>>6200807Forced to make the first pivotal decision of the battle, you harken back to your time at the Officer’s Academy of Garreg Mach. Though you certainly goofed off during most of your classes, you try to recall the lessons of your esteemed mentor, the famed paladin Sir Leopold von Deltz, who’d taught you much of what you know about warfare. Putting yourself back in your younger days, the valued words of your master come flooding back to you, revealing the solution to the problem at hand.
“Spears beat horses.” The image of Sir Leopold says matter of factly.
That’s right, they did. And while these weren’t exactly horses, you were sure the concept still stood.
>“Cuthbert, you’re up. Show me what a veteran of the Empire can do.”Cuthbert grunts in affirmation. Lifting his halberd, he shouts to the assembled throng of infantry before him.
“Spearmen! To me! Move back and form ranks!”
You are impressed not just by the speed in which the Scorchers respond to Cuthbert’s command, but also that in which Eman’s cultists do. This was a land that had supposedly not seen warfare in over a thousand years. Your expectation was that the natural result of that might make these men into lousy fighters. But the Scorchers had all the professionalism of any unit of elites you might encounter back in Fodlan. There was a reason they were uniquely valued across Morfis as esteemed warriors.
You watch as the camel cavalry swing behind you on both sides. They continue riding past you in two separate units, before turning around and converging into one massive charge. The ground shakes with their movement, but you note that they lack the same sort of speed that horses possess. Cuthbert and his soldiers have already moved into position, forming a line of spears that protect the army’s druids and archers. For a second, you think that the cavalry will abandon their charge and attempt to avoid the wall before them. So you’re surprised when they instead charge right into Cuthbert’s men.
The result is immediately disastrous for the cult’s cavalry. You’d learned long ago that charges required horses that were specially trained. Not just any animal would allow themselves to be ridden directly into a throng of enemies with sharpened sticks. This was common knowledge for a country such as Fodlan, that up until only recently had been embroiled in one war or another for thousands of years. But for a country such as Morfis, that had only experienced one war of which no one was alive to speak of, perhaps this fact was not as well known.
Camel and man cry out painfully as Cuthbert and his spears hold their line. The first wave of riders are impaled on the spears of the Scorcher infantry, while those behind them find themselves jammed up with their fellow riders.
