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I made this timeline up to help me describe what was going on on other parts of the battlefield during the Crimson fleet attack on Farshore. Hopefully, someone will be able to make use of this (IMC, a control water made me redo a lot of this on the fly).
Format
The entries will be made in this format:
*[timestamp in rounds; the zero round is the point the scheduled battle sequence begins] : [events occuring this round]
Timeline of Doooom
*0 : Ships 1, 2, and 3 drop anchor some 200 feet from shore; ship 4 drops anchor some 300 feet from shore. Ship 4’s captain tries to pick a spot with least obstructed line of sight to shore. Ships 1, 2, and 3 are supposed to avoid anchoring in the middle of the harbor to avoid giving ship 4 line of sight problems.
*1 : Yuanti ship (ship 4) deploys flesh golems (*splash*)
*2 : Ship 4 begins deploying launches, ship 5 drops anchor some 250 feet from shore
*3 : Ships 1, 2, and 3 fire ballista at shore
*4 : Ships 1, 2, and 3 begin lowering launches
*5 : Ship 5 begins firing ballista at shore
*6 : Ship 5 begins lowering launches
*7 : Ship 4’s launches afloat; crew begins boarding. Four yuan-ti, captain, and another pirate stay aboard, with 24 pirates boarding launches.
*9 : Ships 1, 2, and 3s’ launches afloat; crew begins boarding. Captain and ballista operator remain onboard each ship, with 28 pirates from each ship divided up into four launches per ship.
*11 : Ship 5’s launches afloat; crew beings boarding. Vanthus, vrocks, captain and ballista operator remain onboard ship, with 24 pirates loading onto three launches.
*14 : Ship 4’s launches away; expected travel of 300 feet at 30 ft/round, with two additional rounds for launches loaded on far side and another two rounds to gain speed
*16 : Ships 1, 2, and 3s’ launches away; expected travel of 200 feet at 30 ft/round, with two additional rounds for launches loaded on far side and another two rounds to gain speed
*18 : Ship 5’s launches away; expected travel of 250 feet at 30 ft/round, with two additional rounds for launches loaded on far side and another two rounds to gain speed
*25 : Six launches from ships 1, 2, and 3 reach shore (7 pirates per launch). Depending on circumstances, the first signaling plumes and resulting fireballs from ship 4 should begin in a couple rounds from now.
*26 : Ship 4’s first pair of launches reach shore (8 pirates per launch)
*27 : Six remaining launches from ships 1, 2, and 3 reach shore (7 pirates per launch)
*28 : Ship 4’s last launch reaches shore (8 pirates)
*29 : Ship 5’s first pair of launches reach shore (8 pirates per launch), flesh golems heads appear above waterline 20’ from shore
*31 : Ship 5’s last launch reaches shore (8 pirates)
*31 : Flesh golems appear on shore
*V (is for Vrocks) : Vanthus, peering through a spyglass from a window in the captain’s quarters of ship 5, orders the vrocks to begin be ready to teleport into the fight with 30 seconds. Ideally, you should have Vanthus issue this order at such a time as would allow the PCs to engage the vrocks after dealing with the flesh golems and either before or after dealing with the yuan-ti. If you do have the vrocks arrive before the PCs have focused on the yuan-ti, it might be wise to position the vrocks someplace where the yuan-ti won’t be able to fireball the PCs every round, either because the PCs have cover, concealment, or there is a lack of living pirates who can throw targeting flairs.
*V+1 : Vrocks cast mirror image on themselves
*V+2 : Vrocks cast heroism on themselves
*V+6 : Vrocks teleport into Farshore
Very cool. I was b~+*+ing and moaning about not having something like this on another thread. I know a lot of DMs just want to hand wave this sort of thing and I suppose that this is fine if that is what one wants to do but I personally like a little more structure as there is going to be a lot of hand waving no matter what one does while describing a battle. So some kind of underlying mechanic is always a nice thing.
Nice timeline. good job.
it gives a good general view over the battle..
a really helpfull idea thanks.
Nice.
I'll print this up. This will work well with the 3x5 card for every combatant / group system I use. I'll just stick a round counter card in there and tick it off every time it comes up.
Thanks for the work here.
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36 rounds is three and a half minutes, right? Less than one minute each to launch and board small boats? I know that this is fantasy, but that's just awfully darn fast to execute an amphibious assault. Heck, even with motorized boat davits, it takes five minutes or so just to get a small boat in the water. Are these pirates also smuggling amphetamines?
A more realistic timeline might make things too easy on the defenders, so maybe the compression is necessary.
I'm also toying with the idea of an overland assault from the east. That's plausible for the Crimson Fleet and would make the defenders divide their forces. It would also provide the rationale for the victory points awarded for reinforcing the palisade, which isn't attacked in the stock scenario.
Tom
According to the mag, ship 4 docks only 30 feet from shore, not 300. Otherwise the fireballs are WAY outta range. I think this really screws up your timeline...
you are right that the magazine says that 4 docks 30 feet but even at 300 feet he's still in range a wand of enlarged fireball is caster level 7 and therefore has a range of 680 feet, so at 30 feet or 300 he can still fireball a good portion of farshore.
I decided to give a timeline of my own a shot that I'll post below. I only went 20 rounds into it and I could easily see it getting off track sooner than the 20 rounds. I haven't decided how much I'll actually run round by round vs. how much I'll just describe to the players. I'd like to note a few things first.
- a davit from Stormwrack allows one person to launch a large boat in one round. That being said I think a round delay may be needed between the loading of a rowboat and the launch of the next rowboat.
- if the vrocks use mirror image prior to attempting the dance of ruin I think my group would have a very hard time stopping them.
- I wanted to time the appearance of the golems to happen along with the start of the fireball support so the players will have to make a choice as to where they are going.
- I am not sure if the fireball support is too much or not enough
- I am using V'sesslin towards the end of the battle to provide spell support to help Vanthus move around the battlefield (via slide and transposition spells) since my group has a huge reach advantage (enlarged with spiked chain along with a wildshaped druid). He'll also dispel as well during the battle.
- This turned out to be alot of information, probably too much.
So here goes-
Amphibious assault!
1-
Ship #1 drops anchor 50’ from docks and launches 1st rowboat.
Ship #4 flesh golems jump in the water (300’ offshore)
2-
Ship #1 loads 1st rowboat (6 pirates) and fires the ballista.
Ship #2 drops anchor 50’ from the docks and launches 1st rowboat.
3-
Ship #1 fires the catapult, launches 2nd rowboat, and starts reloading the ballista.
Ship #2 loads 1st rowboat (6 pirates) and fires the ballista.
Ship #3 drops anchor 50’ from the docks and launches 1st rowboat.
4-
Ship #1 loads 2nd rowboat (6 pirates), continues reloading ballista, starts reloading catapult.
Ship #2 fires catapult, launches 2nd rowboat, and starts reloading the ballista.
Ships #3 loads 1st rowboat (6 pirates) and fires the ballista.
5-
Ship #1 launches 3rd rowboat and continues reloading the ballista and catapult.
Ship #2 loads 2nd rowboat (6 pirates), continues reloading the ballista and starts reloading the catapult.
Ship #3 fires the catapult, launches 2nd rowboat, and starts reloading the ballista.
6-
Ship #1 loads 3rd rowboat (6 pirates), fires the ballista, and continues reloading the catapult.
Ship #2 launches 3rd rowboat and continues to reload the ballista and catapult.
Ship #3 loads the 2nd rowboat, continues the reload the ballista, and starts reloading the catapult.
7-
Ship #1 launches last rowboat, starts reloading the ballista, continues reloading the catapult, and 1st rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #2 loads 3rd rowboat, fires the ballista, and continues to reload the catapult.
Ship # 3 launches the 3rd rowboat, continues the reload the ballista and catapult.
8-
Ship #1 loads the last rowboat, continues the reload the ballista and catapult, 1st rowboat unloads!
Ship #2 launches the last rowboat, continues to reload the ballista and catapult, and 2nd rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #3 loads the 3rd rowboat, fires the ballista, and continues to reload the catapult.
9-
Ship #1 fires the catapult, continues reloading the ballista, 2nd rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #2 continues to reload the ballista and catapult, 1st rowboat unloads!
Ship #3 launches last rowboat, continues reloading ballista and catapult, 1st rowboat reaches the docks.
10-
Ship #1 fires the ballista, reloads the catapult, 2nd rowboat unloads!
Ship #2 fires the catapult, reloads the ballista, 2nd rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #3 continues to reload the ballista and catapult, 1st rowboat unloads!
Ship #4 drops anchor 30’ from docks, launches 1st rowboat, V’sesslin fires first fireball! Flesh golems emerge on the beach!
11-
Ship #1 starts reloading the ballista and continues reloading the catapult, 3rd rowboat
reaches the dock.
Ship #2 fires the ballista, starts reloading the catapult, 2nd rowboat unloads!
Ship #3 fires the catapult, continues reloading the ballista, 2nd rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #4 loads the first rowboat, flesh golems move to the closest building (area 2/ 19)
12-
Ship #1 continues reloading the ballista and catapult, 3rd rowboat unloads!
Ship #2 starts reloading the ballista, continues to reload the catapult, 3rd rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #3 fires the ballista, starts reloading the catapult, 2nd rowboat unloads!
Ship #4 launches the 2nd rowboat, flesh golem destruction! V’sesslin fires second fireball!
13-
Ship #1 continues reloading the ballista and catapult, last rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #2 continues the reload the ballista and catapult, 3rd rowboat unloads!
Ship #3 starts reloading the ballista, continues to reload the catapult, 3rd rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #4 loads the 2nd rowboat, flesh golem destruction!
14-
Ship #1 fires the ballista, continues to reload the catapult, last rowboat unloads!
Ship #2 continues reloading the ballista and catapult, last rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #3 continues to reload the ballista and catapult, 3rd rowboat unloads!
Ship #4 launches the 3rd rowboat, 1st rowboat reaches the docks! Flesh golem destruction! V’sesslin fires third fireball!
15-
Ship #1 fires the catapult and starts reloading the ballista.
Ship #2 fires the ballista, continues the reload the catapult, last rowboat unloads!
Ship #3 continues to reload the ballista and catapult, last rowboat reaches the dock.
Ship #4 loads the 3rd rowboat, flesh golem destruction!
16-
Ship #1 starts reloading the catapult, continues to reload the ballista.
Ship #2 fires the catapult, starts reloading the ballista.
Ship #3 fires the ballista, continues reloading the catapult, last rowboat unloads!
Ship #4 launches the last rowboat, 2nd rowboat reaches the docks! Flesh golem destruction! V’sesslin fires fourth fireball!
17-
Ship #1 reloading
Ship #2 reloading
Ship #3 fires the catapult, starts reloading the ballista
Ship #4 loads the last rowboat, flesh golem destruction!
18-
Ship #1 fires the ballista, continues reloading the catapult.
Ship #2 reloading
Ship #3 starts reloading the catapult, continues to reload the ballista.
Ship #4 3rd rowboat reaches the docks! Flesh golem destruction! V’sesslin fires fifth fireball!
Ship #5 drops anchor 100’ from docks, vrocks cast heroism
19-
Ship #1 starts reloading the ballista, continues reloading the catapult.
Ship #2 fires the ballista, continues to reload the catapult.
Ship #3 reloading
Ship #4 flesh golem destruction!
Ship #5 vrocks cast greater teleport and appear at area 14-15 or 16-18
20-
Ship #1 reloading
Ship #2 starts reloading the ballista, continues to reload the catapult.
Ship #3 fires the ballista, continues to reload the catapult.
Ship #4 last rowboat reaches the docks! Flesh golem destruction! V’sesslin fires sixth fireball!
Ship #5 vrocks attempt to summon more vrocks
21-
Vrocks begin the DANCE OF RUIN!!!!
???- Vanthus flies in with support from V’sesslin and his guards
So what do you think?
Both are good options, I'll probably bookmark this to figure out which I'd prefer for when I finally run this part of the path. It is very helpful to have this kind of thing since the pcs' actions can vary widely and you sometimes get a headache juggling that and the actions of the enemy.