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Equipment
Armorer Thor at your service, Your Majesty. If I deduced Raziel’s word correctly, the Iron Titans are almost impervious to most of the equipments we have, at least currently. We’re gonna surprise him by developing stronger weapons and wipe that smug grin off his face when we mow down his “invincible” army like grass!
Right now we have little information about titans. But if they’re as the name suggest, giants made of iron, then there’s already things we can use in our disposal: Siege weapons. If the titan’s movements are slow, then mass boulders launched from catapults and trebuchets should be able to dent them. If their movement is too fast for that, then ballista with steel or mythril as bolt head should hopefully pierce them. As they’re made of metal, I think Lightening magic would also work against them. We could also dig some ditch traps and use their own massive weight against them.
Moreover, I think it’s finally time we revive the weapons abandoned by the whole world for a long time: Firearms! Akai has been babbling about her schematics on new artillery called anti-tank guns designed to pierce heavy armor. Sure, its possible titan will have magic shields that reduce physical damage, but the brute force of artillery is so huge that it’ll probably still be quiet effective. After all, 50% resistance meets 1 million firepower still results in 500,000 damage dealt, right? They are also much more accurate than siege weapons, enabling us to aim for titan’s weakness in case it exist, like their nape or something.
We also need to update equipments for our troops as well. Handheld weapons probably wouldn’t be too helpful against titans, but who said Raziel only has titan? There’s a possibility Raziel will augment his army with other weaker species as fodders, so fighting them would be the job of our field army. I heard your Majesty had acquired many legendary weapons and equipments on your adventure. May I borrow some of them? My blacksmiths will try to reverse engineer and replicate them for our army.
No matter what equipments we managed to invent, we need to make sure we can mass produce them even in war time. Our arms industry is neither as personalized as dwarven forge in Begus nor as massive as the war machine in Dorgania, but we don’t need to copy everything from others. The most important thing is our industry suits OUR need. Central’s renowned steel industry not only provides our army with steel weapons but is also crucial for civilian industry and for researching new weapons and artillery so it’s worth expanding and ensuring its function in war time. Not only do we need to protect iron and coal mines, but we also need to make plans on emergency evacuation of crucial industries to prevent them from being captured by enemy.
Military (1)
General Günther reporting in, Your Majesty. I’m regretful to tell you that our military had been in decline since the end of our Golden Age. If we want to defeat Raziel’s titan army or any future threats, radical reformations are required.
First we need to understand what exactly we are fighting against. We need to obtain all available information about those titans, like their ability, history and weaknesses. Archmage Frall seems to know something about them, along with Magic Spirit considering she’s the guardian of a fragment. Libraries in other countries might have some books about them but they’re probably restricted from public. Perhaps we can seek help from that pink hair priest in Calterburry library, the monk in Karabangui library, the librarian in Siriveta library and that questionable woman in Manastyr library? We could also expand Lady Akira’s Intelligence Center to both collect more information about titans and spy on foreign activities just in case. Our Military Academy also requires some expansion. Right now it only trains our soldiers to become monster hunters. I would like to add officer courses about how to fight as a proper army, such as strategic planning, chain of command, field battle, siege, as well as courses to train specialist like engineer and mage.
Now let’s talk about the current state of our army. Currently our army is a small, pure voluntary force. While the small number does reduce our logistical burden, it also meant it can be easily stretched thin. Every casualty is a huge lost especially for those that required years of training like swordsman and mage as they couldn’t be easily replaced with inexperienced conscript. While on paper voluntary force ensures high quality troops, it’s not the case for us, unfortunately. Due to rampant pacifism, able-body usually joined adventurers or other careers thus our ranks are filled with criminals and low quality plebs who joined due to no other jobs wanted them. Them being drunk, being sleepy on duty and being easily bribed to assassinate your Majesty just prove how serious the problem is.
I have some ideas to solve this. First I suggest expanding our combat tournaments. Your Majesty seems to have a wide variety of fighters in your party, like samurai, wrestler, archer and mage. Many people would love to see what kind of unique skills do the king’s companions posses. If possible, perhaps we can also invite the kitsune sisters and the tiger girl Naevy? They’re also competent fighters and would definitely attract lots of attentions. Hopefully many people will be impressed by the tournaments and pick up combat as sports, as it’ll not only ignite the fighting spirit in our society but also train them to be experienced manpower. When the time is right we can introduce limited conscription before going full on universal conscription. Able-body will enter service for a short time to be trained as spearman and other combat roles that require minimum training before entering reserve, while volunteers will serve as specialists that take longer to train such as mage and cavalry.
Military (2)
General Lind reporting in, dar… I mean Your Majesty! As I told you before, Central is now facing two imminent difficulties: Citizens being too ignorant to the outside danger and incoming surge of non-human refugees. I’ve come up with some ideas to solve these problems and prepare against Raziel’s titan.
Human in Central isn’t stranger to non-human species. But some of them are species we’ve never seen before and it’s the first time for us to settle so many non-human into human cities. I heard there’s a multi-race village called Pumumu which is friendly to us, perhaps we can consult with them on how to incorporate different species?
Another problem is the lax pacifism currently infested in our society, which isn’t good when Raziel is on our neck. Our soldiers received little respect from public and people would rather cling on to their mundane life than enlisting. The non-human refugees who’ll arrive soon would probably bring with them defeatism to our population when they talk about their ruined home, which would further dampen our morale. There’s only one option to survive this harsh time: Reviving Central Nationalism! It’ll not only strengthen people’s resolve to defend our country, but also help non-human forming national identities and blending in with our communities, as nothing unites people better than fighting together against a common threat.
I have a few ideas on how to do this. First we can slowly promote the idea in literature and art, such as commissioning that famous writer in Thremten to write books for us. It doesn’t need to be a blatant propaganda; just recording some fun and adventurous stories from our vanguard and military academy is enough to slowly marinate the public. Perhaps your Majesty can also share some adventures you have with your party? The adventurer story from the king himself will surely make a big hit! We can also organize some motivational speeches to let civilians understand the threat we’re facing and raise the morale of our soldiers. If you want I can make a public speech myself, as I’m sure women will be motivated by a female general and my look can motivate a lot of men. I mean even your Majesty said I’m hot… Also, if we can handle her, we can probably hire Scarlett to draw the portrait of our generals or the depictions of some historic battles to inspire awe. If you wish I’ll volunteer to be a model myself. I wonder if it’ll spiral into a threesome between Scarlett, me and my darling…
Once the citizens has basic respect toward our soldiers, we can step things up with bigger projects… how about hosting Military Parade? Most citizens had only seen the infantry patrolling the street and have never seen our other unit types like cavalry. Celebrating our historic victory with Military Parade would be a great way to impress the citizens and stir up their patriotism, especially for young man. If your Majesty agreed, maybe you can turn into your dragon form and fly above the parade during its climax? Imagine how wild the reception will be when they know our military has a dragon on their side!
Author's note: Whew, it's finally over. I hope you like my fan lore. If you have any questions or ideas feel free to comment below!