Covert Troop Movement

[trustno1@atcon.co]

>We know from history that it is possible to move troops quietly so as not
>to arouse enemy concerns, can this be done in the game?

Some examples ?

I think you'll be hard pressed to find any (or maybe not, I can be
asmistaken as the next gamer...). Personally, I feel news of an invading
army would travel a heck of a lot faster than the invading army.....
And hiding a thousands soldier army in a reasonably high province, wouldbe
an interesting task, indeed....
We are, of course, speaking of pre-motorized armies :)

-

[Zero]

We know from history that it is possible to move troops quietly so as not
to arouse enemy concerns, can this be done in the game?

Case in point: Suppose as the evil GM I am, I want to have agents of
Rhuobe Manslayer, now in control of the Sielwode, send units quietly into
Roesone/Aerenwe to take back the Erebanien from the Human Filth. Would it
be feasable or acceptable to send small units of elves at night across the
land to gather in the dark recesses of the woods, eventually posessing
enough soldiers to create a "unit"?

As presented, Rhuobe would have to declare war on every nation from the
Sielwode to the Erebanien, including Ghoere and Osoerde, becoming VERY
public.

Any thoughts?

Tim Nutting

zero@wiredweb.com

[Herald Williams]

>We know from history that it is possible to move troops quietly so as not
>to arouse enemy concerns, can this be done in the game?

*SNIP Rhoubhe invades the Erebannien*

>As presented, Rhuobe would have to declare war on every nation from the
>Sielwode to the Erebanien, including Ghoere and Osoerde, becoming VERY
>public.

Hi all, I'm new here and have run snippets of BR campaigns, having had to
deal with job changes in the midst of my wars and plots. :)

To address Tim's comments, I have this suggestion:

I don't think the basic rules address this. I would agree with you
that it should be *possible* for Rhuobhe to pull this off, though as more
and more elves gathered in the Erebannien, it would become more likely that
the regents in the area would become aware of what was going on.
You might want to abstract this process into a domain action
"Infiltrate" where for x GB and x RP up front (with perhaps extra GB/RP for
each intermediate foreign province that the unit has to cross) , a regent
can attempt to quietly move *one* unit of troops into another regent's
province without the other regent being aware of what is happening.
Success means the unit gets to the intended province, failure can either
mean that the unit fails its move and stays in its original province or that
it is destroyed, depending on how you want to interpret how the plot is
uncovered.

HTH

Herald Williams
sergil@global2000.net

[Robin Cantin]

>We know from history that it is possible to move troops quietly so as not
>to arouse enemy concerns, can this be done in the game?
>
>Case in point: Suppose as the evil GM I am, I want to have agents of
>Rhuobe Manslayer, now in control of the Sielwode, send units quietly into
>Roesone/Aerenwe (...)
>Any thoughts?
>Tim Nutting

My evil DM has Rhuobe Manslayer's troops pop up from the Shadow World about
anywhere, so that may be a possibility in your campaing too. All one really
needs is a handful of Hobbits (ok, Halflings), right?

I suppose it could be done by infiltrating small groups at a time, then
have them rendez-vous. Perhaps an espionnage action or two could do the
trick, perhaps with the province level as a -DM, as a densely-populated
province doesn't have that much place to hide in. The minute the troops
assemble into a unit, I think it should be declared to the ruler, though.

There's always a rick of some of the troops being discovered. Perhaps a
brigandage random event could be used to give a subtle hint to the player:
if he investigates the event himself, he could uncover the conspiracy
before it's too late.

Robin


Webmaster of the Direct Democracy Pages
http://www.oricom.ca/~rcantin/AIntro.html
Les Pages Democratie Directe
http://www.oricom.ca/~rcantin/Introduction.html

[Brian Stoner]

zero wrote:

> We know from history that it is possible to move troops quietly so as
> not
> to arouse enemy concerns, can this be done in the game?
>
> Case in point: Suppose as the evil GM I am, I want to have agents of
> Rhuobe Manslayer, now in control of the Sielwode, send units quietly
> into
> Roesone/Aerenwe to take back the Erebanien from the Human Filth.
> Would it
> be feasable or acceptable to send small units of elves at night across
> the
> land to gather in the dark recesses of the woods, eventually posessing
>
> enough soldiers to create a "unit"?
>
> As presented, Rhuobe would have to declare war on every nation from
> the
> Sielwode to the Erebanien, including Ghoere and Osoerde, becoming VERY
>
> public.
>
> Any thoughts?
>
> Tim Nutting
>

I might be inclined to allow Elves to do so. However it would cost more
than a normal troop movement. Perhapse twice or three times normal.
Additionally, it would take longer. Also, there would have to be a
place to hide the forces until they are ready to fight. The Erebannien
would work perfectly, although the Elves already there might dislike
their intentions (though they might except the Elves themselves). It
might even require expenditure of RPs. I would not let human forces do
this, however. They would find it much more difficult to maneuver in
this manner. "Commando raids" are much preferred. Dwarves might be
able to do it if there are undergound passages to use.

- -Brian

[Bresser, R.T.]

> Date: Fri, 27 Jun 1997 07:53:02 -0400
> To: birthright@MPGN.COM
> From: Herald Williams
> Subject: Re: [BIRTHRIGHT] - Covert Troop Movement
> Reply-to: birthright@MPGN.COM

> >We know from history that it is possible to move troops quietly so as not
> >to arouse enemy concerns, can this be done in the game?
>
> *SNIP Rhoubhe invades the Erebannien*
>
> >As presented, Rhuobe would have to declare war on every nation from the
> >Sielwode to the Erebanien, including Ghoere and Osoerde, becoming VERY
> >public.
>
> Hi all, I'm new here and have run snippets of BR campaigns, having had to
> deal with job changes in the midst of my wars and plots. :)
>
> To address Tim's comments, I have this suggestion:
>
> I don't think the basic rules address this. I would agree with you
> that it should be *possible* for Rhuobhe to pull this off, though as more
> and more elves gathered in the Erebannien, it would become more likely that
> the regents in the area would become aware of what was going on.
> You might want to abstract this process into a domain action
> "Infiltrate" where for x GB and x RP up front (with perhaps extra GB/RP for
> each intermediate foreign province that the unit has to cross) , a regent
> can attempt to quietly move *one* unit of troops into another regent's
> province without the other regent being aware of what is happening.
> Success means the unit gets to the intended province, failure can either
> mean that the unit fails its move and stays in its original province or that
> it is destroyed, depending on how you want to interpret how the plot is
> uncovered.

Why not just use an existing action: espionage? It probably takes
some brainstorming to change the action so that you can take covert
military actions, but that won't be as much work as making up a new
domain action. Or why don't you try a regular adventure action: have
the elves slip into the Erebanien in small groups and give them some
hints that something strange is going on. In our campaign (in
Coeranys), we got some reports of some mysterious dissapearances of
people in a secluded village in Deepshadow near Baruk-Azhik. We found
out that that most of the houses near the graveyard were empty and
after investigating the matter we found ourselves in an ancient
dwarven fortress infested with orog warriors. When we couldn't drive
them out during the adventure, they came out and tried to drive us
out in the domain action thereafter. It was a great plot for
roleplaying as well as for running domain turns. With some changes
you could do your elven invasion stuff like this.

Roald