All Quiet on the Howard Front

lyonheart wrote



OTOH, neither the church nor Desnar can afford another Desnari army, and the internal reaction to losing it so incompetently may have all sorts of interesting repercussions.

Don't disagree with you often, Sir Lyon, however, I really believe that Desnar will raise another army- perhaps as big as the first one- less infantry- less well armed, but an army- second and third sons- still lots of horses there. And maybe commanded by AoG officers-(no idea how they physically get there). I say these things because it's a religious war- and Desnar still has lots and lots of young men of military age. A single(ok- very large) defeat won't stop religious ire- it may enrage the populace to greater efforts.

(Or not---if you have the right of it.)

tootall wrote:lyonheart wrote



OTOH, neither the church nor Desnar can afford another Desnari army, and the internal reaction to losing it so incompetently may have all sorts of interesting repercussions.

Don't disagree with you often, Sir Lyon, however, I really believe that Desnar will raise another army- perhaps as big as the first one- less infantry- less well armed, but an army- second and third sons- still lots of horses there. And maybe commanded by AoG officers-(no idea how they physically get there). I say these things because it's a religious war- and Desnar still has lots and lots of young men of military age. A single(ok- very large) defeat won't stop religious ire- it may enrage the populace to greater efforts.

(Or not---if you have the right of it.)

I agree that Desnair will raise another army, but it will not be for the Jihad since there will be no way for them to get it into the theater where the action will be. It will be used to keep a lid on social unrest at home.

Don

n7axw wrote:
I agree that Desnair will raise another army, but it will not be for the Jihad since there will be no way for them to get it into the theater where the action will be. It will be used to keep a lid on social unrest at home.

Don

Yes, I believe there will be the beginnings of unrest against the Desnair Aristocracy but more to the point of my starting this thread, South Harchong may see an opportunity to seperate itself from the Emperor and the Church. It could be construed that the Church is losing the Jihad, the moral high ground and the economic dominance it once had. Reformist sentiment and selfish self interests have shared the same bed before and can again.

My point, IMHO is Howard has so much to lose. By staying out of the Jihad (by being isolated and cut off) they can gain. Ambassadors (or Sejins) can open lines of communication and offer diplomatic Geld (or Silver) for eating the homing Wyverns and confiscating blockade runners.

The Church's Power is on the decline, although as dangerous as a cornered wolverine, more losses in the field and being confined to Temple Lands and North Harchong in the near future will bolster the Reformation.

lyonheart wrote:Hi Weird Harold,

It wouldn't surprise me if such wyvernries existed before the war for a variety of purposes, and the Go4's commandeering would be rather quick in the extremity, if the church didn't have them as a backup or more secret communication network; I suspect Clyntahn would love his own 'secret' network that no one knew about, however relatively slow it was, especially after the Go4 suspect the semaphore has been penetrated almost 4 years ago.

Two comments about that:

1. I believe RFC to be a man above such things as plot conveniences.

2. Even if these secret wyvernries exist, there will be a sufficient lag in time between when the blockade becomes effective and Clyntahn realizes his comms are down. Then, how to notify the senders that they need to start sending?

It would take some pretzel like bending for RFC to explain all this.

dwileye13 wrote:

n7axw wrote:
I agree that Desnair will raise another army, but it will not be for the Jihad since there will be no way for them to get it into the theater where the action will be. It will be used to keep a lid on social unrest at home.

Don

Yes, I believe there will be the beginnings of unrest against the Desnair Aristocracy but more to the point of my starting this thread, South Harchong may see an opportunity to seperate itself from the Emperor and the Church. It could be construed that the Church is losing the Jihad, the moral high ground and the economic dominance it once had. Reformist sentiment and selfish self interests have shared the same bed before and can again.

My point, IMHO is Howard has so much to lose. By staying out of the Jihad (by being isolated and cut off) they can gain. Ambassadors (or Sejins) can open lines of communication and offer diplomatic Geld (or Silver) for eating the homing Wyverns and confiscating blockade runners.

The Church's Power is on the decline, although as dangerous as a cornered wolverine, more losses in the field and being confined to Temple Lands and North Harchong in the near future will bolster the Reformation.

There is a land border, so it will certainly be possible for the Desnairi cannon fodder to march and canter into battle against the Charisian heretics.

I don't see any reason why the Ferguson rifle plans developed by COGA could not be sent to South Harchong via Desnair. The textural evidence is that South Harchong is more efficient that North Harchong, so why not manufacture rifles and field guns there and move them across land to Desnair.

I realize that the movement would not be efficient, but would allow a field army (mixed artillery , infantry, and calvary) to defend the eastern entrance to Desnair. At least a force that would have to masked and tie down ICA/RSA elements.

It seems such a move could allow Desnair to avoid sending funds to the Temple Lands, and might lead to avoiding a civil war in Desnair - assuming the nobility could get their act together.

fossten wrote:2. Even if these secret wyvernries exist, there will be a sufficient lag in time between when the blockade becomes effective and Clyntahn realizes his comms are down. Then, how to notify the senders that they need to start sending?

Those "secret wyvernries" probably do exist, and there would be no need to tell the to "start sending" because they would have been in constant use if only because Wyverns would appear to "re-home" faster than homing pigeons in the RW.

The problem is still going to be blockade running with fresh wyverns to keep communications open.

Why would South Harchong arm Desnair for purely defensively action against the EoC? Better to keep those weapons for themselves. The South Harchong army would be a much tougher nut to crack than the IDA. Until the ICN controls the Salthar Canal, supplying an ICA invasion into South Harchong would require a MUCH longer supply route. Once the Salthar Canal is controlled by the EoC, South Harchong would be stupid NOT to negotiate a cease fire. They would be seriously tempted to allow the EoC to distract the G4 while they take possession of the Desnari gold mines. Negotiate a ceasefire, take control of Desnari wealth and consolidate that control while the CoGA is in disarray.

chickladoria wrote:I don't see any reason why the Ferguson rifle plans developed by COGA could not be sent to South Harchong via Desnair. The textural evidence is that South Harchong is more efficient that North Harchong, so why not manufacture rifles and field guns there and move them across land to Desnair.

I realize that the movement would not be efficient, but would allow a field army (mixed artillery , infantry, and calvary) to defend the eastern entrance to Desnair. At least a force that would have to masked and tie down ICA/RSA elements.

It seems such a move could allow Desnair to avoid sending funds to the Temple Lands, and might lead to avoiding a civil war in Desnair - assuming the nobility could get their act together.

[/quote]

There is a land border, so it will certainly be possible for the Desnairi cannon fodder to march and canter into battle against the Charisian heretics.[/quote]

Maybe not a land border for long. That will probably be cut off soon as Silkiah ad Dohlar are dealt with by the EOC/Siddarmarkan alliance. Should that happen, Desnair will be isolated by land armies it cannot hope to defeat with even less in arms than it had before.

Don

Hi Don,

Quite right!

We all know the snippet indicating the Delthak is about to move after a barrier has been blown, the presumption being its the Salthar canal.

If the canal locks about a third of the way from each coast can be taken before being blown, access to the Bay of Dohlar could be shortened for vessels narrow and shallow enough [like the ironclads] to save a couple months transit time.

Taking Salthar at the west end, then the narrow coast south using the N-S mountain range from the NW to the SE to reduce the defended distance to a few dozen miles at most enables the alliance to seize the rest of the North Watch province to protect the canal and Silkiah.

A few mountain passes and narrow coastal plains make it the natural defensive border for Howard and Haven.

Regardless of how little Desnar has learned from all its previous campaigns, including the AoJ, one would expect it to do better on its own ground, yet I doubt it simply because there's been too little time to learn and correct all the recent mistakes, even if there was an army available to react.

L

n7axw wrote:

There is a land border, so it will certainly be possible for the Desnairi cannon fodder to march and canter into battle against the Charisian heretics.[/quote]

Maybe not a land border for long. That will probably be cut off soon as Silkiah ad Dohlar are dealt with by the EOC/Siddarmarkan alliance. Should that happen, Desnair will be isolated by land armies it cannot hope to defeat with even less in arms than it had before.

Don[/quote]