Heroes of Might and Magic: Grand Consul

Chapter 88 Changing Strategies
Su Mu led Ouling and Mide to Qiangnu Town.

While passing through Wright City, Zoran was also preparing his troops for battle.

After all, Qiangnu Town is an important pass in the Marquisate. As long as this place is held, the advance of the Isidore army can be blocked to the south. The nobles are aware of this.

Zoran prepared to contact several cities to the south to send troops to provide support, so Sumu went ahead to relieve the siege.

Having decided to fight, Su Mu naturally didn't delay any longer and launched a full-speed attack, heading south.

Once past Wright City, they encountered scattered fortified scouts. The Earthbow naturally wouldn't let them go, shooting them down from their horses at a distance of several hundred meters, leaving a few alive to interrogate them.

At first, the centaurs were stubborn and unwilling to speak.

But they had captured more than one person, and after a period of torture, someone would eventually talk.

"This time, the vanguard is led by the druid Hirel, and the deputy leader is the defector Kael."

"The archer tower has been captured, and Kyle is recruiting soldiers here. We are only responsible for scouting the surrounding area, and we really don't know the main army's movements."

Seeing that no useful information could be obtained from further interrogation, they ordered Ouling to drag him away.

Su Mu unfolded the map and set his sights on the closer archer tower.

Locke Kyle, whom I hadn't observed directly before, now seems to possess formidable diplomatic skills, especially during the Biological Month, as he recruits wild units from all over the place and builds up a considerable army.

The only drawback is the mixed troop types, low morale, and difficulty in choosing suitable and effective combinations.

If he continues to occupy the archer towers and raises a ranged force, he will indeed be difficult to deal with.

"Let's pass through here first and see where Kyle is. If we can catch him, we'll be in luck."

The soldiers inside the tent were also eager to fight, after all, everyone hated traitors even more.

So the army broke camp and advanced toward the archer's tower.

As the troops advanced, they encountered increasing resistance. First, a group of swift centaur hunters began harassing the battle formation.

With such a small force, they naturally dared not charge into the enemy lines, but they could roar from a great distance and outflank the advancing forces, putting pressure on them.

Many of the soldiers in Kuraki Town were veterans who had experienced several major battles. With the added benefit of intermediate leadership skills, they were not afraid of the people on the periphery at all. They even watched the enemy with interest and occasionally fired an arrow. Even when they were some distance away from the enemy, they were frightened and scattered.

"Isildur sent these guys as the vanguard? From this distance, I can't even tell the males from the females, how dare they howl?"

"Four-legged creatures are faster when they run away, so there's nothing wrong with that."

"They can only bully the stupid soldiers of Qiangnu Town. If they dare to charge into my shield formation, I guarantee they'll be bleeding from their heads."

"Hahahahaha!"

The newly recruited soldiers, who had only been deployed this month, lost all fear upon seeing the veterans' unrestrained mockery. They felt that the centaurs, who came and went like the wind, were nothing special, and even taking it for granted that they could snore amidst the enemy's shouts.

As they got closer to the archer's tower, the harassing soldiers became visibly anxious.

Finally, after gathering some miscellaneous troops, they launched a frontal assault.

The process was swift and uneventful; a volley of arrows from the Earth Bow shattered the enemy's formation.

The centaurs switched from a thrusting formation to a firework formation, scattering in all directions, leaving the shield bearers with no chance to fight.

Kyle recruited a new hero from somewhere; although not very strong, he was proficient in earth elemental magic. [Colin (Knight): Attack 3, Defense 3, Spell Power 2, Knowledge 2.]

Advanced Earth Element Mastery, Basic Logistics Training.

He used the slowing spell of the advanced earth element to slow down Su Mu's troops, so that when the centaur hunters charged for the first time, even the speed of the wild griffon could not fly and could only struggle in the gale.

They thought that without the harassment of flying units, the Centaur Hunters could charge into the archer formation with their high speed. However, the Earth Bow was completely unaffected by the Earth Elemental's slowing effect and unleashed a barrage of arrows that took away hundreds of corpses, routing the hastily assembled force, which then scattered and fled.

Looking at the defeated fortified troops, Su Mu was not very happy.

Ouling noticed the lord's serious expression. He looked at the situation on the field and immediately understood the lord's worries: "The enemy is very fast. Their first wave of attack was powerful, but they don't fight us. They fight when they can and run when they can't. It's a bit difficult to catch them."

Because the Centaur Hunter has a no-fly ability, the Wild Griffin cannot attack. Even if it repels the enemy, it cannot expand its gains and the enemy can easily escape.

"Should I use an exorcism spell to make the wild griffins chase after us?"

Both Su Mu and Ou Ling possessed exorcism techniques, which they learned from Kyle's White Stone City. Once the effects of the Slowing Spell were dispelled, the griffins could remain unaffected and continue hunting down fleeing enemies.

Su Mu waved his hand: "No need! Kyle would love for us to do that."

He knows all about the magic of White Stone City, and he must also know that we have learned this water magic.

He sent these ragtag soldiers out to block us, firstly to test our strength, and secondly to deplete our magic power.

We have no magical supplies before heading to Strongbow Town, and if we use too much, we won't be able to continue.

While the elemental-baptized units are powerful, they consume mana after being commanded for a period of time. Even though Ouling has Soul Arrow to replenish mana, he still needs to command ranged attacks. Sending griffins to chase them, as is the case now, is a waste of mana and not worth it.

Oling nodded: "Kyle is trying to wear us down, but as long as we can win, we're not afraid of his attrition."

After advancing to the advanced Soul Arrow technique, Ouling was absolutely qualified to say this.

Su Mu pointed to Qiangnu Town on the map: "The more the enemy tries to stop us, the more determined we must be to march. The situation in Qiangnu Town is probably not good right now. After we capture the archer tower, ignore the waterwheel for now and head straight for Qiangnu Town."

The army continued its march, and when it arrived at the Archer's Tower, it found that all the training slots for the week had been used up, and there wasn't even a single enemy stationed there.

It seems this probing attack completely extinguished Kyle's desire for a duel. He's basically adopting a kiting tactic, avoiding direct confrontation and fighting from the sidelines. If he can't beat the main force, can't he at least beat ordinary village nobles? At this rate, the marquisate will be utterly destroyed.

Oling said angrily, "Let's defeat them head-on at Strongbow Town and see what Kyle and Hillel do then."

After some thought, Su Mu wrote a spell letter, affixed Lord Kuraki's stone seal, and sent it to Langlit Castle by messenger.

"We're definitely going to have to fight a big battle at Qiangnu Town, but we can't be so passive. We need to find a way to counter the enemy's highly mobile units."

In fact, as the game progresses, everyone basically plays their cards openly. Kyle and Hillel are not fools. They know they can't win head-on, so they use the strengths of their units and heroes to harass the enemy constantly. In short, they won't lose too much.

The troops in Kuraki Town are all baptized with earth element, making them more suitable for defense and less suited to chasing fast-moving enemies.

This is determined by the characteristics of the unit type, unless there is a hero who can compensate for it. At present, Su Mu does not have that kind of all-round talent under his command, and even if he did, he would not think he would be that great.

Throughout history, military operations have always involved leveraging one's own greatest strengths and continuously reinforcing them, using one's strengths to attack the enemy's weaknesses.

Now that the other party has made the first move, he naturally has to find a countermeasure. This is where Longleatburgh's resources come into play. The Garfield family has ruled for so long; Maggie can be a hands-off manager, but she has to be able to handle things.

"Let's go! Target: Qiangnu Town."

(End of this chapter)