[LP CYOA] Epic

[m4davis]

BBC

 

[Zero Credibility]

If they can climb the cliff concealed, we have bigger problems then one hole in the wall - they can then mount concealed attacks on the whole wall. At least the hole is facing the sea, so they won't be able to bring many attackers there. Also, if they do besiege us, that will give us the time to repair the wall completely, and build the siege weapons if the siege lasts long enough. But we won’t be able to trap the approach to the fort.

As for the civilians, A doesn't mean we put them besides real soldiers on the front line. Put them behind them, ready to assist if necessary. We have 2000 men total - we don't need and can't afford to make 700 of them purely logistical support.

EDIT: Correction, we have 2500 men total and between 700 and 1200 of them are civilians.

 

[Smashing Axe]

As for the civilians, A doesn't mean we put them besides real soldiers on the front line. Put them behind them, ready to assist if necessary. We have 2000 men total - we don't need and can't afford to make 700 of them purely logistical support.

Well professional armies do just that, but my interpretation was that we do not make all 700 of them logistical, only the best suited, with the capable joining the militia. They'll have some light combat instruction regardless. We don't know how many men can man the walls at one time comfortably too, it's possible that our professional soldiers are enough to do so, even with alternating shifts. There's some assumptions there, as there inevitably are, and you could well be right.

In regards to the Gieloth's light manipulation, I don't think we've ever seen them do it from afar so there'll be one leading the attack if they were to do this, as for the water... well. They're capable of raising armies of the dead, which don't need to breathe and don't tire, the sea shouldn't provide an obstacle. That said, if we were to go for an option other than plugging the hole, I'd go for catapults as Azira argued.

My problem with C of the last choice is that it's only effective the first time they try to scale the walls, after that we attain no benefit other than a few dead enemies, whereas catapults will allow us to hurt the enemy the day after and the day after. Likewise with A, it will protect us the day after and the day after.

 

[Baltika9]

Bros, if we go on the defensive, then we would be better served by making our veterans organized by 1B. Since, while on the defensive, our lines will be less thinly stretched, thus demanding less men to hold them, which can then be plugged by the militia. Use the veterans for striking sorties, Ean for eliminating their chain of command(by the way treavbro, can Ean change his physical shape (e.g. less muscled?)) and the medics for patching up the wounded. And yes, the food is a problem, so the smart thing to do would be to send some people out to get the food, as someone suggested.

 

[Zero Credibility]

Meh, food won't be a problem. First, I doubt this is going to be a long siege. Second, we are right next to the sea, so the other cities can (and bloody well should) resupply us with boats. There isn't much the attackers can do to stop that (barring some as yet unseen Gieloth ability). I somehow doubt they brought boats with them, and if they try to get between the walls and the sea they'll get smashed to pieces by thrown rocks (at least we have plenty of those).

 

[Baltika9]

Meh, food won't be a problem. First, I doubt this is going to be a long siege. Second, we are right next to the sea, so the other cities can (and bloody well should) resupply us with boats. There isn't much the attackers can do to stop that (barring some as yet unseen Gieloth ability). I somehow doubt they brought boats with them, and if they try to get between the walls and the sea they'll get smashed to pieces by thrown rocks (at least we have plenty of those).

Like summoning a thunderstorm?

 

[Esquilax]

If they do besiege us, that will hopefully give us more opportunity to do what Azira suggested and play havoc with their command. After-all, we speak the language, we are the ancestor of their modern military tactics and techniques, for all intents and purposes we are them. We should be able to infiltrate and assassinate without much hindrance. It's probably the way to go. Swiftly take out one or two Gieloth, and meet the rest when they attempt to scale the battlements.

Edit: My concern with the steep cliff is that they have powers of light manipulation. It's possible for them to be concealed, especially at night, as they climb the cliff and form a position to invade from within. Also if they're besieging us, they're certainly going to scout all the walls for weak points.

We don't have to worry about the Gieloth wreaking havoc inside the fortress, so that way we're free to wreak havoc at their camp. I think Honorblade is going to be crucial to our success here since it improves ALL of our abilities, not just the obvious physical abilities/regen. It'll allow us to shapeshift more convincingly (maybe we can take the form of a general and get an audience with one of the Gieloth) and focus our telepathy further.

My problem with C of the last choice is that it's only effective the first time they try to scale the walls, after that we attain no benefit other than a few dead enemies, whereas catapults will allow us to hurt the enemy the day after and the day after. Likewise with A, it will protect us the day after and the day after.

You're right that C would only be useful the first time, but it would be a very shocking and demoralizing initial play, and more importantly, we could parlay it into something grand. The Babylonians are fresh off victory in Assyria so they will be pretty cocky coming in and assaulting a fortress full of men that they have all the advantages over. What I'm suggesting is this:

We go BBC, using the traps and the ensuing chaos/fear/panic that they cause as a way of easily infiltrating the Babylonian camp. The Babylonians and their Gieloth overlords will be so focused on the traps and besieging the city that I doubt that they'll notice an infiltrator in their midst - it's a classic misdirection play. It'll make it a lot easier to sow chaos in their ranks, and reliably hit one of their Gieloth leaders. So yeah, it might only be useful for one go, but I think we can use it as a cover for a daring assassination attempt. The only catch is that because the hole in the wall is exposed, we'd have to work quickly before the Gieloth find the structural weakness.

Baltika9: Shit, that's a good point. The walls are made out of mud, after all. That means that we may have to work quickly, whether we like it or not.

 

[Zero Credibility]

As for the civilians, A doesn't mean we put them besides real soldiers on the front line. Put them behind them, ready to assist if necessary. We have 2000 men total - we don't need and can't afford to make 700 of them purely logistical support.

Well professional armies do just that, but my interpretation was that we do not make all 700 of them logistical, only the best suited, with the capable joining the militia. They'll have some light combat instruction regardless. We don't know how many men can man the walls at one time comfortably too, it's possible that our professional soldiers are enough to do so, even with alternating shifts. There's some assumptions there, as there inevitably are, and you could well be right.

Our professional soldiers already have the necessary logistics. Now extra support can't hurt, and militia will certainly need more of it, so those civilians that really aren't any good in a fight should be helping in other ways, no question there. But A ensures that most of them has enough training to be at least a potential last resort force, rather then a liability that will need defending if everything goes wrong.

In regards to the Gieloth's light manipulation, I don't think we've ever seen them do it from afar so there'll be one leading the attack if they were to do this, as for the water... well. They're capable of raising armies of the dead, which don't need to breathe and don't tire, the sea shouldn't provide an obstacle. That said, if we were to go for an option other than plugging the hole, I'd go for catapults as Azira argued.

I don't know - from what I remember of our last battle with one of those fuckers he was capable of some pretty impressive feats. Certainly enough to plunge the whole section of the wall in darkness.

My problem with C of the last choice is that it's only effective the first time they try to scale the walls, after that we attain no benefit other than a few dead enemies, whereas catapults will allow us to hurt the enemy the day after and the day after. Likewise with A, it will protect us the day after and the day after.

By the same logic, if this does turn out be a simple charge on our walls then repairing the hole and building the catapults will be much less useful then setting traps. And even if this does turn into a long siege we can repair the hole and build catapults safely behind our walls. What we cannot do is set traps in front of the walls.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I think a simple assault on our walls would be sufficient chaos to do what you're suggesting Esquilax, perhaps I'm cynical in that I don't think this will be quickly resolved, but a longer siege. I've no clue about the masonry of this time, but if rain could undermine the defenses of a fortress, I think there'd be a lot less fortresses than there are currently. As for plugging the hole and sealing the walls, do we have all the materials within the fortress to do so? I don't think we do. You'd need mud from the river for the wall, at least. There may be enough wood for catapults inside, but that's uncertain

 

[CappenVarra]

BAB

 

[treave]

Mudbricks aren't that weak that some rain would wash them away, but the climate has generally been arid here anyway. Little chance of rain, a storm that is strong enough to erode them would be downright unnatural. It would take many days of unending rain and strong winds.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I think a simple assault on our walls would be sufficient chaos to do what you're suggesting Esquilax, perhaps I'm cynical in that I don't think this will be quickly resolved, but a longer siege. I've no clue about the masonry of this time, but if rain could undermine the defenses of a fortress, I think there'd be a lot less fortresses than there are currently. As for plugging the hole and sealing the walls, do we have all the materials within the fortress to do so? I don't think we do. You'd need mud from the river for the wall, at least. There may be enough wood for catapults inside, but that's uncertain

We don't need mud, we need bricks - so just deconstruct some buildings in the city. If 500 civilians decided to stay and fight there must be plenty of empty buildings to choose from. Same for the wood we need.

Oh, and any long lasting rainstorm would be an unmitigated disaster for the attacking army. At least we have shelter. They are in the open, in the desert sand that is quickly going to turn into mud and right next to an overflowing river filled with bad tempered man-eating predators. Their chariots would be stuck, their logistic train would collapse. Between hunger, disease and plummeting morale we wouldn't even have to fight them.

 

[ScubaV]

BBA

BBC

 

[Smashing Axe]

I don't think this is a city, it's a fortress, no? While there may be some spare resources, I don't think it'll be sufficient, unless we're taking shelter away from some of our army. We're all just guessing though.

 

[Zero Credibility]

I think it's a small fortified city. If 500 civilians remained to fight it must be a city with several thousands people at least. Probably plenty of material for us to repair the wall. After all, that's what we would have used to repair it in A choice as well - we sure as hell don't have the time to make enough mud bricks.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Good point. Okay, I'll concede C3 seems valid, I'll stick at A for the moment since I'm still concerned about surprise Gieloth attacks. Well argued

 

[Tigranes]

Yeah, a population of several thousand is pretty big in these times; combine that with sea access, and I don't think we need to worry about food for this particular set of choices.

I'm trying to think through just how brash, reserved, confident, etc. this opposing army is going to be. For example, if the Gieloth are very wary of Ean's presence (that they're... probably aware of? Right?), then they might approach slowly and ready for encampment, rendering C not quite as destructive, if still inconvenient, and making that hole in the wall a major issue. I mean, it seems like a pretty big hole, and scouting the walls is the first thing any besieger does, so it will probably be found within 2 or 3 days if the conflict is not over by then.

 

[Stygian Lurker]

BBA

 

[Zero Credibility]

I'm trying to think through just how brash, reserved, confident, etc. this opposing army is going to be. For example, if the Gieloth are very wary of Ean's presence (that they're... probably aware of? Right?), then they might approach slowly and ready for encampment, rendering C not quite as destructive, if still inconvenient, and making that hole in the wall a major issue. I mean, it seems like a pretty big hole, and scouting the walls is the first thing any besieger does, so it will probably be found within 2 or 3 days if the conflict is not over by then.

I don't think they know we are waiting for them. Unless they know we can eavesdrop on them (and in that case they would never have communicated about this attack in the first place), they are still thinking they will march unopposed at the cities in the delta. That's the whole plan - destroy the delta and starve Astarth. I don't think they know much about us - we have been very good at exterminating their infiltrators in Egypt. Probably all they know is that Astarth employes somebody very good at sniffing them out.

I think their battle plan will be simple - show up in force and try to storm the city with superior numbers (for all they know there is still only the skeleton crew guarding it). Only when that fails will they try something else. Their reliance on Gieloth infiltrators is their weakness here - there are none left alive to tell them we are ready for them.

 

[Storyfag]

Loving the stuff. Can't believe I stumbled upon it only now.

Anyway, BAB

 

[Bloodshifter]

A I trust our man to do this not some unbloodied geezer
B we need to hold out as long as possible if they breach the walls we are fucked big time
B Flinging stone and dead people (or Ean) will demoralise the enemy quite a bit (not the Gieloth we be giving them a snack at best unless its Ean then we be handing out whoop ass) not to mention we can turn it against the wall if it went truly south Make them spend as many soldiers as possible And pick their way through rubble.

 

[CappenVarra]

Now I'll be sorely disappointed if Ean doesn't get a catapult "ride"

 

[Helly]

Treave, what can our power tell us of Menos and Kharun ? I guess they're somewhat trustworthy, but can we tell if they have an agenda of their own ?

I'm all for siege weaponry for a simple reason: if the enemy himself have some siege weapons, that'll be the only way to take them down. Even if it's nothing but rock and elastics, as long as it has some reach, it's all good.

Traps are probably quite useless here as they're mostly used to sap morale and we're more likely to encounter mindless walking flesh than anything. And there won't be no use of chariots in a siege (apart from us making a potential sortie) so they might hinder us more than our enemies.

Regarding the destroyed wall, I don't mind having a somewhat difficult to reach weakness in our defences: we just need to carefully plan a trap for the eventual invader, or even better put Ean himself there to counter-rape the obvious gieloth rush through the hole.

 

[Smashing Axe]

Fuck it, I'm changing my vote to catapults. Let's rock them

 

[Omicron]

A
B
B