"What should I do, then?" Gaius asked with a tone of frustration in his voice.
"The first rule of warfare," the old General said, "is to see what you can accomplish without fighting. War should be the last resort, because it's the most irreversible."
"But surely I'm not going to just cave in? What would that achieve?"
"Nothing," the old General agreed. "However you can engage your brain. What strikes you as odd about this demand?"
"I don't know," Gaius admitted. "I suppose there's no evidence to back up the implied 'or else'. The fact he didn't state the back-up shows weakness."
"What I'd find unusual is that he's demanding food." The General gave Gaius a challenging stare.
"Why?" Gaius muttered.
"Hah!" the old General laughed. "The first sign of ability. That 'why' was totally ambiguous, either the sign of insight if it referred to the demand, or bordering on a challenge to me if it referred to my statement. Answer your own question!"
"There's an implication that his empire's short of food," Gaius said, realizing quickly what the 'why' should refer to.
"So, what do you do?"
"I suppose, ask the messenger to come back tomorrow to hear my reply, then try and find out if there's been a drought, or something."
"You find out there's a real food shortage."
"I offer to trade."
"Suppose they haven't got enough to trade with?"
"I don't know," Gaius said slowly. "I suppose. ."
"Go on!"
"If they've got enough troops to fight me, they've got enough troops to fight as auxiliaries for me. They get the food, I get the troops, and they've got fewer mouths to feed anyway."
"That's better," the General said. "Better still, try to make the king an ally. Perhaps there're signs of hope. Now, let's assume all this fails, and the king decides on war anyway. A traveller who has passed through this region here," he said, pointing to a flat area in the rear of the map, "has seen a large force being assembled, and they are heading this way."
"Large?"
"About twelve thousand men. Twice what you have. Now, let me go back to my board. The next round is about to begin."
It appeared as though Gaius was merely watching the General leave, but his brain was working furiously. He had to do well here. "This is the nearest village," Gaius eventually said, pointing. "I bring my entire legion here. I also send out scouting parties to learn what I can, then march the legion out in this direction, which covers most possibilities and gets me closer."
"We assumed you would probably do that," Timothy nodded, "so to save time, after twelve days your first scout returns to say the enemy force has entered this valley and is marching towards you."
"I employ the marching camp technique and set myself to cover thirty kilometers per day," Gaius said. "I intend to cross these hills before I meet him and with any luck, I meet him approaching this pass."
"You get to here, and your scouts report the enemy is approaching along this road."
"I march and camp here," Gaius said while pointing to the board. "I send out cavalry to find and capture any enemy scouts in this region."
"You achieve both goals," Timothy reported. "Your scouts inform you that the enemy will march along this road tomorrow. You must now set your battle plan."
"There is a river behind them," Gaius replied. "I send out scouts to confirm they are coming. If they are, with that many men, it should take several hours for the column to march past. We lay concealed until about two thirds have passed, then we march downhill and engage here. I set up ballistae here, and here, front and rear of my attacking position, and along this ridge I set up catapults. I direct my cavalry at their baggage train, assuming it is near the rear, with one cohort for infantry support."
"I see," Timothy said. He left the room, and returned with the old Roman General.
"Not bad," the old man said. "Main problem is lack of specifics. You start out by sending out scouts. Fine, but what sort? Try to remember the exploratores fight as well. You indicated you had some idea at the end when you instructed your scouts to capture enemy scouts, but you lost the significance while marching. It is absolutely imperative that if you march hard to gain surprise, you must capture any enemy scouts you come into, and to do that your bands of exploratores must be strong enough to guarantee success. You may or may not have thought you were doing that, but unless you give explicit orders you must assume the worst will happen.
"Now, on the last day, and perhaps the most important of all, you forget to capture enemy scouts, and worse, you check on the enemy's path, but you make no attempt to look out for unexpected forces from some different direction. One of the things you probably don't realize is that a whole legion moving is rather noisy, and the enemy don't have to get all that close to know something's on the way. Now, your final attack. There's some good material there, but again the detail is lacking. Worse, about two thirds of the enemy is not under attack. ."
"I'm outnumbered," Gaius interrupted. "What I am trying to do is to capture his supplies, and knock off as much of his force as possible with minimal losses. If I attack in the centre, in principle I can be encircled, if I attack at the front, the enemy can use his rear how he likes. I have to do something."
The old General stared at Gaius, then nodded. "Your idea is promising, but operationally you are letting yourself down. Your deployment against the rear is fair enough, and you are correct that if you are grossly outnumbered the reality is you can't prevent a determined enemy getting some troops around your flanks. However, while you know you are outnumbered, your enemy doesn't. Don't credit him with divine inspiration. You must deploy so as to give him the greatest problem possible, so that in the heat of the battle, as opposed to this board game, he can't work out what's going on.
"Now, let's look at what you've done. Your main force is merely going to march downhill and get in its own way. You have concentrated far too much force at that point. Yes, you do better by concentrating force, but there's no point in winning one place thirty times over, then finding you've given up all the advantages. Now, tell me, what were you trying to achieve?"
"I'll demoralize them," Gaius replied, "I'll capture their supplies, and I wipe out their rear."
"You will achieve that," the old man nodded, "but you leave the front untroubled. The enemy commander has time to work out a plan, and has reasonable freedom to get started. Any comment?"
"Would I have been better off to split the legion, and attack in several concentrated points?" Gaius asked.
"Possibly," the old man asked. "You don't want to get your cohorts too far apart, but equally you don't want any of your forces being spectators. Your advantage is of surprise. You must achieve as much as you can with that. Me, I would commit less to the rear, and at least try to launch a diversionary attack on the command, if for no other reason than to give the enemy commander something to distract his concentration. You'd be surprised how often a weak commander can't get his mind off his own personal and current problems. Also, if the enemy is strung out, you'd be surprised how many of the men are more concerned about what is happening 'over there'. They start to imagine things, they start to fear things are much worse somewhere else, and they're about to be encircled and killed. That's when troops with poor discipline start fleeing. So, remember, if you can do it without risking your own battle-plan, don't be afraid to send some men off to generate as much chaos as possible. Now, for some further points. ."