On 12/22/05, Jon Lincicum <lincicum at comcast.net> wrote: > For anyone who is interested, I've put together a little Fanfic site for > Dragaera called "Terics Academy". > > It's mostly done for personal gratification, but I thought some of you > might want to look it over. > > It's located at: > > http://home.comcast.net/~lincicum/Terics_Academy/index.html > > If you are so inclined, let me know what you think. > I am most certainly not a military expert of any shade or color, but I could not help but make a few observations, which may or may not be of some use to the noble headmaster of the Academy: Observing the course listing, I note the following: 1) No specific listing for Basic Cartography (drafting and psiprints, with special attention paid to emphasizing tactical and strategic geographical features). 2) No specific listing for Combat Engineering. I suppose "Fortification Methods" & "Siege Deployment" might cover it, but I think the Vallista would emphasize laying in the foundation before building upon it, if I may borrow their maxim. 3) No Naval Tactics! Given that Elde Island & Greenaere are potential enemies, this is a serious flaw. Perhaps you might bring on the famous Jaubry e'Marish'Chala to teach a few courses? 4) I think it might be useful to have courses, perhaps as electives, of "Integrating with non-human forces" and "Considerations in opposing non-human forces" (I don't know how much actual fighting is done with the Serioli nowadays, but Easterners are always an interesting tactical situation, especially considering different types of Easterner forces) (it might also be interesting to consider cat-centaurs, infantry AND cavalry - although that might be a purely theoretical scenario, since there appears to be some sort of nonaggression treaty). 5) "It Don't Matter" could probably be replaced by a more... informative class. Such as "Balancing Morale and Discipline", or "Effective Minor Sabotage Operations". 6) More basic "Combat Medicine" courses: "Basic First Aid", "What to do While Waiting for the Physicker", "Anatomy", "Triage", etc. 7) Perhaps something on Espionage and Intelligence Gathering and Analysis? Incidentally, have you heard of "The Defence of Duffer's Drift"? http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/007007.html#007007 It occurs to me that Lieutenant Backsight Forethought might be a Tiassa, what with achieving tactical insight through revelatory dreams.