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Post by aspenivan on Mar 25, 2015 16:22:40 GMT
At the crack of dawn, a dozen Jotun warships pulled into the harbor of Léoten, capital of the Kingdom of Navaren. The sails and flags on the horizon were spotted, but the town watch raised no alarm. As returning victors from the Great War of the Wastes, the giants were assumed to be stopping for provisions or celebration. But alas, their purposes were far more sinister...
ORDER OF BATTLE
Jotun Clans (vaklu)
Fleet
4 Dragonship Squadrons (12 ships, 840 Jotun Vikings)
1 Hulk (1 ship, 50 Raider Marines)
Army
Mors Raveneye (General) - 50 Bodyguards
Wulfric Thunderfist (Warrior/Melee) - 200 warriors
2 Musketeer Regiments (1,000 soldiers)
1 Swivel Gunner Regiment (200 soldiers, 100 swivel guns)
1 Shieldwall Infantry Regiment (500 soldiers)
2 City Rounsdhier Regiments (630 men)
Kingdom of Navaren (Fel)
Army
3 City Archer Regiments (3,000 soldiers)
NOTES:
-- The city is surprised for the first modmark. Thereafter, any districts that have not been invaded will automatically raise their levies.
-- Jotun forces start in the Port District ("District 2" in the ledger)
-- Navaren forces start in the Coin District ("District 1")
-- This battle will consist of 2 Moderation Marks
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Post by Vaklu on Mar 25, 2015 17:08:20 GMT
Mors took a deep breath as he jumped from his Dragonship onto the docks. It had been a long time since the Jotun had the strength at sea to contemplate the raiding of a city. Now with the punishment of the cowards of Navaren the world would remember why the Jotun ruled the eastern seas. His Vikings swarmed off their Dragonships and spread into the city half his total numbers into each district. Thunderfist and his Shieldwall infantry would take the square along with one of the Musketeer companies. If the vikings found the defenders they were to send runners to the square and the heavier troops would deal with them.
On the docks the last unit of musketeers stood watch, they would loot the district and pgather the spoils on the piers while the remaining 50 Raider marines kept sentry to make sure no enemy units came upon them and took them unawares. The swivelguns were deployed on the decks of the ships. Two thirds of them would put out into the harbor firing into the city ahead of their advance and the other would begin loading spoils if their holds filled they would put out and signal another ship to take their place.
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Fel
Yeoman
Posts: 39 
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Post by Fel on Mar 26, 2015 23:48:47 GMT
How quickly those who you would call allies turn on you. The ad hoc commander of the Town Watch, Colonel Francisco Castillo, was thankfully within the Town Watch barracks overseeing a small Officer's ceremony, when the bell began tolling, in warning of the invasion. Surprise and disorder ruled for several minutes, but men began streaming in from all corners of the surrounding parts of the district, beginning to arm themselves and fill their quivers. He quickly began going over tactics to slow the Jotun advance into the city, the port district already overrun. With three thousand men, they were thankfully not as outnumbered as it might originally seem, as they only truly had to deal with the Giant Musketeers.
The first portion of the plan detailed having the first and third regiment of Town Watch (2,000 total) begin moving into the port district, relying on the rooftops for both cover, and height advantage. Flying from rooftop to rooftop, and spreading out across the district in small platoons, would allow these men to begin slaughtering the Jotun forces in the small, cobbled streets, giving their foe little room to advance through the dense packing of storage houses and slums. As melee Jotun infantry would be unable to reach the men on roof, excluding some situations where the Navaren troops would merely fly to another, extreme emphasis was to be placed on killing and focusing fire on the Giants musketeers and their officers. Without the musketeers and their range, the invading forces were near helpless to the agile and mobile Sylphan archers. If they feel as if their position is in range of the swivel guns, or is pinned down, they are free to retreat a short distance to set up another trap or recieve reinforcements. The idea is that a constant eroding of Jotun forces will leave them weary when they enter combat with soon to mobilize city levy.
The swivel guns, while problematic, had a short enough range that as long as troops remained out of effective range, not very far inside the port district, the guns would be just as likely to hit Jotun troops as Sylphan ones.
The second regiment (1,000 total) will act as a reserve, lying in wait all across rooftops in the outer port district, setting traps and killzones in front of Jotun advance, while setting up physical barricades in the streets; which, while impeding Jotun forces attempting to get through, would allow Sylphs to fly over with relative ease. They will additionally have a role of filtering forces up to the port district to replace losses, as low as they might be.
Messengers will be sent to the barracks outside the city, requesting an urgent need for the nations standing army in the capital.
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Post by talis on Mar 30, 2015 19:28:44 GMT
The Jotun were almost leisurely as they followed Mors' orders with little haste or sense of urgency. They saw no enemies, and could hardly imagine that the fleeing, screaming bug-people in front of them could mount an organized resistance. This could have been to the great benefit of the defending forces, had they not been completely caught by surprise. The watch was sorely dispersed. Panic, disorganization and confusion made it impossible to gather an effective fighting force before the Jotun had taken to central square of the docks district.
Mors and his musketeers began ripping into the docks district, looting warehouses, trading houses and wealthy homes as the swivel gunners, carrying weapons the size of field guns, began firing into the city ahead of them. The guns did little serious damage, but increased the panic and confusion within the city. Mors and his men gathered what he estimated to be several thousand jien worth of goods. Marines in the trading district found very little opposition and began looting, but with their small numbers and the distance to the docks it was slow going.
In the Coin District the Jotun marines ran into the Sylph watch and beat a hasty retreat back to the docks district after receiving an uncomfortable volley of arrows. The Sylph militia pursued them back to the square, finally bringing the fight back to the Jotun. Unfortunately for the Sylphs they had gotten carried away in the pursuit and followed the retreating vikings right into the square and received a devastating volley of shot. Dozens of archers fell in a burst of smoke and lead, and the formation quickly broke up. They did their best to follow their captain's original orders of retreating and skirmishing from the rooftops. This tactic had some success, but it was apparent that the Jotun musketeers could easily defend themselves as long as they held a tight formation in the square where they could fire in large volleys. The battle was at a stalemate, with the main Jotun force defending itself against the Sylph, but neither side landing more than an occasional arrow-shot or musket-volley.
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ORDER OF BATTLE
Jotun Clans (vaklu)
Fleet
4 Dragonship Squadrons (12 ships, 840 632 Jotun Vikings)
1 Hulk (1 ship, 50 Raider Marines)
Army
Mors Raveneye (General) - 50 Bodyguards
Wulfric Thunderfist (Warrior/Melee) - 200 warriors
2 Musketeer Regiments (1,000 982 soldiers)
1 Swivel Gunner Regiment (200 soldiers, 100 swivel guns)
1 Shieldwall Infantry Regiment (500 498 soldiers)
2 City Rounsdhier Regiments (630 men)
Kingdom of Navaren (Fel)
Army
3 City Archer Regiments (3,000 2,527 soldiers)
NOTES:
-- Coin District Levies are Raised. Port District does not raise levies. Final district's levies are raised, but are demoralized due to panic and the presence of Jotun raiders.
-- This battle will consist of 1 more Moderation Mark
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Post by Vaklu on Mar 31, 2015 18:24:57 GMT
The reports Mor's receied hadn't pleased him in the slightest. The muster of fighter in the other districts least of all. the main trouble was the coin district. Looting could wait first they'd need to put down the defenders, hard. he gave orders to his musketeers to form up and prepare to prepare to repell whatever counter push would be heading towards the docks. he also gave orders to the swivel gun company to begin shelling the coin district exclusively. He sent runners to tell Thunderfist not to enter the coin district until after the shelling was finished. Then he could go in and mop up the survivors.
"All right you whoresons form up, we're heading into the trading district to help pluck some fairy wings!" The clansmen who had been held in reserve at the docks roared at their captain's order. They were eager to claim plunder and eat down the fools that thought they could stand before the might of the Jotun.
- Jotun troops form up to repel any attack by the Sylph troops while the swivel guns shell the the coin district.
- After the shelling is finished Wulfric, the Shieldwall infantry, Vikings and Musketeers will attack the survivors and loot the district after they are defeated.
- The roundshiers join the vikings in the trade district to destroy the troops mustering there and loot the district.
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Fel
Yeoman
Posts: 39
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Post by Fel on Apr 2, 2015 3:52:14 GMT
The cannons hadn't seemed to let up for quite a while, their sporadic, inaccurate fire occasionally striking a Sylph in transit through the air or blasting them with shrapnel, but altogether doing rather little damage, at least in terms of lives. It was still worrying to witness the slow, gradual destruction of the city, and many of the officers, not accustomed to the loud blasts and screams would wince at nearly every sound. At least they would leave the battle with a little more experience than they had before.
The 1500 remaining Town Watch in the Port district, after taking incredibly heavy losses while killing almost none of the musketeers they had set out to kill, clearly had to change their strategy. Orders were sent out to dissuade low-level officers from attacking concentration of Giant musketeers. It was obvious that the large guns they held, in addition to the professional attitude in which they held them and fired with, were devastating in groups larger than a company. A few of the guns were inaccurate enough that it didn't especially matter, but en masse they were enough to cut down archers by the score.
A general withdrawal from active engagement was ordered, the stalemate around the massive market square being a colossal failure didn't warrant a continuation of the previous strategy. Units would move back, attempting to slow the advance of looters going into the coin district or outer port district, cutting them off and peppering them with arrows in the narrow streets, while staying away from open spaces. As the musketeers were the only units that could truly kill the flyers on a large scale, extra emphasis was once again placed on killing them. Giants with swords meant very little if you could fly to the next building, but musketeers could pick you out of the sky. They would attempt to eventually retreat to the 3rd regiment of Town Watch, trying to draw the Giants into pre-planned traps at intersections or alleys.
The city levy, while possibly under fire, would be composed of entirely bowmen, the range and accuracy advantage not granting the Sylphs anything in the early stages of the battle, but with larger forces they would possibly be able to kill more than a paltry few Jotun troops. They would join the Town Watch in their eventual rendezvous with the 3rd regiment in the outer port district, and attempt to create a cordon around the district, holding small intersections, alleyways, and paved city streets. The city levy will additionally be used for occasional forays from this previously set up cordon, to kill looting Jotun or Jotun in small enough groups that they could be efficiently killed, and moved on from.
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Post by talis on Apr 5, 2015 5:26:19 GMT
By dumb luck, the Jotun's swivel guns were astonishing accurate. Though the Sylph militia were too spread out for a concentrated barrage to destroy, the fire fell far too close for comfort and certainly rattled the militia. The concentrated barrage left the mustering ground outside the town watch pocked with craters, and one shot leveled the building itself.
The Jotun musketeers, meanwhile, "broke out" of the Sylph line more thanks to the Sylph militia's disorganization and bad training than any virtue of their own. Their charge managed to scatter the Sylph in front of them and leave many of the archers struggling to keep track of their location among the buildings and streets. They made their way into the Coin district relatively clear of harassment.
The defenders of the Coin district wavered at first, unsettled by the vicious barrage and the weight of the Jotun attackers. But as more Sylph from the Port District began pressuring the musketeers from behind they rallied. The musketeers could not inflict a critical blow against the scattered Sylph archers who skirmished from the cover of rooftops and chimneys. It soon became clear to the commander that if he continued his forces would slowly be whittled down one-by-one, and a retreat to the ships was ordered.
The shieldwall infantry Mors ordered towards the Trade district did not manage so well and suffered a constant rain of arrows. This was however mitigated by their large shields, which they effectively used to block most of the casualties. Once in the Trade District the fighting was vicious on both sides. The Sylph arrows were well fired from any direction, even making use of alleyways and buildings to get below the Jotun's shields. The Jotun, for their part, were quite willing to destroy entire houses to get at a Sylph on the roof.
Again the Sylph narrowly avoided routing, and as the swarm of archers beleaguering his troops became ever-larger Mors was forced to call a general retreat. The Jotun made a steady fall-back to the ships and departed under a hail of arrows.
In the end the Jotun retreated after looting only a third of the city. Their gains were not insubstantial, but paled when they realized how very close they had come to taking the entire city. A regiment more of troops or a slightly different strategy could have broken the defenders and taken the entire city. Instead they had been defeated largely because of their inability to force the defenders into a decisive engagement.
Navarran Pyrrhic Victory
REMAINING FORCES
Jotun Clans (vaklu)
Fleet
4 Dragonship Squadrons (12 ships, 840 632 Jotun Vikings)
1 Hulk (1 ship, 50 Raider Marines)
Army
Mors Raveneye (General) - 50 Bodyguards
Wulfric Thunderfist (Warrior/Melee) - 200 warriors
2 Musketeer Regiments (1,000 982 soldiers)
1 Swivel Gunner Regiment (200 soldiers, 100 swivel guns)
1 Shieldwall Infantry Regiment (500 498 soldiers)
2 City Rounsdhier Regiments (630 men)
Kingdom of Navaren (Fel)
Army
3 City Archer Regiments (3,000 2,462 soldiers)
(Town Watch)
6 City Archer Regiments (6,000 5,311 soldiers)(Levies)
Notes
- Town Watch in the Coin District destroyed
- Jotun loot 11 Gold from the Port District
- General destruction to the city results in reduced tax income. The Port District and Coin district will not generate any tax income for 2 Turns while reconstruction is in progress.
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