OOC Discussion for A Kingdom of Ashes (The Battle of the Alder's Forest, and Beyond)

[The_Universe]

You can try to use the ring gates as best you can, but the people in Hyrwl and New Oceanus are busy preparing for the invasion, which means the ring gate is more than likely not manned full time--you might be able to get messages through, etc., but they may not get read until after the battle.

As for the black orcs...

What's that rumbling? Do I see something on the Horizon...? Yes you do. It's the black orcs. We'll start tonight with you all greeting them.

 

[AIM-54]

Did anyone actually bother to read my post? Or comment on the time sets, both for what we can project the army's movement is?

How long are we there waiting for the Black Orcs?

I know it sucks to have someone who actually can conceive of this stuff in a realistic way and gets irritated with handwaving to try and create drama, but I just can't comprehend how we don't have more time than people seem to think, UNLESS, we're waiting for the Black Orcs for 12+ hours, at which point our decision-making would possibly change so that we can get at least some people there earlier.

EDIT: Unless of course they're just sending their forces haphazardly, not worrying about maintaining massed forces.

 

[Xath]

Just using the info TheUniverse gave me. I don't calculate these types of things.

 

[The_Universe]

OK--Jeremiah, I can help you out here. Sorry if it seems like I was handwaving, too much. In the end, it really does all make sense...I'm just trying not to get bogged down in minutiae.

You killed Syvattagor in the morning--we'll say it happened at 10am, although I wasn't calculating. We'll say you encounter the black orcs an hour later, thus giving you a reasonable amount of time to have had the OOC and IC discussions that we've had thus far, since Syvattagor's death. So, it's 11am when the Black Orcs arrive. Let's say it'll take you a half-hour to talk to them, tell them the plan, etc. So, it's 11:30 before you can start to move back to Hyrwl.

It takes about 6 hours for a small group of dedicated people to get from Oceanus to Hyrwl. If the army marches at a relatively leisurely pace, it would still only take them between 7 and 7.5 hours. So if they leave after Syvattagor disappears (I'll be generous, and say that it takes them an hour to regroup, forward elements could arrive by the rough equivalent of 5pm, but might be as late as 6:30. Ghouls don't get tired, and the draconids are well-disciplined. Estimate short, just in case. It's mid-autumn, so there's no way this battle will begin any later than nightfall.

Since the flying mounts are ULTRA-encumbered, it'll take them more than a little while to get the approx. 30 miles from where you are to Hyrwl. On foot, hussling, you guys could get there by 5. Since the mounts are so encumbered, I'll say the travel time is approximately 2/3s of that it would be, normally (that *is* a bit of DM handwaving). You make the 30 miles in 4 hours, which gets you to Hyrwl (assuming you leave at 11:30am) 3:30.

Essentially, from this point, you have (in-character) between an hour and a half and 3 hours to do whatever preparations you need, all while the city girds itself for war. As much as possible, I am going to try to condense these preparations, so that the battle can be fought (or at least started), tonight.

Remember, when Xath grabbed Syvattagor, they were already ready to march. He was in the midst of a "win one for the gipper!" speech when she grabbed him. As I have noted individually to a couple people, although Syvattagor's absence has slowed them down, these aren't mongol hordes. They don't have to go home when the Khan dies to pick a new one.

Hope that helps!

 

[AIM-54]

See, now it makes sense. Although it seems to be ignoring the movement rules in the DMG, but that's a DM decision, which generally suggests 24 miles per day over average terrain. I may have been recalling the distance between Hyrwl and Oceanus incorrectly, but I had thought it was 30 miles, thus suggesting it would take, at best probably 2/3 of a day to travel that distance, but understanding that armies never move "at best" speed, particularly over distance I inserted some extra time.

That's where I was coming from, but your explanation clearly can fit within the framework. So, alles klar.

 

[The_Universe]

I had forgotten completely about the rules in the DMG about how much space could be covered in a single day.

I was basing my rough calculations on an anecdote from Mik, on how long it took his unit, while encumbered with full gear, to do a long march during basic, combined with the fact that I can walk a mile in about 15 minutes. Assuming that medieval/late renaissance technology and the presence of magic roughly even out to modern day speeds, and the fact that we're dealing with an essentially "magical" army on the part of the draconids, I guessed shorter than the DMG apparently says.

But, even if we assume that at a brisk pace, it would take them 2/3 of a day to go the distance, 6-7.5 hours isn't too off, at all. I believe the "day" of travel is only daylight hours, assuming you start to get ready to move at dawn, and quit at nightfall.

Anyway, no harm in reiterating the question--I was glad to explain it, as doing so helped get it all right in my head.

 

[The_Universe]

The subscribed thread database has been wiped out, so I'm posting to get it added back to my personal databse. We go to the effort of trying not to break enworld, and the damned thing breaks, anyway!

 

[The_Universe]

Okay, let me break down how effective last night was:

The Serpentblood had a total of 6827 troops in their army before they entered the battle.

They had the following army statistics before you obliterated their forward-most elements:

Average Defense: 13

Average Offense: 9

Maneuver Rating: 17

Command Rating: 365

Scout Rating 46

After last night's battle, in what was roughly 5-10 minutes of frenzied combat, the Serpentblood had been reduced to having no more than 5527 troops on the field.

With heavy losses to the ghouls, this actually ended up increasing their average offense. Their new stats are:

Average Defense: 13

Average Offense: 10

Maneuver Rating: 17

Command Rating: 365

Scout Rating: 46

For obvious reasons, the Army of the Phoenix's stats are unaffected, as due to your action, there's essentially no way they could have taken any casualties.

Hopefully, tonight, we can see how the first stage of the battle went.

 

[Laurel]

Hopefully, tonight, we can see how the first stage of the battle went.

Not bad for what I thought was going to be a TPK or close to it last night. It was cool having your brother there Kennon, and added a nice extra flare.

Yea, for mass combat that I don't get- so have fun those who do.

And to everyone who is going enjoy spiderman dos tonight!!!!

 

[The_Universe]

Well, it could still end up as something like a TPK (or at least a PPK) as there is only going to be a minute in between the the end of the vilewight battle, and when the next wave will hit you.

And, although they aren't as tough as vilewights, they are reasonably tougher than ghouls...