The Lords of Fantasy (OOC Thread)

Your votes would work for next turn Knyght, but for this one you needed to deal with the attack on Riverside. In any case the update is up:

http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-lords-of-fantasy-ic.223815/

I've gotten behind editing the info in the first post of the IC thread but that should be fully up to date in a few minutes.

I'd take some of the tower guards and two war mages with us. If they want to kill us in the middle of there city we can't really stop them so no point in taking an army, but we don't want to look weak either.

Ok then for next turn i keep my original votes. Also as the city was quite wrecked... I'd like to ask it if would take much longer to create/expand drydock facilities (for big seaworthy vessels) and fortifications as we rebuild than if we finished rebuilding and then added the modifications?

Construction of new harbor facilities was started on an earlier term, but are part of what needs to be repaired or rebuilt. You could increase the reconstruction time by a term for some enhanced defenses though - just need to give me details on what you want them to be.

Would we want to put defenses at Riverside? My first impulse would be to use fortifications closer to the border to control passage along the river.

I was right about needing to rebuild the town, and agree with Happery about our escort. As for our second action... we may as well deal with the mint and associated issues, yeah. But while shifting to a fiat currency would be interesting, I'd like to take it a bit more carefully.

[x] Rebuild Riverside.
[x] Test production and anti-counterfeit methods for a new currency, both coins and notes. Also quietly sound out our advisors etc. on how likely people are to accept such a change.
[x] Go with the dwarves, take a squad of Tower Guard and two War Mages as an escort. Don't forget to take the gift (especially since, OOC, we've already been assigned the benefit). Either this turn or next (whichever is more appropriate), inquire about hiring master craftsdwarves to help upgrade the Tower Guard's equipment.

Agreed. About the fortifications, what's the maximum range of our mages? Can it be expanded by tools? Can we enchant buildings(strength or maybe a shield)? If the above is possible, having some magically reinforced towers each manned by a long range fire magic specialist and a small garrison to protect the mage and act as fast response teams seems a good option to me.

The other possibility i can see would be to build walls, but while i don't doubt they would be good against a conventional force i doubt they would stand well against a determined earth magic specialist, at least not unless they are heavily enchanted.

Most of your military buildings have some basic defensive enchantments on them - further wards and protection need to be specified and might require research or several turns. City walls, wooden palisades, etc are almost always blessed and warded by both divine and arcane magic in nearly all nations - they resist magic and are hard to take down.

Mage's range depend on their strength and skill, although most of them use focuses such as staves etc. You could set up larger focuses in the defensive towers and have several mages cast large scale combat magic by working together, but you would still want to have some towers armed normally. Not everything can be harmed/dealt with by magic and well... the 3 most common ways for regular troops to deal with mages is zerg rush, fill them with arrows, or hit them at long range with artillery and siege weapons.

Update is up, sorry for the delays:

http://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/the-lords-of-fantasy-ic.223815/

We could probably try to create a giant chain to straddle the mouth of the river...maybe?

Just how many of our cities touch the river? Could it transport a whole enemy armada? If it touches too many cities or our capital we might need to build a floodgate/bridge and put emplacements on it.

About the paper money, well we know the change in the real world wasn't particularly well received. It shouldn't be different in TTL. Still i think the extra hold on trade and the economy might make it worthy.

The Mage Marine maybe? Spellswords? I think we should teach our professional army to throw fireballs at the least, even if we cant teach them much more.

Your elites, the Tower Guard, are already Spellswords who use combat magic along with more physical means of fighting. That is what makes them elite troops along with things such as training and espirit de corps. Basically your equivalents of a noble's knights, the temple's militant orders (paladins/templars/etc), and similar groups.

The Regulars (I assume you are referring to them) are your everyday soldiers - a cut above peasant levies but pretty straight forward in fighting skill etc. They aren't going to be throwing spells around. Basically men-at-arms, guardsmen, etc.

Then maybe we should start enchanting our gear?

That is a possibility.

Need more votes for an update.

I will throw my vote behind Grues plan.

The Azure Eye?

Hm, have we started upgrading our forces? Also, we should fortify our borders, plus get trade ties with the nearby cities and nations.

I don't remember having a plan? But anyway, sorry about not voting; it's not much of a cold, but thinking is still entirely too much effort.

No problem, DIT_grue.

You've started upgrading your forces (the Regulars), some fortifications and garrisons on the border, and worked to get trade ties etc with your neighbors.

What I'm looking for is what you want to do next and if there is anything you want to add into your discussions with the dwarven king.

The chieftans son showed great foresight in his proposed treaty, he knows we need that ore to survive, but he doesnt want to compromise dwarven authority, he wants to show that they wont be pushed around. So instead of butting heads, we pay this token tithe in exchange for the right to mine the ores.

Ask after the whatever his name was dwarf kid we met on our side of the mountains, we could also talk about opening up trade routes and paths through the mountains to the dwarven side.

Ok, what are the other two actions that you want to take this turn?

[X] Have our military work with the rangers to pick out the best sites for a fortress at the mouth of the river, the goal being to prevent any raiders or pirates from even making it to Riverside Harbor.

[X] Research scry stones that can alert our mages of enemy forces in our lands, without having to be watched constantly.

I'll leave this open until sometime tomorrow in hopes of getting some more votes, but more votes or not the update will be posted tomorrow.

[X] Have our military work with the rangers to pick out the best sites for a fortress at the mouth of the river, the goal being to prevent any raiders or pirates from even making it to Riverside Harbor.

[X] Implement change to paper money

The second one will probably blow up in our faces but meh... We have to take some risks at some point.

Agreed with this.

We should not implement the change to paper money, it is not a sign of 'modernity' but of convenience, when people began to be so wealthy that it became impractical to haul a sack of gold around everywhere, much like currency was invented when it became impractical to haul three goats and a chicken with you every time you went out to buy a new garden hoe.

Also we risk ruining our reputation with the merchants.

We gain nothing by making the switch and stand to lose some rather nice things, like authority that people respect, a reputation for not having pie in the sky ideas, and an opportunity to implement it at a later date when it does in fact become practical. Now is not the time.

I agree Knyght, we do need to take risks. However we also need to minimize the risks we take and the damage they can do when they go wrong, this is an unneeded risk, and frankly a waste of a turn action.