Battle #2: Valmy

[bookity101]

General Kellerman stood his ground as the first rounds sailed over head, He waited, his head cool after years of service to the army, but he knew he had some very raw recruits with he called over his shoulder “Looks like that little rain cloud is giving off some thunder today lads!” He drew his sword, slowly, raising it over his head as he Lets give’em back some Rosferian lightning!!”

He smiled to himself, as their return volley hit the enemy. He didn’t worry much, he had many beasts he knew he could count on in the front few ranks. He saw Ferdinands’s troops form up into their fighting ranks. “Lieutenant, Front and center lad!” the young rat lieutenant ran up to him, saluting as he did “Yes Sir!” He smiled slightly, this one was always ready to please. “Send a message to General Duross, tell him that I am changing the range of half of my cannons and readying my troops for the first wave.” He started to turn, but changed his mind, “And tell him that a heavy cover fire would be greatly appreciated, I have a surprised planned for those blasted invaders…”

Kellerman turned back so he could address the beasts who weren’t working the cannons, first giving orders to be carried to the proper cannoneers, then he approached the ledge were the foot soldiers were readying for combat.

“Rosferians! Listen up!” He waited so he could have as many sets of ears as possible. “Today is possibly one of the most important battles in this fight!” He motioned around them “We hold the most talented general in the Gradvarian Army imprisoned in his own tents!” He allowed his paw to rest on the saber he carried, “In the past few months, great changes have come to Rosferia!” Kellerman could see nods from the crowd as they agreed, “We are no longer just fighting for the King of Rosferia, We are fighting so that our little ones grandkits will not have to oppressed by the same things we lived under, We no longer fight for the Nobles, though I daresay not all of them were bad, We fight for our loved ones back home!”

Kellerman looked around him, seeing the great difference in the faces around him. “I know that many of you are raw recruits, Don’t let that stop you! You’ve had the training, you are very capable with every weapon given you, More so than I was I used to trip over my own foot paws when I first started out,” He paused, hearing the answering chuckles rising from the ranks. He smiled, glad his stab of humor had helped them.

“Veterans, I expect you to help out the inexperienced ones out today!” He looked again at them. “Be careful and when you return home, feel proud in being able to say, ‘I was able to help keep Rosferia FREE!”

“Rosferians” He raised his sword to rest on his shoulder. “FORM UP!”

****
(Man, I love this ferret, he is so much fun to write!!)

“FERDINAND!!” King Fredrick II wandered the command post, yelling in a quiet undignified manner for his cousin, it seems the Duke had ignored one to many summons for Fredrick hated being ignored. Fredrick was less than 5 meters behind Ferdinand well he yelled at him. “I summoned you ages ago Cousin!” In reality it had only been about 20 minutes, but Fredrick is an impatient beast at best. “I DEMAND to know what in the world you are planning!” He approached the Duke, “Shouldn’t we be heading to the capitol?” He waved a paw at the battle unfolding before him, “Forget about the supply line,” He sniffed “We can just raid as we go.”

(( Cal, I’ve thought of a nickname for Fredrick, King MonkeyWrench. ))

[Ladorak]

What Kellerman was doing for his troops was an often unsung but extremely vital aspect of combat. Morale boosting. It was an art that sometimes made the difference between victory and defeat for an army. For the Rosferians', who had a less than solid foundation for morale right now, seeing their commanding officer making such a speech as he did, one that was not contrived or forced, but one that was natural and heartfelt, stirred their spirits and helped raise their resolve.

Having an inspirational commander, one who genuinely cared about the nation struck a chord with them. They WERE fighting for their homeland, just as the Assembly had decreed several months ago. That test was now, and thanks to the firm elan of their commanders, the Rosferian Army was being roused out of their nervous sense of hopelessness and gaining a new sense of purpose and devotion.

The effects were visible, even to Ferdinand, who was on the other side of the battlefield. He bit his bottom lip in concern over this. Why weren't they flinching? He expected to see some units breaking for the rear. It was clear he was forming up for an attack but....it almost seemed as if there was no visible change over in the Rosferian lines. As he was preparing to order the advance, the ferret was forced to cringe thanks to an obnoxious and booming voice only a few feet behind him.

Perfect....it seemed his delightful Majesty the King his cousin had come up behind him. Wonderful. "You summoned, yes your Liege." He muttered through clenched teeth. "I was a bit occupied with oh I don't know, the entire Rosferian Army coming up behind us!" he said in exasperation. "PREPARE TO ADVANCE" he shouted out, and his troops came to attention, their muskets creating a small forest around him. He was throwing 25,000 troops forward for this attack, leaving 10,000 in reserve.

Ferdinand visibly blinked in surprise at his cousin's words. Snorting, he looked down from his horse with a skeptical eye. "Wait a minute....raid? Your Highness.....civilized armies don't just feed off the land....well not in OUR case. We're here to rescue Augustine at YOUR behest, remember? We aren't actually invading invading.....we're just....hoping to gain some concessions from Augustine once we DO pull his tail out of prison." he spoke lower now, not wanting his troops to overhear. "I don't want to antagonize these people Your Highness. We're supposed to be on a goodwill mission, rescuing their monarch and all that. And thanks to YOU pushing me into leaving Dumont before next year, I'm forced to move WITHOUT a supply base on paw in Rosferia. I have to get our supplies from Gradvar...which is some ways off. This was YOUR idea to come here against my advice and before I was ready to advance. I have to salvage this situation as best I can, so I would appreciate it if you would just let me do the job YOU gave me."

Snapping his head out to look at his troops again, the ferret decided to directly defy his monarch. "ADVANCE!" he yelled, and his blue clad warriors stepped forward at a steady march, heading out into the open and towards the Rosferian lines. The Duke now glared down from his horse at his cousin again. "Your Highness, I'm convinced that if they see us advancing they will break and run for the rear. They're just rebel rabble after all! They have no real training or experience! Just give me this chance....you put me in charge of this army after all.....so why must you INSIST on always trying to interfere with my job? I'm just trying to carry out YOUR orders. You told me to advance before I was ready, so I did. You told me to head to Dumont even though I wished to stay at Longwy, so I did. You told me to advance on Cosnair, before I was ready, and I did. What MORE do you want here Your Majesty?" he asked, growing frustrated with this whole situation.

The Gradvar Army was off, moving across the open space.....and they had quite some ways to go as this space was rather vast. 2,500 yards, or close to a mile and a half of open ground before they reached the Rosferian lines. Once again, Kellerman's foresight to swap out the ranged barrels on his cannons for a different set would prove wise, as now half of Kellerman's batteries could accurately fire on the advancing troops, which it started to do as they began their rather long march forwards....

((I can see that, heheh, you really like playing him. Sure frustrates poor Ferdinand Good nickname for him too Oh yes, and for our European friend Skipper, a mile in a half is about 3 kilometers, just in case you needed the conversion, not sure if you did or not )

[Carrow]

((It's really not all that long ago that we used miles. Four years, in fact.))

The artillerybeasts continued to fire off shots. Duross knew the time had come to begin advancing on Frederick's contingent, so he decided that the Rosferian army would run as follows: The otter would leave 7,000 in reserve, throwing himself in amongst the other 40,000 creatures who would then move forward, making a beeline for Frederick's troops to attack in waves. The otter smiled as General Kellerman addressed his creatures. A rat lieutenant ran up to the mustelid at full pelt, breathlessly panting out the orders the Kellerman had given him once he reached Duross.

"General, sir! General Kellerman says that he is changing the range of half of his cannons and readying his troops for the first wave, sir! Also wants to let you know that he would like a heavy cover fire to be set up, as he has a surprise in store for the Gradvar forces, sir!"

"Duly noted. I'll pass the word along to the artillery. How strong a wave did he say he was planning to send ahead?"

"Wasn't all that specific, sir, if I'm honest," was the rat lieutenant's reply.

"Right, well, you report back to him and tell him that I'll go along with whatever he has planned, and see what I can do as regards the artillery. Go on, quick as you like now, not much time to lose!"

Duross soon informed the artillerybeasts to increase their rate of fire as much as they could, and that the plan was that it was to be used as a cover for a surprise that Kellerman had devised. His fellow General was doing quite the job as regarded the troops. The otter could see that they had perked up since his speech.

[bookity101]

Kellerman had set 4 companies of calvary to the sides and back of the fomation, with only his best beasts in them. He was waiting for the right moment to call them forward. He watched as the Gradvarians began their march. Hearing the panting of the tired lieutenant making his way back. The lad snapped to attention when he reached Kellermans position .

“General Kellerman Sir, General Duross says that he will back you up with whatever you do.” He paused, catching his breath. “Though sir, I think he wants some more details about what your planning.:” Kellerman nodded. “Catch your breath lad, then I’ll give you a message to take back.”

Kellerman walked off, towards the embarkment they had been able to shore up during their time there. So far there had not been a shell hit on them, which he was glad about, he had to many good beast that would get hurt if one did. Suddenly he wished he had kept the thought to himself. A shell dropped not more than 10 feet from him.

Part of the wooden palisades was blown apart, large spilnters of the rough hewn wood flew, grazing his shoulder, but he barely noticed, by the time he felt the wound he was already finding beasts who needed medical help and shouting orders for the beasts to follow. Soon enough, a Colonel approached him, laying a paw on his uninjured shoulder. “Sir, we need you up on the lookout,” the Colonel shook him a bit, “Sir, the Gradvaians are approaching fast!.”

That last bit woke him up. “Right let’s go.” General Kellerman stood on the vantage point the had chosen for his base of operations. Lieutenant, you have your breath back right lad?” he didn’t look at the lad as he nodded and said “Yes sir, I’m all ready to go.” Kellerman still didn’t turn around, focused in on the advancing troops. “Tell General Duross I need his most experienced horse beasts to join mine, half on the left, half on the right, they will report to either Maj. Graw, or Maj Gable.” The lieutenant started to move off, when Kellerman turned to him. “And do tell him to hurry, they are almost at the ambush point.”

*****

Fredrick crossed his paws across his chest. “Some respect would be appreciated cousin, I am your KING, remember.”
Fredrick stepped up in front of his cousin. “As to what more do I want?” He held his paws behind his back. “I want you to get this job done just as fast as you can,” He turned to face Ferdinand. “I don’t care how you do it, or how much we antagonize them, I want this campaign over as soon as you can possibly contrive in that smart little brain of yours.” Fredrick rapped a claw on Ferdinand’s brow as he said that. “Are we clear, Cousin whom I see fit to act as general?” An unspoken threat lacing his voice as he spoke. Pausing for only a few moments, Fredrick swept passed Ferdinand. "I'll be watching from my tent of you have need of me Ferdinand."

[Ladorak]

Something was off about this. Well several things really. One was that the enemy wasn't panicking as Ferdinand had hoped, and the second was that it actually seemed that Duross was massing for an attack. An attack! In his position! Well the otter certainly had guts, he'd give him that. It also seemed Kellerman was doing something with his cavalry. Ferdinand's own cavalry was made up mostly of emigrants who had deserted Rosferia. They were good but unreliable.

Taking a quick look at the situation through his telescope, the cautious Ferdinand decided he didn't like this at all. It seemed Duross would use most of his army for this attack, outnumbering his own advance. And that accuracy on those cannons! It was pounding the Gradvar soldiers with unerring skill. Who had artillery that good on this continent?

Shooting a dark look down at his cousin, the Duke scoffed as the portly King walked away. "Oh rest assured I won't need you at all." He muttered under his breath. Deciding to take stock of the situation however, Ferdinand noted happily that his troops weren't even halfway over to the Rosferian lines. "HALT! Stop the attack and head back to our lines!" he called out, and his division commanders passed it along to their brigade commanders, halting the advance in it's tracks.

His attacking line began to backpedal, loading their muskets as they did so and arriving safely where Ferdinand's horse stood, as well as the reserves. "Didn't like that.....not one bit. Duross's bravado might get him killed one day...but I can't take that risk right now. Continue to lay down a curtain of artillery fire! If they advance, pound them into dust! Stand ready to receive a possible attack troops!" Ferdinand called, and the front line crouched down, bringing their muskets out with the bayonets pointed straight forward. The rank behind them stood with their muskets at the ready but without bayonets fixed, and the rank behind that stood aiming their rifles over the shoulders of the second rank.

It was a good thing they hadn't advanced very far and he was able to recall them in time. He had not been expecting Duross to get aggressive this early, and thus decided to play this one a bit more carefully. The Gradvar infantry were the fastest firing army on the continent, which meant they would perform exceptionally well in a defensive role against a not fully trained Rosferian army. But that was the thing.....Ferdinand couldn't stay this way forever, and he would have to advance SOMETIME in order to try and clear that road. For now he'd sit and wait though, and reassess the situation. His artillery continued to boom out, and his troops stood ready to receive any sort of attack that Duross might make. He'd have to try again of course....but for now better safe than sorry.

[Carrow]

Duross and his creatures continued to advance, quite a few of the troops getting cut down by artillery fire, but not even a dent in the numbers did the Rosferians sustain. Duross certainly had nerve. He knew that he was planning quite a risky operation, but the otter reasoned that the numbers he had on his side would once again come into play. He felt a tug on his paw once again, and the mustelid turned around to see that the rat lieutenant had returned.

"Ah, back again so soon?," he asked. The rat saluted before detailing the orders Kellerman had given him to relay to Duross.

"General, sir! Just got word back from Gneral Kellerman, and what he plans to do is as follows, sir: He needs your most experienced horsebeasts to join his, half on the left, half on the right, and says that they will report to either Major Graw or Major Gable, sir!"

"Horsebeasts, eh? That crafty old Kellerman seems as though he has quite a trick up his sleeve. Well, Lieutenant, you head back and tell him that I'll send along around fifty or so of my best riders. They'll be along shortly."

The rat nodded to show that he understood, before speeding off.

"Troops, HALT!," Duross roared. They did so, coming to a stop, knowing that the otter had some more orders to give them.

"General Kellerman is planning something, and I'm sending some of you off to help him. He needs some creatures who can ride a horse to go off and report to Major Graw or Major Gable. I figure I'll send along fifty. Twenty-five on left, same on right. Any of you who think you're up to the job, away you go. Do us proud!"

[bookity101]

“Blast!” Kellerman’s paw clenched involuntarily. “He saw through it…” Duke Ferdinand was either overly cautious, or he was trying to draw them forward. ‘Well then we will give him something to chase…” Kellerman quickly mounted his own horse and rode it hard to where Duross was waiting.

“General Duross,,” He threw a small salute to his superior, “I need your help, I have a plan to get the Gradvarian army to a place where we can snare them with our cavalry.” Kellerman shook his head. “They were almost to a point where the new wedge formation would get them perfectly, But Ferdinand pulled them off at the last moment.” Kellerman turned back towards the road. “I need 10,000 men to pull them out of where they are, and it needs to happen soon.” He tured to look at the otter. “If we don’t set the pace of the battle soon, we will lose moral that we can’t afford to lose.”

((Skip, the wedge is something called hammer and tongs that i found in a book centered around (maybe a little before) this era. I think it would still apply in this setting, and its pretty fantastic when pulled right.))

[Carrow]

"Ah, I thought you might have come up with something, Kellerman," Duross replied, smiling at his fellow General. The otter had also spotted Ferdinand's calculated withdrawal, and was hoping now that Kellerman had a good scheme to help set things right.

"Tell me, what is it you're planning? You have my permission to take ten thousand creatures with you for this manoeuvre. By my rudder, though, if this doesn't work, then we are going to have to come up with something special."

((Righto, sounds very interesting indeed, I must say!))

[Ladorak]

((Sorry about that, but I was actually planning on doing that even before you had posted bookity, and well I just think this makes it more interesting now. I like throwing curveballs at my players and seeing how they think on their toes. )

The ferret Duke could hardly believe his eyes as close to 40,000 of Duross' troops actually moved forward and began to advance off of their ridge and down into the middle ground after his retreating force. "What the hell....?" the ferret murmured, unsure if this was real or not. What was he advancing for? If he kept coming he'd meet a warm welcome from his now realigned troops. They were in typical defensive formation, and could easily meet an advance upon their position, as they too held a ridge, albeit one that was not as tall as the one the Rosferians occupied.

But then, much to the ferret's amazement, Duross halted his troops roughly 1,750 yards from Ferdinand's line. That was way out of musket range of course, but it was well withing range of artillery. "What is he doing?" he whispered to himself. It made no sense for 40,000 troops to advance and then suddenly halt. They were on low ground now since they'd moved off their ridge, and this just put them out in the open and gave the Gradvar artillery stationary targets to shoot at.

It appeared that General Duross and General Kellerman were discussing something together, consulting each other on some strategy no doubt. Well it mattered not to him. "Artillery! They're giving us quite a nice target to shoot at! Fire into that advance formation and break them up! Let's send them scurrying right back to their ridge now shall we?" the ferret sneered, and the range was adjusted accordingly. Instead of being a mile and a half away, Duross had advanced to only a mile away, and gave the Gradvar artillery an advantage by halting his troops and keeping them "static" so to speak.

The Gradvar cannons boomed forth, sending up white clouds of smoke that drifted out and over the battlefield a short distance in front of the main Gradvar line before it was swept away by the prevailing winds. Zeroing in on their targets, solid shot began landing in amongst Duross' immobile troops, and ripped holes in the ranks with telling effect. Bodies were knocked over in the path of the balls like ninepins, and Ferdinand smiled in satisfaction as he watched. Good...hopefully that would make that otter think twice before pulling THAT again.

Nearly 300 troops fell in the barrage, and Duross would be wise to either continue his advance or pulls his troops back to their ridge, but one thing that wouldn't do would be to keep them where they were, on low ground and stationary, as all that did was give the Gradvar gunners near perfect targets to hit. Of course with that said too, Ferdinand had no idea that he'd narrowly avoided a trap, as he was just a cautious ferret by nature, especially in a situation like this. He preferred slower, methodical ways of dealing with things, and hated being rushed. His caution had gotten the better of him this time, and had probably saved him for now, but this battle was far from over after all, and much was still to come...

((Sorry Skipper, picking on you is the last thing I want to do.....but every action you take has an equal and opposite reaction. Some will be good, others not so much as you can see from this. XD))

[bookity101]

Kellerman's eyes were drawn to the renewed cannon fire, his eye's going wide when he realized the blunder that neither General had caught in time, "GET THOSE BEASTS OUT OF THERE!!" He bellowed at the top of his lung's hoping their commanding officers would hear him. "I'm sorry" he turned back to Duross "..General, but I think my voice is louder than yours is." He winked at the younger beast, "More practice at yelling at lazy beasts by a few years." Kellerman's face fell a little when he turned back to the line's. They seemed to have heard him, for all of them were getting out as quickly as possible. He watched as they retreated out of the line of fire, and re-formed at a safer point. He nodded to himself, satisfied that the group were out of the way well enough that he could proceed with the trap.

Kellerman turned and gave another quick salute to Duross, "Sir I'll get a move on then, and once again sorry for over stepping my rank there for a moment." With that He spurred the horse back to his own part of the lines, calling out as he went for key commanders from all three divisions.

He spook with them for a few moments, then sent the cavalry and the foot commanders to get ready. He turned to the two artillery commanders. "Alright, I need you two to pin the Gradvarian artillery to the point that they can't load shells, their to busy hiding." He stared at them. "Gentlemammels, This manuver depends on their artillery not drawing a bead on the advancing soldiers, or on the cavalry." He placed his paw's on their shoulders "This maneuver depends on you and your crews." They both simply nodded and threw a smart salute, turning, then running back to get started on their jobs.

Kellerman stood on his precipice, waiting for the right moment to sound the advance, with the 10,000 beasts, he should have enough to draw the Gradvarians far enough away from their semi defensible position to the open ground. He only hoped it would work...

As he heard the fire from his artillery units increasing to an amazing tempo, they had devised a system where there was always at least three shots in the air at time. With this knowledge, he motioned with a paw for the rat lieutenant to join him. "Get word to General Duross that I am having them commence with the attack." The lad nodded and scurried off to do as bidden. 'I must remember to thank that lad for his work after this battle.' thought Kellerman. "Drummer, sound the Advance! Trumpeter, sound the At Ready!" Kellerman watched, chewing on his lower lip as the regiments of foot soldiers head out. He kept an eye on them, waiting for the right moment to tell the drummer to speed up the march., he waited till they were just beyond musket range, till he said, "Now, Drummer, sound the Scattered Advance."

The Scattered Advance was something he and a few friends had come up with when he got tired of watching his beasts get cut down while they just ran straight at the enemy. It involved the first ranks starting the charge first, spreading out and running in zigzag patterns to make them slithly harder to hit, and then the second rank would run wide of the first, stopping to shot and reload every 10 yards or so. This repeated till all of the ranks had hit the enemies main force, though this particular advance was more controlled than one would've been with a different goal in mind, this one hit with a precision that wouldn't have been found if they hadn't practiced the move several times. Besides, the purpose of this run was to draw the Gradvarians out, not demolish them where they stood.

15 minutes after the first wave hit the opposing force, A Rosferian drumbeat beat out the withdrawal, and the attacking beasts began to fall back slowly, fast enough that they wouldn't arose suspicion with Ferdinand, but slow enough they would string out the Gradvarian lines after them, or so that was the plan. Success demanded that even Ferdinand would be fooled into thinking he would be able to get to the main Rosferian forces by sending his troops after the retreating ones, as he knew neither Rosferian General would fire on their own troops.