Teeny-Tiny HFQ Snippet #2

Hi Lyonheart,

You thinking runs along the same lines as mine. I find myself wondering if a coastal assault conducted by Admiral Shain on the one side and assault Sharpfield on the other might not be the best way to handle it. Infiltrate the scout snipers in a couple of days in advance to knock out the Semaphore system and seize the locks and hold them until one of Eastshare's dragoon regiments shows up to reinforce.

The question would be the timing. You would want the Dohlarians in front of Eastshare preoccupied with getting away from Eastshare rather than diverting south to overwhelm whoever you have holding the locks until the ironclads arrive.

Don

Hi Philip Stanley,

Yup, they'd make an excellent anti tank ditch, if the Desnari had any tanks.

We don't know how wide the Salthar-Silk Town Canal is, possibly narrower than the new northern Siddarmark canals, it would still be quite a cavalry NTM infantry barrier; but abandoning Silkiah territory south of the canal, let alone making such a priceless economic tool vulnerable isn't something either the alliance or Silkians are likely to settle for.

Using the ex-Desnari Northwatch province as a buffer makes a lot more sense.

L

Philip Stanley wrote:How about this: View the Salthar-Silk Town canal not as an East-West pathway, but as a North-South travel barrier that must be spanned by bridges!
Perhaps the demolitions are for the purpose of destroying those bridges to interdict North-South communication between Desnair and Silkiah.
Comments?
Philip Stanley

There is said to be a limited road way linking howard and haven, so potnetially easy to take and hold by a small military force if they can set up the right artileery.

Hi Don,

We need to keep the time and distances involved here in perspective.

Ahlverez is around 7 5days from the canal, and I suspect trying to protect it is almost the furthest thing in his mind he's concerned about.

In fact, imagining his response to any such order would be very amusing to watch, IMO, waiting for him to repeat himself etc.

Ahlverez according the last we heard in LaMA was halfway back to Thesmar or about 300 miles away, Thesmar being a thousand miles from Silk Town, so at least a month's march if Ahlverez's troops were in shape for another hard march, assuming Ahlverez were so inclined in the first place, especially with the prospect of meeting an ICA army that outnumbered him.

My take on Ahlverez is that he wants to cross the Seridahn River near Thesmar as quickly as possible because even if he has to forage for food he'll be in far better kept land which has been under TL control for well over a year and could have ~3 crops per year, being less than 1500 miles from the equator, rather than fighting Hanth or the September LaMA ICA contingent we have yet to hear from since they embarked, despite talk of the southern jaw(s) of DE's bold plan.

L

n7axw wrote:Hi Lyonheart,

You thinking runs along the same lines as mine. I find myself wondering if a coastal assault conducted by Admiral Shain on the one side and assault Sharpfield on the other might not be the best way to handle it. Infiltrate the scout snipers in a couple of days in advance to knock out the Semaphore system and seize the locks and hold them until one of Eastshare's dragoon regiments shows up to reinforce.

The question would be the timing. You would want the Dohlarians in front of Eastshare preoccupied with getting away from Eastshare rather than diverting south to overwhelm whoever you have holding the locks until the ironclads arrive.

Don

Randomiser wrote:
Thinking out loud

SNIP

It's an attack being conducted by engineers with naval transport which requires lots of courage and anticipated casualties in order to make the job of Bahrnes' ironclad significantly easier. They used used pretty long fuses. So,presumably, they didn't think the charges were likely to be spotted once they were in place.

Use of engineers suggests charge placement required special skill. It's not going to be a lock gate; they want to preserve those. Could be a big boom across a port entrance, to let Bahrnes in. Might be dropping a hillside above a defending battery on top of it. Don't think they could get close enough to blow the battery itself.

One thing for sure, we are not going to get the answer till the book appears.

Well Randomiser - pretty good analysis - looking back from snippet #16!

lyonheart wrote:Hi Randomiser,

Kudos for your typical excellent analysis.

I concur its probably a boom, and given Barns' last known operations area was the Thesmar Gulf of Mathyas to prevent anyone advancing further up the seawater section of the eastern Salthar canal.

A boom is a tactic to be expected if the CoGA can no longer use the canal, a result of the ICN blockade.

It's possible this could be in the gulf of Dohlar, or up some river in Siddarmark, but Silkiah makes the most sense to me.

Destroying a coastal battery seems unlikely given the likely cannon being only 25 pounders, easily defeated or deflected by the ironclad's armor.

L

Hi Lyonheart

So very, very close, until you veered of and fell into the Saltar Canal snare just at the end

Still - much better than my guesses!