They traihe goblins and hobgoblins on our isnd for months, but that didn't mean that we were actually a well-practiced army. It just meant that we would fair much better than if we hadn't trained. I'd carefully discussed potential problems with our defeh the dwarven anders, asking about any potential for le magic or the potential for their own le ons. While there is a ce we might have to deal with some le magibsp; Other than our rifled ons, they didn't know of any le ons. As fic, it seems like there won't be much of it, if it happens.
Le magies in two types apparently. Magic that allows you to propel existing materials les, and magic that in itself is le. I've seen weak versions of the first type within the goblin popution with the goblins who magically throw items farther and faster than normal, which we've utilized for spear throwing. This first type uses a lot less mana than the sed type, but has drawbacks in that you o have something to throw, and you have to deal with recoil. Since you would o deal with recoil, the ranges for anyone using that magi a ship would make it uhat they could actually cause more harm with that than just firing their regur ons.
The sed type falls in a category simir to Zaka's fireball, or my improved earth spike, but much further range. Those spells e a lot of mana, and very few individuals have that sort of magibsp; The dwarves estimated that at most five individuals invading would have that kind of magid they'd at most use it once or twice each before needing to recover their mana, which would likely take hours. Evehe range wouldn't be as far as our rifled artillery. We should be more ed with them using it to explode a path in our defenses on the beach through which to invade as they make ndfall.
I checked my stats, trying to refocus myself on the rapidly approag battle. I mao squeeze some time in for fishing and tree cutting over the st year to get myself in a more battle ready dition.
I'm pulled back to reality as I hear some shouting. I look up to the horizon and spot the tops of a few ships' masts. I watch over a few minutes as more and more masts e over the horizon. After not much loheir masts e into full view, along with the ships themselves. I start ting o seems like no more are ing.
1, 2, 3, … 70, 71, 72.
72 Ships in total here. I hope that's all of them, but I get the feeling that there are more, but they aren't visible from here. If I had a force this paratively rge, I'd split it up to try to overwhelm any potential defense. With 72 ships here, that would be somewhere between 7,000 and 50,000 soldiers, depending oual size of the ships, and how tightly they've packed the soldiers in. From this dista's hard to gauge the size, but I at least tell that some ships are bigger than others because they have more masts. Which means we're probably looking at something closer to the middle of that range. Maybe 15,000 to 30,000 soldiers.
Even if they know that we actually have 500 dwarves here in addition to our own force, a force of their size would already be rge enough that splitting it would be worth it, which tells me that this force is probably already split, and the question es down to how split they are.
I watch impatiently as they tinue moving in toward this beabsp; The only reprieve I have in my ay is that we should get the first shot in, rather thaher way around. The artillery was given specific targeting orders. It's hard to sink a rge ship with a single shot, so they're supposed to try to sink smaller vessels first, with the exception of anything that seems like a fgship. If it looks like there are very important people on a ship, then fire into it repeatedly.
With the exception of any and ships, there is another reason for targeting smaller ships first. They anchor closer to shore safely, which means less distan row boats or other nding craft before soldiers actually make ndfall. If we sink the small ships, we make any future logistics work they want to do on the isnd in the few weeks that much more frustrating.
After watg them approach for about thirty mihey were close enough that it would be worth it to use one of the small, simple telescopes I made. Three telescopes were with the early warning watch groups up on the mountain who souhe arm earlier. I have one, Zaka has another, and there are two spares, one in the new fortress in the middle of the city, and the other stashed away in the secret bunker. Making well-shaped gss for even simple funal telescopes wasn't easy, but even Galilehe military importance of the discovery as soon as he made his first one.
Looking at the ining ships, over half of them were flying the same fg, but among the remaining ships, there were nine different fgs. It's just a guess, but the majority fg is probably Rathnd's. There is also a very clear fgship, rger than all the rest of the ships in the fleet by a noticeable amount. Pointed forward off it's bow is a rge, metal head of some unknow with it's mouth open.
I study the bow, ied in the design. Whatever it is, it has a flowing mane, long fangs, a pair of wide-set ears, a snub nose, and four eyes. As it approaches closer though, I spot something else. In the monster's mouth appears to be an exceptionally rge and circur metallic circle. A on. Though it's quite a bit rger than a normal on. People have used a lot of different sized onballs oh, and if I use the dwarven ons as a gauge for the size of this on, I'd say it fires a onball that would weigh at least eighty pounds if it was solid metal.
My , however, is that it would be entirely impractical to fire a onball that heavy. What's more likely, and a little more terrifying, is if they have fused charges inside a onball shell of that size. If that's the case, then they don't o directly hit their target for shrapo kill personnel. The bunkers on the cliffs should be fine given their design and altitude pared to the ships, but we'd be in trouble if that ship fire on us here on the beabsp; I signal toblins designated as runners, and I have two have them rey to the two artillery buhat the artillery are to focus on sinking that fgship if it fires the main on on it's front at any point, even if they have to aim a little further than normal, or if they occasionally miss.
The third runner's job is to go to a rear base where there are more runners, and make sure the other artillery pieces and bases on the isnd know what I've spotted here, and uand how to ha if they see any more. If it never fires, it might just be an intimidating desig to make enemies afraid, which is why I said only fire on it if it started firing that on. If it's just for design, then there is no point in wasting shells that could more easily sink other ships.
After awenty minutes, my worries were firmed as the ships got close. The first shot wasn't fired by us, but by the fgship. The mouth of the beast erupted in a mix of smoke and fire, then the smoke... dissipated?
No, that wasn't smoke, it was steam. I didn't have much more time to think though, as off to one side of the beach a little further back than our defenses, closer to the forest line, I heard a thud followed by an explosion, then smaller thuds as shrapnel rained down through the area.
I assessed the damage from where I stood using the telescope. No one seemed injured as it missed us by a det amount, but some of the shrapnel seemed pretty big, and was thrown far enough that if someone was unfortuo be in it's flight path they'd be injured or worse. The fgship was still a little more than a mile out by my estimate. I was gd that I'd sent the ruo the bunkers.
Fortunately for us, the bunkers fnked either side of the invading fleet. Within three seds of each other, the two artillery pieces fired. One missed the fgship, and the other hit, but only did some damage to the debsp; Though from what I could make out, it looks like it surprised the individuals on the ship who were frantically running about.
The fgship was fired upon a sed and third time by both artillery ons in the minute. Thanks to their design, reloading, aiming, and firing could be doively quickly by a skilled crew. Two more misses, one mng blow, and a singur better hit that peed a lower part of the hull.
Given there was steam from the on's mouth, I expected it to take longer for them to fire it again, but I was caught off guard. Another bst of fire and steam came from the monster's mouth, and again, I heard a thud. This time, closer to our defenses. As it exploded, I heard someone yell out in pain.
Damnit! Time to adapt our pn slightly. It'd still be at least twenty minutes before we o worry about any ndfall. I give the order to move the injured individual back to the fallback line, and then have the goblins take shelter irenches meant to slow down our oppos until the signal is given to return back to our defensive implements.
Another salvo from our artillery. This time, both hit more solidly, both into the hull of the ship he water line. A few more of those, or a lucky shot, and the fgship should be down. The only issue is that this is buying time for the other ships to get closer to shore. I'd much rather have had the artillery sink a few small ships by now, but we 't afford to deal with artillery shelling us. We hat fgship down.