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A Sword Without a Hilt: A Song of Ice and Fire/D&D 3.5 Crossover

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Actually, in light of the garrisoning problems...do we want the Crossbowmen? It puts us at 3650 sellswords (ignoring the lone blades), compared to 1650 sellswords + lone blades.

Edit: The other issue is the smartest and best of the crossbowmen are the crossbowmen themselves, who aren't really suited for walking around cramped streets policing in the aftermath.
 
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Diomedon said:
Actually, in light of the garrisoning problems...do we want the Crossbowmen? It puts us at 3650 sellswords (ignoring the lone blades), compared to 1650 sellswords + lone blades.

Edit: The other issue is the smartest and best of the crossbowmen are the crossbowmen themselves, who aren't really suited for walking around cramped streets policing in the aftermath.
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We can stick them on rooftops and use them to man walls. Pretty useful for our conquest.
 
Diomedon said:
Actually, in light of the garrisoning problems...do we want the Crossbowmen? It puts us at 3650 sellswords (ignoring the lone blades), compared to 1650 sellswords + lone blades.
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Yes.

It won't be that hard or expensive to garrison them, and that is A LOT of additional bodies to throw at Tyrosh.

Crossbowmen would get a huge boost in efficacy from Mercy using Blessed Aim on them, too. She could affect all of them with just a couple castings of the spell and basically double their attack bonuses.
 
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Goldfish said:
Yes.

It won't be that hard or expensive to garrison them, and that is A LOT of additional bodies to throw at Tyrosh.

Crossbowmen would get a huge boost in efficacy from Mercy using Blessed Aim on them, too. She could affect all of them with just a couple castings of the spell and basically double their attack bonuses.
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Unlike with the assorted rabble, we can't cherry pick here. I see the spearmen being much more trouble then they are worth.
 
Azel said:
Unlike with the assorted rabble, we can't cherry pick here. I see the spearmen being much more trouble then they are worth.
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Well then, let's put them where the fighting is heaviest and get as many killed off as possible. The survivors will likely be among the more skilled (i.e. higher levels) and we will have fewer hassles to deal with in the future.
 
Goldfish said:
Yes.

It won't be that hard or expensive to garrison them, and that is A LOT of additional bodies to throw at Tyrosh.

Crossbowmen would get a huge boost in efficacy from Mercy using Blessed Aim on them, too. She could affect all of them with just a couple castings of the spell and basically double their attack bonuses.
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They're useful for the conquest, but the spearmen are likely going to be the problem children in the garrisoning. They're the "You look sturdy, here join my company as my meat shield" portion for the crossbowmen.
 
Screw it. Slavers. With people drafted in, apparently.
We'll do without the crossbowmen.

[X] Chulupey

You have my sword vote!

We can see if one of our new Ibbenese would mind lending an axe :p.

Edit: This saves a few days for Viserys and Richard btw, not bothering with the random unaffiliated.
 
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[X] Plan Cutting the Chaff
-[X] The Wolf's Teeth, a company of roughly 800 pikemen and 400 skirmishers claiming dubious lineage from the Company of the Rose (Cost 1000 Gold)
-[X] The Long Axes, A company of 450 heavily armored armored Ibbenise axemen who claim to be as much at home in the spear-line as they are as marines (Cost 2000 Gold)
-[X] Richard and Viserys will sort through the remaining lone blades looking for any diamonds in the rough who we might wish to induct into our own forces, and any other acceptable hires. Simultaneously, Viserys will be using Voice of the Dragon and Air of Nobility to Diplomance those selected and get a better read on their character. (Cost: ???)

I think the Crossbowmen's draftees will cause more trouble than the whole unit is worth.
 
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[X] Goldfish
Goldfish said:
BTW, the costs for year long contracts with these various sellsword companies serve as a great benchmark for determining future costs of hiring armsmen of various sorts.

Wolf's Teeth: 1,200 men for 1,000 gold per year.
Marco's Marksmen: 2,000 men for 1,600 gold per year.
The Long Axes: 450 men for 2,000 gold per year.

That's useful information on its own.
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Not too much, their asking price fluctuates too much within our samples. We are paying for pure inflation, reputation, equipment, skill and many other things that vary. Especially, IIRC they expect cut of any plunder.
 
@DragonParadox It's looking extra consensusy.
Adhoc vote count started by Goldfish on Jan 27, 2018 at 9:19 AM, finished with 145297 posts and 15 votes.
  • [X] Plan "Gotta Catch'em All! (except for the rabble, because who wants rabble?)"
    -[X] The Wolf's Teeth, a company of roughly 800 pikemen and 400 skirmishers claiming dubious lineage from the Company of the Rose (Cost 1000 Gold)
    -[X] Marco's Marksmen, a company of 500 Myrmen crossbowmen and 1500 spearmen and other odds and sods the captain manged to 'induct' on the spot with promises of negotiating for better pay (Cost 1600 Gold)
    -[X] The Long Axes, A company of 450 heavily armored armored Ibbenise axemen who claim to be as much at home in the spear-line as they are as marines (Cost 2000 Gold)
    -[X] Richard and Viserys will sort through the remaining lone blades looking for any diamonds in the rough who we might wish to induct into our own forces, and any other acceptable hires. Simultaneously, Viserys will be using Voice of the Dragon and Air of Nobility to Diplomance those selected and get a better read on their character. (Cost: ???)
    [X] Plan Cutting the Chaff
    -[X] The Wolf's Teeth, a company of roughly 800 pikemen and 400 skirmishers claiming dubious lineage from the Company of the Rose (Cost 1000 Gold)
    -[X] The Long Axes, A company of 450 heavily armored armored Ibbenise axemen who claim to be as much at home in the spear-line as they are as marines (Cost 2000 Gold)
    -[X] Richard and Viserys will sort through the remaining lone blades looking for any diamonds in the rough who we might wish to induct into our own forces, and any other acceptable hires. Simultaneously, Viserys will be using Voice of the Dragon and Air of Nobility to Diplomance those selected and get a better read on their character. (Cost: ???)
    [X] Plan Best of the best of the best, Sir!
    -[X] The Wolf's Teeth, a company of roughly 800 pikemen and 400 skirmishers claiming dubious lineage from the Company of the Rose (Cost 1000 Gold)
    -[X] The Long Axes, A company of 450 heavily armored armored Ibbenise axemen who claim to be as much at home in the spear-line as they are as marines (Cost 2000 Gold)
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Well... may the shitheads die first then :).

But I'm serious about telling people (at some point) that we can absolutely find anyone intentionally setting fires.
 
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Part MDCLXVI: Bundle of Steel
  • Threadmarks
    • Bundle of Steel ​

    Twenty-Fifth Day of the Twelfth Month 292 AC

    After some thought and conferring with Ser Richard you decide that for your purposes most if not all warm bodies could serve. Even the very worst of the sellswords could die for some purpose at least, and the best of them might eventually be inducted into the legions you aim to create. Uthero seems startled though not disapproving of the decision that would see him roughly five thousand marks poorer. You shall have to keep in mind to assure him a particularly impressive keep for his efforts, perhaps with servitors wrought of fantastical shapes.

    The men ushered into the chamber could not have been more different. First there was "Brick-Wall" Bradyn, captain of the Wolf's Teeth, a stout man wearing a garish red cloak over equally garish Tyroshi armor yet with what you can only describe as a turban of white fox fur on his head. Thankfully he spares you the 'authentic northerner' act you suspect most of his customers get and speaks in a rolling accent that seemingly draws from all of the Three Daughters equally.

    Then there is Marco of the company of the same name, a sharp-eyed Myrman who walks with his arms bare save for the heavy gold armbands studded with small rubies. A short conversation with him is enough to assure you that while he might give one bent copper for the lives of his 'auxiliaries' he certainly does not give two, seeing them more as a stumbling block for cavalry, though one he would rather have under the command of men he trusts than not.

    Lastly there is Jorn Nir, captain of the Long Axes, broad of chest and shoulder but standing perhaps a hair over five feet, hair and beard dyed bright blue and woven into intricate braids. He wears a full set of plate of a kind you have rarely seen in Essos with a hand axe at his belt and boiled leather shield slung on his back. Unlike his companions he speaks little and makes no attempt to draw attention to himself, though he is quick to answer any question posed to him.

    As to their men you discover that they are not near Braavos as you had half-assumed, for the Sealord would not allow such a close associations between your efforts and the city. Instead they are currently quartered more than two hundred miles south along the Braavosi coastline near the borderlands of Pentos. Thus as they gathered the sellswords served as a minor reminder to that city of the might of Braavos which made them kneel in centuries past, while at the same time being eminently deniable assets about which Pentos cannot grumble about too loudly for it is far from the first time 'stray' sellswords gathered in the borderlands, from north and south.

    Still Uthero is clear that you should take them away within the next month before they grow too restless in their camps, and so you do. Bidding farewell to your friend, you ride on steeds of shadow over the sea for hours into early afternoon until you come upon the nameless town where three small companies and smaller bands of soldiers of fortune gather.

    Looking down on the chaos among the ramshackle buildings Ser Richard grumbles, "Bastards did not even gather information."

    "And what good would a phalanx do against flying foes?" you ask.

    "It would keep the men from running every which way at the first sign of danger. Half of drilling is making men eat, sleep, and fucking dream in formation so that when things go to shit, and things almost always go to shit somehow in a fight, they don't think, they just do," he answers.

    You look at him curiously.

    "I've been listening to the Ghiscari train up the armsmen," he explains, giving you one more reason among myriad of others for that chance meting in Braavos more than three years past.

    What do you say to the men?

    [] Write in

    OOC: At the end there was the fluff for the knowledge war ranks you gave Ser Richard on his last level up.
     
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  • Threadmarks
    • Is Jorn a Dwarf? He sure seems like one, though a bit taller than average.
     
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