Remove ads

Mercenary Mage Quest: Asur Dogs of War in Warhammer Fantasy

Voting is open for the next 19 hours, 13 minutes
Reader mode
Sertorius said:
In other words, let's hope nobody will ever know about the incident or Fanriel will be not just strongly disliked, but also the laughing stock of the White Tower for centuries to come. :V
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You could make a great meme video about loremasters from it though:

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uXkHspqXLK8&pp=ygUVVGFyaWZmIGRyYWdvbiBwcmluY2Vz

Behold

The Highest Class Scholar

The Loremaster of Hoeth

Takes three centuries to train

Teclis only takes two

Looks down on humans

So misses elven relics held by them

Loremaster of Hoeth

But doesn't know lore for priceless relic

Education obtained from finest elven academic institute in the world

Zero recognition of Sunfang

We'll be right back

*Picture of Fanriel curled into a fetal position in shame*
 
Last edited:
Few hours to go before the vote closes; only one vote in it between one option and the same option with a fun but arguably relatively inconsequential write-in attached, so make your mistakes quickly if you haven't voted or want to change your mind!
 
Nimbus said:
Few hours to go before the vote closes; only one vote in it between one option and the same option with a fun but arguably relatively inconsequential write-in attached, so make your mistakes quickly if you haven't voted or want to change your mind!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean, i wouldn't is its completely inconsequential.

It would be a small step of character development for Fanriel, in adapting to her situation and her new human allies.
 
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
Rangers as a High Elf military unit were only added in Total War, so it depends how canonical you think that is whether that's a good source.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
High Elf Rangers are based off of the Elf Rangers from Warhammer Quest, a Roleplaying Boardgame set in Warhammer that released in 1995.

Though the Rangers in WHQ were specifically Elves that had remained in the Old World following the War of Vengeance, rather than a part of the modern Asur military. Interestingly, the WHQ ones were specifically noted to typically stem from populations living in human cities, rather than, say, Athel Loren.

Their implementation in TW instead made them more irregular units from rural parts of Ulthuan.

I believe Blackout has specifically mentioned them being a thing in some of his military organization posts.
 
Mopman43 said:
I believe Blackout has specifically mentioned them being a thing in some of his military organization posts.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Here we are!

Blackout said:
Rangers exist as free-floating companies and regiments that are typically used to garrison and patrol terrain not suitable for line infantry which might be attached to a Legion when it goes on campaign, but elves being elves if a commander finds himself in need of Rangers he can just order some of his men to change their equipment and boom, he's got Rangers.

The Asur generally prefer to conduct their scouting using magic or aerial units, rather than risk sending out small groups of lightly armoured elves to run off on their own. They'll do it if they have to, but they're rather casualty-averse so they don't like to.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
 
[X] Try to rally the humans and press on, using the Lightfangs and Elementals to fend off the Wolf Riders.
-[X] Take up Van de Rijder's marching song to encourage and show solidarity with the troops.
 
Rangers exist as part of the Spearmen/Archers paradigm, but they are very much the least important and common of the three basic types of High Elf infantry.

The thing to remember about the Asur is that they're not the "Slip away into the darkness, never engaging in a straight fight while bringing you down with a thousand cuts" kind of elves. That's the Asrai.

The Asur are the "Shock and Awe" kind of elves. Sure, they have skirmishers and light units and illusionists, if they have the opportunity to bring an enemy down without ever letting them fight back they'll take it, but that's not their main doctrine, that's not their theory of victory.

Their modus operandi is to stack a million force multipliers and then get down to rumble, absolutely smashing the enemy into a million pieces with a combination of elite heavy infantry, deadly-accurate ranged firepower, armoured knights, dragons and devastating magic.
 
Last edited:
Nimbus said:
Ando Owen's covered most of the relevant points here, I think. I'll also note that Fanriel leaving the column while it's surrounded is a really bad look if people realise she's doing so - would be awful for morale.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Nimbus said:
blinks

Might we assume that the Westerlanders and Tileans are also expecting us, at least to some extent, to do wizardly nonsense in the face of these Wolf Riders? I grant that deploying Elementals is that, to a degree, but this makes me realise that Fanriel not intervening personally may be a blow to morale as much as leaving the column to do so would be.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think you're really overstating the danger to morale for us going off by ourselves. If we were some regular Imperial Noble you'd have a point, but we're a big, scary magical Elf who is slinking off towards the danger while leaving our entire Company with them. And these are mostly Westerlanders, they know that if an Elven Mage working with you tells you to wait here with their kin while they skulk off, it's not typically a sign that they're abandoning you, it's a sign that the Elf is going to "fix" the problem hindering them. This is significantly less damaging to morale than being ordered to march while ignoring the enemy skirmishers harrying you and taking pot shots.

Imperious said:
To be fair we did get sizeable bonuses for the march, which also made it so we didn't lose a single scout. But yes, we could probably have done without the Silver Compass at least.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That, and also Prey's Vigilance or Eyes of the Pack. We should have no more than 2 spells on going if we're going on a march.
 
BigBadBob7070 said:
I think you're really overstating the danger to morale for us going off by ourselves. If we were some regular Imperial Noble you'd have a point, but we're a big, scary magical Elf who is slinking off towards the danger while leaving our entire Company with them. And these are mostly Westerlanders, they know that if an Elven Mage working with you tells you to wait here with their kin while they skulk off, it's not typically a sign that they're abandoning you, it's a sign that the Elf is going to "fix" the problem hindering them. This is significantly less damaging to morale than being ordered to march while ignoring the enemy skirmishers harrying you and taking pot shots.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Well, that's the thing - we don't know. People think and behave unpredictably in unfamiliar, stressful situations - it's why morale and cohesion are so important on the battlefield - and we can't be certain what the Westerlanders' and Tileans' instinctual and emotional reactions will be if Fanriel, who they'd met hours before, vanishes in the midst of such a situation. Ideally they'd reckon that Fanriel was going to respond to the humans and, as you say, that isn't implausible - but they might fear that Fanriel has abandoned them, or that her mission is suicidal, or that other Greenskins might turn up before she finishes her work.

Whether that's worse than marching on... Now we're not just dealing with hypotheticals and uncertainty, we're trying to compare between two sets of hypotheticals and uncertainty! Having the commander visibly forging on through the same danger as the troops counts for a lot; whether that's enough is far more difficult to be sure about. As said before, there aren't any options here without significant risk attached!
 
Last edited:
Adrian XXIV said:
What "kind of Elves" are Druchii?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Attritional warfare by wearing the enemy down with expendable slaves/warbeasts and then doing the Shock and Awe approach. When it comes to the Shock and Awe, compared to the High Elves they rely less on force multipliers and coordination, and more on individual prowess and raw power.

The perfect example of this would be Silver Helms vs Cold One Knights: one-on-one a Cold One would almost always win, but at the same time they're not really cavalry so much as two-ton flesh-seeking missiles with riders strapped on top. Their ability to conduct maneuvers or really participate in a battle plan beyond "go forth and kill shit" is very limited.
 
Nimbus said:
Well, that's the thing - we don't know. People think and behave unpredictably in unfamiliar, stressful situations - it's why morale and cohesion are so important on the battlefield - and we can't be certain what the Westerlanders' and Tileans' instinctual and emotional reactions will be if Fanriel, who they'd met hours before, vanishes in the midst of such a situation. Ideally they'd reckon that Fanriel was going to respond to the humans and, as you say, that isn't implausible - but they might fear that Fanriel has abandoned them, or that her mission is suicidal, or that other Greenskins might turn up before she finishes her work.

Whether that's worse than marching on... Now we're not just dealing with hypotheticals and uncertainty, we're trying to compare between two sets of hypotheticals and uncertainty! Having the commander visibly forging on through the same danger as the troops counts for a lot; whether that's enough is far more difficult to sure about. As said before, there aren't any options here without significant risk attached!
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I'm pretty sure it isn't worse than marching, b/c with marching the specific risk that's noted is that it's the most likely option that risks the mercs breaking and fleeing.

Going off to be a Night Terror is noted for how if something happens back with the group, we won't be there to help and thus would have to trust in their abilities.

Again, while we are the commander, we're also the Wizard, one of the most powerful assets here and the one expected to deal with problems such as this. There aren't many who will freak out if we leave them in a defensible position with our own guys, and those that will will soon relax when the Howling turns to Screaming.
 
BigBadBob7070 said:
I'm pretty sure it isn't worse than marching, b/c with marching the specific risk that's noted is that it's the most likely option that risks the mercs breaking and fleeing.

Going off to be a Night Terror is noted for how if something happens back with the group, we won't be there to help and thus would have to trust in their abilities.

Again, while we are the commander, we're also the Wizard, one of the most powerful assets here and the one expected to deal with problems such as this. There aren't many who will freak out if we leave them in a defensible position with our own guys, and those that will will soon relax when the Howling turns to Screaming.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Why delay the column by trying to take the wolf riders on by ourself when we can instead continue in normal speed and take on the wolf riders with backup from the Lightfangs?
 
Last edited:
Imperious said:
Why delay the column by trying to take the wolf riders on by ourself when we can instead continue in normal speed and take on the wolf riders with backup from the Lightfangs?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's not gonna be that long of a delay, since the second option where we march and still try to guard against them is the one that's noted to be the one that takes the longest and risks reinforcements.

And continuing as normal only works if we can keep everyone else on track and stop from breaking from fear due to being forced to ignore the Goblins trying to shoot arrows at them. It's the fastest option, but also the most risky since all it takes is them failing a morale roll and us a Martial roll for everything to go to shit.

Whereas just going murder blender mode would only take like what, 10 minutes for us to put the fear of the Asur into some Gobbos by hacking them up while invisible and sending Shadow Monsters after them?
 
BigBadBob7070 said:
Whereas just going murder blender mode would only take like what, 10 minutes for us to put the fear of the Asur into some Gobbos by hacking them up while invisible and sending Shadow Monsters after them?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Which we will do, while on the march, if they shall try to even get within sniffing distance. I think it is safe to say, that this is what will happen. The only difference is, whether we shall be signing while doing so.
 
BigBadBob7070 said:
It's not gonna be that long of a delay, since the second option where we march and still try to guard against them is the one that's noted to be the one that takes the longest and risks reinforcements.

And continuing as normal only works if we can keep everyone else on track and stop from breaking from fear due to being forced to ignore the Goblins trying to shoot arrows at them. It's the fastest option, but also the most risky since all it takes is them failing a morale roll and us a Martial roll for everything to go to shit.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
As opposed to what happens if we roll poorly enough on trying to take on the goblins on our lonesome, or if some force attacks caravan while we're away?

BigBadBob7070 said:
Whereas just going murder blender mode would only take like what, 10 minutes for us to put the fear of the Asur into some Gobbos by hacking them up while invisible and sending Shadow Monsters after them?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
If it's so easy to take on the goblins by ourself why wouldn't it be even easier to do with ourself and the rest of the Lightfangs? If taking them on by ourself is such a breeze then taking them on with the Lightfangs seems like it should be a cakewalk.
 
Remove ads
Vote closed New
  • Voting
    • Scheduled vote count started by Blackout on Oct 15, 2024 at 4:07 PM, finished with 181 posts and 26 votes.
    • [X] Try to rally the humans and press on, using the Lightfangs and Elementals to fend off the Wolf Riders.
      [X] Try to rally the humans and press on, using the Lightfangs and Elementals to fend off the Wolf Riders.
      -[X] Take up Van de Rijder's marching song to encourage and show solidarity with the troops.
      [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] Write in - Try to rally the humans and press on, reforming to fend off the Wolf Riders each time they approach. Deploy Elementals to harry the Wolf Riders (Fanriel should use her judgement to determine which kind would be best) in the hopes that denying the Wolf Riders any safe ground will force them away and allow the column to march on unimpeded and at pace.
      -[X] Take up Van de Rijder's marching song to encourage and show solidarity with the troops.
      [X] Plan Here Doggy Doggy
      -[X] 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? - Fanriel's discretion). 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.
      --[X] 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.
    Click to expand...
     
  • New
  • Voting
    • Reader mode
    You must login or register to reply here.
    Voting is open for the next 19 hours, 13 minutes
    Remove ads
    Back
    Top