Military operations of mixed forces prior to the Recreance

[+Oltux72]

12 hours ago, Karger said:

Assuming that the only available ships are for fishing you are not going to get much tunage out of them which makes supply or the movement of large numbers of troops much less feasible.  Maybe you could use them to cross a lake or river but that seems to be it as far as I can tell.

Costal shipping is essential on coast with a lot of islands.

12 hours ago, Karger said:

Sure.  We see a stoneward build a stable set have handholds into a cliff.  Making a trench would be quite easy.  You could even orient it for drainage.  You can make walls too.

How do you set the thickness of the wall, height, depth of a trench and so on? Soulcasting works so well because it involves a kind of telepathy anyway.

12 hours ago, Karger said:

Prior to the everstorm the fused would have risked their "lives" until the next desolation.  Taking the city would have involved a few of them dying by ambush in close confines.

Yes and what for? That is the tactical reasoning.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

If they could have steamrolled over them as easily as you describe, I dont think that there would have been any need for Probing and Harassing operations.  Those are tactics designed to wear down a defending force through attrition, which was certainly effective, though they would have worked much faster without Hoid's meddling.

You also wish to minimize your own losses and wear down the enemy's officers. If you can harrass cheaply, you do it.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

My personally opinion is that while her force was entirely over-matched and/doomed, they still made a decent showing that proved Surges alone arent an "I Win" button. They always were substantially over-matched in numbers

Shardbearers cannot hold territory.

The same applies to Surgebinders. However, you need to consider that during a Desolation, you may not necessarily want to take a city, but destroy it.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

How so? Id think that the travel/marching limitations that the Highstorm imposes would make transportation, since a lot of tactical calculations are based entirely on how far you can get between Highstorms.

You march an army to gain an advantage in position. You will not gain surprise against an enemy who can fly or even see the future. Nor will you outmarch a flying or teleporting enemy.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

Maaaybe?  Crem offers a lot of possibilities, it's essentially raining concrete.

If you want to build up. Digging still sucks. That means that any cover you build will have to be built under fire or behind a shield wall.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

I think you may be underestimating seige tactics. The Bridges were essentially Siege Engines, and they got used just fine.

They required the Alethi forces to construct enormous camps with shelters.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

To my mind the entire war on the Shattered Plains was an example of one long Rosharan-style Siege. Until they lost sight of their true purpose the goal had been to contain the Singers and then penetrate to their population center in the middle.  It used Siege engines, combinations of Shardbearers and traditions troops, and was limited by the Highstorms but not negated by it.  The Human's biggest limitation was how far they could move their Force and still expect to reach Shelter before the next Storm.

Yes, it still took years against an outnumbered enemy. Feasible because the troops were not needed elsewhere. Not a plausible assumption in a Desolation.

12 hours ago, Quantus said:

Speaking of Shelter, it's important to remember that it can be as little as a covered wagon like Kaladin was across a lot of Roshar.  The Highstorms are far more powerful in eastern places like the Shattered Plains but far less dramatic the further west they go. So, for example, the Highstorm should have little to no effect on a Siege against the Shin (other than as a source of storrmlight).  

So your troops are limited to chull cart speed and to tracks chull carts can cope with.

[Karger]

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Costal shipping is essential on coast with a lot of islands.

We don't see many islands on Roshar

3 hours ago, Oltux72 said:

Shardbearers cannot hold territory.

The same applies to Surgebinders. However, you need to consider that during a Desolation, you may not necessarily want to take a city, but destroy it.

Lone shardbearers can't do much.  Remember Dalinar saving Sadeas in WoKs?  They need proper. support.

[+Oltux72]

32 minutes ago, Karger said:

We don't see many islands on Roshar

Map of Roshar

Not many islands?

32 minutes ago, Karger said:

Lone shardbearers can't do much.  Remember Dalinar saving Sadeas in WoKs?  They need proper. support.

In the field. In a town arson becomes an option.

[Karger]

1 hour ago, Oltux72 said:

Not many islands?

I am obviously used to looking at a different map.  However I am not sure how many of those islands are inhibited.  Remember we are looking at stone age people.  Any Islanders will probably be self sufficient(like the ancient hawaiians)

1 hour ago, Oltux72 said:

In the field. In a town arson becomes an option.

Many Rosharn cities are not built from flammable materials.