I’m working on a fairly complicated little battle early in Book Three–complicated in part because it includes some weapons types I haven’t previously used in my fiction in something this size.\u00a0\u00a0 The forces involved aren’t matched in size, experience, or weaponry…which is sending me back to the history books repeatedly to check that I’m not doing something stupid.\u00a0 Some things are obvious and familiar to any students of military history…surprise (if you do it) is always good and surprise (if they do it) is a PITA. \u00a0 Flank attacks really do gum up the enemy’s advance.\u00a0 Charging after a “fleeing” enemy when you haven’t noticed what’s on your flank…not a smart idea.\u00a0 And so on.<\/p>\n
Others are less so.\u00a0 Take the great archery debates about longbows and crossbows.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It’s not that one is better than the other, full stop–but that each has advantages in particular situations (which include weather.)\u00a0\u00a0 In fact, each variation of each has advantages in particular situations…my friend the crossbow maker told me that yew is a superior wood for bowstaves used in colder climates, whereas bois d’arc (native to my area) is better in hot climates.\u00a0\u00a0 I could declare that blackwood (the great bow wood of Lyonya) is superb in all climatic conditions, but…why would it be?\u00a0 It’s native to a northern temperate hardwood forest–like the original forest of the Appalachians.\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn’t break with a snow or ice load–it’s fitted to the climate it grows in.<\/p>\n
So…I have a larger force, with some heavy cavalry, some disciplined infantry with polearms, and with them some crossbowmen.\u00a0 They’re used to formation fighting.<\/p>\n
And I have a smaller force with some disciplined infantry (short sword), some longbow archers used to shooting in formation, and some “irregular” archers used to fighting alone or in small groups,\u00a0 with longswords as well as their bows.<\/p>\n
There will be a pause–possibly a couple of days–to do a map and work through this.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Trying to “see” it in my head, I’m seeing too many blurry patches.\u00a0 (When visualization works, it’s clear all the way to the edges…)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I’m working on a fairly complicated little battle early in Book Three–complicated in part because it includes some weapons types I haven’t previously used in my fiction in something this size.\u00a0\u00a0 The forces involved aren’t matched in size, experience, or weaponry…which is sending me back to the history books repeatedly to check that I’m not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,4,5],"tags":[108,106,62,54,107],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-background","category-contents","category-the-writing-life","tag-background","tag-contents","tag-craft-of-writing","tag-map","tag-the-writing-life"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":492,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.paksworld.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}