So, not to go into a whole lot of spoilers, but I have to write a battle scene into an upcoming chapter of my story where a militia, comprised of the more able bodied residents of Ponyville, uses it's superior tactical advantage to fight off a better equipped and trained force. The militia is larger, and defensive, meaning they can prepare fortifications and pitfalls in advance. On the other hand, the opposing force are somewhat trained warriors and have superior armament, with the exception of ranged weapons, which the militia has.

Back to the point, I am extremely novice at real world application of battle tactics and the stuff I do know from researching history is either extremely basic, or is more angled at personal tactics rather than unit tactics, and the lat thing I want to do is write in a ridiculous "They're on one side of the field, we're on the other, lets just charge them head on" scenario, especially since logic would say the people of Ponyville would loose.

Anyone have some advice on some realistic tactical maneuvers that can turn the tide in favor of Ponyville that have some historical or practical merit?

So what time period is this set in?

1276276 Cannae. Hannibal Barca faced an army of the Roman Republic larger than his own Carthaginian coalition on a battlefield that favoured the Roman strategy as opposed to his specialty in ambush tactics; he set his forces up so that they formed a bow facing the Romans and the maniples advanced, the Carthaginian cavalry picked off the Roman equites with ease and the infantry engaged in the centre, as the Romans pushed forth the line fell back but stopped and turned at a key moment, fixing the Roman forces in place while the flanks of the Carthaginian infantry closed in on the Roman flanks and the cavalry hit them in the rear, closing the trap. Totalled!

1276308
Damn! I forgot about the Punic Wars. Thanks!

1276300
Same as the show, so medieval weaponry and war tech.

So let me get this straight-

Ponyville/Militia-
-Superior numbers
-Home ground advantage
-Ranged weapons advantage

Opposing Force
-Military training
-Superior close-quarters weapons

Is this correct?

They make a bunch of baked bads, Leave them out then when the enemy charges through they eat them being the stereotypical evil greed bad guys they are.

1276276
Try asking the question in this group instead.

1276322
Essentially, yes. And though I said superior numbers, it isn't extremely superior. We're talking the difference between 100 defenders and about 70 attackers.

1276326

1276334
Whoa... There's a group for this and I'm just hearing about it now?

Thanks. I'll try asking them too.

What kind of ethical constraints are the opposing army under?
Are the enemy army under some kind of time constraint?
Since if the commander of the OPFOR has his head on straight, he'll simply siege the town, burn anything for food production, poison the wells and then set up a perimeter, out of the range of Ponyvilles ranged weapons, since time is on his side.

To defend against that, I'd set up nests further out from town and set up killzones so that you could keep the enemy away from the town, or make them take prohibitively high casualties in taking it. Alternatively I would force the enemy into urban fighting, use barriers and suchlike to create killzones for my ranged weapons, whilst keeping them out of range of the enemy.

Well it seems to me the defenders already have the upper hand with superior numbers, ranged weaponry and homefield advantage. If you wanna make this more dramatic, try taking a look at the legend of the 300, where a handful of Spartans (from Sparta, not like in Halo) stood their ground against countless Persian troops and successfully held them off for days by setting up camp in this narrow gorge and forcing the enemy to "funnel" in.

1276345
This group may also be of assistance, although you should look through their world-building threads before posting anything.

Well they (Ponyville) could always use the Everfree Forest to their advantage by luring out all the big nasty predators. It also provides plenty of lumber they could use for palisades of firmer walls between houses.

They could also use the houses for what ranged weapons they have but the town being composed of mostly fetched roofing would be extremely vulnerable to fire tossed by their opponents.

There's also the fact the ponies have control over the local weather which means they could bog down the surrounding fields limiting their opponents to attacking by road or risk getting bogged down in the mud. Possible lightning strikes as well though the effectiveness of that would mostly be down to scaring the enemy.

1276337

Those are superior numbers, especially when we're talking about attacking/defending.

In short, unless the defenders are totally stupid and the attackers have heavy weapons, it's total suicide for the attackers.

The home ground advantage is too large to be ignored. No matter how shiny your weapons are, the natives know the land second to none. Not to mention they're the ones who're going to be building the defenses.

To defend an area means that the attackers will have to go through the defenses that have been put up. And they don't know if the break in the lines is a weak point or a trap purposefully made by the defenders.

A number of military offensive doctrines calls for a 4-1 number advantage. Anything less, and you might as well stay home.

So in short, build defenses around the town that corral the attackers into killing fields, ranged weapons firing from the second lines, and a good amount of rain supplied by the local pegasi and they'll be home by dinner. Just don't get too close to them and you'll be fine.

1276352
As for moral-/time constraints, none whatsoever. Their a tribe of semi-nomadic bandits, so morals are virtually nonexistent so long as you don't go against the clan. I probably should have mentioned this earlier, but they're an AU version of the Diamond Dogs. As for time, they do have to limit the damage they intend to do by raping and pillaging to two days, since that is how long it will take the nearest cohort of royal guards to get there. Still, two days is a shite load of time for a subduing a small town like Ponyville.

I'd agree with that scenario, if all they were looking to do was torch the town, but it's a bit more personal. The dogs are looking to send a message for something the protagonist did in the earlier chapter, so for one thing they want his heart on a plate. For another, extorting Ponyville is a high source of income, so they don't want to do any permanent damage to the assets, just crack down to show the citizens that they are still in charge, sort of like the mafia sending a public message.

We have seen in-show the local Homeguard militia is quite likely Canon, since among the military gear seen in "Dragon Quest" we see very professional trenches dug and AJ wearing a camoflage cape meant for camoflage against airborne foes.
Hmm so you want to avoid pulling the stunt I always hated C.S. Lewis pulling for his Narnia books, lets see...
It sounds like the enemy is going to completely underestimate the ponies "They dont even have hands!"
One thing Earth ponies could do is dig tiger pit traps in the size dug to stop Big Mac (A LOT of them). another fun one is the abatis obsticle, basically conical pits dug about knee deep, each with a barbed spike at the bottom. these are typically dug in huge bunches side-by-side so you cant step over one without stepping into another
Since the ponies have the range in your tale, place these and other barriers to funnel them into places where they cannot shoot the ponies, but the ponies can shoot them.
Will the Weather Patrol be involved at all?perhaps while the enemy has all their attention on the Earth Ponies and Unicorns?
Tornados, Lightning storms, Monsoon rain, hailstorms the size of softballs and larger, even rocks and arrows dropped from just out of groundfire range will seriously ruin an attacker's day.

1276394
Alright. That's pretty sound logic. I remembered hearing the 4-1 rule before, but I thought since no one in Ponyville was a true warrior and the closest to a fighter would likely be Rainbow Dash given her wonderbolt training and general pugnacity, I thought the inexperience of the defenders would balance things out.

1276385
Thanks again, man. This can help with another problem I was having too.

1276398 Well if they're Diamond Dogs that changes a lot due to their ability to dig right up beneath the ponies. Perhaps kidnapping a number of non-combatants will serve to demoralise them severely.

I do somewhat question your time restraints though. Canterlot isn't more then a few hours away by train and it certainly wouldn't take that long to fly there. Your going to need a better excuse to keep the Royal Guard out of the picture.

1276386
The predators is a bit iffy... That strategy assumes that they won't gnaw the faces off the militia, but you do have a point with the abundance of wood, houses for archer's nest's, and the control over weather.

1276444
It's only a few hours? I always thought it was at least a days ride there, not to mention how much slower an army would march.

You do bring up a good point, though. The dogs' ability to burrow does present a realism gap... Hmm...

1276394

Another thing the Ponyville folk could do is abandon the town to give it a 'haunted ghost town waiting to kill you' vibe. Psychological warfare. Meanwhile, the Ponyville folk pick off the attackers one by one form the shadows.

1276458 Well I suppose it is debatable. I mean the number of times they manage to go back and forth between Canterlot and Ponyville certainly makes it seem like only a few hours, especially as Canterlot seems so close. Then again they took forever to get there in MMMysterery Express.

1276407
Again, probably should have mentioned this earlier, but the ponyville residents are humanized. In fact, you know the story I'm talking about. I think you commented on it, if memory serves.

At any rate, range certainly is their best advantage against the dogs. That and the dogs think they're going to walk into town and everyone will be too intimidated to resist, as has been the case in the past when they collected extortionate taxes from Ponyville.

The traps are a good plan, and I agree that they have military gear, as seen in the examples you gave.

Dig a bunch of holes, then hide in them. That's how they won WWI.
If there's one thing I've learned, traps beat open confrontation every time. You lose less men, and sometimes you don't even have to bury the bodies. Even with superior forces at your side, with the right equipment, one guy can be the equivalent of two or three.

1276476

Well they could make it work, but remember, the attackers have the advantage close-range. Ambushes are only good if your target is dead after one strike. Psychological warfare works, but it might be better if the attackers were defeated in a straight battle. And that's after finding the right ponies who can pull off ambushes.

From the looks of screenshots, Ponyville is surrounded by open fields save for the shared border with the Everfree. And since the long-ranged, defensive advantage resides with the locals, the move with the least risk is the one were they bunker down and take it to the face.

1276495
Well, if the canon isn't clear, I guess that leaves it open to interpretation, and since the excuse of it being too far would be a lot more reasonable if it was at least half a day by train, I'll keep that.

Regardless, it would still take a lot more time to move the guard cohorts to Ponyville anyways. Marching is a slow, physically demanding process. Even disregarding making camp, resting, and breaking camp, it would take at least a day to march a four hour train ride.

1276516
So, go all Viet Cong on them with guerrilla warfare?

1276458

Okay, so they can dig. I'd recommend the following orders.

1-Barricade any outer entrances, both inside and outside.

2-Block off any interior doorways in the case that they burrow straight into the house.

3-Stockpile enough supplies for at least a week. However if they run out, pegasi can distribute and food and water necessary.

4-Retreat to the top floors and await further instructions.

If the pegasi in Ponyville can create a large tornado, they're more than enough to collect as many rain clouds from around to flood the town so if they do dig their way past the defenses, the flood of water will demoralize them.

1276535

An army may take days, but pegasi can fly. Max 2-3 hours at most.

1276535 Or they could use chariots to fly there. Pegasi could easily make it there as a quick response team. The Wonderbolts got there rather sharpish when Spike went berserk.

Though... you could say at some point the dogs send out a small team to take out parts of the train tracks. That would get rid of the train problem.

Probably best to tie up Canterlot with their own dilemma, something big enough to let the dogs know it's an ideal time to attack.

1276579
But what could tie up Canter-

Oh, by celestia, I have an idea. <Evil grin>

1276504
Ohhh I should have realized! Cool!
One specific thing I was thinking over while feeding IRL horses was Pickett's charge at Gettysburgh. it was a slaughter because, while the Southern troops were murder at hand-to-hand fighting, barriers like roAds and fences fuunneled them into a long range shooting fest. It could have been worse with abatises and sandbagged trenches to fight their way to.

1277024
Hmm... Good point. Sounds exactly like the scenario.

1277699
Remembered a few things while at work to consider.
Aside from the Roman's fave, the Abatis (which they loved to cover over with grass) Our hero might remember some more historical goodies. At least he wont need to remember how to make gunpowder since there is precident for fireworks in the show.
The Fougasse is a pot or can filled with explosives, put in a shallow pit dug into the side of a defensive earthwork and filled with rocks... usually. An example is seen in the last 15 minutes of Disney's "Swiss Family Robinson" in the pirate attack.
A fave my dad witnessed in Vietnam was the Foo-gas. Explosives put behind a barrel of flammable liquid, in a shallow hole angled toward the enemy.
when it blows up. it shoots a wall of flame and pieces of barrel over the attackers.
Range for both traps is about 20-50 feet.

Also since we are dealing with Diamond Dogs, something must be done about tunnels to keep them above ground. Mythbusters did a segment about Chinese anti-sapping techniques. a mixture of feathers, sulphur, and saltpeter is set on fire and dropped in the hole. it turns out the smoke is very noxious and toxic and should drive them from their holes...

1286206
Wow. Both those tactics are perfect for battling the dogs.

While I'm commenting, I'd like to thank you all for the help. The reason I wanted some other opinions is one of the cliches I absolutely hate in HiE is whenever the human just goes ultra badass saiyan mode in a fight and acts like he is Achilles, to which people regard him as a god amongst them.

Now, don't get me wrong. The protagonist should play an important role in the fighting, but I wanted it to be because he out smarted the enemy, not just out muscling them like a deus ex machina.

At any rate, you guys have made me able to do just that, especially with all the historical examples to go with. Thank you all for the help. I will now reward you with mustaches.