What did Slaytyr accomplish?

So...I'm rereading Like a Mighty Army, and came to the part about Zhapyth Slaytyr. The question popped in my mind, what exactly did he accomplish? On his first visit to Harless he let the invading army commander know that fort Tairys had been besieged. Harless responded by quick-time marching his army to Tairys's relief. That caused him to have larger losses than he otherwise would have. Mark one up for Slaytyr.

During Tairys's fall the bishop sent a Wyvern that let Harless know. That gave Slaytyr more credibility, but let Harless rest in place, largely mitigating the losses. Mark another one up for Slaytyr, but erase most of the first one.

On Slayter's second visit he got a number of wyverns from Harless. That let him send a bunch of messages deceiving Harless about the state of Eastshare's reinforcements and supply. That caused Harless to decide to besiege Tairys. Mark one up for Slaytyr. But Harless would have besieged Tairys anyway. Erase it.

Harless decided not to try to flank Eastshare. Mark one up for Slaytyr. He probably wouldn't have been able to flank through the mountains in winter anyway. Erase it.

Harless's attention was focused on Tairys, to the detriment of his supply situation. Mark one up for Slaytyr. Alvarez kept a close watch on it anyway. Erase it.

Eastshare crushed Harless. Erase the earlier point about Slaytry's credibility.

Alvarez might think Slaytyr is credible, but he might start wondering how Eastshare got reinforced if he had been cut off so badly. Don't mark one up for Slayter.

The only net benefit I can see is that Harless attacked Tairys with a few less soldiers than he would otherwise. So, what did Slaytyr accomplish?

~Tonto

After causing Harless to force March his army, causing exhaustion and disease from lack of proper shelter, rations, and rest, he then caused Harless to invest more heavily and to hold on for much longer than he otherwise would have, which in turn, meant his soldiers were that much weaker during the attempted breakout, sealing their fate against a well supplied, rested, and entrenched for foe.

The intent, I think, was to make the Army of Shiloh's leaders(all of them) more comfortable focusing on Fort Tairys, and to keep that focus there, rather than on their rear.

A guerrilla force to an enemy's rear does more than merely threaten a Fort's rear. it prevents resupply. It prevents reinforcement. And it ties up enemy personnel, not only in the fort, but also further to the enemy's rear. The estimates I've heard elsewhere are that a competently led guerrilla force will tie up forces seven times its size.

Further, those forces preoccupied with the guerrillas would necessarily be unavailable for flanking or enveloping maneuvers on the Army of Shiloh.

Thus, if Harless thought Eastshare: (1) couldn't be reinforced; (2) couldn't be reprovisioned; (3) couldn't be resupplied with ammo and shells; (4) didn't have enough troops available elsewhere to outflank him; and (5) was preoccupied with enemy forces to his rear, and given Harless' general incompetence, in that he wouldn't waste troops reassuring himself of things he already "knew," he would not have known about being bottled up until long after Ahlverez found out.

The strategy worked, partially at least, because Harless wsa in command. It didn't work totally because Ahlverez operated somewhat independently of Harless. Had Ahlverez been in command, as was stated in the book, there was a very good chance the strategy would have failed. In that case, Ahlverez would have had to answer to Clyntahn, but he would have saved probably over half the Army of Shiloh, rather than the 10% that was saved.

On the other hand, without Ahlverez in the mix, the strategy would have worked even better, with far fewer losses to the RCA, and probably a greater percentage of the Army of Shiloh killed or captured.

Frankly, I anticipate Ahlverez still will be blamed for it all, thanks to Kyr, Hennet and Hankey all escaping and Kyr already being far in the rear.

I think XofDallas nailed it pretty much entirely on the head. The Allies WANTED the Army of Shiloh concentrated on taking Fort Tairys. They also wanted the AoS to assume that they could take the fort, and that time was on their side. If for a second they thought they were facing as many Charisan regulars, well supplied, and dug in, even a complete dithering moron like Harless would have realized it could NOT be taken. As stupid as the man clearly was, he figured out after one botched assault that frontal charging Charisan's is not a winning proposition.

It was outright said in the text that the Army of Shiloh was receiving reports that Eastshare's army was starving more quickly than they were. And these were Alvarez's thoughts.

So basically the Harless' strategy was to wait for Eastshare's army to starve into impotence and then walk in and take Fort Tairis because the Charisians would be too weak to oppose him.

Except of course Eastshare's army wasn't really starving.

I think XofDallas pretty much got it. Zhapyth Slaytyr was used to give the AoS information the knew was "true" to keep them from looking for the answers for themselves. Like runsforcelery states in another of his series "'Surprise' is what happens when someone's seen something all along . . . and thought it was something else."

Tonto Silerheels wrote:So...I'm rereading Like a Mighty Army, and came to the part about Zhapyth Slaytyr. The question popped in my mind, what exactly did he accomplish? On his first visit to Harless he let the invading army commander know that fort Tairys had been besieged. Harless responded by quick-time marching his army to Tairys's relief. That caused him to have larger losses than he otherwise would have. Mark one up for Slaytyr.

During Tairys's fall the bishop sent a Wyvern that let Harless know. That gave Slaytyr more credibility, but let Harless rest in place, largely mitigating the losses. Mark another one up for Slaytyr, but erase most of the first one.

On Slayter's second visit he got a number of wyverns from Harless. That let him send a bunch of messages deceiving Harless about the state of Eastshare's reinforcements and supply. That caused Harless to decide to besiege Tairys. Mark one up for Slaytyr. But Harless would have besieged Tairys anyway. Erase it.

Harless decided not to try to flank Eastshare. Mark one up for Slaytyr. He probably wouldn't have been able to flank through the mountains in winter anyway. Erase it.

Harless's attention was focused on Tairys, to the detriment of his supply situation. Mark one up for Slaytyr. Alvarez kept a close watch on it anyway. Erase it.

Eastshare crushed Harless. Erase the earlier point about Slaytry's credibility.

Alvarez might think Slaytyr is credible, but he might start wondering how Eastshare got reinforced if he had been cut off so badly. Don't mark one up for Slayter.

The only net benefit I can see is that Harless attacked Tairys with a few less soldiers than he would otherwise. So, what did Slaytyr accomplish?

~Tonto

What he accomplished was to get Harless to commit the Army of Shiloh to the "siege" of Fort Tairys when he had other options. He could have decided to join up with Bishop Militant Kaitswyrth along the Daivyn River (as was the original plan). He could have decided to turn back and head for Thesmar where his supply line was intact and changed strategies, going for large scale hit and run attacks or attempt to cut off the Charisians' supply lines (if that could be achieved at all in Thesmar). Ultimately the Allies' objective is to break the armies of the church and force their surrender or bring about their destruction. Leaving them intact even if they don't hold Siddarmarkian territory is not a good idea. So they needed Harless to fully commit to the "siege" and not realize that Charis was slowly cutting off his supply line. The only way to do that was to convince him that victory over the Charisian forces in Fort Tairys was within his reach. And aside from forcing the AoS to exhaust itself in its race o relieve Fort Tairys, Slaytyr also sowed discord among the Desnairians and Dohlaran commanders (always a good thing for the enemy). That and getting to commit fully to the "siege" of course.