Section 127: Tricks

On the battlefield, the meaning of armor cannot be overstated.

Although no one can tell whether light armor, heavy armor, or no armor is stronger in one-on-one combat, on the battlefield, armor almost determines combat power. Armies without armor are vulnerable in close combat. This is especially evident in the case of archers and gunners.

Sometimes, people don't even need to look at the actual combat table at all, just looking at the armor to judge the combat effectiveness of an army. Poorly armed forces will hardly have any good armor - high-end armor is expensive equipment, and an army that can be equipped with good armor will inevitably only be elite.

Even in the midst of chaos, this is the case. The first gift from the Chaos Cult was the Chaos Armor, which was a testament to the status of the Chaos Cultist and a manifestation of his strength. A Chaos Cultist must demonstrate outstanding abilities in battle in order to receive this gift. So no matter how you look at it, the Chaos warriors with Chaos armor are far superior to the Marauders.

Right now, that's the best evidence.

Although the light cavalry of the Bloodfang Lord had the advantage of the charge, in fact they were unable to rush the second line of heavy cavalry, although they broke the enemy's first line of light cavalry. The two armies were entangled, and the soldiers slashed each other on horseback. At this time, the numerical superiority was quickly manifested. Because the heavy cavalry of the second line entangled the abusive warriors, the light cavalry on the side of Ishrufat, which had just been scattered, could gather and attack the enemy from the rear, like pies, flanking the apopathic warriors in the middle.

Despite their incredible bravery and tenacity, the warriors were inferior in equipment and numbers, and were at a disadvantage of being flanked. They were holding out, but they didn't look like they could win the battle in vain.

The Bloodfang Lord ordered his men to speed up, but it was too late. The defeat of his hussars was assured. Right before his eyes, his hussars collapsed and began to flee uncontrollably. At first, there were only a few people, but running away was contagious, and in the blink of an eye, the abusive warriors who had lost their will to fight began to turn around and flee, allowing the enemy to slash and kill from behind.

The victor's side pursued closely, chasing all the way to a close distance in front of the main phalanx of the Bloodfang Lord before stopping. The hussars who managed to escape thought they would be protected by friendly forces, but instead they were given friendly swords and axes. Seeing that the prologue had turned into a miserable defeat, the Bloodfang Lord was furious and ordered the entire army to "kill the cowards".

Only a few light cavalry on the Bloodfang Lord's side withdrew from the battlefield on both flanks, and the rest were wiped out by the combined attack of enemy and friendly forces, and were almost completely slaughtered.

However, this blow to the Legion of Sadism is not so much in strength as in psychology. The Marauders are the lowest force in the Chaos Legion, and the main use of the Light Cavalry is to pursue, harass, and scout, rather than to fight head-on. In the final analysis, the decisive role in such a large-scale battle is the engagement of the main forces.

Although it is said that this trick of "heavy cavalry mixed with light cavalry" caused the Bloodfang Lord to lose almost all the light cavalry, on the other hand, the Bloodfang Lord also abolished the enemy's strongest combat power - magic. Purely from the point of view of the result, the side of the Bloodfang Lord is more advantageous.

But at this time, he noticed that there was a new movement in the enemy army. Among the enemy forces, the forward troops that had just won the prelude battle were divided into two groups, one was heavy cavalry, and they almost all returned to their positions, ready to enter the next round of engagement. The other group was the light cavalry, and more light cavalry poured out of the enemy's battle formation, gathered with their companions, and began to detour towards the wings of the Bloodfang Lord.

The two flanks of the Dreadnosaur Legion were threatened by the enemy, and their speed immediately slowed down. The apocaustic warriors paused, waiting for the battle to come. Although they are not in good shape, they are not afraid. Because on the one hand, the light cavalry did not have the ability to attack the enemy's tight phalanx alone, and on the other hand, the abusive warriors expected more than they feared the battle.

The Bloodfang Lord had noticed the change in his wings, but he didn't care too much. True, he lost the prologue battle, and the light cavalry in his unit was almost completely annihilated. But that doesn't change anything, the hussars are important in pursuit, but that's all. Now they can't pose much of a threat.

He led the central phalanx on his way and swooped down on the enemy.

......

"Charge!" Gander shouted, leading the charge to the enemy line ahead. The enemy had stopped, shrunk in formation, and formed a shield wall on the front line, intending to engage in a head-to-head encounter. As mentioned earlier, the most common armament of the Chaos Marauder cavalry is the black steel spear, and all the light cavalry at this time will raise their spears forward and rush forward.

With the power gained by the charge of the warhorse, the hussars are capable of creating a deadly threat to any infantry. But as everyone knows, this threat only works with the first charge. If they do not get out of battle in time, the weak defense of the light cavalry will become their greatest weakness, causing them to suffer heavy casualties and lose their combat effectiveness - as the prelude has just proved successfully.

From a distance, those abusive warriors let out bloodthirsty shouts one by one, clenching the weapons in their hands, and none of them retreated. It looks like they're planning to use their flesh and blood to stop the galloping horses and spears. Gander remembered the sight of sadistic berserkers with a courage unmatched by other cultists, and they were even able to let the knights' spears pierce their bodies without fear, and then swing their weapons to deliver a fatal blow. In the face of this crazy will to fight, no army can hold out for long. This is also the reason why the number of sadistic believers is not small, but the combat power is overwhelming the entire chaos.

Fortunately, Ashrufat did not let him fight with such a madman at all.

As he advanced, Gander's mount slowed down, and when the two armies were thirty paces apart, his horse ran away in small steps. "Turn around!" shouted the scout captain, and the first to turn his horse's head.

The abusive warriors were originally full of fighting spirit, just waiting for a life-and-death fight, but unexpectedly, the other party actually turned around and fled after approaching. When they had come to their senses and realized that the enemy had indeed fled far away instead of a false shot, more than one of them began to laugh, laughing at the enemy's incompetence and cowardice.

They decided to ignore this cowardly enemy. But when they tried to keep walking, they found that the enemies had gathered again.

As before, Gander once again formed a phalanx of his men, and the light cavalry raised their spears and launched a second charge. In the same way, the warriors of the Torture did not dare to take it lightly and once again lined up to face the battle. And the final outcome of this charge was no different from the previous one, when the two armies were thirty paces apart, the light cavalry once again turned their horses and withdrew.

Once again, the Sadist warriors tried to leave, only to find that the retreating enemy had regrouped into a charging phalanx, posing as if they were charging.

The sadistic fighters are starting to feel uneasy. The veteran of them shouted the most vicious curses at their opponents in an abusive voice, trying to provoke them, but to no avail. The commander of the hussars, the scout captain of Ashrufat, Gander, was a veteran marauder with a lot of experience. You can say that he lacks the courage to fight, but you must not say that he lacks the skills to fight. He ignored the other party's provocation and scolding, and just re-staged the scene that had just happened.

The same thing happened not only on Gander's side, but also on the other wing. This is a strategy that Ashrufat has decided on a long time ago, and has repeatedly emphasized.

The battle that the Lord of Bloodfang had envisioned did not happen at all—there was no battle at all, only confrontation. The light cavalry took on a charging stance, forcing the Bloodfang Lord's flanks to stop and fight. But they refused to fight, and each charge rushed to a critical distance, that is, about thirty paces, and then turned around and withdrew. At this distance, the abusive warriors could not take advantage of the opportunity to launch a counter-charge - even if they did, they would not be able to catch the enemy.

This method was very effective in delaying the movement of the phalanx on both wings of the Bloodfang Lord.

If someone looked down in the sky at this time, they would see that the battlefield was in a strange situation: the straight battle line of the Blood Fang Lord's subordinates had now turned into a triangular formation with a central protrusion. No, it's not so much a triangular formation, but a disconnect between his center and the wings. The soldiers on both flanks were pinned down by these light cavalry, who refused to fight or retreat.

Although it is now obvious to anyone that these light cavalry do not want to engage at all, but only want to contain and harass, the abusive warriors do not dare to ignore them. After all, the unanimous charge of the hussars is no joke. If they were given the kind of opportunity to break away with one blow, the light cavalry would also be able to inflict heavy casualties on the hoplites of the Dreadful Legion.

Now, no matter how sluggish the Bloodfang Lord is, he knows the other party's calculations. His legion was equipped with the left, center, and right wings in a ratio of one to two, according to normal habits. So if the two wings can't keep up, it means that the combat power of his troops is directly reduced by half.

Although theoretically, the Bloodfang Lord ordered his troops to turn around and return, and connecting with the two flanks in a line would solve the problem. But in reality, this kind of retreat is very dangerous and extremely demoralizing. For the middle and lower class soldiers, they don't have a fast-moving herald to inform the situation and changes in the entire battlefield, they only know that the general told them to turn around and retreat.

"Was that the idea? Ashrufat...... I'm really overestimating you. The Demon Prince smiled and muttered to himself in the midst of the battle. He had already thought that this "Tzeentch's Chaos Lord" must have a trick and would never have a head-to-head confrontation, but now his guess has been proven.

But it doesn't matter. Tzeentch's greatest ability is magic, and now, magic can no longer appear on this battlefield. No matter how good Ashrufat was at calculating, the strength of his legion had already dropped a lot. What's more, this ruse fully shows that the Chaos Lord named Ashrufat is not going to have a real battle with him, a face-to-face battle without any tricks.

"My lord, shouldn't we...... Slow down?" A herald who had just reported the situation on both flanks said to the Bloodfang Lord.

This hapless creature was immediately slaughtered by the Lord of the Bloodfangs.

The Bloodfang Lord didn't care at all about this seemingly unfavorable situation. Because he knew that as long as he could break through Ashrufat's frontal defenses, he would win. It doesn't matter what the light cavalry on both flanks is, only the frontal battlefield is the key. Once the center of the Ashrufat front was breached, it would be easy to defeat the enemy.

"Let the Steel Bull Knight strike!" the Bloodfang Lord ordered loudly, shaking off the blood stains on his battle axe. "Break through the enemy line!"