DeathWyrmNexus said:
I always scratched my head and asked where the mage volley was. There was such a big stink about the mages saving their spells for the darkspawn and I don't recall a single damn fireball, Inferno, tempest, Blizzard, or Earthquake. I just saw typical catapult barrages.
. I can agree with this in it's entirety. The mages could have done any number of things to turn the tide with devastating AOE attacks and the like but they appear to do absolutely squat in the course of the battle.
DeathWyrmNexus said:
Loghain could have won the day, despite Cailan's tactical errors, by simply doing what he was told.
Actually, he almost certainly could not.
The strategy being employed is a variation of a pincer movement. Such a strategy relies on a number of facts:
1) Any arrangement of troops where offensive/defensive power is directed along the same axis is stronger than when offensive and defensive power are split into different axis.
2) A force, once committed to a close fight, cannot withdraw from the engagement without significant casualties.
3) A force committed to a close fight, when attacked on a flank, is forced to split its axis of attack and defense.
The strategy thus relies on two distinct components: the fixing force (or the anvil if you prefer) and the attacking force (or the hammer). For this stratagem to be successful, an enemy must be lured into attacking the fixing force and committing to the action (i.e. the battle is joined with main troops and support rather than just skirmishing troops. Skirmishing troops exist primarily to gauge the preparation of a defender and slow any attack on a flank long enough for the main element to respond). The fixing force must then manage to hold the enemy in close combat.
Once the critical moment is reached (the enemy is committed to their attack on the fixing force), the second element comes into play and the enemy is attacked on an additional side. Fully enveloping an army is a dangerous maneuver because, once all hope of retreat is cut off a force will fight far more desperately (thus dramatically increasing casualties on the side accomplishing the envelopment) thus unless the force attempting the envelopment has dramatically superior numbers it is generally considered prudent to allow the enemy a means of escape. Since the enemy can retreat, if his ranks are broken they will take enormous casualties trying to disengage on two fronts.
So, that begs the question "Just why wouldn't it have worked"? The strategy was, at the outset, sound. The fixing force had an advantageous position and the enemy quickly committed to the attack. The plan fell apart for a single reason: the command and control of the King's army was disrupted. This illustrates the key problem: the King's Army had but a single means of relaying the message. A better option would to be to have
multiple methods of communicating this information to Loghain's force. Because of the disruption, by the time the message had been received by Loghain, the fixing force had been "destroyed" (a military term that means the force was no longer capable of fighting at a given level of strength. A division that has been destroyed may only be able to fight at the effective level of a Brigade where a company that has been destroyed may only be able to maneuver effectively as a platoon). Thus, had the enveloping force committed themselves to an attack, the likely result would be that the majority of the strength of the darkspawn force could turn to face the attack along a wide front (where their superior numbers would prove an enormous advantage) while the fixing force would no longer be able to sufficiently contest this turn. The probable result would be the annihilation of both the enveloping force and the fixing force.
Loghain, as a result, made the sound strategic maneuver. He conceded the field but maintained a significant portion of his army. Even his future maneuverings (which many would question) were strategically given that he had no reason to know (or believe) that the Grey Wardens were
actually necessary to win the war. The Wardens were outcast for a number of reasons including convincing the King to make various decisions in spite of his advice to do otherwise, the fact that they requested aid for Orlaisian Wardens (Whom Loghain had plenty of reason to distrust) and the fact that Wardens had, historically, exhibited a propensity for high treason (thus why the had only recently been allowed to return to Ferelden). In trying to murder the Arl of Redcliffe, he sought to end any intra-kingdom fighting before it began by taking out the ring leader of the most powerful faction. This would allow him to muster a stronger force to face the Darkspawn.
