Norton and his group of young comrades paid no mind to the adult vampires engaged in battle beside them. They headed directly to the unoccupied simulation battle platform, forming a circle around it. Two of the quicker kids took their places at the platform’s sides, and the game was underway.
The rules were simple. Each side had a standard pool of five thousand points to spend on recruiting various units familiar to Sylvania and equipping them with weapons. Stronger units and better equipment cost more points. Once both sides had finished their selections, they chose a terrain, and the platform automatically generated it along with their armies.
The two commanders—both required to have a basic level of magical power—would then connect themselves mentally to the platform-generated troops, controlling them as if they were real undead forces. The duel continued until one side lost and had to step down for another challenger to take their place, with the winner continuing their play.
Moreover, to enhance training, the machine incorporated a rudimentary AI and stored data for units from other regions, as well as famous battle scenarios. This allowed single-player training, pitting undead legions against varied adversaries to elevate the strategic prowess of vampire commanders.
“Hurry up, hurry up, start already!” The slightly slower kids clustered around, urging them on. Fortunately, vampire children were well-mannered. A slightly older child whispered for quiet, and they all settled down.
“The chosen terrain is a plain. Both armies are undead. No objections?” asked one of Norton’s twelve-year-old cousins on the left side.
“None,” replied another cousin, thirteen, on the right. After a few minutes of deliberation, both selected their armies. With the aid of magic crystals, they used minimal mental power to control a large “army.” After the platform processed the data, they set the battle in motion.
Vampire children began formal academy education at the age of eight, with a strong emphasis on military training in these tumultuous times. Both boys, though not exemplary, had adequate years of training and were competent. Their tactics were conventional, but nothing more.
“Expensive means good, favoring elite and flashy units without considering cost-effectiveness? In the end, they’re still kids,” Norton sighed inwardly as he observed.
“Additionally, they’re too impatient. Whether on offense or defense, they lack timing precision, relying often on rash cavalry charges.”
Witnessing the scene, Norton couldn’t help but feel a sense of superiority. Naturally, he kept such thoughts to himself. As the others watched with excitement, Norton remained quietly amused, his demeanor conspicuous. Thankfully, the children’s focus was limited, and they didn’t notice his aloofness.
Undead armies, devoid of fatigue and morale, fought prolonged engagements. While battlefield tactics often involved decapitating the commanding vampire to collapse the army, this was ineffective in simulations. When matched closely, tug-of-war scenarios ensued until the last soldier fell.
The competing cousins, twelve and thirteen, commanded armies with elementary to middle school-level aptitude. Expecting high-level tactics was unrealistic. Aside from initial formations, the battle devolved into chaotic brawls resembling gang fights.
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After over an hour, the thirteen-year-old’s slightly superior skills showed as he exploited weak points, using Black Knights for successful charges, reducing the opponent’s forces to below forty percent and breaking their formation. Faced with imminent defeat, the twelve-year-old conceded.
“Luckily, they played a three-thousand-man skirmish. A ten-thousand-man mid-scale or a thirty-thousand-man large-scale battle would have doubled the time.” Norton noted younger children yawning around him—the youngest already carried off to a guest room. Eager for his turn, Norton watched a newcomer step up, shaking his head in mild frustration.
The new challenger, only nine, wasn’t particularly bright or dull—just an average child with a year’s academy experience. Inevitably, he performed worse, choosing Tomb Glaives as his main unit on a plain terrain, resulting in his formation quickly crumbling under a Black Knight charge. He left, crestfallen.
The third child fared worse, forgoing main troops to convert his points into a single undead dragon. Though it wreaked havoc briefly, it was quickly drained of magic and fell to the enemy’s necromancers and skeleton archers, losing a wing and crashing, dismembered by the opposing army.
After three consecutive victories, the winner grew cocky while others hesitated, allowing Norton a chance. He stepped forward, taking the vacant spot opposite his cousin.
As Norton sat, the surrounding children cheered softly, expectant. Norton was renowned among them for never losing a simulation battle, a key reason he led the group.
Despite his six-year-old appearance, Norton was a seasoned veteran from a previous world, with eight years of experience and an alumnus of the Federal Military Academy. His skills far surpassed those of his young peers.
While interstellar warfare differed vastly from this world’s medieval combat, with strategies mostly inapplicable, the principles of military thought remained universal. Combining this advantage with an adult-caliber mind, outmaneuvering the children came effortlessly.
Seeing Norton ready, his cousin became cautious, selecting his troops swiftly and strategizing. Norton, by contrast, remained composed and deliberate.
He closed his eyes, extending a tendril of mental energy to connect to the platform. Though invisible to the eye, his mind’s eye filled with a screen of unit icons, each representing a troop type, labeled accordingly.
“For my choice… this will do.” After brief consideration, Norton decided, and the platform presented a simulated plain with two miniature armies. His cousin’s selection mirrored previous configurations: a hefty investment in Black Knights supplemented by necromancers and elite units like Tomb Guards, alongside a few gargoyles for aerial reconnaissance—formidable offensively but lacking defensively.
Norton's strategy deviated significantly. His army's backbone comprised vast numbers of low-tier skeletons, forming dense phalanxes with long spears and shields, interspersed with skeletons armed with polearms for close combat.
High-tier units were limited to a few necromancers. Popular units like Tomb Guards, Cairn Wraiths, Banshees, or powerful troops like Crypt Ghouls and Ogres were absent.
Norton arrayed his skeletons into four large phalanxes, each exceeding a thousand troops—collectively outnumbering his cousin’s forces.
His ranged units differed markedly from his cousin's reliance on necromancers. Norton deployed many skeletal archers, who, due to limited strength, wielded simple bows instead of powerful composite bows or mechanical crossbows for cost reasons.
These archers were strategically placed between phalanxes, supported by necromancers.
Norton’s army, overwhelming in number and simplicity, lacked elite prowess. He only allocated points to a small squad of fifty Black Knights, relying instead on less formidable skeletal cavalry—skeletal light horsemen typically used as scouts.
Despite their perceived weakness, Norton’s strategic acumen and understanding of mass infantry utilization offered him a significant edge, even with seemingly inferior forces.