Louis R wrote:I'm not the slightest bit confused. Never have been, don't see any reason to start now.
Everything done to improve the quality of the Host was done _using_the_excuse_ that they were bottlenecked.
WHY were they in that bottleneck in the first place, when they could have been rerouted 6 weeks earlier, _before_ anyone had a clue that they _needed_ to be trained and re-equipped?
You don't call 1.5 million men forward because you don't think your own army is going to do a good enough job of raping and murdering your defeated enemies. Not when you have to a) feed them and b) discourage them from raping and murdering your undefeated allies, at any rate. You bring them in to commit industrial-scale mayhem on the battlefield, and they're not going to do a lot of that twiddling their thumbs a thousand miles behind the front. So if the planned route becomes infeasible and you have an alternate that is even just acceptable you at least think about using it. If it's actually a good route, it's a no-brainer - you send those 1.5 megamen down it and adjust the rest of your plans accordingly. Hell, as far as that goes, neither Duchairn nor Maigwair are idiots [even if Maigwair does play one on TV occasionally], so it would have been immediately - as in last winter, when the invasion of Siddarmark was being planned - obvious to them that moving and supplying the entire MHOGATA _and_ the AoG over one line of communication is less than optimal when there's at least one good parallel route. They certainly don't give a hoot about the Desnairians' sensibilities, and it was probably obvious from the beginning that they would be 4 months late to the party anyway, so what reason is there not to send the Host, or a good part of it, towards Dairnyth from the get-go?
Hi Louis,
In July, MTAT:
They made a side excursion far enough up the Sair to cripple the northern end of the Sair-Selkyr Canal, as well, and they destroyed every lock on the Tarikah River between East Wing Lake and the Hildermoss.” He shook his head. “The entire northern lobe of our logistic system’s been severed. Everything we were sending up the Holy Langhorne can’t go any farther than Lake City by water until we get the locks repaired, and that means we have two hundred thousand men we can no longer properly supply, most of them in territory where the crops either weren’t planted at all this year or went in late. And that’s not counting the loyal militia who’ve joined up with them, which adds about fifty percent to their own troop strength … and the mouths we have to feed. Without those supply lines, the best they’re going to be able to do is hold their positions. Even the Dohlarans will find themselves in the same situation, because we’re going to have to commandeer their supply route up the Fairmyn River and the Charayan Canal just to keep Kaitswyrth’s troops fed.”
We see that there are three canal routes to the front, the first is the Holy Langhorne canal to the Hildermoss river to the Guarnak-Sylmahn canal. The second is the Holy Langhorne canal to the Hildermoss river to the Sair river to the Sair-Selyk canal to the N. Daivyn river. The third is the Fairmyn river to the Charayn canal to the S. Daivyn river. Both of the first two routes are damaged, and in August, Duchairn reveals that they will get the canals fixed as far as Ayaltyn, which is forty miles past Cat Lizard Lake. They needed to repair the locks all the way to Lake Maysn, where the second route diverges from the first route. The conclusion is that only land transportation is available after July, and they only have enough capability to transport food to Wyrshym. Supplies for Kaitswyrth will have to be re-routed to the third route, and that will impact the operation of the Dohlarans.
The bottle-neck is real, and the MHOG got caught because they were the last to the party. There is no way now to send them to the front without their starving.
In August, LAMA
“Unless you want to simply use them as human shields to soak up the heretics’ fire so our own troops can get close enough to engage the enemy, we’ve got to improve their quality before we commit them to action. And let’s be honest here. Given the way Harchongese serfs are treated back home, expecting them to have anything like your regiments’ discipline is totally unrealistic. If you add that to the sort of casualties they’re likely to take, you’ve got a guaranteed recipe for troops who’re going to be almost as destructive to Mother Church’s loyal sons and daughters— especially her daughters— as to the heretics.” The two vicars’ eyes met across the table, and Duchairn shrugged. “Since we can’t move them up and feed them anyway, this is our one opportunity to give them the training— and the discipline— that might actually make them effective soldiers and not Shan-wei’s own scourge upon the Faithful as well as the apostate. I’ll come up with the food, the lumber and nails and tools to build their barracks, and some way to provide them with at least some rifles instead of arbalests, bows, and pikes.
James
I wonder if there is any chance of thoughts crossing Clyntahn's mind to the effect that either (a) it might have been a good idea to leave Charis well alone (i.e. take the money and continue with his repellent lifestyle) or (b) having burnt his fingers on Charis, to leave Siddarmark severely alone? Almost certainly not, but I can always hope that one or other of the 3 of the Go4 tells him that. It would be delicious if Magwair were to do it. If Clyntahn reacts in his usual bull-headed way, that might just pit the army against the Inquisition . . .