Assault on Darkshire - Discussion

[ElFailzalot]

Just want to apologize. Due to encountering a few...problems in trying to continue writing for him, Mumm-Ra will not be actually participating during the assault. Assume something appropriately terrible happens to him on the way there or whathaveyou.

[Skeletor]

mumm-ra, Nooooooo!!!

otherwise, all is good for the plan on this front!

[Kelly MacAryn]

So, as far as the actual fight goes, how is this going to go down? Are we going to do one-on-one battles, like the SoSV versus Blades fight? If so, how do we incorporate the masses of NPC troops? I know Jade volunteered to play some of them if necessary, but how is that going to work? Is this going to be a free-for all like the artefact battle over the Kusanagi blade, but with distinct sides?

How are the town's fortifications going to come into it? 

Also, do we actually have anybody lined up to judge this thing?

[Revan Noctis]

All very good questions.
I would also like to know.

Also could we have a quick run down of both the darkshire militia and this ghost army.
Also will the npc primes for darkshire be used?

[Hiro Protagonist]

I assumed that the NPC Primes are going to be "commanding" and not actually join the fight just to make it easier. We've established that the Darkshire militia has around 10000-15000 trained troops, split up between infantrymen, archers, horsemen, and other specializex units.

[Alex]

I don't see why the NPC primes wouldn't be fighting themselves, even if there's no one to write that. Clearly, like the town's fortifications, they should play some role. This isn't just a fight between PCs, it's an attack on an NPC settlement. Someone like Dredd wouldn't be standing on a rampart talking into walkies if Coruscant was invaded.

[Revan Noctis]

Cool.
Well yeh I think we need some people to play them then.

[Kelly MacAryn]

I assumed that the NPC Primes are going to be "commanding" and not actually join the fight just to make it easier. We've established that the Darkshire militia has around 10000-15000 trained troops, split up between infantrymen, archers, horsemen, and other specializex units.

After some number-crunching, we've concluded the actual numbers are closer to 5-7k.

[Revan Noctis]

And those numbers come from where?

[Marisa Kirisame]

how large is the assault force?

[Jim Raynor]

So, as far as the actual fight goes, how is this going to go down? Are we going to do one-on-one battles, like the SoSV versus Blades fight? If so, how do we incorporate the masses of NPC troops? I know Jade volunteered to play some of them if necessary, but how is that going to work? Is this going to be a free-for all like the artefact battle over the Kusanagi blade, but with distinct sides?

How are the town's fortifications going to come into it? 

Also, do we actually have anybody lined up to judge this thing?

1. That will need to be discussed. How do people want to do it? Would people want to do 1v1? My intentions with the NPC troops was so that it wasn't just Illidan and a few friends turning up to a heavily fortified town, because that's not very realistic. So I saw it as levelling the odds for the story. So I thought that people could fight NPC troops as more for flavour, to make it feel like an assault, but could also choose to focus on the Primes attacking. 

2. As no one has actually attacked a pre-existing settlement in the Omniverse before, I suppose a staffer would be best to answer that?

3. I don't think so. Is there anyone keen on doing some judging?

[Marisa Kirisame]

also would the assault force get a bonus if they had siege weapons of any kind? such as trebuches, or catapults/cannons

[Kelly MacAryn]

And those numbers come from where?

Extrapolation from real-world history, established canon, and guesswork.

 Darkshire is a medieval-era european-style regional hub, the largest remaining settlement in the Pale Moors and the place where the majority of the population resides. It's large enough to have not just walls, but permanent defenses built out of stone. Figure late-medieval to early-renaissance due to the rest of the Omniverse dragging up the tech-levels and influencing society.

Let's use 1530 as a baseline for real-world comparison. Paris was the largest city in Europe - well over two-hundred thousand people, but that's way too big. Darkshire isn't the center of the most powerful kingdom in the Omniverse. London is closer, as it wasn't yet devastatingly important. The population was in the neighborhood of 50k, but it had a ludicrous population density for its land-area, and was growing rapidly, averaging 1000 new people a year, so that's still far too big. Likewise Prague. 

Hamburg is a better comparison. An important regional hub, powerful even, but not a major factor in international politics and subject to civil strife. In 1530 it would have had about 30k people. 

Taking into account that a large number of refugees would have fled into the city after the war against Diablo, we can use that as a basis for Darkshire. 

Assume 10-15% of them are broken, diseased, or destitute from surviving in the Pale Moors, and thus non-factors. 

Assume another 15% are too young or too old to assist with the defense. Take into account that Shang Tsung and his cabal have spent the last two years or so militarizing the city, the fact that in order to support a large military, a big chunk of the populace - call it fifty percent - have to work full time at keeping the city running, facilitating trade, and other basic tasks. That gives us about 20% of the population - which is very high, but consider that Darkshire is constantly in a defacto state of war with its environment - as either part-time militia or full-time soldiers. 

Which works out to about six-thousand, with a 1k margin of error.

[Beta Ray Bill]

I'm willing to make a discord server for everyone that is on both sides of the group. So we can all talk to each other.

[Hiro Protagonist]

I was going to suggest that, it would make planning this easier.

[Beta Ray Bill]

Alright here's the server  https://discord.gg/5w8tpVD

[ElFailzalot]

To back up just a little bit here...

Also, do we actually have anybody lined up to judge this thing?

Seein' as I'm not going to be taking part directly anymore, I could volunteer to do that.

[Ezrihel]

To back up just a little bit here...

Also, do we actually have anybody lined up to judge this thing?

Seein' as I'm not going to be taking part directly anymore, I could volunteer to do that.

I will be helping the Blarghman out in this endeavor.

[Marisa Kirisame]

Illidian just so you know I will not be with the assault force but attacking of my own accord (artilary, armoured assault wall crashers, etc.)

[Revan Noctis]

So where you getting that army from then Chara?