly the Cresian druids and mages use their summoning abilities to summon monsters into the midst of the enemy units with the singular purpose of cause them to break and scatter - at which point the barbarian warriors move in against the demoralised foe. Archers and Spear throwers are probably another good tactic and are used to pick off routed enemy soldiers. With all that Rage, summoned Monsters and Tetesterone around terror tactics become the rule in Cresian warfare. They stick to fast, mobile and savage skirmishers rather than Unit-formation tactics.

Against the Magicuser encampments the Cresians send small elite forces (Leveled Adventurers) and often include a Dog Warrior (Lycanthorp) or two and a Druid 'handler'. The single task of these elite groups is to kill the Singer (Bard - I assume) which means breaking through the bodyguard to reach her.

There are two tactics that the Cresians should pursue. (Well, they might not, but then they'd die horribly later on.)

The first tactic is to embrace military technology. To boot:
- Develop formations to meet the enemy on equal ground.
- Develop shields.
- As a diversion, they've always been a spear-oriented people, right? To actively improve upon formation tactics, they can employ long spears either from behind the front row, or from the front row itself. Spears like this created the tank of the antique world, the Spartan Tortoise - it worked.
- Possibly embrace bronze technology, IF they can figure it out, and IF they don't have major qualms with that use of fire.
- Set loose the dogs of war. Basically, train the Beastmen in the arts of stealth and subterfuge, and have them hang out in the wilderness behind enemy lines. When the moon turns, the men turn too. (You have to trust them to report to a moonwell cell if they're not under attack, however.)
- Fortify their villages and towns. At this tech level, grand Babylon-style walls are completely out of the question, but moats (using abundant available moisture) and fairly impressive mud brick walls are quite possible. (They have the tech to build impressive temples and moonwell cells, so they can definitely build big, thick walls.)
- Levy a militia or introduce conscription. If every able-bodied man (possibly women too, if infant mortality isn't high - basically, you want to sustain your population) can poke with a spear (or swing a reverse-engineered sword), invaders suddenly look less scary. A standing militia in every town is also a good idea, and a rich river delta is fertile enough to avoid the food shortage you might otherwise incur.
- Communication is important. If the enemy returns, they will do so in force and probably wipe out an entire village; one local militia could never stop them, so a system is required to quickly summon reinforcements in large numbers. As a result, signal fires, runners, or messenger canoes will very likely be developed. If bronze is reverse-engineered, a heliograph could be developed (big shiney mirrors). If they have enough time, the Cresians could even construct proper roads and bridges through the delta, or at least clear wide paths through any thick growth.
- Tame horses (if available; might also use deer or cattle, but even without being bred for captivity for millenia, they're not the first choice) to carry messengers. Horses are fast, and have great endurance - something hunters would know about. This is no guarantee that the Cresians would develop cavalry any time soon, however; mounts would probably be quite rare, perhaps two to the village.
- Coastal patrols. Whether this is in the form of fishing ships, guard posts, or a full-fledged navy depends on how much wood is available. You can patrol the coast in boats made of rushes, but you can't have a long-range strike force unless you have certain types of wood.
- Get control of wood! There are forests nearby, especially in a world without civilised despoilment. Settlements to acquire wood would allow the construction of long-range boats, perhaps to seek out their enemies first. The added benefits include the development of superhot fires using coke, but that's not necessarily an advantage until they discover high-level metals that need smelting (centuries off yet, of course). You can also build nice scaffolding, houses that don't require huge numbers of bricks or rushes, and a great number of useful wooden artifacts like towers and fences.

The second tactic is to embrace magical power. To boot:
- With control over animals and plants, druids can turn the environment against their enemy. Entangling spells and animal companions become commonplace, and every village has at least one pair of priest/priestess who can use plants and animals against their enemies.
- More priests and priestesses are needed. The option of convents and monastaries arises, not as places of retreat but as places of intense training.
- To use these advantages, your terrain has to be broken. Actively letting outlying fields or certain 'buffer' areas grow out of control would create areas where entanglement would be of maximum effectiveness. For bonus points, they start cultivating roses or brambles in these areas. Male priests become associated with the rose.
- With a codified presence in each village, but with very little to do when not being invaded, the priestesses start helping with the fields. Tame animals can improve productivity a great amount. Imagine if the oxen pull their plows of their own will...
- The increased productivity from this frees villagers for other pursuits... this could be the catalyst needed to get large numbers of holy people into training. In addition, arts would become more developed and a faster pace of technology might be achieved as people have more time on their hands to avoid their lot.
- Religion, once merely important, becomes an overwhelming force in Cresia. Everyone knows a priest and priestess, and sees them patrolling every day with horrible beasts following them around. The power of religion is clearly cemented.
- As a slighter consequence, the separation of man and woman might become more pronounced, but not in an "I'm better" kind of way; the priests have different talents, and this could be recognised.
- Disease, fairly common in low, wet terrain, would be lessened because of the availability of curing magics. I don't think it could be stopped, however, and the likeliest scenario for an outbreak of malaria or what have you is that the priest and priestess would be found the only ones alive in a village full of dead people, having saved themselves first.
- Meanwhile, back in the main temple, more powerful magics are developed. Planar binding, while extraordinarily powerful, might be developed as a way of calling super soldiers from beyond. If that's beyond their grasp, the high priests and priestesses still discover fresh summons and maybe figure out the basis of where these creatures are coming from. Planar theory is born.
- Barkskin, Heat Metal, Chill Metal, Summon Swarm... these become commonly known spells.
- More powerful spells are created. Call Lightning and various forms of weather manipulation (because ships are vulnerable to inclement weather) become known to the elite casters. IF they can get over their aversion, there are a good number of fire spells that druids can acquire (and druids seem to be the order of the day around Cresia).
- The possibility of contacting more deities is distinct. Some of them may be hostile! Others may give gifts, but deities are unpredictable and the only thing I can think of that's fairly certain is bronze... or iron. Shudder.

That said, there are potentials for schism in the ranks of the Cresians.
- If bronze becomes prevalent, the firing process could well cause a minority to break off and declare themselves independant. Whether that's the magic-users or the metal-users is unknown. If this schism occurs, both groups will hate each other for being (a) sacreligious or (b) stupid and stuck in the past.
- If fire spells become prevalent, the minority that can cast them may become outcasts. A society of powerful casters that can throw fire at you goes off into the wilderness, and creates their own little temple. Perhaps they discover a fire deity or elementals... either way, they're a mysterious bunch of evil people in the wilderness as far as the common Cresian is concerned, but elementals... that's an interesting idea.
- If the Cresians discover new gods and don't adopt them smoothly or ignore them outright, their ranks could split in several ways. First, they could split into a monotheistic camp (the Dog God) and a polytheistic camp (all known gods, possibly excluding the Dog or casting it in an evil role). Or, they could split into a whole bunch of monotheistic sects, all proclaiming that they've got the One True God on their side. Lastly, they could have a minor schism and reshape society into a number of castes, each with its own god, all under some Head God (probably the Dog); a religious caste system creates an interesting society, where the job you have shapes your religion and your entire outlook on life.
- If the warriors and the priests find themselves at loggerheads, perhaps arguing over who should get all the resources behind them, not just a half share, then you split Cresia into the priests and the warriors, and each go their separate ways. You have bramble-ringed villages belonging to the priests, and mud-brick-walled villages belonging to the warriors.

So there's my thoughts. I just like the idea of male priests wandering around under the sign of the Rose; I think that's incredibly cool, but maybe that's just me.

I don't know if I mentioned these two things earlier, but...

...entangle and carrier pigeons could not be overemphasized. The animal messenger spell will work wonders in a pinch, but actually domesticating carrier pigeons, particularly with the hefty bonuses for training from rangers and druids, will make their society a wonder of communication. And entangle is a death knell to group formations.

The other prominent druid spell would be swarm spells and others that target and disrupt enemy spell casters over a long period of time and at a distance.

Technologically, I wonder how close the Ceracians are to an Atlatl or other similar form of spear thrower. Missile weapons seem to suit them. The Seneca in Florida developed very nice longbows early on.

The issue we haven't dealt with, however, is how the tactics of the invaders may change should they invade again. I think it much more likely that they would develop new techniques using spear formations than the plains people would. Afterall, they're used to training people to fight in formation and they've just had a lesson in the effectiveness of the spear.

Depending on how much information got back to their homeland: I would guess that the invaders would start to incorporate missile weapons into their formations. Develop tactics for identifying and taking out enemy spell casters. Scrying and defensive magics. Develop new raiding and support tactics from off of their ships to exploit their naval advantage.

And if anyone got back to the homeland with word of the way the plains people feel about fire, I would predict that they would use of the smelting brilliance to come up with something terribly nasty to use against them.

And they would definitely start developing the bardic advantage. Most basically I see them using bard songs to coordinate their formations. Being able to take musical commands on a unit by unit basis is an important key to using close formation effectively on bad ground and against a mobile enemy. The invaders are already half way there.

I really like s/lash's idea of the Priests of the Rose...with rows and rows of wild roses throughout the countryside to use to Entangle approaching formations. Major roads could be lined with rose bushes, as well, so that troop transport could be effectively disrupted by walls of brambles springing up in front of and behind enemy movements, pinning them in place while priests summon wolves, badgers and bears in their midst.

One thing that will bother the priests of the Cresians is their lack of knowlege, and they will devote some of their energy towards that end. They have no idea who these people are, or where they came from. They suspect that the attack is related to the stranger who was brought back by their beastman hunters last winter, but don't know for sure. Scouts on-land can find nothing useful about their enemies.
Their high priest secludes himself in contemplation, praying the dog-god for guidance, and as he stares into the deep pools of their temple, a vision appears to him of ships on not-so-distant seas, and scrying is born. Or is that too advanced at this point? Maybe they come up with some lesser kind of divination?
Either way, combined with the idea of trained carrier pigeons, even minor divinations will enhance their reconnaisance and organizational abilities a lot. And the invaders, having faced the disorganized, chaotic Cresians in their first invasion, will not be prepared for a well-co-ordinated defense if they return.

The Cresians make note of the effects of their enemies' Songmasters, but fail in their attempts to duplicate them. Instead, they look for ways to disrupt them. Again, the Dog God answers, giving the avatars the ability to Howl, deafening a single opponent within earshot (think of it like a blindness/deafness spell, with extra flavor). As the Howling Priestesses deafen the enemy bards and warriors, they can't hear the songs and their advantage is lost.

A neat side note...there's an interesting male/female dichotomy starting up in the Cresian society. The aggressive, warlike Dog God is associated with the female (all the avatars are female), while the nurturing, defensive agriculture aspects of their religion are going over to the male (the Rose Priests). I could see their pantheon developing into two gods; Wolf-mother and Field-Father. Kind of the reverse of how it "usually" goes.

PS- Kahuna Burger, I totally agreed with your last post in the first thread, about the presense of magic going a long way towards easing the usual causes of tension between two groups. I was only kiddin' about the "peace is for wussies" stuff... I thought I'd respond here rather than dredging up the old thread to do it.

Hey, RangerWickett...Should we speculate on what the Invaders might be doing, or are we just gonna focus on the Cresians?

Entangle is a great spell, but it has flaws:

1. It affects everyone in an area, friend and foe.
2. It does nothing to prevent missile fire, and indeed, gives cover to those within.
3. It does not stop spellcasting.

Also, the invaders have both big blocks of infantry *and* mobile strike forces consisting of a mage and bodyguard team. Entangle won't be able to completely shut down the entire force, and the bodyguard teams are mobile enough to escape destruction if the main infantry blocks are caught.

So... invader counter-strategies:

1. Kill the Cresian druids. Magic Missile is perfect for this, since Druids doen't have access to Shield.
2. Arm the infantry with javelins. Javelins are bronze-age tech, and can be used with a shield. Even entangled troops are dangerous if they have Javelins.
3. Retreat and fortify during the full moon. The Invaders have already shown awareness of the lycanthropes--they retreated two days before the full moon. Sure, RW didn't say if they retreated due to losses or knowledge, but let's assume that the "foreigner" that was killed by the wolf-man was a member of the "invader" culture. So, knowing the power of werewolves, the Invaders go on the defensive during the (3?) days of the full moon. Magic Missile, Burning Hands, and Magic Weapon (in 3E) can all hurt lycanthropes.
4. Travel by boat whenever possible. Entangle doesn't work in open water. But marshy areas and long weeds may still pose a problem.

-z

Zaruthustran said:

Entangle is a great spell, but it has flaws:

1. It affects everyone in an area, friend and foe.
2. It does nothing to prevent missile fire, and indeed, gives cover to those within.
3. It does not stop spellcasting.

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While this is all true I'm sure that the Cresians will know this and their tactics will develop to incorporate it. To wit the Cresians will stay out of the range of the entangling roses and instead attack using either missile fire (long bow) or summoned monsters.

If as I suggested before the Cresians favour skirmish units rather than formation-units then they are less vunerable to things like entangle and other 'area effects'

Also, the invaders have both big blocks of infantry *and* mobile strike forces consisting of a mage and bodyguard team. Entangle won't be able to completely shut down the entire force, and the bodyguard teams are mobile enough to escape destruction if the main infantry blocks are caught.

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I personally didn't get the impression that these 'Singer-Bodyguard units' were 'mobile'. It says they head straight for fortified areas implying that their tactics are to act defensively and rely on walls for protection. Ergo they would be more vunerable when travelling/on open ground.
It may well be however that they change from this fortification mode to a more mobile unit mode after facing the Cresians.

1. Kill the Cresian druids. Magic Missile is perfect for this, since Druids doen't have access to Shield.
2. Arm the infantry with javelins. Javelins are bronze-age tech, and can be used with a shield. Even entangled troops are dangerous if they have Javelins.
3. Retreat and fortify during the full moon. The Invaders have already shown awareness of the lycanthropes--they retreated two days before the full moon. Sure, RW didn't say if they retreated due to losses or knowledge, but let's assume that the "foreigner" that was killed by the wolf-man was a member of the "invader" culture. So, knowing the power of werewolves, the Invaders go on the defensive during the (3?) days of the full moon. Magic Missile, Burning Hands, and Magic Weapon (in 3E) can all hurt lycanthropes.

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Idea 1 and 2 are valid and imho highly likely. However 3 although likely is not going to be entirely effective, simply because it takes time to retreat and fortify during which the Dog Warriors and Cresian Beserkers can harrass and obliterate the invaders before they escape.
I also think the assumption that the Invaders retreated because they knew about the Dog Warriors is debatable (but fair). RW said the Cresians had mounted a defense and the Invaders had left 2 days prior to the full moon - my assumption would be that becuase of this the Dog Warriors will be a major shock to them when and if they return.

4. Travel by boat whenever possible. Entangle doesn't work in open water. But marshy areas and long weeds may still pose a problem.-z

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I can see Druids beveloping methods to use entangle on the open sea - eg kelp entangling rudders.
The other 'naval development' which the Cresians have access to is Druids polymorphed into Sharks/Whales/Giant Squid etc (not to mention Aquatic Monsters) and the summoning of the same.

So the Invader fleet makes for open sea but find themselves floundering when kelp entngles their rudders and ties them all together. The Cresians then summon a Celestial Orca who crashes their the hulls of the Invader ships sinking them and allowing the summoned sharks to feed...