bookwyrm
Doom of Public Libraries
- Location
- Wichita, Kansas
[] Write-in: "Very well, you've served admirably and courageously. You shall have the enemy's weapons and armor and horses, yet I must request a handful of your men stay behind to assist me as emissaries to Bakczysaraj."
[] You stand tall. "I'll go to Bakczysaraj myself and settle the score. You all can decide what to do here. Treat my men well."
In the end the Radziwill are still only basically kings, and of that, in only a portion of the Commonwealth, and Stanislaw's value as a hostage is still only about as equivalent as a Mirza, with all the other great dynasties and notable figures to carry on the fight, and that's of the Mirza only- without the rest of his host of other captives. And resolving this quickly with his Lipka and with his august presence, either with good faith negotiations, insubstantial mercenary exchanges, or indeed coming from a roundabout way of climatically ending the war with his own captivity and follow-up ransoms and negotiations, is key to getting back home to try and prepare the ground any further for the Hapsburg faction. Plus, its rather likely that with the absences of the lord prince and the Lipka the Royal Secretary gets our hotblooded cousins to compromise and start scooping up returning Chambuls while waiting for the negotiations to bare fruit instead of pushing forward for the rest of the campaigning season like they want too.
Actually- let me change it to a write-in spelling out the implicit understanding and quid-pro-quo
[X] Write-in: "Very well, you've served admirably and courageously. You shall have the enemy's weapons and armor and horses, yet I must request a handful of your men stay behind to assist me as emissaries to Bakczysaraj."
[X] Write-in: "This evil needs to end one way or another, but the Lipka will have to withdraw soon beyond some negotiators for the peace mission, leaving the prospects of catching the Chambuls outside of their slow and loot-laden return back to camp that much harder. I myself will go with my Lipka to settle this, and I leave the other sort of business to you gentlemen."
[X] flog any of his men found in possession of looted goods.
This, I'm choosing just to complete the package of the bible-thumping and logistically and strategically minded taskmaster sort of commander. As long as the frenzied heroics he pumps himself up into to overcome his fear and disgust at the horrors of war don't just get them all killed and he stays crazy like a fox, some of the men might actually come to appreciate his weird freak energy and his harsh discipline, like Wellington's relationship with his redcoat scum of the earth. (Plus in the here and now they're getting paid back even moreso out of further Tatar spoils)
[] You stand tall. "I'll go to Bakczysaraj myself and settle the score. You all can decide what to do here. Treat my men well."
In the end the Radziwill are still only basically kings, and of that, in only a portion of the Commonwealth, and Stanislaw's value as a hostage is still only about as equivalent as a Mirza, with all the other great dynasties and notable figures to carry on the fight, and that's of the Mirza only- without the rest of his host of other captives. And resolving this quickly with his Lipka and with his august presence, either with good faith negotiations, insubstantial mercenary exchanges, or indeed coming from a roundabout way of climatically ending the war with his own captivity and follow-up ransoms and negotiations, is key to getting back home to try and prepare the ground any further for the Hapsburg faction. Plus, its rather likely that with the absences of the lord prince and the Lipka the Royal Secretary gets our hotblooded cousins to compromise and start scooping up returning Chambuls while waiting for the negotiations to bare fruit instead of pushing forward for the rest of the campaigning season like they want too.
Actually- let me change it to a write-in spelling out the implicit understanding and quid-pro-quo
[X] Write-in: "Very well, you've served admirably and courageously. You shall have the enemy's weapons and armor and horses, yet I must request a handful of your men stay behind to assist me as emissaries to Bakczysaraj."
[X] Write-in: "This evil needs to end one way or another, but the Lipka will have to withdraw soon beyond some negotiators for the peace mission, leaving the prospects of catching the Chambuls outside of their slow and loot-laden return back to camp that much harder. I myself will go with my Lipka to settle this, and I leave the other sort of business to you gentlemen."
[X] flog any of his men found in possession of looted goods.
This, I'm choosing just to complete the package of the bible-thumping and logistically and strategically minded taskmaster sort of commander. As long as the frenzied heroics he pumps himself up into to overcome his fear and disgust at the horrors of war don't just get them all killed and he stays crazy like a fox, some of the men might actually come to appreciate his weird freak energy and his harsh discipline, like Wellington's relationship with his redcoat scum of the earth. (Plus in the here and now they're getting paid back even moreso out of further Tatar spoils)