Stopping a Fleet

A few silent minutes passed as we put our minds to work on something that would bring turn the tables for us... But given the numbers and technology those criminals have, it was hard to find a winning strategy... Even the strategists in the room were unable to think of anything.

"If we want to win... We should reduce the enemy numbers before the battle actually becomes heated, right?", Jeffrey asked while still thinking.

"If you are thinking about using traps to attack them as they get closer, it's a good idea, but we have already considered that... We have no idea from which direction they will come from, therefore we can't accurately place traps...", one of the strategists stated, letting Jeffrey a little bit disappointed.

It would be rather good if we could come with a better and mobile trap which we can easily move to the enemy's coming position if we predicted it wrong... Or maybe a trap that can quickly be deployed once we saw the enemies coming. With those thoughts, suddenly I remembered something...

"So, what about unarmed vessels? We have some to spare?"

"What Dagger?", their leader, the knight who was surprised to see me before, started to say. "You want to bring unarmed to a fight? This is crazy and... Wait... I see where you are going with that mind... You want to use the classic fire ship tactic, don't you? It could work... Mainly giving that we have countless unarmed vessels available with us"

"Well, Coventry has a formidable military, I was taught anti-ship tactics in case we were brought to fight on water. It's the major strategy of the Coventry since they don't own any military vessels, and I never thought I would put it to use since Coventry is a kingdom surrounded by land only"

"I see... Well, it's a good tactic indeed, no wonder why they taught you that. Cheap... But sometimes ineffective if the ships cannot reach the enemy on time. We would need our fastest vessels to make it work out properly, or we can distract the enemy with something else, forcing them to be in positions they cannot fire at our vessels, or at least not with all their warships or all of their weapons"

"Well... For most of the military vessels that exist in the world right now, their maximum potential with weapons is when they fire either to the port or starboard side", one of the strategists commented to his captain while the fox jumped to get our attention, and pointed to my sword, then to the schematic of a ship on the wall.

"What... It wants us to board the enemies? We will easily be defeated if we do so...", the same strategist asked while looking at the fox with disbelief.

"I don't think that's the case. I think it wants to understand the weapons our enemies have, those cannons...", I translated for him.

"Hum... Makes sense. Well, they are still in development, even the older version of the Roseblood has many problems, or so I heard... They have a considerably less effective range to be used against vessels compared to trebuchets, but it relies on the fact that the trebuchet and catapults are a little bit limited to shoot at a close range, and attack moving targets from very far away is pretty complicated, in terms of aiming. Those cannons were made for close-combat destruction and can easily wreck a ship if they enter the effective range..."

"Close range effective weapons... Huh... I got it", Jeffrey started to say. "We can have our weapons rearranged on the ship, right? We can transfer the trebuchets of a few ships to a ship with cannons, this way they can attack the enemies with the trebuchets and if they approach, we use those cannons against them"

"What? That reduces our mobility. It's crazy and..."

"Wait, no. Sire, we know they are coming from the north, we're just not sure if they will come taking route more to the east, west, or center. This means we can position ourselves to fight them beforehand, we won't need this mobility during the course of the battle. Meanwhile, this will allow us to use more fireships without using the merchant ships we have", one of the strategists commented. The leader closed his eyes, considering the possibilities.

"Alright, alright, you convinced me. But how's the strategy going to work, exactly? We have the fire ships and the 18 vessels now.

"If I may suggest", a strategist started to say, "Let's use our vessels to its full extent in a double line formation, the catapults and the cannon warships in the frontal line and the trebuchet warships behind, firing projectiles over our ships"

"Well, are the military vessels tougher than regular ships?", I asked curiously. "I think we can send the two free warships we got ahead as fire ships, shielding the other fire ships from the enemy as they approach. Once the first enemies, or own first ships are taken, they will be forced to evade the wrecks, giving us extra time to fire or ram at them before they can get close enough to our own vessels".

"Yes, they are tougher, might not be able to last for long against cannons, but for sure they can help us, according to your strategy", the leader said and sighed. "Well, looks like we have our winning strategy, someone wants to add anything up?"

"Well, if I may...", Jeffrey started to speak. "I think we can actually use the idea of boarding the enemy ships as well..."

"What, are you crazy? How we will even do that?", one of the strategists said, shocked and not believing what he just heard. He was the same one who first objected to the fox, assuming what was Beech's plan.

"If you listen to me before judging, my plan is the following... We have smaller boats aboard the vessels, right? We can use one of the fire ships' small boats to load a small team to board, secretly, one of the enemies. We seize control of it and use it as a fire ship... You know, using their own resources against them... Then they can board another ship, if they are still capable of doing so", he suggested.

"It is... It's not totally a bad idea...", the leader said, signing for the strategist to stay quiet before he spoke what he thought of that.

"But... But...", the strategist said, against what the leader spoke. "They would need to be quite strong to seize control of a whole ship and set it on fire before it hits another ship. I don't think we have the people who would attempt such a dangerous challenge, are there?"

"It's true... I think we need at least one person in this very room to say that will lead the squad, to boost the morale of the soldiers about this bold plan and make them join this dangerous plan... But who?", he asked, looking at the room around for the volunteers... But no one was willing to take the risk. "Well... Then it's decided, no small attack groups will be formed to attack the-"

"Wait... We need every single chance we have to defeat the enemy... If no one goes, I will...", I said, without even thinking straight.