After briefly surveying the site where the Duke will be fortifying in a few days, you decide to ride west, to draw attention away from this location. Two hours of riding brings you to a perfectly positioned site, a narrow gulch in a hilly area, wide enough for around ten men shoulder to shoulder, that has ample cover above to hide well positioned archers. The terrain around is such that most travelers will funnel through, led by a game path heading in either direction.
You immediately order your men into position, with the Halberdiers arrayed out of sight on the south end of the gulch, and your Archers up top. You order the men to rest for a moment, and are just about to confer with your Captains, when a Ranger whips back into camp, bringing news of a small foraging party heading this way.
Quietly sending out an order to stand alert, you take your Rangers on a loop around to fall in behind where the enemy are located, while telling the Halberdiers to block any attempts to pass through the gulch. Your timing is perfect, and your Rangers swoop in on the rear of a group of twelve Sea Raiders, lightly armed and heavily laden with carts of supplies, just as your Halberdiers form up at the bottom of the gulch and your Archers step out of cover, arrows nocked.
The Sea Raiders let out startled yells, drop their goods, and start a headlong charge at your Halberdiers; at this range, however, they are dropped by your Archers well before they can reach your men. You search the dead for goods, but find nothing particularly illuminating besides some copper coins bearing a crude facsimile of a longboat.
You order your men to rest, and then send Ranger scouts out towards the main enemy host. When they return late that night, they bring good news: the enemy seems to lack any real light cavalry forces, and, from what they could tell at a distance, the siege camp seems to be rather less impressive than you had been led to believe. If there are ten thousand men there, they would be surprised, although the scouts do indicate that it seems the horde was once much larger based on the surrounding area.
The Capital seems to be holding, although there are signs of fire and battle all about. The main gates are intact, though, and the Sea Raiders appear to lack sophisticated siege equipment. Your men reported seeing a host on the other side of the river, which they can only assume belongs to the other Dukes. A sense of stalemate permeated the scene.
You thank them for the intelligence, and then spend the next few days preying on unsuspecting supply parties. You move about, not striking at the same location more than twice, and taking no more than a few casualties among your men. You gain no great pleasure in the slaughter, for these men have the look of desperation that accompanies hunger and a long campaign about them, and put up very little in the way of true resistance. A few of the gravely wounded but still living men are questioned, but none speak your language.
While you cannot be sure of the impact of your actions, you can imagine that losing several foraging parties cannot be comfortable for this massive horde. When the Duke arrives, you report in to him on your conduct, and he congratulates you on a well executed plan. All around the camp, hidden trenches are being dug in round-the-clock shifts.
You have a few days before the Duke is to bait the enemy into action. You reunite with Luther, who bears several bruises from his sparring time with Count Gorgan. How would you like to involve your men in this upcoming battle? Will you ask to man the camp, or would you like to volunteer to help bait the enemy into marching south?
Author
Topic: Lordship: A Suggestion Game (Read 327703 times)