Chapter 2: Common tactics for naval warfare.

In this regard, land and sea battles aren’t too different. The reason for that is that you can use many of the land strategies for the sea, but there is the added risk of attacks coming from the depths, namely underwater submarines. It doesn’t matter if it’s on land, getting a grasp of your enemies’ movements are still crucial for any battlefield.

Another important aspect of naval warfare is that it is heavily dependent on sight. This is different on land because you can still hear the marching of soldiers and military contraptions, but it will be exceedingly difficult in the water since ships can naturally be quieter than land-based vehicles. Of course, this only applies to ancient ships made of wood or metal that don’t have any motors. It is quite unfortunate that the Chinese community is lacking in this department. We have no shortage of naval strategists, but we just do not have the technology to outmatch all the other communities.

(BM) “Wow, this is all common knowledge, I wonder when it gets to the juicy stuff,” Baron said as he looked up from the book to see what was happening around him. As usual, people were rushing around all around him. Though all of these people had an eternity to live, they still acted like the world was ending the very next day. Of course, Baron was no different. He too was going about this world in a brisk manner, all for the love of his life Roxi.

It was at this point that Baron realized something, he had been so preoccupied with this world that he had completely forgotten about what was the dearest to him. He had been so focused on creating a faction and somehow winning the deathmatch tournament that he had lost sight of his goal. To get back together with Roxi.

He shook the thought out of his head for the moment and tried to continue reading the book. Skimming the rest of the book at breakneck pace, he stopped to fully read parts he deemed was important, and soon enough he had come close to reading the entire book. He flipped to the final chapter and it was compiled of a language that was unclear to Baron.

(BM) “Wait a moment.” He said to himself as he flipped to the very front of the book to where he saw the other note that had a foreign text. The two seemed to be similar, but once again Baron decided that this was not meant for him and went about his day while tucking the book away. He planned on returning it the next time that he saw Zi Bo.

The naval portion of the tournament would begin in about two days, Baron decided that this was the perfect opportunity to test out some of the tactics that were outlined by Zi Bo in his book. So he took it upon himself to train a little bit just before the start of the naval portion of the tournament. Baron tried to get a grasp of this type of warfare by entering one of the pre-tournament sims that were going on all over the place.

All he had to do was go up to someone and ask if they were willing to spar with him. The majority of the time it was fairly easy to get an opponent, however, the quality of the opponent severely depended on luck. As luck would have it, Baron was paired with a rather novice enemy. He did not mind it though as he was basically a beginner as well, after all, he had not been in even one completely naval entanglement before. Who knows how he would fare to even someone of this person’s caliber. He would be facing someone known as Xiao Li.

The sim started with the settings on random and once they got in they found out that the battle that they would be fighting in was the famous battle of Salamis in 480 BC. The battle was between Xerxes of Persia and a Greek alliance. This was the second part of the battle of Thermopylae, which was one of the universally favorited training ground for land battles. There were many similarities in these two battlefields, for one, the attacking forces led by Xerxes vastly outnumbered the defenders, but the defenders had a really great geographical advantage. The glaring difference though was that historically, Xerxes would retreat his entire force after seeing the horrendous losses that his fleet was taking, even though that was the same situation as the battle of Thermopylae where he chose to continue his assault despite the losses.

Not many people knew of this type of history, but not many cared for it either. Baron knew why the attackers would eventually lose, but then again, so would anyone who has played this sim before. It was because the attacking forces were lured to fight in a strait that was not very advantageous for their larger ships. It was going to be a 800 ship versus 370 ship in favour of the attacking forces. Power vs. maneuverability.

Once inside the simulation, Baron found out that he was on the side of the Greek defenders and that he had been given a better geographic advantage. There were only a few days of preparations and Baron had to make the most of it. His soldiers were extremely well trained already for sea warfare, after all, they were Greek and their livelihoods depended on the waters. So in this regard they were already a force to be reckoned with. Though victory was leaning towards him already, there was still much to take into consideration.

First things first, one of the favorites of Baron was going to make a comeback, the repeating crossbow, as well as the flamethrower that he had made to combat one of his new allies. One of his goals in the foreseeable future was to find the blueprint for Greek fire, the only substance that could enhance his flamethrower to an even scarier level of destruction.