A Time of Tigers - From Peasant to Emperor

1312: Solgrim’s Strategy – Part 5 1312: Solgrim’s Strategy – Part 5 Once more, Oliver captured the spearmen with his archers.

He wondered if he was chipping away a piece of Skullic’s heart as he did so – whether he’d be able to find the heart of the man’s attack, and do away with it.

“Where do you suppose it lies?” Skullic said, as if reading Oliver’s thoughts.

“The centre of this formation here?

What do you suppose it all hinges on?

Where are the weaknesses?

If I were to break the formation, and move these archers here, would the heart of the formation shift along with it.” “…Maybe it’s to do with how much remains the same when you break it, then,” Oliver guessed, using Skullic’s own question against him.

“Then you would say, roughly, the centre of the attacking idea is also the physical centre of the formation, because those are the most difficult pieces to move and change,” Skullic said.

“Then, if I were to do this – if I were to break my formation like this, would you call it weakness?” To Oliver’s horror, Skullic took the perfect attack that he had been building up, and he made a move that seemed worse than novice.

It looked as if he wasn’t reading the board at all.

He took a spearman out of the centre of his formation, and sent him blundering off to the side.