Warhammer: In the Name of Ashes

Thought of the Day: War is anything but art.

War has always been given too much legendary color in the books of human history. Regardless of whether the two parties involved in some of the famous battles won or lost, too many unnecessary colors and meanings were added in the writings of later generations.

And only when you are there, you will find that when steel and flesh impact and collide amidst countless shouts, and decide whether to stay or go for each other's will, the embellishments that those who came later added to it with their own imagination are Looks so dry and pale.

The large group of packhorses and people spread from the road above the plain. From a high-altitude perspective, this group of people meandered for several kilometers on the simple road paved with loess in the old era, continuing to the end of the horizon.

This is the primitive battlefield condition created by backward productivity and blank infrastructure.

No matter how advanced the organization or the careful plan is, it is like a knight in white who has to fight the enemy in muddy water. All of them reveal the ugly form of war.

Once the number of people exceeds a thousand, they will fill the field of view; once the number exceeds 10,000, it will be boundless. This is especially true when such a team is marching on a relatively narrow road.

Calvin was standing next to the central attack group, on a high ground outside the torrent of cavalry and dragoons, observing the marching status of the entire army from the perspective of the highest will of one of the war parties.

The troops in front of him, including logistics support personnel, totaling 161,000 people, were operating closely under the organizational structure he had set up with his own hands, with inertia that seemed chaotic but was actually orderly.

The troops carried a lot of supplies, but they were actually only enough for a short period of time. More supplies were being assembled from the rear as planned, and then rushed towards their reserved battlefield, so that the main force he led could be replenished nearby after the war.

Since the beginning of the war, the tribal side led by Calvin has used its cavalry advantage to the extreme with a clear purpose.

The vanguard force of nearly 90,000 people formed nine legions in units of 10,000 people. The three legions were in the same main attack direction, led by Alan Janus, Elvis, and Mars respectively. They were like sharp knives heading towards the south. The long border of the neighboring Principality of Norton is inserted into it.

The elite leading troops had already dispersed into the enemy's rear on the eve of the war. With their cooperation, the main force, with the close cooperation of cavalry and dragoons, penetrated and surrounded various local passes, and then started one battle after another with absolute strength superiority. A short but intense small-scale battle.

This was the end of the era of cold weapon warfare and the beginning of the emergence of gunpowder weapons.

The gunpowder technology that the southern countries regarded as a treasure was a joke in Calvin's eyes. But he did not rush to come up with equivalent weapons after the southern countries had gunpowder technology. Instead, he chose to give the other side a big surprise when the war started.

Small-scale passes were easily captured, and difficult-to-conquer fortresses also fell with huge roars in the face of prepared high-energy explosives.

As for the truly large fortress city, the light-armed legions who came forward chose to surround it rather than attack it, leaving it to the main force that arrived later. Calvin's heavy artillery would let them know what the roar of the God of War was.

The effect of such tactics is obvious, and it is a war model that is difficult to understand for enemy countries that are still stuck in the era of feudal knights duel.

Under this mode of targeted attack, the enemy's high-level officials are now unable to even have a clear understanding of their own situation. The pass in front has not been lost, but the passage in the middle and the warehouse in the rear have been lost.

But the commander in charge of this direction did not wait for the warning from the rear until he died in battle...

The commanders of the royal city could not understand the battle situation they were facing. The border alarm had just sounded, and before the knights from various places responded to the call and assembled their troops, snow-like reports of the loss of the region had already appeared in the eyes of the nobles of the royal city before their flags.

But even these reports have little timeliness left. After they have been processed by a crude and backward mechanism with unclear rights and responsibilities, and then submitted to higher levels, too much precious time has been delayed.

Inefficient battlefield information appeared on the desks of the monarchs of the southern countries, but it was actually out of date before it was put on the table.

More alarms were not even reported, but died silently in the targeted interceptions of the leading troops.

This is a cross-era collision of tactical concepts, and it is also a tactical thinking that clearly recognizes the dimensions of intelligence, timeliness, organizational strength, execution effectiveness, etc. It is a unilateral crushing of the understanding of combat that is still stuck in the fighting of villagers in the farming era. pressure.

For a whole month, the advancing legionnaires did not even encounter organized resistance during their leap forward. In the eyes of professional soldiers, knights in the Middle Ages led dozens or hundreds of militiamen, just like their lords, they were a pitiful joke.

The vanguard force of 30,000 people in the central direction, under the command of Alan Janus, captured all the planned tactical targets along the way. Even the only remaining large fortress city was deceived out of the main force under his intelligence inducement, and was subsequently declared to be lost. .

Against the background of such a war situation, the functions of the base camp underwent changes that made Calvin and his staff members dumbfounded:

The expected siege mission no longer existed, but the planned heavy siege supplies were still arriving one after another along with the supplementary troops from the second line.

Under this background, the footsteps of the 150,000 people in the base camp became slower and slower, and eventually it became a mobile logistics support point, and a large-scale mobile military camp that continuously dispatched security forces to maintain stability along the way and received the results of the battle ahead...

The war continues its pace like this. The remaining six legions from the two directions were also rushing all the way, strangling the unformed lords' troops at the doorstep.

The war started in March and ended in September. Within six months, the first country adjacent to the northern continent collapsed under the iron heel of the tribe. The tens of thousands of troops directly under the royal family and the powerful nobles scattered throughout the country could not delay the tribe's offensive plan for one more day.

Until the central cluster led by Allen arrived at the foot of the royal city, the remaining two countries did not even have time to complete their respective war preparations.

Until the city was destroyed, the nobles and merchants of the royal city were still reluctant to wake up from the reality of failure as if they were in a dream. It is difficult for them to understand why they failed so simply even though they had tried their best.

After the king presented his crown and seal, he was imprisoned in the palace to await Calvin's trial.

The wings of the once-powerful court nobles were completely cut off under the clear and clear power takeover plan of the General Staff.

Calvin's policy direction is very clear: bypass these large nobles and direct the butcher knife at the middle-level nobles of the kingdom. After killing these real maintainers of the ruling class, the large nobles who have lost contact with the grassroots will completely lose the possibility of rebellion and restoration.

Without subordinates and vassals, a great noble is like a fish out of water, unable to make waves anymore. They can only huddle in the dark corners of their mansions, waiting for their end in hatred and curses...

The northern continent has entered the cold season since July, and the increasingly icy environment has dramatically increased logistical pressure.

Calvin was no longer eager to attack the remaining two countries. Under his order, the various legions of the tribe began to garrison on the spot to absorb and digest the results of the previous battle.

The first phase of the war came to an end, and Calvin shifted his attention from the war and began to examine the management level of the army.

A war that goes too smoothly is a double-edged sword. While building the tribal army's confidence in victory, it also encouraged their contempt for their enemies and their increasingly obvious arrogance.

Whether it was Allen who was commanding from the front or Calvin's own subordinates, an overly optimistic view of the war began to appear among grassroots officers, and even some legion leaders and middle-level staff officers also vaguely showed this tendency.

This is the inevitable result of human nature, and it is also a manifestation of the insufficient training foundation of the officer team.

Calvin knew this and had been prepared for it. The corps leaders in the base camp who had not been able to participate in the frontline war were summoned, and under Calvin's order they rushed to the frontline with the middle-level officers from the staff headquarters.

After Allen, Elvis and others at the front redeployed their troops, they began to quietly replace the original troop leadership composition with the addition of rotating legions from the rear.

The officers who returned from the front were transferred to the newly formed staff and were re-trained in the army training brigade beside Calvin.

They will temporarily withdraw from the war and review the previous war from an outsider's perspective.

The decisions of these commanders in previous battles will also be evaluated one by one by Calvin during this period, so that together with their learning results, they will decide their future destinations.

This reinvention mechanism is not only applicable to high-level generals, but has also been extended to low-level officers in various legions.

War is a melting pot, and a victorious war is a feast. The law of superiority over the mediocre is particularly evident at this time.

A large number of middle- and low-level officers with outstanding abilities emerged from this half-year campaign. In a short period of time, they will go through the path that their predecessors have gone through for more than ten years and directly become the backbone of the army.

Because of this, the stability and purity of their thoughts must be guaranteed, which is also the focus of the entire tribe's work at this stage...

It was already December in the depths of winter, and cold air currents swept down from the north, turning the temperate Principality of Norton into a blanket of silver and heavy snowfall.

Ibañez, the capital of Mendoza Province, is also the largest port city on the border between the Principality of Norton and the Kingdom of Fallas.

The prosperity here, which was once driven by the northern fur and medicinal trade, has been trampled beyond recognition by the war.

The once bustling Central Market and the tax collector's residence had been deserted a few months ago and had become homes for homeless people and refugees.

This is not an accidental phenomenon. When the royal city fell and the news came here that the king had surrendered to the enemy, the merchants and lower-level nobles had already begun to pack up their belongings and flee to neighboring countries.

Count Palio, the lord of the city lord's palace, showed particular loyalty in this context.

He stayed at his post until the arrival of the legion under Allen's command, and then led the crowd out of the city under the petition of the elders in the city, surrendering in exchange for the peaceful takeover of the legion and basic respect for the local people.

Alan Janus personally attended the surrender ceremony, because the geographical location here has special value to the tribe:

As the southernmost territory of the Principality of Norton, when this city was conquered, it meant that the last flag of the former Principality of Norton was also lowered.

All legal marks of the Principality of Norton have been erased. The civil resistance also quickly collapsed after losing its last spiritual support...

This is now the headquarters of Alan Janus's legions. Tens of thousands of soldiers gathered here under his orders.

When winter comes, as the only transportation hub within a hundred miles nearby, this is not only the base camp for the legion's repair and rotation, but also the starting point for the legion's attack after the snow clears up next spring.

Calvin mobilized more armor, weapons and winter supplies here, and at the same time more soldiers were moving here to replace those soldiers who had been away fighting for half a year.

The logistics supply vehicles transported here from the base camp are connected to the city, working day and night, and even ice and snow cannot stop them.

The border of the Kingdom of Farias, a hundred kilometers away, was in shock three times a day. Even though they knew that winter was not conducive to the use of troops, they watched every move here nervously. They remained silent and did not dare to move in the face of the increasing power of the legion.

In the hall of the former city lord's palace, Allen sat alone behind the table under the dim candlelight, handling the government affairs of the legion.

Over the course of a few months, his identity changed dramatically.

He is no longer the Chapter Master of the Fire Eagles and Warrior of the Astartes. Instead, he unknowingly became the master of a legion under Calvin with tens of thousands of troops and was in charge of one side.

The identity of the former has been completely abandoned by him with his awakening, while the responsibility of the latter has made this warrior who transcends mortals feel heavy pressure.

The management of the legion is an extremely complex task, and it is also a heavy responsibility.

But fortunately, this kind of pressure is still within the range of Allen's processing. It is probably due to the information processing ability of the Mary's Gland. His genetically modified body obtained from Calvin is naturally adapted to this kind of complex government work.

He can even exercise and recover his martial arts skills for a long time after working hard every day.

But right now, he was laughing and laughing because of the letter he received in his hand.

The attitude of the tribe towards the southern countries is very obvious, and the monarchs and ministers of the Kingdom of Farias have clearly read this dangerous signal in the increasing size of the troops under Allen's command.

But they didn't dare to fight back.

The tribe's previous attack by the autumn wind to sweep away fallen leaves caused Norton's century-old foundation to collapse in a few months. It really frightened these indigenous nobles who had founded their country on commerce and had enjoyed peace for hundreds of years.

This is evident from the situation in the province of Mendoza.

They didn't even dare to take a bite of the corpse of the Principality of Norton, but were willing to wait until Allen and his legion arrived, watching helplessly as the legion conquered the entire province, but they didn't dare to move a single soldier or armor rashly.

They dreamed of a non-existent peace, but the tribe's endless reinforcements made them smell the smell of blood.

The monarchs and ministers thought hard about the approaching destruction to no avail. In the end, they didn't know who suggested it, but they actually hit Allen with their doctrine:

"You are a dragon and a phoenix among men, with tens of thousands of soldiers and countless armors. You are in power in life, and you will be accompanied by bells in death. At this time when heroes are vying for the throne, can you be the successor to others?"

Allen didn't think much about it, but chose to send the messenger and Xin together overnight to deliver it to Calvin, who was still in the royal city.

While the latter was also busy with government affairs, he saw this letter from his new adjutant that pleased him:

"Hey? This thing looks a bit familiar..."

Update update! Excuse me!