TURN 2Antler a path to the unhorsed Chuck.
Become noble steed.
[4]
Goring, horrifically, several pikemen, you elk over to Sir Chuck, and pose heriocally in front of him.
-5 SOLDIERS-----
Okay, we have proof of concept for both the automatic crossbow mechanisms and for autonomous 'bots. Cool. Let's combine those.
Hook up some more crossbows with another wheel, and also make one automaton for every two crossbows to aim and load the crossbows.
To prevent - or at least make less likely - the chance of another berserk automaton, they will be only lightly armored, and set up to "scream" an alarm if they attack someone or are attacked.
EDIT: considering that we started at 1000 enemy soldiers, and killed some, I do not believe that there should be 9723 enemy forces right now, Doubloon.
EDIT2: given 1000 enemies and 20 turns... we need to kill an average of 50 guys a turn to survive. We had10 actions this past turn, and killed 27 units. Either we need more people, or we need more effective attacks.
Also, another fix: this should have been turn 1, not turn 2. We're in turn 2 now.
[3]
By expending a large part of the castle's wood and brass reserves, you are able to build automata for each two crossbows. Sadly, due to having fingers made of wood, they have difficulty picking up arrows, and have to be periodically rewound anyway, due to the fact that they are clockwork machines. In addition, the castle's Quartermaster is very annoyed that you used a large portion of the firewood supply to make possibly-homicidal robots for a task that would be better suited to a gravity-fed hopper and a spring loaded trigger. Nevertheless, soldiers are killed.
-12 SOLDIERS-----
Go all Bushido on the enemy's ass so I can respawn as something else.
[6]
You go 'Bushido', attacking and beheading a few enemies, before realizing that you used such a dishonorable tactic as flanking, and after stabbing a final besieger, you commit ritual Seppuku, ending your own life.
-4 SOLDIERS-----
Oh look a canon that should do more damage than this crossbow
[4]
You find a copy of the heavy book that is the Biblical Canon, and promptly run outside, beating several people to death with the holy scripture. Every time you hit someone, 'Halleleujah' rings in your mind.
-3 SOLDIERS-----
Set fire to the enemy's food supplies and equipment.
[5]
Sneaking once more into the enemy camp, you raze down a supply tent, taking several lives, and causing a stampede of pack animals that kills a few more.
-7 SOLDIERS-----
I am the castle's resident alchemist, then.
I prepare poison-tipped arrows for the castle's archers, making them more lethal.
[2]
A poison is specially prepared, and arrows are drilled into to fill with poison, and promptly fired into the enemy ranks. Your spotters report to you that none if the hit men seem ill in any way, though some do die from the arrows alone. It seems that the invading army is made up of a slightly different subspecies of humans, differing in that they are taller, of different complexion, and a resistance to common plant toxins, of which your poison was made.
-3 SOLDIERS-----
Dual-wield musket rifles while on my horse, slaughter as many as the pikemen as possible. The cavalry can continue doing hit and run tactics
[1]
One of your fellow defenders points out to you that 'Musket Rifle' is an oxymoron, though you continue onward anyway. Jumping on horseback, you trot around the enemy, fire your muskets, and despite the aching in your arms from firing a longarm one-handed, you spend a minute reloading each of your muskets, and then promptly fall off your horse and get trampled, because while you were realoading your firearms, you
weren't holding the reins of your horse in a battlezone filled with loud noises that could easily spook one. Only one of the shots even penetrated the pikemen's armor.
-1 SOLDIER-----
Behold! The volley guns! Each sporting eleven dangerous barrels of muskety doom.
Order for them to be fired at the enemy while maintaining a grossly arrogant, high-chinned, fancy mustache comport; I am the forts high born principal engineer after all.
[3]
While this formation is normally incredibly effective, the longer distances involved means that fewer of your shots actually hit the enemy. Despite this inconvenience, your pompousness is maintained.
-4 SOLDIERS-----
Be a dragon. Start eating people. Don't care who.
[This isn't fantasy, but a Komodo Dragon works fine.]
[6]
You are a Komodo Dragon. You approach a soldier, who seems rather curious about you. You then lick the person, who seems to not know about the toxins that you contain. Within a few hours, he falls ill and dies. You then bite a chunk out of him... and end up dying. It seems like this was one of the soldiers hit by the poison arrows. Of course, while it wasn't effective against him, subspecies and all, your lack of resistant to the toxin caused your untimely demise. Rest in Peace, Komodo, Rest in Peace.
-1 SOLDIER-----
I, Chuck The Valorous, stand to my feet and redouble my efforts to slay the enemy! For God and Country!
[5]
In a rage at the enemy killing your horse, you duck under the pikewall, and slash through the front line's feet, even stabbing some of the nearby musketeers, busily reloading. Through the entire thing, you look somehow noble, with the elk alongside you.
-8 SOLDIERS-----
Hmm, perhaps there is a way of divining who is friend or foe for the Auto...Knight...Yes a Auto-Knight!!!
Design a device to allow the Auto-Knight to see friend or foe. Perhaps an optical device that reacts to the colors that associated with our House and those of our enemy.
[4]
Taking advantage of the fact that the enemy army is made of a subspecies of much taller humans, you devise a system in which a piece of burning lime in a capsule with grated walls. The light is reflected by enemy armor; rather than passing over our heads, as for our shorter troops. If it is reflected, the light hits small crystals embedded in the robot's body. Then, through a wonder of alchemy, the robot is then guided to attack them.
----------
ENEMY FORCES: 925
TURNS LEFT: 18
BATTLEGROUND: MEDIEVAL CASTLE, PLAINS AROUND, RIVER CLEARED ITSELF.
OUTSTANDING THINGS: ARMY OF ROBOTS USED TO LOAD CROSSBOWS, MAGIC EXISTS, KIND OF.
