Post by Canuovea on Jan 18, 2015 2:13:38 GMT
Darsai and Ivos
It was a rare opportunity, the Ivos Legatus, Nuilius of house Tyrani, had the wit to see that. The Ivos had been on the back foot in the war for some time now, but a ray of light had presented itself, a gift from Shaledemos itself. All that stood between Nuilius' legion and three Darsai towns, filled with materials required for the Darsai war effort, as well as food supplies, was a small, relatively unimportant river, with a single fordable location. And Nuilius had a plan.
Lord Ethian, now retired, third Marshal of the Southlands, had brought up a call for men at arms. Most available able bodied men had been gathered to the main Darsai force to confront the other two legions approaching from the East. Lord Ethian, who understood the situation, immediately gathered about five hundred men at arms (of varying quality, age, and experience) and a core force of about thirty knights and rushed to secure the ford and set up defences. He was surprised to find that the bulk of Nuilius' forces, about 3000 professional soldiers, had arrived before him. They had arrived first, yet not crossed the ford and secured the Darsai side of it.
“Look, Tribune Klius, the Darsai, just sitting there, fortifying the ford. It won't do them any good.” The Legatus gave a low chuckle. “And I see a good number of their knights, the dangerous ones.”
“Yes Legatus.” The Tribute replied. “Is that their full force?”
“Of course not.” Nuilius scoffed. “That is simply an advance force, put together quickly by whoever they could drag up in time. Nonetheless, he reacted quickly. But perhaps too quickly. Send the signal to Centurion Gark.”
The Tribune saluted and ordered the trumpeter to give the signal.
Lord Ethian, old as he was, was still able to wear his ornate articulated plate, and he stood there in the gleaming morning sun, watching as the the Ivos legion reacted, ever so slowly, to their presence. He stared at the large assembly for a couple minutes, pondering the situation, not speaking his mind. Then, after a moment he turned to his captain behind him, Sir Duncan, a man of valour though not of experience, and spoke. “How many more do you believe my son will rally before he is able to reinforce us?”
Sir Duncan pondered the question a moment. “A thousand, maybe. Mostly of poor quality, my Lord. But we can make them suffer painfully for this ford.”
“Can we afford the losses, though? Are there other ways to cross the river?”
“We can, and this is the only ford. They cannot cross except for here.”
Ethian turned back to the Ivos. A third of the force was advancing, and loading slings, just out of the range of bows. Then he spoke. “Shield wall. Let them spend their bullets on nothing. It gives my son more time.” He raised his shield and a bullet pinged off of it. “Have the rest of the knights dismount. We'll form the core defence.” Another sling bullet impacted the shield. “Hmm. Send out some riders to inform my son to hurry. Also...”
The Ivos infantry ceased throwing stones, and half of the vanguard, about five hundred men, began to advance. The Darsai men at arms fired off a rapid number of arrows, but the shields of the Ivos caught most of them, and their armour did the rest. Then they met the water of the ford. Here, at point blank, the Darsai archers were somewhat more effective. The men at arms then formed up a thick shield wall and presented their fiery spears.
The Ivos responded with a volley of thrown javelins. The pila slammed into the shields of the men at arms, bending as they struck, making extricating them impossible. Some of the men at arms panicked, discarding their shields. Others found that the javelins had struck through their shields and into their arms. The majority did manage to retain their shields, however.
And then it was the Ivos' turn to suffer. They found themselves charging up a river bank into the spears of the Darsai shield wall. The bristling wall of spears forced them back with loss, and the Darsai did not break the shield wall to pursue, so the Ivos reformed and charged again, throwing more pila. This caused a break in the wall, and the Ivos almost made it through.
Then Lord Ethian and the knights sprang into action. Heavily armoured and with great skill, they slammed into the offending Ivos, pushing them back yet again, before they themselves fell back and allowed fresh men at arms to fill up the gap.
The Legate laughed. “Look at these idiots. Darsai really are no better than the Junlocks, you know. Some more metal and armour, but they are as savage and intellectually stunted as any barbarian.”
The Tribune was less certain. “Things seem to be going ill for us.”
“Don't be stupid Klius. We've got them, can't you see?”
At that moment, a group of four hundred Ivos soldiers swept up from the East, on the Darsai side of the river, flanking the Darsai shield wall on its left.
“Mount up twenty knights, and retreat to my son!” Ethian commanded. “Go Duncan, I will hold them here. They must have built a bridge to the East. Go warn him!” Then the elderly Lord took his remaining ten knights and threw himself at the flanking Ivos force. Though wounded in the process, he managed to stabilize the situation briefly, and set up a shield wall on that side as well.
Nuilius laughed again. “See? That one there.” He pointed out across from the hill on which he stood, gesturing in Ethian's general direction. “One sure mark of a barbarian people, is that their leaders always insist on fighting themselves. Leading from the front is for fools, you cannot grasp the proper tactical positioning from such a location. And another thing, look at that!” He gestured to the fleeing knights. “Darsai and their cavalry. Only good for running away.”
At this his Tribune gave him a concerned look. “We best hope for a quick victory though, you meant to catch them between the hammer and the anvil, but if we do not sweep away that force, Centurion Furus' flanking force will be the victims of that, not them.”
“They'll fold quickly enough. And their captain there? He'll be dead and we'll have the field.” Legatus Nuilius sighed to himself. “And then they'll have a triumph for me. I'll be a hero. The tide of the war will turn. Fortune is fickle, after all.”
“Yes, fortune is fickle indeed.” Klius responded, in a tone that outwardly suggested superficial agreement with his superior, but implied substantive mistrust of the situation. This was not the plan that Tribune Klius would have implemented. He would have crossed the ford before the Darsai arrived, instead of using the ford as bait. Having a pontoon bridge further East was advantage enough already to catch the Darsai in a bad spot with a bit of flanking. In his opinion, his superior had gotten overly excited about this clever plan of his and they were already paying for it with unnecessary losses at the ford.
“Hah, look. Some of them are breaking already.” The Legate laughed again. “Cowards and simpletons.”
Sir Ethian also noticed that the men at arms were beginning to waver, and some soldiers had already peeled off. So he did something excessively desperate: “CHARGE!” He bellowed, whipping his men and remaining knights into a frenzy. “For Thane and the King!” And with that, the mass of Darsai men at arms surged down the riverbank and into the middle of the ford, pushing back the initial Ivos force. The Ivos flanking force followed in behind them, trapping the Darsai between the anvil and the hammer completely.
Javelins rained down on the Darsai from both sides as the Ivos regrouped and charged, but by this point there was no breaking. The Darsai had to either fight, or die. Nuilius hadn't made a point of sparing prisoners, something that the men fighting against him knew well enough.
“What is that crazy damn fool doing?!” Nuilius shouted, turning to the Tribune.
“He is buying time.” Klius responded, “quickly, signal Furus to fall back! They're weakened enough that the main force aught to be able to push through now, and if we keep Furus' men there, they will be flanked in turn!”
“No.” The Legate shook his head. “Some might escape!”
The trumpeter looked between the Legate and the Tribune, but deferred to the Legate's authority.
Ethian, meanwhile, had been wounded again, stunned and knocked to the ground. His knights formed a circle about him, while one of the men at arms pulled him up. But while the Legatus mightn't have had half a clue what was about to happen, Centurion Gark did. So he personally pushed his way into the ring of knights, slamming his shield into one of them, and stabbing him right through the visor and into the face. Another knight came at him with a mace, but he jumped forward, leading more legionnaires through, and throwing the knight backwards with the shield.
Then he turned on Ethian, who had now stood up and summoned a singled handed sword, a burning grey blade which he lodged immediately in a charging legionnaire's neck. The Centurion struck the Lord a blow with his gladius on the breastplate, forcing him back and sending up sparks. But Ethian responded swiftly, cutting towards the Centurion's head. It got caught on the shield, burying itself in it. Gark responded quickly, pulling his shield back and lunging at Ethian, who dissolved his sword and blocked the gladius with his own shield.
The Centurion pressed his attack, slamming his shield into the Darsai and trying to trip him up with the gladius. Instead, however, Gark felt something fiery wrap about his legs and trip him up. Ethian had summoned a short many pronged whip and wrapped it around his enemy's legs. He finished the Centurion off with a thrust from a newly formed sword.
At that moment, nine hundred more Darsai men at arms swept up and swarmed into the back of the forces of the flanking Ivos, and now the situation was reversed.
The Legatus stood there stunned. So the Tribune, Klius, began shouting orders to the trumpeter as Gark's force actually turned and fled, so Klius ordered some of the others to advance and throw their pila and sling stones.
“Throw everything in!” Nuilius suddenly sprang out of his shock. “Smash them aside!” And the trumpeter sounded the orders for a general advance.
“Wait a minute.” Klius said, with sudden realization. “No! Don't!” He shouted suddenly. “Swing 500 men back around this way!”
“What? Why?!” Nuilius demanded.
“The cavalry!” Klius shouted. “Where is the cavalry!?”
This was answered a moment later when Ethian's youngest son, Sir Aethel, rode into the Legatus' bodyguard with one hundred Darsai heavy knights, who, along with the twenty knights from Lord Ethian's party, had managed to cross the pontoon bridge the Ivos had set up to the East.
Klius attempted to form a defence, but was trampled on by the strength of the charge, though he was not killed. Nuilius tried to run, but was caught up and captured without much of a fight.
The battle was essentially won. The Ivos legionnaires had last received orders to all charge the ford, which they did. But the other Darsai archers formed up along the bank of the river and began to shoot, sending the Ivos into disarray. The situation wasn't improved with 100 Darsai heavy cavalry charging the backs of the formations and their archer auxiliaries. That was how the Ivos were defeated by a force of unprepared men at arms and one hundred and ten knights that in total numbered less than half of the Ivos force.
The Ivos fell back in retreat, without a leader of any kind, but with two thousand of their number remaining. The Darsai did not pursue however, they were content to lick their wounds. In fairness, the legion was was already reduced to about half its proper strength by war, and by having to send soldiers to reinforce the other legions engaged in the East. But the incompetence of the Ivos command was stunning nonetheless.
Lord Ethian met his son by the ford after the battle was over, barely able to stand. The son dismounted and rushed his father, embracing him and giving a shout of joy.
“Thought your old man had had it, eh son?” Ethian boomed, loudly and strongly despite his wounds. “I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Ivos force. Did you capture or kill the leader?”
“Captured, father.” Aethel said, pleased. “They didn't see it coming.”
“No they didn't seem to. I'll berate them for that. Terrible mess, terrible waste. I knew from the first though, that there was some kind of trap. But the threat would have been far worse if they had crossed before I arrived, as they evidently had time to do. Still, I knew I just had to buy time.” He seemed to gain energy instantly. “So boy, lets get off and get a drink in celebration. You've earned your title today for certain. Set a guard on the ford, though, we need to be secure. And send a message East to the rest of the army. These bastards don't get to walk into my land and smash everything!”
“You showed them right good father!”
“Hah, I did, boy? You did. You did just as I had thought you would with the information I gave you. Now, your brothers with the main army down East? They'll do it too! By Thane they will!”
It was a rare opportunity, the Ivos Legatus, Nuilius of house Tyrani, had the wit to see that. The Ivos had been on the back foot in the war for some time now, but a ray of light had presented itself, a gift from Shaledemos itself. All that stood between Nuilius' legion and three Darsai towns, filled with materials required for the Darsai war effort, as well as food supplies, was a small, relatively unimportant river, with a single fordable location. And Nuilius had a plan.
Lord Ethian, now retired, third Marshal of the Southlands, had brought up a call for men at arms. Most available able bodied men had been gathered to the main Darsai force to confront the other two legions approaching from the East. Lord Ethian, who understood the situation, immediately gathered about five hundred men at arms (of varying quality, age, and experience) and a core force of about thirty knights and rushed to secure the ford and set up defences. He was surprised to find that the bulk of Nuilius' forces, about 3000 professional soldiers, had arrived before him. They had arrived first, yet not crossed the ford and secured the Darsai side of it.
“Look, Tribune Klius, the Darsai, just sitting there, fortifying the ford. It won't do them any good.” The Legatus gave a low chuckle. “And I see a good number of their knights, the dangerous ones.”
“Yes Legatus.” The Tribute replied. “Is that their full force?”
“Of course not.” Nuilius scoffed. “That is simply an advance force, put together quickly by whoever they could drag up in time. Nonetheless, he reacted quickly. But perhaps too quickly. Send the signal to Centurion Gark.”
The Tribune saluted and ordered the trumpeter to give the signal.
Lord Ethian, old as he was, was still able to wear his ornate articulated plate, and he stood there in the gleaming morning sun, watching as the the Ivos legion reacted, ever so slowly, to their presence. He stared at the large assembly for a couple minutes, pondering the situation, not speaking his mind. Then, after a moment he turned to his captain behind him, Sir Duncan, a man of valour though not of experience, and spoke. “How many more do you believe my son will rally before he is able to reinforce us?”
Sir Duncan pondered the question a moment. “A thousand, maybe. Mostly of poor quality, my Lord. But we can make them suffer painfully for this ford.”
“Can we afford the losses, though? Are there other ways to cross the river?”
“We can, and this is the only ford. They cannot cross except for here.”
Ethian turned back to the Ivos. A third of the force was advancing, and loading slings, just out of the range of bows. Then he spoke. “Shield wall. Let them spend their bullets on nothing. It gives my son more time.” He raised his shield and a bullet pinged off of it. “Have the rest of the knights dismount. We'll form the core defence.” Another sling bullet impacted the shield. “Hmm. Send out some riders to inform my son to hurry. Also...”
The Ivos infantry ceased throwing stones, and half of the vanguard, about five hundred men, began to advance. The Darsai men at arms fired off a rapid number of arrows, but the shields of the Ivos caught most of them, and their armour did the rest. Then they met the water of the ford. Here, at point blank, the Darsai archers were somewhat more effective. The men at arms then formed up a thick shield wall and presented their fiery spears.
The Ivos responded with a volley of thrown javelins. The pila slammed into the shields of the men at arms, bending as they struck, making extricating them impossible. Some of the men at arms panicked, discarding their shields. Others found that the javelins had struck through their shields and into their arms. The majority did manage to retain their shields, however.
And then it was the Ivos' turn to suffer. They found themselves charging up a river bank into the spears of the Darsai shield wall. The bristling wall of spears forced them back with loss, and the Darsai did not break the shield wall to pursue, so the Ivos reformed and charged again, throwing more pila. This caused a break in the wall, and the Ivos almost made it through.
Then Lord Ethian and the knights sprang into action. Heavily armoured and with great skill, they slammed into the offending Ivos, pushing them back yet again, before they themselves fell back and allowed fresh men at arms to fill up the gap.
The Legate laughed. “Look at these idiots. Darsai really are no better than the Junlocks, you know. Some more metal and armour, but they are as savage and intellectually stunted as any barbarian.”
The Tribune was less certain. “Things seem to be going ill for us.”
“Don't be stupid Klius. We've got them, can't you see?”
At that moment, a group of four hundred Ivos soldiers swept up from the East, on the Darsai side of the river, flanking the Darsai shield wall on its left.
“Mount up twenty knights, and retreat to my son!” Ethian commanded. “Go Duncan, I will hold them here. They must have built a bridge to the East. Go warn him!” Then the elderly Lord took his remaining ten knights and threw himself at the flanking Ivos force. Though wounded in the process, he managed to stabilize the situation briefly, and set up a shield wall on that side as well.
Nuilius laughed again. “See? That one there.” He pointed out across from the hill on which he stood, gesturing in Ethian's general direction. “One sure mark of a barbarian people, is that their leaders always insist on fighting themselves. Leading from the front is for fools, you cannot grasp the proper tactical positioning from such a location. And another thing, look at that!” He gestured to the fleeing knights. “Darsai and their cavalry. Only good for running away.”
At this his Tribune gave him a concerned look. “We best hope for a quick victory though, you meant to catch them between the hammer and the anvil, but if we do not sweep away that force, Centurion Furus' flanking force will be the victims of that, not them.”
“They'll fold quickly enough. And their captain there? He'll be dead and we'll have the field.” Legatus Nuilius sighed to himself. “And then they'll have a triumph for me. I'll be a hero. The tide of the war will turn. Fortune is fickle, after all.”
“Yes, fortune is fickle indeed.” Klius responded, in a tone that outwardly suggested superficial agreement with his superior, but implied substantive mistrust of the situation. This was not the plan that Tribune Klius would have implemented. He would have crossed the ford before the Darsai arrived, instead of using the ford as bait. Having a pontoon bridge further East was advantage enough already to catch the Darsai in a bad spot with a bit of flanking. In his opinion, his superior had gotten overly excited about this clever plan of his and they were already paying for it with unnecessary losses at the ford.
“Hah, look. Some of them are breaking already.” The Legate laughed again. “Cowards and simpletons.”
Sir Ethian also noticed that the men at arms were beginning to waver, and some soldiers had already peeled off. So he did something excessively desperate: “CHARGE!” He bellowed, whipping his men and remaining knights into a frenzy. “For Thane and the King!” And with that, the mass of Darsai men at arms surged down the riverbank and into the middle of the ford, pushing back the initial Ivos force. The Ivos flanking force followed in behind them, trapping the Darsai between the anvil and the hammer completely.
Javelins rained down on the Darsai from both sides as the Ivos regrouped and charged, but by this point there was no breaking. The Darsai had to either fight, or die. Nuilius hadn't made a point of sparing prisoners, something that the men fighting against him knew well enough.
“What is that crazy damn fool doing?!” Nuilius shouted, turning to the Tribune.
“He is buying time.” Klius responded, “quickly, signal Furus to fall back! They're weakened enough that the main force aught to be able to push through now, and if we keep Furus' men there, they will be flanked in turn!”
“No.” The Legate shook his head. “Some might escape!”
The trumpeter looked between the Legate and the Tribune, but deferred to the Legate's authority.
Ethian, meanwhile, had been wounded again, stunned and knocked to the ground. His knights formed a circle about him, while one of the men at arms pulled him up. But while the Legatus mightn't have had half a clue what was about to happen, Centurion Gark did. So he personally pushed his way into the ring of knights, slamming his shield into one of them, and stabbing him right through the visor and into the face. Another knight came at him with a mace, but he jumped forward, leading more legionnaires through, and throwing the knight backwards with the shield.
Then he turned on Ethian, who had now stood up and summoned a singled handed sword, a burning grey blade which he lodged immediately in a charging legionnaire's neck. The Centurion struck the Lord a blow with his gladius on the breastplate, forcing him back and sending up sparks. But Ethian responded swiftly, cutting towards the Centurion's head. It got caught on the shield, burying itself in it. Gark responded quickly, pulling his shield back and lunging at Ethian, who dissolved his sword and blocked the gladius with his own shield.
The Centurion pressed his attack, slamming his shield into the Darsai and trying to trip him up with the gladius. Instead, however, Gark felt something fiery wrap about his legs and trip him up. Ethian had summoned a short many pronged whip and wrapped it around his enemy's legs. He finished the Centurion off with a thrust from a newly formed sword.
At that moment, nine hundred more Darsai men at arms swept up and swarmed into the back of the forces of the flanking Ivos, and now the situation was reversed.
The Legatus stood there stunned. So the Tribune, Klius, began shouting orders to the trumpeter as Gark's force actually turned and fled, so Klius ordered some of the others to advance and throw their pila and sling stones.
“Throw everything in!” Nuilius suddenly sprang out of his shock. “Smash them aside!” And the trumpeter sounded the orders for a general advance.
“Wait a minute.” Klius said, with sudden realization. “No! Don't!” He shouted suddenly. “Swing 500 men back around this way!”
“What? Why?!” Nuilius demanded.
“The cavalry!” Klius shouted. “Where is the cavalry!?”
This was answered a moment later when Ethian's youngest son, Sir Aethel, rode into the Legatus' bodyguard with one hundred Darsai heavy knights, who, along with the twenty knights from Lord Ethian's party, had managed to cross the pontoon bridge the Ivos had set up to the East.
Klius attempted to form a defence, but was trampled on by the strength of the charge, though he was not killed. Nuilius tried to run, but was caught up and captured without much of a fight.
The battle was essentially won. The Ivos legionnaires had last received orders to all charge the ford, which they did. But the other Darsai archers formed up along the bank of the river and began to shoot, sending the Ivos into disarray. The situation wasn't improved with 100 Darsai heavy cavalry charging the backs of the formations and their archer auxiliaries. That was how the Ivos were defeated by a force of unprepared men at arms and one hundred and ten knights that in total numbered less than half of the Ivos force.
The Ivos fell back in retreat, without a leader of any kind, but with two thousand of their number remaining. The Darsai did not pursue however, they were content to lick their wounds. In fairness, the legion was was already reduced to about half its proper strength by war, and by having to send soldiers to reinforce the other legions engaged in the East. But the incompetence of the Ivos command was stunning nonetheless.
Lord Ethian met his son by the ford after the battle was over, barely able to stand. The son dismounted and rushed his father, embracing him and giving a shout of joy.
“Thought your old man had had it, eh son?” Ethian boomed, loudly and strongly despite his wounds. “I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw that Ivos force. Did you capture or kill the leader?”
“Captured, father.” Aethel said, pleased. “They didn't see it coming.”
“No they didn't seem to. I'll berate them for that. Terrible mess, terrible waste. I knew from the first though, that there was some kind of trap. But the threat would have been far worse if they had crossed before I arrived, as they evidently had time to do. Still, I knew I just had to buy time.” He seemed to gain energy instantly. “So boy, lets get off and get a drink in celebration. You've earned your title today for certain. Set a guard on the ford, though, we need to be secure. And send a message East to the rest of the army. These bastards don't get to walk into my land and smash everything!”
“You showed them right good father!”
“Hah, I did, boy? You did. You did just as I had thought you would with the information I gave you. Now, your brothers with the main army down East? They'll do it too! By Thane they will!”