World Conquest Online

"Gan Ning will be in charge of the Bellona with Centurion Cato, which will be the flagship of his fleet. Whilst Artemisia will be on the Sibylla with my friends if that idea of mine comes to fruition." Dom explained to the listening Heroes. "I do not want to risk taking too many Heroes if we do not succeed, however I intend to take some elite Hoplites and Spartans from that time period as well. If the Sibylla is not coming, then Artemisia will join Gan Ning and myself on the Bellona and even less will be able to attend."

"If we are aiming for only naval combat, then I would recommend taking Sun Ce and Ling Tong as well." Cheng Pu stated from the side, the conversations open to all of the Generals in the room as they ate some food that had been provided. Cheng Pu felt that as he had been entrusted as one of the four Senior Generals, that he should use his voice. "They can both fight ship to ship, and if our aim is to claim more ships through battle, then we need capable commanders to control them."

"What about Tomyris?" Gan Ning asked, with a slight smirk on his face.

"Tomyris says no." Tomyris replied with an evil glint, having not enjoyed her time onboard the Calypso and preferring to be fighting on the ground.

"It is definitely an important point, we have two issues as well when claiming enemy ships." Artemisia stated, with Crassus beside her nodding his head. "We need to defeat the enemy crew so that they surrender and then entrust them to fight for us, which will be difficult if we target Persian ships as they will not want to become Athenian or Spartan Slaves. The other issue is if we destroy the enemy crew, we will have no one to control the ship, therefore we will struggle to claim it. We should target Greek ships that have joined the Persians."

"If we keep moving our crew across multiple ships, then our attack force will massively weakened." Crassus agreed. "The only other way is if we claim the ships and keep a token crew on board and pull them away from the Battle. We would have to get rid of the enemy crews though, unless we can persuade the leaders on our side to set up a managed area."

"We could use Titanaconda’s for this?" Xun You put forwards, "Tie a rope from the ship to the snake and have the snake pull them from the battle. We can create a little area of our own captured ships. The Titanaconda’s should leave enough fear in our enemies that they wouldn’t risk challenging us."

"The Sea is an untested terrain for the Titanaconda’s." Gan Ning added, "We shall need to do some testing with them, the water and currents are different."

"It feels risky and leaves the ships exposed to other people trying to claim them." Zhou Yu replied as he stroked his chin in response to Xun You, whilst nodding his head towards Gan Ning’s comment. "We need to create strong ties to the Commanders of our Allies so that they will support our claims, as you did with us."

"That is why we will take Artemisia and our Elite’s, with them we have an in that we can work on." Subutai replied, "Well, I say we but I may be missing out on this battle. The Navy is not my strong point and I could be using an important place. We also do not know how long this battle will take, and I will be south continuing our plans there."

"But wasn’t Artemisia their enemy?" Sun Shangxiang asked, after listening in to the conversation and wondering if she could put herself forwards to go.

"She was Lady Sun, however alliances change very quickly in parts of the world, her knowledge of the Battle and the forces on both sides will be key. They will happily take a fair deal." Subutai replied with a grin.

"I would like to go if possible." Hua Rong stated, having been quiet up until now. He was a General in his own rite, but was also under the stewardship of both Subutai and Huang Zhong. "If neither General Subutai or General Huang Zhong are in attendance, I am the third best Archer in our forces and can target enemy Commanders."

"I won’t disagree with that." Zhou Yu stated, as he was now in charge of the Navy and therefore should be in charge of this battle. "Lord Lazarus, myself, Gan Ning, Ling Tong, Sun Ce, Artemisia and Hua Rong. Across two ships this is a good split, with myself and Lord Lazarus as the leadership, Artemisia and Gan Ning in charge of each ship. Ling Tong and Sun Ce will aim to take enemy ships, whilst Hua Rong will target enemy leaders."

"I will go, so that Lord Lazarus makes it back in one piece." Tomoe stated from the side, no one argued with her even though the Navy was not her strong point. "We need to make sure that there are a lot of Hoplite and Spartans onboard though, from my conversations with them, they may struggle with the racial differences if all of our leadership is from a different culture."

"I don’t disagree, that is why we will have Artemisia as our face and our Heroes other than Zhou Yu will work in the background." Xun You stated after some thought, whilst Artemisia nodded in agreement at her role.

"Then the next conversation needs to be about the military ranks." Crassus put forwards from beside Artemisia, "Now that we have formed the armies, we need to agree the ranks within them so that we can know the military cost for each unit. Salaries are important so that there is momentum and a reason to fight other than for ones love for the nation. I know that our Warriors appear daily, but we need to give them more reasons to be loyal."

"I do not disagree, we have so far been following your Roman system within the lower ranks. There are now multiple different unit types that need to be prioritised as well." Xun You explained, "The Navy and Infantry ranks will be the same, with the same salary for the ranks within. The General and Lord’s guards will be on a higher salary, that is aligned with that of the Cavalry. Subutai, do you have any thoughts?"

"No, that aligns with my thinking. Each basic warrior will have a promotional ranking system, based on merits gained in battle. So they could be a Legionary of Rank One who has just joined, up to a Legionary of Rank Eight who has won multiple battles and gained a large number of merits. Each unit of men is managed by a Centurion, with an Optio as their second. Some of the Centurions have been explaining the need for a standard bearer as well to maintain formation and representation. This is all loosely based on Crassus and Cicero’s system. Most of our Warriors are Legionaries or training to be in that form, therefore we may as well use that system." Subutai agreed.

"What comes next?" Sun Shangxiang asked from the side, extremely interested in the topic.

"That is a great question Lady Sun." Xun You replied, "Six of these units, which are each led by a Centurion, are called a Cohort. Which is how we intend to dispatch our forces going forwards. The leader of the First Century in each Cohort is the lead of the Cohort."

"We will dispatch our Legionaries based on their Cohort size going forwards, rather than individual units. That is why the training is so necessary for our new units." Subutai explained, "Each Infantry regiment will have a lead Centurion for now, but there will be room for additional ranks in the future."

"Is there where the links between the Roman Military and our own stop?" Crassus asked as he took a drink from his glass.

"That is correct, I believe your system has a Prefect that has been promoted through the ranks and then ranks above that from those of high blood." Subutai stated, "Whilst our Heroes are the lead here, that doesn’t mean that only those from a good bloodline can become a General. If our Warriors are promoted to Hero rank, then they can also be promoted. We will look to the middle management levels of the forces when they have expanded to that level, we may have a role for Prefect’s which are Elite Warriors who have not become Heroes."

There were some nods in approval, whilst others had looks of disapproval at this comment. Some of the Heroes, such as Subutai and Crassus, had worked hard to move themselves up their ranks or push themselves forwards in their lives. Whilst others such as Lucius’s son Caeso had been given everything from their fathers.

"The ranks in the Heroes will be as agreed earlier, Commanders, Generals, Senior Generals and eventually more Grand Generals as our armies and Kingdom grow much larger." Xun You continued, "These will have similar grading ranks as the Warriors, with a rank one Commander being new and inexperienced and a rank eight Commander having been involved in several battles and gained exceptional merits. The rank and grade are what make up the salaries, and have some impact on seniority."

....

The Military Heroes had soon finished their food after breaking in to individual conversations about the different campaigns that were due to come up. After a while most of them had disappeared, with Subutai holding a separate feast for them the following day before they all departed to their units. Xun You had been working tirelessly in the background to make sure that the correct numbers would be sent to each Army, with Huang Zhong working on a training plan with the senior Centurions for the newly arrived Warriors. The Senior Civilian Heroes had also returned during this time though, in preparation for agreeing a name for the Kingdom. Crassus had expressed multiple times the need for it as it would make it easier for them to negotiate with external Cities and Kingdoms.

All of the Heroes ranked B Grade or higher were in attendance, as well as his Wives as Sun Shangxiang hadn’t quite reached that rank yet. On one side sat his Civilian Heroes, with Meritamen beside him at the top of the table. Shang Yang, Xun Yu, Lucius, Hatshepsut, Crassus, Artemisia, Cicero and Umako. On the other side sat his Military Heroes, with Sun Shangxiang at the top of the table on that side. Subutai, Xun You, Zhou Yu, Gan Ning, Tomyris, Tomoe, Zhao Yun, Huang Zhong, Cheng Pu, Liao Hua and Ling Tong. Whilst the room was full, there was a lot of excitement for this monumental meeting.

Drinks and Food had been supplied, and they all chatted amongst themselves whilst Dom thought through his options and the plans for the next few days. He would log out tonight, before returning and heading to the South. He agreed that they should deal with the Cove first, allowing all internal issues to have been dealt with. The San could wait until after, whilst the Battle Map was creeping closer and closer.

"Thank you all for gathering, I know it has been a long few days for everyone. Especially those that have travelled." Shang Yang welcomed politely. "It has been an exciting time for our growing Kingdom, having started as a small growing town, to now spanning multiple cities with natural borders that protect us. Our old faces are still here, whilst new ones have joined us. Lucius has gone from Mayor to Governor in charge of all of our Mayor’s and therefore our northern province, whilst Subutai has gone from leading a handful of Hoplite with Tomyris and Gan Ning, to leading our forces that are over eight thousand in total."

They all listened as Shang Yang spoke, others were mentioned as he continued, naming each person in the room at some point and their role in the growth of the Kingdom. He mentioned the arrival of Tomoe, with her strength at Battle of Kadesh and every battle since. Meritamen, the young Egyptian princess that had brought a level of much needed youth to the Senior Leadership. As well as everyone else, he mentioned Xun You, Xun Yu, Crassus and Hatshepsut for being the backbone of the Kingdom and some of the newer heroes and the skills they brought such as Umako and Artemisia.

"We are here to agree the name of our Kingdom, a name that can be proudly attached to our flags and spoken about in the corners of the world." Shang Yang continued, "The name, not for our actions now, but for our decedents and their descendants to carry forwards."