I watch Leo as he and Honey seem to be working on two potential plans for the situation. It’s a different kind of battle than we’ve had to deal with before. With Neverrest, I was basically besieged, but I had an out with the surface that the other dungeon seemed to never consider, which let me sneak in a decapitating strike.

With Hullbreak, it was an infiltration mission mixed with a rescue, and though Hullbreak pulled a couple good tricks, there wasn’t anything outside the abilities of myself and my scions to handle. But this one’s different, I think because I knew a lot more about the opponent at the time. I could guess a lot about what Neverrest might do because of how it was attacking, trying to go slow and steady, so a sudden change might work before it could really react.

Similar with Hullbreak, in that he was basically limited to the water. Sure, he surprised me and mine with the Quartermaster, but my own Conduit was able to surprise him right back. Which is another big difference between this looming fight and the others: reaction time.

In the fight with Neverrest, I could react basically instantly. Even with Hullbreak, I could get reinforcements in about an hour, and I could move Poe and Fluffles to help protect the town in a matter of minutes. But with this fight, if they pull something crazy, help is days away even with the shortcuts.

It’s not a fight I want, but one I have anyway. I’m sure actual military people are more used to having to deal with this kind of battle, but I’m not one of them. It’s times like this when I wish I had paid a bit more attention to history. I have a vague idea of the basic flow, but I was never a battlefield historian.

I’ve played a lot of RTS games, but this battle is looking more like it’ll be one of those scenarios where you only get a couple units, instead of being able to make your base and pump out enough to just steamroll. Even worse, I only get a couple units, where the enemy might be getting a proper base.

I need more information, but I don’t know if I have the time to wait for it. This is why actual generals are so important: they know when to seize an opportunity, and when to recognize the difference between an opportunity and a trap. I am at least pretty sure it’s not a deliberate trap. The report sounds like they’re not very well established yet, and though it could be fake, I’m inclined to trust the scouts. If I can’t trust my scouts to get me intel, why even send them?

Alright, let me think… if this was a game, I’d have some kind of scouting unit and probably something that flies and does a lot of damage. I have scouts in the rockslides and wyrms, but an airborne assault is probably off the table. I think the closest would be having the ravens airdrop some arcane hands, but they’re probably not going to be up to handling the kinds of numbers that will probably be there. And, if it’s only the one hole, that doesn’t give me great chances for an assault. They could just hold the entrance and we’d break upon them, especially since they probably have superior numbers.

I do have sappers, though. With the wyrms and tunnelbores, we could probably turn their fortress into a tomb. Probably not all at once, but being able to collapse rooms and actually come out of the walls would give a nice tactical advantage.

Leo’s offensive plan seems to be progressing along those lines, too. He has a lot of the forces on the surface, and looks to be organizing into… is platoons the right word? Or is that too large? Lots of moderate groups, instead of a single huge mass, in case the invaders can open up their own entrances. There’s the risk of getting completely surrounded, especially with the suspected numbers, but better to plan for that than get surprised by it.

Under the surface, he’d use tunnelbores and wyrms to bring in the slimes, as well as the various snakes and a few of the Southwood’s foxes. From there… basically everyone just makes as big of a mess as possible, with the digging team either opening a few more holes to the surface to allow strike teams in, or attacking the invaders when they make their own entrances, getting them from behind and giving the surface forces more routes deeper into the enemy stronghold.

Leo and Rocky would be part of the assault, with Honey staying behind to make sure nothing can slip in and wreak havoc in the Southwood. Leo on the surface, commanding the troops, with Rocky under the ground, taking the fight to the enemy in close quarters like he excels in.

I like the plan in theory, but it all hinges on how many invaders are there, and how fortified the positions are beneath the surface. There’s also probably new types in there that we can only guess at, especially if this is some kind of nest. If it’s a new nest, we should strike soon, before they can get established. If it’s already established, however, attacking like this will probably be a disaster.

So how about our defensive options? Well, the northern border is looking a lot more secure now than when we first got here. The killbox area is looking pretty vicious under all the illusions, as well as the more mundane snow that helps keep the various pits and such a secret.

The Southwood can also more easily leverage its own denizens in a defensive battle, though I don’t know how long he can keep it up. He has a lot of things he can leverage to keep spawning, but if it comes down to a proper siege, that might not be enough. I don’t have to be a big history buff to know that most sieges that are defended against are because someone came and ran off the siegers, rather than the besieged waiting them out. If the Southwood gets into that kind of battle, there’s not really a spare army to come and surprise the invaders from the rear.

Sneaking Rocky behind them could work, or get my other scions to come play. Poe and Fluffles could probably break a siege with the help of Rocky and Slash. Even Grim might help, but I’m not sure. He’s not much of a fighter, despite his affinities. Sure, I could probably order him to help, but that feels like it’d be a dick move, and it might not even work how I want it to. Trying to force Life, Death, and Fate affinities to do something might not end as well as I might hope. Better to keep Grim as a reluctant trump card and let him use his abilities as he deems fit. He understands them better than I do.

On the other hand, while the invaders will have a lot of numbers, I doubt they’ll have enough to truly encircle the Southwood, so he’d just need to survive until spring when delvers return. That’s also a long time…

We could probably hit the invaders with a lot of attrition by attacking the ones clearing a path through the forest, but I don’t know if that’d be enough to actually make them start bleeding numbers. I think a steady drain won’t be viable as a long-term solution. They have some number of reinforcements a day, and I think their new tactic is designed to let them accumulate as many as possible. With only one real group above ground now, it’s difficult to pick them off.

I think we might need to strike, instead of waiting for them to attack. If we wait, they attack when they’re ready. If we attack now, we at least have a chance of catching them before they can handle us.

It’s fittingly ironic to zerg rush something that kinda reminds me of them. I probably shouldn’t just rush off immediately with either plan, though. While it hurts a little to give the invaders another couple days to keep entrenching, I’d rather have a better idea of what their numbers are before going on an assault. It’ll sting if we figure out we missed our chance, but it’ll be a relief if we learn the attack would have been doomed from the start.

Either way, I’ll leave the timing to Leo. I think he has a better grasp on this sort of thing. I’ll work on making sure he has what he needs for whichever situation we get into. He’s good at the actual fighting, so I can focus on the logistics and ensure he has what he needs to keep going. Trying to micromanage is a good way to collapse the entire thing.