Shaya finished putting away the last of the wooden figures that represented her forces, each one lovingly painted in bright colours by someone with artistic talent. Someone that was very much not her. She was happy that the Academy even had the figures she required to play the faction she chose, especially since everyone she had faced – and crushed – thus far favoured the Zothirian forces regardless of their heritage.

She couldn’t judge them for it, after all whoever wrote the rules was clearly quite biased, given how few points the Zothirians paid for powerful stat blocks to destroy their enemies.

But there was more to war than killing power; a lesson Shaya hoped her opponents today had learned.

A glance towards a broken chair against the wall suggested she may be too optimistic, given that her last opponent had hurled itacross the room when the dice had spited his fool-hardy strategy – not that the odds were even in his favour.

I know I’m partly to blame for riling him up throughout the game... but Titan spit, who throws a chair when dice disagree with them? And how are MY people the ones considered to have anger management problems?

I can’t wait for my match against Oraeus, she thought, closing the carrying case and nodding to the teaching assistant that adjudicated her game. Our peers have improved, but not enough to be challenging or even interesting... and even the written exam was easier than I expected.

She was perhaps half way through her day’s matches, thankful that her chosen faction made the games quick - especially because they were timed. Given that they were demonstrably his best students, Shaya wouldn’t have been surprised if Zaal made sure that she and Oraeus faced off last, for an appropriately dramatic ending to their exam. For that reason, she was quite surprised when she entered the next room to find Oraeus standing in it, facing into the crackling fire that kept the rooms warm as late autumn slowly turned into early winter.

By his expression as he turned to face her, he was likewise surprised.

“How have your games gone so far?” Shaya asked as they approached the table.

The board sported a battlefield of mountainous terrain carved from wood and forests of model trees shaped by magic to look like the real thing. At a glance, Shaya guessed the mission would require them to fight over the various mountain passes on the board, but she had been surprised by some of the special rules added thus far.

“Flawless winning streak so far,” Oraeus replied with a tight smile.

“Ah,” Shaya said, rubbing the back of her head, “me too.”

“I guess the streak is going to end for one of us.”

“I guess so,” Shaya sighed, then reached a hand across the table, “may the best general win.”

Oraeus shook her hand, “Indeed.”

They both looked around for their assigned teaching assistant, but none was present. Then Zaal entered the room, carrying with him a tray of dice that they would both be using to ensure a fair game. He shot them a thin smile as he walked over to the table and set the tray down on the edge, outside of the battle space.

“I hope you do not feel undue pressure at my presence,” he said, trying to give a disarming smile and instead looking more like a villainous vizier, “I have been making my rounds through the various games, though I admit to some additional interest in this one.”

The two students shrugged, though both had straightened and stiffened at his appearance.

“I shall not waste any more of our time then. The battle’s objective is simple: four ley-lines have been detected in the Kelahk mountains before you, you must control them at the end of the battle. Mages that channel magic aligned with the ley-line in their vicinity will gain bonuses to their casting rolls, however, they suffer an increased chance of backlash due to the rushing currents in the area.”

The mountain passes are a misdirection then, but helpful for ensuring enemy units cannot move in to reinforce or take an objective you already control.

“Pick which of your two lists you will deploy to this battle and share your public and private details with me to reveal to your opponent as needed. Then we shall begin.”

The pick was easy for Shaya, she had developed two very different lists: one for straight-forward and open battle and another for scenarios just like this, focusing heavily on mobility. While the war game lacked a lot of foundation in reality, Shaya enjoyed the depth it allowed for creating your own forces. Especially when it came to how to use your mages.

Conventional wisdom had warmages deployed in one of two ways: as a lance of diverse mages to cover each other’s weaknesses and achieve any objective; or as squads of dedicated mages specialized in their one role. The former was most popular amongst Shaya’s peers, popularized in stories and, of course, what they were most familiar with. A few of the specialized mage squads were also popular: dedicated Ruby artillery mages could lay waste to normal soldiers and walls alike, while Amber siege mages could ward nearby units against enemy magics or raise constructs to interfere with enemy movement.

Shaya saw the conventional wisdom of these options, but favoured a historical approach that more closely mirrored Kelahk’s reality. With so few mages to go around, each would be assigned to a unit to offer the normal troops more flexibility and reinforce their role on the battlefield: the humble squad mage.

Not that she was playing the Kelahk faction. She was patriotic, but not stupid. Whoever had designed the game clearly had a chip on their shoulder and anyone with basic math skills could see Kelahk units were unfairly priced for their poor combat performance.

She handed Zaal two dossiers: a private one that listed everything in her army and a public one with information her opponent could learn about before the game began, depending on the types of scouting units they had available. Zaal cocked an eye brow as he reviewed the public dossier, then nodded as he read over the private dossier. He handed her public dossier to Oraeus, then handed Oraeus’ to her.

Both of them valued intelligence and invested in proper scouts and spies.

Oraeus frowned at the blank sheet he was handed, then at her and Zaal. She waited for his expression with a wolfish grin, savouring his frustration before reading over the public information on his forces. As expected, he was playing a Zothirian force, but she noted it was different than his usual. Uncharacteristically, he eschewed his preferred blocks of cheap, disposable light infantry in favour of a more aggressive composition of pegasus knights and elite heavy infantry. Some quick math told her she had knowledge of over half of his force, but she didn’t think he’d be hiding light infantry from her, likely a few warmage lances fit this force composition much better.

She nodded with a smile, seeing the list for what it was: a conscious move by him to push himself out of his comfort zone.

This is going to be interesting.

“Shall we roll for initiative and deployment then?” Shaya’s smile grew at Oraeus’ annoyed expression at her.

They did so and fate dictated that Shaya would pick a side and deploy first. Whoever finished deploying their units first would also seize the initiative, offering them a large advantage in the battle as their orders took effect first.

Shaya’s smile only grew into a grin and Oraeus’ eyes narrowed as it did so.

“I’m finished my deployment,” she said, putting down no models, “over to you.”

“I see you have decided to ensure everyone hates you by the end of this,” Oraeus said with a sigh, deploying his force.

“I’m not one for half measures,” Shaya agreed.

She looked over the battlefield, nodding at Oraeus’ deployment – his force split into two wings, ready to advance from his zone to take the ley-lines immediately outside of them and then rush through the mountain pass to take those on her side of the battlefield. She smiled as each wing was close to what she had predicted: Zothiri’s famed dismounted knights with greatswords supported by a few units of levied archers to soften targets in advance. A surprise showing by a unit of Amethyst entropy mages specialized in counterspelling and draining aether from enemy mages made her realize he had a similar idea to her: minimize the impact of warmage lances and let the normal soldiers do the heavy lifting. That was going to cause her army problems too, however.

She almost breathed a sigh of relief when he deployed two Ruby artillery squads as well – that wasn’t going to be effective against her at all, despite being deployed near an attuned ley-line. That meant she mostly had to contend with pegasus knights and likely one or two lances of warmages held in reserve. Once she baited those out though... she’d control the battle’s tempo.

“Begin conveying your orders,” Zaal said, flipping an hour-glass designed to give the two of them ten minutes to write the commands their army’s units would execute that turn.

It was a tense ten minutes, only the noise of chalk scratching against slate filling the air between them. Shaya would normally have taken the opportunity to manipulate her opponents, but she respected Oraeus too much to try to taunt or agitate him purely for the sake of winning. Perhaps more importantly, she simply doubted it would work on him.

Zaal read over their orders in a few minutes, quickly processing the flow of battle in his head. With a nod from the referee, Shaya flipped open her carrying case to reveal her army and Oraeus blinked when he saw the figures and their colours.

“Vayeirans?” He managed as he recovered, “Are you serious?”

“I am,” she smiled, picking up two of the beautifully painted blue figures representing a unit of militia crossbowmen led by a Sapphire mage, “this unit will be teleporting onto the battlefield here.”

Casting off the battlefield meant there was no chance of Oraeus’ mages countering the spells, but teleportation magic was a dangerous affair – especially when used to move a group of a hundred people. Fate dictated that her first unit of crossbow militia appeared where she wanted, atop a cliff overlooking Oraeus’ deployment zone, one of his formations in particular.

As did her second unit of crossbowmen. And her third. Her fourth failed to cast the spell successfully, remaining off the battlefield that turn. Her fifth scattered to the winds, appearing at ground level dangerously close to some of his heavy infantry, but at least behind the mountain pass. If they could get to the chokepoint, they’d at least die somewhat slowly against those greatswords.

“Clever,” Oraeus acknowledged, appreciating the use of Sapphire mages to hide and move a large force of regular infantry, “but if I recall correctly, Vayeirans are far from the best combatants for their value.”

“You’re not wrong,” she replied, picking up the first batch of six-sided dice carefully carved from animal bones, “but I do have a number of circumstantial modifiers working for me, and let’s see if those Sapphire mages can’t improve those odds.”

It turns out, they couldn’t. As Shaya’s Sapphire mages tried to get their foresight spells off to help guide the attacks of her militia, Oraeus’ Amethyst mages reacted by warping the aether in the area, draining it away with their entropic magics and preventing the spells from going off. Shaya’s militia would have to rely on their sub-par abilities that round, and their high ground.

Not good, she thought, I really needed everything I could muster for this alpha strike...

“You failed to realize one more thing,” Oraeus said, raising one obsidian finger for emphasis, “a blank page reveals more than you might think.”