And so there they were, Astrian, Lui-eya, Tei'hi, and his generals. Sitting in the war room. Discussing their plan of attack. They had argued and ultimately agreed to attack first the Kingdom of Saclusia, located south of the peninsula. Generally, because there are fewer people down there and their army is mostly composed of armored military men. Perfect against electrical bombing raids.
"So the plan of approach is simple, we order the bombing crew to drop electrical bombs all over their main camp, forcing them to either get heavily electrified, come out unarmored, or wearing lesser leather armor. Sounds good?" Astrian said, pointing at the map in the middle of the room, "And," he continues, "thanks to the map given to us, we know where to attack. So..."
"I understand, boy." Zoroan said, "But are we really blitzing them?"
"Huh? Yes sir, of course. I feel that our forces are capably trained enough to overwhelm the enemy fast enough to fully encircle them in their castle. And if our spies and saboteurs managed to enter. The castle will be open by the time our ground forces swarm in from all sides." He points out.
Lixus looks over to Tei'hi and mockingly says, "What's with this kid, Tei."
Tei'hi, sitting down leaning on his ax only looks at Lixus, and with a smile, he says, "That's my boy right there."
"Huh... so little Astrian, the navigator of the fleet, is now Astrian, Prince of Arcadia." Lui-eya says, looking over at Astrian, "I hope he holds up as you say."
"Oh he will." Tei'hi replies, Astrian just stood there, slapping himself once, he looks back into the battle map.
"S-so is the strategy clear?" He asks them.
"Clear as day, boy. Now just give us a call when all preparations are ready." Zoroan says, leaving with Lixus. Saluting Tei'hi on the way.
"Phew.." Astrian breathed a sigh of relief, "Did I do well, general?" He looks over at Tei'hi who was still sitting there, looking at the plans on the battle map.
"Very well, boy. The theories seem to have some form of basis, the movements are concise. And the idea is simple. I did not mistake myself for taking you in, boy." He smiles.
"Oh, thank you, general. I'm just glad that that's the case." He lets out a small laugh and saluted, "Well, I'll be o-"
"Wait, boy," Tei'hi called out to him.
"Yes sir?"
"The prince title, will you take it to your heart?" Tei'hi asks, looking Astrian in the eye. His expression is blank but there is a genuine pain inside that screams. And it screams for a successor.
And that successor comes. As Astrian says himself, "I would love to, sir. All these years of serving you. I will take it to heart." He salutes again. They both smiled at each other as Tei'hi let out an emotion other than smugness and anger for the first time in decades.
"Then you better get Salucia, boy."
"I will, general. Just you watch." He smiles as he leaves.
The night wears on.
The next day, Astrian comes out of his room wearing a new uniform he made himself. It was a cloth uniform with leather underneath, donned in marvelously bright purple, he made himself stand out. Both to make himself known to the enemies and to his soldiers.
He was the leader of the 1st bomber division, tasked to bomb the armies east of the kingdom as the ground forces secured their location. With him is the 2nd division, making his forces 100 bombers strong and their ground forces. 200 forces strong.
Zoroan leads the 3rd and 4th ground forces, escorted by the 3rd and 4th bomber division, they would take to the western front, routing the armies there, capturing the villages and securing the area needed for Lixus' group to take charge.
Lixus' group takes all the remaining forces to charge them directly into the castle following the east and western front's retreat. They are tasked to capture the castle, kill any stragglers, and force the king to surrender under Sator's name.
And so, the plan unfolds.
Astrian went over to his vehicle, a wooden chariot with fake wooden horses carrying it. As the wind blew, so did his light chariot, it floated and floated as his men soon followed, "Men!" He yells towards the ground forces, "Move fast and swiftly, we do this in one day or we do not do this at all!" His men cheered as the first and second bomber division flew south-west.
Zoroan's men soon followed and Lixus tailed them in a much slower pace.
The formation of a bombing division is in a standard V formation with a distance of 50* meters between each bomber unit. This ensures that they'll be able to bomb over a large area while keeping anti-air archers off them. Not like they could do anything. Their general strategy is as follows:
The first bomber division will fly in and drop preemptive smoke, the smoke bombs would last long enough for the second bomber division to swoop in and drop the real bombs down. They then cycle around in short intervals until the ground forces come and capture or clean up any stragglers present. The ground forces would then capture any villages on the route to the next army.
The same could be said for Zoroan's group. But Lixus' group was different, as he carried the largest forces, his main goal is to capture and encircle the forces in the castle. Indeed, his role is pretty much to plug out the hole in the pincer attack.
And the next hours will tell if they are successful.