Battle #1: Siege of Dumont

[Ladorak]

Briefing

Background: Under extreme pressure from King Frederick II, Field Marshall Ferdinand has assembled a sizable force on Rosferia's border and has taken the offensive against said nation by leading roughly 45,000 troops across the border and taking them on a route towards Cosnair. Gradvar has hastily declared war upon Rosferia in an attempt to protect the monarch, King Augustine XVI, whom Frederick believes is in mortal danger. Taking the field with his General, Ferdinand, Frederick has been pushing for a speedy offensive in order to capture Cosnair and reinstate the King by force upon his throne in order to safeguard him from any potential harm. Ferdinand is not a great supporter of this plan however. He feels that Gradvar is rushing too rapidly into the war and would have preferred more time to have built up a sizable logistics base before advancing into Rosferia but Frederick simply will not hear of it. Respecting his King's (and cousin's) wishes, Ferdinand has followed through by launching an invasion of Rosferia, an invasion that has caught the Rosferian army by surprise and at a bad position as most of it was concentrating on the northern borders, getting ready to advance into Mordenz. Consequently, there are very few Rosferian military units standing in the direct path of General Ferdinand's advance, and Rosferia must now scramble to redirect it's troops to the eastern front. There is however a small snag that may serve to slow Ferdinand enough and allow the Rosferian army time to concentrate against him. In order to clear the road to Cosnair, Ferdinand plans to capture the fortress town of Dumont. This is part of his larger plan of halting his advance in order to build up a logistics base as he originally wanted in preparation for a larger advance against Rosferia later in the year, though Frederick will most likely be displeased with this strategy. On the evening of April 26th Ferdinand's army began it's investment of the fortified town......

Rosferian Situation: The situation for Rosferia is a rather poor one, at least in terms of numbers. Dumont, though it is surrounded by a strong wall and guard turrets, is woefully unprepared to resist a long siege. The morale of the garrison is low, and against the numbers they're facing they can't hope to really win this battle. One thing they can do is buy enough time for the main Rosferian to come up and form a roadblock somewhere in front of Cosnair to prevent Ferdinand from advancing any further.

Size of Force: 3,500
Commander: Colonel Nicholas Goodspeed (rat)
Advantages: Fortified position
Disadvantages: Low morale, heavily outnumbered
Recommended Strategy: The Rosferian forces should attempt to buy as much time as they can without sacrificing too many lives. Surrender would be most prudent, but only after it's clear that Gradvar is pressing too hard.

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Gradvar Situation: Gradvar has a very strong position for this battle. They outnumber the Rosferian defenders more than 10 to 1 and have the siege artillery necessary to pound Dumont into submission. Ferdinand however is constantly squabbling with King Frederick over what the strategy should be. Frederick considers taking Dumont a waste of time but Ferdinand wants to establish a base of operations first and build up his forces before resuming his advance on Cosnair. He considers it dangerous to advance too fast too soon.

Size of Force: 45,000
Commander: Field Marshall Ferdinand (ferret); (operating under the authority of King Frederick II(ferret))
Advantages: superior numbers, siege artillery
Disadvantages: Inner quarreling between Frederick and Ferdinand
Recommended Strategy: All Ferdinand really has to do is play this one by the book. He should set up his siege artillery and commence a bombardment of the town if the city refuses to surrender. He should not commit his troops needlessly until the walls begin to crumble.

And now I'll open up various characters that any player may feel free to play for this battle.

Goodspeed: Cal (I'll take him for this one)
Ferdinand: NinjaSquirrel
Frederick: Bookity

And that's about it. Once we get everyone squared away the battle will commence and the two opposing commanders can send me their opening moves (yeah I'll think of one for mine). This isn't really going to be a pitched battle I think, more for the testing out of the system and the writing. I have an idea of some things that will happen, and I'm really looking for good writing in this rather than outright epic fighting. After this fight the battles WILL be focused more on the fighting, I promise, and the forces will be more evenly matched. I just wanted to get a brief little introductory battle up first and foremost for everyone.

Rosferia vs. Gradvar

[ninjasquirrel1]

I'll take Ferdinand if that's ok?

[Ladorak]

OK, I slotted you in. If anyone wants to take Frederick that slot is still open. I'll give it a few more days at the most but if no one takes him I won't mind playing him. I'm gonna shoot for starting this battle no later than Wednesday at the very latest.

[bookity101]

What would Fredrick be doing? Just standing in the back leading? or .. what??

[Ladorak]

Well he's letting his Field Marshall have active command, though he'd probably be hovering around and making it clear that even though he's letting Ferdinand take this fortress, he wants him to hurry and not take as much time doing things. He won't go over Ferdinand's head in this battle though. That'll probably come later. It's mostly just going to serve as the proverbial "bug" in Ferdinand's ear so to speak.

[ninjasquirrel1]

That's perfect for you Bookity, you always slap me.

[bookity101]

Ok, I'll try a paw at it. Is slapping allowed? And yes Ninj, I do, but only when you say/do something silly... which is almost all the time admittedly...

[Ladorak]

Well Frederick and Ferdinand are cousins so heheh....you can smack him if you want, though I'd do it private so that the troops don't see it, heheh.

OK, I'm gonna get this battle started. I'll take first post, and ninjasquirrel you can PM me your opening move, or you can just start writing if you want, the choice is up to you.

Your objective for this ninjasquirrel is to take Dumont. You take Dumont and you win the battle and gain points for your victory. Fail to take the city and you lose....but you shouldn't have many problems, heheh.

From this point on we're switching over to IC for this battle.....

BATTLE START

[Ladorak]

Day was dawning over the city of Dumont. Her once proud walls and turrets seemed to sag a bit now in depression as she faced the disturbing reality of an enemy attack. Three days the feared and powerful Gradvar Army had pulled up in front of the very gates of this city, and though they had not entered the walls, there was little doubt in Colonel Nicholas Goodspeed's mind that this "siege" would not be much of a siege at all.

Already he could see the finishing touches being made on the artillery positions of the Gradvar Army down below and on the other side of the river. There were heavy cannons, howitzers, and even some mortars that were being prepared to rain death and destruction down upon this city. Goodspeed was an aristocrat and personally opposed to the Revolution but that didn't matter. He was still a Rosferian....and he would be damned if he let these foul invaders get any further into this country.

Besides...he didn't trust General Ferdinand one bit. His claims that he was invading to restore the monarchy might be valid but....what would stop him from taking control of Rosferia itself in the name of King Frederick II rather than King Augustine? No.....this threat was just too great and the opportunity for Ferdinand too juicy in the rat's mind to fully trust the sincerity of the ferret general's claims.

Unfortunately for him though there were several things working against him. First and foremost were the great numbers he was up against. 45,000 enemy heads were counted outside the city walls, and he had barely under 4,000 at his command. The city just was not prepared to resist these kinds of odds. He had sent frantic word back to Central Command to tell them to redirect their forces from the north to the eastern borders, and to get here as quickly as they could. He doubted they would make it in time to save this place though....

Second was the fact that his opponent was reputed to be the greatest soldier on this continent. He had extensive field experience and though he was known to be cautious, he could also be brave when need be and had a fine head on his shoulders as far as Goodspeed knew. His reputation was to be respected and feared....and inwardly Goodspeed was quaking.

At least he could look forward to a slower start to things. Even Ferdinand wouldn't launch a frontal attack on this city....but then again how would the walls fair against a bombardment? They were in need of repairs and not in the best of shape right now. So far he had not received word from Ferdinand about offers to surrender or the like, but he expected those to be forthcoming shortly. Those cowardly fools of officers he had under his command all wanted to give up the city right now, and had even outvoted him to do so....but he was still in charge of this place and he did not intend to surrender without a fight.

Sighing, he turned his back on the enemy's lines and walked down a set of stone stairs, off the battlements and into the town itself. The opening move would belong to Ferdinand.....it wasn't as if the rat Colonel could do anything with the number he had on paw except to return fire when the shooting starting. Yes.....this would be the opening blows in a war that he could only speculate at how long it would endure. Until one side overcame the other....at least Kostritz wasn't getting involved. They weren't yet prepared to mobilize to support their ally Gradvar....and Frederick had really rushed things as far as Goodspeed had heard. Maybe this would give the Rosferian Army a chance to come up and give battle to Ferdinand....if not here then somewhere down the road to Cosnair. Whatever happened next though...he would have to hold out....he would just have to!

[ninjasquirrel1]

OOC>I tried to pretend I knew what I was posting about. Bad grammar too.

Ferdinand gazed over what would soon become his new headquarters. The city of Dumont, just sitting there waiting for him to take it. And he would crush all who resisted him! It would be an easy battle, is Intelligence had gathered four thousand troops at the most defending it. They were no match for his army, not only did he outnumber them ten-to-one, he had superior weapons as well. But yet . . . It seemed too easy. Much too easy, there was just something Ferdinand couldn't place his paw on. Something felt wrong. . . .

"Sir, the artillery is in position." His thoughts broken, he turned to face his saluting artillery Commander. Smiling, Ferdinand nodded approvingly.

"Well done, Commander. My orders are to begin firing. Aim for the gates, we want to damage the walls as little as possible." Ferdinand haphazardly saluted as the Commander made his back to the artillery to execute his newly given orders. Ferdinand smiled as he the first few cannons fired their barrage, creating large clouds of smoke. Yes, nothing could stop him now. . . . Ferdinand's smile soon grew into a frown, except maybe for Frederick.