Armchair Generals V2 Interest Chect

[macrorufus]

Place holder for a basic RP along the lines of the last 'choose your own adventure' combat RP.

This time however, the setting is across a 3 front battlefield during a war. I only have space for 4 players. Each player decides where on the front he wishes to focus his attack and his defense, GM rolls for the baddies decisions and will write the result of the day's battle. In order to provide some balance, as the bad-guys will undoubtably act odd at time, the 'Ixian Empire' has the technological edge. Technologically, the two sides start at 1914.

Air - Halconians (Dusty)
Cavalry - Rebodil (SliceOfDog)
Artillery - Kraynox (Nelle Kozera)
Infantry - Scy'thean (Cobalt3924)

1st come, 1st serve.
Each player must state what arm he wishes to control, and fill the CS for his race:
Species:
Height:
Approximate shape:
Appearance:

Each player forms one quarter of the United Free, that seek to fight back against Ixian aggression. If I get four players I will create an OOC discussion/rumor-mill and an IC.

[Nelle Kozera]

Artillery!

Species: Kraynox

Height: 5'1-8'0

Approximate shape: Non-anthro dragon

Appearance: http://fc08.deviantart.net/fs27/i/20...dianDragon.jpg

[Dusty]

I'm litterally about the crash but I'd like to take the Airforce.

[SliceOfDog]

Sure, I could go for cavalry (Since artillery has already been taken that is!) :p

Riders;
Species: Rebodil
Height: 5' - 5'3"
Approximate shape: Roughly human, except with a flatter face and a hump in the back and curved neck, which makes the nose roughly align with their shoulders.
Appearance: Forgive the lack of creativity, but roughly Hellboy's Abe Sapian, only less fish-like. They have human-like skin and longer arms and legs.

Steeds;
Species: Haukadon
Height: (Female) 7'-8' at the shoulder (Male) 5'5" - 6'5"
Approximate shape: (Female) Similar to a bull (Male) Similar to a quarter horse. Both with squarer heads, males with scimitar-like antlers.
Appearance: Both genders like stockier versions of the above animals, and with large, rabbit-like eyes in the middle of their squarer skulls. Resting, the eyes face directly out like a rabbit's, meaning that they cannot see objects in front of themselves. However, they have strong muscles behind their eyes that can push them out in any angle, therefore allowing them to see in front, behind, above or below. Overall they have about 320 degree vision.
The males, as mentioned above, have long, sharp, scimitar like antlers, as well as skin flaps on each side of the jaw (These are pierced and are where the reigns are attached, as opposed to having it in the mouth)

The males are usually used for charging and for fast/close quarters combat, whereas the females are usually used for transporting equipment or for mobile bases for heavy weapons, like gatling guns (and don't worry, I of course mean the cumbersome and prone to overheating WW1 style gatling gun).

[macrorufus]

3 slots filled!
@Slice: There is technological advancement, do not be surprised when Haukadon's get replaced.

[SliceOfDog]

Oh, don't worry, I know that this is the end of the line for them. But I imagine that the natural progression is cavalry -> armoured vehicles, which I'm quite happy with :p

Although the Rebodil might not be so happy about it all XD

Oh, and I don't know how you're planning on organising the forces, but could I suggest we describe our various types of troop (so for me there would be lightly armoured fast cavalry, heavy slow ones, melee riders etc), you assign each one a value of, lets say, 1 to 4, then you give us a total of about 12. We create our force by choosing all of our troops in any number and combination until their point value reaches 12, and that creates our force (Sort of like choosing a field army in Warhammer if you're familiar with that game)
It would mean that the 4 armies are roughly equal, and that they get some decent variation. Just a suggestion though

[Dusty]

Species: Halconians
Height: Average height is around five foot six or for you metric users about 1.7 meters.
Approximate shape: Over all a mix of avian and reptilian traits. They have scales covering most of their body with a crest of feathers running down their necks.

They tend to be very thin, with very little body fat and lean muscle. For lack of a better example think of Jackals from Halo.

[macrorufus]

@Slice: I was thinking that the 'line' consists of 12 companies of infantry (4 per front) and that each Arm would start with 3 companies/flights which are under their discretion to attack/defend, while the 12 represent how the line holds/falter. Arms, when attacking, will bring the defensive front with them.

1914 Start:
Air: 1 Flight Zeppelins, 2 Flight Recon-Fighter, no frontal weapon, navigator uses an unwieldy rear facing Maxim-gun. (Slice's gatling... slow fire, prone to overheat.... in canvas planes)
Infantry: 1 Companies Rifles, 1 Company Grenadiers, 1 Company Engineers.
Cavalry: 1 Company Heavies, 1 Company Dragoons, 1 Company Towed Maxim-guns.
Artillery: 1 Company 6-inch Field Guns (Shrapnel), 1 Company 5-Inch Howitzers (HE), 1 Company 1lb Autocannons (AA).

If any further clarification is required, don't be afraid to ask.
Combined arms make for better results, but many tactics will be learnt from Ixia. For the note of all players:
At the start of play it is known that the Ixian Empire has been pleased with the results of its 'barrel' project and will be deploying them at a point in the future.

[Cobalt3924]

I call dibs on Infantry with the Scy'Threan. Finall got the damm race finished and conveniently: they're Infantry Specialists. XP

[macrorufus]

Slots filled! Will be posting an IC and OOC topics. OOC is for Rumor-mill (infomation on Ixian developments) and R&D choices and any questions.

[Dusty]

So these zepplins, are our bombers. If were going by the time period they're able to reach altitudes far higher then a plane, and they have much greater endurance. It also wasn't really easy to set a zeppelin's hydrogen off till the invention of incendiary rounds.

[SliceOfDog]

Could I quickly make a suggestion/pose a question here? I had a very specific cavalry in mind, so I was wondering if my Dragoons could be/do the following (bearing in mind that they'll be obsolete soon anyway)
Between their antlers they have a sheet of metal with a dent in the top middle that acts as both a shield and a prop for the dragoon's rifle (not very powerful, as it has to be light, and certainly not fast firing, but a respectable range). Then when they get in close enough range they would swap to their sword. However, if they are ever running side-on with an enemy, the rider will hop over to one side of the mount and literally use it as a shield between them and the enemy fire, using the Haukadon's back as a prop for their rifle, and firing over them side-ways. If the mount is shot and falls (presumably on top of the rider) the rider is trained to jump off and land with a roll, and then (if they're still ok) scramble to use the fallen mount as a Gears of War style knee-high barrier.

I imagine that the Rebodil have an extremely cavalry-centred society, or at the very least military, so I thought that they'd account for this kind of thing. If it helps, I don't mind the Heavies being less trained (I think that contrary to common 'better skill = bigger weapon + more armour', the Rebodil would think along the lines of 'less skilled = more need for armour and more skilled = less reliance on it')

[macrorufus]

Each has specific roles, heavies are trained as well as dragoons. Difference is, their heavy armor training would result in head=on charges, for psychological effect and mere 'weight' in smashing lines. So from the observer is looks less trained, but it takes discipline to preen infront of a bugle and hold formation =P

Note on Haukadon dragoons taken onboard!

[macrorufus]

OOC To Cobalt: Not sure you realise, but you don't have the units you've stated.
Your infantry arm consists currently of 3 Companies:
1x Engineers
1x Rifles
1x Grenadiers

[SliceOfDog]

Ooh, I'm loving the detail, Rufus! Sure, we did... ah... pretty badly, but still, fun to read!

[Dusty]

This why I hate World War 1 xD

[SliceOfDog]

But... but... how can you hate WW1?!? It gave us Wilfred Owen! (and then killed him, but shush, it makes his life more dramatic)

[Dusty]

But... but... how can you hate WW1?!? It gave us Wilfred Owen! (and then killed him, but shush, it makes his life more dramatic)

Do you want the political/historical reasons or the military buff reasons?

[SliceOfDog]

Hah, no, I understand. I just find it a fascinating historical period, and I think it gave is a great lot of fantastic literature (an odd thing for me to appreciate I suppose, being a pacifist, but I like the vast amounts of anti-war sentiment coming from the soldiers)
I also appreciate propaganda, which is why I prefer the second World War to the first, but it's still present in 1914, and it's interesting how it changes. I'm also partial to stories of complete failure; for example the idea that putting all of the recruits from one town (at this time very close, usually families didn't move around much, so they'd have been there for generations, known a lot of the other people in their town, have lots of family there, cousins and so on) would raise moral. What it in fact meant was that when there was a massacre like the Somme, entire towns-worth of men would be lost, absolutely demolishing moral at home and destroying any support-base for unlucky survivors from that town.
I should not as well that I'm a stickler for historical detachment. I would say, for example, that as a historical period I like the Holocaust. Of course I despise what happened there, but it's an interesting event that we can learn a lot from, and that's enough for me to consider myself 'liking' it.
...
All that said I realised I've just justified my own liking of it and told you not to justify your dislike of it. How rude of me o_0
As long as Rufus is ok with us slightly hijacking his thread, please feel free to explain Dusty. On both accounts you mentioned.

[Dusty]

World War 1 was a war that quite honestly shouldn't have happened. And when it did happen if they had fought it right there most likely wouldn't have been a World War 2, or at least not the World War 2 we know.

As the Armies mobilized there was a movement towards peace led by Socialists, when one of them (god I can't remember who, all I know is he's French) was murdered by a German he was turned into a martyr and reason FOR going to war. The Czar and Kaiser, up until the first battle, were sending letters back and forth professing their love (brotherly, as far we we know) one another and claiming they would never go to war.

But they did, and the reason for it was the GLORY! Nationalism on a grand scale. There wasn't so much an objective, or a reason for it. The Arch-duke's murder was a regional affair that gave an excuse for the war. Kaiser William II needed to prove he was the best. Probably because he suffered from a whithered arm as a birth defect and felt the need to compensate.

Alot of that war literature you see comes from the feeling of "why?", no one could really see what they were doing. It was almost habit to attack and wage war. Da-Da as an art movement was born from it.

The long drawn out manner of the war, the still inconclusive conclusion when the war was over, and then the gross mistreatment of Germany at the Versailles Treaty conference contributed directly to the situation that gave rise to Hitler. Hitler fought in World War 1, and like many soldiers and indeed civilians he felt rage when Germany surrendered because they thought the war could still be won. Then you drop France's vengeful terms on the situation and you can see a lot of angst fuel.

The military reasons? It was a semi-modern war fought like a 1800's era war. Millions of casualties for no reason.

Now sorry for the thread jack xD

[SliceOfDog]

I'd like to respond to this, but it's an epic thread-jack, so I'm going to start a new topic ^_^
I'll copy/paste our last couple comments, Dusty, and afterwards if Rufus wants he can delete the versions here, although if he's ok with us just leaving it as is then that's up to him.

[Dusty]

Fine by me Rufus if you want them gone I'll be happy to delete them.

[macrorufus]

Nah, discussion is fun!

[macrorufus]

WW1 started when the Duke of Austria-Hungary was shot by a Serbian terrorist, sparking initial conflict between those two nations. Due to the sheer mass of secret alliances, Russia got dragged in by Serbia, Germany by Austria-Hungary, France by Russia, and England by France. Yes, many of those nations had their own private reasons for joining, especially Germany which wanted 'its time in the Sun.'

[SliceOfDog]

WW1 started when the Duke of Austria-Hungary was shot by a Serbian terrorist

It was 'The Black-Hand Gang' if I'm not mistaken (though I assume that's a translation). The story of that is actually very interesting in itself. It was almost a complete and utter failure. There were about 4 assassins, I think. The first, who was one of the gangs most senior assassins, was meant to do it, with the other three as back-ups if it went wrong. However, for some unknown reason, he let the car pass without doing anything. No one has ever found out why he didn't try to kill him. The second I think threw a grenade, which bounced off of the car door. The third (again, I'm trying to remember this from a year or two ago, so I might not be getting it completely accurate) shot and missed, or only wounded him. They diverted the route and took the car down some side-streets to prevent further attempts on Ferdinand's life, meaning that the 4th assassin never got a chance to strike. As they were driving down the new route, one of the assassins had managed to escape and was literally just walking down the street when the car came passed. He pulled out his gun, walked into the road and shot Ferdinand dead.
If they had chosen a different side-road, he would probably never have been assassinated. Makes you think.