Sako, Chelsea, and a few men in uniform stood around a table, which had a marked-up geographic map splayed out on it. The map showed the field between Lamentine and Aria that was about to become the war zone.

“They’ll be coming from the east, possibly the northeast and north too.” Chelsea moved her index finger across the map, pointing at the locations. “They have about 5 times as many troops as us, but if we split up, we might be able to pull this off, but I’m still thinking on how to do it. We haven’t developed all the details yet.”

Sako looked down at the map. “I think I understand.”

They all turned their eyes to her.

“Really?” Chelsea asked, surprised.

“What exactly does a little girl like you understand?” one of the men asked then looked at Chelsea “Do we even need her to participate? She’s not trained for warfare.”

“Yes, what can she accomplish?” another asked.

“Allow her a chance. You’ll see,” she replied.

“See what? See her meet a quick death?”

“Excuse me,” Sako cut in. “I have a plan.”

They looked at her.

“But we’ve barely started! How could you possibly know what to do?”

Sako reached across the table and pulled in a few markers of different colors. The map was new and unmarked, apart from the red arrows indicating the direction of the enemy. She took up a marker and pulled the cap off.

“Don’t ruin the map with childish drawings,” one man said.

“Relax,” Chelsea said with a calm expression.

“Position your units here, here, here, here, here, and here.” Her hands moved across the map with the marker. While she explained, she switched markers occasionally. “Ranged units, here.” She drew some green circles then switched markers. “Melee units, here”. She drew some purple circles and some dots then switched. “Magic units, here”. She drew blue, squiggly lines and a circle and switched. Create a wall to protect the units.” She drew a black line. “Your magic units are likely mid range. That’s why it’s best to have them near the edge by the water. The blue lines are different from the blue circle in that the lines represent how their magical energy should be focused. Try to have narrow, concentrated, and condensed attacks for more powerful effects, unless the enemy scatters.

“The magic units are there mainly just in case the enemy decides to cross the water, but I don’t think they will, since it would be too much of a hassle, especially if there are sea monsters. If there aren’t sea monsters, consider summoning some.” She drew X’s.

“Your ranged units will be all the way back here, so if they can’t shoot far enough to hit, arm them with ultra long-range spells and scopes. Turn them into snipers: highly accurate, slow and powerful shooters. They should always aim for weak spots when possible. Let this group focus on these directions, and this group can focus on this direction.” She drew green arrows. “Their main job will be to support the magic and melee units.”

“Wait, why can’t we also turn the magic units into snipers?” Chelsea asked.

Sako answered. “Although the magic units have the potential to be decent snipers, they might not be able to use their full potential if they’re too far back from the enemy. Not all of the spells in their arsenal can snipe a target or reach a unit in need. They should be versatile, dynamic, and flexible units capable of adapting quickly to any situation.”

“What about the transport gates?” Chelsea asked again.

“That’s why you should have melee units here to surround the large one. And make sure all the units block all the edges of the forest to prevent the enemy from coming onto the road.” She added gold dots. “This is the largest gate, hence the large dot.”

“Interesting,” someone mumbled.

“Can’t we make small melee circles around each gate in the forest to surround them as we’ll do with the large gate?” someone asked.

“That’s a very viable option; however, try to avoid scattering your units too far from each other, especially because of the trees blocking everyone’s view. They need to stay close to one another so that they can quickly relay information back and forth as needed. Flares work too. The enemy might disrupt any communication spells used. Bear that in mind.

“Also bear in mind that we’re playing defensively, not aggressively. We don’t have enough numbers to simply use brute force. We have to observe, analyze, and counter accordingly.”

“We have engineers too who can sabotage. Where do we put those?” another person asked.

Sako took up an orange marker. “Because, and I’m assuming, they’re extremely short ranged, put them here.” She drew some squiggly, orange lines. “But be careful. They’ll be vulnerable and weak as they won’t have any firepower or defenses to effectively counter if ambushed. That’s why you’re going to compensate with high-grade stealth spells. Make sure they stay hidden as they work in silence. In fact, ensure the melee units are conspicuous enough to draw the enemy’s attention. So, the engineers can sabotage the bridge when the enemy is crossing by using explosive spells to collapse the bridge so that they fall into the water where the sea monsters are. That’s an example.

“And of course, you’ll want reserved units nearby as reinforcements, so…” she drew small circles in a few areas, purple then green. “There.”

“Oooh. I like that,” Chelsea commented.

“As I said, you could do an easy one and destroy the bridge while they walk across it,” Sako continued, “but that would be too easy and predictable. They’ll see it coming.”

“Oh.” One of the men sounded disappointed. “I thought that could work.”

“It might work. I don’t know. It depends on how skilled their strategists and tacticians are. But to be safe, always treat them as a really smart opponent. And when they fall short of your expectations, that fall becomes your advantage because you prepared for the worst.”

“Ah, I see. Yes, yes.” The same man nodded. “What about air units?”

“If they have air units, by some stroke of luck, you cannot ignore them. They take priority. The melee units are the exception. They could disregard the air units and hold their defensive positions, since they wouldn’t be able to do anything about the matter. They would be counting on the magic and ranged units for protection and prevention. So, your ranged and magic units need to be ready. If you don’t have any air units to counter, you need to strike them down before they make full use of their air supremacy.” 

They stared at her, surprised.

“I’m sorry for how I spoke earlier,” one man mumbled.

“Agreed,” another said.

“I as well…” a third came in.

“It’s fine.” Sako smiled.

“Well, now we have most of it figured out.” Chelsea breathed easily, smiling at Sako. “If this plan goes well, I’ll personally reward you.”

“Oh, no, no! You don’t have to, really!” Sako replied. All of this was just simple planning based on her knowledge of logic, physics, psychology, and geography. One of her hobbies IRL had been reading science textbooks. And she had more or less guessed the scale of the map—the distance on the map that corresponded with the distance on the actual ground. Kiyomi had taught her well about strategy games IRL too.

From what she had seen so far, the game closely mirrored the real world, so she figured the laws of the sciences weren’t too far off from the real world. Though Kiyomi would’ve planned it a little differently.

“No, I’ll ensure that  you receive something. A knight repays all her debts!” She saluted.

“Well, if you insist…”