The War of the Hearth Right

[Ender]

I am curious how much the typical war in Battlemaster actually costs. I feel like the way money works in this game, most people only care whether they have enough gold to do x or y with enough leftover to continue doing x or y without any concern for the future. Mostly because in most realms gold is not really an issue (at least not in any I play.)

When I say Edmund thinks of the cost of gold and men, I'm thinking pure roleplay terms. In reality, I imagine most lords would be tracking the cost of gold and men and trying to determine if the cost was worth the effort of the campaign.

[Vellos]

The 'battle' in Haul, such as it was (more a skirmish than a battle, there was only a fraction of our forces involved), was won by the attackers.  I'm not really going to comment much on the impact yet.

Impact will be determined by:
1. How quickly walls can get repaired
2. How quickly militia can get set
3. How long until the next attack

Items #1 and #2 will be a function of how much gold people give to Oradrikkon.

[Vellos]

Also, I'm gonna point out that about 3,000 CS of Zonasan defenders, in 3 successive battles, managed to eliminate well over 4500 CS of enemy troops. Sure, we lost that last battle; but our little cobbled-together defense team actually did remarkably well for what we had on hand.

[BardicNerd]

Go back where? Home? Those who needed to pay their men were told to go home, the rest of us stayed to do some damage in Haul. Will a few people misjudge the timing and lose their units? Possibly. But the gold for replacement units is not really a huge issue for us.

I may also have mistaken assumptions about how long it will take you to get back.  I figure that with winter it's probably a week long journey, maybe more (I know that it's 30+ hours just to leave Haul), so . . . given that, I figured you guys thought it was easier to just have your units desert and replace them than bother trying to get back in time to pay and then have to repair and everything on top of it.

[Bedwyr]

I may also have mistaken assumptions about how long it will take you to get back.  I figure that with winter it's probably a week long journey, maybe more (I know that it's 30+ hours just to leave Haul), so . . . given that, I figured you guys thought it was easier to just have your units desert and replace them than bother trying to get back in time to pay and then have to repair and everything on top of it.

Deserting causes other issues.  Leaving aside the RP, they can steal your money, and you can lose H/P, leaves you undefended on the way back, etc.

As for paying them off...Still leaves the issues of being undefended on the way back, the RP aspects, the captains, etc.  Leaving units as militia in border regions is something that used to work a lot better under the old realm-based tax system.  These days you have to have a good gold redistribution set up to make that work.

[BardicNerd]

Well, interesting to see how many of your troops do desert.  Looks like our tactic of starving you all hasn't produced as much results as we would have liked, though it seems to have hurt a bit.

The attack itself certainly had far less impact than it could have, as you stayed in Haul, which is in all honesty, not the most important region . . . we'd like to keep it somewhat defended for strategic reasons, but you probably would have done far more damage to Zonasa by either going to loot Razrpot or continuing to Pamplarmi, possibly seizing food there, and maybe continuing into our heartland.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Well, interesting to see how many of your troops do desert.  Looks like our tactic of starving you all hasn't produced as much results as we would have liked, though it seems to have hurt a bit.

The attack itself certainly had far less impact than it could have, as you stayed in Haul, which is in all honesty, not the most important region . . . we'd like to keep it somewhat defended for strategic reasons, but you probably would have done far more damage to Zonasa by either going to loot Razrpot or continuing to Pamplarmi, possibly seizing food there, and maybe continuing into our heartland.

You have no idea how aggravated Henzo Kuriga is at that... it was the very strategy I suggested, and wanted to use with my otherwise rather small force. But some people thought he was going on for religious reasons...  v-v

[Velax]

Haul was Arcaea's route to get home, not a path to loot Zonasan rurals. We couldn't use Leod as the Kindarans in Azros would catch us, so I chose a route that would surprise you. I asked for Cathayan help in breaking through Haul, which Galiard gave. Sorraine being there was a bonus. I hadn't originally planned to stay and loot it, but there was little Zonasan opposition, so we took advantage.

Gustav, Sorraine didn't have the forces to raid Zonasan regions. You had, what, 5000 CS? You would have taken significant casualties in Haul if you had been on your own, and then you'd have been able to loot a Zonasan rural for a few turns before Zonasa chased you out with their 13,000 CS.

[Gustav Kuriga]

Yes, but then they would have to turn their backs on the Cathayan army if they wanted to focus on us alone.

[BardicNerd]

Well . . . Sorraine would probably have had a little longer, actually, because we'd already gotten our army halfway into Haul and it took us several turns getting back to Palnasos before we could even move anywhere else . . . a good chance to loot Razrpot or Azarons, or run around in rurals and burn any food in them.

Overall, not we're not exactly happy with how things went, but know that much more damage could have been done.

[Gustav Kuriga]

I just !@#$ed the entire Sorrainian army... oops.

[Alpha]

I just !@#$ed the entire Sorrainian army... oops.

What is bad luck but another man's good fortune?

[Velax]

Given Haul eventually went rogue after our looting, I maintain that we made the correct decision.

[BardicNerd]

Possibly.  I'm not sure the looting directly caused Haul to go rogue, though, I think it was mostly the starvation (which seemed to have surprisingly little effect upon the troops there).

Sending Razrpot or Azarons rogue would have been far worse for us that sending Haul rogue, so while damage was done, I still think far less damage than could have been done was done.

[Gustav Kuriga]

So... how is everyone enjoying the war? Any comments on my generalship, good or bad?