5392 New Decade Steel (Forum Only)

[Senior Tactician]

WA - DE moving off your PC and casting Bounty in Darkover this turn.  Cheers.

[Senior Tactician]

WA - RD.  All went according to plan, 1WA is at your disposal.  I'd like to attack the town with no spells, for the greatest chance to advance the troll brigades, even a single pow4 earthquake I suspect would be too much magic and end the battle too quickly.  But perhaps your experience is better.  Group value 11400 vs PC, what do you suggest?  (Don't forget troll bonus vs PC and the presence of 5,4,4.)

If you prefer the safe route, a single pow 4 earthquake would be very safe and that leaves a pow 5 and 4...   Bounty?    799?

Awaiting your orders.

[Draugr]

WA - RD.  All went according to plan, 1WA is at your disposal.  I'd like to attack the town with no spells, for the greatest chance to advance the troll brigades, even a single pow4 earthquake I suspect would be too much magic and end the battle too quickly.  But perhaps your experience is better.  Group value 11400 vs PC, what do you suggest?  (Don't forget troll bonus vs PC and the presence of 5,4,4.)

If you prefer the safe route, a single pow 4 earthquake would be very safe and that leaves a pow 5 and 4...   Bounty?    799?

Awaiting your orders.

Breaking this down at least the way I think of it.  I have no actual inside knowledge of the game.

Generally you want a 2:1 vs PC to take it down and not suffer excessive casualties.   So you have a lot of room to go for that.
Trolls are ~2490 per brigade vs PC = 7470.  Leaders +38.  Guessing moral 114 unless you have a vet troll then a bit lower.
Troll bonus would get added to base strength so 747x3. 2241
Presence 500x2 levels x3 wizards x1.25 spell density vs town = 3750
With no spells your offense is ~17400 vs 13400.  

PCs without defensive building are 1.1 so you need to do ~14700 damage to make it fall before you take 60% damage and retreat.  Defensively you have pretty good rating as troll plus three shield presence but still a straight up attack you would surely fail.  Figure a defensive value in the ball park of 15000.
Another consideration being an all troll group.  You missed phases make up only 450 of your 2490 strength.  So the town would do a lot of damage before you ever even got to the storm phase.  Like wise you can use this to your advantage being you do little damage prior to storm phase so can make it there easier than a ranger or elf group could.

I would recommend casting windstorm and fear with your p4s.   The thinking is windstorm basically removes the strength of the PC missile phase and does almost nothing to you.  This will make you take much less damage and need to do much less damage to take the PC.  Fear instead of earthquake because again it reduces the damage the PC can do and also reduces how much damage you need to do to win.  Earthquake does a lot of damage but does not reduce the damage you take.  Shield reduces damage taken but does not make the PC weaker.   Sometimes earthquake or shield are better but I do not think that is the case here where you are a bit under powered.

P5 bounty is a good idea.    I purposely put the trinket in the PC and may have you retrieve the item later.

[Senior Tactician]

WA - RD.  All went according to plan, 1WA is at your disposal.  I'd like to attack the town with no spells, for the greatest chance to advance the troll brigades, even a single pow4 earthquake I suspect would be too much magic and end the battle too quickly.  But perhaps your experience is better.  Group value 11400 vs PC, what do you suggest?  (Don't forget troll bonus vs PC and the presence of 5,4,4.)

If you prefer the safe route, a single pow 4 earthquake would be very safe and that leaves a pow 5 and 4...   Bounty?    799?

Awaiting your orders.

Breaking this down at least the way I think of it.  I have no actual inside knowledge of the game.

Generally you want a 2:1 vs PC to take it down and not suffer excessive casualties.   So you have a lot of room to go for that.
Trolls are ~2490 per brigade vs PC = 7470.  Leaders +38.  Guessing moral 114 unless you have a vet troll then a bit lower.
Troll bonus would get added to base strength so 747x3. 2241
Presence 500x2 levels x3 wizards x1.25 spell density vs town = 3750
With no spells your offense is ~17400 vs 13400.  

PCs without defensive building are 1.1 so you need to do ~14700 damage to make it fall before you take 60% damage and retreat.  Defensively you have pretty good rating as troll plus three shield presence but still a straight up attack you would surely fail.  Figure a defensive value in the ball park of 15000.
Another consideration being an all troll group.  You missed phases make up only 450 of your 2490 strength.  So the town would do a lot of damage before you ever even got to the storm phase.  Like wise you can use this to your advantage being you do little damage prior to storm phase so can make it there easier than a ranger or elf group could.

I would recommend casting windstorm and fear with your p4s.   The thinking is windstorm basically removes the strength of the PC missile phase and does almost nothing to you.  This will make you take much less damage and need to do much less damage to take the PC.  Fear instead of earthquake because again it reduces the damage the PC can do and also reduces how much damage you need to do to win.  Earthquake does a lot of damage but does not reduce the damage you take.  Shield reduces damage taken but does not make the PC weaker.   Sometimes earthquake or shield are better but I do not think that is the case here where you are a bit under powered.

P5 bounty is a good idea.    I purposely put the trinket in the PC and may have you retrieve the item later.

This is really good stuff, I've been looking at various combinations of spells and PC values in another game, both attack and plunder, and I have not found anything consistent yet.  Being "not bloodied enough" is something I was worried about, but you're right this particular disparity is pretty high.  Still, I used 3 trolls earlier against a town (smaller town), with earthquake and tornado (and only 2x pow 4s in the group), and the battle was over after the magic phase, I lost only 16%, no promotions (trolls heal 10%, so no biggie).  With only a very slightly larger group (2 troll, 2 minotaur), I used a single earthquake, same result, over after the magic phase, no promotions.

I will go wind, fear and bounty.  And thanks for the analysis, I will pour over it all day

[Draugr]

Makes since your earthquakes from p4 do 5500 each vs a town. So 2 will over come most towns defenses. 16% damage because high missile phase damage from a PC

[Senior Tactician]

WA - RD  Perfect outcome on town, more than 5% so promoted brigades, less than 10% so healed all damage.  Got an elite if you want me to hire mammoths and hill giants.  Forgot I didn't have standing order to trade, have to do double this turn.

WA - RD, and DE:   This is an interesting statistical anomaly:


    2nd Warlock The Power-5 wizard Havix Moondust cast the bounty (regional) spell. Due to an unknown magical anomaly, the wizard failed to cast the bounty regional spell.

    1st Warlock The Power-5 wizard Malkan cast the bounty (regional) spell. Due to an unknown magical anomaly, the wizard failed to cast the bounty regional spell.

[RELLGAR]

RA-PI, pirates of the Sorrows, has your army group come to Mythgar for training?

[Strongwill]

WA - RD, and DE:   This is an interesting statistical anomaly:


    2nd Warlock The Power-5 wizard Havix Moondust cast the bounty (regional) spell. Due to an unknown magical anomaly, the wizard failed to cast the bounty regional spell.

    1st Warlock The Power-5 wizard Malkan cast the bounty (regional) spell. Due to an unknown magical anomaly, the wizard failed to cast the bounty regional spell.

Bad luck

[Draugr]

WA - RD  Perfect outcome on town, more than 5% so promoted brigades, less than 10% so healed all damage.  Got an elite if you want me to hire mammoths and hill giants.  Forgot I didn't have standing order to trade, have to do double this turn.

WA - RD, and DE:   This is an interesting statistical anomaly:


    2nd Warlock The Power-5 wizard Havix Moondust cast the bounty (regional) spell. Due to an unknown magical anomaly, the wizard failed to cast the bounty regional spell.

    1st Warlock The Power-5 wizard Malkan cast the bounty (regional) spell. Due to an unknown magical anomaly, the wizard failed to cast the bounty regional spell.

Lucky gold does not spoil.    We will send 100k gold for 1 food this turn.   

Please get the town able to supply your troops.  2 fertile fields and a bounty.

[Senior Tactician]

WA - RD    Will do.