You have certainly a way with words though I admit that I sometimes feel a bit lost in regards of just what exactly you want to tell me with them and even more so when it comes to making my own plan...
In regards for plans, I am tired to think of anything but I think that it might be a good idea to let Kueli push into the enemy camp. A lost camp has in my experience a way of destroying enemy morale that little else has though of course we have already pushed the poor man and his ill treated Rassit to the limit multiple times and I guess a camp might not be the best thing to be caught in if the enemy counter attacks...
Based on the rolls, I think Jinhai's forces lost cohesion on their left (our right) and have started falling back. Kueli is flanking them, and his force is between our reinforcements and the enemy (maybe). If that's the case, we're winning the battle of attrition and their morale can't last much longer. I recommend that we press them hard on the right, ready to commit whatever fresh troops we have if any part of our line starts to waver. With Hari-Nat, we should send a messenger telling them to assist Kueli in harassing the flanks (don't insult them by making them subordinate to a barbarian foreigner, but get the point across) while remaining ready to disengage if Jinhai does something desperate like throwing his entire army at them. Maybe consult a senior mage on hand if the magical balance is in our favor enough to try some big showy attack to ruin their moral further.
Time is on our side. Closing out this battle does not require a brilliant military mind. Kiralo's brilliance got us this far, now all it takes is patience and the willingness to send thousands and thousands of soldiers to their death.
Based on the rolls, I think Jinhai's forces lost cohesion on their left (our right) and have started falling back. Kueli is flanking them, and his force is between our reinforcements and the enemy (maybe). If that's the case, we're winning the battle of attrition and their morale can't last much longer. I recommend that we press them hard on the right, ready to commit whatever fresh troops we have if any part of our line starts to waver. With Hari-Nat, we should send a messenger telling them to assist Kueli in harassing the flanks (don't insult them by making them subordinate to a barbarian foreigner, but get the point across) while remaining ready to disengage if Jinhai does something desperate like throwing his entire army at them. Maybe consult a senior mage on hand if the magical balance is in our favor enough to try some big showy attack to ruin their moral further.
Time is on our side. Closing out this battle does not require a brilliant military mind. Kiralo's brilliance got us this far, now all it takes is patience and the willingness to send thousands and thousands of soldiers to their death.
[X] Plan Cannae
General advance of every available unit, up to and including Kiralo. Don't let the enemy recover, simply advance and kill anything in the way
Seems to me that the enemy is on the breaking point on all fronts. Let's finally finish this battle.
[X] General advance at a steady pace. Apply pressure across the board. Give Jinhai no room to recover.
Please don't push Kiralo forward and give Jinhai the opportunity to turn it around with a hero snipe.
Jinhai needs to be in front to rally, but we don't.
[X] General advance at a steady pace. Apply pressure across the board. Give Jinhai no room to recover.
-[x] Make magically amplified demands for surrender
-[x] Make a magical attack on the cannon
-[x] Rather than throw the Hari Nat troops into the nearest encircling position, form them into a column and pick the time and place for them to make an impact.
[X] General advance at a steady pace. Apply pressure across the board. Give Jinhai no room to recover.
-[X] Make magically amplified demands for surrender
-[X] Make a magical attack on the cannon
-[X] Rather than throw the Hari Nat troops into the nearest encircling position, form them into a column and pick the time and place for them to make an impact.
[X] General advance at a steady pace. Apply pressure across the board. Give Jinhai no room to recover.
-[X] Make magically amplified demands for surrender
-[X] Make a magical attack on the cannon
-[X] Rather than throw the Hari Nat troops into the nearest encircling position, form them into a column and pick the time and place for them to make an impact.
[X] General advance at a steady pace. Apply pressure across the board. Give Jinhai no room to recover.
-[X] Make magically amplified demands for surrender
-[X] Make a magical attack on the cannon
-[X] Rather than throw the Hari Nat troops into the nearest encircling position, form them into a column and pick the time and place for them to make an impact.
Wouldn't it make more sense in this case to try to apply pressure as quickly as possible and cause a rout? A general, steady advance might sound like the right move because it is cautious, but if we can break them quickly the battle is ours.
Wouldn't it make more sense in this case to try to apply pressure as quickly as possible and cause a rout? A general, steady advance might sound like the right move because it is cautious, but if we can break them quickly the battle is ours.
A routing army does a lot of damage as it goes and we would have to pursue and slaughter as many as we can to make sure no substantial force rallies and causes further trouble. That is pretty difficult with a tired army with not much cavalry. We would have to stay organised throughout the operation because if a small section of ours without support corners a larger group of the enemy it might end up being the one wiped out. The confusion of a rout offers Jinhai a chance of escape too.
At the end of it, best case, we end up with thousands more dead Csirtan soldiers who we could have used against barbarians and the scattered survivors turning to banditry.
If we can trap them and break their morale to the point that whole units start surrendering we're much better off. If they are trapped and fight to the death we have the worst casualties of all of course but most of his army is peasant levies and allies of convenience - give them the option to live and someone will take it and then the dominoes start falling.
All of my sub actions are intended to further drive them into giving up. Extra loud calls to surrender are obvious. Silencing the guns not only takes away an effective way of harming us but a loud way of harming us whose absence will be immediately apparent - everyone will know that standing and fighting is that bit more futile. The Hari Nat troops formed up and ready in a column won't block an attempted breakout but they can hit it and do a lot of damage. While they are uncommitted every enemy commander will have to consider that they can potentially hit them with fresher troops in a focused spot, that they are recovering ever more from their march while his troops get tireder and their standards are a reminder that more Hari Nat troops can't be far behind - those standards will be more widely visible while they aren't tied up in the line too.
Here's the thing that stands out to me. Right now, the enemy absolutely needs to win. They can't lose a single battle because they are reliant upon their military prowess. We have the power of the state, the imperial army and the claim of a true born son from the old emperor on our side. We have the legitimacy he needs.
The enemy on the other hand has only the doctrine of might makes right. If he wins battles, he wins the empire. We on the other hand can afford to lose this battle and have replacement armies. He doesn't.
If we win this battle and throw him back, his claim to legitimacy which comes from the doctrine of might collapses around him. He will have severe morale loss, heavy desertion and the loss of legitimacy which will make his hard bought allies turn on him. He has thrown the dice here, and if he can't get even a draw, he's the one who suffers. Not us.
Also keep in mind that we don't want to utterly destroy this army and it's manpower. We will need it for future battles against what seems likely to be the real enemy in the north.
Wouldn't it make more sense in this case to try to apply pressure as quickly as possible and cause a rout? A general, steady advance might sound like the right move because it is cautious, but if we can break them quickly the battle is ours.
At this point? They need to win, we need to not lose. Its the time for them to make desperate gambits while on our part getting fancy only gives them opportunities.
It wasn't a complicated maneuver. History would record it, yes, for the eyes of history, as jaundiced and biased as they were, did not miss this.
It was the end of a battle, and the end of a rebellion, after all. People would mark it down, people would give it a date. They would say that at this time, and in this way, this ended.
They'd define it, the violence that followed, as part of the finishing blow, just a necessary step to at last end it.
For the people fighting, it was nothing like that. The army pressed on, and now, surrounded, there was nothing to fight for but survival. Dreams of glory gave way to the desperate certainty that the enemy wanted nothing more than your death.
So they fought, as Jinhai moved, trying to rally for a breakthrough. And he was brilliant.
He rode with grace and skill, and there was a charm that couldn't be lost by defeat. His face was clear, his eyes were bold, his every word was spoken with such authority that the army held, the army held against the pushing hordes on every side, as they were cut off from the main camp.
His armor was the best money could have made, and arrows bounced off it as he rode, fearless. He was a brave man, and this was his life, and the life of many others, that he fought for.
But there was a point beyond which no one person could change things. A point where as the armies crushed Jinhai's between them, the only option was to fight and die.
Fighting to the death wasn't something people did easily, it wasn't something people did well. The Bueli were known for it, and their foot soldiers would have fought to the last man just to spite and hurt the Empire. But ask a peasant to die for nothing, and he should run? But when he had nowhere to run, what happened?
Slowly, on every side, the army packed together closer, all but hugging the shore as it tried to compress itself down, like an insect, into the smallest possible space. When a man died, that only meant more space to huddle, and it meant that unless they broke out now, which they could, then…
*******
Kiralo watched from a distance through a telescope, looking at the coming massacre with horror and frustration. What could he do? Order them not to attack? People were dying from his orders, but more than that, he wanted to shake, wanted to understand just what ocean the rivers of his thought were running, that he still thought he could win.
Kiralo snorted, clutching tighter onto a cloth. "Surrender, you bastard. You monster. Their lives are on your…" he trailed off, realizing that people were listening, and tried to affect calm. He smoothed his features, he tried to look like a general watching the end of the war. Servants were watching, guards surrounded him, and yet all he could do was smooth as face, his eyes dark and thoughtful as he watched the chaos.
His hands folded upon each other, in order to hide the desire to put them on something, to do something. He'd been so passive, giving orders as if that's all that being at war meant. It made him feel impotent, rather than important. It made him way to ride out at last and finish this, rather than waiting here, watching this chaos and destruction.
Watching men die for another's mistake. Prince Jinhai had fought well, but now, surrounded on all sides, with his camp out of the way, all that was being done was… slaughter.
It wasn't one-sided, though it should have been, but even a two-sided slaughter would soon break the will of all but the strongest troops, when they knew they were surrounded.
Dust was kicked up, and spirits screamed and even died defending their masters.
Somewhere in that mess, some of the loyalists might yet be killing themselves.
It was said that when one has a choice between one's life and one's honorable virtue, that there should be no conflict at all. One's virtue was one's highest thing, and one's virtue was by definition honorable. A man without honor was one who could not protect his virtues from those who would have him compromise them.
Kiralo wondered if Jinhai was even now taking poison. It was poison, a snake's poison, that was the most proper way to die. Or rather, one of the two most proper ways for a ritual suicide. The poison of a snake, or the bite of water drowned into were both the most purifying of one's ways to die. But there was no time to leap in the lake with one's shoes tied down with rocks. Not without the dreadful possibility of someone fishing them out.
So, was there poison somewhere? Kiralo didn't have any on him, and he wondered if others knew and thought it arrogance, rather than merely a lack of attention in this one respect. But Jinhai? A man who had been descended from the brother of an Emperor had to have a strong sense of his own honor.
But it was the sort of honor that could drown a thousand other men a minute to sustain it. It was the kind of honor that Kiralo could not understand, could only watch in horror.
*******
It wasn't expected. Not at all. Or rather, not so soon. A green flag of truce, and then another, and then another, all down the line. At first it seemed like it might be spontaneous surrender, and yet it wasn't.
They ran down the entire line, as seargants called a halt to the attacks, but watched, wary in case it was a last trick. A devious, cruel last trick, for it would avail them nothing.
Soon the whole of the lakeside was flapping in green banners, and a courier came, trembling and nervous.
"Prince J-jinhai, exalted of that name, requests a parley, to determine the terms and conditions of his surrender."
"Conditions?" one man near him, a Captain of some sort, said with a snort. "What condition but surrender or death?"
"I too am curious," Kiralo said, looking down at the other man, aware that this was a moment recorded in history. It would not do to show too much emotion either way. Was this a trap? If it was, then it was a foolish one. He cleared his throat, "By what means of negotiation?"
"Cs-J-jinhai said that Cs-Kiralo would ask this. And he said that the only way for a Prince to negotiate was by his own hand. He would ride into your camp, and discuss terms with you."
Kiralo swallowed, stunned at how straightforward this was. He had expected the idea of a back and forth, of time bought as he considered some other scheme. Perhaps assassination. But if Jinhai truly went into the Imperial camp, if it wasn't some decoy or trick, then even if he tried to assassinate Kiralo, he would die, and his cause would as well.
But what conditions could there be, a part of him asked. What condition except surrender? He had lost, had lost thoroughly, and the court might well judge mercy now as a sign of weakness.
At the same time, this was a victory. A victory could wash away many sins, as it must have the calls for his removal.
The battle was over. Now all that was left was the aftermath.
Corpses stretched across the miles of the battlefield, ugly and sprinkled together amid dying men, who would have to be healed and helped. On both sides.
If both sides were to become one side.
What to do?
[] Accept the surrender.
[] Press for unconditional surrender.
