The Saga of Tanya the Evil - Vol. 18 Ch. 51 - The Intervention Which Was Too Late II

[Grimmycoffee]

"Reproducing the Battle of Cannae with mechanized forces" is such an amazing way to put it, Zanonyn. Yeah this is pretty much Cannae, and not in just a battle but in a grand strategy. Just like GPS is in-a-way just an application of using Scout tower from space to get birds eye view of a battle, this is a modern application of an old but effective strategy repeated with successful result.

Even if the HQ survive and Tanya's team is massacred (which is unlikely, not completely anyway) this will still cripple their military.


@Red225 You still remember what story that is? Sounds like an interesting read.

 

[findy123456]

LOL
bad luck for that guy

 

[kaminomikan]

war is horrible... but the world is on the doors of the next one....

 

[Karakuri1812]

Oh look, Tanya will have their showdown again lol i actually very interested in Tanya's live after the war, someone already read the novel maybe can spoil me? Don't forget the spoiler tag tho

Thank you for updating us!

 

[Romariel]

@Nylodale - Afrika campaign first

 

[3413413241234]

@Karakuri1812

Spoiler

the war haven't ended after this. The empire enters war with the remnants of the Republican army and the Soviet Union and she was promoted to lieutenant colonel

 

[sdarkpaladin]

I'm still wondering when did the 3rd female of the Battalion joined. Did she suddenly appear in this submarine?

 

[Drex2580]

Ahhh this is what I envisioned when I read this in the LN, amazing work.

 

[Narf]

Amazing chapter, but I thought it was really strange how the Frenchies never noticed such a massive mine network under them. Mines have been a staple of warfare for centuries at that point and digging countertunnels, listening posts etc. should be standard practice. A network as large as the Empire's would have taken many months to dig given they could not employ heavy machinery and couldn't use a large workforce for fear of being uncovered by intelligence.

 

[kayd]

@sdarkpaladin In the LN they only have 1 "casualty" due to food poisoning so only Grantz was brought in, in the manga it looks like they brought in a whole squad of the trainees despite only stating a single opening. I think the artist just wanted to draw some new people.

Spoiler

Later in the books her Wing gets bad intel from their intelligence division and loses a good number of veterans on a special mission. Perhaps they are rewriting that since they've made it look like the army intelligence isn't totally inept and they need the new blood in now to compensate. Original story makes their intelligence network totally inept and every bit of intervention by Tanya looks like some sort of master stroke of scheming by the Empire but in reality it's just pure dumb luck.

 

[Kirin-kun]

@Narf Don't look for realism or accuracy in a fantasy manga. It's just a power trip about the Empire and Tanya. Obviously, the enemy will be blind and stupid compared to the main characters.

 

[DeathDonut]

Portrayal of the war in those series is great.

 

[zanonyn]

@Karakuri1812
It's not a spoiler to write first of all that "we don't entirely know". Like a number of interesting series actually, Youjo Senki has been through three different stages. It started as a small Web Novel, and like other WNs or Web Comics that sort of ended up being a 'first draft'/proof of concept. As it got interest and Zen decided to get serious about it, it has been rewritten as a Light Novel which is probably the "novel" you're thinking of. That significantly fleshed it out and rethought aspects, so it's not clear how canon the WN will ultimately be. The LN (now on 13) isn't actually through the entire war yet though there is lots of hinting about what went down. And then there is the manga, which follows the LN fairly closely but further fleshes out and details characters and character interactions.

Now for some spoilers:

Spoiler

The best information we have is that the Empire "loses" the war, but not a total loss like Nazi germany but rather they managed some kind of negotiated surrender by delaying things. The Commies though still ended up as a huge threat to the rest of the world. In the WN, Tanya ends up going to work on an alt-version of the Manhattan Project, changing her name/appearance, and because she's so critically valuable to the Allies and is a very loyal, serious officer who did in fact follow the rules all the time, her name is scrubbed from history and kept secret going forward. IIRC things got really weird later, I don't know how much of that will be carried over for the LN. Clearly some of the general aspects will, because it makes total sense Tanya would go to aid the Unified States in making sure that commies can't conquer the world and secure her own position, and the LN and manga both show how she and 203 were hidden, so that's canon. I'd actually like it if she got a bit of domestic life too, but guess we'll see.

 

[Kirin-kun]

Colonel Drake is trying to bite more than he can chew. He will realize his mistake when he sees he crossed path with the Devil of the Rhine.

 

[TRShottie]

the tank that appeared on page 22 looks to be a StuG III. I showed the picture to some friends that aren't into anime and one guy said it could be a Stug 3. quick google search confirmed it almost definitely was.

 

[zanonyn]

@Narf
I thought it was really strange how the Frenchies never noticed such a massive mine network under them. Mines have been a staple of warfare for centuries at that point and digging countertunnels, listening posts etc. should be standard practice

When did anyone do anything like that in World War I or II Narf? A lot of previous procedures and wisdom of war was rendered utterly obsolete in the Industrial Age, WW1 in particular was so horrible in part because they started off trying to use old infantry wave tactics against the innovation of the crew machine gun and better artillery. Lots of tactics lived and died in a hurry. Further, the Empire's whole strategy was to trick the Francois into moving forward too quickly rather then carefully and then destroy their command chain with an extremely potent mixture of propaganda, military temptation, and deployment of breakthrough technology. The tactic was a genuine surprise and couldn't be used again. None of this seems particularly unrealistic honestly given how the World Wars actually went.

@Kirin-kun
It's just a power trip about the Empire and Tanya

If you're this bad at reading or comprehension this probably isn't the series for you.

 

[3413413241234]

Just read the raws for the next chapter and its amazing

@Kirin-kun if you read ahead in the ln you would know that the war becomes much worse for the empire and tanya.

Spoiler

they are forced to fight the soviet union, Britain and USA at once and is basically destroying their economy just to maintain the status quo.

And you should already know that from the war report chapters in the manga. If anything, the story always put tanya in the most dangerous positions

 

[nachtness]

lol they ride GAU-8?

 

[zanonyn]

@3413413241234
Yeah, in fact one of the things that makes this series so interesting compared to the norm is that an absolute core theme is that nobody in modern war, no matter how good, no matter how smart or individually powerful, can surmount an overwhelming logistical disadvantage through military means alone. Soft power is as important as hard power, and success and tactical advantage can be a trap and lead to strategic loss.

 

[Wolvenworks]

here it is, the largest fucking flank since fucking Cannae. at least, in this universe.