Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

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Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby Iunnrais » 11 Jun 2012, 23:26

The War of Five Crowns began with a Prince deciding it was not worth it to wait for his father to die or abdicate before taking the thrown. This prince made some sort of pact with an ancient, deadly, and dark power to the west-- and with it, brought an army of undead into the Kingdom.

The Three ArchDukes, Myrkan, Veritas, and Stellan, each recieved word of the Prince's actions. First through rumor, and then with confirmation from spies who were sent in to investigate. Fearing a major Necromantic War, if not the awakening of the Necromancer himself from the Prince's actions, the Arch Dukes began raising armies for themselves.

Myrkan began marching first, when word of the attack on the capital reached him. The Prince had managed to bring a significant army into the city itself, beaten back by the legendary efforts of Sir Myers and Duke Velamir. But Myrkan's intellegence informed him that there were far more undead than that available to the Prince, and so sent his army towards the capital to support the King.

The King, paranoid of his throne and jealous of his power, distracted himself from feelings of betrayal from his son (of which he was half proud of anyway, despite the betrayal) by demanding that Archduke Myrkan retreat at once, suggesting that the Archduke had royal aspirations. The King's intellegence falsly reported to him that Archduke Myrkan had already participated in weakening the defenses of Bellas (the Capital). A standoff between the King's forces and Archduke Myrkan's forces ensued on the plains.

This might have gone nowhere if Archduke Stellan had not pulled strings with the Thorncrest College of Magic to start interferring with Teleportation Circles throughout the Kingdom, thinking to disrupt the Prince's efforts more than anyone else's. This caused Sir Myers, already on the hunt for traitors, to denounce Archduke Stellan publically, pulling strong support from the population to unseat him.

In the meantime, Archduke Veritas sailed a small fleet towards Bellas in order to formally discuss the situation. Half the fleet was sunk via catapults held by forces flying Royal colors. That it was the Prince mattered not. The Royal Family had insulted the Archduke for the last time. The remaining fleet brought a ground army, and broke the stalemate of King and Archduke Myrkan by storming Bellas directly.

The King retreated, and again, with Sir Myers and Duke Velamir's help, recaptured the capital, but now Archduke Myrkan and Archduke Veritas were each eyeing the capital for deadly insults... and each eyeing each other. The King could no longer remain on the throne... both Archdukes agreed on that. But neither Archduke could allow the other to sit on the throne. There were bad feeling between the two families from long ago. And the prospect of either one of them taking the capital infuriated Archduke Stellan.

All this was a mere month after the Prince's initial attack on the capital.

The war began in earnest.


-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This will be a play-by-post game, with my players taking up the role of one of the Archdukes. Brady claimed Vertias, David claimed Stellan, and we figure Carl will either want to join in with his own side (Northolt) or grab Myrkan. If my other players want in, they have a choice... the King, forign interests (Sea Traders, Dwarves, etc), or a Religion. The Prince is mine. Play in this thread is not mandatory for all my players, but I do expect those that play to be reasonably active. If you are not one of my players, but have read the Valacia Capaign Notes thread and feel like you have enough of a grip on the lore that you want to give this a shot, let me know.

This is not a pure wargame, and I hope that there be plenty of politics and backroom deals and such going on. Players can define their Archduke... personality, goals, dreams, first name, etc. The only restrictions are that they must have motivation to be involved in the war, given the opening above. Even the reasons and motivations for the actions above can be yours. There could be more subtlties going on. Family pressures, perhaps? Who knows! You do!

Territory breakdown...

King Baltes VIII
Territory Population: ~500,000
Draftable Population: ~190,000
Paragon Population: ~200
Epic Population: 2
Major Assets: Loyal Epics
Initial army: 250 Heroics + 2 Epics. Heroic Breakdown: (125 / 62 / 30 / 16 / 8 / 4 / 2 / 1 / 0 / 2)

Prince Baltes IX
Territory Population: 0?
Draftable Population: 0?
Paragon Population: ???
Epic Population: ???
Major Assets: Deal with the Necromaner
Initial army: ???? undead

Archduke Myrkan
Territory Population: ~5,200,000
Draftable Population: ~1,900,000
Paragon Population: ~500
Major Assets: Produces 90% of the food supply of the Kingdom
Initial Army: 5,000 Heroics, Heroic Breakdown: (1250 / 625 / 310 / 160 / 80 / 40 / 20 / 10 / 5)

Archduke Stellan
Territory Population: ~1,700,000
Draftable Population: ~600,000
Paragon Population: ~1,700
Epic Population: 2
Major Assets: Mage's Guild
Initial Army: 1,000 Heroics, Heroic Breakdown: (500 / 250 / 125 / 62 / 32 / 16 / 8 / 4 / 2 / 1)

Archduke Veritas
Territory Population: ~3,200,000
Draftable Population: ~1,200,000
Paragon Population: ~900
Major Assets: Sea Trade
Initial Army: 3,000 Heroics, Heroic Breakdown: (1500 / 750 / 375 / 186 / 96 / 48 / 24 / 12 / 6 / 3)

Northolt
Territory Population: ~350,000
Draftable Population: ~130,000
Paragon Population: ~50
Epic Population: 1?
Major Assets: Contact details for Greymist
Initial Army: 125 Heroics, Heroic Breakdown: (50 / 30 / 15 / 7 / 6 / 5 / 4 / 3 / 3 / 2)
Last edited by Iunnrais on 18 Jun 2012, 23:08, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby silarion » 12 Jun 2012, 12:09

please explain play by post. Is our party going to war?
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby Relmin » 12 Jun 2012, 13:02

Yea, I have a basic understanding of what we are doing, but it may be helpful if you do the first post as the Prince just so we get the style of what is expected/what we can do.
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby Iunnrais » 12 Jun 2012, 19:24

The party is not going to war, the Archdukes are. This is an interconnected but seperate game-- although Garron can be himself if he desires, since he's out of the main game for now.

Things you can do as part of the wargame: Attempt to Raise Armies from Population, Engage in Commerce, Diplomacy, Hire Paragon Mercenaries (not cheap), Move Armies, and anything else you can think of that's relevant. Outside of the wargame, roleplay. I guess we'll have to figure out the income and treasury of each of the Archdukes as well. I'm open to suggestions for that. Of course, the Prince doesn't have to worry about money at this time, so I'll get right into his first turn...



Having failed to quickly and quietly take out Bellas by stealth, Prince Geralt regrouped back in the Sinster Range. Things had gone too far now to back off, and he still had an army. It did not take long for the Necromancer to come through with his part of the deal.

He now stood before the Gates of Stelville with ten thousand "zombies"... not shambling lurching messes, but envigored constructs of corpses capable of perhaps slightly less skill than a trained warrior, but able to withstand much more punishment. They were led by vampiric captains, and swirling overhead were ghostly watchers to communicate between companies (and strike fear and terror into any foes). No Liches marched with him yet. Yet.

A disfigured mortal approached the gates, wearing clearly magical collars that would ensure the mortal's obedience.

"A message for the Archduke! The Prince will leave your city standing if you swear not to attack as we pass through your lands!"
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby Relmin » 13 Jun 2012, 09:04

I am assuming a number of items for this post, let me know if I am off base. First I assume I had some time to react to threats made by other archdukes before the prince got to my doors. Second I assume that I have kept my epics close at hand, my character would want their power at his disposal. Third, I assume I have plenty of residuum at my disposal for rituals, as well as stores of money.

After hearing Sir Myer's denouncement and seeing the writing on the walls of civil war Archduke Stellan did what any self respecting wizard would do, hide in his tower. Specifically he set his epic wizards to set anti-scrying magic across his Ivory tower, Forbiddance in the war room and scrying traps randomly across the rest of his tower to try to catch potential spies. He then set about gathering information with his own scrying magic, which is the only thing he really remembers from his younger studies. In his old age his magic abilities have been slipping as he relies more and more on his epics to help him out, but he is always practicing his scrying.

Stellan also sets some of his close wizards to look at the teleportation system. The initial interference was done in haste and may have damaged the system. Stellan hopes that he can fiddle with the system to allow him to use it exclusively during the time of war.

While in his tower Archduke Stellan starts to build his defenses by setting as many mages as he has in his disposal to go out and help persuade his populace to join the fight. He offers money and glory for the builders and archers he will need, and research time and residuum for the wizards he wants. He specifically looks to hire paragon wizards by pulling in all of his favor with the mages guild, only sweetening the deal when needed. As far as the Archduke can see they owe their livelyhoods to (what he sees as) his organization, so they should work to defend him.

By the time the Prince reaches his town his defenses are well underway. Stellan is not working towards a mobilized army, he is just trying to protect his lands with extreme jealousy. Seeing a disfigured slave approach his gates he becomes enraged. The Prince sends a disgusting underling to treat with me? How dare he think I would stoop so low as to acknowledge his slave. He then calls out magically from his tower, "If the prince wants my peace he can ask for it in person. Let him come forward and you have my word he will not be harmed while we discuss terms together."
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby silarion » 13 Jun 2012, 15:43

I will do Myrkan. The issue is northolt is on its own too weak and isolated to survive. As a city, it needs to ally to avoid being immediately swallowed by any Necromancer army that comes across the range.

Since Myrcrest and Northholt are in the north, they will naturally ally. Mykan is low on specialized human resources and Northolt will need soldiers to guard the city.

This is a preview. I will do a full post later.

P.S. Garron is a player here. You will all have some contact with him.

DM, if there is something between myrcrest and the northolt area of the map, we need it. Also defined areas of influence for each Duke.
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby silarion » 15 Jun 2012, 07:45

Iunnrais can we get a more detailed explanation of this preferrably before sundown today? I am just not sure how to do it, though I am excited about the idea.

Also we need to threads.
1) Informational where we outline the dukes and the players.
2) play thread. All in the same place will be impossible.
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby Iunnrais » 15 Jun 2012, 10:12

Okay, we will get this going, but it's clear we need more detail first (and yes, two threads). However, I'm going on a trip this weekend... I'll be back sunday, so I'll start hammering that out then. This WILL get going, however.
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby Iunnrais » 18 Jun 2012, 22:48

Alright, so, this'll be the OOC and informational thread. I'll start a new thread with IC only. The key thing that'll be needed before we can continue are the economics. I'm thinking of breaking it down into three resources... Gold, Food, and Magic Weapon Stockpiles. Gold and Food will have incomes and standard expenditures in addition to amounts on hand, while magic weapons... are magic weapons, and you don't get more until the Sylvia Forest opens up again, but then again, unless stolen, they don't deplete either. Under this, Myrkan will have nearly all the food, Stellan nearly all the Magic Weapons, and Veritas nearly all the gold. I'd like to hear what you guys think should be actual AMOUNTS, however.

I'd also like you guys to do is set up your initial armies, the conscripts you've raised before fighting broke out. The levels, I'll give you (edited into the first post)-- but you can determine classes.

Also, you should determine your paragon level distribution, according to the following system...

Each paragon in your dutchy is assigned a point value. The AVERAGE point value of your army may not exceed 5, and there must be at least one more paragons of a lower levels... so to have 1 lvl 16 paragon, you must first have 2 lvl 15s, and so forth. To perform a single mission of any sort, you must pay the paragon according to 1000gp * their point value.
Lvl 11 = 1 point
Lvl 12 = 2 points
Lvl 13 = 3 points
Lvl 14 = 5 points
Lvl 15 = 7 points
Lvl 16 = 9 points
Lvl 17 = 12 points
Lvl 18 = 16 points
Lvl 19 = 21 points

(Example: King Baltes COULD break down his paragons as 59/50/18/15/14/13/12/10/9, with an average point value of 4.98. Excel spreadsheets will help tremendously in calculating it)

Epics are predefined in the other thread, and are not necessarily beholden to the Duke whose lands they live in, although they may be predisposed towards them, and the dukes will find it much easier to contact them. With epics, you need to deal diplomatically, and they are typically bought with causes and/or favors instead of gold. Anyone can attempt to contact any epic. The only exceptions are Devin and Velamir, who are loyal to the King (to make up for the King's much smaller army).

When armies clash, experience will be assigned per casualties dealt assuming each army member is an "elite monster" of that level. Experience will be split amongst your army based on how you arrange your troops-- those in the van will get a higher proportion.

Battles will be simulated abstractly with some randomness, and I won't be divulging the formulas used-- but suffice it to say that a lvl 10 soldier is worth more than 10 lvl 1s, while not being worth more than hundreds or thousands of lvl 1s. It's not exponential.
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Re: Valacia - War of Five Crowns (PbP)

Postby silarion » 19 Jun 2012, 14:14

This is a good start but we need more information. I am fin with filling in alot myself, but at the moment, we lack a frame of reference to determine scale or what else.

Also, I need the map that contains northolt. Also something that indicates boundaries of territories, like a state map. I need to know physical constraints before I can figure this out.
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