This battle is considered one of the great victories of the
The redwood alliance in the
The unification war. As such, it is almost forgotten in
Entrelai books but frequently discussed in the
Extended Family class books, as an example of using knowledge to win over a superior force.
The battle plan had 5 phases:
Phase 1: Misinformation
The objective of this phase was to allow intelligence regarding a mission to send the best numenera specialists serving under the
The redwood alliance banner on a mission to
The hungry city, to retrieve all kinds of artifacts to aid their side in the war. This was done to trick the
Entrelai forces into hopefully sending their best operatives to cripple the alliance.
It was successfully achieved by allowing one of the couriers sending these deployment orders to be captured by the enemy.
Phase 2: Scouting a Secret Route under the Doom Mountains
This was the most critical aspect of the deployment. In order to ensure the
Entrelai forces would be completely unaware of the ambush, a secret route using one of the many tunnels which give access to the city underground had to be scouted and secured for troop deployment.
Phase 1 and Phase 2 were completed simultaneously.
Phase 3: Troop Deployment
Using the route secured in Phase 2, several platoons entered the city in secret and took sheltered positions in different locations. This was done both to provide assistance to the specialists in dire situations and to prepare for the ambush.
Phase 4: Specialist Deployment
Several numenera specialist teams entered the city using more commonly used routes. This triggered the expected Entrelai deployment to counter them.
This was one of the most dangerous phases because, even though the groups were prepared to face any peril the city could throw at them, if the Entrelai force decided to attack before the teams reached at least the first hidden troop encampment, they could take heavy losses and need to retreat. The intelligence regarding past Entrelai deployments, which was used to create this mission, suggested that they would wait until the groups had acquired at least some technology before attacking to get a double victory. Unfortunately, this was not a guaranteed course of action.
Phase 5: Bait and Switch
Once the alliance specialists passed the second platoon encampment, the ambush was activated. The platoons encamped in both locations flanked the Entrelai troops, corralling them towards an especially dangerous section of the city.
The ambush worked better than expected, and even though there were some casualties on
The redwood alliance side, three numenera elite groups and the four platoons accompanying them were essentially destroyed either by the alliance forces or the dangers of the city they were funneled into.
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