Tamriel Data:Mixed Unit Tactics

Book Compilation
Added by	Tamriel Data
Note
This is a compilation of books assembled for easier reading.

Mixed Unit Tactics

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Volume 1 packaged as part of the base Morrowind game. Volumes 3-5 were originally added by Douglas Goodall's AFFresh mod before being reused with permission in Tamriel Data.

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Mixed Unit Tactics v2

In the previous volume I discussed how the Khajiit took advantage of their varied physical abilities, as well as knowledge of the enemies' tactical weaknesses, to win several skirmishes during the Five Years War against Valenwood. I will now explain how the Bosmer retaliation was both initially effective, yet ultimately doomed to fail.

The first two battles were won by essentially attacking the Bosmer from above and below. Ohmes and Ohmes-raht emerged from hidden holes in the ground to assault the main force from behind, while the lighter Dagi and Dagi-raht distracted the Bosmer archers by raining down fire from secure positions in the treetops.

This latter point illustrates a particular blind spot of the Bosmer, that they cannot imagine an enemy holding a terrain advantage over them in forest. Especially not the Khajiit, who people often imagine as primarily desert-dwellers. But the light-footed Dagi and Dagi-raht are native to the southern Tenmar forest, upsetting these expectations.

After the second battle, survivors finally reached the Bosmer military command in the south. Once properly informed, the Bosmer adjusted their battle plans accordingly. A much larger force, including several mages, was rerouted from the Torval theater and dispatched to the north.

Not even the Bosmer are capable of remaining unseen while marching in large numbers. They can, however, mask the true size of their force. By marching in single file, controlling lines of sight, and through select chameleon and silence spells, the Bosmer made it appear as if a much smaller group was underway, similar to the previous two.

The Bosmer arrived at the battlefield and established their position, similar to the previous two fights. Rather than change their tactics, the complacent Khajiit attempted the same trick a third time. But the Bosmer had their own mixed unit tactics in mind, which were no less impressive than those of the Khajiit. Through a combination of shamanic invocations and traditional hunter tactics, the Bosmer scouts and mages had riled up the local beasts of the Valenwood wilds, funneling them towards the enemy positions.

Swarms of birds harassed the fire-casters hidden in the trees, while the warriors were flushed from their underground hideouts by spiny burrowing creatures. The Khajiiti main force, hidden behind their wooden shields in anticipation of the trap, were stampeded by a local herd animal. It was trivial for the experienced Bosmer archers to decimate the retreating foe.

But the Khajiit commander had anticipated a setback of this kind. After the initial chaos, another signal was strummed, and the Khajiit began a slow retreat. During this maneuver, they made a show of cutting down saplings and marring trees with their axes, the original offense which had spurred the Bosmer into action. Naturally, the Bosmer began a pursuit.

The Bosmer force was larger, fresher, and not burdened by the wounded, allowing them to gain terrain quickly. But when the first arrows struck the rearguard of the Khajiiti, their pace improved considerably, showing their former slow tempo to be a feint. An astute commander should have understood the significance of this, and should have remembered that this area of conflict did not have any strategic significance.

The Bosmer force chased the Khajiit further north, beyond the range of our lookout posts around Fort Sphinxmoth. I did not witness the culmination of the struggle, myself. Apparently, the Bosmer chased the remaining Khajiit across the Xylo for several days, until the retreating company was almost cornered. At the last moment, a messenger bird contacted the Bosmer commander, ordering an immediate return to the southern front. A large force had broken through in the south and was threatening Haven. The Bosmer were thus forced to break off their pursuit.

Though the Bosmer adapted to and even took advantage of the unusual battle tactics employed by the Khajiit, they ultimately lost sight of the bigger picture. The Khajiit used a small, mobile party of skirmishers in an act of psychological warfare, goading the Bosmer into dividing and expending their forces across an inconsequential side-theater of the real war.

I am unsure of how exactly the Khajiit coordinated these skirmish attacks, though I have heard some Khajiit allude to a secret method of long-distance communication using moon sugar trances. I would dismiss this as obvious make-believe in the vein of the 'Alfiq', were it not for similar meditative communication systems used by the Emperor's own clerks.

Ultimately, the northern distraction benefited the Khajiit, who scattered their enemies' defenses using only a small company of skirmishers and ultimately secured several positions along the Xylo River, which became key in the later stages of the war.

Mixed Unit Tactics v3

The primary field of battle near Dune was a long stretch of grassland between the trees of Valenwood and the sands of Elsweyr. After the chaotic back-and-forth of the first year, the Khajiit held this stretch of land for months at a time and expanded it by cutting more trees across the old border. Many of the trees were carried off by the great Senche-raht. A few were taken into the city of Dune and their use became apparent during the siege.

During the war, this process was rapid and easily seen, but the Khajiit and Bosmer in the Legion informed me that it had been going on long before the Third Era. This is how the unofficial border between Elsweyr and Valenwood is marked. The Khajiit cut down the trees, the Bosmer replant them, the Khajiit dig tunnels to undermine them, the Bosmer flood the tunnels to kill the Khajiit and make the desert bloom, and so on for centuries.

The rapid shift from desert to grassland to forest is unique in all of Tamriel and may be the result of this constant cutting and re-planting. I asked Ja'Dhuzar, the only Khajiit I trusted and a fellow Legionnaire, about this the next day. At first he just repeated the common saying in Elsweyr that "wide deserts make good neighbors." Eventually he said, and I believe I wrote this down exactly, even if it makes little sense, "Do not weep for trees. Valenwood is a sholath (a kind of sand-burrowing crab). The trees are the fingers of Y'ffre who stretches, then grasps. If the forest grows too wide, it is another moon-dance of suffering, the shaper could finish her sculptures, and Ja'Dhuzar is clever enough already, don't you think?"

It seemed as if the Bosmer began to realize the Khajiit in the north were not as serious a threat as they first appeared and began moving troops south. The Khajiit likewise gave up the tree-cutting, fires, and raids into northern areas when the Bosmer stopped responding with larger forces. The Khajiit soon tired of the sport and broke up their largest camps and left only a minor defensive and scouting force in the area along with the usual "peacetime" (if this province has ever known it) garrison in the city proper.

A few months after the main Khajiti force left, the Bosmer led an enormous attack and took all the Khajiti camps around Dune. The Khajiit sent scouts into the forest regularly, but even so the Khajiti camp was taken by surprise. I heard rumors later that the Bosmer caught the scouts, flayed them alive, wore their skins, and, with the aid of illusions, fooled the Khajiit into thinking the scouts continued patrolling and reporting. I heard also that the Bosmer led scouts into ambushes and used forbidden arts to re-animate them long enough to make a report. Either way, this proves beyond any doubt that the Empire must continue its effort to civilize the Bosmer.

The commander of Fort Sphinxmoth, Gaius Apinius, wanted to send his own patrols and scouts into the surrounding areas, but we were under strict orders not to leave the fort, except to patrol the road from Dune to Riverhold and protect the few Imperial interests in the area. Of course, we all learned later those orders were those of the usurper.

As a result, neither the Legions nor the Khajiit expected hundreds of naked Bosmer to run screaming out of the trees, covered with symbols drawn in blood, and followed by a howling menagerie of every wicked forest beast. The battle took place too far from the fort to see without a spyglass, and the dim light of a gibbous Masser was not enough to make out the full battle, but the unholy racket woke the whole fort. We stood on alert, sharing a half dozen spyglasses, and tried to follow the battle as best we could. I am no expert on Valenwood's fauna, and the view as I said was very poor, but we all agreed there were beasts out there unlike anything we had seen. The Bosmer attack looked wild and unplanned, but they used clever, if strange and dishonorable, tactics.

Roughly one cohort of Bosmer archers and wizards, much more in control than the rest, climbed the remaining trees for range and defense before the attack. The blood-painted Bosmer had spells or enchantments upon them. They could do something, perhaps upon their death, which lit up the symbols painted upon them, making the Khajiit nearby easy targets for the archers that remained in the trees. The Bosmer spread out and ran towards the largest camps and groups of Khajiit, glowing as bright as dawn for a short while, and that whole area was soon covered with arrows. Their wizards aided in the battle by enchanting some of the arrows to burn or explode, which enflamed the Khajiti tents. The fire in turn maddened the forest creatures further and led to multiple stampedes back and forth across each camp until all the fires were stamped out along with most of the Khajiit. Dawn showed the city of Dune surrounded and no surviving Khajiit outside the city.

The Bosmer celebrated their victory with primitive music and a great feast that lasted four or five days. There followed a period of calm for a few weeks as the Bosmer surrounding Dune constructed large trebuchets and other siege equipment. In spite of the Bosmers' ridiculous superstitions, there was an ample supply of lumber from the trees the Khajiit felled along the border. We joked in our fort that Dune might be captured with the wood of the trees the Khajiit cut down. I could not see anything in the city of Dune itself, except for archers who periodically fired volleys from the walls.

As disturbing as the tactics of the Bosmer were, what the Khajiit did in return is almost too despicable to relate. There were few surviving Khajiit outside the walls and they used no tactics at all. When they returned from hiding in the desert, they charged straight into the Bosmer and were quickly slaughtered.

But what seemed like a wasteful move was a trick so deplorable to all right-thinking men that I hesitate to describe it. As everyone knows, the Bosmer often eat the flesh of their enemies. As a veteran of the Imperial Legions I have seen this first-hand. Indeed, I have heard more than one Bosmer claim during the war that Khajiit are a great delicacy, prized for being both fatty and sweet. Almost as soon as the battle was over, cooking fires were built and the sounds of bone flutes and shell-drums heralded a great celebration in the Bosmer camps. And by the next morning, many of the Bosmer were dead and many more were ill.

Before their suicidal charge the Khajiit drank a slow-acting poison made from the stingers of giant scorpions, poppies, and Quaestro Vil. There are many lessons the Legions could learn from the Five Years War, but this is one I hope the Empire will never employ.

This foul trick didn't end the siege, however, for many Bosmer were still alive, even if their force was greatly weakened. The end of the siege of Dune is related in volume four.

Mixed Unit Tactics v4

The siege of Dune continued with a weakened Bosmer force surrounding the city. Neither side had the numbers to make much progress on the other. The Bosmer work on siege engines, mostly trebuchets and scaling towers, continued at a much slower pace.

Minor skirmishes occurred throughout the siege, but none of them were significant, much less decisive. When the siege engines were finally being moved into place and loaded, it seemed the city of Dune was defenseless and would fall within the week, or perhaps even by that evening. The Bosmer engines were huge and imposing, much larger than those used by the Empire, and they appeared capable of throwing boulders weighing five hundred pounds or more. As much as the Bosmer claim to preserve trees, many of them are masters of carpentry and related crafts. Some of the engines were manned by Imga (who have no love for the Bosmer, but allegedly entered the war on the Bosmer side after the Khajiit, accidentally or otherwise, attacked one of their camps).

The first rocks were thrown from the trebuchets and landed a little short of the city walls. As the Imga and the Bosmer adjusted their weights, small fire pots began flying towards the trebuchets from inside Dune. A few minutes after the battle started, one of the trebuchets was already on fire.

But the next two volleys of the trebuchets hit their mark, and the walls of Dune soon had two breaches on the western wall. The Bosmer began to gather their forces for a charge into the city. The fire pots flying from inside the city slackened, and their accuracy was so poor only the one trebuchet was aflame. The Bosmer clearly believed the city was theirs for the taking.

Just as the Bosmer began charging to the larger breach, the gates of Dune (located roughly north and south) opened and Khajiit poured forth from both sides. There were clearly few Khajiit able to do battle, but with clever tactics, they managed to defeat the larger Bosmer forces.

The breaches were defended by heavily armored ground troops, mainly composed of the larger man-like Khajiit, such as the Cathay-raht and Suthay-raht. They were slow and seemed to be easy targets. The Bosmer forces rushed to engage them and enter Dune via the breach in the walls. The Khajiit took heavy losses at the first charge, but they were just there to break the charge and keep the Bosmer outside the walls. At this point, the Bosmer might have won the day if they focused on one breach and overran it.

When the Bosmer were fully engaged, the gates of the city opened and three kinds of units ran out and quickly surrounded the Bosmer formed up at the breaches.

The first were Senche-raht in harness pulling carts with small onagers, manned by the smaller Khajiit. Each cart had two onagers cleverly mounted on some kind of pivot so that one could be wound while the other was aiming and firing. The pivot let them fire in all directions except directly in front or back. They threw fire-pots in great quantity, but with little accuracy at range. However, their maneuverability allowed them to approach a siege engine or mass of Bosmer, fire a few shots, and flee before the Bosmer could retaliate.

Along with them were small groups of archers and wizards, including the dreaded Alfiq, mounted on Senche and Pahmar-raht who used similar tactics, charging into range, releasing their arrows or spells, and then fleeing.

Finally, there were small groups of ground units, mostly the smaller man-like Khajiit, armed with sling-spears. While a Bosmer unit was engaged with the heavy armored forces or distracted by the fire-pots, these would approach and sling stones at the Bosmer. If the Bosmer turned to engage them, they'd flee or charge with their spears and another similar sling-spear unit would attack the Bosmer from the rear.

The units individually could not have won the battle, but they combined their forces brilliantly. The smaller, more maneuverable units were vulnerable, but kept attacking the Bosmer from the rear or the side, and they wore down the larger Bosmer forces with steady losses. The Legions fight in large formations wherever possible, and I fear the Khajiti tactics here might be effective against an unprepared Legion. The Legions are trained to use the dreugh or mudcrab formations where we can defend from attacks on all sides, but the fire pots and hit-and-run tactics might still disrupt a Legion cohort. The Bosmer had greater numbers, siege engines, and their famous archers, but they did not have the training or equipment to form up into something like the mudcrab, and they were routed. I have shared information privately with my superiors on how the Legion's use of javelins, shield formations, and our cavalry could defend against similar tactics, but my efforts to show how small, fast units can win against larger, less mobile units has not yet been incorporated into the Legions' drills and training.

During the Bosmer rout, one of the trebuchets turned towards the fort. To our horror, the trebuchet fired twice with the second shot damaging a section of the fort's outer wall.

A few good Legionnaires could have ended the war within its first year, but we had been ordered not to interfere unless the fort itself was attacked. I am a loyal citizen of the Empire, but I must admit that the orders we received from the Imperial City made little sense. Either the commanders did not understand the situation on the border, or the Simulacrum wanted to maximize chaos and weaken the Empire he ruled. Madness. I recommend giving only general standing orders to commanders in the field, with wide leeway on how to accomplish the Empire's goals. Even the best and fastest reports describe only a portion of what the local commanders know and even minutes of delay, when teleportation is used to transport critical orders, can decide a battle.

First Spear Apinius took advantage of this invitation to form up the Legions and attack the Bosmer from the fort. When the Bosmer saw the Legions approach, they abandoned their trebuchets, four of which were on fire by this time, and fled back across the border. We pursued them only to the edge of the trees and then returned to the fort.

As it turns out, we had been tricked again by the treacherous Khajiit. One of the small Khajiit groups that came out of the city overpowered the Bosmer and Imga manning that trebuchet and turned it on the fort. They anticipated we would leave the fort in response. While we were outside the walls, another group of Khajiit levitated over the walls and captured the fort. There was a perpetual camp of Khajiit merchants near the fort who sold treats and trinkets (and, in a sign of the decline in moral character of the Legion, other services -- even an Ohmes is still a Khajiit, and consorting with them should be punished with branding and expulsion, the same as horse-lovers) to the soldiers and staff. The camp was only a few tents, but elite Khajiti forces had been arriving for weeks and each tent hid a dozen armed Khajiit and at least one wizard.

The Legions have many Khajiit and Bosmer members. Due to concerns about the loyalty of these members in a serious battle, the Commander assigned most of the Khajiit and Bosmer stationed at Fort Sphinxmoth to defense while the rest of us marched out. This turned out to be another mistake. We later learned that the Khajiit, almost without exception, turned on their fellow soldiers, causing chaos inside the fort and opening the gates. All the Bosmer in the fort were slain by the time we surrendered, including the young son of one of the cooks.

Our situation was dire as we returned to Fort Sphinxmoth. We could not easily enter the Fort, now manned by Khajiit, and we were quickly being surrounded by the same fast-moving onager carts that had so effectively turned back the Bosmer forces. First Spear Apinius decided it was better to surrender to the Khajiit than risk our lives and those of the soldiers and staff who remained inside the fort.

Note that I do not blame the First Spear for this decision. It was one he was forced to make due to the large number of Khajiit and Bosmer that had been unwisely assigned to Fort Sphinxmoth. Given the unreliable nature of the elves and beast races, I strongly recommend that these races not be assigned to any fort in or bordering their traditional lands. Even the Khajiit can serve honorably in the Legions, but they should be assigned to forts in Morrowind, High Rock, Skyrim, or the very heart of the Empire where the temptation for betrayal is not too strong for their weak character.

This is the true story of the fall of Fort Sphinxmoth. It was not conquered in a pitched battle that every Khajiit these days claims to have led. The Legions were not defeated. We were betrayed.

Mixed Unit Tactics v5

I spent the next two years of the war in Dune where the captured Legion was forced to forge weapons, repair the city walls, build a sewage system (a better one than the Khajiit could have managed on their own, I daresay), and work on other civic improvements. In truth, we were not treated as poorly as you might imagine. We were well fed and only beaten when one of us tried to escape, attacked a Khajiit, or refused to work. The Khajiit even provided healing (from a half dozen of the most pompous, self-important Alfiq I have ever met) when the red death ran through our camp. The most galling experience was the behavior of the former Legionnaire, Ja'Dhuzar, now calling himself Dro'Dhuzar, who strutted around the prison when he was in town, usually with a female of his race on each arm.

Our captors claimed that they sent word to the Imperial City and were asking for a very modest ransom, but that they never heard any response. This may even be true. The Khajiit seemed to be more pleased in their "victory" over the invulnerable Legions than in a reward. Indeed, the story of how they captured Fort Sphinxmoth grew and grew in the telling until it became the story you're familiar with today. And the Imperial City under the Simulacrum was rumored to be corrupt and incapable of any governance, so the news of our capture may have been ignored or the ransom may have been stolen by one of the many new Offices of the time. I do not know the truth of it, and I was told that much of the Legions' records during these years were lost in a fire near the end of the Simulacrum's reign.

As a prisoner, I did not witness the next phase of the battle near Dune. I only heard about it, and what I heard is difficult to believe. We were told by the Khajiit that the Bosmer had been growing hollow tree roots from Valenwood all the way under the city and were trying to invade from below. It is more likely that the Bosmer were digging much shorter tunnels from outside the city walls under the sands and reinforcing them with wood. In any case, the Khajiit mocked these efforts and often played pranks, such as filling the tunnel exits with stink bulbs, rotten eggs, sholath, stinging insects, and so on. Sometimes we'd hear muffled screams while working on the sewers or rebuilding the walls. The Khajiit nearby would all burst into laughter at this and plan what to do next. Why they never tried to seal the tunnels or took them seriously as a threat, I cannot understand.

The Bosmer had the last laugh. We heard the war in the south was going poorly for Valenwood and the Bosmer did not have the forces to take Dune. They couldn't even hold their own territory. This was due in large part to the positions the Khajiit took and held all along the Xylo early in the war. The Bosmer snuck a very small force, no more than twenty, into the city. Instead of an attack, they simply stood near the exit of one of their tunnels and presented a challenge.

I was able to see this challenge personally. Dro'Dhuzar came to get me early that morning. "Rag-man," he said to me (I was taking notes on rags and sackcloth, and thought I had hidden them effectively), "a challenger comes. You should witness a Knight of the Sandy Mane defeat a Knight of the Spider-Wood. See the fate of your Empire." He spat on the ground, and used the word knight in mockery of the Legion. But he led me to where the Bosmer were standing, just the same. One of them was very short and dressed in odd, ceremonial armor of wooden slats, obviously enchanted.

There was some negotiation, mostly in Ta'agra, and I could not understand it. Soon a large Khajiit approached, a Pahmar-raht in ceremonial armor of his own. The Khajiit called him Dro'Zaksa, and clearly held him in high regard. There was a celebratory feel to the crowd and the Khajiit thought they were about to witness an easy victory. I was more apprehensive. The Bosmer knight was very brave or foolish and showed no fear of the upcoming duel.

The negotiations were completed. I gathered that the Bosmer would take Dune and Fort Sphinxmoth if they won, and the Khajiit would take a "living hill" if they won. A space was made for the combatants. Dro'Zaksa was armed only with ebony claw-tips and wore heavy, for lack of a better word, barding. He was well protected from the front and the front half of his sides, but he was unarmored on his paws, head, and hind legs. The Knight of the Spider-Wood drew a very thin blade, barely even a rapier, and was covered head-to-toe with light armor made of wooden slats and some kind of fabric.

They circled each other, measuring each other up. Dro'Zaksa attacked first, knocking the Bosmer across the field. He then pounced, but the Bosmer rolled away from it and stood again. The Bosmer made several attacks on Dro'Zaksa, but they could not pierce his armor. Dro'Zaksa grew more and more confident, and I must say I could not see how the Bosmer could win this fight. He took a huge swipe at the thin blade and it broke in two. He immediately followed with an aggressive series of blows, most of which the Bosmer managed to evade.

The next minute of battle was the Pahmar leaping and swiping at the Bosmer while the Bosmer retreated in a circle, dodging the blows with rolls, leaps, and contortions. Dro'Zaksa seemed to be slowing a bit, and there were specks of blood all over the arena floor. At one point he looked at his paw, and saw that the blade had cut deeply when he broke it. This enraged him, and he attacked even more wildly and ferociously.

The Khajiit at this point were growing nervous. They did not get the quick, easy victory they expected. The Bosmer focused on dodging and managed to evade almost all the blows, although it clearly took a toll when Dro'Zaksa landed one. The Bosmer's wooden armor was scarred from claw marks and whatever enchantments it held were beginning to fade.

Soon the Bosmer was almost strolling around the arena as Dro'Zaksa stumbled and slipped in his own blood. Treacherous to the end, the Khajiit almost managed to swipe at the Bosmer by pretending to be weaker than he actually was, but after that the outcome was certain. "The bleeding poison," Dro'Dhuzar said next to me. "Clever."

The Bosmer "knight" removed her helmet and gave the crowd a creepy, wolfish smile and began, to put it bluntly, butchering the Pahmar with her broken sword. The few Bosmer who accompanied her cheered.

I expected the Khajiit to attack the Bosmer regardless of any agreement, but they packed up peacefully, if untidily, and left the city.

The Bosmer took Dune and Fort Sphinxmoth. They did not hold us as prisoners, but let us go along with the Khajiit. We marched back to Skingrad to report and reorganize. We later heard that Valenwood surrendered. They returned Dune to the Khajiit in exchange for some territory in the south. When the Simulacrum was defeated, the rebellious provinces, finally under the threat of the punishment they should have faced from the start, returned to the Empire and Fort Sphinxmoth was likewise reinstated. I was stationed in Narsis and Stormhold for the remainder of my years of service and saw only small, easy battles with disorganized bandits and rebels.