Pitched Battle for Castle Scarwood
Sword of Mars
Magical Girl Aficionado
- Location
- Canada
Yukihime's Strategy: 1d6, rolled 3 bonus of +8. 11 Your strategy is above average.
Military Discipline 1d6, rolled 4. Bonus of ?. Your men follow their directions.
Enemy Organization 1d6, rolled 6. Bonus of ?. Critical success. Aside from the brief confusion and panic, they have reorganized and are ready for battle.
Sir Bradley's Holdout 1d6, rolled 1. Bonus of ?. Critical failure.
Allow me to actually put the name of current POV in this update, simply to help keep track of POV changes.
You needed to win here, else you've done nothing but lead people to their deaths. You think you hate leading, you hate how you can reduce lives to a simple game of numbers and cost and benefits... Yet that is what you do. You have set up your formation as so: A vanguard of fifty initiates, they will take the brunt of the arrowfire and be the first into melee because they are disposable. Afterwards your fifty adepts will come in after them, quite literally using their initiates as human shields to be your mace that crushes the defense of the castle. You're keeping fifteen Initiates, wounded from the last operations or simply unskilled to act as messengers and bodyguards from your 'command center'. You briefly wished you were just one of the soldiers, so you didn't consciously send people to their demise while safely behind them. You feel a bit helpless as you watch your men carry out your orders with a stoic disposition.
"Sir Gregory, I want you to go with the Adepts and do what you can to make sure they don't fuck this up." You mutter this softly so Master Hillwick won't hear and take offense, you were leading a mob of militant priests and it really showed. You can't trust them to not break on the battlefield, and if they don't succeed in their pivotal role you were done for. The horses were exhausted, as were most of the supplies so this truly was a massive gamble that either ended with you winning it all or death. "I'll keep them from doing anything stupid. I've commanded worse before." Sir Gregory mounted his horse and took over command of the adepts and you watched slightly surprised at how Gregory's simple appearance managed to strike discipline into them. Now you could command Ma- fuck it, Hillwick, you were getting sick of titles in your head especially one that includes 'master', fuck off. Now you could command Hillwick or William to do something...
"Hillwick, William. You both are to leave command to me here and assist in breaking the enemy. You are both recognizable and feared opponents, William less so, but wear something that hides your identity until you're in melee to avoid becoming targets for archer fire. Your mere appearance should bolster morale far beyond what I could and your martial skills and spiritual arts is something I think will be able to turn the tide... Something isn't right, I have a bad feeling about this entire assault... You both should be able to ruin any surprise they may pull out of their hat." You were worried, aside from the brief panic of your sudden deployment they're simply well... Too organized. Did they know you were coming? It wasn't impossible, despite how careful you were you weren't infallible. Did you make a mistake no including a rear guard in your plans? Was this an ambush... You simply didn't have enough information or soldiers to account for every situation especially after the casualties you faced in the first phase of your plan. "Don't worry about it lass, we old fossils will teach these kids a thing or two. Come on Willy we're going." Hillwick dragged William by the arm only to be shrugged off. William called out "Wait! This wasn't part of the plan... You leave yourself open for attack by enemy reinforcements if you deploy us elsewhere!" He actually sounded a bit concerned, and to be honest so were you. "This is a new plan. I'll act as bait and buy time for you both to capture the castle to any potential reinforcements... You two are simply too valuable combatants to keep you guarding me, and are much more important to the soldiers than myself at this point. If you manage to complete your objectives then you may come back and assist me... If there is any reinforcements at all. It's possible that there won't be any complications." You weren't suicidal, but you think positioning yourself in danger will make up a bit for you endangering your soldiers lives... William doesn't look that assured but he doesn't question your decision as he leaves you to his new position... You give the signal to commence the attack. You were sure the enemy army could see you clearly in your bright outfit and that was the point if they were in contact with any other forces through mystic means.
Your 'command center' was literally a portion of empty field of scattered tents, you didn't have time to set up a real encampment or any fortified defenses and most of your preparation came from the night before in the dark so you didn't have much of a camp at all. Most of your men slept on the open ground hidden behind the hilly terrain without being allowed to set a fire. You need to reward them soon or else they may revolt or leave for the harsh conditions you put your men into... But your most pressing problem was how open you were to attack if any of the garrisons from nearby respond to aid Lord Kidnapper over here... You cant directly aid the fighting as of right now, and Hillwick and William will take over command at the front on the local level much better than you could all the way in the back but you could still make a difference on the strategic level. If you were preparing to act as rearguard and bait for potential enemies coming after you then you needed to even the odds for you and your fifteen men...
"Grab a shovel, we're going to dig a ditch." You grab one yourself in front of your bewildered group of men, soon they too grab a shovel and start digging. You think have several hours of preparation before anyone arrives to assist Castle Scarwood if they're coming at all. Which gives you time to fortify, create unnatural choke points. You kept half an eye on the battle at hand but there wasn't really anything you could do for it at this point. You had no more men nor did you have any equipment to cunningly help from your current position aside from your self assigned role. You needed to buy yourself time if you are attacked from the rear.
Were you perhaps greedy, to want to live a bit more? You parried a mace with a shield you grabbed from the ground, you see Renault react too slow before he get's pierced in the chest. You were tiring, you didn't think you could keep up against multiple opponents for long. You spot a glance out at the army marching bellow coming to assist you, finally rushing into the castle courtyard itself. One of the men in front of you panics and tries to lunge for the mechanism to close the gate only for you to throw your dagger hitting him right in the eye. You grab a discarded saber from the ground ready to fight until your untimely end.
You wonder if your father was proud of you. For standing up to something, for a just cause to end tyranny and not for revenge. You wonder if you did the right things, were you a righteous person? Were you manipulating people like Renault when you took them in, to further your own goals or were you genuine? Did Renault and the others curse your name when they died? You feel a stabbing pain in your chest, a numbing feeling and then nothing at all.
Military Discipline 1d6, rolled 4. Bonus of ?. Your men follow their directions.
Enemy Organization 1d6, rolled 6. Bonus of ?. Critical success. Aside from the brief confusion and panic, they have reorganized and are ready for battle.
Sir Bradley's Holdout 1d6, rolled 1. Bonus of ?. Critical failure.
Allow me to actually put the name of current POV in this update, simply to help keep track of POV changes.
Yukihime Sakura
The plan was deceptively simple. The gates would open and you'd force your way inside. You didn't have any fancy siege weapons, nor any ladders this was a lightning strike mission meant to take out the fortification immediately. You knew you had a very short window of time to get your forces inside and that every minute wasted was another risking the gatehouse being retaken and the gates closed making the entire operation worthless. You also knew that you were uniquely disadvantaged with your soldiers, your men practiced a martial art. And you really mean art in that, they were deadly and graceful... But undisciplined, unused to formations, unarmored and completely dependent on spiritual energy... You also acknowledged after the few skirmishes you observed that sword infantry left much to be desired, especially since they didn't include shields in their 'art'... Making them targets for archer fire.
You needed to win here, else you've done nothing but lead people to their deaths. You think you hate leading, you hate how you can reduce lives to a simple game of numbers and cost and benefits... Yet that is what you do. You have set up your formation as so: A vanguard of fifty initiates, they will take the brunt of the arrowfire and be the first into melee because they are disposable. Afterwards your fifty adepts will come in after them, quite literally using their initiates as human shields to be your mace that crushes the defense of the castle. You're keeping fifteen Initiates, wounded from the last operations or simply unskilled to act as messengers and bodyguards from your 'command center'. You briefly wished you were just one of the soldiers, so you didn't consciously send people to their demise while safely behind them. You feel a bit helpless as you watch your men carry out your orders with a stoic disposition.
"Sir Gregory, I want you to go with the Adepts and do what you can to make sure they don't fuck this up." You mutter this softly so Master Hillwick won't hear and take offense, you were leading a mob of militant priests and it really showed. You can't trust them to not break on the battlefield, and if they don't succeed in their pivotal role you were done for. The horses were exhausted, as were most of the supplies so this truly was a massive gamble that either ended with you winning it all or death. "I'll keep them from doing anything stupid. I've commanded worse before." Sir Gregory mounted his horse and took over command of the adepts and you watched slightly surprised at how Gregory's simple appearance managed to strike discipline into them. Now you could command Ma- fuck it, Hillwick, you were getting sick of titles in your head especially one that includes 'master', fuck off. Now you could command Hillwick or William to do something...
"Hillwick, William. You both are to leave command to me here and assist in breaking the enemy. You are both recognizable and feared opponents, William less so, but wear something that hides your identity until you're in melee to avoid becoming targets for archer fire. Your mere appearance should bolster morale far beyond what I could and your martial skills and spiritual arts is something I think will be able to turn the tide... Something isn't right, I have a bad feeling about this entire assault... You both should be able to ruin any surprise they may pull out of their hat." You were worried, aside from the brief panic of your sudden deployment they're simply well... Too organized. Did they know you were coming? It wasn't impossible, despite how careful you were you weren't infallible. Did you make a mistake no including a rear guard in your plans? Was this an ambush... You simply didn't have enough information or soldiers to account for every situation especially after the casualties you faced in the first phase of your plan. "Don't worry about it lass, we old fossils will teach these kids a thing or two. Come on Willy we're going." Hillwick dragged William by the arm only to be shrugged off. William called out "Wait! This wasn't part of the plan... You leave yourself open for attack by enemy reinforcements if you deploy us elsewhere!" He actually sounded a bit concerned, and to be honest so were you. "This is a new plan. I'll act as bait and buy time for you both to capture the castle to any potential reinforcements... You two are simply too valuable combatants to keep you guarding me, and are much more important to the soldiers than myself at this point. If you manage to complete your objectives then you may come back and assist me... If there is any reinforcements at all. It's possible that there won't be any complications." You weren't suicidal, but you think positioning yourself in danger will make up a bit for you endangering your soldiers lives... William doesn't look that assured but he doesn't question your decision as he leaves you to his new position... You give the signal to commence the attack. You were sure the enemy army could see you clearly in your bright outfit and that was the point if they were in contact with any other forces through mystic means.
Your 'command center' was literally a portion of empty field of scattered tents, you didn't have time to set up a real encampment or any fortified defenses and most of your preparation came from the night before in the dark so you didn't have much of a camp at all. Most of your men slept on the open ground hidden behind the hilly terrain without being allowed to set a fire. You need to reward them soon or else they may revolt or leave for the harsh conditions you put your men into... But your most pressing problem was how open you were to attack if any of the garrisons from nearby respond to aid Lord Kidnapper over here... You cant directly aid the fighting as of right now, and Hillwick and William will take over command at the front on the local level much better than you could all the way in the back but you could still make a difference on the strategic level. If you were preparing to act as rearguard and bait for potential enemies coming after you then you needed to even the odds for you and your fifteen men...
"Grab a shovel, we're going to dig a ditch." You grab one yourself in front of your bewildered group of men, soon they too grab a shovel and start digging. You think have several hours of preparation before anyone arrives to assist Castle Scarwood if they're coming at all. Which gives you time to fortify, create unnatural choke points. You kept half an eye on the battle at hand but there wasn't really anything you could do for it at this point. You had no more men nor did you have any equipment to cunningly help from your current position aside from your self assigned role. You needed to buy yourself time if you are attacked from the rear.
Sir Bradley Richwood
You only need to hold for another fifteen minutes. That's what you said, and it sounded so simple. That soon your vastly superior soldiers would smash through the lines and get to you and your men and you could get to drinking fine wine and partying in another success story... But reality cuts deep. You thrust your spear into the face of another man unlucky enough to be in front of the hole they've been slowly breaking into the door you barricaded in the entrance to the gatehouse. It was a strong door, you suppose. It's been your savior so far but it looks like a small gust of wind would knock it over now. Soon it'll be too disadvantageous to use your spear and you'll need to switch to your dagger... With a resounding crash you hear the door break open, and soon the other entrence also breaks open... You hear the sounds of combat behind you as your men engage the enemy with their daggers, your loyal squires coming to assist you Renault throwing his spear and impaling an unlucky man who first cautiously entered the doorway "Ha... We're not gonna make it are we? Then let us make it a fight they'll never forget! Come on boys crush as many as these insects as you can!" You grabbed a spear, pulling its wielder towards you and you expertly open his unarmored throat with your dagger. Despite your words you weren't really ready to die. Too many regrets, too many short lived moments... You feel a bruise as a sword glances off your chain mail before you cut him down. Were you perhaps greedy, to want to live a bit more? You parried a mace with a shield you grabbed from the ground, you see Renault react too slow before he get's pierced in the chest. You were tiring, you didn't think you could keep up against multiple opponents for long. You spot a glance out at the army marching bellow coming to assist you, finally rushing into the castle courtyard itself. One of the men in front of you panics and tries to lunge for the mechanism to close the gate only for you to throw your dagger hitting him right in the eye. You grab a discarded saber from the ground ready to fight until your untimely end.
You wonder if your father was proud of you. For standing up to something, for a just cause to end tyranny and not for revenge. You wonder if you did the right things, were you a righteous person? Were you manipulating people like Renault when you took them in, to further your own goals or were you genuine? Did Renault and the others curse your name when they died? You feel a stabbing pain in your chest, a numbing feeling and then nothing at all.
William Blackwood
Channeling your spiritual energy you whipped your staff into an arc, and with a sickening crack another enemy perishes under your power. You see Master Hillwick blur as he effortlessly cuts and dances through enemies effortlessly contrasting to his sect who look like stumbling drunks compared to his elegant dance. Still though, they did their job even if they didn't do it... Well. They did adequately enough but the casualties you've been mentally tallying up was much too high for such an elite force. They were stagnant, they never progressed with war in mind merely 'perfecting' their mindless art only to realize how disappointing it was in war. You can even see flashes of disappointment in Master Hillwick's eyes as he's faced with reality of how flawed his teachings apparently were. The vanguard was mostly annihilated but that wasn't to say that the defenders were doing any good resisting them. Like predicted once the army reached in close quarters the enemy fell like wheat to a scythe. Effortlessly you and Master Hillwick broke through the initial defensive line allowing your soldiers to get into the castle but unfortunately your momentum stopped in its tracks soon after. Sir Bradley was likely dead, as the fifteen minute window rapidly closed during the melee.
You got your confirmation as the gate slid shut behind you, startling some of the men. It was a pointless gesture, most of you were already in aside from a few stragglers. Keeping your bodily enhancement at such a level to maintain your strength and defense for a few hours you leaped back into melee. You were a pure supernatural force they had no counter to, no arrow could pierce your skin and no soldier was strong enough to block your staff. You massacred and educated with every swing. You faded out of relevancy in the past twenty years or so, but you were here to remind people why they called you the Cruel Mountain...
Despite that it took you a few hours for combat to break entirely in your favor, the much larger garrison either put to the sword or surrendered. You effortless smashed through the defenses put up at the gate house, confirming your suspicions of Sir Bradley's demise. You calmly open the gate once more, and say a small prayer for the brave young souls who sacrificed themselves for victory. You looked outside, viewing reinforcements for the enemy on their way to engage Yukihime's small force. "Master Hillwick, I need to go assist my student! Please take over here." You said this with a small bit of panic, it's not that you didn't trust Yukihime to survive, you just didn't get the chance to teach her enough to allow her to survive against such odds. "Wait, I'll go with you. Sir Gregory, maintain the siege of the main keep with the men. William and I will reinforce our commander and engage the small amount of enemy reinforcements." You didn't stay to hear Sir Gregory's reply.
You got your confirmation as the gate slid shut behind you, startling some of the men. It was a pointless gesture, most of you were already in aside from a few stragglers. Keeping your bodily enhancement at such a level to maintain your strength and defense for a few hours you leaped back into melee. You were a pure supernatural force they had no counter to, no arrow could pierce your skin and no soldier was strong enough to block your staff. You massacred and educated with every swing. You faded out of relevancy in the past twenty years or so, but you were here to remind people why they called you the Cruel Mountain...
Despite that it took you a few hours for combat to break entirely in your favor, the much larger garrison either put to the sword or surrendered. You effortless smashed through the defenses put up at the gate house, confirming your suspicions of Sir Bradley's demise. You calmly open the gate once more, and say a small prayer for the brave young souls who sacrificed themselves for victory. You looked outside, viewing reinforcements for the enemy on their way to engage Yukihime's small force. "Master Hillwick, I need to go assist my student! Please take over here." You said this with a small bit of panic, it's not that you didn't trust Yukihime to survive, you just didn't get the chance to teach her enough to allow her to survive against such odds. "Wait, I'll go with you. Sir Gregory, maintain the siege of the main keep with the men. William and I will reinforce our commander and engage the small amount of enemy reinforcements." You didn't stay to hear Sir Gregory's reply.
Yukihime Sakura
You were correct in your assessment that you would be in danger of attack by enemy reinforcements. You quash a feeling of satisfaction that your work wouldn't go to waste. You've surrounded your position with ditches with wooden stakes, with narrow chokepoints. You were able to do more than you expected due to the supernatural element in your assistants and your own monstrous endurance. You even managed to construct some crude arrow shelters, not that you needed them. The force that was attempting to find a way to assault you was a unit of thirty cavalry, from the looks of it they weren't knights or squires just regular cavalry of some variety... They're stuck circling your position unwilling to charge into certain death that was your ditches. Instead they subjected you to rude and crude heckling as they tried (badly) to get you out of your defensive position. After quite some time, they finally dismounted and cautiously attempted to assault you on foot.
It didn't go well for the first wave of them. Some slipping into the ditches from uneven ground and dying a grisly death, to the few who came across only for you to push them into one. The brutality of the design was the point, it was to fuck with their morale and convince them to run away. They instead constructed a makeshift bridge, it failed miserably on the first man who tried walking across it. Finally they started refilling the ditch very slowly and there wasn't really anything you could do about that, but you felt pretty satisfied at wasting a lot of their time. Finally you were engaged in melee in the now 35 strong band of men with your 15 plus yourself. Thankfully the chokepoint made sure that the numerical disadvantage you had wasn't much of a problem, unfortunately most of your men were injured.
You sidestepped a thrust of a sword, before suddenly lunging and shoulder checking the poor schmuck into the death pit. You backed off from a spear, before activating your Squishy's Venomous Bite making your shield turn into what looked like a giant spider wrapped around your arm and its 'face' an inch more forward then your fist, you went and punched the fucker and the shield fucking bit him. You stepped back, reeling a bit in surprise as you watched the man grab at the large fang marks in his neck before he stiffened and fell over paralyzed before his breathing stopped... At least you knew what it did now, once you get out of this maybe you should start looking for more shields. After seeing that shit what you think were mounted militia nervously stepped back before William quite literally ran up and base balled one of them into the air before landing into one of the spike pits with their pained screaming suddenly ending. They dropped their swords and spears and surrendered. You have won this day.
It didn't come without cost you learned. Almost all the initiates were annihilated and you suffered heavy losses in the adepts... One of your first followers and his men died as well. Sir Bradley bravely lost his life in battle... You didn't feel like a hero. Soon enough Lord Rey surrendered himself to your forces giving you control of his lands in theory. In practice there is about a dozen small fortifications in Lord Rey's lands and dozens of villages, manor lords and barons.
Rip Sir Bradley I liked writing you but thems the breaks.
If this was a Total War game I'd give you the 'Pyrrhic Victory' end of battle message.
So I had a problem in this chapter where Yukihime actually struggled to do anything as commander due to how straight forward the plan of attack was and I can't make Yukihme digs holes in the ground for five hours interesting enough to write about so I switched POV to keep the limelight on the effects of your decisions and consequences (and bad luck). I chose Sir Bradley and William because we've already had their POV in story before
You're officially a Warlord, you hold territory. It's not much, but it's what you got. Hillwick liberated his stolen students one of which was his daughter and heir that he sent with the rest of the initiates to hold and maintain. You had all the slaves freed, of which there were thirty demihuman slaves in total.
Please choose one for each selection. Be aware you have limited resources.
What do you do with the imprisoned soldiers and Lord Rey?
[X] Execute them.
-[X] Impale them.
[X] Imprison them.
[X] Free them.
[X] Heal them.
What do you do with the noncombatants such as the servants, camp followers and Lord Rey's family.
[X] Imprison them
[X] Imprison only Lord Rey's family but free the rest.
[X] Free them
What do you do with the former slaves?
[X] Conscript them.
[X] Heal them.
[X] Send them an escort to Faubley.
[X] Ask them to settle in your new territory.
What do you focus on?
[X] Recruitment.
[X] Consolidating control over Lord Rey's former territory.
[X] Mourning. You will let the soldiers respect their dead and celebrate victory.
[X] Accounting. You will tally up Lord Rey's former assets and riches that belong to you now.
It didn't go well for the first wave of them. Some slipping into the ditches from uneven ground and dying a grisly death, to the few who came across only for you to push them into one. The brutality of the design was the point, it was to fuck with their morale and convince them to run away. They instead constructed a makeshift bridge, it failed miserably on the first man who tried walking across it. Finally they started refilling the ditch very slowly and there wasn't really anything you could do about that, but you felt pretty satisfied at wasting a lot of their time. Finally you were engaged in melee in the now 35 strong band of men with your 15 plus yourself. Thankfully the chokepoint made sure that the numerical disadvantage you had wasn't much of a problem, unfortunately most of your men were injured.
You sidestepped a thrust of a sword, before suddenly lunging and shoulder checking the poor schmuck into the death pit. You backed off from a spear, before activating your Squishy's Venomous Bite making your shield turn into what looked like a giant spider wrapped around your arm and its 'face' an inch more forward then your fist, you went and punched the fucker and the shield fucking bit him. You stepped back, reeling a bit in surprise as you watched the man grab at the large fang marks in his neck before he stiffened and fell over paralyzed before his breathing stopped... At least you knew what it did now, once you get out of this maybe you should start looking for more shields. After seeing that shit what you think were mounted militia nervously stepped back before William quite literally ran up and base balled one of them into the air before landing into one of the spike pits with their pained screaming suddenly ending. They dropped their swords and spears and surrendered. You have won this day.
It didn't come without cost you learned. Almost all the initiates were annihilated and you suffered heavy losses in the adepts... One of your first followers and his men died as well. Sir Bradley bravely lost his life in battle... You didn't feel like a hero. Soon enough Lord Rey surrendered himself to your forces giving you control of his lands in theory. In practice there is about a dozen small fortifications in Lord Rey's lands and dozens of villages, manor lords and barons.
Rip Sir Bradley I liked writing you but thems the breaks.
If this was a Total War game I'd give you the 'Pyrrhic Victory' end of battle message.
So I had a problem in this chapter where Yukihime actually struggled to do anything as commander due to how straight forward the plan of attack was and I can't make Yukihme digs holes in the ground for five hours interesting enough to write about so I switched POV to keep the limelight on the effects of your decisions and consequences (and bad luck). I chose Sir Bradley and William because we've already had their POV in story before
You're officially a Warlord, you hold territory. It's not much, but it's what you got. Hillwick liberated his stolen students one of which was his daughter and heir that he sent with the rest of the initiates to hold and maintain. You had all the slaves freed, of which there were thirty demihuman slaves in total.
Please choose one for each selection. Be aware you have limited resources.
What do you do with the imprisoned soldiers and Lord Rey?
[X] Execute them.
-[X] Impale them.
[X] Imprison them.
[X] Free them.
[X] Heal them.
What do you do with the noncombatants such as the servants, camp followers and Lord Rey's family.
[X] Imprison them
[X] Imprison only Lord Rey's family but free the rest.
[X] Free them
What do you do with the former slaves?
[X] Conscript them.
[X] Heal them.
[X] Send them an escort to Faubley.
[X] Ask them to settle in your new territory.
What do you focus on?
[X] Recruitment.
[X] Consolidating control over Lord Rey's former territory.
[X] Mourning. You will let the soldiers respect their dead and celebrate victory.
[X] Accounting. You will tally up Lord Rey's former assets and riches that belong to you now.
