Stopping the Sharonan advance

tonyz wrote:...snipped...

brnicholas wrote:Third, we don't know when the Arcanans will find out about chan Geraith's attack. Given that the Sharonans will be taking out the first picket months before the Arcanans need to stop chan Geraith and the fact that his main force is going to leave a trail a blind dragon couldn't miss the Arcanans ought to have plenty of time to prepare for him. But a series of lucky breaks, like the ones that kept Sharona ignorant of dragons until Janaki had his glimpse, could give chan Geraith the advantage of surprise.

I'm guessing that the Arcanans will find out relatively quickly. They almost certainly have at least semi-regular reports, and at some point well before the Bisons cross all the universes separating them, someone will notice that the regular reports aren't coming in the way they used to be. Silence is itself a signal.

...snipped...

The Arcanans certainly could find out quickly.

On the other hand, if they are careless about communicating with their pickets (and they are certainly arrogant enough to be careless) and when they do start worrying about the Nairsom/Resym picket short on dragons to check up on it. I can see it being two or three weeks before they know that someone killed the Nairsom/Resym picket. If they then go into bandit hunting mode, which is all they have really done for two centuries, and focus on finding who did it. They could easily get so focused on the point force that they don't look in Resym for anything behind it. If so Chan Geraith could be in Nairsom before they spot him.

If that happens he is about 4850 miles from Hell's Gate. I'm not sure how long that will take him, my guess based on very rough estimates and my interpretation of snippet 3 is 48 days. And once he is their Hell's Gate is only 4 miles wide, thus 10,560 feet high. I suspect he will have guns with him that can reach that high.

What do you think, can Harshu get all his men back to Mahritha on 48 days notice given the supply problems that are discussed in snippet 4? I'm inclined to think yes but it is going to be very tight.

Nicholas

I thought that Hell's Gate was at least 8 miles across

SCC wrote:I thought that Hell's Gate was at least 8 miles across

Hell's Gate (the portal itself) is something like 36 miles across. But the Arcanan portal to the universe called Hell's Gate is only four miles across. That's probably what he meant.

bkwormlisa wrote:

SCC wrote:I thought that Hell's Gate was at least 8 miles across

Hell's Gate (the portal itself) is something like 36 miles across. But the Arcanan portal to the universe called Hell's Gate is only four miles across. That's probably what he meant.

Even more fun, I doubt that unless commander of two thousand mul Gurthak has recieved significant reinforcements, that the Arcanans can stop the Sharonian advance for more than a week anywhere short of the swamp portal. I think he stripped all the available troops under his command for the force that made it as far as Fort Salby. While it will likely take a couple of months for the Sharonians to advance that far, how long will they have to dig in before the next Arcanan offensive?

Sharona is in the process of unifying and war mobilization, while Arcana has barely received word of what happened during the initial clashes as of the end HHNF. If the Duke of Garth Showma actually is able to get a peace delegation sent to sort things out, will they be authorized to give the Sharonians anything they are willing to accept?

By the time chan Geraith reaches Hell's gate, messages should be coming from Arcana to the Expiditionary Force. Getting reinforcements from Arcana itself will take a total of five or six months (can't find the passage that mentions the travel time) from the end of HHNF. Although Arcana may not need to rely solely on units from Arcana itself. Other officers might send units forward from their own areas of responsibility, without orders from the top. Those units may make a large army, or small reinforcement.

As for the portal being four miles, when you count both sides you end up covering twice the portal's width, or eight miles. That is probably where SCC got eight from.

Astelon wrote:Getting reinforcements from Arcana itself will take a total of five or six months (can't find the passage that mentions the travel time) from the end of HHNF.

It's 4 months.

Astelon wrote:As for the portal being four miles, when you count both sides you end up covering twice the portal's width, or eight miles. That is probably where SCC got eight from.

No, just remembered that Hell's Gate was BIG and 4 seemed too small

The problem with this thought is that Arcanian "Hummer" messenger birds move at 150 miles an hour and have a maximum one way range of 1,000 miles.

NB: "Hummer" messenger birds are only marginally faster than dragons.

The advantage of the hummer system in speed compared to a dragon is that you can take a message from one bird's crystal and put it in another in relay a'la the American Pony Express.

Since magic does not work through portals. You need two pair portal coordinate "Hummer houses" (both aspects on both worlds) and additional "Hummer houses" between portals if the distance is over 1,000 miles.

Figure an average hourly rate of advance of 100 to 120 MPH to take into account "Hummer House" relay events and relative message priority in hummer crystals, and you get an idea what a 20K mile distance to the first slider station universe means for Arcanian Military strategic communications to Ft Salby.

Astelon wrote:By the time chan Geraith reaches Hell's gate, messages should be coming from Arcana to the Expiditionary Force. Getting reinforcements from Arcana itself will take a total of five or six months (can't find the passage that mentions the travel time) from the end of HHNF. Although Arcana may not need to rely solely on units from Arcana itself. Other officers might send units forward from their own areas of responsibility, without orders from the top. Those units may make a large army, or small reinforcement.

As for the portal being four miles, when you count both sides you end up covering twice the portal's width, or eight miles. That is probably where SCC got eight from.

I'm pretty sure that hummer's can carry their message's through portals without problems

I'm sure about messages in the crystals.

I'm not so sure about cross portal coordinates.

That may require a "Hummer House" on one side of a portal and a handler to walk the bird across to program in coordinates to the next portal.

SCC wrote:I'm pretty sure that hummer's can carry their message's through portals without problems

In Hell's Gate Jasak sent a hummer message from Fallen Timbers to Klian at the coastal ort in the next Mahritha. That's over seven hundred miles into the next world, so suspect it's not a problem. Sending a message to each detachment or picket would require a separate hummer, and eliminating the proper pickets will sever communication lines