Komamisa

Game of Tails

Added a random voice clip from a Vladimir Putin speech demonstrating what a proper "URA!!!" sounds like. It's in the post.

Game of Tails

Just posted.

Uhh... Enjoy!

Game of Tails

An uncharacteristically shrill gust of wind bellowed through the fields of Crostignon from the northeast, moving through the soldiery and giving everyones’ loose clothing a brief tussle and perhaps a light scare that their flanks had been attacked by some sort of wind attack.

Characteristically, Anisette looked unwaveringly calm; her horse redistributed its weight with a few dull trotting noises and Anisette found herself breaking that calm visage, closing her eyes and bringing up a pair of gloved fingers to her temples, rubbing it in a circle while releasing a drawn sigh as her ears twitched.

“Cheh, can’t even bother coming herself… eh?”

“Didn’t even bother to send a messenger. That Countess is irresponsible...”

“She’s a Chiffon, the whole lot of ‘em are like that! Bunch’a lazy gits, do nothing but brownnosing to the royals to get their way.”

“The real question is… Who is going to lead her battalions?”

“Who knows… All the nutrients went to those breasts she flaunts around anyway! Surely we can get someone more effective in the meanwhile.”

“Shut up you gadabouts, go report to the Commander that the troops are completely ready to go.”

There was an unmistakable sound of leather being squeezed together as Anisette gripped the reins of her mount tightly with her non-temple-rubbing hand. She took another breath and composed herself as one of the gossipers galloped over. A pleasant to look at noble, he wore what was obviously a practiced smile as he gave the knight-commander a salute.

“Knight-Commander, the troops are assembled and in formation and ready for your commands.”

Unsurprisingly, there was no hint in his tone concerning the conversation he had been having with his fellow nobles just a moment before.

“Good,” was Anisette’s curt reply, before she looked past the noble and called out in a calm yell, her ears still twitching faintly, the man in question froze and held his breath as he realized that they may have been speaking too loud, “Croline, Linzer, Chorley, Panzarotti!”

She then set her focus back on the Noble in front of her, the brown haired Princess’ tone took a turn for the stern side, and the other nobles then immediately realized that she had heard them from across the ranks of her guard unit, “And also you, Pithivier. You lot forget that I had also been called the Watch Dog back in the Academy. See me after this battle, I have heard some interesting things that I would like to personally discuss with you all.”

That was it for now, the bunch was already scared by the proposition of the royal’s retribution; to raise more attention—or worse yet, start a fight with the nobles—would invite discord into the ranks and have an effect on the soldiers’ morale and consequently their combat effectiveness. “See to it that the communication lines to every unit are solid, I will not have any part of the battlefield lose contact and solidarity because of a random erroneous message. And have the Lieutenants from Rolante govern their troops until the Countess arrives.”

“Y-yes, Knight-Commander Pasticiotto. Right away...

Anisette took another breath and nodded to recompose herself. To her side, Kisielia smiled smugly at the nobles.

She was sure that Mystere would show up eventually. That perfectionist wouldn’t allow herself to miss an important battle, nor would she let her beloved citizens be without their beloved leader. The knight-commander cracked a smile of her own.

♦♦♦

Grand Marshall Mandelkubb let the rugged features of his face dip into a frown as he continued to observe his enemy’s battle lines through a telescope. With a series of clicking noises, he collapsed the telescope and put it away in a saddle pouch, placing a large mushroom-like silver helmet over his head.

He readjusted himself on the saddle of his steed, the heavy intersecting plates of his armor letting out the ever faint set of creaks where no amount of oil could prevent them, and turned to one of his captains.

“Change of strategy. Take the mounted knights to the flanks, present the enemy with the greatswords first, then the shorter sword units. We’ll overtake those pikes with the weight of numbers and have the horses sweep through them as they’re occupied. We have our Queen’s confidence, let’s not spoil it by letting a bunch of peasants with pointy sticks defeat us.”

“Sir, Yes Sir.”

The Captain galloped off to relay the last minute changes to the battle strategy to the messenger corps, and the command was spread with haste. The ground softly rumbled as the soldiers of Vilante reorganized in a timely and efficient manner.

In Franlanthe’s history, pike based armies were a rarity due to their unwieldy nature, and anti-cavalry tactics were enabled with short spears that doubled as throwing weapons and static spike traps. The only armies that used pikes were defensive in nature, and static at best. The heavily armored Grand Marshall knew better to charge cavalry—no matter how well armored—into a line of pikes, but he also knew that such weapons were weak on their flanks, even with proper support.

He cracked a small smile behind the curved plates of his helmet. Though the initial surprise of seeing the sea of pikes was concerning, proper application of tactics could still overwhelm them. The veterans of Vilante couldn’t possibly lose this battle against a sitting duck of an army.

♦♦♦

Anisette would not allow for the atmosphere to become languid in the slightest, but, neither would she allow it to become much too tense. Morale was a precarious balancing act: too high or too low and the troops' capabilities would be diminished, just in the middle was nonoptimal as the battle would feel like a tedious chore. On both sides of the high and low spectrum were a "just desirable" level of morale—that is, just high enough and the troops would fight confidently and efficiently, or just low enough and the troops would fight down to tooth and nail to tear themselves out of the corner.

In this case, Graelian found itself outnumbered, underfunded and with no shortage of relatively new recruits. A sort of directed desperation would serve best to get the troops out of this situation.

After just a few more minutes, the battle was going to begin. The troops and the command element was at the right mindset. Kisielia and Anisette were as prepared as they could be and just had the whole of the battle to look forward to. Though the Princess was still not at her castle and Countess Mystere Chiffon’s messenger was nowhere to be found, it was with reasonable confidence that they would be making their appearances shortly.

There was news and a rather obvious visual que that the Vilante forces were reorganizing themselves. The news spread quickly that their formations had completely changed from what was essentially a steamroller into something more like a human wave. Anisette did not look disappointed or worried over this in the slightest.

In all things—that is, in war, love, business… everything—no strategy ever survived upon contact with the enemy. It seemed Vilante saw Graelian’s change in doctrine and adjusted accordingly as expected from an army of elites and well funded soldiers.

This was Just As Planned.

Everything was now in place.

Anisette drew back on her horse, leaning backward as she inhaled deeply. Simultaneously, the whistle of fireworks being launched resounded in close proximity, followed by the snap, crackle, pop of the celebratory pyrotechnics reporting. The battle was now under way.

With a slight motion, Anisette adjusted herself on her saddle to unsheathe a particularly ornamented sword. It was curved, with black metal for a blade and a golden acorn pommel, a basket hilt covered the front of her hand and a mushroom like protrusion made up the handguard. Jewels covered the length of the blade up to the center and gold leafing was all over it. It was a gaudy thing not meant for battle, but fit for a commander. A cavalry sword meant to direct like a composer would an orchestra.

Anisette drew that sword and raised it forward. Kisielia gripped her lance with a wide grin and the guard unit trotted lightly in place on their horses.

She let out that deep breath she had taken, “TROOPS! TOOOO BATTLE!”

Like an explosion, the fifteen-thousand strong army bellowed out a reply, starting from those near Anisette and her guard unit, to the entire breadth.

FOR GRAELIAN! FOR THE PRINCESS!

There was to be no illusion that this going to be easy, nor were there any delusions to the Knight-Commander that Graelian was going to simply step all over Vilante. But… There was just that feeling. Victory was in their grasp, it was already secured in a way, all they had to do was fight it out.

♦♦♦

Fireworks could be heard all around, signalling the beginning of the battle.

“FOOOOOOOOOOOO-WARD MAAAARCH!” At the top of his lungs, the Grand Marshall of Vilante barked out the order and eighteen thousand footsoldiers along with two thousand mounted knights marched in unison, with even more soldiers held in reserve near the fortress in case the battle took that kind of direction.

On both sides of the battlefield, shimmers of light could be seen reflecting off the many thousands of swords, spears and pikes. The ground positively trembled underfoot, and creatures all around fled or came to watch the commotion and the audience of both sides leaned forward in their seats in the anticipation.

As the soldiers of Vilante were underway, the sound of hundreds of unseen battledrums could be heard. There was a momentary feeling of confusion at the sound as the troops marched, until the visible result of Graelian raising shields and lowering pikes could be seen. In a sense, there was a slight unnerving feeling that they were about to just charge into what now looked like a spiked wall.

But, that was what training was for.

When presented with a wall of pikes, one common strategy was to rain arrows and field artillery on them from afar. Vilante was not particularly known for archers, and surveying reports noted that Graelian seemed to have purpose built shields and helmets to reduce the effectiveness of arrows. Hence the call to put greatswords up front.

Strategically, a long, large sword couldn’t cleave a pike in two, but it could be used to infiltrate the lines by sweeping the pikes to the sides. This was the logical conclusion that Vilante’s generals and the Grand Marshall had come to.

With the ability to infiltrate the wall of pikes and get in close proximity to the soldiers, they negated the advantages that were held by a phalanx and brought about all of its weaknesses. All that would be left would be for the knights to sweep in through the barely protected sides and finish everyone off. Even if Graelian had more flexible sword and short spear units, there was little that could get in the way of heavily armored and powerful knights. This was also already disregarding the advantage lended to them by having powerful commanders.

The soldiery of Vilante almost pitied Graelian. An untested leader, fresh recruits and fewer numbers… What was their princess thinking when she declared war? That Vilante would go easy on them?

♦♦♦

THUMP. THUMP. BA-DUMP

The drums kept the soldiers moving in perfect unison, and even more importantly, the training and drilling they had received made as a machine of war. Graelian’s army braced itself against the oncoming tide. With the ground rumbling beneath their feet and sweat rolling down their cheeks, they braced themselves. In the face of the shimmering swords and armor, they only tightened their grip.

Behind the pikemen were the Auxiliary units, there to provide support and plug holes in the lines. They also served crucial in the mental sense. Similar to the drums that moved them, the auxiliaries encouraged them; should the pikes fall, if they brought their share of enemies down with them, then they had done their job and the auxiliaries would be able to complete their job and wipe out the rest of the enemy.

THUMP. THUMP.

More pikes lowered, being brought to bear in a most threatening looking wall.

“HOLD STEADY! DO NOT EVEN THINK OF MOVING UNTIL THE COMMAND IS GIVEN.”

Again, the drums thumped to signal the hold steady command. The orders barked from behind them reinforced the drums and the soldiers gripped their pikes further, readjusted their weights so that they could lunge given the chance.

“LONGBOWS… NOTCH! ARROWS!”

Da da da da da

Smaller drums echoed and the longbow wielding archers gave their reply with the sound of many hundreds of arrows being notched, overshadowing the sound of even the incoming army’s footsteps as their march was turning into a jog, and then into a slow, conservative run.

Many of the archers were from Rolante and other forest territories of Graelian, so Anisette had something else to thank Mystere for.

“DRAW!”

Da da-dunk!

The glistening swords reflected sunlight like a strobing light, the enemy would make contact with their lines in just over half a minute. That was enough time for eight volleys of arrows.

“LOOSE ARROWS!”

And then… The sky whistled with the sound of many, many pointy things flying very fast at the approaching army. Soldiers braced themselves for the impact of arrows and the feelings of pain that they’d bring, just thankful for the protective forces of Frala and the fact that no one was trying to actually kill anyone. With a slight pop! pop! pop! sound, several soldiers throughout the ranks of Vilante were transformed into their respective primitive states to be brought off the battlefield by medical staff. While some were undoubtedly brought down by the arrows, others were knocked off balance by the impacts and tripped, only to be trampled on by their allies and then knocked unconscious.

Overall, arrows were never truly meant to win a battle, but they did their job of culling the crowd and throwing their morale for a loop while bolstering the morale of the firing army as they saw their enemies fall without them having to move a centimeter.

At the beginning of the volleys, the enemy had been 128 meters away. Twenty seconds and eighty meters later, eight volleys of arrows had been loosed upon them and the longbowmen finally had to stop as the firing angle proved too low.

Now… It was the turn of the pikes.

Historically in Graelian, pike primary armies were well known for being a static, defensive piece to tie up the enemy for their comrades to come about and finish them off. To Anisette, this was a ludicrous waste.

Absolutely. Ludicrous.

BA-BA-BUM

Sixteen more seconds, the drums took on a deep tone to prepare the Pikemen.

Pre-emptively, there were a few flashes of and sounds of multiple pops as a few crest cannons were fired off into the rows of pikemen. Due to their relatively loose spacing up until that point, the casualties were as minimal as could be.

“CLOSE RANKS! BRACE PIKES! CROSSBOWS, GIVE ‘EM A BITE!”

With another beat of the drums, the multiple shields at the front of the pike lines lowered for a short second and crossbow bolts flew out at the incoming horses and soldiers, taking out several more and surprising others. Before a reaction could be made, the shields were raised again.

“AUXILLIARY SHORT SPEARS AND LONGSWORDS. WAIT IN RESERVE.” was Anisette’s order, there was no accompanied drum beat, merely the shouts of the lieutenants, captains and generals that commanded the whole army.

“PIKES! THREE STEP CHARGE!”

The drums took on a Different Sound and the pikemen let out a spirited, loud cry..

UUUUUUU~! RAAAAAAA!!!!!

As soon as the drums began their song, each thump became a step, and every third was a thrust. The entire army moved as if one single creature, thrusting pikes like a meatgrinder. There was the clear sound of impact as the two forces collided, a sudden and massive jolt of force completely took the enemy by surprise and entire ranks of soldiers were instantly taken up, even the proud Knight riders were thrown into disarray by the sudden and harrowing attack, only able to swat away pikes and make short retreats to save themselves from the carnage.
After all, a static line of pikes was completely ludicrous. From the sides, a few of the cavalry tried to flank around, only to be faced by the well drilled and paced soldiers raising their pikes and turning in their direction.

But Vilante wouldn’t allow themselves to lose… Not this easily.

Just over five minutes passed and the numbers had already been culled to be about even with Vilante still having the favor of numbers. After the pikes began to slow down, the Auxiliary units threw themselves into the fray, longbows were used to take shots at targets of opportunity, and a sort of violent game of tug-of-war began. As per Mystere’s own guidance, many of the auxiliary units quite literally charged through lines to slash things up, and as per the Vilante doctrines, pikes could still be swept to the sides for the occasional break-through. Meanwhile, commanders made their rounds to cull their enemy's numbers and help advance their armies, looking to gain points and searching for the enemy commanders.

The battle was now underway in earnest. Stretching across several kilometers of Crostignon plains, the two armies locked themselves in a vicious tug-of-war that from high above looked similar to a pair of snakes embroiled in a fight to the death. With Vilante in red and dark grey versus the contrasting blue, white and gold of Graelian, the battle was easy to follow as the regular soldiers quarreled with each other, the lines moving back and forth as each army charged and fell back multiple times, with animal balls rolling and hopping their way out to either side so they could be picked up by the medical crews.

Occasionally, there would be a flash of light as a beam or an explosion would be fired off from a leader, sometimes blocked by the heaviest armored knights and by other leaders, and sometimes wiping out entire units of soldiers. Here and there, the recording devices of the spectators would switch focus between the groups clashing and the commanders' personal battles...

Vilante had a deficit of points now, but this was going to change.

Game of Tails

I'll relay some more information about Graelian in the Native Knowledge Convo.

Edit: Huh... I forget, there were phone-like things in Dog Days, but were there any personal communication devices? For now, I just have messenger corps for both of the armies to relay messages between the command and the troops. I'm not including that "HERO COMM!" thing in season 2.

Edit 2: I listen to a wide variety of music, but for Game of Tails I'm constantly listening to This kind of thing

Game of Tails

For me, a good post starts with good music! Do you guys listen to anything while you're writing your roleplay materials?

Game of Tails

Quick reminder~! In Dog Days, the writing system of Flonyard was different from Japanese, but the language itself was the same. So teaching Alam and Yui how to read and write is actually something to do at some point~

Game of Tails

OKAY! EASIEST WAY TO JOIN THE CHANNEL FROM THE BROWSER: Click this link.

Game of Tails

The Graelian side of the Crostignon battlefield was awash with the bustle of activity. Crostignon's backdrop of lush, placid, verdant plains where little ever happened were replaced with the movement of tens of thousands of feet and the voices of thousands of people. To any person that may have seen the plains just a week before, the unbroken tranquil and unfettered scenery had been entirely replaced as fortresses had been constructed, trenches and fortifications placed and observation posts with reporters had been erected.

There was a certain amount of tension over the Graelian soldiers. It hadn't been just the fact that the country had not participated in a war for several, several years, it was also the fact that their opponent had been that intimidating. Sure, a large ratio of the force's bulk had now been drilled, prepared, educated and had most importantly participated in mock battles, all in preparation for this day, but it couldn't help the cautious and entirely warranted nervousness that preceded something that a group had become mostly unfamiliar with, then abruptly yanked up and told to do.

However, it would be inaccurate to say that morale itself was low. Confusing the eagerness and anticipation that accompanied the fact that they were about to face a truly formidable enemy with a lack of fighting spirit would be a terrible mistake. If the Graelians were short on fighting spirit, levies from around the country and even the soldiery itself would not have willingly participated. No, they were nervous, but it was this nervousness that gave them an itch to fight it out as ferociously as they could.

In particular, the soldiers of Graelian's standing army were in a particularly well-dispositioned spirit. After all, they had their now-beloved commander to lead them, her hand picked captains to guide them, and their own solidarity to move them. Thinking about it, the anticipation and tension only made them more interested in what was coming. It was a thrill. One great, positive force of maximized tension. A metaphorically veritable storm that they would be weathering: the first war that most of the young adults and teens of the army would ever participate in. It was sure to be glorious.

It was definitely going to be awesome.

The mentality of a large crowd of like-minded individuals was staggering as occasionally a hyped up cheer would resound through the entire fortress. The Graelians wished to be unleashed, even waiting was starting to get to them...

To any commander worth their position, it would be blatantly obvious to them that this was both a positive blessing and a most negative curse. It was beginning to get to the point that the swell of soldiers and levies wouldn't be able to keep their competitive nature and anticipatory emotions in check; there would be no focus and they would fight and lose the battle against the more numerous and better funded armies of Vilante. Willpower meant little in the face of sheer and overwhelming multiplications of force. Hotblooded-ness meant little when put up against veterancy, the experience that those Knights and commanders of Vilante carried.

Most importantly: the focus on bringing glory to Graelian with a successful and great battle was lacking—replaced with thoughts of achieving victory for themselves and their families.

Knight-Commander Anisette sighed deeply and rubbed her temples for a brief moment as she stood in the command tent, going over the briefing with several of the captains and Kisielia, her second in command, for a second time that day to make sure that the tactics and necessary knowledge of the enemy were fresh in their minds.

The Commander had to speak louder inside the "indoor" confines of the tent tent than she was accustomed to as the bustle outside was just that booming. Not only with the cheering, shouting and conversing, but the sounds of the incoming levies and the soldiers being passed shields and weapons, along with a select few units being passed light armor and additional weapons. She could practically feel the charged atmosphere inside the tent, and it seeped into the tent from outside with every yelp for glory vibrating the ground.

This couldn't do. It surprised no one when the order passed through the whole of the gathered army to gather into parade formation. None took their time to get to their respective places. It was about time!

"She's heeeeeere~!" called out Pierre, who had up to this point been talking about the battlefield and giving a short history of Graelian to the audience. The enthused announcer stood up and made a gesture to the stage that had been set up for the top tiers of the commanding staff, particularly motioning to Knight-Commander Anisette, "Knight-Commander, Princess Anisette of Pasticiotto! She doesn't need much of an introduction to all of you out there in Graelian, so let's just give her an applause, everyone!"

Off in the distance, there were sounds of applause and cheers from the audience, echoing from the theater-like seating that had been raised for those people that came to watch the battles from as close as they possibly could without the need to actually participate themselves.

On the other hand, the soldiers save for the reserves that had come for some money and a chance to participate stayed mostly silent and stared up at their commander.

Anisette, in her full suit of armor, adjusted the back straps of her forehead guard and looked out to the crowd with a serious expression. The stage was set to face the morning sun, only a minor annoyance when her half-helmet of a forehead guard shaded her eyes and reflected some of the light away. It was preferrable to casting a shadow on her own soldiers.

The brown haired commander clasped her hands behind herself. THUMP. The ground shook as the tens of thousands of feet of soldiers that she had trained and fostered saluted, tapping their feet together and each making an audible step as they uniformly held their arms at their sides, their hands occupied with pikes, spears, swords, bows, crossbows and shields. In all, Vilante had about twenty thousand soldiers to its name, and Graelian had about fifteen thousand.

She returned the gesture of salute in true military fashion, making a similar hop step and placing a clenched fist over her heart. Only when she relaxed did the soldiers permit themselves to relax, letting their feet spread apart with the pikemen tapping the rear end of their pikes on the ground at a relaxed position, shaking the ground once more.

Finally arriving at this stage, Anisette tapped the microphone-like device, a few loud bumps reverberating the air for the near two square kilometers that comprised the parade formation.

"Hehe. Now's the time for one of those rousing speeches!" Kisielia said off to the side, her bear ears perked up in the anticipation for what her master would say.

...And then she spoke. A personal address from one commander to her soldiers. Her microphone wasn't even hooked up to the global news feed, though the speakers could still be clearly heard.

"First off, to those of you who think that just because this is Graelian's first battle that you are allowed to lose... Leave. Go home and watch these War Games from afar," she let that settle into the peoples' minds for a moment, surveying the crowd to see if any of the levies would leave.

Leave, some did, disinterested by the seemingly hostile dare extended by the commander.

"That being said and out of the way..." The commander pointed to the south, to Vilante's gathering point, "Over there stands a powerful group of individuals. The rider-knights of Vilante are a formidable force to be reckoned with. They are strong, and they are a terrible foe that we have to face. Those of you that are staying here should know that you are to face an opponent tempered by experience, gifted with power and trained well so that they may win for their own beloved country. A respectable people that has taken our invitation to participate in War Games with grace and clear hearts."

The soldiers mumbled amongst themselves. It was almost as if...

"I will tell you now that you will lose."

The shuffling of discontent rose. This negativity was not at all what they wanted to hear. What was their commander saying before the battle?

"Better funded, better equipped, and having longer been in the field of battle, there is no doubt that each of those rider-knights are a force of sheer, overwhelming might. They are even reinforced by a more numerous army, also equipped with more to them both physical and mental on average than you have. You are a humble people that only just months ago were unfamiliar with battle and there is little that can prepare you for what is to come against an opponent that steps on willpower and hotblooded-ness with a boot of force multiplied.

If this intimidates you, if you are discouraged, then you too should leave. You too should go home and watch these War Games from afar."

So that was it: a purposeful, meaningful and altogether reprimanding reversed delivery. Negative reinforcement to weed out the weak. Anisette meant every word and every slight that she had just directed at her soldiers. Behind her, her apprentice seemed to still maintain a completely positive expression, as did some of the lieutenants and captains. This time, no one left.

Anisette took a long breath and let out a sigh, then smiled. This was more like it. There was a time for hotblooded-ness and singular strives for achievement.

“But, what is the powerful individual in the face of unity. When I had been assigned to this army, you were disheveled, you were disorganized, you were derelict, you had a lack of discipline… Most of all, to the beloved Graelian, you were a disgrace. You were divided, a discouraging mass.

Combined together, directed to one goal, we are now a force of a single and overwhelming goal: We are the army of Graelian.

Our people depend on us to deliver them victory, to give them honor, and to show the world that Graelian is a mighty power that will not yield.

Are you intimidated by those individuals? Are you afraid of their power?”

There was a booming shout of unison as the men and women found a new purpose to their battle, to bring light anew to Graelian. For a third time the ground shook.

“The seemingly insurmountable power of those individuals is completely dwarfed by our solidarity!”

YES!

“The gifts of singular power can not compete with the treasure of companionship!”

YES!

“STAND UP, you sons and daughters of Graelian! STAND PROUD, for WE are this nation’s might!!!”

YES! YES! YES!

The air was abuzz with the cheers and the battle-cry, the collective shout of fifteen-thousand shook the ground and could be heard for many kilometers. Knight-Commander Anisette gave a simple nod to her troops and walked away from the podium, off the stage and mounted her horse, followed by the members of her personal unit. While she wished that Countess Mystere Chiffon was there to help support her, she knew that the Countess would come later. Despite not considering herself fit for making hotblooded speeches, she felt relatively proud of herself. What she had built just then with her troops was good.

Their efforts were going to work.

♦♦♦

Over an hour later, the battle lines were formed, the troops were assembled, and again the air was alight with tension. For one and a half kilometers stretched a line of pike armed troops, each unit assembled into a line of ten shield bearing pikemen, followed by a line of ten crossbowmen, then ten lines of more pikes behind each to comprise fighting units of 110 each. Slightly behind those lines were a long line of longbowmen, the troops that required the most training of everyone, and behind those ranged units were the Auxiliary regiments, armed with swords and shorter spears along with shields.

In any wooded area was a unit of short spears and swords, and to the sides of the massive line were light and heavy cavalry. Anyone versed in the history of Earth would recognize this as a modified version of a Macedonian Phalanx. But, this being Franlanthe, this was the first time such a formation had been imposed onto a battlefield.

Thump. Thump. Thu-thump.

A line of large and small drums placed on wheeled carts were behind everyone else. Their purpose was to give an effective and simple to understand battle rhythm for the soldiers to follow.

Strangely, for a line of Pike “squares”, they were currently rather loose in formation, actually standing with enough room to fit two more men shoulder to shoulder between them.

Anisette and her unit paced the length of the battle line on their horses, making sure everyone was in place… The battle would start soon. Pierre, the announcer for the battle went on to describe the proceedings and give more fluff to keep the audience’s attention as the troops assumed their positions.

To the other side was Vilante, cavalry up front organized in groups of forty riders in a wedge formation, their lances held at a parade ready, behind them were javelin throwing skirmishers armed with short swords and light armor, and finally were legions of sword and short spear armed troops, well organized into a tight formation and interspersed with each battalion’s respective commanders.

Vilante’s Grand Marshall surveyed their opponents’ battle lines, frowning in the displeasure that Graelian’s army was composed entirely different to what intelligence reports and history had mentioned.

Then there was this business of Princess Sfogliatine's “surprise”...

Game of Tails

One also has to remember that there will always be gaps and thin areas of armor that a staff weapon can exploit. Helmets in particular would still cave in and the user inside could still be killed if struck by a staff weapon if the person had sufficient strength, after all. There is a reason that maces without flanges and even studded wooden clubs were still effective well into the Medieval heyday when even shields were starting to become obsolete because of metallurgical developments.

My point with the Foil is that it's a modern competition weapon that even at its invention was never meant to harm anyone with any particular lethality. An Epee is derived from a Smallsword, itself derived from Rapiers and Sabers, all of which are developed from thrusting techniques laid down by Arming Swords, Nordic Swords, and finally originating with Spathas and the incredibly scientific fighting style of the Romans (their fighting style was actually developed around metabolic efficiency so their troops had the most stamina throughout the battles). Anyway, Foils just kinda... bend... Something that looks like a foil and can be used similarly to a foil would be an Epee or Rapier. Bear in mind that neither of those weapons will bend like a foil as they're rigid metal meant to pierce through chain and plate armor.

Anyway, I vote for keeping the touch feature against mooks and low-stamina, un-helmeted commanding units. It'd be similar to how real-life knights had a knife for a similar "mercy kill" purpose.

Game of Tails

!!! Look forward to my post sometime in the next 24 hours !!! Sorry for taking so long; Between a morning job, evening classes, homework, trying to balance a sleeping schedule and still getting time to myself to stay in contact with friends, it's been tough to get any words on paper.

Skyswimsky said
I like the Jian but Xalt said with her being so about Japan it might have been better to pick a, well, japanese weapon. Also u can't use ze Foil for actual battle :C? All my experience comes from Blade Symphony, durr.

Hmm... there aren't really any Japanese equivalents to the Jian since they preferred slashing over stabbing. The only thing I can imagine would be a Ninjato/Ninja Sword, but that in itself is pretty inaccurate as well. Anyway, yes... Foils are pretty much modern weapons meant for non-lethal fencing. The best you can do is poke someone's eye out with one. An Epee might work.