General OOC

Okay here is what I've interpreted from the scene as to positioning:

Black Cross, 5 regulars with bows (1st regulars) and 10 militia with swords and shields and holstered bows. (1st militia)
Red Cross, Iskar, 4 knights and squire
Purple cross, Amhain, 2 knights, 5 regulars swords and shields. (2nd Regulars)

Its not to scale.

Spoiler:

Each soldier will have a roll for target, so i will give each soldier a letter.

1st regulars
A, B, C, D, E

2nd Regulars
V, W, X, Y, Z

1st Militia
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Rolls

Spoiler:

Militia are untrained peasant levies, who have no idea what is going on and none have an incentive to kill. So they are both flustered and confused, adding time, and not wanting to kill someone, adding time.

here is the sight i will use: http://www.wizards.com/dnd/dice/dice.htm

I will report what happens in table form:

Spoiler:

If you wish I have screen capture software and can film myself making the rolls.

Edit and Iskar I have factored in your action to the existing chances after the 1st volley. When a knight is hit assume a part of him shield not covering, and that they cant swivel around in the saddle so shielding is rather ineffective.

What's across the road opposite the stables? A meadow?

The rest looks fine. Will the sharp turn the knights are riding be factored into the first volley or only the second?

Having software to watch as you do the rolls is a level into the ridiculous.

You have my trust that you do this honestly, just like Iskar has when he makes rolls and like I hope I had.

Why do they need to be facing for a critical hit? An arrow to the back of the head is even more lethal since the skull is weaker at the back, hit the back of the neck and your going to take out the wind pipe, the spine or both. Any of those hits are lethal shots.

On a side note, does making a sharp turn slow them down? Realisticly I'm pretty sure horses loose speed in a turn so wouldn't that give some of my men time for an extra shot given the loss of speed?

Naturally horses do slow down in a turn, but unless you're in full gallop - which, as I understand, they would not be at start - you can drive the horse through the turn without noticeable loss in speed.

I think brood has a point about hits to the neck, but I guess DrSane factored the plate helmets in.

On another note, one does not need to turn to hold the shield behind oneself:

Hmm yea I guess, I'm still curious about my Militia, I know they are under trained compared to regulars but 1 shot in the time regulars get 3 is a little overkill, even if they suck at aiming they can still draw a bow and fire it.

Call them militia all you want, but remember that only a few days ago they were just peasants in yaragar. The real militia you left back with Baras.

Also, you can swivel around effectively on a horse. Ever heard of the Parthian shot?

The neck also depends on what type of helmets that are used. A sallet helm would provide a great deal of protection.

Spoiler:

Also an armet helm with a mail coif underneath would do very well in this situation. (picture is minus coif)

Spoiler:

Parthians trained to do that from birth and the parthians who did that were not in plate armor.

Well, it is a bit late now for me to decide what kind of helmets Ealdred and the knights have, since that would basically be conjuring up convenient equipment. Sallets were typical for late middle ages, but there were also a great deal of (hounskull) bascinets, also judging from the ingame equipment of (Sarleon) knights. Therefore, I'd leave it to DrSane to determine that.

EDIT: Yeah, forgot armets.

Interestingly enough, a Mount and Blade screenshot came up when I searched for that type of helmet. Shows my theory/statement about the coif too.

Spoiler:

I wonder what mod that is, perhaps Floris Mod Pack, because I don't remember seeing anything like that in Native.

Id almost bet it was pendor actually. The armor is a lot like the armor that the sarleon armored longbowmen wear in 3.5.

Your right, I thought I remembered that armor from Native but I guess it was the Sarleon longbow men.

Sir Arceon wrote:

Your right, I thought I remembered that armor from Native but I guess it was the Sarleon longbow men.

Sarleon Halbedier, right?

I think they both actually wear it.

Haegon might be right. The Halberdiers wear mostly the red version and the Longbowmen the Grey. I do not know if they have any interchange or not, but the stats are the same.

I first saw that kind of armour in the Hundred Years War mod, but it must be OSP content since it was introduced to Pendor with one of the recent versions (3.51?).

On another note, we should allocate costs to Thedric's acquisitions. Does 300 to 500 gold for timber, scrap metal and lamp oil sound fair? I'd determine the actual price via dice.

I was just using metal and wood that was lying aroun, hence the emphasis on low quality. If anything gets a cost it should be the oil, though 300 seems hideously expensive for a few jars as tall as my forearm.


Then again, I am biased in this situation.

Well, it's a bit unclear how much it is. Could you give me an estimate? Metal was so much sought after in the middle ages that literally nothing would just be lying around. We can talk about the wood, though, i.e. you could deploy a number of militia to cut down some trees or collect the wood in a nearby forest or grove. We'll rethink the prices once we now exactly how much material you need. If you want to keep the exact amount secret, PM me, please.

Brood has a point, the regulars can instant kill the knights, the helmets have been taken off since you went inside and since you haven't had time to put them back on, nor the order to. If the archers score a hit, consider it to hit were the rider has not shielded himself, whilst you can swivel in the saddle, it is not something a sane man would do in full armour whilst galloping, you would be bounced out of the saddle.

How bout this, when scoring to hit, if you roll a hundred it hits the head or a similar area, and if the roll to wound is successfull it instant kills.

Your action Iskar makes your men spread out and ride in a slight zig zag, but takes effect after 1st regulars 1st volley (where the archers have much easier shots and penetrations and wound rolls)

Allocating deaths/wounds
Since Iskar is a PC (and no killing of other PC's) and since his character reacted first amongst the knights (Both to gallop away and to use evasive maneuvers) he can only be taken down once all the other knights are. His squire is last to be hit as he is furthest in the lead.

Brood your militia don't want to shoot the knights. It would be like if a cop came to your house and told you he needed your help to take out a drug lord, so he takes you to be trained with his hardened swat team, when some other cops show up in a few days, and after an argument, he shouts now and his swat team starts shooting at these other cops. Can you honeslty say that in that situation you would shoot those other cops? The only reason the militia fire is because the regulars they are with shout at them too, so the militia purposefully waste time and make mistakes because they don't want to shoot the knights.

Honestly Alaric the way I'd prefer to GM is to say what happens without rolls, but with them there is a degree of randomness, so in the case that no knights are brought down or all the knights are brought down having a video means there wont be any drama's.

Apart from that are there any other problems or are we clear to proceed?

Replied.

As I demonstrated in the drawing above, you can hold your shield behind you to cover your head from the back without swivelling.

Apart from that, carry on, and no need to prove you did the rolls right. We fully trust you there.

Mmmm sounds ok I guess but why would he have to be the only one standing to be hit when I ordered regulars with longbows to aim for his horse?

If they miss fair enough but you can always just take the odds of him being hit and add them to the odds of his horse being hit to avoid a PC kill, I have no intention of killing them anyway so I don't mind if you purposely avoid his being wounded as long as I have a fair chance to hit his horse.

Given that my only legitimate reason to attack him is he's stealing Sephs stuff he is my primary target, hence why I singled him out for the regulars.

He is not stealing Seph's stuff, for Seph is accused of treason with witnesses and his property goes over to his liege, the lord of Rebache. It's more like Amhain is trying to prevent a traitor and his equipment from being delivered to his lord.

*sigh* More stalling, and I wanted to see how it turned out.

Alright, lets go look at your post ordering to fire. You didn't order anyone to do anything explicitly.

"NOW!"

What the hell does that mean? You're lucky your men had enough of an idea to shoot at all, like Iskar said they aren't the blasted Borg who knows what everyone in the Hive Mind does.

You're still viewing this as a competition, its not. You're not going to get insanely high odds for all your actions. I'm sorry but get over it.
Furthermore, you have no idea if it was Ealdred that ordered Jacob to do it or if he did it on his own free will. There's a difference between what you know OOC and what your character knows IC.