Pre-industrial Fantasy STGOD OOC/Rules Thread:

[Eternal_Freedom]

Good points. Khaki it is.

[madd0ct0r]

Well, even in this period there were times when musketeers took a scattered formation using cover. It's not just about the big blocks.

[Raw Shark]

The Aztecs are a little funny when it comes to camouflage. We tend to dress to stand out as a point of pride, except when there are creatures that naturally blend with the surroundings involved, such as were-Jaguars and color-changing giant octopi, which we're glad to use, not to mention the benefits to night-ops. Intentionally-engineered methods of subterfuge are frowned upon as dishonorable in warfare, but anything natural is cheerfully exploited as it is, of course, the intent of the gods.

[Simon_Jester]

Well, even in this period there were times when musketeers took a scattered formation using cover. It's not just about the big blocks.

Skirmish order was a thing, but:

1) Because of the limitations of the era, soldiers could not be targeted from distances long enough for camouflage to be very effective. Camouflage is great at disguising soldiers dug into rifle pits and bushes 200 meters away, but at those ranges it's hard to even aim at them with period weapons. More practical to either aim massed fire at an entire formation (if there is one) or launch a massed charge at their formation and sweep it effortlessly aside because the individual skirmishers are all too scattered to repel a melee attack.

2) By and large, period weapons had to be loaded standing up, so you couldn't really stay behind your cover, unless of course your cover was a solid breastwork, in which case it would draw a lot of attention all by itself.

3) Period weapons create thick clouds of powder-smoke, which give away your position as soon as you fire the first shot and impair your own ability to see the battlefield. Anyone who's doing much shooting will soon have trouble seeing what they're shooting at, and will be easily seen from long distances. Under such conditions camouflage is less valuable, because if the enemy starts firing on you they'll soon be surrounded by a self-made smokescreen, and if you start firing at them they'll see you immediately.

The biggest application of skirmish order is for, well, designated skirmish units who fan out and snipe at a formed body of soldiers, taking advantage of the fact that no formed body of men can ever advance as fast as a bunch of individuals can run away. Plus, skirmishers would never occupy the same position for very long and so had less trouble with walls of gunsmoke.

And period skirmishers often had different uniforms, or no uniform regulations, precisely to take advantage of some degree of camouflage.

[madd0ct0r]

Updated oob with those dead at anrakis.

I'll add the big cannon once Hudson gets them back and I figure out how to use them. Next post is set in northwest territories

[Simon_Jester]

Maddoc, can you translate that last into prose for me? I'm kind of losing track of what's happening.

[madd0ct0r]

I'm spinning three stories at once. Huderns trade mission to Orion (for the queen), Magrallo's hunt into the blight (for the queen) and this one bralla's raid of the west (private enterprise ).

Bralla and her crew did the smash and grab raid on the town previously. They have headed further west. Cairn markers show hyenork packs have raided this far but most did not return. They are attacked by wolves in a snowstorm. They kill and eat the wolves. Then they hear the howling of a wendigo.

A wendigo is the result of a hyenork eating the living flesh of another hyenork. The healing factors trigger each other and you get a skeletal thin giant hyenork who is mad with hunger but grows taller instead of fatter. A horrible fate.

Firefly karag is the only one in the party who has faced a wendigo and survived. She was a young child and she hid in a bonfire, despite being slowly burned, hence the name, fur colour and dangerous nature. She hunts wendigo when she finds them.

They found one. It's chained up in a stock are on a hill. Big mounds of earth are thrown down the side of the hill. A man in robes has been seen feeding it. In the evening the barn inside the stock are opens and dozens of figures shuffled out in two lines.

[The Romulan Republic]

Apologies again for my absence.

I have been rather busy most evenings for the last two weeks, but I'll likely have more free time at the end of the month. I'll also be posting in the story thread again tonight or tomorrow, and would encourage everyone to try to post more frequently when possible, or the plot lines we have going are going to take forever to resolve, much less starting anything bigger.

As we have had some problems with one person's lack of activity delaying someone else, I am open to adding a rule that if you do not post in the story thread for two weeks, your faction becomes an NPC (I think someone suggested something like this previously), provided their are no major objections from the rest of you.

[Simon_Jester]

Two weeks is pushing it. Me, I say three at least.

[The Romulan Republic]

Fair enough. I'm open to suggestions on the subject.

[Raw Shark]

Yeah, two weeks is a little harsh, especially if two people are trying to coordinate something by PMs. Also, no offense intended to anyone, but from what we've seen so far, it would leave me completely surrounded by NPCs in short order.

[The Romulan Republic]

I'd be willing to consider raising it as high as three weeks (like Simon_Jester said) or even a month, certainly. I don't want to force people out who have genuine reasons why they can't post more often. I just want to remind people not to inconvenience others by going weeks or months without posting and to keep things a little more fast paced/active.

[Raw Shark]

If we're saying that one month generally equals one season, that seems like a pretty good yardstick for minimal participation from people who don't have much going on IMHO.

[madd0ct0r]

yup, and if your reading this and still panicing over a post - have a trade mission to a neighbour. easy to write, good interaction.

[Simon_Jester]

Could someone contact Aasharu? His idea for a country was really cool, but we haven't heard anything out of him in... a while.

[Raw Shark]

Yeah, I was kind of looking forward to being the guy who cheerfully trades with the Tarnish, and also deals with their rogue undead border incursions. Definitely taking partial steerage of this bus if Aasharu bows out, but would prefer collaboration.

[madd0ct0r]

Happy to help there - I kinda wrote myself out of partaking in anything below the snow line otherwise

[Simon_Jester]

Hey, Coop D'etat? If you can read this, PLEASE check your PM box and respond. I'm stuck on my next storypost until I have an answer. I know you're checking the site, so hopefully we can get this straightened out...

[Jub]

Sorry for my lack of activity, I just started some new anti-depressants and it's been messing with my sleep schedule and I'm just starting to get back to normal. I'm more than able to respond to any questions either posted here or PM'd to me, and I think my nation outline should give ideas for working with my people beyond that, but I might need another week to get my mental feet under me to start making story posts again.

[The Romulan Republic]

That's understandable, of course.

I need several more days before I'm likely to have the next part of our storyline up anyway. Like I said, I'm busy until the end of the month. After that, though, I'm going to try to pick up the pace a bit.

[Simon_Jester]

[Responding to Coop's PM here because my PM inbox/outbox is cluttered and there's nothing secret going on here, plus it touches on geography questions]

I'd say the logical meeting point would be in Wisconsin. Considering the faster pace due to less severe weather for your messenger, the trade port of Superior would be a logical meeting place. This would be the largest of the Republic of Thunder Bay's dependent city-states.

By this you mean the site of the real-life city of Superior, Wisconsin, at the western tip of Lake Superior on the south side of the bay that forms the west end of the lake?

[Coop D'etat]

[Responding to Coop's PM here because my PM inbox/outbox is cluttered and there's nothing secret going on here, plus it touches on geography questions]

I'd say the logical meeting point would be in Wisconsin. Considering the faster pace due to less severe weather for your messenger, the trade port of Superior would be a logical meeting place. This would be the largest of the Republic of Thunder Bay's dependent city-states.

By this you mean the site of the real-life city of Superior, Wisconsin, at the western tip of Lake Superior on the south side of the bay that forms the west end of the lake?

That's the one.

[madd0ct0r]

proposed magocracies for the north west territories:

Undead angles as previously detailed plus:

Gold Zergs

Intruders from another plane (associations: centipedes, thirsty gods, moloch, gold)

---

Knights of the lightning (3000pts)

Main forces are insulated armoured knights.
Riding shaggy horses or giant flightless Ptarmigans, carry wide pronged lances they call their lollies.
The lances are electrically charged from semi-magical battery glass jars that are strapped to their backs

The batteries are in turn charged at one of their windmill towers, where giant, traditional fat windmills turn crude generators using lodestone and gold wiring. They also have a number of trapped lightning elementals brought down and caged during storms, but these are considered a dangerous emergecny reserve.


Core army is
390 Knight Lance riders @ 2 points each
77 Giant ptarmigan riders @ 5 points each
40 Hammer knights - equipped with heavy sheilds, mancrusher hammers and elctro-assist armour @11.6 points each
27 Night riders - giant ptarmigan riders with a speciality in night vision and blind fighting @11.6 points each
12 Arc-welder Battle mages at 40 points each
4 Unleashed Lightening Elementals at 37 points each
3 Caged lightning elemental towers at 106 points each. (think close ranged telsa towers)


---

Alchemists of the black tower (3000pts)

A cabal of alchemists fascinated with pitchblende and how it seems to be a naturally occuring version of transubstutation. From it they seek to make the philosphers stone. They mine extensivly, and the poisoned land and water around their tower grows steadily wider. As peasents have left the areas downriver, unable to make a living, they've slowly adopted the use of more and more golems. They still rely on the fields upriver and around the lake to supply food and men. In those lands they are popular as fair and just judges and often generous alms givers from less valued mine outputs, such as silver and iron.


Core army is

743 Milita Musketeers @ 1 point each
134 Pitchblende Golems, armed with cover shredding heavy shotguns @3.2 points each
121 Rangers, muskeeters used to skirmish order, equipped with rations and water purfiying bottles @1.6 point each
65 Battle-Alchemists Armed with a sheild golem bodyguard and a master crafted rifle + ammo @10.3 points each
11 Self propelled golem Field guns @16.7 points each. Shaped like a snail with a dozen pillar like legs
9 Scorched Earth seige cannon firing radioactive shells. Simialr to a chain of giant snails
5 Artillery mages - bald and poisoned, capable of repairing / activating the cannon
2 Death smiths - the two ancient founders of the tower, hopelessly addicted to pitchblende and lead.

[Dark Hellion]

Ok, so I was super busy with school and vacation but I should be getting another story post up sometime in the next week.

As for an idea to keep things moving, maybe we should have an "OoC actions thread" where we can post smaller troop movements, nation buillding stuff, trade offers, diplomatic offers, etc. without having to come up with huge story posts. It just doesn't seem worth it sometimes to try to write a whole paragraph of story just to move a few troops around or offer to sell cannons.

[The Romulan Republic]

That's a good idea. Let me think it over, and providing no one else objects for some reason, I'll probably add it tonight.