Remove ads

Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

Voted best in category in the Users' Choice awards.
Reader mode
ichypa said:
When was all this were Mathilde almost got killed by an assassin? I'm not remembering this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We rolled a few mock battles to see how she'd do.

A Skaven assassin killed her so fast she didn't get to act once. The battle ended in the first half of the first round.

In a hilarious turn of event, the belt landed exactly every retribution hit, and that was just enough to kill the assassin.

But it just goes to show that anything short of the Seed means we'd be dead without recourse to an unnamed assassin without any magical gear in that situation.
 
Last edited:
ichypa said:
When was all this were Mathilde almost got killed by an assassin? I'm not remembering this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Mathilde was never almost killed by an assassin (unless you count Stirland work where there was that whole assault from subverted staff). In fact, the Skaven have been pretty quiet so far, which is both a relief and a concern.

Various posters, however, decided to figure out what Mathilde could do against various threats, including a Skaven assassin. The Skaven assassin mopped the floor with Mathilde, until the runic belt activated smashing him. The only reason Mathilde would have survived is through the Seed of Regrowth, but it is a stark reminder that we are not immortal and a hit squad of Skaven assassins could quickly kill us unless we figure out a way to get away.
 
Just made me immensely glad we didn't go for that five-favour Hysh item, even if it took some arguing.

WHFB is lethal.

The Seed is a requirement for Mathilde to even go near serious combat and not be in immense danger of dying like a chump.
 
Last edited:
TotallyNotEvil said:
We rolled a few mock battles to see how she'd do.

A Skaven assassin killed her so fast she didn't get to act once. The battle ended in the first half of the first round.

In a hilarious turn of event, the belt landed exactly every retribution hit, and that was just enough to kill the assassin.

But it just goes to show that anything short of the Seed means we'd be dead without recourse to an unnamed assassin without any magical gear in that situation.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

To be fair, it was a freak accident, much like Belegar killing Black Orc in one round.
 
Thor's Twin said:
In fact, the Skaven have been pretty quiet so far, which is both a relief and a concern.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think we have two major areas of Skaven activity. They have presumably been fighting each other in the underground portions of Karagril, and Clan Mors seems to have a major presence underneath the Caldera (Grobi Town on most maps.)

If the various Greenskin movements are involving them slaughtering each other over the Only Gork/Mork heresies, then we'll probably be putting increased focus on the Skaven presence in the immediate future, since they'll probably try to take advantage of the Greenskins' recent losses themselves.
 
Last edited:
Yeah. They sound really powerful on their face, but they need to be good enough that we can, if not win, then at least survive every battle we ever get into.

Because the moment we don't is the moment this is over.
 
Part of the question here is what is the time frame of the Expedition. Initially it was presented as ~5 years, I think.

If that's the case, the various humans here might not want to be sent back home in triumph, because they're here to avoid being forced to fight in an incipient civil war in the Empire, and succeeding too hard and too fast would be a bad thing for them.

I suspect that there may instead be a desire to increase the ambition of the Expedition before the locals get their act together. With Karak Azul on the march a lot of possibilities open up.

The big one might be to try to seize Karak Drazh and Karagril. The former will have its own set of clans in exile that would flock from across Karaz Ankor if it seemed a reasonable proposition, which would significantly strengthen Karak Eight Peaks' position if Karagril was held. Karak Drazh was the third largest dwarven hold, and its last reigning king held the rearguard long enough for the civilian population to evacuate. It's mentioned that there have been several attempts to retake it.

I know it's ambitious, but with the Night Prowler face of the Coin I think Mathilde can help pull it off. It's also enormously strategically beneficial. With it we command Death Pass and remove a major centre from which orcs project power to attack the Border Princes.

Black Crag/Karak Drazh is, I admit, the most powerful orc stronghold in the World's Edge Mountains, but that's also why we don't want it right next door.
 
Alratan said:
Part of the question here is what is the time frame of the Expedition. Initially it was presented as ~5 years, I think.

If that's the case, the various humans here might not want to be sent back home in triumph, because they're here to avoid being forced to fight in an incipient civil war in the Empire, and succeeding too hard and too fast would be a bad thing for them.

I suspect that there may instead be a desire to increase the ambition of the Expedition before the locals get their act together. With Karak Azul on the march a lot of possibilities open up.

The big one might be to try to seize Karak Drazh and Karagril. The former will have its own set of clans in exile that would flock from across Karaz Ankor if it seemed a reasonable proposition, which would significantly strengthen Karak Eight Peaks' position if Karagril was held. Karak Drazh was the third largest dwarven hold, and its last reigning king held the rearguard long enough for the civilian population to evacuate. It's mentioned that there have been several attempts to retake it.

I know it's ambitious, but with the Night Prowler face of the Coin I think Mathilde can help pull it off. It's also enormously strategically beneficial. With it we command Death Pass and remove a major centre from which orcs project power to attack the Border Princes.

Black Crag/Karak Drazh is, I admit, the most powerful orc stronghold in the World's Edge Mountains, but that's also why we don't want it right next door.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not exactly IIRC, that was "What are you going to be doing for the next five years" which we answered with helping with K8P. In the discussion me and Thor are having its a case of the Expedition soon because Boney has clarified that once Belegar gets secure he'll call it a success and move to forting up. Me and Thor are just assuming it will take around a month more for that to be reached.

E: Like, I don't recall Belegar himself mentioning five years as a thing anywhere for example.
 
Last edited:
Let's wait until we have more than 3/8ths of the 8 Peaks and a giant Skaven presence underneath our asses before we start talking about where to push the Dwarven reclamation next, huh?
 
BungieONI said:
Not exactly IIRC, that was "What are you going to be doing for the next five years" which we answered with helping with K8P. In the discussion me and Thor are having its a case of the Expedition soon because Boney has clarified that once Belegar gets secure he'll call it a success and move to forting up. Me and Thor are just assuming it will take around a month more for that to be reached.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

My point was that the human forces aren't ready to go home yet, and that with Karak Azul on the march it's premature to pause the Expedition, particularly after taunting Kazador in the way Belegar has. For political reasons he can't send everyone home until Kazador has had a fair chance to compete with the manlings for glory, and in dwarven terms a fair chance is unlikely to be a short amount of time.

Previously declaring success and calling it a day may have been Belegar's intention, but I think we may have succeeded too hard for that.

Now, it may well be that Belegar declares that the Expedition has met its objectives and now the allied armies of Karak Eight Peaks, Karak Azul, and the Empire are going to eat with some squatters, but that's a different matter.

Guile said:
Let's wait until we have more than 3/8ths of the 8 Peaks and a giant Skaven presence underneath our asses before we start talking about where to push the Dwarven reclamation next, huh?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

We may well be better off taking or at least completely destabilising Karak Drazh than any of the other peaks in Karak Eight Peaks given its location, prominence, and way it attracts an additional set of dwarf clans. I would want to take and refortify the Citadel first though.
 
Last edited:
TotallyNotEvil said:
Just made me immensely glad we didn't go for that five-favour Hysh item, even if it took some arguing.

WHFB is lethal.

The Seed is a requirement for Mathilee to even go near serious combat and not be in immense danger of dying like a chump.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
That's the resaon WFRP (and all derived games) have fatepoints. And at their core they are somewhat less outright lethal than WHFB.

Essentialy, the seed of regrowth is our fatepoint supply.
 
Alratan said:
My point was that the human forces aren't ready to go home yet, and that with Karak Azul on the march it's premature to pause the Expedition, particularly after taunting Kazador in the way Belegar has. For political reasons he can't send everyone home until Kazador has had a fair chance to compete with the manlings for glory, and in dwarven terms a fair chance is unlikely to be a short amount of time.

Previously declaring success and calling it a day may have been Belegar's intention, but I think we may have succeeded too hard for that.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I wonder how many of the humans actually do intend to return to the Empire. The Knightly Orders, almost certainly, and I doubt the vagabond mix is staying around, but the rest?

BoneyM said:
Second of all and almost as surprising is the turnout from your home province: apparently the Elector Countess has started to phase out crossbows in favour of handguns and things have not been going well, as thousands of former troops have rallied to Clan Angrund to seek their fortunes rather than trying their luck with newfangled gunpowder contraptions. Of roughly equal size are the detachment of various hunters, poachers, and woodsmen from western and northern Stirland. A lifetime living next to Sylvania, you're sure, will make the Badlands seem homey by comparison.

The third major category of volunteers are, in a twist of irony, caused by the very breakdown in civil order that prevented the Empire proper from assisting. First, there are Nordlanders who have abandoned their home province in the face of entire villages disappearing overnight to seek their fortunes where the danger is something that can be met with an axe to the face. Many speak darkly of the Norscan blood running through Nordlander veins, but none can gainsay their ability in combat, and what they lack in armour or tactics they make up for in strength and courage. Second, bizarrely, an equal number of Middenlanders - religious exiles, apparently, who speak darkly of conflict within the Ulrican church.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Not sure about the Stirlanders, though IIRC, Cordin talked about how most of them just want enough to purchase a farm, so presumably they're headed back if they survive (although probably not to Stirland.) But the Nordlanders appear to be abandoning their homes out of terror of what's back there, while the Middenlanders are religious exiles, something not exactly conductive to heading back at all.

I wonder if any of them have made similar arrangements with Belegar like the Halflings did, and might make their own home in Eight Peaks as well?
@BoneyM Can you comment on this? Or is it something we'll have to do more digging ourselves to figure out?
 
Last edited:
The issue with expanding the goal list on the expedition is that we lack the ability to hold/colonize much more than we've already got with the planned permanent presence. And there's no real point in assaulting more than we can hold, as gobi/Skaven recover their losses a LOT faster than dwarves do.

I'm betting someone comes up with an alternative target for the knightly orders down here, which seem to be the main ones likely to be trying to avoid getting caught up in an Empire internal war/power struggle. Gotta be some group that deserves killing in the area to give them an excuse. If nothing else they could probably stretch things a bit by keeping the supply lines to our recent conquest safe...

That said, I wouldn't get too wedded to the idea that avoiding Imperial drama is viewed as sufficient motivation by those groups to campaign down here. Dwarven favor is valuable to many, and anything approaching make-work to give them an excuse to avoid returning would offer very little of that, and being outside of the Empire has costs as well.
 
Reynal said:
The issue with expanding the goal list on the expedition is that we lack the ability to hold/colonize much more than we've already got with the planned permanent presence. And there's no real point in assaulting more than we can hold, as gobi/Skaven recover their losses a LOT faster than dwarves do.

I'm betting someone comes up with an alternative target for the knightly orders down here, which seem to be the main ones likely to be trying to avoid getting caught up in an Empire internal war/power struggle. Gotta be some group that deserves killing in the area to give them an excuse. If nothing else they could probably stretch things a bit by keeping the supply lines to our recent conquest safe...

That said, I wouldn't get too wedded to the idea that avoiding Imperial drama is viewed as sufficient motivation by those groups to campaign down here. Dwarven favor is valuable to many, and anything approaching make-work to give them an excuse to avoid returning would offer very little of that, and being outside of the Empire has costs as well.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
What do you mean by planned permanent presence in your mind? My evaluation of that includes a lot from Karak Azul and a large group of mercs rotating through to keep things stable.
 
Omegahugger said:
most popular male love interests.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Wait. Others exist besides Van Hal?! I'd like to know!

I myself am a dabbler in shipping. I wish that the thread would have voted to husbando Van Hal, but the past is the past. We must move forward, and look! All these dwarves are men!

I'm partial to Ulthar at the moment, ever since Mathilde out tunnel sensed him and sent him running. Anton would be a cute boyfriend too, and Gustav isn't half bad.
 
Chronobreak said:
Wait. Others exist besides Van Hal?! I'd like to know!

I myself am a dabbler in shipping. I wish that the thread would have voted to husbando Van Hal, but the past is the past. We must move forward, and look! All these dwarves are men!

I'm partial to Ulthar at the moment, ever since Mathilde out tunnel sensed him and sent him running. Anton would be a cute boyfriend too, and Gustav isn't half bad.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Anton best boi.
 
BungieONI said:
What do you mean by planned permanent presence in your mind? My evaluation of that includes a lot from Karak Azul and a large group of mercs rotating through to keep things stable.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Basically the civilian presence plus support as well. We want a finite amount of space to live/produce and trying to hold more increases attritional losses (due to more border to defend) without improving income.
 
Alratan said:
We may well be better off taking or at least completely destabilising Karak Drazh than any of the other peaks in Karak Eight Peaks given its location, prominence, and way it attracts an additional set of dwarf clans. I would want to take and refortify the Citadel first though.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Unless things have changed, the plan was to blow the CItadel to rubble with siege weapons and rebuild, wasn't it? There were that many greenskins there, that it wasn't worth the effort to try and retake.
 
That was in case if they do not sally out and allow dorfs to thin their numbers somewhat with artillery and runefire.

We'll see how that turned out in a bit.
 
Last edited:
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top