Attn everyone: Fantasy world arms race experiment!

[RangerWickett]

Though no doubt the Gnomish Industrial Revolution threads already did something like this years ago, I want to perform a thought experiment, and I need the help of lots of people to pull this off properly.

I was inspired by another thread on this board (Are armies any good?) to start wondering how a D&D fantasy army would be trained and equipped. With all the critters they have to face, and high level NPCs they'd have to fight, we have to wonder how they manage.

So what I plan to do is run an arms race.

We're going to start with a few basic tactics of primitive people in a fantasy world, and slowly develop counter-tactics and counter-counter-tactics, plus new technologies and magic to combat current tactics. I need a lot of people to help out so we'll have a wide base of ideas to pick from, with the ultimate result that we'll have a very diverse battlefield.

Some ground rules. We're going to go in rounds, starting with a simple tactic and getting ideas until we think we have some nice ways to defeat the initial tactic. Then the round will end, and I'll post a new round with a clearly detailed set of tactics that we have to beat again. For the first round, characters will be a maximum of 1st level, so you can't say "I train my sorcerers to fireball the enemy." That won't come until at least the 5th or 6th round.

There'll be two or more 'sides' in each round, and though you can think of tactics for whatever side you want, you should make sure to specify which side you're posting the idea for.

Also, we're going to assume people are in general low level. There will eventually be some higher-level people on each side, and eventually we will have to come up with tactics to handle those powerful foes, but there won't be armies of hundreds of thousands of 10th level fighters, even in late rounds.

So, who's interested? I'll post this message, then start typing up round one.

 

[Enkhidu]

I'd be game...

 

[Maerdwyn]

I'm game!

 

[Sixchan]

I'll give it a go!

 

[Mathew_Freeman]

I'm in!

 

[F5]

This sounds like fun! I'll play.

 

[RangerWickett]

Round One: Stone Age

The following conflict is just an example of many of the common inter-tribal warfare among primitive humanoids (they could be humans, or elves, or dwarves, or what have you).

The hill tribe lives in caves in the hills in a fairly northern area, climate akin to northern Italy or southern France, gathering food from the sparse forest around them and occasionally hunting for deer, bear, and other meat. They have stone knives, and wear bearskins, and during the winter they can stay in their caves to keep warm. They know how to make fires, and their shamans control the fire to prove their magical power.

The plains tribe does not know how to make fire. They travel and tend to scavenge a lot, though sometimes they can bring down a large animal with their stone-headed spears (which they normally use as walking sticks). In the winter they migrate south and live along the coast, fishing and living in makeshift huts made of piles of stone with skins on top. They usually wear only light pieces of skin to protect themselves from sunburn, since their winters are mild. Their leaders are strong warriors, who are assisted by witches who can speak with animals. Thus, the tribe usually doesn't fear predators, and they have slightly domesticated wild dogs as traveling companions.

Both tribes have normal intelligence; they're primitive people, not just primates, and so they have fully developed social and spiritual lives, plus storytellers and other artists. Don't think of them as mindless brutes.

The two tribes come into conflict in the middle of summer, when the plains tribe's leader decides to hunt in a forest at the northern edge of their travels. When they get fairly far to the forest, heading into some foothills, they try to take down a bear. Simultaneously, though, the hill tribe's hunters appear as well. The two groups stop fighting for a while in confusion, but the bear attacks, and together the two groups bring the bear down. But they don't speak the same language, so there's no chance for them to peacefully divide the bear carcass.

A fight breaks out, and the son of the plains tribe's leader is killed by being stabbed with a knife, while two hill tribe members are wounded with spears (one of which later dies). The plains tribesmen run off, leaving behind their fallen, and thus the conflict starts. The two tribes (each has about 40 warriors, plus another 60 or so non-combatants) occasionally skirmish, the plains people primarily wanting to take revenge for the theft of their leader's son, and the hill people trying to defend their territory.

How will either side get an edge? The brightest minds of the two tribes think of ways to fight the other tribe. Especially of interest is how the shamans or witches will aid their tribes with their magic.

*Future rounds will go through the bronze age, on to a more roman style civilization, and eventually on to a medieval setting we see in most fantasy settings.

 

[Arken]

Sounds good! Count me in!

 

[RangerWickett]

The hill people live in fairly rocky terrain, so they like to use cover and hide behind things, though they don't have effective missile weapons except hurled stones. For initial attacks, they'll probably stay in their caves and just try to keep the plainsfolk from getting in, occasionally tossing stones downhill, or using piles of flaming brush to block off the entrance. The first time a plainsperson actually gets into a cave, the shaman uses her magic to flare a cooking fire and burn the man, which encourages her to find new ways to make fire a weapon. She also discovers that fire can stop wounds from bleeding.

The plains people are used to hunting things like buffalo/mammoth/bulls by distracting them with large groups and throwing spears from a distance, so they know how to make ranged attacks fairly well, and make use of mobility. They'll use common adventurer tactics, heading in, maybe killing one or two, then running away to rest and heal. They have better weapons than the cave people, but they're scared off by the fire, and even their witch cannot convince their wild dogs to go through the flames. They've stolen some of the fire (and the cave people have kept some of the spears that have been used against them), and keep a fire constantly going since they don't know how to make their own.

Eventually, the cave people will have to go on the offensive, since they can't stay in their caves forever. In the woods, though, the more mobile plains people can surround them and fight like a wolf pack.

 

[Forrester]

Ground rules

I think that right off the bat you *must* state how many Shamans each side has relative to their total population.
I'm assuming that they're first level in this round, naturally -- but how many are there? One per side? Two? Five?

You can do a lot more with five than you can with one or two.