Falk-fury rages on!

[Five]

He was a good mercenary leader but going beyond that to actual rulership was beyond him.

He has little or no notion of large scale logistics, military strategy, military intelligence or diplomacy as he didn't have to worry much about those things as a merc. He was good at small unit tactics but nothing more.

Even if I agreed with all of the above then him losing Falkovnia, downgrading him back to "ideal form" (his new pact/curse), that is losing the ruler aspect to focus on wanton destruction/warfare, then he could still become an almost Doomsday threat as exampled above. And a part of that threat is that aside from maybe Strahd, a former warlord from his pre-pact days, not many dark lords that I can think of right now would rank higher than Vlad, no matter how low you place him on the scale, when it comes to the ins and outs of warfare, such as those you have mentioned.

Gondegal could morph into an interesting battlefield (any scale) opponent, but he was a legendary failure as well, back in his Realms days. If you're going on past experiences.

[brilliantlight]

He was a good mercenary leader but going beyond that to actual rulership was beyond him.

He has little or no notion of large scale logistics, military strategy, military intelligence or diplomacy as he didn't have to worry much about those things as a merc. He was good at small unit tactics but nothing more.

Even if I agreed with all of the above then him losing Falkovnia, downgrading him back to "ideal form" (his new pact/curse), that is losing the ruler aspect to focus on wanton destruction/warfare, then he could still become an almost Doomsday threat as exampled above. And a part of that threat is that aside from maybe Strahd, a former warlord from his pre-pact days, not many dark lords that I can think of right now would rank higher than Vlad, no matter how low you place him on the scale, when it comes to the ins and outs of warfare, such as those you have mentioned.

Gondegal could morph into an interesting battlefield (any scale) opponent, but he was a legendary failure as well, back in his Realms days. If you're going on past experiences.

A regiment commander is hardly a doomsday level threat. Pretty much all the DLs can handle that. Herself sends a bunch of rats and wererats at him. Alfred Timothy sends werewolves and dire wolves. Strahd and Azalin send tons of undead. Harkon Lukas sends wolfweres. A bunch of human mercs are going to be whittled down to impotence quickly.

[Five]

A regiment commander is hardly a doomsday level threat. Pretty much all the DLs can handle that. Herself sends a bunch of rats and wererats at him. Alfred Timothy sends werewolves and dire wolves. Strahd and Azalin send tons of undead. Harkon Lukas sends wolfweres. A bunch of human mercs are going to be whittled down to impotence quickly.

Not just a regiment commander, a DP-backed, trench-battling sadist who likes his evening meals accompanied by a quartet of screaming victims with stakes jammed through their bodies, actual battle-hardened regiment commander.

And it's not a bunch of human mercs, it's an army. An army that has already witnessed the horrors of the world and who still stand in that same army (some if those that survived anyway) regardless of those horrors.

I know you're belittling/shorthanding to prove your point (all resources are finite btw; Drakov's army outnumbers some of those forces combined a few times over I believe - I'll check later), but think about this: who among those darklords would actually risk exposure to unleash their forces like that? Once the secret gets out there will be a mass of adventurers (along with angry mobs of people) beating down their doors, crawling through their windows, ...and when word travels...then that mob becomes a Holy War and the dark lords are at the ends of their days. Cool alt dark lord doomsday line all the same...

For yes, humanity will stand with humanity when faced with the inhuman; the lesser of evils type thing. I know I would anyway.

So, yeah that don't fly the way I see it. The selfishness of the dark lords, or, their need for self preservation would override any such tactic. Maybe one would go out blazing, but not all. Which makes it a disadvantage for the dark lords in question, and an advantage to the "human mercs led by a regiment commander" . None of those you listed were rewarded by the DP for their courage...

Also, while I'm talking advantages and disadvantages, Azalin using the fallen Falkovnian soldiers as his army? That's a disadvantage for him and Darkon and an advantage for Vlad and Falkovnia the way I see it. Azalin has successfully defended his borders invasion after invasion, yes. But he is also denying his troops actual combat experience, and in a morbid way "gifting" it to the Falkovnians. So if Vlad can't shape up his forces then maybe Azalin will...?

[brilliantlight]

A regiment commander is hardly a doomsday level threat. Pretty much all the DLs can handle that. Herself sends a bunch of rats and wererats at him. Alfred Timothy sends werewolves and dire wolves. Strahd and Azalin send tons of undead. Harkon Lukas sends wolfweres. A bunch of human mercs are going to be whittled down to impotence quickly.

Not just a regiment commander, a DP-backed, trench-battling sadist who likes his evening meals accompanied by a quartet of screaming victims with stakes jammed through their bodies, actual battle-hardened regiment commander.

And it's not a bunch of human mercs, it's an army. An army that has already witnessed the horrors of the world and who still stand in that same army (some if those that survived anyway) regardless of those horrors.

I know you're belittling/shorthanding to prove your point (all resources are finite btw; Drakov's army outnumbers some of those forces combined a few times over I believe - I'll check later), but think about this: who among those darklords would actually risk exposure to unleash their forces like that? Once the secret gets out there will be a mass of adventurers (along with angry mobs of people) beating down their doors, crawling through their windows, ...and when word travels...then that mob becomes a Holy War and the dark lords are at the ends of their days. Cool alt dark lord doomsday line all the same...

For yes, humanity will stand with humanity when faced with the inhuman; the lesser of evils type thing. I know I would anyway.

So, yeah that don't fly the way I see it. The selfishness of the dark lords, or, their need for self preservation would override any such tactic. Maybe one would go out blazing, but not all. Which makes it a disadvantage for the dark lords in question, and an advantage to the "human mercs led by a regiment commander" . None of those you listed were rewarded by the DP for their courage...

Also, while I'm talking advantages and disadvantages, Azalin using the fallen Falkovnian soldiers as his army? That's a disadvantage for him and Darkon and an advantage for Vlad and Falkovnia the way I see it. Azalin has successfully defended his borders invasion after invasion, yes. But he is also denying his troops actual combat experience, and in a morbid way "gifting" it to the Falkovnians. So if Vlad can't shape up his forces then maybe Azalin will...?

Why would their secret get out? Are they leading the attack in their human form? Is Jaqueline Reiner going out there sword in hand and then turning into a wererat? No, first she sends in the regular rats and dire rats to whittle down their numbers first.

Considering the prevalence of rats in the Middle Ages it is safe to say there are tens if not hundreds of rats in Richemulot. Once the numbers are whittled the wererats are sent in while in rat form to finish them off. Some of them are merely bitten so they are added to the wererat army.

Alfred Timothy might have problems, I admit. I forgot about the weak hold he has over the other werewolves. He might just let Drakov sack the place.

The Bavorians and Darkons have done jack squat about the undead in their midst. In fact the latter are used to having the undead protect them during invasions. My guess is they both let the undead and the invaders just eliminate each other.

Harkon Lukas would use hit and run tactics mainly with wolfweres singing the men to be slowed from a distance and sending in regular wolves to thin their numbers. He certainly wouldn't be seen leading the wolves in human form.

[Five]

(all resources are finite btw; Drakov's army outnumbers some of those forces combined a few times over I believe - I'll check later),

First, some fun numbers (from a non-numbers guy), taken from the RL Gaz series and the MM (all 3E because that has the most info available):

Kartakass has 200 wolfweres

Richemulot has 4,390 wererats

Verbrek has 1,140 werewolves

Falkovnia has an unknown/unlisted standing army as far as I can tell so I'm going to make one up. Google tells me that World War II Nazi Germany had 31% of its population enlisted during that war. For various reasons I'll use that as a model. Falkovnia now has a standing army of 19,933 soldiers. That's 99 soldiers per wolfwere, 4 soldiers (and a raw recruit) per wererat, and 17 soldiers (and a fresh out of boot camp recruit) per werewolf. I know not all of the wolfweres, wererats and werewolves would actually be involved in the fighting, but I'm going to ignore that for now just cos.

Now obviously Vlad can't send all of this soldiers out on campaign (unless he doesn't give one spit about leaving Falkovnia to the wolves so to speak, or, he has an updated curse/drive like the one mentioned above), so let's half those numbers:

49 CR 2 soldiers/CR 4 officers per 1 CR 4 wolfwere and CR 7 greater wolfwere....victory for Falkovnia (from a strictly numbers angle). Kartakass is annexed. Talons not included.

2 CR 2 soldiers/CR 4 officers per 1 CR 2 wererat/CR 3 aberrant wererat...a much tougher fight and probably a pyrrhic victory for Falkovnia at best, given the odds of lycanthropic infection spreading in such a bitter battle. Richemulot and the Falkovnian army are both devastated. Both need a generation to rebuild. Richemulot in that regard wins, if it follows a similar pre-war "infrastructure". Throw the Talons into the bloodbath orgy and it's good odds that Falkovnia puts Richemulot to the back of camp...

8 CR 2 soldiers/CR 4 officers per 1 CR 3 werewolf (the not-included CR 7 Talons and the assumed to be around somewhere CR 14 werewolf lords cancel each other out I figure)...victory Falkovnia. Verbrek is engulfed in flames that will cause breathing issues for the very young and very old all throughout the Core.

That's just a very basic (almost cartoon) Falkovnia versus the Monstrous. Half force to full force yeah, but stripped down all the same. Throw the human combatants of those domains into the mix, closure of borders, allies/diplomacy, etc and things get more complicated of course. Even the hypothetically free-ravaging and full force Vlad could at best hold a large city and maybe its environs from retaliation...

[brilliantlight]

(all resources are finite btw; Drakov's army outnumbers some of those forces combined a few times over I believe - I'll check later),

First, some fun numbers (from a non-numbers guy), taken from the RL Gaz series and the MM (all 3E because that has the most info available):

Kartakass has 200 wolfweres

Richemulot has 4,390 wererats

Verbrek has 1,140 werewolves

Falkovnia has an unknown/unlisted standing army as far as I can tell so I'm going to make one up. Google tells me that World War II Nazi Germany had 31% of its population enlisted during that war. For various reasons I'll use that as a model. Falkovnia now has a standing army of 19,933 soldiers. That's 99 soldiers per wolfwere, 4 soldiers (and a raw recruit) per wererat, and 17 soldiers (and a fresh out of boot camp recruit) per werewolf. I know not all of the wolfweres, wererats and werewolves would actually be involved in the fighting, but I'm going to ignore that for now just cos.

Now obviously Vlad can't send all of this soldiers out on campaign (unless he doesn't give one spit about leaving Falkovnia to the wolves so to speak, or, he has an updated curse/drive like the one mentioned above), so let's half those numbers:

49 CR 2 soldiers/CR 4 officers per 1 CR 4 wolfwere and CR 7 greater wolfwere....victory for Falkovnia (from a strictly numbers angle). Kartakass is annexed. Talons not included.

2 CR 2 soldiers/CR 4 officers per 1 CR 2 wererat/CR 3 aberrant wererat...a much tougher fight and probably a pyrrhic victory for Falkovnia at best, given the odds of lycanthropic infection spreading in such a bitter battle. Richemulot and the Falkovnian army are both devastated. Both need a generation to rebuild. Richemulot in that regard wins, if it follows a similar pre-war "infrastructure". Throw the Talons into the bloodbath orgy and it's good odds that Falkovnia puts Richemulot to the back of camp...

8 CR 2 soldiers/CR 4 officers per 1 CR 3 werewolf (the not-included CR 7 Talons and the assumed to be around somewhere CR 14 werewolf lords cancel each other out I figure)...victory Falkovnia. Verbrek is engulfed in flames that will cause breathing issues for the very young and very old all throughout the Core.

That's just a very basic (almost cartoon) Falkovnia versus the Monstrous. Half force to full force yeah, but stripped down all the same. Throw the human combatants of those domains into the mix, closure of borders, allies/diplomacy, etc and things get more complicated of course. Even the hypothetically free-ravaging and full force Vlad could at best hold a large city and maybe its environs from retaliation...

As stated above those wererats are going to go in after the army is hit by a huge swarm of rats hit it first. If every wererat sends in 10 rats before it, Drakov is hit by 43.000 rats before it sees the first wererat. That is going to do some damage to his army, particularly since some of those are going to be dire rats.

Both Karaktass and Verbrek are going to hit him with wolves and direwolves before any of the big guns hit. The weres are also all DR10 IIRC which means normal weapons won't affect them much, so we are realistically talking fire and maybe poison.

How much oil or poison do you suppose Drakov could realistically carry? Once that is gone they are pretty much only affected by crits and whatever siege weapons he brought along .

[Five]

Why would their secret get out? Are they leading the attack in their human form?

We're not talking about isolated encounters here. It's not a party of 4-6 adventurers. It's an army. Invasion. And that makes the spectacle of war a very public one. Educating the masses by launching same-type monsters, even in defence of the realm is a very risky move, and one that could maintain heat long after the war simmers down.

The revelations of the Dead Man's Campaign probably kept low key for the simple fact that 1) it happened in what reads to me to be remote loctions, away from witnesses. The Kargat probably took care of the handful that may have seen what unfolded; 2) Falkovnia doesn't really value diplomacy. Because of that, and their aggression, their neighbours won't ever hear or believe the stories of the vets that made it home. If it is found out that Falkovnia (Humans) are battling forces of Evil (the Undead), then you can bet your last buck on them garnering sympathy from even the most uppity of domains. It now becomes an "us versus them" thing.

That being said, it makes no sense to empower Drakov/Falkovnia by taking such a risk as launching an attack with such an inexplicable (to the lowly masses) force. It's suicide for the monsters that prefer to hide their monstrosities; a potential loss of power, habitat, comfort, etc. Classic risk-reward.

That's how I see it anyway. Obviously not every dark lord thinks alike, but still. These are faux people here. I would imagine they don't want their DP secrets revealed to anybody, especially since each of them is, essentially, a trauma victim, real or perceived (the catalyst for their crimes that delivered most of them to the DPs in the first place). And it's not just the revelation to an invading army, it's also a revelation to their enemies at home...

The Bavorians and Darkons have done jack squat about the undead in their midst. In fact the latter are used to having the undead protect them during invasions. My guess is they both let the undead and the invaders just eliminate each other.

I meant to comment of this earlier but got sidetracked.

Neither Strahd nor Azalin has access to unlimited undead. Strahd has to create his (doesn't he?). And he defends a castle with his undead, not a country. Against groups of invaders, not armies.

Azalin can only work with what he has available (how many Darkonians die every year? Multiply that by it's RL existence, add the fallen Falkovnians, subtract those that adventurers and DMC's fell...). "There is no limit to the number of undead Azalin can animate or control at any time" is, or can be, misleading. I read that as no cap on available undead he can animate or control. Endless undead is fan boy drool (at best). Why would he have access to all of the undead in the Multiverse? He's really that special, is he?

[Five]

. The weres are also all DR10 IIRC which means normal weapons won't affect them much, so we are realistically talking fire and maybe poison.

How much oil or poison do you suppose Drakov could realistically carry? Once that is gone they are pretty much only affected by crits and whatever siege weapons he brought along .

Vlad does have a Ministry of Science, a Ministry of the Arcane, and a Ministry of Intelligence. I'm sure they would be involved in any and all pre-campaign war room pow-wows. They can't all be as inept as Drakov, can they?

That, and there has to be a copy of the VRGs kicking around somewhere in those places I would think. Doktor Vjorn Horstman seems the type to raise a (bushy) eyebrow at such a thing...

I'm trying to justify and raise Falkovnia/Drakov from the RL wastebin. I'll have an answer for most everything you throw out. Just so's you knows. As such I can't promise it won't be biased. haha

[brilliantlight]

. The weres are also all DR10 IIRC which means normal weapons won't affect them much, so we are realistically talking fire and maybe poison.

How much oil or poison do you suppose Drakov could realistically carry? Once that is gone they are pretty much only affected by crits and whatever siege weapons he brought along .

Vlad does have a Ministry of Science, a Ministry of the Arcane, and a Ministry of Intelligence. I'm sure they would be involved in any and all pre-campaign war room pow-wows. They can't all be as inept as Drakov, can they?

That, and there has to be a copy of the VRGs kicking around somewhere in those places I would think. Doktor Vjorn Horstman seems the type to raise a (bushy) eyebrow at such a thing...

I'm trying to justify and raise Falkovnia/Drakov from the RL wastebin. I'll have an answer for most everything you throw out. Just so's you knows. As such I can't promise it won't be biased. haha

How many silver and/or cold iron weapons can Vlad afford? They are very expensive.

[Five]

How many silver and/or cold iron weapons can Vlad afford? They are very expensive.

He's had an arms deal with Lamordia for decades. Who's to say prep work wasn't being done years before the campaign seeds hit the war room?

[brilliantlight]

How many silver and/or cold iron weapons can Vlad afford? They are very expensive.

He's had an arms deal with Lamordia for decades. Who's to say prep work wasn't being done years before the campaign seeds hit the war room?

It's not enough, it would take decades or more of tax money to pay for thousands of silver weapons and that is if he does NOTHING else with his tax money such as paying his soldiers.

[Five]

It's not enough, it would take decades or more of tax money to pay for thousands of silver weapons and that is if he does NOTHING else with his tax money such as paying his soldiers.

Two in five weapons,; foodstuff barter; threats of war/promises of no war; covert mining in other countries ("failed" campaign as smokescreen with bonus of battle experience for future Talons; just don't let the boys know); theft/piracy; ...money is just one way of getting what you want.

Too much taxes from the people? Only if you care about what they think. I don't think Vlad does, do you?

[brilliantlight]

It's not enough, it would take decades or more of tax money to pay for thousands of silver weapons and that is if he does NOTHING else with his tax money such as paying his soldiers.

Two in five weapons,; foodstuff barter; threats of war/promises of no war; covert mining in other countries ("failed" campaign as smokescreen with bonus of battle experience for future Talons; just don't let the boys know); theft/piracy; ...money is just one way of getting what you want.

Too much taxes from the people? Only if you care about what they think. I don't think Vlad does, do you?

That is still not enough. He can't tax more than the people make. I am not sure the entire core could afford it if you took its entire wealth for decades. Silver and Cold Iron are expensive.

Falkovnia works best as a background comic relief kind of domain. A domain everyone laughs at. I used it in more than one occasion where the NPCs really rip on it and mention its use in plays, songs and stories where he is depicted as a strutting buffoon. With the right sense of humor it can be fun. Like I said he is Dark Age Benito Mussolini .

[tomokaicho]

I am not down with the canon, incompetent buffoon that is Vlad Drakov. Drakov has skin in the game. As a mercenary commander on Krynn, failure means death. That means that the incompetent are filtered out. Drakov isn't a no skin in the game armchair strategist like Bill Kristol who has been wrong about everything for the last two decades and never faced any negative consequences. See Nicholas Taleb's 'Skin in the Game'.

If Vlad is a big loser, then his curse isn't really a curse. There wouldn't even need to be a curse of always losing wars if he was going to lose them anyway. It would be redundant.

[Five]

Falkovnia works best as a background comic relief kind of domain. A domain everyone laughs at. I used it in more than one occasion where the NPCs really rip on it and mention its use in plays, songs and stories where he is depicted as a strutting buffoon. With the right sense of humor it can be fun. Like I said he is Dark Age Benito Mussolini .

That's your opinion, yeah. Right on. Was it you that re-wrote Falkovnia or somebody else? Either way I have yet to read it, but it's on my to-do list..

My horror doesn't require background comic relief so that's not an option. Guess I'm just an old school rated R kinda fella that found like-minded buddies to sandbox it in.

Drakov is a ruthless mercenary/warlord who wanted his own kingdom because he got sick of playing monkey for monkies. Now towards the end of his life he's realising that he ain't really cut out for it. Never was. He's best at spilling blood. Frontline massacre. What a waste. What he would do to have his time back, mount up, and ride to where the wind takes him. Muck everybody who crosses his path. If I want it, I take it...

Intro slaughter-sacrifice/razing of Falkovnia and his new pact/cell.

Or a one shot fluke dose of the Primal Serum that has him open up his senses to the world (even more delusional but savagely coherent at the same time. He can't sit on the throne without losing his mind. In battle he restores his sanity..?).

Or a combination of both, with a very loyal doktor at his side and a vicious inbred army foaming at the mouth.

He can never rule or earn the respect of his neighbours, but the DPs never told him he couldn''t fight, feast, or..