Annotated 22-1
Phil’s script:
Full page spread of The Battle at Grasha-Goll, a minor skirmish in the greater theatre of war. Paint us the best tapestry of a battle you can muster with this. What follows is a long series of suggestions that don’t all necessarily need to be included, but state what tactics and “pieces” would be available to either side. Either way, focus on the “One Big Epic Page”ness of it all.
A great skirmish has broken out between Gastonian and Savage forces AT DUSK. Utter pandemonium. Troops all over the place fighting and slaying each other, as Gastonians use siege machinery to lay siege to the bluff-top fortress of Grasha-Goll, a Savage military outpost in the badlands (but not the desert). Nearby “parked” Brontothrashers (who would clearly unpark themselves in reaction to direct threat) do their best to counter the catapults and movable climbing towers, as more Gastonians grapple up and into their fortress. Rhinosaurs carry Savage troops around the back.
Gasha-Goll, itself, is made out of basic stone, wood, and bone, crudely put together, but only a little less strong and stable than the best Gastonia has to offer. It is large enough to facilitate up to a thousand troops or so, Gastonia bringing a larger contingent of course. (No, of course we aren’t going to fill this page with 2500 individually delineated troops. This note simply indicates the scale of the battle.)
The savage denizens of Grasha-Goll are largely gnoll, troll, and avian. The Gastonian troops are human and gnome, with some Sky Elf Warmages thrown into the mix, using arcane blasts, fireballs, and Magick Shields throughout battle. They, themselves, have their own “Battle Robes” and uniforms, since they are allied with Gastonia but not Gastonian Citizens.
Oh, for some reason way back when this came out I just assumed it was the outpost about to get attacked that was the focus of the last chapter. In hindsight that doesn’t make much sense, but…
Yeah, I had always assumed it was some sort of Gastonian outpost, since the World’s Rebellion forces were always on the offense. Plus the dialog on the next page kind of leads one to believe that the WR is coming to free this land for the gnolls.
Needless to say, this took quite a while to draw, even with the reference pics I could find with Google Images. You’d be surprised how many “medieval fortresses” on top of a “desert bluff” there are. ;-)
Nice work here, the structure looks fantastic in scale, but not so much it couldn’t be a real place. Yeah grabbing the high ground in an environment where you can see for miles is basically castle 101.