<@Dreol> [Last time on Power Sliders! Gralk died and Lex was nominated as the new head strategist of the orc army! You all have to help! Good for you!] <@Dreol> [Begin] <@Dreol> [Oh! Session 20 and all that!] * Micah has been spending an unhealthy amount of time with whatever explosives the Orcs have. This probably isn't a good thing. * Cassiopeia is sitting on a log, slowly forming crude little figures out of ice at the tip of her fingers, and then quietly insulting them for their many hideous deformities. * Lex follows Kiltuk into the command tent, having apparently gotten over whatever was bugging her a minute ago, and starts with the questions. "Okay. I need to know whatever you can tell me about troops, terrain, resources, city defenses...all that." * Katsuo is being his goofy self. He's idly looking up at the sky and looks at the weather. * Henry's looking over the cliff edge at the massed armies. * Lex looks around for where everyone else is after realizing they aren't with her. "You guys going to come to the planning session?" * Henry turns. "I don't know anything about this kinda stuff." <@Dreol> [Kiltuk nods. "Okay. We have about 150 troops here. From here there are two paths to the city, one which goes north and straight down into the valley and the other which goes west through the caverns and around to approach the city from the western side. That is obviously a longer route."] * Micah cackles happily. "They got big bombs!" * Cassiopeia looks up, fumbles her latest creation, and fails to catch it before it shatters on the ground. "... geez, no need to go to pieces." She shrugs and heads into the tent. * Katsuo thumbs-up to Lex and gives a goofy smile, heading off to help in the planning. No way we can beat them there, then...what about the city itself? Entrances, garrison, defenses? * Micah will come back to the group grinning like a madman. "Okay, I take this back. They got better bombs then that first talky place. This isn't a bad place." <@Dreol> [Kiltuk continues "The city itself has about 500 more troops ready for combat. It has several defense towers, but only one entrance into the city through the front gate."] * Micah pokes his head into the meeting still grinning. Happily, it's too late for him to add something like "Let's make a new entrance. With explosions!" * Lex glances around as people come in, then back to Kiltuk, brows furrowed. "If we're right in our guess about who the warrior leading them is, he's probably after some powerful artifact. Do you know if there's something like that in the city?" <@Dreol> [Kiltuk shakes his head. "There are many orc artifacts in the city. But the humans have many as well.. Do you know what he is after?"] * Katsuo hmmms. "I think we can take, but Xelion is wild card. Need to locate as soon as possible. Maybe use scout unit with some form of magic detection to see through illusion and stealth?" * Lex glances over at Katsuo and shakes her head. "We're too outnumbered by ourselves to take them in a straight battle. What we should probably do is wait until they've committed to attacking the city and then hit them from behind." She turns back to Kiltuk and says, "We don't know exactly, but it's probably *lists potential items*." Right, question, our goal is to win. Yes? <@Dreol> [Kiltuk widens his eyes and shakes his head. "None of those items are in the capital. Some of them are human artifacts. But no one knows where the spell book is or if it even exists."] And...even if we find Xelion, I'm not sure we could take him on in a straight fight either. We might be better off just trying to beat him to his goal. * Henry nods. "Well, is there any of that kinda stuff in the city? Or's he just taking the place on his way to somewhere else?" * Lex looks blank for a second. "None of them? Then...*half to herself* what does he want in the city?" This is a war game. He wants units. Our goal is to win. What is winning in these games? Killing the other side or holding places of power... Depend on mission. So he wants units to kekekekekekekekekekekeke us. Sometime hold location, sometime total annihilation. Usually do four exes. Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate. So let's do those. Send the fastest ones out to explore, the smartest to expand, let me exploit my bombs, and the fighty types to make things die. Simple as that. I no think exact rules apply. * Lex shakes her head, thinking. "The way things have been playing out, it'll probably only be one battle that matters. It makes sense for him to destroy everything along the way - you don't leave hostile troops alive behind you - but this is the capital. What's past this?" Okay, then how about this we explore till we find big bad talks-a-lot, we expand till we have him surrounded, I exploit his ass with a bomb or ten, and then he is exterminated? * Lex sighs at Micah. "Because the four Xs represent an entire campaign. We're only here for part of it. The exterminating part, looks like." Oh come on. You want to shout "Boom Head Shot" in that unreal tournament voice. I know you do. * Lex thinks out loud. "If some of those are human artifacts, maybe they were promised to him in exchange for this campaign...or maybe I'm missing something." * Lex raises her eyebrows at Micah and says dryly, "I don't, actually." How much firepower can those towers put out? <@Dreol> [Kiltuk shrugs. "Well they have been very effective in the past at stopping armies. But they won't work by themselves."] <@Dreol> [Kiltuk continues, "We will have to assist them in the fight."] Of course. It IS okay to blow things up? Right? Any humans but us. ... if I were a sneaky villain guy who didn't care about my troops, I'd throw everything and the rubber chicken against the front gate as a distraction while I snuck in somehow with a small force. Right what terrain do they need to get through to get here and how can I make it worse? That's what I was thinking. But if there's only one entrance... * Lex shakes her head at Micah. "If they were going through the caverns, we might be able to rig explosives to cause a cave-in, but the valley seems pretty open, and they're ahead of us." Actually, I was hoping *we* could somehow get in with a small force and beat him to it, but - Kiltuk, are you sure there's only one entrance? <@Dreol> [Kiltuk shrugs. "Yes. There is one front gate. No other entrances."] Use wooden horse? Any exits? * Lex snorts at Katsuo. "I doubt they trust humans bearing gifts." He's coming through the caverns. Gotta be. So then what do we do? This is you guys' gig. You got a map and little figurines and a big hat and coat to hide a hand in? * Lex shakes her head. "Too late for that, he's already committed to this route. And I don't think anyone split off." * Lex snorts. "I don't need a big hat. And here's what we do. Micah, you'll like this." * Henry looks at Lex intently, 'cause he's got nothing. Take as many of their bombs as you can carry, and get through the caverns as fast as you can. When you get out, get as close as you can to the army without getting in danger, and throw them. That should distract them and give us time to move in. We'll hit them from behind, and you can rejoin us once you've thrown the bombs. If we time it right, we should both come in after they've started attacking the city, so we'll cause maximum confusion and damage. * Micah just smirks at that. "I can do that." * Lex says sardonically, "Thought so." * Micah blinks a bit. "Can I have a few speedy orcs with me? Leaders are part of this aren't they? So I should have a unit with me?" Maybe. Depends on if they can keep up with you. I remember you running pretty fast when we first ran into the walking dead. <@Dreol> [Kiltuk looks over to Lex. "You ran into the undead?"] Ran from. Very quickly. I'd like you to have support, though...yes. Back where we came from. And do you have any really fast fighters? <@Dreol> [Kiltuk shrugs. "We have scouts."] How many? Good, just a few of them. Ones that will be okay with carrying as many bombs as they can and still moving quickly. I got an idea. * Lex eyes Micah. "What?" * Henry blinks. Hey, it's your idea. I just decided to make it into an FPS. Don't. It isn't one. You'll get yourself killed. This isn't a world where one man can beat an army. Throw the bombs and get the hell back to the rest of us. Who said anything about the target being the enemy. You'll get your slow down. * Lex 's voice doesn't actually increase in volume, but her eyes go wide, then narrow, and her voice gets very tight. "What. Are you going to do." Throw the bombs and then run back putting a big jagged hole in the earth between them and me. * Lex relaxes a bit, but is still eyeing Micah a bit distrustfully. "Fine. It's a good idea - even if they don't lose anyone into it, it'll keep you safe. But don't go doing anything crazy without telling me. The fewer unknown factors, the better this is going to turn out." Sure thing, boss. I'll be good and play by the rule book. * Lex is eyes Micah a bit more, then her face goes neutral again. "Maybe you will, even." <@Dreol> [Session End]