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Segial
2007-11-09, 07:37 AM
Insprired by the OOTS-comic, I'm running a little campaign where sometimes soon the PCs will be part of the defense against an assault on their home-city, and I'm looking for some creative ideas for tactics I can throw at them. The goal of the attackers is to capture the city as quickly as possible, ignoring their own or civil casulties.

The attackerss:

Regular troops (Lvl 3) (outnumbering the defenders 3:1)
Half a dozen wizards (Lvl 5-7)
Half a dozen priests of bane (Lvl 5-7)
Half a dozen wyvern riders
a deathknight blackguard commander

The defenders consist of regular troops, a bunch of clerics and paladins and of course the city fortifications.

What strategy/tactics you pick to win this as quickly as possible?

AslanCross
2007-11-09, 11:26 AM
Use the death knight's undead followers to attack the walls first. Make sure they're bolstered by the clerics of Bane. Use the wizards to fire area spells at the walls (best if the undead are immune to the area spells, but they're free anyway.)

The wizards aren't high enough to cast disintegrate, so you can't really undermine the walls directly. However, sonic- or acid-substituted spells may ruin gates rather quickly.

Since you have clerics of Bane, I'll assume you're running the Zhentarim here (Correct me if I'm wrong). Zhentarim foot soldiers are known for phalanx formations (see Lords of Darkness), so you could have them form tight shield walls and advance without breaking ranks. Otherwise you could have them hang back with crossbows until the wizards blow holes in the gates. Then you could have them give the defenders a nice little shade to fight in with their crossbow bolts.

Not really sure how the air support can fit here. They could be advance scouts, or you could just put the Wizards on them (The Zhentarim are known for having airborne Wizards on exotic mounts anyway.)

Best thing to remember here is that your wizards are basically your siege weaponry. They will put the pressure on your defenders to avoid the walls (or they can breach the walls directly.)

Crow
2007-11-09, 11:37 AM
Don't forget (everyone forgets this) that you can use those wizards to transport real siege weaponry quickly to the battlefield, or use them to teleport in small teams of elite soldiers to cause havoc inside the city walls.

Runolfr
2007-11-09, 11:46 AM
Zhentarim foot soldiers are known for phalanx formations (see Lords of Darkness), so you could have them form tight shield walls and advance without breaking ranks.

Given the risks inherent in tight formations when there may be fireballs flying, it might be prudent to have the Zhentarim "turtle up" around a wizard capable of casting a Lesser Globe of Invulnerability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/globeOfInvulnerabilityLesser.htm) to protect the formation from being blasted on approach.

InkEyes
2007-11-09, 11:51 AM
Don't forget (everyone forgets this) that you can use those wizards to transport real siege weaponry quickly to the battlefield, or use them to teleport in small teams of elite soldiers to cause havoc inside the city walls.

None of the wizards on the enemy's side aren't a high enough level to cast a teleport spell. They could make effective siege engines on their own, though. Just have them fly on those wyverns and drop some fireballs at the defenders on the wall, or for more fun have them fireball some buildings. They can also cast spells to break down the gates. Acid sonic spells would be best for that.

Spiryt
2007-11-09, 11:51 AM
Don't forget (everyone forgets this) that you can use those wizards to transport real siege weaponry quickly to the battlefield, or use them to teleport in small teams of elite soldiers to cause havoc inside the city walls.

Wizards are level 5-7.

Berand
2007-11-09, 12:09 PM
Assuming they aren't going to have time to build epic fortifications around this city, they key for the defenders is going to be breaking the attackers up in to bite-sized chunks. If I were them, I would abandon the walls early, if not immediately, in favor of concentrating my forces. I'm just speculating, since I don't know the exact makup of the defenders nor the attitudes of the players.

For example, my first thought would be to build some sort of palisade around the city, with one large gate. But have the gates clearly under construction, so when the enemy approaches it's clear it wasn't finished yet, and they can waltz right in. Or leave some other blatant but plausible weakness. My hope would be that, rather then waste time with the walls all around, they'll come through the opening I've left them. Because it sounds to me like if the defenders end up spread out all along the walls, defending on every front, they simply wont have the firepower to stop a concentrated push anywhere. On the other hand, if you can funnel them in to a more narrow area, you diminish their numbers advantage.

For that matter if there's any favorable mountain terrain or valleys, I might even abandon the city as indefensible, retreat to a choke point, and spend my time making it defensible. Leonidas didn't try to defend the city of Sparta against the Persions, because that would be hopeless. Instead he moved out to favorable terrain. All the better if they could get to favorable terrain that lies between the attackers and the village.

What that means for the attackers is they have to spread the fight out. If the defenders retreat somewhere more defensible, I would go sack their city. See if I could enrage them enough to make them do something stupid. If the defenders tried to concentrate their forces somewhere, I would start burning the city down. Assuming the attackers don't actually want the city in the first place, burning the whole thing down would be one of my top choices. Surround the place, set up siege weapons, have the mages augment them to send burning projectiles or something similar, and launch away. Wait till the defenders have to flee the carnage and crush them outside. That also depends of course on whether the attackers are working on a time frame here.

A lot also depends on how the balance of magic works out. If the two sides actually have equal magical firepower, I would focus more on dexploiting the 3-1 odds I have in infantry. If I have magical superiority, no question, I sit back and burn crap up from a distance while I wait for them to come out.

elliott20
2007-11-09, 01:47 PM
we really need to know more than that to know how to deal with this sort of thing.

tyckspoon
2007-11-09, 03:57 PM
I'd probably go with an aerial assault. Put all the wizards in one formation, put the clerics in another, and put the wyvern riders in a third. Dress up the wizards and clerics as regular soldiers; they shouldn't be revealing their presence until they're close enough to the fortifications to pull this off. Yes, this means your clerics aren't going to be healing their own troops, but this invading army doesn't have enough clerics to do that effectively anyway.

The wyverns are the obvious threat here; send them against a wall section as far away from the wizard and cleric units as they can get. Make sure this group has ranged weapons- javelins, carry-nets full of rocks they can dump for an area attack, whatever. You don't want them getting dragged down into melee with the defenders. That should result in most of the defender's ranged capacity being sent over there to deal with them. Once that happens, your wizards and clerics reveal themselves: They all cast the highest-level Summon Monster they know to get something that flies (or has a Climb speed- a swarm of six Fiendish Huge Monstrous Centipedes, from the Summon III list, should do quite well.) While the summoned monsters engage the defenders, the other normal troops that are escorting the wizards and clerics start throwing up ladders, attaching grapples, and generally trying to gain the wall for themselves.

The deathknight, another squad of troops, and any undead the deathknight commands should lead a fourth attack against yet another area of fortification. That should draw most of the defenses' clerics and paladins to respond , which means they aren't around to dispel or counter-summon against the centipedes. Of course, when half a dozen Huge centipedes appear at two difference places along the walls, they'll know something is up.. but by then it should be too late. One or the other of the areas your spellcasters attack should break before reinforcements can get there.

Edit: For additional verminous fun, Summon Swarm into the defenders after casting Summon Monster. Six freakin' huge centipedes and six wriggling carpets of death, in addition to the efforts of the regular troops. Yeah. That should get you over the fortifications.

Artanis
2007-11-09, 05:17 PM
Insprired by the OOTS-comic, I'm running a little campaign where sometimes soon the PCs will be part of the defense against an assault on their home-city, and I'm looking for some creative ideas for tactics I can throw at them. The goal of the attackers is to capture the city as quickly as possible, ignoring their own or civil casulties.

The attackerss:

Regular troops (Lvl 3) (outnumbering the defenders 3:1)
Half a dozen wizards (Lvl 5-7)
Half a dozen priests of bane (Lvl 5-7)
Half a dozen wyvern riders
a deathknight blackguard commander

The defenders consist of regular troops, a bunch of clerics and paladins and of course the city fortifications.

What strategy/tactics you pick to win this as quickly as possible?
I'm not sure what capabilities Clerics of Bane would have, but here's a plan that involves generic ones and other assets:


1) Have any level 7 Wizards get LoS/LoE to the top of a convenient section of wall.

1b) If necessary, have Protection from Arrows cast on them and send them airborne on the Wyverns to do so.

2) Torch the ramparts with Wall of Fire.

3) When the wall is clear, have the Wizards land and let down ropes/ladders/whatever for troops to ascend, holding the line if necessary with the Wyvern Riders, summoned monsters, and spells (such as any Walls of Fire they have left). Get Clerics up there ASAP to start Animating slain defenders (possibly via Dimension Door if the attackers have any 4th-level Wizard spell slots to spare, which they admittedly probably don't), plus the Blackguard since he's probably the most powerful fighter in the attacking force.

4) Sack the city.

AslanCross
2007-11-09, 07:13 PM
Given the risks inherent in tight formations when there may be fireballs flying, it might be prudent to have the Zhentarim "turtle up" around a wizard capable of casting a Lesser Globe of Invulnerability (http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/globeOfInvulnerabilityLesser.htm) to protect the formation from being blasted on approach.

True, though I think Phalanx Fighting gives a reflex save bonus, so it helps. A bit. Of course, Lesser Globe would stop those fireballs flat.

Weasel2007
2007-11-10, 03:19 AM
Depending on items you have access to a wizard with flight, a sack of alchemical fire flasks and a wand of summon moster could provide a whole host of distractions in the middle of the city. A summoned yeth hound with improved invisibility and eagles splendour (to up the DC) could panic a lot of guards on the wall and through the city. Web could stop reinforcements going down some streets, invisibility sphere could let soldiers get close to the wall and maybe an invisible warrior could be flown in and open the gate and disguise self on anyone with a ranks in bluff could also disrupt reinforcements.