Bandits and Mercenaries

[Nigel]

Quote[/b] (octavian @ June 26 2004,20:34)]ok, nigel, bit of an interesting situation here, just fought with guy, he ended up winning (just too many for me to kill) however A) his peasants were reduced to 13 men B) they routed and were still routing at the end of the battle. i saved a replay, and of course i have a logfile. so do i get money? does he? do we both get some?

Hi Octavian and Guy,

Interesting situation indeed.
One thing I can say for sure is that both of you will get some money. Guy will get at least the 600 Florins fee for taking on the fight and Octavian will get the value of all the peasants he killed or captured before his men routed (1305 Florins).

As for judging wether or not the last 13 peasants would have made it in the aftermath or wether they too would have been lost, I would love to see the replay.

Could you e-mail it to me ? From then I will decide if Guy gets his 250 Fl bonus (or part of it) or if Octavian gets another 13 crates of wine (195 Fl).

[Nigel]

I just realized a mistake I made regarding faction selection.
In an earlier post (on page 2) I had listed the permissible factions, that the players could use :

Quote[/b] ]For now, the factions you can choose are : Danish, English French, German, Itaian, Polish, Spanish, Aragonese, Byzantine and Swiss.

I had deliberately left out the Hungarians as they, like the oriental factions, possess very good cavalry archers, which would make them overly powerful in a B&M type battle. Then, when Octavian joined and choose the Hungarians for his faction, I completely forgot about that and let it pass through. In fact, Octavian has been doing very well with his Szekely horse archers and even in the last battle, where he got routed, has managed to earn more money than his opponent (those last 13 peasants won't really make much difference).

Well, I guess I will have to sort this out now.
I do not really want to go and tell Octavian so choose a completely new army (unless, Octavian, you tell me that you wouldn't mind). But some balancing will be necessary, or horse archers (HA) will be totally dominating the field. So I would like to let Octavian keep his Hungarians as an exception, but limiting him to 4 HA (like everyone else) with max 2 of them being Szekely. That means that at the beginning of next month, he will have to return 2 of his Szekely units, for which he will get full reimbursement.

Hope that should balance things out. If anyone has any other ideas, please let me know.
Sorry about that, I should have spotted it earlier.
Nigel



edit : typos

[Nigel]

Meanwhile, to get us ready for next month's action, here are some more missions.

Sign up if you are currently free of missions. And if any of these missions are still open next week, they will be available for secondary sign-ups, too.



-------------------------------------------------------------- Mission #10 --------------------------------------------------------------

Finally my ship, the Cecilia, has returned from her long journey from the East. I have made a good profit from selling the treasures she brought on the local market. But one of the things I cannot make head or tail of. Some small, black seed-like things, but very round and of stinging smell. They called them pappa or peppa or something. To be used with food, but when I tried only a small spoonfull of it, the taste was ..... well, I'm not doing that again.

Rather useless stuff if you ask me. The locals will pay only 8 Florins per bag. And I have 100 bags of it. Well, I will try and sell them in Paris. The gastronomies there have a very experimental cuisine and may find a use for it. Any mercenary who wants to accompany them will get 800 Florins. And yes, ok, 400 if I manage to sell them for a profit. Although I wonder if there will be anything to be brought back from Paris this time.

I don't know what bandits would want to do with these seeds from hell, but one of them may still waylay my shipment, so be careful.

Signed up as Mercenary : Axeknight
Signed up as Bandit : Steeleye

Mission completed

There is a very nice write-up.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------

Map details :
1v1, hillyinland09.
Summer, Western European, 60 min, Mercenaries = defenders.


and thanks to Axeknight, whose tales in the Mead Hall have put that mission idea into my head.[

[Nigel]

-------------------------------------------------------------- Mission #11 --------------------------------------------------------------

There are 100 barels of beer, destined for Munich, the Bavarian capital. The beer is much in demand there and thus I am paying a good price of 800 Florins for any mercenary who wants to take care of safe delivery. I am also adding a delivery bonus of 400 Florins to make sure the mercenaries dont drink the beer themselves.

The bandits, of course are also very keen on the beer. And that is not only because of the value for which they can sell it (10 Florins per barrel). A bandit captain can also use the beer to keep his men happy and boost their morale before a battle. So the beer can be of particular value to the bandits and I am sure one of them will try to get his hands on it.

Signed up as Mercenary : no opponent found, misison closed
Signed up as Bandit # # # : Octavian


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------------------------------------------

Map details :
1v1, hillyinland05.
Summer, Western European, 60 min, Mercenaries = defenders.

If the bandit gets hold of the beer he can decide what he wants to do with it.
He can sell barrels at 10 Florins each, or he can keep some of them for his own men.
Giving 10 barrels to 1 unit will temporarily boost valor by 1 for the next battle.

[Axeknight]

Quote[/b] (Nigel @ June 27 2004,18:05)]and thanks to Axeknight, whose tales in the Mead Hall have put that mission idea into my head.

Thank you, Nigel

Oh dear. I tried playing mission #8 as a custom battle, to get a feel for Shaka's army, the terrian etc. The AI slaughtered me (I think, since I got MTW in March, that's happened less than ten times ). Shaka's going to walk all over me, with my naff v0 clansmen. I just hope I'll be able to get the peasants away before he kills all my men .

[KyodaiSteeleye]

Well i was talking to this sailor who'd come to port, and he told me about this mysterious cargo of spice that had come from who-knows where. He told me that he had heard that it had miraculous healing properties and would bring life back to those with the chill of death over them.

Well, i may just have to see about this. I have sent my informants out to tell me when it will be passing through, so that i can arrange to confiscate it.

I've also heard about a load of beer coming this way, but i don't trust my dogs not to drink it all and be good for nothing for the next month, so i'll give that one a miss.

[Kenchi_Shaka]

axeknight and me met today in lobby and found out that neither one of us can host....
we r still in the lobby (sunday 9:30 gmt) and trying to convince someone to host for us.
mayb one of u guys got nothing better to do .... :P

regards
shaka

[Axeknight]

Gah Shaka and me need a host for our game. I only have 30 minutes to spare (plus game time), so please PM me in the gamespy foyer if you can help. If we don't get a host before 9PM GMT, we'll have to either reschedule, or split the fl between us.

[octavian]

GAH Octavian sayz he should have caught that mistake ne wayz, Octavian will rework his army with two Szekely, or, perhaps, change his faction he will let Nigel now b4 tonight hopefully whta his new army is

[octavian]

alright, for starters, i will simply make those V1 Mtd Sergeants be my Gen, and replace the other two szekely with Mtd Sergeants V2. once i know what my financial situation is, support costs, florins left etc. i will announce a few new purchases/ upgrades

[octavian]

btw, nigel, it looks from the logfile (should be en route to you now) that i utterly destroyed one of his Mtd Sergeants

[Axeknight]

Sadly, we couldn't play tonight. If anyone is free saturday evening (GMT), who could host, please help. Thanks

[Xiahou Liao]

Bleh, is Amatsu even alive? His last post on here is dated the 11th...like...two weeks ago

[Nigel]

Quote[/b] (Axeknight @ June 27 2004,15:19)]Sadly, we couldn't play tonight. If anyone is free saturday evening (GMT), who could host, please help. Thanks

Ohhh, that's a shame, Axeknight
Looks I turned up just too late to help you out on this.

Well, it is no ones fault and for sure you both tried well to get this mission completed.
We'll have to see what we can do about this.....




Octavian, sorry about not spotting this earlier. I don't blame you for not reading it yourself on page 2. In any case, I'll work out your new army support cost and treasury shortly.

Guy also sent me the replay and logfile now. From the replay I see that his peasants were pretty much in the middle of the map when routing. Lots of space to go before reaching the end, and most likely could have been rallied.

So I say, well done Guy, you brought my wine to the marked. Well, 13 out of 100 crates anyway . I guess I am only just breaking even on that shipment. Still I am glad something go through in a long time and I give you your well deserved bonus. And you will need it, too. For in the log-file I see that you actually lost two units of Mounted Seargeants.

Well, no one ever said it was easy beeing a mercenary.



Xiahou Liao, I wouldn't worry about Amatsu just yet. He has been quite active in the past and I am sure he will be there soon to give you a battle. If it takes too long, there will be other missions coming up for you.

[Nigel]

Ok, Octavian, here is what your re-adjusted army looks like now :

1 Mounted Sergeant V1
2 Mtd Sergeants V2
2 Szekely V1
3 Militia Sergeants V1
2 Pav Xbows V0
2 FMAA V0

Florins in Treasury = 1727
Support cost = 563

See what upgrades you want to buy from here

[Axeknight]

Thanks Nigel

[octavian]

hey nigel, i was just reading this, and was wondering what exactly it meant

Quote[/b] ]The bandit will win if
he defeats the mercenary (obviously)
or he kills, captures or routs the peasants

does that mean simply routing them, or routing them off the map?

[octavian]

ok, i will buy, 2 FMAA V1, i will also upgrade one of my Szekely to V2. that should leave me with enough for my next payday. i also hope to complete my battle with Chimpyang soon, so look forward to that

also, once i get my fort i would start getting more quality units, however, i wont have much room left in my army, so would i be able to "sell" some of my units and get back some (not all) of my money? or would i just have to let them go (makes sense to me) and cut my losses. the reason i am asking this is because i dont want to get all sixteen units if i will just end up having to get rid of some of them entirely

[Nigel]

Yes, Octavain, you will just have to release your surplus men from service when the time comes. But hopefully by then these men will have earned you their salary twice over. You can even give them a golden handshake if you want

But yes, it may be a good idea to recruit less than 16 unit now, so there is some space left in your army


oh, and here is your new army, with upgrades and new recruits :

1 Mounted Sergeant V1
2 Mtd Sergeants V2
1 Szekely V2
1 Szekely V1
3 Militia Sergeants V1
2 Pav Xbows V0
2 FMAA V1
2 FMAA V0

Florins in Treasury = 915
Support cost = 681


Good luck storming that castle.

[Nigel]

Xiahou Liao, I have just recieved word from Amatsu.
His computer crashed and had to be wiped clean

He has not been able to install MTW yet, and he has also lost his password for this forum. With that and exams coming up, he will be a while before he comes back to the game and is stepping down from all missions for now (but has told me that he does want to remain in the game).

So mission #9 is now up for a new signup. Or alternatively, Xiahou, if you want to, you can sign up for another mission.

[Nigel]

And now I have finally managed to complete the new version of the manual.
Go check it out. The main new points are :

1. Several typos corrected (I'm sure lots are still in there).

2. Change of one-mission-atime rule to allow multiple sign-ups.

3. How to deal with routing peasants at the end of battle.

4. A possibility for players to change sides between mercs and bandits.
I'd be interested what you think of that. Good or bad idea ?

5. The Dungeon : a threat looming over players who run out of money.
Last chance or Game Over ?

6. A supplement with useful links to build the story.

[Nigel]

Now what can we do with the battle of Axeknight and Shaka?
Well, I give credit to the fact that both of them really tried hard to complete their mission in time.
So here we go :


".... the English mercenaries swore silently. The fog was thick and they could barely see where their feet were treading, let alone find the way through the forest. "Damn this weather" Ross said to his friend, Style, "the old farmer told us this could easily last until Saturday. And we were gonna meet up with Chimpyang's men to celebrate Pay-Day on Wednesday. Little chance we'll be home before the end of the week now, I guess."

But someone was even more annoyed about the fog than Duke Fitzjohn's men. Shaka's bandit gang had been restless for days. Talk of mutiny was already making the rounds and Shaka had only managed to keep them in line with promises of rich loot and plunder. Now his prey was close by, almost in front of their noses, but still impossible to find in the fog. Shaka knew he could only keep his men at bay for another week. If he still could not pay them by then, they would be upon him like hungry wolves. "...tear off his clothes and give 'im a good beating" some were saying, "...deliver him to the magistrate, so we gets us some money at least...". Shaka knew he would have to pull this one off right, and soon as well, or the dungeon would be his new home for some time to come. "

[Axeknight]

Quote[/b] (Nigel @ June 28 2004,23:02)]Ross said to his friend, Style,

He he, nice cameo for my favourite spearman duo - Thanks Nigel

[Nigel]

Quote[/b] (Axeknight @ June 29 2004,10:27)]

Quote[/b] (Nigel @ June 28 2004,23:02)]Ross said to his friend, Style,

He he, nice cameo for my favourite spearman duo - Thanks Nigel

Yes, Axeknight, I just had to put that in

If anyone is wondering what this is about, Axeknight is also one of the story tellers in the Mead hall. Here is his story of Duke Fitzjohn, Ross and Style.

[Kenchi_Shaka]

hm.. i still gotta find a host for that game...
but need to know wot time we gonna play axeknight.
i should be flexibile, so jus suggest a time.

cya soon

[octavian]

Hey Nigel, just something i want to ask u. i know i have enough cash to upgrade my other Szekely to V2, but somewhere in the manual u say for each valour point, the cost goes up 20% if that is the case, would i have the money to upgrade? if i have the money to make the upgrade and still pay my boys, that would be great, and u can do that immediately. otherwise, just leave things the way it is

also, i dont thin there is the option to dismount units in MP, so it looks like i will have to take mounted units into the castle battle oh well, ill do my best.

one last thing, do i get money for destroyingv the buildings with my catapults? or only if i take them out with my men?

[Nigel]

Hi Octavian,

upgrading your other Szekely will move your Support costs to 691. After the upgrade, you should still have 697 in the treasury. If that's what you want, consider it done (I'll update the page 1 info later ).


As for dismounting units, well, that is a shame. I would have loved this to work in our game, but I guess it means that you need to get a 40 men strong Feudal Seargeant unit somehow.

If anyone can find a good way around this, ideas are wellcome.


Meanwhile, I guess, you will just have to go mounted




Oh, and as for destroying buildings....
To get money for this mission, you merely have to take control of a castle section to get the money for it. I.e. no more enemies in that section. No need to destroy the buildings (but of course you can destroy them if you want to )

[octavian]

right then

this week is crazy busy, however, i hope by friday i can be online, and hopefully play Ang his battle.

also, sign me up for mission 11

[Nigel]

ohh and can anyone help out Shaka and Axeknight with hosting on Saturday ?

I would do it myself, only I am away Friday and Saturday, coming back Sunday late.

All the host needs to do is set up the game and retreat his troops. Then he can jut watch it (or go and watch telly instead ).

[Xiahou Liao]

I should be able to...unless some DRAMATIC happens or I get hired or something for the multiple applications I've put in...yeah Sure...for a price. MWUAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAH


...I'm joking about the price thing...