The Harlan Sits

 The people have spoken!

The Harlan Blitz, having forced their way through Big Stone Gap, taken two towns deep in Kingsport Territory, and generally run amuck find themselves confronted by a terrible new challenge: literal water falling from the sky!

For Commander Hayes, it is already October 5th.  Far to the west, the Battle of Powell River has already been decided - though we do not yet know the outcome.  Four days earlier Hayes and his men managed to force Big Stone Gap and after spending a day securing the town, they moved down to Duffield.  As a small village, it offers no resistance, but it does require a day to secure hostages and ensure the local populace doesn't get too out of hand.

On October 5th, the Blitz awaken to find a light rain falling, with the promise of heavier rain in the offing. Facing the prospect of a two-day march to Gate City, Hayes utilized one of his few messenger pigeons to request advice from the War Council back in Knoxville.  After a fierce debate, the more conservative faction won...

...and Commander Hayes (Intelligence 15, Initiative 17) breathes a sigh of relief.  He can shelter in place here in comfortable Duffield, and does not risk getting bogged down on the way to Gate City.  That is probably a smart call as - SPOILER ALERT! - the rain is scheduled to last until at least October 7th, and possibly longer.  We won't know until the rest of the campaign catches up to the Blitz.  Remember, it takes as many days for the roads to dry as it takes to soak them, so the Blitz is effectively bogged down in Duffield until the 9th.  On the flip side, everyone else will be bogged down as well.  Whether this was a smart move or not remains to be seen.

But let's turn the clock back a few days, shall we?  We were pretty cavalier about leaving Big Stong Gap unguarded.  Given how fast the armies are marching hither and yon, we should update our rules to define how large a garrison must be left behind to secure any towns of D-Class or bigger.  (E-Class villages are so small as to not need such.  We can assume their leaders are held hostage by the conquering force to ensure compliance.)  

Remember that militias range in size from 100-300 men.  Big Stone Gap, as a C-Class city (and a foundry capable of replenishing cannons) had a militia of 200 men, and to keep things easy, we'll assume that the garrison has to be as large as our standard 1 guard for every 5 prisoners.  That would force Commander Hayes to leave 40 able-bodied men behind to hold the Gap.  Since we've got some serious numbers of wounded, let's leave them behind too - they would only slow the march of the Blitz.

Ultimately, we are retconning the numbers to show that Big Stone Gap is now under the 'protection' of 40 cavalry men, and the temporary home of 67 wounded infantry.  Those 67 infantry will recover on October 13th, at which time either they or the cavalry can race to rejoin the main force of the Harlan Blitz as some much neededreinforcements.

I have updated the Armies Page to reflect this change.  And you can expect a similar process to occur whenever a D-Class or larger city falls to the enemy and here I'm looking at Tazewell and Morristown.