Bay 12 Games Forum

For this turn's design, I say we focus on something to counter their detect ambush spell. Because it only detects non-magical ambushes and physical traps, we just need to create magical ones (or hide ours with magic). We could work towards a simple Hiding Spell, which enchants something so that it cannot be detected via magical means. If we can find a way to decrease their detection, that would go a long way.

Another option is to fix the magic lance spell, so that its actually useful in combat. We can use this phase to finish that off, and that may give us an advantage in open combat.


Here are the big issues as I see them:
1) They have good Calvary, and we need something to stop them.
2) They can always know where we are and where our traps are, but we don't know where they are or where their traps are. And the mist spell does little to help here.
We have to fix these or we will continue to lose.


For now I propose we look into an anti-detection spell. Not stealth or anything like that, just a spell that can hide our traps and soldiers from their detection spell (which even though its their cheapest, seems to be pretty strong).
At some point or another, we're going to have to research something like this, the enemy has radar and we don't. We can't win if they always know our movements and we never know theirs.

They're javelins!!! We've made Magic Javelins. Javelins are perfect weapons for the situation we're in. If we train our infantry in the art of javelin throwing, we will be able to ravage their forces before entering into direct combat. A hard as steal, but very light, javelin thrown by soldiers with good training, could probably take down a lightly armored horse or soldier (which is all of their horses and all of their soldiers). And javelins make really good skirmishing weapons, allowing hit-and-run tactics to weaken and disrupt enemies before taking them out.

Here is (the first draft of) my official recommendation to the king and thanes:
1) We keep the magic lance spell as it is for now. We train some or all of our infantrymen in javelin throwing (the number here is determined by how many javelins can be made by each wizard).
2) We revise wasps so they can set things (enemy soldiers, horses, sails, and camps) on fire. 3) Fake generals.

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And so it continues. You're beating a dead horse at this point. Shadows are off the table.

Just ensuring they stay off the table.

Just overly rude.

They got the divination spellbook and what is either the Wand of Vampirism or the Wand of heroism.

Neither includes any protection against wasps and webs, which were tge examples I brought up.

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Divination Spellbook
Detect Ambush:  Reveals non-magical ambushes prepared by enemy troops or physical traps.
Lucky Strike:  Magical guidance makes a squad shoot or strike true far more often than usual.  Expensive.
Detect Thoughts:  Read the mind of an enemy commander to determine their tactics ahead of time.  Very Expensive.

Yeah except how that's OOC knowledge. Our wizards, who never read the enemy textbook, wouldn't have any idea of it's contents. To use that information would be metagaming.

Ok, so who has ideas for propaganda? We need a great description of our master wizard. The fact that he's burning whole platoons alive should make this easy.

Yikes, that sure is a long and aggressive post.

The idea is that our wizards would use the spell from a distance, that shadows are as strong as a person (or strong enough to hold a dagger, which is all is really needed to assasinate enemies) and that shadows look like like actual shadows when intangible. That hardly seems like overreach.

So yeah, if the shadow can only go ten feet, then it's useless, but so is any spell that can only go a short range. If that was an issue then we couldn't research things like magic missile. A ten foot magic missile range is not as strong as a 100 foot magic missile range.

And if shadows aren't stealthy or able to be used for combat, then it's usefulness is also decreased, but again, we take similar risks with any spell. To use the magic missile as an example again: its components are range and damage. If it lost one of those, it would be a bad spell. Shadows components are range, damage, and stealth. So sure, it's more complex than a basic spell, but you're blowing it way way way out of proportion here. It doesn't even need to be a low level spell, it could be a mid level spell and still be useful as it would only take one shadow to sneak into an enemy camp with a dagger, kill their leaders and wizards in their sleep, grab the enemy spellbook, and return home.

The same effect could be achieved with a spell of stealth or invisibility.

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Our issue on the plains seems to be manuverability. According to the OP, our army is a loose collection of bands of fighters with low mobility. The enemy has highly mobile troops and Calvary, as well as better formations. So we're at a severe disadvantage there.

But I'm not sure we don't already have stirrups. We couldn't really have Calvary without them as they're an integral part of horse riding. And if they haven't been invented yet, we should be knocking enemies off their horses left and right (which isn't the case). But if the case is that stirrups haven't been invented in this universe, then sure, that's a pretty useful invention.



Of all the ideas discussed here, perhaps RAMs summon spear wall would be the most useful. Or even a variation on that that's just a straightforward summon magic lance which is basically the same thing, but probably easier to use and more flexible (a good wizard can summon a spear wall to stop a charge, verses several weak wizards conjuring lances to stop charges and skewer enemies in open combat too). Having a straightforward "Kill the Bad Guys" kind of spell like that wouldn't hurt. Even if it's close range, it should be fairly devastating against their lightly armored men and horses.

So I guess I'm changing my vote again: Magic lance spell, final answer.

To me it doesn't seem like our magic is particularly powerful (our wasps do damage to moral, but don't actually kill enemies, our fog isn't that helpful because their archers hit us now more than ever  (2/3 arrows hit), and our webs can't even stop the enemies from retreating), so maybe there is need for a new spell or an upgrade to our spells now as opposed to later.

I propose Summon Shadow

So, while I think making spears/lances is important someday, shadows are more useful now. But no matter what we do, we need to assign all of our thanes some sort of protection.

Is there a list of monsters or can we just make stuff up?

For the starter monsters they're basically whatever you want. They're going to come out of eggs here in a bit.

Conjuration and fireballs.