Battle Plans and Tactics

[KoralkMember]

Lords and Ladies -

So, I’d like to try and implement a standard “battle formation” that we, as heroes and adventurers that regularly fight together, can use whenever there is a “Big Fight That Everyone Is Involved In”.

I know this has been discussed in the past, and it may be too ambitious a project. However, I would like to try it out, to ensure that these big battles are as organized and survivable as possible. Before I start going into detail about my idea, however, I wanted to do a quick poll.

How does everyone feel about being more organized? About being told your spot in the formation? Obviously, I’m not “the leader”, so I don’t want anyone feeling like I’m being bossy; also, I know that not everyone will look at a fighting formation and think “That looks like fun!” (quite the opposite in some cases, I’m sure).

So… what does everyone think? Can we give it a try? If there are enough concerns/protests, then I will stick with just trying to keep a small group organized.

- Ben

[GimliMember]

I’m down with the idea. Though a few things. We never know whose going to be on an NPC shift for any given battle or whose even going to show up to a given event. Having anything too rigid probably wouldn’t work out as a result. So we should probably have a general idea of what “role” a given PC falls into and what is expected of them during a large battle.

For me at least I know my PCs role, I designed him to soak up a lot of damage, draw a lot of attention and be overall very difficult to damage. I could’ve fixed my armor’s noise problem but I didn’t for that very reason. Also trying to damage me around the shield is difficult as heck and requires a lot of focus. I don’t deal a lot of damage so I work best blocking for someone who does, two handed weapons, ranged weapons and spell chuckers are perfect for that. Another great tactics is for me to draw the attention of several bad guys on a line and enable skirmishers, especially Sap users, to take out several at once. Jensen, Tamlin and Sean-Paul are naturals at this.

[KoralkMember]

Absolutely; there’s always the whole “Who won’t be here” thing to consider. However, that’s a lot easier to solve “on the fly” than an entire formation.

- Ben

[GimliMember]

Yeah, I’ll take the designated role of “Heavy” “Defender” or even “Meatshield” if you’re nasty.

[MaryKeymaster]

Marywelde is not really a fighter and trying to herd her around a battlefield will probably not work out. I mean, she wanders about a lot. Yes, I realize that’s not helpful to field battles. But she’s kindof a scatterbrain and not super into fighting.

[EarrameMember]

Earrame is an archer, generally in combat. She does have water magic too, which has the added ability of both Blood Transfer and Geyser, which can both be considered combat spells. She has some healing abilities too, and can use those on the front lines for people who can’t get to the healers behind the lines fast enough.

She’s very sneaky, though, and has the ability to use claws when in cat form (plus sap).

[ScottParticipant]

I’ve always felt that Ardan was a good “go-between” the front line and the healer backline. A skirmisher who can fill in a wavering line, or pull front line fighters back to the healers if need be. He does not have the ability to take any sort of lasting damage.

He can also break opposing shield walls with special abilities and protect flanks.

[BlakeKeymaster]

Here’s the truth;
You kind of don’t have enough heavies to actually HAVE a formation, a lot of the time.

I’m a big fan of formations. You may be familiar with this. But here is the groundwork you need to lay;

Someone needs to be the overall battle commander.
That person needs to be involved in the battle as little as possible, so as to direct tactics.
The front line needs somebody to-
A: Direct the movement and formation of the front line, including when to send people back to help out.
B: Call out things like flanks, more powerful enemies wherever they are, etc.

The formation that I have found that works best is a loose “box” shape; as many heavies as you can muster in the front, with a couple in the back as a rearguard. Long weapons should be on the right and left side, with casters, archers and healers in the middle. Skirmishers should move out as needed, wherever combat is heaviest, and roll into the enemy flank.

One of the things I tried a couple of times (Blacktooth Fields) was assigning a leader to each group. I had Thalion and Janae lead groups of skirmishers, I had the front line, Lakhesis led the healers, and I believe Alethea and Idhrenniel led ranged and casters. Blacktooth Fields was one of our hardest battles, but we won, in part because each group had someone to take charge and do what needed to be done. You might want to give that idea some thought as well.

[faekeeperKeymaster]

Always ready to be your ranged support/carry.

[KoralkMember]

I have a plan I think might work. I’ll post it tomorrow.

- Ben

[Todd GlasspooleMember]

I would really like to do some of this in character. Since Bran doesn’t have a good head for tactics if any of you decide in character that you need to soldier him up a bit or take him under your wing in order to force him to learn what he’s doing rather than stumbling around the battlefield I’d be up for that.

[KoralkMember]

So I uploaded an Excel document to the FB Dying Kingdoms group, because I couldn’t figure out how to post it here. Please take a look.

I didn’t nominate anyone as leaders, but I did take into consideration being able to “break off” different groups to form several smaller forces. If everyone agrees to give this idea a shot, then we can decide who will lead which group.

The idea, of course, would be to give each strike force a similar combination of healing, magic, and melee capability so that they all have as much survivability as the others.

- Ben

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