The Captain of the Riverguard stared at the river, swirling with the elementals which had been summoned, bargained with and bound to defend the river against the goblinoid threat more than a century ago. Their swirling dance was beautiful, but his eyes did not see it. For though his eyes stared at the river, his mind looked out through the eyes of the blood hawk which flew swiftly north over the open ground which usually was already filling with hobgoblins preparing for the year’s campaign

  It wasn’t empty of course. There were worgry patrols moving in the same patrol routes as last year, intended to prevent infiltrators from sneaking in and burning supplies, or assassinating commanders. Trying to fight the goblinoids in straight battle could only end badly, especially given they could simply breed five more for every one they killed. Even with a wood elf’s superior ability to reproduce when compared to other elves and their superior martial and magical prowess to the goblinoids, a war of attrition would only end in defeat. Even if they were able to offload most of the dying onto elementals, summoned creatures, or other allies, the goblinoids could simply drown them in bodies and blood. Combined with their brutal, but admittedly effective tactics, they were a threat which could not be underestimated.

  Especially as their total lack of love for nature in any form meant they had no hesitation about firing entire tracts of the forest, if they could. The whole section the hawk was flying over had been forest once, but now it was the staging area for their next push. Or it usually was. Despite the worgry patrols, there was no massing of troops behind it. He’d been fairly certain that would be the case, despite what some of the other commanders thought, the enemy was not stupid. The only reason they would re-use the same patrol routes twice in a row was because there was nothing behind them to protect.

  The [Beast Sense] had a strict time limit and even a hawk’s speed would not let it get too far before that expired, but as he watched it continued its trip back to the mountains. It would have been better if it had followed the river more closely, those were the areas he was most familiar with, but thanks to the Riverguard, the goblins rarely bothered trying to send supplies downriver, but they still set up bases near it to draw water. Many times he and his troops had burned those bases, delaying offensives, or executed key personnel to throw things into chaos.

  If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  The hobgoblins had a rigid hierarchy, which reacted quickly to any gap, but not instantaneously. And some people, especially mages, or particularly skilled commanders, couldn’t be replaced so easily. The better target however were the leaders of the packs of goblins, or allied bugbear clans. As those groups would often fight among themselves for leadership and the hobgoblins might well have to kill many of their own men to re-establish dominance.

  But the key point was timing. If only part of the enemy advanced, that section could be destroyed, because the rest were sorting out their chain of command, and it would take years for their forces to become a threat again. It was not a bad defensive strategy. It usually worked and limited losses. But it was a defensive strategy and there was no complementary offensive strategy. There was no route to victory, except for the promises that eventually the goblinoids would turn on one another. It was just a matter of outlasting their unity.

  He believed that, but even putting aside the fact that they had changed leaders five times without collapsing into civil war yet, he saw further than the other leaders. Even if that happened, it wouldn’t remove the threat, it would simply be another delay. The threat was the goblinoids control over the mountains between them and the eastern cities and their own disconnection and lack of allies with those peoples of the western coast and islands. And though Southport held to old oaths and did not interfere in the abandoned southern forest, they sent no allies at all. They got some mercenaries and adventurers from the isles and the coast as allies, but no armies marched to their aid. The other elves were either too few, or too distracted to bother and the others within easy march viewed the conflict as a never ending battle between strangers.

  So be it, they could win on their own, but they had to actually take the fight to the enemy when they were given an opportunity...but the Council of Elders did not see it that way. And in the end, even his rank did not allow him to overrule their wisdom.