Homesteading in a fantasy world

I was woken up by someone trying to sneak into my tent. I let him come a bit closer before I threw a rock at him but gently so as not to hurt him. The frightened yell was quite funny, and I congratulated him on making it this far into the camp without being noticed.

Before going to dinner yesterday I gave the infiltrators orders to try to sneak into the encampment but also gave notice to the guards that it was happening. So, I’m quite surprised someone actually made it so deep in.

I let him go and looked at the sky. It seemed that in a few hours the sun would rise but it was about time to go and wake up all the troops and start them running.

After a small meet-up with the infiltrators I sent them to sleep and after that, they will be moving out. I had a strong suspicion that we didn’t have long before the enemy will start to move out but hopefully, the infiltrators would be able to slow them down. We will need as much info as possible to know what’s happening.

Waking up the troops in the middle of the night and getting them to run until they puked was a sick pleasure of mine. I remembered my own time as a runner and when I was made to run until vomiting. I even made the other commanders run but I also ran with them to show support and of course, yell at them for how slow they were.

When that was done it was time to teach them some stretches and body training. They had a break during lunch when I spoke with the Chief. It seemed that they agreed with the plan to move the headquarters forward and to keep it mobile when we needed to start to back off back to here.

After lunch the troops started to practice fighting, some did one-on-one practice while others started proper formation training. During that time, I also went to visit the crafters.

I was quite unhappy about the shield that the goblins used. Now the shields themselves were quite fine the problem was with the goblin's body structure. It didn’t really work with the shield formations. Their arms were simply too short and belly too big, although some of the goblins with more evolutions were able to make that work as their proportions were better.

The problem was I would not be able to make the shield wall I wanted for the frontline, so we could hold the other army in place so the fight will not turn into a loose melee. If that happened, we would quickly get overrun.

My plan was to make special shield carriers that only carried a shield. I showed them the shield that I came up with and made using their tools. It would have two handles and a hold bar. It kind of looked like a riot shield but it had small spikes at the bottom of the shield so it could be driven into the ground and then hold in place by the full body weight of the goblin.

If they did it properly and overlapped the edges a bit, it would make an instant wall. Then the goblins behind the shield carriers can use their spears the attack over the shield wall or help support it. But they will not be the main attack force meant to kill, their job is to keep the enemy from advancing.

The main attack force will throw spears or javelins. Those will also need to be made and a lot of them, but the entire goblin workforce was put to work on this plan.

The shield carriers and spear wielders will be holding the front while endless spears falling onto the enemy. We should have a good chance of winning if we played our cards correctly before the fight begins.

I had hoped that some of the goblins could use my short bows. I had brought 8 with me but the goblins simply weren’t that good with the bows so my plan to use them in ambushes will unfortunately not work.

I wish I had time and the manpower to make some crossbows which I believe the goblins would have a lot better time using. But I guess some plans would need to be changed and the ambushes will also have to be done with throwing weapons.

I took another day to train the troops similar to the first day and did some special training for the commanders and unit leaders so they would know what to keep doing when I wasn’t here.

Now the entire tribe was doing something for the war. Warriors were training, while gatherers and crafters were preparing food or making equipment. On the third day of me being here, we headed out with a small group. Our goal was to scout out the area and establish the location for the forward command camp.

As I kept scouting, the more I disliked the terrain that we will most likely need to fight in. There was no advantage for us anywhere and the river itself while it was true that only three places were good for a crossing, they were all quite long and unfortunately offer no strategic advantage.

Out of curiosity, I followed the river upstream and there were some smaller places to cross making this river even worse for holding. Eventually, I made it to the edge of the mountain and there I found one of the best places I could imagine for a fight.

Now it was not perfect, but it would cut down the number advantage a lot. The place was a bit further in after a rise in the terrain. The river was extremely shallow here but the part that went down the slope was deep.

The river was on flat ground after the rise for a bit before it stopped at a quite sheer rock wall where there was a waterfall and ragged cliff face beyond. Thanks to the downhill part of the river being too deep to cross and the cliffs on the other side, if it was possible to funnel them through this location we could set up a good defence.

The only problem was that there was no good place to put some troops on the cliffs where the waterfall was because there was no flat ground up there that would be suitable enough. Of course, there was no way they will come through here, there were better places to cross the river.

As I looked at the river snaking down the hill and then visualised it going further on through the forest into the river that went by my farm, an idea started to form. There were too many places in the forest to cross the river but that gave me an excellent idea. Perhaps a bit mad one, but I think it would work.

If we build the dam and raised the river up, then they would be forced to cross here. Of course, we would need to protect the dam but if they chose to cross there it might even be a better place for a fight.

I gave the scouts a mission to scout here as well to see if anything was amiss with this place. Then I left and scouted the river one more time. There was a good enough place to make the dam thanks to the river being a lot deeper closer to the river that it flowed into.

The problem was that with my quick calculations and visualization a lot of the forest will be flooded but then again afterwards the dam can be dismantled and most of the water will drain out, but it will still mess up a lot of the forest.

Where the dam will be built will also need a command camp and an army camp, but I would also want a camp even deeper toward the enemy. So, I sent a message to the commanders and the Chief to move out the main force towards the future dam site. A little bit of march training will also be a good thing and the training can be continued here as well. I also gave an overview of the plan for the dam and the river. Hopefully, they will agree.

For the next two days, I scouted with the goblin scout and moved forward closer to the enemy camp. While watching the enemy scouts I noticed that everyone had some markings on their clothing and those were never mixed. Every scouting party only had one type of marking.

Soon we were able to get some information back from the infiltrators and a lot better picture started to form of the enemy army structure.

This was not a coherent army that was commanded by one person but made out of multiple smaller ones and they were not that friendly with each other. Sometimes some of that scouting parties square up against each other when they met out in the woods, it never turned into a fight, but it was always a close thing.

I ordered all our scouts to pull back so we would not be noticed yet and we made our way back towards the forward camp where most of the scouts were left. Then I moved back towards the dam camp where I found our troops practising and where a proper camp was already set up.