Chapter 127: The War Board (Part Two)

“Is that guy really a member of the Connellyvis Family? Even if he has never touched a war board, he should have some basic command sense…” Among the onlookers, voices mixed with schadenfreude and worry sounded like a low hum. “He’s probably going to lose badly… After all, Senior Gilbert is…”

The huge sand table in the center of the room was the main body of the war board, but its greatest function was actually for the spectators. Here, one could get an overview of the war situation on both sides, unlike the two boards in front of the two combatants which were covered in white mist, only allowing them to see what appeared within their own armies’ line of sight.

Compared to the opponent who appeared on the battlefield first, that boy’s troops appeared extremely slowly. He hesitated over each type of troop selection, but not for too long. Illusions had already formed the outlines of dozens of groups of soldiers… Except for Prince Phoenix. Everyone in their hearts let out a slight sigh.

It seemed the boy’s claim of never having touched a war board was not a lie…

To reflect the principle of balance, each side on the war board had an upper limit for troop numbers. The different types of troops that could be chosen also occupied different values. Choosing lower-tier troop types allowed for a greater number of units. If one wanted to use an Archmage, it would cost roughly the equivalent of a thousand low-level soldiers… Of course, if used properly, an Archmage killing thousands of soldiers was no problem. The outcome of the battle depended entirely on the commander’s skill.

But now, the armies appearing on both sides were like two extremes.

Light cavalry, light scouts, spearmen, light guardians… formed the main body of Constantine’s battle formation… Although the names were slightly varied, the essence of these soldiers was exactly the same—they were all ordinary soldiers who had just received basic training, some with combat abilities barely equal to common militia! Their only advantage was probably just their numbers—because, considering balance, the war board’s designers allowed these troop types to occupy a very low population ceiling. Almost four light cavalry equaled one heavy knight, and a soldier in a spear phalanx counted as just one point. This way, the boy had recruited an army of over ten thousand.

Of course, the boy didn’t choose only these soldiers… At the rear of his force, he selected over a hundred Mages in one go…

Clearly influenced by his own subjective judgment… thinking Mages were the strongest. Everyone shook their heads again in unison—the role of Mages on the war board was actually quite limited. Although, as something invented by a Mage, the variety of spells usable was fairly diverse, reaching over fifty types, it still couldn’t compare to what a real Mage could master, but it was enough to simulate most battlefield situations. However, Mages were also restricted to high, middle, and low tiers. High-tier Archmages, while incredibly powerful, also consumed a huge portion of the population limit. And from the looks of it now, the boy had only summoned some low and mid-tier Mages, far from achieving any one-hit-kill effect.

On the other hand, his opponent had a mixed force of heavy cavalry and light cavalry, coordinated with scouts, a small but sufficient number of Mages and Clerics for emergencies, and that huge figure circling above the army… In fact, if anyone from the Connellyvis Family, no, anyone with some military knowledge, looked at it, they would clearly see this was almost the standard force composition of Griffin Knights… Phoenix’s most combat-effective, battle-tested troops.

“The terrain, he actually chose Piton Wasteland… Constantine… This is going to be really difficult…” Finally, Prince Rheinstadt, who was watching from the side, raised his elegant eyebrows, feeling pity for his friend—terrain advantages could still somewhat block the offensive momentum of a well-organized force. He had thought his friend would make use of this, but unexpectedly, the other party casually chose a terrain that, aside from a few low hills and basins, was almost completely flat!

The boy didn’t seem to have the desire to scout carefully either. As the announcement to begin sounded, with a movement of his hand on the magic mirror, that massive army immediately split into three fronts, heading in different directions, then divided again into over a dozen small squads, spreading out to wander across all parts of the map!

His target seemed to be all the villages on the vast map that could be used for supply.

This move immediately drew another round of critique—the so-called rule that splitting forces weakens them. Without absolute numerical superiority, random division of troops was a major military taboo—although it looked like Constantine’s troop numbers were indeed above his opponent’s, their actual combat strength was much lower… His force composition was mostly light cavalry and basic soldiers. On such plains, if they faced the enemy head-on, probably just one charge would scatter them completely. Such a troop-splitting strategy would only make him an easy target for the opponent to pick off one by one!

And this view was obviously very correct. The first contact took place just a few minutes later, in front of a village.

As the challenger, Gilbert had excellent methods. The moment the target appeared within the scouts’ line of sight, his troops had already made the optimal response for attack. While his troop coordination might not be seamless, it had few gaps. In the first charging encounter, Constantine’s spear phalanx had already lost more than half. The heavy cavalry’s charging advantage was brought into full play on this localized battlefield. Even though it was just an Illusion effect, the faintly audible sounds of battle cries were enough to make all the spectators feel their blood boil.

At this time, Constantine’s light cavalry had just completed half of their encirclement. They were lucky; they weren’t scattered by the enemy’s charge at once. Instead, they formed a half-pocket formation and charged towards the flanks of the heavy cavalry!

But Gilbert showed a cold smile.

Luck and individual differences among opponents could still cause discrepancies between the system’s simulation and reality. This was unavoidable, but many remedial measures could also be taken. His solution was simple: use overwhelming superiority and maintain sufficient reserve forces to handle battlefield contingencies… And obviously, he was very confident in his force disposition.

A rain of arrows from the archers fell, followed by a fierce assault from the Griffin Knights from the air! The unprepared light cavalry immediately collapsed. The half-formed encirclement net became the enemy’s killing ground!

But just as the village was about to change hands, a change occurred.

Rolling grey clouds of thick smoke flew down from a nearby small hill. The previously triumphant force immediately fell into chaos. The billowing grey mist rolled in, and the entangled cavalry and their mounts stumbled around in disarray.

Gilbert’s expression changed. The enemy force had Spellcasters in the rear! But now it was obviously too late to pull his troops back, so he immediately ordered his Mages to counter with spells! He immediately commanded the accompanying archers to launch indiscriminate covering fire!

But this decision was futile. The hastily prepared Mages managed to neutralize part of the Cloudkill’s effect, but Gilbert could only watch as his troops, tangled with the enemy’s, struggled in vain, gradually turning to smoke and dust… The level of Spellcasters the opponent deployed this time wasn’t very high, but the number was significant. With the combined Cloudkill spells and the aid of Gust of Wind, although his own force also had Mages prepared, their preparation time was worlds apart. By the time the Cloudkill rolling towards his main force dissipated completely…

He mustered his troops again, only to find the enemy Mages had long since disappeared into the vast mist! They only left behind the corpses of two Mages who died in the chaos—Cloudkill itself wasn’t a high-level spell; any Mage could use it. And it was a quite decent area-of-effect spell. The combined effect of several Mages using it together was extremely formidable!

However, Gilbert didn’t mind. In his view, this was just a petty trick.

But as time passed, he soon realized his judgment was wrong—this situation repeated itself over five times in various directions!

The last time, watching his troops gradually dissipate in the rolling clouds of mist, this top student’s face had already turned somewhat pale. Beads of sweat were seeping from his forehead. But the expression on his face was one of resentment, almost to the point of frenzy!

That brat commanded his troops to wander leisurely across the vast plain, casually attacking every weak village of his, seeking out every defensive loophole. He immediately commanded his troops to advance rapidly, attempting to encircle from all sides, but the opponent completely ignored his pursuit. And every time his main force caught up to the enemy’s tail, what awaited him were indiscriminate, large-scale attack Magic from the Mages. Although his counterattacks also caused some losses to the opponent, the Cloudkill, fire clouds, ice storms… the endless barrage of spell attacks caused his losses to far exceed his opponent’s!

He never expected the opponent would use such tactics. Combat on the war board wasn’t instantaneous; even the highest-tier knight formations couldn’t instantly wipe out a militia force. The time gap left was enough for the opponent to use spells like Cloudkill, which were neither too high nor too low level. And on the mist-shrouded map, the attack radius and mobility of Mages were much greater; this was the war board’s rule…

“Coward… Don’t you dare face me in a direct duel? What kind of fighting style is this?” Gilbert’s face was livid—this guy was just too despicable. Although they said kindness doesn’t command soldiers and righteousness doesn’t manage wealth, examples in real war of letting one’s subordinates die so casually were quite rare—but now, this was just a tactical simulation on a war board. The Illusion-crafted soldiers had no thoughts of mutiny!

This situation kept repeating. After four times, both sides had lost just over a thousand troops each… Gilbert, who had been constantly pursuing from behind, felt stifled to the extreme! The opponent’s losses were greater than his, but, judging from the enemy’s composition that he had seen, the brat’s losses were all low-level troops, while on his side, he had lost over a third of his elite forces!

Even though he knew the opponent’s strategy, he couldn’t think of a better way to counter it for the moment. He could only strengthen the scouting around him. He tried to gain insight into the opponent’s movements, but this way, the opponent found even more suitable targets. Often, scouting squads had just caught sight of the enemy’s shadow when they would swarm forward, completely unafraid of the large enemy force that would subsequently come to attack—as long as the enemy dared to charge, they would persistently engage. However, no matter how Gilbert charged and fought, he was always entangled, like crashing into a large block of butter. And then, overwhelming Cloudkill would directly turn both sides’ troops to ashes at the same time!

For a moment, Gilbert even thought the opponent’s forces were surrounding him. The constant ambushes from all directions seemed completely focused on him. But when he once took a risk and used an expensive flying unit for recon, he discovered in despair that Constantine’s other forces were also active—he had actually occupied almost all the villages!

Gilbert was furious and resentful. He wished he could just draw his sword and duel the other, or find a piece of cheese to crash into and die—by now he had fallen into an extremely terrible vicious cycle. The fewer troops he had, the fewer resource villages he could occupy, and the slower his troop replenishment… The opponent was clearly dragging him into the quagmire of a protracted war. Yet he, with a complete, elite fighting force, had absolutely no way to deal with it!

Of course, Gilbert also thought about dividing his forces to defend against the enemy, but how many troops to split off was appropriate? Every small enemy group could potentially have Mages. If he sent small squads to hunt them down, they would be surrounded and annihilated, directly destroyed. A medium-sized force, and the opponent would immediately use that shameless tactic, trading roughly equal losses to dissolve his troops. If he sent a large force… The flat terrain was so vast. With a large group of heavy cavalry and other troops, could he possibly outrun the opponent’s unpredictable, gathering-and-scattering forces?

The only remaining option seemed to be relying on superior troop numbers to organize a defense… A turtle defense, gradually whittling away—this method was actually extremely practical against this refugee-style fighting method… But, this was a battle on a war board. Without considerations of national strength, the original superiority simply couldn’t become an advantage. The opponent’s numerical superiority allowed him to calmly occupy more strongholds. And if he, Gilbert, as the most excellent simulator, just stayed put in defense, passively waiting for the opponent to attack, this way of fighting was no different from losing.

At this point, all the sounds around the war board began to quiet down. Everyone present had systematically studied command. They easily understood that Constantine was maximizing his own advantage—

The advantage of Mage forces lay not only in attack power but also in that forces with Mages had a larger observation area, and they also had extremely swift means of communication between themselves. This was decided based on the communication methods among Mages. Except for Necromancy-specialized Mages, even ordinary Mages found long-distance communication not particularly difficult.

Because of this, the area of the map Constantine could see was far greater than Gilbert’s. The situations he controlled, the timing of his attacks, far exceeded his opponent’s. His method was simple: Mages and cannon fodder, moving at high speed.

This was obviously a tactic that couldn’t be used in real war. Just in terms of Mage usage, it was absolutely impossible—every country’s Mages were extremely hard-to-produce valuable resources. They couldn’t be concentrated in a single battle, and certainly not wasted… like this.

And that kind of usage of ordinary soldiers… For real warfare, this was practically the work of a Devil! If one really did this, morale would absolutely plummet to the limit. An army would disintegrate on its own within a few engagements.

But now. No one at all believed Constantine was a beginner who had never touched a war board… Otherwise, how could he have found so many loopholes in such a short time? And how could he command so calmly and steadily?

Of course, they didn’t know how many different kinds of war games, with different methods, more exquisitely and meticulously designed… that old man hidden beneath the youthful appearance had played.

Actually, the time since the invention of the war board couldn’t be considered short, but it only circulated among Nobles. If one wanted to modify its rules, it required the cooperation of a high-level Alchemist and a military commander. But obviously, achieving such conditions was a difficult thing, hence the many loopholes… And precisely because of its narrow scope of use, for someone used to the intricate games produced by big companies, it was basically like a crude, personally-made flash game. Just fiddling with it for a few moments made its flaws obvious at a glance.

Just using a “sparrow warfare” tactic, plus a bit of “cutting the meat and breaking the bones” attacks, was enough to make the little comrade on the other side suffer immensely…

“Sending his own troops to die… Very good, very powerful.”

Carter Ursula Revell suddenly spoke. He pressed his lips tightly together, the muscles at the corners of his mouth twitching restlessly a few times, as if enduring considerable pain. After several breaths, he spoke again, his voice sounding like a dying beast: “Viscount Constantine, let’s end it here this time. The items, I will deliver them to you as soon as possible!”

With that near-shouted sentence thrown down, he had already left the classroom like a whirlwind!

…

“Your subordinate deserves death ten thousand times…” Gilbert knelt on both knees. Cold sweat streamed down his temples, dripping to the ground…

“You didn’t lose unjustly…” On Prince Carter’s face, the flames of anger had long since vanished. He glanced at Gilbert and slowly said, “Haven’t you realized yet… The opponent had forty units, and he was commanding every single one of them! Commanding twenty thousand troops simultaneously without a single mistake, his command even extended to individual soldiers! Even within the war board, that is terrifying enough!”