Chapter 1188 War Summary
In the following days of meetings, the General Staff Headquarters reviewed and summarized the entire process of Operation Torch based on Axia's retrospective and the search results of the Taqila ruins. Reports are delivered to Roland's desk almost every day, and they are piled up front and back almost as high as half a person.
More and more details are becoming clear one by one.
For example, the huge sacred stones that appeared in the Battle of Wangbei Slope and the Siege of Taqira came from the sacred stone veins in the ruins. At the bottom of the mine, the detective team found the corresponding missing part of the ore cluster - two medium-sized sacred stone pillars had been cut in half, and the cross-sections were very smooth, as if they had been cut by a sharp weapon.
Although the backtracking ability cannot be used near the sacred stone, looking at the overall situation, it is likely to be related to the giant skeleton. In fact, the latter is not only a means of transportation, but also functions as a small obelisk, which can regenerate the red mist. The corroded land around the ruins is proof of this. However, compared to the obelisk, which often covers hundreds of kilometers, its coverage range is only one or two hundred meters, and it cannot be created out of nothing. It still needs supplies from the Red Line to maintain it.
As a "sentinel" that can move freely, its strategic significance is self-evident. The conclusion given by the staff is that compared to the spider demon, this super large carrier is probably a rare species for the devil, otherwise it can completely replace the role of the outpost and occupy the fertile plain before humans can react. The whole territory.
In addition, most of the passages behind Taquila were dug by spider demons - although their digging ability is far inferior to that of swallowing worms, it is still much better than that of mad demons. These passages all start from the Divine Stone Mine. The depth from the ground obviously takes into account the threshold of observation ability. With sufficient preparation time, it is not easy to discover them.
Since both Celine and Agatha tend to regard giant skeletons and spider demons as the same type of devil, Roland also gave it a new name: Monstrous Beast to distinguish carrier-type enemies from other devils, plus a specific prefix. , you can quickly name similar monsters that have not yet been discovered.
Currently, these two carriers are named "fortress-shaped anomalies" and "spider-shaped anomalies" respectively. The latter is divided into type one for throwing stone needles and type two for throwing people. Accurate names are not only beneficial to combat deductions With the issuance of orders, it is also more convenient for post-war statistics and records.
In addition to detailed analysis of the battle situation, Roland's other focus is the shortcomings and areas for improvement listed by the General Staff Headquarters based on the results.
Among them, Edith made the report personally and ranked first among the many issues. The shortcoming was still the investigation ability.
Leaving aside the sky, in the history of human warfare, tunnel warfare has been limited by the cost-efficiency ratio of mining tools. It has always been just a strange move and cannot be used as a conventional tactical method. But this rule is somewhat inapplicable in the face of devouring worms and spider-shaped monsters - as long as enough carriers are gathered, the enemy may even dig an underground passage for the army to pass in a short time, so the foot is The land has also become a dangerous area that must be guarded against.
There is no doubt that Sylvie alone is not only unable to take care of it, but also extremely uneconomical. When the magic eye penetrates obstacles and sees objects, the consumption will be greatly increased. Under the condition that the total magic power level is fixed, it can monitor a target ten kilometers away on the surface for a whole day. If it is replaced by scanning the ground, it will only be the size of one or two football fields. , a shallow layer three to four meters deep.
What's more, except for extraordinary people, all witches' abilities have a threshold. When a certain condition is exceeded, the magic power consumption will rise exponentially. In this case, any non-emergency behavior is a waste of magic power. .
This vigilance work must be undertaken by the First Army itself.
Roland vaguely remembered that in history, two warring parties had used underground monitoring methods to prevent each other from digging tunnels and raiding positions. The principle was the same as that of a stethoscope. It relied on the fact that the attenuation of sound propagation in solid materials was less than that of air propagation, making it more effective. Clearly capture your opponent's movements while digging.
However, this method is limited to the tunnels being excavated near the position. Traps like Taqila have been laid out early. Listening alone cannot solve all problems.
He thought about it again and again before he came up with a feasible method - detective.
This is a detection method that is widely used in the civil engineering industry. As one of the two dogs in science and engineering, he often heard his roommates in the civil engineering department mention it. To put it simply, it is to pound a steel bar vertically into the ground, and judge the softness and hardness of the soil based on the distance of each hammer. Test points are generally distributed in plum blossom piles spaced several meters apart. As long as they are equipped with a detector, several people can complete a large-area inspection. When the steel bar sinking data suddenly increases, it is very likely that there is a void underneath.
The combination of listening and detecting methods can basically ensure the detection of threats from the underground without resorting to the witch's ability.
As for the investigation of enemy situations in the air, the only way to get rid of dependence on Lightning and Maisie is to develop the air force.
As for when this part can be made up, it depends on Tilly.
In addition, there are many conclusions in the report such as "over-reliance on positions" and "lack of rapid support capabilities". Roland lamented the rapid improvement of the staff level, but also felt helpless - he was not aware of these. problem, but limited by the population of Neverwinter, it would be difficult for him to make up for the above shortcomings in a short period of time.
Finally, among the many reports, one opinion caught his attention. It was a report from the grassroots level of the army, submitted by a logistics officer. The report stated that the performance of the Mark I machine gun was unstable under high-intensity battles. After the decisive battle, many soldiers in the machine gun team complained that they spent more time changing barrels than firing, which also caused logistical problems. No small burden. Hopefully engineering can improve it if possible.
This is also the first time Roland has received direct feedback from frontline soldiers since the feedback mechanism was established - as personal users of weapons, they are the ones who know the best about the advantages and disadvantages of weapons.
In fact, as early as when the Tower No. 1 site was attacked, he noticed an abnormal increase in scrapped gun barrels, but since these parts could be recast, he didn't take it too seriously at the time. Now that I think about it, it was probably due to the shooter's lack of experience and the sudden increase in pressure from the enemy. During night battles, soldiers are more nervous and it is difficult to confirm the results of the battle. They almost hold the trigger and will not let go. The air-cooled barrel itself is not as durable as the water-cooled barrel. It could basically handle the combat intensity before, but now that the shooting time is long, the heat dissipation cannot keep up.
This also made Roland a little alarmed. The reason why he used gas-guided recoil and air-cooled barrel in the first place was purely because he wanted to use one gun for multiple purposes. If he designed it according to Maxim, it would not be in line with the "universal" idea. However, the actual effect was Not as ideal as he expected. Although the production of tracer bullets and the increase in night fighting experience can alleviate this situation, the enemy's troop input to the Western Front is only a small number. If it really comes to a decisive battle between the main force and demons swarming over the mountains and plains, the impact of heavy machine gun misfire will be fatal.
Fortunately, the report made him realize his mistake.
The solution is to separate the two, and replace the heavy machine gun specially used to suppress the enemy with a longer barrel with a heat sink, and no longer consider the issue of multi-purpose. The general-purpose machine gun, which can be used for handheld assault and is also suitable for vehicles, has been redesigned to be lightweight based on the Mark 1, so that it can meet the needs of future wars.