Hi PeterZ,
I woke up this morning and realized Sahmyrsyt's reserve army could have only one ICA division (probably plus an ICA artillery regiment and 2 RSA divisions for 47,000 men), since Symkyn has Hobsyn's Regiment, BGV has the other of that brigade, and Hanth has what's left of the 4th brigade to account for all the current 12 divisions in country.
There is still the third ICA convoy with 50,000 generally eager troops that left near the end of September, however.
The north and center are now adequately defended with ~198,000 troops in 3 well equipped armies, the south has 2 of ~127,000 men; so this reserve force could be available for such an operation 2&1/2 month's or more after leaving Cherayth, possibly 3 if they were headed to the south, ie Silk Town, which means they might be appearing rather early in HFQ, though Avivah still holds first place.
Far be it for me to suggest to the author where to send his armies
, but my various suggested approaches to taking control of the Salthar-Silk Town Canal started with scout sniper groups using smugglers routes into Silkiah to grab the canal locks under the cover of raids in the Gulf of Jahras.
However given the 6 near permanent ICN marine blocking posts along the high road nest to the Gulf of Jahras mentioned in LaMA (besides other probable allied positions), the North Watch region is in far more chaos so larger mounted infantry units could be used.
If the main communication and trade route north is from the northwest point of the Gulf of Jahras north to the probable Salthar west lock location, which apparently are about a third of the way inland from each end of the canal, it might also be the main route of the semaphore network to Howard, probably next to a high road that's the the major connector between Silkiah and Desnar that may go through the mountains.
The eastern locks might be within a couple days ride by mounted units from some barren or empty unobserved spot on the southern Silkiah Bay coast, as opposed to 3-4 days from some spot near Khreos in Desnar.
The LaMA text delays in the next flight of river ironclads ought to have been remedied by now (early March) or the operation might wait until they arrive in theater, letting the troops and their horses rest from their long journey, then again all may be ready early in HFQ.
So there are lots of interesting ways HFQ could follow up Aivah, aren't there?
L
PeterZ wrote:Well, Lyonheart, I think you were right about Silkiah. Some of the ICA is indeed going there. If the ICA attacks Port Salthar and the mid regions of the Salthar Canal using troops moving North the Gulf of Jahras and attack Silk Town using marines, Charis might just hold the canal. If they schedule the attack relatively soon, there will be time to fix any damage to the canal before the
KH VIIs enter the Gulf of Dohlar.
By the time the KH VIIs do enter the Gulf, there may well be a score of River Class boats harassing the coasts of Dohlar and Desnair.
Kudos to AClone for picking up on that.
lyonheart wrote:Hi AClone,
Very interesting.
I thought I knew where they all were, but maybe not.
Let's try to keep track of all of them, shall we?
9 divisions and 7 mounted brigades were landed in the large convoy near the end of October (last half of chapter 19) to join the 3 divisions and 3 mounted brigades of the ICEF, for 12 and 10 respectively.
DE was getting two more divisions, besides the third that came with Symkyn initially in command (who later commanded the Daivyn army with 2 more divisions and Col. Hobsyn's orphan regiment etc ) as was BGV (who got two of the 3 mounted brigades in Symkyn's ICEF main body), while Earl High Mount also got three divisions, and the allies' reserve army under Sahmyrsyt in the Old Province possibly had two more; at least according to chapter 6 in November.
So DE had 3, BGV 2, EHM 3, Symkyn 2, and Sahmyrsyt's reserve army had maybe 2; for 12 without counting the separate or orphan regiments or brigades which makes more than 12, hm mm, hmm mm.
"Houston we may have a problem".
I don't have time at the moment to make sure where all the brigade and regimental fractions might be.
There was also the third and final convoy mentioned in LaMA of about 50,000 ICA soldiers (chapter 10, September) which would probably add at least two more divisions.
Fortunately the ten mounted brigades are accounted for; BGV had 2, DE got 2, EHM 2, Symkyn 2, and the last two were sent into the south March Lands to teach the TL's what happens to brigands.
Stay tuned folks, I don't think we're finished.
L
