Domains at War

any chance of regular updates/screenshots being posted somewhere for people who just want to lurk and observe?  It might also be possible to just follow that link and peek, but I wasn't sure.

You can peek! I'll also be taking screenshots regularly once we get started.
 

Alright! I rolled random terrain and arranged my army. Whoever wants to play the opposing side, volunteer, and set up your forces at your leisure. Also, remember you get a certain number of lieutenants; I suggest marking units with flags if they have a lieutenant.

 

I thought about using the pre-established terrain, but eh. Let's roll on charts!

I’ve used VASSAL for play-by-post (of ASL : Advanced Squad Leader) extensively. VASSAL is built for virtual tabletop and PbP, although I’ve never tried VASSAL VTT. Logs are exchanged via e-mail for PbP. There is an automated logging facility, which logs movement, dice rolls, LOS checks and text entered (which is used both for resolving game mechanics and general discussion). For ASL, VASSAL has existing hex maps as well as overlays, not unlike D@W.

I’ve not used any of the RPG VTT. How do they support PbP? Is anyone here familiar with both VASSAL (or similar) and Roll20 (or similar)?

I’d love to play a lot more D@W as well, and PbP could be a “leisurely” way to play.

I've done Roll20 a decent amount. It's workable.

That VASSAL though, that looks really intriguing for this - the list of already created modules is impressive, and I can't see that D@W:B wouldn't be able to be covered by that.

I am somewhat taken aback this is the first time I've heard of it.

Oh yeaaaaaaaah Vassal exists! That'd make much more sense than roll20. You'd just have to create a module for it. I played the 40k tabletop a bit with it and yeah, very well made. I imagine it'd be a huge timesink up front to make it compatible.

 

Anyway the map is all set up now so I'm just waiting on ya'll to set up the opposing army.

Yeah, sorry...I've been way busier this weekend with Christmas preparations than I expected...

*I* meanwhile am less busy because it's christmas so I've been sitting here refreshing and tapping my foot

Oops! Now you're waiting for me again, seeing as I wont the roll-off for tied Initiative. I've never seen someone roll that many 1's in a row!

So! Blobloblah has joined the battle as the Auran forces and deployed his troops. Here's how it looks right now: He's the southern forces, where I'm attacking from the north.

I've chosen to deploy Baal and Peymann in Phalanxes. Since they were already veteran heavy infantry, this makes them super-heavies, and destroying their units outright should prove nearly impossible. It also reduces the number of units I have, which is good, because moving units costs points! Most of my commanders have lower leadership and strategic values than I'd like relative to the number of units they're supposed to be commanding.

I also have fiewer lieutenants, so that sucks. Also, upon closer inspection, I've deployed only three of them! I'll drop the last one now, on my cavalry, because obviously cavalry are important.

 

http://imgur.com/KhXjyAu

The black arrows represent my predictions for the battle. His general starts in a cavalry unit, which is both a blessing and a curse. Cavalry are extremely powerful, and having a high-quality commander ensures that that unit will be effective. He's also stacked lieutenants on it, meaning that he'll always be able to active all of them, even if they take hits. Thus, it's obvious that he's going to want to use Royal Squad as early as possible, and since cavalry go fast, having them flank is a natural choice.

Meanwhile, he's just sort of dumped all of his non-horse units in the middle, and with that lake there, they're more or less forced to move straight forward and be the anvil to his horse-hammer.

 

On my end, I have essentially the exact same layout, except that my commander will be in the center, and I've assigned one division to outflank around the lake. *My* cavalry commander is Jagtai, the peerless barbarian. He's equipped with a sweet bow, the precise shot proficiency, and Eyes of the Eagle, which grants him the ability to target heroes at twice the normal range. Unfortunately, at this scale, that means I have a range of TWO hexes, (Unless mounted heroes count as Large?) meaning there can be exactly one hex between us. So he'll have to get in close. Once he does though, WYVERN POISON ARROWS! BAM! Admittedly, this poison is an unmodifier throw, so if I'm targetting Tarkaun, he survives on a 6+. On the other hand, a 25% chance of insta-death per hit is nothing to scoff at. Also, while we're here, he's got 15 AC. Jagtai's THACO is -2. So Jagtai only hits on a 13+. Or maybe an 11+, if he uses his +2 arrows? Do magic arrows stack with magic bow? I assume they do, because otherwise why mention that he has both?

So a 50% chance to hit and a 25% chance for each hit to kill; that's an average of eight attacks. And in brigade scale, heroes get three extra initiative passes. That's four attacks per round. If I can get Jagtai close to Tarkaun, I'm looking very good. If somehow Jagtai closes on Mennic, the fragile wizard, he'll hit on a 4+ and instagib if he rolls 6 or less. Even without the poison, mennic only has 44 hp, so 1d6+6 won't take many shots.

 

WOW that was a lot of numbers let's get back to strategy. So yeah. Jagtai kills people. Jagtai's horses are lined up with the general's horses. My anvil is smaller than theirs, but more muscular and compact, like corned beef. I also have a second hammer. Flanking is extremely potent in Domains at War because it not only grants a bonus to hit, but also imposes a penalty on shock rolls, making it much more likely to break troops, so I think that second hammer is going to help me a lot. If I use the lake to my advantage, having a smaller anvil won't hurt me much. If I screw up, my general is going to easily be surrounded and cut to pieces. Fun! I'm very excited.

Clearly you actually put thought into your deployment. Maybe I should have done the same?

Speaking of Initiative, seeing as I have it, would you mind if I cast some pre-battle spells? Obviously there's some potential advantage, but I already had something in mind, and just rediscovered that some things need to be cast in advance at this scale (I'm only now reading my Commanders in detail...oops).

I really enjoyed your terrain descriptions.

By all means, go ahead!

The descriptions were pretty good, but I have to say I preferred the artistry of the previous layout.

It is begun.

Sort of...other than indecision, changing my mind, and delaying!

;-D

First turn: Blobloblobah has chosen to delay, and I don't see any harm in letting him have it, so I've moved all my forces up along the lines I drew earlier. Now it's his turn to move his entire army. I'm not too concerned. I'll post a picture and a more in depth update when he does something.

Don't rush me, man!

So, I scooted up a little.

Then, in response, Bloblo HUSTLED his light cavalry directly adjacent to me. I'm unclear to what end. He also charges his medium cavalry to one side of the rocky terrain, and positions his Autarch between them, for a neat trident effect now that I draw it out.

He also shuffles the rest of his units forward, and then makes the decision to seperate Mennic from his unit! I have no idea what that's about. Presumably, he hopes to utilize his spellcasting ability with greater mobility, but I feel like I'm just going to kill him more easily this way. We'll see.

http://imgur.com/QaG88JG

Unfortunately, the dice HATE me, and he gets to go first! So now his too-far-up units are actually very well poised to strike, maybe. I don't know. We'll see what he does. I'd discuss my plans for a counterattack, but he's listening, watching.