Erfworld/OOTS Commander switch

[BRC]

Supposing that Ansom was leading the hobgoblin army instead of Redcloak, what would his tactics be?
Put Redcloak in Ansoms place, what would he do?
What would happen if Parson was commanding the defense of Azure City instead of Gobwin Knob?

[Freederick]

What would happen if Parson was commanding the defense of Azure City instead of Gobwin Knob?

Paradigm shift: extract the sapphire from the throne, replacing it with a dummy. The real sapphire, with the gate, secreted on a ship in harbor, ready to be evacuated. Boobytrap the keep; when it blows, not only is a big part of hobgoblin party eliminated, but enemies are led to believe the gate was destroyed.
As for the rest of the hobgoblins: part of defensive forces distributed over the housing in Azure City with lots of boobytraps, forcing the hobgoblins to fight house-to-house at a disadvantage, with huge attrition losses.

That'd be Parson's way of booping up enemy assumptions.

[factotum]

Paradigm shift: extract the sapphire from the throne, replacing it with a dummy. The real sapphire, with the gate, secreted on a ship in harbor, ready to be evacuated.

Wouldn't work. The sapphire is there to seal a pre-existing rift in the fabric of reality--the rift does not move, therefore the sapphire cannot move either. (This was actually stated in so many words by Hinjo when Roy suggested moving the sapphire somewhere else).

[Freederick]

Put Redcloak in Ansoms place, what would he do?

Redcloak, turn 1: Have the bulk of the forces storm the walls, never mind the lack of siege, never mind the tunnels. Never mind the casualties.

Parson, turn 2: Parson would presumably jump on the opportunity to attrite the "foolish" enemy, and move the Dwagons out to inflict casualties on the storming troops. He would think he stands to gain two objectives this way: 1. slaughter a lot of Coalition forces from the safety of the walls; 2. force the enemy to back off from the walls and try the tunnels.

Redcloak, turn 2: With the Dwagons stationed at the outer walls, move a paratrooper force of strong units into the keep by air; seize Tower of Efdup; croak Parson, Stanley, Wanda, take the Arkenhammer.

That's Redcloak's way of using his forces as cannon fodder to turn attention away from the real threat.

[Freederick]

Wouldn't work. The sapphire is there to seal a pre-existing rift in the fabric of reality--the rift does not move, therefore the sapphire cannot move either. (This was actually stated in so many words by Hinjo when Roy suggested moving the sapphire somewhere else).

Well, in that case:
1. Pretend to evacuate the sapphire, with controlled leaks of this operation to convince the enemy that it has been moved. At the very least, this would force Xykon to split his forces, going after both sapphires; and the forces attacking the fake one would be drawn into a trap.
2. Seal off the bottom floors of the keep by filling them with stone or fire, etc., making them completely impassable. This would prevent the hobgoblin army and Redcloak from reinforcing Xykon in the throne room, and effectively split Xykon away to be dealt with by the righteous undead (for lack of a better term).
3. The remainder of the plan, drawing the hobgoblin forces into house-to-house attrition, is still applicable.
4. Separate the high-level adventurers into a strike force with high mobility (flying carpet?) so that they could intervene where most needed, withdraw, strike surgically again. This maximizes their punch.

Note: this last part resembles the way Parson is using the Dwagons and warlords.

[Scientivore]

Supposing that Ansom was leading the hobgoblin army instead of Redcloak, what would his tactics be?
Put Redcloak in Ansoms place, what would he do?
What would happen if Parson was commanding the defense of Azure City instead of Gobwin Knob?

Ansom would completely surround Azure City, use siege engines to assault the walls and then rush the first breach with overwhelming numbers.

Redcloak would use magic to turn a few allied warlords into gobwins, dress them up like himself and have each doppel lead one branch of a three-pronged assault on the walls, just to drive Stanley crazy.

Could Parson have someone teleport boulders above the catapults to destroy them from afar? I can see him doing that if he could.

[Fuzzy_Juan]

Note that if Parson is to be theoretically in charge of the Defense of Azure City the following must be applied as true to stay with the setting in the OotS universe...

- The warning of attack was given with only one day's notice (less really) so any preparations or 'learning' would have to be done within say...12-18 hours.

- The civilian population would bug out by sea, end of story, The nobles would have it no other way and noone could really tell them otherwise (unless of course preemptively launching or burning the ships was to be part of the plan)

- Redcloak and Zykon know the gate is in the throne room, they also know that the gate does not and cannot move...one would not be able to trick them in that case.

- The forces at Parson's disposal would be exactly what was fighting the Hobgoblins...deployment would be key as would any tactics of special units.

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With no time to prepare, I can't help but think that Parson would insist that any valuable information or objects that can be evacuated be taken from the city with the civilians...The castle would be rigged with a magic trap that would destroy the gate and the castle as shown without the need for anyone to be inside of it...Basically, Soon and the ghost Martyrs would get their chance, but the destruction of the gate would be a primary 'oh ****'...likely triggered by Soon if it looked like all was lost.

The Saphire guard would be deployed as a counter attack unit to cover the retreat of the army from the walls, hopefully to waiting ships if any were left, or to a secondary defensive position that was NOT the castle. Work details would have constructed small 'watertowers' filled with oil that would be placed at strategic points to cover the ground in oil quickly to burn large mobs of advancing enemy troops...it doesn't matter if the city burns or is destroyed...if the wall defense fails, the city by and large is indefensible and expendable.

Xykon would be 'ignored' as to fight him would be suicide...orders would be to attack hobgoblins and undead but stay away from the lich, allow the Ghost Martyrs to do their job.

A retreat plan would be well organized with traps all through the fallout, with the destruction of the castle to be the lynchpin of the 'trap'. At least a small group of fighters would have to go into the castle and put up a fight to ensure that a sizeable amount of hobgoblins surrounded the castle and were caught in the blast. Hopefully they could get out...but they would essentially be suicide troops.

A costal city would have costal defenses...that would be the last stand and where the main counterattack would come from...hopefully the destruction of the castle would eliminate the head of the enemy army, otherwise, what they came for is now gone and the army (after such a shock) would be ready to rout if hard pressed...provided that minimal casualties had been sustained by the human forces throughout the conflict, the counterattack by the Azurites into shaken Hobgoblins with a burning city all around them would likely cause a huge rout in which a large number of Hobgoblins would be cut down.

Best estimate would be the loss of 30-50% of the city's structure, the castle gone, and the main wall breached in one or more locations with a fire that would need to be contained...the defenders would suffer at least 30-40% casualties say...10%-13% during each 'phase' of the plan...(hold, retreat, couterattack). The city and even the gate could be rebuilt...but only if the Hobgoblin army is driven away from Azure City.

[Fishies]

The warning of attack was given with only one day's notice (less really) so any preparations or 'learning' would have to be done within say...12-18 hours.

DnD is a popular game already; Parson probably knows the rules already.

[Scientivore]

That looks like a good plan, Fuzzy_Juan. The only things that I would add, if possible, would be to make the self-destruct a powerful positive energy explosion and trigger a blast containment sphere of some kind around the throne room just before the gate self-destruct. In addition to protecting the rest of the castle, it would amplify the effects of the dual blasts inside, possibly ensuring the destruction the Xykon (and his phylactery too, though they wouldn't have known that). I just don't know enough about the rules and Azure City's resources.

[Fuzzy_Juan]

That looks like a good plan, Fuzzy_Juan. The only things that I would add, if possible, would be to make the self-destruct a powerful positive energy explosion and trigger a blast containment sphere of some kind around the throne room just before the gate self-destruct. In addition to protecting the rest of the castle, it would amplify the effects of the dual blasts inside, possibly ensuring the destruction the Xykon (and his phylactery too, though they wouldn't have known that). I just don't know enough about the rules and Azure City's resources.

any sort of containment would likely not hold with an explosion of such power...also, you wouldn't want to contain the blast as the shockwave and flying debris are part of the trap to kill the army that has swarmed into the city and parked itself around the castle. If you contain the blast and stop the leader's only...there is still an army of hobgoblins nearby...you need to remove the temptation and drive off the army at the same time. If you don't, you get what has happened in the comic. The enemy will move on, but now will stay and occupy the city and probably use the port and ship building facilities to launch the next attack against Girard's gate.

True about the DnD rules...if DnD is the same game in Parson's reality as ours (likely since he is supposed to be from our world and not a world 'very similar') He would have an immediate understanding of the rules and mechanics...however, it seems that everyone in the OotS universe is well versed in mechanics for the most part and many use rules to their advantage and twink whenever possible...meaning a harder challenge in actual practice.

[factotum]

1. Pretend to evacuate the sapphire, with controlled leaks of this operation to convince the enemy that it has been moved. At the very least, this would force Xykon to split his forces, going after both sapphires; and the forces attacking the fake one would be drawn into a trap.

Again, wouldn't work, because in one of the strips (I forget which one) Xykon said that the sapphire couldn't be moved--therefore, if he knows the sapphire is immobile, he'd know the second one was a feint. It would only work if he didn't know where the sapphire was in the first place.

[Ganurath]

Parson's Siege of Azure City:

1. Titanium Elemental Bombardment: If you can summon five, why not use scrolls and more spell slots to summon more? By having the catapults target the enemy catapults and similiar equipment, you ensure a conventional bombardment of boulders can be inflicted without reprisal even if the elementals fail to take out the defenders in their own right.

2. Tunnel Warfare: As the bombardment continues, the hobgoblins will be tunneling from their rear ranks to gradually work their way into the city. This provides a constant if not steady stream of ammunition for the catapults, while also providing a means by which to enter the city unnoticed.

3. Urban Infiltration: Once the tunnel is completed, begin transfering troops from the rear ranks through the tunnels into the city, neutralizing tactical threats and securing buildings a block at a time. Provide the troops with rope to properly contain civilians (they'll be used later) and the civilian area is now secure save for the few blocks within eyeshot and/or earshot of the castle.

4. Dash Them On The Wall: Cease the bombardment once a runner returns through the tunnels stating the position has been secured. Have the forces remaining outside the wall charge the inevitable breach (the one nearest the inner gate if there are multiples) while the catapults launch a final volley at the castle's towers, with the elementals again this time. Spellcasters will lead the charge with summon spells prepared, calling forth fiendish regiments on the enemy rear and flanks whenever they're sighted and using a brutal summon (elemental again, perhaps) to break down the doors. Sheer force of numbers will allow them to press into the throne room, where the infantry will preoccupy the living paladins while the clerics desecrate and unhallow to give the undead a constant boost against the turnings of paladins. When the ghost-martyrs rise, they are far more vulnerable to the negative turnings.

Redcloak's Siege of Gobwin Knob:
1. Bust Down the Gates and Kill Everything That Moves

[PlasticSoldier]

Redcloak would never attack his people and if he did the dark One would fire his butt.