Post by Lucia Jourdemayne on Mar 11, 2024 21:11:47 GMT -5
[Made for Hadrian Usher ]
Wilful ignorance: Lucia's greatest enemy and ally. In politics she was more than happy to engage with people who chose to remain blind to the world around them; it was an edge she was very familiar with. In soldiers, however, it rankled. Normally she would have had the soldiers under her command striking the pells, but the weather was terrible today, truly pouring even by Nevermerian standards, so she had taken a degree of pity on the men and women under her command and given them a chance to strengthen their minds rather than their arms. Clearly, this had been a mistake.
Her unit was currently surrounding a sand table. Generally those were used more by officers in training, but they were free and Lucia firmly believed in making use of opportunities. She had been reading books on ancient warfare and had found a few quite detailed accounts that were fascinating and, more importantly, provided great real-world examples of what units could expect to see on the battlefield. She had directed them to set up the table using the details from the book, and after some trial and error they were looking at a historical reproduction of a raid on a bandit fort. She thought it would be an interesting experience – and change of pace – to present the challenges brought by this scenario to the privates and see what this newest generation could make of it using what they knew of the Nevermerian army. So far, the only insight she was given was the fact that the soldiers’ interest began and ended which side of the sword to use.
The complete lack of interest or initiative was starting to grate on her nerves and if she had the authority she would be dressing them down over it. Unfortunately, some might think she was already overstepping her boundaries as an officer, as it was generally the purview of the lieutenants to hand down the training exercises and her job would be to execute them, yet she had done this on her own initiative. Grudgingly, she also had to recognize the soldiers might be feeling intimidated. It was well known that officers received training here, so perhaps privates were afraid of having their superiors overhear a ‘bad’ idea and somehow damaging their career in the process. That reaction was a flaw she would see purged. Soldiers were expected to obey and not to question given orders, but they still should form their opinions. Battles had been won and lost on the back of simple observations. When asked, they should be able to voice that opinion regardless of who was present.
She did her best to not show her disappointment as she started once more from the top. "Again. We have a bandit hideout; we know that they are well provisioned, well set up, and disciplined for bandits. They have a full wooden palisade surrounding their encampment and scout towers at each of the cardinal directions." At this point she leaned over the sand table, pointing at the four boxes they had set up. "We know they have enough food for months and we do not have the time to make this into a siege. We have weeks at best." She let that sink in, again, before continuing. "How would you think to take this fort with the least loss of life? As a reminder, the weather is very poor, not quite the downpour we have outside of our doors now, but the wind is whipping to the point that using fire becomes dangerous unless you want to risk setting the whole plains ablaze. Your scouting is perfect, and you can ask me any bit of information you need filled in…" Once more, she was greeted with silence and it felt deafening.
Wilful ignorance: Lucia's greatest enemy and ally. In politics she was more than happy to engage with people who chose to remain blind to the world around them; it was an edge she was very familiar with. In soldiers, however, it rankled. Normally she would have had the soldiers under her command striking the pells, but the weather was terrible today, truly pouring even by Nevermerian standards, so she had taken a degree of pity on the men and women under her command and given them a chance to strengthen their minds rather than their arms. Clearly, this had been a mistake.
Her unit was currently surrounding a sand table. Generally those were used more by officers in training, but they were free and Lucia firmly believed in making use of opportunities. She had been reading books on ancient warfare and had found a few quite detailed accounts that were fascinating and, more importantly, provided great real-world examples of what units could expect to see on the battlefield. She had directed them to set up the table using the details from the book, and after some trial and error they were looking at a historical reproduction of a raid on a bandit fort. She thought it would be an interesting experience – and change of pace – to present the challenges brought by this scenario to the privates and see what this newest generation could make of it using what they knew of the Nevermerian army. So far, the only insight she was given was the fact that the soldiers’ interest began and ended which side of the sword to use.
The complete lack of interest or initiative was starting to grate on her nerves and if she had the authority she would be dressing them down over it. Unfortunately, some might think she was already overstepping her boundaries as an officer, as it was generally the purview of the lieutenants to hand down the training exercises and her job would be to execute them, yet she had done this on her own initiative. Grudgingly, she also had to recognize the soldiers might be feeling intimidated. It was well known that officers received training here, so perhaps privates were afraid of having their superiors overhear a ‘bad’ idea and somehow damaging their career in the process. That reaction was a flaw she would see purged. Soldiers were expected to obey and not to question given orders, but they still should form their opinions. Battles had been won and lost on the back of simple observations. When asked, they should be able to voice that opinion regardless of who was present.
She did her best to not show her disappointment as she started once more from the top. "Again. We have a bandit hideout; we know that they are well provisioned, well set up, and disciplined for bandits. They have a full wooden palisade surrounding their encampment and scout towers at each of the cardinal directions." At this point she leaned over the sand table, pointing at the four boxes they had set up. "We know they have enough food for months and we do not have the time to make this into a siege. We have weeks at best." She let that sink in, again, before continuing. "How would you think to take this fort with the least loss of life? As a reminder, the weather is very poor, not quite the downpour we have outside of our doors now, but the wind is whipping to the point that using fire becomes dangerous unless you want to risk setting the whole plains ablaze. Your scouting is perfect, and you can ask me any bit of information you need filled in…" Once more, she was greeted with silence and it felt deafening.