They're at the gates!

[Sk8ter274]

Party Comp
Lvl 3 Satyr Hexblade Warlock
Lvl 3 Human Circle of Fire Druid
Lvl 3 Half-orc Zealot Barbarian
Lvl 3 Tiefling Samuria Fighter
Lvl 3 Harengon Witch (Kobold Press Class from Deep Magic Vol. 2)


I won't go too far in the minutia, but TLDR I'm running an Isekai campaign. So far they've doing normal standard game stuff. Buying land, establishing a home, making contact with factions. etc. They're about to hit level 3 and I've been hinting that the city they are currently at is about to be attacked because after returning from quests, which they believe are being manipulated by a faction in order to spread the city's forces thin, the city has slowly becoming more and more fortified with more siege defenses and several mercenary companies camping in or around the city. In short, I want them to hit lvl 3, give them a shopping session as the quest they're completing allows them to access the magical district of the city, then an in game day of rest before the enemy army arrives.

I'm currently at a loss at how to proceed. Story wise I want to play it out as holding out for reinforcements to arrive from the "nearby" forts similar to the Battle for Helm's Deep in LOTR, but the city is designed like Minas Tirith built into a mountain with seven levels. Obviously the enemy is going to have the numbers advantage, but the city is going to have the tech advantage since an isekai'd Artificer established the city. The enemy will have muskets at the absolute most advanced, trebuchets and catapults, and the occasional ballistae. The city will have renaissance era style cannons that can tilt back for more range ( ala the USS Texas maneuver https://youtu.be/3oJSRAFkJIs?si=CzcxsuoxALdLXFWX&t=162). The city will have also established a colossal minefield before the enemy even gets in range of the cannons along spiked pit traps and other various obstacles that'll make it impossible for cavalry. The issue the city will have is the obvious lack of ammunition because they were caught off guard and the fact blackpowder is time and resource consuming to produce and the city will had prioritized feeding its people. So the enemy will suffer heavy losses at first, but the long the fight draws out the better for the city since it buys time for reinforcements to arrive. The enemy will know this which is why they won't opt for a blockade to starve the city which is impossible since the city secretly has access to the sea via a hidden dock inside the mountain (established by the previous owners of the city).

I thought to maybe have them do several things around the city as it's being sieged to "slow down" the assault, but I'm at a loss how to go about doing that. Do I have to establish the exact numbers of the enemy and city and figure then figure out via dice rolls how many they lose? How do I convey the desperation of the situation? Do I employ a time limit of sorts and how? Like the reinforcement will arrive in X amount of days at best, but the enemy will overrun the city in half that time so go do X and Y to extend the time by a day? Perhaps infiltrate the enemy camp to poison their food or free prisoner or assassinate commanding officers or steal plans, etc?

Need suggestions and advice

It also goes without saying that they will likely not beover in a single session, but I don't want it too go to long.

[Arkhios]

What are the reasons behind this invasion? To be painfully honest, I don't know what isekai means in this context, other than apparently "another world" in Japanese.

I guess I'm just trying to approach the invading army's tactical decisions from that perspective, if you're wondering why I'd ask the question.

As for defending city streets with low ammunition, and manpower, I'd say the best option is to use "turtle maneuvers", be very defensive, avoiding offensive, and attempt to confine and "dose" groups of enemies into tight spaces, then surround from at least three sides (never turn your back to the enemy!) and barrage those tight spaces with arrows and cannons, wearing the enemy down slowly but surely. Thinking about the scene of battle in Minas Tirith, the circular shape and tight corridors should work into your advantage in this. Assuming the invading army doesn't just want to obliterate the city and instead prefers to conquer the city for themselves, they probably won't try to destroy every building or walls on their way, mostly gates and such so that they can advance into the city.

To be honest, if they merely wanted to obliterate the city, they wouldn't advance into the city at all. It just wouldn't make sense.

[Sk8ter274]

Yes, Isekai does mean another world in Japanese. I was using it in the same way people refer to a certain genre of anime. In this case, when someone is transported from our world to another world (usually either by summoning or reincarnated after death often being run over by a truck). To be clear, the campaign I'm running is a completely homebrewed world where my players are playing versions of themselves that have been transformed physically into fantasy races and have gained abilities by training or circumstance.

As for the reason of the invasion? Short version, there has been rampant famine and plague (basically covid due to other people from our world being transported and bringing the virus with them) in the past 3 decades and city has thrived with plenty of food and medicine full of exiled Tieflings. The enemy wants to take over the city due to its mysterious abundance of resources (food, timber, minerals, etc) and gain control of it as well as to , for the Church at least, purge the empire of the Tieflings. The church scapegoated the Tieflings because people were changed over night (genes activating) and began being born naturally once magic was reactivated after a millennia. Similar to the Jewish Community during the black plague and other instances in history, the Tieflings were stripped of their rights and kicked out. The founder established the city in the desert in an old elven empire stronghold and found a wish scroll, turning the desert into a fertile area that was magically protected. For the past 10 years they've been supplying the rest of the country with food via the Thieves Guild.

So TLDR, the enemy is desperate after decades of famine and nearly bankrupting themselves to feed themselves and the church is there to maintain appearances and maintain power they've spent centuries building

Yes, the enemy doesn't want to obliterate the city. At least not for a while or until they think they've gotten everything they want/can. Tactically, they can't afford to waist time as they need to control the city before reinforcements arrive. Truth be told, the political mastermind behind the invasions isn't a field commander of men. He sees that his forces outnumber the cities a whopping 20 to 1 and that's plenty. A large majority of the forces are volunteer peasants that follow the church and rest are mix mercenaries and conscripted peasants (so who cares if they die because less he has to pay) with a few hundred knights. It's the classic he was given the position more for his social standing and "service of putting down a group of unruly peasants" rather than commanding men in battle like the founder of city has (whose actually famous for it as well using unorthodox methods like having kobolds dig tunnels underneath a stronghold so its walls collapsed on top of it or diverting a river to force a city's population to turn on the rulers)

[Maat Mons]

The city will have renaissance era style cannons that can tilt back for more range.

I believe the term is "howitzer." It's possible my renaissance-era vocabulary isn't completely accurate, but I'd call something a "cannon" if it's built only for relatively flat firing trajectories, a "mortar" if it's built only for high, arcing trajectories, or a "howitzer" if it's built for both.

[Sk8ter274]

I was under the assumption that howitzer was for the early era machine guns during the industrial era. The ones in The Last Samurai come to mind. I was trying to make it clear so people would understand. Not mention I'm not a professional historian.

Regardless, thanks for the input and if you have any ideas, I'd like to hear them

[Maat Mons]

Assuming this fortress is competently built and defended, the only feasible way to assault it would be by sap and parallel. If the enemies just charge in they’ll be cut to ribbons by the cannons. If the enemies execute a sap and parallel competently, reinforcements showing up will have to lay counter-siege to the enemy trenches. So either the assault will have been successfully repelled before reinforcements arrive, or it won’t be immediately solved by the arrival of reinforcements.

If memory serves, the only machine guns in The Last Samurai were primitive Gatling guns.

[Sk8ter274]

You'll have to explain what you mean by sap and parallel. Chances are I might know what you mean just not by name. Maybe a link could help too. It definitely sounds cool.

As for the last samurai. I don't know how historically accurate it was. They were definitely machine/gatling guns but they called them howitzers. Maybe a translation error or an historically accurate mistranslation like the Spanish referring to katanas as sabres?

[Maat Mons]

Spoiler: Excerpt from Fortress, by Ian V. Hogg

Show

I apologize both for my lack of a scanner and for the likelihood that these images will now cause a slight delay each time this thread is loaded.

[brian 333]

Before the enemy shows up at the gates, there is the scout and skirmish phase. Days to weeks are spent figuring out how to actually conduct the attack and trying to draw defenders out of their defenses.

The next phase is isolation. Access to roads, supplies, and reinforcements is needed, and cutting them off can lead to a quick surrender without a fight, especially where a large civilian population is trapped.

The first step in laying a siege is not to go charging the gates, but to secure the attacking force from being attacked. This is the outermost ring usually located out of the enemy's range where the headquarters and supplies are kept.

Then you can start the actual siege.

[Sk8ter274]

Oh that actually makes a lot of sense. It would definitely help both story wise and games wise. After all, tactics are going to change as each side respond to the other.

[KingJames]

For determining casualties, I would personally roll 1d100 per mass engagement with a bonus or penalty depending on the actions the players have taken and whether the defenses are intact. Something like +-10 per notably helpful thing the players do would be good.