3 – New Age Tactics – 1
Meanwhile, the third princess of the Arcadia Empire, ‘Leonia von Arcadia’, was gathering soldiers and conducting experiments.
It was to gather the soldiers who acted as gunmen in the innermost part of the square, and to test which weapon was most suitable to protect them.
The first was a two-handed sword. The swordsmen using two-handed swords did quite well against the cavalry. However, in the end, it failed to protect the musketeers. The princess marked the word “two-handed sword” with a fountain pen.
“The two-handed sword is the weapon that is most affected by an individual’s ability. One good swordsman can protect several musketeers. But there are two problems with the sword. One is that it takes a long time to train an excellent swordsman, and the other is that a sword cannot form a square. It’s a basic battle, so it’s at a disadvantage in group battles. A two-handed sword is out of the question.”
Then, as the princess commanded, the knights under her command raised their flags, and as the knights with two-handed swords exited, knights with one-handed swords and shields appeared.
The knights formed a square by attaching their shields together. Due to this, the cavalry charge was able to be blocked to some extent, but eventually, when it flowed into a long battle, it was trampled by the knights. The difference in physical strength between a horse and a man was unavoidable.
“One-handed sword and shield. If you use it, you need to increase the size of the shield. enough to cover the entire body. Otherwise, when forming a square, the enemy’s cavalry charge could easily break through. However, since you can make a square by connecting shields, it will definitely be more useful in a group fight than a two-handed sword.”
She was a princess wearing a triangle on her one-handed sword and shield. And finally, Halbert, that is, soldiers with axes and spears, appeared. Horses, who were instinctively afraid of long and pointed things, could not easily run into the soldiers holding the Halbert, and the soldiers holding the Halbert took down the cavalrymen in various ways, such as targeting the horse’s leg. This time, it was the infantry’s victory.
“Lastly, the Halbert, or the ax spear, is a good weapon that can build a square while being affected to some extent by individual abilities. A weapon that has the advantages of both a sword and a spear. It’s a weapon that focuses on defense rather than attack, so it seems to fit well with the direction of protecting the gunmen. It is the closest to the correct answer so far.”
The princess circled Halbert, but she thought at the same time. There must be a better tactic. That there would be a good tactic that he hadn’t invented yet that would allow him to use 100 percent of his guns, or even more.
What answer would his father, the emperor, give to this difficult question? It was Princess Leonia who had such thoughts.
—–
The next day, an anonymous paper was published at the Academy.
It was a six-page paper that no one paid attention to, but only Princess Leonia tended to read all of these trivial papers.
Of course, Princess Leonia had two older brothers, the crown prince and the prince, both of whom had higher succession rights than Leonia and had inherited more affluent and larger estates.
That’s why Leonia thought it needed talented people first in order to catch up with them. If national strength is not enough, shouldn’t we be ahead in other aspects?
For Leonia, that was strategic tactics and talent. Leonia believed that if she was ahead in these two things, she could overcome the difference in national power.
It was for that reason that Leonia read all the papers posted to the academy. It was one of Leonia’s most important daily routines to read all the papers that came up because you never know what kind of talent with fresh ideas will appear.
However, quite interesting papers were submitted. The title of the thesis was [On the Effects of Gunpowder Weapons on Future Wars].
When she first read this thesis, Leonia felt like her eyes were wide open. In the thesis, this was written. It was written that gunpowder weapons are not stronger than conventional weapons, but can quickly train skilled soldiers and are suitable for training civilians who have never held weapons as soldiers.
The moment she saw the thesis, the princess thought. The person who wrote this has great insight. That was right. It takes decades to train a skilled mage, but isn’t a skilled gunman completed in a month? Even skilled artillery can be completed in half a year. Gunpowder weapons have the power to quickly turn ordinary people into soldiers.
The princess thought. If you properly introduce the production line of gunpowder weapons, you can turn civilians on the entire continent into soldiers in an instant. So just how big of an army is that going to be? Overwhelming numbers and tactics to use them. With those two things, it might be possible to aim for world hegemony, not domestically.
Gunpowder will decide future wars. Right now, the method of operating a weapon called ‘Musket’ using gunpowder has not been properly revealed, but if one tactic to efficiently operate this musket on the battlefield is properly crafted, the protagonists of future wars will be muskets and cannons. That’s what Princess Arcadia thought. Because…
“Yuria.”
The princess said to the escort knight who followed her.
“Yes.”
“Who wrote this thesis?”
“This is a paper submitted completely anonymously.”
“Is there any way to find out?”
“It will be possible if you use the authority of the imperial family.”
“That’s not allowed.”
Reckless use of the authority of the imperial family leads to reputation as a member of the imperial family. Certainly this short paper was interesting, but it was not worth finding out the author at the expense of his own reputation.
“Yuria, if a similar thesis is submitted, you… No, don’t worry, I’ll check it myself.”
Since this is an important matter, it would be better to check it yourself rather than entrusting it to a subordinate. Yuria bowed her head, and the princess continued to look for interesting papers, but none were found that day except for one paper related to gunpowder weapons submitted anonymously.
—–
Age of gunpowder and magic.
In this game, there are countries with a ＜traditional＞ tendency and a country with an ＜innovation＞ tendency. And traditional countries use swords and magic, while innovation-oriented countries use guns and cannons.
And Princess Leonia von Arcadia was a representative monarch of innovation. That is, the active use of gunpowder weapons.
Read at noblemtl
Now, ten years before the start of the game, it was time for her to gather information about gunpowder weapons and gather talented people who were good at gunpowder weapons.
So I figured if I submitted an essay on gunpowder weapons, she would notice.
I vaguely appealed my existence to her. He said, [There is someone as knowledgeable about gunpowder as you are.]
By now she’s going crazy wanting to know who I am.
If I went in front of her right now, I could be her aide, but there was something else urgent right now.
“Shall we make money soon?”
The family of Charles Jean Rochepole is poor. It seems that Charles’s parents are trying their best to pay for his school expenses, but the tuition alone is not enough for him to have a pleasant school life.
First of all, I decided to make money, so I went to the library and started writing a book while referring to various tactical books.
The name of the book I was writing was [New Era Tactics: How to Operate Gunpowder Weapons?].
Just looking at the title, isn’t it a title that would make the third princess of Leonia von Arcadia drool over it?
The main content of the book was the tactic of tercio, which was used in the middle of the 16th century, and the military reform of Maurits van Nassau, which improved the tercio at the end of the 16th century.
In other words, it is a story about tactics around the time when gunpowder weapons began to be introduced to Earth in earnest.
It was something Leonia von Arcadia would want.
After completing the writing over several days, I divided the finished version of this book into two parts and placed the upper part in front of the door of Yuria Russell, the princess’ escort.
—–
The next evening, Yuria Russell finished escorting the princess and went back to her room to rest.
But there was a strange book lying in front of the door. The title of the book is [Tactics of the New Era, How to Operate Gunpowder Weapons? above] was.
The moment I saw that book, I thought of Yuria Russell.
‘This book is not for me, but for Her Highness the Princess!’
The bedroom of Third Princess Leonia von Arcadia was guarded by knights 24 hours a day.
That’s why they couldn’t break into Leonia’s bedroom, so they put something like this in front of Leonia’s escort Yuria Russell’s bedroom.
I want you to tell the princess.
Realizing that, Yuria Russell immediately took the book and headed for the third princess.