Tactical
In RPGs, paper & pencil wasn't all about magic item accumulation, level and hit points. Some of us had casual interest in history and military doctrine. A long while ago a friend of mine gave me a soviet war doctrine manual; it was a military perspective on soviet logistics, strategies and tactics. The most interesting outcome in reading the manual was that it enlightened me on the US war perspective.
My familiarity with firearms allowed me to draw an understanding of the posture and expectations of both soviet and US doctrine. We're best served in knowing the operational differences in sidearms and rifles. From caliber to action to fit and finish we can begin to understand the support platforms: why this pistol, why this rifle.
My overall assessment was that the US was built for the initiative and the soviets were built to react. Soviet doctrine was best served by a pattern of durability, survivability and firepower. The US was patterned much like blitzkrieg with focus on communication, accuracy and speed.
AS APPLIED TO UTOPIA
Many kingdoms focus on the offensive potential of enemies and less about the defensive potential. One aspect drawn from US doctrine was the flanking sweep in that units would sweep an arc from edge to edge with the intent of narrowing the enemy into pockets that could then be subject to pincer maneuvers. In Utopia we might interpret this as engaging the highest offenses and highest defenses simultaneously rather than pounding down every big offense first.
This philosophy was apparent in Freeakstyle though they may not have even known it had military lineage.
The Utopian world has wpa, tpa, offensive and defensive troops. Thus, at this point you might see why we've spent time illustrating the triangle principal. We can start looking at the post regarding the 5:20 kingdom breakdown and regard the sweep in the divisional array. This doesn't mean we don't incorporate aspect of soviet doctrine; we need only look at Freeakstyles winning ways to see both adaptations.
It's my opinion much of the Utopian culture has stagnated in mechanical traditions rather than actually finding apex utility of a given tactic.
Nightmare waves are one of those bizarre dictums in Utopia. Many a player will state as fact that NM is a wave spell. I can tell you from personal experience both in using NM and getting hit with NM that this is one of the most misguided myths in game. NM is woefully limited by the masses because they aren't looking at what the spell does.
In the last war we were in I finally saw it: the opposing side had activity limits, but one of their t/ms struck me with NM anyway. And you know what happened? A few others jumped in at various hours through the night and eventually enough attackers were online and I found myself completely wrecked well below 200 acres.
I've used NM as a self utility spell for a while, though I've not run a t/m for some time. You might want to open your mind to what we've been talking about: that's a lot. Ok, let's talk about NM and the possibilities.
What if you're a dark elf heretic rover or camper? What if you cast NM on a perspective attacker ready to march in the chain wave? We don't always have to use NM as prelude to a trad march. We can reduce an enemies offense to reduce taps or prevent them from hitting our big defensive provinces.
Well..work is about to begin, so I'll see you later.
Another experiment I'm working on is the Amnesia-Nightmare Recoilless Howitzer. Things like ETs work vs rogues, but when there's a crack in coverage the rogue effect is full blast. My intent for this combo is to mute effects and soften enemy punches.
Originally Posted by Bishop
Reply With Quote