Western Tactics

Western Tactics, sometimes called Western Warfare, refer to non-ceremonial military tactics, whose aims are to disadvantage the opponent and gain a strategic advantage by any necessary means, with no agreed upon cultural conventions or rules of war. Western Tactics are opposed to traditional and ceremonial forms of waging war, like warfare practiced in the Great-Mountains Land in the Early Classical Era. They are also heavily associated with specific equipment and strategies which came to be widespread across the Vast South and beyond.

Name

The name "Western Tactics" originates from the Kindmountian-Harmonic War. Prior to this conflict, battles in the Great-Mountains Land were largely ceremonial and resulted in few deaths. However, as Kindmount was raided during the war by Violet Coast warriors, who fought with the aim of killing as many opposing soldiers as necessary and who often utilized guerilla tactics, it started to adapt and to use such tactics against the raiders.
While initially only using such tactics on its western front while continuing to fight traditionally in the east, in the middle of the war Kindmount started to utilized their western-front tactics against their eastern opponents. Thus these tactics, initially seen as dishonorable, came to be known in the Great-Mountains Land as "Western Tactics".

History

Origins in the Violet Coast

Western Tactics, in the Vast South, originated in the Violet Coast. During the Violet Coast empire's many civil wars, the ceremonious aspect of war gradually eroded. Many military strategies and equipment which came to be used across the Vast South centuries after were designed in the Violet Coast.

Importation to the Great-Mountains Land

When the Moa River campaigns started in 4274 HE (129 YP), during which the Violet Coast attacked and raided Kindmountian camps and bases in the newly-conquered Moa River land and the New Land of the North in order to drive out Kindmount from their land, Violet Coast warriors employed their own non-ceremonial military tactics, winning their early battles and capturing many positions and thus hurting Kindmount's economy.
The nation had to adapt to their tactics to win, and they did. Kindmountian strategists quickly started to train their warrior-priests in "Violet Coast warfare" or "barbarian warfare", and also fashioned equipment similar to Violet Coast warriors, as previously battles in the Great-Mountains Land were fought without or with few and primitive weapons.
Even with quick adaptation to their enemies, Kindmountian soliders and strategists alike lacked experience in Western Tactics, and took massive losses in the West. This only worsened with the Kindmountian-Harmonic War, which forced them to fight a two-front war. It was decided that "barbarian warfare" would be waged in the west, and traditional warfare in the east, thus acquiring the name of "Western Tactics" or sometimes "Western Warfare".

Spread across the Vast South

Western Warfare

Western Warfare was three-dimensional, unlike most forms of ceremonial warfare. That is, military strategies utilized all three dimensions. Soldiers would typically hold their weapons and sometimes shields in their talons, while they flied up and arranged themselves into formations.

Strategies and Formations

Checkered Formation

The Checkered formation was the most widely used formation in three-dimensional warfare. In its most simple form, soldiers in the front line would arrange themselves in a checkered pattern, so as to leave spaces between them equally in arranged in a checkered pattern. Then, a second line of soldiers would arrange themselves in a complimentary pattern behind the first line, so as to fill in the gaps behind the first line. This could be repeated infinitely for a more solid defense.
Since Kea cannot stay motionless in flight, this was used mainly as an offensive formation, and soldiers stayed on the ground until they attacked, quickly getting into position.

Equipment

War equipment, armor, and weapons designed purely around combat characterized Western Warfare, unlike in ceremonial warfare.