Did anyone come up with a different plan of attack on the part of the enemy? I can't help but think that the harbour looks like a lousy place to send in a fleet. There are rocky outcroppings preventing the fleet from spreading out, forcing them into a small circular bay on a narrow landing front, with huge cliffs on either side and a wild opposite coast preventing other kinds of landings.
A few thoughts of mine:
1. My general view of war in D&D is that it might more greatly resemble 20th century warfare as opposed to medieval in certain aspects.
2. With this in mind I'm thinking that a smart admiral might have winged allies quickly capture the heights above the town, at the very least to prevent attackers from using them to advantage.
3 I'm thinking of a more concerted attack by winged allies plus bombardment--that is to say the bombardment focused on particular areas of town while the winged allies take out more mobile targets. Magic or something could be used as signals.
4. The bombardment covers the approach of the boats, landing the force of sailors under this cover, ideally enabling them to then make a dash up to the now (ideally) ruined defensive wall.
In counter to this, my pcs have been doing the following:
1. Preparing pits and ditches with stakes to make the palisade less easy to capture.
2. Reinforcing the towers.
3. Training and improving the town militia.
4. Have used charm monster on a flock of terror birds.
5. Are intending to try to recruit Olman help.
6. Intend to use the Sea Wyvern and the Blue Nixie to try to ambush the enemy fleet after they move into the bay, by having them swing round the cliffs. Ideally they also want Olman boats to support this attack.
7. They don't know about other resources inland yet, that will be for next adventure session.
Hmmmmm. My players are pretty tactically oriented, they will likely come up with several interesting designs to defend the colony. I will have to restructure the attack as well. I like the Aerial combatant idea, Air Supremacy will present them with added complications. Teleportation and invisibility will also present complications. My players are nearing the end of SWW and are blowing thru most of the encounters. The end of Bullywug Gambit was a breeze for this group, so making this assault a challenge will require extra work on my part.
I have only done my cursory reading of that section, when I go thru my detailed strategy reading, I will come back and contribute more to this thread. Probably won't get that done until you are past it tho. :(
Cheers!
Is Vanthus expecting much resistance? I pictured him arrogantly sailing into the harbor to a rude surprise.
There's been quite a bit of discussion about this on other threads. I certainly changed the tactics a little when I ran the adventure (see canuk runs savage tide for full details of the battle)
Some of my players thought similarly, and one was determined to fortify specific locations himself. It's certainly encouraged in the general scope of the adventure, but I found that for the purposes of the encounter-driven climax of the adventure, these things should only be represented in the background as the battle wages on.
In other words, I suggest a more liberal use of the Victory Points system as a means of rewarding tactical-minded players. A sound means of defending the town should net the party another 25 or 50 VP. I should mention that I believe that time and resource management contribute greatly to the end VP result. My players charted out a schedule of what each character and workforce would do each week.
One thing I would suggest is encouraging characters with the appropriate skills (such as Knowledge (architecture and engineering)) to make the checks regarding any construction to be used in defense of the town. Only one member of my PCs had this trained, so even though another member came up with several clever engineering strategies, I advised him that although he knew that this would make for a sound defense, his character would not, or could not implement such a defense.
One thing I would suggest is encouraging characters with the appropriate skills (such as Knowledge (architecture and engineering)) to make the checks regarding any construction to be used in defense of the town. Only one member of my PCs had this trained, so even though another member came up with several clever engineering strategies, I advised him that although he knew that this would make for a sound defense, his character would not, or could not implement such a defense.
That idea is certainly a keeper.
With regard to the Vanthus' arrogance and just storming in, I get the impression that Vanthus is more of a tool at this point, in charge but his allies in the fleet and Yuan-ti are doing the heavy lifting strategy-wise. Vanthus is being given influence above his earned station due only in small part to his Evil and skill, but moreso due to the BBEG that for some reason has taken an interest in his elevation.
Vanthus was given command of the assault because it was his idea to take Farshore, but I envision the strategy developed was more of a group effort, and no assault on a position is made without Intel of some sort. Scrying or spying or even infilitration to find strengths and weaknesses. No, I think they would be smarter about their assault despite Vanthus' impetuous arrogance.
Cheers!
I like the skill check idea. Another way to apply it is to allow the pc in question to present it but not to have a clear idea of how to execute it, perhaps having to find out who in town can help with it.
As far as Vanthus' arrogance goes, I'm going to satisfy that by keeping with his intention of going in to get Lavinia and finish off the pcs for daring to interfere with his plans. I agree with others that the Yuan-Ti seem to be the brains of the outfit.
Has anyone else's players used dinosaurs or other beasts btw? And if they can do it, why might not the Yuan-Ti say use a squadron of pteranodons as well?
Has anyone else's players used dinosaurs or other beasts btw? And if they can do it, why might not the Yuan-Ti say use a squadron of pteranodons as well?
Yeah they had a couple of Ankylosauri charmed and teleported over to the island ready to use as trampling cavalry along the shoreline, but after all, their low speed made them rather useless for that.
The colony kept them as ultra-heavy draft animals, but they were never used for battle.
Has anyone else's players used dinosaurs or other beasts btw? And if they can do it, why might not the Yuan-Ti say use a squadron of pteranodons as well?Yeah they had a couple of Ankylosauri charmed and teleported over to the island ready to use as trampling cavalry along the shoreline, but after all, their low speed made them rather useless for that.
The colony kept them as ultra-heavy draft animals, but they were never used for battle.
That's too bad, I love the visuals. & if you put a big enough gun on the top it would resemble a Sherman... hmm if they could teleport an ankly, why not teleport it directly onto a ship?
I suspect the major problem with the terror birds will be their hunting instincts. The problem is that the actually effective beasts are very dangerous.
I like the idea of ankylosaurs as tanks btw--I'm picturing little armored howdahs on them with a small ballista.