-[X] Evatine decides to reach out to the Caradysh as allies against Skjaldur. (Temp Diplo-, -1 Stability, ???)
we can't not do this. We've bought time with the boarfolk, now we need to make sure the Caradysh at minimum don't turn on us.
we won most of our wars previous through long and grinding slogs that broke something in the cultures who attacked us. The only two that didn't seem to be severely altered by conflict with us are the Boarfolk and the Caradysh, though they may have without our noticing since we have such low visibility with them.
Thankfully, our overall warfare strategy of Administrative Attrition and Morale Undermining should work on the Nersondur. They'd be the first since the Merntir way back when to really be vulnerable to this kind of strategy. We developed that strategy because we knew early on that we didn't want to be another Warring Faction in the Lowlands, we wanted to primarily be a culture of governance and generosity. We were unlikely to beat warlike cultures in head-on battles and warfare, but Administratively? Diplomatically? Mystically? We could always have more supplies, better morale, and stronger loyalty in the long run.
This has not been useful to us since the aforementioned fight against the Merntir. I'll list our foes since then:
Forlucc had divine troops and nearly unbreakable morale for them. Their slave economy made much of the burden of war far easier on those with actual power, but was also a long-term vulnerability we could exploit. Ultimately they were broken by the Boars and the Winter, but we bloodied them pretty badly a few times prior to that.
Our civil war was against those with equal administrative and siege chops to us, and they were isolated self-sufficient cities in the end as opposed to an empire.
Caradysh got away with it because their cursed forest bonuses, endless undead manpower, and truly unbreakable line troops severely limited our ability to cripple them. It still worked to a degree, but we had ongoing war fatigue and threat from the Boars at the time so we had to pull out.
The Boar Nomads were (and probably still are) a perfect military matchup against our style
Nomadic lifestyle left very little exposed away from the wargroup for us to attack.
Divine intervention assisted in the feeding of troops and the fighting-off of poisons
Nomadic knowledge of how to live off the land fed their troops on top of the divine intervention there
Ultra-heavy cavalry were capable of bulldozing through the palisades the Merntir had at the time
Cavalry moved faster than our divinely quick troops
Units were as-strong and tough as our divine troops
Nomadic Warlord leadership left no disloyalty or morale vulnerabilities, when combined with their ability to bust through palisades without needing to siege.
Limited population size, since almost the whole host was bound together and any not of the host didn't need to be protected
Nersondur on the other hand?
Nersondur are a colonizing naval power with a culture of glorious warfare and conquest.
They hold lots of territory, giving our massive numbers a huge surface area to strike
Divine has not shown to intervene in foraging from the land, or protecting them from the land's toxins. Poisons should work. Hunger should work
Martial Colonizing relies on colonies and the colonized to know how to live off the land and feed their hosts.
No ultra-heavy cav
Our self-sufficient divine squads should easily be faster than mundane humans
Their peoples are not as strong or tough as our divine
Colonies require occupation and loyalty management. Although the areas around their martial heroes will have no morale or disloyalty issues, there is a lot of Nersondur.
Larger population spread, and a responsibility to protect it, leaves them vulnerable to extremely wide assault.
And worst of all (for them) if
-[X] Evatine attempts to hire Boarfolk tribes to aid the Arthwyd against the Nersondurans. (Temp Diplo-, Temp Wealth----, Temp Martial+?, ???)
succeeds? We will be the ones with the ultra-heavy cav. Our troops make great anvils, and there is no better hammer than the Boarfolk.
Alternately, there are few better raiders than the Boarfolk. Hiring tribes to accompany some of our divine raiding parties, in order to completely bust through underprepared defenses? That boosts our raiding from simple disruption to crippling to devastating. Wouldn't want to sack every/any given colony of the Nersondur, but if there are particular administrative centers for any given region . . .
In addition to Nersondur being much bigger in size than our previous opponents, we are also way bigger now than we used to be. Despite our low level of recruitment, we should still have a lot of divines available to us. That means we should have plenty available for offensive raiding while a core supports the defense of the Lowlands. Previously we were limited in our ability to raid due to us having low numbers or the opponent being too small, but here? Now? Yeah the Nersondurans almost certainly have a slave economy which will help shrug off the war-fatigue initially. Other than that though, they should be pretty poorly equipped to handle this sort of mass warfare. Away from glorious battles and conquest, and much more about breaking down the opponent's ability to sustain war over the long term.
We break their backs in this continent through administrative and diplomatic channels. We cripple supply lines, instill rebellion in their colonies, allow their concentrated force to trudge into our heavily fortified lands, and die ingloriously to poison or disease or starvation in long sieges. Meet them head-on as little as possible.
Asymmetric warfare. Hit where they are weak. Avoid where they are strong. They think there is glory in battle? We'll see if they find glory in deaths to poison, to disease, to starvation. Death to rock falls and burning fields. Deaths of ambushed scouts and overwhelmed night-guards.
I look forward to finally having our strategic style work against an opponent again. There'll likely be fairly competent administration, and I wouldn't be surprised if their defenses were pretty good, but at least this style should work instead of being largely voided by specific characteristics of our neighbors.
