[Game] - This or That?

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I would choose for... a) Head back and face the larger enemy army on an open field.

My supply lines are interrupted by the enemy. This means my army cannot hold stand for a long time. Let alone winning a siege. Also it is clear I have the initiative. I can choose which battlefield we will fight on.

(...) when your men were breaking off the enemy's lines, capturing their standards and flags (...)
Click to expand...
It seems my men have gained more experience during battles than during sieges. Their morale should be excellent and they are eager to fight.

"Soldiers of the army! Listen to me. Today we march towards a field I have chosen.
The next battle shall be harder than previous ones.
Being victorious shall be much tougher than ever before!
My soldiers of the army... I'll ride first, who follows?"

Lengua Muerta, congratulations! You have honestly earned the Légion d'Honneur -  2nd degree! This is simply a masterpiece and your name should be heared everywhere!

Because of the efforts you put in your post, I'll honour it by bringing the same story and question to the next person.
 
I am honored. I really am.

I don't know what to say. I'm just.. glad. Once my godfather told me that good things happen when you don't expect them to happen, and I didn't really expect I'd receive anything for my post.

Thank you very much.

--
Oh, yeah, I was thinking of continuing with this 'short stories' for this game. I hope you enjoy making decisions as much as I enjoy writing them.
 
Quintillius said:
the same story and question
Click to expand...

Lengua Muerta said:
"What are your orders, sir?"[/center]
Click to expand...
"Gentlemen!" *answers the officers' salutes* "We are losing the initiative -- again. Our supply lines have been cut off, forcing us to either engage a larger force in the field, or storm the town in front of us. I do not doubt the courage of my men in battle, but this would not be the first time an enemy force would outmaneuver us on the field; I am well aware of the limitations of my own tactical abilities and speed, and we have always been vulnerable to cavalry. We should not risk fighting an enemy with superior numbers, speed, ammunition, room to move, and on the field of their choosing -- they can afford that. I would feel more secure in a fortified and supplied position. Therefor we will assault the town in front of us; this will give us the initiative, and the garrison won't be able to outmaneuver us in battle. Because of ammunition shortages and lack of time until the enemy force will react and seize us in the rear, the siege will be decided by a swift bayonet charge. I'll personally lead the first wave. Give the orders to break camp."

Yeah, I'm cautious and obsessive on the strategic and operational level (IOW the world map) and reckless on the tactical and technical level (IOW in battle, killing stuff).

Not much need to give a speech to my men; I'm not a great speaker, and "Fix bayonets! Follow me!" will suffice.




As the commander of a battalion of Infantry, you are tasked to hold a position against an enemy army. The position consists of: a village with a small, dried stream in front of it, and a crest behind it. The dried stream can be made into a small trench to deploy skirmishers in, but it is too small to shelter your whole battalion. The village can be fortified, and barricades can be erected in the small streets. It is a quite important strategic spot, and the enemy will try to take and hold it at all costs. At your disposal is a battalion of your own troops, tried soldiers who have gained experience under your command, supported by a light cannon. Your unit receives regular supplies, although it is a bit understrength due to the usual diseases around the Napoleonic armies. The enemy has a larger force, but they will be forced to attack you, and you can choose the way to defend yourself:

a) Deploy all your troops in the village to hold it at all costs
You fortify the village, with skirmishers in the fresh trenches before it to harass the enemy. You try to hold on to the village at all costs, forbidding any of your troops to retreat. You will try to prevent the enemy to get hold of any position. You will be restricted in your movements, and an enemy breakthrough will mean an inevitable disaster, but if your troops can hold the enemy off they will become vulnerable.

b) Defense in dept
You fortify the village, put skirmishers in front of it and a portion of your troops in the village itself to defend it, and the rest of your troops on or behind the crest behind the village. The enemy will have a good chance to take the village, but the troops you put in their way will slow them down and disperse them, making them very vulnerable for a counter-attack by your reserve. However, there is a chance the enemy could gain a strong hold of the village despite the troops you put there to defend it. Timing your counter-attack will be crucial; If you're too soon, your troops will be disorganised by the street fighting just like the enemy troops, losing your advantage. If too late, the enemy will be in a good defensive position to hold on to the village. If timed well, the enemy can be destroyed completely.

c) Deploy your troops in the field
Not prepared for the uncertainties of street fighting? Put your army in front of the village and fight the enemy in the open field.
 
b) Defense in dept
It had rained. Mud covered the streets of a small village and the boots of the soldiers gathered in the middle of its plaza. Among them, a not too young but still inexperienced officer was gazing at a small and broken stone statue. He was wondering if, after this day, one of those would be raised after him and his men, for he didn't knew if he would be able to see his named carved in stone.

"Attention, everyone", he began, still staring at the statue. The officer then turned and looked at the eyes of his men; he could feel they were scared, as he was too. "We're outnumbered and outpowered.. We can't afford to face the enemy on the open field - not with only one light cannon. You're all good soldiers, and I know you're tired, but I think we can hold off the enemy until reinforcements arrive.. I'm sure you can do it. But if.. if reinforcements don't arrive when the enemy reaches this plaza and we find ourselves fighting merely for our own lives, well, at least we would have given the enemy hell trying to take this position."

He made a small pause as a small laughter from his troops was heard.

"Listen up. Louis: I want you to take the skirmishers with you and position yourself in the dried steam before the village. Harass the enemy from that position; you and your men will be safe from the enemy fire if you keep your heads down. And when the enemy gets closer enough, you'll retreat through this small streets and rendezvous with Jean - make sure the enemy follows you through this very streets, as we need to take them to the bottle neck formed by the rubble ahead.

Jean: take your men and hide in the buildings of this street and the ones at the sides. Take elevated positions and give hell from above to the enemy when Louis takes them through here. Don't shoot until they're within range - were low on ammunition. Also, fix your bayonets and prepare to close quarters combat; the enemy troops might use the buildings to cover themselves as well. You will hold the enemy and slowly take them to this plaza.

Pierre: you and your men will position here, with me. When Jean and Louis reach the plaza, you'll hold it with your lives - if the enemy successes on capturing this strong point, we are done. This is our castle, our fortress, and it won't go down. I want you to hold the enemy and decrease their numbers - engage in melee combat if necessary, but don't let them take the plaza nor the surrounding buildings.
Artillery men, you'll position here, covering the bottle neck entrance. I want you to fire over and over again on the enemy. If you run out of ammunition, use whatever you can find - forks, knives, broken glass, rocks, anything. Just keep firing.

The rest of you will be with Jean-Baptiste behind the crest. The enemy will think we are much less men defending, and hopefully they'll send most of their Infantry through. I don't want you to engage in combat until I tell.. I tell.. where's that musician boy? André! Come here! I told you not to get two feet away from me, kid. Alright, pay attention: when the enemy reaches this position, we'll hold them off, but you'll be hiding in that church at the end of the street. When I think it's the right time for our reserve to attack, I'll let you know and you'll will ring the bells - that'll be the signal for Jean-Baptiste and his troops. The enemy might have flanked us by that time, so I need you to stay calm and wait for my order no matter what - if you ring the bells to soon, we would pretty much lose the advantage. Take this pistol. Whatever it happens, wait for my order. After that, leave the church immediately. Hide behind that hill and stay there, understand?"

Saving Private Ryan, anyone?

I would never engage a larger force on an open field when I'm not supported by Artillery - one light cannon is not enough.

I wouldn't also just place all my guys in one position. Barricades would provide cover from the enemy Artillery when their cannons enter the streets [Les Misérables], but once the barricades are down my men and I will not stand a chance. Also, if the enemy splits my forces by breaking through my ranks, chaos and turmoil will reign over my troops. There would be a lot of friendly fire, many would die because they didn't know they were outflanked... a mess.

I prefer to hide in the buildings and pick off the enemy one by one. If my skirmishers did a good job, some of the enemy regiments will be already dispersed when they enter the streets. Also, when the enemy Artillery enter the streets, my men hiding in the buildings could easily kill the crew from either the flanks or behind without being shot by it. And when the enemy finally reaches the plaza [or strong point], their troops would be dispersed and confused - my men would have a fair chance to hold them off until my reserve charges forward.


I'm not sure if I should give another 'This or That' options or let the other forums members give their opinion about Joe's options.
 
Captured Joe said:
Very impressive! You are indeed worthy of the Légion d'Honneur!
Click to expand...
Thank you very much :mrgreen:


You are a very skilled marksman; the worst nightmare of Officers and flagcarriers on the battlefield. You and your rifle are one, and together you have seen and lived many battles AND killed hundreds of men in the last 10 years. You could be an Officer yourself, but you aren't. And the reason of that is due to a toad-faced fool Officer who thought you shouldn't be in charge of men because you were not of noble birth. Cursed be his name.

A intense but quick pain in your hindhead makes you remember what had happened just few hours ago. You were in the front line, picking off enemy soldiers one by one from a safe distance, and so were the rest of the men in your Regiment. But everything changed when you were surprisingly charged by an enemy Cavalry detachment that had been hiding in the dense woods on your left flank. None of the men in your Regiment had spotted them, and when you finally heard the galloping of the horses is was too late to react - the Infantry of Line was still to far away to be able to support you and your Army's Cavalry hadn't reported to the HQ since the beginning of the battle. Your Regiment was disbanded within seconds and most of the men you knew from years back died at the hand of the enemy. You were lucky, though: knocked out unconscious by the hilt of a sword, which if it had been a little lower, would've cut off you head.

You woke up hours later. The battle was already over and a dense fog rested over the battlefield. Your Army had been defeated, as you could tell from the large amount of corpses wearing your Nation's uniform. You quickly picked up your rifle and some cartridges, and headed to the woods from where Death itself had come from for your Regiment. After being walking by hours, wandering until the dusk,  you fell exhausted near a little creek. You were about to fade away again, but the sound of voices in the distance startled you. Enemies? Fiendlies? There was only one way to find out.

Guided by such voices, you soon reached a military camp. You hid in the bushes and soon saw the enemy's flags waving over the tents. Taking a quick look around you discovered the camp wasn't heavily guarded, as most soldiers were already sleeping. Your attention focused on a tent different from the others, quite bigger and cleaner, from where a peculiar character came out. Such person was wearing a General uniform, but instead of a bicorn, his head wore a gold crown - the enemy's faction Leader and Supreme General. What was he doing there? Inspecting the troops? Did he personally led the enemy into battle? Didn't matter - at least not to you, because this was a unique chance granted to you by the Destiny... kill him, and the war will be over.

And here you are, with you face in the mud and your rifle aiming at the enemy's Leader heart. You breathe deeply, hold your rifle firmly and... don't shoot. An enemy Officer yelling at what it seemed to be prisoners of war prevented you from ending this bloody war. Cursed be his name too, whomever he is. You try to take aim again, while the enemy Leader is still outside his tent looking at some maps on a table, but the enemy Officer's yelling just don't let you focus. You aim at him instead and discover the prisoners he is yelling at are no one but the surviving men of your Regiment, along with that toad-faced fool Officer you've always hated.

You kept your eyes on the men you've fighted along all this years, your brothers, and you soon figure out they are going to be executed by the enemy Officer - he's made your friends kneel down in line and is holding his sword against the throat of your Regiment's Officer. You can recue them, killing the enemy Officer to approach and free them, but you known you wouldn't have enough time to reload again and shoot at the enemy Leader, as he would be gone by that time after hearing the shot and their guards would close in.

You then quickly look back at the enemy's Leader: he's picking up the maps from the table and preparing to get on a carriage that had just arrived to take him far away, where you might never see him again. You can kill him, but you wouldn't be able to rescue the surviving men of your Regiment, as the enemy Officer would have already killed a couple of them by the time you reload and probably summoned the rest of the soldiers.

You need to make a choice:
a) Take aim and kill the enemy's Leader and Supreme General:
He is a military genius, and everyone knows it. Without him, it's highly probable the other enemy Generals will not know what to do, and after a short while their nation will surrender. You may save thousands of lives and perhaps you'll recieve a medal, granted to you by the King; you will be famous, and your name will last forever.
But the memory of seeing you friends being executed by a cowardly enemy Officer will torture you for the rest of your life. Their ghosts will hunt you, and you'll never live in peace.

b) Take aim and kill the enemy's Officer:
The men that are going to be executed are the same men you've been fighting with for the last 10 years. They're your comrades, your family. You have all been in difficult situations, but you have always helped eachother. You may not save thousand of lives, nor recieve a medal by the hands of the King, but you'll always be remembered by those you saved.
Nevertheless, it's highly propable the war will last longer, and you might die in one future battle as any other soldier, being remember only with your name carved in a tombstone.

***You only have 10 seconds to make a choice before anything happens***
**Be honest and let us know if you made your decision in time*
TIC-TOC, TIC-TOC, TIC-TOC​
 
I almost forgot this thread existed.
To be honest, I had already made my decision while reading Lengua's piece, but I didn't post to give others the chance to make their own story. So yeah, I chose before the 10 seconds were over.

*ahem*

Laying down between the long grass and the bushes with his rifle raised, Rudolf stared at the enemy officer. He had made his decision.
With a calm movement of his left arm, the rifle rotated towards the General. The man raised his hand in answer to his Officers' salutes. A fitting way to die for the nation's hero, Rudolf thought.

It did not matter now to kill that yelling officer. If he would be shot, others would kill the prisoners sooner or later. The Sansculottes hated them, professional soldiers of the Ancien Regimé, and these savages held in contempt all rules of war, including those regarding prisoners. There was no reasonable chance that the other Frenchmen would let the prisoners live if the Officer was killed.

On the other hand, killing the enemy General would spread panic and chaos in the enemy camp, and maybe his comrades could get the chance to escape. It did not matter if he was going to be awarded for it; most likely, nobody would ever know who the nameless soldier was who assasinated the brave General with a cowardly shot. But this shot could end the war which was ravaging southern Germany for years, and mean life for many of his countrymen and comrades.
'And that is why you must die,' Rudolf whispered, '...General Jean Moreau.'

He closed his eyes and pulled the trigger.

The familiar kick of his rifle was caught by Rudolf's shoulder, and the crack of the shot teared through the relative silence around the camp. Rudolf raised his head, and looked at his target, just as most of the men in the camp were. The shouts of the officer had died down, as he too looked at his General, who dropped down with his hand still raised to his plumed hat.

Exploiting the confusion amongst the French, Rudolf said a quick prayer and jumped up, spriting to the treeline. A couple of rapid but ill-aimed shots were fired in his direction, but none hit him. He quickly vanished in the forest, chased by furious shouts in French.


Next person can either pick Lengua's story or my previous one (defending that strategic spot/that village).
 
Magnifico! Impressive, Joe! Awesome!

I'm sure that the Goverment built a statue after that anonymous soldier, and that among the crowd that cheered the end of the war was a man. And that man kept silent, despite the emotion and joy around him, because deep in his mind the ghosts of his friends were storming him.

I'll try to make another, a difficult one. I just need some time between my militry service and school.
 
B) Save my comrades

Without waiting any longer Ronald let his rifle cough out fire and lead, and watched as the officer collapsed in a heap.
For a moment the whole camp seems to stand still, then a junior officer pushes the leader into his carriage, saving him.

Nothing else matters now, Ronald runs at full speed with his sword bayonet drawn and charges straight at his comrades, only a single soldier stands between him and his comrades.

The soldier is unkempt, obviously only out strolling. Panicking, he pulls his musket off his shoulder and attempts to fire at Ronald, and is rewarded with a spark and nothing more. With Ronald only a few feet away he stabs with his musket, only to realize with horror as Ronald cuts him down that his bayonet is not attached.

Ronald quickly frees a few of the others before more enemies arrive, and he and his comrades hold them off while the last who are still bound are still being freed.

With the camp in disarray and plainly not expecting any kind of attack, Ronald and his comrades get away with little pursuit. The toad-faced officer is among the few who were "left behind".

Ehhh, Bayonet or Sword?
 
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