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RTH Official Snippet #3

"Hell's Gate" and "Hell Hath No Fury", by David, Linda Evans, and Joelle Presby, take the clash of science and magic to a whole new dimension...join us in a friendly discussion of this engrossing series!
Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by brnicholas   » Wed May 20, 2015 8:22 pm

brnicholas
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I could be confused but my understanding is that the Salby Portal and the portal to Salym and thus Sharona are both in Eurasia while the portal toward Kelsayr is in North America. So the water gap is between Kelsayr and Fort Salby.

Nicholas

SCC wrote:...snipped...

brnicholas, the Voice Net wasn't COMPLETELY cut, there's that kid who survived, and I think the water gap in Trisum is behind him
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Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by SCC   » Wed May 20, 2015 8:35 pm

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Possibly, my geography isn't the best, and the lack using name we're familiar with doesn't help. Personally I'd REALLY like it if someone could put together some maps showing were all the portals are and the paths between them
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Battalion Cap! re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by Howard T. Map-addict   » Thu May 21, 2015 3:50 pm

Howard T. Map-addict
Rear Admiral

Posts: 1392
Joined: Tue Aug 11, 2009 11:47 am
Location: Philadelphia, PA

Hark! At last!! a Battalion-Captain!!!
First in all three books!!!

Only one (so far) on a Staff of Regiment-Captains,
hence youngest, hence Deemed Very Good!
Planing, Ops, AND Intelligence.

HTM

Military people:
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3227

Next questions: does a Ternath Battalion-Captain rank
even with an Arcanan Com-500, or Com-1000?
Does Ternath have an equal for both, or does the
only one that they have rank between Arcana's two?

HTM

runsforcelery wrote:
And now for the snippet!

_______________________________________________________

{snip - htm}

Battalion-Captain Chimo chan Gayrahn was
the Third Dragoons’ *planning and *operations officer,
which meant — despite his relatively junior rank —
that he was also in charge of chan Geraith’s
*intelligence assessments.

The red-haired, green-eyed Bernithian was
substantially *younger than the rest of the
division-captain’s staff officers, but he had the
confidence of *competence and his expression was calm
as all of the others turned to look at him.
{big snip}
Last edited by Howard T. Map-addict on Sat May 23, 2015 10:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by Howard T. Map-addict   » Thu May 21, 2015 4:19 pm

Howard T. Map-addict
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1. Sharonan Force to Kelsar & beyond, quickly.

..A. Since 2nd Brigade is a full week from Salby,
it has not entered Traisum yet. It, or part of it,
can be directed to Kelsar, without counter-marching
towards Salby and then back. There seems to be no
direct route yet from Salby (on the wrong side of
the Finger {Red} Sea) to the Mbisi.

..B. With Arcanan Regulars known to be through
Nairsom into Resar, Sharona *needs* Regulars on
that chain, lest the Arcanans advance much farther
and steal some worlds. That being the case, the
Sharonans might as well advance as far as they
reasonably can.
---------------
2 Best Arcanan strategy: cut Sharonan RR.

..A. It is possible that the dragonflight-supplied
Arcanans *have not yet realized* that all Sharonan
supplies must be hauled overland.
I'm sure they'll figure it out soon enough.

..B. The Arcanan spells weaken as they get closer
to Sharonan. Hence they might be too weak to block
in Traisum, and would be even weaker if they went
to Salym and tried there.
In Karys an Arcanan blocking force would be stronger.
In Failcham, stronger still.
Thus Harshu should reject the temptation to advance
further, and plan to defend the Karys steppe.

..C. Yes, I agree, and I also find it Expert
Confirmation that that is Arcana's Best Plan.
I deem Karys a better place than Traisum for it,
and Failcham better still.

HTM

brnicholas wrote:Thank You!

1 Chan Geraith is really really aggressive. I did
not see the Sharonans being confident enough to try
this type of offensive this fast. I almost find
myself wondering if a Calirath glimpse didn't put
Chan Geraith in this position, there can't
be many officers who would take this risk.
The willingness to try this is a surprise to me.

2 The other thing that jumps out at me is Chan
Geraith's suggestion that the best Arcanan strategy
is to "send a major force through our portal here
to drop in somewhere several hundred miles in our
rear to cut the rail line and hold it."
2C: I suspect this is an expert confirmation that
if the Arcanans can't hold part of a rail line
against Sharona, they can't really stop supplies
from getting through.

Nicholas
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water gaps re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by Howard T. Map-addict   » Thu May 21, 2015 4:29 pm

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In the book HG, the week's delay was for all water gaps,
three of them. The Pacific Gap of 6000 miles did
account for most of it.

The Pacific Ocean is Wide, whichever way you cross it.
There are insufficient places for Voice Relay Points.

The Traisum Gap is the length of the Mbisi + the width
of the North Atlantic. Parallel land routes are nearby,
and were given this week by several of us:
Quebec, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, Devon,
Brest, Bordeaux, Bilbao, Malaga, and then either side
of the Mbisi,
can each be a Voice Relay Point, even for less-strong
Voices. With stronger Voices, fewer Relays needed.

HTM

brnicholas wrote:One question that is bouncing around in my head. How does chan Geraith have such up to date information on the situation in Lashai?

There is a 6,000 mile water gap between him and Lashai. In Hell's Gate all messages were delayed by a week in order to cross water gaps. If they hadn't looped voice chains around those water gaps surely they haven't put one around the Traisum water gap. I suppose it is possible there are enough voices (with survey teams?) on ships traveling across the gap to improvise a chain across it but it seems unlikely. So how does he have up to date information on the status of the Lashai portals?

Nicholas
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Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by Mil-tech bard   » Thu May 21, 2015 5:07 pm

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Two passages from the snippet stand out.

This --

Platoon-Captain Rynai chan Hopyr was the Distance Viewer who’d gone forward with the escort sent to shepherd Olvyr Banchu and his engineers back to Fort Salby. His was a powerful Talent, and he’d used it to good effect scouting the Arcanans’ positions and troop strength. He’d tallied in excess of a hundred and fifty of their dragons and at least six thousand men, twice the 3rd Dragoons’ current strength in Traisum. There was no way to tell what might have lain outside his range, but chan Geraith was certain the Arcanan commander had strength chan Hopyr hadn’t Seen. Not that what he had Seen hadn’t been quite bad enough.


Means that any sort of engagement of a Sharonan force moving up on an Arcanian one sitting in a fixed position will see the Arcanian one out scouted.

The worse the weather, the better it is for the Sharonans.

Far Seer Talents combined with voices or teleporter talents beats Dragon sight and ground troop night vision spellware.

This will be an extremely unpleasant surprise for the Arcanians who are on the defensive.


and this shows the Sharonans know it --

“And those pickets they may’ve left behind, Sir?” the chief of staff asked.

“I’ll grant you they may have all sorts of ‘magic powers,’ Merkan,” chan Geraith said. “And given the way they’ve managed to shut down the Voice network as they advanced, they must’ve gotten at least some knowledge of our Talents. But we’re the Third Dragoons. If there’s anyone this side of Arpathia who’s as good as we are at scouting an enemy position without being spotted, I’ve never met them. We send a battalion or so down the chain on horseback with enough Voices to maintain constant communication with us. We’ll need to get them off as quickly as we can, because it’ll take them so much longer to cross the unimproved universes, but there’s not a portal in the chain that isn’t at least twenty-five miles across. Ask the PAAF how easy it is to ‘picket’ a portal that size even with a fort right in the middle of it! We send along a full recon section, complete with a Mapper, a half-dozen Plotters to keep an eye on the sky for dragons, and a good Distance Viewer or two to make it harder than hell for the Arcanans to see them coming even if they’re mounting standing patrols of dragons around the portals. And we make sure they’ve got an extra weapons company with mortars and heavy machine guns. They’ll have a hell of a lot better chance of spotting a picket on one of those portals than the picket will of spotting them when no one on the other side’s going to believe there could possibly be Ternathian dragoons anywhere near them.”

“And if they do spot a picket, Sir?” chan Isail asked quietly.

“That’s why we’ll be sending the mortars and the machine guns, Merkan, because if there are any pickets out there, it’ll be our turn to shut down their warning network the same way they shut down the Voice network.” No one could possibly have mistaken Arlos chan Geraith’s expression for a smile this time.

“Exactly the way they shut down our Voices,” he said very, very softly.


It also means the voice communication advantage allows the Sharonans to closely coordinate a multiple column military campaign at continental distances.

NB: Distance is not a real obstacle to the Sharonans given their reconnaissance, communications and engineer capabilities.

Anyplace not covered by a significant military force will be overcome and crossed/bridged before the Arcanians know it.

Very neat.

We are going to see another mobile phase as this plays out.

The Arcanians can't develop the Dragon raiding counter strategy without knowing the Sharonans engineering, scouting and communications advantages...and having enough war dragons to implement it.
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Re: water gaps re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by brnicholas   » Thu May 21, 2015 6:14 pm

brnicholas
Captain (Junior Grade)

Posts: 254
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 7:40 pm

Is the loop around the north of the Atlantic really all that much shorter relative to the straight sail compared to the loop around the north of the Pacific? Iceland after all is not near a straight run from Gibraltar to Florida. And the Pacific loop is on the first world out from Sharona, if they are going to voice chain around any water gap that would be it and we heard so much in HG and HHNF about the shortage of PA voices.

Still, yes it is possible, pending more information all I can really say is "I don't know."

Nicholas

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:In the book HG, the week's delay was for all water gaps,
three of them. The Pacific Gap of 6000 miles did
account for most of it.

The Pacific Ocean is Wide, whichever way you cross it.
There are insufficient places for Voice Relay Points.

The Traisum Gap is the length of the Mbisi + the width
of the North Atlantic. Parallel land routes are nearby,
and were given this week by several of us:
Quebec, Labrador, Greenland, Iceland, Scotland, Devon,
Brest, Bordeaux, Bilbao, Malaga, and then either side
of the Mbisi,
can each be a Voice Relay Point, even for less-strong
Voices. With stronger Voices, fewer Relays needed.

HTM

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Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by brnicholas   » Thu May 21, 2015 6:21 pm

brnicholas
Captain (Junior Grade)

Posts: 254
Joined: Thu Oct 17, 2013 7:40 pm

One thing that jumped out at me as I reflected on this snippet is the claim that once the construction crews get in place they can build 25 miles of double tracked rail line and 25 miles of pipeline a day!

Assuming this is true that forces me to revise my estimates of Sharonan industry and population in Traisum and Kelsyr way way way up. Given what is being said about how the military movements are tying up transport the rails and pipe for this almost have to be local production. That means there is a city somewhere nearby (in Traisum at around the same place as Pittsburgh seems most likely as a source for coal, iron and oil) with enough industry to supply that building project.

I don't know what the minimum size is to do that but that civilian population is significant.

Nicholas
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Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by SCC   » Thu May 21, 2015 11:23 pm

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I believe that there's been mention of significant civilian population around Fort Shelby
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Re: RTH Official Snippet #3
Post by PeterZ   » Fri May 22, 2015 12:21 am

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Location: Colorado

SCC wrote:I believe that there's been mention of significant civilian population around Fort Shelby


Rereading now and Salbytown has ~2,000 residents down from ~7,000-8,000. Also, the Cut was was the bottleneck for developing further along this chain. That suggests to me the rails and additional infrastructure might have already been produced and is waiting to be deployed. Might be that the rails will be laid down very quickly indeed.
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