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Threads Of Destiny(Eastern Fantasy, Sequel to Forge of Destiny)

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
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So, I've been thinking about who the dark mysterious baddie in the clouds is. Way I see it there's two options.

1: Barbarian Elite, or Diet Khan. From what I understand of their builds this doesn't seem very likely, or rather if someone with their conventional lopsided physical build can even partially conceal from us we're pretty boned.

2: A Shaman. I think this is more likely, as it makes sense to have a spiritual specialist on hand to witness the kids bravery and counter ant exotic effects like us.

I don't think we know much about their shamans besides "long range spiritual specialist with nasty rituals". If my recollection there is correct I'm even more certain we should press them to stop one of those rituals from going off.
 
[X] Drive them before you

Morale and momentum are hugely important in battles. At the moment Shen Hu is engaged with one of their Green equivalents whislt trying to protect the civilians, whilst Generic Sect noble is engaged with another and a 1/2 dozen yellows.

This leaves the 3rd green equiv and their hidden leader completly unengaged. The objective of this is to capitlaise on the confusion of arrival to take as many of them out or force them to flee as possible. Routing is also typically the time when the most damage can be done to the enemy as they focus on running rather than defence. This is a somewhat forceful raid, not a suicide strike. If we can hit them hard and force them to rout they are more likely to limp back to the mountains.*

[] Let them come cedes the initative back to the enemy. They are extremely mobile, and whilst Ling Qi can somewhat counter that advantage I am concerned that if we cede the initial terror the can have their unengaged green (and possibly) their trump card try to lock us down while the raid carries on around us. If they think of it and can dispel hammer their troops free before locking Ling Qi into focusing on a single opponent the raid can carry on around us (even if they have to travel some distance to avoid the mist). And the non-green troops are far too outnumbered for them to win. This is a strategy that requires coordination to pull off though, so I don't expect it to impact the "enemy battery" for [] Drive them before you.

It has it's risks I admit, but [] Let them come feels like it wastes the confusion and fear generated by our arrival too much.

*If we can take out 1 green, or even 2 it becomes a much more difficult proposition to raid an area with typical empire defence forces (2 greens, assorted yellow & red soldiers) unless their trump card is really big. And if he's that big he's proabably too big for us to handle either way.
 
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[X] Drive them before you

I don't think "Let them come" has any change of actually working because the barbarians have no reason to voluntarily enter our mist. Why would they do that when they are all flying ranged combatants? They can just fly above our mist and take potshots at our dudes, most of whom probably lack any long-ranged attacks. Of course, LQ and SH have potent defensive arts, so the barbarians might eventually grow bored and just leave for the next village.
 
[X] Let them come

Honestly I'd be fine with losing this vote because it's become very clear that us readers and thus Ling Qi has a valuable lesson to learn about hubris. If we charge in and break the siege only to be humbled when it turns out we've underestimated our opposition I'd consider that a win if it leads to character development and a better understanding of our capabilities since we still haven't lost to anyone not a ducal or several stages higher. I'd still prefer taking it carefully though, especially since the alternative to a partial victory is more likely to be losing this battle and getting the villages destroyed rather than beating the barbarians outright.
 
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Adhoc vote count started by naths on Oct 16, 2019 at 12:42 PM, finished with 232 posts and 91 votes.
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Well i dont see that vote flipping around anymore. Guess we are gonma either destroy them or int. Either way itll be epic
 
OneArmedYeti said:
I'd note that the vote is "Drive them before you" not "hear the lamentation of their women horses".

Qi's not trying to kill them to a man here, she's trying to shift them to the "run" part of their hit and run tactics while preferably bleeding them on the way.
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Never said she was but she gon need to wreck em pretty hard to get em to scatter while they hold such a number advantage
 
DangerKitty said:
Well i dont see that vote flipping around anymore. Guess we are gonma either destroy them or int. Either way itll be epic
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You'd be surprised. I've seen some votes do some dramatic flips after a good argument is put forward by someone. Sometimes these flips have been for a good benefit. Sometimes they've not planned out at all.
 
dycouza said:
[X] Let them come

Honestly I'd be fine with losing this vote because it's become very clear that us readers and thus Ling Qi has a valuable lesson to learn about hubris. If we charge in and break the siege only to be humbled when it turns out we've underestimated our opposition I'd consider that a win if it leads to character development and a better understanding of our capabilities since we still haven't lost to anyone not a ducal or several stages higher. I'd still prefer taking it carefully though, especially since the alternative to a partial victory is more likely to be losing this battle and getting the villages destroyed rather than beating the barbarians outright.
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TBH, this whole "We must lose or we're bad" meme needs to die in a fire.

Yes, this is a risk, but we've done something similar before and Ling Qi almost soloed the bunch of them until a Green 5 intervened, she has consistently shown herself to be excellent at mulching large masses of first and second realms, even in spite of the interference of a peer. She has her full FVM package online, which gives her considerable resistance against mass dispels, and her defenses can get better still when she ramps up to Echoes as well.

The concern I have is Ling Qi getting carried away and pursuing them after they rout, which will likely provoke the Mystery Rider who is probably late Green if we can't get a read on him (Though not a perspective focused one, hence how she managed to sneak in beneath his attention, which means we can probably disengage as long as he doesn't turn out to be a Fourth Realm and one-shots us). But I don't have a concern about fighting the rest of the enemy force in the meantime, especially when FVM is a hell of a drug and they weren't expecting a field sweeper to hit the table before we did.

I do expect it to not go as easily as the Foreshock Event did, where Ling Qi was comfortably winning even in spite of the efforts of the elite rangers to interfere, but I don't expect us to be completely ineffectual.
 
[X] Drive them before you

My main concern (for this vote, circumstances may change rapidly), is force disparity.

In the immediate vicinity the numbers of defenders to attackers are as follows:

Red - 10:40
Yellow - 3:12
Green (Appraisal) - 1:2

And overall numbers:

Red - 29:100
Yellow - 8:25
Green (Appraisal) 2:3+?

Those are some pretty bad numbers! When you're outnumbered like this (assuming higher levels can tarpit so no cross level intervention) events can snowball very easily. Four attackers to each defender kill that one quickly, and then suddenly it's 8 to 1, then 16 to 1, and the defenders die without making any impact at all.

So, I'd say that under the current circumstances the most important thing is to break the advantage asap before they can make use of it. Other option also does this in a different way, by cutting down on losses, but at least for me this seems the better way of achieving it.
 
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