"The bulk of what they can muster will be in the tunnels." Kel said, pointing her finger at the map of the trollish fortress. "They can't hope to stand against us on the surface, but in the tunnels their larger size may allow them to overpower us individually. We'll have to be careful of ambushes."
"But surely they realize that retreating into the tunnels is a death sentence for them?" Asked Flint. "They require meat to survive, and you can't get meat off a mushroom. We aren't even sure they can grow edible mushrooms under there. They'll starve to death before the first snows of winter, while we wait outside."
"Any less of a death sentence than meeting us on the open field?" Kel responded, indignantly. "Seventy-odd heavy infantry with crossbow support, when we can already take on three to one odds comfortably? Our scouts reported no more than a hundred and fifty trolls there, and that's going to include the noncombatants as well. More than we could take, to be sure, especially while providing for the defense of Sosadcerol as well, but after Argentum and Kheskeim's battle I can't see that many trolls posing a problem for us. You could have sent half as many troops as you did, and I'd still be confident of victory."
"No." Stated The Tooninator, who had been observing the tactics discussion with uncharacteristic silence. "With half as many troops, we'd win the battle, but not win the war."
"What do you mean?" Asked Commander Muthkat. "Even with only thirty of your dwarves, I'd stand by them against a hundred and fifty trolls, if those two scouts you had are any indication of the rest of your troops."
"You'd win, sure." The Tooninator responded. "But it would look like you might not. If we sent thirty to kill a hundred and fifty, who knows. Maybe next time they would gather two hundred and try again. The chieftains would cry out that they must avenge the hundred and fifty that we struck down, and the youth would go eagerly to war with fire in their hearts, eager to prove themselves in combat with a hated foe."
"But sixty," he continued, " Sixty is bigger than that. Sixty is big enough that we'll send a message not just to the trolls, but to everyone else: Attack Sosadcerol too much, and you'll be up against an army so big that it will destroy you no matter what you send to challenge it, an army that will come to your home and burn it to the ground. That message will strike fear into the trolls, it will break their spirits where our strength will break their bodies. Their chieftains will be unable to gather a new army with cries for vengeance, because everyone will be fearful of the vengeance that Sosadcerol would call down upon them. You will be left in peace, because it will be too dangerous to do otherwise. We must strike them once, with overwhelming force, not many times with carefully measured force. We must give them no hope that we can be opposed."
"Moving on," said Kel, momentarily shocked by The Tooninator's speech, " We need to discuss tactics. The hallways will be narrow, so we won't have the advantage of numbers. They'll know the layout much better than us, too, so we'll need to be careful to avoid being surrounded. I'd suggest splitting into groups that can keep a two-deep formation across the tunnels, and hitting as many of them at the same time as we can. It will hopefully make it harder for them to mount a coordinated defense, and we'll clear the fortress more quickly."
"What of the surface?" asked Flint. "Suppose they do decide to stand and fight?"
"I would trust that to you." Replied Kel. "Tell us where our forces need to be, and we will d our best to follow your plans. Your dwarves will be leading the core of any field battles, so you'll know best how they fight."
"Right." Said Flint authoritatively. "If we're fighting on the surface, we'll want the heavy infantry at the middle, making a shock charge and then setting up a line of battle. The support forces will stay back, moving to prevent any flanking and reinforce any breaks in the line. Marksdwarves will fire over the line at will, with an emphasis on leaders. Plan B is to allow the line to fold to boxes encircling the support, then fight the boxes to join up and allow for us to fight in turns." He rapidly sketched on the map with a piece of lignite, The Tooninator and Kib nodding in agreement.
"Sir!" Shouted Workerdrone, bursting into the command tent and saluting. "My scouting party has returned. We've found the fortress."
"Excellent." Said Flint. "Any idea of the opposition?"
"We'll likely move close enough to hear the war drums tomorrow." Workerdrone replied. "It looks like they are gathering everything they have to try to drive us off. Four hundred soldiers on the field above the fortress, at least, with a dozen or so who look like leaders. There could be more inside, I'm not sure. I didn't want to get any closer, to avoid them chasing after me and forcing me to kill them all before reporting back to you."
"Four hundred, you say." Flint mused. "Looks like we'll be having our surface battle after all. With a small change of plans. We're going to go in as the box, and try to fight to the fortress gates. We'll drop a team of heavy infantry down to clear the fortress, and if necessary we'll retreat to the fortress once it's ours. I'd like to see them try to fit that army into the tunnels while dwarves are holding them. We'll really be able to show them they can't oppose us, now."
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Topic: Lanternwebs (The End!) (Read 80043 times)