Tactical Thought

[Fists.o.Fury]

I know we have tried to talk about this before and we've tried to implement organization to our combats but, I must say I don't feel as organized or efficient as we could be. I know we have gotten better, by a long shot, since the beginning days of Greerson's Glory and even since we've begun with the Seeker's but sometimes it's hard to believe we've adventured as a group before. In particular i'm talking about the most recent combats the most (Naga, Ettin/fungus/bugbears, shambling mounds, etc.).

I just wanted to start this thread not just to talk about certain battle situations left for 'next session' scenario's but also to talk about our group tactics in general. Now this isn't something you're forced to do, you're not forced to cooperate or listen to anyone here because that's not what the game is about. It's about having fun - just like BSF is always saying. So if there is something here that might impact that for you - just don't do it! With that said....

Moving and Fighting as a Group

This is mostly for the melee combatants -

I've noticed that most combats we start off pretty hot and heavy. The initiative is rolled and we're off like horses on a track to get into the fray first. Now sometimes this is something that can't be avoided or it's better that way. For example with the wierd cat things or even the chaos beast - we just can't really act like a unit when you're trying to protect your friends. But in situations like the Wolverine's and the Ettin I think we would do better to move as a unit.

It may be in our interest to hold actions until a certain time and/or the lowest initiative gets to go. That way when we do engage in melee we're able to easily set up flanking and support eachother with attacks/flanks and whatever else you can think of.

Or, in certain situations it may be better that we don't charge at all and let our enemies come to us. Why not let our spell caster's and ranged units do some of the work and engage the baddies when they get closer? This is something I was thinking about after BSF had posted the encounters thread. We could be going about it in a better way! But if you guys like it the way it is - do it to it!

 

[Macbeth]

I think we need to be more aware of the possibilty of multiple combats. We've had soem combats where we run through all our spells, only to have to face another enemy with low resources. Sometimes it's alright to just let the melee folks take some hits, take some damage, and finish things without wasting too many spells.

We also need to match how many spells we use with the type of combat:

Two bugbears: we should barely cast, relying on simple tactics to take a simple enemy. We can use low level spells that are unlikely to hurt the big guys.

Nockmort: now we need those spells, let it all rip.


Last session, we did the exact opposite of this: two mldly-challening ecnoutners (Bugbears and Wolverines) cost us a lot of spells we could use in a big encounter like the one we're about to have.

 

[Fists.o.Fury]

I agree w/ that completely. I have noticed we burn through our resources very fast even when it's not needed. Perhaps we should try and moderate our use of our resources in combats. I must say the wolverienes would have hurt us more had we not used the spells we did :\.