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HFQ Official Snippet #16

This fascinating series is a combination of historical seafaring, swashbuckling adventure, and high technological science-fiction. Join us in a discussion!
Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by n7axw   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 9:12 am

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fallsfromtrees wrote:
n7axw wrote:First, we don't know if DE can actually catch Ahlverez at this point. If he can't, Ahlverez gets away. Add into that chasing down Ahlverez's exhausted and poorly supplied army might not be the most important thing for DE and HM to be doing at the moment. Maybe they should be on the way to Evrytyn to join Hanth. Just a thought. Dunno.

Hanth is concentrated to deal with Rychtar. Were I organizing it, I would use local militia to man places like Thesmar and Trevyr and keep my regulars for the main party...

Just one thought in response to MacGuiness here. It seems to me like it's important to knock Dohlar out of the war before turning to deal with the Harchongians. Bringing up DE and HM to beef up Hanth's numbers might be the thing needed to accomplish that.

I wonder how quickly the Haarahlds and the cities ironclads can be brought to bear on the situation.

Don

Thesmar is being defended by the Siddarmarkian troops who originally held the city, and who were relieved by Hanth. There has been nothing to indicate that they have moved out of their fortifications.


There is no textev either way. A question might be how heavily Thesmar needs to be held now that the threat has diminished, but your guess is reasonable.

Congrats--belated--on reaching the 1000 post mark, by the way. I've enjoyed your comments....

Don
When any group seeks political power in God's name, both religion and politics are instantly corrupted.
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by EdThomas   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 11:42 am

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Randomizer's diagnosis of SDS(page 16 of the replies) is soooo spot-on. There could be some question of whether it's reached the secondary or tertiary state, but that would be quibbling.

McGuinness, I believe, brought up the matter of the lack of inner-circle level communication to Hanth. This deficiency will become even more critical over the next few months. I can foresee Cayleb suggesting to Merlin that Ahbraim make a visit out there to get Hanth some critical information. He might also suggest that as a way of bringing Nynian up to speed on that aspect of their operations he take her along. And since they're out there, why don't the two of them take a few days R'n'R to get to know each other better. And, there's this cute little B and B overlooking the Seridahn.
:D :roll: :D :roll:
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by chrisd   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:27 pm

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Sod's Law - I'm going to be off-line and travelling for all of Wednesday and half of Thursday.

So I've a very good idea of when the next snippet will be posted.

(Yet another one who seems to know my holiday schedule before I do so that things are then set up so that I miss important things because I'm travelling!)
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:30 pm

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EdThomas wrote:Randomizer's diagnosis of SDS(page 16 of the replies) is soooo spot-on. There could be some question of whether it's reached the secondary or tertiary state, but that would be quibbling.

McGuinness, I believe, brought up the matter of the lack of inner-circle level communication to Hanth. This deficiency will become even more critical over the next few months. I can foresee Cayleb suggesting to Merlin that Ahbraim make a visit out there to get Hanth some critical information. He might also suggest that as a way of bringing Nynian up to speed on that aspect of their operations he take her along. And since they're out there, why don't the two of them take a few days R'n'R to get to know each other better. And, there's this cute little B and B overlooking the Seridahn.
:D :roll: :D :roll:

Merlin doesn't swing that way - remember the rugby game in OAR.
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The only problem with quotes on the internet is that you can't authenticate them -- Abraham Lincoln
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by ParanoidMarvin   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 12:48 pm

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fallsfromtrees wrote:Merlin doesn't swing that way - remember the rugby game in OAR.


What about the brothel when Abrahaim first met Nynian?
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by fallsfromtrees   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:39 pm

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ParanoidMarvin wrote:
fallsfromtrees wrote:Merlin doesn't swing that way - remember the rugby game in OAR.


What about the brothel when Abrahaim first met Nynian?

For all the action we saw, they just talked.
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The only problem with quotes on the internet is that you can't authenticate them -- Abraham Lincoln
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by justdave   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 3:45 pm

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just hope the seeming delay here and War God isn't for an unfortunate reason
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by ParanoidMarvin   » Tue Jan 20, 2015 4:13 pm

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fallsfromtrees wrote:For all the action we saw, they just talked.


“He didn’t have any peculiar requests, and he was actually quite gentle. One of those men
who seem as concerned with giving pleasure as receiving it. And”— she smiled even more charmingly—“quite good at it,
too.”
“I take it the two of you actually spent a little bit of time talking, as well?” Ahnzhelyk inquired with a smile of her own,
and Mahrlys chuckled.
“A little bit,” she admitted.


From Chapter XIV of A Mighty Fortress by David Weber.

That sounds like a *little* bit more that talking to me.

And from Chapter XVI:

“Good evening, Ahbraim,” Ahnzhelyk Phonda said with a welcoming smile.
“Good evening, my dear!” Merlin bent over her hand once again, kissing it gallantly. Maybe one reason I think of myself as “Merlin” instead of Nimue, he thought, is that Nimue was never interested in other women. Merlin, on the other hand...He set that consideration aside once more, although he really wasn’t sure whether it was legitimately a case of Merlin being interested in “other women,” or of Merlin being interested in the “opposite sex” (whichever sex that happened to be at the moment), or of Merlin having discovered something about himself that Nimue had never suspected about herself, or simply of Merlin finding something else to worry about that wouldn’t have mattered to anyone else on the entire planet.


I see very little room for misunderstanding there.

EDIT: Minor formatting issue EDIT 2: Blah, can't do anything right today.
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by McGuiness   » Wed Jan 21, 2015 2:15 am

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After carefully re-reading the last chapters of LAMA for the fourth time (I still can't figure out which side of the forest they're fighting on half the time!) it's clear that HM attacked Roymark with a "sizable" force of infantry, and they captured all the artillery the AoS had in the entrenchments around the town en route to capturing the whole place. They are available and a lot closer to Thesmar than Ahlverez is.

A relay of riders and spare horses could carry new orders from DE at Kharmych in less than two days quite easily if the allies haven't captured the semaphore. At that point those troops could proceed to Cheryk, notify Hanth's troops and cavalry that Ahlverez is on his way, and be in position to block him wherever he decides to go, which is most likely the bridge SW of Cheryk, the one at Yairdyn, or the one at Trevyr. (And Trevyr doesn't appear on the map in LAMA, nor does the highway from Cheryk to Evrytyn, or even Evrytyn itself! So we're sort of left guessing whether the online map from MTaT is accurate, since they do appear there.)

DE is no longer responsible to keep Kaitswyrth in check - that falls to Highmount and the Army of Cliff Peak. He's already destroyed the Desnairan contingent of the AoS, so he can either move west and help Hanth in his assault, or head north to break out of the Sylmahn gap and destroy Wyrshym with the help of BGV. That would put well over 150,000 ICA and Siddarmarkan troops in a position to intercept the main thrust of the 1.6 - 2 million Harchongese troops that will soon be headed their way. (Did anyone forget that little tidbit?) ;)

The ICN will do a great deal to cut the supplies reaching Siddarmark via the Gulf of Dohlar, but the Harchongese about to invade like locusts are strewn along the Langhorne canal, which will soon be the only canal under CoGA control that can ship troops and supplies into Siddarmark.

Hanth is spread extremely thin at this point, and seems to have the responsibility to keep both Desnair and Dohlar out of the war. He also doesn't have any member of the inner circle with him (and he isn't one dang it!) so as well as he's done, he's courting disaster, especially since the next Dohlaran army he faces will be well fed, rested, and armed with better breech loading rifles than his own troops, plus it will have rifled artillery.

If it weren't for the fact that the Dohlaran troops at Evrytyn are at the end of a long supply line that can be cut by blowing up a lock or two on the canal to the west of them , they'd be a serious threat to drive Hanth back. I expect he'll cut off their supplies and force them to retreat - and they won't enjoy facing the Delthak one bit either! (Although it won't be sailing past the 1st lock on the river to avoid being trapped, wherever that is.)

It makes sense to have DE march west and join forces with Hanth, especially if a large force of Harchongese is sent through Dohlar. (Which is what I'd do if I were Magwair.) I expect the Harchongese to be split into two or possibly three armies - one to invade Southmarch, (facing Hanth and DE) one to hit Glacierheart, (facing HM) and the last and largest to sweep from Tarikah towards Guarnak, where BGV would meet them. Toss in 200,000+ Siddarmark riflemen, and although the battles will be horrific, the allies ought to prevail in each - but not if Hanth is left hanging without significant reinforcements. Besides, he needs to capture the Dairnyth - Alyksberg canal and shut off the southern supply route for Kaitswyrth. (Although the Haarahld VIIs will take care of that in a few months.) :D

Of course how the EoC decides to array its forces depends on what the CoGA does with its armies, and if Magwair decides to keep the Harchongese together (hide your wives and daughters!) they might be enough to envelope and destroy any one of the three major allied forces, with Hanth being the weakest unless DE reinforces him.

"Oh bother", said Pooh as he glanced through the airlock window at the helmet he'd forgotten to wear.
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Re: HFQ Official Snippet #16
Post by XofDallas   » Wed Jan 21, 2015 5:27 am

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Without quoting McGuiness, his most recent post makes a lot of sense.

HM's forces will need some significant recovery time, but if supported by DE's troops (or a portion thereof), they could be on the move within two or three fivedays. As Dragoons (mounted infantry), whose mounts did not suffer at all in the battle, they could move west, or southwest, to support Hanth pretty quickly. That support, with a bit of judicious intelligence, likely would be sufficient to intercept Ahlverez' forces in a timely manner and (perhaps) bottle them up.

I say perhaps because A's forces would still be equal to or greater in number (if not in firepower) than HM's, and because it looks like it would be an open field situation except near the river or either forest. HM's forces will be much more mobile than A's though.

There's another reason I say perhaps, and that is because GV's and Hanth's forces are not working in a vacuum. McGuiness has identified Hanth's multiple objectives and concerns quite well.

I don't think it's the Alliance's strategy to dig AoG forces out of the Sylmahn Gap via frontal assault. If I were them, I'd block both entrances and starve them out.

However, there are other options for DE: He could move north to flank Kaitsworth. He could move west to support Hanth. He could chase Ahlverez. Or he could move northwest to secure Aihvahnstyn and/or the Charayn Canal, bottling up Kaitsworth's forces, at least from the south and west.

My best guess is that HM will move southwest to support Hanth and to finish off Ahlverez, and that DE will either move west to support Hanth, or northwest to flank Kaitsworth. The prudent option likely would be to support Hanth, but these guys are pretty audacious, so who knows?

One question will be the number of prisoners taken by HM and DE. Who will watch over them, how will they be fed, where will they be taken? That will use up some significant manpower too.
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