Ragingbear21
Victoria Concordia Crescit
- Location
- Lebanon
The reason all plans are going for the all 20 Sea Guard is because there are only available this turn and because of this
Mercenary Mage Quest: Asur Dogs of War in Warhammer Fantasy
- Thread starter Blackout
- Start date
- Fantasy
As I said, the advantages are obvious. There are disadvantages too.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Blackout has also noted repeatedly that we can charge a lot more next time after our rather impressive showing, and that we can charge even more than that the bigger a unit we have, in all likelihood. So I think you're being a little too conservative here, personally. Like...your numbers are technically correct, but I think you're severely underestimating our likely pay for our next job if we show up with 50+ soldiers.
[X] Plan: Kislev Grit and Elven Grace: Sea Guard (490g: upkeep 1310g)
[X] Plan Elves make the money (640 GC; 1360 GC)
[X] Plan Small and Elite with Rangers (440 GC; upkeep 1060 GC)
[X] Plan Small and Elite
Adrian XXIV
Average User, from Poland
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] Plan Small and Elite with Rangers (440 GC; upkeep 1060 GC)
[X] Plan Small and Elite
[X] Plan Elite Elven Veterans v3
-[X] 14 Veteran Spearmen
-[X] 10 Lothern Sea Guard
-[X] 2 Veteran Rangers
Recruitment Cost: 520 GC
Upkeep Cost: 980 GC
Compared to "previous version", I removed Veteran Archers and replaced them with more Lothern Sea Guard
I also removed 1 Veteran Spearman to "keep it under limit" (1000 GC Upkeep Cost)
[X] Plan Small and Elite
[X] Plan Elite Elven Veterans v3
-[X] 14 Veteran Spearmen
-[X] 10 Lothern Sea Guard
-[X] 2 Veteran Rangers
Recruitment Cost: 520 GC
Upkeep Cost: 980 GC
Compared to "previous version", I removed Veteran Archers and replaced them with more Lothern Sea Guard
I also removed 1 Veteran Spearman to "keep it under limit" (1000 GC Upkeep Cost)
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Imperious
Without the sun of my life
We likely could charge more, but the Sea Guard already are more. Last mission had an agreed payout of 300 GP with a potential 100 GP bonus. The Sea Guard are demanding 1,000 GP in upkeep. Just hiring them is already betting on us being able to double our contract, and needing to make considerably more then double our previous contract to actually make a profit.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Sure. But Blackout has rather repeatedly noted we got severely underpaid there, and will be paid lots more for our next mission based on the rep we earned there. I think we should expect at least double our money even with no additional forces. So, at least 600-800, minimum.
If we also triple our forces, I'd expect to at least double our money again. Which is to say, I'd be shocked if there aren't contracts in the 1500 GC range for us and the Seaguard if we go that route. If you add yet more soldiers, I'd bet that goes up even further and 2000 GC is very possible as a fee for the mercenary company created by the plans that actually add significant soldiers beyond the Seaguard.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
When did Blackout use the expression lots more? In the latest update Fanriel even says that while she expects people in the area to have a better understanding of what swordmasters can do, she doubts it will have fully sunk in after just this one mission.
Anyway this is all supposition. We don't actually know how much money our next contract could offer, but remember what Blackout told us about what playing the dragon mage mercenary option would have been like. We can actually overshoot our local environment of paymasters in terms of what they can afford. We're in Kislev, not in Tilea, Reikland or Marienburg or working for Dwarfs or Ulthuan. Employers here aren't necessarily going to have a checkbook of yes when looking for new hires.
In general ideally if we're going to keep expanding we're probably going to want to get a contact with Erengard's prince or the Tzar, come to think of it.
Ragingbear21
Victoria Concordia Crescit
- Location
- Lebanon
- Location
- California
[X] Plan Small and Elite
I'd prefer to go less elite, but of the plans wirh most momentum this seems best.
I'd prefer to go less elite, but of the plans wirh most momentum this seems best.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
@Ragingbear21 I know Blackout said that we could negotiate for more next mission, but Deadmanwalking was using a lot of superlatives like "lots" more or "severely" underpaid, which I didn't recall blackout using, and which don't seem to appear in the post you quoted.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It was the implication I got from the conversation as a whole rather than any specific post. I'm pretty doubtful we aren't talking a doubling in pay based purely on rep, though.
Sertorius
Rebellious Legate
- Location
- Roma Invicta
It's reasonable, but like it was already said: the Lothern Sea Guard will be even more effective when we hire the whole unit of 20 Ithilmar-clad soldiers. They are probably a one-time opportunity, therefore we should pick them up while we can. The rest should still be available when we go on a recruiting campaign again if we stick to Erengrad.
K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
[X] Plan Small and Elite
-[X] 20 Lothern Sea Guard (400 GC; 1000 GC)
[X] Plan Small and Elite with Rangers (440 GC; upkeep 1060 GC)
Imo we should wait to see what kind of contracts we will get before committing to such a high price.
-[X] 20 Lothern Sea Guard (400 GC; 1000 GC)
[X] Plan Small and Elite with Rangers (440 GC; upkeep 1060 GC)
Shadow Warriors are more like special forces and black ops, who infiltrate deep into enemy territory. They're not spies, they're soldiers.
I'm not planning of staying small forever, it's just that for now we must stay careful with our money. The Sea Guard allows us to grow a bit and ask for better contracts, then when we're more financially assured we can grow to a more respectable size with a solid core of elites who are used to work with us and can serve as officers.
There's a lot more, and there's 1360 each time, plus even more so that we can do more things in downtime than just paying our troops. Upkeep isn't our only use for money, we should have a sizeable warchest in case of emergency and to buy nice things.
Imo we should wait to see what kind of contracts we will get before committing to such a high price.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
Also looking at the result of our recruitment action, I think we should give serious consideration to spending an action on healing for charity next downtime if we intend to recruit more greenhorns. The greenhorns are asking for no less then five times in upkeep pay then they are in recruitment fee, which they're probably doing in justifiable fear that them going on a mission means they're very likely to come back dead so they want a hazzard fee. Making a spectacle of our healing abilities could probably get us a discount for greenhorn upkeep costs the next time we go recruiting because they'd know they'd have a substantially better chance of not coming back dead or with crippling injuries compared to other mercenary or military work.
Like say a plan of:
[] Theoretical downtime action
-[] Finishing Inspiration
-[] Finishing Inspiration
-[] Learning healing arts from the cult of Isha
-[] Healing for charity in Erengard (contact the cult of Shallya for it?)
-[] Recruit new troops
-[] Train new troops
Like say a plan of:
[] Theoretical downtime action
-[] Finishing Inspiration
-[] Finishing Inspiration
-[] Learning healing arts from the cult of Isha
-[] Healing for charity in Erengard (contact the cult of Shallya for it?)
-[] Recruit new troops
-[] Train new troops
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Adrian XXIV
Average User, from Poland
- Location
- Poland
- Pronouns
- He/Him
- Pronouns
- He/Him
For the record, if we're spending only two actions on a spell, it should be CGAE, because that's a better spell than Inspiration and really likely to get completed with two actions (assuming paper and coffee). I'm personally probably down for two actions each on Inspiration and CGAE, but if we're only picking one, it should be the Battle Magic spell.
Somic
It's meow or never
- Pronouns
- She/Her
We mostly just need to keep them alive during the mission, which is down to our Martial more than our healing ability; afterwards, elves have free high-quality healthcare. I do agree that first aid and stopping our employees from dying before we get back are important, but given that the Unbloodied are already asking for what would be insultingly cheap for anyone else with comparable skill, I don't think we could reasonably expect any discounts.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
I disagree, because learning Inspiration will actually make finishing CGAE easier and has substantially less points remaining for us to reach the DC, 114 compared to 202. Inspiration will also help us in anything else that rolls for learning, including likely learning new healing arts.
That said, remember what Blackout said about us needing to roll for both learning and magic in order to learn a new spell. After we meet the learning DC we'll probably have to roll for a second magic DC.
As an aside, I've become more convinced of the need to get a familiar soon, possibly even without the Talking Beast. Preferably an owl so the alignment with Hoeth will help us deal with these difficult spell learning DCs.
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K von Carstein
Likes to go for a walk
- Location
- Belgium
- Pronouns
- He
We already have a +60 bonus for CGAE, so getting the Inspiration bonus for it isn't a must. If we choose the elemental before the inspiration we get a BM spell for the mission after that. We're primarily a mercenary group, getting some BM asap to boost our combat effectiveness and reduce losses seems like a must to me. And concerning the Magic roll to cast CGAE, Inspiration can't help us. It's Hysh, and we can't use spells from 2 different Winds at the same time.
We should totaly finish Conjure Greater Aqshy Elemental next turn, spending at least 2 actions on it again.
Then we can see abaout other spells.
Maybe later we can have a longer turn and spend more actions on learning many easier spells.
Then we can see abaout other spells.
Maybe later we can have a longer turn and spend more actions on learning many easier spells.
Imperious
Without the sun of my life
I remain convinced that if we had to choose between the two that learning Inspiration takes precedence, because Inspiration would also help us in passing the learning DC for CGAE if we finish it first, but honestly I'm fine with leaving that argument for later when we actually vote for the next downtime. Maybe we could do both.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
The difference is a lot smaller than it looks because of the +15 to CGAE, and can be made even smaller with coffee. Realistically, two rolls averages 171 on Inspiration and 221 on CGAE assuming similar expenditures on the two to the ones we did this turn, which means two rolls probably do it for both. I'm fine with picking them both up, but foregoing Battle Magic for another mission to get a very slight bonus to our odds of getting CGAE in two actions rather than three is not a good strategic choice. We need Battle Magic sooner rather than later.
Grabbing a familiar isn't unreasonable at some point, we just need to fit in the, what, minimum of two actions? It's a bit rough. And yeah, we'll need Magic rolls at some point, probably...nothing to be done about that, IMO.
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- Pronouns
- He/Him
I don't like the fact that we can't lose even one Elf or it will be a major tragedy.
Humans can be trained by us. And we are still underutilising that Martial stat because the Sea Guard are few and don't really need it.
IMO we can go for having half the force made of humans. It seems more fun narratively as well.
[X] Plan: The Last Alliance
-[x] 10 Lothern Sea Guard
-[x] 40 Green Archers
-[x] 10 Unbloodied
Recruitment cost: 200+40+50=290
Upkeep cost: 500+200+200=900
Alternatively we can decide to become the ultimate force of archery and woodland. Especially useful if we wish to help Ostland soon.
Do you people remember how it was to face the Wood Elves in Total War? It was great fun, wasn't it?
[X] Plan: The Woods Are Us
[X] 20 Veteran Rangers
[X] 40 Green Archers
Recruitment cost: 400+ 40 = 450
Upkeep cost: 600+ 200 = 800
Humans can be trained by us. And we are still underutilising that Martial stat because the Sea Guard are few and don't really need it.
IMO we can go for having half the force made of humans. It seems more fun narratively as well.
[X] Plan: The Last Alliance
-[x] 10 Lothern Sea Guard
-[x] 40 Green Archers
-[x] 10 Unbloodied
Recruitment cost: 200+40+50=290
Upkeep cost: 500+200+200=900
Alternatively we can decide to become the ultimate force of archery and woodland. Especially useful if we wish to help Ostland soon.
Do you people remember how it was to face the Wood Elves in Total War? It was great fun, wasn't it?
[X] Plan: The Woods Are Us
[X] 20 Veteran Rangers
[X] 40 Green Archers
Recruitment cost: 400+ 40 = 450
Upkeep cost: 600+ 200 = 800
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