isaac_newton wrote:It [the map] in the LAMA book [certainly the hardback version] - shows the Kyplynger forest, and the roads thru it. As far as I know there is no on-line version with those specific details.
Unfortunately you're right that there doesn't seem to be an updated online map - see my previous post. I'd
love to be proven wrong!
I haven't noticed a discussion of exactly
where this snippet takes place. As I first read it I thought it was at the first line of scuttled barges at Yairdyn. However, it's clear from reading the snippet closely that not only have those barges been cleared from the river, the ones twenty miles north of Yairdyn have been eliminated as well. So this scene must be fairly close to Evrytyn, where the Dohlarans have desperately moved reinforcements in an attempt to stop Hanth's offensive, and to provide a base to which Ahlverez and his exhausted, starving army can retreat. Hence the messengers they have searching to the east in an attempt to locate him and what's left of his army.
However, Ahlverez is clearly going to be slowed down once he has to abandon the road to Thesmar, since that's held by the allies. If he's sighted, he'll be attacked by allied troops with mortars, which Hanth didn't have during the AoS attack on Thesmar, so they may come as a rather nasty surprise. At this point he doesn't know of their existence, so his first impulse might be to dig in to avoid the allied artillery - except his troops are on the verge of starvation, they're exhausted, and they're a long way from home, while they'd be facing a gauntlet of rested, well-armed allied troops.
It seems likely that Ahbraim will visit Hanth, (who has been
really impressive with his ability as a commander with no help from the inner circle and OWL!) to tell him where Ahlverez is, and the most likely route his army will take in an attempt to escape the allies and reach Dohlar. (Duh, they have to reach Evrytyn and retreat using the Sheryl - Seridahn canal.) They're unlikely to manage that unless they're able to move more quickly than we expect without a high road to travel on, especially for their supply wagons. They can only move as fast as their supplies after all.
As for the scene in this snippet, it's pretty obvious that however the ICN is going to accomplish it, there's going to be a rather large series of booms in the near future that will clear those annoying barges that are blocking the Seridahn river near Evrytyn. Once those are gone, the ironclad Delthak will lead the allied offensive against the base Ahlverez is trying to reach - assuming any of the Dohlaran messengers found him and Hanth doesn't find him first. Laying siege to Evrytyn and blocking the canal into Dohlar will finish the Dohlaran contingent of the Army of Shiloh for good.
Frankly, Merlin and Hektor (who Hanth knows and trusts) should have shown up a while ago to bring Hanth into the inner circle. He needs the advantage of having satellite imagery of his enemy's location, although getting the SNARC feeds of Ahlverez's daily staff meetings wouldn't hurt either!
Ahbraim is a busy guy, and he may not have a day here and there to babysit Hanth like he did with Duke Eastshare, given that Nynian and Sandaria are in the cave at the moment and may need some oversight. Hanth should have been brought inside months ago, and it's a tribute to his abilities as a commander that he's accomplished so much based merely on conventional means.
