-27 ON to 0 PR
How did Uhlion Prepare and Begin The War
He first built up weaponry and a following over the course of hundreds of years. His opening strategy was to spread revolutionary sentiment over the hearthsholds so that when his forces drew near the kobolds and others of those cities would join his army in a second. He also had help from foreign groups of those that were either Equitianists or sympathetic to the plight of the Skalovians. Such as the many clerics that began the revolution.
How did the Revolutionaries Make Their Armaments
The revolutionaries set up workshops in Marikhoria to the west, Klastte in the South, and Alaria a little more south. The dragons of Skalovia were not contained to Skalovia the entire duration of their reign. They tried to conquer and raid the surrounding kingdoms. No one liked the dragons. So if another dragon said they could remove those dragons as a problem, then the wealthy and powerful were inclined to agree and invested. At least until they saw Uhlion's end goal of an Equitianist State which he kept hidden.
Who Designed the Machines and Tools and the Armaments
Gagrin Yagresslov, Piotr Dansky, and a cohort of other researchers and scientists using the information given by Uhlion's ward, Genastres.
How Does Magic Work Into This
One of Uhlion's followers was Dasili Geria, a silver bass-voiced dragonborn that grew up in magocratic household espousing magic-user supremacy. He is actually a foreigner to Skalovia and grew up in the Lireskite Dominion under another name that he never uses nor offers. He is also the one to argue for strict regulation for magic users in the Republic fearing one day of a coup made by the likes of those that resembled his family.
His main contribution was his personal use as a utility mage to speed up the production of the weapons along with training and keeping a group of other magic users to help the revolutionaries do the same. Along with this, he was used as a warcaster along with his cohort that supplemented the armed forces of the Revolution
His main contribution was his personal use as a utility mage to speed up the production of the weapons along with training and keeping a group of other magic users to help the revolutionaries do the same. Along with this, he was used as a warcaster along with his cohort that supplemented the armed forces of the Revolution
What Difficulties did the Revolutionaries have Fighting with a New Type of Warfare
Quite a bit, actually. The advantages of the musket are its low training time, its armour piercing capability, its effect on morale, and its ability to make up for the shortcomings of the less strong kobolds that wielded them. Its disadvantages were its long load times (40 Seconds in an average soldier's hands), its linear method of attack requiring careful positioning and maneuvering, its maintenance, and its ammunition requirements.
Beginning Tactics and Formation
The formations of the revolutionaries changed over time. Originally, musketeers would be little more than grouped bands that could fire once before drawing back to soften up kobold slave soldiers and dragonborn knights and cavalry for the smaller and more elite foreign cohorts to dash them about with sword, gun, and magic. This was not good enough and the cavalry of the Princes learned how to maneuver to lance down and rout the bands and removing the softening of their infantry. So, a formation based on southern Marikhorian mixtures of pavise crossbowmen and their condottieri pikemen working in concert was formed along with experiments of the hoplite formations of the old Empire where the musketeers would serve as skirmishers and then draw back to reload while an armored shield wall protected them. That latter form turned out to be detrimental to dynamic repositioning but the former allowed constantly moving sections of infantry to reshuffle when enemy infantry or cavalry hit. However, often by the time of connection between enemy melee and the defending spearmen, the advantage of the musket was lost. Dedicated archers did exist but they were not very effective against the armored scalebound and gentry. These tactics were just based on infantry and cavalry tactics. It became more fraught and complicated once monstrous chainbound mutants were unleashed or the sneaky and sabotaging quickpads or the mages or even the Thrawls and their scale prince masters. Those larger threats often put Uhlion, Zukhayev, Dalfr, Blyska, and other dragon revolutionaries in danger as only they could deal with them. This would cost the beloved Blyska her life as she was distracted by such a threat when an assassin struck her dead.
Need For Change
The revolutionaries were stuck in a war of attrition in the northwerstern third of the continent in -13 PR. halfway to the capital of Letrotsk, the greatest minds of the army were put together to figure out how to maximize their strengths. A young Klasstic scientist with help from the Gromdalian Kilnguilds of rune creation and his pupils pitched in his contribution: A high-speed and armor-piercing mini-cannon that could be carried by hand to set up on the battlefield to smash through the unnaturally hardened chainbound and the greater quadrupedal beasts the scale princes gave. It was essentially a gunpowder powered scorpion but had its kinetics supercharged by magical acceleration runes that would gather the energy that thrusts ranged weaponry forward and instead focus it on the metal bolt inside while also protecting the bolt from being destroyed by the blast. It was named the Holowitz Piercer and around two hundred were made over the course of the war. They were instrumental in taking down the chainbound, wyverns mounts, and other beasts of war the Scale Princes had either through direct killing or disabling their strengths. It could also be used to kill multiple infantry and cavalry in a line. That wasn't good enough, however. That was a support weapon that needed its users to not be killed off before it could work.
A new strategy would be made based upon using the strength of the massed revolutionaries and the growing stores of cannons they had. Cannons were rare in the beginning of the revolution and often the revolutionaries resorted to using ballistae and trebuchets in sieges. When they were used, they were often trotted out to augment sieges only. The explosive cannonballs they contained were able to break down stone walls and the defenders that tried to plug up the gap. Siege weaponry before this was not seen as very viable in Velassian open field warfare. A new use as a field weapon was inspired by the sallying out of defenders against a force equal in numbers in the siege of the Brescht Hearthhold. Unable to maneuver the weapons out of the way of approaching cavalry, the artillery crews instead decided to hold their ground and tried to used the artillery to kill as many of the riders as possible before they died. By a miscalculation, one of the cannonballs hit the ground right before the riders rather than crashing through them. It exploded on contact with the ground which spooked the cavalry that it did not kill. This was not expected and the riders were stopped by their panicking mounts as the revolutionaries were able to shoot down the immobilized defenders. Cannonballs had a certain amount of thickness to them in order to have them exploded while piercing fortified walls and to maintain the safety of the crew. The remaining balls were inspected and it had turned out that they had corroded in storage where impacting certain parts of the ball would set off the blast earlier than designed. Yagresslov recreated these conditions and made a new field weapon ammunition type.
The cannons were then used on the battlefield of what would become Blyskagrad. However, the long load times and their slow movement were still detrimental to their field use and they needed to be synergized with other elements to be fully effective. During this time, the revolutionaries had owned around a fifth of the land of Skalovia and those revolutionaries not sent to the front were behind making guns and ammo, transporting supplies, and doing what they could to support the army. They were also being trained. The disorganized rabble of ex-slaves was being drilled into disciplined soldiers. In the training grounds of what would become known as Stoyakevitsin, line warfare was created. Regiments would be marched into properly spaced blocks of linemen like the hoplites of the Old Republic of Mara. Rather than acting as stiff shield walls, they would be able to turn on a dime to set up against threats depending on position. Once set, the front line would kneel and fire as the second fired at the same time. The first and two ranks would reload as the second rank kneeled and the next four lines fired and then reloaded. By the time of the final line's volley, the front line would have been loaded again to continue the cycle, thus setting up a continuous cycle of volley fire. These linemen, separated from the musketeers of the old bands and tercio system by the term, were also all armed with socket bayonets they could set on their muskets to act as spearmen on a dime. Resembling a more controlled form of the tercios the line before the front would lock in their bayonets when melee units neared them. The front would be allowed one more volley before falling back to set their own bayonets. The enemy would be met by a counter-charge of bayonet using troops to meet their momentum and morale effect. Other blocks of units around would readjust their fire to the melee units' back lines to whittle down the attackers as the bayonet melee kept them in place. Cavalry, magic, or abilities such as the dragonborn's inherited breath weapons would serve as the hammer to the defender's anvil. Along with this, formations were made to keep the units from having to rely on others in the case of cavalry attacks. A square formation where the lines would form a square shape and have a kneeling group set as ready to thrust into charging cavalry and two back lines to fire into riders approaching from all angles was made.
The cannons were then used on the battlefield of what would become Blyskagrad. However, the long load times and their slow movement were still detrimental to their field use and they needed to be synergized with other elements to be fully effective. During this time, the revolutionaries had owned around a fifth of the land of Skalovia and those revolutionaries not sent to the front were behind making guns and ammo, transporting supplies, and doing what they could to support the army. They were also being trained. The disorganized rabble of ex-slaves was being drilled into disciplined soldiers. In the training grounds of what would become known as Stoyakevitsin, line warfare was created. Regiments would be marched into properly spaced blocks of linemen like the hoplites of the Old Republic of Mara. Rather than acting as stiff shield walls, they would be able to turn on a dime to set up against threats depending on position. Once set, the front line would kneel and fire as the second fired at the same time. The first and two ranks would reload as the second rank kneeled and the next four lines fired and then reloaded. By the time of the final line's volley, the front line would have been loaded again to continue the cycle, thus setting up a continuous cycle of volley fire. These linemen, separated from the musketeers of the old bands and tercio system by the term, were also all armed with socket bayonets they could set on their muskets to act as spearmen on a dime. Resembling a more controlled form of the tercios the line before the front would lock in their bayonets when melee units neared them. The front would be allowed one more volley before falling back to set their own bayonets. The enemy would be met by a counter-charge of bayonet using troops to meet their momentum and morale effect. Other blocks of units around would readjust their fire to the melee units' back lines to whittle down the attackers as the bayonet melee kept them in place. Cavalry, magic, or abilities such as the dragonborn's inherited breath weapons would serve as the hammer to the defender's anvil. Along with this, formations were made to keep the units from having to rely on others in the case of cavalry attacks. A square formation where the lines would form a square shape and have a kneeling group set as ready to thrust into charging cavalry and two back lines to fire into riders approaching from all angles was made.
Breaking the Stalemate
These new tactics, the strategic use of cannons and their positioning to greatly soften the enemy's morale and kill portions of their numbers, and the support of mages, cavalry, and weapons teams using the Holowitz along with other special-use weapons designed used the strengths of the massed Gold army to break the lines and win the battle of the Crone Woods. The Scale Princes attempted to answer these changes. Many that were not involved in the war at that point were complacent and self-assured before that this revolt would help their power grow through the ruination of their rivals. The second half of the war was the result of recognizing the legitimate threat to their rule and mobilizing those forces they had along with purchasing mercenaries with the wealth of their hoards. However, the might glacier of the Gold Army would march forward and answer threat after threat to victory.
Logistics
Three things were mainly of concern in the Revolution: food, ammo, and hearthstones. The beginning was helped by pillaging the large stores found in the hearthsholds and once musket balls were being made in-country rather than being shipped from the surrounding areas they became less of a concern.
The hearthstone is one of the most important tools to have to keep fighting in Skalovian fall and winter. Its large area of heating allowed armies to cross across the taigas of biting cold temperatures that would kill weaker kinds. Its design was also held tightly by the Scale Princes whose use of it soldified their power as they had access to the rarer stones that allowed habitation in Skalovia. It was one of the reasons those under the tyrants were kow-towed to serving them for so long as to run was certain death unless one luckily stumbled upon the Hagswoods.
Grenr Stoyakev, the logistician master, and Janna Ukiatev, Uhlion's high quartermaster, were indispensable in gathering the needed materials. Stoyakev's use of runic transportation with help from the Gromdalian Kilnguilds was instrumental in moving logistics trains of carriages across the landscape along with serving as the treasurer for the whole revolution and often found outside of Skalovia proper. Ukiatev's organization helped get those arms and tools into the hands of tens of thousands of kobolds along with allocating goods and fulfilling requisitions needed.
Grenr Stoyakev, the logistician master, and Janna Ukiatev, Uhlion's high quartermaster, were indispensable in gathering the needed materials. Stoyakev's use of runic transportation with help from the Gromdalian Kilnguilds was instrumental in moving logistics trains of carriages across the landscape along with serving as the treasurer for the whole revolution and often found outside of Skalovia proper. Ukiatev's organization helped get those arms and tools into the hands of tens of thousands of kobolds along with allocating goods and fulfilling requisitions needed.
The Old Ways Still Prospered
It needs to be said that these armies were supported by old standbys of military forces including clerics, paladins, and wizards. Along with this, they were often supported by those dragons that fought on the side of the revolutionaries such as Blyska, Zukhayev, Dalfr, and Uhlion himself. Rather than being a perfect silver bullet, the use of firearms optimized the great numbers of kobolds with Skalovia to have deadly weapons without the strength or years of training required to wield them like bows. Indeed, except to a few monarchs and statesmen like the king of Klastte or the oligopoly of Thrale, gunpowder weaponry will be seen as a niche and quaint Skalovian invention for decades to come. This was at a time where crossbows boasted similar armor-piercing effects and magically and divinely imbued fighters existed. The latter could produce the effect of a cannon without the expense. However, the cannon could be manned by those trained and not adherent to a temple or a god's code. A fireball could be replicated by those without the heavy training needed to cast magic competently. The monopoly of devastation would soon drift from the hands of the magically and divinely gifted/favored which will drive many nations into putting more stock into not only gunpowder but the industrialization that Uhlion also returned with.
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