Boulder Pass

[squeen]

I get the impression (via Melan's review) that Gene Wiegel "Broken Castle" attempts to address this issue a bit.

Haven't bought it yet. (I'm being cheap lately.)

 

[Beoric]

There will definitely be stocks of water, food etc. that can be sabotaged (even the nice piles of boulders for the giants could possibly be rendered inoperable somehow, or chains of command to disrupt, hijack their signalling system to send false orders of retreat, cause morale rolls causing defenders to evacuate. The forts are in a string - but some are more like bunkers, others (or only one?) are where plans are laid and reinforcements sent from. Capture the tallest fort and destroy those adjacent with siege engines.

I think taking the rearmost fort first could cause a lot of worry as the others realize they are cut off from escape. Good or bad idea? They will fight harder but may attack to retake it, allowing the players the defensive position.

But yeah, this is assault under time pressure.

I was, indeed, thinking of taking one of the forts in the rear, and hijacking the signal system so that it would appear that nothing was wrong. Maybe not the rearmost, since that one is more readily observed from the evil kingdom itself.

Once the signal system was compromised, the forces of Good could attack or besiege the first fort in the series, while the party chewed its way toward them.

As for "modern" tactics, tactics always evolve to match the available military technology. If was was a military commander in an age of magic, I would try to learn everything I could about the magic I might be facing, and try to recruit some of my own. I already think about what mundane steps I might take to counter various spells. If my life depended on it I would study the ranges, areas of effect and capabilities of every spell that was known to be in play in the world.

As a DM I would probably assume that a 5th level MU cost about as much to train as it cost to build an equivalent cannon IRL (cannon was around earlier than most people think), and might be easier to take out. Given the large blast radius and the fact that 0 level troops are instantly killed even if they make their saves, I think this is way more effective than a modern 10 man squad.

 

[Two orcs]

I have again started thinking about this module.

As a DM I would probably assume that a 5th level MU cost about as much to train as it cost to build an equivalent cannon IRL (cannon was around earlier than most people think), and might be easier to take out. Given the large blast radius and the fact that 0 level troops are instantly killed even if they make their saves, I think this is way more effective than a modern 10 man squad.

ACKS was written from the ground up to ensure that regular soldiers still hold a prominent place on the battlefield. The major change to allow this was reducing the radius of fireball from 20' to 10' (quartering the area) so that it dents rather than annihilates company sized formations (killing at most 1/8th of the soldiers). A 5th level mage takes a wage of 400gp/month which equals half a company of light infantry or a quarter of a company of heavy foot. So they both have their uses, but fireballs are best deployed to disrupt heavily armored units, kill heroes/monster/monstrous high hp units etc.

 

[squeen]

Interesting notion! I like how repercussions are well thought out in ACKS.

 

[Two orcs]

Reading reviews of earlier high level modules and hearing of the actual play of some I think I have gained some insight in what makes them different other than simply bigger monsters and bigger swords. Mass and depth. The way to fight super-powered heroes and spellcasters is sometimes to counter them with a set of your own, but it can also be handled by attrition. Passwall cirumvents your regular walls? Make a double wall. A fighter can hold off 100 orcs? Bring 400 orcs. They can fly? Build a roof. Their invisible assassin easily beheads the commander? Have a second in command ready to step in. And so on. In low level adventures players keep an eye on their hit points and their few spells before deciding to retreat. High level adventures can do the same but must be exponentially more taxing as the players have exponentially more resources.

I think I'll write two main sections:
1. A complete strategic overview including redundancies and fallback plans to help the referee run the defenses but also know weakspots which might be attacked by the players.
2. The detailed maps and force distributions.

This so the referee can spend a shorter time digesting the high level stuff (homing bats are kept in bat roosts and used to signal other fortresses at night, red = we're under attack, blue = all clear etc.) and understand what they are for at a glance (#10 Bat roost. Stench of guano. Low barred windows. 10 homing bats and a writing desk as well as color coded ankle-rings).

 

[Beoric]

ACKS was written from the ground up to ensure that regular soldiers still hold a prominent place on the battlefield. The major change to allow this was reducing the radius of fireball from 20' to 10' (quartering the area) so that it dents rather than annihilates company sized formations (killing at most 1/8th of the soldiers). A 5th level mage takes a wage of 400gp/month which equals half a company of light infantry or a quarter of a company of heavy foot. So they both have their uses, but fireballs are best deployed to disrupt heavily armored units, kill heroes/monster/monstrous high hp units etc.

As a wizard in this setting I would be inclined to develop a large area, low damage spell that was less effective against PCs but more effective against troops.

 

[TerribleSorcery]

Reading reviews of earlier high level modules and hearing of the actual play of some I think I have gained some insight in what makes them different other than simply bigger monsters and bigger swords. Mass and depth.

I'll quote Uncle Tony here again:

High Level Play Part 1: Theory

High-Level play is NOT necessarily the end goal of any campaign, nor is it inherently more or less fun than Low to Mid-Level play. I function mostly in a local bubble principled on modules I bought in the 80's and don't really know what the meta thinks "High-Level" play is. It's not that I...

www.thebluebard.com

As a wizard in this setting I would be inclined to develop a large area, low damage spell that was less effective against PCs but more effective against troops.

Right? A spell that does 2d4 over a 100' radius or something would be the way to go.

 

[The1True]

Right? A spell that does 2d4 over a 100' radius or something would be the way to go.

Take it one further and make a spell that gives up damage dice for every 5' of radius. Make it extra maggoty; no save, no SR if you go with 0' radius, targeted.

 

[squeen]

Here's mine from the campaign world---created so a army of low-level magic users could keep the peace.



It's been popular with the players after they found it on an old scroll.

 

[Two orcs]

The point is a spell like that would change the campaign setting and drastically reduce the use for regular troops. I would only permit a spell like that to be devoped at a higher spell level than 3rd especially if they threaten battalion or brigade sized formations.

 

[squeen]

The idea was this spell and a few others like it did disrupt things a whole lot and made several city-states and kingdoms extremely distrustful of wizards + politics.

The tactical spells were "lost" so most PC can't get them at creation. They have to be found in-world.

Also, you gotta admit...it's a great name.

 

[Beoric]

The point is a spell like that would change the campaign setting and drastically reduce the use for regular troops. I would only permit a spell like that to be devoped at a higher spell level than 3rd especially if they threaten battalion or brigade sized formations.

I suppose it depends on the availability of wizards who are prepared to put themselves in harm's way like that. A wizard is a very poorly armoured, direct fire artillery piece which is expensive to maintain and difficult to replace.

As soon as wizards are common enough to have more than a marginal impact on battles, tactics are going to evolve into something different from the medieval warfare that is assumed in most settings. Hell, even passwall is likely to lead to really thick-walled fortifications, if it becomes something that is expected to occur.

 

[squeen]

FWIW, some more tongue-in-cheek faux history from many, many years ago when I thought I minght use Greyhawk for the campaign world.