Thesmar

Why did the army of Justice abandon the assault on Thesmar? I've read the section several times and apart from the unlikelihood of them being able to defeat the defences, they seem to have given up awfully easily and I don't think that it is mentioned that the received order to reinforce Fort Tairys.

I am probably going to be sorry I asked this question, but on a lighter note, if Nimue and Merlin were to find comfort in each others arms, would that be incest or masturation?

IIRC, Hanth counterattacked off page, and drove them out.

I'm pretty sure its not cause Hanth counter attacked against the army of Justice, but because even that feckless moron Harless realized it would be a blood bath getting in, and that Thesmar was as secondary objective. Securing Fort Tairys was a critical objective, it would have opened up all sorts of avenues of advance into old province.

AClone wrote:IIRC, Hanth counterattacked off page, and drove them out.

I don't think that was the case as they later reference their losses and the numbers are not sufficient to indicate a counter-attack. It seems to me that they sat their while their wounded healed and the left, which seemed an uncommonly intelligent thing to do (for their leadership anyway)

Direwolf18 wrote:I'm pretty sure its not cause Hanth counter attacked against the army of Justice, but because even that feckless moron Harless realized it would be a blood bath getting in, and that Thesmar was as secondary objective. Securing Fort Tairys was a critical objective, it would have opened up all sorts of avenues of advance into old province.

Pretty much this. Thesmar was a thorn in the side of the Army of Justice, in that it was a potential base from which Charis could cut their supply lines. Taking it would have removed the threat and shorten their logistics pipeline, but it wasn't vital to take it since they could still use their previous arrangements. After failing to take the town, they simply reinforced the besieging lines and left.

I thought there was commentary by Ahlvarez that the defenses were tested and his troop sustained nasty losses The Desnairians tried a cavalry charge again with losses then the story jumped to leaving forces to cover Thesmar

My poor memory hurts sometimes but that is my recollection

is there an ironclad warship near by, would be very useful.

dwileye13 wrote:I thought there was commentary by Ahlvarez that the defenses were tested and his troop sustained nasty losses The Desnairians tried a cavalry charge again with losses then the story jumped to leaving forces to cover Thesmar

My poor memory hurts sometimes but that is my recollection

Nope, there was no calvary charge. Harless ordered the infantry columns forward after his own artillery had failed to surpress the Chaisian guns, hoping that under cover of darkness they might be able to storm the defensive lines. But it turned out that the Charisians had developed a way of getting a flare aloft by rocket and apparently held up with a parachute to illumine the battlefield. Artillery retargeted and between rifles and artillery, Harless lost 70% of the attacking force. He had a second wave of infantry prepared to go in on the heels of the first, but called them off rather then send them back into the teeth of the defenses.

Don

Hi Don,

Quite right.

Hanth's counter battery fire was so effective Ahlverez was ordering his guns withdrawn before they were all destroyed when Harless ordered the attack despite all the evidence the now fortress guns had not been suppressed first as the plan had dictated, so the AoS learned about rocket propelled parachute flares, and the fortress gun's actual high rate of fire; the troops never getting into rifle range before the third that was left retreated when the second wave wasn't sent in to support.

Obviously, given the name Army of Shiloh, its primary mission was the 'relief' of the TL's there, which
Merlin noted to DE on the Daivyn, which is why he took a brigade [2 regiments] and a RSA rifle brigade with the 1st Glacierheart volunteers and a cavalry regiment etc down the Branath Canal weeks earlier, while another RSA force went overland.

Thesmar was never the primary target of the AoS, but it should have been a preliminary one, unfortunately for the Go4 it was obviously too tough.

That alone should have warned the Go4 that they should reconsider their plans, but they didn't though we haven't had a full Go4 meeting since the beginning of MTaT or almost 2 books, IIRC.

We could have had a nice scene after Hanth took Somyr and drove Rychtyr off as to who was to blame.

I'm still curious how much of that "mountain of supplies" Hanth may have been able to capture, if Rychtyr couldn't destroy it fast enough, as well as at Somyr.

I should point out most of the AoJ's supply of food and fodder should have come more from Silkiah than Desnar being so much closer both were less likely to rot in transit; leaving Desnar with basically only baggage and ammunition to send, yet aristocratic influence may have insisted on keeping all the contracts in Desnar, while Duchairn probably made his arrangements mainly in Silkiah.

If Duchairn opposed leaving Thesmar intact behind the AoS, which I think he would have, his judgement will have been proven correct again, strengthening any arguments he makes later.

We still don't have a Go4 meeting reacting to the destruction of the AoS, so while I'm eagerly looking forward to the next snippet, that's another scene I don't want to miss.

While we don't know where the last ICA contingent has landed [chapter 10 in September], I've been tasking them with the Salthar-Silkiah Canal region [possibly landed on one of the nearby peninsula's], but they might have landed at Thesmar, which is one reason why the inner circle isn't worried about Ahlverez.

While he isn't strong enough to take it, General Kydryc Fyguera's remaining garrison of around 9-10,00 men is obviously too few to attack almost 48,000 passing by, but if this unnamed force landed at Thesmar, Ahlverez might be facing a ICA army bigger than his, compelling him to surrender.

Interesting times indeed!

L

n7axw wrote:

dwileye13 wrote:I thought there was commentary by Ahlvarez that the defenses were tested and his troop sustained nasty losses The Desnairians tried a cavalry charge again with losses then the story jumped to leaving forces to cover Thesmar

My poor memory hurts sometimes but that is my recollection

Nope, there was no calvary charge. Harless ordered the infantry columns forward after his own artillery had failed to surpress the Chaisian guns, hoping that under cover of darkness they might be able to storm the defensive lines. But it turned out that the Charisians had developed a way of getting a flare aloft by rocket and apparently held up with a parachute to illumine the battlefield. Artillery retargeted and between rifles and artillery, Harless lost 70% of the attacking force. He had a second wave of infantry prepared to go in on the heels of the first, but called them off rather then send them back into the teeth of the defenses.

Don

In discussing Harless' poor scouting and appreciation of amphibious operations we find the following at p206 in the Kindle edition of LAMA

in LAMA RFC wrote:“Even better,” Cayleb’s smile was far more wicked than Aivah’s, “where the southern jaw’s concerned, the best cavalry screen in the world won’t help them.” “All very well for you, Your Majesty,” Symkyn said. “You’re not going to have to explain to my lads why so many of them are turning around, cat-lizard-in-pan, to go straight back aboard those ships!”

Looks like a lot like the last ICA contingent is heading to either Thesmar or points south.

lyonheart wrote:
While we don't know where the last ICA contingent has landed [chapter 10 in September], I've been tasking them with the Salthar-Silkiah Canal region [possibly landed on one of the nearby peninsula's], but they might have landed at Thesmar, which is one reason why the inner circle isn't worried about Ahlverez.

While he isn't strong enough to take it, General Kydryc Fyguera's remaining garrison of around 9-10,00 men is obviously too few to attack almost 48,000 passing by, but if this unnamed force landed at Thesmar, Ahlverez might be facing a ICA army bigger than his, compelling him to surrender.