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[Happerry]

Theoretical Summoning sounds fun, and there's plenty of things we can do with it. Given our already existent religious magic, maybe we can summon up some warrior angels, or even just those generic old testament angels who's first words were 'be not afraid' because they looked like shit H.P. Lovecraft thought up.

Mindwashing: (1) Crazyabe
Gale Stones: (1)  Madman198237
Greek Fire bolts: (1) S34N1C
Theoretical Summoning: (3) Devastator, Egan, Happerry

Personally, for our Revision, I want to revise up Ballista Bolts that, when they strike something, call down a lightning bolt on top of themselves. Or just switch from rocks to 'clay jugs full of incendiary liquid'. Let's see them cast fireball while being covered in oil...

[Taricus]

Summoning will take us to long to get a workable result and is unfeasible for what we want anyway. We may be winning but that is no reason to slack off. That being said it'd be hard for them to push the advantage; our troops just smashed through the enemy and counterbattery fire is impossible for them thanks to lucky strike working with

Weapon & Armour Enchantment: In response to our weapons and armour generally under performing against the Arstotzkans, we must find a way to use magic to increase their performance against the Arstotzkans.

EDIT: For the revision, we should just focus on trying to get MORE ballistae. good luck marching through that fire Arstotzka

[Happerry]

I'm against enchanted gear, because we want to be covering fights in anti-magic fields to keep their fireballs down, so I'm worried we'd have magic gear we couldn't use. If we did make magic weapons, I'd like to make bows enchanted with Lucky Strike for our snipers to use and then make our own anti-mage hunters like what the enemy has.

Also, for our Revision, i've been thinking a bit on the desire to take back the mountain. It was mentioned a few battles ago that our commander thought that our pavises might let us push their if we had more or better ones, so does anyone want to try revising some Mobile Shields... ie, extra large Pavise Shields mounted on wheels so they can be pushed in front of troops to provide cover?

[NUKE9.13]

Chalk one up to Ballistae! At last, the tide is turning in our favour again.

I was thinking: if I were Arstotzkan, I'm probably reading a report from my theatre commander saying "We need to do something about these bloody ballistas!*". And then I'd probably think, hmm, ballistas are made of wood. We have fireballs. What if we just made those fireballs have a longer range?

If I am correct, then we should preempt this development. If I'm wrong, well, making our ballistae have an even longer range won't hurt us. My suggestion is to use our revision to place wind-magic enchantments on a ballista (with an attendant wizard to maintain them) which grants the projectiles longer range.
Either that or we make them cheaper, so that even if a few get destroyed there are still enough to rain havoc down upon the enemy.
(Or we upgrade ballistae in the design phase)


For our design... I could go for Theoretical Summoning. Though the first thing I'd want to summon would be storm elementals, not pegasi.
I could also go for a new ship. If we can take the western seas, we can land troops behind the enemy, disrupting their supply lines. I'd want something like this:

War Galley: Larger and stronger than our sailing ships, war galleys are propelled by a combination of sails and oars- oars which are manned by banks of volunteers from the plains- to give the larger craft a decent degree of mobility. Their main weapon is a large ram on the front of the ship, which can split enemy longships in half. They also have room for a decent number of troops, should the opportunity to conduct landing operations ever come up.
The combination of the light, agile sailing ships, combined with the powerful war galleys, should give us the tactical flexibility needed to deal a decisive blow to the Arstotzkan navy.

Though actually, I could also go for a better ballista as a design. I mean, they gave us the big push we needed to win this year, why not improve upon them? I like the suggestion for

Gale Stones (Enchanted Ballista Ammunition): These represent a revolution in killing devices. Rather than being spherical, they are shaped like pointed helmets, which makes them more aerodynamic, increasing their natural accuracy. That's mostly an aesthetic change compared to their main feature; an enchantment cast upon them that causes them to shatter on impact, releasing hurricane-esque winds, and sending shards of rock flying through enemy soldiers. They also have a secondary enchantment which ensures the wind always blows in their favour, increasing their speed and range.
It may not be fire, but the explosive power is the same. These will devastate enemy infantry, ships, and fortifications, as the gusts of wind and shards of rock rip through them.
These may be expensive, but given that ballistae are already Very Expensive, a shortage of ammunition is unlikely to come up.

I'm going to vote for that, I think. (also, Devastator said he was still voting for Gale Stones)

Mindwashing: (1) Crazyabe
Gale Stones: (3)  Madman198237, Devastator, NUKE9.13
Greek Fire bolts: (1) S34N1C
Theoretical Summoning: (2) Egan, Happerry
Weapon & Armour Enchantments: Taricus

EDIT: For the revision credit, we could really use it, so I think we should send one unit of troops, along with a herd of horses and a whole bunch of compound bows. Our troops can teach theirs how to be horse archers. That'll be a nasty surprise for their enemies.

[Taricus]

Rams won't be useful due the stronger construction of ships.

[Devastator]

(TBH, I'm tempted to vote for my summoning again now that it's pulled in another vote.  I did want to do some theoretical work if we gained ground, after all.)

For revisions, we should try to make our ballistae cheaper.  I think if we had more of them, they will do an even better job of killing the leadership and enemy mages.  If we get gale stones, we should definately make the ballista cheaper, as we'll be able to kill their troops en masse as well as their leadership and mages.

[Detoxicated]

Mindwashing: (1) Crazyabe
Gale Stones: (4)  Madman198237, Devastator, NUKE9.13, Detoxicated
Greek Fire bolts: (1) S34N1C
Theoretical Summoning: (2) Egan, Happerry
Weapon & Armour Enchantments: Taricus

[Taricus]

Mindwashing: (1) Crazyabe
Gale Stones: (5)  Madman198237, Devastator, NUKE9.13, Detoxicated, Taricus
Greek Fire bolts: (1) S34N1C
Theoretical Summoning: (2) Egan, Happerry
Weapon & Armour Enchantments:

Alright, throw in gale stones for me too.

[Madman198237]

.....You guys do realize that I never said anything about the gale stones, right? MY improvement idea was for a Greek fire-style flammable semi-explosive. A pottery vessel filled with oil, quicklime, and possibly some other flammables, then covered in oil-soaked rags. The rags are lit on fire, the projectile is launched, and when it hits the ground, it should burst, splatter flammables everywhere, and then catch fire as it does so, since the outside is already on fire. Also, the quicklime heats up very, very fast when exposed to water. Fast enough and hot enough to light things on fire. So if any of the mixture goes unlit, a little weather-manipulation will get us fires that are very hard to put out---the quicklime component still does damage when wet, since it just gets hotter.

However, unless people are willing to change, I'd be relatively ok with the gale stones. I was just trying to stay away from magic, since they'll be looking for ways to nullify our magic-nullifying abilities. As in, doing the same themselves, perhaps.

So, how many people would be willing to switch to the non-magical means of exploding things? If we can get enough to avoid ties and still have a clear winner, I really would prefer the Greek fire/explosive bolts. If enough people say (WITHOUT switching votes on the form, yet) that they will, then we could switch it, still have a clear winner, and yet have considered every option.

[Taricus]

Nuke came up with the galestones.

[NUKE9.13]

Nuke came up with the galestones.

No, I just wrote out a proposal for them. They were first mentioned by someone else. (I think Mardent)

However, unless people are willing to change, I'd be relatively ok with the gale stones. I was just trying to stay away from magic, since they'll be looking for ways to nullify our magic-nullifying abilities. As in, doing the same themselves, perhaps.

How many turns did it take us to develop general-use antimagic? Four? Five? If they want to spend all that time designing a counter to one of our designs, I welcome it.

As for developing non-magical explosives, I fear that may actually be harder than developing magical ones.

[Madman198237]

It shouldn't be.

It's not an explosive, just a bunch of flammable liquids sealed in a pottery shell, launched from a ballista. More magic means more that can go wrong with magic. I would prefer to invent something nice, neat, and instantly useful. It'll almost certainly have some kinks either way. I'll not give the GM any ideas for if we roll a one, but both could have some serious issues unless we roll well. But at least there's no chance of serious magical mishap if we go physical-only. It would likely also be cheaper---other magical stuff has ended up requiring boatloads of gold, silver, gemstones, you name it, it needed it.

So, if enough people will vote for it, I would really prefer to see the non-magical solution to our slight firepower (No pun intended) deficit. Also, fire is a seaman's worst nightmare. If we can reliably get ballistae firing flaming projectiles, their sailors will be scared out of their minds. Although the first version should probably not be deployed at sea, unless it's a near-perfect roll.

[Taricus]

Greek fire would be a lot more complex to develop with the right mixture. Nafta would be easier but it'd be more unreliable and unlikely to burn if wet.

And while fire would have a particularly effective detriment to their morale, the galestones would have just as much actual physical effect as the greek fire both on land and at sea. And should be safer for our troops to handle if we manage to get handheld versions

Heck, Handheld galestones would be the perfect thing to soften the Arstotzkan infantry up before we get into melee, and might be strong enough en-masse to disperse the flame walls.

[Madman198237]

Actually not. Here's the thing: It's not Greek fire. It doesn't have to burn while wet. The quicklime is what allows Greek fire to "burn" when wet----it heats up when exposed to water. The naval version would have to have that component in the mixture. But a ground-based version? Just have the oil-soaked rags wrapped around the shell. With some trial and error, you could reliably get bursts and flames. Hit massed infantry with that, well, plate armor conducts heat pretty well. You don't want to be in something soaked in flaming oil, even if it didn't reach your skin. You'll burn and suffocate. Simultaneously.

It doesn't have to be a great mixture---crude oil, vegetable oils even, anything liquid that also burns nicely. The galestones might be able to destroy those flame walls, but a better approach at sea is the fire. It would do FAR more damage to the ships themselves---ships are COVERED in tarred ropes, sails, and made of wood. Once you get something burning on it, eventually the wood itself will catch.
The time it takes to light a piece of hardwood, however, is the same reason why lighting the oily rags would not pose a threat to the ballista---it won't catch fire, certainly not if you've got buckets of water nearby.

[Taricus]

I think ensuring the land based version has quicklime in it is precisely to stymie efforts to put the fires out with water.

Besides, if we combine the greek fire with the galestones we can ensure a much larger spread of the fire. Immolating whole columns of arstotzkans is better than just getting a few.