Manpower shortage

Windshare's cavalry should be perfectly effective against Desnairian cavalry, especially if someone supplies them with the likes of a Sharp's rifle or a magazine rifle. Corisande ought to be decently effective against Delferahk. Each marginal area lost is another ding in the Church Treasury.

Delfarahk is down on the bottom side of Howard and there is no need to treat them as active belligerents, especially if Howard can be isolated from Haven.

I agree, however, that Windshare's people should serve as true calvary rather than dragoons. Equip them with repeating pistols, a carbine version of the M96 and perhaps some horse drawn cannon like the Dohlarians were using at the beginning of the campaign and then turn them loose behind enemy lines to "hit 'em where they ain't.

Don

Here is what I see for the integration of the RCA into the ICA.

Koran Gaharvi will be in command with troops numbering 70,000. 20,000 f/RCA and 50,000 ICMC

Earl Windshear will remain behind to take over command of the Coursandian Garrison/Cadra troops. With Doyahl and Gen. Zhole Zhantahn to keep an eye on things he should due just fine.

saber964 wrote:Here is what I see for the integration of the RCA into the ICA.

Koran Gaharvi will be in command with troops numbering 70,000. 20,000 f/RCA and 50,000 ICMC

Earl Windshear will remain behind to take over command of the Coursandian Garrison/Cadra troops. With Doyahl and Gen. Zhole Zhantahn to keep an eye on things he should due just fine.

Windshare will be sorry to be left out of the action. Of course, as a consolation prize, he could continue his amorous adventures...

Don

Hi PeterZ,

Don't you mean "The 47 Ronin"?

OTOH, kudos for stimulating my thoughts below.

I wouldn't be surprised if one of the SSK's very legal business's might be such an agency that trains and provides the guards you mention, which after decades if nor centuries of sterling service have been taken into the confidence of a lot of businesses, and more importantly temple land families that provide all the vicars etc, for guards that aren't temporary assigned Temple Guards for official duties only.

Such intimate trust and knowledge might be one reason for the assassins' success.

Having a busy training ground outside Zion provides cover if any neighbors wonder why so many more are being trained bow, even using pistols and rifles etc.

They might still 'train' or initially practice with arbalests to save money [all that gunpowder to get proficient], and for employers that still don't use pistols or rifles etc.

If their true allegiance is to the SSK, it will be one more very interesting shock to the CoGA.

L

PeterZ wrote:Perhaps not create but co opt? Why does the story of the 50 ronin come to mind every time I think of Major Phandys? Between that and the depth of Nynian's business contacts which are colored in a completely different light after the SSK was revealed. How many of the guards of those businesses are well trained in combat and how many are in Zion protecting their employers?

Does the Note from Hauwyrd suggest any of this to Rohbair? We shall find out.

Keith_w wrote:*quote="6L6"*Duchairn needs to create his own paramilitary force, "treasury agents" loyal to him. When it comes down to a contest between him and Clyntahn he can be protected.*quote*

Nice idea, but I doubt that he would survive the attempt. Clyntahn and the inquisition would notice long before they were ready to act, see it as an act of treason and subject all those involved to the Punishment.

Bother! Yes, I did, Lyonheart.

lyonheart wrote:Hi PeterZ,

Don't you mean "The 47 Ronin"?
snip
L

Lyonheart, please stop mentioning that organization without SPOILER warnings. I understand that it's easy to forget, but this is the fifth or sixth time you've done it. I've already accidentally learned more about it than I wanted to.

anwi wrote:What I don't get is the need to beef up ICA numbers deployed in the field any more. The human ressources of Siddarmark should be sufficient for building up the armies they want - and can supply. I can understand having troops from all over the EoC deployed for political reasons. Since the ICA needs also supporting staff to keep troops in the field, they should try to limit the troops the actually have in the field (ref. man-power shortage).
Unless, of course, the inner circle really plans to conquer the Temple Lands. But I don't see why that would be necessary with the internal pressures an obviously failing Jihad will pose on the vicariate and its leadership.

Hi Anwi,

I think you have some good points here, but I would qualify them a bit. I agree that Siddarmark will be providing much of the manpower from this point on in terms of enlarging the size of allied armies on the mainland while the EOC focuses on its industrial infrastructure at home. Plus enlarging the navy some especially if this commerce raiding problem gets worse.

I think there needs to be a distinction between conquest of the Temple Lands with intent to seize and hold, on the one hand, and overrunning the Temple lands to get at Zion on the other. The latter is probably necessary, if for no other reason than to keep the pressure on and preventing them from regrouping. I think you are under estimating the death grip the inquisition has on the lands it controls. The normal sort of political pressure one would expect is going to be pretty much squelched by Clyntahn's reign of terror which will out last him even if he is taken out of the picture.

Don

n7axw wrote:

anwi wrote:What I don't get is the need to beef up ICA numbers deployed in the field any more. The human ressources of Siddarmark should be sufficient for building up the armies they want - and can supply. I can understand having troops from all over the EoC deployed for political reasons. Since the ICA needs also supporting staff to keep troops in the field, they should try to limit the troops the actually have in the field (ref. man-power shortage).
Unless, of course, the inner circle really plans to conquer the Temple Lands. But I don't see why that would be necessary with the internal pressures an obviously failing Jihad will pose on the vicariate and its leadership.

Hi Anwi,

I think you have some good points here, but I would qualify them a bit. I agree that Siddarmark will be providing much of the manpower from this point on in terms of enlarging the size of allied armies on the mainland while the EOC focuses on its industrial infrastructure at home. Plus enlarging the navy some especially if this commerce raiding problem gets worse.

I think there needs to be a distinction between conquest of the Temple Lands with intent to seize and hold, on the one hand, and overrunning the Temple lands to get at Zion on the other. The latter is probably necessary, if for no other reason than to keep the pressure on and preventing them from regrouping. I think you are under estimating the death grip the inquisition has on the lands it controls. The normal sort of political pressure one would expect is going to be pretty much squelched by Clyntahn's reign of terror which will out last him even if he is taken out of the picture.

Don

Even if they don't plan to conquer the Temple Lands per se, they still need enough troops behind the front lines to keep rear areas reasonably pacified to protect the supply chain from both Temple supporters and the opportunistic bandits wars always seem to breed.

Hi Biochem,

The computer ate my post again, just as I was about to send it. Ouch!

I don't see how Anwi can think HFQ and the follow on books can be as static as he seems to think things will be [17 more years of Safehold etc?], when we already know many things will change dramatically and permanently in HFQ in favor of Charis etc.

Given that 80+% of the population of the Border States and temple Lands will soon be ex-serfs, and most of the remainder will be fleeing for their lives, the number ready and willing to harass any alliance rear area supply lines will be rather few.

Especially when there will be so many more locals wanting to root out every vestige of the inquisition, so any stay behinds will be keeping their heads down for quite a while.

I don't see that many alliance supply routes through the Border States and the Temple Lands in the first place, since I expect BGV to go to Zion via Temple Bay courtesy of the ICN from Spinefish Bay, Symkyn and EHM mainly from the Charayn Canal an the Sabana River, with any advance down the Langhorne from the north mainly using captured supply barges.
]
Anwi sees the destruction of the MHoGatA, but evidently assumes another unknown unmentioned force is ready behind it, ready to resume the fight, when from all the textev, there is nothing.

Any alliance garrisons in the former Border States will most likely be RSA, so the tip of the spear will continue to be the ICA.

Despite arming almost another million men in the coming year, the RSA isn't close to being trained, organized or equipped to replace the ICA, whether or not Anwi thinks it could or should.

The manpower Charis needs for its new industries are far fewer than it's military requirements, who have a far wider pool of manpower from the whole empire in the first place.

Quite aside from the NBDI replacements, the inner circle [ie RFC] clearly intends to expand the ICA's combat role in Siddarmark and Haven, not restrict it, because they see they must, ie the sooner they do, the sooner the war is over.

I suspect one of the points RFC is making is the much higher rate of mobilization the EoC can generate than the CoGA, which has strained mightily to produce 2.833 million out of ~800 million, and is now down around 2 Million and dropping fast.

Because unlike Anwi apparently, the alliance understands that letting up or appearing to be unwilling to attack the temple will only encourage the vicarate to vacillate, to avoid making any personally risky decisions where Clyntahn and the inquisition are concerned.

Whereas, an advancing alliance understandably seeking an accounting for all the death and destruction that the Go4 has directed against it, is far more fearsome and personally threatening, thus compelling action; rather in contrast to a far more passive alliance simply waiting for the next wave of invasions even if those theoretically CoGA regenerated armies can't possibly be recreated for a couple of years.

NTM, that kind of patience doesn't begin to describe the Lord Protector or Cayleb, let alone the Siddarmark Republic's population or its army, NTM the EoC and the ICA.

Once the MHoGatA is largely gone by mid-late summer, the panic in the Border States and the eastern Temple Lands will be sky high, with nothing left to defend them, their leadership will be either offering surrender terms to, or requesting alliance terms, or fleeing westward as fast as possible, if their local levelers let them; with the inquisition and their informers probably being top on their lists.

So who is left to delay the advance of the alliance?

L


[quote="biochem"][quote="n7axw"]*quote="anwi"*What I don't get is the need to beef up ICA numbers deployed in the field any more. The human ressources of Siddarmark should be sufficient for building up the armies they want - and can supply. I can understand having troops from all over the EoC deployed for political reasons. Since the ICA needs also supporting staff to keep troops in the field, they should try to limit the troops the actually have in the field (ref. man-power shortage).
Unless, of course, the inner circle really plans to conquer the Temple Lands. But I don't see why that would be necessary with the internal pressures an obviously failing Jihad will pose on the vicariate and its leadership.*quote*

Hi Anwi,

I think you have some good points here, but I would qualify them a bit. I agree that Siddarmark will be providing much of the manpower from this point on in terms of enlarging the size of allied armies on the mainland while the EOC focuses on its industrial infrastructure at home. Plus enlarging the navy some especially if this commerce raiding problem gets worse.

I think there needs to be a distinction between conquest of the Temple Lands with intent to seize and hold, on the one hand, and overrunning the Temple lands to get at Zion on the other. The latter is probably necessary, if for no other reason than to keep the pressure on and preventing them from regrouping. I think you are under estimating the death grip the inquisition has on the lands it controls. The normal sort of political pressure one would expect is going to be pretty much squelched by Clyntahn's reign of terror which will out last him even if he is taken out of the picture.

Don[/quote]

Even if they don't plan to conquer the Temple Lands per se, they still need enough troops behind the front lines to keep rear areas reasonably pacified to protect the supply chain from both Temple supporters and the opportunistic bandits wars always seem to breed.[/quote]