[LP CYOA] Epic

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

BBC - If we're gonna die, we might as well go down as the inventor of the catapult. Hopefully we'll do what Helly suggests are put Ean near the hole. Might actually help us to lure the true leaders of the army to their deaths. Worst case senario - we strap ourselves in to one of the catapults and fling ourselves to a rather impactful safety.

edit: treave, if we don't scream "THIS IS EGYPT!" at some point, I will be disappoint.

"Master Runi, the gieloth's magics have blotted out the sun!"
"Then we will fight in the shade!"

 

[Helly]

BBB for me too

 

[oscar]

B - We need our most competent and reliable officer commanding our professionals
A - We need every fighting body we can get
C - Sounds the most reliably useful

 

[Esquilax]

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.

I've flopped to 3C, this is right on. Tigranes, I think this is what they know: a powerful immortal arrived in Egypt and took out Sekhenun without warning, then proceeded to take Memphis. Their spies in Thebes recognized that a hunting dog was responsible for the attack, so they notified their more powerful Babylonian allies for reinforcements so that they could retake Egypt. Realizing the threat that this particular immortal posed, they decided to send an extremely large force of men led by probably more than 1 mature Gieloth in order to occupy and reestablish control over Egypt.

What they don't know about is our presence here, because they don't realize that we've been tapping into their network for years. They will be overconfident when they get here because they've been doing nothing but winning for the past four years, and because they think that this will be a minor border skirmish followed by an easy march to Memphis where they will starve Astarth's troops. We can also infer that the Gieloth probably lured all of Astarth's men towards Thebes to make entering Egypt as easy as possible. They aren't expecting a goddamn thing here, and we must take advantage of that.

I get what Smashing Axe was saying about the traps being only a one-time measure, but I feel that the effectiveness of the traps during that initial attack will be far greater than the effectiveness of the catapults in the long-term. Yes, the catapults will pester and demoralize the enemy over the long-term, but I doubt that they'll do any real damage or hit any significant targets like Gieloth - even if they did, we'd still have to take out the Gieloth leaders on our own. Which is why I'm advocating C: they aren't expecting to face stiff resistance at all on this "neglected border fortress", they are going to be supremely confident of victory and not expecting us. They don't know that we can tap into their communications.

I personally see this thing as kind of similar to the Battle of Blackwater from A Clash of Kings. The defenders are vastly outgunned by the attackers, so we need to use the advantage of a surprise trap to even the odds and bring as much death and ruin onto the besieging force as much as possible. If they think that there's only a skeleton crew guarding the place (and all the evidence points to the fact that this is the case), then they will certainly rush in without taking stock of the situation carefully. If we play our cards right, we could kill thousands of their men during the initial assault.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

My opinions on the other choices:
3a seems like a waste. Only the gieloth will be able to scale the steep rocky face and if they can do that, what trouble would they have scaling a wall?
I actually don't get 3c as a choice. I mean how does "funneling them right where we want them" help us at all? The terrain naturally does that for us anyway.

 

[ScubaV]

Flopped to 3c. I agree that they'll be supremely confident and traps are the best way to take advantage of that. Pit-traps and fire should also work equally well on undead if those are involved. The issue I have with catapults is that even if we build them competently, no one is experienced in their use. Aim and reload times will be terrible. They would be better if this turns into a protracted siege, but a long siege favors us anyway (better supply sources, shelter, time to repair the wall, time for Astarth to finish up and join us). As for the wall, if something gets past the cliff face, a wall shouldn't be much more of a problem. It also provides a convenient route for Ean to sneak out and do some damage.

 

[Bloodshifter]

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.

I've flopped to 3C, this is right on. Tigranes, I think this is what they know: a powerful immortal arrived in Egypt and took out Sekhenun without warning, then proceeded to take Memphis. Their spies in Thebes recognized that a hunting dog was responsible for the attack, so they notified their more powerful Babylonian allies for reinforcements so that they could retake Egypt. Realizing the threat that this particular immortal posed, they decided to send an extremely large force of men led by probably more than 1 mature Gieloth in order to occupy and reestablish control over Egypt.

What they don't know about is our presence here, because they don't realize that we've been tapping into their network for years. They will be overconfident when they get here because they've been doing nothing but winning for the past four years, and because they think that this will be a minor border skirmish followed by an easy march to Memphis where they will starve Astarth's troops. We can also infer that the Gieloth probably lured all of Astarth's men towards Thebes to make entering Egypt as easy as possible. They aren't expecting a goddamn thing here, and we must take advantage of that.

I get what Smashing Axe was saying about the traps being only a one-time measure, but I feel that the effectiveness of the traps during that initial attack will be far greater than the effectiveness of the catapults in the long-term. Yes, the catapults will pester and demoralize the enemy over the long-term, but I doubt that they'll do any real damage or hit any significant targets like Gieloth - even if they did, we'd still have to take out the Gieloth leaders on our own. Which is why I'm advocating C: they aren't expecting to face stiff resistance at all on this "neglected border fortress", they are going to be supremely confident of victory and not expecting us. They don't know that we can tap into their communications.

I personally see this thing as kind of similar to the Battle of Blackwater from A Clash of Kings. The defenders are vastly outgunned by the attackers, so we need to use the advantage of a surprise trap to even the odds and bring as much death and ruin onto the besieging force as much as possible. If they think that there's only a skeleton crew guarding the place (and all the evidence points to the fact that this is the case), then they will certainly rush in without taking stock of the situation carefully. If we play our cards right, we could kill thousands of their men during the initial assault.

I can see what you want to do here but the thing is this siege will be a long battle sieges aren't short in any degree traps would work in a open field or if we were planning to sortie but we won't it would inflict casualties only on the 1st 2 days at the most after that we are stuck without any additional firepower or strengthen defences.

Our job isn't to kill the invaders its to keep them from crossing don't confuse the two. In this we will get re-enforcements and they have more "mystic" powers then we do there is no telling what they can do to get past our borders.

We only need to literally sit on our asses while they sally against us we got supplies and are in our home country the have to keep a supply line open and hope the Assyrian's don't try to rally and strike back then they will be in serious trouble time is our ally in this battle the moment Thebes falls we can declare a victory

 

[Azira]

You make compelling arguments for your case, Esquilax. I am convinced, and flop I shall.
The traps serve to demoralize and stop the attackers, and that's what we're here for, correct? Stop them. If enough are killed, they should stop to reassess the situation, and then hopefully begin a fruitless siege, giving us time to possibly either fix up the wall, or construct the worlds first catapult.

We delay them long enough and hopefully they will make mistakes for us to capitalize on. Ean is an experienced commander. If anyone is capable of recognizing an opportunity on the battlefield, it is him. Hopefully, if more than one Gieloth is in the enemy army, they will be using the very same communications network we tap into, and we will be aware of any upcoming pincer maneuvers and whatnot.

 

[Helly]

What is there to demoralize ?
If there are still humans in the enemy's army, they'll be stuck between our walls and gieloth. I'm expecting an imperial guardsmen-like wave of flesh, with AAA gieloth as commissar, so even if traps there are, they won't be enough.

 

[Azira]

What is there to demoralize ?

The Babylonians were sending an army against Egypt. In recent years, Babylon had gained the upper hand against Assyria. A decisive battle just six months ago had ended in the death of the Assyrian king – they were a broken lot at the moment. It was no surprise that the well-trained and Gieloth-influenced Babylonians, flush with victory, would march to aid the Thebans, who were harboring the last of the Gieloth in Egypt.

Zombies wouldn't be flush with victory. This sounds like a human army. Yes, they will be supported by Gieloth who might be conjuring sand-beasts or bolstering the ranks with undead, but there will also be humans in the army, and humans can be demoralized.

I still think traps have their uses in stopping the advance, better uses than a catapult we're not exactly proficient in using yet. Fixing the wall is nice and all, but as several people have already pointed out, if the Gieloth see the break and try to take advantage of it, we can reasonably know where there are Gieloth to kill (to disrupt their Cunning Plan).

It's far from perfect, but then again, I would have preferred we didn't come to Tjaru in the first place, so...

 

[Esquilax]

I actually don't get 3c as a choice. I mean how does "funneling them right where we want them" help us at all? The terrain naturally does that for us anyway.

Not quite. From what I understood of the update, Tjaru is a natural chokepoint, meaning that in order to get to the Delta, they have to get through the fortress. What C does is that it will trap the enemy in such a way that their greater numbers become useless, a la Thermopylae - they'll have to go across the moat one or two at a time while our men at the gates can butcher them with impunity.

I am not expecting a huge force of undead like what Smashing Axe mentioned, actually. Undead require corpses, and since they haven't killed a single Egyptian yet, corpses are in short supply. Perhaps they may have undead forces from their Assyrian campaign, but this sounds like an army comprised of men.

I think that the purpose of Thebes in this war was simply to serve as a diversionary measure. They don't need to beat Astarth's 10,000 men, that was never Thebes' role in all of this. All they need to do is stall him while the Babylonian forces burn their way across the Delta and into Memphis:

Astarth was still south near Thebes – he had recently taken the town of Dendera, just a few days’ march from Thebes itself. The going was slow, however, as at every turn his soldiers were frustrated by Gieloth conjurations. This has led him to finally send a missive to you, asking you to get down to Thebes so that you could continue your Gieloth hunt in the south. He had more than ten thousand men with him, a great host gathered from all over his kingdom, as he aimed to crush Thebes once and for all. The Nile Delta itself remained lightly defended...​

Sort of like this.

I can see what you want to do here but the thing is this siege will be a long battle sieges aren't short in any degree traps would work in a open field or if we were planning to sortie but we won't it would inflict casualties only on the 1st 2 days at the most after that we are stuck without any additional firepower or strengthen defences.

Our job isn't to kill the invaders its to keep them from crossing don't confuse the two. In this we will get re-enforcements and they have more "mystic" powers then we do there is no telling what they can do to get past our borders.

We only need to literally sit on our asses while they sally against us we got supplies and are in our home country the have to keep a supply line open and hope the Assyrian's don't try to rally and strike back then they will be in serious trouble time is our ally in this battle the moment Thebes falls we can declare a victory

It's hard to tell how long this siege will be because we don't know what sort of powers/tricks the Gieloth will have up their sleeves. If one of their leaders can summon a powerful thunderstorm to last for several days, we're in deep shit. However, perhaps you're right - let's assume that we have to hunker down and prepare for a long siege:

- Our goal may be to keep them from crossing, but I think that the only way to do that is by either killing a great many of them or whatever Gieloth are leading them. I think that's the only way to make things work here. They are determined to cross, otherwise they wouldn't have sent 8,000 of their best men. At the very least, I am estimating that we'll probably have to kill around half their forces and whoever is leading them. Sitting on our asses will only do so much.

- Defenses can be bolstered by training the civilian units to guard the open wall facing the sea. It's not much, but it will slow down any Gieloth infiltrators and give us warning so that we can aid them.* I am hoping that a trap that kills a large chunk of their forces will provide a window to infiltrate their camp amid the confusion. We are not the naturally stealthy type, so it'll be far easier to blend in if everybody is terrified and focused on the traps instead of us. Also, if a big chunk of their forces have died in the initial attack, it's going to make escaping during our assassination attempt far easier.

- Second, as I've mentioned before, we cannot rely on reinforcements or assume that anybody is going to be coming to aid us. Thebes is many weeks away, Astarth might be furious at our disobedience, and it looks like the Gieloth are going to do whatever it takes to stall him so that he doesn't go north to bolster our men. Based on his personality, I think that Astarth will be too pissed off at us and too focused on the enemy in front of him to pay attention to the enemy creeping up behind him, which is precisely what the Gieloth want. All signs point to us being alone during the siege.

* I am still not sure about training the civvies. The boost to morale and the ability to keep our elites healthy is a hell of a thing to pass up.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

I actually don't get 3c as a choice. I mean how does "funneling them right where we want them" help us at all? The terrain naturally does that for us anyway.

Not quite. From what I understood of the update, Tjaru is a natural chokepoint, meaning that in order to get to the Delta, they have to get through the fortress. What C does is that it will trap the enemy in such a way that their greater numbers become useless, a la Thermopylae - they'll have to go across the moat one or two at a time while our men at the gates can butcher them with impunity.

1. You are assuming that the traps will succeed in diverting them. The text of the choice isn't certain about that:

The plains in front of Tjaru are ripe for trap-laying. You have numerous deadly pitfalls constructed beyond the moat and carefully concealed. In addition to that, you order the preparation of fire-traps which will light up and hopefully funnel the Babylonians right where you want them, if not outright burn them.

edit: (when it says "fire traps" why do I remember Shektentacle putting out our flames with a laugh? Granted she was in that womb thing, but we don't know what powers these new gieloth will have...)
2. Traps will only slow them down on their first charge and make them more cautious on the second approach - blowing our advantage of surprise. I highly doubt that any traps we could lay over a mere week would do enough damage to rout them on the first charge and after the first charge the traps will be useless anyway. Keep in mind they have 8000 troops. Do you really think they'd give up after one failed assualt attempt - assuming it fails at all?

In this age the catapult would be a real weapon of terror. They've never seen it before. Some of them might think we have boulder flinging giants on our side.

 

[TOME]

BBC

The siege is probably going to be a long one. If we survive the initial attack, we get more time to train the civilians and build up war machines. Traps are the most effective way to hinder their army and to show that we have had time to prepare. This alone should make them think twice about the siege.

 

[Esquilax]

1. You are assuming that the traps will succeed in diverting them. The text of the choice isn't certain about that

Of course it's not certain, nothing is. Just like you're not certain whether catapults are going to be really effective at hurting the enemy. treave, the update mentioned, "creative uses" for the catapults, what exactly did you have in mind? I mean, other than launching Ean behind enemy lines.

Based on the evidence, it seems to me that C has a high chance of being very effective. I think that the past few years of victories in Assyria, combined with the fact that they expect the campaign throughout the Nile Delta to be a walk in the park indicates an overconfidence in the Babylonian forces. An overconfidence that we can exploit to devastating effect.

edit: (when it says "fire traps" why do I remember Shektentacle putting out our flames with a laugh? Granted she was in that womb thing, but we don't know what powers these new gieloth will have...)

We were in the womb, her place of power, and our elemental powers suck. Which IMO is another reason not to pick B. If we could heat the rocks to the point that they become explosive meteors launched at the enemy, B would be fucking fantastic. However, our elemental manipulation skills aren't up to the challenge, since that's not our primary skill set.

2. Traps will only slow them down on their first charge and make them more cautious on the second approach - blowing our advantage of surprise. I highly doubt that any traps we could lay over a mere week would do enough damage to rout them on the first charge and after the first charge the traps will be useless anyway. Keep in mind they have 8000 troops. Do you really think they'd give up after one failed assualt attempt - assuming it fails at all?

Of course it'll blow our advantage of surprise after we kill them, that's the whole point of a surprise attack. You lure the enemy into some sort of trap/ambush, then you reveal yourself when you're in the position to do the most damage possible.

I am not expecting them to back down after a single failed assault, I'm expecting their morale to falter a bit and around 1,000-2,000 of their men to die in the initial onslaught with minimal casualties on our side if we're lucky. I'm also expecting that a failed initial assault will naturally lead the Gieloth commanders to start looking for alternate ways in.

They'll soon find that that our wall facing the sea will be exposed. Since they realize that the front gate is trapped and will result in their men being thrown into the meat grinder (something that their men will no doubt be aware of), one of the Gieloth will probably attempt to infiltrate the fortress through the hole. We can greet them at the wall with our men and take them out. We use the trap as a means to (a) kill a large chunk of their forces and demoralize them, and (b) as bait to lure a Gieloth in through the exposed wall. We'd effectively be turning weakness into strength doing this.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Based on the evidence, it seems to me that C has a high chance of being very effective. I think that the past few years of victories in Assyria, combined with the fact that they expect the campaign throughout the Nile Delta to be a walk in the park indicates an overconfidence in the Babylonian forces. An overconfidence that we can exploit to devastating effect.

That's another reason why I don't like c though. These are battle hardened troops. Do you think they've never seen traps before? Assuming they actually fall for them, by now they've seen their brothers die in other traps laid by the Assyrians at their forts. It'd hardly be the shock of a lifetime to them to see someone die a death they've likely witnessed before.

2. Traps will only slow them down on their first charge and make them more cautious on the second approach - blowing our advantage of surprise. I highly doubt that any traps we could lay over a mere week would do enough damage to rout them on the first charge and after the first charge the traps will be useless anyway. Keep in mind they have 8000 troops. Do you really think they'd give up after one failed assualt attempt - assuming it fails at all?

Of course it'll blow our advantage of surprise after we kill them, that's the whole point of a surprise attack. You lure the enemy into some sort of trap/ambush, then you reveal yourself when you're in the position to do the most damage possible.

The traps are on the other side of the moat. It's not like all 2000 of us can rush out and kill them. They'll trigger and kill a few - causing the rest to back off and avoid them. Maybe they'd even pull back and reconsider their strategy. I highly doubt 1000-2000 of them would die to a few traps.

I am not expecting them to back down after a single failed assault, I'm expecting their morale to falter a bit and around 1,000-2,000 of their men to die in the initial onslaught with minimal casualties on our side if we're lucky. I'm also expecting that a failed initial assault will naturally lead the Gieloth commanders to start looking for different ways in.

Naturally, they'll soon find that that our wall facing the sea will be exposed. Since they realize that the front gate is trapped and will result in their men being thrown into the meat grinder, one of them will probably attempt to infiltrate the fortress through the whole. We can bait them into coming through the exposed wall and greet them there.

Sounds like a good plan. I just doubt the traps will help. All they need to do is wait for the fire to die out - or put it out by dumping sand on it or whatever - and then they circumvent the pitfall traps and then what advantage will we have?

Giant boulders coming down on their heads would be more likely to make them pull back. They'd want to figure out a way to take out the catapults and the wall breach would be their best choice. Then we greet them there as you say.

 

[Zero Credibility]

The problem with building catapults is that there simply isn't enough time for that. We have one week before the shit hits the fan. That is not enough time to make truly effective catapults from scratch and train our men to use them safely (let alone with anything approaching precision). We won't be throwing Ean at the enemy - we'll be lucky if we can throw anything at all in their general direction.

Now if we had several months at least, then yeah, siege weapons make sense. In that time frame we could build actual trebuchets, train the crews operating them and then fire flaming oil or large rocks at the enemy - now that would be effective. As it is, our primitive catapults with untrained crews won't cause nearly enough damage to make a difference.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

primitive catapults

I don't know how primitive they would be. Pretty sure this is another case of the voices giving us advanced tech ideas.

The argument about the training is a valid point, but with 8000 targets to hit they won't need to be expert marksmen. They'll be lethal enough. Mind you, I'm not expecting to wipe out hundreds of troops at a time. They're more a psychological weapon than anything. We make them understand that staying within a certain range of us will get them hurt - by a type of weapon they've never seen - and that they won't be able to strike back immediately at said weapon.

edit: Just to illustrate as to why the catapult would be a terror: You can't defend against it. If you are fast enough you might be able to jump out of the way. It's throwing great big heavy rocks and it's turning your friends into squishy red pancakes. Traps can be avoided. Arrows can be sheilded against. Great big rocks will fuck you up. I expect the shock of seeing one in action for the first time should cause the enemy to break formation at least and hopefully even fall back.

But I've argued this point enough. I'll shut up now.

 

[Esquilax]

That's another reason why I don't like c though. These are battle hardened troops. Do you think they've never seen traps before? Assuming they actually fall for them, by now they've seen their brothers die in other traps laid by the Assyrians at their forts. It'd hardly be the shock of a lifetime to them to see someone die a death they've likely witnessed before.

And that's why I think that they'll be more likely to over-commit and keep moving forward. From the Babylonian's POV, they think that Tjaru is a dusty old fortress with only a small garrison: all they need to do is press on, follow orders and overwhelm the place. And why not? It's worked so well all those other times for them. They don't know we're here and they think that Egypt is asleep because all of Astarth's forces have been successfully diverted towards Thebes.

Based on what they know, storming a lightly defended fortress whose garrison is unaware of their presence is a sound tactical move because you don't want to let the defenders get dug in. We can really take advantage of that lack of caution, I feel.

The traps are on the other side of the moat. It's not like all 2000 of us can rush out and kill them. They'll trigger and kill a few - causing the rest to back off and avoid them. Maybe they'd even pull back and reconsider their strategy. I highly doubt 1000-2000 of them would die to a few traps.

Like I said, these are disciplined men who are not prone to routing. A few deaths from traps won't dissuade them, especially if they're certain that the fortress is poorly defended. They'll keep going forward, thinking that if they press on, the enemy will be overwhelmed. They will commit despite initial losses because they are good soldiers that don't get rattled. However, by the time they have reached the moat, they will have committed too deeply into the attack and we can pounce on them once they're packed closely together. It's a very good opening move to the game.

The Gieloth leading the Babylonians will think, "well, clearly they've been expecting us. Going through the front door was a mistake and the next men that assault through the moat may falter in terms of morale, so maybe we should look for a different entrance." That's where we come in.

Sounds like a good plan. I just doubt the traps will help. All they need to do is wait for the fire to die out - or put it out by dumping sand on it or whatever - and then they circumvent the pitfall traps and then what advantage will we have?

Giant boulders coming down on their heads would be more likely to make them pull back. They'd want to figure out a way to take out the catapults and the wall breach would be their best choice. Then we greet them there as you say.

Come on man, that's just unreasonable. They can't wait for the fire to die out if they are getting peppered with arrows and they are being ordered to charge forward. How are they going to circumvent the pitfall traps if they don't even know they're there? You make that sound so easy.

Why would we want them to pull back? We're the defenders, I would think that we would want our attackers to throw themselves against our walls as foolishly as possible. Psychological warfare is all well and good, but if it doesn't have any force behind it, it loses it's edge.

Killing a large number of them during the initial assault will do more to strike fear into the enemy than a few stray boulders. It's not like they're going to be able to throw groups of increasingly more terrified men at us - they'll have to find another way. And we'll give it to them.

 

[Zero Credibility]

It doesn't matter how advanced designs voices give us - we don't have the tools, the materials, skilled men and most of all time to make them that advanced. That's why they will be primitive. The best we can hope in the time we have would be a psychological impact. But laying some traps on the approach to the walls will have just as much if not more psychological impact, will cause more actual damage to their numbers, will slow down their advance and break up their formations and possibly funnel them to specific points on the walls where we can concentrate our defenders rather then having them attack the whole wall at the same time (thus negating their numerical advantage).

 

[Esquilax]

Zero Credibility: I am contemplating a flip-flop from 2B) to 2A). However, I'm still not entirely convinced because I don't think Menos is the sort of guy who can inspire a bunch of civilians armed only with farm tools to die for the Emperor. At the same time, I think that Kharun is too much of a question mark to lead our elites - the last thing I want is some hothead chasing down the retreating Babylonians after our trap has taken so many of them out. Also the benefits to keeping our men alive and healthy, plus ensuring the civilians don't become a liability are also something to consider.

Nevertheless, I'm still torn because it would still be nice to have a few hundred men guarding the exposed wall, even if they are untrained peasants.

Lambchop19: You're probably right. I'm getting greedy and trying to squeeze as many fighting men out of our ranks as possible, but it probably won't work so well in reality.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

It doesn't matter how advanced designs voices give us - we don't have the tools, the materials, skilled men and most of all time to make them that advanced. That's why they will be primitive. The best we can hope in the time we have would be a psychological impact. But laying some traps on the approach to the walls will have just as much if not more psychological impact, will cause more actual damage to their numbers, will slow down their advance and break up their formations and possibly funnel them to specific points on the walls where we can concentrate our defenders rather then having them attack the whole wall at the same time (thus negating their numerical advantage).

Hmm. Sound arguement. Alright, I'll flop to 3C.

Esquilax The last time we tried to make civies into troops it didn't turn out too well. The untrained troops just made our pros weaker and screwed everything up. Let's not repeat that mistake.

 

[Kipeci]

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

 

[treave]

Of course it's not certain, nothing is. Just like you're not certain whether catapults are going to be really effective at hurting the enemy. treave, the update mentioned, "creative uses" for the catapults, what exactly did you have in mind? I mean, other than launching Ean behind enemy lines.

Since just catapults won't break 8000 men on the first day, you might not want to fire them at maximum range. Then when they camp where they think it is safe you hit them at night with sheep. For example.

It's not all stone either, you can tie together flammable material, light them up and throw.

The range isn't likely to be huge, of course, and the accuracy isn't the best ever. It'd still outrange your bows, with greater splash damage, and accuracy doesn't matter as much if you're throwing something that can correct its own course.

Re: reading Gieloth ordering tactical movements... no dice. They actually use a different method to communicate over shorter ranges. Unless, of course, they were being coordinated from a master mind back in Babylon...

Something to note about Tjaru in this history - it used to be a prominent fortress about two hundred years back, when Egypt still faced external threats. It's the most direct way to get into Egypt from the east if you're an army or a caravan. Many traders moved in and settled in Tjaru, and it only grew from there. When Egypt was no longer militarily threatened from the east, and collapsed into internal turmoil, the number of soldiers were reduced, but the town remained.

Tallying votes.

Organization:
A - 1
B - 16

Civilians:
A - 5
B - 12

Engineering:
A - 4
B - 5
C - 8

 

[treave]

Chapter 3.18: The Night Before Battle

The week passes quickly. Under your directions, Netzi and your personal guard drill the soldiers. You might not have much time, but the results of the drills are satisfactory in bringing up the overall level of your army. Menos takes charge of the militia. Under his watch, the militia's fighting ability did not go up by much, but his crochety behavior and experience has given his men a certain affection for the old man. They moved well together as a unit, if nothing else. The civilians began running duties. Learning how to bandage wounds, training in the basic principles of self-defense, keeping track of supplies, procuring supplies... all these were done, and more. You get a feeling that they were happy to be able contribute.

The craftsmen and builders were ordered to construct traps all in front of Tjaru. The fortress had been designed into the lay of the land well, and the Babylonians would have no choice but to head into trapped territory if they wanted to pass. There were pitfalls concealed under the ground, and carefully constructed fire traps which could be lighted by some brave scouts. You had designed their orientation so that if the Babylonians stayed still and hunkered down, you had a clear path for a chariot charge, crushing them between your wheels and the flames. If they moved backwards the fire would cut off their retreat; forward, and they walked into a funnel, ripe to be picked off by rocks and bows.

You only needed to worry about their army managing to breach the fortress and overrun your men - you were supplied easily from your western gate, which led out into the Delta and was unaccessible to the Babylonians. If it settled into a siege situation, you could wait them out easily. Time was on your side... you think. With the Gieloth, you can never be certain what new tricks they bring to the party.

You look out across the horizon. The night sky stretched out before you. A night like this was when you engaged in a duel with another Gieloth and lost your kingship - surely history would not repeat?

Far off in the distance, you notice specks of light appearing.

The Babylonians were here.

It is likely they would only move a bit further till they were in sight of Tjaru before they rested. The attack would be tomorrow. Only an insane and foolish commander would order his army to siege a fortress immediately after a long march. Still, if they are already here, you might want to send scouts ahead, using the cover of darkness to gain more information before the battle commences. Kharun of Avaris volunteers to scout, with fifteen of his men, which was the best you could have hoped for. Scouting requires great bravery, and you know most of the men you have in Tjaru, loyal though they are, would fear going out to check on an army in the dark. You cannot afford to spare Netzi and your personal guard - should anything happen to them, your army would be bereft of leadership. You cannot keep an eye on every single soldier.

***

A. You decide to send out Kharun to scout. He does not seem to be the most stealthy of folks, but you're sure he wouldn't decide to charge into an encampment of 8000 men. He's reckless, but not stupid. You are needed in the fortress to make a customary morale-boosting speech during the pre-battle feast.

B. You decide to send out Kharun to scout, and you go with him. You can temper any reckless behaviour, and also attempt to feel out any Gieloth while you are there. They can serve as distractions for you, or vice versa, should things go wrong, ensuring that information gets back to the fortress.

C. You have them all stay in the fortress to feast and prepare. You scout alone. A single man has a greater chance of being undetected than a group. You wouldn't need to worry about bringing your soldiers back alive, either. Just yourself.

D. There is no need to scout. You will face them head on when they appear. Skulking in the dark is for fearful warriors, and you are brave!