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Message: <blockquote data-quote="NotAYakk" data-source="post: 8349258" data-attributes="member: 72555">It is worth responding to.Your outpost, which has a direct link past your defences, has been defeated.  The front line of attackers, at least, is depleted.You should respond to this.  A few reasonable responses include:(a) You risk a scout to determine if the enemy has retreated after defeating your defences.(b) You send an entire attack force through the link, hoping there is no reinforcements and no effective ambush at the choke point.(c) You cut the link, sacrifice the outpost, and regroup.(d) You set up an ambush at the teleportation link, including a "deadman" switch to destroy the link if the enemy pushes overwealming force through.All 4 are reasonable responses to the outpost being over run.(b) is honestly the highest stake option here.  It relies on the enemy being stupid.  Now, you should never assume your enemy is never stupid, but risking a large force on the chance your enemy is an idiot is a great way to lose a battle.The PCs where idiots, in that there they left themselves open for disaster, but the NPCs don't know that, and they don't know the specific ways the PCs are idiots.When playing chess against a competent foe, you don't keep waiting for your foe to make a simple error on their own.  You force increasingly difficult problems on the foe and force errors.---From the NPC side, assuming intelligence on their part, they should have a plan for what to do if the outpost is overrun.  It has a teleportation circle in it, and that is a serious strategic problem.  This plan would be made before the PCs ever arrived, and cannot rely on "PCs are exhausted and might do something stupid".So what is the NPCs plan for an overrun fortress?Mustering a counter-attack force:a) This only works if the enemy doesn't disable the circleb) If the enemy doesn't disable the circle, they expect to be able to beat the fortress forces, or don't know about the circle, or are idiots.Break the link:a) Safest option, but costs you the fortress and the bridge-head.b) Least interesting story-wiseAmbush:a) Expects that the enemy over-estimates their chancesb) Gives up tempo to the foe, as they pick when it happens.Scout:a) If the enemy are idiots, could let them know you are doing to counter attack (etc)b) If the enemy doesn't know about the circle, lets you do a counter-attack and save the link.---Myself, I'd go with "if your fort is overrun, break the link.  But when the fort is attacked, first send someone for reinforcements; only if the bridge-head falls do you break the link."If the fort has high value, then "immediate and rapid attack through the bridge-head with everything you can get ahold of, to prevent the link from being broken".  If that fails, you break the link.  In this case, the PCs have no chance to start a short rest, let along a long one.If the portal is hidden, then you go with scouting quietly, and returning if you know it is unfound, then build up a counter-attack, while maintaining an ambush and hair-trigger link break on the other side.I can't think of a situation where you'd let the citadel completely fall, wait hours for the people to fall asleep, then do a massive overwhelming counter attack as part of the plan.  It relies on the other side being utter idiots.</blockquote>

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