[CONFLICT] Kill Them Softly

[u/thewildryanoceros]

12,875 Infantry, 3,950 Cavalry, and 1,625 Mages, a total of 18,450 Nords begin engaging in guerilla warfare in High Rock, attempting to slow the Aldmeri advance. They attack in groups of 20-200, and avoid all conventional warfare. Instead, they use hit-and-run tactics, sabotage, and small scale ambushes to reduce the strength the Aldmeri Army.

[u/thewildryanoceros]

/u/tofu_kiin

[u/tofu_kiin → u/thewildryanoceros]

The attacks have limited effectiveness as the "guerrillas" are outsiders with no knowledge of the local language or land, and are widely seen as leeching off the local war-weary populace. Specifically, in the region of Glenumbra Moors, they are viewed as a mildly annoying outside influence, by a people who historically sided with the Direnni against the Alessian Order.

[u/thewildryanoceros → u/tofu_kiin]

As the attacks continue, they grow in intensity and effectiveness, as the Guerrillas adapt to their terrain and territory. In addition to their vicious guerrilla tactics, the Nords begin a heinous psychological warfare, mutilating the corpses of slain Aldmeri soldiers, and leaving them for their surviving enemies to find.

The thousands fracture and separate into hundreds of smaller groups, harassing the idol Aldmeri Army from all sides.

[u/tofu_kiin → u/thewildryanoceros]

[The Aldmeri Army's not advancing.]

[u/thewildryanoceros → u/tofu_kiin]

Though I saw a post that said they were, edited.

[u/tofu_kiin → u/thewildryanoceros]

[ I will confess I am out of the loop in this damned war and may just leave this to tion and the mods.]

The Aldmeri soldiers consider the guerrillas to be minor nuisances, especially as they divide into smaller groups, making them easier to eliminate. Battlemages have made a game of seeing how many Nords they can shoot down from their protected positions. The guerrillas' mutilation of corpses have little effect on the Altmer, as they are used to serving alongside Bosmer, and no effect on the Bosmer who proceed to make hearty meals of the corpses of their own. Citizens of Glenumbra Moors are reminded that since they agreed to surrender, harbouring guerrillas is a crime punishable by complete destruction of the community in which guerrilla sympathisers were found.

[u/thewildryanoceros → u/tofu_kiin]

After evaluating their losses, the Nords adapt and change their tactics, luring the Aldmeri into traps. [Secret] They would give hints as to their location, attracting Aldmeri fires to their position. Then, like a pack of wolves, they would fall upon the elves, and while the elves were in disarray, they would pull out before substantial losses could be taken, vanishing into the air.

[u/tofu_kiin → u/thewildryanoceros]

Guard duty again. The young mage hates guard duty. It just means losing sleep to shoot off fireballs at random Nords. They weren't even allowed to pursue them, as that was apparently not part of their overall strategy. What a pointless task.

Bored, she begins practicing her illusion spells. Muffle, invisibility, detect life... Suddenly, outlines of figures appear in the forest. The guerrillas again! Excited, she alerts the other mages, and they commence a game of seeing how many Nords they can shoot down. Soon, every mage learns detect life, and they resume the playing of this pointless game, occasionally going on "Nord hunts" to alleviate boredom (a favourite of the Bosmer soldiers) while their counterparts in Cyrodiil fight the real battles...

[u/thewildryanoceros → u/tofu_kiin]

The wild Nords slowed their attacks after taking heavy losses. When thy finally realized the clever trick, they resorted to a new tactic. Infantrymen attacked in the middle of the night, while many of he elves were asleep. They cut down the night watchmen, and bound and gagged dozens of the tall elves, taking them alive. They bound them tight, and when they returned to the Nordic hideouts, the burned out the elves' vocal cords so that they couldn't cry out. The next time the elves used magic to detect life around them, it would not be Nords, but their own elves they found. Of course, they wouldn't know that…

The Nords yet again adjust their tactics. They now crept close to the enemy lines, and charged in, so that the powerful blasts of elvish magic were just as deadly to the Aldmeri forces as they were to the Nords. They specifically targeted the mages, and killed as many as the could before archers began shooting at the elves, cutting down a handful more, and covering their brethren's escape.

While the infantry engaged in these daring tactics, Battlemages cloaked themselves and snuck into enemy camps in the black of night, often stealing Aldmeri Army intel before setting a handful of tents ablaze, burning the soundly sleeping elves in the sleeping rolls.

Meanwhile, the Nordic cavalry, atop their hardy steeds, in groups of fifty to one hundred, carried out swift and violent attacks on Aldmeri infantry patrols, and raided the baggage trains that carted valuable food and supplies to the elves, and redirecting it to the guerrillas or to the local populace, who needed the supplies in the war torn country.

[u/tofu_kiin → u/thewildryanoceros]

As more troops set sail to Cyrodiil, the remaining Aldmeri soldiers find themselves engaging in more intense battles. They now spend most of their time living among the civilian population, that the Nords may not attack them without also claiming Breton lives. However, it limits their range to heavily populated areas. To compensate, army begins raids on the Nords as well. Some groups become so dedicated to avenging the losses of their comrades that they pursue the Nords for days, never returning to camp. They quickly remove bodies of their own that the Nords may not know how many they kill. From the body count of Nords they find, they know the Nords are taking heavy losses, and it is only a matter of time before they run out of soldiers or supplies. The civilian population suffers the brunt of this protracted warfare.

[u/thewildryanoceros → u/tofu_kiin]

The Nords do what they can to avoid civilian casualties, though many were unavoidable. They began to inform to spread anti-Aldmeri propaganda, telling the populace that the Thalmor were trying to use the Bretons as human shields to save themselves. They developed codes and signals to tell the people when to flee an area so that the Nords could carry out their raids with out fear of innocent casualties. If the Thalmor began to catch on and followed the civilians out, skilled Nord archers would begin picking off the Aldmeri soldiers, and Nord agents would emerge from the crowd to take them down.

[M] /u/cthulhuh00p could we determine how many are left on either side?