Re: War In Sartar

From: The Unspoken Word <hia15_at_...>
Date: Sat, 27 Jan 2001 13:32:06 -0000

John and Peter both raise interesting questions, and being something of a low-intensity conflict/counter-insurgency bore I could easily fill my whole day replying. I'll resist the temptation and for now just comment on one point.

Yes, the empire has different types of counter-insurgency forces, including:

1. Char-Un and the like, as Peter mentioned, both both rough and rapid patrols and reprisals.
2. Light infantry, often recruited from mountainous regions, able to take the battle into the hills. The Silver Shields, for example, who later went to Pavis are largely recruited from Sylila, with many worshippers of Odayla the Bear in its ranks and, thanks to an influx of Jajaloring recruits, Jajagappa Hunter and hunting and war dogs
   (just watch the fur fly!).
   
3. Specialist hero bands, often vexillations drawn from a number of units for special missions and led by Yanafal officers trained to unite their strengths.
4. Traitors and collaborators. John's point about the way the empire successfully turns clan and other feuds to its advantage fits well here. Often the locals feel their are using the empire for their own ends, but ultimately the cohesion of Sartarite resistance suffers.
5. Large numbers of solid, sober 'seen it all before' veteran troops who may not be up to small-unit operations in the hills, but can be used to smash the rebels most times they come together into substantial units and can hold key strategic locations.
6. Tarshite units, from an Orlanthi society, fighting not so much for the empire as their traditional claims to all of DP and led by able, ambitious officers.

And so on - even before we talk about magic support (interdicting supply lines with the Crater Cult!), Blue Moon Assassins to decapitate dangerous hero bands, insidious 7 Mothers hearts & minds psyops, etc!

BUT Individual units are rarely any more effective than their commanders allow them to be, and this holds true all the way up the system. Having a fair number of units able to operate in CI ops matters very little if their commanders won't use them appropriately or the overall strategy in-theatre is inappropriate. Fazzur, a Tarshite, understands DP and Orlanth and, IMO, uses these assets pretty well. Tatius the Bright, on the other hand, is a very different type of commander. Not for him the slow hearts-and-minds, divide-and-rule accretional political-military strategy of a Fazzur, with a textured and nuanced understanding of local conditions (including developing Ironfist as a powerful local proxy who also draws the venom of Far Point in his direction rather than the empire's!). Instead, Tatius, with all the grandiosity and disregard for local conditions of a good Heartlander, goes for an all-or-nothing massive magical operation to pacify the whole region in one move.

This doesn't make Tatius stupid. To be fair, he almost makes it: from his calculations he had no reason to expect such a potent response from the Orlanthi. (It's not exactly a usual mission parameter: 'OK, this look as if it would work, but what if a hitherto-unknown dragon appears beneath us?') But it does meant that, beyond disrupting major rebel operations, his use of conventional forces is quite defensive, they are there primarily to protect the ritual and the construction of the TotRM. This proves a waste of his political and military assets. Above all, it allows Argrath to do what Kallyr could not: build up a complex and sizeable military and magical force, and also the political infrastructure that will turn individual herobands into an army. In a way, this allows Argrath to go beyond Michael Collins and head towards the Ho Chi Minh direction!

And the rest is history...

(Trust me, this *is* a short post. It's not even footnoted.)

Mark