Predictability

[MorGrendel]

As we drove home the other night, a little bruised from our own plan to stack the deck against us, I had proffered the question, "What does the enemy think when they look across at us?" I know what I had thought: We have no defense, no shieldmen, they will run us down and kill us. And yet we won.

I watched as the enemies shoulders sagged, I think they expected to beat us, and yet time and again they were rebuked. Now I take nothing away from my enemy, I assume they will have a plan and the tools needed to execute it. I felt we lacked certain tools, but that our experience would carry us through the thick of the fighting. I never assume the win, though I expect it.

After winning fight after fight, I suggested we make the sides the three Galatians, and the new guys. They were shieldmen and would provide us some defense. We could fight a different way with the new tools at hand. I thought this would balance the sides, I was wrong.

The battles did not go our way. Was it the novices lack of experience? Was it the other side’s sudden increase in experience?

I've come to decide it was neither. The problem was the plan. The other side now spotting a weakness in our line honed in on it and killed it first. Simple and decisive. We did not adapt out plan. Despite the new tools, we used them as though they were Galatians; we sent them to their deaths on a silver platter. We knew they were not offensive weapons and yet we used them as such, charging and flanking. We used them on the run, like we always fight. We did the same thing as usual, predictable, and we paid for it.