Discussions on War ((Vlaer and Nandon))

[Brenton]

Dyami sat in the main room of Etu Manor flipping through his maps while outlining all of the possible routes to Uru baen that the armies could take. It was tedious work but after his father had been killed in front of him Dyami needed to figure it out. From what he gathered, Nasuada had already said that Urak-Thar would help and that meant that the urgals would be on his side. Still he had to find a good route or they would lose. Hopefully William would be here soon since he had sent a messenger out to find the knight.

[Aelodil]

Urak-Thar ducked to avoid slamming his head on the tkp of the door and entered the room, his heavy mace set on his shoulder. He placed Crusher down and looked down at the maps. He was not much of a strategist as most of his strategies, if not all were to charge into the battle head-on swinging Crusher. For that, he was glad he had his Captain Dyami and Commander William. Captain Dyami was not as well known as Commander William Shay, but Captain Dyami had done a fair job in the seige of Dras-Leona.

Looking down, he spotted an area where the Empire could and likely would ambush them with cavalry. It was a valley, surrounded by sheer slopes. He decided that if anywhere an ambush would be it would be there."There. That is where they would probably ambush us with cavalry. Let me divide my Kull into two halves and set one half on eac side. Hiding and waiting, then as the cavalry charge we will take them from the sides." he said, pointing at the area. But if Dyami rejected then he would be silent. He had learned to trust his judgement.

He looked outside one of the windows and wondered if Commander William was coming. He began calculating how many Kull would be on each side. He only had 400 Kull, the rest with the main part of the Varden. He realized that 200 Kull on each side of the hill, then 100 on different sides of the hill itself. He cursed in the Urgal tongue. That had to be enough. He looked at Captain Dyami for guidance, a questing look in his silver eyes.

[Brenton]

Dyami looked up as Urak-Thar walked in and sighed in relief. For once he was glad he had someone else there to help him with his planning. It was well known that Urak-Thar and all of the urgals were more known for a direct attack but his fellow kull commander was really good at seeing what others would do. Since this was the case Dyami listened when the large kull spoke of an ambush by the Empire. It was true that the Empire would choose an ambush and that that would be a great spot because it was nearly impossible for them to escape. Finally Dyami nodded. "Urak-Thar you are correct. It is true that the Empire would choose that spot but I don't think that a lot of urgals would be needed for that. If you took half of your urgals and split them in half then that would be good. So you have four hundred. Take one hundred on each side and put them there. We can put archers around the edge above and have them hide. When the cavalry gets there I will be in the lead ready to give the signal for the attack. When I give that signal your men need to charge in and lay waste to as many as you can while the archers shoot any that try to escape or get past our defenses."

Dyami slid his maps aside and sat up straighter to look at his kull ally. This was one of those times where he needed Urak-Thar's honest opinion and he hoped that the kull could see that in his eyes.

[Aelodil]

Urak-Thar nodded. Okay, so 50 on each side of the mountain. And then the other 200 of his Kull will be down with the main party to repel the first charge."We need to put all of my Kull around the main party so that they can repel the first charge without taking casualties like your men would normally after such a charge. I mean no offense to your men, just that Kull are much taller and have more strength so we could repel the first charge, then your men can enter the fray. I volunteer for being part of that repelling force. I will not allow a single of my men to endure what I shall not." he said, though his tone made it obvious that Dyami was still his Captain and leader.

He began explaining thoroughly his plan."I will send my most trusted man, an old child-hood friend to be the leader of the ambush. Once the cavalry are past them, they shall swarm in and we shall trap them from above while we are below. Then, while my men are running after the cavalry, your archers shall fire at them. It is exactly as you said. Captain Dyami.. I do not think we shall take a single casualty. Unless of course they have that mad Rider with them." he said, his voice agreeing.

[Nandon]

William had entered the house a long while ago and had listened to his mens Ideas, Then growing hungry he had silently moved into the kitchen where he looked around before grabbing a couple glasses, two loaves of bread, A wine bottle, And some cheese.

Then he made his presence known as he entered the war room so to speak, placing the food on the table he offered a entire loaf of bread to the kull, Knowing he always would eat more, then breaking the second loaf in half he offered one half to his Captain, Then cutting up slices of cheese he split it evenly around before pouring some wine for himself and Dyami.

“I would have gotten you a glass…But I didn’t know if you liked wine or not…” William said to his kull leader.

“And you are wrong….We will take many casualties…You forgot about the small forest here…Its guarded by the river yes…and many would think it impassable, but nothing is truly impassable when you don’t care about how many lives you will lose…They will deploy there Calvary on the hills as a diversion, Then when the kull and some of the men rush off after they retreat the empire will send in more Calvary, Infantry and perhaps even a few hundred Archer units.” William said studying the map as he took the first bite of his bread

[Brenton]

Dyami looked at the map briefly and saw the river that William was speaking of. He had suspected that the knight had already entered the house because his commander was never that late. Still it had surprised him when the food and wine were brought in. Dyami took a sip of wine and bite of cheese while thinking. He chewed slowly and swallowed before speaking again. "You are correct William, but I might want to add that the river is passable but it would take a lot of time to get across. If we put archers at the command to shoot anyone who tries to pass the river then have men waiting there on the other side we can take out those troops as well. Of course it would require us to thin out our ranks more which would be deadly if we make a mistake. What do you think we should do?" Dyami looked at the knight and waited for him to reply.

[Aelodil]

Urak-Thar grunted in annoyance as he saw the wine. The wine his tribesmen drank were very heavy and strong. This would not do. He grabbed his loaf of bread and thanked his Commander. He began eating the loaf, finishing the whole loaf within the minute. He put a hand on his stomach and sighed. Now he could think better. He saw what William pointed out and was about to facepalm when he remembered that doing such a thing in such a small place would be rather disastrous.

Of course! Why didn't he think about that before. He was just about to give an excuse when he heard his Captain talk. He had to decide that he would go with the Captain's idea. William did not know his men. These tribesmen that were with him had endured the same hell as he. They would take two spears and would still continue fighting. The Commander had a good point, but Urak-Thar was no strategist. His Whack-A-Mole strategy was all he had.

Thus why he sided with the Captain. He was sure that the Varden could withstand such a thing. And as the Commander pointed out, the Empire would take casualties in crossing the River, thus weakened while making contact with the Varden."I could take 100 of my Kull from the main party to delay the Empire. We could buy us around 10 minutes, but after that we will begin to fall. But we should buy enough time seeing as the Empire will already be weakened." he said.

[Brenton]

Dyami picked up knife and a piece of wood he had brought in with him. It was easier to use a carved plank for plans because the ink of paper could disappear or smudge but wood and carvings would do no such thing. As he thought, Dyami placed his dagger against the wood and quickly carved out the design of the land in question. Then he drew an x on the river bank away from them and an x on the cliff ledge. Down at the base he put two x marks on either side of the rear of the enclosed ambush area.

"So if we send in two groups of ten men in and put them on these marks at the back then we can take them by surprise there. The x on the river is where the Varden troops will stand at about twenty five. Up on the ledge we will have about twenty archers. That leaves the main body of Varden on the front where we will charge in and attack when those men at the rear are being noticed. All in all it is a viable plan that could work or could fail." Dyami looked at his leader of Kull and his Commander who led even him.