Tactical Thinking

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

He had travelled down to Helkorth purely to take on their course on Leadership theory and Tactics. He supposed it was something that he should learn, he needed to know how to effectively lead his people and basic battlefield tactics, if he was potentially going to be fighting another force soon then the least he could do was get a bit of knowledge beforehand on how to do it well. 

"Men will follow other men for a few reasons. Foremost above them are because they either respect the man or fear them. If they respect the man thrill follow you because they think whst you're doing is alright and respect you enough to do as they're told. If they fear you then they'll follow you for fear of what will happen if they don't.  The problem with using fear is that if they find someone that they fear more than you then they could turn quite easily. With respect you get loyalty, and loyalty means that no money or promises will turn them from your side. Ruling by fear isn't something we recommend either as then that makes you a tyrant, and no better than the false king so you also will have to be removed. You treat the men under you with respect and care and they will show you the same."

Did this really need to be taught? Be kind and earn your mens respect and loyalty then you'll have good men you can lead, was that not common sense? Look where ruling through fear and acting like a tyrant got Julgrava, he now had civil war from the alliance on several fronts and war even from the Elkagr who had formerly endorsed him and put him where he was.

"How you choose beyond that is to you. Some prefer to lead from the front and some the back, you may think it dishonourable to not lead from the front, but remember that if you are cut down then there's no one left to lead your men and they'll fall into disarray. At the same time you must be seen to be active also or men will start grumbling that you're leaving all the work to them. It's a delicate balance and comes with practice. "

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

"Now if we move onto the tactical part. When you're engaging in combat you want to try and gain every single advantage for yourself and your men that you can. You need to think of your forces strengths and work to them, if you have a force of cavalry then charging them through the woods isn't as effective as a charge on a flat plain is it? Pick your battlefield to suit your troops also.you need to be in control of the situation as much as you can be, if you keep control of a battlefield then you can keep control of the combat."

Made sense, cover your weaknesses and work to the strengths of what you have, pick your own battlefield.  Unfortunately in his situation it wasn't entirely possible, the neighbouring conty was only woods, plains and a few streams. He could only pick his battlefield to an extent. If the enemy had cavalry then he was better off staying away from open ground so the forests would seem a better bet. At the same time if they had little or no ranged weaponry then if he could put a river between him and them then he could surely just sit back and rain arrows on them. The problem then was if they had more archers than he then he would be the one being made into a porcupine. 

It all boiled down to the fact that he didn't actually know the composition of enemy forces or where they were located in terms county. He couldn't pick a battlefield until he knew what kind of battle he was going to be finding and who he would be fighting against. He needed to get a scout or something into there to have a look at what he would be fighting against, he didn't have the military yet to simply walk in and know he'd be ok, his force was relatively small so he would have to take every advantage he could get. 

"Once you've considered the where of your fit you need to think of how if at all possible an ambush works well, you can hit them hard and fast before they know they're even being hit, remove as many of the enemy as possible before they even have a chance to make their first stack.  It can be useful if you're outnumbered to help even the odds, and if not then it can be useful for reducing casualties. Be careful once you set up the ambush however, you need to consider that once the initial ambush has passed you will then still have to fight, is the ambush still worth it if once the surprise is gone youre then fighting in a disadvantaged position?"

[Kell Lo'Tharan]

"Another good way is to break the enemy's morale. If you can break their spirit then they won't be able to fit you properly. Surround them so entirely or overwhelm them with pure force, if you can break their morale and make them flee or surrender then there's less fighting and less losses. Breaking an enemies morale can be done several ways, kill their leaders or important people or intimidate them so utterly they can't fight for fear of capping themselves. If you can effectively flank an enemy and come st them from multiple angles then you can decimate them. However if you have the smaller force their likely to just be able to break through easily, make use of the numbers you have, with small numbers find an area where they can't use numbers to their advantage."

That wasn't really going to be relevant to him but he listened attentively anywhere. As things stood currently he wouldn't be able to overwhelm them that fully and had no men under his command capable of taking out one leader with that level of precision. Intimidation was possible but unlikely in his case. His best net was likely to attempt diplomacy first.

"The best way to win a fight? Not have to fight at all. If you can win through diplomacy then there'll be no losses, if diplomacy were an option then the sorcerer king would have been defeated lon ago so we have had to turn to combat. Strangling trade and holding fortifications,  if you can gain a fortification then that whole area becomes safer, you can use it as a Base in the area and it makes it that much harder to unseat you and remove your presence from the area. If there's none present then build your own."

Construction of the grow had began some time ago, it was still nowhere close to being complete but it was getting there slowly, then he'd have a fortification at least that his people could flee to were they to ever come under attack. He'd have to begin training more troops to man it properly as well as form his forces, but he was beginning to get somewhere at least.  

"If you can remember the strengths and weaknesses of your men and how to utilise them to give them every advantage you can then your losses will be decreased hugely and hopefully any of your alliance missions will be more successful, we can't afford to have untrained commanders in charge of our forces and so hopefully this will be a good introduction for you all. The way things are going it likely won't be long before you'll be able to put these lessons into action."

[Azuloth]

Quest Complete
Rewards

Leadership I
+1 stat point

Tactics I
+1 stat point