General Winter

SYED wrote:The only reason they are able to keep their hatching forces supplied, is they have the canal for transport and the lands under church sway to provide resources to keep them supplied. We know that the imperial navy are moving into the gulf of dollar, if they strike at the end of the Langhorne canal, they could disrupt shipping in the canal enough to force them to reduce the army there to keep them sustainable.

Another possibility would be to use dragoons to work around to the rear of their army to blow canal locks and then raid the supplies that pile up while the locks are being repaired.

Don

MacGuinness
Arguing from empty space on the map is a bit dangerous; it's always been understood that RFC reserves the right to fill empty space and that the detail at any point on the map is related to its importance to the story so far.

Taking Thirsk out of the action by rescuing his family and letting the Inquisition draw its own conclusions has certain delicious attractions!

(He might even agree to it. In a weird way it squares the circle; he keeps his vows by staying at his post, his family are safe and he doesn't have to commit any more atrocities because the Inquisition won't let him stay at his post.)

Randomiser wrote:MacGuinness
Arguing from empty space on the map is a bit dangerous; it's always been understood that RFC reserves the right to fill empty space and that the detail at any point on the map is related to its importance to the story so far.

Taking Thirsk out of the action by rescuing his family and letting the Inquisition draw its own conclusions has certain delicious attractions!

(He might even agree to it. In a weird way it squares the circle; he keeps his vows by staying at his post, his family are safe and he doesn't have to commit any more atrocities because the Inquisition won't let him stay at his post.)

The instant Thirsk's family disappears, he is a dead man. As a loyal if somewhat disillusioned son of the church and vassal of his king, he will stay at his post.. family or no family.

The only way out I see for Thirsk is if Dohlar is conquered and the inquisition overthrown.

Don

Even if the Inquisition leaves Thirsk alive, there's the danger of him viewing their "rescue" as kidnapping.

IE they were kidnapped in order to force him to violate his oaths.

Of course, this assumes that he hadn't agreed to their rescue before hand.

n7axw wrote:

Randomiser wrote:MacGuinness
Arguing from empty space on the map is a bit dangerous; it's always been understood that RFC reserves the right to fill empty space and that the detail at any point on the map is related to its importance to the story so far.

Taking Thirsk out of the action by rescuing his family and letting the Inquisition draw its own conclusions has certain delicious attractions!

(He might even agree to it. In a weird way it squares the circle; he keeps his vows by staying at his post, his family are safe and he doesn't have to commit any more atrocities because the Inquisition won't let him stay at his post.)

The instant Thirsk's family disappears, he is a dead man. As a loyal if somewhat disillusioned son of the church and vassal of his king, he will stay at his post.. family or no family.

The only way out I see for Thirsk is if Dohlar is conquered and the inquisition overthrown.

Don

n7axw wrote:
Another possibility would be to use dragoons to work around to the rear of their army to blow canal locks and then raid the supplies that pile up while the locks are being repaired.

Don

Wouldn't they need to drag wagon loads of explosives with them to blow the locks up with?

Keith_w wrote:

n7axw wrote:
Another possibility would be to use dragoons to work around to the rear of their army to blow canal locks and then raid the supplies that pile up while the locks are being repaired.

Don

Wouldn't they need to drag wagon loads of explosives with them to blow the locks up with?

Hi Keith,

Maybe not wagon loads... I could visualize using packhorses.

Don

DrakBibliophile wrote:Even if the Inquisition leaves Thirsk alive, there's the danger of him viewing their "rescue" as kidnapping.

IE they were kidnapped in order to force him to violate his oaths.

Of course, this assumes that he hadn't agreed to their rescue before hand.

It would be a kidnapping unless he & his family had agreed. That's one of the reasons I don't see it happening unless they do.

n7axw wrote:

Randomiser wrote:MacGuinness

Taking Thirsk out of the action by rescuing his family and letting the Inquisition draw its own conclusions has certain delicious attractions!

(He might even agree to it. In a weird way it squares the circle; he keeps his vows by staying at his post, his family are safe and he doesn't have to commit any more atrocities because the Inquisition won't let him stay at his post.)

The instant Thirsk's family disappears, he is a dead man. As a loyal if somewhat disillusioned son of the church and vassal of his king, he will stay at his post.. family or no family.

The only way out I see for Thirsk is if Dohlar is conquered and the inquisition overthrown.

Don

My suggestion is a way out for Thirsk in the sense that it saves his family and solves his moral dilemma. I never said I expected him to survive it. I was only reflecting on how ironic it is that he could trust his enemies to treat his family much better than the King and Church he serves. If Thirsk's fleet gets beaten again it's only too likely that he and his family will be executed. Pushing Clyntahn into sending Thirsk, their best admiral, to the Punishment could be seen as both poetic justice for Gwyllym Manthyr et al, and a profound demonstration of how sick the CoGA has really become. (I have bad thoughts sometimes)

Hi Don,

Howsmyn is already producing dynamite from late last August, which I expect has been replacing gunpowder in the various "Shan-wei " mines, along with Engineer demolition charges, so given how little gun powder it took to wreck the locks, I'd suggest 20-25% dynamite, just to be safe.

I'd expect TNT should also soon be available for engineers and mines, at least doubling their effective lethal radius, even if smokeless powder and cordite aren't in action until late summer or fall.

L

n7axw wrote:

Keith_w wrote:*quote="n7axw"*

Another possibility would be to use dragoons to work around to the rear of their army to blow canal locks and then raid the supplies that pile up while the locks are being repaired.

Don*quote*

Wouldn't they need to drag wagon loads of explosives with them to blow the locks up with?

Hi Keith,

Maybe not wagon loads... I could visualize using packhorses.

Don

My own anticipated scenario is that if Thirsk gets beaten at sea, it's not going to matter because in combination with allied armies entering Dohlar by land it will knock Dohlar out of the war which would mean that what Clyntahn wants isn't really going to matter much and inquisitors on scene will be more worried about their own necks than about Thirsk.

Don

n7axw wrote:My own anticipated scenario is that if Thirsk gets beaten at sea, it's not going to matter because in combination with allied armies entering Dohlar by land it will knock Dohlar out of the war which would mean that what Clyntahn wants isn't really going to matter much and inquisitors on scene will be more worried about their own necks than about Thirsk.

Don

I think that inquisitors are fanatics, at least the ones that are assigned duties such as threatening the lives of innocents in order to keep people in line, so probably they will value completing their assigned duty than making a safe escape.