Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

[ShyPerson]

[X] Plan: Offense on Foot and Horse
-[X] 117th Hobgoblin Fusiliers. A new unit born from the consolidation of three veteran but understrength regiments from the region of Haute-Garand, the 117th are some of the toughest sons and daughters of Hobb you've ever known. They bring a powerful core of shock infantry to your forces. Professional Infantry. CO: Buko Favre, ???.
-[X] 108th Elven Hussars. You saw the value of elven light cavalry at Saintonge. The 108th are a pre-Revolutionary unit that flipped almost completely for the Convention, refusing to charge a popular demonstration on the streets of Loutharc. They're a strange bunch of warrior-philosophers, students of the Collège des Immortels who volunteered for the War of the Grand Alliance and came out of it radicalized and republican. Professional Cavalry. CO: Philippe-Grimoald de Guerchy, ???.
-[X] 13th Hobgoblin Lancers. The lance is the ultimate weapon of shock and awe. A cavalry squadron armed with lances is devastating and terrifying to face - and when the riders are hobgoblins on enormous warhorses, the effect is magnified tenfold. Lancers have traditionally been elves in Arné, but the Convention has established a great many lancer squadrons utilizing hobgoblins as riders - at long last. Trained Cavalry. CO: Karo Bonnaire, ???. Armed with Lances (Wounding +1, additional Charge Advantage, -1 Concealment, -2 Movement (7)).
-[X] (-25 Influence) Alho Kléber, CO of Hobgoblin Infantry. Kléber has fallen prey to the same lack of prospects as you. His 41st has been demobilized, leaving him without a command despite his considerable Offensive Genius.

I favor us getting experienced hobgoblin infantry to be the prime infantry on the line, and we really need more than one cavalry unit. Kleiber seems too good a talent to let slip, though I might be convinced to include one of the other two.

 

[Parzival95]

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced

I want to see these radical Republican elves.

 

[Nerdorama]

A part of me wants to grab Burrard or especially Wyler for the sake of continuity and extra bodies, but I feel like there are PROBABLY going to be more important things to spend influence on.

Pathfinders are sure pick for me. Not only have I been beating that drum from the start, bit it's the only option that gets us two regiments for the price of one.

The other choices I'll have to deliberate on, but I'm definitely leaning toward two of the cav options. A human siege arty we can start leveling early is tempting for long term planning, but I just don't see them being suited for this specific campaign.

 

[Vanestus]

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced

 

[MrRageQuit]

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced
-[X] 19th and 28th Halfling Pathfinders. Halfling skirmishers from the marshes and woodlands of La Ravaille, the 19th and 28th are reckoned to be fine marksmen and light infantry, if lacking in real combat experience. The patronage of a halfling member of the Convention has somehow won them specialist Canard rifles, which have an effective firing range well beyond the Cabot musket. Trained Infantry. 19th CO: Sophie Tasse, ??? & Georges Villiers, ???. Armed with Canard Rifles (Wounding +0, 200m/300m/500m).
-[X] 108th Elven Hussars. You saw the value of elven light cavalry at Saintonge. The 108th are a pre-Revolutionary unit that flipped almost completely for the Convention, refusing to charge a popular demonstration on the streets of Loutharc. They're a strange bunch of warrior-philosophers, students of the Collège des Immortels who volunteered for the War of the Grand Alliance and came out of it radicalized and republican. Professional Cavalry. CO: Philippe-Grimoald de Guerchy, ???.
-[X] 13th Hobgoblin Lancers. The lance is the ultimate weapon of shock and awe. A cavalry squadron armed with lances is devastating and terrifying to face - and when the riders are hobgoblins on enormous warhorses, the effect is magnified tenfold. Lancers have traditionally been elves in Arné, but the Convention has established a great many lancer squadrons utilizing hobgoblins as riders - at long last. Trained Cavalry. CO: Karo Bonnaire, ???. Armed with Lances (Wounding +1, additional Charge Advantage, -1 Concealment, -2 Movement (7)).
-[X] (-25 Influence) Alho Kléber, CO of Hobgoblin Infantry. Kléber has fallen prey to the same lack of prospects as you. His 41st has been demobilized, leaving him without a command despite his considerable Offensive Genius.

 

[Nerdorama]

117th Hobgoblin Fusiliers: Professional Offensive Infantry. Ideal for infantry charges, lacks the specialized Lancer equipment, but has the experience edge.

19th and 28th Halfling Pathfinders: Trained stealthy, long-range units, 2-for-1 deal, fragile, but ideal for ambushes and flanking.

10th Dwarven Guards: Professional Defensive Infantry. Ideal for holding lines.

1st Dwarven Cuirassiers: Trained Battering Ram. Not exciting, but will exist forever.

108th Elven Hussars. Professional Scouts/Harriers. Extremely useful spotters, will level up some time around when I retire IRL.

13th Hobgoblin Lancers. Trained charge cavalry. This is going to murder whatever we point it at, though these might be the biggest glass cannons we've got given Hob supply meta and the amount of casualties Cav is likely to take.

6th Human Siege Artillery. Trained enemy deleters. Human, so they're basically guaranteed to be Regular by the end of the first battle. Base 100% casualties and fast levels are nothing to sneeze at, but snail speed is a problem.

We also get:

2 Hob Inf (1 free, 1 with Kleber)
2 Hum Inf
2 Elv Inf
1 Half Inf
2 Elv Art
1 Elv Cav
1 Hob H. Art

All of which are probably Green, except for Kleber's unit. We can add up to 2 more trained Hum Inf with average COs at 25 influence a pop.

Let's take it as a given that I'm voting for Pathfinders. That leaves two slots.

The 117th Fusiliers are solid, but we've got 2 units of Hob Inf already, and while the 117th are superior examples, they don't really add any "new" capabilities.

The 10th Dwarven Guard would be fantastic for guarding our artillery and holding against even the fiercest cavalry charges, but once again, we have a shitload of infantry, relatively speaking. An extra-good version of something we have in abundance is not as helpful as other options

I'm going to eliminate the Hum Art on the same logic, especially since they lack the "Professional" edge and will simply level up faster. Now, they'll level up four times faster than the elven nancies on our existing cannon support, but c'est la guerre.

And so I've talked myself around to my gut instinct of two cavalry, of which are options are the Professional Hussars, the Dwarven Cuirassiers, and the Hobgoblin Lancers. I feel like the Hussars are a gimme so we're at least picking ONE Professional unit, and also having two sets of elf-eyes with 9 Move means we're unlikely to get any nasty surprises like Halfling Militia crawling around in the long grass. That leaves our last slot for the Cuirassiers, who will not break, or the Lancers, who will make sure the enemy does.

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced

At the end of the day, I prefer offense to defense, and I think Laurent's made a good call here.

This gives us an overall OOB of:

2 Hob Inf (1 guaranteed Trained)
2 Hum Inf
2 Elv Inf
3 Half Inf (1 musket, 2 rifles)
2 Elv Art
2 Elv Cav (1 professional)
1 Hob Cav
1 Hob H. Art

I think this will largely break down to moving forward with the Hussars and the Halfling Rifles to scout and harry while we set up the artillery in ideal positions, with the infantry in the middle forming defensive blocks or charging as appropriate, and the Lancers finding weak points in the line to insta-rout.

 

[The Laurent]

Yeah, and as far as the other two go, I'm assuming there will be more things to spend Influence on in the coming rounds. An Offensive Genius is worth it, because that trait doesn't show up every day.

I do wonder what the next phase is, since obviously we have strategic decisions to make and our army to get into some semblance of shape.

 

[Nerdorama]

Yeah, and as far as the other two go, I'm assuming there will be more things to spend Influence on in the coming rounds. An Offensive Genius is worth it, because that trait doesn't show up every day.

I do wonder what the next phase is, since obviously we have strategic decisions to make and our army to get into some semblance of shape.

Click to shrink...

With our drill so low, we're definitely going to need to get down to business to defeat the...can I call these guys Huns? I think they're German but we're like 120 years early to call Germans Huns.

 

[The Laurent]

With our drill so low, we're definitely going to need to get down to business to defeat the...can I call these guys Huns? I think they're German but we're like 150 years early to call Germans Huns.

Click to shrink...

I assume we can also use Influence to get extra supplies or... something? Not sure.

Actually, @Photomajig , what all can Influence get you in terms of "for battles/campaigns." Obviously I'm sure at some point we'll start being able to spend influence on, uh, actual politics. But we're more at the point of pulling strings to help our army.

 

[Falliant]

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced

 

[NSchwerte]

The pathfinders are sooo good. Not only do we get two units at once, they are also Halflings which are very good infantry and they have rifles with 200m close range. Getting them is a must.

Kleber is definitely the best of our past subordinates, he's an offensive genius, a fellow hob and he doesn't have a place ATM.

Something to keep in mind for this battle is that with drill significantly lower than morale, Humans are boosted while Dwarves are weakened.

It feels almost criminal to not take the hob lancers. They attack with a guaranteed 3 advantage and +2 wounding every time they charge someone!

I would feel tempted to take a human unit as third choice, with the high morale making them great at holding the line, but our only choice is the siege artillery, which will grow terrifying with human leveling and can dominate a battlefield with that range, but cohesion doesn't matter for artillery and we already have 3 artillery pieces, so something else is needed.

The flavour text of the dwarven cuirassiers says that they are going to destroy any cavalry they encounter, but tbh I am not so convinced by them. Yeah, they have a default wound treshold of 5, but they are slow and only trained.

The elven hussars are better trained and may very well win an exchange. Tbh I don't think that the cuirassiers equipment is *good*, if I had the choice to have them unequip is I would.


Which means that the last slot is a choice between the proffessional Hobgoblin Infantry, the proffessional Dwarven Infantry and the Proffessional Elven Cavalry.

The Dwarves are badly suited for this battle with the low drill, though if their flavour text is a hint to the co trait then they would be able artillery guards.

The hobs would be hobs and a nice strong unit of hob infantry able to charge and wreak havoc among the enemy is good.

But I'll have to agree, the elven hussars are the best choice here, even if they are elves . The extra spotting will be valuable and an additional cavalry unit to screen against the enemy would be great. If only they were humans though




[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced

 

[geraldrold]

[x] Plan: mixed bag of goodies
-[x] 117th Hobgoblin Fusiliers. A new unit born from the consolidation of three veteran but understrength regiments from the region of Haute-Garand, the 117th are some of the toughest sons and daughters of Hobb you've ever known. They bring a powerful core of shock infantry to your forces. Professional Infantry. CO: Buko Favre, ???.
-[x] 19th and 28th Halfling Pathfinders. Halfling skirmishers from the marshes and woodlands of La Ravaille, the 19th and 28th are reckoned to be fine marksmen and light infantry, if lacking in real combat experience. The patronage of a halfling member of the Convention has somehow won them specialist Canard rifles, which have an effective firing range well beyond the Cabot musket. Trained Infantry. 19th CO: Sophie Tasse, ??? & Georges Villiers, ???. Armed with Canard Rifles (Wounding +0, 200m/300m/500m).
-[x] 13th Hobgoblin Lancers. The lance is the ultimate weapon of shock and awe. A cavalry squadron armed with lances is devastating and terrifying to face - and when the riders are hobgoblins on enormous warhorses, the effect is magnified tenfold. Lancers have traditionally been elves in Arné, but the Convention has established a great many lancer squadrons utilizing hobgoblins as riders - at long last. Trained Cavalry. CO: Karo Bonnaire, ???. Armed with Lances (Wounding +1, additional Charge Advantage, -1 Concealment, -2 Movement (7)).
-[x] (-25 Influence) Alho Kléber, CO of Hobgoblin Infantry. Kléber has fallen prey to the same lack of prospects as you. His 41st has been demobilized, leaving him without a command despite his considerable Offensive Genius.
-[x] (-25 Influence) Henri Burrard, CO of Human Infantry. Henri Burrard seems to have come into considerable wealth as of late, thanks to a Lucky surprise inheritance. He's taken up a desk job in General Guizot's staff, but seems eager to return to the field.

well infantry heavy because we need a good frontline the lancers to charge other cav or absolutely destroy things when charged from behind
as for the officers: who doesn't want an offensive genius also we need a bit of luck on our side

 

[BoredStudent1414]

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Balanced

 

[The Laurent]

Oh, question, @Photomajig , in future battles, unless it's an ambush, will we have time to decide where the artillery is? Because if they have to move from some starting/setup hex in real time it'll be 5-6 rounds before they can even fire at all, with their one move a turn.

 

[NSchwerte]

S+	Rapid
S	Brilliant	Offensive Genius	Defensive Genius
A	Inspiring	Optimist	Teacher
B	Lucky	Logistican	Watchful	Sneaky
C	Feared	Butcher	Distracted	Loud	Careless	Maverick
D	Unsteady	Demoralising
Elven	Incompetent

I made a tier list of CO traits

Traits in the same tier are ranked from best to worst.

Whats your opinions?

 

[The Laurent]

S+	Rapid
S	Brilliant	Offensive Genius	Defensive Genius
A	Inspiring	Optimist	Teacher
B	Lucky	Logistican	Watchful	Sneaky
C	Feared	Butcher	Distracted	Loud	Careless	Maverick
D	Unsteady	Demoralising
Elven	Incompetent

I made a tier list of CO traits

Traits in the same tier are ranked from best to worst.

Whats your opinions?

Click to shrink...

I think there's a degree of situationality. For instance, Feared is higher than C-tier if it's on an Artillery CO, because it's a situation where you don't want to lose Cohesion in the first place, and also a situation where doing additional Cohesion damage is key to, uh, not being charged/etc.

And honestly I'd say Brilliant is better than Rapid, or at least comparable, because the bonuses it provides to fighting allow a unit to cohere together better.

 

[Nerdorama]

S+	Rapid
S	Brilliant	Offensive Genius	Defensive Genius
A	Inspiring	Optimist	Teacher
B	Lucky	Logistican	Watchful	Sneaky
C	Feared	Butcher	Distracted	Loud	Careless	Maverick
D	Unsteady	Demoralising
Elven	Incompetent

I made a tier list of CO traits

Traits in the same tier are ranked from best to worst.

Whats your opinions?

Click to shrink...

Logistician and Feared both go up situationally at least a tier on (siege) Artillery. Sneaky might do the same on (light) Cav. Feared and Butcher also seem like they should be on a higher tier than strictly negative traits like distracted/loud/careless/maverick.

 

[NSchwerte]

I think there's a degree of situationality. For instance, Feared is higher than C-tier if it's on an Artillery CO, because it's a situation where you don't want to lose Cohesion in the first place, and also a situation where doing additional Cohesion damage is key to, uh, not being charged/etc.

And honestly I'd say Brilliant is better than Rapid, or at least comparable, because the bonuses it provides to fighting allow a unit to cohere together better.

Click to shrink...

Artillery are definitely very different to the others.

Rapid Artillery COs are gods and all offensive traits are extremly good, while pretty much all other traits don't matter.

You probably have a point that brilliant is equivalent to rapid, with it giving +20 attack and +2 cohesion, but the rapid infantry in Saintonge still haunts my me

Logistician and Feared both go up situationally at least a tier on (siege) Artillery. Sneaky might do the same on (light) Cav. Feared and Butcher also seem like they should be on a higher tier than strictly negative traits like distracted/loud/careless/maverick.

Click to shrink...

Feared is definitly good on artillery, but is logistican that good? Supply wont matter so its about munition and shouldnt the artillery be close to our supply depot anyway so it can easily resupply after firing 5 times?

Looking at it whole I think you could create a tier for Watchful, Sneaky, Feared and Butcher, which are all relativly neutral in effect but can be very effective if used correctly. Thinking about it a bit more, losing 2/5 of a units supply is a lot worse than gaining 2/5 more and the more i think about the situation where maverick could trigger the worse it becomes, not neccessarily because of the effect on the division but by destroying our plans.

 

[The Laurent]

Artillery are definitely very different to the others.

Rapid Artillery COs are gods and all offensive traits are extremly good, while pretty much all other traits don't matter.

You probably have a point that brilliant is equivalent to rapid, with it giving +20 attack and +2 cohesion, but the rapid infantry in Saintonge still haunts my me

Click to shrink...

Watchful can also have some small use for Artillery, but it's a case where it's more about making up for failings in other units, since it should never have to be Artillery that spots the enemy before they attack. Also Logistician is pretty useful for Art, and also for any Hobgoblin unit in general.

 

[Nerdorama]

Feared is definitly good on artillery, but is logistican that good? Supply wont matter so its about munition and shouldnt the artillery be close to our supply depot anyway so it can easily resupply after firing 5 times?

Click to shrink...

I mean sure, unless they have to reposition, ever. Resupplying also takes an action, so for any artillery not sitting literally next to a supply depot, moving, resupplying, moving back, and setting back up takes them out of the action for four turns, plus another two for every space further away from the depot. Now, it's more efficient to use another unit as a runner, but that's still taking up 3+ turns of that other unit's time. Resupplying artillery in the field is a debacle, and Logistician means you have to do it every 7 rounds of fire instead of every 5, which I feel is huge.

 

[Kylia Quilor]

[X] Plan: Cavalry Calling, Anti-Cav Cav

 

[The Laurent]

But I'll have to agree, the elven hussars are the best choice here, even if they are elves . The extra spotting will be valuable and an additional cavalry unit to screen against the enemy would be great. If only they were humans though

Click to shrink...

Honsetly, I feel like we haven't seen the full breath of what Elves can do, because we've not yet had the joy and pleasure of fighting two battles just a few days apart without weeks or months to bring up our numbers back to full, at which point their ability to get back up after being beaten to hell will probably be a little more appreciated.

Not that humans won't have their own advantages in such a situation, but it's easy to imagine... and indeed, I think that's one mechanical advantage Elven Cav has, is that because they're going to take hits, their ability to recover from them between fights is pretty crucial.

 

[NSchwerte]

Watchful can also have some small use for Artillery, but it's a case where it's more about making up for failings in other units, since it should never have to be Artillery that spots the enemy before they attack. Also Logistician is pretty useful for Art, and also for any Hobgoblin unit in general.

Click to shrink...

Watchful is interesting on Elven units, where it pushes their spotting to 7, which means only halflings in Forests can remain hiding, but i am less convinced in its utility with other units - hopefully we would have some elven units doing the spotting already. Watchful on Artillery is better than most of the other options, but that is mostly because the other options just have no real effects.

Logistican for hobgoblins does help a bit with their drawback, but its still just a single additional turn of rest. Traits that improve their defensivensess or cohesion in other ways will mean that they will have to rest less in the first place, while agressive traits means that they are killing enemies better, getting rout cohesion and just getting less damage because everyone who could shoot them is routing.

I mean sure, unless they have to reposition, ever. Resupplying also takes an action, so for any artillery not sitting literally next to a supply depot, moving, resupplying, moving back, and setting back up takes them out of the action for four turns, plus another two for every space further away from the depot. Now, it's more efficient to use another unit as a runner, but that's still taking up 3+ turns of that other unit's time. Resupplying artillery in the field is a debacle, and Logistician means you have to do it every 7 rounds of fire instead of every 5, which I feel is huge.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, I think you are right, I definitly underestimated the logistical troubles of artillery in longer battles than the saintonge skirmish. Especially because artillery can easily fire nonstop if positioned correctly while infantry will have to move and often charge instead.

Honsetly, I feel like we haven't seen the full breath of what Elves can do, because we've not yet had the joy and pleasure of fighting two battles just a few days apart without weeks or months to bring up our numbers back to full, at which point their ability to get back up after being beaten to hell will probably be a little more appreciated.

Not that humans won't have their own advantages in such a situation, but it's easy to imagine... and indeed, I think that's one mechanical advantage Elven Cav has, is that because they're going to take hits, their ability to recover from them between fights is pretty crucial.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, thats true, while they are the worst in direct combat, they are great at sustaining their costly campaign. Recovering more casualties means that their slower leveling is not as bad as it looks too, because they dont lose as much xp in every battle as other races.

 

[Photomajig]

Actually, @Photomajig , what all can Influence get you in terms of "for battles/campaigns." Obviously I'm sure at some point we'll start being able to spend influence on, uh, actual politics. But we're more at the point of pulling strings to help our army.

Click to shrink...

We'll cover this in more detail soon, but you can use it to acquire weapons and other equipment, trained recruits, intel on upcoming battlefields, intel on enemy disposition, get more supply to your army, loan experienced units and so forth.

You gain Influence from victories and having factions that like you hold power in the Convention, plus schmoozing and writing lots of letters to important people.

Oh, question, @Photomajig , in future battles, unless it's an ambush, will we have time to decide where the artillery is? Because if they have to move from some starting/setup hex in real time it'll be 5-6 rounds before they can even fire at all, with their one move a turn.

Click to shrink...

Yes, generally you will be able to choose where you deploy your Units on your side of the battlefield.

 

[GildedSergeant]

DWARVEN STONE MIND effects possibly changed. CO loss is very rare right now, so I'm trying to think of appropriate alternate effects to represent how dwarves tend to kind of shut down in the absence of clear directions. Suggestions welcome! The previous effect of losing morale when discipline falls has been removed.

Click to shrink...

Maybe cohesion/morale loss when they're unable to fulfill their orders as demanded? For example, they may struggle to adapt when ordered to move to a certain position but getting unexpectedly charged or blocked by a hidden unit.