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Who Needs Harmony?: An MLP Empire Quest

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Somebodynobody10 said:
The difference is that the pegasi are pretty much beat no matter what happens, at this point. On the other hand, I fear the dragons will absolutely cause tremendous damage if they manage to shrug off a few explosives.
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Hence why there are multiple rounds of bombing. But if you are so worried about this, here's a compromise.

[ ] Plan: The Great Big Mare-a-thon Fireball
-[ ] Let the dragons go to the city unimpeded and wait for them to be in the city limits, properly battling the defenders.
-[ ] While both sides are distracted, have your forces start prepping several barrels of explosive powder to be rigged to explode. Several of which are to be filled with various metal objects to create shrapnel.
-[ ] When all dragons are battling House Storm, have your forces' mages scry the battlefield and see where the dragon forces are and where the most dense House Storm forces are.
-[ ] Once this information is acquired, begin lighting the explosive barrels and have your mages teleport them to the location of the enemy.
--[ ] If the dragons seem to be more resistant to the explosives, then focus on them more in the subsequent bombings to ensure they are more weakened.
-[ ] Once the explosives are detonated, repeat the process a few more times, then wait for the fighting in the city to die down before your forces are sent into attack in force.
 
I think it might end up being a question of where we want to risk additional damage.

The one objection to Plan Fireball that I can see is that if we want to loot Mare-A-Thon, either just of its items or if we want to keep the city for ourselves, then letting the Dragons in and further bombing the place will do more damage and risk a potential collapse(?) compared to fighting the Dragons before they get there and then finishing the Siege.

From a preservation of the men perspective, as long as the Dragons chase the "relief" force into the city then the plan will likely deal the least casualties to us, as long as we're able to prevent the Dragons from escaping into the countryside to wreak havoc.

Presuming the Dragons are in range for Plan: Clip Wings, then the risks there are having a battle with a comparatively fresh force of 14 Dragons and leaving the Sieged Forces comparatively intact (as compared to what they'd be like post fighting 14 Dragons).

The advantage I'm seeing with my plan is, assuming they are within range as Questor hasn't commented on it yet, the fact that we effectively get a surprise round with our artillery against the Dragons before they leave our reach to enter Mare-A-Thon's fortifications, and presuming success would cause a massive decline in enemy morale, possibly encouraging surrender if we're lucky.
 
FictionPack said:
Which is a moot point if the city truly is rigged to blow and fall out of the sky.
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And that was originally supposed as a possibility before Questor clarified that it was a Grain Silo that caused the explosion and not a reserve of military grade explosives.

If we're going to suppose things that Peggy might have set up to make us choke on our victory, you might as well suggest that he rearranged the entirety of Mare-A-Thon to be a Ritual Blood Sacrifice set to go off in the event of his death, and everyone with 10 kilometers will have their blood explode out of them if that happens.

Reasonably speaking, I feel like the Hammer & Anvil Pincer with the Relief Force, potentially with Dragon Support, was the last arrow in Peggy's quiver and this is the last Event tier vote before we see the Pegasus's Last Futile Stand and get into the "What now?" Politics.

The big thing they had before our invasion was The Storm, and at this point any major Magical Stuff will be noticed by Merlin.

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Though there's an idea, I didn't really make use of the Magic Users in my plan. Maybe another Sensory Deprivation, on all 14 targets? An area of Slowed Movement would work out pretty well as well, or just preparations for Shields.

@Questor how viable are the above three magic uses from Merlin and his group in relation to the 14 Dragons?
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Besides the hypothetical Magic Stuff, Peggy has already tried 3 Gambits on us in this campaign.

He dropped an Ursa Major on us, he set up a Pincer Attack for the Siege, and he tried to recruit Dragons (probably).

We killed the Ursa and the Dragons messed up his other plan, so I feel like Peggy just doesn't have much else left to try to flip the table on us, so I don't think we need to be worried about him pulling another major army threat out of nowhere.
 
Walliseatscheese said:
he tried to recruit Dragons (probably).
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Most likely not given this:
Questor said:
Remember that random event roll from the end of the turn before the campaign began? And remember how I said that in the case of Maretonian maps, "here be dragons" is very literal? Well, those dragons finally noticed the civil war their neighbors were engaged in and decided to get in on the fun themselves.
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So yeah, dragons are probably just hear to burninate the countryside.
 
Walliseatscheese said:
[ ] Plan: Clip Their Wings
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I think this can work. For the life of me I think we've discussed raising hill's before for the cannon's to reach and Questor confirming it'd be a roll but I can't find out where.
Still beyond that starving House Storm out and their hit to moral excellent, the PR this would bring taking down the dragon's would be amazing instead of having them go nut's in the city like a bunch of cat's finding a mouse colony and then bombing it to hell.
 
TheLordofAwesome said:
Most likely not given this:

So yeah, dragons are probably just hear to burninate the countryside.
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The RER put the Dragons in play, yes, but I'm talking about the ??? 4 that was rolled.

I suspect that it was either a "Status of the Relief Force" roll or a "Success of Special Mission" Roll, and my gut says the latter is more likely.

Said Special Mission was to make contact with the Dragons and hire some mercenaries, or such is my supposition based on the fact that the Dragons are wearing armor, and a 4 meant that they failed.

Badly.
 
Walliseatscheese said:
The RER put the Dragons in play, yes, but I'm talking about the ??? 4 that was rolled.

I suspect that it was either a "Status of the Relief Force" roll or a "Success of Special Mission" Roll, and my gut says the latter is more likely.

Said Special Mission was to make contact with the Dragons and hire some mercenaries, or such is my supposition based on the fact that the Dragons are wearing armor, and a 4 meant that they failed.

Badly.
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I assume the roll was for how intact the relief force was.
 
So my theory is that House Storm tried hiring dragon mercenaries and it went something like this;

"So will you do it?"

"For that much? We want more then that."

"Sorry, but we are scraping by as it is."

"So there is more back at your kingdom?"

"Yes."

"And you just admitted you guys can't fight off the invasion without our help?"

"Yes?"

"So what's stopping us from just plundering everything you have for ourselves?"

"... Aw s@*t."
 
silvershark said:
So my theory is that House Storm tried hiring dragon mercenaries and it went something like this;

"So will you do it?"

"For that much? We want more then that."

"Sorry, but we are scraping by as it is."

"So there is more back at your kingdom?"

"Yes."

"And you just admitted you guys can't fight off the invasion without our help?"

"Yes?"

"So what's stopping us from just plundering everything you have for ourselves?"

"... Aw s@*t."
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This sounds like exactly the type of Downfall-'Steiner's Attack'-esque Desperation Plan that Dictators like Pegicles would come up with if they're getting into hot water.
 
Walliseatscheese said:
Maybe another Sensory Deprivation, on all 14 targets? An area of Slowed Movement would work out pretty well as well, or just preparations for Shields.

@Questor how viable are the above three magic uses from Merlin and his group in relation to the 14 Dragons?
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Sensory deprivation might work, but it will be a lot more difficult to do on account of the multiple targets. Such a thing would require a great deal of coordination between the mages in question, and would not last very long due to the greater drain of mana. An area of slowed movement is also a viable option which, while consuming more mana, would be easier to do due to the simplicity of the singular spell. Bear in mind however that such spells don't and can't discriminate. Anything in the area will be moving more slowly, not just the dragons.

Shields are both straightforward and something every mage present has a great deal of experience with. They won't hold up to dragonfire forever, and you're not going to get a Shining Armor tier city-sized shield, but they are most definitely a viable tactic.
 
Questor said:
Sensory deprivation might work, but it will be a lot more difficult to do on account of the multiple targets. Such a thing would require a great deal of coordination between the mages in question, and would not last very long due to the greater drain of mana. An area of slowed movement is also a viable option which, while consuming more mana, would be easier to do due to the simplicity of the singular spell. Bear in mind however that such spells don't and can't discriminate. Anything in the area will be moving more slowly, not just the dragons.

Shields are both straightforward and something every mage present has a great deal of experience with. They won't hold up to dragonfire forever, and you're not going to get a Shining Armor tier city-sized shield, but they are most definitely a viable tactic.
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Aren't dragons also resistant to magic? I seem to remember twilight would test out new spells on spike because they would be less likely to harm him. They weren't immune, it just required more effort, concentration, and magic for spells to effect them. I could be wrong but I'm almost sure it was mentioned in one of the show's earlier seasons.
 
CptKirk215 said:
Aren't dragons also resistant to magic? I seem to remember twilight would test out new spells on spike because they would be less likely to harm him. They weren't immune, it just required more effort, concentration, and magic for spells to effect them. I could be wrong but I'm almost sure it was mentioned in one of the show's earlier seasons.
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Too bad for them our army doesn't do all that much magic.
 
Prof.MoreRight said:
On the other hand we absolutely don't won't our prisons to be too expensive.
These different costs add up.



Higher stakes should discourage some would be muggers.
I often see the term "inequality" used in the context of wealth and possessions when by virtue of specificity "poverty" would make more sense.
Inequality can range from not having what you need while others do to having a small house next to a mansion.
Let's focus on things every reasonable person can agree are good such as increasing socioeconomic mobility by improving public access to educational materials and improving transportation to provide uncrowded sustainable access to opportunities over larger areas.
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Fortunately, if we reduce the prison population (or just prevent it from getting as massive as in the US) by doing skill training programs and such then you can save a lot of money by not having as many prisons and not having as many mouths to feed. An American-style prison-industrial complex is expensive.

Poverty is another good thing to look at, yeah. Inequality tends to create poverty, so I think a lot of people just use them interchangeably.
 
Sentient Tree said:
Fortunately, if we reduce the prison population (or just prevent it from getting as massive as in the US) by doing skill training programs and such then you can save a lot of money by not having as many prisons and not having as many mouths to feed. An American-style prison-industrial complex is expensive.

Poverty is another good thing to look at, yeah. Inequality tends to create poverty, so I think a lot of people just use them interchangeably.
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Work can be good. But at the same time, well...
Gotta teach them skills that the could live off of so they would not need to fall back on crime, yet at the same time avoid turning the prison system into a for profit industry.
 
Questor said:
Sensory deprivation might work, but it will be a lot more difficult to do on account of the multiple targets. Such a thing would require a great deal of coordination between the mages in question, and would not last very long due to the greater drain of mana. An area of slowed movement is also a viable option which, while consuming more mana, would be easier to do due to the simplicity of the singular spell. Bear in mind however that such spells don't and can't discriminate. Anything in the area will be moving more slowly, not just the dragons.

Shields are both straightforward and something every mage present has a great deal of experience with. They won't hold up to dragonfire forever, and you're not going to get a Shining Armor tier city-sized shield, but they are most definitely a viable tactic.
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Any sort of Weather or Wind Magic available? To buffet the Dragons around or disrupt their flying, maybe coat them with Ice?

How much Gravity Manipulation is possible? Could we drag them out of the skies?

If we can slow things down, how about speeding up the Cannon Crews so they fire more often?

Also, I remember asking about if the Dragons were currently in range of our cannons and it seems to have slipped through, so I'm asking about that again.

Have the mages recovered their mana since the Ursa Major? What are their status exactly?

Depending on the answers, I'm thinking that Clipped Wings v2 will either drop whatever disorientation effect seems most efficient onto them, try to keep the Dragons in range of the Cannons, or boost the crews to throw out as much lead as possible.
 
We're anti-magic in fact. Or one of the closest things this world has to it.

Shields are probobly best and have the least chance to go wrong short-term. And if they attack directly, just scattershot them out of the sky.
 
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Walliseatscheese said:
Any sort of Weather or Wind Magic available? To buffet the Dragons around or disrupt their flying, maybe coat them with Ice?

How much Gravity Manipulation is possible? Could we drag them out of the skies?

If we can slow things down, how about speeding up the Cannon Crews so they fire more often?

Also, I remember asking about if the Dragons were currently in range of our cannons and it seems to have slipped through, so I'm asking about that again.

Have the mages recovered their mana since the Ursa Major? What are their status exactly?
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You have over a thousand Pegasi allied with your army, plus one of the Canterbury mages accompanying you is specialized in wind and weather magic, so that's certainly an option.

Gravity manipulation is really just an application of Unicorn telekinesis, which, while viable, would be difficult to pull off on even one of the dragons, let alone all of them.

While the cannon crew cannot really be sped up themselves, they can accelerate the velocity of the cannon rounds to increase their damage and slightly increase their range. It wouldn't have been enough to target the city, but it might be enough to target low-flying dragons.

The dragons are currently level with the fleeing Maretonians, who are in turn level with the city, so unless they come lower or closer to your forces they remain out of range of even magically enhanced cannonfire.

The passage of several days has allowed the mages to fully recover from their earlier exertions.
 
Right...I say we take down the Dragons.

They're clearly not our friends and, frankly, letting them run rampant could prove disastrous. Especially since they will evidently kill us for so much as getting close to them.
No, better to deal with them now.
 
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Themarineguy said:
Work can be good. But at the same time, well...
Gotta teach them skills that the could live off of so they would not need to fall back on crime, yet at the same time avoid turning the prison system into a for profit industry.
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How about this? State run prisons set up so that the budget quantity is independent of penal labor and profit from said labor goes to the government itself in order to offset the cost of the budget in the first place. The prisoners would receive a percentage of their works earnings in a trust fund that can only be used after release or to access educational materials. They would receive job training as well as more basic training in the areas of financial literacy (it's important to know common pitfalls to avoid and how to handle interviews) and training to handle passive agressive tactics before snapping and attacking someone (irl a surprisingly common issue).
 
Could we flag the fleeing Pegasi to come to us? To both get intel on what they were doing while (hopefully) luring the dragons in range of our cannons. They should be able to see how poor of a state their flying city is plus, you know, massive giant army or tired and small defenders.
 
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