[LP CYOA] Epic

[Bloodshifter]

B

Trust the men. We should be able to slaughter many thousand men and exhaust the gieloth. It can't be easy to control that many men.

or to try to overcome our wall with *synchronized* movement

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Even if we don't win and have to retreat, we'll still have killed one Gieloth and slaughtered 1000s of babylonians. We know the gieloth doesn't control his men round the clock. Their morale would be crushed to almost nothing. Then we go for reinforcements from the king and mop up.

Or we might get lucky and win. Either way it seems the best option.

 

[Esquilax]

You think we'll be able to "fight our way out" of 2000 men in our state? Not to mention that the gieloth will still be there. Seriously, you're trying to have your cake and eat it too. We'd die AND the battle would be lost.

B - We'll do as much damage to the babylonians as we can and bug out if it gets too hairy.

What if that's not possible? This guy is one hell of a psychic, if his powers allow him to compel a group of men on the verge of routing to stand firm, then it's easily possible that he can compel a much smaller group of men who are already a bit shaken to flee, or worse, turn against us. Then we'll be up against two armies instead of one.

We have a few things going for us in this situation - we don't need to fight our way past 2,000 men toward the siege tower. We've already taken out 1,000, and there are plenty of traps remaining. We have a clear path for our chariot and our men covering us. Lastly, we have our vastly improved telekinetic abilities to compensate for being wounded.

That being said, I'm not completely opposed to B. It just seems to be inconsistent with our choices - our traps have killed off a third of their forces, and we've bolstered our telekinetic powers greatly in preparation for today.

 

[Bloodshifter]

If they win the wall no matter the loses you will find that morale tends to run pretty high after a battle.

Edit: a third? only 1000 or so died to quote the story *5000 are marching towards the wall while 2000 are guarding the tower* that is 7000 total I didn't know they had almost 10000 troops guess I misread some where for me not to notice that...

 

[Smashing Axe]

Like others have said, B will also hopefully exhaust the remaining Gieloth, it must use power/energy else he would do it all the time. Besides, overwhelming his men with the constant death of their companions must take a psychic toll. I'm confident that our elite will hold, and the others will hold because the elite remain unbent and unbroken. We'll also be on the walls using what powers we can, which should also give us an edge.

The trouble with A, is that even if we destroy the tower, we'll have a relatively fresh Gieloth opponent to face while physically drained. We'll have no reserves to call on, nothing to pull out of our arse at the last second.

 

[Bloodshifter]

Like others have said, B will also hopefully exhaust the remaining Gieloth, it must use power/energy else he would do it all the time. Besides, overwhelming his men with the constant death of their companions must take a psychic toll. I'm confident that our elite will hold, and the others will hold because the elite remain unbent and unbroken. We'll also be on the walls using what powers we can, which should also give us an edge.

The trouble with A, is that even if we destroy the tower, we'll have a relatively fresh Gieloth opponent to face while physically drained. We'll have no reserves to call on, nothing to pull out of our arse at the last second.

We might but then its time to hit the coma !!
Edit: by the way light needles would have been awesome in this scenario

 

[Tigranes]

That's a really good point - the Gieloth may not have the power to continue to control the men for a sustained battle.

It does depend on whether we will get another Choice before the battle is decided one way or another, but yeah, B could work...

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

You think we'll be able to "fight our way out" of 2000 men in our state? Not to mention that the gieloth will still be there. Seriously, you're trying to have your cake and eat it too. We'd die AND the battle would be lost.

B - We'll do as much damage to the babylonians as we can and bug out if it gets too hairy.

What if that's not possible? This guy is one hell of a psychic, if his powers allow him to compel a group of men on the verge of routing to stand firm, then it's easily possible that he can compel a much smaller group of men who are already a bit shaken to flee, or worse, turn against us. Then we'll be up against two armies instead of one.

If he was that good he'd have tried take over their minds to begin with and we would have sensed it. I'm guessing that this ritual required some prep of some sort or willingness on the part of the enemy - they do worship these guys as sons of Marduk.

edit2: We also don't know that he has total control of them. He may just be numbing out their sense of fear and self-preservation along with hypnotic suggestion to command them - like Shulgi pulled on us.

We have a few things going for us in this situation - we don't need to fight our way past 2,000 men toward the siege tower. We've already taken out 1,000, and there are plenty of traps remaining. We have a clear path for our chariot and our men covering us. Lastly, we have our vastly improved telekinetic abilities to compensate for being wounded.

Assuming the gieloth commander has his head up his arse and doesn't send the 2000 gaurds to intercept us... Also, remember that "clear path" is a winding path. He'll see us coming for sure.

edit: You make a point about the traps - there are more of them. And with the army marching like zombies, another 1000 or 2000 will likely die in them before they reach the walls.

That being said, I'm not completely opposed to B. It just seems to be inconsistent with our choices - our traps have killed off a third of their forces, and we've bolstered our telekinetic powers greatly in preparation for today.

B allows us the option of retreat should things go wrong. At best - even if everything goes as planned and we knock down the tower - option A leaves us surrounded by 7000 babylonians and one pissed off gieloth.

 

[Esquilax]

Lambchop19: You're probably right that he can't use our men against us.

But I do think he has another trick up his sleeve - what makes me very worried about B is the presence of the rain. This complicates things. He's creating it to fuck up the visibility of our archers, but I think that it's only a matter of time until he begins to unleash a storm. After that, our ability to hold the wall will be compromised. This Gieloth is not a direct combat threat and his army is only being held together by his will. Once he is out of the equation, they will panic. Yes, we'll still have to deal with him after we destroy his tower, but he's nowhere near the threat that his brother was in single combat.

His plan is to bring his men up the ladders while he throws a storm our way. So yeah, I'm not sure if retreating will be so easy; the tower has added a lot of variables to the situation. Given our abilities and choices thus far, A seems to be the most logically consistent.

If we pick A, at the very least his soldiers will have to run through traps if they want to get at us. It will make us much harder to overwhelm. Add to that our telekinesis, and we can keep the enemy at bay for a while. We can reach this guy, and we will not be surrounded.

Smashing Axe: Here's the quote

Mudbricks aren't that weak that some rain would wash them away, but the climate has generally been arid here anyway. Little chance of rain, a storm that is strong enough to erode them would be downright unnatural. It would take many days of unending rain and strong winds.

With the tower amplifying his abilities, we have every reason to believe that he's creating a storm strong enough to erode the mudbricks. It's not going to take days to wash it away. Maybe hours. Then how do we escape.

Look, the presence of this tower is a definite game-changer. It was an unknown quantity, and that means that we have to adjust our tactics to respond to it. Without doing that, you're acting as though it doesn't even exist.

There are 2,000 men at the front and they will come after us. Our traps can keep them at bay and buy us our time until we reach the tower. Once we do, we can hit it with everything we've got. Why did we get telekinesis if we didn't want an edge in the battle?

 

[anus_pounder]

C

 

[Kipeci]

Wasn't there something earlier about the mud bricks of our fortress meaning that torrential rain would cause it to collapse? If this guy is launching a magically enhanced rain storm on us, that's bad news for our ability to hold the fort. We need to take care of the Gieloth as soon as possible, or it could spell the end of our defense even if we take a ruinous toll of their forces.

 

[Smashing Axe]

I thought that even with torrential rain it would take a few days for it to affect our fortress?

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Wasn't there something earlier about the mud bricks of our fortress meaning that torrential rain would cause it to collapse? If this guy is launching a magically enhanced rain storm on us, that's bad news for our ability to hold the fort. We need to take care of the Gieloth as soon as possible, or it could spell the end of our defense even if we take a ruinous toll of their forces.

Not quite:

Mudbricks aren't that weak that some rain would wash them away, but the climate has generally been arid here anyway. Little chance of rain, a storm that is strong enough to erode them would be downright unnatural. It would take many days of unending rain and strong winds.

Lambchop19: You're probably right that he can't use our men against us.



But I do think he has another trick up his sleeve - what makes me very worried about B is the presence of the rain. This complicates things. He's creating it to fuck up the visibility of our archers, but I think that it's only a matter of time until he begins to unleash a storm.

Yes, the thought had occured to me as well - lighting striking our position would seriously hamper things, but I rather expect he's at his limit just controling the troops.

Let's look at the situation in terms of best case/worst case:

A. Best case we knock over the tower, kill the general before his 2000 gaurds can come to his aid, and then - seeing their god's son dead - all 7000 of the troops flee.

A. Worst case we sally forth and the general sees us coming and sends his 2000 nearby gaurds to cut us to pieces and/or we knock down the tower, but are too winded to defeat the gieloth and the bulk of the 7000 enemy troops - who won't completely route so long as their god is alive and fighting. We are captured and killed - repeatedly - and Egypt falls.

In the best case we win the battle, but in the worst case Egypt is finished and so are we.

B. Best case we kill enough of the enemy for the general to realize that he is creating a pyrrhic victory if a victory at all and retreats or (unlikely) we kill all the enemy and the gieloth.

B. Worst case the enemies numbers are diminished by several 1000, but our lines break and the battle is lost. We either retreat or - if not possible - we are captured etc. 4000-5000 babylonians remain at most.

We've at least given Egypt a fighting chance against the Babylonians who at this point are diminished, exhausted, demorilized (you don't celebrate a victory too much when your general just mindraped your bros into blind sacrifice).

If we were at 100% I'd agree with you that A was worth the risk. At full strength we'd knock down the tower and kill the Gieloth before he could react. But we have a hard time even walking at this point and that's not going to change for at least a day:

You had managed to get back to Tjaru, even in your broken condition. Your massive gut wound had closed up on the stumbling journey back, but it is still giving you tremendous pain. You could barely walk, let alone run. In addition to that, you are having a hard time utilizing your powers – they appear to be drained, and although you can use them, they’re not as strong as they should be. The voices run a check on your body, and tell you that this condition should clear up in a day or two. You hope that the battle tomorrow will go well…

Bottom line: I highly doubt we'd be able to take on the gieloth in this state, let alone fight through 2000 men should the gieloth send them our way.

edit: underlined for tldr

 

[Smashing Axe]

With the tower amplifying his abilities, we have every reason to believe that he's creating a storm strong enough to erode the mudbricks. It's not going to take days to wash it away. Maybe hours. Then how do we escape.

No we don't, the quote from treave sounds exactly like the sort of conditions the Gieloth could create, which, as it says, would take many days. If the Gieloth can create a storm that would wash our mudbricks away in a matter of hours, then we should be taking the fuck it option immediately. I think you're reading too much into the Gieloth's ability of weather manipulation, and have too little confidence in Egyptian architecture.

 

[Tigranes]

Flip to B, based on arguments and also hoping for a good HELMS DEEP writeup from treave.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

Smashing Axe
And if they could do that why wouldn't they just do that last night?

 

[Esquilax]

You bros have swayed me. Flopped to B.

 

[a cut of domestic sheep prime]

(I'd brofist your post, but I can't do that in the forums fsr...)

 

[Kipeci]

Switching to B!

 

[oscar]

B

This siege isn't anywhere near worth our death. Even if they win here, they'll likely have been weakened enough for Astarth to mop them up (something he'll be able to do much more easily if we stay alive). I say we should play this battle very safe, and try and weaken and delay the invader instead of risking losing a few centuries of development.

 

[Zero Credibility]

B

The walls give the defender advantage - so let's use it. I'm not sure the mind control was such a good idea for the Gieloth in this situation (traps, incoming arrows and rocks, crocodiles in the water, ...) - while it does give them morale immunity, it will also dramatically increase their casualties. And as Lambchop said, if he could do that to our men, why didn't he do that to begin with? Unless it's a range thing and he is not that anxious to get close to us. Have our men throw down the attackers as they climb up - we should be moving on the wall, taking out any group that manages to make it up. Use telekinesis to topple (or better, break) the ladders. Even in our weakened state no ordinary human (mind-controlled or not) can stand against us.

I'm not worried about the rain - it was used simply as a counter to our fire traps. The amount of rain needed to weaken our walls would long before that drown the attacking army in mud.

If it comes to that, we should evacuate the fortress through the western gate (preferably after setting it on fire). It will buy us time to recover and then we can try a more direct approach. But before that let's cause as much damage to their army as possible.

 

[Baltika9]

B for Bros have a point. Enough risks, we just took a war-tentacle and our guts were decorating the desert floor for a moment. We get close to that tower, we're finished either way. And our men will be the ones routing because of that.

 

[Azira]

I'm not worried about the rain - it was used simply as a counter to our fire traps. The amount of rain needed to weaken our walls would long before that drown the attacking army in mud.

This.
My vote is for
B
as well. Hold the fort. If we can hold it for another day or two, our wounds should be healed enough that a sally would be more likely to succeed. We're not at peak condition, far from it. Rushing seems as likely to get us into a coma as causing an earthquake.

 

[TOME]

A


B
newcomer B
ScubaV B
Bloodshifter B
Kipeci B
Esquilax B
Tigranes B
Lambchop19 B
TOME B
oscar B
Zero Credibility B
Baltika9 B
Azira B
Smashing Axe B
Storyfag B

C
anus_pounder c

A0
B14
C1

Edit: Not that it matters, but corrected.

 

[ScubaV]

B it is.