Herald of Steel

“How is that?” Faruq asked after finishing his war strategy.

And as the most senior of the group, Lord Nibraz felt it was his right to comment first.

And he commented positively, saying, “It is a good plan. Pin down the flanks using the camel archers, and then destroy the center using the chariots. Haha, good and simple, I like it. I like it very much.”

He found the plan especially attractive because it gave him the chance to use his chariots in the initial charge.

And in that way not only would he get to destroy his son’s murderer, but he would also get to demonstrate to these youngsters the virtues of the chariot.

Hence the enthusiasm.

The other nobles too did not have a problem with this plan, and hence soon the final commanders for the battle were chosen.

Naturally, Faruq was chosen to lead the center, consisting of 30,000 infantry.

He then chose two men from his mercenary unit to be the commander of the two flanks, with the right going to Azab, and the left given to Azab’s son-in-law, Jabad.

Lord Ural was put in charge of his 2,000 cavalry placed in front of the infantry.

Lord Nibraz was in charge of the chariots placed alongside the cavalry.

Lord Liakit was in charge of the archers that were placed on the right of the cavalry, next to the flanks of the Jahal mercenaries.

And lastly, Lord Nyantim was in charge of the 4,000 slingers, all of whom were his personal guards, placed on the left flank of the army, along with the camel archers.

In this way, Faruq managed to pretty well to make the patchwork of nobles with conflicting interests and inflated egos come together and form a solid military unit, a unit capable of wielding lethal strength.

And it was to be unleashed against an opponent who had a far simpler command structure.

Alexander’s left flank belonged to Menicus with his legion of 5,000 crossbowmen.

The center belonged to Menes with 30,000 men and was the main attacking force.

There was the right flank belonging to Melodias with the same composition as Menicus.

And then there was Grahtos who commanded the reserve of 1,000 cavalry and a further 1,000 infantry.

And lastly there was the lord himself, Alexander- whose task was to oversee everything and make sure all the parts of the army moved in coordination with one another.

Each of the commanders were instructed to concentrate on commanding their respective soldiers on their respective fronts of the army without needing to worry about what was going on around the rest of the army, for that was Alexander’s job.

He would keep an eye on the entire battlefield, and make sure no abrupt, harmful changes occurred around the army.

For example, if Alexander noticed a part of the army weakening, or there was a flanking attack that either Menicus or Melodias was too weak to deal with, Alexander would tell Menes to transfer one or two legions from him to help them.

And in a vice verse case, if Menes was getting pushed back too much, Alexander would tell the Mencius or Melodais to concentrate fire to the sides to harass and thin the enemy infantry ranks.

There were a myriad of other types of situations where Alexander would be required to make decisions based on the overall situation and not consider just one sector, and all this which would fall squarely onto him.

And such types of decisions could not be made by a commander who was in the thick of the battle.

Because he would be far too busy commanding the troops and encouraging them to fight and would have no way time to command the army, which would require him to receive reports from the various fronts, think and analyze them with a clear head, and then give the proper instructions to the officers.

Not to mention he would also not have knowledge of the entire battlefield, meaning he would not be able to spot the weak spots appearing in his army in time and reinforce them, or notice the weakening of an enemy’s lines to take advantage of.

For the only way he would be able to do both was if he had an overhead drone giving him a bird’s eye view of the huge battlefield.

And since technology had yet to be invented, there arose the need for someone like Alexander.

Someone who could stay back and at least get a 2D eagle’s eye view over the vast fields.

And it was a vast battlefield no doubt about it.

A size that had to be seen to be believed.

For example, just on Alexander’s side, the thirty thousand (30,000) men in the center were divided into 6 legions and stood in 2 massive rows, with each row having three legions for a total of 15,000 men.

And in just one of these legions, there were 10 battalions (there were 480 soldiers in each, but Alexander had boosted it to 500 because not all the servants were needed as they were fighting at the doorsteps of their homes, meaning a less logistical burden).

And in each such battalion, there were 6 companies, (each company had a bit over 80 men to make up the total 500), in each of which stood 10 rows of around 8 men.

This 8-man structure was the basic squad, and each man was placed on the battle formation such that he would fight and die with his squad, by the side of his brothers in arms.

And from this very basic unit, the sheer size of the battleground would be calculated.

Each soldier in the company stood a meter apart from either side of his comrade, meaning a total separation of 2 meters between the two, which was meant to give each legionary the space he needed to move freely, to thrust his sword and attack, and to step around and dodge the incoming spears.

This was in much contrast to the phalanx where the men would be smooshed together to maximize the spear’s thrust.

And the differences did not end there, as contrary to the phalanx, these legionaries also stood 2 meters front to back in their rows, giving just a single company (80, now 85 men) a length of around 14 meters and a width of 18 meters, for a total area of 252 square meters.

Alexander had arranged 3 such companies side by, with a distance of 3 meters between each of them, and the other 3 companies in the back rows, with a distance of 8 meters front to back, giving just a single battalion (500 men formation) which was arranged in two rows and three columns, a length of 48 meters, and a width of 44 meters for a total area of 2,112 square meters per battalion. .

And this amount of space was for a very basic unit of just 500 men, arranged in a 25 men wide, and 20 men deep formation.

And given that 10 such battalions arranged in a row made up one legion, just these 5,000 men stood half a kilometer long and half a kilometer deep, covering a quarter of a square kilometer, or 50 football fields.

Yes, fifty, not five.

To further contextualize this, a soldier would need to walk five minutes to cover this distance.

A horse on a full gallop would take half a minute to go from one side to side.

A crossbowman, who had an average range of about 250 meters, would only be able to make his arrow reach the halfway mark of a legion in formation.

And lastly, a soldier looking to the very opposite end of the legion would find it very difficult to discern the man standing at the very edges.

And this was just one legion.

For Alexander had his infantry standing in three legions side by side and in two rows.

Meaning the center of the army, the one under Menes was one and a half kilometers long (1.5km) long, created by the 7,500 men, and one kilometer (1km) wide created by 4 rows of them, covering an area of 1.5 sq km.

And this was just the center.

When the two other legions of crossbowmen in the wings were also considered, who were deployed very similarly, the frontline easily stretched to 2 km and represented an area of 2 sq km.

This was quite comparable to the areas of many ancient cities, which was also why a moving army was often described as a moving town in nice descriptions and as a locust swarm that devoured everything in its path in many others.

And like Alexander, Faruq’s formation too covered a similar area, even a bit bigger actually due to his larger number, and the presence of the great number of cavalry.

Hence, when these great armies would meet, it would not be wrong to describe the clash as the smashing of cities, with each giving the impression they were indestructible.

After all, how do you defeat a city where all its inhabitants are armed to the teeth?

But one would be defeated.

Armies far greater than this had been defeated, broken, and obliterated.

They were regularly defeated and today would be no different.

In fact, Alexander himself had defeated a force about twice as large as this just three months ago, and as he gazed at the battlefield, he was confident he would be able to do the same today.

He had to.