Land Warfare
How armies fight on the ground in Teraell, now that the Skaerflint kills at three to five hundred yards.
Infantry
Dispersed open order is universal. Soldiers use terrain and advance by bounds, one group covering while the other moves; they engage at long range with individual aimed fire and coordinate in small tight units rather than large formations.
The Roeta is the basic tactical body everywhere in the world: ten to twenty soldiers who fight together, from the same district, the same guild, the same family network. The composition is not sentiment. It is the single greatest military advantage a city-state's army has. Men hold their positions not through enforced discipline but through unwillingness to be the one who left. A Roeta does not break; armies in our world would find the cohesion inexplicable.
Individual marksmanship is trained and valued alongside it. Accuracy at three to five hundred yards means an individual's skill matters immensely, and a good shot is known in his city. Attacking a prepared position is extremely expensive and everyone avoids it. Numbers matter far less than position.
Artillery
Its role shifted when infantry no longer had to be close to be effective; breaking up an enemy formation before the infantry engages matters less than it did. Artillery now does four things: counter-battery fire, a high priority and the reason every gun crew fears the sky; siege work, reducing fortifications; terrain denial, holding ground through firing lanes rather than by occupying it; and suppression of specific positions to let infantry maneuver. Clockwork aiming makes field guns accurate at longer range than they otherwise would be, and counter-battery fire correspondingly more precise.
Cavalry
The shock charge against infantry was always suicidal against rifled weapons, and cavalry adapted. Its primary role is reconnaissance: fast units on Vaelith finding and reporting enemy positions and movement, avoiding combat because the information they carry is worth more than a fight. Then pursuit after a battle is won, since a victory without pursuit lets a beaten enemy regroup; supply raiding, often more decisive than anything on the battlefield; and screening, blocking enemy reconnaissance while your own works.
Clockwork in the field
- Lock mechanisms
- Reliable ignition, fast reset, weather resistance. See Skaerflint#The lock.
- Artillery aiming
- Mechanical elevation and traverse for real accuracy at range.
- Navigation instruments
- Better mapping and campaign planning; a commander with accurate terrain information decides better than one without.
- Battlefield medicine
- Consistent with the world's medicine generally: better survival from wounds, faster return to duty, and a morale effect from soldiers who know care is coming.
- Shuttered signal lanterns
- Pre-agreed light patterns between units, with clockwork-controlled shutters far more precise than manual ones. Limited to simple messages; complex tactical information still travels by rider.