Army troubles - White Wolf Exalted

[EmperorSarda]

Ok, I need some advice. I'm playing White Wolf exalted with a few friends and in our next session we'll be facing down a large army.

It's led by 10 Dragon blooded, one of which is a nasty fire aspect who we will probably face last.

Anyways we're near where Chiascuro used to be (Some sidreals messed with the demenses there and the city blew up, don't ask) and we got the southern god of war to train us as an army unit. Anyways, I am a night caste, focused on stealth and larceny. I am alright in martial arts (I just have the first two charms in the ebony shadow form) and thrown, but better in thrown somewhat. We also have an eclipse, a Zenith skilled in another form of martial arts, an awesome dawn caste, and maybe a twilight caste (he's been flaky in coming).

Anyways the night before the big battle I managed to kill a DB (I have crafting gloves that heat up instantly to melt metal, which I used to kill the db with) in his tent and a couple nights previous we burned their food and water supply. They're close to the coast so water isn't too much of a problem for them, but they are very low on food now.

Now we plan on facing them sort of directly, as in they attack the unit that is facing them while I crawl around to sneak attack the leading DB, getting him down into negative modifiers and bouncing out. We have potions that we drank last session to give a valor of 5 and we have a special dust for the big Fire DB dude that will give him a -4 to everything.

I have no artifact weapons besides the crafting gloves, so I was just wondering if there are any tactics that you suggest we try, because sooner or later they're going to catch onto what I am doing and will attempt to stop me. So I'd like a few ideas of what to do for a back up plan.

If it helps, the charms that I have are:

Image of Death Technique (Scroll of the monk, Ebon Shadow style)
Wall walking technique (Scroll of the monk)
Seven Shadow Evasion
Easily Overlooked presence
1st thrown excellency
Observer deceiving attack
2nd larceny excellency
Flawless pickpocketing technique
Stealing from plain sight
Shadow over water
lock opening touch.

Thanks for any help you can give.

[Indon]

Hmm.

Try and get an idea of the DB's possible weaknesses. You or the Eclipse (particularly if he has any lunar charms that might let him tweak his appearance) could gather info from soldiers about the personalities and such of the dragon-bloods, and you could exploit that in combat.

Examples include having your Dawn challenging any of them to single combat should they prove to be excessively proud, having your Eclipse or Zenith diplomacize any who might be having doubts about the whole Realm thing, and so on.

Edit: Also, you mention you've been trained as part of a military unit. I don't know which rules you're using for mass combat, but if you're using the mass combat rules for 2'nd edition, or the mass combat rules in the player's guide of 1'st edition, you'll want to not be a direct member of a unit. Be a support member, lead a unit, or march out on your own, but do not let an exalt be part of the rank-and-file.

[The Rose Dragon]

(particularly if he has any lunar charms that might let him tweak his appearance)

I don't think there are any Charms for Lunars that allow them to change appearance. That's what Knacks are for, and they are exclusive to Lunars.

[Indon]

I don't think there are any Charms for Lunars that allow them to change appearance. That's what Knacks are for, and they are exclusive to Lunars.

They're charms in 1'st edition, and I don't know which edition he's playing.

Still, I didn't know that about the knacks, I just figured Eclipse/Moonshadow/<Abyssal equiv caste> exalts could do any availible trick.

[The Rose Dragon]

Moonshadows are Abyssals. You're thinking Infernals, who have Fiends.

IIRC, there were no Excellencies in 1st Edition, which seems to imply he's playing 2nd. In 2nd Edition, Eclipses can only learn Charms of other Exalted types, spirits, ghosts and Fair Folk. Knacks and spells are explicitly not allowed.

[Indon]

Oh, hey, he did list excellencies, didn't he? Doh.

Also, would not having spells apply to the Eclipse power (and yes, I did mean to say 'infernal' there) really matter? I mean, to my knowledge, all sorcerous initiations extend from forms of charms.

Though I guess it could be to avoid getting spells from a sorcerous school without the corresponding initiation.

Aaaanyway getting off track. Barring a charm to change appearance, good recon can be performed with a mix of socialize and larceny (disguising is based on larceny, right?).

[The Rose Dragon]

Aaaanyway getting off track. Barring a charm to change appearance, good recon can be performed with a mix of socialize and larceny (disguising is based on larceny, right?).

Face-Drinking Bite is an Abyssal Larceny charm which does exactly what it says on the tin. Perfect Mirror, while not its mirror, is a similar Charm with a shorter duration.

Sorcery and necromancy initiations are barred to prevent Eclipses from learning Obsidian Circle Necromancy and Moonshadows from learning Adamant Circle Sorcery.

Your best bet would have been Mental Invisibility Technique, which you don't have.

[EmperorSarda]

Edit: Also, you mention you've been trained as part of a military unit. I don't know which rules you're using for mass combat, but if you're using the mass combat rules for 2'nd edition, or the mass combat rules in the player's guide of 1'st edition, you'll want to not be a direct member of a unit. Be a support member, lead a unit, or march out on your own, but do not let an exalt be part of the rank-and-file.

Good ideas. Yeah it is 2nd edition. And it's not us and a bunch of extras training, it is just us. So the four of us have been trained to be a unit. So basically the four of us against the army. (Five if the guy with the twilight is there, which makes it a tad easier cause he has DoOB)

[Indon]

Yeah, unless you have extras to use as troops, don't use a formation.

I mean, if you guys all form a unit, sure, you could have very high Might for the person leading, which would add a couple successes to his roll, but if the person attacking gets beaten up, all the rest of you could potentially die - and if you don't die, you're probably still out of commission.

Without actual troops, it'd be best to just work independently (as magnitude zero units) with a concerted tactic.

Another thing you can do in mass combat is exploit morale-based effects - heroes like you guys functioning in magnitude zero units can't really be affected by anything like that, but if you can be sufficiently scary or intimidating such as to threaten to break a formation, you can force the DB units to drop in magnitude, which is the equivalent of dealing multiple levels of damage to the unit.

If your Zenith or Dawn has the right skills and charms, they might even try their hand at converting the enemy soldiers into men for their own units in the course of battle.