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Post by aspenivan on Oct 31, 2014 23:14:12 GMT
Yontai Furtaker nearly jumped for joy when he spotted the pair of Firetooth scouts in the distance. "Acting all sneaky-like, like the last bunch," he whispered wryly to his captain, crouched beside him in the brush. "But this time they won't get away."
The orc was short and far too thin for his mail hauberk and iron helm, with sunken eyes and bony fingers sticking out from beneath his armor. But he made up for his size with ferocity; Furtaker was practically trembling with bloodlust. Just a bit longer...the chieftain was waiting for his army to catch up, and hopefully for more of the Firetooth bastards to arrive on the horizon.
But then, Yontai's nose picked up something funny. "What's that?"
His captain snorted uncomfortably: he seemed to notice it too. "I hear the Firetooth never bathe in blood, and boy do they smell it."
"No, fool!" he gave the captain's helmet a solid punch. "Doesn't smell like orc at all! It's something else..."
Boom. Boom.
"Something kinda human-ey..."
Boom! Boom!
"But maybe also a little like fish..."
BOOM! BOOM!
"Gods save us."
"GIANTS! THOUSANDS OF 'EM!"
But it was too late: The army had arrived, and they couldn't turn back now. Yontai Furtaker would have to hope his quick wits and fighting spirit would be enough to win the day, or at least make it out alive.
________
-- The Battle of the Border Hills begins!
-- For subsequent posting in this thread, the order will be as follows:
Jotun Clans
Orcs of the Wastes
Moderation Mark
Any vassal can join this conflict by sending a force into the Northwest - each will be given a place in the posting order.
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Post by Vaklu on Nov 6, 2014 5:12:11 GMT
The tent was dark and smelled of fire and sweat. The orcish archer that had been captured by the Jotun was tied hand and foot with a gag made of a cloth wrapped stone filled his mouth. The only light came from a brassier in which several metal implements rested. Suddenly rough hands grabbed the orc and the gag was removed a question was asked. The Archer spat into the darkness.
A searing pain lanced across his upper thigh. The question was asked again with curses for a reply. This time the pain came from the fingers of his bow hand and he could smell cooking meat and singed hair. Again the question. "Where can we find your village?" And until the answer was given they would not stop.
-Jotun will attack the nearest village based on intel gain from their prisoners. If no location is given the jotun force leaves the wastes.
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Post by talis on Nov 6, 2014 6:23:14 GMT
As refugees from the battle fled outward news soon spread of the giant's incursion and Yontai's great defeat. It would take time for the other orc lords to respond, but Jodsar the swift lived up to his name. The opportunity was there: he would seize Yontai Furtaker's forces for himself and crush the invader's himself! He split his forces immediately: he and his lancers rode straight for Yontai's manor, where they would rally the clan and take command. The caravans could be sent west to evade the invaders, while the manor would be disassembled and moved. If they moved swiftly enough the giants would find nothing but open wastes before them.
His warg archers prepared to do what they did best: harass the enemy. The wastelands were vast and largely empty. Many an army had gotten lost in them and fallen victim to starvation and need. The horse archers would speed things along by harassing the giants at a distance, cutting off the movement of supplies, killing scouts, and making movement difficult.
-- Jodsar the Swift and his Lancers rides to Yontai's settlement to take control of it. The Manor is to be disassembled and the villages sent west.
-- 1,500 Horse Archers are sent to harass the Giant's forces. They are not to engage in combat, but focus on restricting movement, disrupting rest, and denying supplies.
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Post by aspenivan on Nov 6, 2014 7:22:56 GMT
Moderation Mark
The captured wasteland warriors were tough as nails, but the giants had one-hundred to pick from. It was only a matter of time until a few broke and gave similar information about the location of Yontai Furtaker's hill fort. South and a little West, little more than a day's march with the supplies and prisoners and wounded. There was a village there around the palisades, and possibly two large nomad camps, though news of the defeat would probably reach them before Thane Gudrik's army did. The best he could expect was to loot whatever was static. In the meantime, however, trouble was brewing. The day after the battle, a band of scouts and a supply wagon went missing. In the evening, a shower of arrows seemed to come out of nowhere, accompanied only by the howls and growls of wargs. It was difficult to pinpoint the attackers in the darkness, but the giant longbows and marines did their best to return fire, joined by musket pops from Pjjokhat's marines. They heard a few yelps and cries of pain, but not enough to avenge their losses. There was no doubt about it: This was going to be a hard campaign. But if there was anyone to lead it, Thane Gudrik had proven he was the one. He had earned his title, the Blood Dancer. _ The fact of the matter, of course, was that Jodsar the Swift was working on moving the entire manor and its surrounding settlement. The nomads didn't argue with him, happy to abandon their defeated lord in favor of a stronger one who could give them pride and protection. Their caravans were ready to move before the day was out. The settled folk, in contrast, were a little harder to convince: They had lived in the hovels around the Furtaker Fort for generations, and some were skeptical the giants would even try to assault the walls that had kept them safe all this time. Now some outsider wanted to make them tear down their own homes! The situation was awkward for both sides: The villagers weren't particularly eager to piss off an important Warlord like Jodsar, and for his part Jodsar knew the number of strong peasants ready for war greatly outnumbered his own force on the ground. In the end, during the night after a day of tense negotiations, a band of village militia managed to slip into the fort, arm themselves, and arrange for the rest of their kin to get in with supplies before they would close the gates. Naturally, the scheme didn't go entirely unnoticed, but by the time Jodsar had rounded up his troops there were already three-thousand militiamen garrisoning the fort and thousands more villagers camped inside. In the midst of their clandestine work, peasants had hogtied some of Jodsar's soldiers and taken them captive. On the other hand, Jodsar cornered a good deal of peasants who couldn't make it to the fort in time. " Oy! Rider-types! Give us our kin, we'll give you yours, and then piss off!" " Fuck you, settler scum! We got more of yours than you got of ours, surrender now and we won't start cutting necks!" A lovely exchange of greetings for a lovely morning. __________ -- Thane Gudrik (General) gains new traits: Blood Dancer and Scars of Victory (effects listed in dossier) -- Jotun Clans army is cut off from supplies: Provisions will last for 3 more GC modmarks until army will suffer serious, intensifying maluses. -- Orc Horse Archers skirmish with Jotun Clans army. Casualties: 15 Orc Horse Archers, 20 Giant Shock Infantry, 25 Giant Longbows, 5 Giant Halberdiers, 5 Human Marines
-- Two nomadic villages join the faction of Warlord Jodsar the Swift -- Manor settlement refuses to cooperate with Jodsar the Swift: Villagers have captured 100 Lancers, Jodsar has captured 500 levy and 1,000 peasants. Villagers have offered to exchange all prisoners if Jodsar leaves them alone. -- Human attrition: 2 Marines (93 Marines remain in unit) |
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Post by Vaklu on Nov 6, 2014 11:55:23 GMT
The choice to march on the hill fort was an easy one staying put would only result in the frustration of his men while they were picked off by these raiders. Camp was broken at first light. The Marching column would keep his archer on the flanks so they could return fire if the raiders came once more. The marines were assigned to guard the wagons. They would be ready should the enemy come again on the road. And soon they would be at the hill fort.
_________________________
Summary
-The Jotun take precations against the raider.
-Army marches on the hill fort.
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Post by talis on Nov 8, 2014 16:56:49 GMT
"You want your damnable little fort, keep it." Jodsar spat into the dirt. "See if your puny walls will keep out the giants!"
The prisoners were released, and Jodsar rode away swiftly with his lancers. The fools at the Manor would be his bait so that he could crush the giants. Let them have their siege. The wastes would devour the invaders. He would meet up with his horse archers and make sure the giants were truly isolated.
Summary:
-- Jodsar agrees to the prisoner swap
-- Jodsar and his lancers ride south to join the horse archers
-- Horse archers continue skirmishing, now with lancer support. #1 priority is stopping supply caravans from reaching the giants.
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Post by aspenivan on Nov 10, 2014 21:48:29 GMT
Moderation Mark: The Power of Poison
In the history of war, both North and South, many a glorious army endured battle after battle only to be decimated by disease or starvation. Particularly for humans, these had been more terrifying foes than any enemy force. Poison, however, was more rare a player, sometimes entering the wells of a besieged city or carrying away a grand leader, but seldom known to ravage entire armies. But in the first days of Spring of the year 819 of the Prophet, in the Western Wastes, poison would rear its ugly head on a scale no combatant would have imagined. The first to feel its wrath were perhaps the most unexpected, the hardy Jotun giants. After their victory against Warlord Yontai Furtaker, Thane Gudrik had planned to reward his best unit with every barrel of fine Elonese wine he had received in Dovwynn. But the celebration was delayed by the orcish warg attacks, until one night the column found a defensible, high ground position to rest for the night with less fear of raiding. The army was happy to have a moment of respite, though not feeling as victorious as they had the week before. Of course, as is often the case in drunken celebrations, the drinks did not stay contained in the unit. Many remarked that the wine had a strange aftertaste to it, but none of the giants were familiar enough with Elonese wine to think it anything other than a funny shore human particularity. So it was that when Thane Gudrik's army arrived at the walls of Furtaker Fort, practically his entire unit of Halberds along with hundreds of others were in no state to fight: pale, feverish, weak, and vomiting. It didn't help that Jodsar's reinforced warg army had been taking out more and more of the supply train over the day's march, leaving the giants with limited food, water, and medical herbs. This would have been the perfect opportunity for Jodsar the Swift to deliver a crushing blow to the invaders...if only his army wasn't suffering just as badly. _ They had been Aedakom humans with Aedakom flags, accompanying bountiful-looking supply wagons. There had been no reason to think they weren't just friends of the giants, bringing extra food and drink to replenish their dwindling stores. They had died like pigs, squealing and screaming while they tried to outrun Jodsar's veteran warg riders on their puny little horses. A few of them had stood to fight, shouting something about a "King Azlyn" who would burn the wastelanders when he came. The usual things such people said while having their entrails ripped out of their bodies. The orcs didn't really need the supplies, but they brought them back anyways and made a feast of their exotic loot. Now Jodsar watched in horror as every hour another one of his soldiers came down with the strange illness: Shaking and weakness at first, then fever and difficulty seeing, and finally the throat constricting until the victim died of suffocation. No one had suspected more than a bad cold until the first orc died, but by then it was too late. By the time the giants were most vulnerable, he only had a fraction of his own army to fight with. The villager garrison, seeing Jotun troops ill and dying while hearing reports of the same from the nearby warg-riders, opted to stay inside the walls with their well-stocked supplies until whatever plague was going around finished its work. It wasn't like either army was a serious threat at this point. __________ -- Thane Gudrik's army is POISONED from Elonese wine stores. - Incapacitated/Dying: 250 Halberdiers, 200 Longbowmen, 50 Raider Marines, 50 Marines.
- Dead: 50 Halberdiers, 60 Longbowmen, 10 Raider Marines, 15 Marines
- Army is immobile during Turn 9, but healthy fractions can still travel in the vicinity (for raids, scouting, battle, etc)
-- Jotun army has lost another turn of supplies: Provisions will last for only one more GC modmark
-- Human attrition: 2 Marines (91 remaining in unit)
-- Jodsar the Swift's army is POISONED by looted food and drink and hides from an Elonese supply group heading into the wastes - Incapacitated/Dying: 700 Horse Archers, 800 Lancers
- Dead: 100 Horse Archers, 150 Lancers
- Army is immobile during Turn 9, but healthy fractions can still travel in the vicinity (for raids, scouting, battle, etc)
-- Elonese agents are massacred: Queen Chello Christallo loses Spymaster retinue aspect until the beginning of Turn 11
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Post by Vaklu on Nov 11, 2014 8:17:00 GMT
Gudrik had raged to see honorable warriors brought low in such a manner. He swore often and loudly that someone would answer for this. Outside the Fort the cannons were setting up and all the able bodied troops were set into frormation. The supplies inside the fort were all that stood between the jotun and starvation. The at noon of the first day the cannons began their thunderous work and the troops assigned to the attack began to move forward. The troops guarding the emplaced cannons would be under the command of General Stae Pjjokhat. While the attacking force was lead by Thane Gudrik. They were ready to do honest battle once more.
-The Jotun Attack the fort
-Formations pm'd to mod
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Post by talis on Nov 11, 2014 21:57:21 GMT
Jodsar growled atop his warg as his scouts relayed the news. Despite the sickness the giants were determined to march forward. "Fargoth!" He roared to his second command. "I'm putting you in charge of the lancers. You know what to do."
Fargoth nodded silently.
"Good. I'll take the archers and circle around. We cannot let them take the fort."
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-- Jodsar moves to stop the giants from taking the Manor. The surviving lancers stay behind to menace the giant's approach from the rear while the horse archers ride around to the side of the fort.
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Post by aspenivan on Nov 13, 2014 19:37:51 GMT
Moderation Mark
Both Thane Gudrik and Jodsar the Swift were determined to force their way to victory today, regardless of how many of their troops were languishing in camp. Every able-bodied soldier was called upon for a battle, even as a heavy rain began to pour down on the wastelands. It was now or never, victory or defeat. The great irony was that such a decisive battle would take place with such a substantial portion of each army absent. The only faction that could depend on its full numbers was the peasant army of Furtaker Fort, viewed by both Jodsar and Gudrik as pawns in his respective game. __________ -- The Battle of Furtaker Fort begins. |
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Post by Vaklu on Nov 18, 2014 9:53:00 GMT
While many of the stories about the practices of the Jotun were greatly exaggerated it is important to remember that most such legends had a kernel of truth at its core. One practice that was well known but rarely talked about was the Jotun's lack of compunction about where their food came from when it was scarce. More importantly a lack of revultion at the eating of other bipedal intelligent beings. So with the destruction of the fort's supplies the Jotun set to butchering the more intact and fresher orc bodies along with the corpses of the wargs, their pelts would be kept as trophies.
Once all the useable meat had been gathered and all the loot from the fort gathered up the Jotun lit the wooden fort alight and had the scribe confirm the location. All the army's dead whether from battle or the poison were laid out in the fort hall, turning it into a massive funeral pyre. Afterwards the remains of the expedition began the march towards the Firetooth lands. The prisoners The didn't know if their newly gains supplies would last but their prisoners had been given the nickname 'the larder'.
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Post by talis on Nov 20, 2014 3:01:55 GMT
Jodsar's men retreated to lick their wounds, rest, and prepare afresh. There was only the occasional arrow and the shadow of a dozen scouts hand picked by Jodsar for their sharp eyes and keen memories. They watched the giants gather their supplies, marshal their prisoners and burn the manor, then waited until the invaders made camp then returned to report their findings.
Their warchief formulated his plan in a few hours, arguing with his lieutenants over a rough map sketched in the dirt. Shortly before midnight the orders were given and the orcs began moving. They would strike before morning, when sleep preyed upon the giants and the wastes were shrouded in darkness. The shamen prayed for the rain clouds to remain and shroud any light from the stars and moon so that they could drive out the invaders. This would be an enterprise of stealth and precision.
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- Jodsar scouts out the Jotun's camp and prepares to launch a night raid while they are still exhausted from fighting and destroying the Manor
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Post by Vaklu on Dec 22, 2014 6:07:16 GMT
It would be several months after the Jotun had left the wastes that the orc chose to move. While the great armies of the empire and vaekirate gathered in the south and the central regions of the west Jodsar the swift lead a great army north. All that stood in his way was the imperial fort of Riverrock that had been built near the river's end. His infantry marched for the fort to besiege, while he lead his cavalry moved further east.
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Post by aspenivan on Dec 24, 2014 20:24:51 GMT
Orcs. Thousands of them, and over half of their number riding wargs. General Yaldei Haie surveyed their ranks through his telescope and wondered why there were so few. The Northern Surv-Akur had been expecting the arrival of a horde in the tens of thousands at least. Perhaps this was just the vanguard? In any case, it was better to act cautiously than boldly in this situation.
"Rider-Captain! Choose your best four riders and send them out immediately! Two to the South to warn the Firetooth, two to the East to warn the Ikegami. On the double!" As he spoke, the general did not avert his eyes from the looking-glass.
"Bombardier-Captain!" Haie continued. "Send the field battery to the outer battlements along with both regiments of infantry! The cavalry will hold the walls." It was typical Survaekom siege doctrine: Muskets and light cannon holding the outer ring of earthworks and bastions, while the Yvorom granted a second layer of fire with the heavy fortress guns and their long-range composite bows. "And inform the other captains and lieutenants that they are free to fire once the enemy comes in range. I want those orcs far away and spread thin!"
_____
As the orcish infantry began to make their encirclement, the booms of heavy cannon sounded and echoed off the mountains and through the plains. The defenders lobbed their shots knowing that relatively few would do much damage, but the idea was more to discourage the wastelanders from approaching than to ravage their ranks. In an effort not to waste ammunition, they left many of their guns silent, firing just enough to make an impression. Of course, if the invaders insisted on pushing inward, they would find out just how real the warnings were.
Once the orcish cavalry were out of sight, the Survaekom stepped up the harassment: two-hundred expert jezail sharpshooters left the western battlements to begin skirmishing with the corresponding enemy line. Their heavy, hand-crafted muskets were built for power and precision rather than rate of fire, with twice the range (but also twice the reload time) of regular infantry models.
__________
SUMMARY:
-- Messengers sent to Firetooth Clan and Ikegami Clan to warn of the enemy forces and request a relief force.
-- Fortress cannons fire periodically at the orcish infantry to discourage them from advancing and hamper them from making a proper encirclement.
-- Once the cavalry are out of sight, one Warrior Retinue (Ranged) advances from the western battlements to sharp-shoot.
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Post by ravigen on Dec 25, 2014 2:54:09 GMT
The news reached the Ikegami quickly and their response was swift, levies were called up and armies marshaled, it seemed like the entire Ikegami family had come for the fight, Masateru leading the army, Naozumi's knowledge of the terrain was employed to ensure a swift march in an attempt to get as close as possible to the enemy before they knew they were under attack.
In the end, nearly 18,000 troops were marching in good order to relieve the fort's troops.
--
Ikegami army marches, consisting of
Ikegami Naozumi (Monarch/Mounted)
Ikegami Masateru (General/Mounted
Ikegami Sayoko (Warrior/Melee/Mounted)
Ikegami Yukimura (Warrior/Melee/Mounted)
Captain Trell (Warrior/Ranged/Mounted)
3,000 City Musket levy
3,000 City Pike
2,000 City Roundshier
1,000 City Shock
4,000 peasant archers
2,000 Peasant Roundshier
1,000 Halberdiers
1,000 Longbow |
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