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Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

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This Quest is just so great!

I am no great tactician, but I do smell a trap...
 
I agree with the consensus that this looks like a trap, but sometimes the best thing to do with a trap is spring it. This probably isn't one of those times, but it's worth weighing. This might be our best opportunity to fight von Trotha. Guillory arriving in force will likely be the signal for Centre to withdraw behind the Raoille, and that'll probably be the end of this campaign if we can't catch him.

Von Trotha's position is very strong. Anchored by hills and presumably covered by hidden artillery. A mass infantry charge would probably fail, but there might be other options. The terrain provides us cover too. Attack his flanks through the woods, perhaps? Or we could send the halflings (and perhaps the horse artillery) forward to probe and harass, inflict some casualties and try to draw him out after all. If it actually is a fake withdrawal, we don't have to commit to a rapid assault.

Still, yeah, the best move is probably not to play here.
 
So, on a more serious note, I can try to piece together one possible logic train.

Enemy General's (Trotha's) 10-Step Plan to Success
1. Enemy general learns about colleague's defeat
2. Enemy general learns about second army nearby
3. Enemy general learns first and second army are yet to join.
4. Enemy general decides defeat in detail is key to victory.
5. Enemy general decides quick defeat of first army is critical to ensuring #4 succeeds.
6. Enemy general realizes #1 may lead to defeat if #5 is handled rashly.
7. Enemy general decides cunning and trickery is needed to accomplish #5 without repeating #1 on his own army.
8. Carry out #7
9. Defeat second army.
10. Profit.
 
The only thing I'd be worried about is if he was somehow trying to withdraw to hit the troops marching double-time, but that... doesn't really make sense? Yeah he's doing aggressive scouting, but why would he be able to so accurately divine that sort of thing, let alone think we'd be that passive... not jumping at bait is one thing, but if he tries to actually pass behind us, that'd be quite another.
 
The Laurent said:
The only thing I'd be worried about is if he was somehow trying to withdraw to hit the troops marching double-time, but that... doesn't really make sense? Yeah he's doing aggressive scouting, but why would he be able to so accurately divine that sort of thing, let alone think we'd be that passive... not jumping at bait is one thing, but if he tries to actually pass behind us, that'd be quite another.
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In some ways, I kinda want that. Imagine him in a position where we can literally pincer him. Although tbf id be worried about our second army currently in forced march and without their official leader.
 
Sometimes you step in the obvious trap in order to get to the enemy. I'm just not sure if this is such a time.
 
We aren't supposed to move past the northern river anyway, so defeating the Army of the Center would just be an exercise in trying to capture troops to reduce their strength and I don't think thats worth the risk of fighting a superior enemy without our good position, especially when time is on our side
 
Decision square:

If it's a trap and we do nothing, we force von trapp to fight us in our good position, or get around us somehow, which we will hopefully be able to detect

If it's a trap and we attack: we possibly send more free arnese men into the teeth of field artillery.

If it's not a trap and we do nothing, we have demonstrated the strength of the arnese army and driven off the army of the center.

If it's not a trap and we attack, we fight a battle outside of our trenches
 
Soberan 123 said:
Can we start building defenses, such as trenchs and other stuff?
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Those already exist.

The Laurent said:
@Photomajig , how Maverick is Maverick?

Like, is it so maverick that they'd literally charge an enemy army entirely alone? I don't think so, since that's less, "Sometimes does their own thing" and more "Decides to commit suicide."
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A Maverick is the hero of their own historical war movie. They won't be suicidal unless they feel that it's part of their tragic character arc.
 
I agree that this is definitely a trap. Remember, the Arnese tradition is, to twist Napoleon's quote, "attack, always attack." von Wachenheim expected it of us, there's no reason for Trotha to not do the same.
 
Def feels like a feint, trying to draw us into a charge as they would expect a aggressive hob general would. Considering we only saw their light horse artillery, they would want to draw us into range and into rough terrain with prepared positions.

Honestly with the reinformencts coming and no real reason to strike hard into them, we should wait them out. Now with more cavalry, our scouts should be reinforced, and considering the terrain Trotha should not easily just move around us.
 
One day our enemies will, rather than begin by assuming we're stupid, begin by assuming we have a brilliant plan, and on that day I'm not sure what we'll do.

But, like, I don't get what we'd lose if we just don't jump on the bait?
 
Chimeraguard said:
If our army was at a lower level of drill, I could see us losing some morale from soldiers who seem chomping at the bit to get into the fight.

But with our average Drill, I think we should be good on that front.
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And, like, I don't get how the soldiers wouldn't just assume that, I dunno, either the trap thing or, "They were so scared of us they ran away" if they actually just keep on withdrawing.
 
The Laurent said:
One day our enemies will, rather than begin by assuming we're stupid, begin by assuming we have a brilliant plan, and on that day I'm not sure what we'll do.
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We'll do like Zhuge Liang, and sit atop an open fort gate playing a fiddle while the garrison mows the lawn in front of the enemy. Getting the enemy to excessively overestimate you is just as powerful as excessive underestimation. You just need to know how to use each right.
 
After this; we really should up our scouting game. It has been pointed out in the narration that Trotha both managed to scout our army very well and prevented us from scouting him. We should try to prevent that from happening again. The question is, how?
 
I imagine von Trotha was able to do that because of his superior cavalry arm, particularly in terms of scouting (our one Professional cavalry unit has a "Loud" CO.)

There also might have been March actions available for von Trotha about blinding our scouts due to having superior cavalry.
 
Chimeraguard said:
I imagine von Trotha was able to do that because of his superior cavalry arm, particularly in terms of scouting (our one Professional cavalry unit has a "Loud" CO.)

There also might have been March actions available for von Trotha about blinding our scouts due to having superior cavalry.
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Plus our decision to remain static might have made screening a bit easier for von Trotha's army. You don't need scouts and pickets tracking the moves of the enemy army if it's not making moves. Those efforts can be redirected to chasing off the enemy's scouts.
 
[X] Let him withdraw. You're safely sitting on prepared ground. You lose nothing by remaining here and letting him run.

If this is a trap, then we can avoid springing it. If this isn't a trap, then von Trotha withdrawing is conceding Daurstein to us without a fight.
 
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