Looking for help defending a town

[Ballad]

So last session the party and I went off the rails a tad and accidentally started a war with roughly 600-1000 orks on an escort mission (it's complicated) we have a small town to defend with light defenses set up I.e. small wooden walls and a stone interior wall. We have roughly 150 untrained gaurds and 60 urks we recruited (again it's complicated) at our command and gave ties to a near by fort who we hope will send some light cavalry. We have roughly two - four weeks to prepare, we are also fairly rich for a 7th level party. Looking for advice on what would be in the realms of possibility to help defend the small town and just thought I'd throw it out there to see what others would do!! Ty

[Arnie82]

What class are you?

[MrStabby]

1) Take the fight to the enemy.

Sneak into their camp, kill their leaders, raid their supply trains, poison their food supplies, draw their forces back to defend their homes through raids. The fewer forces they can bring to attack the better.

Given the amount of XP per adventuring day, a week and a half of this might see you a couple of levels higher.

2) Gather allies. Two weeks is enough time to use sending spells a lot.

3) Glyph of warding, and if you level up guards and wards can be good. Glyph of warding is good on doorways, weakpoints in walls and outside the walls behind any cover attackers might try and use. When facing 600 to 1k orcs area of effect spells are nice.

4) Dig a moat. There are a bundle of spells like mould earth or control water that might be useful for this. This slows down the enemies, can give them disadvantage in the water and so on. If you can populate the moat with nasty stuff, all the better.

5) Train your troops. You have some time - even a non soldier can get a lot better with a bow an arrow if they practice every day for 2 weeks.

6) Designate parts of the city as large scale traps - probably areas near the gates. Barricade the streets and fill the buildings with flammable oil. Web and entangle to trap crowds of enemies there then set that area on fire.

[Grondar]

Layer your defenses.

Perhaps a diplomatic mission to stave off the attack?

When you get done laughing we can focus on defense. The previous post of a moat is excellent. You really need to start killing them days before they get to you. Ambush them. Train some other monsters into them. Fireball them while flying.

[JeenLeen]

I also agree with doing some preemptive strikes, at least assuming this is feasible (i.e., you can reach them and get back to base) and won't shorten your prep timeline. If it's not a fatal/annoying version of 'split the party', have the stealth specialist do some sabotage and/or poisoning.

All the advice above sounds good. Traps, obstacles, choke points, etc. Train up your civilian staff. If feasible, have those that would just be in the way (infirm, children) evacuated elsewhere.
Another idea, if you have the time and resources, is to build a small fort outside of town. Close enough you can see it, but far away enough that an attack against it won't necessarily mean marching right into town. If you have the spells to put some summons or other expendable forces (undead?) in it, do so. Regardless, fill it with poisoned provisions and hope that the orcs, after seizing it, decide to celebrate. It is a bit too obviously a trap, but orcs are (in most settings) stupid and would probably like to loot and enjoy their meal.

Do you know what mechanics will be used for the fight? I imagine that the DM won't be rolling for all the orcs and all your townsfolk, but instead some mass battle or mob rules will be in effect. If we have some details on how the fight will be handled, that would let us provide some more tactical advice for when the fight begins in earnest.

[Deleted]

I know someone that has 4,000 kobolds and needs something to do with them...

If only D&D was set up to handle inter-party help, trades, and whatever.

[Hawkstar]

If no defenses are available, given your scant population - Evacuate.

[Temperjoke]

1. An enemy group of that size likely depends on hunting/gathering while they're traveling, as opposed to having a supply line from their home. So you need to send people out to remove the troops doing the hunting and gathering, as they'll be easy targets (single or paired groups ranging around). Secondary target would be eliminating the food sources before the enemy can get them, like hunting/killing them yourselves.

2. Set up traps and obstacles along their route. This will serve to start thinning their numbers as well as slow them down, since they'll either have to switch routes or wait to clear traps. Obstacles include removing bridges, creating barricades that will have to be cleared out (walls of trees toppled in their way, or boulder piles for example)

3. Instead of a moat, I'd use a series of ditches filled with flammable liquids, doesn't have to be as deep to be effective and it'll confuse the enemy, especially if you wait until they're crossing before you start igniting the ditches

4. Hit and run tactics. Ideally, you want to eliminate as many as you can before you get pinned in by a siege of the village, since your options diminish once that happens. This should be done by your troops and orcs, while the troops may not be trained soldiers, I'd imagine that they know how to hunt, so they should adapt to this decently enough.

5. More troops; train everyone who has the strength to draw a bow to shoot one. If they know they'll be behind a barrier, more people will be willing to fight, I'd guess. Also, send out for mercenaries from other cities, not just the troops from the nearby fort. After all, you did say you were fairly wealthy.

[Deleted]

If no defenses are available, given your scant population - Evacuate.


https://media.giphy.com/media/k4ta29T68xlfi/giphy.gif

[Bahamut7]

Ok here's what you do. Contact ApplePen (it's another thread) and get his 4,000 kobold Army over there ASAP. After the battle, you now have an ally that you can freely trade with.

[Fishyninja]

Ok here's what you do. Contact ApplePen (it's another thread) and get his 4,000 kobold Army over there ASAP. After the battle, you now have an ally that you can freely trade with.

What is the layout of the town?
As everyone else has mentioned, traps, moats are good. Make a lot of choke points and kill boxes. Also are there defencible buildings for the civvies like a church or keep or town hall? Also one thing to consider is if the town is on a hill can you sacrifcie parts of the town (I'm thinking flooding them, or setting them ablaze with the enemy in).

[Demonslayer666]

Barricades to funnel them to specific points and make their numbers meaningless. (sharpened poles buried in the ground)

Pit traps with spikes. Caltrops in the grass, trip wires, etc.

Embankments and trenches that they have maneuver though to get to you, difficult terrain, height advantage.

Place archers on rooftops with plenty of arrows (or crossbows and bolts, slings and stones, etc.) and cover to hide behind.

Soak the wooden walls with water so they won't burn. Have a fire fighting team ready for stuff that does get lit.

Build trebuchets/catapults and load them with grapeshot.

Arm everyone in town, even if it is with a sharp stick.

Set up fallback points and rally points ahead of time.

Set up 1000s of spears along the walls so the orcs think they are vastly outnumbered.

Use signal horns to communicate across the battlefield (summon help).

Use oil and fire to burn them, or make smoke for cover.

Spy on the orcs so you know what is coming.

Pull all the civilians into the walls for protection, and stockpile supplies of food and water.

Prepare and give a rousing speech before the battle.

[tKUUNK]

Capture a party of scouts / foragers from this orc army. Tie them up to some trees and have a discussion among the party. Make sure the scouts overhear and understand:

"Are these scouts fat enough to feed the dragon?

"Yeah but why we bothering? The stupid dragon can just eat them all when they attack the village, like old man Feggen says!"

"Yeah but it said it wouldn't eat villagers as long as we keep bringing it other food...else what's it going to eat until they arrive?".

"Oh Gods, I can't bear the screams again."

"And if we bring it (pause for mental math) seventeen more, it will let us go free."

"Still don't trust it."

Anyway, after you've debated a while (whether or not you trust the dragon, whether it truly killed the mayor or is keeping him as a pet like some people say, whether you expect it will leave town before it eats everyone, etc) make sure the 2-3 fattest orcs are unconscious, tie them to some extra horses, and head back to village. The other scouts you can untie, knock out again, or whatever, after you debate killing them, laughing: "No, might need 'em for dinner tomorrow...let 'em go for now". Obviously, their purpose is to make sure this news gets back to the horde.

At that point a little illusion magic should go a long way when orcs show up to scout the town or attack. Maybe have the "dragon" perched atop the biggest building in town (with an orc-scout-leg hanging out of its mouth). Of course, the villagers should be in on it, spreading rumors, acting terrified, whatever.

Might not work. But you'll have fun! :smallbiggrin:

[Sigreid]

Honestly, I don't see the problem. Sure, get the troops to start work on fortifications but as long as you don't just charge them face first a 7th level party should have no trouble killing or routing 600 or so orcs in 2 weeks.

Or even 1000.

[MrStabby]

Honestly, I don't see the problem. Sure, get the troops to start work on fortifications but as long as you don't just charge them face first a 7th level party should have no trouble killing or routing 600 or so orcs in 2 weeks.

Or even 1000.

Also noting that 1000 orcs is 100,000 xp (assuming only basic orcs). Assuming a party of 4, only just level 7 this would take them exactly to level 9 so it is not unreasonable to expect to level up at least once whilst killing 1kiloOrc.

[Sigreid]

Also noting that 1000 orcs is 100,000 xp (assuming only basic orcs). Assuming a party of 4, only just level 7 this would take them exactly to level 9 so it is not unreasonable to expect to level up at least once whilst killing 1kiloOrc.

And at the very least they should be able to do enough damage to make attacking the fort and winning impossible and still get away clean. But yeah, with a little smarts 1000 orcs is not out of the question for a 7th level party spread over a few days.

[Anderlith]

>Have the farmers fell all the surrounding trees (clear lines of sight)
>Drag trees around the perimiter & at pathways. Keep the limbs attached & sharpen them. Use surpluss trees to make spikes. Sooooo many spikes.
>Have most villagers up on roofs with ranged weapons
>Raid the baker's. Get flour. Make flour bombs
>Scarecrow army to make your forces seem bigger. Set some flour bombs in a pack of them so when the orcs think the scarecrows arent a threat you flamebolt the flour bombs & explode everything.
>Paint the entire town red
>Set forces behind the enemy in a hidden location to harass the rear of the army once the attack is under way.

Seige fighting favors the defender about 3/1 meaning 100 can hold off 300. Remember to give a rousing speach.

Also point your dm to the new UA & see if you can play test the new mass combat rules

[Vogonjeltz]

So last session the party and I went off the rails a tad and accidentally started a war with roughly 600-1000 orks on an escort mission (it's complicated) we have a small town to defend with light defenses set up I.e. small wooden walls and a stone interior wall. We have roughly 150 untrained gaurds and 60 urks we recruited (again it's complicated) at our command and gave ties to a near by fort who we hope will send some light cavalry. We have roughly two - four weeks to prepare, we are also fairly rich for a 7th level party. Looking for advice on what would be in the realms of possibility to help defend the small town and just thought I'd throw it out there to see what others would do!! Ty

What's the surrounding terrain look like? You could devote time to trapping/blockading the likeliest routes for the Orcs to reach the town.

i.e. Orcs would take the main road out of the mountains; cut down a bunch of trees, or otherwise attempt to make the road irritatingly impassable for wagons. Orcs will be forced to divert or spend time getting through any obstructions. Depending on the classes available, you can do alot magically, or by literally chopping down trees with work crews to block the road/likely avenues of attack. Similarly, I'd advise that the NPC inhabitants (guards and civilians who should be conscripted for this) be put to work establishing several perimeters of ditches/stakes to slow the Orcish advance and force them to become subject to barrages of arrow fire.

Tasks in order:
1) Scout the surrounding area and determine likely avenues of approach/weaknesses in your defensive posture.

2) Throw up impediments for those weak areas. (To buy you time for reinforcements).

3) Use all available personnel to create fortifications, difficult terrain, and munitions (arrows, bolts, sling stones, oil, pitch, etcetera) in order to whittle down any attacking force.

Given the 2-4 week timeframe, let's assume the worst and that you only have 2 weeks (if it's possible to scout the Orc advance using magic or something that can give the group advance warning of a more exact approach schedule, for sure, do that) in which case you definitely need to shore up defenses enough to hold off a force between 3 and 4 times as large as your own.

Assuming the party contains anyone who can cast mass damage spells with very long ranges, you should be in good shape if you can force them to funnel into an area to approach (i.e. dig a ditch in a circle around the town, even if the Orcs manage to bring wooden bridges with them, that'll slow their movement down and make them easy targets.


In terms of tactics, it's very class dependent, but a Wall of Fire might provide a very lethal Deterrant or could even be put into place bisecting an attacking force of Orcs (so you can divide and conquer). Similarly useful aoe for Wizards: Fireball, Stinking Cloud, Web, Gust of Wind, Grease. Warlocks: Hallucinatory terrain (fool em?); Druid: Wind Wall, Sleet Storm, Ice Storm, Call Lightning; Cleric: Spirit Guardians (best used by a Cleric standing near a wall and moving to wherever Orcs are trying to scale it/cut through it), Bard: Compulsion, Confusion, Stinking Cloud, Thunderwave (not alot of good aoe for the Bard).

If you have a Ranger, Volley is a clear winner in this situation. Just get them as many arrows as possible.

[Fishyninja]

>Raid the baker's. Get flour. Make flour bombs
>Scarecrow army to make your forces seem bigger. Set some flour bombs in a pack of them so when the orcs think the scarecrows arent a threat you flamebolt the flour bombs & explode everything.
*Tips hat* Dust explosions can be devastating! However you'd need ideally to use some sort of force based attack to distribute the flour into the air to create the ideal Fuel/Air mix before igniting.



>Paint the entire town red

Why?

[CaptainSarathai]

You are outnumbered ~4:1. Napoleon would put those at reasonable odds for an attack against fortified positions held by professional fighters.
Depending on the terrain around the town, if you hunker behind fortifications, the Orcs will surround it. If there are 150 able-bodied defenders living in this town, it's a pretty large town; they won't be able to man all the walls and barricades at once.

If you have up to 4 weeks to prepare, just flee. Defending the town with such a small force is untenable. Not sure how "real" your DM is, but the reality is that if the Orcs attack before the harvest, they could just burn the fields and leave the buildings intact, and leave the villagers to starve to death.

Best bet if you do defend the town, the best option would be to barricade the spaces between the houses, and use the perimeter houses as part of the walls. Those houses are still going to be slashed and burned by Orcs. The situation is even worse if - as I pointed out above - you don't have enough people to man a perimeter around the entire town, you'll have to pull defenses toward the center and leave more of the homes undefended.

The point I'm driving at, is that the town is a total-loss. The buildings, the surrounding farmland; that's all gone. If you stay and fight, you might save a few buildings, but at the cost of lives. 4 weeks to prepare, that's enough time to pack and evacuate. Get to the castle with the feudal lord who defends this region. If that Lord (or lady) values the resources produced by this village, then they will send out professional soldiery to defend the town. Otherwise, the Orcs can dash themselves against fortified castle walls.

[Arcangel4774]

Crossbows historically existed as a massproduced answer for militia as bow training was difficult.

[RumoCrytuf]

So last session the party and I went off the rails a tad and accidentally started a war with roughly 600-1000 orks on an escort mission (it's complicated) we have a small town to defend with light defenses set up I.e. small wooden walls and a stone interior wall. We have roughly 150 untrained gaurds and 60 urks we recruited (again it's complicated) at our command and gave ties to a near by fort who we hope will send some light cavalry. We have roughly two - four weeks to prepare, we are also fairly rich for a 7th level party. Looking for advice on what would be in the realms of possibility to help defend the small town and just thought I'd throw it out there to see what others would do!! Ty

You say 2-4 weeks. Let's be conservative and say 2 weeks. That's not a lot of time. Are these normal orcs with the normal CR? We'll assume yes for now.

60 urks? Did you mean orcs? If so, have them train groups of soldiers.

Gather the townspeople and set them to work stockpiling supplies and building defenses. They'll be pissed at you for starting this war, but if they're smart they'll realize they have no choice but to help if they want to live. As for the potential light cavalry, I wouldn't put too much faith in them.

Send a courier (or use magical means) to contact the feudal lord or sellswords who can help. Offer whatever you need to to get them to sign on (whether you have it or not). Send a scout to keep track of the orc numbers and how quickly they advance. Have them report back regularly.

Ranged weapons and magic are your best friends here. Have everyone stock up on potions and magic items if possible.

You said small walls? Set up snipers. Do the orcs have a battering ram? I would assume so if they're hellbent on wiping you from the face of the earth. That's going to be your biggest problem. They probably have it on wheels, so break those first when it comes.

Finally, Sabatoge. Send the sneakiest members of your party (with ample poison, torches, and other nasty things to ruin someone's day) and cause problems for the orcs. (Personally, I would send a plague over the camp.

[Anderlith]

Why?

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains_Drifter

Reference to an old Clint Eastwood western

Yes, a good air/fuel mix is important but hard to make up rules for in d&d off the cuff. I figured the DM would hand wave it. If not just use Gust of Wind spell, before firebolt.

[Fishyninja]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_Plains_Drifter

Reference to an old Clint Eastwood western

Yes, a good air/fuel mix is important but hard to make up rules for in d&d off the cuff. I figured the DM would hand wave it. If not just use Gust of Wind spell, before firebolt.
Thank you I completely missed the reference. Haven't watched it in year but will rectify that. One other thing to consider is wheter they have Alchemists fire or just general oil. Hot oil over the fortifications is a tried and true method. Alchemsits fire you'd have to be more careful though

[JackPhoenix]

Thank you I completely missed the reference. Haven't watched it in year but will rectify that. One other thing to consider is wheter they have Alchemists fire or just general oil. Hot oil over the fortifications is a tried and true method. Alchemsits fire you'd have to be more careful though

Using oil is a waste of valuable resource. Boiling water works just as well

[Fishyninja]

Using oil is a waste of valuable resource. Boiling water works just as well
True and Oils generally have a much higher boiling point than water however my argument would be you would want to save the water (and sand) for the fire fighting teams (if they are present). If you have an abundance of water, fill your boots......well the Orcs.

[Sigreid]

What you really want is tar. Something that will be difficult to remove and retain damaging heat for a longer time.

[Fishyninja]

What you really want is tar. Something that will be difficult to remove and retain damaging heat for a longer time.

Oh true but has a relatively high boiling point if I recall.....in the high 300's (Celcius).

So ideally would need a decent smith and lots of metal or thick wooden containers to utilise.

I mean anything boiling (unless is boiling point is insanely low) is not to be trifled with.

[Idkwhatmyscreen]

Don't fight them like 1000 individual creatures, fight them as one big creature

Each orc has 15 Hp. 15 *1000 = 15,000 Hp 15,000/2 = 7,500 Hp a week / 7 = 1071.428 ( 1072 ) = 71 ish orcs you need to kill each day, in order to wipe the army out before it reaches the town, with a full days worth of resources each day, a Lv 7 party can easy wipe that many orcs in a day, take the fight to them, kill as many as possible until you run out of spell slots ( or hit the target and then fall back into the woods, take a long rest, rinse and repeat.

[JackPhoenix]

Don't fight them like 1000 individual creatures, fight them as one big creature

Each orc has 15 Hp. 15 *1000 = 15,000 Hp 15,000/2 = 7,500 Hp a week / 7 = 1071.428 ( 1072 ) = 71 ish orcs you need to kill each day, in order to wipe the army out before it reaches the town, with a full days worth of resources each day, a Lv 7 party can easy wipe that many orcs in a day, take the fight to them, kill as many as possible until you run out of spell slots ( or hit the target and then fall back into the woods, take a long rest, rinse and repeat.

Well... "To fight and conquer in all your battles is not supreme excellence; supreme excellence consists in breaking the enemy's resistance without fighting."

You don't have to kill them all, just enough so the others will say "screw it, we're going home"

[Sigreid]

Cloud Kill itself can make a group of troops think twice

[Sans.]

OP? Any thoughts?

[Sigreid]

I think we'd all like to hear how it goes and what you did.

[Fishyninja]

I think we'd all like to hear how it goes and what you did.

Indeed it could be the song of Ages.

[Unoriginal]

Are there no nobles with an army in charge of the protection of the region?


True and Oils generally have a much higher boiling point than water however my argument would be you would want to save the water (and sand) for the fire fighting teams (if they are present). If you have an abundance of water, fill your boots......well the Orcs.

Just use feces and other waste.

[KorvinStarmast]

Also point your dm to the new UA & see if you can play test the new mass combat rules Poor idea.
Sun Tzu said: to defeat the enemy's plan is to defeat the enemy.

The previous suggestions on raiding and frustrating the orc army's intent to overrun/capture the town is how you win this, not by accepting mass combat, which is war on the orc's terms.

make the orc fight on your terms. That's how you win.

[Fishyninja]

Just use feces and other waste.
Not a bad idea.

[Vogonjeltz]

Cloud Kill itself can make a group of troops think twice

5th level spell, 7th level party (could only cast up to 4th at best).

[Anderlith]

Poor idea.
Sun Tzu said: to defeat the enemy's plan is to defeat the enemy.

The previous suggestions on raiding and frustrating the orc army's intent to overrun/capture the town is how you win this, not by accepting mass combat, which is war on the orc's terms.

make the orc fight on your terms. That's how you win.

Just thought i would point the OP at some new material, that was relevent to his interests. You could use the same mass combat rules to hary the orcs. It needn't be lockstep legions on an open plane. Not sure why you'd cloud the issue by calling it a "poor idea"

(Also you're misrepresenting Sun Tzu, but i dont want to derail the trea).

[Sigreid]

5th level spell, 7th level party (could only cast up to 4th at best).

While that is a hell of a spell for breaking an army, there are other nice options.