From his observations of the battlefield and the Republican Army's unusual behavior beforehand, Chris had more or less worked out his opponent's intentions by the time the cuirassiers trampled through the Players' massive formation and charged straight toward the trenches.
The former kingdom general he had learned about from the prisoners, now Lieutenant General Dalek of the Republic, was going all in.
Still, what could he say? As reckless as Lieutenant General Dalek's actions were, he had genuinely caught Chris off guard.
The Prince could have scratched his head raw and still not understood what this lieutenant general was thinking.
Putting himself in the man's shoes, even with the Players' help, Chris would never have dared launch an all-out assault on the very first day without even building a camp.
Even under the most aggressive strategy, when facing an ancient, imposing stronghold like Bolas Fortress, Chris would have ordered a camp and fortifications built on the first day, while sending Players to fight any enemies who came to harass him.
On the second or third day, once the area around the fortress had been cleared, Chris would have ordered the artillery brought forward and subjected the fortress and the defenses at the foot of the hill to one to five days of furious bombardment.
Only after several days of shelling, clearing the defenses to some extent and crushing the defenders' morale, would Chris have launched a real assault on the fortress.
Even then, launching a proper assault on a stronghold like Bolas after fewer than ten days of siege would already have been extremely aggressive and risky by any standard.
But compared with Lieutenant General Dalek's current battle plan, Chris's aggression seemed barely worth mentioning.
The cuirassiers would launch a surprise charge, seize the trenches and barbed wire, and punch