Burn it and ram it!

You still have a thousand questions about Atheas and her relationship with Lord-Marshal Raxius; such as how did they meet, how young were they, and which of Atheas’ daughters were his, but by now the sun is setting over the western hills and you needed to start your portion of the siege as soon as you were able. With that in mind, you look down at the map before you and listened as Atheas planned your attack.

“For our first stage of the ****,” she started, “We will use our scorpions to launch fire pots onto the walls. The smoke and heat from fire-vine oil should be more than enough to drive the men off the walls while we ram the gate.”

As Laoda stated earlier, the Amazons of Accor are known for their exotic oils. Unlike the fragrant elixirs prized by merchants for their therapeutic qualities, your most flammable brand of oil is distilled from a creeping vine that covers the rocky slopes of the eastern side of Accor. Mixed with tar from tower pines, the oil sticks to where it lands and burns with a noxious black smoke that burns at the eyes and lungs of the defenders. The pitch burns so fiercely that it is rumored to burn water. This, of course, isn’t true as it was the oil floating on the surface of the water that burns but you weren’t about to let anyone outside of your tiny island nation know this. Fire-vine oil is one of the main reasons your navy is so feared as it can easily turn enemy ships into floating infernos with less than a few arrow volleys.

“Once we've cleared the walls,” Atheas continues, “We will commit six galleys to strike the gate with their rams. They will attack in threes; one group will ram the gate while the other pulls back and prepare for the next wave. This way we the gate will be under constant harassment.”

“Will our light galleys be enough to bring down the gate?” you ask Atheas.

“You mother and I have used this tactic before in other sieges,” she tells you, “Granted on a much smaller scale and with wooden gates. In those sieges, we would first set the gate on fire and then have two ships take turns ramming the gate in much the same way we are doing now. It typically takes less than a day to break through.”

“That is not a wooden gate,” said Anon, “It’s solid bared steel and embedded in a thick brick wall. It’s going to take more than galleys to breach those monsters.”

“You'll be surprised at what our galleys can do,” Atheas is as confident as ever, “Besides, I took the wall’s size into consideration and modified the tactic accordingly. We can't set the gate on fire so we will attack the men on the walls, and I have increased the number of ships from two to six. If need be I will increase it to eight.”

“I still think we need something bigger,” says Anon before turning to you, “Xira-uh-your Highness. My drake ship should be large enough to break through it is twice the size of the galleys. All we have to do is strengthen the hull and place a ram on the front.”

Atheas shakes her head, “Anon, you ship was built to carry drakes into battle and provide a roost for them in the open sea. Not only that it’s being used to carry supplies. In order to modify your ship, we would have to remove all of the supplies, build a few extra oar slots so you can build up enough speed, heavily reinforce the hull, and actually build a ram. Not only would it be a waste of resources but it could possibly take weeks for us to build.”

“Could we use ladders?” you ask Atheas.

Seisa answers for her, “I would advise against it. The base of the walls along the river are either covered in slippery rocks or thick with mud. The only stable land I could find would support maybe one or two ladders but our Sisters would be stuck in a **** point, and as you are unfortunately aware, your Majesty, we don’t handle **** points very well.”

You grumble at the Night Sister’s comment but she doesn’t seem to notice or care. It was hard to tell with Seisa which was probably how she preferred it. You then turn back to Atheas and Anon, “Let's start with Atheas' plan first,” you decide, “If it doesn’t go as planned, we’ll see if it is feasible to convert your ship, Anon.”

“She won’t have to,” said Atheas, “In fact, I predict that the gates will be down by the end of tomorrow if not sooner.”