Matsci
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The Scroll of Kings has rules for Catabults, Ballista, Trebuchese, Flame Cannon, and bizzarly, Steam cannons and a giant firedust powered blunderbuss, called an Eruptor.
General Exalted Thread
The Scroll of Kings has rules for Catabults, Ballista, Trebuchese, Flame Cannon, and bizzarly, Steam cannons and a giant firedust powered blunderbuss, called an Eruptor.
The thing to keep in mind there is that the Empress had the RDG/Sword of Creation, which was kinda the ultimate power to hold in this kinda situation.
Still, the answer to your question is yes, Sorcery probably performs a similar role to cannons in making it easier to siege fortresses. In the Threshold, however, you might have some feudal areas.
Aaron Peori
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Canons basically moves dragonblooded warfare back to a more Shogunate model, because in the shogunate access to Implosion Bows and Lightning Ballistas outnumbered dragonblooded as well.
Something else to keep in mind is that not all Sorcerors will have trained with combat in mind. There's going to be a fair number who've focused on utility magic. At the same time, cannons make it possible for Treshold nations to effectively threaten Terrestrial backed fortifications, even if the Dragonblooded are likely to have more and better cannons than the besieger.
Yeah, in Scroll of Kings IIRC.
Haven't read it, so I can't give an opinion on it.
Source on this?
Incidentally, while this may have been pointed out earlier in this thread, 3e rules actually make representing muskets and the like pretty simple.
Aaron Peori
Rest in Peace
Not really.
Firing Death of Obsidian Butterflies is about the equivalent of grapeshot from a cannon. While the spell is murder on a mortal formation, against a Terrestrial backed on its not really a mission kill or anything but a mild inconvenience. Dragonblooded have defensive Charms and mass combat Charms as well.
The trick to Exalted is to remember that any tech advance is going to favor the Exalts because they can use it, and use it better, than mortals can.
Also, it should be noted that the best way to defend yourself from cannonfire when building fortifications? You build star forts. Massive, huge, incredibly thick stone walls shaped so the kinetic impactors of cannonfire does minimal damage. And earthworks in front of the walls to absorb the shots so they can't even get a clean shot at your walls.
Star forts were ruinously expensive. Cities literally bankrupted themselves building them. Which nation has the most resources to afford to build them, and the magic earth-controlling supersoldiers with which to plan and construct them with powers optimised for building earthworks?
Oh yes, the Realm. So not only does the Realm have more cannons than you, it also has better fortifications.
(In the DB game I was in, over a few seasons my Earth-aspected satrap went on a rebuilding programme for the city of Cherak. Part of what he did was use Raising the Earth's Bones to give it ten metre thick thick three storey high stone walls, built in the Shogunate design style and optimised for geomantic harmony unlike the old walls. Also known as 'ha ha ha, you're not getting through those without powerful magic or a lot of effort".)
In many ways the Realm would find it easier to develop a well trained artillery corps, after all they already use Essence Artillery fairly regularly. All they would need to do is get those already experienced men and women trained in their use and they're good to go.
Cannons even have a pretty decent sized advantage over artifact artillery in that they don't need magic to fire or repair them, meaning that you can crew them with trained mortal soldiers instead of Essence users, and there's also the fact that they're easier to make and repair than Artifact Weaponry because they aren't made from any of the Magical Materials so once again you free up the Essence users to focus on other things. Of course I would be remiss to not point out that a cannon battery would not be hugely enhanced by the Magics of a team of Dragonblooded Artillerymen
In many ways sorcery is best used in a support role rather than direct offense. (Not to say that it can't be.) Impenetrable Barrier of Frost t stop return fire from affecting your own troops (hello -6 external penalty to all ranged attacks!), Infallible Messenger to maintain a line of communication in the chaos of battle. and Raising the Earth's Bones to rapidly build fortifications for your army.
Now, I'm actually surprised at all the discussion I've generated, espically considering I orignally just wanted help with describing dresses
Carrnage
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Or through subversive means.
That actually leads to a point that I wanted to bring up regarding the non-military benefits provided by a Realm Legion stationed in the Threshold. The non-combat aspect of their role in the Satrapy nations has been rather neglected in the Exalted books in favor of depicting them as some kind of 2-dimensional occupying force that is oppressing the poor natives. I really dislike this depiction as it really seems to conflict with the Realm's depiction as analogous to the Roman empire and as the force of predominant civilization. I think that the Exalted setting would be greatly improved if it contained more information on how the Legions shaped the Satrapy nations and the Threshold as a whole.
Would anyone care to elaborate on possible non-combat roles played by the Realm Legions?
It should be noted that Cherak is atypical for a satrapy. It's home to House Ferem, a Cadet House, and thus occupies a sort of awkward position between being a satrapy and being... heh, what the French would call an Overseas Department.
My satrap went on his extensive building and slum-clearing and geomantic-cleansing project partly because he wanted to show off what his theories on the implementation of Shogunate urban planning could do for modern Creation, but the official excuse he had for it was that that by treating House Ferem as lesser partners and showing them the benefits of the Realm, the V'neef-Cathak-Cynis alliance our party members represented could bring them on side, countering their existing ties to House Mnemon and giving the V'neef merchant fleet a guaranteed safe harbour on the Northern coast of the Inner Sea.
The potential of Cadet Houses is basically wasted. There should be a lot of them about - various lesser Houses (often rooted in Shogunate Gens) linked to a specific satrapy / department who occupy an uneasy position and get treated as the poor relatives by the Dynastic Houses.
The Exalted 3e rules don't represent musket instantaneous lethality very well (by intent) which is a problem when that's basically the biggest advantage of a musket. The thing about bows was that people could be peppered by bows all day, even in fairly light armor, and never take casualties, i.e. withering attacks. A musket was slow to load, finicky, and fussy, but someone either didn't get hit by a musket or they went down. This is rather hard to represent in 3e because of the Withering/Decisive split.
Firearms are an entirely different beast from a lot of medieval weapons simply because that instantaneous lethality is a huge, huge advantage.
And really, the way that the Exalted world is set up, the best way to handle them by the books is to set out that this is the case, give an example of a couple, then let players and STs come up with their own.
IMO Withering attacks don't necessarily hit the target, but your point is still taken.
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Walker of the Yellow Path
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Couldn't the problem with Lethal muskets be solved with the rules for how 3e Exalted deals with unimportant foes? I can't remember exactly how it went, but don't characters that are deemed as 'not a threat' to an Exalt allowed to be taken out easily with Withering Attacks? Exalts and other Heroic individuals can block or dodge the bullets, even when disadvantaged, but Joe Mortal the random soldier gets destroyed by Jane Mortal the Musket wielder
Possibly- or like I said, Withering Attacks don't necessarily hit the target, what they really do is change the flow of battle. One swordsman striking at another, not to hit him but with the intent of keeping him off balance for when the actual blow comes? That's the classic example of a Withering attack I can think of. The gun or bow equivalent would be shots aimed at keeping a foe off-balance and distracted from aiming themselves, not necessarily at outright killing them.
(An Iaijutsu contest might be represented by mimicking that scene from Hero, and making Withering attacks representative of the two opponents playing the battle out in their mind before the actual Decisive strike happens)
(An Iaijutsu contest might be represented by mimicking that scene from Hero, and making Withering attacks representative of the two opponents playing the battle out in their mind before the actual Decisive strike happens)
Is there some penalty associated with making a decisive attack?
Yes, but that's... simply not how musketfire works. Musketfire is "you get one shot, and then have to spend 20+ seconds reloading, and you will either miss or fuck their shit up". Musketballs cause massive, crippling injuries when they hit. They punch right through armour which laughs at arrows. They pulverise bones, shattering them like twigs.
The Exalted 3E system is very bad at representing them, because amusingly enough a musket is a paranoia combat weapon. If you get hit, you're fucked, so don't get hit. It's much like how the nWoD system is bad at handling gunfights, because the system is set up to emulate back alley brawls and knife fights, which means that both people get hurt in the fight and it doesn't do the binary OK-fuckedup divide.
System matters, and genre assumptions are often baked into the system.
You will lose Initiative when you make a Decisive Attack.
And yeah, that's fair enough- I didn't say it really represented it well (although I suspect it'd depict a cinematic-style modern gun battle alright even if it wasn't great at it), I said this is how you might do it if you had to.
Might work for 3E Mass Combat though.
Especially if you stick to muskets and worse.
azoicennead
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IIRC it resets your initiative, which is what the damage of a decisive attack is based on.
It'd count as a surprise attack. After all, he might not be aware of your presence, but he's on the watch for attacks.
Eukie
Powered by furious Canadian redheads
Another contributing factor, speaking of morale, is the thunderous boom of a musket volley going off. A single shot may not itself be particularly threatening or scary (even though it's far more dangerous than an arrow), but the immense roar and din is shattering to morale, especially when people on both sides of you drop in an instant. It makes lines collapse and squares open up, leaving them unable to fire back, and vulnerable to light cavalry. It's somewhat like a Withering attack, in that it causes the enemy to shoot less well, but as ES mentions, it lacks the fact that it kills too.