(White Dwarf #38)
Oliver opens with a story showing a contrast: a dull goblin ambush versus a well-planned evil party assaulting a merchant caravan. His point? There's no reason monsters shouldn’t be as tactical as players.
What’s it about?
Monsters—aside from the undead and constructs—value their lives and shouldn’t attack without reason, whether it's racial hatred or sadism. Oliver states 'If a monster can achieve its aims without resorting to out-and-out violence, and therefore putting its life at risk, it should do so'. Animals are noted as not attacking things that aren’t easy kills. He makes the oft repeated point - if players use oil and poison, so can monsters. He concludes by suggesting you bring the monsters to life just as the players bring life to the PCs.
The article then shifts as Graeme Davis presents ‘Extracts from the Uruk-Hai Battle Manual’. It's a fun brief read and the heart of the article. This well-written, practical guide covers lair defense: terrain, sentries, alarms, force composition, morale, spellcasters, and traps.
Is this a keeper?
Yes. The opening is fine, but the Uruk-Hai Battle Manual is essential, packed with actionable advice for organizing humanoid lairs. A definite ‘best of’.
I'm really enjoying these summarised articles, but where, may I ask, are the minis?
ReplyDeleteI'll post some Imperial Guard I painted a while back just to mix it up. I'm on an AD&D kick at the moment.
ReplyDeleteI liked the transcripted manual by Graeme Davis, but I kinda felt like it came across as too professional/organised to be Uruk-Hai. Are they supposed to have a reasonable IQ? I just thought they were the proto orcs/orks which weren't the sharpest tools in the shed.
ReplyDeleteI guess it's a fine line playing monsters to their intelligence. Orc's life is all fighting - at least as they are written - so figuring they might be good at it makes sense to me. I don't think the article advocates unreasonable tactics for a humanoid tribe.
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