raggidman
Prince
Registration Date: 06.01.2006
Posts: 3,317
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| Mixed Unit Tactics... from the Imperial Library |
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Mixed Unit Tactics in the Five Years War
Volume One
By Codus Callonus
The Legions could learn from the unconventional tactics used by the
Khajiit in the Five Years War against Valenwood. I was stationed at the
Sphinxmoth Legion Fort on the border near Dune and witnessed many of
the northern skirmishes firsthand.
The war started with the so-called "Slaughter of Torval." The Khajiit
claim that the Bosmer invaded the city without provocation and killed
over a thousand citizens before being driven off by reinforcements from
a nearby jungle tribe. The Bosmer claim that the attack was in
retaliation for Khajiti bandits who were attacking wood caravans headed
for Valenwood.
In the spring of 3E 396 the war moved closer to Fort Sphinxmoth. I was
posted on lookout and saw parts of the conflict. I later spoke with
both Khajiit and Bosmer who fought in the battle, and it will serve as
an excellent example of how the Khajiit used a mixture of ground and
tree units to win the war.
The Khajiit began the fight in an unusual way by sending tree-cutting
teams of Cathay-raht and the fearsome Senche-raht or "Battlecats" into
the outskirts of Valenwood's forests. When word reached the Bosmer that
trees were being felled (allegedly a crime in the strange Bosmeri
religion), a unit of archers were dispatched from larger conflicts in
the south. The Bosmer were thus goaded into splitting their forces into
smaller groups.
The Bosmer archers took up positions in the remaining trees whose
branches were now twenty or more feet apart, allowing some light into
the forest floor. The Bosmer bent the remaining trees with their magics
into small fortifications from which to fire their bows.
When the tree-cutters arrived the next morning, a half dozen Khajiit
fell to the Bosmer arrows in the first volley. After that the Khajiit
took large wooden shields from the backs of the Senche-raht and made a
crude shelter. The Khajiit, even the enormous Senche-raht, were able to
hide between this shelter and one of the larger trees. When it became
apparent that the Khajiit would not leave their shelter, some Bosmer
choose to descend and engage the Khajiit sword-to-claw.
When the Bosmer were nearly upon the shelter, one of the Khajiit began
playing on a native instrument of plucked metal bars. This was a signal
of some kind, and a small group of the man-like Ohmes and Ohmes-raht
emerged from covered holes on the forest floor. Although outnumbered,
they were attacking from behind by surprise and won the ground quickly.
The Bosmer archers in the trees would have still won the battle were
they not having troubles of their own. A group of Dagi and Dagi-raht,
two of the less common forms of Khajiit who live in the trees of the
Tenmar forest, jumped from one tree to another under a magical cover of
silence. They took up positions in the higher branches that could not
hold a Bosmer's weight. When the signal came, they used their claws and
either torches or spells of fire (accounts from the two survivors I
spoke with vary on this point) to distract the archers while the battle
on the ground took place. A few of the archers were able to flee, but
most were killed.
Apparently the Dagi and Dagi-raht have more magical ability than is
widely believed if they were able to keep themselves magically silenced
for so long. One of the surviving Bosmer told me that he saw a few
ordinary cats among the Dagi and even claimed that these ordinary cats
are known as 'Alfiq' and that they were the spellcasters, but Bosmer
are almost as unreliable as the Khajiit when it comes to the truth, and
I cannot believe that a housecat can cast spells.
At the end of the day the Khajiit lost perhaps a half-dozen fighters
out a force of no more than four dozen, while the Bosmer lost nearly an
entire company of archers. The survivors were unable to report back
before a second company of archers arrived and this strategy was
repeated again, with similar results. Finally, a much larger force was
sent and the Bosmer won that battle with the help of the native animals
of Valenwood. That third skirmish and the Khajiti response I will
discuss in the second volume of this series. |
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