The sun dawns on a quiet empire, a subdued empire, an enslaved empire... Freedom? It was but a lie. Equestria? Oppressors! Shining Armor? The new Sombra...

It had been five years since the return of the empire, five years of rebuilding it to its former glory. But would the Equestrians listen? No, they sat and ruled us. An Equestrian prince on the throne of the Crystal Empire, blasphemy! The old mages and sorcerers agreed upon this and were persecuted for insurrection.

But no more. It is time my brothers! It has finally become clear that the rise of the empire is at its true arrival! Time to draw our rusted lances and swords! To raise our slings and stones!

Let the banners fly high and mighty! Let the city tremble at our march! May the Equestrians hear our charge and tremble! Rise proud knights of the empire! Rise and water our streets with their blood!

The Player: Crystal Empire.

Units:

Crystal Knights: 50
Crystal Mages: 15
Crystal Slingers: 25

Heroes: N/A

The Enemy: United Equestrian Empire.

Units:

Pegasi: 30
Earth Ponies: 40
Unicorns: 25

Heroes: Shining Armor.

Battleground:

Your forces have pushed Equestrian troops outside of the city, into a large and flat frozen valley. Snow is falling heavily, making visibility limited and flight hazardous, both physical and magical projectiles will have a harder time reaching their marks over long distances.

The ground is covered in snow, slowing down movement of all units, although the Crystal ponies are used to moving through blizzards and will have less trouble moving through it.

A long crevice runs through the valley and stops right in the middle of it, protecting the UEE's right flank from attack. Enemy unicorns have entrenched themselves on their side of the crevice.

Earth ponies have formed a battle line on the unprotected flank and Shining armor has put up a shield over the battlefield, allowing their pegasi to take to the skies without the threat of the snow.

Your army has the city at their backs and the enemy in front of them. Your soldiers remain out of the shield's range so far, but as soon as your troops cross into it, you will come under heavy assault from both unicorn fire and pegasi attacks.

Your target: The Equestrian Prince. Defeat him, and the enemy will be forced out of the Empire. Fail, and he will return with larger armies to enslave us all.

What will it be commander?

502776 Divide the Slinger platoon evenly into five squads of five. Slinger squad A will move to the left flank. Lay down fire on the Earths. As this happens, the entire force move into the shield. Slinger squads C, D, and E fire on the Pegasi. Divide the Mages into three squads of five and the Knights into five squads of ten. Knight squads A, B, and C attack the Unicorn trenchline while Slinge squad F gives them covering fire. Mage squads stick with Slinger squads C, D, and E and heal them if they are wounded, and if the enemy gets up close and personal, bash their skulls in. Knight Squad D and E will bring down the left flank while Slinger squad A gives them suppressing fire. Once at least on of their flanks have collapsed, take out Armor. Today, we rid our land of the Equestrian tyranny!

basic plan for slingers: 5 will play anti-air to ward off pegasi attack, the rest are to focus upon shining. splitting the rest of my forces, 25 knights and 5 mages/ 25 knights and 10 mages, the first group will act as a shield for the slingers until shining is brought down, thereby grounding the pegasi (those who survive the sudden change in the air and the resulting crashing). the mages will be there to heal those who get wounded from unicorn and pegasi attack

the second group will engage the earth ponies head on with the mages healing as necessary until they either break or shining falls. after shining falls the first group will come up and assist to break the earth ponies and surviving pegasi while the slingers lay waste to the unicorns.

PRO LIBERTATEM! (for freedom!)

502808 hmm, splitting forces that much seems needlessly complicated to me, but if you're a good commander controlling that many groups, more power to ya

502831 Gracias, hermano.

502836
I love how both our plans are polar opposites though. yours is flexibility and mine is brute force. and I just love the thought of turning some of these knights into proverbial "walls" blocking shots from unicorns

502839 That... would actually work out pretty well.

502841
yeah, read the description of crystal knights and the mages and thought "omg, I can have a MOVING wall that can be healed! THE SHEER MADNESS OF IT IS GENIUS!"

502844 I'm more of a precision guy myself, seek out the opponet's weak points and exploit them. Use different units to your advantage and spread them out evenly and all in one place. That way, if group A, composed of unit A, gets in hot water, group B, composed of unit B, that happens to specialize in the same situation that they're in call pull their fat out of the fire. But, then again, that's just me.

502854 and it works too, I just saw this as a more brute force action with the main goal of "get the bastard!" so... I got the bastard

502855 CRUSH HIM! KILL HIM! NUKE HIM!!!!!!!

502858
but... I don't have access to Rainbow Dash...

502861 Who needs her when you've got your mind?

Welp, I would have my knights out in two groups, one of thirty and one of twenty, five mages with each. The slingers divided in two groups of 10 and 15. The 10 slingers keeping the pegasi at bay while the others give the unicorns something to shoot at, five mages with the group of 15 to keep them going.

The 30 knights charge in wedge formation headfirst into enemy earth pony lines while the other twenty flank them. The wedge formation and the lances would breach the enemy line and force an opening to Shining Armor, he then would be forced to lower the shield to defend himself.

With the pegasi and the unicorns feeling the effects of the blizzard, my 10 slingers will be free to concentrate their fire on the earth pony line and finish them off, while the 15 others keep the unicorns from helping.

We may even be able to capture Shining Armor alive and hold him for ransom!

502839 502841

Using our troops as meat shields? Come on, I thought we were better than that...

Bait has always been the best way to use them!

502866
I'm not allowed to use my ability to make heads explode without Iron Will supervising me

502868
Meat shields make great shields! especially when they can take a fair amount of abuse from ranged attacks (unless it's a bullet)

502869 Yeah? Well, Guardian 3:16 says I just whipped Armor's flank.

FEED. ME. MOOOORRRREEE!!!!!!!!

502876

FEE. ME. MOOOORRRREEE!!!!!!!!

but i pay all my fees to Iron will and his traveling associate, Billy "The Bad-Ass" Goat(collecter)

at this point, we are spamming

502880 Spamming? Oh, my dear sir, you have wounded me!

I mean, really, I'm the best in the world. Spamming is an act an ignoramus would take part it. But as the intellectual savior to the masses, it is my duty, nay, it is my passion to keep myself free from the chains of ignorance so that I may set a good example. Because I hear voices in my head that tell what I'll say, and I haven't hear anything about spam. Because I am the Guardian, and I'm awesome! You can't c me, my time is now! Rest. In Peace, spam! If ya smell what the Guardian is cooking!

......... I really couldn't help any of that.

502892
I noticed...

Because I am the Guardian, and I'm awesome!

very fitting for that statement there

but seriously, how many kumquats can you handle before you want to tell pinkie to shut up? (oh look a spam question from a crazy section of my mind)

502898

: Kumquatkumquatkumquatkumquatkumquatkumquat...

Hey, Pinkie, ever hear of the G.T.S.?

No, what is it? Is it fun?

*BAM*

Whew, thought she'd never shut up.

: Whew, must have taken a nap! Now, where was I? Oh yes, kumquatkumquatkumquat...

STOP!!!!

But, Guardian, you're so sexy!

Yes, I know I'm sexy and I've got the looks that drive that mares wild, but seriously, enough.

Kumquat.

*BAM*

Sweet Chin Music! You put her to sleep twice!

Yep, I sure did, can you dig it, sucka? Time to play the game!

Did somepony say game?

... not again.

502905
As a student of the prodigious Pinkie Academy, I can proudly say that I have never once told her to shut up! Also, I can teleport like no one else, except for Pinkie. She can teleport so well that she broke the 7th wall that wall is always so fun to break...

KumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquatKumquat

502908 This is basic thuganomics, kid, that me show you how it's done.

Pinkie Pie!

Yes?

Say kumquat one more time.

Kumquatkumquatkumquatkumquat

YOU'RE FIIIIIIRRRRREEEED!!!!

As general manager of both Raw and Smackdown, I wish you the best in your future endeavors.

Wow, vintage Guardian as he renders Pinkie speechless!

That's right, RD. And if you've got a problem with it, them I've got two words for you, EAT IT!

References everwhere. Anyway, I'm done. Pleassure making random wrestling references with you, senor.

502916 good night then! shame you didn't even pass the first lesson

Commands given: Hold and Stalemate

I'll play it like the Eastern Front in WWII. They're on our land, in the middle of a blizzard. They'll either freeze to death or have to pull back. Can't stay out there forever.

However, since the objective is to defeat Shining, when they start pulling out, they'll come out of their defensive positions. At this moment, I'll go in and strike, under the cover of the blizzard. They'll be more scattered and out of position to do organized heavy damage. Knights will take the frontal positions, mages behind them. They'll protect the slinger line as they do their thing. Just order all the slingers to launch at Shining.

503011 I believe we have now found our standard Crystal Pony battle formation.

Degenerate into something, fool!

Not now, Pinkie!

503209
... Wait, what did I do? I haven't read the other strategies, actually.

503330 I just thought that formation you put the Crystal Ponies in was a good one.

503355
Well it was just kind of common sense. You've got a ground-only composition. There is the strongest most armored, healing units, then weak ranged units.

Wasn't that what Noyoki1 did? Granted, not putting the entire force in a single formation, but still.

503361 The Crystal Knights are... well, crystal, which is borderline impossible to break. Thus they would make a good shield. But, then again, that was before the two of us went insane in the comments above.

Oh my, it WAS derailed! And I didn't even cause it!

This seems pretty easy... You have three complementing unit types, superior numbers, terrain advantage, and the fact that you've already pushed them out of the city and have been kicking their ass would definitely have an effect on moral. The fact that if they try to run, then they would be slaughtered due to the crystal ponies chasing them down only makes it a worse situation. So... I'm going to flip this on it's head and take command of the Equestrian forces.

I'm assuming the crystal forces are going to be using the meat shields up front with healers and slingers in the back to support them. That's the formation they are best suited for anyway.

Those meat shields are going to be extremely tough so I'm going to do something that's probably a bit crazy. Shining is going to set his weather shield to be static like the one in Canterlot and then set up a little stronger shield around himself. The pegasi will pick up about 15 earth ponies (2 per each) and then fly them over the top of the enemy knights and into the crystal mages and slingers. It'll be a mad dash to get them over mostly unharmed but I'll have the unicorns launch their first volley at the back field while my earth ponies take up defensive posture and slowly let themselves be driven back rather than pointlessly slamming against a brick wall. With the earth ponies playing defensively, the unicorns will then focus fire in teams of 5 on individual knights. quickly killing them one by one or rather, five by five if the slingers don't hit them to hard. hopefully the task forces will take care of them.

They will probably be pulling about half their forces back to defend the slingers and mages so the earth ponies that made the trip over will try to hold that line while the pegasi use their superior speed to get up close and fight the slingers "hoof-to-hoof". Considering how much weaker the slingers are to CQC, they should be able to hold their own to a point.

Sadly, by the time the unicorn/earth pony line breaks through, the back field forces will probably be all but wiped out despite the rather large amount of damage they hopefully did. I'd expect about 2-6 earth ponies and about 6-11 pegasi to survive that cluster fuck with about 12-15 earth ponies and 20-25 unicorns breaking through the line. They would then pull back and the remaining pegasi would use hit and run tactics while the unicorns continue their focus fire techniques on the slingers and mages. The earth ponies would hold off the remaining Crystal knights until focus fire techniques can again turn back to them. On an off day, I'd expect to walk away with a "victory" of 10 earth ponies, 18 unicorns, and 5 pegasi. On a good day 21 Earth, 25 uni, and 11 peg. A pretty knock down, drag out fight. Armor would be safe and would have held his weather shield, boosting it when needed and maintaining his own. Considering he was able to hold a shield around Canterlot for quite some time while he had a changeling queen draining him bit by bit, I'd say he'd be able to hold his shield for the time it took for the battle to unfold.

The crystal rebellion has been thwarted.

820967

Why would you do this to my beloved Crystal Pones?

Well done comrade! Well done indeed!

823305
Fear not, I suppose further negotiations could aid in lessening the chance of this happening again. The right lord in the right place can make even the most uneasy relations pan out. Still, they're going to have to compromise and let the equestrian prince sit on the throne.

502776 start by concentrating on the pegasi with my slingers peeling off five mages to shield them from attack after the airborne threat is eliminated i instruct my mages to use a fire spell on the trench line causing it to fill with ice cold water as this is happening my knights charge them alongside my slingers shining might be a royal guard but that counts for nothing against the ponies of heart!