Putting the 'role' back in role-playing games since 2002.
Donate to Codex
Good Old Games
  • Welcome to rpgcodex.net, a site dedicated to discussing computer based role-playing games in a free and open fashion. We're less strict than other forums, but please refer to the rules.

    "This message is awaiting moderator approval": All new users must pass through our moderation queue before they will be able to post normally. Until your account has "passed" your posts will only be visible to yourself (and moderators) until they are approved. Give us a week to get around to approving / deleting / ignoring your mundane opinion on crap before hassling us about it. Once you have passed the moderation period (think of it as a test), you will be able to post normally, just like all the other retards.

Completed [LP] Bleed for your Kingdom, officer! Codex plays Guns of Infinity

Major_Blackhart

Codexia Lord Sodom
Patron
Joined
Dec 5, 2002
Messages
18,300
Location
Jersey for now
1. This is about training our men with the ability to load their weapons with efficiency and under any possible scenario. They must learn to do so without fear or hesitation, as an automaton would do. They must perform because their lives depend on it.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
1,832
I order extra drill until all the men can get it right.

You give the order: effective immediately, every dragoon in your squadron is to practise working their carbines until they are able to fire three rounds a minute.

Thus, every day, in rain or snow, in bitter cold or biting wind, the less proficient members of your squadron are sent out into the Antari winter, spending hours going through the labourious process of loading and firing their weapon, over and over again.

It is not a solution that makes you particularly liked, but it works. When the day of the inspection comes, your squadron, barring a few customary misfires, manages three volleys in a touch under fifty-five seconds.

-

With your officers handling much of the daily administrative duties of your squadron and Corporal Marion dealing with your personal chores, you find yourself in possession of a great deal of free time over the long winter.

You make an effort to spend most of that free time productively, primarily focusing upon…

1) Self-improvement; I seek to improve my skills in all aspects.
2) Writing; I begin working on an account of my experiences as an officer.
3) Social advancement; I socialise and associate with senior officers.
4) Observation; specifically, I go off and see how Cazarosta is handling his unit.

5) Broadening my horizons; I learn the Antari language.
6) I hone my understanding of the Antari language.
7) My squadron; I closely supervise drills and exercises, offering advice when needed.

As of the Winter of the 608th year of the Old Imperial Era

Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga
Age: 20
Rank: Captain
Wealth: 820
Income: 15

Soldiering: 74%

Charisma: 40%

Intellect: 1%

Reputation: 24%

Health: 65%

Idealism: 80% Cynicism: 20%

Ruthlessness: 31% Mercy: 69%

You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear bane-hardened armour and wield a bane-runed sword.

You have no decorations as of yet.

Sixth Squadron, Royal Dragoons
Senior NCO: Staff-sergeant Hernandes

Discipline: 56%

Morale: 43%

Loyalty: 39%

Strength: 100%
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
See? To boost our discipline we ate away at loyalty. A well-drilled army isn’t going to be very useful for us if it evaporates on the eve of battle like in the charge of the last game.

I’ll go with 1 > 7.
 

Kipeci

Arcane
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
3,027
Location
Vicksburg
Why do we care about their potato speak all of a sudden? We don’t have any other stats to bank that approach off of. We only need to learn how to say faster or hands up in our current build.
 

tsuke

Educated
Joined
May 29, 2018
Messages
116
I will go with 7. Alaric really only does one thing and with power armor he is already going to be doing it as well as he possibly can. Number 7 would make this one thing more effective.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
1,832
You spend your mornings in the drill yard, your afternoons studying treatises on war and natural philosophy and your evenings practising poise and elocution before the mirror in your rooms. It is not an easy regimen, but it does begin to show results. Soon, your body feels more robust, your thoughts come easier to you, and you find that you seem to know the right things to say a little more often.

The improvements are hardly great ones, but they are welcome nonetheless.

-

It is in the latter part of the spring of 609 that His Majesty finally gives the order for the army to deploy. The King's plan is not a complex one. One half of the army under the command of the Duke of Havenport is to besiege the fortified port city of Kharangia to draw Mikhail of Khorobirit's army west. The second, under your sovereign's personal command, is to strike northwards while Khorobirit is distracted, defeating any other Antari armies led by lesser commanders and carving out a foothold in the open expanse of Antar's central plains.

The plan is an exceptionally daring one. Were something to go wrong, it would mean the complete destruction of both separate halves of the Tierran Army, but success would mean the seizure not only of a major port city but a chance to take control of much of the League's agricultural heartland.

Unfortunately, you are not to be a part of it. As the other two squadrons of the Royal Dragoons leave with Havenport's army, you and your men are given direct orders to remain in Noringia and maintain readiness for separate duties.

The order is maddening; why are you and your men to remain behind, when it seems the entirety of the King's Army is bound for some glorious battle?

-

Several months later, at the very height of summer, another naval convoy arrives at Noringia. However, this time the ships do not unload a cargo of men and supplies at the docks. Instead, the men aboard carry off immense wooden boxes, dozens of them, each easily capable of fitting a grown ox.

The boxes are heavy, too; it takes twelve draft horses to pull the heavy waggon carrying each of the boxes from the docks. From there, the boxes are carried off to one of the fortified warehouses built along the harbour by the Engineers in the first years of the war.

You hear no more of the boxes then. Almost nobody you ask seems to know what the boxes contain, and the few that do seem to know quickly change the subject. Perhaps it is a subject worthy of further investigation?

1) Investigate the building where the boxes are held.
2) It's not worth the trouble.

As of the Summer of the 609th year of the Old Imperial Era

Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga
Age: 21
Rank: Captain
Wealth: 940
Income: 15

Soldiering: 75%

Charisma: 43%

Intellect: 5%

Reputation: 24%

Health: 65%

Idealism: 80% Cynicism: 20%

Ruthlessness: 31% Mercy: 69%

You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear bane-hardened armour and wield a bane-runed sword.

You have no decorations as of yet.

Sixth Squadron, Royal Dragoons
Senior NCO: Staff-sergeant Hernandes

Discipline: 56%

Morale: 43%

Loyalty: 39%

Strength: 100%
 

Reinhardt

Arcane
Joined
Sep 4, 2015
Messages
29,226
2. We are smarter now, but not THAT much. So if it's something dangerous our hero will just destroy half of the city.
 
Joined
Nov 29, 2016
Messages
1,832
A few days later, a uniformed runner appears at the door to your lodgings just as you are about to leave for the morning. The man hands you a note, sealed with wax and marked for your eyes only.

You dismiss the runner and close the door before breaking the seal on the wax and reading the message:

Sir Alaric,

Your presence is required at regimental headquarters at earliest convenience to receive your orders. You are not to speak to anyone of this message until you have done so.

-Cunaris

Needless to say, your plans for the day have just changed.

CHAPTER III
In which the CAVALRY OFFICER must carry out a most CRITICAL assignment.

"Sir Alaric," the Duke of Cunaris begins as you report into his office that morning. "What news have you had of the Duke of Havenport's army?"

You shake your head. "Very little, sir," you reply. "I have nothing, save that they had begun a siege of the city of Kharangia not three weeks after their departure. In the nearly three months since, I have heard nothing of them."

Cunaris nods. "That is to be expected. Havenport's army has done little worthy of note since then." The Duke sighs. "The city of Kharangia is the key to His Majesty's strategy; it must be taken. However, its fortifications are too heavy and too well-founded. Havenport's cannon have been unable to make a practicable breach, and his sappers haven't made much headway either."

You nod. Though you're not quite sure what your commanding officer is talking about, surely it is not a good thing.

"Then we are stalemated at Kharangia?" you essay.

Cunaris shakes his head. "Time favours the Antari. With every passing day, Havenport's chances of being able to take the city before winter dwindles. Within another two months, he shall have to make the decision whether to abandon the siege or dig in for the winter."

So, either abandon a year's worth of campaigning, throwing the King's strategy into disarray, or subject eight thousand men to the horrors of an Antari winter in the open.

"Hardly a pleasant situation," comes an unfamiliar voice from behind you. "One which we hope to soon rectify."

-

You turn to find yourself face to face with two unfamiliar figures.

One is a middle-aged man standing stiffly in a sober black frock coat and vest, silver-topped cane resting easily in his hands.

The other, the one who spoke, is the very image of a noble-born Tierran lady, a petite figure in a close-cut, dark-red riding habit, her delicate-featured face framed by a carefully arranged mass of dark curls.

"Sir Alaric," Cunaris begins, "if I might present to you Master Edmund Garing of messers Garing, Gutierrez, and Truscott…and Lady Katarina of Royal Tierran Intelligence."

You nod, somewhat numbly.

Two civilians, and judging by Cunaris's deferential tone, important ones.

Cunaris looks back to you, his expression somewhat uneasy. "Lady Katarina and Master Garing are overseeing an operation which may allow the Duke of Havenport's army to take Kharangia before the onset of winter. However, they have informed me that they shall need a squadron of horse to assist them."

Lady Katarina takes over. "It should be a simple enough task. I trust your men are up for a little bit of field work?"

1) "My squadron is the best in the regiment, I swear it."
2) "The men are ready, my lady."
3) "The men need more time, my lady."
4) "In my assessment, my squadron is not fit for action, my lady."
As of the Summer of the 609th year of the Old Imperial Era

Sir Alaric d'al Ortiga
Age: 21
Rank: Captain
Wealth: 940
Income: 15

Soldiering: 75%

Charisma: 43%

Intellect: 5%

Reputation: 24%

Health: 65%

Idealism: 76% Cynicism: 24%

Ruthlessness: 31% Mercy: 69%

You are a Knight of the Red, having the right to wear bane-hardened armour and wield a bane-runed sword.

You have no decorations as of yet.

Sixth Squadron, Royal Dragoons
Senior NCO: Staff-sergeant Hernandes

Discipline: 56%

Morale: 43%

Loyalty: 39%

Strength: 100%

IAGO D'AL BLAYLOCK
(Born 588 OIE) Lieutenant of the Royal Dragoon Regiment. Noted duellist. Baneblood.

LOUIS D'AL ENGLESSEY, EARL OF CASTERMAINE
(Born 558 OIE) General-of-brigade in the Tierran army. Commands an infantry brigade in the King's Army. Baneblood.

SIR CAIUS D'AL CAZAROSTA
(Born 585 OIE) Lieutenant in the King's Army. Commander of Third Squadron, Royal Dragoons. Knight-Companion of the Order of Saint Joshua. Illegitimate son of the Countess of Leoniscourt. Deathborn.

SIR JOHANNES D'AL FINDLAY, DUKE OF CUNARIS
(Born 556 OIE) Colonel-in-chief of the Royal Dragoon regiment. Knight-Grandmaster of the Order of Saint Jerome. A sitting member of the Cortes and head of the noble house of Findlay.Commander of the cavalry brigade in the King's Army. Lost the use of his legs at Blogia. Married with three children. Banecaster of the eighth calibre.

ULRIKE ECKHARTS
(Born 458 OIE) An Intendant of the Takaran Empire, assigned as an observer to the Duke of Wulfram's army prior to the Battle of Blogia.

LORD DAVIS D'AL ELSON
(584-607? OIE) Captain of the Royal Dragoon regiment, eldest son of the Baron of Hawthorne, a poor but politically influential Cortes noble. Former commanding officer of Third Squadron, Royal Dragoons. Missing and presumed dead after the Battle of Blogia. Banecaster of the third calibre.

LORD RENARD D'AL FINDLAY
(Born 594 OIE) Lieutenant of the Royal Dragoon regiment, eldest son and heir of the Duke of Cunaris. Baneblood.

EDMUND GARING
(Born 575 OIE) Master gunsmith and junior partner in the Aetorian firm of Garing, Gutierrez, and Truscott. Baneless.

WINTHROP D'AL HARTIGAN, VISCOUNT OF HUGH
(Born 580 OIE) Lieutenant-colonel of the 5th Regiment of Foot. Related by marriage to the Elsons of Hawthorne. Banecaster of the second calibre.

ARTHUR D'AL HAVENPORT, DUKE OF HAVENPORT
(Born 573 OIE) Lieutenant-general of the Tierran army. Succeeded the Duke of Wulfram as Councilor-Militant and Lieutenant-general. Baneblood.

LORD MARCUS D'AL HAVENPORT
(Born 588 OIE) Lieutenant-colonel of the Kentauri Highland regiment. Younger brother of the Duke of Havenport. Baneblood.

LORD ROLAND D'AL KEANE
(Born 571 OIE) Lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Dragoon regiment. Baneblood.

PRINCE BOLESLAW OF KHARANGIA
(Born 533 OIE) Antari lord of Kharangia. Allied with Prince Mikhail of Khorobirit. Banecaster of the second calibre.

PRINCE MIKHAIL OF KHOROBIRIT
(Born 573 OIE) A powerful Antari nobleman and the League of Antar's greatest general. Defeated the Tierran army decisively at Blogia in 607 OIE. Baneblood.

LORD KAROL OF LOCH
(Born 569 OIE) An Antari Church Hussar sworn to the service of Prince Mikhail of Khorobirit. Baneblood.

ROBERT MARION
(Born 581 OIE) Corporal in the Royal Dragoons, bat-man to Captain Alaric d'al Ortiga. Baneless.

HARLANDO D'AL MARRAS, BARON OF MARRAS
(576-607? OIE) Lieutenant-colonel of the Royal Dragoons, formerly second in command of the Regiment. Missing and presumed dead after the Battle of Blogia. Baneblood.

HIS TIERRAN MAJESTY, KING MIGUEL OF HOUSE RENDOWER
(Born 586 OIE) Reigning monarch of the Unified Kingdom of Tierra, as well as Duke of Aetoria. Young and impetuous, but capable. Baneblood.

HELENA VIZTELAS
(Born 471 OIE) Captain of the Takaran Imperial Guard. Military attache to Intendant Eckharts.

JAMES D'AL SANDORAL
(Born 592 OIE) Lieutenant of the Royal Dragoon regiment. Baneblood.

"STRELLYK"
(Born ???) Antari freeholder turned partisan. Commands a small group of irregulars raiding the Tierran-controlled stretches of the Imperial Highway. Baneless.

SIR ENRIQUE D'AL HUNTER, VISCOUNT OF WOLFSWOOD
(577-607 OIE) Lieutenant-colonel of the Grenadiers. Knight-Captain of the Order of Saint Jerome. Former commanding officer of 2nd Battalion, Grenadier Guards. Killed at the Battle of Blogia. Banecaster of the ninth calibre.

HECTOR D'AL CANDLESS, DUKE OF WULFRAM
(542-607 OIE) Formerly commanding officer of the King's Army in Antar and Duke of the northern duchy of Wulfram. Killed at the Battle of Blogia. Banecaster of the sixth calibre.


map2_sow.jpg


SUMMER, 609:

The Duke of Havenport's army begins to lay siege to Kharangia. Initial progress is slow, with Havenport's artillery proving inadequate for the task of breaching Kharangia's walls.

The King's division takes the town of Solokovil on the northern edge of the Great Forest, facing Khorobirit's army.

SPRING, 609:

The army in Antar splits into two divisions. The King's division, consisting of 12 000 men, is to head north, while the Duke of Havenport's division of 11 000 men is to advance west and take the fortified Antari port city of Kharangia.

Two regiments of line infantry, three companies of engineers, and the Experimental Corps are dispatched from the Duke of Havenport's division to reinforce Fort Kharan, an extant outpost at the northern crossing over the River Kharan.

Prince Khorobirit moves his army to the town of Mhillanovil in preparation for the year's campaigning.

WINTER, 609:

The Earl of Weathern is able to assemble a temporary coalition between the various factions of the Cortes for the duration of the war. Rumours abound that both Lord Barithorne, the head of Royal Intelligence in Aetoria, and the Queen-Dowager Gwyneth d'al Havenport were heavily involved in negotiations.

Major Victor d'al Reyes of the 8th Regiment of Foot submits a proposal for the creation of a small force of foot skirmishers armed with rifled muskets. The King responds positively to the proposal and orders the creation of a temporary Experimental Corps of two hundred men, under Major Reyes's command.

SUMMER, 608:

Still mourning the death of his father, Ewen d'al Candless, the new Duke of Wulfram makes his first appearance in the Tierran Cortes. The young Duke aligns himself with the peace faction, throwing the precarious balance of power into disarray.

A board of inquiry is commissioned by Grenadier Square for the purpose of investigating the events of the defeat at Blogia.

AUTUMN, 607:

With the onset of the autumn rains, Prince Khorobirit retreats to winter quarters near the fortress of Januszkovil, on the southern edge of Antar's southern plains.

King Miguel orders the temporary reinforcement of line infantry regiments serving in Antar with men from marine complements serving on-board the ships of the Royal Tierran Navy. The move proves deeply unpopular with the Tierran Admiralty, but it serves to help replenish the Army's depleted ranks with hardened veterans.

Faced with the spectre of food riots an order of magnitude more severe than those of the year before, the Cortes, led by the Earl of Weathern, implements a grain subsidy. With Tierra starved of Antari grain by the war, Tierrans must now buy their grain from Kian merchants, who do not hesitate to raise prices to meet increased demand.

SUMMER, 607:

The Duke of Havenport is officially appointed Lieutenant-general and Councillor-Militant, to replace the late Duke of Wulfram.

Prince Khorobirit begins to send raiding parties south to probe Tierran defences. Anxious to avoid making plain the weakness of his position, the Duke of Havenport orders the Tierran cavalry, under the command of the Duke of Cunaris, to intercept these raids with utmost vigour.

LATE SPRING, 607:

Leading the bulk of Tierran forces in Antar, the Duke of Wulfram fights a larger Antari army led by Prince Mikhail of Khorobirit in a set-piece battle north of the town of Blogia. The Antari score a decisive victory, killing the Duke of Wulfram, many of his senior staff, and nearly three thousand Tierran soldiers.

The battered remnants of the Duke of Wulfram's army retreats to Noringia. King Miguel of Tierra arrives in Antar to take personal command, leaving the Earl of Weathern to lead the government in his stead.

Starved of supplies and reinforcements by the machinations of his rivals within the League Congress, Prince Khorobirit is forced to halt his advance on Noringia.

For the purposes of replacing the men lost at Blogia, the King orders the beginning of limited conscription. Vagabonds, debtors, and the unemployed are now liable to be forced into the army by recruiting agents in Tierra, to be sent to Antar.
 

As an Amazon Associate, rpgcodex.net earns from qualifying purchases.
Back
Top Bottom