A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1418 - 1418: Oliver Patrick - Part 5

"That's probably a bad idea," Oliver said, instantly correcting her. "You entered my attacking range before you had the movement to spare to attack me. It allows me the initiative to attack you first – and the dice roll will be in my favour."

"Already!?" Nila said. "Wait, why? That doesn't make sense, does it? We're both the same."

"The charging enemy, or the enemy attacking tends to have the initiative. The Battle board dice rolls try to take that into account. But, just like the real battlefield, my slight advantage doesn't necessarily mean I'll win," Oliver said.

He rolled the dice, and it came up with a single dot on its side. Oliver heaved a sigh, and gently took his piece off the board.

"What just happened?" Nila asked.

"If it lands on one or three, it's your victory. If it landed on any of the other four numbers, it would have been my victory," Oliver said.

"Hehe. Maybe I'll be good at this after all," Nila said, stretching her arms out. "My first victory – it feels pretty good."

Oliver smiled back at her, unmoved by the taunt. He took one of his bow units the slightest tile forward, and then nodded at her.

"What's that about?" Nila said. "Why didn't you shoot?"

"Bow units can't shoot on the same turn," Oliver replied. "You have to move them, and then shoot the turn after."

"That's not like real battle…" Nila said, frowning. "You can very much shoot on the run."

"Perhaps. I think it's simply the way the game evolved, to take into account the weakness in mobility of a company of archers compared to other units. If bowmen could shoot on the same turn, they would have been far too strong on the Battle board," Oliver said. "As they are, they're still mightily powerful. They're able to control lots of space."

"Hm…" Nila considered it, but found that she couldn't add anything further. Their game developed, piece by piece. Oliver fired with his bow units on the next turn, capturing the spear unit, and soon enough capturing the centre of the board, whilst Nila trained her head, trying to come up with a good formation for her men. She found that she was playing naturally defensive against Oliver, putting her spear units in a line ahead of the rest of her men, and merely trying to survive. But Oliver simply lined his archers up in retaliation, and forced her back.

Then his cavalry was rushing forward, threatening an attack on her flank. Nila instantly put a piece in to prevent that happening, for one of the few rules that she'd learned from Battle was just how bad it was to be attacked in the flank or the rear – just like a real battle. But then on the next turn, the same deep cavalry unit went galloping towards her archers Not quickly enough to capture them, but quickly enough that she had to move.

She felt herself beginning to strain, not knowing what to do. The cavalry unit was in deep amongst her men, but she couldn't turn her spearmen around to face it, given that they were already pressed up against a line of Oliver's troops, about to descend into a melee.

"That's a fork," Oliver told her.

"Hm?" Nila frowned at the strange phrasing.

Oliver pointed at the board. "Your general is under threat from my cavalry unit, but the rear of your line of archers is under threat as well. It's a double attack, or a fork."

"Oh…" Nila said. "Then what do I do?"

"It's likely the most fundamental of tactics, and it's hard to defend, especially when your General is under threat. Generally, you need a defensive move that defends them both at once… But you don't seem to have one available to you in your position," Oliver said.

"R-right…" Nila said, looking around for the same. There was beginning to be too much information to take in.

"Also, there's another tactic open to me here," Oliver said. "There's a chance of my cavalry unit being able to roll twice, or even three times, with me attacking your archers in the rear."

"W-what!? Why?" Nila said.

"If your rear is exposed on a battlefield, and a cavalry unit is rushing you, without you moving to defend, it's only natural that it'll keep up the slaughter, won't it? For as long as I've got movement tiles available to me, I can keep attacking and re rolling. The cavalry unit can move four squares, so I could attack all four of your archers, one after the other. Each time, however, my odds of victory decrease. The first roll, you can only beat me if you land your dice on one. On the second roll, it's one and three. On the third roll, it's one, three and five," Oliver said.

Nila could feel her head spinning. Oliver gave her a sympathetic smile.

"Sorry, that's too much, isn't it?" Oliver said. "No one wants to remember a long list of facts, or the like. I hated it at the Academy when they tried to do that with me. I much preferred when Volguard gave me a problem to solve instead, and let me enjoy working it out on my own."

"It is just a little bit…" Nila said. "But I think I might understand it. It sort of makes sense, after all. It's quite similar to what would happen on the battlefield."

"There is a lot to keep track of at first," Oliver said. "The way the different pieces move, and then noticing if your piece is under attack without a defender, or noticing whether you can take an enemy piece. It gets quite complicated. I didn't understand how to keep track of everything at first. When I first beat Dominus in it, my methods were a mess. I sort of just strained as hard as I could, thinking I could calculate everything."

"But now you can," Nila said. "Look how far you've come."

"Not at all," Oliver said, shaking his head. "Calculating each and every thing never came naturally to me. I can't hold that much information in my head either. I only really concentrate on one or two things. I try not to strain too hard."

"Wait, what?" Nila frowned. "That doesn't seem right, does it?"

"I didn't think so either," Oliver said. "But Volguard taught me different. Not every piece of information is created equal."