>> True, but I was thiking of the rest of the wall.
>> Spread those troops over a wider front.
>
>Certainly more ideal, although the logistics seem to be a nightmare
>from the picture.
There is an alternative line of attack on the city from fellmoor but the Lunars don't control fellmoor at this time. By the end of 1620 they've got more troops and will be attacking the walls from there.
>I imagine Whitewall to be a political failure even if it is
>ultimately physically successful. It is reminiscent to me of
>historical events that have had a massive and often disproportionate
>impact. I think of Khe Sanh or Tet '68 in Vietnam, where the images
>of the siege are beamed into peoples' house every night - "I thought
>we were winning?"
>
>I think of Stalingrad, where the entire ideology of the two opposing
>forces was encapsulated in one relatively tiny area, thus creating a
>symbol of the wider conflict. Two years of siege and the Lunars can't
>defeat these barbarian rebels? I would imagine that the "year long
>and empire wide celebrations" would have a hollow ring to those who
>knew or suspected the truth. after all, The Crimson Bat is the Lunars
>ultimate agent of foreign policy, and having it driven off by a bunch
>of southern barbarians would be a huge blow to the confidence of the
>average lunar citizen who stays abreast of such things.
>
>I think that all this would place huge pressure upon the Lunar
>leaders to end the siege with a military victory in spite of the fact
>that the encirclement would probably succeed on its own, in the end.
>This would lead to some spectacularly audatious attempts to force the
>gates, I reckon. When the Lunars get rid of Wideread, a veteran of
>military expedience, and give command to Tatius who is ultimately a
>political animal they lay the foundations for defeat.
I don't think the average Lunar citizen thinks much about foreign wars at all. Any information they get will be late and/or filtered though official channels. So a provincial general (Fazzur) makes a mess of what should be a straight forward operation and is replaced by an upstanding Heartlander (Tatius). His victory prompts the Emperor to declare an important victory and year long celebrations - well he does hold good parties you know. My brother's wife's sister knows someone who attended one once.
Certainly those in the know understand it's a lot more complex than that but it's the disaster of the destruction of the Temple of the Reaching Moon along with Tatius and his entire army that really gets the average Lunar citizen's attention. News of that will be like news of the Indian Mutiny reaching Britain in 1857.
>> > I think that the gate is an attractive target, if a
>> > difficult one,
>> > purely on the rationale of attrition. The Lunars can
>> > afford to lose
>> > more people (at least in the mind of Tatius).
>>
>> Yes. Not that Tatius is here yet, is he? This is
>> pre-Bat, or am I misunderstanding?
>
>I just meant in general inasmuch as I don't think Tatius, being of
>The College of Magic would have any qualms about using the Heartland
>Corps (or similar) in such a costly venture, even if it had failed in
>the past.
Tatius is Dean of the College of Magic, a political appointment. I've seen nothing to suggest he is a magician himself. Any magic he has is going to be related to the major Lunar HQ he's planning although I think he delegates the magic itself to others. He's going to be well aware of the implications of casualties to Heartland Corps units. And has plenty of provincial and mercenary soldiers who's loss has no political ramifications.
-- Donald Oddy http://www.grove.demon.co.uk/
Powered by hypermail