Ovinomancer
No flips for you!
No one deploys heavy cavalry in the woods because their very vulnerable when they can't close ranks and charge. So vulnerable in that case that even skirmishes are very dangerous to them.Gen. Butcher frowned. His head wound still bothered him. He surveyed the campaign table before him and wondered what it was. He felt sure it was important but couldn't remember why. Besides, it looked wrong. The pink was too heavy. Yes, that was it. He moved some flags around. That was better.
At his side, a man coughed. The general looked round and stared at the man. He looked vaguely familiar but he couldn't remember why.
"Prenthorpe, sir," said the man helpfully, "I'm your aide-de-camp."
"Ah. Yes. Very good. Carry on."
Prenthorpe indicated the flags that his general had just moved. "You are redeploying the XIVth Heavy Cavalry into the northern forest?"
"I am?"
"Very good, sir, I'll send out the orders straight away."
Later that day, Gen. Aargh of the Brown Hordes surveyed the tattered remnants of his army as they fled the battlefield. His masterplan had crumbled before his eyes. His feint to the south had met with surprisingly little resistance, while his main force, advancing stealthily through the northern forest, had been cut to ribbons by sabre-wielding heavy horsemen hiding in the trees. It made no sense. They shouldn't have been there. No-one deploys heavy cavalry in a forest !
A circle of subordinates circled Aargh, surveying him with mixed feelings and each other with distinctly unmixed feelings. There was about to be a vacancy for general and each and every one of them wanted it.
"My comrades," began Aargh, "There is no shame in this defeat. The gods were against us. After our previous defeat at Broken Mountain, I though I had the measure of Butcher. But I was wrong. The man is a military genius. I have sent emissaries offering an honourable surrender."
The next thing he said was his last. He called out his own name as he toppled backwards. "Aargh!"
So Mr. General of the Losing Color didn't lose to Mr. General of the Winning Color because of tactics, but because his forces in the field were incompetent when given a fight where they have every advantage.
Sent from my desire to irritate Mustrum