You were made to farm, and now you're the emperor of an empire?

Chapter 254 Your casualties are irreversible, but my soldiers are endless.jpg
The director of this scene was Roman.

The main characters are 11 witches.

The supporting characters are 500 plate-armored heavy infantry.

The scene was chosen to be a military training ground.

The props are cold weapons.

……

Exterior shot – morning.

The witches launched an attack on the heavy infantry phalanx without any apparent reason, and were met with a hail of arrows.

The witches followed Gwen, advancing swiftly and without suffering any casualties.

The heavy infantry all discarded their longbows and began melee combat.

The witches collectively unleashed a mental shock from a distance of ten meters.

The fifty-odd spearmen in the front row paused their thoughts for a second or two.

Shasta rolled on the ground, severing the ankles of the five soldiers in the first rank, creating a gap in the square formation.

Mabel unleashed a fan-shaped flame, but it was blocked by the wall of flesh, limiting its reach to a radius of three meters. More than ten soldiers were instantly rendered incapable of resistance.

At this moment, the soldiers on both sides launched an attack.

Lucia unleashed a dark spell, plunging an area roughly fifty meters in diameter into the night.

The soldiers were well-trained and launched the attack based on instinct.

The witches unleashed an energy blast spell, knocking down about forty or fifty soldiers, a quarter of whom died on the spot.

The remaining soldiers got up and thrust their spears at the witches, who had nowhere to hide.

Brena, Zelda, and Lucia died instantly. Nightfall was dispelled.

Edith and Charlotte were injured. Rosa shared her life energy with them to keep them mobile.

Mabel used the power of the agate to create a fire field with a diameter of about ten meters, causing heavy casualties among the soldiers inside.

The formation completely collapsed. Four hundred soldiers dispersed and surrounded the witch.

Shasta unleashed black smoke and went on a killing spree. Grimm tried to stop her, but was killed instantly by the Nightmare Witch with a ghostly dagger.

Shasta was attacked from behind by Jet, and one of his arms was pierced by a rapier. Dick rushed in, but was killed by Shasta after two rounds. Jet then stabbed Shasta in the internal organs. The Nightmare Witch released even thicker smoke and fled, severely wounded.

Monica's power was transmitted from the void, and Jet, who was not wearing plate armor, was struck by an invisible hammer, his sternum breaking and he died.

Nathan, fully armored, attacked from the front, wielding four axes to kill the witch Saya.

Gwen rushed over and knocked Nathan down, but died in a hail of blows.

Exhausted, Mabel, the wounded Edith and Charlu, and the uninjured Monica—the four witches were surrounded. They fought back, killing about ten soldiers, but ultimately died in the chaos of battle.

Shasta escaped the encirclement, but died in the wild due to his severe injuries.

……

The outcome of this war is only a very low probability.

Because witches don't charge into battle.

They have a high degree of initiative, and once they venture deep into the mountains and forests, the army is helpless.

If they had used guerrilla warfare, they would have certainly achieved greater results and would not have been completely wiped out.

However, even if the witches understand the concept of guerrilla warfare, whether they can use it effectively is another matter, since everything still needs to be put into practice.

Currently, the 11 witches' frontal charge has resulted in approximately 100 soldiers being killed or wounded.

The main reason for the heavy casualties in the army was that they lost their composure, felt very unfamiliar with the enemy, and were not used to the fighting style. Once they adapted, the casualties could be reduced by at least half.

Although it's a bit troublesome for the witch to kill plate-armored infantry, she can still manage to do so.

But if it were plate-armored cavalry, they would be helpless.

The cavalry was too mobile.

Roman also realized the problem with the witches.

they……

They severely lack the ability to engage in direct combat!
...The combat power of extraordinary units depends on many factors.

Rank, equipment, and quantity are all decisive factors.

Roman once believed that 100 first-tier knights could replace one ninth-tier knight.

This theory is somewhat too theoretical, considering only quantitative differences without taking other factors into account.

But ultimately it makes sense.

Extraordinary units are special, possessing considerable individual abilities. But as long as they are terrestrial beings, how special can they really be?
A paladin's set of adamantite armor weighs three to five hundred pounds, and his adamantite greatsword can cut through iron like mud and split mountains and rocks.
Of course, the price of the armor is also thousands of times that of ordinary plate armor.

How many Tier 1 knights can be trained with the resources of training one paladin?
The basic requirements for a beast fight are: both sides must have warhorses, plate armor, and a full range of military equipment.

Based on this calculation, not to mention paladins, even ninth-tier knights have no advantage.

Once the two sides start fighting, the 100 first-tier knights immediately disperse and form an encirclement.

The ninth-rank knight charged forward, killing ten men with a few punches and kicks, leaving ninety men to ride and shoot at you.

The ninth-rank knight charged forward again, killing ten more men, leaving eighty more to fight you on horseback...

Even at the very end, the last ten men will charge at full speed at you with lances in hand.

What kind of physique do you have to withstand such an attack?

When you've killed all 100 Tier 1 Knights, how many arrows are stuck in your body? How much stamina do you have left?

They must have been exhausted long ago.

The 101st Tier 1 Knight could just charge over and chop your head off!
What good is a high-ranking knight no matter how strong he is!
In this world, influence matters!

No matter how strong an individual's abilities are, how much of a role can a high-ranking knight play when facing a war machine composed of thousands of professional soldiers?
If it really is a ninth-tier knight in full adamantine armor.

Roman would then choose to develop more destructive weapons, train a more elite army, and provide better equipment.

There's always a way to deal with it.

A ninth-tier knight, clad in high-grade armor weighing hundreds of pounds, is charging across the battlefield. So, can I hold him off with five hundred lives? If not, then I'll use a thousand cans of plate armor instead.

Your casualties are irreversible, but my soldiers are endless.
……

The main problem with the witches was that they charged into the army dressed in simple clothes...

This is a huge problem!
The logic of warfare in the era of cold weapons: to increase defense, you have to increase your load.

Wearing hundreds of pounds of armor, you're practically invincible; you're a human tank.

The witch's explanation for not wearing armor was to improve her mobility.

Roman had to admit that the reasoning was sound.

The witch is clearly skilled in mobile warfare, surprise attacks, and blitzkrieg.

Once faced with a battle of attrition, a positional war, or a war of attrition, then there's really no way to fight at all.

Making them wear armor is equivalent to slowing them down.

Imagine witches, clad in armor weighing fifty pounds, not as agile as swallows, but struggling to climb a six- or seven-meter-high city wall, and perhaps not even making it to the top. Once they are caught in a fierce battle...

That scene was truly unbearable to watch.

As for why they ended up in this situation...

Roman felt it was entirely because they lacked an auxiliary force.

All conquering knights have auxiliary troops, whose real name is the conscription army.

The prestige of a knight-errant among the common people was equivalent to that of a nobleman.

The conscripted army and the knights of conquest complement each other and are indispensable.

The only thing Roman couldn't understand in the Battle of Spring Rain was that he had decimated the auxiliary forces of the punitive expeditionary army. The latter remained steadfast in their belief that they could win and launched a suicidal charge.

So those three thousand-plus conscripts managed to hold out until the middle of the battlefield.

They only surrendered after all the knights had rushed in and none of them had come out; they were all trapped inside. Their morale was ridiculously high.

But witches don't have that advantage, because all they have is infamy.

(End of this chapter)