A short while later the adventurers found themselves in a meeting room, the large space capable of holding the entire division leadership seeming empty with just six people to fill it. General Asher’s chief of staff Colonel Karmund was putting a few diagrams up on the wall while the section chief of the Logistics Section, Lord Hartwick was addressing the party.

“Since being alerted to your expected arrival, we put together a small overview so that you understand what you have gotten yourself into. Your role, as I understand it, is to advise the general, and you need an understanding of our situation to do that. I have also started working on the logistical side of this whole mess already, so we can go over that afterward. Karmund, why don’t you start us off with the tactical and organizational aspects?”

The colonel affixed the last piece of paper, then stepped to the side, gathering his thoughts. All Edwin could make out were a bunch of strange symbols that didn’t tell him anything, but Bordan clearly understood what they meant. The former soldier stepped closer, his eyes roaming over the second of the two pieces of paper, then looked over at the colonel with confusion.

“That can’t be right!”

“I’m afraid it is,” Karmund said with a sigh, then turned to Bordan’s three confused teammates. “If you look at the left diagram, you see the normal troop complement of one of our divisions - before the draft was implemented and the first three divisions added additional battalions of conscripts, that is. Each division is made up of five thousand-man units called battalions, which are further subdivided into five two-hundred-man cohorts. On this diagram, from left to right are the battalions, one to five, and from top to bottom each battalion’s cohorts, also one to five. This symbol here stands for heavy infantry, the heavily armored troops that are the backbone of our defensive efforts, and the reason why Marrad fails to push us back time and time again.

“Normally, the first two cohorts of each battalion are heavy infantry, meaning at least two of the five thousand soldiers in each division are equipped like this. The third cohorts are light infantry, much lighter armored and shielded. With superior speed and maneuverability, their purpose is to shore up weakening areas in the defense or lead flanking attacks when the opportunity presents itself. They can also serve as scouts if necessary. The fourth and fifth cohorts are where things begin to differ. The first two battalions have an additional cohort of heavy infantry and a cohort of archers, while third battalion holds the engineering and scouting cohorts. Fourth and fifth battalions have two cohorts each of archers and crossbows. That adds up to a total of 12 cohorts of heavy infantry, 5 light infantry, 4 archers, 2 crossbows, and one each engineers and scouts. This is what we wanted to reach as well.”

Colonel Karmund sighed, then moved to the other side of the board and pointed at a similar diagram.

“This is what we actually have. The first thing that you might notice is that there is no fifth battalion. Conscription in the Lidion barony was much sparser than we had hoped because a lot of the eligible men work in mining, metalworking, or food production, which are essential fields that were exempt from the draft. Only now that the regulations were tightened further did we gain enough recruits for even a fourth battalion, but those are only just arriving and will need several months of training before we can deploy them to the battlefield. What we have now are three battalions trained and ready to fight, but that’s where our other major problem comes in: Equipment.”

At this point, Lord Hartwick jumped in.

“When the 4th and 5th divisions were initially established, there was not even close to enough equipment available to outfit thousands of new recruits. We received a certain amount of gear from the duchy’s stocks to start us off, with the understanding that newly created equipment would be distributed evenly between all five divisions as it became available. The influx of armor was much slower than anticipated, however. At first, we believed this to simply be due to the workshops being spread thin, or problems with raw materials. We had our hands full setting up the fort and getting training started, so we didn’t have time to go out and investigate. Only when we started to have serious trouble equipping our men enough to even train did we find out what was going on.”

The section chief sighed, folding his hands in front of him.

“Due to a number of suspicious ‘clerical errors’, the gear meant for us was instead shipped to Pel Andris and incorporated into 4th Division’s stocks. We assume bribery by Baron Ventriol, but we lack the evidence to prove it. Army command was unhappy to learn about it, but as long as the equipment found its way to soldiers somewhere, they see no reason to interfere. Certainly not enough to have the 4th send it back.

“We only had enough armor to outfit two cohorts of heavy infantry from our initial stores, and even after the shipments meant for us started arriving, progress was slow. One heavy infantryman needs a lot of armor, so when we only got up to a third cohort after two months’ time and our deployment was coming ever closer, the general decided to change tracks. Instead of getting another cohort of heavy infantry at most, he ordered the workshops to concentrate on supplying us with equipment for light infantry instead. A full set of light armor takes only a fraction of the time to produce, especially once Lord Theodor had the idea to exchange some of the steel pieces for leather or other materials because this allowed other workshops to add their workforce as well.”

“It was a desperate effort,” Colonel Karmund said with a nod, “but it worked in so far as we have full sets of gear for all three of our battalions. Production is quick enough that the fourth will be fully equipped by the time they finish training. The obvious downside is that our division is incredibly light. Not only are five of our fifteen available cohorts light infantry, but their armor is also lighter than that of a regular light infantryman. We made the best of a bad situation, and this is what we came up with:”

He returned to the diagram, pointing at each symbol in succession.

“The first is our heavy battalion: All three cohorts of heavy infantry plus our two cohorts of archers. Second battalion is three light and two crossbow cohorts – we had to switch to crossbows because training archers simply takes too long, and bow shipments were among those that got… rerouted. Crossbowmen are faster to train, and here in the north, hunting with crossbows is more common than in the southern part of the duchy, so plenty of recruits have experience. Anyway, third battalion houses the engineers and scouts, as it would in a regular division, with two light infantry and a crossbow cohort to make up the fighting contingent. This leaves us with a total of 3 heavy infantry, 5 light infantry, 2 archer, and 3 crossbow cohorts. Once fourth battalion is ready, they will add three more light infantry and two additional crossbow cohorts, bringing our total up to 8 and 5 respectively.”

“A division with just three heavy cohorts?” Bordan exclaimed in disbelief. “Our entire tactical doctrine revolves around our heavy infantry! How is this supposed to work? What the hell is Ventriol thinking?”

“I assume he saw a way to strike the Lidions without getting his hands dirty,” Lord Hartwick said quietly. “Their rivalry is well-known. Ever since House Lidion was awarded the tile of baron, Ventriol has been trying to undermine them. This is a new low, even for them, but we should have expected something like this. The baron’s nephew is the division lord over there, and several other members of his house are scattered throughout fourth division, just like the Lidions are here. To give their own family an advantage in combat, while leaving the Lidions to fight in their undergarments? They will be toasting whoever had the idea for decades.”

“Except it’s not a Lidion wearing this armor, it’s some poor fool who got drafted,” Edwin said, anger burning in his stomach. “How can they get away with this when the existence of the duchy is at stake?”

Hartwick shrugged, raising his hands helplessly. “That is the problem, I suppose. With the enemy at our gates, everybody is too busy to care about some rerouted shipments. As far as the army is concerned, the equipment is still being worn by a soldier, just a different one than originally intended. They’re not happy about it, of course, but as long as they use it to fight, nobody will do anything for now. Ventriol is powerful, so as long as he doesn’t actually hinder the war effort, they won’t risk provoking him. He’s a bastard, but he is shrewd. The two new divisions are weak links in our defense, which means that we are more likely to be the target of the Marradi offensive if this takes a long time. Depriving us of these supplies has weakened us even further while strengthening them – which means that once the enemy learns of this, we will be the obvious target. If the war does not go our way, his family is now safer than it was before, and if we win, he can argue that his actions were not that disruptive after all.”

“Either way,” the colonel interrupted, “there is nothing to be done about it now. We need to work with what we have, and now that you’re here, what we have is an influx of combat-ready individuals. Unless you have further questions about our tactical situation, I shall take my leave. Hartwick here will help you get started on the preparations for the arrival of your guildmates.”

“Good point.” Hartwick agreed, pulling out his own documents and arraying them in front of him. “For housing, I intend to have your guildmates stay in the section of the fort that was intended for the fifth battalion. It is unfinished, but once we heard about your arrival, I re-tasked our remaining builders to get enough barracks to a livable condition so that we can get your people at least a roof and a bed. I have already adjusted our food requisitions, although I still need the final headcount if you have one – I was working with an approximation until now. Regarding equipment, I assume that your people have what weapons and armor they need-”

“Actually,” Bordan interrupted, “there are some items that could greatly increase our effectiveness. While most of us have shields, not all do, and I would like to equip every single adventurer with one, even the marksmen and polearm users. Ammunition is another topic that we need to get into, but I don’t have exact numbers when it comes to marksmen. Also, due to the different combat situations we find ourselves in, adventurers prefer different kinds of armor than soldiers do, which leaves many of us ill-equipped for a battlefield. While I understand that we can’t completely equip all of them in the short time we have, it would already be a huge help if we could get shipments of certain armor pieces to distribute, specifically helmets. Few adventurers like to use them, but in the kind of combat we are about to see, they will be vital…”

Edwin turned to the window, looking out over the fort and the forest surrounding them. He couldn’t help but wonder how long things could keep getting worse before everyone simply… died. Maybe he should start making a more concrete plan for what to do if they lost. Just in case.