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Army of Liberty: a Fantasy Revolutionary Warfare Quest

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Pinniped said:
Actually, come to think of it, I believe Von Trotha has some reason to believe a false retreat might work. If you look at Brutet from the Nornish perspective, what happened is that Durand remained on the defensive for most of the battle but launched an all-out charge as soon as Wahhenheim started retreating. From his perspective, he is only trying to bait us into doing the exact same thing we did in our previous battle!
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A valid analysis on his part, but missing important details - our strategy at Brutet worked because we forced Wachenheim to commit, and only then sent our cavalry up his ass while his withdrawing army was stuck in the mud. We realize that, but he doesn't realize we realize that. If he'd tried this after committing to an infantry scrum and then calling retreat, it might have worked.
 
If this does end up with von Trotha retreating, I hope that doesn't hurt our "street cred" in the legislature. I don't think it would, especially if we're explaining ourselves?
 
Our job is to defend a city and the enemy's gotten nowhere near it. We've camped an army over the Nornish border and in this hypothetical they retreat without even contesting it. We're under explicit orders not to move past the next river so by that point we'll have accomplished most of the maximum possible number of extra credit objectives without even wasting any extra bullets, let alone citizens' lives. If we get really ambitious we could pursue Trotha or attack Engelburg but honestly if he retreats we've won as much as we can in this theater, and that's more important than any kind of reputation for élan.
 
The Laurent said:
If this does end up with von Trotha retreating, I hope that doesn't hurt our "street cred" in the legislature. I don't think it would, especially if we're explaining ourselves?
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We can't be expected to also ensure a battle. Also, the assembly just told us to defend rather than engage in offensive operations, which we would have done quite well if Trotha retreats. The assembly doesn't want us to loose territory, destroying armies is somewhat outside the actual scope of our goals.
 
I think we're more likely to get push back from other Generals considering the emphasis that the Arnese Doctrine has on aggression and offensive manuvers so they'll probably be a number of generals possibly including Guillory who will view us a cowards for not taking every oppotunity to attack.
 
If Von Trotha does outright withdraw after this, we can likely at least secure the southern border of the Raoille. That would give Arne a very strong defense position against future Nornish attacks on this front.

And yeah, I do imagine we'll face some pushback about not going for it given the Arnese doctrine's focus, but I think we can deflect most of that with how we completely annihilated first the Royalist Volunteer Army and then the Army of the West, so Durand can point out that she clearly knows what she's doing.
 
IroniChristian said:
I think we're more likely to get push back from other Generals considering the emphasis that the Arnese Doctrine has on aggression and offensive manuvers so they'll probably be a number of generals possibly including Guillory who will view us a cowards for not taking every oppotunity to attack.
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and yet whos the one currently taking enemy territory again?
 
IroniChristian said:
I think we're more likely to get push back from other Generals considering the emphasis that the Arnese Doctrine has on aggression and offensive manuvers so they'll probably be a number of generals possibly including Guillory who will view us a cowards for not taking every oppotunity to attack.
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While it's possible, I think the pushback would be strong. Doctrine is more of a set of guidelines rather than hard rules for every commander, and assessing the viability of a offensive is a necessary part of Arné doctrine. We are perfectly willing to engage in offensives with devastating results, we can rely on our reputation and make the judgement call "this is in all likelihood a trap and we're waiting to have all forces available".
 
Also like, realistically, Trotha is not genuinely retreating. Even if he is he's going to stay in the field and set up his own dug in position to stalemate us. Much more likely is that he gives up on the feigned retreat when he sees we're not buying it and takes all the initiative we've given him to move his field cannons into position to start an assault.
 
Well, he might actually retreat if he's aware that the VI isn't that far away, since that would mean he has to fight an offensive battle while being heavily outnumbered.

Though politically and strategically he might feel compelled to. Politics-wise, retreating from Daurstein without firing a shot is probably a worse look than not trying to retake it in the first place. And strategically, while we've been given orders not to cross the Raoille, von Trotha doesn't know that, and he might be looking at the III Army tearing through Gelle-Musselmond and thinking that if he doesn't blunt the V/VI Armies now, Engelsberg might be facing a two-pronged attack from both the west and south in another week, with his single army only able to respond to one of them.
 
(I misremembered the map so attacking Engelsburg is off the menu but) even within our standing orders, leaving us free to operate here lets us move north to take control of the Raoille crossing and the crossroads north of it, and block any chance of using a road to move armies into Arné
 
Say, @Photomajig I'm trying to write an omake right now, and I was wondering what the name is for the Nornish province that we're fighting in right now? The one that encompasses all the Nornish territory on the map, from Daurstein to Engelsburg (and maybe Sonneck) the way La Durance does for all the territory on Arne's side.
 
Chimeraguard said:
Say, @Photomajig I'm trying to write an omake right now, and I was wondering what the name is for the Nornish province that we're fighting in right now? The one that encompasses all the Nornish territory on the map, from Daurstein to Engelsburg (and maybe Sonneck) the way La Durance does for all the territory on Arne's side.
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Mitteln, after the Markgrafschaft Mitteln Silver Realm that existed here before Norn annexed it.
 
Okay, so I've mostly finished with my omake, except that it's a von Trotha POV Negaverse, and I'd like some Negaverse poster statements/reactions to go along with the "Update." Would any of the major planmakers and participants here be willing to participate in say, an SV PM to simulate that bit?
 
Chimeraguard said:
Okay, so I've mostly finished with my omake, except that it's a von Trotha POV Negaverse, and I'd like some Negaverse poster statements/reactions to go along with the "Update." Would any of the major planmakers and participants here be willing to participate in say, an SV PM to simulate that bit?
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Well, this does sound interesting. I recently revisited to the battle to swap stories, so I'm game.
 
Chimeraguard said:
Cool. Though uh...it seems I can't PM you. Should I set up a doc instead? I wanted it to be an SV PM for maximum authenticity, and because it feels awkward linking a doc in the main thread for an omake before that omake's actually finished...
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Oh, my apologies. I changed the privacy settings, it should work now.
 
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    • Scheduled vote count started by Photomajig on Apr 24, 2024 at 5:35 AM, finished with 49 posts and 27 votes.
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    • By the way, the Negaverse sidestory could still use some more participants. If you're interested in it, you're more than welcome to join. Maybe we could establish a system for joining that doesn't rely on comments, like everybody who reacts with a informative on @Chimeraguard post gets an invite? That would help reduce the clutter in the main thread a bit.
     
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