EXAMPLEWAR COMBAT THREAD

[Andreas the Wise]

I can be quite sure that by "base of operations" Fides meant "the doggies infantry and artillery".

[Demon of Fides]

I thought the airfield was a secondary base, sorry. I should have been clearer with that attack, but I had no idea what to call the place where your other troops are. Also, the bit with the DRs was whether they would be caught in the bowl or still back in Examplegrad.

[Gerk]

Just a reminder: There's only 16 hours left in the war, so hurry up and kill each other while you still can.

[Scott Alexander]

Okay then, I hope you understand the mistake as I consistently referred to my planes staying "at base" while my army was on the march.

Anyway, if my data retrievers noticed Fides leaving the city, they gave advance warning to my troops. So they should be prepared. For all the good it'll do against that much magic.

The artillery gets hopelessly wet, of course. I assume some of the guns are still salvageable, but the explosives are ruined and they're not likely to fire anything any time soon. The infantry deal with the water, obviously, by dog-paddling to safety. In effect, my artillery takes the most damage.

BUT, the artillery manages to get a few good shots in at Fides before it goes. It would be rather unfair to say it expended its entire point value, knowing as I do that those points will soon be useless, but it expends as much as the judge thinks is fair.

And the planes have already started scrambling when they get the data retrievers' warning. They can't beat Fides to the main force, but they can sure as heck make his trip back to Examplegrad more interesting. My planes expend 100 points attacking the hopefully exhausted and artillery-shell-ridden Fides in the hopes of destroying him before he gets back to Examplegrad.

The infantry, wet and miserable, finally reach Ari's position a few hours after the attack. "You know what I could use right now?" an uncontrollably shivering Fides says as his first words to the Istvanistani leader. "A drink."

[Gerk]

I honestly don't think water is going to do much to artillery, and it wasn't really targeted as much as the infantry was.
Let's say 85% damage. Would be less, as it's a rather easy attack for you to make, Fides, but the idea of it is rather funny. that's 340 resource damage, mostly to Scott's infantry.

[Andreas the Wise]

Alright ... AMBUSH!

This was emailed to Gerk at about the time of Fides' attack, because Fides and I planned it together. My secret move was to get my mages in place around the edge of the giant bath do deal with dogs who escape; and have my dragons in the sky nearby to deal with the planes; and Andreas nearby but being boring cause I can't think of a cool attack for him.

So after the bath is raised, the mages (who were around the edge of the area it was raised) climb up top and then ready stoneshots, targetting infantry and artillery who are on the edges of the bath and climbing up. The first stoneshots can be spun around their head a couple times to gain momentum; after that, it's just stones from their pouch fired off at a slower speed. They use their remaining 196 points on the attack.

The dragons engage Scott's planes, hopefully taking them by surprise. They try to direct fire towards the planes exhaust to blow up the fuel tank, and scratch any organic parts with their claws. They can use 100 points in that attack.

Summary: Ambush struck. Mages attack infantry and artillery coming out of the bathtub. Dragons engage planes after they've engaged Fides. This was emailed to the judge before..

(For those not familiar with this spell, a stoneshot takes a small stone and applies magical force to it - because it doesn't weigh much, it moves very fast and can be aimed well. Obviously these are fired off much slower than a machine gun would fire bullets, but each single stone is more effective than a single bullet)

[Gerk]

Right, so, this war is officially over, as of ten hours ago.

To resolve the last few conflicts:
Scott's planes manage to kill Fides after he washes the dogs. They then take 100 points of damage from the dragon ambush.
Andreas's mages continue to pick off the infantry with stoneshots, 196 damage to them (I don't know where they stand, but I think there's some left, at least).

That's it. Now, the end of the war is here, and there isn't a real clear-cut winner. So I'll summarize it like this:
Fides is very dead (it happens all the time)
The dogs are very clean
And everybody gets very sick from the flu and dies. The end.

The winner? Me, because I said so, and the judge can do whatever he wants (also, props to Ari, he was probably the most interesting person in the fight, but he didn't really do anything near the end)

[Octavius]

Rocks fall. Everyone dies.

[Gerk]

Essentially, only it's more painful and violent on your digestive system.

[Demon of Fides]

Woo! I died again! What does this make, 7 times?

[Andreas the Wise]

Remembered I needed a last IC post.

The war ended, and "General" Harold Browne, a second year MANA student, slowly returned his attention to the real world. The chair he had been sitting in for the last five days had started very comfortable, but by now all his joints were aching for a stretch. He got up, reflecting how apt the term "Armchair Generals" was for illusion wars. Then he saw Lord Fides in front of him.

"You did alright," Fides informed him. "A reasonable grasp of basic post-Al'Magroth magical fighting techniques. But choosing to include Andreas and Frederick as your army commanders? Really. Where were the moral conflicts, the epic final stand, the long conversations with enemy commanders, the horde of elementals? Can you seriously imagine Frederick saying "We're sitting pretty on the island?" You just aren't good enough to play Andreas and Frederick, kid. C+."
Harold nodded sadly. He hadn't done as well as he'd hoped.
"Oh, and one more thing," Fides said, noting his Minister of the Interior rising from a nearby chair. "Steer clear of Nelaga for the next couple months ..."

[Harvey]

The "I WILL REVENGE!!!!!!" wasn't loud enough to be heard all the way in Gralus, but somehow everyone knew it had been yelled at that exact moment.

[Gerk]

Feel free to utterly terrorize Toketi in the next war.

[Demon of Fides]

Harvey, I have one acronym for you that will be the answer to your prayers:

MoW