ATST snippet #5

Peter2 wrote:

runsforcelery wrote:Has it occurred to anyone that actually invading Zion might be A Bad Idea™ in the view of whatever lives under the Temple?

Just asking.

But to threaten to do so might well draw off some of Rainbow Waters' forces.

Yes? No? (Not really expecting an answer . . . )
.

Just remember Clyntahn's chat with Maigwair concerning a certain strategically unimportant island where the Charisians took control. He threw a snit about it... how bad would it be if the same thing was repeated... on a location somewhere close to Zion itself?

When it comes to military strategic thinking, Clyntahn is a dunce. If there's a Charisian force close to Zion proper, he's almost guaranteed to overreact, 'cause he'll perceive a threat where there's none.

runsforcelery wrote:

Has it occurred to anyone that actually invading Zion might be A Bad Idea™ in the view of whatever lives under the Temple?

Just asking.

As far as I could recall, it occured to me a book ago)

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=6260&p=161111&hilit=Dilandu+Zion#p161074

Dilandu wrote:My IMHO - that the Zion and Temple should not be invaded by open military force, but infiltrated by some team of agents, that be able to determine the degree of possible threat. The direct invasion is complicated due to:

- The possibility of some overwhelming reaction by Tempe automatic or sleeres themselves.

- Purely military difficulty of attack on the such isolated and possibly ultimatedly defended position

- The moral and religious aspects; the heretics, that conquered Dohlar and demanded peace threaty and contribution from the secular rulers of the Temple Land is the one thing. The heretics, that attacked Zion and Temple itself - is the other one.

And it seems that they may have simple detector... As I recall in first book it was stated that the Temple's choir is singing constantly, every day, without pause, and it was ordered by Langhorne himself that "his home must be constantly filled with voices, raides in his praise" (c)

All the Archangel's need, is simple acoustic system, which would react to any significant alterations of choir - and let them knew, that something is not right.

peke wrote:
Now, Rainbow Waters is no dunce, so he's not going to take this lying down, but his options are much worse. He doesn't have the range to effectively counter Charisian heavy artillery, and cannot make any kind of rush to quickly bring his own artillery forward, since it's been noted that Church artillery is nowhere near as mobile as Charisian artillery. If he's going to rush, it will be with his infantry - against Charisian regulars, in a defensive position, with supporting light and heavy artillery. I doubt he'll take that path, but then again, who knows what will happen when Clyntahn starts demanding results.

Comments, anyone?

Also take into account, that if Charisians would deploy theur airships against Church troops, the Rainbow Waters soldiers might just break and panic. The aviation tended to have tremendous psychological impact on the totally unprepared... well, savaged And the airships just look impressively - the mere though that something as big as warship could float effortlessly in the air and drop explosives...

runsforcelery wrote:

Has it occurred to anyone that actually invading Zion might be A Bad Idea™ in the view of whatever lives under the Temple?

Just asking.

Well, some of us would know a lot more than others about the probability of that!

But I think the idea may have been floated on the forums once or twice.

Myself, I'm no keener on invading Zion than Cayleb was when he decided the names of the first 3 King Harahld's.

Thank you for the snippet, rfc. I just finally ran across it a minute ago after being tied up in the earc of your other book.

Hmmm. Balloons. Anyone else humming the Clash of Clans Baloon parade commercial to themselves right now?

Cause I sure as heck am.

I really am hoping its actual airships and just simple spotting balloons. I mean the spotters would be all kinds of useful, but not actualy, "oh man that is frigging AWESOME" kinda cool and sexy.

Plus the amount of sheer psychological panic and terror it would introduce into the Temple Boys the first time they see them soaring majesticly over the horizon, can not be understated.

I can't help but feel that, along the vein of not giving the allies all their own way, if you've got anyone you love in Earl Hanth's army, you might want to send them a letter saying goodbye

Given the apparent supply situation and the Earl's lack of supernatural intelligence gathering, it really sounds like something wicked this way comes.

There'll be any number of ways that RFC could make the disaster less than complete, or mitigate the fallout, but I'm convinced that that army's days are numbered.

Undercover Fat Kid wrote:I can't help but feel that, along the vein of not giving the allies all their own way, if you've got anyone you love in Earl Hanth's army, you might want to send them a letter saying goodbye

Given the apparent supply situation and the Earl's lack of supernatural intelligence gathering, it really sounds like something wicked this way comes.

There'll be any number of ways that RFC could make the disaster less than complete, or mitigate the fallout, but I'm convinced that that army's days are numbered.

OK, I'll delurk with my own clueless take.

Were I faced with Green Valley's dilemma, the first thing I might consider is logistics: specifically, how they feed/supply the large force. We know the key route is the Holy Langhorne Canal, and that Rainbow Waters is concerned with the effects of losing it. It is therefore reasonable to conjecture that destroying that Canal would either force Rainbow Waters to retreat in mid-winter (major loss of life, even without serious pressure from EoC, plus probably Clytahn won't stand for it) or force RW to attack in mid-winter (same result).

Now, the HLC is looong, so even if RW wants to defend it there are going to be vulnerable spots. The question is, how to get there? From either the south (Gulf of Tanshar) or the southeast (Daivyn River) is a long distance to travel. If you go via Selyk you're liable to be detected. However, the join between RW's and Maigwair's troops is liable to be permeable, given the weather, so a commando force could indeed get through and wreak havoc. Of course, the odds of succeeding without seijin help are pretty low ...

And that brings us to the possibility of an all-seijin raid. The dilemma there is ethical: is it really right to starve all those people, especially the support serfs? The answer, I think, is that more people would die otherwise, and in particular more of the Good Guys.

p.s. again, ideally, I'd start the destruction as far south as possible, moving north. That way, RW doesn't find out about the supply route loss until later, especially since folks further up the line will take a while to figure out why they aren't seeing more supplies coming north.

peke wrote:Just remember Clyntahn's chat with Maigwair concerning a certain strategically unimportant island where the Charisians took control. He threw a snit about it... how bad would it be if the same thing was repeated... on a location somewhere close to Zion itself?

When it comes to military strategic thinking, Clyntahn is a dunce. If there's a Charisian force close to Zion proper, he's almost guaranteed to overreact, 'cause he'll perceive a threat where there's none.

Also, while Merlin et al have a good reason to be afraid of an invasion of the Temple, Clyntahn has no way to know that.

Besides, what if they simply siege the Temple and take out the semaphores in the area? Not anything airtight, just a major inconvenience. Clyntahn has to bring in enough troops to kick them out and that means a bunch of troops on the move instead of in defensive formations.

ErikM wrote:
The balloons sound a lot like US civil war era observation balloons. They'll undoubtedly set off a lot of people's 'This Is Magic/Demonic' triggers but flexible commanders on both sides will quickly see their use as mobile observation posts and even signal towers.

Somehow I don't think that's exactly what the designers have in mind.

They might be called balloons, but if they're cell based, then, yes, they sound more like dirigibles than your typical hot air balloons.