The Free Company Tavern & "OOC" Thread: Book IV

[Faeelin]

Originally posted by Lord Durham

Thanks about the maps. Hopefully people will refer to them...

Now Faeelin, check where LeClerc is positioned. He's on the landward wall, near the Imperial Palace, nowhere near the Horn or the Boom.

Hmm. The map has him on the Western wall's northern most section. What body of water is that, then?

Although in hindsight, she shouldn't be able to see the Chain from that far away.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Originally posted by Faeelin


Hmm. The map has him on the Western wall's northern most section. What body of water is that, then?

Although in hindsight, she shouldn't be able to see the Chain from that far away.

You were correct. That is the Golden Horn...but a little far to see the Chain.

 

[The_Hawk]

Well, I did my bit. Sorry I haven't been about much lately -- swamped with life.

One question -- I see the chain shifted at some point from the entrance to the Bosporus to the entrance to the Golden Horn. I took some liberties, but is the chain actually up? If so, the Cyprian really wouldn't be of any more use in a reconnaisance capability than someone standing on the easternmost wall of Constantinople.

 

[Lord Durham]

Originally posted by The_Hawk
Well, I did my bit. Sorry I haven't been about much lately -- swamped with life.

One question -- I see the chain shifted at some point from the entrance to the Bosporus to the entrance to the Golden Horn. I took some liberties, but is the chain actually up? If so, the Cyprian really wouldn't be of any more use in a reconnaisance capability than someone standing on the easternmost wall of Constantinople.

Arrrghh!!!

The chain hasn't shifted. Look at my last map, where I positioned the men. The chain crosses the Golden Horn, anchored to Pera on one side and Constantinople on the other. It has NEVER crossed the Bosporus.

Laurena is with LeClerc, right? LeClerc is on the landward wall roughly south of the Golden Horn. In fact they are south of Blachernae, which is the location of the Imperial Palace. Joneaz and Maria are on the wall facing the Horn. THEY can see the damned chain!

 

[driftwood]

Yeah, only in the EU RPG (which I don't think anyone else here is playing) did we anachronistically string a chain across the Bosphorus. That crossing was handled by massive cannon.

Laurena has been put in her place ...

I'm on travel for the next two days, so my posting may be sporadic and/or lackluster.

driftwood

 

[Lord Durham]

Originally posted by driftwood
Yeah, only in the EU RPG (which I don't think anyone else here is playing)

Yes, it appears to be the case. I may accelerate the whole bloody thing and wrap it up.

 

[The_Hawk]

Originally posted by Lord Durham
The chain hasn't shifted. Look at my last map, where I positioned the men. The chain crosses the Golden Horn, anchored to Pera on one side and Constantinople on the other. It has NEVER crossed the Bosporus.

Hmm. Well, then, nevermind -- must be my mind crossing synapses again. The uncertainty was why I was extremely vague as to where the Cyprian's ship actually was, so we can simply assume he has really good eyes...

 

[Valdemar]

Originally posted by driftwood
I take it no one was interested in dinner at Captain's? <sigh> Those gatherings haven't been the same since Georges and Fahitma left ...

Fine, I'll summarize the dinner. It was tense and somber, with the occasional moment of levity to throw the rest of the night into sharp relief. Now, patrol on!

I've done the post that I would have placed at the dinner in retro, sorry about that, but the time difference worked the wrong way for me on this one, anyway I like the dinner idea, but as you can see I agree with you on the mood

V

EDIT: 6 hours later, MrT now you have advanced it another day, in a hurry to get to the city before the bey?

 

[J. Passepartout]

Originally posted by MrT
Well I've been waiting all weekend for someone to report to Captain that the army was gathering near Boghaz-Kesen and preparing to cross...or for someone to check out the unusual "fishing boats".

Ali doesn't know anything about boats. He was raised in the desert, you know. He'd notice too many animals in a herd, but not too many fishing boats.

 

[unmerged(6777)]

Originally posted by J. Passeportout


Ali doesn't know anything about boats. He was raised in the desert, you know. He'd notice too many animals in a herd, but not too many fishing boats.

I agree with you completely, however you did see a very large army mobilizing... Never mind though. It's all been sorted out.

Valdemar: Yup.

 

[driftwood]

&%*)(&#)*(%#)($*

I just spent like 15 minutes writing a post, including a celebratory wlak-reference, and then Mozilla crashes and eats it! Hades and brimstone!



driftwood

 

[Lord Durham]

Man, are things ever slowing down...

Anyway, RJ, Valdemar, my post held an important clue in the description of the city, something that I should reinforce here.

At this stage Constantinople was literally a collection of independent quarters separated by vast and vacant parcels of land. Tactically it would be impossible to fight a running retreat throughout the entire city if the Turks get in. That's why I've tried to direct the location of the main choke point to a single gate. Perhaps they could handle a second gate, too, but remember, there's only 2,500 Company men.

 

[unmerged(6528)]

Yeah, I figured as much. However I also assumed that the area along the walls would still have houses built fairly near it. As such a series of holdout walls and such could be built there as a sort of delaying "Third wall" at least, thats what I was going to build up to later. If you want, its just as easy to change it up .

As far as speed, well in your absence we all lost direction and I think people stopped checking it everyday, I would imagine it picks back up within a week.

RJ

 

[Lord Durham]

As near as I can figure, most of the 'quarters' were indeed clustered near the city walls, specifically those from the Blachernae, along the Golden Horn to the Acropolis, and then along the Sea of Marmara wall. Once again, there would be only so many men to fight a running retreat, so I just want to make sure we don't overextend ourselves. That's assuming the walls are breached, of course...

 

[EmprorCoopinius]

Hehe, I think we're all running with the assumption that the walls will fall, especially with the 10 Turks to 1 good guy ratio.

 

[TheF]

I'm going on a modest trip this weekend, I hope to post again on monday (I have been quite busy the past week ) .

 

[Valdemar]

LD, RJ, I think perhpas we misunderstood each other.

What I meant was not to create defensive static positions. That's why I let Frederik change the concept when he realizes that that is what Captain want with that ONE quarter near the harbor.

What I did imagine was this:

A series of quarters, that outwardly looked ordinary. Once the Turks breach the wall and start streaming into the city, then they will have lots of open spaces between the quartres to spread out in, unlike other cities where a breach could be contained within a few streets.

Instead of letting them spread out and bypass the quarters, they should be lured into a quarter by following for example retreating swiss, or fast mongols. Once inside the maze, groups of soldiers should rise upon the roof tops and shoot at them, their exit should be blocked by wagons or swiss pike. That way the quarter would "Swallow them up" and kill them.

I know we cannot expect to man but a few quarters so part of my premise is that once this has happened once or twice, the Turks will have to expect that ALL quarters carry this potential risk, and that should slow them down. Further once inside the quarters, their mobility is gone. So it wouldn't really matter that they where running around in the open spaces, at least until the breach could be sealed with reinforcements.

Ultimately of course this should buy time to escape.

Hope this clarifies it. As it is now, Frederik is only converting one quarter, but is making it into a defensive position rather than a maze. Hopefully the citizins will not see this as abandoning the city

V

 

[Secret Master]

I went ahead and jumped the gun a bit with Foscari and did a bit of an introductory post to get the subplot involving him and the Gritti introduced. Once certain characters pay our friendly Doge a visit, the subplot will actually get underway. Just let me know if I violate FC conventions by accident as I go on. (Since things appeared slow, I figured it would be a good time to jump in and do an introduction.)

 

[unmerged(6777)]

All hail, and welcome to the Doge of the Republic. Francesco and/or Guillaume will come and pay you a visit very soon.

Speaking of paying visits...

This is probably not the best evening to launch this, but I had intended to begin the crossing last Monday and the slow posting rate sort of scuppered that plan. Keep in mind, as you're writing, that the Ottoman vessels have not yet "landed" at the sea wall - and in fact, via ESP, you already know that they're about to swing south to land near Bakirkoy instead. Your characters don't know this, though, nor do they know that 2/3rds of Ishak's force is actually down hear Enkirkoy, so for the time being pretty much everyone should be under the impression that Ottoman attack will be directed against the sea wall of the city in roughly the same way that the city fell to a crusade about a hundred years earlier.

Remember that there is no army outside the land walls (yet) and no one has any definite notion of exactly where the Russian Bey is other than "about a day's ride to the south".

Craig: the Bey is about three hour's ride from Bakirkoy right now but doesn't know that the attack is being launched since I'm assuming that Shur'tu's men caught the messenger before he could be informed. Besides, Ishak's not particularly eager to let you share in the glory. Sur'tu would be, I'd guess, in or very near Bakirkoy at the moment.

* * * *

Comment re the "last stand" fighting retreat bottleneck. I think someone should also point out (perhaps Captain or Lochlan who have seen it before) that it won't only be the Ottoman army you'll have to worry about if the walls are breached and you're trying to get to the harbour to board a boat. Considering that there are a limited number of ships and a much larger population, you may find yourself having to vie with the locals for a seat on the ferry. I'd have had Roos say this except he has never been in such a situation before and therefore wouldn't be aware of the panic and flight in the streets when heathens begin to rampage...

 

[Craig Ashley]

Obviously Shur'tu knows where the Bey was and has a good idea of where he is now. I have been operating under the assumption that the Bey did not know Ishak's plans and will sort of blunder into this one.

Just for clarification, that was Sir Thaddeus we almost slaughtered. Who is writing for our new heavy calvary commander?