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Mercenary Mage Quest: Asur Dogs of War in Warhammer Fantasy

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I am in favor of continuing to march, relying on the Elves to cover the rearguard. Sending a couple of Ulgu elementals wouldn't hurt, either, since Ulgu is so plentiful in the shadow of the Middle Mountains and gives the Goblins some nasty near-invisible stealth killers to deal with
 
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Additional thought occurs. The goblins are using the shadows for cover right now...

So what if we take away the shadows?

Don't think we really have a basic light cantrip but Fanriel could activate Dark Vision and start blasting with Aethyric Bolts.

Alternatively, Hysh or Aqshy Elementals might be really valuable - if they or their attacks can illuminate the goblins, they'd be easy pickings for our archers and crossbowmen! Of the two, I'd probably be more inclined towards Hysh Elementals. As a reminder of their capabilities:
Blackout said:
Hysh Elementals, on the other hand, are blocky golems of translucent crystal, squat and angular in their form. They bear two tubular arms through which they are able to channel the cleansing light flowing within them, emerging as beams of burning energy. They are not hugely effective in piercing armour, leaving only small scorchmarks in the boulder you order them to shoot, but it should kill a man if it hits something vital, and if not ignite their clothes at the very least. Though you lack the means to test it, you also believe that they should be particularly effective against undead and daemons.
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Their crystalline forms will hopefully be relatively resilient to goblin arrows, their weakness against armour doesn't matter here and the fact that their attacks set enemies on fire might panic the wolves and will certainly illuminate their targets. It might also be possible - would be good to check with Blackout - to command them not to focus their light beams so much, essentially just creating the world's most powerful torches to reveal the goblins, and let our missile troops do the rest.

(Aqshy Elementals, on the other hand, are living bombs, which will definitely scare the wolves, but are also noted as being vulnerable to being targeted by clever enemies with missile weapons. Suspect these goblins might be Cunnin' enough to work that out.)
 
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Nimbus said:
Additional thought occurs. The goblins are using the shadows for cover right now...

So what if we take away the shadows?

Don't think we really have a basic light cantrip but Fanriel could activate Dark Vision and start blasting with Aethyric Bolts.

Alternatively, Hysh or Aqshy Elementals might be really valuable - if they or their attacks can illuminate the goblins, they'd be easy pickings for our archers and crossbowmen! Of the two, I'd probably be more inclined towards Hysh Elementals. As a reminder of their capabilities:


Their crystalline forms will hopefully be relatively resilient to goblin arrows, their weakness against armour doesn't matter here and the fact that their attacks set enemies on fire might panic the wolves and will certainly illuminate their targets.

(Aqshy Elementals, on the other hand, are living bombs, which will definitely scare the wolves, but are also noted as being vulnerable to being targeted by clever enemies with missile weapons. Suspect these goblins might be Cunnin' enough to work that out.)
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They're not using the shadows as cover against missile weapons, they're just staying at max range and never exposing themselves for more than a brief moment.

They're using the shadows to stay out of sight, because what you can't see is always scarier than what you can.
 
Blackout said:
They're not using the shadows as cover against missile weapons, they're just staying at max range and never exposing themselves for more than a brief moment.

They're using the shadows to stay out of sight, because what you can't see is always scarier than what you can.
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Thank you for the reminder!

Hmm... Still think that there are points in favour of the idea. As you say, the morale effect of enemies that are hidden but clearly present is problematic, which we could neutralise by having Hysh Elementals illuminate their position (particularly if projecting a wider, less concentrated beam of light is possible). It would also allow us forewarning if they were gathering in preparation for an attack, not to mention possibly dazzling them if they circled in to shoot or to charge (with the wider beam as above).

...

I might be putting far too much weight on a capability of a spell that is plausible but absolutely not guaranteed. 'In the middle of a skirmish' may not be the best place to test something like that, either! Mind, at the very least, it's more unmounted 'archers' of a sort on the field, which are a mounted archer's bane.
 
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Ando Owen said:
Ideally, we would like an option that would taunt the greenskins to charge into us. We might have a good spell for that somewhere
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One idea would be to summon Ghur elementals, imprint the images of goblins and goblins on wolfriders as prey, and have a pack or two range ahead and wait in ambush facing away from the road. Repeat as necessary.

Alternatively, have the dragoons concentrate to protect a flank and only slightly range into the forest, concentrate the crossbows on the other side, and proceed apace. Goblins are known for their crap leadership- sniping only a couple should cause an immediate break, and they (or their wolves) should be terrified by a concentrated volley of arquebus fire.

On a separate note, if this encounter were on tabletop, the wolf riders get trounced, primarily due to three factors:

1. On tabletop a goblin wolf rider unit (with a champion, or even a goblin big boss!) required to make an unmodified leadership test fails it ~60% of the time (they only pass on a 6 or below on a 2d6).
2. Wolf riders have impetuous, meaning they should be required to make a test with a similar likelihood of failure every single time they're within charging distance of one of our units (if they fail, they're forced to charge).
3. Any time the wolf riders lose 25% of their unit, they'd be forced to take one of the above leadership checks- so unless they charged archers who couldn't shoot back at them, they'd immediately run away after a single round of combat (and likely fail to regroup).

That should narratively translate to 'shoot or stab a few gobbos in the face and the whole lot of them run away', so any plan should be about setting up the best way to kill a couple of wolf riders without giving them anything in return, thus forcing the gobbo in charge to either 'put up or shut up', as another quester termed it.
 
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Dust&Ash said:
On a separate note, if this encounter were on tabletop, the wolf riders get trounced, primarily due to three factors:

1. On tabletop a goblin wolf rider unit (with a champion, or even a goblin big boss!) required to make an unmodified leadership test fails it ~60% of the time (they only pass on a 6 or below on a 2d6).
2. Wolf riders have impetuous, meaning they should be required to make a test with a similar likelihood of failure every single time they're within charging distance of one of our units (if they fail, they're forced to charge).
3. Any time the wolf riders lose 25% of their unit, they'd be forced to take one of the above leadership checks- so unless they charged archers who couldn't shoot back at them, they'd immediately run away after a single round of combat (and likely fail to regroup).

That should narratively translate to 'shoot or stab a few gobbos in the face and the whole lot of them run away', so any plan should be about setting up the best way to kill a couple of wolf riders without giving them anything in return, thus forcing the gobbo in charge to either 'put up or shut up', as another quester termed it.
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This your reminder that your QM has said *not* to use tabletop stats for things. Not for Fanriel. Not for our enemies. Not for any of this.
 
I am not a fan of overtaxing ourselves using magic as a crutch. We saw that two spells between Eyes of the Pack, Prey's Vigilance and silver Compass were unnecessary. Summoning a few elementals to support the fighting can be done, but as no more than support. We need to have a main plan.

I am considering the marching order... Do we keep it as-is? The Elves (especially the Seaguard) can answer the Goblin Wolfriders' harassment, but can the dragoons do anything useful? If they are now at the head of the column, they can be organised in 3 main groups (forward, left, right), and each shoots whenever more than a few goblins are in gun range. This of course would make noise, bound to attract more Greenskinz... but the wolves' howling is already making a cacophony, so it wouldn't change the strategic equation. It's moving slowly that would change it. (The challenge is to avoid a tactical loss while keeping up the marching strategy)
 
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What is so special about our mission target? Why can't the where we are be used?

Are we constructing siege engines that require specific tree sizes that only exist at our target? Is this an engineering problem that we can resolve with magic (cut the trees where we are and fix them up?)
 
Netos said:
I am not a fan of overtaxing ourselves using magic as a crutch. We saw that two spells between Eyes of the Pack, Prey's Vigilance and silver Compass were unnecessary. Summoning a few elementals to support the fighting can be done, but as no more than support. We need to have a main plan.

I am considering the marching order... Do we keep it as-is? The Elves (especially the Seaguard) can answer the Goblin Wolfriders' harassment, but can the dragoons do anything useful? If they are now at the head of the column, they can be organised in 3 main groups (forward, left, right), and each shoots whenever more than a few goblins are in gun range. This of course would make noise, bound to attract more Greenskinz... but the wolves' howling is already making a cacophony, so it wouldn't change the strategic equation. It's moving slowly that would change it. (The challenge is to avoid a tactical loss while keeping up the marching strategy)
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The rough marching order is that melee human infantry is split into two groups, front and back, with crossbows behind them and a gap in the middle for the ogres. Elves are covering the flanks of the ogres, dragoons are out and about.

If we are going to change the marching order, then it needs to be A) relatively limited in order to prevent excess confusion in this bad terrain and B) fulfill the purpose of continuing towards the objective without leaving the laborers open.

[] Plan Here Doggy Doggy
-[] The human infantry will maintain the melee-ranged alignment, and the rear will shift up to cover the sides. The Lightfangs will shift to cover the now open rear spot, presenting a thin "line" that looks like it can be broken through by the goblins - if they know how, taunt the Goblins (maybe stir up Aqshy but don't actually cast a spell, relying on its native ability to enhance emotions?). When they charge in to the rear line, summon a pair of Aqshy elementals to either intercept the charge (if timing is good enough) or to break up the mob (if it isn't). Then have the nearest human troops pincer in to grind them down until they run, at which point the dragoons on standby will pursue until it's too dangerous to go any further. Use the dragoons as either snipers or skirmishers to take the edge off of the mob, as available targets dictate.
--[] If the goblins attack elsewhere, then the emergency response is to bomb them with an Aqshy elemental to break them up, then wing it with emphasis being on continuing the march and not getting bogged down.

Simple pincer movement, using our best infantry as the anvil. If it's less than a hundred goblins (which it sounds like from the reports) and they don't break through on the first go (which the Aqshy elementals will go a long way towards, since morale with these tends to be low) then any charge will take bad casualties.
 
CanYouMeme said:
Simple pincer movement, using our best infantry as the anvil. If it's less than a hundred goblins (which it sounds like from the reports) and they don't break through on the first go (which the Aqshy elementals will go a long way towards, since morale with these tends to be low) then any charge will take bad casualties.
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Truth be told, I think the first regular option has everything we want.

We press on, we use the Asur troops and our magic to solve the problem should there be such a need. Fanriel will deploy the men according to her own best judgement and use whatever magic she feels is necessary, including the Elementals. If she thinks, that sending some Ulgu assassins will be the best course of action, she will do so. Fanriel is needed with the troops, as shown by their reaction to the apperance of the Riders. We should also cut down on the casting and use more general options, like those presented. We already had an exhaustion roll, which we passed... barely and the mission only just started.
 
CanYouMeme said:
The rough marching order is that melee human infantry is split into two groups, front and back, with crossbows behind them and a gap in the middle for the ogres. Elves are covering the flanks of the ogres, dragoons are out and about.

If we are going to change the marching order, then it needs to be A) relatively limited in order to prevent excess confusion in this bad terrain and B) fulfill the purpose of continuing towards the objective without leaving the laborers open.

[] Plan Here Doggy Doggy
-[] The human infantry will maintain the melee-ranged alignment, and the rear will shift up to cover the sides. The Lightfangs will shift to cover the now open rear spot, presenting a thin "line" that looks like it can be broken through by the goblins - if they know how, taunt the Goblins (maybe stir up Aqshy but don't actually cast a spell, relying on its native ability to enhance emotions?). When they charge in to the rear line, summon a pair of Aqshy elementals to either intercept the charge (if timing is good enough) or to break up the mob (if it isn't). Then have the nearest human troops pincer in to grind them down until they run, at which point the dragoons on standby will pursue until it's too dangerous to go any further. Use the dragoons as either snipers or skirmishers to take the edge off of the mob, as available targets dictate.
--[] If the goblins attack elsewhere, then the emergency response is to bomb them with an Aqshy elemental to break them up, then wing it with emphasis being on continuing the march and not getting bogged down.

Simple pincer movement, using our best infantry as the anvil. If it's less than a hundred goblins (which it sounds like from the reports) and they don't break through on the first go (which the Aqshy elementals will go a long way towards, since morale with these tends to be low) then any charge will take bad casualties.
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If we are going to opt for this (and I worry about relying on human infantry to outmanoeuvre highly mobile goblins archers who may decide to just circle in, shoot and circle away again, leaving our column disrupted and vulnerable), then I'd recommend Ygethmor's Fiery Blizzard over Aqshy Elementals. Only one spell and should do the same job of disruption very well.

As for plans thus far... Yeah, Sertorius probably has the right of it here. The choice between Ulgu, Azyr, Hysh and any other Elementals is one that Fanriel is best placed to make given her magical knowledge and the tactical situation. Of everything, on balance I'd say that Ulgu would probably work best to pressure the goblins to either attack or scarper but that's speaking as a detached observer, not someone who is present in the situation. Blackout has seen all of our posts and will be able to determine which of our insights, if we had any useful ones, are applicable.

The real question is whether we opt to reform our column anyway, hoping that we can impact the morale of the goblins with Elemental harassment enough for them scarper early such that it doesn't significantly slow the column's progress, or just push forward and hope our human troops can handle it. I'm inclining towards the former but it would demand a write-in and does feel a little too much like 'do a bit of everything and not enough of anything'.

Imperious said:
Also maybe cancel the Silver Compass so we don't have the effort of sustaining it.
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As I recall, Silver Compass is about the one spell Fanriel used that doesn't need to be sustained!
 
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Can we just summon massive amounts of ghur elementals and let them hunt? That should provoke an attack. We will be exhausted, but our defences are ,as mentioned, great, and we can still command.
 
Narasan said:
Can we just summon massive amounts of ghur elementals and let them hunt? That should provoke an attack. We will be exhausted, but our defences are ,as mentioned, great, and we can still command.
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This is the first hurdle. It may be the only hurdle; if it is then you're quite right, we could commit everything here. If it isn't, though (and I think that this may be the error I made with the previous plan), then we can't afford to do that.
 
[x] Order the column to wait while you use Hush and Shroud of Invisibility to hunt down the goblins, using Ulgu Elementals to sow terror amongst them while you cut down their leaders.
 
[X] Try to rally the humans and press on, using the Lightfangs and Elementals to fend off the Wolf Riders.

KISS. We have the martial to try to rally caravan morale and in both ranged combat and melee combat our troop of veterans should be able to handle goblin wolf riders.
 
Loved the chapter.

Blackout said:
Tulo proves to be a surprisingly useful asset- not in her capacity as a scout, her horse would panic as soon as the Dragoons fired their weapons and she wouldn't be able to keep up with them on foot, but by sharing her expertise of ambush tactics and the terrain. Whilst Troll Country is not known for its mountains, the Ropsmenn made their homes in the hills that could be found deep in the marshes, where the ground was solid enough to support structures and agriculture.

And for thousands of years, they used those hills to ambush and defeat vastly superior forces of Norscans, Ungols and Gospodars.

Even if such defences eventually failed, Tulo has quite a bit of experience from the point of view of the ambusher, which she shares with you freely, pointing out locations of importance as you sketch the maps.

You also lean on her to keep an eye on the Silver Compass, with orders to shout and yell if the needle moves away from you.
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Especialy this part. Tulo is proving herself a great addition to the company.

I would be in favor of staying in defensive position for a while and send packs of Ghur and Ulgu Elementals to hunt down the Goblins.

But i suppose we have to actualy reach the area were the Ogres need to work. So we don't have the time or supplies for an improvised siege.

[X] Try to rally the humans and press on, using the Lightfangs and Elementals to fend off the Wolf Riders.
 
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[X] Try to rally the humans and press on, using the Lightfangs and Elementals to fend off the Wolf Riders.
 
Also on the morale front we're in luck in that we're commanding Westerlanders, so we're probably less likely to suffer penalties for trying to rally them while being an elf.

Also all of this discussion about elementals is making me think about how potentially useful animals infused with elementals would be as war beasts. They might regenerate with Ghyran elementals, or have an ability to steal enemy life force with Shyish elementals. Even Ghur elementals might result in a beast that has greater physical ability once implemented.
 
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