Plan a rescue

"Let's attack the orcs! " Lishau eagerly suggested, "We outnumber them five-to-one! We will overwhelm them and rescue your brother, Thrash! No matter how many fall, we will take our ****!"

You stand up and firmly place a hand on her shoulder to both calm and reassure Lishau. Your half-sister has long held a flame for your blood-brother, Thrash, and she was not wrong in wanting to rescue him. Orcs have preyed on Goblinkind for generations because we were much weaker than them. Entire tribes have vanished on the Great Steppe due to Orcs, not including the myriad of other dangers out there, like starvation, cold weather, disease, and wolves. The Tahsh tribe themselves were at risk of dying out before your father rose to chief and brutally secured your tribe's safety through a series of attrition wars and conflicts.

But therein lay your problem. The standard Goblin tactic for battle was to rush their enemy with overwhelming numbers, taking severe losses, and hope that you break their lines before they do. Because goblins can have litters as high as seven or eight and they have a relatively short time to maturity, they believe they can recover the losses. Your father was an inspirational leader but he was not revolutionary, and he applied those same bloody strategies like every other Goblin leader before him.

No more. No more living-wave tactics. You will find another way.

"We will rescure Thrash, sister. I promise. I won't leave my blood-brother to be a **** to orcs. I will call upon every male and female in the tribe to fight for me." You begin in a steady voice. "But these are Orcs we are dealing with. They are dangerous and are said to have been born with a weapon in their hand. We need to be careful."

"Careful? Why?!" She replied hotly. "For every one of their spears, we will stab with five of our own!"

"Oh really? Then we can clearly crush them with such mighty numbers! Oh, what a brilliant tactician you are!" You proclaim snidely, "Please, educate your older brother, won't you? Can you tell me how you calculated that ratio?"

"They only have four hundred! We have more than two thousand warriors! We are the largest tribe in the entire Steppe!"

"No." You begin. "We have two thousand GOBLINS. Not two thousand warriors. You overestimate our fighting strength badly."

"Wh-"

You interrupt her, continuing your lecture. "Two hundred of them are female, all of them nursing children."

"I-"

"We need a hundred more to tend the livestock and grow our crops."

"We-"

"Another THREE hundred are required to keep watch and guard against other tribes that might raid our camps."

"..."

"Now," You advance forwards until you tower over her, looking down with disdain. "How many warriors does that leave us, Lishau?"

"....fourteen hundred."

"Wrong again." Shaking your head, you point down at the map on the floor. "The Gurmukh band has the high ground around the cliffs, they control the two key chokepoints to their encampment, and you just said not more than a minute ago that the trails are on rugged ground, easily defended."

You sigh and kneel down next to the leather drawing, "If we attack their camp, our forces will be spread out along the trail, like this. That means we would only be able to fit five or six males side-by-side. The rest would be standing behind them, unable to help. On the other end, the orcs would be able to fit three of theirs to block the pass."

"That means we have two warriors to one of theirs." You finish, glaring at her. "So tell me: Do you think two goblins can defeat one orc?"

Lishau looked down at the ground, cowed and chastened. She shook her head.

"That's right. It would be a slaughter. The goblin blood of the Tahsh tribe would turn those trails into rivers of red, and the orcs would feast on our flesh for weeks!" You say, "No, we will not engage them on their grounds."

Eyes snapping upwards, your half-sister snarls, "So we're not going to fight? We're going to abandon Thrash like cowards and let him die?"

"I didn't say I wouldn't fight, only that it wouldn't be on their territory!" You proclaim, standing up defiantly, "I am going to attack the orcs! I am going to rescue Thrash and the Murdu tribe! And I am going to DESTROY the Gurmukh band! But when the battle begins it will be on MY terms!"

Offering her a hand up, you state, "And I'm going to show you how."