Inheritance Cycle Battles Tactical Analysis Part 1 - The Battle of Farthen Dûr
Greetings everyone! I'm Kris Norge and a new antishurtugal member. Instead of doing the standard chapter by chapter sporking, I decided to use my fascination with warfare. In an effort to bring to the light the child prodigy author's absence of knowledge in warfare, I put my extensive studies of both Roman and medieval strategy and tactics to good use. The battles are filled with tactical errors that go from poor understanding of basic warfare, to complete denial of logic, to outright stupidity. The Battle of Urû'baen, the skirmish where Roran single-handedly kills 197 soldiers, and especially the Battle of Aroughs are the three worst! But let us start by the beginning, the battle of Farthen Dûr. The analysis of the battles go like this: I will walk you through the battle, pointing out the tactical errors as they come, then list and number them and finally, to show that I'm no hypocrite, I will propose a strategy of my own.
Battle walkthrough
This battle occurs at the end of the first book and pits the Varden with Eragon and Saphira against an army of Urgals led by Durza the Shade. In this battle, the Urgals are coming through a series of underground tunnels that have been abandoned since the day they were mined. Why are these tunnels abandoned? You don't waste time and energy digging through rock to leave it empty! (I'd say it was to make a sort of Moria-ish effect but I'm here to analyse the strategies and tactics, nothing more). We hear that the Urgals have come from some abandoned city where they have been migrating all year. The first problem is that they don't know how many Urgals there are! Where are their scouts? If there are a bunch of evil creatures passing by routinely and all gathering at the same place (a phenomenon also known as a mustering) you may want to get some hint of their numbers and intentions. That's what scouts are for! But for some reason neither the dwarfs nor the Varden have any even though from on the slopes of the gigantic Beor Mountains they could have a hell of a view and an army would be easy to spot, especially a large one. But the second problem here is that they only found out the Urgal army was coming from a dwarf hermit who lives in the abandoned tunnels, and by then it's only a day's march away. Too late to elaborate something proper? Or is it?
The Urgals, instead of laying siege to the city, are going to actively attack it. Never mind that in any kind of siege the defender is always at an advantage. This is standard evil tactics: come at the enemy with overwhelming force, or rather numbers. No brains or strategies, just lots of minions. The worst part is that the Urgals don't have the benefit of the doubt for excessive agressivity and eagerness for battle (even though at this point in the "saga" they were still just minions of evil) because they are being controlled by the Shade, a sort of human-looking wraith who should be rather intelligent.
I quote: "Our only hope is to contain the Urgals in three of the larger tunnels and channel them into Farthen Dur so they don't swarm inside Tronjheim like locusts. " To do so they collapse some tunnels. This is utterly ridiculous! They are letting the enemy with the superior numbers out into the valley! If Christopher Paolini had done any sort of study of strategy and tactics, he would have heard of the far-famed Leonidas and his three hundred against a million Persians, one of the battles with the worst odds in history even with the actual and far more likely numbers. My point is that against superior numbers, you're going to want to keep them in a bottleneck where you can concentrate your defences. And tunnels are even better than passes for these things.
Then we get this amusing bit of information: the reason why they don't shut all the tunnels down is that the Urgals may go into a place that they don't want them to or attack other dwarf cities. Also, the city of Tronjheim is built upon a dense network of tunnels so if they collapse some of them, the city on top may collapse too. Whoever decided the city's location had some serious problems. Also, if such a thing is possible, the Shade would likely know it and could have the Urgals do it.
Anyway, Eragon is given armour and a shield (even though he's never practiced fighting with either...YES! THAT COUNTS AS WARFARE ISSUES!). The dragon gets armour too that fits (coincidentally since dragons never stop growing). Flying is a mecanism built on balance and armour for something the size of a dragon would add considerable weight, rendering flying difficult and tiring. Just try armouring a bird and see what happens. And Eragon and Saphira take a nap. . . in armour! There are two problems with this. The first is that metal armour is horrificaly uncomfortable and near impossible to sleep in. The second thing, is that sleeping in armour will not leave you very rested. Historically, Joan of Arc once appeared covered in bruises because of sleeping in her armour, a sign of inexperience. The dwarf king is wearing golden armour which I hope was intended to mean gilded because otherwise he won't last long.
Arya the elf appears with a bow and a sword (the typical elf warrior equipment) and stands alongside Eragon who also has a bow. There is a reason melee fighters don't carry bows: they are liabilites. It doesn't matter what Legolas did in the Lord of the Rings. Also, archers are usually kept seperate from melee fighters so they have a clear view over the battlefield so they know where to shoot. Unless you have superior numbers and are completely ruthless, you NEVER make archers fire on a melee. This isn't a strategy game where friendly fire is impossible! You fire on a melee, you'll hit your own men one time out of two.
So they have their poorly planned battle which is the typical fantasy heroes against evil minions (known by the fact that heroes are killing Urgals in a single blow even though they are taller and broader than doors and ferocious warriors). So the fighting continues for hours with the heroes in the vanguard. For the record, unless you're leading the winning strike against an enemy on the verge of retreat, it is most unwise for the battle commanders to be on the front lines. It was good in skirmishes between warbands before the Roman Empire where chieftains led by example and the battles were never between more than a few hundred at the most. But when the numbers are in the thousands and the fighting lasts for hours, the men in the van are constantly dying even if they're better warriors since exhaustion takes its toll and they eventually drop.
Then Eragon gets word of more Urgals coming from just under the city when he and his dragon fly to the Dragonhold. This is actually a relatively decent tactical move on the villain's part. Eragon then takes a long spiral slide down to the ground floor where the Urgals are bound to emerge. I think a spiral slide as long as is described would live you with a spinning head, your last meal flying out of your mouth (A fair ride in the Place de la Bastille did that to me), and you'd be basically unable to fight (I was). And he's going against an unknown number of Urgals BY HIMSELF! That's suicide. They fight, Eragon kills the Shade, and the Urgals turn on each other before common foe is defeated (more evidence of their evil minion status in this book).
Major Tactical Errors (also called the recipe for the 3 Ds: Death, Defeat, and Disaster)
1- Abandoned and unguarded tunnels = Liability
2- Absence of scouts = Absence of knowledge of the enemy
3- Not paying attention to Urgal migrations = Essentially letting the enemy prepare his forces
4- Being warned by some random hermit = Anyone could simply walk into Farthen Dûr without anyone raising an eyebrow
5- Channeling the Urgals into the open = Allowing superior numbers room to manoeuver
6- Possibility of Farthen Dûr collapsing = Disastrous and easy-to-exploit weakness
7- Giving Eragon armour and a shield when he's never used either = Eragon would be slower and awkward if he wasn't the main character
8- Saphira getting armour = Reducing mobility and stamina
9- Taking a nap in armour = Putting oneself in a bad shape before battle
10- Archers in a melee = Possibility of friendly fire
11- Heroes and battle commanders on the front lines = Exhaustion which would lead to death if they weren't important characters
12- Going at an unknown number of enemies alone = Suicide for anyone who's not a main character
13- Taking a spiral slide to do so = Making yourself dizzy, losing your nutrition, essentially weakening yourself before a fight
My strategy
Now if I was the battle commander, I wouldn't be in their situation because if I got repeated word of Urgal migrations near my hidden city, I'd send scouts to watch their movements and keep me updated. If they're gathering in numbers and arms, I'd have done something about it. If I knew the enemy was preparing to attack my city, I'd have stored up provisions, fortified the valley and set traps in the tunnels. Perhaps I would even launch a preemptive strike while they're not expecting it and before their numbers grow too vast.
Now let's say I did end up in this situation and the Urgals are closing in on me. When I'm faced with superior numbers, I like to work with "fly bites" before I face them in open battle; that is small and quick raids to inflict whatever casualties are possible, confuse the enemy, hopefully cut their supplies, and lower their morale. Since these are dwarf tunnels, I'd have asked the dwarf king to send teams in, led by guides who know the tunnels better than the back of their hand, and nip at the Urgal army, slow them, buy time. Maybe cause some rock falls or cave-ins on them. A massive cave-in on either side of their army would be the ideal outcome.
However if the dwarf king refused (I think I might not risk such a thing myself), and I found myself forced to channel them into the valley where the city is, I'd use the day I had before the battle to tear down whatever buildings aren't essential and build fortifications AT the cave entrances. I remind you that these are supposed to be six-to-eight-foot-tall ferocious warrior creatures. I wouldn't fight them on the ground, even in a bottleneck (though a lot of pikemen could perhaps do a decent job of it). I'd set up barricades with protruding spikes, perhaps some spike pits, boiling pitch, and whatever I need to hold the entrances tight. Depending on the size of these tunnel entrances, I might set up barricades in front of them or, better yet, in a half-circle around them and have men with spears and pikes on the barricades and towers set up around the barricades to provide archer cover. I'd actually save the pitch for when the bodies start piling up and the barricade loses effectiveness. Too elaborate you think? Look what the Romans built on an everyday basis to camp at night.
That's it for now! The Battle of Carvahall coming next!
Battle walkthrough
This battle occurs at the end of the first book and pits the Varden with Eragon and Saphira against an army of Urgals led by Durza the Shade. In this battle, the Urgals are coming through a series of underground tunnels that have been abandoned since the day they were mined. Why are these tunnels abandoned? You don't waste time and energy digging through rock to leave it empty! (I'd say it was to make a sort of Moria-ish effect but I'm here to analyse the strategies and tactics, nothing more). We hear that the Urgals have come from some abandoned city where they have been migrating all year. The first problem is that they don't know how many Urgals there are! Where are their scouts? If there are a bunch of evil creatures passing by routinely and all gathering at the same place (a phenomenon also known as a mustering) you may want to get some hint of their numbers and intentions. That's what scouts are for! But for some reason neither the dwarfs nor the Varden have any even though from on the slopes of the gigantic Beor Mountains they could have a hell of a view and an army would be easy to spot, especially a large one. But the second problem here is that they only found out the Urgal army was coming from a dwarf hermit who lives in the abandoned tunnels, and by then it's only a day's march away. Too late to elaborate something proper? Or is it?
The Urgals, instead of laying siege to the city, are going to actively attack it. Never mind that in any kind of siege the defender is always at an advantage. This is standard evil tactics: come at the enemy with overwhelming force, or rather numbers. No brains or strategies, just lots of minions. The worst part is that the Urgals don't have the benefit of the doubt for excessive agressivity and eagerness for battle (even though at this point in the "saga" they were still just minions of evil) because they are being controlled by the Shade, a sort of human-looking wraith who should be rather intelligent.
I quote: "Our only hope is to contain the Urgals in three of the larger tunnels and channel them into Farthen Dur so they don't swarm inside Tronjheim like locusts. " To do so they collapse some tunnels. This is utterly ridiculous! They are letting the enemy with the superior numbers out into the valley! If Christopher Paolini had done any sort of study of strategy and tactics, he would have heard of the far-famed Leonidas and his three hundred against a million Persians, one of the battles with the worst odds in history even with the actual and far more likely numbers. My point is that against superior numbers, you're going to want to keep them in a bottleneck where you can concentrate your defences. And tunnels are even better than passes for these things.
Then we get this amusing bit of information: the reason why they don't shut all the tunnels down is that the Urgals may go into a place that they don't want them to or attack other dwarf cities. Also, the city of Tronjheim is built upon a dense network of tunnels so if they collapse some of them, the city on top may collapse too. Whoever decided the city's location had some serious problems. Also, if such a thing is possible, the Shade would likely know it and could have the Urgals do it.
Anyway, Eragon is given armour and a shield (even though he's never practiced fighting with either...YES! THAT COUNTS AS WARFARE ISSUES!). The dragon gets armour too that fits (coincidentally since dragons never stop growing). Flying is a mecanism built on balance and armour for something the size of a dragon would add considerable weight, rendering flying difficult and tiring. Just try armouring a bird and see what happens. And Eragon and Saphira take a nap. . . in armour! There are two problems with this. The first is that metal armour is horrificaly uncomfortable and near impossible to sleep in. The second thing, is that sleeping in armour will not leave you very rested. Historically, Joan of Arc once appeared covered in bruises because of sleeping in her armour, a sign of inexperience. The dwarf king is wearing golden armour which I hope was intended to mean gilded because otherwise he won't last long.
Arya the elf appears with a bow and a sword (the typical elf warrior equipment) and stands alongside Eragon who also has a bow. There is a reason melee fighters don't carry bows: they are liabilites. It doesn't matter what Legolas did in the Lord of the Rings. Also, archers are usually kept seperate from melee fighters so they have a clear view over the battlefield so they know where to shoot. Unless you have superior numbers and are completely ruthless, you NEVER make archers fire on a melee. This isn't a strategy game where friendly fire is impossible! You fire on a melee, you'll hit your own men one time out of two.
So they have their poorly planned battle which is the typical fantasy heroes against evil minions (known by the fact that heroes are killing Urgals in a single blow even though they are taller and broader than doors and ferocious warriors). So the fighting continues for hours with the heroes in the vanguard. For the record, unless you're leading the winning strike against an enemy on the verge of retreat, it is most unwise for the battle commanders to be on the front lines. It was good in skirmishes between warbands before the Roman Empire where chieftains led by example and the battles were never between more than a few hundred at the most. But when the numbers are in the thousands and the fighting lasts for hours, the men in the van are constantly dying even if they're better warriors since exhaustion takes its toll and they eventually drop.
Then Eragon gets word of more Urgals coming from just under the city when he and his dragon fly to the Dragonhold. This is actually a relatively decent tactical move on the villain's part. Eragon then takes a long spiral slide down to the ground floor where the Urgals are bound to emerge. I think a spiral slide as long as is described would live you with a spinning head, your last meal flying out of your mouth (A fair ride in the Place de la Bastille did that to me), and you'd be basically unable to fight (I was). And he's going against an unknown number of Urgals BY HIMSELF! That's suicide. They fight, Eragon kills the Shade, and the Urgals turn on each other before common foe is defeated (more evidence of their evil minion status in this book).
Major Tactical Errors (also called the recipe for the 3 Ds: Death, Defeat, and Disaster)
1- Abandoned and unguarded tunnels = Liability
2- Absence of scouts = Absence of knowledge of the enemy
3- Not paying attention to Urgal migrations = Essentially letting the enemy prepare his forces
4- Being warned by some random hermit = Anyone could simply walk into Farthen Dûr without anyone raising an eyebrow
5- Channeling the Urgals into the open = Allowing superior numbers room to manoeuver
6- Possibility of Farthen Dûr collapsing = Disastrous and easy-to-exploit weakness
7- Giving Eragon armour and a shield when he's never used either = Eragon would be slower and awkward if he wasn't the main character
8- Saphira getting armour = Reducing mobility and stamina
9- Taking a nap in armour = Putting oneself in a bad shape before battle
10- Archers in a melee = Possibility of friendly fire
11- Heroes and battle commanders on the front lines = Exhaustion which would lead to death if they weren't important characters
12- Going at an unknown number of enemies alone = Suicide for anyone who's not a main character
13- Taking a spiral slide to do so = Making yourself dizzy, losing your nutrition, essentially weakening yourself before a fight
My strategy
Now if I was the battle commander, I wouldn't be in their situation because if I got repeated word of Urgal migrations near my hidden city, I'd send scouts to watch their movements and keep me updated. If they're gathering in numbers and arms, I'd have done something about it. If I knew the enemy was preparing to attack my city, I'd have stored up provisions, fortified the valley and set traps in the tunnels. Perhaps I would even launch a preemptive strike while they're not expecting it and before their numbers grow too vast.
Now let's say I did end up in this situation and the Urgals are closing in on me. When I'm faced with superior numbers, I like to work with "fly bites" before I face them in open battle; that is small and quick raids to inflict whatever casualties are possible, confuse the enemy, hopefully cut their supplies, and lower their morale. Since these are dwarf tunnels, I'd have asked the dwarf king to send teams in, led by guides who know the tunnels better than the back of their hand, and nip at the Urgal army, slow them, buy time. Maybe cause some rock falls or cave-ins on them. A massive cave-in on either side of their army would be the ideal outcome.
However if the dwarf king refused (I think I might not risk such a thing myself), and I found myself forced to channel them into the valley where the city is, I'd use the day I had before the battle to tear down whatever buildings aren't essential and build fortifications AT the cave entrances. I remind you that these are supposed to be six-to-eight-foot-tall ferocious warrior creatures. I wouldn't fight them on the ground, even in a bottleneck (though a lot of pikemen could perhaps do a decent job of it). I'd set up barricades with protruding spikes, perhaps some spike pits, boiling pitch, and whatever I need to hold the entrances tight. Depending on the size of these tunnel entrances, I might set up barricades in front of them or, better yet, in a half-circle around them and have men with spears and pikes on the barricades and towers set up around the barricades to provide archer cover. I'd actually save the pitch for when the bodies start piling up and the barricade loses effectiveness. Too elaborate you think? Look what the Romans built on an everyday basis to camp at night.
That's it for now! The Battle of Carvahall coming next!