The Scourge of the Battanians [Bannerlord 2 - Battles of Notice from recent gameplay]
Lycos Lightbringer's rise from anonymity to nobility and fame was slow and methodical, but quite expected. Like many around him, his rise was paid with the blood of criminals, looters and bandits until a sizable retinue of battle-hardened veteran flocked under him. They were a small, but hardcore number of infantry and archers.
The beginning of the times of turmoil saw the Northern Empire attempt to further its conquest against its neighbors on the Western and Northern sides, at the same time. That was not a wise move.
No one ever claimed that Senator Lucon was a wise military man, but even so, his military conquests did not end in shambles due to the wisdom by which he decided to let the otherwise unremarkable Lycos, now under his service as a mercenary, lead the archers of his army on the fields of battle.
The Sturgians were proud and strong, and the Battanians wild and treacherous. The Northern Empire's nobles planned victories on parchment that only few could commit to reality, but Lucon saw wisdom in Lycos, and as the influence and renown of the man from the clan grew, he decided to gift him a castle.
A castle that was both a gift, and a testament of suicide.
For the castle was overlooking the pass to the city of Seonon.
And they were at war with the Battanians.
Yet men prove their worth on the anvils of war, and in the forge of battle, and Lycos was no different.
Lucon did not expect much.
The tale goes that he spewed out in a large spray the wine had just drank from his cup once he was told that the Lightbringer clan had, with an army amassing no more than a hundred men, held back a force of seven hundred Battanians led by their king.
-
The freezing winds burned the face of the men, but their hearts beat with the grim determination of those who were already dead, and yet knew not when the reaper's scythe would come for them.
They had fourteen horsemen to their name, and four Bucellarii -cavalry archers, and pride of the empire. The majority of the men were Legionnaires and Palatine Imperial Guards.
"Men! Hoist your shields and serrate your ranks!" the order was barked from one of their leader's bodyguards, and as they did so they knew the enemy had been sighted down the pass. They were in an advantageous position, but the enemies-there were so many of them it was suicide to think any would survive.
But they held their line.
It was their duty; and they had fought and bled side by side enough that the shame of retreating and leaving their comrades in arm to die on the snow made them recoil at the thought.
Their leader rushed with his horse in front of them, heading off with the cavalry to check on the situation of the enemy.
Then, when he saw what the enemy was doing, he engaged.
Three times did the cavalry of the Empire charge at the Battanians' horsemen within the sparse thicket. The forests that were the barbarian's strength were also their greatest impediment. Within the woods, their greater numbers meant nothing.
The skirmish between the horsemen ended as they were pulled into the range of the archers, the cavalry of the enemy decimated before it could harass or impact the defensive formation.
There was much cheering as Lycos brought up his bloodied spear, "Seven I have killed!" he bellowed proudly from his horse. "Seven enemies from each of you I expect!"
The Battanians charged uphill, their forces spread, a tidal wave of men that seemed to have no end; and into their flanks the surviving cavalry charged four times, the archers' emptying their quivers and yet the enemies not retreating, knowing they would win the day.
It was a bloody battle.
The charge order was given as the last javelins impacted the shields of the Legionnaires, the Battanians finding themselves counter-charged within short range, finding steel where they had expected shields, and finding courage and valor where they had expected to see fear.
Lycos' spear cleaved horses and men alike, even when he realized he was the sole remaining horseman of his retinue, only his bodyguard Maevra the Black still trotting by his side. Yet he still charged.
The archers were ordered to charge into the fray, the last valiant push that did not change the tides of battle.
The Legionnaires fell, one by one. The retreat was not called, nor was it expected. Beyond them lay the plains of the Northern Empire. To allow the army of the enemy through would mean condemning thousands and thousands more to a horrible death.
Thus the Battanians won.
Holding on to the saddle of his horse with arrows sticking through the chainmail, Lycos Lightbringer retreated from the battlefield with his bodyguard, both bloodied, but unbowed.
The Battanians' leader oversaw the battlefield afterwards, witnessing the many dead, and dubbed the Lightbringer the Scourge of the Battanians.
For every man killed, seven the Battanians had lost. Though the Empire had lost the battle, out of an army of more than seven hundred, less than a hundred remained.
Thirty-six had been killed by the Lightbringer's own spear.
Thus, the Battanians pulled back.
-
"And what happened next?" the child asked.
"A new army was raised, and trained. Lucos was so amazed by what he saw, he approved near-immediately the marriage of the Lightbringer with his daughter," the father spoke amiably. "Varcheg fell, and Revyl soon followed. The Lightbringer then set his sights on Seonon, and conquered it."
He laughed. "And tomorrow night, if you are good with your tutors, I will tell you the tale of how Lycos Lightbringer earned the title of Conqueror of Empresses, and the next night, of how he is known as the Sword-Breaker of Vlandia."
"Did grandpa do all that?" the child asked.
"Oh, he did that, and much, much more," the father answered. "But that is a tale for another time."
-
Notice: wanted to try my hand at catching the "feel" of how battles were normally described in old texts. I'm relatively sure I completely *flunked* it, but eh, whatever.
If it's not noticed, Bannerlord got me.
Notice: most of the stuff happened, though the 'titling' is more RP'ed than actual. Again, the AI does mention the latest conquests, but it doesn't give you titles depending on how many of them you kill.
Which is a pity.
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