RTH Official Snippet #2

And while it was still a bit difficult for a Sharonian to wrap his mind around all the advantages the Arcanans’ “dragons” bestowed upon them, one thing was abundantly clear: they could project force much farther — and much more rapidly — than Sharona could, even through totally undeveloped terrain.

Chan Geraith nodded, his eyes dark. Traisum was one of the half-dozen or so “triples” the Portal Authority had explored — universes which possessed three portals rather than the customary two. The Chernoth portal, linking Traisum and Kelsayr, and the Salbyton Portal, linking Traisum and Karys, had been discovered within a year of each other. Unfortunately, Chernoth lay in the heart of New Ternath on the far side of the Vandor Ocean, which had made getting to it just a tad difficult. By the same token, however, the Salbyton portal (only there hadn’t been a Salbyton then, of course) had been one of the most inaccessible ones ever discovered, lying as it did in the heart of the Narshathan Mountains. Given their sheer distance from home and all the manifold difficulties inherent in their development, the PA and TTE had given both of them relatively low priority, at least initially.

When the Powers That Be finally got around to them, the outlay in infrastructure had been enormous. Since the journey between Vankaiyar, the Ricathian city closest to the portal linking Traisum and Salym, and New Ternath included a water gap of over six thousand miles — practically the entire length of the Mbisi and the width of the Vandor — TTE had built a shipyard from the ground up at Renaiyrton, on the same site as the Ricathian Mbisian seaport of Nymara. The yard — established simultaneously with the enormous railhead at Salbyton — had gone up fairly quickly. It was a bare-bones operation, with a work force of only a few thousand, but that was quite enough to assemble the prefabricated ships required to transport its work crews and heavy equipment across the Vandor. Once that was accomplished, exploration of Kelsayr had gone on apace, and the portal from that universe to Lashai had been discovered within another several months.

In the meantime, work had begun on the Traisum Cut, which had soaked up well over three quarters of the TTE’s freight capacity down the line from Salym. The line through Kelsayr had been given a lower priority than work on the Cut, but the railhead had moved steadily, if slowly, forward toward Lashai. It had been anticipated that construction priority would shift back to the Kelsayr Chain once the Cut was completed, and that was exactly what had happened . . . until the Chalgyn Consortium’s push forward through the newly opened Failcham had reordered everything. Chalgyn had surveyed portals in Failcham, Thermyn (yet another triple), New Uromathia, and Nairsom before they hit Hell’s Gate, and the Portal Authority had been astounded to discover that Nairsom connected directly to Resym in the Kelsayr Chain.

Mil-tech bard wrote:
This is quite apparent with Division-Captain Arlos chan Geraith's resistance to fighting it out in the Traisum Cut.

The only way Division-Captain chan Geraith is going to inflict lots of casualties at anything approaching a one to one casualty exchange ratio with an enemy with the mobility advantage that Arcanian dragon air transport provides is to fight them in their fortified ground positions, under far seer directed heavy artillery impact fans.

That is the only situation when Sharona's rail-logistics advantage in material weight can make itself felt over Arcania's dragon air transport and spell-tramways.

Arcania's military is built around direct fire magical energy weapons and dragon airpower. A defensive siege with that military kit versus Sharonan heavy indirect fire artillery and long range automatic crew served weapons is a losing proposition.

Arcania cannot win a Battle of Dien Bien Phu.

See:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Dien_Bien_Phu

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:My idea (which I think I said before) is that
Sharona's superior artillery will let them fight
their way through Salbyton Portal, and the Traisum
Cut immediately beyond it - especially when their
arty is shooting *through* the Portal at Arcanan
Field Dragons that can't reply - but once Sharonans
reach the open lands beyond long-gun range of the
Portal, the advantage goes over to the mobile Arcanans.

But the Main AEF is in Karys, including both cavalry
regiments and most of the infantry, and now the last
Battle Dragons the AEF has is being transferred there,
too. Carthos has only 2 or 3 battalions of infantry,
and enough dragons to transport them.

We were told at the end of HG that the AEF started
with c11,000 men. Figure Harshu gave Carthos 2,500
and took 8,500 with him. If he lost 1,500 at Ft.
Salby (probably lost fewer), he still has 7,000 men,
with Battle Dragons arriving any time,
against chan Geraith's expected 6,000.
But one brigade of 3DD, without extras, has 3,000
to go against maybe 2,500. And the brigade brings
heavy weapons, which Carthos-force lacks.

Of course, the Kelsyr Route is a long way to the front!
Many Portals to garrison.

HTM

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:Why are TTE's work trains still at Salbyton?
Why haven't they already been sent to build more
tracks between Salym's Fort Tharkoma and Salbyton?

Sharona needs to redouble the tracks on the entire route!

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=1673
for chart of Outworlds.

HTM

runsforcelery wrote:______________________________________________
{big snips - htm}
"... having Engineer Banchu’s work trains
parked all over the sidings doesn’t help.”

the massive work trains Banchu had brought back
from Karys had already packed much of the
sidings’ available room solid.

And they’d go right on using up that parking space . .
. **unless someone found them something else to do.**
{snip - htm}
[/size]

Howard T. Map-addict wrote:. . . snipped . . .
We were told at the end of HG that the AEF started
with c11,000 men. Figure Harshu gave Carthos 2,500
and took 8,500 with him. If he lost 1,500 at Ft.
Salby (probably lost fewer), he still has 7,000 men,
with Battle Dragons arriving any time,
against chan Geraith's expected 6,000.
But one brigade of 3DD, without extras, has 3,000
to go against maybe 2,500. And the brigade brings
heavy weapons, which Carthos-force lacks.

Of course, the Kelsyr Route is a long way to the front!
Many Portals to garrison.

HTM

pushmar wrote:So, how is the Arcanan prong coming down the Kelsayr chain going to get across that 6000 mile water gap when they reach Trasium? You know, the Vandor (Atlantic) Ocean? Steal transport ships? They wouldn't know how to operate them, probably force Sharonans to run the ships. Either that, or take the long way around, up the "Pacific" coast, across the "Bering" strait, and then on to Fort Salby.