Remove ads

Mercenary Mage Quest: Asur Dogs of War in Warhammer Fantasy

Reader mode
Modifications that could be made to the plan:

- What if during the advance in the forest the Ogres were to be in a thin line on the front, just because their stomping makes the terrain easier for the advance?
- If not, what if we put De Jonge Bokken to the frontline, the Northern Sons to the left, and the Irongulls at the rearguard? If we expect the front to receive a hammer blow 100%, mayhaps it's better our fresh spearmen+crossbows+pistoleers take it. We wouldn't want the Northern Sons to go the way of the Knights of Ulric at Jaarpen*.
*in a moment outside of eating, an Ogre slightly more purple than others will comment: "Huh, first the Ulricans, and here the Sigmarites. Perfectly balanced, as all things should be".
- It's true that the Beastpath clearing can have a weird geometry, new enemies may arrive from random directions even to the point of all dispositions of sides becoming identical to each other. However we expect to advance to get in firing range of the corrupted trees / Spirit court, in which case it's for the best if the frontline has some ranged support at the ready, favoring having crossbowmen there. Right?
 
Netos said:
- What if during the advance in the forest the Ogres were to be in a thin line on the front, just because their stomping makes the terrain easier for the advance?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You know, I had wondered about this before, and since we'll be reforming anyway it may be an opportune time... While the forest will be getting thinner and easier to bypass closer to the grove, it would give the Sons of Sigmar a nice protective cordon. That being said, it would also limit the options of the Fireclaws if a large target arrives - Ogres are a great deal taller than humans, after all - and it might reduce the offensive potential of the Sons, hyped up on divine intervention as they are. It might also make the Ogres harder to control, though... Well, any prospect of that's gone out the window now.

...

Actually, that rather scuppers that, I fear. Don't want to be trying to reform the front of the formation when the Ogres are likely as not to just not listen.
 
Last edited:
Update: I lived, but the elf is still here squatting in my garden and hissing at the neighbor's cat. Does anyone know someone I can call to come take care of this, preferably not a Bretonnian.
 
Nimbus said:
Actually, that rather scuppers that, I fear. Don't want to be trying to reform the front of the formation when the Ogres are likely as not to just not listen.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Ok, after having been reduced to their base eating instincts we'll be lucky if the Ogres even advance with us. Makes sense to not stir that pot (heh).
And the concern about their height blocking the line of sight of the Fireclaws is very valid.

Once the "divine rush" fades, though, the Northern Sons have taken casualties while De Jonge Bokken are fresh.
But everybody's idea is that the effect on morale/cohesion will hold and be better at the front?
 
Last edited:
Netos said:
Ok, after having been reduced to their base eating instincts we'll be lucky if the Ogres even advance with us. Makes sense to not stir that pot (heh).
And the concern about their height blocking the line of sight of the Fireclaws is very valid.

Once the "divine rush" fades, though, the Northern Sons have taken casualties while De Jonge Bokken are fresh.
But everybody's idea is that the effect on morale/cohesion will hold and be better at the front?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Mmm. They know, as truth, that Sigmar is with them. That counts for a great deal in terms of morale.

Cohesion I have more doubts about, and where morale gets you to the fight and through its first few seconds, cohesion keeps you there. That said, we shouldn't discount the horizontal bonds forged by shared religious fervour, or by shared triumph after adversity... Even beyond that, fighting on the defensive does not play to the Beastmen's strengths and so I'm hopeful that those first few seconds will be able to produce a decisive and lasting advantage. Worst comes to worst, we have the Lightfangs and potentially the Fireclaws to reinforce them.
 
Last edited:
yeah the Ogres are best considered as barely guided weapons at this point
hopefully they wont eat any of our troops in front of them, but any more then that might be asking too much
 
I still hope we get to fight the Beastlord in a duel, possibly using our Beast Form in front of the Elves and the Ogres, so we can gain a lot of respect from them for begin blessed by Kurnous/a fearsome fighter.
 
Mopman43 said:
It'd be a little difficult to arrange fighting him in Beastform in front of the Elves but not any of the men.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yup.

As much as I would like to use Fanriel's war form, the presence of humans will be a problem. This was something we noticed a long time ago, therefore we shouldn't risk it, unless it's a life or death situation.
 
Mopman43 said:
It'd be a little difficult to arrange fighting him in Beastform in front of the Elves but not any of the men.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

I mean.

When we reach the Grove, wich is probably were the enemy leaders and champions are, the Plan is to have either Valahuir or the Ogres destroy it.

And since the Grove itself isn't very big we will probably have to leave most of the troops behind, so bringing only our best and strongest fighters (Elves and Ogres) can be both pragmatic and justified.
 
@Blackout for a minor favor could we just straight up ask for some money? It's a minor favor, so I doubt we could ask for much, but we're cutting it lean enough that even a pretty small amount of cash could help.

It also saves us back and forth deliberation on what we could use the favor for.
 
Last edited:
Adrian XXIV said:
In this case, "equipment cache" (Weapons/Armor/etc) would be better, because we will get a gear to eventually equip our own Human Spearmen (when we recruit them)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
See that's the nice thing about asking for some money, it saves us the argument about whether we need said equipment or something else because if need be we could buy some equipment with money. Money is a catch all good, so there's no need to deliberate about the various things we could get for the favor instead.
 
Imperious said:
See that's the nice thing about asking for some money, it saves us the argument about whether we need said equipment or something else because if need be we could buy some equipment with money. Money is a catch all good, so there's no need to deliberate about the various things we could get for the favor instead.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That just turns it into debating what to spend the money on instead, though? And as a rule, I'd expect anything a favor-giver is liable to have ready access to (e.g. weapons for a mercenary company) will be more efficient to obtain directly from them, rather than adding an extra transaction in between. If we decide that what we really need is, I dunno, a bunch of coffee, then yeah, we have a supplier and they probably don't so maybe cash does make sense. But if we don't know what we want yet, and it doesn't cost an action to use the favor, then why preemptively pay a currency exchange fee in the form of opportunity cost?
 
Wiadi said:
That just turns it into debating what to spend the money on instead, though? And as a rule, I'd expect anything a favor-giver is liable to have ready access to (e.g. weapons for a mercenary company) will be more efficient to obtain directly from them, rather than adding an extra transaction in between. If we decide that what we really need is, I dunno, a bunch of coffee, then yeah, we have a supplier and they probably don't so maybe cash does make sense. But if we don't know what we want yet, and it doesn't cost an action to use the favor, then why preemptively pay a currency exchange fee in the form of opportunity cost?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Yes, but we're going to do that anyway, while we're bound to have things we're going to want to spend and will spend money in. In contrast if we keep arguing about what to have the favor on I expect it to just go unused as we remain undecided and for the favor to remain unused, effectively putting us in the same situation as if we never had the favor at all.

Put another way, suppose we gave the utility gained from multiple option a number from 0 to 10, with 10 representing the highest utility gain and 0 representing no utility gain. Suppose than that a hypothetical ideal and most efficient use of a favor had a utility of 10, cash for a favor as having a utility of 5 and never using the favor at all as having a utility of 0, as in no gain at all. If you expect that not taking cash will mean that we will eventually reach that hypothetical ideal favor (assuming it exists) than not taking cash would be more efficient, if you expect that not taking cash for a favor would lead to us just not using it than taking cash is more efficient. I am of the latter persuasion.

Of course, that's all dependent on us even being able to exchange favors for cash, which Blackout has not confirmed yet.
 
Last edited:
Sertorius said:
Yup.

As much as I would like to use Fanriel's war form, the presence of humans will be a problem. This was something we noticed a long time ago, therefore we shouldn't risk it, unless it's a life or death situation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

As I've mentioned before, both native magic traditions of Kislev involve turning into giant monsters, I suspect Kislevite humans would be pretty chill with it since that's just how witches roll, assuming we explain in advance anyway.

Our current forces, however, would very much not be. So that's a long term consideration, not a reason to use it here and now.
 
Last edited:
DeadmanwalkingXI said:
As I've mentioned before, both native magic traditions of Kislev involve turning into giant monsters, I suspect Kislevite humans would be pretty chill with it since that's just how witches roll, assuming we explain in advance anyway.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We might be able to convince them, but I wouldn't be surprised if they just took the attitude of 'That's Ice/Hag Magic, it's different'.
 
Mystic Pentagram said:
The average peasant/sellsword absolutely dosen't know enough abaout magic to tell the difference, or even know that there is a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I doubt they could explain the Winds of Magic or anything, but I absolutely do expect them to be able to tell what's a Hag Witch or an Ice Witch and express doubts about magic that's not coming from one of them.
 
Mopman43 said:
I doubt they could explain the Winds of Magic or anything, but I absolutely do expect them to be able to tell what's a Hag Witch or an Ice Witch and express doubts about magic that's not coming from one of them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's possible. I'm saying I don't think they'd be more dubious about Fanriel's monstrous form than any of her other magic, since they're just used to spellcasters being able to do that.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top