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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Dr. Strangemonkey" data-source="post: 718862" data-attributes="member: 6533">Re: Three way battle royaleActually, I think the elements of diplomacy and politics complete our straightforward military theory for two and a half reasons.First, all military theory has to exist in the light of political and diplomatic realities or strategy becomes a sort of moot point.Second, I think that Vancian magic adds some interesting twists to the political and diplomatic aspects of this military campaign.2.5, I agree with your argument in principal but I think we can keep the political and diplomatic aspects limited enough to keep the tactics in the central light.That said, I think the Stempa, great name, should have a range of city cultures from wildly militaristic Spartan-like cities on the one hand to wildly intellectual 'Athens'-like cities on the other end of the spectrum with a few very mercantile Corinth cities on another pole and most everyone else ending up as some sort of mix of the extremes.  I like the Horse Lords a lot S/lash, but I would ask that we make one change.  The Horse Lords have to be chariot users.  We've had too many cool posts on the possibilities of chariots to not explore that aspect.  That being said I would second the nomination of the HorseLords as the major power with the following caveat.Since we have to make them chariot based anyway, let's prevent them from overwhelming everyone by giving them very long supply lines.  Say the heart of their empire is a distant river valley in which the wealthiest culture of their empire lives.  Then they become more like an Egyptian empire under the Hyksos or Persians who could only rely on Babylon rather than Babylon, Egypt, and Croesius empire for supply centers.  In this scenario the chariots can be integrated into the cavalry as the fighting platforms of their too civilized allies and wizards.If we were finally willing to integrate humanoids and demi-humans I would argue that we should introduce the Khanate as a cultural mix between humans or some sort of smart demi-human and centaurs.  That way the Cressian advantage against animal based cavalry is moderated.I think the Magocracy should be heavily and secretly influenced by exiles and that while they are good at fire their native power is over wind or water.  That way we can get in a good naval power for the Cressians to fight.  I'd love to see a culture that was arcane casters backed up by paladin bodyguards and monk-style sailors.  That would fit the requirement for a highly mobile enemy with diverse interests and elite forces.  The Cressians could have had some contact with these guys as trading partners, we'll say that a culture of sorcerors and wizards is pretty interested in trade.  Precious precious somehow intrinsically magical gems...  ...and that relationships have been relatively amicable.  Which is why the Cressians are surprised by the very familiar faces and tactics being employed by the Magocracies expeditionary forces in Stempa.  If we really wanted to make it complicated we should create a nifty balance of power agreement between the Khanate and the Magiocracy so that a large part of the war becomes a shadow war as the Cressians attempt to intercept Magiocratic support so that they can prove an illegal move on the part of the Magiocrats and force the Khannate to aid them in expelling the new Jongan forces from the Stempa conflict.That might be too political, but I would like to see the possibilites of this level of magic for foriegn policy and espionage explored.This is overall looking pretty cool.We need more names and a better fleshed out geography.  I can come up with a pretty good idea of Stempan history, culture, and geography from what we have so far.  We need a better idea of what surrounds and makes up Cressia and the other nations.  I would like it if there were still areas of wilderness or open ocean surrounding most of Cressia.  Makes a balance of power a little bit easier than if Cressian is surrounded and gives us room to play around in later.I know psionics are right out, but I wonder how much play we might have with something like shugenja, no concrete suggestion just know, simply looking at what our long term options might be.</blockquote>

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