My Life As A Gamer: The New Model Colony Defeats An Invading Army

(Yes, I know it's Halloween. Look for a bonus post later today about that.)

When we left off with the Colony, it saw the Colony strike an accord with the Treant while smashing two hostile incursions and getting the first wave of colonists.

They're going to need that help.

This is what we have on offer this month:

• 11 Ogres
• 180 Brigands
• 12 Ogres
• 130 Orcs

These come a week apart, and thanks to the Treants the Colony gets advanced warning of each them.

This could have been disastrous. Due to all of them being Evil NPCs, and the Brigands having a high-level Magic-User as well as a high-level Fighter in the lead, the Game Master ruled that this was an invading army arriving piecemeal to attack the Colony.

That did not happen.

The Architect completed his time among the Treants learning their deep lore (i.e. training to become a Bard) just in time to take this up personally. He called the Berserkers to his side and followed the Treants' lead to the first Ogre band.

This was a straight-up ambush. 40 Berserkers and their leaders, plus the Architect (F7/T8/B1), overwhelmed the Ogres in two segments of Surprise. The leader was put down, but not out, and interrogated; this is how the Colony learned of the others. The Architect left the Ogre leader to his Allies while he headed back to the keep.

The Fighter was fortunate to have the Dervish and his men on hand to augment his own, and with the Cleric and the Magic-User they rode out to meet the Brigands. The Architect road ahead to meet up with the Berserkers, convincing them to again follow him.

This was a mass battle, where the Fighter and the Dervish leader lead from the front against the Brigand leader and his bodyguard. The Cleric and his men worked to counter his evil counterparts, while the Magic-User struggled to do the same.

This is when the Architect made his move and lead the Berserkers to charge in from behind, directly attacking the enemy Magic-User after first hitting him and the bodyguard he kept in an Entangle spell. That made cutting them all down very easy.

The battle ended shortly after this one-two punch landed.

The second Ogre band got wiped out in another ambush, and the Orcs got to experience the Teutonberg Forest treatment.

This was a near-textbook example of Defeat In Detail put into practice.

The Colony leadership, realizing that this only was possible due to their Treant allies, made certain to thank them. Losses among them were light, save for the Berserkers who got to suffer hard losses (but, being immune to Morale checks, never broke).

Now How This Translates To Gameplay

Unfavorable encounters are now reduced to one per month due to the Treants' looking out for such things and passing word to the Colony in return for the Colony seeing to the health of the forest. So long as this persists, this reduced hostile encounter rate remains in place.

The Treants are also willing to cooperate with travel through the forest so long as the forms of the accord are honored, meaning that they will make clear paths that act for all intents and purposes as Roads. Same conditions apply to keep this open.

The defeated/killed enemies' treasures are added to the Colony's coffers after being cleansed and checked for enchantment; the Magic-User gets a spellbook to decipher. The Architect's XP total is short of him leveling again, but being without a formal tutor he'll have to self-train at the usual slower rate anyway when he does.

Developments

The Dervish leader, having seen the Fighter in battle and not impressed, is now looking to take up his men and go elsewhere- he's looking to trace the invaders' route into this area. The Architect convinces him to stay a while longer, and instead use his men on a long-range pathfinding expedition to map the Colony's natural borders before taking his leave. (This means that this NPC and his followers will leave the Colony and become an independent, albeit allied, faction.)

The Merchants concur, as having the Dervish and his men around greatly increases their business (and thus revenue), while the Thief (who was not available this month) seconds his network of scouts (Thieves) to assist in the pathfinding.