IDWTBTHQ Chapter 87 - Talking Tactics

“This is ridiculous!” Felix snarled. “Not only Marcus has let that little gray bastard into our house, but he told us to make him tea! Tea! As if we are his servants and the little puke is some kind of important guest!”

“Keep it down, Felix!” Klara admonished him, with the peculiar voice of someone trying to scream while simultaneously keeping their voice down. “First off, we technically are Marcus's servants, in case you forgot. And goblin or not, Trakk is an important guest, so we have to treat him accordingly.”

The two friends were in the kitchen, preparing tea for the guests. Marcus had asked them to do that while he and the others discussed strategy with the Goblin General, something which Felix had not taken well at all. Luckily the young man had managed to somehow keep his anger in check without causing anything to spontaneously catch fire, but as soon as he and Klara had been alone he had started complaining viciously.

“What makes him important, anyway?” He argued angrily. “You've heard him. He's only got twenty thousands warriors, while Marcus now has more than thirty thousands Vex, who are much stronger than goblins to boot. I bet Marcus and the Medelan army could wipe the floor with the orcs without any assistance from those gray bastards!”

“Even if that's true, ten thousands elite goblins would still help.” The girl replied. “And if the orc army is real, then we need all the help we can get.” She paused and looked at her friend in the eyes. “Do you know about the War of the Behemoth?”

“No, I don't think so.” Felix said after thinking for a moment. “Everything I know about history I've learned either from you or your grandpa. And he never talked about this War of the Behemoth, as far as I remember.”

“Yeah, no surprise there.” She sighed. “We were children when grandpa taught us history, and he might have just mentioned and skipped the details, in which case it's no wonder you don't remember, but I've read about it in some books.” She took a deep breath. “In the twelfth century a huge horde of orcs emerged from the Dark Heart, guided by an oni called the Behemoth. They laid waste to Rodenheim and Medelan before heading west and invading the Green Vale, where they spent three months ravaging the land and killing and eating anyone they came across. They even came close to Alia, the Imperial Capital, before the armies of the Empire finally managed to defeat them.”

“Why didn't they stop them sooner?” Felix asked, raising an eyebrow. “I mean, if they were causing this much damage, why didn't the Empire deploy its armies to defeat them?”

“They did.” Klara replied. “Multiple imperial armies fought the orcs, and they were all defeated. After a particularly bad defeat, they had to call for help from the Castillar Frontier Legion, plus most of the Aura Masters available in the entire Empire, in order to fight the orcs. And even then, it was tight. By the end of the battle, the imperial forces had been decimated, though the orcs had been thoroughly exterminated.” She paused, and then added: “According to the accounts from that time, people had seriously started fearing for the fate of the Empire, and some even theorize that had the orcs been allowed to ravage the lands a bit longer and become stronger, maybe the Empire would have fallen.”

“Wow.” Felix muttered, seeming really impressed. “Are  the orcs really that strong?” He paused, as a worried expression appeared on his face. “I mean... if not even the actual imperial armies managed to defeat them, do we even stand a chance?”

“Don't worry.” Klara encouraged him with a confident smile. “Those orcs were so strong because they had managed to catch Rodenheim and Medelan by surprise, and by the time the imperial armies faced them in battle most of them had already turned into ogres. But we've been warned about their arrival and they will be much weaker than if they had eaten two countries' worth of people.” She paused and then added: “However, it's imperative that we stop them before they can gain too much power and momentum, and a single loss could be potentially disastrous. This is why we need the goblins' help, because we need to be absolutely sure to win our first battle.”

“Fine. I get it.” The apprentice sorcerer conceded. “I still don't like it though.”

“As my grandpa used to say, in politics the best solution is often the one nobody likes.” The girl replied with a smirk.

“Then I'm definitely not cut out for politics.” The young man said, sounding a bit amused despite himself. “Well, the tea is ready. Better take it to the others while it's hot... if we're lucky, our honored goblin guest may even burn his tongue by drinking it.”

“That's the spirit!” Klara said with an encouraging smile.

The two then carried the tea to the main hall of the inn, where all of the others were standing around a table, looking at a map opened over it.

“Are we sure that the orcs are going to come to Brettholz?” Marcus was asking. “I mean, from what I understand there is nothing that forces them to come straight north, isn't it? Couldn’t they come out of the forest further east from here, or even cross the mountains to the west?”

“That's possible, but unlikely.” Trakk replied. “The terrain that leads to the east is extremely difficult and dangerous, even for the standards of the Caligare Forest, and the Ashen Mountains are even worse. The province of Brettholz is the only possible way an army could safely get out of the Caligare Forest.”

“Fine.” Marcus muttered, sounding a bit bummed. “Heavens forbid that something makes my life a little bit easier.”

Klara and Felix reached the table, serving the tea to all the people present, and the girl gave a look to the map. With surprise she noticed that it was actually up to date, with the new village of Newhaven —where the refugees from the eastern part of the region had settled— and even the lands of the Vex clearly shown. Then, she noticed something that made her raise an eyebrow.

“Wait a second.” She said, pointing at one village on the far right of the map. “This village should be Grayrock. Why is it called Goblinia?”

Everyone turned to the goblin General, who sighed in response.

“Oh.” He said. “It's... rather silly, actually. When my people moved over there, some insisted that we needed to give it a new name, since it was to be our home. We actually held a contest, and most of the people voted for the name Goblinia.” He paused, sounding rather embarrassed. “I suppose I should be glad that it won over names like Gobbotopia, The Place That We Fought Like Crazy to Get or even I Can't Think of a Name Right Now Ask Me After Dinner... though the last one actually got pretty close to winning, for some reason.” He grimaced. “I guess that some of the boys thought it was funny.”

Marcus, Klara and Reginald chuckled, but Felix seemed upset, as if the thought of a town named Goblinia personally offended him.

“Anyway...” The Vex Queen said, after taking a sip of his tea. “We know that the orcs are coming here. What exactly are we going to do then?” He paused and added: “I mean, I know that we're going to fight them, but maybe we need a more detailed plan, do we?”

“Indeed.” Trakk confirmed. “That's the reason I came here to begin with.” He also took a sip of tea, and then continued, pointing at the map. “Ideally, we'd have to stop the orcs as soon as they come out of the forest, before they reach any major settlement. Because of this, we must be ready to act by the time our scouts find them.”

“Don't worry, my drones are always ready to fight.” Marcus chimed in. “I just have to give a mental order to make them move out.”

“That's very good.” The goblin nodded. “But I'm afraid that both us goblins and the humans require a bit more time to prepare. Not to mention that we need to coordinate our actions if we want to maximize our effectiveness.” He paused and said: “Luckily, we can do that in advance, by deciding on a course of action... or rather, multiple courses of action, depending on circumstances.” He turned to the Vex Queen. “I haven't really seen much of your territory, but I assume that you've already prepared some defenses, haven't you?”

“Yes.” Marcus replied. “Spent all winter building up all kinds of defenses, traps and tricks.” He smiled with confidence while staring at the goblin in the eyes. “If any army enters my lands, they're going to have a really bad time.”

The Vex Queen put a particular emphasis on the any, to point out that the defenses had been built with the goblins in mind, and judging from the amused smirk on his face it seemed that Trakk had perfectly understood the implications. Anyway, apart from that the general didn't bother to acknowledge that little jab, and went on with his explanations.

“That's good.” He said. “I also fortified my territories as well, so I'd say that the eastern part of the province is pretty much covered.” He tapped with his fingers to the part of the map that showed the Vex and goblin territories. “However, that still leaves us with more than forty kilometers of unfortified borders, and I'm afraid that we won't have time to fix that. So we'll have to come up with an alternative solution.”

“Wait...” Marcus said. “Couldn't we lure the orcs to our territories and fight them here?”

“That would be ideal.” Trakk agreed. “However, it's not going to work unless their commander, the Blue Terror, is a complete idiot... and from what I know about him, he doesn't seem to be that stupid. He's almost certainly going to scout the territories ahead before moving his army and if he does then he's definitely going to avoid passing through the eastern part of Brettholz.”

“Why?” The Vex Queen asked.

“Because my territories are clearly heavily fortified, and yours...” The gray humanoid took a little pause. “Well, no offense but they look downright creepy and unnatural. I don't think any enemy right in their mind would want to get near them.”

“What?” Marcus cried, raising an eyebrow in surprise. “My lands are not that creepy though. Sure, there is mold wax covering everything, but I've seen much weirder things in the forest. Compared to the swamps or those web-filled forests my territory should look welcoming!” He looked at the others. “Am I right?”

Much to his surprise —and disappointment— he found no support.

“I hate to say this, but the goblin is right.” Felix said, rather reluctantly. “Your territory definitely has a creepy feeling to it, and it's not just because of its appearance. Somehow it feels... wrong. I can't really explain, but it'd make me really uncomfortable if I wasn't used to it.”

“Same for me.” Klara added. “I mean, if I stumbled upon a place similar to your territory in the forest while hunting... well, I'd sure give it a wide berth.”

Everyone seemed to agree with the analysis of the two youngsters, making Marcus feel a little baffled, as he had never thought that his hive would be that creepy for others. Although, he had to admit that as the literal Hive Queen of the species that built that hive, his perception could have been a little bit biased.

“Well, fine.” He let out a sad sigh. “So the orcs are not going to come here. Does this mean that the defenses I've spent all winter building are useless then?”

“Not really.” Trakk corrected him. “In fact, they're very important.” He made an encouraging smile. “After all, we're just making speculations. The orcs may actually decide to attack our territories despite everything, and besides it’s good to have some easily defensible positions to fall back to.”

“Ok.” The Vex Queen said, feeling a little relieved that all of his hard work (or rather, the hard work of his drones) wasn’t completely useless. “So, what are we going to do if the orcs appear outside of our territories?”

“Why, we set out to meet them in battle of course.” The General smirked. “However, our specific tactics will depend on the place we're going to fight, as well as the type of troops we have available.” He paused, and then said: “Which is actually something it's best to share with each other before we get into the actual planning. Just so we know what we're working with. I'll start with my own forces.”

The goblin rummaged in his bag, and then took out a linen pouch which contained some wooden tokens of different shapes painted in four different colors: red, blue, purple and yellow.

“As I said, I have about twenty thousands goblins capable of fighting, but about half of them wouldn’t really be helpful against the orcs, so I’m going to leave them to garrison my territories. The other half are my elite troops. Five thousand hobgoblins, roughly half of which are orc-hobs while the other half are human-hobs.” He took out five round tokens painted in blue. “Then, I have about three thousands recently evolved Vex-Goblins, who are naturally armored and quite disciplined themselves.” He took out three square tokens. “And finally about one thousand elite Feral Goblins.” He took out a triangular token. “And one thousand Gargoyles.” He took out two final blue tokens, this time shaped like a hexagon. “In addition to these, I also have thirty-seven remaining Goblin Masters, plus a handful of other rare and powerful subspecies.”

After he finished putting the blue token on the table, he grabbed a few purple ones and looked at Marcus.

“So, Lady Marcus, could you share with us the composition of your army, as well as a brief description of the strengths and weaknesses of each unit, if possible?”

The Vex Queen thought about it for a second, making a mental tally of his drones.

“Sure.” He said. “For starters, I have about twelve thousands Warriors... you know, the ones with the scythes for hands. I tried to make them as well rounded as possible, so I can't think of any significant weakness, apart from the fact that they can't swim. Oh, and they're also a tad slower than they used to be, on account of being bigger and heavier... but they're still pretty fast, so that's kind of moot point, I think.”

The goblins nodded and took out twelve round purpled tokens.

“Then, there are about a thousand Heavies. The big bulky drones with the huge arms. They are very strong, and their only weakness is the fact that they are just so big that they wouldn't be able to move well in tight spaces... not without wrecking everything, at least.”

Trakk took out one hexagonal purple token to represent the Heavies.

“Then, there are seven thousands Flyers. The ones that look a bit like dragonflies. Sadly, I couldn't really improve their physical capabilities that much, but I managed to improve the acidic poison they spit to the point that it's almost capable of melting through stone...” He shot Trakk a glance. “Ehm, would that be enough to kill or incapacitate an orc?”

“That depends on how much poison they spit.” The goblin replied, after thinking about it for a second. “I’ve seen the orcs fight against the Piraca, who also spit acidic poison, and they could take a lot of punishment from them.” He paused, and then while taking out seven triangle-shaped tokens. “However, even if it doesn't kill or incapacitate many of them, a rain of acid from so many Flyers would certainly annoy and disrupt them, which would be invaluable during a battle.”

“Good.” Marcus said. “Also, maybe I have some drones that are capable of spitting enough poison. They're not many, but they could serve as artillery maybe.”

“Are they the same ones as those who spat acid at my troops during the battle of Brettholz?” Trakk asked.

“Well... yes and no. The ones you saw were the Spitters, while the new ones are called the Artillery Drones.” He made a satisfied smirk. “They are much, much bigger, and they can shoot blobs of acid bigger than myself over a distance of 150 meters... maybe even more, with favorable wind.”

The goblin looked very impressed by this.

“This... is certainly interesting. And such an artillery force would indeed help us greatly. How many of those Artillery Drones do you have?”

“Not many, unfortunately.” Marcus replied, “Just a few dozens. They're one of the new types of drones I've developed this winter, and I've yet to start mass producing them.”

“Wait a moment.” The goblin’s eyes narrowed with interest. “What do you mean with making new types of drones?”

“Ops!” Marcus thought. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that.”

“Well, I can indeed make new drone types…” He said. “But it’s a rather long process, and I don’t think that I can make any more new drone types before the orcs arrive.”

“Well, then we’ll have to make do with the ones you’ve already developed.” Trakk said. “Do you have any other of these new types?”

“Well, there are the Wyvern Drones.” The Vex Queen explained. “But maybe you know about them already. I've made eight of them so far, but I've given seven to the marquis. He told me he's using them for scouting the forest.”

“Yes, I've seen those Vex in Brettholz.” The goblin nodded. “They certainly give us a clear advantage, as far as intelligence and scouting are involved.” He paused and then asked: “Any other type of drone that could be useful?”

“Well, I have also made three Dreadnoughts, but I don't know if they can be useful against the orcs. I mean, I made them as siege weapons more than anything else.”

“Siege weapons?” The general raised an eyebrow. “What do you mean by that? What are these Dreadnoughts?”

“To put it simply, they're big.” Marcus explained. “Very, very big and heavily armored. They're good for just one thing: charging in one direction and let nothing stop them... certainly not things like walls, trees or anything short of a mountain, really.” He paused and then added: “I made them more for experimentation than anything else, really.”

“Exactly, how big are they?” Trakk asked.

“Oh, the first one is just four meters tall and six meters long, but after that I kinda wanted to see how big I could make them, so the other two are bigger. The biggest should be five meters tall and ten meters long.”

“That's pretty big.” The goblin commented. “I think that we can find a use for them. Just making them charge at the enemy lines should cause enough havoc for our forces to take advantage of it.” He paused for a moment and then asked: “Anything else?”

“Sadly, no.” Marcus replied. “I have about ten thousands Workers and one thousand Hunters... but they're not really suited for an open battle. So maybe it’s best to leave them here to guard my territories.”

“Yes.” The goblin said. “That's for the best.” He then turned to Belinda, who had just listened to that conversation in silence, so far. “Lady Belinda, I've heard from the marquis that he's made you his representative in this meeting. Could you tell us about the forces of Brettholz?”

“Sadly, I don’t have much to say, at least compared to you two.” The old woman said. “The militia of Brettholz is not cut out for fighting against the orcs, and the Medelan army won't come to our aid until we have undeniable proof of the existence of the orc army.” She paused for a second, and then added: “However, there are seventeen Aura users currently working under the marquis, me and my underlings included, and we'll help you fight the orcs.”

“Good.” The goblin said, looking a bit pensive while taking out a single, triangular shaped red token from his pouch. “Well, this is definitely better than what I hoped for. Our combination of troops should give us a good amount of tactical flexibility, which we can use to take advantage of the terrain and other various conditions.”

He put the tokens on the map, and then said:

“Well, now that we've established the composition of our forces, let's start talking about actual tactics. I'll try to make a different plan for every different terrain we would fight on.”

“For starters, let's talk about the western part of the province.” He pointed at the point of the map where the Ashen Mountains turned into a series of hills. “The terrain west of Woodcutter's Rest is mostly steep hills and narrow valleys, which has some pros and cons. The limited space to maneuver would certainly favor the orcs because they are on average individually stronger than our own troops, and if it comes down to a slugfest, they're likely to get the upper hand. On the other hand we have much lighter and more agile troops who can easily climb the hills, not to mention actually flying units, so we could attack them from literally all directions while they would be restricted to the valleys. If we make use of the Vex Dreadnoughts, Artillery and Flyers, we could cause extreme havoc among the orc ranks, preventing them from cooperating, while the Heavies and the Warriors hold the line and our Aura users, both goblins and humans, go after the ogres and the oni.”

“That seems like a good plan to me.”  Belinda said approvingly. “Dangerous for sure, but then again fighting ogres is dangerous no matter the situation. Also, we'd have another advantage when fighting in narrow spaces: the orcs are big, so their movement would be even more limited than our own. If you couple that with their lack of discipline, it'd be extremely difficult for them to fight to their full potential in such circumstances.”

“Nice observation.” Trakk nodded respectfully. “If it comes down to fighting in those narrow valleys, it is definitely going to be a bloody affair, but I think that our chances of victory would be very good.”

He made a small pause, sipping some of his tea before continuing.

“However, there is another path that the orcs could take, in the region between Woodcutter’s Rest and the Vex territory, and I personally think that this will be their choice.” He pointed at the center of the map. “Not only is it flat and without any significant obstacle, but it's also full of farms and small settlements, so it'd be a prime target for pillaging.” He made a small pause. “The terrain there is mostly open, cultivated fields, with no real defensible spots, but at the same time it leaves a lot of space to maneuver, something which would allow us to take advantage of our superior numbers and discipline.” He smiled with confidence. “Which is actually really good for us, because it gives us a lot more options than those available to the orcs.”

“What do you mean by that?” Marcus asked.

“Well, it’s simply a matter of what our armies are capable of.” The goblin said, still smiling. “My elite troops can execute complex maneuvers, and your drones can probably do that as well, since you control each and every one of them with your mind. However, the orcs are much more limited. They are terribly strong and ferocious, sure, but any tactic more complex than simply screaming and charging at the enemy is beyond them. And this makes them predictable.” His smile grew even wider. “If this was a game of rock-paper-scissor, they'd be like someone who always picks rock. So, in order to win, we just have to pick paper.”

“Nice analogy.” Belinda said. “But what does that mean in practice?”

“In practice, we have to avoid clashing with them head on, as that would be like picking rock against rock.” The goblin explained. “Instead, we have to weather their attack and curb their momentum before enveloping them.”

The goblin put the tokens that represented the goblins and Vex forces on a line on the map, and then took out about twenty green tokens from his pouch and put them in an opposing line.

“Imagine that we're going to face the orcs.” He said. “We know that they are going to charge at us like this.” He moved all of the green tokens forward. “Now, instead of simply clashing with them, we hold our ground in the wings, but slowly retreat at the center.” He pushed back the central tokens a bit, while leaving the peripheral ones where they were. “And then, we start pushing even harder from the sides, using our superior numbers to envelop and surround the enemy.” He pushed the tokens at the side to the center, effectively creating a circle of blue and purple tokens around the green ones. “After that, it's just a matter of killing the ogres and the oni before they can break through encirclement. The normal orcs won't be a problem, since they don’t have the discipline to fight back effectively when surrounded, especially if the Fliers and the Artillery Vex keep them distracted and confused.”

After he was done talking, Trakk took another long sip out of his now lukewarm tea, giving everyone else the time to fully understand his battle plan. All the people in the room, even Felix —who could barely hide his contempt for the goblin— couldn’t help but to look impressed.

All but Marcus, who instead was frowning and staring at the goblin with a puzzled expression on his face.

To be fair, this wasn’t because he thought that Trakk’s battle plan was bad —it actually seemed good to him— but rather because it felt oddly familiar.

In his previous life, the Vex Queen had been fascinated by ancient Roman history, and he had read a lot about their engineering achievements, their battles and their culture. And the battle plan that Trakk had proposed was almost identical to the one Hannibal had employed during the Battle of Cannae.

“How does he know about it?”  Marcus wondered. “Did he hear about it somewhere? Does that mean that he was reincarnated as well, or that he met someone who reincarnated? Or did he come up with it on his own? And would that mean that he's a tactician on par with fucking Hannibal?”

While he was thinking, Trakk noticed his discomfort, and turned to him.

“Is there a problem, Sir Marcus?” The goblin asked. “Perhaps you've spotted a fault in my battle plan? If so, could you share it with us?”

“No, no.” The Vex Queen replied. “I think that the plan is excellent. It's just...” He made a small pause. “I'm curious about something. Did you come up with this tactic yourself or did you learn it from somewhere else?”

This question seemed to take the goblin by surprise, but to his credit he recovered immediately and made a rather mischievous smile.

“As much as I'd like to take credit for it, I didn't come up with this plan entirely on my own.” He said. “I took inspiration from a similar tactic employed by Alan the Hero against the cyclops in the battle of Guerak. It's quite literally a textbook tactic that most Imperial officers know about, and I've merely adjusted it to fit our needs.”

“Ah, I understand.” Marcus replied, with his sense of puzzlement placated. However now he was curious about this so-called Alan the Hero, and made a mental note to ask Klara about it later.

“So, do you have any other plan you want to share with us?” Belinda asked the goblin.

“No.” Trakk replied. “This is it for now.” He paused and looked at the others. “Also, it goes without saying that nothing we’ve discussed so far is set in stone. I’ve tried to predict what the orcs will do, but without hard evidence is all conjectural, so we may need to change our plans depending on the intelligence we receive.”

“If that’s so, then why did you bother coming here to talk at all?” Felix asked, in a rather rude tone. “Couldn’t you have waited until we knew for sure what the orcs would do?”

Hoggs and Klara immediately shot a disapproving glance at the young man, but luckily Trakk didn’t seem offended in the least.

“Well, that’s because establishing a course of action, however hypothetical, is better than leaving everything to chance and hope for the best.” The goblin replied with a calm and confident grin. “If I’m right and the orcs are going to behave like I predicted, then we’ll be able to act immediately. Besides, this is also a good occasion for getting used to working with each other, something which will greatly improve our collaboration.”

The apprentice sorcerer nodded, though he didn’t seem entirely convinced.

“So… what do we do for now?” Marcus asked. “Do we have to move our forces somewhere, to wait for the orcs to come?”

“That would be premature.” Trakk replied. “The best thing to do would be to just wait for more intelligence from our scouts and keep in touch with each other, sharing whatever information we’ll obtain. The marquis already agreed on this course of action, by the way. What about you, Sir Marcus?”

“Well, sure.” The Vex Queen said. “But I don’t really have any scouts in the forest. As I told you before, my mental link with my drones has a maximum range of twenty five kilometers.”

“Fair enough.” The goblin shrugged. “It doesn’t really matter, anyway. Between me and the marquis, we have enough scouts in the forest to spot anything worth noticing.”

“You already have scouts in the forest?” Belinda asked, raising an eyebrow. “Weren’t your people prohibited from leaving your territories without being accompanied by someone?”

“No, we were prohibited from trespassing in other Medelan territories without being accompanied by someone!” The General corrected her with a smug grin. “The treaty we signed said nothing about entering the Caligare Forest, which is technically not part of the kingdom.”

“That’s sophism.” The old woman protested. “It’s not respecting the spirit of the treaty!”

“I disagree on that last point.” Trakk said, in a severe tone. “The spirit of our treaty was to collaborate with each other to defeat the orcs, and that’s exactly what we’re doing.” He paused and relaxed a bit. “Besides, my people know the depth of the forest much better than the marquis’ scout, so it made no sense to not make use of their skills.” He smiled. “And some of the scouts I’ve sent are really skilled. In fact, I fully expect to have more detailed intelligence about the orcs by the end of the week.”

“You sound really confident.” Marcus observed. “Are your scouts really that good?”

“Oh yes, they are.” The goblin assured him. “Or at least, one of them is.”

“Who?”

“No one you know about and most likely someone you’ll never see, though he’s seen you many times in the past.” Trakk replied with a smug grin. “He’s my personal agent, and I’ve sent him in the forest to keep an eye on the Blue Terror himself.”

“That sounds difficult.” Marcus said. “After all, the Blue Terror is the leader of the orcs,so he’ll probably spend most of his time surrounded by his underlings.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Arag is definitely skilled enough to pull that off.” The goblin reassured him “He’s one of the sneakiest things to have ever crawled out of the Caligare Forest. Something like sneaking in the orc camp unseen should be child’s play for him!”