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Description

KelSthaireth* Birtim, Sixth of Mishi paced back and forth, surveying the table before him intently and considering his options. It was covered in a black and white checked tablecloth, on the far end was a beer stein in front of him were twelve small wooden figures that were mostly white, save for a black shield on the simplest and most common type. He held a black version of this in his hand, while five more pieces lay in a wooden box as he considered were to put them. Grunerhund Captain Gerhart Deils shadowed him from behind, making himself known by his footsteps and the occasional quiet utterance. It was grating and distracting in a low key way, deliberately so. All of which had the subtext of 'get on with it'.

From day one there was some tension in Fidelium former Janissaries and Mercenaries and it was not hard to see why. There was the language barrier, some of the Mercs had bad blood for the Dark Elves and their minions and Janissaries were trained to look down on wild humans. The Ex-Janissaries tended to view the mercenaries as ill disciplined, disorganized, lazy, presumptive, insultingly insolent and terminally conceited and egotistical. The Mercs viewed the Ex-Janissaries as stubborn, deluded, brutalized, self-righteous, rigid in their responses and with a single minded lack of creativity. Fortunately a lid was being kept on it, the Janissaries had their orders to try to make things work and the promise of payment and reward was enough to get the Mercs to try to make things work. So far there had been only a few scuffles and as a general rule more overt tension tended to happen with new arrivals. The issues tended to be mitigated with time as they learned the language and cooperation cultivated a level of mutual respect, but even the two groups rarely mingled beyond business. Birtim would normally have steered clear of the Grunerhund's encampment, but he was ordered to do so both by the Prelate and Jaifrel Svarth in accordance to the mandates for lessons.

In addition to fighting, the Grunerhund were required to provide training. Mostly this involved showing the militia which end of a musket to point at the enemy, but it also included training for senior Janissaries in command. Starting with Jaifral Svarth, followed by the highest ranked subordinates of the initial Janissary Company. He expected to read some books and listen to some pointers from Captain Deils, and he got that. What he did not expect was having to play a game on table. It was called Tacticum and was far more complex than flip-tiles, stone set or betting on dice. It also could be played a lot of different ways. He'd played several head to head matches with other Janissaries, which was similar to chess in that they had two armies with identical starting positions.This match involved defending the beer stein from being taken by the enemy. He was outnumbered two to one, but they always started in the same place with four clusters of three. He could place his troops on any square not immediately adjacent to a foe and he had the first move. Deils also played at a -1 penalty on his attack roles. At first Birtim put his troops by the Stein to stand firm and protect it. But they were overwhelmed and lost. Clearly that line of reasoning would not work. He tried sending his archer and Cataphract out against their weakest company while his Maniple held back, but while he took two pieces early on it did not save the Stein from the onslaught.

A basic idea came to Birtim. He put down all of his forces near the heaviest pocket of hostiles on the enemy's right flank, save two Maniple piece guarding it's flank against the right rear guard. The battle begun and he used his Cataphract to take out the enemy Cataphract in the first turn with an attack on it's rear. Diels turned a Maniple back to attack the Cataphract, but failed the attack role. Birtim's Archer took out the center-right cluster's Archer. Diels moved a maniple from the right flank into an attack position, but this did not save the center right's Maniple from another Maniple in the flank. In three turns, a quarter of the Deil's forces were down, among them half of his Cataphracts and Archers while Birtim had lost nothing. With that done, the ex Janissary turned his focus on the right flank cluster with all six pieces, wiping it out and taking out the last of Deil's archers. He then moved his forward against the left clusters, striking one and then the other. In the end Birtim lost two Maniples, but he left not a single of of Gerhart's pieces standing.

To Deil's surprise, Gerhart chuckled and clapped. "Very good, my lad. What you did there is called Defeat in Detail. You were outnumbered in general, but you brought to bare all of your forces against small isolated pockets and overwhelmed them one at a time. You also made good use of the initiative, forcing me to to do what. I say this calls for a pint of Adele and Markus's, my treat." In truth, Gerhart could have salvaged the situation easily, even with the handicap. He'd been playing Tacticum since he was seven. But he had not only mastered the game but how to teach it and use it as a teaching aide. So far, he'd seen far worse students than Birtim. He still had a lot of stuff to learn and there were lessons his Drow Masters had given him that he needed to carefully unlearn, but with some more work he'd be better than a lot of minor lordlings and city regiment lieutenants he'd had the displeasure of working with over his career.

Birtim smiled "That would be nice, thank you." Adele and Markus made good beer and between seeing to security and learning how to be an officer, his days had been long and strenuous. Between the Grunerhunds and the Ex-Janissaries would ease ever so slightly.

*Literally"New Entrusted One", most junior Fidelian Army officer rank equivalent to Second Lieutenant, at this stage something of a training rank.

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Thirty Five

Next: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Thirty Seven

Description

KelSthaireth* Birtim, Sixth of Mishi paced back and forth, surveying the table before him intently and considering his options. It was covered in a black and white checked tablecloth, on the far end was a beer stein in front of him were twelve small wooden figures that were mostly white, save for a black shield on the simplest and most common type. He held a black version of this in his hand, while five more pieces lay in a wooden box as he considered were to put them. Grunerhund Captain Gerhart Deils shadowed him from behind, making himself known by his footsteps and the occasional quiet utterance. It was grating and distracting in a low key way, deliberately so. All of which had the subtext of 'get on with it'.

From day one there was some tension in Fidelium former Janissaries and Mercenaries and it was not hard to see why. There was the language barrier, some of the Mercs had bad blood for the Dark Elves and their minions and Janissaries were trained to look down on wild humans. The Ex-Janissaries tended to view the mercenaries as ill disciplined, disorganized, lazy, presumptive, insultingly insolent and terminally conceited and egotistical. The Mercs viewed the Ex-Janissaries as stubborn, deluded, brutalized, self-righteous, rigid in their responses and with a single minded lack of creativity. Fortunately a lid was being kept on it, the Janissaries had their orders to try to make things work and the promise of payment and reward was enough to get the Mercs to try to make things work. So far there had been only a few scuffles and as a general rule more overt tension tended to happen with new arrivals. The issues tended to be mitigated with time as they learned the language and cooperation cultivated a level of mutual respect, but even the two groups rarely mingled beyond business. Birtim would normally have steered clear of the Grunerhund's encampment, but he was ordered to do so both by the Prelate and Jaifrel Svarth in accordance to the mandates for lessons.

In addition to fighting, the Grunerhund were required to provide training. Mostly this involved showing the militia which end of a musket to point at the enemy, but it also included training for senior Janissaries in command. Starting with Jaifral Svarth, followed by the highest ranked subordinates of the initial Janissary Company. He expected to read some books and listen to some pointers from Captain Deils, and he got that. What he did not expect was having to play a game on table. It was called Tacticum and was far more complex than flip-tiles, stone set or betting on dice. It also could be played a lot of different ways. He'd played several head to head matches with other Janissaries, which was similar to chess in that they had two armies with identical starting positions.This match involved defending the beer stein from being taken by the enemy. He was outnumbered two to one, but they always started in the same place with four clusters of three. He could place his troops on any square not immediately adjacent to a foe and he had the first move. Deils also played at a -1 penalty on his attack roles. At first Birtim put his troops by the Stein to stand firm and protect it. But they were overwhelmed and lost. Clearly that line of reasoning would not work. He tried sending his archer and Cataphract out against their weakest company while his Maniple held back, but while he took two pieces early on it did not save the Stein from the onslaught.

A basic idea came to Birtim. He put down all of his forces near the heaviest pocket of hostiles on the enemy's right flank, save two Maniple piece guarding it's flank against the right rear guard. The battle begun and he used his Cataphract to take out the enemy Cataphract in the first turn with an attack on it's rear. Diels turned a Maniple back to attack the Cataphract, but failed the attack role. Birtim's Archer took out the center-right cluster's Archer. Diels moved a maniple from the right flank into an attack position, but this did not save the center right's Maniple from another Maniple in the flank. In three turns, a quarter of the Deil's forces were down, among them half of his Cataphracts and Archers while Birtim had lost nothing. With that done, the ex Janissary turned his focus on the right flank cluster with all six pieces, wiping it out and taking out the last of Deil's archers. He then moved his forward against the left clusters, striking one and then the other. In the end Birtim lost two Maniples, but he left not a single of of Gerhart's pieces standing.

To Deil's surprise, Gerhart chuckled and clapped. "Very good, my lad. What you did there is called Defeat in Detail. You were outnumbered in general, but you brought to bare all of your forces against small isolated pockets and overwhelmed them one at a time. You also made good use of the initiative, forcing me to to do what. I say this calls for a pint of Adele and Markus's, my treat." In truth, Gerhart could have salvaged the situation easily, even with the handicap. He'd been playing Tacticum since he was seven. But he had not only mastered the game but how to teach it and use it as a teaching aide. So far, he'd seen far worse students than Birtim. He still had a lot of stuff to learn and there were lessons his Drow Masters had given him that he needed to carefully unlearn, but with some more work he'd be better than a lot of minor lordlings and city regiment lieutenants he'd had the displeasure of working with over his career.

Birtim smiled "That would be nice, thank you." Adele and Markus made good beer and between seeing to security and learning how to be an officer, his days had been long and strenuous. Between the Grunerhunds and the Ex-Janissaries would ease ever so slightly.

*Literally"New Entrusted One", most junior Fidelian Army officer rank equivalent to Second Lieutenant, at this stage something of a training rank.

From the Beginning...

Previous: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Thirty Five

Next: Infrastructure: Part Three Hundred and Thirty Seven