Hi Don,
For some reason the computer ate the first iteration of this post just before I was going to send it hours ago, so I've been trying to remember it's salient points here before heading off to bed.
First, Windshare doesn't have that many to start with, he only had 4,000 when he attacked BGV [at the Battle of Green Valley], and far fewer afterward.
Even assuming he built his force back up to strength under the occupation of ~30,000, 4,000 cavalry won't impress the Desnari or Harchong; let alone the ICA which already has something close to 100,000 dragoons in theater before considering casualties and replacements.
The mindset for a dragoon is quite different than a cavalryman, so it might be better to start off with someone without all that useless and even dangerous mental baggage.
The difficulties landing cavalry just for raids begs the question of what would be worth such effort, especially given it'd reveal the landing craft to be used on more critical operations.
The new weapons have created paradigm shifts in tactics that cannot be taught quickly; the new mental attitude requires lots of drilling to give the new leaders, especially of the platoon and squad the experience they need, all of which takes lots and lots of time to do it well.
If Charis were short of the manpower to watch its coasts, which I doubt, I'd suggest using Windshare's cavalry might be more useful or last longer in that role than charging on a battlefield somewhere.
The 30,000 Corisandan guards are kinda few compared to the hundreds of thousands that are needed for the ICA in Siddarmark, that are apparently already answering the call in Chisholm, Zebediah, Charis and Tarot; besides the time needed to retrain them tactically, there's the little item of winter training.
Unless the Corisandans are to be kept near the equator, they're going to need to be winterized, which requires real world winter training, ie next winter, since it's already fading this year, and will be gone by the time significant numbers of Corisandans reach the training brigades.
For those suggesting they can just raid Desnar, I'll remind them Desnar extends down to around 53 degrees south latitude, further south than the Northern Gap where BGV is right now.
Given the likelihood the inner circle if not the crown council before there was an inner circle discussed the possibility of coastal raids from Desnar etc, makes me think some steps have been taken, to watch and patrol the coast.
Using heliograph's etc ought permit rather cheap yet lengthy message routes than more fixed and formal semaphore towers, so considerable length's of the [primarily west] coast could be watched much more cheaply than some suppose, and while signal rockets are very obvious, they can also be seen from quite a distance, and the deterrent value might also be effective.
I also won't be surprised if some raider schooners bent on such raids suffer a mysterious mischief out of any mortal's sight so they never make it to the coast in the first place.
Having other nationalities helping in important if not critical ways in Charis ought to help bind the empire together.
L
n7axw wrote:*quote="PeterZ"*Hi, Lyonheart.
Of course Irys' Marauders will need extensive training to be true dragoons. They are highly trained cavalry already and perfect for raiding the Dohlahran coast. Arm them with revolvers, attach mortars to the group and include trained infantry that can ride and you have excellent rear area marauders. They won't fight stand up battles. They ambush and fight only forces ill equipped to deal with them. Beyond that Irys' Own will destroy infrastructure and supplies forcing the RDA to disperse to protect its enormous coastline.
*quote="lyonheart"*Hi PeterZ, Don;
Guys, again its going to take awhile to train the Corisandans, and Windshare's cavalry are definitely not dragoons, so they'll take longer to even understand the concept, given how mindless most cavalry are.
Currently we have something near 360,000 ICA combat troops in theater, plus almost 400,000 RSA riflemen who should be able to deal with the MHoGatA sometime this summer, after they destroy the remnants of the AoG under Wyrshym and Kaitswyrth this month or the next; given how far south the Daivyn and Aivahstyn are [so winter is ending earlier], Symkyn should eliminate Kaitswyrth soon.
Then it will still take a couple of month's for the MHoGatA to reach the front, and who knows what the ICA may have by that time.
L
*quote*
Hi Lyonheart,
Actually, training the Corisandians probably would take less time than you might think. They already have the foundational skills of soldiers. Mostly it would be a matter of knocking off the rust and training them out on the new weapons.
As for Windshare's calvary, update their weapons and let them be calvary, doing raids behind enemy lines, scouting and so on. IIRC, there are only about 12,000 of them and I'm sure that they will be useful.
Don[/quote]
