Final Battle Notes

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Zanaikin
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Final Battle Notes

Postby Zanaikin » Tue Dec 30, 2008 8:35 am

Directly copypasta'd out...


WESTERN CAMPAIGN
Imperium Command:
-- Star Marshal Aoric Zanaikin (Centurion Tempest)
-- Brigadier-General Kayeten Hans-Rudel (Centurion Apollo: Crimson)
-- Arvitor Sylvanna Elinyreth (Centurion Aura)
-- Major Ariethil Angrudul (Centurion Phantom)
-- Colonel Rika Ye (Centurion Nova: 38th)
-- Colonel Feng Yang (22nd)
-- Colonel Eduard Konovalov (77th)
-- Colonel Hikari Kuribayashi (Engineering)
Imperium Forces:
-- Crimson Blades Flag Brigade
-- 22nd Assault Brigade
-- 38th Assault Brigade
-- 77th Assault Brigade

1. Operation Spitfire - Popovic's scouting attack on the Alliance to both gather hard information on Battlemasters and provide cover for Aoric's main force to port & assemble. Furthermore since Popovic's launchers weren't upgraded to HVM, nor were his battle line troops equipped with Protect-from-Evil amulets, which may cause enemy to underestimate the second battle.
2. Operation Fredrick - Aoric's Oblique Order Attack to draw the Alliance strength towards the Imperial central-right.
3. Operation Spark - Sylv's War Castings to further draw attention from Airindale mage units away from Mistletoe.
4. Operation Mistletoe - Kayeten's Flank Drive towards the Alliance's right flank rear.
5. Operation Citadel - Kayeten & Aoric's Combined Assault against the Alliance right flank, rolling it up from the west.
6. Operation Valhalla - Rika's Charge, to be executed either as an offensive provocation effort or a defensive desperado need.

Mission Parameters:
Airindale/Misalin's inferiority in tactical speed and range means they have no choice but to entangle the Imperium main line and engage. Thus the Imperial center however will be held by Rika's 38th, seemingly the weakest and most vulnerable of the Imperial units. The primary attack forces will be piled towards either the left or right flank, depending on how the enemy positions.
The goal is to focus the enemy's attention at the center and one wing. At the center Rika's unit MUST hold their position in a slow mobile defense; if Derovarr doesn't attack in force, Rika will instead provoke the Airindale/Misalin line and entangle the enemy offensively.
Meanwhile, the main attack will press forth from the Imperial's heavier wing, with the Crimson Blades held as a reserve (for when the operation succeeds or fall apart) while Sylv provides war magic support. This is meant to convince the Alliance that it is the main attack. In addition, Aoric will personally lead the attack on the battlefield...
The true attack however will come from the Imperial FAR left/right, where Kayeten will lead Crimson Blades' 3 METAAC companies to circle around the battle and plunge straight towards the Alliance's rear. Once they reach the rear, Kayeten and Aoric will pincer the Alliance left flank from both sides while the Crimson Blades are unleashed into the battle, following by rolling up the defensive line from west to east. Units on the Imperial left will also tie down the enemy to keep them from being withdrawn easily.

CARDS TO FLIP:
1. Tactical Nuclear Cruise Missiles x 12
2. HVM Launcher Upgrade
3. Zilong's Sevenfold Core (known) & Nuclear Device (the Metaac was carrying it on a deadman switch)
4. Kayeten's Sedlityz & 150 METAACs
5. Aoric's Weaponization (known)

Battle Order Ten-One "Radar Pierce"
Battle Order Ten-Two "Scatterfire"


CRITIQUES OF THE ALLIANCE ACTIONS:
1. Anti-METAAC implementation was developed far too late. It enough of those grenades were developed early enough and the reserve held to deal with Kayeten, the Imperials' decisive thrust may have been decisively blunted.
2. The Battle of Quarter Cross forced the alliance to show their hand, whereas the Imperials showed none of their cards. Despite the Brigade falling apart, there was no sign of help from their famous METAACs, or even a hint of what their technological upgrade would be. Furthermore, the same success caused alliance commanders to become overconfident of the abilities of strike forces to crush their enemy.
3. General intelligence failure. Although this goes for both sides, once again the Battle of Quarter Cross gave the Imperials very good information on what they were dealing with. The Alliance never did figure out what was the enemy's new hardware or the Crimson Brigade's structure until the battle started.
**If anything, the Western Alliance really should have tried holding back during the Battle of Quarter Cross. It would have cost more Battlemasters maybe, but tricks could have been saved for use during the more decisive battle without having the enemy already being definitely aware of it (they might still plan for it though, but there's a different between theoretical stuff and actually knowing/seeing it).
4. The planning to attack the Crimson Brigade caused all the Strike Groups to delay until the Crimson brigade came within range. This lead to a lot of passive non-action and general waste of time while the Imperials pounded away at the Central Battle Line. If the Strike Groups went in earlier they could have reduced battlemaster losses to artillery by quite an amount simply as they'd entangle the artillery units.
5. I didn't think of this idea until after the battle went halfway:
The main restriction with teleportation based attacks is that one, only so many Teleportation Circles may be made at once and they're slow to cast, two, it's hard to predict the exact future enemy position. However, you know their general vector, you have rough estimates on their artillery range... so what if instead of trying to play Teleportation battle by their rules you have the enemy walk into a prebuilt stage where your rules have already been established? Consider positioning the Battlemasters at the edge of the lockdown field, then create Extended Teleportation Circles to a number of different positions within the 30mile perimeter (since your estimate of their artillery range is 30miles). This means that once the enemy hits the 30mile zone or nears it in order to come into firing range, you can just rush the Battlemasters through the circles. You don't need to predict the enemy's exact position because you know they have to be around that range to engage, and you know the general direction for which they'll approach from so you can just dot that area with exit points. This requires a lot of high level spell slot expenditures to make the circles (not to mention a lot of preparative spellcasting), and chances are the exit points will still be off by a few miles, but 1~5 miles off may be reached in under 3 minutes, whereas travelling across 25~30 miles requires far too much time under enemy fire. The effectiveness of this tactic however depends on three factors: one is luck; two is timing of when to send troops through, too close will cause the Imperials to jam the bridgeheads while too far will cause the circles to lose effectiveness; and three is how to keep the preparation of the circle concealed from possible enemy knowledge... a Tactical Mage's Private Sanctum should do nicely.
6. Command was exposed far too early. While the Sky Galleons are tough customers, they are still but a few units, and taking them in behind enemy lines without any other support was suicidal at best. The Penthiaen may not have fully learned about the fact that heavy ships require screening support yet, but sending in two Sky Galleons without any escort at all - what kind of rationality is that? If the goal was to distract the enemy from the battlemasters the timing was too early and the teleportation should have at least waited until the last minute.
7. A large number of Battlemaster regiments were lost before even the campaign began. This was just kind of unexpected in the original planning.






AIRINDALE CARD:
Wrath Resurgence - revive the lingering negative spirits that compose the Battlemasters. This will be as the ritual spell Airindale performed, except Aelisar will be sacrificing her Arvitor powers to compensate for a lack of time and caster support. The resulting spellburn damage will more than knock her out, but will also reset all Battlemasters in a wide range (effectively reforming the full Battlemaster strength of before the battle).
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Re: Final Battle Notes

Postby Mr_Praetorian » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:17 pm

Personally, I hate to say it Dai, but I feel like we really got NWN 2'd during this battle. Let's face it, our collective tactical and strategic comprehension is nowhere near yours, and if it took you, the DM, someone with a clear understanding of both sides of the battle, a week after the battle had started to come up with some way for us to "possibly" match them in strategic thinking, then I'm not sure what point was.

Yes, the battle was suitably epic. But nuclear missiles? 150 METAACS? Triple Twinned MDJs?

I won't claim to presume that we shared any of the DMs burden of time expenditure, but after the hours of my life I poured into not only playing, but also planning for this game, this last encounter really felt like a giant slap in the face.

As usual, I claim to speak only for myself.
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Zanaikin
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Re: Final Battle Notes

Postby Zanaikin » Tue Dec 30, 2008 10:55 pm

Do remember that

1. I never promised the PCs will win all the battles they fight, that included decisive ones. The battle was meant to be the challenge-of-challenges to the players (in which I hoped the players can win) but also to run a simulation that the strategy I designed for TIP story is effective and not just my complete one-sided thinking. I also did design for the campaign to be able to go on whether you win or lose the battle.

And I'll drop a fair warning now. I haven't designed a plotline for Chroma in any detail since it all depends how you guys choose to start it (there are simply way too many possible branches), but there may actually be Kobayashi-Maru (no win) scenarios - battles that are either really hard, or simply outright impossible to win, and all one can do is grit your teeth through it and hope for the best. I am a big fan of them and believe they contribute hugely to character and plot development. There's two impossible-to-win battles in the TIP storyline itself (for the Imperial side) after all, although both of them were before Penthiae...

2. Regarding how long I took to come up with a counterplan, I remind you I did not start even trying to come up with one until after the battle started, cause I know later on someone is going to challenge me for a counterplan that would actually work. As I said above it was meant to be a test as much as anything else, I really wished someone else could have pointed out a flaw in the strategy setup I designed (shrug).

3. This battle's wasn't designed just for the PCs. No, the forces I lay out for both sides were based on "what it makes sense for each side to have", not "what would make the balance simpler to the PC party". Oh trust me, I did a lot of rough estimates and calculations on what certain amount of magic, time, production, etc etc, should amount to what. On the Imperial side, I knew how many Brigades and Ships they start the Penthiaen arc with when I drafted the TIP storyline last winter, and it's just a matter of filling in what else is around.

4. As for your time spent Drew, all I can say is the same reminder I told you before it started: you did your job, I can assure you. However, as this battle coexists between TIP and PCS, Derovarr was the only one I also assumed on the TIP version would be doing his job.

Either way, chances are you won't see another battle like this again, at least not one where I actually expect you to "try to win with hope of winning". You might still get a fight from me that literally scream, well yeah, you can't win this, so either grit through it ("try to win with expectations of losing") or get off your high horse (and learn the meaning of the word "endure"). Plenty of kings throughout history learned that sometimes they simply have to beg for a cease fire in order to get through a short-term obstacle and aim for long-term solutions... I'm sure any of you civilization-players have learned to try to avoid warring larger states via tributes, appeasement, or even serving as vassals...
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Zanaikin
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Re: Final Battle Notes

Postby Zanaikin » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:08 pm

either way, excuse me for overestimating the tactical thinking capabilities of the party =P.

I guess I set my expectations too high after Blackbog and Trelling, during both you guys completely found new methods of getting around my plans, I was hoping you'd be able to do the same again when I set up a battle where I don't hold back on myself.
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"Hurrah, Warsaw's ours!" / "Hurrah, Field Marshal!" - Battle report & promotion notice between Alexander Suvorov & Catherine the Great

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Re: Final Battle Notes

Postby Laharl » Tue Dec 30, 2008 11:24 pm

Blackbog, yes, we did well tactically there from my recollection. (Xorn Movement infiltration is about all I still remember) Trelling, well, I doubt a real military force would have used our tactics. The overall commander and her squad, much of whom made up the next tier of experienced military commanders, personally raiding and responding to enemy raids? I don't think that's all that great of an idea, even if it worked.

Also, in each case we had fairly detailed knowledge of what to expect in terms of both enemy units and capabilities. Could we have done a better job gaining intel on Imperial forces? Yes, and that is something I take responsibility for as the party spy and head of the Citadels.

Another note: As a general rule, we didn't do well so much in specific battles as we did in campaigns. We had a number of failures, some worse than others, during Trelling, as well as the disaster that was the warchanter at Winchester.


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