The Strategy of Experiance

         Mulek sat on top of his Hawk Strider, watching the advance of the Scaven army.  He had positioned his troops on the hilly end of the plain of Cocos.  Two squads of infantry in the middle, his Hawk Strider knights on the left and the golden cannons on the right.  The hills he had picked were tall enough to give his army and advantage, but slopped gently enough to allow his troops easy movement. 
         Everything was set up just right, but still, the Scaven army was easily twice the size of his.  The filthy rat creatures crawling along in a swarm of plague and disease.  On the far right side of the plain was a forest called Silver Leaf.  He knew the Archers there had pledged to help him, but he had seen no sign of them as of yet.  As the Scaven swarm approached he moved his Striders into a wedge formation.  The strategy he had planned with his officers required perfect timing. It was a tripod defense formation; error on any side would cause the death of the other. 
         The squads of infantry formed a double line and moved forward.  The golden cannon crews had armed the cannons and were in range, waiting for his signal.  He moved his Hawk Striders forward and the four cannons rang out.  Four explosions blasted Scaven into the air and the explosive cannon balls hit their ranks.  He directed his Hawk Striders to the left, away from the Scaven mass.
         Then he saw the back of the Scaven ranks part, and Muleks heart dropped.  Three human machine guns were lifted up onto makeshift wooden towers.  How did these vermin acquire such weapons?  The clumsy humans must have lost them; he had always hated that inferior race, so self-centered and rash.  For the last two hundred years now they had been constantly inventing and reinventing machines of war.  Five hundred years ago he had started learning secrets of war and he had never seen a need to change his tactics or fighting style. 
         He blew on his whistle for the infantry to put shields up.  They stopped and knelt behind their shields.  The machine guns started whirring and a mass of projectiles started tearing into his men.  The shields protected them, but their halt was a serious problem.  He motioned for his cannons to fire at the back of the Scaven ranks and destroy the machine guns.  His riders were ready to charge now, but if they went in unsupported then the Scaven would surround them and there shear numbers would destroy them. 
         Then a stroke of luck.  The Silver Leaf archers appeared at the edge of their forest.  They shot a rain of arrows into the Scaven and took the attention to the Machine guns off of his infantry.  He whistled a charge.  As the infantry ran forward, armor gleaming and swords extended, he spurred his Hawk Striders forward.  His large land bird looped forward, followed by twenty of its kind.  Colorful feathers streaming behind them, they let out cries of war. 
         Mulek lowed his lance and his Hawk Strider screamed as they collided with the Scaven.  The wedge hit them on their left flank, splitting their army almost in two.  His lance speared many of the foul rat creatures before it broke and was lost.  Mulek pulled out his long slender sword and started attacking with that.  His Hawk Striders beak and talons ripped the Scaven to pieces. 
         The area around his knights was a field of death.  But the Scaven kept on coming, there must have been four hundred to start with, and his twenty knights and one hundred infantry were badly outnumbered.  One of the machine guns exploded in a ball of flame, the four golden cannons periodically creating gapping holes in the ranks. 
         Of course these miserable rats had no chance of winning against his well-trained and well-equipped men.  The two remaining machine guns poured fire into the Silver Leaf archers, forcing them to pull back and hide in the forest.  Weak gutless fools, Mulek thought, it did not matter though, he would push on and crush the scum.  He ordered a charge deeper into the ranks.  The Scaven started to retreat, scattering out in front of his army.           
         Mulek laughed and spurred his Hawk Strider after them.  His five hundred years of study and training were all paying off.  His Hawk Striders looped through the long grass; cutting down all the Scaven they could reach.  Soon even his infantry were having a hard time keeping up.  Then Mulek saw all the Scaven stop up ahead. They stopped, turned, and charged.  Persistent rodents, Mulek thought. 
         As he engaged them again he called for his infantry to advance.  No one came.  He broke away from the fight and looked back to see where they were.  Scaven had hidden in the grass and his men had ridden right though them.  They had sprung up around his infantry and now were attacking them from all sides.  He realized the golden cannons were completely out of range and the forest was far in the distance.  No one was coming to help them. 
         Angrily he called for his knights to fall back to the infantry.  They rode back to the infantry line and as soon as they reached the fighting there the Scaven broke away and went running to each side.  He turned and saw the Scaven forming up again. 
         He glared at the line of uncivilized little monsters.  They would not beat him, not with all of his training and studying.  He had gone to all the best military academies, the best money could buy.  This should be easy.  He ordered his men into at scattered formation and a charge.  Before he reached the Scaven lines though, he saw the two remaining machine guns in place.  The whirring, screaming sound started and projectiles ripped though his lines. 
         He pushed on, he would not lose.  He attacked in a furious rage, cutting down all he could reach.  Soon he saw the Scaven commander, wielding a flail and chain.  Mulek charged blindly at him, determined to cut him down.  The battle was on all sides of him, he could not tell how his men were doing, and at the time he did not care. 
         As he rushed towards the large, cloaked rat thing, he was blind with hatred.  Soon he realized his error.  The Scaven commander whipped his chain out and pulled Muleks Hawk Striders feet out from under it.  Mulek fell to the ground with a thud.  He rolled up and found himself attacked by the flail again and again.  His mount ran blindly into the fray, and left to his own means he soon was forced to pull away into his own soldiers. 
         Soon he realized that the Scaven was overrunning his army.  But how, all his training…  He whistled for his Hawk Strider, when it appeared he hopped on and ordered a retreat.  The closest refuge was in the silver leaf forest.  As his troops approached the forest the Scaven hounded their every move.  The archers came to rescue them, firing a barrage of arrows into the monsters.  The archers helped carry off the wounded, and continued to keep the Scaven away from the forest. 
         Mulek was still in a state of shock.  He had lost, but how, he had five hundred years of training all at the best academies.  He had pulled top marks, always the best in his class.  He had done everything exactly by the book.  How had he lost?  The Scaven skirted around the edge of the plains of Cocos, right towards the unprotected Golden Cannons.  Four shots rang out, none of them hitting their mark, and the crews manning the cannons took off running.  That was the last he saw of them. 
         Later when he was back in his home, waiting in his family library for his father, he contemplated his first battle.  Going over what happened again and again on a strategy board.  His father, the general, walked into the room.  All Mulek could say was, “I’m sorry father, I failed you”.  His father smiled, “Well,” he said in a patient tone, “So what did you learn?” Mulek sighed, “I should not have lost,” he said.  His father frowned, “No that is what should have happened, I asked you what you learned.  We all lose from time to time.  I’ve lost my share of battles, but no matter how much you lose, the important thing is that you learn from what you did wrong.  You are very lucky that you are alive.  Scaven are a blood thirsty and uncivilized race, if captured, they would have killed you.” 
         Mulek put his hands in the air, “Well that is the point, I f they are so uncivilized, how did I lose to them?”  His father sat down across from him and rearranged a strategy board.  “You used a tripod defense formation didn’t you? I assume you did, and that was right.  Your first error was where you attacked; you gave up your high ground and attacked them on the plain.  Your second error was when you chased them.  You did not realize that you were being lead away from your cannons.  The key element of at tripod is that each leg, or unit, supports the others.  When your cannons became ineffective, your whole strategy fell apart.  You are young and headstrong.  You were too cocky to see though the trap right in front of your face.”
         Else where in the dark burrow of the Scaven, the Clan Chief smugly congratulated his troops on the great Golden Cannons they had acquired.  They had fought together in so many hundreds of battles; they could not remember them all.  They placed the cannons in a chamber along with many like them.  These so called vermin had more treasures than many of the civilized cities of the world.  The spoils of war earned by blood.
         All the knowledge in the world in useless without experience to back it up.