A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor
Chapter 1458 - 1458: The Grand Strategist - Part 4

The soldiers gave him a crisp salute. They'd already been used in several Battle board games before him, but that didn't make them slack in their discipline. They were ready and willing. Blackwell found that he didn't mind the formation that he had been left with, as balanced as it was.

Broadstone, however, had netted even more archers for himself. Blackwell tutted at the sight, thinking it to be typical from the defensively minded General. 'Which is why he would not know properly the nature of the stratagem that Karstly presented me with…' he thought, revealing to himself that the wound still hadn't begun to heal properly between them.

With his formation, Blackwell thought that his opponent made his intentions obvious. He'd play a defensive battle, just as he would in the real world, and he'd hope that Blackwell and his troops would have to pay a hefty price for fighting through his arrow storm – enough that Broadstone would be able to turn the tide with a crushing counterattack.

Naturally, Blackwell had other ideas in that regard. On the field of battle, every siege that he'd ever endured had been replete with the same problem of barrelling through arrow storms and overcoming the defences beyond them. It wasn't as if he curled up and panicked in any of those scenarios. He wasn't inclined to panic either.

He put his hand up to the referee, indicating his readiness, his posture serious, and his expression hard. Just like the rest of the soldiers that he'd seen battling, he found himself overtaken by the tournament's fire, and the desire to win glory through it. What was there that pulled on a warrior's heart more than the opportunity to fight worthy competition.

It was five minutes more before Broadstone echoed the signal to his referee. It was hard to tell quite what he busied himself doing in that time, for his formation remained the same, though he did study the board, as if imagining the future set of moves.

"Both parties ready," the referee said. "We shall now begin the Battle board match between General Blackwell and General Broadstone. General Blackwell, you have the honour of making the first move."

Blackwell dipped his head grimly, and gave the order with his hand and with his voice for the first of his archers to be moved to the centre of the board.

Even in making a response to that simple opening act, General Broadstone took his time. He was a man with far too much patience in him. It was a quality that infuriated both allies and enemies alike.

His move was what both sides had expected it to be – a passive little gathering of space from a spearman, after he'd moved it a single step forward. All he wished to do, it seemed, was create a fortress of men for himself, and invite Lord Blackwell's attack.

The two sides continued to send their pieces forward. Lord Blackwell didn't fall into the trap that Broadstone was offering him – that of creating the heaviest attack that he possibly could. Instead, he played measuredly, and he kept his formation balanced, and ready for what might be sent his way.

Broadstone too demonstrated that the strategy of a General was no simple affair. He would send lone troops in to harass Blackwell just enough that his attack couldn't grow too strong. He didn't completely turtle up in his defence, as a lesser strategist would.

The pressure began to grow and grow, until the entirety of Blackwell's army lay in the centre of the board, whilst General Broadstone had his troops still in his starting zone, and some of them were even further back than that, touching the very edge of the board.

It was as close to siege warfare as one was likely to come on a Battle board. For that, Blackwell knew that he had to be careful, for unlike a true siege, where one would hope for a significant numerical advantage, he had none at all. And Broadstone had seen the distance between the two of their armies entirely locked down with that huge mass of archers that he'd employed.

Blackwell had his cavalry sent to both flanks, watching, just to exert the pressure. But there were no bold attacks to be made in that instant. They could only continue their watchfulness. Broadstone's defences were watertight. It would take more than a single flurry to break through them – it would take significant sacrifice.

Now, finally, Blackwell began to slow down his own moves. As the tension built, each move seemed to be worth just a little bit more than the last one, and his sense of danger built and built. He had to make a choice as to where he might attack, knowing full well that he would lose troops in the process. The only reasoning tool he had in that regard was the foresight to imagine what the state of the board would be should he commit to that attack. He would not immediately win a numerical exchange, and so he had to be certain that whatever position he resolved the board into, it would be in his favour.

Naturally, the ever patient General Broadstone was doing the exact same thing. The two of them had played thousands of Battle board games with their officers, and they'd fought half a hundred battles in the real world themselves. They were certainly not strangers to a position like this, where an overwhelming attack was being invited. That too meant, that by sheer memory, augmented with just a degree of deduction, they could well enough imagine the most likely routes for the breaking of their attack.

Usually, just that would have been enough to defeat whatever man stood in front of them. The overwhelming foresight that a General had was usually unmatched by the Colonels beneath him. The sheer weight of that experience allowed them to casually make the mildest of moves for a position that was miles away.

General Blackwell did just that. With the crowd's attention entirely focused on him, drinking in the drama of the battle, he made a move of the mildest sort. He shifted from his line of bowmen, a single archer, a single square to the right. There were no obvious changes in target in doing that. No different troops lay beyond the line of spearmen and bowmen that he had initially targeted. It seemed a move that was made more for the purposes of waiting than anything else.