The idea was good, but beasts were not people. Training them to obey orders like soldiers would be extremely difficult. Nor could he simply turn them loose to fight on instinct. People needed training in tactical maneuvers, but how could beasts be trained? What maneuvers would they need? Those questions had to be settled first, followed by relentless training until their responses became instinctive.
He believed that thinking alone would not tell him which tactical maneuvers or attacks they needed. He had to observe them in practice. But how? He came up with a way.
He would build an arena. Nothing elaborate-he could simply find a small valley and fence it off. Then he would put in one or several beasts that had gone hungry for a few days, and toss in one or several Trolls. Yes, he had thought of those Troll prisoners. He would bring some officers and soldiers to watch how the animals killed the Trolls, then select the most effective methods of attack.
Although he would probably lose some beasts this way, the gains would far outweigh the cost. It would also familiarize the officers and soldiers with the attacks and fighting characteristics of different beasts, which might help during training. As for how to deliberately train the beasts in the maneuvers they selected, he felt he would need to invite a few old hunters from the mountains who had raised pets to teach them. He had once owned a large German shepherd, but it had only learned to sit on command. He had little experience in this area.
Once all that was done, specialized training could begin.
The Lynx Ranger unit would need to operate behind enemy lines, so Rogues would have to train them in concealment, assassination, and similar skills. Finally, they would need to complete training in working with their Lynxes.
For the Steel Torrent's boar unit, Knights would have to teach the Rangers the essentials of heavy cavalry warfare. The Rangers would also have to train the boars into a true Steel Torrent that moved as one.
The Bear Iron Fist's battle pets could not run at high speed for as long as boars. They could only sustain it for a short time, so the unit would have to train as heavy infantry. In essence, they would use heavy infantry tactics to train coordinated combat with their battle pets.
These were all preliminary ideas in his head. Whether they would work could only be proven in practice. He also wanted to discuss them with someone; perhaps they could be improved further. But whom should he consult? The first person he thought of was Sylvanas.
After all, she was a future major boss and great general. It would be absurd if she had no talent. Alleria would do as well, but she was currently the commander of the Windrunner army. How could she have time to chat with him? Even if she did, she might not be willing!
Speak of the devil. Just as he thought of Sylvanas, she walked in. Unfortunately, she came in fuming.
"I heard all the shouting in the meeting room. Are you really planning to send your soldiers onto the battlefield with a bunch of stupid pigs? You're gambling with their lives!" Sylvanas demanded angrily.
Yu Lin Bloodhawk rose in delighted surprise. "Sylvanas, you're just in time! I was about to come find you."
"Answer me first. Are you really planning to send your soldiers onto the battlefield with a bunch of stupid pigs?" Sylvanas slammed a hand on the table.
"What do you mean, stupid pigs? Don't talk nonsense about things you don't understand, all right? Pigs are among the smartest animals, you know. Don't get worked up yet. I have something serious to discuss with you," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.
"You're not joking?" Sylvanas glared at him. "If you dare treat the soldiers' lives as a game, you'll answer to me."
"I'm not joking. Look at my expression." Yu Lin Bloodhawk tried hard to look solemn.
"You look very much like you're joking!" Sylvanas said coldly.
"How can that be?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk touched his face and asked, "Not even a little serious?"
"What do you think?" Sylvanas was so angry she wanted to hit someone.
A sense of defeat washed over Yu Lin Bloodhawk. He slumped into his chair and muttered, "I need to stop smiling so much. Cool and aloof. I have to be cool and aloof."
Seeing that he did not seem to be joking, then hearing him mutter to himself, Sylvanas could not help finding him amusing. Still, she said coldly, "Never mind being cool or warm. None of that matters. Talk. I'm waiting for your explanation."
"An explanation? This is exactly what I wanted to discuss with you!" He suddenly sprang up and launched into a detailed explanation of his ideas, the words pouring out in an unstoppable stream.
As he spoke, Sylvanas gradually calmed down. When Yu Lin Bloodhawk finished, she frowned in thought.
"You only have six hundred troops, and you want to split them into three units?" Sylvanas asked.
"Yes, that's exactly what I want to do. Small as the force is, it still needs every essential part. Lynxes excel at reconnaissance and sabotage, so I'll call that unit the Nightstalkers. Grizzly Bears are powerful and can inflict tremendous damage in a small area. Unfortunately, there aren't many of them. They'll be the Explosive Bear Iron Fist. Boars are large and strong, but they need room to maneuver before they can unleash their most devastating charge. They inflict massive damage by ramming into the enemy, so they must act together. I call them the Steel Torrent, and they'll be the main force in decisive battles," Yu Lin Bloodhawk said. "That gives us reconnaissance, charges, and assaults on fortified positions. Of course, it's only an idea for now. I wanted to discuss the details with you."
"Why not replace all the boars with bears? Wouldn't that be stronger?" Sylvanas asked.
"Who wouldn't want to, if they had the means? I don't!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk rolled his eyes.
"What do you mean, you don't have the means? You can't even gather four hundred bears? Do you expect anyone to believe that?" Sylvanas said angrily.
"This isn't a question of a hundred or four hundred. It's a question of seventy or eighty thousand. Don't you understand yet, Your Majesty?" Yu Lin Bloodhawk said.
"You want every Ranger in Quel'Thalas to have a battle pet? That's an impossible task." Sylvanas shook her head. "Are you going to gather every beast in Azeroth in Quel'Thalas? I don't mean to discourage you, but abandon that idea at once. And stop calling me queen, or I won't be nice about it."
"Why is it impossible? I do want every Ranger in Quel'Thalas to have a battle pet. I want to double Quel'Thalas's fighting strength. I want the Undead army to fight the beasts first. I want an enormous Steel Torrent to smash through their backbone-the Death Knight order!" Yu Lin Bloodhawk declared, brimming with confidence.
"The Death Knight order? Is that part of the Undead army?" This was the first time Sylvanas had heard either the term or of that force.
Only then did Yu Lin Bloodhawk remember that Sylvanas really knew nothing about the composition of the Undead army. In truth, he did not consider himself particularly knowledgeable either. He could not even be sure whether the future ahead of them would follow the original history. Perhaps his outlook had changed, or perhaps he could no longer see the whole picture because he was now part of it. Still, he told her about the original history.
Some of it was fact, and some was speculation, but preparing for the worst did not necessarily
have any downside.
This was what he knew about the troop types making up the Undead army.
First was the Death Knight order, the most powerful troop type in the Undead army. They were transformed from elite human Warriors, Knights, and Knights of the Holy Light. The Lich King used dark magic to grant them immense power. They retained not only the strong bodies and heavy armor they had possessed in life, but, with dark energy filling their bodies, they might well be even stronger than they had been before death.
If human Paladin orders possessed formidable defenses because of the Holy Light, then Death Knights possessed formidable offensive and destructive power because of darkness. They were a troop type born for slaughter-the elite backbone and soul of the Undead army.
Without them, the Undead army would become very vulnerable. Death Knights might also possess two outrageously powerful abilities. One was Raise the Dead, which revived every corpse within a certain radius around the caster as servants who fought for him. The other was Army of the Dead, which summoned a group of Ghouls to fight at his side. Yu Lin Bloodhawk was not yet sure whether these were two different names for the same ability. Either way, they were dangerous.
Another type was the death spider warrior, sometimes also called a Crypt Lord. They had originally been a race living underground in Northrend, where they had established the mighty Spider Kingdom. But they had lost their war against the Undead and been slaughtered, then transformed into Undead Warriors by the Lich King. These Warriors were enormous, with thick carapaces covering their entire bodies, like soldiers clad in full armor.
There might also be a heavy infantry force within the army of the dead.
Finally, there was the Ghoul army, the foundation of the Undead forces. Most were made from dead civilians, and their offensive power was not particularly strong. But their numbers were vast-possibly far greater than the population of the Kingdom of Lordaeron, currently the largest human kingdom. This was because resurrection might not be limited to civilians who had been killed. Those who had died previously, whether of natural or unnatural causes, might all be summoned from their graves.
There were also two troop types that might be few in number but still demanded attention.
One was the Abomination, a kind of construct made by Liches from broken corpses and large quantities of bones. They were enormous, roughly six to eight meters tall, and immensely strong. But they were not stupid, because the Lich King placed the souls of humans or other races inside these constructs.
The other was the Lich. They had no physical bodies and resembled beings of energy, but a soul did indeed reside within each one. Some said they had been Mages or Warlocks in life. Whatever they had once been, after becoming Liches, they possessed powers similar to those of arcane Mages, except that they used dark energy and dark magic. He was not quite sure what specific abilities they had.
"They have no air force?" Sylvanas's eyes lit up.
"Ah! If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have almost forgotten! They not only have an air force, they may have quite a large one-and it's very powerful." Only then did Yu Lin Bloodhawk remember that he had left out two crucial Undead troop types: Gargoyles and frost wyrms.
Before you continue