Help me defend (or attack) this kingdom (long)

[Elder-Basilisk]

Thanks - some good ideas. The problem with avoiding the fortresses is that the river is much harder to cross in other places. I probably wasn't clear enough on that in my original post. If the Evil Empire attempted to invade at other points, it would take them time to build bridges, etc.

How much time would it take to build bridges? Julius Ceasar and his legions managed to bridge the Rhine well enough to take several legions across into Germany in less than a week. (I believe it was a couple days if my memory of Conquest of Gaul is correct). And Ceasar did that without wall of stone spells. (Which might suffice to make a bridge very quickly depending upon the terrain).

The real question as regards the bridge is how much space is there between the fortresses. If the marching time from the fortresses to the prospective bridge location is less time than it takes to build the bridge, then Pike's forces could be informed of the construction project and might potentially reach the other side of the river in time to prevent the crossing of the river or the completion of the bridge.

A Pelopenesian War style strategy:

Now, I'm presuming that there are already bridges or fords at the sites of the fortresses. So the question for the evil empire's troops is whether it is likely to be more costly to attack and conquer one of the fortresses or to build a new bridge in between them. One possibility that involves a bit more coordination but could be effective also would be to have the evil empire's troops invest two of the three fortresses with just enough soldiers to start a siege and to prevent the fortress garisons from moving to interrupt any bridge building. Meanwhile, their army builds a bridge in between the two fortresses and moves to fully encircle the fortresses (thus preventing any sorties that could harm their supply train) and marches forward, devastating the countryside in an effort to force a conventional engagement. If they are unsuccessful at forcing the large scale battle, they can just march home when the campaign season is over, making certain to capture one of the river fortresses and garrison it strongly. Then, the next year, right around harvest time, they march back in and devastate the countryside again. And the next year, they do it again.

The idea of the whole navy sailing north is not bad, but Pike only has a limited coast line to protect and it would be difficult for them break through without suffering a great deal of loss. The Evil Empire still has a very long coastline and would be vulnerable to pirates and other nations if they took the whole of their navy to attack.

The naval invasion is probably a weaker idea than the land invasion because of the necessity to supply the army by sea. Supply lines would be much easier across the river.

On the other hand, it is probably much better for the evil empire to simply threaten the seabourne invasion than actually to do it. A series of coastal raids by its navy would force Pike to either divert forces for coastal defense or suffer its coastline to be ravaged. In a feudal society, it would also most likely prevent Pike from bringing much of its peasant levy, etc from the coastal provinces since people would be reluctant to march off to war in the west when that meant abandoning their homes and families to the naval raiders.

Another strategy: If Pike does not respond to the coastal raiding aggressively, the evil empire should strongly consider creating or capturing a coastal fortress (or harbor town) with a good harbor and strongly fortifying it. This could be supplied by the empire's navy and could serve as a base for raids across the coastline. If strongly fortified and garrisoned by a few thousand troops, it would take a sizable portion of Pike's army to dislodge them which would make things much easier on the troops invading overland from the east. Also, if the evil empire were able to maintain naval superiority, their naval force could simply sail away if Pike did actually send 6,000 or so troops and seriously attempt to take back the fortress.

One other bit of strategy for the evil empire:

As Middle Snu mentioned, offer the chance to surrender on generous terms at the beginning of the war and multiple times throughout the war. However, there is one caveat: at the start of each engagement, they should offer Pike's forces a chance to surrender and be treated generously. If they refuse, the empire's forces should behave barbarously towards their defeated foes--at a minimum, cut off all of their thumbs (thus preventing them from wielding weapons) or some such thing--perhaps crucify every tenth member of the defeated population. The point would be to make every future village or fortress in Pike seriously consider surrendering up front in order to avoid the brutality of defeat.

 

[VirgilCaine]

One thing the Empire should exploit is the artillery power of Hill Giants.

Giants should be more mobile than catapults or scorpions and they can throw multiple rocks every round for almost as much damage per shot as a light catapult and easily as much as a ballista. If they can get Frost, Stone, or Fire Giants, so much the better--more damage.

 

[Allegro]

I think the first question to answer is why has Pike survived in the past? Perhaps it was:

• Better armor and weapons
• Powerful magics of a wizard that has died or has since vanished
• Valor and resolve of citizens
• Magical poison pill spell that if the capital was ever destroyed would destroy all coins in the realm
• Luck of having a legion or two of soldiers training in the area
• The strength of the elven lords of old

After answering this question, then answer the next question of why will the evil warlord win this time? Use this to guide your strategy.

 

[Toras]

Given that they are likely to outnumbered, and yet have managed to survive this long I think that an excellent Command and Control capabilities would not only be warranted but essential. If you can get improved transportation into their arsenal that would also be a good way of explaining it.

Items granting divinations, network of connected sending stones, Teleportation circles within the major fortresses would go along way to creating an advantage. And the evil empire having found a way to eavesdrop onto the network and/or infiltrate it would go along way to help with the strikes.

Also having the ability to remotely move troops around major fortresses would necessitate the evil empire taking the network to keep from being ambushed from behind or defeated in detail.
However that could turn the war into a series of lightning actions relatively quickly.

 

[Eloi]

As a player, I'd theoretically be looking for some way to get all the Druids on my side, perhaps by recovering some relic of Obad-Hai and returning it to the Ancient Grove of Wisdom.

That kind of shift would completely alter the terms by which war could be fought, or even survived. It's the reality-buster that potentially kills all the invaders, the "Green Manhattan Project."

Oh, and there's some renown that goes along with that.

 

[NilesB]

2. Avoid the fortresses! Taking them would cost us too dearly.

That's the problem with fortresses, not taking them could cost you even more. Untaken the forts block your lines of supply and retreat. without a secure supply chain your army will need to send out many vulnerable foraging parties. Did I mention that fortresses are a great place to base raiding forces tasked with hunting and killing foraging parties? Not to mention what having your army scattered about the countryside looking for enough food to eat does to your desertion rates.

If you do want to take the fortresses the easiest and least costly method is treachery, look into that. If a suitable traitor is not forthcoming, my plan B for fortress taking looks like this:
1.Find the closest available equivalent to Solid Snake or Yagyu Jubei (you may need a small team of guys this is okay).
2.after your army gets into position use your wyvern rider which the enemy ideally doesn't even know you have yet to drop step one guy inside the fortress.
3. Step one guy opens a gate for your army to rush in. Lead with Ogres, Hobgoblins and other tough fighters with darkvision.
4.Don't expect this to work as smoothly next time.

 

[NewJeffCT]

I think the first question to answer is why has Pike survived in the past? Perhaps it was:

• Better armor and weapons
• Powerful magics of a wizard that has died or has since vanished
• Valor and resolve of citizens
• Magical poison pill spell that if the capital was ever destroyed would destroy all coins in the realm
• Luck of having a legion or two of soldiers training in the area
• The strength of the elven lords of old

After answering this question, then answer the next question of why will the evil warlord win this time? Use this to guide your strategy.

Better leadership overall, and the fact that the Evil Empire has had their own internal problems to deal with since Pike seceded. It's only been in the last decade that the Evil Empire has gotten its act back together, improved the training and morale of its military and conquered its own internal unrest. Now that the Empire is relatively stable internally, they can turn their attention to reclaiming lost territory beyond their current borders - and that starts with Pike.

 

[Nifft]

It's nice that we know how many Arcane & Divine casters, but the key element is what levels are they? And also, does Pike have any Druids?

I don't care if you have 500,000 warriors (of 1st to 3rd level). One 20th level Druid will kill all of them (though not necessarily in one day).

Between battlefield control (from entangle to spike stones to wall of thorns to control weather), summoning (elemental swarm), and huge area damage spells (insect swarm, firestorm, storm of vengeance), the Druid is the true army-killer in 3.5e.

Cheers, -- N

 

[Slife]

Thanks - some good ideas. The problem with avoiding the fortresses is that the river is much harder to cross in other places. I probably wasn't clear enough on that in my original post. If the Evil Empire attempted to invade at other points, it would take them time to build bridges, etc.

The idea of the whole navy sailing north is not bad, but Pike only has a limited coast line to protect and it would be difficult for them break through without suffering a great deal of loss. The Evil Empire still has a very long coastline and would be vulnerable to pirates and other nations if they took the whole of their navy to attack.

Who needs to build bridges when you have wall of stone and fabricate?

Also, contagion + animal messenger is a great army killer.

 

[RangerWickett]

You might want to check out The Mad King's Banquet, an adventure in the War of the Burning Sky campaign saga intended for 7-8th level characters.

The premise is that the nation of Dassen lies between the hostile Ragesian Empire, and the home base of the resistance, the city of Seaquen. The heroes need to get aid from the king of Dassen before Ragesia allies with him. But the king is already under the sway of the Ragesians, so the heroes must go to a nobleman, Duke Gallo, to ask for him to turn against his king for the sake of them all.

The module includes suggestions on how to turn things around a little bit, and replace the big fight between Gallo's and the king's forces with a fight between you and Ragesia, and there is a lot of action ranging from diplomacy to scouting the border to stopping assassination attempts. It's perhaps the adventure I'm most proud of so far in the series.