Inheritance Cycle Battles Tactical Analysis Part 1 - The Battle of Farthen Dûr

[kris_norge]

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

Comments

[kris_norge]

Done, I think. I inserted it right after that first paragraph where I introduce myself

[kris_norge]

Done and thanks. I'll keep these things in mind for my future posts. Enjoy the read!

[anonymous]

My tactical experience comes basically from the video games Age of Empires, Empire: Total War, Rome: Total War, and Medieval: Total War and, you know, descriptions of awesome historical battles (specifically the battles of William Wallis, Robert the Bruce, Julius Caesar, Robert E. Lee, George Washington, etc.) so I don't really have to most knowledge.

With that preface, fortify the tunnel entrances. Destroying all but three tunnels makes tactical sense because the fewer points of attack the fewer areas to defend. William Wallis managed to defeat a vastly superior English force by letting them get halfway across a bridge and then sweeping down from a hill and using infantry against a bunch of knights. The reason the infantry triumphed was because the horsemen had no room to maneuver and ended up just running over each other. In this case, you could reverse that and use a cavalry charge to create chaos among the Urgals. (Presumably the Urgals don't have defenses against cavalry)

[kris_norge]

I agree that collapsing some tunnels makes sense since we want to know where they're coming from. The problem is letting the Urgals with the superior numbers out into the open. But you see, the problem with your strategy is that there is no mention of Varden cavalry (since the Surdans aren't here) and even if there was, for the cavalry to be effective, the battle would have to be in the open for the riders to have room to manoeuvre, and that would mean letting the enemy with superior numbers out into the valley. Personally, I prefer not to unleash my cavalry until I know the full extent of the enemy army and their flanks and rear are exposed or if they try flanking me. But here we don't really know how many Urgals there are since there seem to be NPC spawners inside the tunnel.

[anonymous]

Well letting them get a small number out of the tunnel and then charging infantry from the flanks would probably have similar results. It seems that Urgals don't have the discipline to do very well against it. But then again, they are a warrior group, so they might not have people fleeing back into the tunnels.

Shield walls and spears and fun stuff like that would be good. In my strategy game (which has pretty realistic strategy, good enough to simulate historical battles) one of the most effective strategies is spearmen and heavy infantry in a semicircle around the opening (doubly effective in a when it's a wall they are coming through so you can shoot over the wall and from the wall at them).

Also, cavalry charges seem to be most effective as a morale breaker.

[anonymous]

Eragon having armor wouldn't have been a problem if it wasn't heavy armor (it was dwarf-made). He should've started with leather then work his way to heavy. Also, he and Saphira should've been exhausted from sleeping in armor.

-Dragonturtle Monk

[kris_norge]

OH YES!!!!! But the appetizers (that is Carvahall) first. Then begin some dishes that are very difficult to digest.

[kris_norge]

Hey, what martial art do you do btw?

[anonymous]

I wanted to add another point about melee warriors carrying bows.
Their armour is too heavy and ungainly to effectively use bows.
That's why archers usually wear leather armour or very minimal chain mail.