stNNES7: Worlds and Empires

[das]

I assume that the Armenians do not make peace?

 

[Dachs]

To: Night Warriors
From: Macedonia

Give it up. Even with superior numbers you lost.

OOC: Noooo, don't change the color!

 

[Cuivienen]

Not if the Syrians, who are about to lose this war, don't want it, as they indicated by their response to the reasonable Armenian treaty.

 

[Xen]

The 400
As Pirates make an appearance on the Ravennic ports of call in the Atlantic, half a world away, the battle for eastern Europe begins.​

The menace from the steppes had been long anticipated; the old Cimmerian threat that had longed plagued Pannonia was merely a symptom of an over all greater disease, that of nomadic tribes that felt strong, and indeed, often were strong enough to overwhelm weak and unprepared nations to raid and plunder; thus, when the great horde did indeed arrive on the steppes of olde Muscovy, Ravenna was keen to listen, and had arrayed all the spears of the east to stand in defiance against them. Spears, that had been overrun through little more then a little treachery, some spies, and countless warriors worth nothing individually, but their shier numbers where mind numbingly large.

The overall defeat had come as a surprise to the Ravennic Tribuneate [OOC: for specifics, regard earlier stories on the government of Ravenna] The commanders of which tried and true veterans where not used to losing; though not all was dark in those days; the horde dared not attack the Ravennic great wall (our ballistae proving more then match when able to spit a bolt clean through three of their horsemen) though more importantly, the remnant armies of the east had, after mixed success and defeats in their respective missions, came to rendezvouses in the Carpathian mountains, where the greatest battle in all Europe would commence. And the after effects would spell the beginning of the end to this monestrous threat of the distant steppe.

The Precursor to the battle was the hordes’ sweep into northern Europe, bent more on shear destruction then plunder (by all accounts, the horde’s plan to was to destroy and claim now, plunder and consolidate later, which thankfully, left a great deal of the assorted wealth in Lombardia and Macromania actually intact after horde was driven out of those areas.) But the result, plunder or no plunder, was that the northern prongs of the campaign were disastrous; the armies of the north, ill equipped, and having refused Ravennic suggestions on military reforms to prepare for this threat were bowled over into a meat grinder; and while their brave and defiant stands where an inspiration to all in the allied armies, one in the same they had been murdered.
The reminants of these armies, as well as reinforcements that had been dispatched before word of the strike of Lombardia had reached anyone’s ears, were Ravennic and Lombard forces, the Lombards whom had actually participated in skirmishes on their march through Macromannia on their way to converge to form a Ravenno-Lombardic assault on the Cimmerian hinterlands- though upon meeting each other at the Pannonian capital, it was clear the situation had changed.

The Horde has burst past the northern offensive, taking great casualties, and reports where they were now heading west, along the Nordsmen sea- or had been rather, before the great Pannonian offensive had caused them ti turn right back around, and head for Pannonia itself (apparently, the horde doesn’t like a taste of its own medicine very well....) Where it was now threatening the Pannonic great wall (that, in Pannonia’s case, has never been fully completed).

The burst through the wall took nearly a weeks time; for many nations, this would be a week to make last minute defensive preparations, to cower, to fear to prepare for the worst; for the allied armies however, this was a period of staunch preparation for a firm campaign right in the faces of the horde; gathering the remnant forces of the Macromanni, the Visigoths, the northern Pannonian marshals, and the eastern Lomabard army, the stage was set for a grand battle to decide the fate of all the east of the continent; and that stage would be outside the town Szepes, just inside the walls of Pannonia.


The preparations to throw their spear into the gullet of the beast having been made; the armies rallied, drilled, and readied for what would likely be one of the greatest battles in history, and most certainly, the fight of their lives made their way to what was otherwise a rather sleepy town, only important for it being the end point of the official Pannonian road in the region- now the epicenter for nearly 20,000 soldiers of the allied armies- very soon to meet with the over 40,000 men of the horde; in the wake the town was desolate; people had moved on, on to the capital, or even further south, some may have even fled to Macedon in their haste, waiting to see if it would ever be safe to come back. And thus the day was borne, the day when the rivers would flow with the blood of over 30,000 men slain.

The first skirmishing actually began at night, with scouting parties intercepting each other, and fighting each other bloodily, though the lack of mourning attack indicates that it was the allied scouts who had gotten the upper hand in these skirmishes, as if nothing else, it had signaled that we were prepared for whatever the horde might rally to throw against us.

By midday, the first true skirmishes began, indecisive- the horde being to cowardly to actually commit troops to engage the forces the allied armies had station on the perimeter, and allied armies shifting their forces slowly to where cavalry was not able to run down the enemy (should the safe opportunity to do so arise at all) and so tit-for-tat skirmishes with minimal losses so began the days activities, each side doing little more then playing with the other, testing out the reflexes. Though the combat would escalate soon enough; it was the Germans who struck the first blow, as might be expected; having lulled the horde into a false sense of security; letting them think that they had the “advantage” of striking first (if there is any real, enduring advantage from it) it was hearty Germanic cavalry, well accustomed to staging ambushes from the woods, a place where the horde was unable to maneuver their cavalry with any skill totally ambushed a column of mounted archers making ready to ride off, possibly in preparation for a first strike at the allied arms; that the first blow came down upon there unexpecting heads, to those troops whom where generally considered the greatest in the horde was perhaps symbol of how the day would end in blood for the horde.

The details of battle, henceforth, are actually rather unremarkable with a singular exception; in this battle, tactics were not pitted, their was no great flank, but rather this ended in being a battle, and a triumph of the wills- that so far no name has been mentioned is a deliberate detail, because the after effects of the epic battle of Szepes would rest on the shoulders of two men, one a Cimmerian, the other, a man of Ravenna.

The course of the battle was blood, and gore; the armies of alliance were unsurpassed in infantry warfare, for every one who died he was avenged by the death of 4 of the enemy at least, and in that respect the horde had found they had reached an impasse; they would never win the contest of infantry, and while their mounted forces where superb, they would never be able to bring enough to bear to be able to quash all of the allied nations; not being able to effectively garrison conquered lands from peoples who could crush their garrisons would put them in a worrisome enough position- Their high chieftain, their warlord, a man called “Khaga” was not a complete fool; in retrospect from prisoners of some importance that were captured and whisked away as our eventual retreat was underway would tell, he became keenly aware of this fact after the first hour of battle, and how the forces under his banner had begun to waver already, and so sought to both rally his men, and force a victory- to give Cimmeria time to prepare a more inclusive (or rather, just larger) army of infantry to drown out those of the allied armies, or to force a victory, and the nations onto peace talks- his choice to lead a flank assault with the one factor his horde did have in his favor- his cavalry- would be a fateful one.

The attack came as an expected surprise; an odd choice of words, but it is the only way to properly describe it- that a flank attack would occur had been suspected from before the armies had faced each other; the horde was no great tactical beast, and used merely those tactics shown to it from others, with some adaptation as needed for how their own warriors worked- with such a huge force to contend with, it forced the allied armies to hold their cavalry in reserve, and to react, instead of act to how the horde had wished to deploy its own cavalry, and hope to counter it in that fashion- thus, that flank attack would occur was known- when and where it would occur wasn’t.

The attack was a ferocious one as the hand picked warriors of warlord Khaga beared own upon the left flank of the infantry- as, unbeknownst to him a counter flank was now bearing down on him- and the clash was bloody, and chaotic, but the slaughter of the cavalry was equal; most fo the horde inflicted casualties had been taken in the initial charge; but their steppe ponies, little match for the full stamina of horses bred purely for war- that they had little room to maneuver confounded and worsened their situation considerably, being pinned against the very infantry they had hoped to crush, a slaughter commenced amongst the cavalry, while the opportunity for a general withdrawal was thus taken- it had been a bloody day, and the allied forces had one a victory of numbers; the horde would never be able to take shear punishment such as what was present in the battle of Szepes and be considered a threat a by anyone- the true value of this battle would be learned only later.

The clash of warriors present in what had now become a cavalry battle covering a withdrawal of infantry from both forces, while not as sheerly titanic as the infantry clash was of a level of ferocity that totally dwarfed it; the Pannonian and Lombard cavalry present fought ferociously; the Pannonians begin effective; but it was the noble cavalry of the warlords head guard and the Ravennic cavalry- specially created units fo horsemen trained a readied for the moment they would need to fight this menace that bore the brunt of each others fighting- but to little avail; with the withdrawl of the infanty, the horde cavalry was free to retreat and regroup, and similarly the allied forces did as well; many of the commanders from both sides had been killed- but the warlord Khaga still reigned over his men- for the allied soldiers, it had come down to an Optimo (using the same specialty rank designators as the Optimtes. [See http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=2851293&postcount=363 for details] of the cavalry, the last 400 man Ravennic alae of horsemen, and the last thousand of allied horsemen standing against, once again, nearly double their number of enemy- with the odds stacked against them the enemy horse scrambling to see whom had any arrows left, if any where indeed available to pepper the allied horse, it was that last Optimo, rallying the Terceros below him [the lead Tercero was called an Optimo in a cavalry ala of 400 men] Hercirus Milavea lead his alae in a charge; not to be outdone in this last stand, the cavalrymen of the other nations charged, and a thousand horse thunder fo hooves poured like thunder off the plains by the little town of Szepes, the town where the fate of nations had come to be decided.

The clash seemed to go in slow motion, the wings of the charge had slowly advanced to meet the chance of the Ravennic alae, creating what might be considered to be a giant “3" if slight across the battle; the unintended effect was to divide the priorities of the horde cavalry in where to concentrate their little ammunition available, and where to put reinforcements, and when they began to apply it was too late- the silence before the impact enveloping all, the crash of horse and man was like lighting to the thunder of hooves.

And in the first few minutes of battle the clash was decided; the leaders of both these forces, barbarian and civilized sought each other as if directed by the hands of gods to each other, and their resultant combat was a fury; the melee spectacular- but either through skill of arms, strength or the will of the gods- perhaps all three the sword of Milavea pierced the scale jacket of Khaga, skewering him upon his weapon, and going limp, fell from his steed, to be trampled under his own mounts hooves.

Almost immediately the ferocious shouts of their now dead leader having stopped, the horsemen of Khaga began to retreat -began to route, and in their effort to escape were ridden down by the horsemen of the allied nation, several sub-chiefs having been captured in the process- victorious- at least until the horde returned, the men headed back to meet up with their own retreating army in the capital, with many an important prisoner; to be hailed as heros in a day in which for many, it was still doubtful of the future for the lands of the east.

The after effects of battle were fellt far and wide immediatelly; raids slowed and stopped; their was a small scale struggle for power in the horde claimed lands, as their warlord had actually used his wars to stall the process fo whom to name as his successor- as he himself had been an illegitimate child that had claimed the throne, many, many contenders wish to possess it, though no man was worthy of it. This civil war distracted many in the lands, and prevented the horde from consolidating those lands it had conquered, and in so doing, would never be able to protect them from counter attack- though even if the successor issue was decided; spies and informants and refugees fleeing into free Pannonia assured that none of the successors had the merits of command that their former leader had; and that in the greatest battle to have occurred in Europe, it was not the doom fo the east, but the rise of the sun over the steppes for the allied armies.

 

[Kal'thzar]

To: Macadonia
From: Night Warriors

You'd be suprised by what strategy does.

 

[Dachs]

To: Night Warriors
From: Macedonia

What strategy? You charged at us, and then turned back.

 

[das]

That's the beauty of it, I believe.

 

[Xen]

jus wonderin' when shoudl we have our next set o' orders in, hoss?

 

[North King]

Soon as you can.

 

[Dachs]

Tomorrow morning will come orders!

 

[Dachs]

Orders sent! I guess Kal'thzar doesn't want to live.

 

[das]

Can I send them tomorrow? I'll try to send them today, but I can't guarantee anything yet...

 

[North King]

Yes you can.

 

[Kal'thzar]

Really need to send orders :/

 

[Oruc]

ill send my orders tommorow or saturday or somesuch

 

[Princeps]

In the windsteppes....

In the warlord's stables of the Xiong Nu capitol...

Tajeng II: Okay now, how do put on this armour, uhng, ah...

Royal horseman: You put on this scale shirt first, not the plates!

Tajeng: oh,.. Gods dammint, this won't fit!

Royal Horseman: Well, It should, we made it personally for you.

After few hours of struggling with the cataphract armour...

Tajeng: It fits... oh, this is kinda cosy...

Royal horseman: finally... phew!

Tajeng: What?

Royal Horsemen: umm, What?

Tajeng: What did you say?

Royal Horseman: I said: what...

Tajeng: no, before that...

Royal horseman: well, you have grown to little... uhm, roundish, during your reign.

Tajeng: what are you suggesting that I'm fat?!

Royal horseman: no, no!

Tajeng: good, let's go, I've got an army to cheer up. Damn, this armour is heavy, do you think the horse can take this?

Royal horseman: well, your horse is of the royal stock, strongest horses of the steppes. All, the nobles now on are cataphracts on the battlefield, so there's much more demand for pratically strong horses.

Few hours later. Tajeng was keeping rousing speech to his army, at the capitol...

Noble: Dammit, he is going to keep a speech!
Baras: The guy has speaking abilities! My horse makes better speeches!

*people chear as the warlord steps out*

Tanget's speech: Men, we're gathered because other people force us to... I know this isn't fair, but live is not, fair... I mean, I am not here because I wan't to, its because, my mother told me to make a big thing out of this an' all... Anyway, I would like you to sack some cities and villages, maybe fight some battles, too...

*the crowd starts to whisper to each other in confusion*


(another fanastically... bad story, by naziassbandit)

 

[Oruc]

tangets speech is familiar RTW?

 

[Princeps]

tangets speech is familiar RTW?

( i just heard it)

 

[Cuivienen]

I'll send orders tomorrow afternoon. Sorry for the delay.

 

[Oruc]

what do you think of my flag? good? no good? GOD AWFUL HOW DARE YOU OFFEND ME SO?
which one.