Now that things are finally heating up on Chaos, I woudd like to take a little time to lay out a blueprint for something I consider to be an important part of SB... the raid.
In brief, raiding is a quick trip into enemy territory for the purpose of killing a hostile exp group. Although a part of the larger GvG and siege warfare, it in and of itself does not directly relate to the sacking of cities.
So, considering that cities are the main focus of interplayer conflict in SB, the question becomes, why raid?
In short, Shadowbane is ultimately not a game of conflict, but a game of economics. More specifically, success in SB is about DIFFERENTIAL economics. Gold=real estate=power. While we all realize that money flowing into a city means better training, better gear, and better control of the city's surroundings, the important part of the power algorithm is that you have more economic power than those who attempt to take your toys from you. That, coupled with the expense of a full siege, is the ingame impetus for the raid.
A successful raid destroys an exp group. To that end, it neutralizes the potential income for the players and the city that the exp group would have provided, and it drains gold directly for the cost of repairing gear. Also, as a secondary effect, successful raiding decreases the efficiency of income generation as a whole, as more and more people are needed to secure the enemy's resource fields.
In short, you raid to disrupt and punish your foes.
Now, the raid itself has five distinct and important phases; preraid information gathering, planning, transportation, engagement, and aftermath. While much of the information regarding these phases should fall under the "common sense" category, I nonetheless feel that I should lay them out all in one place.
The Preraid Information Gathering:
First and foremost, the target of the raid must be your enemy. This means that you only raid specificly designated, open war declared enemies. You do not raid hostile guilds, or guilds with whom there has been harsh words and petty conflict. There may very well be high-end diplomatic efforts ongoing that you would jeopardize.
Once you have your target, you need to know exactly how they generate their cash. Usually, this means you need to know both which (usually R4) camps they exp/farm, but it can also mean which discipline runes they devote a fair amount of people to monopolizing. This means more than knowing that Generic Guild exps at the Faceless Mob Camp; it means the loc of the camp, the geography around the camp, common alternatives to that camp, popular farming camps, and the quickest routes from your entry point(s) to that camp.
There are several methods available to gather this information. The easiest by far is the use of spies. No one knows the habits of a guild more than its members. What you can gain from spies can vary in worth... you can end up with a starting point to a full-blown layout.
Scouting the area is mandatory. At least one (although hopefull all) of your raiding party needs to be directly familiar with the territory. That player will be in charge of physically leading the raid when it is underway. Your enemy's territory needs to be thoroughly scouted before raiding and occur, and ideally before each raid.
The necessary abilties of the scout include stealth (which must be in effect at all times) and tracking (which should be constantly in use as both radar, and a camp-seeking guide). As the goal of scouting is to gather as much information as possible before being discovered/chased off/killed, other abilities (such as increased movement speed) are useful. Thinking of the scouting mission as playing a ratio, or balancing on a rope... time will run out, and you will eventually be detected, so you want to have had as much accomplished as possible. Now, oddly enough, the profession best suited for scouting is, well, the scout. Others, however, and provided they provide at least the 2 crucial abilities, will do just fine.
Finally, when scouting, there is one absolute rule: You do not engage the enemy. Period. If you come across a half-dead foe resting in the middle of nowhere, you note his position, and you leave him be. You do not stop to pick up the Forgemaster rune. You do not attempt to steal from exp groups. You get in, get your information, and get out.
Planning:
You have gathered your information, and now is the time to organize and pass it on. You have selected your target. You know where you are going to hit. Now you assemble your raiding party, you determine your mode of entry, and you designate a raid leader.
Having a single raid leader is important. Raiding is not wandering around willy-nilly in enemy territory, looking for trouble to stir up. To this end, there is one raid leader, and all further decisions will be made by that person alone. When things go wrong on the raid (and they will), the leader is the only person who decides what to do. Any command the raid leader issues on the raid is law... after the raid is the only time that group opinions should be voiced, and suggestions offered.
Lastly, the raid leader is in charge of making sure everyone knows the rules of the raid. Before the group goes out, the raid leader lets everyone know that "we are hitting these guys at this camp, and when we do this is what we do first, and this is what we do not do..." More specifics on this will be provided later.
Transportation:
Although all the details of this phase of the raid will need to be planned out and understood before the raid takes place, I have decided to give it a section devoted to just this aspect.
Even though it is possible that your enemy is merely over the next hill, what is more like is that the enemy's homelands are quite well removed from your own, even and especially on another continent. There are 3 main methods of transporting a raid to the target; overland, chain summoning, and runegates. Which method of transportation is the best method is entirely circumstantial. Use whichever, or the combination of whichever, as is best for the specifics of your particular raid.
Overland transport is self-explanatory. While all raids involve running to the target to some extent or another, only raiding close enemies can be done strictly through overland travel. Nonething more need be said.
Chain summoning is another option, useful in crossing great distances. Of course, since time is a factor in raiding, it is generally only viable when you have multiple summoners in your raiding party. Now, the summon has to begin somewhere... typically either bribing a newbie in a freehold, or using a summon bot. Personally, I highly recommend that everyone create a level 25 summon bot who is able to move from freehold to freehold as needed. Now, while chain summoning has the potential to be the most time effecient mode of entry, it is also potentially the most visible. You do not, under any circumstances, want to summon your party into the middle of the freehold. When a group of WN masses like such, word spreads like wildfire. The first person who gets the summon needs to immediately move to an out-of-sight location (of course, if you are using a bribed summoner, you absolutely need to pay him first). Only after you are out of view do you start bringing in the other summoners (and finally the non-summoning raiding party members). If you are using a bribed summoner, your ideal is one that is out exping. If you are using a bot, leave town, but stay inside the town zone before summoning. This is crucial... you leave the high traffic areas to remain out of sight, but you want to stay inside the town zone to avoid having your party prematurely show up on track.
Runegates are an extremely time efficient method of group transport, provided that your target lies near one. Obviously, to use the runegate option, you need to have a Traveller either in your party, or willing to take the trip with you to the gate. What is most important about using the gates is that once across, you must move immediately(!) away from the gate. These are high traffic areas, and the longer your party can move undetected means the higher likelyhood of being able to successfully hit your target.
The last part of the transportation phase is moving to the target area itself. Of course, it is a great assert to have a player with you that is able to use a group movement buff. What I do feel is important about this phase is the efficiency of your movement AS A GROUP. To this end, I strongly advise against using formations to move to your target. The reasons for this are twofold. One, I have noticed that people tend to zone out when they do not have to control their own movement, and you want your whole party paying attention to the raid, even if you are moving through empty territory. Two, and more important, is that you want your whole party to stay together. It often happens that the characters who provide the group movement speed are themselves faster than the rest of the group. You cannot afford to have the speed chant drop on any member, or play wait and catchup at all. Faster players need to stay with the group, slower players need to keep moving. The raid leader needs to pay attention to everyone's stamina, and call rest times when needed.
The Engagement:
Raiding is not about a challenge. It is not about showing off your character or your gear. It is certainly not about a fair fight. It is about destroying an enemy group as brutally and efficiently as possible. To steal a terrible, but topical, cliche: your goal is to strike with Shock and Awe.
To this end, there are some rules of thumb about engaging the enemy. First of, if your group is lucky enough to contain a Priest, Prelate, Assassin, and well-built Mage, then everyone gets stunned. A stunner does nothing but put a stun into every opponent.
Second, hit the softest targets first. Now this may fly against conventional wisdom, but you hit the mages first, and the healers second. You want to eliminate as many people as fast as you can, regardless of their overall threat level. After the initial deaths, then you concentrate on the healers. Leave tanks alone. Tanks are useful not because of their immediate damage output, but because they can last long enough for that damage to add up. Your goal is elimination, not attrition, leave the hardest targets for last. Make sure everyone understands this plan before you are close to the enemy. Great coordination is not necessary, but everyone needs to know what is expected of them. It is far better to overnuke a few casters, than to undernuke many casters.
Third, do not give chase. When a few of the less stalwart of your opponents flee, switch targets to the ones who do not. You want to concentrate firepower as much as you can, and splitting your group prevents you from doing that. Furthermore, all sorts of bad situations can occur when you tunnel-vision in on a single fleeing target. If virtually all of your targets flee, it is up to the raid leader to decide if you will chase at all. The raid leader should base the decision on whether or not some of these targets can be killed quickly. Whatever the situation, the raid leader should say chase or no chase, and everyone needs to obey. Even if you only end up killing 3 out of 10 members of the group, and the rest get away, you still have succeeded in your mission.
Lastly, although it saddens me to have to say it, you DO NOT LOOT while there are any living hostiles near you (i.e. on your minimap). You are not on the raid for personal enrichment. It is my personal opinion that any player who does so should be killed at the end of the raid as punishment for the act, but you may decide differently. At the very least, that person should not be invited to participate in future raids.
Once your have successfully destroyed your target, loot their corpses and recall. Your job here is done, and you should go farm, exp, or whatever back home.
Aftermath:
Once everyone has recalled back home, now is the time to pat each other on the back, and to go over what just occured on the raid. Did you fail? Did you succeed? Why? Were things where you thought they would be? What unforseen circumstances arose? Next time, what should you do in that situation instead?
Review the raid, and plan specifics to improve on the next one. However, do not immediately go on the next one. You want to keep the enemy on their toes, and you want them to waste time trying to hunt you down afterwards. In the meantime, go do something else useful for yourself or your nation.
Odds and Ends:
Here are some other rules of thumb that I find important.
Consider the raid a race against time. You will be spotted, and eventually a force large enough to take you out will be mobilized. Your ultimate task is to accomplish your goal and get out before anyone tries to hit you.
When someone dies on the raid, they are done. You do not wait for the shroud to drop and summon them back. Thank them for the group and keep moving.
Do not go afk on the raid. If your dog catches on fire or something else happens that forces you to go afk, recall first. If someone in your group goes afk without recalling, kill them. If you feel really bad about it, offer to reimburse their repair costs after the raid. You, however, cannot afford to leave someone out in the open where they can be spotted.
If you stumble across another enemy group before reaching your target, kill them as fast as possible. Afterwards, the raid leader will decide whether or not to continue the raid. Whatever the leader decides, goes.
If you reach your destination and find that no one is there, go to a previously designated backup target. If there is still no one there, the raid leader should decide whether or not to continue. Do not just wander around looking for something to do. It is much better to spend 15 minutes of travel time for nothing than to allow something random to give you a free trip back to your tree.
If you succeed in destorying your target and you loot, don't identify random items there. Take them back to town where it is safe to do so. Before the raid takes place, the leader needs to spell out what will happen with any items gathered on the raid.
Now, of course, all of this is for mixed party raiding... other types of raids, such as stealther parties, require different methods.
To sum up, raiding is not only fun, but it is helpful to your nation. Raid, raid well, raid often.
Topic Commands
Click to receive email notification of replies 
Click to stop receiving email notification of replies