Dread Solstice global campaign strategy room - WEEK 6: DRAKE FOR THE LEAST BAD BAD END?

[Tiger]

I was oblivious to this thread. I voted for Skull yesterday. Part of me wonders, if people voting for Drake are doing it just for giggles.

[Double Misfire]

1 hour ago, Tiger said:

I was oblivious to this thread. I voted for Skull yesterday. Part of me wonders, if people voting for Drake are doing it just for giggles.

Chaos (and possibly Death and Destruction players). There are more folks who don't want the mist to happen than them, they just don't have a split vote. If anything I'd say whoever was running the campaign wanted the mist to happen.

Still, Skull is making some impressive gains. I'm now going t hold off until Wednesday before deciding where to place my votes, or to skip them entirely and give them to next week's dilemma if stopping the mists looks like a completely lost cause by then.

[Double Misfire]

Well, if anyone else hadn't already, I'm conceding to the mists and conserving the games I've played this week for the new dilemma on Thursday. I'd encourage any Order players with games they've yet to register to do the same. 

Ain't no stopping the mists now - I hope the Darkoath Warqueen gets a decent artefact out of them, she could use the boost!

[Double Misfire]

Well, Order truly screwed the pooch last week:

 

It looks like there's still a chance to put a finger in Khorne's eye and blow Khorghos Khul's personal Death Star up. Unless anyone's got a really convincing argument for running away I think it's a resounding vote for Skull.

[Double Misfire]

Looks like the Warqueen got an artefact after last week, here's hoping the Ordinator gets one after we blow the Orb Infernia up!  

[Sception]

Death's certainly with you this week, but we've only got so many players, and chaos is out in force to consolidate their gains.  We're counting on you order folks to get out the vote for skull!

[BrownDog]

I feel it's going to be another close one this week

[Undeadly]

Death finds common cause with the forces of Order this week; let us cast the Orb Infernum down, and strike a blow to the eye of Khorne;

For the Skull!

[Double Misfire]

I think it's safe to say the Infinity Gears are definitely spinning this week. If any other Order players have yet to vote this week I'd urge you to hold onto your played games and painted models for week 5, as it's the first week of the final chapter and guaranteed to be a big one.

[FractalRain]

Well, who can resist shooting down a planet! 

Though, I am a bit concerned that falling debris will decimate Aqshy.....

[Double Misfire]

This week's outcome, not as explosive as I'd have liked, but well done to all who took part:

 

Aaaand this week's dilemma as we head into the final chapter:

Looking at how destructive the gaming public's previous votes have been it looks like Nagashizzar's getting flattened this week. Unless someone can come up with a really good argument for Skull, I'm happy to throw my lot in with the masses and grab battering ram.

[Sheriff]

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGHHHHH!!!!!

(Vote eye lads)

[GammaMage]

Wait...this thing eating time isn't Nagash? Skull says "Even the Supreme Necromancer would not let time itself be devoured."

 

EDIT: I think I misunderstood. Skull is saying 'Nagash wouldn't devour all of time, so lets wait it out, he'll stop doing this after a while'?

[TheDayman]

Right, everyone break out the Skaven! We're off to Nagashizzar  

[Lightbox]

Goodness now I'm torn between my new found enjoyment of my daughters of khaine and my original love of death

[Lightbox]

20 minutes ago, xking said:

I will help you choose then. You fight for Morathi now and we must sack Nagashizzar. She will have her vengeance, she will not be denied.

Either that or go drake and help her steal the lost time itself

[GammaMage]

I can see Morathi going either way on this. Revenge and/or power are her main motivations. What's more important to her at the moment?

[Sception]

Nagashizzar is the worst place for any mortal to do anything.  You'll age to death and collapse into black sand before you even approach it.  Your souls will be sucked up into the whirling vortex of death magic that permeates the seat of Nagash's power.  There's nothing for you there but death, and the eternity of undeath that awaits on the other side of it.

Besides, Nagash isn't even responsible for this.  We fire a giant time cannon, time magic runs rampant across all of Aqshy, and when you lose a few hours out of your soul crushing workday over in Azyr you... what, assume this has anything what-so-ever to do with Shyish?  You're wasting your times, and the lives and souls of your followers.

Vote Skull.

Gather your forces, wait for what is clearly the shockwaves from the time cannon's firing to pass, decide what to do when the situation is more clear.

......

And if in-universe reasons aren't enough for you, remember the real world outcomes in play.  The Mortal Realms aren't actually in danger.  GW isn't going to cancel the game due to some campaign results right when they're in the middle of releasing a bunch of new product lines for that same game.

No, what's at stake isn't the fate of the game, but the tone of the game.  Do you want to continue with the boring old one dimensional good guys vs. bad guys, order vs. chaos narrative of the Realmgate Wars, or do you want to continue with the murkier, less predictable, more dangerous and spooky and exciting tone of the Malign Portents, where the undead are a clear threat and you never know which mortal enemies are going to ally to take out what mortal threat next.  Look at the Malign Portents site again.  Read the Fluff, the setting lore, this is good stuff!  A dramatic step up from what we've had before!  We want more of that, and a clear cut victory for Nagash in Dread Solstice is our number one way of communicating to GW that more of that is exactly what we want.  A victory for Nagash is a victory for Age of Sigmar as a whole, whether as a game worth playing or a setting worth investing in emotionally.

Sure, a victory for Nagash is the campaign's "bad ending", but sometimes the bad ending is the best ending.

Vote Skull.

[Lightbox]

I'm still thinking drake or skull. Sacking nagashizzaar with no information linking it does seem more like a crazy desperate move of 'ahh the sky is falling kill bob it might be him' sort of thing. I'm still not entirely certain the choices necessarily just relate to a alliance. Though obv one does end up momentarily benefitting from it. 

 

Though I might also be a bit too not wanting to go and sack the capital of the most overlooked alleigance by gw (though might be tied with destruction for that title now as we've had a more recent book but they've had more new releases aka ironjawz)

 

I do think tbh that the split in what people think is best is really good for the campaign, makes it less about going with obvious choices and more personal choices for the player. It's unfolding interestingly though and whatever the outcome I'm interested to see where it leads.

[GammaMage]

1 hour ago, xking said:

Revenge, it was Nagash that shamed her.

You'd think so, but she hates Slaanesh as much as Nagash, yet she still messed up the spell imprisoning him so she could siphon more souls out of him. So I think she tends to choose power over revenge.

[Aelfric]

4 hours ago, GammaMage said:

You'd think so, but she hates Slaanesh as much as Nagash, yet she still messed up the spell imprisoning him so she could siphon more souls out of him. So I think she tends to choose power over revenge.

Well, revenge is not sweet unless the recipient knows about it and Slaanesh is unaware until He/She awakens.  This way she gets both power and revenge.

[GammaMage]

The Drake is not giving up. The Drake is actually the smart move, as Eye is not going to actually stop the Black Void. It's just going 'Bad stuff is happening involving an evil force, it must be Nagash'.

That said, I just want to burn Nagishazzar regardless of what the Black Void is doing.

[GammaMage]

It's not. Read the whole paragraph. "Find the time that it has stolen, and claim it for yourself." It's the only one of the three that involves actually counteracting the Black Void's actions. Sacking Nagasshizzar will stop Nagash. But the Black Void is something else, attracted here by us messing with Time Magic.

[FractalRain]

The Drake = selfishly try to steal the time for yourself

The Eye = attack Nagasshizzar in an attempt to stop Nagash and perhaps the curse of the Black Void

The Skull = wait and see and do nothing

 

The Eye is definitely the best choice for all factions other than Death, as it alludes to both stopping Nagash and potentially the curse of the Black Void as well.

[Barking Agatha]

For the forces of Order, attacking Nagasshizzar seems like a very bad idea. You would just be bringing more armies to join Nagash, and even if you did succeed (which is unlikely) you would upset the power balance in favour of Chaos. Nagash may be the immediate threat, but Chaos is not our friend! We have to stop Nagash from taking over everything, but to strike at the seat of his power is a bit too much. Surely there has to be a god of Death?

I say we stop knee-jerking to every new development and just wait and see. Sooner or later the Black Pyramids will sink into the ground and skaven will poke out their heads and go, 'Eek!' Happens every time.