Myth: A New Age CYOA

[Baltika9]

Fangshi, how would Berty feel if we hired the Boys and put him and the girls in charge of their development and command?

 

[Fangshi]

His own private army?

He would love you forever.

It would take time and resources to train and arm all those people though and it would make some of the Houses even more nervous than they already are as you would eventually have the numbers to directly replace them.

 

[Baltika9]

Seems a very good fit: blank slates for students and soldiers. We will have the greatest partisan army in history!

 

[Nevill]

As for the mercenaries, I don't really want to make someone we've never met our partner. In my mind, partners are someone who is 100% solid, like Gareth. I am still unsure about Mayer, but at least we knew what we were getting into with him, and so far he worked himself hard to our benefit. Still I feel we have to be cautious around him.

Can we get a profile on each of the mercenary leaders?

Considering Thais has had a successful career as a prostitute, it seems a rather viable option.

Considering Thais made a point out of not returning to the previous life and that Derryth never whored herself out for all the years she was out on the streets...

Well, at least Ceannard is cute. And Uttu thinks he would make the coolest foster dad EVAR. He has that going for him. :D

 

[Baltika9]

I'm considering taking on the Grey Arrows and the Boys, and using part of the funds the Lady Grey pays us with to hire the Knights for the duration of the war in the south.
Fangshi, how good are the Knights overall? Professional, yes, but how much experience do they have?

 

[Absinthe]

I was pretty sure Thais left prostitution because we made her a much better offer and Derryth never engaged in it because she does not get along well enough with strangers to provide "social services."

 

[Fangshi]

Fangshi, how good are the Knights overall? Professional, yes, but how much experience do they have?

A fair amount of general experience fighting and participating in low scale conflicts. A few have some experience in genuine warfare, and participated in the war against Soulblighter, but most do not. As children of the nobility they have all received extensive combat training and most are at least familiar with military theory even if they have little practical experience in proper war.

As far as mercenaries go, I don't really want to make someone we've never met our partner. In my mind, partners are someone who is 100% solid, like Gareth. I am still unsure about Mayer, but at least we knew what we were getting into with him, and so far he worked himself hard to our benefit. Still I feel we have to be cautious around him.

Can we get a profile on each of the mercenary leaders?

Well I can tell you what your recruiters thought of them if that will help at all. Without actually speaking to them it is about the best you can hope for.

Mercenary captains in general have a great deal of influence on their companies as a whole. They are often the ones responsible for approving membership, setting the rules, dividing the loot and so on. As a result they tend to draw to them like-minded individuals and a company will almost inevitably come to reflect the personality of its leader.

So, most of the captains embody the same values that their organizations readily display.

For example Ada was calm and collected during her interview. She spoke at length about the practical strengths of her organization in simple but clear language. She seemed intelligent if not terribly outgoing and exuded a certain quiet confidence. Her faith came up more than once and is definitely central to her view of the world but she did not seem terribly interested in trying to explain her religion. She also showed no interest in trying to convert others. Given the rather short nature of the interviews there was not a lot of time to get into too many details but she worships a deity known as the Weeping One, a god of suffering and compassion. Ada was careful to stress that her followers will need freedom to pursue their religion if there is to be any hope of integrating your organizations, beyond that she had few real concerns.

Lyssa liked her honesty and intellect and she does not feel that Ada's faith will be a large problem. She is not even sure that the Weeping One is actually real or not.

Berty found Ada to be steady enough, she certainly seemed more grounded than many of the other mercenaries they interviewed. While he was not as impressed as Lyssa he can certainly appreciate the practical angle Ada took to make her case.

Mayer sees her as a liability, her faith will cost you more resources that could be better spent on practical matters.

Skite has dealt with the Doves before though this is the first time he has actually met Ada directly. He was impressed by her professionalism and knowledge of her profession but he is quick to note that her first loyalty is likely to always be to her god unless her nature changes a great deal.

Ta' Blue Bastard showed up drunk and naked. Not that surprising really from what little you know he is always drunk and naked. He complimented Lyssa or her 'great tits' several times, managed to give a count of how many mercs he had and offered to demonstrate his martial prowess by challenging a nearby waiter to a fight to the death. The waiter declined.

Lyssa found him obnoxious and utterly useless. It does not help that he just about threw up on her either.

Berty thought he was a lot of fun, if not the most useful person he has ever met. He can see some uses that the Bastard and his men would excel at but he is willing to admit that the Bastard will be a liability, at least as long as he lives...

Mayer found the Bastard to be quite obnoxious and revolting but none of that matters in the face of the Bastard's brutality and stupidity. Mayer says that you should simply point the Bastard at whatever you need destroyed and let him do his work.

Skite does not think highly of the Bastard but he is willing to concede that the Bastard and his men would make wonderful cannon fodder.

The Cock was vulgar and a bit of a bully but he also displayed a great deal of professional knowledge when he made his case. All of your recruiters agree that he is exactly as he seems, a professional mercenary, good at his job but also lacking any sort of stable moral code. While they all agree on the maul's nature the conclusions they come to are quite different. Lyssa sees him as a liability, Berty and Mayer both see him as a tool, and Skite thinks he would best serve as an example to the rest of his men. Skite suggests you kill him and take his command as long as you are willing to be sufficiently brutal to keep them in line.

Oscar mac Cumhail was well spoken, confident and aggressive in his pitch. He let the past actions of his company speak for themselves and instead he chose to focus on all the things you could accomplish together. He seems to be quite ambitious and your advisers are split on whether or not that is a virtue or a vice. Lyssa thinks he might be useful, Berty is more interested in the applications of his company as a whole than the nature of the man himself. He asserts that Oscar may be no better than dozens of other minor nobles but he is far from the worst example that the tactician has ever encountered. Mayer does not really care about how Oscar behaves, he took one look at the price for the Knights and immediately rejected the idea of hiring them. Skite is a little concerned that Oscar's ambition and confidence, he would say arrogance, might lead to problems later if he is not carefully managed.

Egil had little to say for himself but he spoke at length on the skills his people could bring to your organization. Most of the interview was taken up by Egil demonstrating the various animals he has mastery over, birds, hounds, wolves and he spent an additional ten minutes talking about the best way to control and discipline an elephant. All of your recruiters agree that he knows his business well, once again they draw different conclusions from that fact.

Beyond that he really did not seem that interesting, he appeared competent enough but did not demonstrate a great deal of creative thinking. Berty is convinced that Egil should be able to easily take instruction, he will simply have to be trained like the Hounds train their animals.

The Lady Grey swept into the room with a great deal of arrogance and immediately launched into an aggressive pitch that emphasized her wealth and assets. She even went so far as to claim that her company was the richest in the entire Kingdom. She spent a great deal of time focusing on the economic advantages she could grant your organization, likely because that is all she really has to contribute. Skite made the mistake of asking her how much she would require to join your organization as an employee. She spent the next three minutes coolly dismantling him and stressed that she would accept nothing less than full partnership. Mayer, a far more shrewd negotiator bargained her down to a junior partnership like he has.

Lyssa and Mayer liked her as both are quite used to dealing with headstrong personalities. Grey knows what she wants and what she is willing to do to get it and Mayer can respect that. Lyssa says that Grey is definitely a little cold and likely a little cruel but if you manage her then aquiring her company could be quite useful.

Berty did not like her personally though he will admit that she does bring a great deal to the table.

Skite dislikes her greatly, he says that she is nothing but a unless noble without the knowledge to excel or even to succeed as a mercenary. He says you should not bother with her, nor should you trust her.

Everyone liked Ajiak, even Mayer who thinks the dwarf was a waste of time is willing to admit that he was certainly a 'fine fellow' for what 'little that is worth'. Ajiak was polite, if a bit nervous and made his points clearly even if he did repeat himself a fair bit. He kept his eyes rooted to the floor for most of the interview though every now and then he would scan the room to see if perhaps the 'Heroes' themselves had arrived. He seemed to be under the impression that you would be there in person and he was quite disappointed when he realized that was not the case. Beyond that he seemed like any other normal dwarf, no great ego, no stylish entrance and a great deal of personal humility, it was clear that he was not a mercenary by inclination but rather by necessity.

Lyssa felt a bit sorry for him, Berty saw a lot of potential in him, Mayer is certain he was a waste of time and Skite sees him as a bit of a gamble really. His true worth may only be revealed under pressure.


Not sure if that helps at all, if you want to know something in particular that I did not cover or did not deal with sufficiently then just let me know and I will see what I can do.

 

[Baltika9]

Fangshi, can we jsut hire a company for a month or two for the war in the South? I read over Lady Grey's profile a little more:

The Arrows are still working with Nephilia at Fort Blackrock so if you want to ask Ceannard personally then you will have to wait till he returns (he will likely be back the day that you head south).

You can send a letter over to the Arrows' compound though as there are a handful of Arrows still in the city under the leadership of that big fellow you met when you ran into Ceannard at the Eberhardt compound.

Since it will cost you next to nothing here is what Ceannard's lieutenant thinks:

He can not tell you much because he does not know much but Ceannard saved her as he sometimes does with 'fair maidens' and, as is also common, she developed a bit of a crush on her 'saviour'.

She definitely has connections to the Empire but he is not sure what they are exactly (very few people know much of anything about her really).

She founded her mercenary company about three months ago and so far she has been using her money to overcome every obstacle between her and her goal (which he assumes to be Ceannard). She has yet to take a proper contract as far as the Large Officer knows beyond guarding merchant's sons and daughters heading to and from the high street. He says that is probably a good thing as her mercenaries are quite inexperienced and she has not shown a great deal of interest in changing that.

From what little he knows of her she has a reputation for being stubborn and overly sure of herself, she also suffers from a complete lack of knowledge on the art of soldiering or the business of running a mercenary company. He suspects she will manage to bankrupt herself in a matter of years.

Supposedly she also has more than a passing interest in the occult but he can neither confirm nor deny this.

She's a disaster waiting to happen. I dunno if we ought to take her up just to save her men's lives or refuse to save ours.

On the hotness scale, where would our committee put her?

 

[Nevill]

She's a disaster waiting to happen. I dunno if we ought to take her up just to save her men's lives or refuse to save ours.

She is. But I think that can be remedied in a way.

Fangshi, can we ask Lady Grey what she would think about Ceannard's lieutenants overseeing the training of her people (Otto would be ideal, though it might be a bit cruel of us to subject him to this )?

I think we can hire some of the Arrows to right the wrongs of Grey's influence, and since she patterned her company on them, she is unlikely to object to it too hard. I mean, the Arrow's doctrine is a gospel from the mouth of her idol! Can she refuse that?

And I always wanted to hire Arrows to train our own archers in Muirthemne. I guess that would be a nice proof-of-concept.

On the hotness scale, where would our committee put her?

She must be at least an 8 for Ceannard to even consider saving her.

 

[Azira]

We should just take her on, then dump her to Morpheus, right? That seems about par for the course.

 

[Nevill]

We don't dump hot females to Morpheus!

The membership of Ada and Lady Grey is a foregone conclusion.

 

[Azira]

She could be hotness 1, if Ceannard was paid enough to rescure her. He's a business man after all.

 

[Nevill]

The way I read it, it was not job related. It likely was Ceannard trying to show off.

Be careful what you wish for is all I am going to say on the matter.

 

[Azira]

Well, we seem hell-bent on expanding our working relationship with Morpheus, and if the Lady Grey turns out to be too much og a nuisance, I'm just foreseeing people voting for dumping her on him is all..

 

[Nevill]

We haven't dumped our partners there yet (there is first time for everything, I suppose ). Even though I am strictly pro-Dreaming, I would see it wrong to invite people in our company for their wealth and to get rid of them afterwards.

If she proves to be too much of a nuisance, we can just go separate ways. Just make eyes at Ceannard every time you are on a job, and she'll be the first to pack her things and leave.

 

[Baltika9]

Besides which, she seems a very spiteful and ambitious sort. She may find a way out of there, through deals or otherwise, and that would come back to bite us. No thanks, I don't want a Zhang Manxing With Boobs around.

 

[Grimgravy]

1) B
2) B
3) Aii
4) B
5) B
6) B
7) B
8) A
9) A(10) B(20) C10) F(15) G(10) H(20) I(2)
10) E
11) E

 

[Azira]

Besides which, she seems a very spiteful and ambitious sort. She may find a way out of there, through deals or otherwise, and that would come back to bite us. No thanks, I don't want a Zhang Manxing With Boobs around.

...

I'm sorry, didn't catch the rest of what you were saying?

 

[Nevill]

In any case, my opinion on the mercenaries seem to coincide with Kz3r0's. Loyalty is the foremost concern, seeing how compromised the kingdom is, followed by their profitability and their competence.

Lady Grey and her funds are a necessity, as without her we would not be able to hire much. Just try to give the control over training her men to the actual Arrows, and let Thais do her magic on the woman. Her funds would be a lifesaver.

Ada and her Doves we can do without, but she seems competent, and this trait is in short supply among the mercs we've seen. I think we might hire her at a later date.

Her religion makes me uneasy, though. The god of suffering and compassion (Ilmater, anyone? :D) does not sound like a bad deity to worship, but I would be much more comfortable with a thought that it is only a concept, rather than an actual god that is most likely to be one of the Dark Ones. Then there is always Icewind Dale's take on the whole idea. Well, as long as they don't cause suffering to have something to be compassionate about, I think we'll be cool.

The Boys are something that 3 of our advisors can agree on. The problem with them is that they are not worth much as a conventional army. Thankfully, we are not one to fight conventionally. Berty is probably the only one who can make them into a somewhat combat-capable chapter. Just don't try to utilize them as an infantry. Use them as a guerilla squad and your eyes and ears in the city. They can mingle easily with the locals because they are the locals. They should prove invaluable with suppressing the rebellion that is heavily dependant on the street word to keep it going.

We can afford the hit to our finances if we take Lady Grey in, though their training would present somewhat of a problem if we take Berty to the fronlines.

They also present a security liability. We might want to throw in some pathfinders in their ranks to check for the enemy activity.

The Knights look interesting, but they look like someone we would want to hire on a case-by-case basis, rather than keep. The mainteinance cost is too heavy. I would not be against hiring them for a month, if only to be able to outspeed and flank the glols, but I see no use for them in a day-to-day life.

 

[Fangshi]

Fangshi, can we jsut hire a company for a month or two for the war in the South?

To hire the various companies for thirty days:

The Doves: 150WPs
The Bastards: 40WPs
The Cocks: 125WPs
The Knights: 300 WPs
The Hounds: 100 WPs
The Greys: 100 WPs
The Boys: 50 WPs

Also:

The Black Arrows: 450 WPs, the going rate quoted to you by Ceannard's lieutenant in case you were curious. Ceannard himself might cut you a bit of a deal if you seduced talked to him in person.

There are also a handful of mercenary companies that have no interest in joining you but would be willing to sign on for a month but you can look at those when you get closer to leaving the city. This update is still about building an actual base that you can use to further your own goals rather than constantly relying on Albrecht's people.

On the hotness scale, where would our committee put her?

A nine... Ceannard is nothing if not predictable in that regard...

Fangshi, can we ask Lady Grey what she would think about Ceannard's leutenants overseeing the training of her people (Otto would be ideal, though it might be a bit cruel of us to subject him to this )?

I think we can hire some of the Arrows to right the wrongs of Grey's influence, and since she patterned her company on them, she is unlikely to object to it too hard. I mean, the Arrow's doctrine is a gospel from the mouth of her idol! Can she refuse that?

You can not ask her directly since you have not had a chance to meet her.

You can ask your staff though and they think she is quite likely to agree to that based on what they experienced. They think that the idea of working alongside her hero (or at least his subordinates) would be very appealing to her as it was the primary motivating factor for her approaching you in the first place from what they can tell.

 

[Absinthe]

How much control would a partner have over our assets? Serious question. Because 500 WPs aren't as exciting when she runs us into the ground, and I don't think we'll be able to just spend her money either. Her arrogance and novice troops aren't pleasant either. She sounds like a liability. Even if we need her funds, I really don't trust her enough to put our assets at her fingertips. A bit of mismanagement could be ruinous.

Right now Ceannard is the only person I'd be inclined to trust as a partner. I think we're best off recruiting regular mercenaries to boost our forces.

Could you explain Dwarven Crossbow vs Human Archer?

 

[Nevill]

I would suggest looking at the financial side of things. Here is our monthly balance:

Wealth on hand (Myrgard): 144

Income:
Myrgard
+380 WPs monthly

Expenses:
Myrgard:
-120 WPs monthly

So we can boast an income of 260 WPs. Unless we take a loan from Mayer or pool resourses with Lady Grey, 200 WPs will go out of the window just to pay the interest, leaving us only 60 WPs to work with.

The Doves would cost us from 75 to 90 WPs per month. The Knights are about 100 WPs. Pretty much the only ones we would be able to afford would be Berty's private army (~25 WPs), and we would both lack the funds to train them and severily limit our options to pay the debt off.

Even with the addition of income from the Greys I don't think we can afford to hire everyone I'd like, though the Doves would look more manageable.

For the moment, I fancy the option to hire the Greys, the Boys and the Doves while making Ada and Lady Grey our junior partners. Our income would take a hit of (+70 - 75 -25 = -30) WPs, which leaves us the option to hire a few other mercs. If we can convince Lady Grey to invest most of her fortune in our enterprise, we might be able to greatly increase our income and gain space for maneuver.

A nine... Ceannard is nothing if not predictable in that regard...

Sold!

Our combat style so far was to eliminate or separate the leadership, and then butcher the mindless army. We prefer subtlety and surgical strikes to the brute force. I intend to keep it that way, so I don't want to hire anyone who can't be anything more than just a meatshield.

2. The Blooded Doves
C) Don't hire them now, but postpone the decision until our financial situation improves.

I have an eye out for these guys. I intend to include them in our roster eventually.

3. Ta' Blue Bastards
B) Haha, no. We need extrremely reliable people, not dumb (and treacherous) muscle.

4. The Mighty Cocks
B) Same. The whole point of the recruitment drive was to hire someone who won't stab us in the back.

5. The Knights of the Broken Lance
B) Too expensive to serve us in perpetuity

6. The Hounds
B) I trust Lyssa's judgement on this

7. The Grey Arrows
A) Hire them, but also work out an arrangement with Ceannard to provide instructors to bring the Greys up to snuff. Otto would be nice, but any of the trusted lieutenants will do.

8. The Brickyard Boys
Ai) Hire them, but don't make Ajiak our partner.

Ask Albrecht to spare some of the Pathfinders to infiltrate their ranks and weed out the spies. I guess this choice comes after we decide to hire them?

I don't like the roster of our partners expanding so rapidly. I don't see what Ajiak's partnership brings to the table, so I would prefer to avoid it.

That gives us a net +45 WPs surplus to work with, which I would like to spend on unaffiliated mercenaries. 40 warriors and 20 grenadiers for mere 20 WPs would be nice to have. Even though they aren't veterans, they might be able to do well under a competent commander.

Enchanters would also be sweet to improve the damage output of our archers.

Alternatively, just hire the Doves, money-be-damned.

 

[Azira]

VOTES!!

1Aii
2Ai
3B
4B
5B
6B
7A
8Ai
9 none
10F
11C>D>E

Now, if my tally isn't wrong, buying out the doves and keeping the leader on whill cost 90wp monthly total. Taking on the Grey Arrows will add 70wp monthly. Hiring on the brickyard boys and keeping the leader is a further deficit of 25wp monthly, meaning a total drain of 45wp monthly.
We gain a professional band of mixed soldiers (the doves), some green archers that come with strings attached (eh-heh) and a small army of our own to mold.

I like that. I don't much like the other options to be honest.
As to the loan from Mayer, I like to keep it simple. Either we take the loan by offering a satisfactory bail (is that the word), or we sweettalk him (yeah, right), or we simply do not take the loan. Would rather we not depend on the crown too much.

 

[Fangshi]

How much control would a partner have over our assets?

Her position would be similar to Mayer's or that of your other partners. She would have as much control as you let her get. If you put her in charge of managing your assets in the Kingdom then that would be a lot of power. If you kept her close to hand in a more advisory capacity then she would naturally have much less direct access.

In general she would have the authority to express her opinion and she would expect you to take her ideas seriously. However, Mayer did manage to bargain her down to a junior partnership. You are still the senior partner here with Thaïs as your second (and essentially equal) and Gareth as your third. You would remain in charge at the end of the day.

The exact nature of your relationship beyond that will likely find definition as D&T get to know Grey and interact with her.

Could you explain Dwarven Crossbow vs Human Archer?

Sure, it is essentially the age old debate between crossbows and longbows, which are what the humans are trained to use. The crossbows the dwarves use are fairly advanced but are not terribly common either which negates some of the natural advantages of the crossbow.

The archers are better trained and can achieve a higher rate of fire, they are also more technically efficient, lighter and less bulky than a crossbow.

The crossbows on the other hand are much easier to use, can be loaded in advance if needed and require less upper body strength to properly use. They are also easier to aim and they would be easier to field in larger numbers if the dwarves were more interested in producing and using them. They also likely have better short range penetrating power and a greater maximum range though there is a large drop off when it comes to accuracy at extreme distances.

Bolts or arrows are available in about equal supply in the Kingdom and neither is terribly common when compared to the ammunition for other ranged weapons. Outside of the Kingdom finding a steady supply of bolts might be a bigger problem.

The reason they are relatively rare is simple and completely cultural, dwarves like explosions, it is as simple as that. Given a choice most dwarves that consider becoming a ranged combatant simply choose the time honoured career of the grenadier over that of the crossbowman.

There are also other ranged options used by particular mercenary companies or by other races in the area. Many of the southern ghôlish tribes make common use of highly trained slingers for example and can mobilize large numbers of trained warriors quite easily.

Others, on both sides of the conflict, make use of javelins or other thrown weapons they create or have to hand.

Finally Meletē has been working on early firearms and there are a few dozen early firearms circulating in the Kingdom as a result but they are so rare at the moment that they do not count for much.

The dwarves do however make use of both mortars and cannons in limited numbers. Both are highly regulated and limited to the Royal Army, the Pathfinders, and the Royal Academy's weapon development department.

 

[Absinthe]

I was under the impression that we are keeping our Myrgard assets separate from Muirthemne. She shouldn't even be in the same list as Gareth. Can we restrict the partnership to just a mercenary partnership with our Blackrock mercenaries?

Right now I'm inclined to get 5 academy researchers, 10 maul warriors, 20 Legionaries, 20 human archers, and 20 grenadiers.