Imperial Infantry Tactics and Guidelines [WA]

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opelcity
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Imperial Infantry Tactics and Guidelines [WA]

Post by opelcity »

Imperial Infantry Tactics & Guidelines
- confidential -
by Brutus Noctavius


This piece of writing is to be issued to every officer in command of troops after reaching the rank of "Champion". These tactical variants have proven to be very successful in past engagements and are necessary to be followed when fighting an enemy together with other Imperial Legion Formations. Only standardized tactics throughout all elements of our fighting forces can ensure success in combat operations.


Terrain and Environment
If possible make sure that YOU choose the site and time of combat. Always have the sun and the wind in your back. It will blind the enemy and increase the effective range of your arrows and bolts. Use the advantages of high terrain! An enemy who has to climb a hill will be exhausted when it comes to the actual fighting. Take notice of the ground you are standing on. The harder the ground the better. It is only there where the full force of the Imperial weaponery can be unveiled. For fighting in hostile environments refer to notes on "winter warfare" and "uncommon combat tactics"


Troop Placement
The Combat Row is the main element of our fighting force. It gives the commander good view of his troops and allows for better control and faster adeption of the individual tactics below. Place your troops in a rectangle with the length a hundredfold longer than it´s width. Make sure that there is no more than an armlength of room between each individual trooper and no more than six soldiers behind each other. An entire legion can easily be commanded in that way. When expecting an assault from enemy horsemen, equip the first two rows of troopers with long spears to be able to repel the attack. Place archers in the rear of the rows of foot soldiers. If you are in the position to use knights, place them on your left and right flank. Keep a number of light troops as a reserve to prevent outflanking and attacks on your archers.


The Crab
Order your soldiers to hold their shields overhead, with the exception of the first row, who will place their shields in front of them. This will create a large troop formation with the appearance of a giant crab with the ability to repel attacks from enemy archers.

The Wedge
Have your troops form a triangle composed of no more then 20 soldiers with their shields placed in front of them and advance into the enemy rows. This will force your opponent to stand his ground, therefore disabeling the individual enemy soldier to move freely. Enemys carrying longswords will be prevented to use their weapon as there is not enough space for them to weild their weapon, while the Imperial Short Sword can be put to a most effective use.





PS: In the final version, there would be simple illustrations under each tactic (i still have some more in mind). i just wanted to see if this fits TR (content and style of writing) or is too much Roman before putting more work in it.

The mentioned "winter war" and "uncommon infantry tactics" as well as notes on "combat in swamp areas" and intelligence leaflets to be issued to troops before deployment are also on my mind...
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Violent_J
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Post by Violent_J »

I think the first part u have written is really good. of course it remembers of the romans but thats only because they were very good at military strategys!
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Post by Majra »

very well done, passes lore, grammarers take over

*when you compile the other parts post them here. Also I can help you with the book art
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Re: Imperial Infantry Tactics and Guidelines [G]

Post by Haplo »

Edited for Grammar and Spelling

--CONFIDENTIAL--
Imperial Infantry Tactics & Guidelines
by Brutus Noctavius


This piece of writing is to be issued to every officer in command of troops after reaching the rank of "Champion". These tactical variants have proven to be very successful in past engagements and are necessary to be followed when fighting an enemy together with other Legion Formations. Only standardized tactics throughout all elements of our fighting forces can ensure success in combat operations.


Terrain and Environment
If possible, make sure that it is always you who chooses the time and place of combat. Always have the sun and the wind at your back. It will blind the enemy and increase the effective range of your arrows and bolts. Use the advantages of high terrain! An enemy who has to climb a hill will be exhausted when it comes to the actual fighting. Take notice of the ground you are standing on. The harder the ground the better. It is only there where the full force of Imperial weaponry can be unveiled. For fighting in hostile environments refer to notes on Winter Warfare and Uncommon Combat Tactics


Troop Placement
The Combat Row is the main element of our fighting force. It gives the commander a good view of his troops and allows for better control and faster adaption of the individual tactics below. Place your troops in a rectangle with the length a hundredfold longer than its width. Make sure that there is no more than an armlength of room between each individual trooper and no more than six soldiers behind each other. An entire legion can easily be commanded in that way. When expecting an assault from enemy horsemen, equip the first two rows of troopers with long spears to be able to repel the attack. Place archers in the rear of the rows of foot soldiers. If you are in the position to use knights, place them on your flanks. Keep a number of light troops as a reserve to prevent outflanking and attacks on your archers.


The Turtle
Order your soldiers to hold their shields overhead, with the exception of the first row, who will place their shields in front of them. This will create a large troop formation with the appearance of a giant turtleshell with the ability to withstand attacks from arrows and rocks.
This is NOT the crab. It is the turtle. References are made, check them. I changed it for you.


The Wedge
Have your troops form a triangle composed of no more then 20 soldiers with their shields placed in front of them and advance into the enemy rows. This will force your opponent to stand his ground, therefore disabling the individual enemy soldier to move freely. Enemies carrying longswords will be prevented from using their weapon as there is not enough space for them to weild their weapon, while the Imperial Short Sword can be put to a most effective use.[/i]

---

Not bad, the reason why you don't see numerous red marks on the paragraphs is that usually you were missing a comma somewhere, had an extra comma, or had mixed up some letters(fight, fihgt).

A bit Roman in style, but...then again Majra's the Tamriel Lore guy, I'm the Roman Lore guy. And TR Lore's what matters. however I DID change the Crab formation to the Tortoise formation.
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opelcity
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Post by opelcity »

I'm the Roman Lore guy. And TR Lore's what matters. however I DID change the Crab formation to the Tortoise formation.

...i know, but since i wasn´t sure about the presence of turtles in Tamriel, i deliberately changed it to crab. cool to see the work pass first inspection. i´ll be off now trying to put the rest together... :)
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Post by Túrelio »

Well if the mud crab can be found in other parts of Tamriel that is actually not a bad idea. I am not sure I have heard of a turtle but it might be mentioned in lore somewhere. It actually isn't a bad idea, a good way to blend this in,
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Post by Morden »

"Take notice of the ground you are standing on. The harder the ground the better. It is only there where the full force of Imperial weaponry can be unveiled."
On the contrary, the flatter the ground the better. Close formations tend to fall apart when trying to move over rough land, especially on a hill. I'd assume that since the imperials are much like the romans, that they'd use a phalanx, which you've described as a "battle row". To be effective the battle row
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Post by Túrelio »

I thought he was refering to sturdy ground, as in opposed to muddy.

Another thing, since this is TES, we have magic and the Empire does use it in battle and war. Would this be included or another special book?
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Post by Morden »

Sorry my post cut off half way through. I was also going to mention that the soldiers should stand shoulder to shoulder, so that their tower shields could interlock. Each man covers the left side of the next man. As opposed to standing within an arm's reach of eachother. Its getting specific, but i think it should be if it is to be a confidential document. As it stands its far to general. It sort of falls under common sense. Its a great start though. :)
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Post by Majra »

my knowledge of battle formations and tactic fails me however, so I will stay out of this. I can do some research on the library about what Tamriel battles resemble. :) BTW I am not the lore guy, if LG or Nazz were to comment on something I would almost always have to assume they are correct (until I find something otherwise of course)
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Post by Zalzidrax »

Túrelio wrote:I thought he was refering to sturdy ground, as in opposed to muddy.

Another thing, since this is TES, we have magic and the Empire does use it in battle and war. Would this be included or another special book?
I think mages would be used more like artillery than infantry. Real roman legions used to have a number of ballistae and catalpults at their disposal, I'd expect that in tamriel, those would be in part replaced by magic power. I would doubt they'd entirely replace siege weapons. A trebuchet or catapult is probably a lot cheaper than finding and training a mage who can hurl fireballs and such that distance.
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Post by Túrelio »

I agree, with maybe the exception of healers, although they may not even be on the front lines. I assume that they would use a large amount of siege weapons along with Battlemages, it makes sense.
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Post by opelcity »

As opposed to standing within an arm's reach of each other
I took reference to the Roman Battle Tactics, where when taking the initial setup before a battle, the soldiers were spaced 1-2 feet apart. (didn´t know what unit of measure to use so i described it...)
Another thing, since this is TES, we have magic and the Empire does use it in battle and war. Would this be included or another special book?
yes, that´s already been worked on :) . Might take a while though, because it seems more difficult to put it into context with lore (can´t just write something about roman tactics - didn´t use battlemages back then)
It sort of falls under common sense
yes, it does. at least under out modern viewpoint. if the celts, the germanians, the carthagians or the gauls might have gotten their hands on a roman version of such a handbook before the first engagements, they might have put it into good use....but there is more to come.
The harder the ground the better
as mentioned before, i thought about hard/sturdy soil instead of muddy/swampy terrain. you wouldn´t want to fight in a swamp with that heavy armor the Imperials usually feature ... anyone got an english thesaurus to check for a better word??


PS: There is more to come. Remember: I only wanted to check if it could be used, and if my style of writing is adequate.

PPS: Would it be ok lorewise if i changed names common Roman and Persian Infantry Tactics to fit TR (as in turtle - crab??). i was thinking of things like the "Cannae Tactic" to e.g. "West Gash Tactic" (just an example...)
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Post by Túrelio »

instead of "harder" you might try "Solid".
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Post by Jacurutu »

Yes, it helps avoid an unfortunate duality.
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Post by Sucineri »

[url]http://library.thinkquest.org/21665/reports/legform.html[/url]

Just found that link online..will look for more.
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Post by Sucineri »

[url]http://www.dnd.starflung.com/formfite.html[/url]

Tada..another one. :)
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Post by Xveers »

another option instead of "harder" would be "firm" since that would allude nicely to the softer swampy ground that the imperials would like to avoid.
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