Your war hammer is too fake

"You have become more irritable than before," the king sighed. "You were not like this before."

"So," the Elector said, not wanting to be sidetracked, "do you want to fight?"

Laun pondered for a moment. "No matter what," he said, "you have found a path that belongs to you. Bloodshed and killing will always accompany you from now on, and you should be as pure as a white lily blooming in the garden. I will not fight you, not because I have little chance of winning, but because I suddenly realized that this is as meaningless as words of persuasion."

"If you still desire to become a knight, please remember that what makes a knight a knight is what distinguishes us from other people on the battlefield. Whether in the Empire, Bretonnia, or other countries, what matters is not who you swear allegiance to, but how you are yourself. Goodbye, Awen de Richelieu, the most beautiful flower and the sharpest spear tip in Cologne. I hope that the next time we meet, we can still talk peacefully like today."

After saying that, Laun nodded to Egwene, then turned and walked towards Piquis. The knight watched the king's slightly sad back go away, but her heart was not much disturbed - the "Egwene" that Laune knew was never her. For Egwene, the false memories given by the holy book were just forgeries after all, and she could never empathize with them.

The vulture flapped its wings and took off, turning into a black dot and gradually disappearing into the distance of the blue sky. Aiwen let all kinds of messy thoughts roll in her mind while turning over and riding on the simple saddle on the back of Chujiang. The knight was about to leave, but she found that thick white fog had appeared around her at some point, like a circular wall surrounding her in the center, even her head was covered tightly.

[The Mist of Charonce, the unique spell of the Lake Fairy, only she can cast it.] An Jiyue's voice appeared in Aiwen's mind at the right time. [This spell will form a rather large fog with Morgiana as the center. The fog will obscure the vision of enemies within its coverage area, but will not hinder friendly forces, and the fog will move with Morgiana's movement. Logically speaking, the fog should have completely enveloped you... it should be the effect of your magic immunity.]

As the strongest melee fighter among all the Lords of the Holy Scripture, Aiwen had a lot of passive skills when she was in the car card, one of which was magic immunity. Her performance in battle was plain and simple, without any cool special effects, but if someone thought she was just an ordinary kitchen knife barbarian and tried to trick her with witchcraft tricks, those who thought so would usually hardly see the sun the next day.

[I can see through the fog, but there are too many trees here.] Aiwen glanced around and patted the somewhat irritated Chujiang. The ancient thunderbird's intuition about potential threats is comparable to the sixth sense of a psychic. It can sense that a powerful spellcaster is nearby and is full of hostility towards it. If Aiwen hadn't been riding on its back at this time, Chujiang would probably have started throwing lightning arrows at the surroundings indiscriminately.

As a special half-magic, half-flesh creature, the close connection between the Thunderbird and the wind of heaven not only gives them the ability to control thunder, but also makes them born with a supernatural insight. Thunderbirds are born with the ability to see through illusions and magical disguises to a certain extent. Having lived for thousands of years, Chujiang is particularly outstanding in this regard. However, it is unable to see through the strange fog in front of it, which makes the ancient Thunderbird anxious and makes it difficult to suppress the urge to attack.

In contrast, Egwene, who chose the [Eye of Truth] when she was in the car, could see through the Mist of Charon. Only disguises at the level of a changeling in this world could deceive her eyes... Fortunately, that notorious little bastard was chopped off by the dog group leader last year. However, the [Eye of Truth] is only effective for illusions and disguises achieved by supernatural powers. If it is a purely physical disguise, Egwene, who was just an ordinary person before the time travel, would not be able to see it.

The meeting place between Egwene and Laun was chosen by the latter, which is located at the foot of the Gray Mountains, not far from the Pale Sisters. There used to be an Imperial sentry tower here, used to monitor the greenskins and other threats in the mountains. Now there are only ruins less than one person high, which can prove that the thing once existed.

After the traces of human activities disappeared, the tower, which had been abandoned for at least a century, was surrounded by trees, and bushes occupied the little space under the trees that could share the sunlight. As autumn approached, some leaves had turned from green to yellow, but the lush branches and leaves were still enough to provide a small space under the tree to provide shade, at least enough to hide a female elf (Note 1).

[Do you need help?] The voice of the governor appeared in Knight Ji's mind again.

[Let me try it myself first.] Aiwen didn't say too much. If the Lake Fairy attacked her directly, Aiwen would probably have counted the spoils by now, but the elf lady didn't do that. She didn't know what big move the other party was brewing, or if she just wanted to trap her here. As a warrior, she had no magical senses and it was difficult for her to make a judgment. An Jiyue, who was not at the scene, couldn't give any advice either.

The Elector looked up, her eyes piercing through the fog and gazing at the clear, blue sky. She tried to get Chujiang to fly, to get out of the fog, but the Ancient Thunderbird flapped its wings a few times and fell forward. Obviously, the fog not only obscured Chujiang's vision, but also interfered with its senses.

The Ancient Thunderbird itself realized this, and the big bird was stunned for a moment, then it was so angry that it chirped twice. More and more electric lights were glittering all over its body, and its eyes, which were as big as Evelyn's head, shone with a scorching blue and white light.

"Jiu!!" It screamed angrily, and then released its stored energy. A circle of electric light spread out in all directions with Jiu-chan as the center, sweeping across the trees like a warm breeze caressing the surface of a lake. Compared to the amazing momentum, the power of this thing was unexpectedly weak. Aiwen felt that it might not even be able to electrocute a mouse to death.

Not far away, the shadow behind a big tree twisted unnaturally a few times when the lightning swept past. Aiwen turned her head and stared at it. About two or three seconds later, the knight jumped off the saddle and rushed in that direction with the rune hammer in hand.

As Aiwen moved forward, the fog dissipated by itself a few meters away from her. Knight Ji's magic immunity was strictly speaking an aura effect, but the range of effect was very small. Apart from herself, it could only protect mounts that were not too exaggerated.

Without the slightest hesitation, a figure in white veil turned and ran. As an elf, she was much faster than humans, but this racial advantage was far from enough when facing Egwene. To make matters worse, as Egwene's advance dissipated some of the fog, Juu-chan followed closely behind, and soon saw Morgiana's figure.

"Chiu!" A thick lightning bolt struck the Lake Fairy, but it dissipated before it actually touched her. Whether it was the Saint or the more powerful Prophetess, they all had the blessing bestowed by the Lake God or Li Bitch, which could form a ranged magic resistance aura. As the chief servant of the Lake God, the Lake Fairy's magic resistance aura was the strongest.

Seeing that the attack was ineffective, Chujiang became even more angry. The sky was still covered with white mist, forcing the Ancient Thunderbird, who could not see through the mist, to run wildly on the ground. However, the more it chased the target, the farther it was from it, and finally it was wrapped in the mist again.

Jiujiang was forced to stop in place and kept yelling "Jiu!". However, the ancient thunderbird did not curse for too long, and the fog suddenly dissipated. Jiujiang immediately followed his intuition and looked in a certain direction. He saw the hateful female elf lying on her back on the ground, with her legs and hands bent into strange shapes, and her owner was standing beside her holding a rune hammer.

"As much as I want to take you back and interrogate you thoroughly, I will kill you after I have dug out all the secrets of you and your master," Evelyn said to Morgiana, whose limbs were broken by her hammer, "but you have a special identity after all. Although as far as I know, there is no record of Him descending upon you, but I will not take such a big risk. Well, do you have any last words?"

"Evil demon!" Morgiana cried weakly, "Whatever evil scheme you have, you will never succeed in the land where the Lady's light shines!"

"Oh." The Knight nodded unmoved. She raised the rune hammer and smashed it down. With a "pop", the headless body of the Lake Fairy twitched and then stopped moving.

"Come here, Ju-chan," Aiwen waved at her mount while carrying the rune hammer covered in red and white. "We should go back. The battle is not over yet."

……

Note 1: The setting of the Lake Fairy has been greatly adjusted. The fifth edition military book clearly stated that she was a human, but when it came to the sixth edition (also the last version of Batto), the description of Morgiana's race in the text was directly blurred, but the chess piece rules clearly stated that she was an elf. And judging from the style of the Lake Fairy always floating around and not touching the ground, it is likely that she is a wood elf. After all, weavers and spellcasters also like to float around all day. In other words, "the Lake Fairy is actually an elf god" is not a setting added in ET, but an idea that GW has had for a long time.

Chapter 339 Aerial Confrontation

The dark clouds filled with thunder slowly dissipated.

Amid the sound of horns, the swift-moving Arion raiders rushed out of the camp first, splitting into two groups and occupying both sides of the open space in front of the camp gate to prevent the Wester cavalry from launching a surprise attack when the infantry were lined up. Afterwards, groups of infantry walked out of the camp and went to different positions in the formation according to their different types of soldiers.

Before the ground troops began to move, the Sky Slasher airship formations piloted by the Lothern Sea Guards had already taken off, forming small formations of three, and the small formations were further organized into larger formations. Unlike usual, more than half of the Sky Slasher airships that appeared here were equipped with Hawkeye crossbows. The reason why not all of them was that even if the entire Lothern military warehouse was searched, there really was not so many Hawkeye crossbows...

This lightweight crossbow was specially designed for the Sky Slasher airship, and was not as common as the Eagle Claw crossbow. As Swift Feather Peng struggled to pull the airship upward, the Sea Guard crew on the airship were busy stringing the crossbow and loading ammunition. This would be their most powerful means of fighting against the flying ship, and also the only means besides boarding.

A huge formation of hundreds of Sky Slasher airships gradually took shape in the air, and groups of Giant Eagles circled outside. These intelligent and brave birds of prey have been staunch allies of the Asur clan since the Great Cataclysm. If it weren't for the overwhelming power of the dragons, the Giant Eagles would have been the symbol of the High Elf Air Force. Compared with the dragons monopolized by the Caledonians, the Giant Eagles were more "people-friendly" in every way, and their numbers were much greater (Note 1).

The princes and nobles riding on griffins, surrounded by a group of giant eagles, attacked in coordination with the Sky Slasher formation. During the preparation stage of the intervention army, the high elves collected as much intelligence as possible about the enemy, and then made an in-depth analysis and summary of the reasons for the failure of the first batch of intervention army. In response to the powerful opponent of the flying fleet, the high elves' countermeasure was to bring out more and stronger air force to counter the "monkey's barbaric machinery". Due to their excellent intelligence gathering capabilities, the high elves even predicted that the Aurora Air Force would be defeated, and for this they made what they thought was very sufficient preparation.

Asur did well, but not well enough. They only knew that the Caledonians suffered heavy losses in the aerial battle of Fort Desolation, and that the organized dragon knights were defeated by the flying fleet of the Cathay people. However, they did not know the specific course of the battle and the relevant details, because the arrogant Caledonians refused to talk about their defeat. In the cognition of the high elves, the so-called "Cathay flying ship" is probably a more powerful dwarven thunder airship, powerful, but by no means invulnerable.

...Until the countless iron balls splashed by the delayed-detonation shrapnel swept across the giant eagles like an invisible racket, tearing up the blood mist and floating feathers, the high elves vaguely felt that something seemed to be wrong. An Jiyue certainly would not wait until the enemy was ready before taking action. While the high-elf air force was still climbing and forming a formation, the six frigates in the first echelon of the flying fleet fired the first round of salvos after a brief coordination, followed by the whistling sound of the tracking rockets as they were released from the racks.

When the enemy's formation is dense enough, even the less reliable ammunition of shrapnel can yield results. And without the protection of dragon scales, the giant eagle obviously cannot withstand the baptism of shrapnel with its flesh and blood.

At a distance of just over a kilometer, the volley of projectiles opened the prelude to this air battle. Under the unified command of An Jiyue, the flying fleet took the high elf camp on the ground as the "center" and began to fly counterclockwise, or in other words, to seize the T-head. All the flying warships in the first echelon turned their main weapons to the starboard side, facing the high-elf air force that tried to close the distance after reacting, and shot at the targets slowly as in training.

Due to the weapon layout of the Kingfisher-class frigate, the rocket launcher on the port side has no range at this time, but this does not prevent the Asur Sky Knight from falling in the continuous explosions. The attack of the tracking rocket is not always accurate. In addition to its high reliability, its performance is not much better than the first-generation air-to-air missiles such as the PL-2. It is even better than the PL-2 in terms of flight speed. Its off-axis angle is very small, and it is easy to lose the lock due to the performance of the seeker. Even if the target is some Sky Knights whose speed is generally less than , experienced opponents can still find a way to shake off the attack of the tracking rocket.

Unfortunately, the high elves' sky knights had no experience in dealing with tracking rockets. Some Asur sky knights had been to the far east and had seen the Celestial Empire's Yanlin rocket launchers (Note 2). They mistook tracking rockets for the former and did not take these "thick sticks" flying straight at them seriously at all...

Until they discovered that this thing could turn corners.

After a round of concentrated fire, more than half of the dozen griffins were gone. The tough skin of the griffins could not provide any defense against the flying fragments and violent shock waves, and even if the riders wore expensive enchanted armor and were not killed on the spot by the tracking rockets, when they fell from hundreds of meters in the air, no matter how powerful the armor was, it could not save their lives.

“Hold on!” A High Elf prince ignored the fact that his left arm was almost cut off by the shrapnel, leaving only a small piece of flesh connected to his shoulder. He raised his lance in his right hand and shouted, “Follow me, we must protect the Sky Slasher!!”

The surviving Griffin Knights immediately followed, and the intelligent Giant Eagles also responded with loud eagle cries. The difference in speed naturally caused the High Precision Air Force to split into two groups. The slower Sky Slashers fell behind, while the Griffin Knights and Giant Eagles stood in front of the Sky Slashers formation, ignoring casualties and fearing no sacrifice, and charged into the artillery fire.

The latter used their bodies as shields, actively attracting the firepower of the flying fleet. After only one round of tracking rockets, these Asur nobles, whose service time was measured in centuries, realized that their existence could not affect the outcome of this battle.

On the other side, the first echelon of the flying fleet maintained a starboard-facing posture, firing while flying further outward. The absolute suppression of the range made the high-precision air force only take unilateral attacks, but this did not mean that the Zhendan people and the West people could ignore the enemy's threats: whether it was a projectile gun or a rocket launcher, the gun position was an open structure. Once in close combat, a giant eagle only needed a few seconds to kill an air force gun crew that required a lot of resources to train.

The high elves have always been proud of their excellent individual combat quality, but this time they must rely on numbers to win. Those Asur who are qualified to ride griffins are all elites of this race, and each of them comes from a noble family with a long history and noble bloodline, but at this moment they can only die calmly like Skaven. Unprecedented weapons and tactics have changed their inherent understanding of war, and the high elves will shed more blood for this.

Amid the whistling of tracking rockets and the explosion of shrapnel, the griffins soon disappeared from the sky, and the High Elite Air Force was still hundreds of meters away from the enemy. When they approached a certain distance, the giant eagles, whose formation had become much thinner, suddenly dispersed to the sides, revealing the Sky Slasher formation behind them.

The taut bowstring was released, and the javelin-like arrow flew forward along the guide groove. The elves' accurate shooting skills meant that even if the target was a moving flying unit, nearly one-third of the arrows still clanged against the forged steel armor of the flying ship, creating some fleeting sparks. Without waiting for the Sea Guard crew to reload their ammunition, the flying fleet immediately poured retaliatory firepower into the Sky Slasher formation. A single 110-gram cast iron ball tore open the body of Swift Feather Peng and smashed the wooden hull to pieces. The blood squeezed out of the living body exploded into a ball of red mist in the air, and the neat formation was instantly gnawed out by the heavy shotgun, leaving an ugly gap.

"Come closer!" The helmsmen shouted in unison, "Get closer and prepare to board!"

……

Note 1: The Giant Eagle is classified as a "monster" in the tabletop rules, not a "behemoth", and it is not a unit that can be deployed alone. In the tabletop rules, the Giant Eagle is basically a must-have unit for high-precision players, but it was made into a mess in Total War.

Note 2: In the background setting of the Hellstorm Rocket Launcher, it is mentioned that it was developed with the support of Boris Todbringer, which means that this is actually a new weapon that has just been born. The High Elves at this point in time probably have never seen this thing, so the Yanlin Rocket Launcher of Zhendan is used here as a comparison example.

Chapter 340 Ground Combat

As soon as the ancient thunderbird landed, Evelyn turned over and jumped down.

"I see the enemy is beginning to advance," Knight Ji asked Xiao Yiyue, who was standing among a group of imperial officers, "What is your battle plan?"

"Nothing special, just waiting for the enemy to tire themselves out," the Shuofang Army Jiedushi replied. "According to reconnaissance, those War Dog mercenaries have artillery, about five to six companies in total, but these are either cavalry artillery with a maximum of three pounds, or medieval antiques like stone-shooting cannons... Holding our ground will allow us to bring out the advantages of our artillery."

Compared with the main force of the 25,000 high-elite intervention army, the Westland Army of about 30,000 people did not have much advantage in terms of manpower. This army was mainly composed of infantry and artillery, plus a full ten teams of imperial knights, but the number of light cavalry was very small. After all, pistol cavalry and pioneer cavalry were special units, and the special units of the Empire included cannons and mortars, as well as Reik Guards and invincible chickens. When Aiwen recruited system units, it was impossible for her to use the special card on light cavalry.

The total strength of Wester's army has exceeded 40,000, but all the light cavalry added up to less than ten companies, and their origins are complicated. In addition to the group of Ugor archers who first tried to defect to An Jiyue, served as mercenaries for Prince Hertwig for a period of time, and were later introduced by An Jiyue, Aiwen also has two companies of pistol cavalry, all members of which are children of imperial nobles without inheritance rights, and both men and women.

In order to obtain a hereditary fiefdom, these second sons took the initiative to come to Evelyn after Marienburg returned to the Empire, and the Knight Princess chose to accept their loyalty and, in accordance with the common practice of the Empire, organized them into pistol cavalry.

In addition to the above two, due to the serious lack of light cavalry and the reluctance to give up special cards, Evelyn was forced to set her sights on the Nipon people, with whom she had clashed before: the Nipon district is located in the northern part of Marienburg. This not-so-large community is actually next to the palace district, and it is home to a considerable number of samurai lords who crossed the ocean to the old world for various reasons... Well, this may not be quite accurate. No matter what their origins are, these people can only be called ronin now.

The "Southern Barbarian" "Prince" Aiwen only let out a few words, and immediately hundreds of former samurai and self-proclaimed samurai became "retainers" of the "Richelieu family" with great joy, regaining their samurai status from a legal perspective. Although according to the rules of Nibon, samurai masters are required to provide their own equipment, but here in Aiwen, weapons, armor, and war horses are definitely distributed uniformly by the provincial government, so only servants need to be found by these people themselves.

Riding Bretonnian warhorses that were a bit too tall and monstrous for the Nebon people, wearing imperial cavalry breastplates and helmets with a lot of Nebon-style decorations, holding imperial-style spears and bows, there were four companies of horse-riding warriors in the battle sequence of the Westerland Army. Of course, they called themselves "horsemen".

However, the story did not end there. Even with the addition of nearly 400 warrior lords, the number of light cavalry was still too small, and Egwene did not trust mercenaries at all... After some scrambling, the provincial army had an additional company of "Ajinji", or Arabi Desert Cavalry.

Compared to the messy light cavalry, the infantry and artillery, which are composed entirely of system units, are much neater. The infantry of the Westerland Army is very simple, with spearmen and musketeers, plus a small number of sword and shield soldiers to cover the flanks of the formation. Crossbowmen and archers were completely eliminated. Anyway, this is the development trend of the empire. The imperial halberd soldiers, which Egwene thinks are neither good nor bad, were also eliminated. As for the imperial flower, whoever wants to use it can use it, anyway, the knight princess doesn't use it.

For the two armies that were about to clash, the biggest advantage of the Westerland Army was its artillery. No matter how much the High Elves boasted about their Eagle Claw Ballistae, it was no match for the cannon in a field battle; as for the Warhounds hired by Ulthuan, as a place where science and art flourished, the Tyrells were also able to forge artillery, but the quality varied greatly, and the types were even more varied, from primitive stone-throwing cannons to the latest cannons. "Tyrell war machinery" was a very large concept.

Under Xiao Yiyue's command, the Westers took the initiative to retreat two kilometers and rebuilt their positions. They were highly standardized in their heavy weapons. They deployed a total of twelve artillery companies on the battlefield, including eight cannon companies, two mortar companies, and two rocket companies. All artillery of the same type used the same type of artillery. In addition, the personnel responsible for operating these war machines all graduated from the Nunn Gunnery Academy (Note 1) in the "background setting".

When Egwene ended her meeting with Laun and returned to her army, the command of the ground forces was automatically handed over to the new Elector of the Empire. At this time, the artillery battle had already begun. Several heavy stone cannons were destroyed by the concentrated fire of the Wester cannons before they entered the range. The gun carriages were smashed by cast iron solid bullets, the gun barrels were deformed and cracked under the heavy blows, and the gunners were injured or even killed by the flying wood chips and metal fragments.

In the sky, the air forces of both sides were fighting. On the ground, the main phalanx of the high elves and the Warhound mercenaries slowly moved forward amid the rumbling of cannons, and on both wings were the Arion Reavers roaming back and forth. The clash between the light cavalry even preceded the cannons. The high elves tried to send cavalry to outflank the Westers. Thousands of Arion Reavers were divided into several groups and rushed from different directions. The Westers naturally could not let these pointy ears succeed.

Although the lineup looked messy, with differences in equipment, combat methods and even the races of the soldiers, when the fight really started, the two Lords of the Holy Scripture who were in charge of commanding the ground battlefield found that these people were unexpectedly... quite capable of fighting.

The Ugor Archers were equally matched in the archery duel with the Arion Marauders. These horse-riding peoples had mastered vigorous riding skills and superb archery skills in the long-term battles with the Yankees and the Hobgoblins. In terms of the skill of using bows and arrows on horseback, they were not inferior to the Elven cavalry.

Since the elf horses were faster, the Wugor people riding the grassland horses brought from their hometown strictly followed Xiao Yiyue's order to "strictly guard the inner circle and never pursue". No matter how the Arion plunderers tempted them, these cunning northern warriors would not take the bait and only used bows and arrows to shoot at the elves on the opposite side.

The Arabi Desert Cavalry performed even better than the Ugors. These turbaned men looked like fully enhanced Ugor archers, and because of their similar fighting styles, they were assigned to fight in coordination with the Ugors. The Ajinki did a great job of this task. They found the right opportunity to put away their bows and arrows during the intervals between the shots, and launched a short and unexpected charge wielding their spears and Arabi scimitars, dispersing a group of Arion raiders that were too far forward, and then quickly retreated, not giving the other elven cavalry any chance to entangle them.

Compared with their colleagues who were flexible in tactics and had a coquettish style of movement, the mounted warriors were completely different. The speed of the mount was not as fast as the opponent's, and they could not catch up with the enemy? Then they would not chase. Under the command of several "leaders" who were elected, the Nibon people observed the movement patterns of their opponents while making small-scale rapid maneuvers, relying on the inner circle advantage to stare down the elven cavalry.

Although they were eager to perform well in front of their new lord, the warriors did not lose their calmness and patience. If the Elion Raiders did not approach them, they would just follow them in the inner circle; if the Elion Raiders tried to attack, they would stay where they were and wait for the enemy to enter the range of their bows and arrows.

In this repeated tug-of-war, the Arion plunderers made tactical feints more than once to try to trick the mounted warriors into firing arrows or chasing them, but the warriors were not fooled at all. In the end, the Arion plunderers along the way lost their patience first. They gave up the temptation and chose to attack head-on, fighting with the mounted warriors in a ping-pong battle.

The elves were all versatile warriors, and so were the Nibon warriors. Plus, the two sides had similar forces, so this should have been an evenly matched battle, if the "group leaders" hadn't suddenly emitted a faint white light.

"Lord Aiwen, board!" They shouted in their native language, swinging their weapons so fast that only a few blurry afterimages could be seen. The elves were known for their incredible swiftness, but now they found that they could not keep up with the speed of these monkey officers!

The spears thrust out as fast as lightning, and the elves who were targeted often had no time to raise their sword-holding hands to block. The spear tip, which was emitting a faint white light, cut through the steel armor like tofu, and then the flesh and bones. It only took a few deep breaths, and wherever the group leaders passed, the elf riders fell off their horses like dominoes.

The mounted warriors used several group leaders as spearheads, deeply chiseled into the ranks of the elven cavalry, and forcefully tore open the formation of the Arion plunderers. The good news was that the group leaders' invincibility did not last long. After just a few minutes, the white lights on these elite warriors went out one after another, and they also stopped killing, exhausted and barely maintained their riding postures, and left the battle under the protection of other warriors.

The bad news is that the formation of the Arion raiders who were responsible for the raid in this direction has completely collapsed. Although they are still fighting, the mounted warriors have successfully divided and surrounded them, and it is only a matter of time before they are completely wiped out.

……

Note 1: According to the setting, the Empire's firearms troops, whether musketeers or artillery, are all trained in Nuln.

The author says:

Author's note: This chapter took me nearly four hours to write. I accidentally injured my right index finger when I was cutting my nails, and it hurts every time I type...

Answer to reader "Reader1659590858":

The tracking rocket/Godfire Raven is essentially a mechanical beast, and the mechanical beast is the output power and continuous working ability of the machine plus the reliability of the organism. As for close defense weapons, except for the elf line, all use the dwarf and its variants.

Chapter 341: The End of the War (Part 1)

Compared to their motley crewmates, the pistol cavalry were the only unit that suffered a loss in this light cavalry duel.

These noble children had the passion and courage to fight, as well as the skills and equipment required for fighting, but they lacked sufficient battlefield experience. Before the main phalanxes of both sides began to fight, thousands of Arion plunderers were divided into three groups, and they made detours from different directions, trying to harass the main phalanx of the Westerland Army, while the Empire's light cavalry was also divided into three groups to intercept: the other two groups successfully intercepted the enemy, and the horsemen simply defeated their opponents, but something went wrong with the pistol cavalry.

The Elion plunderers along the way lured them a little, and the pistol cavalry, eager to gain military merit, chased after them, completely ignoring the fact that their warhorses could not catch up with the elven horses and the order prohibiting the light cavalry from chasing the enemy. Their fate can be imagined. The elven cavalry walked them like dogs, and the pistol cavalry ran farther and farther away in the tug of war. When the pistol cavalry finally came to their senses, the silver-helmeted knights who came up from the other side were already in position and immediately launched a charge.

In a certain Warhammer Total War game, for the sake of game balance, the speed of shock cavalry must be slower than that of projectile cavalry, so much so that even the scum of Bretonnia's mounted squires who ride farm horses into battle can run faster than the heavy cavalry of the High Elves; however, the actual situation is that whether it is the Silver Helmets or the stronger Dragon Princes, although they are heavy cavalry with both man and horse armor, they are actually faster than the vast majority of human light cavalry.

This is partly because of the advantages of mounts, as elven horses are faster and smarter than human war horses, and partly because the horse armor used by the High Elves is made of expensive celestial silver (Iselmar Silver). This exotic metal, which is only produced in Ulthuan, is incredibly light and as strong as steel, making it particularly suitable for making armor.

The Elven Cavalry used their skillful coordination to lure the Pistol Cavalry into a trap. The Silver Helmets charged into the Pistol Cavalry from the side with their lances, inflicting heavy damage to the reckless rookies with just one blow. If the Horse Guards had not given up on their opponents who were about to be annihilated and rushed over to force the Elven Cavalry back, the only fate of the Pistol Cavalry would have been annihilation.

Even so, less than a quarter of the two companies of pistol cavalry managed to withdraw alive, while the others remained on the battlefield forever. After rescuing their comrades, the warriors escorted dozens of embarrassed pistol cavalry back to the main phalanx, and took on the work originally undertaken by these comrades.

"It's a pity that Nibon is too far away," Evelyn said suddenly, "otherwise we could have recruited more warrior masters."

Knight Ji originally regarded these Nipeng people as high-quality and cost-effective fill-in babies, but now it seems that as long as they are replaced with suitable equipment and receive targeted training, they are fully capable of taking on more important responsibilities.

"I think the most suitable light cavalry for you are the Wuguer people. They are really cheap and their combat effectiveness is also OK," Xiao Yiyue took over the conversation. "No matter what, the warrior masters are military nobles. Recruiting them requires not only economic costs, but also political costs."

"It's okay. My territory is quite large. Once you have done enough, I'll seal it off. It's no problem..."

As they were talking, the main phalanx of the intervention army stopped 200 meters away from the Wester fortifications. While the light cavalry of both sides were fighting back and forth, the infantry and artillery units of the intervention army advanced firmly under the artillery fire. After paying a certain price, they finally brought the Wester people into the range of the elven longbows and Tyrell crossbows.

The bow was drawn and the crossbow was stretched, and the arrows fell like rain. The long bow arrows and the shorter crossbow arrows left the taut strings at the same time and splashed towards the field fortifications that the West people had hastily built. Since it was a home battle, West led the army with a lot of specially prepared wooden prefabricated parts, which could be assembled into chevaux de frise and simple breastworks. The defensive power of this kind of field fortifications naturally could not stop muskets, let alone artillery shells, but it was just right to block the shooting of longbows and powerful crossbows.

To be precise, the thickness of the wooden breastwork was designed to be just enough to block the elven longbow. For this reason, Evelyn specially appointed Arcanis to take his bow and arrow to Coast Heavy Industries to assist in the shooting test.

Although the Tyrells also use firearms, for some reason there are very few organized musketeers in that place, and crossbowmen are the mainstream. The War Dogs mercenaries like and are good at using cannons, and pistols are also very popular, but serious muskets are not very popular in this place. The Lords of the Holy Scriptures do not understand the reason behind this, but this does not prevent them from taking advantage of it.

When the enemy fired arrows, the Wester musketeers behind the breastwork immediately squatted down and listened attentively to the "doo" and "doo" sounds made when the arrows hit the wooden boards. After a round of arrow rain, most of the musketeers stayed still, while a few non-commissioned officers equipped with Hawke's long guns poked their heads out from behind the breastwork, raised their weapons and pulled the triggers.

Whether it is a longbow or a powerful crossbow, the range is far greater than that of a smoothbore musket. However, the imperial army's arsenal does not only have smoothbore muskets, the muzzle-loading rifles produced in Hawke's territory have a range that is far superior to any other individual long-range weapon and are extremely accurate.

Sporadic gunfire sounded, and almost every gunshot was accompanied by the fall of an Asur archer or mercenary crossbowman. The two sides fired several rounds, and the wooden breastwork in front of the musketeers was full of arrows of varying lengths, and only a few of them successfully penetrated the wooden boards. Originally, they tried to take advantage of the range and use bows and crossbows to fully weaken the enemy's intervention forces outside the range of the muskets, but soon realized that this was a wrong decision. The horn sounded again behind the battle line, and the elves and human mercenaries reorganized their formation in a slightly messy manner.

The intervention army began to advance again, with the long-range infantry leading the way as usual. When the front row of archers and crossbowmen were only 1 meters away from the Westerling position, a row of heads suddenly appeared from behind the breastwork, with their raised flintlocks in their hands.

The sound of a single musket firing was actually very clear, but when the triggers of thousands of muskets were pulled at the same time, no matter how clear the sound was, after overlapping a thousand times, it would only turn into angry thunder and explode. A large number of the intervention army's long-range infantry fell in the blink of an eye, but they continued to advance, facing the lead bullets and the artillery shells mixed in.

Courage and honor are not exclusive to the Imperials. There are no cowards among the groups that can survive in this cruel world. The archers and crossbowmen sacrificed themselves for a truly effective attack opportunity. Their continuous advancement was a form of pressure, forcing the Imperial musketeers to not leisurely hide behind the breastwork and slowly reload their ammunition. While the Wester musketeers were still pushing the cleaning rods into the barrels, the long-range infantry of the intervention army raised their weapons again, and this time they reaped more than just a few results.

The Imperial artillery gave up fighting with the cavalry artillerymen (Note 2) who were running around on the ground and were more slippery than loaches, and instead aimed their guns at these enemies that seemed more threatening. When many musketeers fell back with arrows hitting their necks or faces, the bloody duel between the long-range rifles was interrupted by the cannon volleys.

Dense light shotgun shells covered the enemy ranks, and cast iron bullets tore armor and flesh apart. When the smoke cleared, these stubborn opponents finally retreated to the sound of a new round of horns, revealing the melee infantry behind them who had already laid down their spears or super-long spears and were ready to launch a charge.

The musketeers also put away their weapons and retreated, while the imperial spearmen equipped with tower shields shouted and charged forward. At this time, both sides of the battle could see each other's faces clearly. Whether it was the Westers or the intervention army, they only saw the determination of not giving in in the eyes of their opponents, and even the War Dog mercenaries were no exception.

The drummers and buglers in the team played even harder, the standard-bearer held high the battle flag carrying honor, and the roars of officers and captains were clearly audible even in the noise on the battlefield.

Then, artillery and bombardment came from the sky, overwhelming the interventionist ranks.