Defy elven forest-fighting tactics! (Now open to my players)

[StalkingBlue]

[EDIT]: Yup, now open to everyone to read. Including my Midnight players. [/EDIT]

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Other tactical minds here? Yay.


So here's the setup.

You command an orcish legion - 1,500 Ftr2 orcs with higher-level officers plus auxiliaries, including a couple of hundred goblins, a bunch of ogres etc. Magic support is scarce. In fact, for now let's assume you don't have any (except for feeding your troops, so we can forget about supplies for now). Flying or swimming monsters might be available, if rare. Assume your troops are well disciplined. If the concept of orcs-cum-discipline ties knots into your brain, pretend they are hobgoblins instead.

Your people command the plains but are fighting the elves who - sneaky cowards they are! - are hiding away in their huge forest lands, making sorties, providing shelter for renegades and generally making a nuisance of themselves. Summer after summer, square miles of forest are burnt. Yet it is not enough. The war keeps being carried into the forest itself.

A while ago, to your chagrin you received orders to ship up a main river and take a keep that controls that river, roughly 50 miles inside the current border of the forest. The initial assault has failed, not unexpectedly. You currently have a large portion of your troops entrenched just beneath the keep, besieging. Troop transports, supplies (some), patrols and messages are going up and down the river, often intercepted or attacked by hit-and-run forces. You are trying to:
- keep the river clear for traffic and move convoys of ships so they'll get through safely;
- control landing places along the river if you can;
- keep your siege going.

You have:
- superior numbers;
- troops that are superior in melee against elves or humans, man for man;
- a foe reluctant to give up lives fighting you: elves breed too slowly to keep up a war that costs as many lives on their side as on yours.

They have:
- familiarity with the terrain, which favours archery and hit-and-run tactics;
- very occasionally, magic support (assume no direct-damage spells);
- a forest that in itself helps defend your enemy, by subtly shifting paths, confusing your troops once they move out of sight of known landmarks (like camp or the river), betraying (it is believed) the very presence of your troops to elven spies with its ghostly whisper.


What do you do? Tactics, equipment, special forces? Assume reinforcements trickle in at irregular intervals. Monstrous humanoids other than orcs may be available, as may be flying or swimming monsters, but as I've said, no magic support on your side (although your troops may be facing the occasional enemy spellcaster or spellcasting cadre).

 

[Desdichado]

u cant b33t the 3lv3s they r the |337 they o\/\/nz ur @$$ los3r!!!!11111!

Actually, do they have access to special forces types troops? A hard-hitting band of orc wildlanders who can counter and disrupt them with guerrilla tactics of your own seems a good bet. You said no magic, but do you mean arcane there? Presumably you have access to legates, while they will be lucky if they can scrape up a half-competent channeller. Send out cheap slave levies as a screen to flush out the elves would help too -- if the PCs are Izrador's types, they won't mind seeing a few conscripts (or, lets face it, a lot of conscripts) give their lives for the greater good of eliminating the elf threat and clearing the river. It also keeps the elves busy while the only thing you're sacrificing is a bunch of 1st level commoners, which you probably won't miss much.

 

[Flyspeck23]

Is it possible to burn the forest?
If the answer's "yes", set fire to it
Or, if fire doesn't work (for whatever reason), start choppin' down trees. Even if it would take forever to clear the whole forest, maybe that'll draw those pesky elves out to prevent you from destroying the woods.

 

[Rodrigo Istalindir]

Burn it. Burn it all, burn it well, and then when the fires die down, burn it again. You don't need magic, just flammable liquids and a torch. If it won't burn, start cutting it down. Clearing large swaths of terrain gives you nice free-fire zones and keeps the little buggers from hiding. Plus you can use a nice forest fire to drive them into your troops instead of having to hunt them down.

Take advantage of the tree-huggers love for nature by slaughtering every living creature you can lay your hands on. Provoke them in to coming after you to make you stop. Poisons the waters (the ones your not drinking out of!) too.

Divert the river. The keep that controls the river becomes a lot less useful if the river is now a few hundred yards further away. If you can, dam it up, let the waters build, and then destroy the dam and let it wash the fort away.

If the forest is revealing your troop movements, then use lots of feints. Overload the enemy planners with too much intel, and make them divide their already numerically inferior force even further.


Make stone cairns for waypoints to keep from getting lost.

 

[derelictjay]

Yeah burn the forest. FIRE FIRE FIRE, yippee (no I'm not a pyro, I just like fire)

Anyways, do what the Romans did when they besieged various fortifications. As long as the keep walls aren't fifty feet high have your slaves (or lesser troops) start building a ramp up it. Yes I said a ramp, Have them start delivering dirt, rocks, corpses and whatever else, and stacking it at the base of the keep eventually you'll have a walkway up the wall in no time, and it's a lot easier to do than march various seige equipment up to the walls. Of course, the losses are going to be a bit big but what the hay, their only lessers, and once your troops are over the walls, the superiority of your forces kicks in. Make this harder by having shield troops march in tortoise formation (you know, sheilds all around), with the goblins carring the stacking stuff, a little slower but you have time.

 

[Desdichado]

Yeah burn the forest. FIRE FIRE FIRE, yippee (no I'm not a pyro, I just like fire)

Anyways, do what the Romans did when they besieged various fortifications. As long as the keep walls aren't fifty feet high have your slaves (or lesser troops) start building a ramp up it. Yes I said a ramp, Have them start delivering dirt, rocks, corpses and whatever else, and stacking it at the base of the keep eventually you'll have a walkway up the wall in no time, and it's a lot easier to do than march various seige equipment up to the walls. Of course, the losses are going to be a bit big but what the hay, their only lessers, and once your troops are over the walls, the superiority of your forces kicks in. Make this harder by having shield troops march in tortoise formation (you know, sheilds all around), with the goblins carring the stacking stuff, a little slower but you have time.

Except that it's not a seige of a fortress with walls, it's guerrilla warfare against the folks that are harassing your main troop and supply columns. Marching through the forests building ramps (up to what, exactly? the top of some random tree) or in tortoise formation seems pretty counterproductive to me.

 

[Nifft]

Sappers -- dig under the fort and swarm in. (Note: don't try this against Dwarves.) Got slaves?

Smoke them out -- build huge fires upwind of the fort.

Starve them out -- orcs enjoy elf meat, but elves are far more picky.

Seige engines -- have you tried throwing rocks at the fort?

Swarm the walls -- who cares if you lose 500 orcs?

As to the river itself: obviously, chopping / burning all the trees near the river is good. Have soldiers randomly fire one burning arrow into the trees every 100 yards or so. Most won't catch -- but so what? Some might. Only do this using lightly loaded transports going down-river. (In effect "making noise" so that your up-river traveling convoys get some psychic screening, so to speak.) To blow more smoke at the spirits, torture whatever captives you have on-deck.

Ask nicely to borrow a fire-dragon.

-- N

 

[JimAde]

He did say it was a siege of a keep/fortress they failed to take.

Aside from burning the forest (definitely plan "A") I'd say clear an area next to the river and start building. Preferably upstream from the keep you're besieging so you can divert or poison the water. A nice motte and bailey ring fort with wooden palisades says "we're here to stay!"

Once you have a more secure base you can start your own harassment.

 

[Thornir Alekeg]

Here is my take based on the info you gave:

Keeping the river clear is a difficult task, and one I'd give up on. Too many miles in which an ambush can be set up and the superior intelligence provided by the whispering wood makes it darn near impossible to set up a counter-ambush.

Landing sites for river craft that make it through - Clear cut an area around the site to reduce the opportunity for ambush while unloading troops and supplies.

Maintain the seige - For how long? This could be impossible depending upon the time you need to hold. In a war of attrition, the elves will assuredly win out. They have the advantage of maneuverability, cover and intelligence. You are limited by a finite amount of troops and the need for your enemy to make contact to bring your strength into play. You say the initial assault failed. How? 1500 orcs + support cannot find a way to take the keep in the cover of darkness? The best bet to me is full-out assault and ending the siege by taking the keep, then you bring your strength into play and, once you control the keep, force the elves to come at you in strength to root you back out - hit and run won't be so effective.

 

[Desdichado]

He did say it was a siege of a keep/fortress they failed to take.

Who did? No that initial post; I just reread it. The task is to clear the river and stop guerilla/harrassment warfare.

I'd agree with your suggestion, though -- build forts of your own, and start staking claims on the land that the elves can't ignore.