Realm Quest - A Fantasy Text Adventure

[Jetroid]

The only thing I think is important for Darde to win (or at least do well) is to redirect the attackers to have to go through the weakened buildings, so that we can bring them down on top of them. I don't care how it gets done, I just think it needs doing.

[Raziel]

Set up the most unlikely building as your fall back strong hold point, not the inn, they'll expect thay. Instead, rig the inn with a ton of traps, that make them think its the right building, and then have it rigged to collapse once its full of enemy soldiers. Split archers/fire wielders/water wielders and armed men into 2 men teams, one to hold a shield and spear, the other to fire arrows. Have the archer covered behind the shield until ready to fire, then quickly duck back behind it. Have these teams stationed in unlikely buildings, and only have them fire when the enemy isn't looking, so their position remains hidden. Make sure each team has a fall back building to duck back to, and then all of them have a convenient route to your final stronghold building. Do this with roughly 10 people, making 5 crews like this, using the most people who are most accurate. Keep a guard of 2 metal wielders with you in your final stronghold building, give each of them a metal weapon with a long reach, and make sure they stay low. Only take someone out when they walk into that building, and make sure you silence them when they go down, so as to not alert the others. Use the water wielders to pull the water from the well, and save the water for the projectile teams, put all of it in buckets on the inns roof. Have 2-3 of them fling it around in tiny stinging drops as fast as you can, messing with their eyesight. Use spare thatch from roofs to cover certain roadways, and ignite it, blocking that way in. Channel all of them past the buildings with the archer teams.

[ninjamaster1991]

Set the fallback point for the water people as the underground river, through the well, for the wood people as the forest, and everybody else in the sturdiest building you can find.

[Jetroid]

Set the fallback point for the water people as the underground river, through the well, for the wood people as the forest, and everybody else in the sturdiest building you can find.

Don't do this! If you fall back, it means a whole bunch of you are probably out of the game, so you need to group together.

[ninjamaster1991]

Don't do this! If you fall back, it means a whole bunch of you are probably out of the game, so you need to group together.

However, it'll divide the attacking forces as well, and the defending people would have the home field advantage and, essentially, make the attackers play a hide-and-seek game, while giving the defenders time to rest.

[Jetroid]

You also have to remember that the defenders don't matter at all. It's Darde who matters. If some of your force are somewhere else being effectively useless, it means they're going to abandon pursuing them and go straight for the Dardemeister.

[chimericWilder]

Theres absolutely no reason to split up when falling back. Though having everyone fall back to the well might be a possibility. I doubt it would be very effective as it is now, though, since only one or two people would be able to descend at a time... Perhaps if you had some of your wood and metal wielders modify well with a platform, which you could use to speedily lower or raise several people with. You could use this as an escape route when you are being overwhelmed, thus fleeing into the well to buy yourself some extra time.

I think perhaps that holding out in one of the buildings might be more usefull, then, though, but theres no reason not to make the modifications to the well in case doing this suddenly becomes a good idea. Make sure to place the platform somewhere it wont obstruct the water wielders from drawing water from the well, though.

[Raziel]

I like this final ditch route in the well, but leave that as your very last resort, use the unlikly building as your main stronghold. Go with the projectile teams set out in certain buildings, block off roads with fire to channel them through the teams, so they're getting attacked on all sides but don't know from which buildings, and then your final stronghold is nicely reinforced. Don't forget to make the inn look reinforced, but really fill it with traps. Ooh, and the water guys on the roof of the inn flinging drops everywhere, lowering visibility, making the projectile teams hidden for even longer. That, and the water dudes on roof will draw them up through the inn, letting you collapse it on them. Make sure the water guys can jump to a near by building before the collapse. And give them a metal wielder to help them delay the collapse as long as possible. Make your final stronghold building have nice access to the well, so make it close by to it, so its only a quick run. Instead of a platform, have the water wielders all bunch of the water at the bottom so you can just jump in, then have them release it so the enemys can't just jump down too. They could use the platform right after you did, and jumping in would be alot faster.

[chimericWilder]

Then i would recommend heating the water a little bit before just jumping down. I mean damnit that water is gonna be cold. like a lot.

Also remember that lowering visibility works boths ways, so if the novices of a particular station are being targeted in particular, they should create mist or steam at their current location, then move to a new one where, hopefully, they can receive help against their inevitable pursuers.

We should probably summarize what we are going to do or something.

[Raziel]

Kinda sorta what I just did, and I like this mist/steam idea. The point is they'll be expecting a solid resistance at one chokepoint, not a bunch of tiny raid attacks from all sides.

[chimericWilder]

Doing the unexpected is good, just not so much when the unexpected is unfeasible. In this case, i doubt the town is large enough for proper hit and run, and also we dont have any earth wielders. They'll see us coming, and we wont see them coming. Also no tunnels.

[Raziel]

Don't need em, but if we have 5 hidden teams firing at them from all sides, with the teams constantly moving, while they're being covered by the water wielders above, thats a bit hard to combat. And, since they'll be in the buildings, they'll be that harder to detect. Maybe they could only stay on rooftops, so as to not be detected by earth wielders, or have some people stationed in trapped buildings jumping on the ground or somthing as a decoy to earth wielders. (by trapped I mean we rig em to collapse once the enemy walks in, and have a nice escape route to another trapped building for the decoy guy.)

[Cadorean]

What with the bringing down the buildings on top of the reds? Keep in mind we're just looking to declarethem dead, not actually kill them. Killing children is typically frowned upon by most societies. We don't want a stern talking to, now do we?

[hector212121]

I doubt a thatched roof is going to kill anyone, but you culd explain that they are to represent actual dangerous roofed houses and you don't want to injure anyone....

Alos:

+1 reader!

[Raziel]

Exactly, its the concept that matters. If the building collapses with them inside, its enough to delcare them dead, without actually killing them. And yay, always glad for more commands.

[Cadorean]

Half of the houses have terracotta roofs. There's eight buildings in the square, and three have thatched roofing. Basing plans off of those three is the worst idea ever. Make your plans assuming all the buildings are marble and re bar, even when you know for a fact that they aren't.

[Jetroid]

We should collapse the buildings on them anyway. We're shooting arrows and fire at them for christ sakes. A wooden building isn't going to do more physical harm than an arrow or searing third degree burns.

[chimericWilder]

It is just pretty damn hard to time such a collapse. Sure, you can make it so that it automatically collapses, but then you might only 'kill' one person, and then we'll be down a building to use for our purposes. Anywho, i wanted to make a summary of what we are doing like, a few days ago but now will have to do i guess. So correct me if i leave out something or add something you disagree with.

> Cut down trees for barricades, use the branches and stuff for sharpened stakes. Reinforce with a bit of metal, to wield it to the ground so that it stays in place better.
> Archers and fire wielders on the roof's/second floor of the inn. Probably one or two water wielders, too. Noone atop any building with a straw roof, that is stupid. Make some cover atop the roof's using earthwielding
> Coat the streets leading up to the barricades with a thin layer of ice
> Wood wielders and armed combat novices in several of the houses at strategic positions. Probably a few water wielders, too.
> Metal wielders scattered across the various teams probably
> Some sort of plan for collapsing any buildings, possibly. Weaken any buildings that go unnused, then collapse them when the enemy steps in. Do not weaken any building there is even a slight chance you'll be using.
> Lock any doors that need locking. When i say lock i mean jam with metalwielding and reinforced with wood wielding.
> Inform everyone that the top priority is nuking any earth wielders tunneling behind your lines.
> Place yourself with one of the teams on the ground floor, but choose somewhere defensible and with a good view. NOT the inn. You should also have someone assigned specifically as your body guard
> Make plans for falling back to the inn, collapsing the staircase there, and last for as long as possible from the second floor
> Make plans for retreating into the well
> Give each roof-team a specific signal to use when they are particularly threatened, that will allow you to send them reinforcements or otherwise react. If a roof team is forced to fallback, a water or fire wielder should get some mist/steam going to cover their descend from the roof
> Give a speech when you are done explaining to the novices what they are going to do
> Tell the water wielders to be ready to summon a 'tsunami' from the well and send it at where the enemy masses particularly, at your signal



(Things like sniping and staying hidden wont be possible a town the size of nothing, they would find and trap any such strike teams with their greater numbers immediately, especially because earth wielders)

[Jetroid]

All you'd have to do is get the Woodwielders to pull (or push) to wood so that it collapses.

The plan gets my vote, though.

Also, you said earthwielders at one point. I believe you meant woodwielders.

[Raziel]

Not if they're walking from rooftop to rooftop, and you'd be surpirsed how long they could hide, or atleast evade, especially with support from the water wielders and other teams to cover them when they need to fall back a bit. This will wipe out a considerable amount of their forces, as well as force them to hunt down the teams and not us. As for collapsing the buildings, rig it so all it needs is a nudge from a woodwielder to knock it down. Then have a woodwielder on the inn roof to knock down the buildings as the enemy goes in. Don't put yourself with a projectile team, they'll be hunted first. Instead place yourself in an unlikely building that has a couple of metal wielders inside to protect you. Draw no attention to said building, but have an escape route to well ready. I like chopping trees for barricades, but i doubt we have that kinda time, and honestly, they can burn em down. Do use fire as a barricade though, using straw on the roads, but only light it when a couple of soilders are on it, so they'll get burned and 'die.' Don't make your final stronghold the inn, thats too expected. Do have a waterwielder ready to collect the water at the bottom of the well so you can jump down safely, and evac your team this way when needed. Defending the tunnel should be easy with your team, and once you retreat to down there, you should be able to beat the rest of em. Ignore most of what chimeric said, no offense.

[chimericWilder]

We dont have the space for a hit and run strategy. We have a handful of houses, not a huge city. Why bother jumping from house to house when the enemy will easily be able to cover all of them easily? Furthermore, we're surrounded, jumping around will only waste time that could have been spent firing.

If we had had the necessary space for such a tactic, i would support it, but we dont.

Same deals goes for collapsing the buildings. We only have a few buildings to spare since we're using the rest. We could easily rig those and collapse them whenever it would be ideal, but then we'll be down another building and it will quickly become obvious to the attackers which buildings we are and are not using. Probably worth it though.

As for the barricades,

you can do anything you want to in the time you have, you could also send out scouts to investigate further, of course if you send them too far away you risk not having them back before the attack starts, which would leave them vulnerable. Also, remember that the red team is already stationed out there, waiting for the horn to be blown, so they might see what you're doing and counter it.

And yes, ofcourse they can be burned. Honestly, im counting on it, because each second spent burning barricades is one not spent burning the houses our teams are hiding in. An idea, though, we should probably coat the enemy-side wood walls and the barricades themselves with water. Makes stuff slightly harder to burn.

And for the inn - yes, the well is a better choice of fallback point than the inn is, but that is absolutely no reason not to make a contingency plan for the inn. We may suddenly be cut off from the well, or the inn may be a better strategic choice at the moment. We have all the time we need, so no reason not to make the plan.



Unrelated, how flammable is the immediate area around the town?

[Raziel]

We have enough room that they'll lose alot of men hunting us down. Each team I estimate can take down around 10 guys roughly, and we have 5 of em. Theres plenty of room for what we have in mind. As for the inn as a fallback point, its too expected. We want to choose the most likely building thats shortest distance from well. The rest of the buildings we have no use for. Trap em, make the enemy go through them trying to get to the projectile teams. They lose men from the team itself, as well as from buildings when trying to catch the team. And then the team simply jumps to another building. Remember, each team has the projectile guy, as well as a swordsmen with a shield, which that can prevent them from jumping over pretty easily, while the projectile guy continues to fire. And we'll have 5 of those teams, as well as the guys on the inns roof, and swords men guarding them. And we'll have Darde, with our metal wielder bodyguards. The traps alone will 'kill' tons of guys, and the traps will help keep the projectile teams in the clear, so they can take down a ton of guys as well. And then we have the final fallback in the well, which we can use to finish em off.

[chimericWilder]

We're surrounded. Jumping from building to building only wastes time that could be spent actually attacking. Which building they are on hardly matters when they are all in range of the attackers. Besides, how do you even jump from a farm building with a slanted roof to another farmbuilding? Farm buildings are not built right beside each other like that, it'll be bloody dangerous making those jumps even without people firing on them.

Collapsing the buildings is not likely to take out even a third of them. Probably much less than that. As soon as they realize that the buildings are unsafe, they stay away from them, and even before that you'd be hard pressed to just get three of them with a single building. If we're lucky, we can lure a lot of them into one building, but after that they wont fall for that again and the rest of the trapped buildings will be useless.

[Raziel]

We can if we make the only way they can attack the protectile team is to go through and up ontop of a building. Suddenly you have enemy guys on top of, inside, and climbing the outside that you can take down all at once. And if they don't climb up, then they can't kill the projectile teams, allowing them to kill more people. Also, each projectile has a guard, to guard him from enemy projectiles, so he's covered from that.

[chimericWilder]

A guy with a shield cannot catch every projectile thrown at him, much less if he has to care for another guy.

These guys may not all be wielders, but a significant amount of them will be. And they ALL have tricks that can screw our guys over, and thats not to mention that they will have archers of their own, too. Catching arrows with anything smaller than a tower shield is really goddamn hard. Catching arrows with a tower shield is merely hard. They will not be lured into the houses because they want to reach the novices, they'll just shoot them down one way or another. Also, it would be way easier for them to simply climb the houses from the outside. Wood and earth wielders could quickly create steps leading to the roof from the outside wall and anyone could climb them, though only those particularly trained in armed combat would be particularly interested in doing so. Yes, we could collapse the house then, when a few of those were on top of the house, but what good would that do? A short fall like that probably wouldnt even declare them dead.

Honestly, our novices will be a lot more exposed running and jumping around on the roof's than if they simply took cover on one slanted side and fired projectiles at the approaching enemies from behind a safe cover, shield-guy or no shield-guy.