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NorseQuest (A Norse Xianxia)

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In all fairness, shit like this happens in a battle, with the dodge defense resulting in someone getting killed. I'm absolutely fine with us tanking hits on durable defenses (e.g. mail) rather than letting one of our weaker backfield guys get hit and very probably die, but on the other hand, defenses can be stripped and worn down, and I don't want Halla getting killed because she's not using everything at her disposal to survive.
 
Simon_Jester said:
In all fairness, shit like this happens in a battle, with the dodge defense resulting in someone getting killed. I'm absolutely fine with us tanking hits on durable defenses (e.g. mail) rather than letting one of our weaker backfield guys get hit and very probably die, but on the other hand, defenses can be stripped and worn down, and I don't want Halla getting killed because she's not using everything at her disposal to survive.
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Oh, we'll still dodge if we have to...but we should preferentially parry going forward in situations like this. Which we can definitely do, I think.
 
Imperial Fister said:
They wouldn't be able to intercept the free attack.
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Neato!

...Does the bonus from Against All Odds apply to our Stoked Dice as well? They are technically dice after all...


Bit late since I know quite a few people have voted, but here's a plan!

[X] Plan Two for the Price of One
-[X] Preparation
--[X] Slipstream (-8 Orthstirr)
--[X] Activate Stoker State (-9 Orthstirr)
-[X] Strategy
-[X] We keep pressure on Spear Guy to Defend Axe Man by keeping up a constant of small attacks, stoking our Stoked Pool and using our Atgeir Guard and parries to deflect attacks.
-[X] When there's a good opening and we've gotten a feel for the rhythm of their attacks, we begin using Contested Movement to take them out, given our considerable advantage in Hamr.
-[X] Attack (12d6)
--[X] Open with 40d6+6 Fourfold Kindle Spinners with Puncture from our Fast to saturate their defences. (-44 Orthstirr, +3 Stoked Dice)
--[X] Keep up a steady offensive of up to six 3d6+6 Sharpened Lightning-Charged Firebomb Strikes. (-2 Orthstirr, +3 Stoked Dice each)
--[X] Keep up to two 1d6+6 Devouring Blaze (-3 Stoked Dice) in reserve against any surprise magical constructs.
-[X] Defence (117d6)
--[X] Defend with our 40d6+10 Atgeir Guard.
--[X] Use up to three 36d6+16 Slice-Asides (-24 Orthstirr), each delivering a 3d6+6 Lightning-Charged Sharpened Basic Attack. (-2 Orthstirr, +3 Stoked Dice per usage)
--[X] If something goes drastically wrong, then use a Halting Vortex or throw 60 Orthstirr into an emergency Sword Guard.
--[X] When we run out of Slice-Asides or there's a good opportunity, we move onto..
-[X] Counter-Attack
-[X] Contested Movement: 10d6+6
--[X] The first time, use a 36SD6+6 Sharpened Lightning Charged Stoking Strike with Puncture. (-36 Stoked Dice, -13 Orthstirr). For each subsequent Contested Movement, we will use a Sharpened Lightning Charged Firebomb Strike with Puncture (-13 Orthstirr).


So this keeps it simple and does not use Inertia-Arresting Throw, since Contested Movement not being vulnerable to Intercepts means there's kind of not a reason to do so? Our orthstirr expenditure is about a hundred and twenty Orthstirr, which is less than last turn.

If we get both Contested Movements off, pretty optimistic that we should take down at least Axe Man, and hopefully also take down or at least wound Spear Guy.

EDIT: Amended plan due to misreading of AOO, removed it.
 
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Skippy said:
...Does the bonus from Against All Odds apply to our Stoked Dice as well? They are technically dice after all...
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Skippy said:
Using Against all Odds means we can hit a lot harder, and effectively defend against 20-40d6 with only twenty four dice.
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I think you're misunderstanding how Against All Odds works. It's per roll, not per die. +6 per roll is the equivalent of less than two dice. Like, it basically works the same as our Frenzy bonus...it's good, but not quite that good.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I think you're misunderstanding how Against All Odds works. It's per roll, not per die. +6 per roll is the equivalent of less than two dice. Like, it basically works the same as our Frenzy bonus...it's good, but not quite that good.
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Huh, I was reading "roll" as per dice, and had also missed the bit where it was per opponent. Otherwise you're right, there's not a lot of point in using it in this instance.

...Yeah, bugger. Well that's embarassing.

I'll rejig my plan by reducing the number of Slice-Asides, which given the whole thing is oriented around Contested Movement, is not the end of the world.
 
Why not just abuse the shit out of Contested Movement? If we have 10d6 + 6 (Frenzy) + 6 (Against All Odds) and these people have Hamr 7 (8d6) or worse we're basically guaranteed to hit all our attacks.
 
Shard said:
Why not just abuse the shit out of Contested Movement? If we have 10d6 + 6 (Frenzy) + 6 (Against All Odds) and these people have Hamr 7 (8d6) or worse we're basically guaranteed to hit all our attacks.
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Against All Odds isn't really needed for that...it ups our odds but some quick math indicates not enough to be worth it (10d+6 is already vastly favored to win out over 8d...like, nearing 96% odds that we win on that, almost 99% vs. 7d). You do have a point, though. I'll make it more ubiquitous in my plan.

EDIT: And done, my plan now prioritizes Contested Movement ahead of Atgeir Bodyguard on melee attacks. That slightly increases the risks of us getting hit, but it's a small increase, and Reinforce Shield should save us from one failure in that regard.
 
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Against all odds is also great for attack spam. Granted, attack spam just got a lot less useful with the buff to shield sacrifice, but it still gets us closer to being able to try Steinarr-like strategies.
 
wrecksalot said:
Against all odds is also great for attack spam. Granted, attack spam just got a lot less useful with the buff to shield sacrifice, but it still gets us closer to being able to try Steinarr-like strategies.
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Oh, it's fabulous for attack spam. Especially if fighting a larger group of foes...it's really marginal vs. two foes we want to take out quickly, which is the current situation.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Against All Odds isn't really needed for that...it ups our odds but some quick math indicates not enough to be worth it (10d+6 is already vastly favored to win out over 8d...like, nearing 96% odds that we win on that, almost 99% vs. 7d). You do have a point, though. I'll make it more ubiquitous in my plan.

EDIT: And done, my plan now prioritizes Contested Movement ahead of Atgeir Bodyguard on melee attacks. That slightly increases the risks of us getting hit, but it's a small increase, and Reinforce Shield should save us from one failure in that regard.
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If Against All Odds lasts for the rest of the mass combat it could still be Orthficient.
 
I think we should open up with Devouring Flame, because if they are uninjured they probably have a Reinforce Shield/Armor up which we might as well get rid off, and also I think we should use more Stoking Guards because we might actually hit our Stoker State Dicecap?
 
Shard said:
I think we should open up with Devouring Flame, because if they are uninjured they probably have a Reinforce Shield/Armor up which we might as well get rid off, and also I think we should use more Stoking Guards because we might actually hit our Stoker State Dicecap?
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I think saving the Devouring Blaze to use when needed is probably better, though I guess we could potentially do both...lemme consider for a moment. Meanwhile, Stoking Guards don't add to Stoker State dice...Stoker State Tricks make better use of such dice but do not provide them.

EDIT: Added a second Devouring Blaze at the beginning of the attack sequence before closing. Seems workable to me.
 
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DeadmanwalkingXI said:
I think saving the Devouring Blaze to use when needed is probably better, though I guess we could potentially do both...lemme consider for a moment. Meanwhile, Stoking Guards don't add to Stoker State dice...Stoker State Tricks make better use of such dice but do not provide them.
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I've got Devouring Blaze in my plan as a conditional, since it only needs a couple of dice earmarked to give us the option to use it if they pull out orthstirr constructs.

After @Shard's suggestion I'm pondering swapping over some of the Slice-Asides in my plan to use Contested Movement, or just generally being more liberal with using Contested Movement as a defence.
 
Skippy said:
I've got Devouring Blaze in my plan as a conditional, since it only needs a couple of dice earmarked to give us the option to use it if they pull out orthstirr constructs.
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It was in my plan as a conditional as well. On Shard's suggestion I've also added it as an opening move. That seems reasonable and we can spare the single die for a second one.

Skippy said:
After @Shard's suggestion I'm pondering swapping over some of the Slice-Asides in my plan to use Contested Movement, or just generally being more liberal with using Contested Movement as a defence.
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That's probably a good call. I hadn't checked the math before...an almost 96% chance of success is higher than I thought a 2d advantage (even with our +6) would provide.
 
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why not try bait the axe guy(who is overconfident) and then use contested movement to bypass defense? then we whittle down the weaker spearman

if contested movement can be intercepted, then just contested movement the spearman as soon as he attacks and smash him with a firebomb strike or an IAT
 
[X] Plan Getting The Spearman Out Of The Way

Could't we use Fireside Barrage to overwhelm their defenses? Its kind of the entire purpose of that Trick. We could also use Atgeir Counter Stab to keep the axeman busy while we fight the spearman.

Also, when will we start to fly? After we defeated this two or after we defeat the next adversary?

Attacking with ranged Tricks from the sky could swing the battle in our favor, and flying could give us a better view of the battlefield and how things are going.
 
Mystic Pentagram said:
Also, when will we start to fly? After we defeated this two or after we defeat the next adversary?

Attacking with ranged Tricks from the sky could swing the battle in our favor, and flying could give us a better view of the battlefield and how things are going.
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As Steinarr mentioned, in mass combat people who fly around basically slap a massive "SHOOT ME" flag on themselves, and most people who are close and not in a direct fight right now will try kill you. Flying is for chasing down people and killing them when they break and scatter to try and escape, as you can catch a lot more people and therefore get lots more kills and therefore loot
 
AeonIlluminate said:
As Steinarr mentioned, in mass combat people who fly around basically slap a massive "SHOOT ME" flag on themselves, and most people who are close and not in a direct fight right now will try kill you. Flying is for chasing down people and killing them when they break and scatter to try and escape, as you can catch a lot more people and therefore get lots more kills and therefore loot
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He said flying AT THE BEGINNING of mass combat is a bad idea, if we start flying in the middle of battle when most fighters are busy then we will be okay. It worked well in Wessex afterall, didn't it?
 
Blademaster said:
why not try bait the axe guy(who is overconfident) and then use contested movement to bypass defense? then we whittle down the weaker spearman

if contested movement can be intercepted, then just contested movement the spearman as soon as he attacks and smash him with a firebomb strike or an IAT
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We are. Like, my plan is currently using pretty much exclusively Contested Movement for defenses...if he attacks at all in melee, we do this.

Mystic Pentagram said:
Could't we use Fireside Barrage to overwhelm their defenses? Its kind of the entire purpose of that Trick. We could also use Atgeir Counter Stab to keep the axeman busy while we fight the spearman.
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Fireside Barrage is a possibility, but the idea here is to avoid the spearman getting to defend the axeman at all, or as much as possible anyway, which should hopefully serve the same goal even better.

Mystic Pentagram said:
Also, when will we start to fly? After we defeated this two or after we defeat the next adversary?

Attacking with ranged Tricks from the sky could swing the battle in our favor, and flying could give us a better view of the battlefield and how things are going.
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We were very specifically warned against doing this as it will attract ranged attacks from the entire battlefield. When I suggested jumping into the air for a few seconds, IF warned we'd immediately take significant fire even from that length of time in the air. Targeting fliers is apparently standard tactics for the Norse.

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Mystic Pentagram said:
He said flying AT THE BEGINNING of mass combat is a bad idea, if we start flying in the middle of battle when most fighters are busy then we will be okay. It worked well in Wessex afterall, didn't it?
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The most recent warning was in regards to taking flight this turn. As for why Wessex was different, that's an interesting question. My first thought is that Thanes can't fly so they have less anti-flyer tactics, or at least less standardized ones. Another is that Thanes are actually arguably better at range than melee due to their javelin focus meaning they just don't worry about flying foes since their odds against them are as good as their odds against anyone...the Norse worry (since most are melee specialized), and thus those capable of it focus fliers down quick and hard lest their allies be picked apart at range.

But whatever the reason for the difference, we've been told it is indeed different.
 
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I think it's a matter of degree. By now most of the warriors are probably too busy to take time out to go "hey, toss a fireball at the flying chick" even if they can.

Trouble is, "most of" the opposing army could still easily leave a dozen or more guys chucking fireballs at the flying chick, and that's a lot more very literal flak than we want to facetank right now.
 
Imperial Fister said:
(~) Ember-Winged Cloak (No cost): This is an awfully expensive trick that allows you to defy gravity, at least for a little while.
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lol

plundering barbarian:

blubbering barbarian
come from careless kingdom
to reap and raid
pillage and plunder
came to face the bear's bride
warrior in owl's guise
death in fire's form
both fought with wit and valor
till barbarian's barricade broke
and fire's form took death's toll
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
The most recent warning was in regards to taking flight this turn. As for why Wessex was different, that's an interesting question. My first thought is that Thanes can't fly so they have less anti-flyer tactics, or at least less standardized ones. Another is that Thanes are actually arguably better at range than melee due to their javelin focus meaning they just don't worry about flying foes since their odds against them are as good as their odds against anyone...the Norse worry (since most are melee specialized), and thus those capable of it focus fliers down quick and hard lest their allies be picked apart at range.
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I think its just a different kind of combat. in Wessex we led a charge towards the line of enemy thanes, the combat was wide spread and ranged combatants has plenty of targets. so even flying we weren't any more attractive target then many others. here its a packed engagements in fronts, lots of combatants behind with no one to actively fight, and its very hard to shoot an enemy on the ground without hitting friendly targets. if we fly though, we solve all those problems, becoming the most attractive target for all of those ranged combatants with nothing to do.
 
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