Compliance. And apparently, I just realized that we have 10 Free Action Dices instead of 9, the locked one being the eleventh. In that case I will add one dice to Riverine Docks (Mauchen). It's upstream of Pfeildorf and Nuln and sits in the border between Wissenland and Averland. More importantly, I think, it's downstream of Steingart and thus our Solland region. Narrative-wise, improving that particular tradeflow of Steingart wool (and I think Mauchen was also written by the QM to have wool export) is going to be good.
The Old World: Dark Age of the Empire
- Thread starter Warkeymon
- Start date
- Fantasy
[X] Plan Slow and Steady
Can I just ask, are plans Required to have the separated options in them or are we allowed to keep them separated from plans.
I'm looking at the plans being presented and they all have the separated option already in them?
I don't agree with the Long Siege option but agree with the overall plans being presented.
I'm looking at the plans being presented and they all have the separated option already in them?
I don't agree with the Long Siege option but agree with the overall plans being presented.
- Pronouns
- Warkeymon
You can separate out the non-plan items.
[X] Diplomacy Aplenty for War Preperations
So uh... I did a little reading on the earlier stages of the vampire wars and uh... I have say, I'm scared. At some point Vlad will simply, insta-spawn an province-wide Nagash spell that will raise who knows how many undead armies at his bidding...
We need to find a way to sabotage that as soon as goddamn possible.
We need to find a way to sabotage that as soon as goddamn possible.
- Location
- Over the next hill.
Well I think our screening out of Vlad from Stirland has helped in that regard. He would have had access to a portion of Stirland's dead had he occupied a chunk of the province.
The more warpstone he gets the more undead he can raise in Sylvania. As one of the most impoverished places in the Empire, they've got a lot of dead.
We could try interfering with Vlad's renewed interest in Mordheim to stop him from getting more Warpstone, but I'm not sure how we can manage that with the distances involved. We'd have to get military access from Stirland after the crisis plus approaching the Ottillian Empress (or maybe we could approach Ostermark directly instead). It's doable but we really don't have the dice to do it fast and it hitches on diplomatic success. At that point, he might have just nabbed it already. We'd also compromise our action economy and resources through replenishment. We will certainly come to blows. I don't think he's going to hold back on using what undead he already has plus his mortal state troops.
It will be a massive threat for sure, but a slow moving one. Undead attrition in land that's not suffused with Dhar. He'll strike our neighbors and corrupt the land he takes, allowing him to snowball and summon more undead and make offensives. The most vulnerable provinces he can take are Stirland, with it's severely compromised army and the Moot. The Moot's going to be a very enticing first target for him as the halflings aren't really good fighters, and they tend towards very large families. There's a lot of dead halflings in the Moot for such a small province, and an undead halfling should be just as useful as a human one.
I think our best bet is approaching the Moot and Stirland for defensive pacts. Help rebuild the Army of Stirland as well. Maybe solidify the Averland alliance, though the Anti-Sylvanian pact should already help.
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- Location
- Centro Italia
in my opinion, to avoid being attacked by Vlad we should:
1) hyper fortify our borders
2) hyper intensify the recruitment campaigns for the iron companies and expand the apparatus of our army
3) expand and intensify war production (weapons and black powder)
4) with our research faculties for war research (with particular attention to incendiary weapons, including flamethrowers and incendiary bombs)
To fund all of this, I would argue that we need to intensify trade relationships with nations that are not in a prolonged state of war, including: the Dwarven Karak, Tilean city-states, Estalian city-states, Araby, Bretonnia, and Border Princes.
to do this there are two options:
1) For a portion of the proceeds, we use business contacts from Fiorella's hometown "Trantio" to raise revenue to fund our plans.
or
2) we conquer or take or corrupt Tordorno, to make it our trading base outside the empire (with an agreement to secure Winter's Teeth Pass for a share of the profits with Karak Hirn)
1) hyper fortify our borders
2) hyper intensify the recruitment campaigns for the iron companies and expand the apparatus of our army
3) expand and intensify war production (weapons and black powder)
4) with our research faculties for war research (with particular attention to incendiary weapons, including flamethrowers and incendiary bombs)
To fund all of this, I would argue that we need to intensify trade relationships with nations that are not in a prolonged state of war, including: the Dwarven Karak, Tilean city-states, Estalian city-states, Araby, Bretonnia, and Border Princes.
to do this there are two options:
1) For a portion of the proceeds, we use business contacts from Fiorella's hometown "Trantio" to raise revenue to fund our plans.
or
2) we conquer or take or corrupt Tordorno, to make it our trading base outside the empire (with an agreement to secure Winter's Teeth Pass for a share of the profits with Karak Hirn)
- Location
- Over the next hill.
To expand on your ideas:
Key places to fortify are Nuln and Jengen. Nuln is fine but could become a fortress city if we invest in it. Jengen is currently only a protected village but is the only crossing from Averland into the soft underbelly of the province. If Averland ever fell we would be screwed. Maybe getting some dwarfs to help could speed up and and improve the process?
Investing in the Imperial Gunnery School's production of armaments would also help massively. We can become the premier exporter of firearms in the Empire and use our supply of guns to help diplomacy in the Empire and beyond. An action we haven't taken yet is upgrading our free companies. If we can build a stockpile of guns we could severely increase their combat capabilities. Every man counts against the undead. When Vlad gets his doomstacks I don't think the Iron Companies only are going to cut it in the defense of Wissenland.
We also lack a heavy cavalry component in our army. Light cav is fine for running down chaff but I wouldn't put them up against a bunch of vampire knights and expect them to do a competent job, nevermind any larger undead monsters. We can either develop an Iron Company ourselves, lean on the expertise of Averland to help us do that, or invite a knightly order to make a chapterhouse in the province.
Edit: What would be the requirements for founding a knightly order or inviting one? Is there an action we could take @Warkeymon? What would be the benefits and drawbacks of doing that versus setting up an Iron Company of heavy cav?
A good stopgap for making our light cav more effective at fighting undead is upgrading them with firearms and turn them into pistoliers/outriders. That will give them better punching power. Our army currently is too static with the amount of cav we have.
Securing a deal with Karak Hirn to co-guard the Winter's Teeth Pass and secure a colony in the Borderlands along the nearest major river is also a great idea. If we can secure safe river travel in the Borderlands through the River Yetzin and on to one of the larger rivers and funnel trade through the Winter's Teeth pass we could really undercut Marienburg's hold on trade in the Reik river basin. We also won't need to course all our international trade through the river of echoes into Trantio. Approaching Barak Varr to help in this initiative would help with securing river access.
Honestly there's a lot we could do. We just lack the dice for it most of the time. Especially when engaging with foreign states need at minimum 2 dice to succeed with regularity.
Edit: Not related to Vlad but we should aim to double our income of marks. An expedition currently costs 16900 marks so if we want to expand our army, fund our military campaigns and still have money to do other stuff in a turn without inching closer and closer to a deficit, profits need to go up. Stonks!
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- Pronouns
- Warkeymon
Founding a Knightly Order or creating a Heavy Cavalry Iron Company would be critical success options. Inviting a Knightly Order is a diplomacy with the relevant Cult or Province.
Iron Companies are all under the unified command of the Grand Marshal and benefit from the Militarstutz's bureaucracy, logistics and contracts. Knightly Orders are independent organisations beholden to their own hierarchy and their uppermost patron, so usually the relevant Cult, but they come with existing reputation and expertise.
- Location
- Centro Italia
Orders of chivalry still exist in the world of Warhammer Fantasy for only two reasons:
1) because magic exists and therefore basically makes them almost invulnerable to firearms.
2) because there are mounts that are so spectacular compared to normal horses, such as Griffins, bears or even those beasts that ride Ogres to name a few eh.
the way we are set up, i.e. like the Spanish tercios, the cavalry units serve us as reconnaissance and looters/devastators which if we managed to create a collaboration with Leonardo to create stable and effectively repairable steam tanks, would make them even more obsolete and inefficient .
by the way, this reminds me, that we should look for runesmiths to create devices or methods to make our units chaos and magic proof or at least resistant.
1) because magic exists and therefore basically makes them almost invulnerable to firearms.
2) because there are mounts that are so spectacular compared to normal horses, such as Griffins, bears or even those beasts that ride Ogres to name a few eh.
the way we are set up, i.e. like the Spanish tercios, the cavalry units serve us as reconnaissance and looters/devastators which if we managed to create a collaboration with Leonardo to create stable and effectively repairable steam tanks, would make them even more obsolete and inefficient .
by the way, this reminds me, that we should look for runesmiths to create devices or methods to make our units chaos and magic proof or at least resistant.
Urgh... I approve, but the I know for certain that the Runelords thing will be a hardsell for the dwarfs. I mean hell, the runefangs took 100 years to complete and the guy made only 13 (14?) of them. Moreover with the Rule of Pride interfering, finding the amount of runesmiths necessary to supply even for a single company with anti-magic items will be near impossible (probably will require critical successess). Hell if anything the dwarfs will want those for themselves.
Its far easier for us to somehow try to contact the Elves of Ulthuan and request knoweldge of magic from them, like how Magnus did... In the end, he only got three High Mages, but those three changed the course of history for the Empire. Actually, Finnubar is at Marienburg right? If not, we could contact the Sea elves living there or in Bretonnia to hick a ride into Ulthuan.
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- Location
- Over the next hill.
We're the closest tech-level wise to pike and shot warfare but I don't think we're quite there yet. Our Iron Companies still follow current state troop organization and are split between weapon types and aren't in combined arms formations. We field mostly swordsmen with some halberdiers but no pikes. If we get enough battlefield experience I could see us start developing something like the tercio. Wonder if we could skip a bunch of steps and go straight into line infantry. As of now, if it weren't for the Elector's Own we're basically fighting like bootleg dwarfs
Cavalry I feel is always going to have a place in our army just because fielding a large enough company of steam tanks as a replacement will be ruinously expensive. It would require an intense investment in the Imperial Gunnery School as well as a long period of research and development before we're ready for mass production. I'm guessing even if we manage to convince Leonardo to help us, which is less likely ittl since he has a school in his hometown, it would take a lot of dice to beat the research action. Maybe sacrificing a whole turn.
I guess fielding native heavy cavalry is out unless we get a crit success on an action. Not really many knightly orders we can approach as of now. Might just have to rely on mercenaries on that front. Giving firearms to our light cav I think is doable.
Honestly though we should definitely find a way to get the Militarstutz to start innovating on military tactics.
OH wow, I just checked, we really don't have pistoliers. Like goddamn we are skipping the OP horse archer tree in here guys. I mean sure, firearms are slight more complex and too cumbersome compared to bows and arrows but we should at least arm our cavalry with loads and loads of pistol bracers.
Maybe do the opposite of canon and field commoners as light ranged cav instead of only the young nobles.
PS: And now that wrote this, I recall why we don't have it... turns out flintlocks REALLY helped alot in the invention of firearm calvary. Nevermind then...
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- Location
- Centro Italia
in reality, I was thinking more of signal distributors for magic and for Chaos than signal emitters that cause various negative reactions on cultists that allow us to identify them and deal with them permanently.
- Location
- Over the next hill.
It's going to really suck making counter-offensives against Vlad once he takes territory. The conditions that support undead also harm the living. And he's got the advantage of inhuman endurance and numbers for his armies so offense is easier for him.
Its not going to be easy uncorrupting land he takes without any magic.
Its not going to be easy uncorrupting land he takes without any magic.
I'm sorry but those doesn't exist? Or if it does, its BEYOND RARE nowadays for the dwarfs to have warp/aethyric sensors/disruptors, specially on the very specific manner you are describing. If they had in abundance, the Empire's Witch Hunters, or worse, the Whole Cult of Sigmar would be begging them for the same thing. I say this because the only hint we have of anti-magic tools they possess are their rune-carved armour (too expensive, too rare to gift to mere Umgi), magic-item destroyers (those come from the War of Vengeance) and whatever the hell Laihtero is, which is so goddamn pure it burns daemons on touch alone (old lore, probably non-canon).
So unless the QM allows it, its going to be hard.
What about the whole fusion of religion and magic that Balthasar managed to do to essentially SEAL OFF the entire province of Sylvania on a barrier? that's one thing. Of course, right now its impossible, and will probably be too late to do anything about it, but I'm wondering what would happen we if, say, find evidence of Vlad's true nature and covertly do a Mass expansion on religion paraphenalia to get outselves at least something against dark magic? Maybe fund the Morrite Priesthood to absurd degrees, experiment with tainted-land to see it will wash up.
Last case scenario we say "fuck it" and go bother the Elves, surely they would know the answer.
I 2nd this, next plan we should start arming our free companies more cheap/hand-me-down guns to make them more lethal while still making them a cheap emergency reserve that we'll undoubtedly need in the future when doing attrition warfare against undead. Also, I know that we already have contracts within the millitratipuz (or whatever it's called) to mass-produce gear and weapons, but what's stopping us from making more contracts with other potential producers in different places as well? We're currently enjoying a good relationship with dwarves and more dwarfen migrants than ever before with the new dwarf town that Bugman's made & with us now officially recognizing dwarfen rights we could take advantage of this. Let's start making an industrial sector near the Bugman's dwarf town that gives incentives for dwarfs (or any skilled other persons with a minimum amount of skill in crafting) to set up industrial businesses with nearly no taxes towards them, cheap land, subsidization, cheap loans, etc... In exchange for this, any dwarf who wants to start a business in the industrial sector has to take priority contracts for our military orders at a minimum quality (so they don't try to put too much effort into one piece of work and instead make a streamlined production line) while requiring them to have royalties to any order that doesn't come from us in order to make sure they don't disrupt the local economy and cause unemployment almost local blacksmiths.
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- Location
- Over the next hill.
What passes for magical traditions in the Empire are hedge mages without any of the instruction for wizards that Teclis introduced. They're highly vulnerable to magical and chaos corruption which is why they're hunted by the witchhunters.
On the plus side, I think once Van Hal finishes his conference there's going to be a broad push in the Empire to find ways to counteract necromancy and it's effects. I'm not sure how feasible contacting the elves is going to be given their aloofness.
Well we could contact other places for a supply of guns. Trantio might be able to give us some. But developing the Militarstutz means we directly control the supply and the guns are built to our standards. No one outside the dwarfs make better guns than we do. We'll get a bunch of outdated surplus once we develop and produce enough of the next gun in our tech options.
Edit: If we can't get Leonardo to leave Miragliano, maybe a joint research agreement would do? I'm sure even if he's head of his own school he'd be appreciative of any extra funding of his projects. Miragliano might be a rich Tilean city-state, but I'm sure he could always use more funds.
I think we can definitely talk to Bugman about finding more dwarf migrants, especially the Imperial dwarfs. We're already pretty appealing to them given our new dwarf equality laws. Bugman's fame will help too.
More dwarfs mean more experts in a variety of fields. Bound to be some outcast engineers willing to teach at the Imperial Gunnery School, and skilled masons to help construct our buildings for example. Heck, maybe Bugman could teach us umgi how to ranger the dwarf way? New light infantry Iron company maybe?
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