10-17-2018, 11:42 AM | #11 | |
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Cambridge, MA
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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10-17-2018, 11:53 AM | #12 | |
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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I always stock my strongholds with a stash of meteoric weaponry to give them some way to hit back against this. It also helps fight back against warriors who have a +4 Shield spell, +2 DB, and +2 Bless. A $30 piece of ammunition negates +8 to their defences. The other thing to consider are spell arrows. Using quick and dirty enchanting spell arrows can hold any 3 FP or lower spell at a reasonable price ($90 for the enchantment itself, $210 for the gem needed in the arrow). Dispel magic happens to be a 3 FP spell for a 1 hex area. If a stronghold is seriously worried about attackers with significant magical power they could issue every archer an emergency dispel magic arrow. The enchantment itself is relatively cheap at $90, so your elite archers (one or two of your elites should be scouts!) may have dispel magic arrows cast at skill 20, 24, or higher to make absolutely sure they can remove spells from their target. There's a slight problem with hitting the target if they have missile shield, so you may have to wait until they come down to fight and target their hex (an area spell is 4 yards high, so if they fly just high enough to hit someone they will be in range). Other people have pointed it out already, but I'll second the idea of putting the important stuff underground, or at least include some underground tunnels that connect major buildings so men and supplies can be moved around after the attack starts. You should also be very aware of Destroy Earth and Shape Earth, because they will play havoc with your underground fortress unless you're prepared for them. In my DF game fortresses often have meteoric dust sprinkled into the mortar for stone, rendering it resistant to both spells (though not immune). A final technique I've used is to make use of summoned creatures, shamanic allies, demon allies, and so on to field forces that naturally fly and can fight the PC's on even footing. A major ghost can make a powerful non-physical threat that can harass attackers in the air. A cleric or appropriately prepared wizard will have spells to deal with it, but a flying fighter will be doomed. Bonus points if you keep these forces in reserve until the PC's are committed and have to figure out on the fly how to fight back against ghosts or flying demons spewing 5d6 cones of fire.
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I run a low fantasy GURPS game: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdo...YLkfnhr3vYXpFg World details on Obsidian Portal: https://the-fall-of-brekhan.obsidian...ikis/main-page |
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10-17-2018, 11:55 AM | #13 | |
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Cambridge, MA
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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So how do the defenders best defend their fortress/dungeon? This is not your standard DF dungeon, which in my experience is generally composed of mostly separable room encounters; the defenders are a coordinated group, not a grab-bag of monsters. My first thought is, in a tight space, they can eliminate the flight advantage, but it might be harder for them to leverage their own advantage, which is superior numbers. |
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10-17-2018, 12:01 PM | #14 | |
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Cambridge, MA
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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Do meteoric weapons negate the bonus from Bless? It seems to me they wouldn't, since the weapon doesn't interact directly with the Bless. I like the spell arrow idea a lot. Lots of possibilities for good spells that could enchant these. The enemy could certainly throw a few allies into the mix (which will get caught in the PC buzzsaw like everything else, but might provide a nice speedbump for the flying part of the fight). |
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10-17-2018, 12:18 PM | #15 |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
The usual method of dealing with this is narrow corridors that open into larger rooms (only one attacker can enter at a time, all defenders can then attack) or kill zones (corridors, ideally with a barrier at the end, that have openings defenders can attack through, but attackers cannot pass through or easily attack through). Traps are also popular, often combined with the above. There are of course also methods for attackers to deal with any of these things (in general CQB methods are pretty applicable to DF).
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10-17-2018, 12:31 PM | #16 | |||
Join Date: Feb 2011
Location: Cambridge, MA
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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This is a nice framework to get me thinking about this, thanks! I don't have any real-world tactical experience, so I'm not familiar with CQB methods, but I think I understand your suggestions. I think I still need help nailing down the specifics though if you have more ideas... |
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10-17-2018, 12:38 PM | #17 | |
Join Date: Apr 2015
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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On the other side of things magic that affects the person rather than the weapon doesn't care about meteoric weapons. Haste makes the person faster, so they can still dodge meteoric weapons with a bonus. Body of Air literally turns you into air, so a meteoric crossbow bolt will pass through without doing much at all. This interpretation has worked pretty well for my group and avoided any serious problems with figuring out what meteoric affects and what it doesn't. There are plenty of borderline cases though, so like I said it will depend on the DM. Another reasonable interpretation for Bless, for example, might give it's flat bonus to your defences (because you are just better at everything while blessed) but not avoid a critical disaster (because your god doesn't see it coming).
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I run a low fantasy GURPS game: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdo...YLkfnhr3vYXpFg World details on Obsidian Portal: https://the-fall-of-brekhan.obsidian...ikis/main-page |
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10-17-2018, 12:41 PM | #18 |
Join Date: Dec 2007
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
Hunh. I would have expected meteoric iron to ignore arcane magic but not divine magic.
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10-17-2018, 02:51 PM | #19 | |
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Shoreline, WA (north of Seattle)
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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"Like most fortresses, Stalag-23 is ringed with anti-air and anti-magic defenses. They have the gold to fund some good stuff, so we should expect to encounter at least one null-magic field above the fortress and meteoric mortar to slow stone shaping. Thanks to Ranald's scouting efforts, we know that they have watchposts circling the fortress; these posts are manned by regular soldiers and a few animal control specialists, so we should assume that any crows or squirrels in the surroundings could be enemy eyes. The gate is enchanted heavily to resist practically anything. We suspect that an earth elemental is bound to western tower, but we're not sure. If so, it'll be like that place out in East Adria. There should be a postern gate or underground entrance, but we haven't found it on our initial scouting. It's probably disguised; maybe with magic, maybe not. On the walls, they have the usual complement of ballistae and catapults, plus a few of those dwarven multi-bolt crossbow... things. Deflect Missile should make those a non-issue; we don't think they have enough gold to equip it all with meteoric projectiles." And so on. Does the garrison expect the PCs in particular to be an enemy? If so, they should have worked out some specific countermeasures to what they know about the PCs, especially if the PCs have a particular flashy schtick or something that would be known to observers. If you really want to mix things up, have a third party act under the confusion caused by the PCs assault, or clue the PCs in that a third party will be assaulting and they can use that for cover or as a distraction. Also, very few fortresses are expected to stand alone. Where will a relief force come from, and how long will it take to get there? Knowing about this will give the PCs some time pressure. |
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10-17-2018, 03:01 PM | #20 | |
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Berkeley, CA
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Re: [DF] defending a fortress from fliers
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As far as scouting with worthless creations, I assume there's something more to it that just create animal? Creations do not inherently reveal what they see to their caster, and created animals have animal intelligence. Also, the usual solution to scouts is killing them. |
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