The Adamant Phalanx: A Tactical Primer
Internal training document, Concordian War College, Fourth Legion
Foreword: To the officer: We do not wage war; we solve it. The Phalanx is a system, a machine designed to impose order. Our mages and soldiers are its components. Know your function. Execute it flawlessly. Deviation is failure.
1. Grand Doctrine: Attrition and Set-Piece Battle
The Phalanx treats war as a logical problem solved by overwhelming, controlled force. It avoids skirmishes, instead engineering set-piece battles from unbreakable fortified positions. Victory is achieved through calculated attrition, not maneuver. For a comparative analysis, see the central doctrine registry: Doctrines of War.
Logistical Model: The Unbreakable Supply Chain
The Phalanx's doctrine requires a robust, conventional supply train. In addition to its powerful mages, the Phalanx's strength comes from its ability to equip and maintain its Unawakened corps to the highest standard. The Concord is a primary client for the masterwork mundane equipment produced by the Unawakened guilds of Nexus, particularly the Menders' Collective. Their logistical officers maintain deep, long-standing contracts to ensure their formations never break due to a failure of supply.
2. Command Structure
Command is a rigid hierarchy ensuring perfect information flow and zero ambiguity.
- Legate-General: The supreme commander of a Legion. A master strategist and often a high-tier Binah or Hod mage. They do not command from the front, but from a command post where they can process data from the entire battlefield.
- Logos Scribe: One Scribe is attached to each Maniple (company-sized unit). They are the central nervous system, processing battlefield data and relaying targeting solutions and orders from the Legate-General.
- Centurion: The commander of a Cohort of Unawakened infantry. They are disciplined veterans who execute the Scribe's orders without question.
3. Doctrine of Personnel: The Forged Component
The discipline of the Phalanx is a direct product of the Concord's demanding educational system. Officers and mages are trained in specialized Lyceums that prioritize precision and obedience over creativity. This pedagogy ensures every soldier understands their function as a component within the larger military machine.
4. Core Assets: The Anatomy of the Phalanx
The Phalanx is a combined-arms force integrating disciplined Unawakened infantry with specialist mage-types from the Pillar of Severity.
The Aegis Legates (The Wall)
- Sefirah: S3 Binah
- Role: Battlefield control. They create Conceptual Wards ("No projectiles may enter this space") and impose territorial Rules ("The ground in this zone may not be altered") to forge a stable, predictable battlefield.
The Judicators (The Sword)
- Sefirah: S5 Gevurah
- Role: Decisive force application. Operating from a warded position, Judicators use Destructive Analysis to identify critical weaknesses, then eliminate them with a precise Trial by Fire. Every strike is a calculated, fatal blow.
The Logos Scribes (The Mind)
- Sefirah: S8 Hod
- Role: C3I (Command, Control, Comms & Intel). The Scribe is the fulcrum of the Phalanx. Using Formatted Magic-Vision, they see the battlefield as a stream of data, identifying targets and transmitting precise Conceptual Packets to the Judicators.
The Sophist Hunters (The Razor)
- Sefirah: S8 Hod (with Gevurah principles)
- Role: Anti-mage operations. These specialists 'debug' enemy magic not with raw power, but with weaponized logic, deploying Logic Bombs and conceptual static to make hostile workings fail.
Support & Infantry Corps
While the Phalanx is defined by its elite mages, the bulk of its mass is composed of highly disciplined Unawakened soldiers and sophisticated magical automata, who form the foundation of the "Iron Tortoise."
Unawakened Cohorts (The Foundation)
- Asset Type: Mundane Heavy Infantry
- Role: The rank-and-file of the Phalanx. These are not simple conscripts but professional soldiers, equipped with masterwork plate armor and tower shields sourced from the Menders' Collective in Nexus. The Legion's logistical train often includes embedded Mender artisans to maintain this masterwork gear against the unique stresses of magical combat. They are drilled to fight in perfect, interlocking formations and are psychologically conditioned to resist the fear and chaos of the magical battlefield. Their strength is not individual prowess, but absolute, unwavering discipline.
Logic-Engines (The Hammer)
- Asset Type: Magical Automata (Siege Unit)
- Role: The Concord's answer to the Garden's monstrous beasts. These are not true golems animated by spirits, but massive clockwork and iron automata powered by intricate, logic-based Glyphcraft from Hod. Slow, immensely powerful, and utterly without fear, Logic-Engines are deployed to shatter fortifications and break enemy lines. They are siege weapons that can think, calculating optimal impact vectors and stress points with cold, inhuman precision. During the Great Silence, these automata were rendered inert, forcing the Concord's Pragmatist schism to replace their glyph-cores with mundane steam engines—a partnership with Nexus guilds detailed in that schism's history. This fusion of mundane and magical engineering was a triumph for the Pragmatists, validating the technocratic philosophies of Nexus figures like Artisan-Primus Korbin. The principles of this "Replacement Model" are analyzed in the treatise, The Mundane and the Miraculous: A Study in Techno-Magical Symbiosis.
The Silent Sentinels (The Shield)
- Asset Type: Unawakened Specialists (Counter-Infiltration)
- Role: A specialist corps of Unawakened soldiers trained and equipped specifically to counter infiltration and psychological warfare. Wearing "Grey Cloaks" from Nexus's The Weavers of the Tangible Thread to obscure their auras from magical sight, they are drilled to resist the influence of Yesod. They guard command centers and high-value mages, acting as the Concord's primary defense against the surgical strikes of The Hidden Dagger.
5. Core tactics
The Iron Tortoise
The foundational defensive formation. Aegis Legates establish an overlapping dome of Conceptual Wards. Infantry form a physical shield at its base, while Judicators and Scribes operate from the protected center, methodically dismantling the besieging enemy. A practical example of this tactic is documented in the The Battle of the Serene Valley report.
The Logic Gate
The primary offensive formation. Legates forge a warded, conceptually "sanitized" corridor through the battlefield, protecting a core of Judicators and infantry as they advance. This allows the Phalanx to project overwhelming force at a single point to breach enemy lines or destroy a high-value target.
5. Strategic Profile: the unbreakable fortress
- Playstyle: A slow, defensive "deathball" faction that establishes a fortified Forward Operating Base and excels in the late game.
- Strengths: Nearly unbeatable in a direct engagement. Possesses the strongest defensive structures and highly durable, efficient elite units.
- Weaknesses: Slow movement speed makes them vulnerable to harassment and multi-pronged attacks. A defined frontline is required.
- Ultimate Ability: The Inevitable Decree: A target area is placed under an absolute Binah Rule (e.g., "No enemy abilities may be used"), guaranteeing victory in a decisive engagement.