Hi Thucydides,
Brilliant as always.
RFC has yet to echo or praise Xenophon, with the possible exception of EoH, ie escaping Hades etc; which is curious, given how worthy it is.
Tactics certainly can trump technology as we've seen many times when small higher tech forces get too ambitious for their numbers, etc.
While the 2 for 1 breech-loader ratio is a problem, the advantages will continue to push the latter, despite the figures of both sent to the TMHoGatA being cut by the arrival of the ICN at Claw Island, assuming there were shipments still to send, so instead of 640,000 total rifles for 1.2 million infantry, with around 20% being St Kylman's, it might be closer to 80% of that.
Of course if our heroes capture most of the TMHoGatA ie IHA's rifles, it'll permit rearming most of the rest of the RSA before adding all the Mahndrayns in the next year that the M96 production is replacing, so the allies could have over a million rifles of various types by fall or winter, far better than the first.
Which ought to thoroughly tick Clyntahn off.
The MHoGatA noncoms may be ten times better than they were before the AoG wounded etc were seconded to them, but a handful at the company level does not make them equal to someone roughly 150 or 200 years more advanced tactically and organizationally with weapons about 100 years more advanced.
There might be some effort to have the St Kylman's used by 'light infantry' skirmishers, but we have no textev for it, and trying to apply or train in that new specialty over the winter won't help much in the spring and summer.
Between the scout snipers and ICA artillery, taking out the smartest C^3I nodes does seem possible, leaving the hulk blundering about until it realizes its really helpless.
I've previously suggested that ironclads may be critically employed on the Daivyn, and probably at Lake Isyk in destroying two of the 4 quarters of the IHA, but RFC doesn't like to repeat himself so we may yet see such an army bested in the field by a far smaller but better led one etc, probably composing 2 of the present armies who easily cope with being outnumbered 3 or 4 to 1, if they haven't already cut its logistics.
By summer if not by fall we may find the Go4, sans all but a quarter or so of the TMHoGatA to now face the alliance armies that now considerably outnumber it, the Border States disarmed and open to the alliance, while and new force raised in the KotTL will be too little trained to cope with all the potential threats, and some have observed that Duchairn apparently prefers the winter to spring his trap on Clyntahn...
Interesting times indeed.
Thanks again for the excellent post.
L
Thucydides wrote:Several people have already hit on the true issue here, which is tactics, training and leadership.
The ICA and her allies use "open" formations to cover large areas of ground with fire and prevent themselves form being decimated by enemy rifle or artillery fire. Their officers and NCOs are familiar with these tactics and "lead from the front", providing a huge advantage in the field over the CoGA forces, regardless of how large they are. IF the CoGA has fielded a force which is too big to attack directly, the smaller and more mobile ICA units will simply bypass and attack the lines of communications and cut the logistical links. The CoGA forces will starve before they can inflict any really punishing damage.
Compounding the problem for the CoGA is not only the limited numbers of leaders, butr also the cultural conditioning of the manpower pool. Eliminate the leadership through artillery or well placed scout-snipers and there will be very few men able or willing to step forward to take charge. The CoGA formation will become a leaderless mob, prone to panic and running away.
You don't even need advanced weaponry to do this; ancient Greek armies were culturally conditioned to seek out and elevate competent men to become leaders, and had lots of them in the ranks. The Persians were far more limited in the quality and quantity of leaders, and suffered heavily as a result. The best possible illustration is the "Anibasis", where Xenophon, a glorified staff writer at the time, steps forward and takes charge of the "Ten Thousand" after the initial leadership cadre was betrayed and killed. Even earlier in the book, the Persian pretender who hired the "Ten Thousand" manages to get himself killed, so even though the Ten Thousand have won the field, they discover their Persian allies have surrendered or fled.
Xenophon forms a council of trusted military commanders to provide advice, accepts suggestions from the ranks (gathering the Rhodian slingers into a special unit and taking 50 baggage horses to make a Cavalry force come to mind) and marches the force away from the pursuing Persians, through modern day Kurdistan and hostile tribes in the dead of winter to reach the Black Sea and safety.
The Persians also had a "Ten Thousand" in the form of the "Immortals", who were slaughtered by the Spartan "300" at Thermopylae, again at Plataea and a generation later by Alexander III during his rampage through the Persian Empire. They lacked the leadership, training and adaptability to face the Greeks (their armour and tactics did not change, despite the rather clear evidence the Greek formations were pretty much impossible to defeat in a head on clash. A generation later, Alexander III led a much different force against them, while these "Immortals" would have been instantly recognizable to any member of the Persian army which invaded Greece).
