Carlo had been leading his two companies of guards towards the Village of Eechlo, where he planned to set up camp and await the remainder of his force's arrival. The Militia were strung out along the trail a few hour's march behind, and the Blue Banner Mercenaries had formed the rear guard around an hour or so behind them. Eechlo itself was a village of around nine hundred souls that was primarily agricultural, supplementing that agriculture with hunting animals in the Groenhout for pelts to sell either in Ijssel Proper or across the border in Bouellia. It would have enough food and fodder for Carlo's army to camp there.
What he had not expected was to see a hundred-forty mounted knights already camped near the Village, pavillions set up in the fields east of the Village, and pennants streaming in the afternoon breeze. He hadn't thought that Bouellia had crossed the border yet. Fortunately, he did not see the standard of the Duc de Bouellia among the knights. Ferenc was likely still in Quaterain around a day or so's march north. He did see the banner of the Barony of De Estang. The situation provided him a unique opportunity to inflict an early defeat on Bouellia's professional forces, while also getting payback, albeit indirectly, on the snooty Baroness de Estang. Looking between his forces and the Groenhout, Carlo didn't need his Myrmidia-granted insight into warfare to devise a plan, though it did help to look over the plan he came up with for fatal flaws or weaknesses.
Finding none, Carlo turned to Captain Van den Rijkker of the Second Guard Company and gave him the order to "Use the Groenhout as cover to get around the enemy without them knowing. I'll draw them towards first company and offer battle. Once you get between them and their camp, attack them from behind. If we pull this off, we might be able to envelop their best troops and remove them from play indefinitely, si?"
"It'll take some time to move a hundred-and-fifty men through the Groenhout on goat paths and hunters' routes. Can you hold until we can do that?" Questioned Captain van den Rijkker.
"I think we can manage. Now, get going." Smirked Carlo.
The two Guard Companies broke apart then, one entering the Groenhout, the other marching to Eechlo, and offering battle to the knights. As soon as the Bouellians saw his Company, they began to stream from fanciful pavilions, don armor, and mount up. The pavilion flying the pennant of the Baroness de Estang itself had several knights exit, including one wearing the gaudiest suit of full plate that Carlo had ever seen, and he was currently wearing one etched in literal gold! The gaudy, enameled, monstrosity that exited the Baronial Pavilion was enameled in red and blue enamel, the colors of the Baroness de Estang's coat of arms. Atop the frogmouth helmet was a great bronze eagle, also a device from the de Estang coat of arms. Of course, the other knights had much plainer armor, many of them have opted for scale over chain instead of more expensive plate armor, or even more expensive decorated plate armor. Carlo counted around fifty of the knights that had scale over chain, with another ten just having the chain. The remaining knights had plain, though functional, plate armor.
"It seems that the Baron has decided that he must have the shiniest armor around, and it has left his retinue with fewer options, no? I count sixty knights in less protective armor than plate. The eighty in plate must be from the Duc's dominion." Mused Carlo as he watched the knights scurry around like ants who had just had their anthill kicked over.
Eventually, however, the camp was fully armed and armored for battle and began to pour out of the camp and onto the field. They formed a wedge and prepared to charge as Carlo ordered his Guards to "Prepare to receive a charge!"
As one, the pike formation shifted from line to square in a painstakingly and completely synchronized display of drill. As the line became a square, pikes presented themselves from each side of that square, forming an inescapable wall of death by pointed stick to anyone who would try to charge their formation. Carlo steadied his men, channeling the mystic power given to him by Myrmidia and forming a beacon to steady his men's nerves.
"They want you to break so they can get at you, to run like cowards so they can cut you down in a rout! You will not do so! As far as these would-be conquerers are concerned, you are the very spears of Myrmidia herself! The Goddess of War's instrument on this plane! Do not give them what they want and we shall make them the ones who should have run!" Called out Carlo, power lacing his words and stiffening the spines of his men. They now seemed almost eager to take the charge.
Speaking of which, it seems that he of the gaudy armor had convinced his Knights to just charge the pike square. Carlo had caught the phrase, 'One quick charge and they'll shatter like Miragliano Glass!' Come out of his mouth from across the field. He couldn't wait to disabuse him of that notion. . .vigorously. The Bouellian Knights were badgered into a wedge formation and began moving forward in a trot, before breaking into a canter, that became a full-on gallop. The knights had begun their charge, couching lances as their wedge of armored man and horse made it within sixty feet of own of the sides of the pike square.
"Hold! Don't let them break you, Amici! Hold the square and they will break instead!" Called out Carlo. Then the charge met the wall of pikes with the crunching of broken pikes and the screaming of dead horses and riders. Carlo's guards began their gruesome work of killing bogged-down knights. Carlo himself channeled essence into his armor and sword before going to work. As he cleaved through an armored knight and rider with one swing of his suddenly flaming blade, he reflected that he felt stronger, tougher, and faster than usual, thanks to his mystical power fuelling the runes. He cleaved into a second rider, his fiery sword slashing through steel gorget, chain coif, gambeson, and neck to take the man's head off. Alongside him, horses and riders impaled themselves on pikes, even as pikes snapped off and guardsmen drew their longswords to hack into horses or finish off bogged-down knights.
Fifteen minutes passed of stuck-in fighting, Carlo claimed his third kill, catching a knight in the armpit between the scale chestpiece and chain hauberk, plunging his longsword deep into the hapless knight's torso, flames cauterizing the wound even as blood gushed out of the fatal blow. He was caught in the pauldron by a blow from a mace wielded by a Brettonian in just a pothelm and chain hauberk, but felt no pain, as the armor deflected the blow quite handily. Carlo pulled the man off his horse just as a horn blast sounded and the knights began to withdraw. Carlo moved to strike down his opponent, who had been left behind, but the downed knight had offered to surrender. Instead, he was taken to the interior of the pike square, even as fresh pikes were brought up to replace any that had snapped. Surprisingly, very few of the pikes had done so, the perks of Dwarf craftsmanship.
"Reform!" Ordered Carlo, as his square redressed their formation. Looking out between the regrouping wedge of knights and his formation, Carlo saw that the Knights had left a veritable carpet of dead bodies behind them, both of knights and horses. They fell two or three atop one another in some paces. Carlo figured the knights had to have lost over a quarter of their strength in the first charge alone. In contrast to maybe a dozen killed or wounded on his side. They looked close to just fleeing and it took a while for the Gaudily-Armored knight to get them back into formation to charge again. Of course, it was just as he'd managed to do so that the Second Company came streaming out of the Groenhout and forming into columns to attack the Knights from behind.
"Form Column! It is our turn now, Amici! Let us show these puffed-up Brettonian Cast-offs how real wars are fought!" Called out Carlo. The Pike square began to shift seamlessly into a column formation and charged the Knights as soon as it had finished. At the same time, Second Company had finished forming up and charged from behind. The result was a slaughter. The double impact whittled the enemy down to around half the numbers of what they had possessed prior to the battle before the Bouellians raised the white flag of surrender. The Knight in Gaudy Armor stepped forth from the, by that point totally enveloped ranks of the Bouellians and raised his visor, revealing a mustached, classically handsome face, with a chiseled jawline. No wonder the Baroness married this guy.
"I am Baron Gerard de Estang, commander of this force. To whom am I surrendering?" Asked the Man.
Carlo stepped forth from his own ranks and replied, "I am Count Carlo Zeno, ruling Prince of Ijssel. I accept your surrender."
And with that, the battle was over. The entirety of the mounted strength of Bouellia had been killed or captured in just over an hour of battle. Carlo's men moved into the Bouellian Camp and began to loot it, taking the campaign warchest, several vintages of quality Bouellian Wine, and enough good food to truly celebrate the victory. At Carlo's insistence, they left the personal effects of any of the surviving knights alone, as the seventy or so who had been taken prisoner would eventually be released at war's end to go back to their lands, even though the Grande Duchy would be under new management. The new province would need administrators, after all.
By the time the sun set and the rest of Carlo's forces had made it to Eechlo to set up camp, a small feast would be going on. Morale was high with their first victory, and the warchest that the Duc had given his vanguard of knights for the campaign had contained enough Ecu to give every man in the army a small pay bonus of five Golden Ecu for soldiers, ten for sergeants, and fifteen for officers. As he dined on roasted pork and sipped from a goblet of an exquisite vintage of Bouellian red wine, Carlo knew that he could call the first day of the war a success. Tomorrow he would need to be just as on point, though.
For tomorrow would see their first encounter with the full strength of Bouellia's Army. . .
XXXX
AN: So yeah, the first battle went about how you'd expect a mismatch like this to go. Solar bullshit aside, mounted knights charging dick first into a heavily armored, well-drilled pike square was never going to wind up with anything other than a lot of dead knights.
Duke Ferenc would be shitting his pants right now if he wasn't too busy eating whatever good food Quaterain had stored away. The man is what you get when you take the typical entitlement, arrogance, and stubbornness of a scion of a Brettonian Noble Family, stuff it into a bastard son, legitimize said bastard son, and then give said bastard son a territory of his own to rule over as a way to avoid angering your wife by having your bastard at court in Carcassone. That results in a lot of adjectives to describe said person, none of them good.
At any rate, this is most of the other Princes' introduction to the kind of Bullshit that is about to explode across Mundus. Myrmidens has an inkling thanks to having a pretty big temple of Myrmidia there. The priests of the temple were told by Godly visitation about the Exaltation Myrmidia stuffed into Carlo's Soul.
Khypris on the other hand is just going to start hiring wizards and ogres to try and balance the scales for fear they're next on the chopping block after Bouellia.
They're right about that, of course. Still, it will make Carlo's life a bit harder.
Anyway, next up will be the first battle with the Duc de Bouellia. Stay tuned