Rule 45
Domination of Equestria - T-15 days.
The Battle For Ponyville: 15:58
“What on Earth was that!? Every other platoon made it back with minimal losses because of their swift withdrawal. All except for yours.”
“Master, please! It’s all the ponies' fault! Their anti-magic field surprised us! There was nothing we could do!”
“Exactly, which is why I immediately ordered the retreat. Why, of everyone in command were you the only one to stay and fight the losing battle?”
He was shivering, not too surprising, I’d cranked the heat down several degrees. I did not want to be near anything too hot right now. Or multicoloured.
“My Master, please. I only aim to please you. I was fighting for your glorious Dominion! We slew many ponies this day Great Overlord!”
I sighed.
“What good is that when they killed more of your own troops than you did theirs? If we lose too much strength now we’ll have nothing for the counter attack.”
“The ponies are too foolish Master! They would never enter the Everfree!”
“Never say never. Also I meant our counter attack, not theirs.”
“We’re trying again Master?”
“I am. You’re not.”
I drew my pistol and leveled it at his head.
“But-but-but Master! Please! I will not fail you again.”
“No, you won’t. But you’ve failed me once Captain Jagged Carapace and here is the price for failure.”
Crack.
“Lieutenant Chiral."
"Yes, my Master."
"You are now in command of the Third Platoon. How’s the rearmement going?”
“Soon my Master. We will be ready within the hour.”
“Excellent.”
They were going to pay.
All of them.
"Take this body away. Let it be known I have no use for dead commanders. Or ones who don't follow orders. Scratch that first one, the two are one and the same to me."
Overlord Rule No:45 I will make sure I have a clear understanding of who is responsible for what in my organization. For example, if my general screws up I will not draw my weapon, point it at him, say "And here is the price for failure," then suddenly turn and kill some random underling.
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in rule 45 you have a duplicated paragraph
Out of all the rules of being an Evil Overlord, this one has the highest chance of backfiring or just not working in general. The problem with it is that if you kill your commanders as the price of a single failure then you need a steady stream of competent replacements, otherwise you'll be worse off than before. If you don't have a good immediate replacement (which you probably don't depending on the level of the commander) then a lower commander will be thrust into a significantly more responsible position that he (or she) doesn't know how to handle. The result is an army of lions led by sheep who don't know what they're doing.
Killing a commander for a failure like this also tells your other commanders that you want perfection and are not willing to forgive mistakes. In order to be a leader you have to accept that these things happen sometimes and that it is possible to come back from them.
With that said, I am loving this story so far. Keep it up!
6497980 He could reserve that punishment for those who disobay an order. Making a mistake, using Route B instead of Route A, could be forgiven depending on the conciquences, failing to follow orders will not.
6498196
I agree that the commander in this situation should be punished but execution is too extreme. I would say that physical mutilation, public flogging, demotion, or some combination of those is far more effective and efficient than killing him.
Do make sure to address failures properly.
6498510 I agree, even though the commander was responsible for great loses killing him is not just ruthless, it's also wasteful. Not to mention leaving you vulnerable to an uproar from your troops if you have being consistently eliminating whoever screws up and then you yourself screw up your subordinates are going to crave blood.
This course of action could only be justified if you actually consider yourself flawless and therefore any decision or order you make is bound to be the right one, therefore in that esenario lack of obedience could be redimed as one of the bigest threats towards success while the posibility of losing the troops loyalty, or decreasing it's management abilities would not.
Anything less than foresight 20/20 would risk making such extreme measures backfire in one way or another.
~Leonzilla
Darth Vader approves of this chapter.
tse3.mm.bing.net/th?id=OIP.M14f905a59636eec27c0bb156779c1cc6H0&pid=15.1
6498510 Agreed. Now every commander who disobeys an order knows they have nothing to lose, and their best bet is joining the rebellion. The kind of commander that can inspire his troops to disobey in the first place is usually pretty charismatic, so he can bring his own men along with him.
The smart thing to do is deploy such a commander to the least important outpost far away from anything important, but make sure he keeps his pension and all, so he still has a big stake in the status quo.
This would work if he made sure that everyone knew the reason for the death was the disobeying of orders, not the failure. The former is avoidable, the latter isn't.
6498196 Even disobeying an order should not get this severe a punishment. Low level commanders on the front line usually have better information on the situation so it is important to empower them to take the initiative to exploit an opportunity that presents itself in the heat of battle. There is usually not enough time to relay the information and get clearance before the window closes so you need the commanders on the front thinking and taking action on their own to maximize your advantages rather than being slaves to orders from on high.
It is especially effective against a highly centralized opponent who will be looking for large scale coordinated strategies and be confused by reports of small units taking drastic independent action. They can easily misinterpret a small unit taking initiative as the start of a major operation and divert lots of forces to deal with it creating a huge opening other units will organically see and exploit, and the first unit will see the trap closing and pull back without taking too many losses for a decisive win.
6497980
This isn't about killing someone for a single failure, though, or even really, for disobeying an order - it's about killing someone for INCOMPETANCE. Mistakes are one thing; ignoring orders to fight on and wasting your troops for no gain is not a mistake or a gamble that failed; it's a blunder perpetrated by someone who should not be in a position to command.
There have been so many - OH SO MANY generals and commanders throughout history whose butchery and idiocy, through recklessness, carelessness, arrogance, laziness or cowardice, have lost battles and thousands and millions of lives. Getting them out of the way as quickly as possible is the best plan; and an Evil overlord playing to these rules is not going to want to take the risk that an angry, disaffected idiot who is more interested in his personal status than the plan will not try and defect out of spite.
An Evil overlord who want to be successful must ensure they are surrounded by COMPETANT people. Even that supreme example, Grand Admiral Thrawn, was not afraid to execute an underling who failed because of incompetance - but later on in almost the same situation, promoted an underling who had failed but had done the best he could.
THAT is what rule 45 is really about.
6498596
Considering he was executed for stupidly and pointlessly throwing away the lives of his troops, I'm pretty sure the rank and file soldiers are gonna be okay with it.
6500254 This time, but only because his insubordination was clearly such a great mistake.
Note that being ruthless, intolerant and unforgiving of your followers is not likely to earn you many friends even if you are being fair and consistent by being just as ruthless, intolerant and unforgiving to everyone who screws up alike.
Having the favor of your subjects it's about as important as their obedience.
~Leonzilla
6498809
6500327
Well, as long as he saves it for cases like this one, then he should be fine, right?
Mistakes can be forgiven, disobedience can not.
Tis good that obedience is enforced. You can't have your commanders being insubordinate and getting away with it after all.
Forgive one commander for disobeying orders and who knows what the next glory-hound would do?
*edit
Does this count as natural selection?
6507018 hum...
Yes, if extreme action is only taken in extreme cases then it's much easier to see that as reasonable. If he is ruthless to his own minions only in moderation then they won't be all that likely to rise against him.
Everything in moderation.
It's still a waste, but if it's done correctly it's not very likely to be a reason for his downfall.
At that point there is a lot of other things that would be much more likely to defeat him instead.
~Leonzilla
6508483 yes
6508941 I think the biggest reason for the execution is that the general disobeyed a direct order and got a lot of troops killed
Hell if someone in today's military did that they would be thrown out on there ass.
6508483 Yes, the obedient survive, the stupid die.
You know, killing your officers means they can't learn from their mistake. The fear will keep them from making another and if it doesn't, you show you don't bluff.
8200241
Then demote them. By the time they make it back up the ranks, they'll either learn, or... hehehe, as if there's any other way they'd get their old titles back...