Talk:Exalted: Silence

Military Strategy

• First things first: Our objective is to eject the Shogunate from the Hundred Kingdoms.

• Sub-objective: Destroy the enemy's force until ours is superior.
• Sub-objective: Expand our own until the enemy's is inferior.

• The enemy has:

• 10,000 troops
• 1,000 suits of power armour
• 20 warstriders
• 15 artillery pieces
• CVBG
• Full Solar Circle (2 chicks, avg appearance 3.5)

Resources Available

• The City is a large city but is not yet militarised. It is additionally defended by the Tower and its gargoyles.

• Calacthchan is the most capable 'hard' social character and is most effective in rallying and maintaining support. He is a mediocre combatant for a Solar, though he has a perfect defence. He has basic competence at military command.

• Calamity is the only combat monster. She is also an effective leader, but more importantly is the only superhuman general.

• Daimyo is the primary 'soft' social and a talented bureaucrat who can accelerate our preparations. Perhaps more usefully, he is a master of disguise and can stymie the organisation of others. He is a mediocre combatant.

• Hope can, with all her 4th appearance augs installed, cloak an additional 9 people besides for her. As long as nobody can pierce Optical Shroud there that should be enough stealth if nobody actively tries to sabotage it.

• Optical Shroud protects against sight (but not essence sight/other weird sight modes) and hearing, but can be pierced by superhuman smell. Try to avoid dogs, please.
• It also only makes you invisible if you move less than 4 yards a second. Probably not too important, but it's there.
• You weak fleshy people can't run indefinitely at 30 miles an hour. Some possible solutions? --MJ12 Commando 15:25, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
• Demons can dematerialize and thus don't have to be cloaked, since anything that can detect a dematerialized demon (Essence Sight) can also detect a cloaked one.

• Lao needs to know exactly what kinds of demons people want. He can summon one demon a day, provided he dedicated dusk to midnight of each night to the summoning. That means seven more demons before we leave, and possibly a few more if we pause each night.

• Currently summoned: luminata (tentacle deer, good specops)
• Possible demons: Blood Apes (general soldiers), Baidak (bodyguards and soldiers, need input from others), Teakettle Courtiers (poison), Tomescu (lots of arms, heavy military, but kinda risky in the long-term), Bisclavarets (assassins and shapeshifters), gethin (steal identities and spy), radeken (absorb and weaponize weather, good for battle), tinsiana (scorpion-men, good warriors), anhules (spiders, good assassins), metody (acid-elementals, good for damaging stuff). Peronelle might be good for armour, but not necessary. - BM

• Varil is a secondary combatant and a skilled general, however his main skill is in controlling our magitech and that of others.

Defending the City

• The city is well-fortified against mortal soldiers, so a direct attack will involve mass and momentum, along with skyships and warstriders An attempt on the city is going to be based on overwhelming the defenses with raw force.
• The alternative is a commando raid of their own. Only some PCs have surprise awareness charms.

Commando Raiding the Fort

• The Objective: To damage and disrupt the Shogunate's fighting power in the region

• Highest priority is their magitech force multipliers - artillery, airships, power armour
• We take over one of the big airships and turn its guns on the fort if we want to destroy it, that's the quickest way to do so. Preferable the flagship.
• I disagree. The greatest threats are the enemy Solars. I suggest infiltrating the camp in disguise and making sure they get sent off on a wild goose chase - either somewhere they won't get in the way, or, preferably, into an ambush where we can jump them. --Rask 14:23, 11 April 2010 (UTC)
• If we do take over the flagship, we should fly away with it while shooting at pursuers. This plan has a pre-packaged exit strategy. Peel 14:30, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

• Alternate Objective: take over the army for ourselves. Tentative plan as follows.

• Remove enemy Solars from premises through deception or distraction.
• Spread rumours conductive to our plan in the camp, while working under disguise.
• Make it taboo to point out that god-king Cal is actually the enemy.
• Use emotion-affecting Charms to make army susceptible to the next part of plan.
• Cal shows up and explains to the troops why they should respect and worship him. Liberal use of brainwashing Charms is advised.--Rask 14:23, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

• Alternate Approach: Get a man (Daimyo) inside to spread some disinformation beforehand.

• Create institutional belief: 'The tower has been temporarily disabled. It must be immediately attacked by the fleet to capitalise on this.'

• Yet Another Alternate Approach: Sneak inside and apply poison to food and water supplies.

• Crazy plan of the Hour: Sorcery-capturing cords + anti-army spells.

*A sorcery-capturing cord capable of holding Terrestrial Circle Sorcery is artifact 3 (only requires a minimum 3 in Craft/Lore/Occult) and should be reasonably easy to build via our craftsmen. It's "only" resources 4 to construct one as well.

*Anyone can use a Sorcery-capturing cord if they're willing to pay the willpower.

*It should not be impossible for everyone to carry one and unleash it on the enemy army, or for someone to carry several. This should greatly clear out what numerical superiority exists at the fort.

*Then we swordfight/face-punch/arrow anyone important. --MJ12 Commando 10:45, 12 April 2010 (UTC)

Establishing Regional Support

• Cal and Daimyo travel to nearby kingdoms to engender regional pride (Cal) and the belief that the shogunate imperialists must be ejected (Daimyo). Peel 14:30, 11 April 2010 (UTC)

• Lao's beastmen hordes and magical stockpiles, which he can go get when we have some time. He might need some PC help, as he's been gone for centuries. Still, viable beastmen and Genesis stuff will help.

• More fringe options, like gathering the Silver Pact or opening the Seal of Eight Divinities. Requires long-term planning and is for after the initial raid.