First off, just want to say I'm not dead and that I hope to be making more "story driven" posts on here for my entertainment and yours. Secondly (and this is gonna just be great) this thing is gonna make for one hell of a story that may or may not piss on Bloodpool's and (possibly) TGP's day since they are pretty much the main driving factors behind new units coming out (That and factions. Wonder if I could pull this off?) I'll be keeping track of this "story" through 'parts' (part 1, part 2, etc) so you can follow along the story if you don't wish to participate
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"Do you not see? Do you not see my brothers and sisters? Do you not see how the tyrannical sisters use and oppress you," Cries out a stallion upon a soap box, "Can you not see how they tax you for everything you are worth and give nothing in return?"

A few ponies scoff at him, dismissing him outright as a madpony. Hearing this, he mearly smiles and replies,

"You think me mad do you? Well look at what they did with your tax money," He says with a wave of a hoof, "Do the roads out here in your border town have any better roads to help bring in traders? The sinkholes on the road tell me no. Do the schools here have up to date texts or even an up to date library? My travels around Equestria show me that you are woefully behind in all things modern- even the Diamond Dog colonies east of here are more up to date than you are! Diamond Dogs!"

"Speaking of Diamond Dogs," He says with a serious expression and a relatively low voice, "Are you even safe from them?" This gets a few hushed whispers and concerns of safety "Has your taxes- your money- even been used to help better defend yourselves from the rampant, and known, foalnapping that they pratice for free labor?" At this, he looks up from the small crowd he has gathered and looks around the town... as if looking around the edge of town and not seeing something there that should be and starts to look a little more nervous.

"The lack of even a basic wall tells me that you are not important enough in the eyes of Equestria's leaders to be spared the loss of your loved ones," He speaks in an almost whisper, "The lack of guards tells me you're not worth dying over. I'll be honest, the only-"

"Alright, that's enough out of you!" says a guard who was finally able to breach the crowd and reach his soapbox to start dragging him down.

"Whatever happend to free speech*unfh**SMACK*" He says as he's pulled off the box roughly.

"That ended when you started to slander the princesses' names!" As he starts to place chain cuffs on the stallion's legs to prevent escape.

"It's my right to say what I want! Just as much as it is their right to believe me or not!"

"Quiet, before I decide to muzzle that mouth of yours too!"

"See how they oppress us? See how they-" A quick crack from the guardspony's hoof quickly silences him as a muzzle is put on to keep him quiet, much to the crowd's shock.

"Go about your business people! There is nothing more to see here!" Other guardsponies shout in an attempt to break up the crowd, earning some contempt glares from some before they disperse...

ELSEWHERE...

"So?" Asks a male voice.

"Phase 1 is set. Most of the outlying villages are in some form of agitaed state that will surely set them off once attacked or hear of an attack on a nearby village." Replies a female voice.

"Good. Move to Phase 2, we strike in two days." Speaks up another female voice.

"Soon we shall rule what was rightfully ours to begin with." Speaks the male

"Indeed." Says the first female.

"Pro tribus unita." The second female says

"Pro tribus unita." The other two reply...

Two days later at a boarder village; After sunset...

The alarm bell rings in the small trading town as buildings suddenly catch fire from gouts of flame. Ponies are out in the streets either panicking or attempting to put out the fires while the small detachment of guardsponies are scrambling in an attempt to drive away the agressors. The guardsponies don't have long to wait when the enemy drops down from the sky... drakes.

"Why are drakes attacking an Equestrian town?""Aren't the drakes based in Equestria?""Surely they know this is mad-"

"SILENCE," barks the captian, "Kill these wretched curs!"

Pegasi take to the air to engage the drakes still airborne as the earth ponies and unicorns square off against the drakes on the ground...
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Details of the battlefield:

The town is relatively small- it only houses about 250 ponies- and streaches out to a half mile. The town is cut into neaarly four identical parts with it's two roads that cross through town. Resisdents live on the outer ring while as you move in you get more and more closer to the shops and warehouses. The guardstation is located on the northeast side of town- where most of the damage has been dealt.

Fires dot along the eastern side of town, making it harder to see if flying low from the constant shift from bright lights to low lights. The fires on the northeast side are less prone to this as there are enough buildings on fire to provide a realatively equal glow.

Pony civs are out and about either panicking or attempting to put out fires.
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Forces:

Player controlled forces
The Order of the Drakeguard: 25 Drakes (10 on the ground, 15 in the air)

Opposing Forces:
United Equestrian Empire
Earth ponies: 20
Unicorns: 10
Pegasi: 20
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Objective

Order of the Drakeguard are to utterly crush the UEE's detachment of troops and set fire to half the town (already around 33%) Civilian casulties are acceptable but has been asked that you try to keep it to a minimum: bodies are needed alive to spread word of incompotence of the guard.

(this is for fun; i.e. playing the other side for shits and tickles)
KILL THE CURS!
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Be sure to leave me a kill count on civs as well!

884606
Ok, to start off with, in order to keep civilian casualties down, my drakes will be ordered not to cross the road through town to the western side, unless absolutely neccessary to deal with soldiers. Damage will be contained to the eastern side.
For the drakes in the air, I will split them into two groups, on of 10 and one of 5. Both groups are to use the smoke for cover as much as they can. The group of ten will engage the pegasi in hit and run warfare, never staying in the same spot too long, taking full advantage of the smoke. The other five in the air are to spread as much fire as they can across the eastern side of town. Once it's all on fire they are to join their bretheren in the fight against the pegasi.
For the drakes on the ground, they will be split into two groups of five. One group will use the smoke and ruined buildings for cover and harass the unicorn and pegasis forces, distracting them from the second group. They will focus mostly on the unicorns to prevent them from fighting the fires. The second group is to go from building to building and, once their sure its empty, light it on fire. Any civilians are to be removed from the building before hand and placed on the road out of town (not too gently though). Once they are sure that most of the buildings are on fire, they are to join their bretheren facing the earth ponies and unicorns.
Later, when the pegasi have been dealt with, the drakes in the air will join their bretheren on the ground to finish off the unicorns and earth ponies.

My Casualties: 10 drakes (due to superior enemy numbers and the fact that several drakes were distracted by fires and civies for much of the battle)

Enemy Casualties: 10 unicorns, 15 earth ponies, 16 pegasi (gotta let somepony escape to help spread the tale)

Civies: 30 (can't save everyone)

885448
For some reason I continue to think that smoke and fire don't go hand in hand... good catch, even if the cover of practical night was already there

the idea was that no offical guard report was to be made in time for any responses which is why the UEE detachment was to be utterly crushed and panicky civs were to spread the word, but it's not like a few minutes worth of extra chasing couldn't catch the fleeing pegasi

The drakes in the air was a nice split. The way you split the ground forces on the other hand leaves me a little 'ehhh' and now you just have a group of civs confused on whats going on (...actually that kinda fits in with what is happening)

Your focused destruction allowed more civs to flee but also allowed them to get organized to put out fires, prolonging combat here. Believable civ count death

all in all, 4/5 job well done

884606
Is this part of your original campaign? Just asking for listing purposes.

886859
no... my comp suffered catastrophic memory failure and I lost all of that

this is entirely new and will, perhaps, force into existence a particular faction that no one has thought about when it comes to Equestria. I may need help with specials later and 2 other heroes (units more as the heroes as they are acting in the background for a while yet; pm if you are interested in helping out)

887014
I'm sure you didn't forget some stuff at least. It was going in a pretty interesting direction.

So should I label this Campaign 5?

884606

Fifteen drakes in the air are to engage the pegasi amid the smoke and lure them away from ground forces.

Ground units are to separate into groups of five and move into the buildings along the eastern main road. Their orders are to murder everything inside the buildings, and once the UEE soldiers arrive to fight, the drakes will jump them from inside the houses. Unicorns are to be taken out first, then the EPs. Air units are to aid them once they deal with the pegasi.

After enemy soldiers are dead, the troops are to burn everything to the ground and murder everyone that was stupid enough to stay inside the settlement.

Final count? I say around seven or eight dead drakes overall; complete annihilation of UEE forces, and around eighty or something dead civs.

Can we display dismembered corpses? That'd be neat Oh yeah; remove the bodies of the guards, make it seem like there were no defenders. Also take away our dead, and plant a few Zebra (or whatever liable allies Equestria has) standards and weaponry to sow confusion.

887021
well, given enough thought I could pull it from the depths of my mind... Won't write it off yet
yeah, this is a new campaign. hows about you post what you would have the drakes do? or better yet, run the shits and tickles objective and try to kill as many drakes as you can

887062
go for the throat eh? a true raiders account indeed!

the ground forces could already see each other, so disengagement is necessary (sorry if it didn't seem clear enough) but I could see the "ambush" working greatly (especially since you're hitting those pesky unicoms) and see how you would lose less (assuming you lost none from disengageing) than "normal"

...you torched the entire town right, ok.

the killing for the ambush and for those stupid enough to save their homes (not counting combat cross-fire) would be one of those 'eehh' moments: not needed but helps

4/5, good job

Edit: noticed the confusion element at the end. amusing

887148
Dude. I've been playing the enemy side in this group for the past month or longer. Relax.

887154
I would hate to have your job

I haven't been around this group (actively) for what? 2, 3 months? I wouldn't know you turned into the punching bag

887177
Seriously. Just check out #27. Although if you look on Campaign 4, I'm now an actual character in his story!

Also amusing is if you look more closely at my avatar.

887177
Hmm... let's do classic template. Have not used it in a long time. Also, I didn't read any previous comments as much as possible, so this is as clean and unique as I hope it to be.
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Orders given: Charge, Eliminate Air, Eliminate Ground
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Charge forward.

Forces in the air- quick fake-out and dive to kill as much Equestrians as immediately possible. One quick pass.

Following initial charge, all drakes to the air. Gain immediate air superiority. Take out all pegasi. Draw engagement to western side, where less light will allow lower visibility. As such, remaining unicorns will have reduced support effectivity.

After all pegasi are out, return to eastern area and engage near the fires. Weapons free; all Equestrians acceptable targets, within the eastern area.

8 in the air, 17 on the ground (or similar split number, depending on units remaining). Airborne drakes will perform dives and dropping on top of them and short, quick assaults. Attempt each air attack at 1-2 ponies for good balance of effect and survivability.

17 on the ground- 9 frontal charge, 4 - 4 splits use wing power speed to hit flanks.

And while on the eastern side, torch remaining buildings there.

Didn't count civilian casualties. Didn't really matter to me. But I'm sure I got some trying to put out the fires.

887236
ok first off, battle #27 has a lot of words (still not done reading) now onto the fight

well, you're the frist to not stick to the overly bright area so cudos there.

your fighting on the western side could cause some buildings there and will cause more panic among the civs as there are gouts of flame and falling bodies of pegasi

since EPs are useless while the air engagement was happening some help evac civs before returning to fight

having your forces split in your fashion make relatively easy mop up work

since it's open season on the eastern side of town, more civs than normal would have died if not for the EPs from the detachment helping with evac

5/5 job well done

885922
4/5? I can live with that.
*salutes*

887148

Why not torch the whole thing? If I had my way, I'd have killed everyone too Y'know, gotten a few guys to fly over the borders of the town, kill any runners; other guys torch the buildings close to the border and let the fire spread inwards, killing anyone who tries to stop it. Then we just make sure no one leaves until the whole thing burns out, and we just have to waltz in and kill any survivors.

We are drakes after all

884606 i split my arial drakes into two groups one of 7 and one of 8 utilizing the smoke to hide them my 8(henceforth refered to as my anvil.) While my 7(hammer) light a few fires to get the pegasi's attention they will lure small groups into the smoky area where my anvil will strike before retreating back into the smoke at the same time my ground units will launch a attack on the market district via the alley ways they are to also engage unicorns whenever possible making a point to at least take them down after my hammer and anvil are done they will use strafing runs against the earth ponies completing the mission with a few foals taken as well.
uee casulties:
Earth ponies:40(as they broke to run they would be reduced to ash)
Unicorns:10(i specifically ordered their deaths even at the drakes expense.)
Pegasi:20(my trap should work very well.)
Civ:80(i torched the entire market district there's gonna be blood)
Drakeguard:
Drake casualties:20-23(i don't like it but it works.)
P.o.w.
civ. foals:4-8(it should reinforce the resentment towards the guard.)