War Council

## About

Once a week, as a result from players' strategy meetings, both War and Diplomacy objectives can be tackled. Similarly, once a week, the enemy factions would also advance towards their objectives, with almost all of their key objectives having been uncovered by the players via their journey so far.

This weekly strategy meeting came to be known as the War Council.

## How to play

The emergent gameplay suitable to the Phoenix Ring's needs came as a weekly meeting, held either at the Falcon's Landing stronghold or the conquered city of Eldre'Thalas.

Held at the end of the week, the players attended as companion characters - fulfilling the role of delegated advisors to the Red Sun Legates (player characters). During the War Council session the pre-established agenda topics would have priority in the debate forum, but often times new matters previously undiscussed could be raised, discussed, and voted to be acted upon.

## Companions in War

Players could delegate their Red Sun Legate's vote in the War Council to their companion (played by the DM or volunteers) and they'll usually vote in accordance to what makes most sense for strategic victories (mitigating losses as much as possible).

Taking into account character preferences as much as possible and also value group cohesion, DMed companions will not go rogue and typically vote for the imminent consensus.

Once the players planned out their attack, a little bonus may be added to off-screen battle rolls, depending on how invested the players were in the respective conquest. Devising a little strategy will have that flavor will be taken into account and mitigate losses. Every war campaign needs a leader and so each attack will source units from the local garrison as well as a companion to fulfill the role of a Centurion and lead the troops to victory. This companion then effectively becomes the players' liaison in the region.

Any region can be targeted in this mode, it can be Zandalari, Pandaren, Silithus, anything.

## Companions in Diplomacy

If war matters discussions do not fit a character's role and preference, a more refined approach is also available. Players as Legates will assign the desired companion to take on the role of an Envoy, and send them on a cloak & dagger mission to either negotiate with the local region leader or in case that fails, plot with the dissident Kaldorei elements in a selected region and agitate the waters enough so that they may create a Guerrilla Garrison out of the region. This region will automatically go to the Kaldorei Resistance, not the Red Sun, and so players have limited control over what it can do for them. This will mostly depend on story and RP elements.

Only Highborne Empire lands may be targeted in this mode, because logically it needs to have a kaldorei presence for you to turn it into a kaldorei resistance region. It doesn't matter if the territory is under temporary control of an Ancient House, players can still target it, but the outcome may be less successful than intended.

Depending on what regions are targeted and when, the dice rolls for the Envoy's mission will be altered. Perhaps the number of Envoys sent will help increase chances of success, perhaps not. For example it will be very easy for the Red Sun faction to create a guerrilla garrison in the corner or border regions of the Empire, as usually those see the most friction and that's where control is least maintained, or if the players come into information telling them of vulnerable areas of the Empire then they can prioritize those too, should they wish. Generally, this should always be possible with just 1 Envoy. Upon success or failure, the Envoy will return to your base automatically and give you the good or bad news.

However, players are advised to always remember that they are the fabled Red Sun, their companions are not. Sending a large amount of Envoys to an enemy bastion of power like Zin-Azshari would have very slim odds of success.

Reading the map, using their intuition, as well as their characters' knowledge of future events, is the players' best bet for successful diplomacy.