I might have to set my alarm clock to get up this early.
since I never quite finished writing the updates (and I'm too burnt out from this week to start now), I'll just write a short & informal update here on
a good amount of this should have been told by me during the last meeting. But once combat started I forgot to look @ my notes periodically and focused on running the NPCs, thus forgot to tell marty (and rest) of all the telepathic msgs being thrown around.
Battlefield status:
Currently the Battle of Winchester has been fully opened in 3 fronts. Most of the high level commanders are heavily engaged in combat, and High Priest Anstrun (who's stationed at the command center) has been in charged with issuing the orders to maneuver troops around the city. Occasional commands from Lenneth & Cary can sometimes be heard over the telepathic link.
Front A: After the first wave of the goblin worg riders broke through the glyphic minefields to the north of the city, the remainder of the goblin riders followed them in. Although the first wave took significant damage from the spells that were activated, their speed allowed them to rush through without taking overwhelming casualties. Their followups, who waited a minute before tracing their route, took no damage in crossing the glyph field.
Lord Kovis lead his forces (3 banners of Fist of Misalin heavy cavalry, 1 company of MGE mounted elite skirmishers) to the north to meet the enemy head on. While the initial charge of Misalin heavy cavalry broke through the enemy's lines and inflicted heavy casualties, the goblins' numbers and maneuverability proves superior in the situation as they overwhelmed the MGE skirmishers at the wings and rear, breaching the flanks of Kovis' forces. Once his heavy cavalry fell under attack from all sides by the more agile worgs, the formation broke and the cavalry banners was no longer capable of making a coherent and effective charge attack.
From his orders over the telepathic communications, Kovis has ordered his forces to fall back to the North gate, where archers from the wall can provide them with support fire while they regroup.
Front B: The Northeastern walls of Winchester has been engulfed in a chaotic infantry melee ever since the enemy's first wave reached the Misalin lines. While the enemy infantry took heavy damage from the Misalin siege engines (and the conflagration they caused) during their charge, most of their troops survived the bombardment (although slightly to moderately burnt).
From results of the initial charge, Cary believes that the enemy used most or possibly ALL of their berserkers in the first wave. The casualties inflicted was considerable, as the 2 MG regiments and 2 MGE companies stationed in the Northeast were reduced to less than half strength within just a few minutes. Two regiments from the north walls and one regiment from north city center was pulled to reinforce the northeastern section and prevent the Misalin defenses from collapsing. The regiments in the west & southwest were relocated to the northern walls. However the reinforcements did not arrive fast enough as the walls and the siege engine positions just behind the northeastern wall were quickly overwhelmed.
After considerable fighting, the enemy berserkers have been mostly killed. However the MG infantry were only able to slow down, but not stop the enemy's momentum as they continued to push into the city's streets. At this time initial defenders of the northeastern section are mostly obliterated, and the three reinforcement regiments have fully engaged with the enemy forces.
Two squad has been sent to reinforce the northeastern section, the defender squad (which took position along the breach created by the overnight sabotage / Shivad attack) and the first shock squad, which took heavy damage and lost most of the mounts against the Shivad. The two groups managed to hold their position against the enemy attacks for some time, but as the MG forces around them fell they were quickly surrounded. Before long they reported that they were depleted of higher level healing magic before all contact was lost.
Cary's squad of elite crusaders were also engulfed by the enemy attack and contact was lost shortafter. Lenneth, whose cavaliers are continuing their fly-by attacks on columns of enemy infantry, confirms that Cary is still alive but her elite crusader core were all but destroyed. However, she manged to fight her way back into Misalin lines and is trying to organize the infantry to hold their ground.
Notes:
--Without Lenneth and her Greater Cloak of Courage emanation spell, the Misalin lines would have already been routed by now, so she has been unable to leave the area.
--The quick defeat of the orcish Warchanter helped the MG significantly in slowly down the enemy advance. Without it the 3 reinforcement regiments would have been slaughtered as badly as the initial misalin troops.
--Marty's defender squad design had one major flaw: 1 cleric was not enough to maintain the HP of 4~5 tanks. It didn't take them very long to run out of higher lvl healing and lower lvl healing from 1 clr wasn't fast enough to keep up.
--With the northeastern walls fallen, the MG has lost almost one-third of their siege engines (which were posted just one street behind the walls). The siege engines (~200 heavy catapults and trebuchets w/ Misalin holy oil barrels & Naralan explosive shots) are the primary offensive strength of the MG infantry, thus it's crucial to protect their positions.
Front C: Since the first assault wave hit the north, the enemy's southern vanguard, comprised of ogres, trolls, and a number of siege engines, have been advancing towards the main East gate and battering the gatehouse/walls with large rocks and ballista bolts. The reinforced battlements have been taking heavy damage from the bombardment, as the troops stationed there. Return fire from the Misalin catapults have also managed to take down a number of the enemy's siege engines as the constant exchange of projectiles continued.
Commander Positions:
Kovis: North of City, falling back towards North Gate
Cary: Northeast City streets, along the frontline infantry
Lenneth: Northeast city streets, above the melee
Kati: East of City, outside the walls, just finished the enemy's war-chanter and its rear guard unit.
The three high priests of the church are positioned behind the North Gate, the East Gate, and the Central command center (where Anstrun is).
PC positions:
--Marty & Scott's chars are east of city, just finished at where their last battle left off. There is NO airship
You simply killed them. The two cohorts Talence & Dolch are both there also.
--Drew, Dave, Eric, & Judson's chars are just east of the city center. Their squad (Drew as leader) has been held as a reserve shock squad and so far there has been no orders to engage.
Outside game:
Dai will be gone until after 1am tonight due to his DnD game at UVA, so direct your questions towards Dave & Marty. Call me though if its something only I can answer.
Judson - work on your char history, and talk to Dave/Drew about your spell selections (1. you're not finished, 2. you can do a lot better, especially your lvl5 spells).
If you can get your char history done tonight (and do a good job at it), I'll have a present for your char
--Grab Teleport or Greater Teleport, you'll most likely need it before you hit lvl16, when you learn more spells
--Drop magic missile / chain missile - due to Shield Rings being standard gear for professional troops, magic missile (and its variants) are obsoleted. Militia and lighter troops? you got fireball & such for that.
Eric - get that name first, then see what you can do about the history. Keep in mind that although rare, there are gnomes in Misalin, mostly traders... a whispergnome makes it a bit harder to come up with a reason.
Dave - if you don't mind, add Adamantine Mct[+1] to your Duom, not costing you anything. Also, add another +2 enhancement to it (that's free too). Archeron definitely isn't poor and supply their elite troops well, however their wealth is more distributed amongst the nobles (unlike Misalin, where its centered around the church).
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