Deploying Troops.

Duncan had never formally studied military tactics; all his skills in deploying formations were accumulated from playing total war type games in his previous life. If you asked him to explain some fancy formations, he wouldn't understand at all, but when it came to whether deploying formations could be effective in battle, he had his own set of theories and practical experiences, and was quite formidable in actual combat.

A simplest example is the formation one-one-one, a spread of left, center, and right armies, with the flanks and rear marked by a ! mark, representing the battlefield's most maneuverable cavalry units.

In the era of cold weapons, formations weren't the decisive factor; it was the soldiers' combat quality, morale, will, and command capacity that made the difference.

Using the three-one spread formation as an example, if the right wing is broken, the central army will be flanked. You're on the front line facing the enemy head-on, focusing on blocking with a shield and striking down the enemy in front of you. But once the right wing is broken, the enemy suddenly flanks from the right, or even circles around to attack from the rear, cutting off your retreat, placing you in a situation where you are attacked from both sides.

In such cases, unless your troops are very strong, soldiers of equal strength will inevitably have shaken morale and suffer heavy casualties.

As the saying goes, two fists can't match four hands. In cold weapon combat, the number of engaged fighters is the front row, so even two hundred men can flank and attack four to five hundred men, and when casualties in the front row increase significantly, the soldiers' fighting will tend to waver. They wouldn't know the size of the enemy, only that they are surrounded and many of their own have died.

In such situations, without fresh troops filling in to form a new dual-defensive formation, the collapse of the front line is only a matter of time.

Duncan's understanding is quite simple. Deployment means creating a local battlefield situation where the many fight the few, ideally causing chaos by attacking the enemy from both sides while one's own side focuses on just striking down the enemies in front.

As for changes in formation, frankly, it's quite difficult due to the low command capacity of this era. Battles often end up in chaos, and it's rare for large-scale wars to maintain a level of command.

Historically, there was only one person capable of this—the military sage, Han Xin.

Of course, this is the simplest part. Cavalry involvement adds complexity to formations, necessitating consideration of battlefield timing and exploiting enemy weaknesses. Cavalry relies more on improvisation due to its superior mobility.

Simply put, Duncan's method of deploying troops is an off-the-cuff, practical approach, somewhat inspired by formidable generals like Xiang Yu and Lu Bu, focusing heavily on real-combat effectiveness and sometimes following his instincts.

As for real scholarly commanders like Sun Wu, Han Xin, and Zhuge Liang, they have countless contingency plans ready before the battle even starts, covering various unexpected scenarios, never relying on improvisation like Duncan, who even uses personal martial prowess to create strategic openings against the enemy.

But a flurry of punches can indeed defeat a seasoned master.

Grand strategies and strategic layouts are certainly the forte of scholarly commanders, but in localized warfare, someone like Duncan, despite his unpredictability, could even potentially defeat military saints with an unexpected charge of cavalry straight to the face.

If you say Duncan lacks commanding ability, that's a joke. His approach is starting to resemble an all-encompassing method; it just requires very stringent preconditions.

That is, the strategic map from a God's-eye view.

On the battlefield.

Seeing the Hun commander position the Alan vassal army at the forefront of the central army, Duncan realized the enemy intended to use the vassal force to wear down his army's combat strength. The Hun army differed from other forces in that they were unafraid of the central army being pierced. For most other forces, a breakthrough in the central front meant almost certain defeat.

However, it's not a concern for the Huns since their main force is cavalry, mostly positioned on the flanks. Even if their central army is broken, they can still use a circular mounted archery formation to envelop the enemy from both sides.

Thus, their tactics sometimes resemble those of the Mongol army, using vassal troops as cannon fodder in the front line.

Against a formidable Hun general, they might intentionally sacrifice the central force, feign defeat, and then execute a fake retreat, launching a counterattack like a surprise reverse strike when the pursuing enemy's formation becomes chaotic, routing them with a push.

The Mongol army also used such tactics, but it requires a baseline of morale, training, and command capacity, otherwise, a fake defeat turns into a full-fledged rout.

Historically, only elite troops could seize the enemy's flaw after a feigned defeat and directly counterattack.

"British Legion, advance two hundred steps."

At this point, Duncan couldn't lead a direct charge; the enemy clearly had more troops. He stationed cavalry on the flanks for cover, while he led the general's guard in battle, with messengers closely following—mostly light cavalry, with accompanying banner bearers conveying orders.

The battlefield command system was complex, and the British Legion primarily used the Empire's method, directing with whistles, horns, drums, and banners, but as casualties mounted, the command devolved into just following his lead.

In the decisive moment, when both sides were enmeshed in chaotic combat, basically the presence of the large flag dictated the battlefield focus.

The archers in the front line began to advance, being light infantry who could retreat at any time.

A thunderous sound of hoofbeats erupted.

The Hun's mounted archery units began their maneuvers. With cavalry approaching from both flanks, the central army's infantry also pushed towards Duncan's forces, mainly to coordinate with cavalry, seeking the decisive moment and depleting the enemy's strength. With the advantage in numbers, the Huns were usually proactive in their assault.

"Shield formation!"

Duncan shouted, and the British Legion's front ranks began to close in, forming a shield wall. The Empire's legion's square shields turned into round shields; had they continued using square shields, they could have formed a Turtle Shell Array, a formation resistant to archer units.

On the right wing of the British Legion, the Gaul Warrior Battle Group was itching to charge, marked prominently with 'Possible Unauthorized Charge'.

But it was no problem.

Because not just them, the enemy's elite Hun cavalry, East Goth heavy axemen, Gepid heavy infantry, and others all had the 'Possible Unauthorized Charge' mark above them.

Any nation that revered personal valor tended to love charging in combat.

"Forty-five-degree-angle volley!"

Duncan faced the approaching Huns mounted archers without a trace of panic. He himself notched an arrow and drew his bow, advancing on horseback, shooting an arrow that whistled through the air. A Huns elite mounted archer with a one-star silver-gray mark instantly fell from his horse, frightening nearby enemies with 'shock' and 'encountering a strong enemy' marks appearing.

The infantry archers never feared direct confrontation with mounted archers.

This was because the war bows used on horseback were slightly less powerful, and the high-speed movement made aiming difficult. Meanwhile, infantry archers barely moved, making them easier targets for enemy arrows.

A volley of arrows fell, causing casualties on both sides.

Duncan continuously fired the Nord Bow, directly killing five or six people, all of whom were Huns commanders marked with one star.

"This person is actually this powerful!?"

On the right wing of the Huns army, Charagan's expression was extremely serious. He had thought about Duncan's amazing martial prowess, but he hadn't expected it to be this astounding!

Charagan was the legendary Huns heroic eagle shooter, and his archery skills were also top-notch in this era.

However, he couldn't achieve the ambidextrous shooting like Duncan, not to mention a storm-like continuous firing, achieving almost hundred shots hundred hits. His mounted archery only hit seven or eight out of ten, sometimes relying on luck, and only with foot archery could he achieve hundred shots hundred hits.

As for ambidextrous and continuous shooting, Charagan's stamina simply couldn't handle it. Shooting like that, he would be unable to wield his sword afterward.

A probing attack.

The enemy only suffered minor soldier casualties, while seven or eight of their own commanders were killed, causing chaos among hundreds of Huns nomads. How did the enemy general identify the commanders, by observing their equipment?

As soon as someone with slightly better equipment showed their head, Duncan would directly shoot them down.

He wasn't in a hurry.

Duncan slowly shot, without using continuous arrows, gradually recovering his stamina. If the enemy didn't launch a strong attack, he could shoot down all the combat units with star marks among them.

This war began as a personal martial showcase for Duncan.

Even though the enemy was numerous and his forces were few, the British Legion's morale was extremely high, showing no sign of faltering. Some Barbarian Berserkers were even eager to chop down a few Huns armored soldiers to earn merits.

The British Legion's equipment was relatively poor. They recently changed into some leather armor, but fortunately, they had plenty of shields. If they couldn't afford armor, then everyone carried a shield instead.

After several waves of arrow rain, Charagan noticed his casualties were greater!

It was incredible.

He could understand the enemy general's astonishing martial prowess, given his famous reputation. But why were the British archers so skilled?

The Huns were renowned for their exceptional archery, where did those Britons get such strong bowmen?

Hmm.

Of course, there were.

The predecessors of English longbowmen, now the Welsh bowmen. Had they unlocked the longbow tech tree, Duncan could have assembled a small squad of English longbowmen.

Across Great Britain, the Welsh regions were perhaps rough and harsh, producing tough and rebellious recruits with strong combat capabilities.

Duncan had only seen one-star-marked infantry archers in Wales so far.

"This is a tough nut to crack!"

Charagan realized that he couldn't continue the direct shootout anymore; it simply wasn't worth it. The nomad bows weren't strong enough and suffered too much in shooting. Sending in Huns elite mounted archers would result in Duncan picking them off one by one, and trading them for British archers was a huge loss, almost explosively so.

On the grasslands, warriors capable of both mounted archery and melee were forced to trade for some British archers; God's Whip - Attila would whip him to death if he found out.

"Send the Vassal Army to press forward," Charagan decisively ordered.

First deplete the enemy's stamina, wait for their formation to show flaws, then lead the cavalry to break through in one fell swoop. This was their old tactic, always quite effective.

"Prepare for battle!" shouted the British Centurion at the front line.

At the forefront of the formation, the Huns vassal legion had already started preparing to charge, and the first echelon of the British Legion took up spears. The early empire used heavy spears, with two to four per person, which later became light spears, usually one or two, with a range reaching about fifty meters.

Throw!

The first three rows of the British Legion forcefully threw their spears.

Puff, thud.

In front came continuous screams, and the first wave of spear throws was quite lethal. If the shield didn't block it, a hit would be fatal or crippling. A large number of spear throws would inevitably heavily damage the enemies at the forefront.

.........

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