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Nightstar The Bright
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→Battlefield tactics
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=== Strategy ===
==== Battlefield tactics ====
Tactics + sieges
The Alethi have a wide range of tactics. A popular tactic is the hammer and anvil tactic.{{book ref|sa3|3}} The Alethi are also practiced at executing a fake rout, often leading to an ambush.{{book ref|sa4|41}} At the tail end of the Era of Solitude warfare started to include heavy cavalry more and more, although the use of heavily armoured and equipped horsemen was still a relatively new and costly strategy.{{book ref|sa3|73}}
{{sidequote|All wars are games. The greatest kind, with the pieces lost real lives, the prizes captured making for real wealth! This is the life for which men exist. To fight, to kill, to win.|The [[Sadees|Sunmaker]], who shaped modern Alethi militarism{{book ref|sa1|24}}|side=right|size =300px}}
==== Planning and army movement ====
Each highprince has his own martial philosophy, and their army has it’s own strength, with the [[Kholin princedom|Kholin]] army having the best heavy infantry, the [[Roion princedom|Roion]] army the best archers and the [[Sadeas princedom|Sadeas]] army the fastest bridges.{{book ref|sa1|24}} Cavalry to fight shardbearers and lighteyed heavy infantry. Wooden mobile scouting towers in the camps. Canopy from shields to protect from arrows. Middle is heavy infantry, then to the sides mobile, lightly armoured but fast, archer units is new tactics. Infantry will try to reach the sides but the heavy infantry will beat their central block. Standard spearmen blocks engage enemies as much as to position them as to do harm. {{book ref|sa3|26}} also light infantry as fast harrying forces due to lack of horses. Some officers take their children with them to war, although never to the battlefield. Instead they usually stay at the town that serves as the army’s long-term command post.{{book ref|sa3|52}} In recent years the Alethi also began to make use of smaller more mobile teams, which have their own tactics.{{book ref|sa3|66}} There is a known symbol for a truce.{{book ref|sa3|76
While highstorms are a problem, good planning prevents an army from needing to be out during a storm, except in some rare cases.{{book ref|sa3|19}}{{book ref|sa1|4}} If a campaign takes longer then anticipated, the army can split and retreat back to a number of towns for shelter.{{book ref|sa3|19}} Due to highstorms, the Weeping is a common time for military campaigns.{{book ref|sa2|79}} Sieges are rare in Alethkar, and often last only a short time. This is due to soulcasters, which make it impossible to starve a city out. Instead, the Alethi break down the walls quickly, seize the high ground to pound the city for a while or simply attack, attempting to scale and conquer the walls.{{book ref|sa3|19}}{{book ref|sa3|11}}
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