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Begging for the next snippet

"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: Begging for the next snippet
Post by Mil-tech bard   » Mon Jun 22, 2015 11:30 am

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The question here is less the fact the Arcanians nailed the voices at the border forts than the fact that there were also flickers in/near the fort that could have warned many of these PAAF "pony express stations" up and down the trail between gates.

Survey teams would be somewhat near these PAAF "pony express stations" either in transit or moving out from the gates with their own portal hound talents.

NB: The Hells Gate universe may have a survey crew or two unaccounted for in the text thus far. That idea will depend on the PAAF policy post 1st contact, and prior to the Arcanian offensive.

I'd expect that many of these survey teams in the over run universes would be watercraft based -- canoes or small flat bottom boat sailing craft a'la Lewis and Clark in North America -- so some of them might be easy to police up, if unwarned.

However, given the overwhelming Arcanian need to push forward to a stopping point like Ft Salby, there will be a long period of time with which these survey outfits and PAAF stations can bug out, take hide positions and organize.

Simply limiting either large mounted group land movements or water movements to the night time, plus hiding under concealment during the day, will kill the ability of the Arcanians to rapidly round up people not wanting to be found.

People who have superior communications to tip off those being searched for of approaching Arcanian patrols.


brnicholas wrote:Given the way chan Baskay and Arthag disappeared from the books after the initial attack on Hell's Gate I don't expect to see them again until Sharonan forces get back to Hell's Gate. The have valuable prisoners to protect so ought to be carefully avoiding contact with Arcanans.

You are right that "leaving enemies to wander around behind you is seldom the best plan" but in that regard chan Baskay and Arthag are among Arcanas smallest problems. There were 23 survey crews within four transits of Hell's Gate when the conclave started to meet (HG Chapter 40) and that number doubtless went up before the attack happened. We don't know how many people that is but a really conservative estimate is 600 and triple or quadruple that would not surprise me. In addition Kinlafia used remounts from PAAF liveries as he traveled, each of those will be small and out of contact but spread over regular intervals for several thousand miles there ought to be a lot of men, if someone gathers them together. Rear area security is going to be a major Arcanan problem.

Nicholas


Howard T. Map-addict wrote:I would also like to see what chan Baskay and Arthag
are doing.
Especially since it now seems that there are no dragons
available to pursue them. I guess that Arcana's
commanders did not want to risk transport dragons near
where they might be, lest the dragons be shot down.
Even so, leaving enemies to wander around behind you
is seldom the best plan.

HTM, snippet-hungry

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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by brnicholas   » Mon Jun 22, 2015 1:58 pm

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True it might annoy him.

On the other hand, I presume part of why he does snippets is to get us addicted to the book so we will go out and buy it when it is published. If we aren't begging for snippets that indicates it isn't working and if it isn't working why should he keep doing it?

It has been 16 days since the last snippet and I am going into withdrawal too.

RFC can we please have another snippet?

Thanks,
Nicholas

bkwormlisa wrote:The only harm I can see is annoying him, and I don't know him well enough to know if it would. Some people would be annoyed and some wouldn't.

Though personally, I thought the demand for Basic Living Snippets was hilarious (in the Safehold forum).
brnicholas wrote:I agree that RFC's health comes first and his family comes second. In fact I am sure that if we thought about it we could come up with a number of other things in his life that are much much more important then snippets.

Still, what is that harm in letting him know that I appreciate the snippets and would like another one?

Nicholas

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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by brnicholas   » Mon Jun 22, 2015 2:25 pm

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I agree that given his superior resources, superior transport speed and aerial reconnaissance capability Harshu can kill or capture the various Sharonans running around loose. It doesn't follow from that capability that he can afford to do that.

Harshu right now must do three things. First, he needs to defend the cut. Second, he needs to watch his back door in Resym. Third, he needs to keep his men supplied.

Any troops, dragons and recon gryphon spent securing the supply line and hunting Sharonans are unavailable for other tasks.

If Harshu is aware of their existence at all (if he isn't he is likely to be very unpleasantly surprised) all he knows about them is that they will likely be arriving at the portals over the next several months but has little information regarding numbers or which portals. He does know that all Sharonan parties are armed with rifles and so unless caught completely by surprise are likely to inflict attritional losses on Arcanan attackers. This means he will need to expend significant resources watching for them and attacking them. This will leave him much shorter in other areas then he would be otherwise and thus constitute a significant problem for him.

Nicholas

Astelon wrote:The only railroad that has been overrun is the incomplete one in Karys. The work crew pulled out, and would have picked up any one managing the signals as they did.

While the survey crews have voices they could use to coordinate activities, this only gives them one free shot. After that they still have to deal aerial surveillance, rapid response forces (faster than sharonians could). Having voices does not help if the survey crew is halfway around the planet from arcanan forces. MAny will be to far away to have any effect on the war.

As for the prisoners communicating with others they would need flickers, writing materials, and the time to write messages. The time is easy with apparent arcana guard policies (surround the building with infantry dragons and leave the prisoners alone), also the presence of a flicker is a possibility, but not guaranteed.

Now if a survey crew had a flicker and got close enough to sharonian prisoners, what could they send? Probably not a rifle, a knife maybe? How about a loaded pistol? Start off with arming the prisoners as you can, and then flick improvised explosives (survey crews with grenades are unlikely) around the fort. Draw out a response, kill some soldiers, and otherwise create a major distraction. Prisoners escape during the chaos. Not likely to work more than once though.
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by Mil-tech bard   » Mon Jun 22, 2015 5:45 pm

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The real issue with the cut-off Sharonans is that Commander of 2000 Harshu has given them every incentive to fight to the death to avoid capture.

If your choices are death by torture or death by fighting. Which do you think the Sharonan's are going to go for? Because that is exactly the dynamic that Commander of 2000 Harshu has set up for cut-off Sharonans.

And there are a lot of really militant Sharonan cultures ready to return the favor to the Arcanian's, with interest.

As in, think less that the cut off Sharonans will be running from the Arcanians than hunting them.

Especially in the universe where the boy-voice was linked to his mentor and his father as they were killed hiding him.

I wonder what Nestok (sp?) and Harshu will be thinking when drawings of Nestok's face start turning up in parties of killed/captured cut-off Sharonans.

I mean besides the fact they missed a voice, which neatly explains the Ft Salby ambush.



I agree that given his superior resources, superior transport speed and aerial reconnaissance capability Harshu can kill or capture the various Sharonans running around loose. It doesn't follow from that capability that he can afford to do that.

Harshu right now must do three things. First, he needs to defend the cut. Second, he needs to watch his back door in Resym. Third, he needs to keep his men supplied.

Any troops, dragons and recon gryphon spent securing the supply line and hunting Sharonans are unavailable for other tasks.

If Harshu is aware of their existence at all (if he isn't he is likely to be very unpleasantly surprised) all he knows about them is that they will likely be arriving at the portals over the next several months but has little information regarding numbers or which portals. He does know that all Sharonan parties are armed with rifles and so unless caught completely by surprise are likely to inflict attritional losses on Arcanan attackers. This means he will need to expend significant resources watching for them and attacking them. This will leave him much shorter in other areas then he would be otherwise and thus constitute a significant problem for him.

Nicholas
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by brnicholas   » Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:14 pm

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That is exactly what I think. I expect cut off Sharonans to head for the portals and when they get there to attack! If they manage to capture a fort they get the armory and Harshu has not had time to send all the military grade weapons toward home :twisted:

That is why I said if he doesn't know about the cut off Sharonans (and the fact that he appears to have only left a platoon and a bit of combat troops at Fort Ghartoum implies he doesn't) he will be in for a very unpleasant surprise.

Nicholas

Mil-tech bard wrote:...snipped...

As in, think less that the cut off Sharonans will be running from the Arcanians than hunting them.

...snipped...
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by Astelon   » Mon Jun 22, 2015 7:43 pm

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If the cut off survey and Portal Authority forces manage to take a fort (or otherwise become a major problem), then finding and capturing or eliminating those groups will become a necessity. If he can't do that and defend the Traisum cut at the same time, then withdrawal becomes his only real option.

Unfortunately there is no favorable defensive ground for the arcanans between Traisum and Hell's Gate. I'm not even sure the Hell's Gate-Mahritha portal is defensible for them. The swamps in Mahritha probably are.
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by Howard T. Map-addict   » Tue Jun 23, 2015 9:51 am

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It has now been eighteen days since the last snippet.
It is increasingly possible that DW is too sick to
post more of them.

A thread for wishing him well is here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6762

Howard T. Map-addict
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by DrakBibliophile   » Fri Jun 26, 2015 5:44 pm

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David Weber is the Guest of Honor at Liberty Con this weekend so I'd be very very surprised if he posts snippets this weekend.
*
Paul Howard (Alias Drak Bibliophile)
*
Sometimes The Dragon Wins! [Polite Dragon Smile]
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by PeterZ   » Fri Jun 26, 2015 5:47 pm

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Good! He is well, then. I was a tad worried.

DrakBibliophile wrote:David Weber is the Guest of Honor at Liberty Con this weekend so I'd be very very surprised if he posts snippets this weekend.
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Re: Begging for the next snippet
Post by Astelon   » Sat Jun 27, 2015 3:40 pm

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The delay may be in part due to corrections to the manuscript mentioned http://forums.davidweber.net/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=7075&start=30. I guess we (including myself) asked to many questions. :)

I am glad to hear RFC is attending a con.
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