For Your Consideration: The CORIM actions taken in the war against Tsarmina

[Hickory]

DISCLAIMER: The theories and opinions presented in the following text have 100% chance of fallibility and are 100% theorized by myself.

In the book Mossflower, the group of woodlanders standing against the Thousand Eyes Army and the Greeneyes family is known as Corim, or Council Of Resistance In Mossflower.

List of Strategies Employed by the Corim
- Guerilla tactics
- Spying
- Distraction
- Woodland expertise
- Trickery

Let's start off with the first major military action taken by the Corim in Mossflower - rescuing Gonff and Martin from Kotir.

The schedule went as thus:
- Provide lock picking tools to Gonff.
- Wait until he emerges from the building.
- Locate his exit point and grab him before the Kotir soldiers can act.

Now, we'll look at the issues with that plan.

How will they get the tools to Gonff? It's easy enought to make it small enough to fit through the bars, but which cell? How will they get to the window itself, inside the castle grounds? Furthermore, the location that Gonff leaves the building from is totally undetermined. He might emerge from a crowded point, the mess hall perhaps? Lucky for the book, the misfortune of Martin and Gonff, coupled with the actions taken by Tsarmina, Ashleg, and Fortunata, enabled the two prisoners to escape easily. In the end, once they had jumped out of the window, it was only Lady Amber's quick actions that saved them from being turned into pincushions by Tsarmiana. Fallibility: 90%

For the majority of other actions, they used a very important beast: Chibb the robin. After the escape of Martin and Gonff, that pretty much introduced us to the beginning of an all-put war between the Corim and Tsarmina. To counteract the superior numbers exhibited by the Thousand Eyes army, the Mossflower forces needed a good spy so they could out-maneuver Tsarmina. Chibb provided the best possible form of that necessity, and he did his job wondrously. And now, I segway into the main point of this entire topic.

Main point of this entire topic

Without Chibb, the Corim would've been crushed within a month.

[close]

Let's face it. The Mossflower forces could hold out with their vanish-like-smoke tactics, but after Bane arrived, the trap he had set for them with the vermin hiding the woods would've depleted their number so much that the chance of success was virtually nil. It's that simple. Ferdy and Coggs would've starved in their cells. So, new list.

New List of Strategies employed by the Corim
- Querrila tactics
- Spying
- Distraction
- Woodland expertise
- Trickery

The Mask was a huge help, and if it wasn't for Cludd then he would've been a good replacement for Chibb. But sooner or later his cover would've been blown, clumsy weasels or not. All the above tactics are still usable though.

So there you go. Questions? Comments? Post below.

[The Skarzs]

Both genius and slightly over-thought.
There is a lot in the series that is merely luck-driven. Often we readers overlook the fact that a lot of the happenings that could not have happened except for the lucky stars of the characters helping them along, because it makes it a better story sometimes to leave massive amounts of planning. Would anyone want to read plans that took days to perfect down to the last crucial detail? I don't think most readers would. In the end, it comes down to how much we really care about.

[Hickory]

I guess, plot armor and all that. Brian never focused in too much on battle tactics.

[Wylder Treejumper]

Hmm, Querilla Tactics... I'm afraid I'm unfamiliar with those.

[The Skarzs]

The Grammar Nazi himself losing at his own game.

Guerrilla tactics can be quite effective, if used properly.

[Lady Ashenwyte]

Guerrilla tactics can be quite effective, if used properly.

I agree. They are risky, though, because there are many factors that can determine the success or failure of a guerilla attack.