#mountain warfare

“THE BLUE DEVILS OF THE ALPS - This picture shows the Alpine Chasseurs on maneuvers in the Alps near the Italian frontier. These "Blue Devils," so called because their berets are blue, are as much at home on skis as are the British cavalry on horses, and ninety per cent. of their "route marches" and maneuvers are done on these seemingly unwieldy skis.”

24cm Mörser M.98/7, genannt " Mitzi ".Standpunkt Winkleralm

24cm mortar M.98 / 7, called "Mitzi". Location Winkleralm

Mediennummer:00485392

Unterstände am Prihat, im Hintergrund Rosskofel.

Shelters on the Prihat, in the background Rosskofel.

Mediennummer:00086520

Feldwache am Prihat.

Field guard at the Prihat.

In verybasic terms, your characters have two choices: Wait them out, or go in and tryto hunt them down. Which option is better will depend on a lot of factors.

Movingmilitary forces into mountains is rarely an ideal option. Even under the bestof circumstances, you’re looking at difficult to navigate environment that canturn lethal with little to no warning. In some cases, it can actually proveimpossible to move forces through because the geography doesn’t allow passage.This also means sending out scouts and trying to find navigable paths, which slowsprogress.

Gettingabove the snow line means dealing with harsh conditions that your forces maynot be prepared to deal with, and depending on the mountains in question, that maybe necessary for traversal.

If you’redealing with forces native to the mountains, then sending forces in will bevery costly. They’ll be in familiar terrain, have a better grasp of where thenatural chokepoints are, have a mobility advantage (because they’ll actuallyknow where the possible paths and trails are), and have time to cover theirretreat with traps.

If yourforces are familiar with the mountains, and the opposing forces aren’t, thenyou can herd them into dead ends, and move through the territory far faster. Ifthere are friendly mountain settlements, they may help your forces know wheretheir foes have gone.

Ofcourse, the inverse makes this harder. If there are mountain settlements whoare hostile (openly or otherwise) to your forces, that will (usually) make lifeeasier for the foes they’re pursuing. This settlements could function as an adhoc picket, or they could actively support the attackers, while harassing orattacking your forces.

Combatin mountainous terrain is a mess, and heavily favors the side that can bestexploit the terrain. In a situation where one side knows the environmentbetter, they’ll be in a far better position to operationalize that. If they’rebeing pursued, they will know when, and were, to stop and fight, for maximumeffect. Let’s take this out of abstraction, for a moment, and talk aboutexactly how this works.

If youhave a sheer cliff face, and the only way up are via goat trails or some canyonsthat cut into the side. This will create a natural choke point. You canposition a (comparatively) small contingent of melee forces to block the path,and then let your archers open up on the assaulting force.

If youhave uneven terrain, you may be able to post archers overlooking any otherpotential combat site, while the enemy cannotget to them without trekking out of their way for miles.

Narrowmountain passes allow you to (nearly) negate the difference in force size. Massmelee combat is not decided by the side who brings more forces to the battle,it’s decided by the side who can put more soldiers directly into combat. Innarrow spaces, where only three or four soldiers can stand abreast, the rest oftheir forces are basically irrelevant. Put another way, you can’t overwhelmyour foes with sheer numbers, if those numbers are restricted to picking theirnose, and waiting in line for their turn to fight.

Theother option is to wait them out. Stay in the lowlands, where your forces can operateeffectively. Fortify potential targets for their future raids (such as townsand villages). You will probably, also, want to send scouts into the mountainsto track their movement, and gather information about the size and location oftheir forces. As they become more familiar with the terrain, it’s also possiblethey could engage in some limited sabotage and harassment.

Dependingon how serious the threat is, and the available resources, it may also be timeto fortify the region. In the lowlands, that means constructing watchtowers. Inthe mountains that may mean constructing fortifications along paths that yourscouts identify, to protect your forces from potential choke points (like theones I mentioned above).

At thispoint, you have two approaches. First is to simply maintain the early warningnetwork, gradually reinforce the defenses, and wipe them out when (or if) theycome. The second is to carefully map out the region, identify their means ofgetting around, and gradually boxing them in, either with standing forces, withfortifications, or with some combination of both.

Isuppose another option would be to charge in and get wiped out. That’s,probably, not quite the kind of story you were going for, but it is an entirelyplausible outcome, particularly if the lowland forces commander is overconfidentor too aggressive. So, that option is on the table. If the fighting has tohappen immediately, then that is the most likely outcome.

-Starke