[OOC] The Ballroom

[Scimmy]

I already had a pretty good idea of divisions and general skills, then it was just a matter of matching classes and templates with divisions of the army. Some of it is still in flux and all is subject to change until I do stats.

[Kshnik]

My military is complete. All my non-casters are rangers (trapper) with hippogriff companions as mounts which allows my army to fight from air, ground and with the trapper archetype underground. Grippli are small while hippogriffs are large creatures, with decent strength, so I believe hippogriffs should be able to support a 2nd rider?

[aikiwarrior]

My army is almost complete. Just need to buy mundane equipment and get approval on a couple of things and I'm set.

[Scimmy]

Gonna try and get my army done this weekend but we shall see. When do we need to have it all done and ready by?

[darthcharon]

The map is proving more difficult to construct than I expected. I hope to have it up by tomorrow night, but even if I can't, I'll at least get a game thread posted so you guys can start RPing and the like. The game will open up with the siege, and act as sort of a tutorial so we can all get used to the massed infantry mechanics. I figure if I get the thread up tomorrow, assuming a week of RP and strategizing with the others, we should be combat ready by next weekend.

I do have one question for you all, however. My original intention was to have about 10 nations total, half of which would be NPCed by me. Since I ended up with 8 players I don't know if it's worth having 2 NPC nations. Would you guys rather have the collation led entirely by players, or would you rather have the NPCs afterall? (Other than Alvari, which is still obviously still NPCed). If you guys would rather it be all players, I'll reduce the numbers of the invaders a smidge to account for the reduced manpower, so its not a question of difficulty but a question of whether or not you want more than 9 nations walking around. For comparison, the world map is going to be roughly half the size of europe as far as scope goes.

@Scimmy: I would prefer a block for each type of troop, but if two troop choices are almost identical save a few minor differences, you can combine the two and simply have a note at the bottom describing the differences between each.

@Kshnik: even horses can support two medium sized creatures with only moderate difficulty. Since the average grippli weighs about 40lbs, I think it's safe to say a hippogriff could easily support 2 riders.

[Scimmy]

So if I have a group that is all rogues of various levels and uses all the same feats, you want a different block for each level?

[Kshnik]

Darthcharon,
If you want to NPC an extra nation or two I am ok with it.

[aikiwarrior]

Same, the more the merrier.

[Ytnim]

Whatever's easier for you as far as the extra nations go.

[Oghain]

If you don't want to manage an NPC nation, a friend of mine asked me if I could put their name in the mix for another player controlled nation; if you wanted to have a slightly bigger pot of nations to work with.

[Oghain]

Hey folks... So, this week and Saturday have been rather busy and tomorrow morning I'm heading down the coast... Which means that there isn't any way I can have my army and/or leader stats and gear done by 'the weekend'. I'm going to be down the coast for a week, with an internet connection, so I can keep getting stuff done while I am away - but if it's going to be a hassle for me not having that stuff done by the end of the weekend please let me know and I'll move on.

[Sassafrass]

I'm indifferent to the other nations, be they NPCed or if we have other players brought in.

Sorry about not getting much done in the way of my nation or my general, I'll see if I can get that done today, probably by tonight at least.

[GunMetalDrac]

Yeah I've been a little slow to act as well. Last two days have been rather busy at work and after work(Dark Night Marathon on thursday, crashing from 3 hours of sleep on friday). I won't have much time today to do "stuff" but I should be able to wrap up a lot of things on Sunday.

[darthcharon]

If I was going to take on more PCs, I'd recruit them from those who applied, but I didn't want the game to get too bogged down with players, otherwise we end up all sitting and waiting. Also, part of the reason for having the NPCs was to fill weaknesses in the apps. If, for example, I had recruited primarily low magic apps (which I still sort of did), I would have had magical NPC nations so that at least one nation had good magic. It looks like most everyone wants them, so I'll include them.

Oh, one last thing: we need to vote on a collation leader. I could make it one of the NPC nations if you like, but I'd rather not. As much as I'd love to lead you all by the nose, I think you'd rather lead yourself.

The leader won't have any advantages, other than that he has the final say on what the other nations military might does. He has the ability to launch campaigns, either offensively or defensively, and each nation must give at least a good sized chunk of their army to aid that campaign. If they don't they have effectively ceded from the collation and are now on their own, unless the leader allowed them to. This is important, because the enemy is going to be attacking everywhere, and I can guarantee everyone is going to want to protect their own borders first, but you can't win a war with your forces evenly distributed across the border.

[Scimmy]

They leader of a military campaign and as such you need a decent size so you are showing you will commit and a well trained army. Based on this I have narrowed our logical choices down as follows:

Peroldi
Driylow
The Forsaken
Jovia