Homesteading in a fantasy world

POV Stebs Soot goblin chief

I was woken up by my servant and I quickly got up, dressed and said goodbye to my lover. As usual, I ate while walking and quickly met up with my advisor and friend Shelle.

“Good morning chief.”

“And good morning to you as well Shelle.”

“The human has yet to arrive. Hopefully, he will make it here soon because currently, everything is on hold, we are all waiting on him.”

I truly hope that Rich will make it here soon. If not, the commanders might get even more anxious not to speak of the other goblins. We were moving towards the now-called war tent.

Some of the commanders were waiting outside for me like they always do, the other council members and commanders will join us later as always. Not everyone has the ability to wake up as early as I do.

After a few pleasantries, we walked inside as the guards opened the tent flaps but to our surprise, the usually empty tent was not empty. Rich was there looking over the maps that we have been able to make of the surroundings and the battle plans we have come up with.

I looked at the guards for an explanation as to why we were not notified of him being here, but they seemed to be as dumbfounded as the rest of us. Before I could speak up, he spoke.

“Your security has gotten a lot better, yet it’s still quite awful. But not to worry we will work on that and if the other goblins are like you or worse, we will have a lot better chances at winning this war than I previously expected.”

He sounded a bit different than what I remembered. Usually, his words were soft but now they were harder somehow and while I did like that, he found a way for us to have a better chance at winning. I was displeased at him being able to get here without any of us knowing it.

“Yes, that’s good to hear but why are you here like this, why didn't you let us know that you were here.”

“Well, there were a few reasons, but the most important one was that this is a goblin encampment, and I needed information on how goblin encampments work, especially how their security works.”

“Anyway, there is no time to waste I will want to speak with the persons that made these maps but later. First, I would like to see all the commanders and troops outside lined up in formation, and I want to speak to the goblin that was in charge of infiltrating other goblin groups and acquiring the females.”

After that, he came and shook my hand then nodded at everyone else and walked out. Everyone was waiting on me to approve his commands which I quickly did. Everyone hurried off to wake up everyone and get them in formation outside.

I wondered why he wanted to see the infiltration commander. I hope that he will not punish him because of his failure that led to this war, otherwise, I need to stop him from doing so, and confronting him might not be the best thing.

POV Rich Dirt

The Chief was at my side as I looked toward the field where the goblins were gathering. Some were quite quick to move here but some looked very sleepy. Turns out some goblins are not morning people.

I will most likely train that out of them but first I need more information about how the other goblins fight. Luckily, I have a whole bunch of them here that should know exactly what the enemy will do and how they will do it.

A smallish goblin named Glin-leafe was brought to me when I’m guessing over half of the goblins were assembled. For some reason, he was escorted by guards that hold their hands on his shoulders. I didn’t question that but looked him over.

“As I understand it you are responsible for the infiltration of the enemy tribes and encampments, please describe to me everything from the start, your decisions on how to infiltrate and your mistakes and successes.”

As soon as I finished speaking, his worried face turned into one of concentration as he started to describe all that I asked him. As I suspected goblins really weren’t worried about infiltration.

That was one of the reasons it was quite easy for them to get females. The turnover of goblins was quite fast, a lot died and a lot were born especially if there were a plenty of breeders. Because of that disguising as a member of those factions was quite easy.

This was an excellent development and I quickly ordered him to bring all infiltrators here and also told Chief that we might need more of them so they might want to think who else would be good at that.

The Chief advisor went off with Glin-leafe to work that out. We still had to wait for the goblins to be awoken and get in line. The commanders and council members were all already here and I was quite surprised that they had formed a council. It was a pretty good development for them.

I asked them to explain if they knew how the goblin encampments worked and how the goblins waged war. They were a bit insulted that I thought that they did not know how to run things, but I soon had to stop them because they were telling me about how they currently run things.

When I told them about the misunderstanding the hurt feelings were forgotten as they started to discuss and remember how things used to be. Some pointed questions helped me to put together a better picture on how the enemy operated.

That advisor came back with Glin-leafe and brought back a mixed group of goblins and soon some were brought up from the gathered troops. I formed them into a different group that was going to work on infiltration tactics. I had those commanders that were chosen also listening in about the other goblins and how we expected them to behave. I also explained why it was needed for them.

When they found out that they will not be infiltrating to get more females and males but to sabotage the food supply and get intelligence on the enemy they were quite surprised. But soon seemed a lot more eager about the new assignment.

That also led to the discussion on how goblin armies were supplied. Turns out quite poorly. The goblins were expected to gather or hunt a lot of their food as they moved forward toward their destination.

When we finally stopped speaking on those matters the troops had been in formation for quite a while and I saw some of them starting to get antsy. They were able to hold their attention and rank quite a lot longer than I expected. It was good news as it showed they had better discipline than expected. When I last fought with them and was facing the current goblins I might have not survived.

I walked in front of them and through the ranks testing some of the goblin’s stability and looking over their weapons. What they were working with was better than expected. After that, I walked in front of them.

“I AM HERE TO HELP YOU FIGHT A WAR. FOR THAT I WILL BE PUTTING YOU THROUGH TRAINING TO SEE WHAT YOU ARE MADE OF AND TO MAKE YOU BETTER.”

“But before we do that, I need every one of you to split into two factions of equal strength and face each other. You will not use weapons in this exercise, and you will not use your current tactics you are to use your old ones. I will need to see how goblins would fight goblins to know what we are up against so I could train you to defeat the enemy who fights like that.”

“IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?”, There was silence, “IF I ASK YOU, TO YOU UNDERSTOOD I EXPECT, YES COMMANDER, IN RETURN. IS THAT UNDERSTOOD?”

“YES, COMMANDER.”

I heard yes commander in echoes back while it was not perfect it still brought back a lot of memories. I started to organise with the other commanders and the unit leaders so I could observe the fight.

After the first practice fight some of the older commanders brought up some more tactics that are commonly used and we acted them out as well. They didn’t use a lot of tactics mostly just rushing in, in a loose formation and attack. Then there was of course the formation fighting but that was not well developed.

Unfortunately, it seemed that they did know and like flanking, which was disappointing to hear especially that they used that tactic often. Of course, ambushing was also one of their preferred ways of fighting. This was of course a good thing because my plan also involved a lot of ambushes to get their numbers down.

After that, the main army group went into training, mostly in formations and on how to use their shields better. I showed them a formation similar to how Romans used to fight and left them to it.

My focus was on the infiltrators as I started to teach them some of the things I know and what they should be doing. Their first task was to gather information and pass it down to the scouts that will then bring it here.

I also talk to the Chief about moving the army headquarters closer so the communication would be easier with the infiltrators and the scouts.

The enemy encampment was about a week’s march away. With the latest information, they seemed to be still gathering but mostly bringing in more food. There also seemed to be some infighting between them but no actual fighting just a lot of arguing about who is in charge, which might be an extremely good opportunity for us.

I talked to the Chief about the possibility of harvesting or destroying all the food supply from here to the enemy encampment so they could not replenish their food supplies as they walked here.

I also got really good news from the scouts that there were only three good locations where to cross the smaller river that separated our camps. It was already nighttime by the time I was finished, and I was led to a tent that was set up for me to sleep in.

The bed turned out to be extremely nice with soft fur to make it soft and warm. I had brought some dried food just in case the food that the goblins made was not the best or even safe for me to eat but it seems I was wrong. The main food supply was a stew made in big cast iron pots which I have no idea where they have gotten them from but it was surprisingly good.