Game Of Thrones: House Bracken

We quickly set out, I manned a white destrier that I had bought, it used no armor as it was not my war horse. Both Jon and Jorgen also got on white destriers, theirs was a bit bigger than mine and had armor.

I had managed to get Jon and Jorgen old KG armors, the ones used in House of the Dragons.

And with that we set out, we didnt have any carriage lines following us but instead had gathered enough food to survive for about 5 days.

It took us around 2 days of marching before our first scouts spotted them. They had created a camp on a plain right outside a forest, the forest which we came from. We stopped just before the edge of the forest where we geared up, it was about to become night and we would wait. We waited for 3 hours while our cavalry managed to subdue all enemy scouts whom spotted us. Soon the lights began to diminish in the camp. That's when we sprung our ambush. 

I quickly signaled to Damon the Calvary Captain, whom led the cavarly by charging through the forest and towards their camp, they quickly reached the plains where the enemy lookout spotted them, however it was too late. The Roote forces hadn't set up any fortifications due to their arrogance, the cavalry quickly reached the camp before they could properly wake up and get in formation, this is when the cavalry is at its best. Against an unprepared and inexperienced force, the cavalry created absolute chaos in the tent. 

Meanwhile our infantry had just formed up properly at the edge of the forest and we were quickly marching towards the camp. Jon and Jorgen had joined the cavalry and were currently having fun. It took us about 20 minutes to reach the camp, a small force of around 1500 had managed to regroup, this included the 500 mercenaries alongside their 800 standing army and 200 lucky ones. The two formations quickly engaged.

We formed up into two boxes, each with around 500 men each, they formed up into 15 lines of 33 with 4 Lieutenants and 1 Captain commanding each. The enemy quickly formed into 3 boxes of 500 each as well, however they had formed into 20 lines, 25 men deep each. Right before we clashed with their forces we halted, the Phalanx was not suited for charging and was instead much more effective in defending. 

Each formation stood opposite of each other, the Roote Army had about 10 more men in width than our Phalanx. I was standing in the back, waiting for their move. It didn't take long, perhaps it was due to the threat of cavalry attacking their back, perhaps they were angry at the cowardly move or perhaps they simply didn't want to wait, they attacked.

There was about 30 meters between our armies, as they began charging I gave the signal.

"Release the Javelins!" I screamed, the officers quickly repeated the order and every single troop in our formation released 3 javelins each, keeping 2 for later. These javelins were famous because of how the romans used them, it wasn't meant for damage but instead to remove the enemy shield and it was quite effective. More than 60% of the first row lost their shield or their arm got hit. And good luck ordering your men to charge into 5 meter long spears, their first line was quickly in disarray, this new tactic completely shocked their entire force. Unfortunately their 2nd line was mercenaries, they pushed through the deserting men and charged the spear wall. 

They ducked under, blocked, and tried to get past the initial spears, but whenever they got past one there was another behind it. These mercenaries had never seen a formation similar to this one and it quickly showed. They didn't know how to deal with this unknown formation and tried all different things, however this proved inefficient as they lost a lot of their sight due to crouching down and therefore was easy pickings for the 2nd and 3rd Phalanx rows.

And like that, before they even got close to the first row they had lost their 1st and 2nd row, however these mercenaries did not give up and continued to find other ways, and it didn't take long before a few reached the first row and began slashing at them with swords. However it was extremely hard to slash over circular shields whom attempted to black, additionally it was an extremely small space they were in with wooden spears all around them and when they slashed downwards they essentially left their hand to be pierced.

Like this the battle continued, the mercenaries managed to push through the initial wave of confusion and zero information.

30 minutes later, the Roote Forces had lost the entirety of their 1st and 2nd row, while the 3rd row suffered some losses during this time. They had lost around 10% of their troops and the battle had entered a stage of attrition. We had lost about 30% of the first line and they had to be switched out. We had lost a total of 20 people however these were mostly lucky soliders getting through the barricade of spears.

However, the commanders, in their great research of the Phalanx formation and how to counter it, they had forgotten an important factor. The Cavalry. They had been running amock slaughtering men left and right and in the end managed to kill about 700 men before the rest surrendered. Damon left 50 men to guard the prisoners while he took his remaining 430, as he had 20 casualties and charged towards the back of the Roote formation.

They formed up in a wedge formation with Jon and Jorgen in the front, those two Mountains were indeed a scary combination.

It didn't take long before they reached the back of the formation, they were spotted a long time ago and a few men had managed to turn around and find spears to point at them. But they were ultimately too few.

Jon and Jorgen especially led the charge by attacking their command position in the back and they quickly killed the officers, Jon and Jorgen found themselves Infront of Gaswell Roote, the heir of the current Lord whom failed to escape in time, luck wasn't on his side this time. The heavy armor made it almost impossible for anyone without a spear to kill them. And therefore they began slaughtering the Roote Formations, the Heir was both smart and dumb to place his recruits in the back as they quickly panicked and began running and screaming, this basically dissolved their 4 back lines.

Damon took advantage of this and sent 50 riders to hunt them down. The remaining 370 continuing causing chaos and desertion in their back ranks.

As I was standing in the back, I saw the cavalry charge into their back and I immediately ordered our troops to begin slowly retreating backwards. And sideways making it so we were situated on their left and right and the Roote forced formed into a weird half circle or triangle.

It didn't take long before the cavalry began pushing towards the front lines, and with no Commander to give orders, all hell broke loose, the gap that was between the 2 Phalanx formations quickly became the number 1 spot to escape through, they began charging through it, pushing each other to get through.

However that's when the sides of the Phalanx turned around and began launching spear strikes into the retreating enemy each spear killing multiple people.

It was a complete victory. I stood at the back of the 1st Company formation looking at the long line of men retreating. However it wouldn't be that easy.

They had no way to regroup or organise and their remaining forces were split between running to the sides and running between the 2 formations.

"Sergeant." I said turning to the man behind me.

"Inform the Cavalry to begin prioritising surrender, tell the troops to dissolve into squads of 10 and to begin hunting people down. Have them scream everytime that everyone may surrender."

"Understood, My Lord."

And with that the battle was won. I turned my horse around and went back to our camp. I quickly arrived at the camp where I entered the Command Room, I sat down in my chair and began looking at the map.

We were currently stationed in the middle of the Greenapple river and the Big Willow. It would take us about 2 days to return to Stonehedge and another 1 and half a day to arrive at Lychester, additionally it would take about 1 day to arrive at Harroway.

It was then that a courier arrived through the tent.

"My Lord, you have gotten a letter from Lord Hoster Tully."

Finally! This will decide our next move.

"Dear Lord Bracken, I have read your letter and seen how you have been attacked. They directly insult me by waiting for my bad health to catch up, due to this I will require you to teach these minor houses their place. You have my full permission to take over their ancient keep, both the Harroway or Lord Harroway's Town and Lychester Keep.

Sincerely, Lord Paramount Hoster Tully."

Yesssss! Time to expand. Sorry Jason, you need to hold on for a bit longer, luckily the mercenaries seemed to be here and are now gone so you're only outnumbered by 500.

And like that, 6 hours passed and I called all our Commanders into the room.

"Alright, good job guys. Damon, what's our current situation?"

"My Lord! We have lost a total of 150 men, 100 infantry and 50 cavalry, our total kill count is estimated to be around 1500-1700, only about 300 from the infantry fight and rest from the cavalry slaughtering retreating enemies. We have also captured approximately 700 men and around 200-300 escaped. All our men have regrouped at the camp and they are currently getting fed or sleeping, we should be able to move early tomorrow." He said

"Good, tomorrow at noon we shall move out. Our destination is Harroway also known as Lord Harroway's Town, take armor from their troops and give them to the 1st, 2nd and 3rd row, also have all banners be changed with the Roote one. Make sure the Cavalry also get their shields and banners."

"Yes, My Lord!" They all said as they left.

I then left and went to my personal tent, it was time to get some well deserved sleep.