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Warhammer Fantasy: Divided Loyalties - an Advisor's Quest

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Angelform said:
Tragically we do not have the manpower to take the castle intact.
Every province in the Empire doesn't have the manpower.
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Honestly I don't care about capturing the castle intact, but I don't see why we can't stop bombardment after all organized resistance has stoped but before literaly everything of worth has become dust to do some looting before finishing the job.
 
Only one vote for the moment as I await further discussion on the other items:

[X] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.

Rationale: This place needs to go, but the mountain is a step too far. Even at the Blasphemy of Blood, our artillery got nowhere near destroying the mountain, only the top tenth and that was with three weeks of bombardment. We can't afford 30 weeks here. Or even 15 weeks if the dwarves doubled our firepower.

I lean towards letting the dwarves lead the bombardment plan, and putting Asarnil on countermagic because Mathilde is injured and didn't sleep well and is really not in shape to be counterspelling. But I might be convinced that counter-battery is good too.

Edit: might as well copy the relevant sections on the BoB here
BoneyM said:
Gustav had greater luck with his adventure; what was once the tallest peak in the western Wold is now very much not so, and he's quite pleased to add 'killing a mountain' to his list of deeds. The 'Blasphemy of Blood' had turned out to be some sort of bizarre cursed spring in a cave atop the peak. It burbled blood-red water, which local vermin drank and drank and drank from, growing bloated and sloshing, and the only thing they thirsted for more than the liquid of the spring was the true blood that ran in the veins of men. Sadly for the creatures, it turns out that in this case water does not beat fire, and Deathfang had dealt with most of their population in a single contemptuous exhalation. The problem of what to do with the spring was puzzling for a while, and then he'd apparently decided that thinking was for other people and decided to hit it until it went away, and to do that he had roped in the 3rd Division and their siege train. For three weeks boulders the size of cows had been flung at the peak, and though at first it just caused the cursed spring to overflow it's pool and run down in a crimson waterfall, he'd persevered until one day, finally, against all reason, the waterfall ran clear.
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BoneyM said:
The trail up to the peak was one of the casualties of the bombardment, so every morning you have to clamber your way up over sliding gravel and unsteady rock, and every evening you have to fight gravity every step of the way to keep your descent from occurring at literal breakneck speeds. And the time in the middle is an endless lesson in frustration. You had one of the officer sketch the peak as it appeared before Gustav happened to it, and as far as you can tell the top tenth has been completely removed. The only remaining landmark is the spring in the middle of it all, happily burbling up from the rubble and then pouring back down the mountain in an innocent little stream.
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[X] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
We got 13K dwarves and a dragon. Not even a mountain will stand a chance, and odds are there's some nasty shit hidden beneath it we need to destroy for a full victory.

Plus... It'll leave a nice mark for people to remember Abel by. This way, his deeds will never be forgotten..

[X] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
Duh, leave it to the Mountain Slayers from the Slayer Mountain.

[X] Unleash him early and often.
As long as we can keep them inside the castle, we'll win eventually. Dragons are good to make you stay indoors.

[X] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly.
The dragon needs to focus on covering fire (literally), so we'll just blow up the enemy with our not-nearly-enough cannons.
 
[x] Plan To the very foundations
-[x] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
-[x] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
-[x] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
-[x] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly

We don't want to have to clear out the catacombs, though we can at least blast until we run out of ammo or mountain.
Dwarves have centuries of artillery experience, Stirland only recently acquired this surplus of cannon.
Asarnil I'm less certain of, whether to keep him in reserve, let loose, or to counter sallies(?), but we are lowish in men so should try to save them where possible.
We need counter-fire for two reasons:
-There might be multiple enemy spellcasters casting at the same time from several locations. Cannons can split fire, Asarnil can't.
-He could be busy fighting some big nasty and unable to counter a mass necromantic ritual.
 
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I think if we want to destroy the mountain we should wait until after we take the castle, because the Castle is a threat until it falls and if we are aiming for the mountain the entire time then, depending on where we hit, that might take weeks if not months if not longer.

Castle first and foremost, Mountain is afterwards for bonus points.
 
[x] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.

[x] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.

[x] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.

[x] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly
 
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you know what yeah, fuck spelunking in vampire caves
[x] Plan And the very rock you stood on
-[x] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
-[x] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
-[x] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
-[x] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly
 
King Arthur said:
I think if we want to destroy the mountain we should wait until after we take the castle, because the Castle is a threat until it falls and if we are aiming for the mountain the entire time then, depending on where we hit, that might take weeks if not months if not longer.

Castle first and foremost, Mountain is afterwards for bonus points.
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But we still need to list the mountain as our goal know, otherwise people will clap themselves on the back and go home after taking down the castle.
 
[x] Plan And the very rock you stood on
-[x] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
-[x] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
-[x] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
-[x] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly
 
[ ] The confirmed death of the Elector Countess.
[ ] The sacking of Castle Drakenhof.
[ ] The taking of Castle Drakenhof at least somewhat intact.
[ ] The complete destruction of the keep of Castle Drakenhof.
[ ] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
[ ] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
[ ] The exacavation of a pit on the site where the mountain that Castle Drakenhof was built upon used to stand.
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Killing the Elector Countess is both an uncertain goal and silly when the goal is to end the Sylvanian threat, not bring down one uppity vampire who hasn't even openly admitted to us that she exists. Sacking or taking it intact matches up our infantry against the undead in a bloody grind- hell no, not when we've taken so many losses already.

Keep/entirety/mountain are where we want to go here. The keep alone feels like half-assing the job to me, while entirety makes me paranoid that there'll be a vampires nesting in more protected, underground parts of the castle for decades or centuries to come. Mountain feels like doing the job properly. That said, I'd want to confirm what "entirety" and "mountain" actually involve before giving these orders; @BoneyM if you can confirm what each would imply re: the possibility of underground sections of the castle and re: expected risk to/involvement of infantry in poking about the ruins, that would be much appreciated.

[ ] Leave it to the human professionals.
[ ] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
[ ] Leave it to the halfling professionals?
[ ] Write in.
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Human professionals would probably be better morale-wise but I'd trust the dwarves with setting up a well-fortified artillery position over our generals, given the options. Seeing as we're not expected to go general-ing after this campaign is done I'm fine handing it to the dwarves.

[ ] Unleash him early and often.
[ ] Keep him in reserve for now.
[ ] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
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I'm inclined to go with the second or third. Probably third. Early and often exposes him to the full brunt of enemy magical assault which even he might not live through, while reserve risks not using him when we actually need his help to reduce casualties.

[ ] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly.
[ ] Unleash Asarnil on it.
[ ] Attempt to counter it yourself.
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Counter-battery seems like the way to go, in my opinion. Obviously we want to counter it ourselves if we can, but we're only one wizard and won't be able to counter everything. Asarnil, on the other hand, would likely be inclined to go into very exposed positions to chase down their spellcasters, possibly involving flying into the teeth of their other spellcasters- and if he goes down he'll be way outside our ability to move in support of.

This feels like a "pick all that apply" choice, though; if it is then we'll want 1 and 3.

Exmorri said:
Looking at the update and the picture of Castle Drakenhof and thinking about our situation, I'm fairly sure someone is going to be utterly boned.

I'm just not sure who.
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I'm expecting her to not sally forth until nightfall when targeting or even noticing what she's up to will be more difficult, and possibly moving her army to outside the castle via underground passages- we can be pretty sure Castle Drakenhof has plenty- to try and flank us, either with an army or elite force hitting for the artillery depending upon what she has available, also at night. Couple that with flying units and her situation isn't quite as bad as you've presented.

Still, it's not good for her, either.
 
[X] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
[X] The complete destruction of the keep of Castle Drakenhof.

[X] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
 
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Lupercal said:
[x] Plan And the very rock you stood on
-[x] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
-[x] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
-[x] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
-[x] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly
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Heh. I read @Exmorri post, reconsider whether it's realistic to destroy a Worlds Edge mountain, update and rename the plan, and people have already voted repeatedly for the original. :)

Next time I'll just make a new plan.
 
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[ ] The confirmed death of the Elector Countess.
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The usual policy of kill the entity causing trouble in Sylvania, and call it a day.
[ ] The sacking of Castle Drakenhof.
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[ ] The taking of Castle Drakenhof at least somewhat intact.
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This is a bad idea as the only approach to the castle is a death trap.
[ ] The complete destruction of the keep of Castle Drakenhof.
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Destroys the surface level of the keep, and avoids waking up any vampires that are sleeping, or sealed within it.
[ ] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
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The most ambition option that isn't being exhibit A for why the Dwari are a race in decline, but will require taking on all the monsters within the castle that aren't hilariously old.
[ ] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
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Taking a page from the stupid grudges the Dwari have entered into The Book of Grudges, and actually crossed out is a bad idea. Also if there is an ancient evil lurking even further in the mountain than the Keep this requires fighting it, and something that old probably dates back to the first chaos incursion, which would be difficult for our top two hero units to take on.

Also keep in mind that the the army of Stirland destroyed a peak not an entire mountain.
It's not difficult to find your way to the former peak that hosted the Blasphemy of Blood. The passage of ten thousand men leaves quite a trail, and all you have to do is follow it before the snow buries it. You and your greatsword bodyguards venture out into the grip of winter and make camp at the foot of the demolished peak. And demolished is, if anything, an understatement. Boulders the size of cows litter the landscape everywhere you look, and all around the base is chalk rubble that fell in giant landslides from the former peak.
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[X] Plan Destroy Drakenhof
 
DocMatoi said:
you know what yeah, fuck spelunking in vampire caves
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While I agree with this sentiment, I really can't support the attempted taking down of the whole mountain. Maybe an intermediate write-in along the lines of [X] "Destruction of Castle Drakenhof and its foundations." (AKA: just the tip :tongue:)

But the entire mountain will, at a very optimistic estimate, take us at least several months to grind down. And sitting on 'Mount Drakenhof' for months or years strikes me as a golden invitation for everything and anything else to bite us in the ass in the meantime, from third party vampires to camp fever to running out of supplies. Castle Drakenhof, after all, sits on a mountain so big it's displayed on the larger Empire map. This is not a thing that sane people attempt to destroy with an army, IMO. (Insane people arguably don't attempt to destroy it with an army either, they use Liber Mortis.)
 
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[X] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
[X] The complete destruction of the mountain that Castle Drakenhof is built upon.
[X] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
[X] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
[X] Unleash Asarnil on it.

The castle, the foundation, and the rock build upon will be molten by the time we are done. Do not think about what treasure you can extract from the vampires, those are not worth it. The countess, should she survive the bombardment can be hunted by the witch hunters at a later time.
 
[X] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
[X] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
[X] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
[X] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly.
 
[X] The complete destruction of the entirety of Castle Drakenhof.
[X] Leave it to the dwarven professionals.
[X] Use him to counter any non-trivial sally attempt or any other counterattack.
[X] Treat it as enemy artillery and counter-battery accordingly.
 
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