Season 3: Chapter 201. Hill Tank (1)
The current point of view only showed Persia’s perspective.
Joseon’s forces on the wall couldn’t be seen. Persia couldn’t even tell where Joseon’s forces were, yet arrows could come flying at any moment.
— Wow
— This is a hill tank
— When will they shoot? lol the anticipation
Having taken the wall, Joseon seemed to gain the upper hand.
“Hill! Tank!”
Boom~ Boom-boom!
The crowd’s cheer resonated loudly. It sounded quite catchy for an improvised cheer.
— lol
— The state of the cheer lol
— lol
— Wow
— Feels like singing the fifth verse of the national anthem
“Ah, amid such enthusiastic cheering, Joseon must start the real harassment!”
“Yes! Just taking the wall isn’t a huge advantage. They need to capitalize on it to gain the upper hand!”
Indeed, having the wall wasn’t a huge advantage by itself.
“It’s annoying, but Persia can just ignore them as long as Joseon stays put. Persia is good at not moving, right?”
“Exactly. Joseon needs to make another move! Hit them a few more times.”
That was where resource harassment came in. The Joseon archers would shoot arrows from the wall to kill the workers.
“If you’re on extremely high ground like a wall or a tower, your range with arrows increases. They need to use this to prevent Persia from collecting resources!”
“That’s what a hill tank is!”
Joseon would combine the geographical advantage of the wall with the focus trait. In the second era, this literally gave them the range of a tank and would enable effective resource harassment.
“Persia’s response right now is crucial.”
Of course, this could end without much damage depending on the opponent’s response. While Joseon had set the stage, they could possibly not reap the benefits.
“That’s right! Persia’s woodcutters need to evacuate, but where to? Which direction should they go? That’s the issue!”
The Ancient Walls surrounded Persia’s base like a giant circular donut while Joseon’s archers could move freely on this donut. Realistically, the wall was too large to cover every spot. Both sides likely had to choose one area to focus on.
“There are two main areas to collect wood at the six o’clock and twelve o’clock directions relative to the base! Persia is currently collecting wood from both sides!”
The main options were at six o’clock and twelve o’clock. These areas contained the wood resource within Persia’s base and were well within shooting range.
Joseon had to pick one to strike and cause worker casualties.
“But Persia needs to evacuate the workers! What is this!? Are they in denial?”
With Joseon’s imminent attack, Persia still boldly kept their workers in place.
“Why aren’t they moving them?!”
“Is it because they can’t see?”
The casters felt bewildered because Persia hadn’t evacuated yet.
“Shouldn’t they just evacuate based on instinct? It’s obvious that Joseon will strike at six o’clock!”
Two options existed, but Joseon would clearly go for six o’clock.
“I think Persia is unsure where the attack will come from! But looking at Joseon’s deployment, they are clearly heading for six o’clock! This should be anticipated!”
While nothing guaranteed that Joseon would go for six o’clock, the certainty was almost eighty percent.
Joseon had positioned their siege ladder at around four o’clock, making the run to six o’clock much shorter.
“This is it. Work until you die! Just like the pyramids!”
— OrangeKing lol
— He’s really excited lol
— Pyramids lol
— But that’s Egypt
— He’s just throwing out anything lmao
“Yes. Even if a few workers die, it’s better to know exactly where they’re coming from and then evacuate. It might be a good decision.”
“Exactly. If they evacuate too early and Joseon doesn’t come, it would be a waste... But why isn’t Joseon moving... Wait, what!?”
OrangeKing pointed in shock.
“No way! Elepher’s decision was correct!?”
Pew!
Joseon’s archers appeared at twelve o’clock. It wasn’t clear due to Persia’s limited view, but arrows started hitting workers from the twelve o’clock direction.
“Joseon deliberately twisted the plan and went for the twelve o’clock position! Persia’s response was calm and collected! We got overly excited, didn’t we?”
“That’s why not everyone can be a commander.”
“No wonder Joseon was taking so long to move. It seemed like they should’ve run straight there.”
— lol suddenly serious
— Where did the tension go?
— Did they really go to 12 o’clock?
— Isn’t the ladder in danger now?
— The tension dropped lol
— Overcomplicated it
***
Joseon seemed to predict that Persia would evacuate at six o’clock, so they ran to twelve o’clock. This psychological play ended up backfiring because Persia responded calmly.
‘As expected.’
Elepher couldn’t help but smile while evacuating the workers. He remained on high alert, evacuated as soon as arrows flew out, and only lost a few workers.
‘I knew this would happen.’
He anticipated that Joseon would try a psychological tactic.
‘They went to great lengths to capture the wall, so they’d want to ensure the advantage.’
After all their efforts to capture the wall, running directly to six o’clock would be too predictable. Persia could have already evacuated the six o’clock workers to the twelve o’clock position.
Even if Persia couldn’t gather resources, saving the workers would be a priority. However, Elepher didn’t do that.
He opted to handle it by evacuating the workers only after seeing the arrows even if some workers did die. It would have been a disaster if he had evacuated the six o’clock workers to twelve o’clock and Joseon came to the twelve o’clock position.
“Phew,” Elepher sighed in relief after avoiding the crisis.
But a commander on the battlefield could never relax.
“... What!?”
Something was happening at the six o’clock position.
***
Around three minutes earlier, the Joseon soldiers received one command after fully occupying the wall.
Ping!
[Move at full speed]
They had to move quickly before the enemy could respond.
“Let’s go! Quickly!”
“We need to get in before the workers evacuate!”
The commander had selected Almond, Pang, Carrot, and four others. They were essentially the best of the first-line archers, signifying the importance of this harassment.
The previous battle had taken place to set this up.
Carrot spoke as they ran, “We need to get there and kill a few workers before Persia evacuates them.”
They headed to the six o’clock wood camp along the shortest route. This was a race against time to get there before Persia evacuated.
They ran quickly and reached the six o’clock position.
However—
[Wait]
“?”
Despite Carrot’s prediction, the commander had ordered them to wait upon arrival.
“... What’s this?”
They had been told to wait with the Persian workers within range.
“What? Carrot can be wrong too,” Latte remarked in surprise at Carrot’s incorrect prediction.
Carrot didn’t respond and her face stiffened.
“What’s this...?”
She felt a strange unease upon arriving at the six o’clock location and felt a chill when she realized the cause.
“Why aren’t the workers evacuating?”
“!”
Everyone felt startled and looked down again at the workers still peacefully cutting wood.
“There are other wood resources.”
Soldiers couldn’t accurately read the map’s situation and often overlooked the possibility of other wood resources.
‘They used the falcon scout.’
Joseon could quickly understand the terrain using the falcon scout. The commander likely knew all the wood camp locations.
There was another reason besides this.
“What? What does that mean? Shouldn’t we attack even faster then?” Latte asked in confusion.
If another wood camp existed, the workers could evacuate there anytime. Why wait?
‘Right. Shouldn’t we attack even faster?’
Almond also felt puzzled and wanted to ask, but just nodded instead of risking a rebuke from Carrot.
“No, ugh... Where do I even start explaining?” Carrot sighed deeply while scratching her head. She could only explain simply, “Just wait.”
“?”
‘Ah.’
Carrot realized why the commander had ordered them to wait, but she couldn’t quickly explain this complex strategy.
Instead, she only told them a bit more since she had more time than the commander.
“More prey will come. That’s when we’ll attack.”
“...?”
Instead of evacuating the workers, more would come?
Pang had been watching the enemy and shouted, “They’re coming! Big fish! No, salmon! Salmon!”
Indeed, more workers were coming.
“Really?”
“Wow.”
“Woah.”
Pang was right. More Persian workers were coming upstream like salmon.
“What’s this!? A zombie outbreak!?”
Ignoring Latte’s ridiculous joke, all the archers drew their bows.
Creek!
Although the command still said to [Wait], they had to prepare.
Buzz...!
White light gathered at the tips of their arrows.
“They’re coming... More... More...”
The salmon swam upstream, ready to spawn and start living again.
The yellow [Wait] command finally turned red.
Ping!
[Attack]
The command changed.
“Now!!!”
Thwaaang!
The archers shot their arrows simultaneously.
***
“What’s this!? Why are they at six o’clock too!? Were there so many archers!?”
As if answering the caster’s question, the full view was revealed.
— Wow
— It was a trap
— Crazy
— A psychological play?
— Wow
Only two archers had been dispatched to the twelve o’clock location. The arrows they fired made Persia send all the workers to six o’clock.
“!?”
“Was it just two archers shooting!?”
From an outsider’s perspective, it hadn’t looked like just two archers shooting.
[Don’t shoot precisely but as quickly and as much as possible]
Under this command, they fired arrows without aiming much and often loaded three or four arrows at a time.
Meanwhile, Elepher didn’t know where they would come from and assumed that Joseon had chosen to attack the twelve o’clock location. Seeing seven to eight arrows flying all at once at high speed had convinced him.
“Elepher was completely deceived!”
Elepher had moved all the workers to the six o’clock location and planned to build defenses there. Thinking it would take time for Joseon to follow on the wall, he intended to set up several defense towers. That ended up being a big mistake.
“Persia thought the attack was at twelve o’clock! But Joseon’s archers are ambushing and firing wildly at six o’clock!!”
“Moreover, their accuracy is insane!!”
“They’re the first-line archers! This is the real deal!!!”
— My ears are bursting!
— Wow
— The tension is crazy lol
— lol
— Amazing
Every arrow shot at six o’clock almost exclusively flew toward the workers’ heads.
Thud!
Thud!
Workers fell one by one. Soon, many had died.
“The twelve o’clock wood camp is also no longer operational! Persia’s wood collection rate is now at zero percent! Zero percent!!”
Joseon had aimed for this all along. After all the twelve o’clock workers moved to six o’clock, Persia’s wood collection rate would momentarily be zero even if they ran back to the twelve o’clock camp.
“Ah! Persia has been delayed, so no defense towers have been built anywhere...!”
The workers meant to build the defense towers to prevent the harassment had all been killed already.
“The defense construction company went bankrupt! They abandoned the job!”
“Eviction notice!!!”
— lol
— OrangeKing’s pterodactyl scream lol
— Bankruptcy lol
— lol
— The importance of bankruptcy
— Eviction notice lol
“It’s chaos! Arrows keep flying! Workers are running back to twelve o’clock! But the workers are too slow and taking too much damage!”
“Yes! As the old saying goes, ‘Beware of the hill tank!’ This is why!!!”
— lol
— The wisdom of our ancestors lol
— lol When did the elders say this?
— My dad did say that. He played Zerg though.
— No ancient wisdom lost lol
— My mom said never follow strange tanks.
— lol
— Our ancestors gained this precious wisdom from countless battles. Cherish it.