Re: Against the Mountain Clans

[Baelon Drakeson]

House Drakeson will commit 20 Veteran Heavy Mounted Archers [unit name forthcoming], to be led by Lord Baelon Drakeson.

[Kevan Lyras]

House Marsten and its Bannerhouses will provide the following units to the campaign:

• The Sunguard - a unit of veteran infantry provided by House Lyras[/*k2sqhb7f]
  
• The Golden Arrows - veteran archers[/*k2sqhb7f]
  
• The mountain watch - a unit of 100 veteran scouts of House Kriegar[/*k2sqhb7f]
  
• 20 unexperienced knights in service of House Marsten, normally serving as masters of various small manors on Marsten lands - Green cavalry[/*k2sqhb7f]

Minor changes possible due to the offseason activities and house actions.
In this thread (viewtopic.php?f=53&
t=1329&
start=70#p35419) there is some information about the clans strenghts.

[Reader]

House Marsten and its Bannerhouses will provide the following units to the campaign:

• The Sunguard - a unit of veteran infantry provided by House Lyras[/*mircrhnx]
  
• The Golden Arrows - veteran archers[/*mircrhnx]
  
• The mountain watch - a unit of 100 veteran scouts of House Kriegar[/*mircrhnx]
  
• 20 unexperienced knights in service of House Marsten, normally serving as masters of various small manors on Marsten lands - Green cavalry[/*mircrhnx]

Minor changes possible due to the offseason activities and house actions.
In this thread (viewtopic.php?f=53&
t=1329&
start=70#p35419) there is some information about the clans strenghts.

You guys can get two Lyras units, as some need to stay back to defend Lyras lands off camera.

Here are the opposing forces: I suggest splitting your force and there force in half and running it as two separate fronts in the combat. Lets two PCs have a go at commanding.

I'll let players handle the skirmishing if that's ok...

Mountain Clan Leadership - Warfare 3 (Command 1B)

Mountain clan forces
12 units
Veteran Raider (Armour, weapon upgrades)
Endurance 4, Fighting 5
2 Veteran Raiders
Endurance 4, Fighting 5
4 Regular Raiders
Endurance 3, Fighting 4
2 Regular Archers
Agility 3, Marksmanship 4
1 Regular cavalry
Animal Handling 3, Fighting 4
2 Green Scouts
Awareness 3

Personal combat opportunities
Three"
single combat"
challenges available against an opponent. Volunteers.

If you guys don't defeat them, they attach to a unit giving it +1 Fighting &
Marksmanship.

Harma The quick
Agility 4, Endurance 4, Fighting 5 (Spears 1B), Cunning 4, Will 3
Boar Spear, Hard Leather armour

Arrand Two Axes
Agility 3, Athletics 4, Fighting 5 (Axes 1B) Endurance 4, Will 3
Battleaxe, Handaxe, Hard Leather Armour

Tyron the Tall
Agility 3, Athletics 5 (Strength 1B), Fighting 4 (Axes 2B) Endurance 4, Will 4
Mail Shirt, Longaxe

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

Kevan, I'd like you to head The main group.

How best to fit Special K into this? I can't put him under Kevan, so I'd like him high up in the second group, but having a PC involved is more desirable.

How about:


Group 1 (most veteran enemies) - Kevan in command, with the Lyras, Coldbrook, and Drakeson forces, with Baelon as subcommander.
Group 2 - Ben in command, with the Marsten, Kriegar and Longshore forces, with Lord Kriegar as subcommander.

[Reader]

Kevan, I'd like you to head The main group.

How best to fit Special K into this? I can't put him under Kevan, so I'd like him high up in the second group, but having a PC involved is more desirable.

How about:


Group 1 (most veteran enemies) - Kevan in command, with the Lyras, Coldbrook, and Drakeson forces, with Baelon as subcommander.
Group 2 - Ben in command, with the Marsten, Kriegar and Longshore forces, with Lord Kriegar as subcommander.

Special K will be pleased to avenge his son! Have fun piloting this PC types.

[Gwyneth Drakeson]

Allow me to provide the RP for Special K.

"
How dare you place these fishmongering ironborn scum in my command?! Do you think so little of me?! I am a man of the Seven, and there is no place in my army for worshippers of pagan fish demons!"


So you switch him to subcommand the other unit.

"
What's this?! Blasphemers of the trees?! Are these the hopes you tie our fates to?! Mercenaries and hooligans, not soldiers! You'll doom the lot of us if this is what you call an army!"


Then, because it's my headcanon, he wanders off, bleating 'DOOM! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM' in a hollow voice as he vanishes into the press of soldiers and icy mists.

Never to be seen again.

[Reader]

Allow me to provide the RP for Special K.

"
How dare you place these fishmongering ironborn scum in my command?! Do you think so little of me?! I am a man of the Seven, and there is no place in my army for worshippers of pagan fish demons!"


So you switch him to subcommand the other unit.

"
What's this?! Blasphemers of the trees?! Are these the hopes you tie our fates to?! Mercenaries and hooligans, not soldiers! You'll doom the lot of us if this is what you call an army!"


Then, because it's my headcanon, he wanders off, bleating 'DOOM! DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM' in a hollow voice as he vanishes into the press of soldiers and icy mists.

Never to be seen again.

Essentially this, minus the wandering off never to be seen again.

You don't get rid of him that easily.

Plus, since Corrine intrigued him successfully, he blames the army's commander, not Corrine.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

"
But my lord, I felt you the best man to inspire and lead them, as I feel they can learn much from your dedication and bravery. I have assigned them to you, not to denegrate you, but so that you might elevate them to your standard."

[Reader]

Watch and learn punks, that's how you do it.

[Baelon Drakeson]

Personal combat opportunities
Three"
single combat"
challenges available against an opponent. Volunteers.

I'll volunteer if it doesn't prevent me from commanding my unit.

Kevan, I'd like you to head The main group.

How best to fit Special K into this? I can't put him under Kevan, so I'd like him high up in the second group, but having a PC involved is more desirable.

How about:


Group 1 (most veteran enemies) - Kevan in command, with the Lyras, Coldbrook, and Drakeson forces, with Baelon as subcommander.
Group 2 - Ben in command, with the Marsten, Kriegar and Longshore forces, with Lord Kriegar as subcommander.

You left a few units out. Also, each group can have a number of subcommanders equal to half it's units (round down), so each will have more than one. There is no real difference in rank among subcommanders. I have listed PCs first.

Perhaps we should split by terrain - one group in mountains the other in hills.

Group 1: Mountains - 8 units, Commander: Kevan Subcommanders(4): Yoren, Lord Krieger, Leifnarr, Garrett Snow(?)
100 elite personal guard, the Company of the Morningstar [House Coldbrook]
100 veteran guards, the Company Grenward [House Coldbrook]
100 Veteran Infantry, The Sunguard [House Lyras]
100 veteran archers, The Golden Arrows [House Lyras]
100 veteran scouts, The mountain watch [House Kriegar]
100 Trained raiders [House Longshore]
100 Trained archers [House Longshore]
100 Trained archers [mercenary]

vs.

7 units
100 Veteran (upgraded) raiders
300 Trained raiders
200 Trained archers


Group 2: Hills - 6 units, Commander: Ben - Kevan Subcommanders(3): Baelon, Dyana, Jon Roxton
20 Green Cavalry [House Marsten]
20 Trained Cavalry [Black Faction]
20 Green Cavalry [House Roxton]
20 Veteran Heavy Mounted Archers [House Drakeson]
100 Green support [House Dulver] (note: noncombatants)
100 Trained archers [House Dulver]

vs.

5 units
20 Trained cavalry
100 Veteran raiders
200 Trained raiders
200 Green scouts

Note: I have assumed that 'Regular' means 'Trained'.

The first group has more and tougher units, so they get more and tougher opponents... I went with an 8/6 split to maximize the number of subcommanders. More subcommanders means more orders, with means getting more done each round.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

Looks good. My brain is in the bin today, so mine was the very roughest of ideas. Minimal cavarly in the mountains sounds like a good idea to me.

[Kevan Lyras]

Baelon, I like the idea of splitting between hills and mountains, as well as the 8 / 6 split, but we should maybe split differently and have the larger fight in the hills where the cavapry can participate. They are by far the deadliest units and we should maximize their impact by using them against the thougher units...

[Ser Jorah Holt]

ahem, always nice to be forgotten about

[Kevan Lyras]

Hehe. Oops. Replace garreth with the fanous Ser Jorah Holt in Baelon's post

[Baelon Drakeson]

Baelon, I like the idea of splitting between hills and mountains, as well as the 8 / 6 split, but we should maybe split differently and have the larger fight in the hills where the cavapry can participate. They are by far the deadliest units and we should maximize their impact by using them against the thougher units...

I thought about that, but if you look at the training levels, the Cavalry are on average worse off than the foot, so I'm not sure how much tougher they really are (might be worth calculating the combat stats for each unit and comparing them that way). Also, the way I split it the Hills battle is essentially 5 units on each side. The hills group is currently saddled with the useless support unit House Dulver sent. They are non-combatants with no particular skills.... they only good they do us is counting as a unit for the purposes of how many subcommanders we can have. I suppose we could use them as shields, but I doubt House Dulver would be pleased about that.

ahem, always nice to be forgotten about

You weren't forgotten, I just couldn't remember if you were going to be there or not... for some reason I thought you weren't. I meant to put a note in, but forgot to do that.
Obviously for metagame considerations we want PC subcommanders over NCs. Perhaps replace Leifnarr, though, as having Garrett be able to show off his leadership skills was part of the Marsten/Coldbrook negotiation.

The ideal mechanical setup would be to have the character with the highest Warfare(Command) as commander of the Mountain unit, the next highest as commander of the hills unit, and then the next highest seven as the subcommanders. However, that is not ideal for either in-game or metagame considerations.

[Septon Arlyn]

Calvary have much better armor rating, so they will take less damage then foot, although I do find it odd that they can not increase their endurance, but that is here nor there. However they do have the most powerful damage in the warfare section for units. As far as house Dulvers units the green support are meant to be meat shields, just do not let the archers get into the mix. However with all the Calvary that we are getting in the hills combat I do not know how much action they will actually even see. I think that they Calvary will charge out to meet them, break through the soft scouts and trained raiders (I'm assuming that they are just scouts / infantry) while the Dulver archers pepper the veteran raiders. By the time the Calvary are finished moping up the scouts/trained raiders and cavalry the archers should have whittled down the veteran raiders to next to nothing. The only thing the support has to do is stand there and make sure the mountain clans trained Calvary does not reach the archers as that is the only thing that can really make it across the battlefield in time to cause an issue.

[Baelon Drakeson]

Cavalry units use the Athletics and Endurance of their mounts in
place of their own.

I presume our cavalry would be mounted on rounseys. That would be Athletics 4 and Endurance 5.

They do have better armor than infantry or garrison, but not as good as personal guards.

As for the green support being meatshields, support are non-combatants. They are smiths, medics, grooms, cooks, and so forth. They are not armed or armored. Whatever your intent was in sending them, it would be reprehensible for any commander to put them on the battlefield. Peasant levies may not be much better off, but at least they weren't hired as non-combatants (not that being conscripted is better).

EDIT:
The Drakeson cavalry are heavy mounted archers;
they will stand with the archers peppering the enemy until they get close, or charge any enemy unit that gets too close.
The specific battle tactics will depend a LOT on the battlefield layout and disposition of the enemy forces.

[Septon Arlyn]

Well that would make the unit have a AR of 5, - 3 AP, bulk 2, 15 health and 5 damage per DOS and 2 dice to hit and CD of 3. This is for green Calvary with no upgrades to abilities chosen. considering most units they will be fighting will only be dealing 4-5 damage per DOS that is pretty damn strong, they can take a lot of punishment by soaking the first DOS and with 15 hp they can take a few hits before they go down. When you compare that to infantry who have AR of 3, -2 AP, bulk 0, 6 health and 3 damage per DOS with 2 dice to hit and a CD of 4. a standard charge from green Calvary will have a 50% chance to deal 7 damage, leaving the infantry down to 2 health, easy pickings for a second charge or just to grind them down next round. If you have invested that xp into fighting and have a character attached the odds get even better of wiping out that unit in a single go as you go from testing 1 die to 3, most likely granting you 2 DOS or 14 damage, enough to wipe out a green unit, even if they invested into endurance.

[Loreia]

If it's alright with the Marsten PCs, could we have a small segment for warriors joining near the end of the military campaign? Although I'm probably the only one late to the party.

[Baelon Drakeson]

Actually, wasn't the north trips shortened to three months? Or am I imagining that? If so you could be back in time for the whole thing.
It doesn't really make sense in-world for you to be a subcommander, but we can either ignore that or have you control Garrett.

Unless you really want to have a solo fight against an entire squad of soldiers (or worse, an entire unit) there's really not much for individuals to do - generally better off attaching to a unit to bolster their attacks. There are those three Clanfolk champions to take on, but I'm not sure if that happens before the warfare or at the same time.

[Loreia]

Sorry, I was told that the expedition and the military campaign overlapped. I can serve as his protector on the battlefield and go wherever he goes. It's the role I serve as a retainer, after all.

[Baelon Drakeson]

Well, I guess it is up to Reader to decide how much Loreia would miss. You as a player can still participate, even if your character cannot be there for part of it.

[Lady Corrine Marsten]

ahem, always nice to be forgotten about

Sorry dear . I thought you were off to join the Kingsguard.

[Dunstan Tullison]

From House Tullison, House Marsten gets the world famous Mountaineers - Veteran Guerrilla led by non other than Ser Matther Warrens.

[Ser Jorah Holt]

ahem, always nice to be forgotten about

Sorry dear . I thought you were off to join the Kingsguard.

that's aspirational, not something that's about to happen just yet. Still serving House Coldbrook for now

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