Game Of Thrones: House Bracken

I decided to go by ship to Riverrun, though the distance is lower when you go by foot or horse, it generally takes longer due to forest or breaks. However boat was much more secure and would take a bit less time. And he got to show off his naval might. He took with him 6 Longships and 5 River Galleys. It took a total of 12 hours to arrive. When we arrived we saw the large fort of Riverrun. Situated in the middle of a river with 3 different bridges and one gigantic fort holding over 50 River Galleys.

Once they docked they were quickly met by Edmure Tully.

"Greetings, Lord Bracken! Good to see you again." He said

"Thank you, Lord Tully, it truly has been a long time." When my father was alive I often visited House Tully because House Bracken and Tully have for long had a good relationship. Bracken protecting Tully and Riverlands and Tully supporting Bracken has long happened.

"My Father sadly couldn't come to meet you, therefore I shall lead you to his chambers where he is bedridden." Edmure said.

"Very well, my condolences for your father's condition."

"Thank you, Lord Bracken, we greatly appreciate it." He said before he led the way towards the keep.

We arrived after only 5 minutes of walking. The keep was heavily guarded, exceptionally so the closer we got to the bed chambers.

Once we arrived I saw the sorry condition of Lord Hoster Tully. He was bedridden, had grey hair and looked to be on death bed, but I knew he would survive for a bit longer.

"Ah, Lord Alexander. Thank you for coming. My deepest apologies to what happened with your father, truly a sad occurrence."

"Thank you, My Lord. Luckily we have gotten revenge and more."

"Indeed, it would seem so." Hoster said

"Well let's get straight to buisness, I don't have many hours of the day where I can do Lordly duties. Your harsh punishment of the minor houses acting up and us allowing it has indeed put the minor houses in their place and they are no longer getting as confident and have stopped all hostile actions.

However the larger houses with some say as been making moves on smaller Houses as they believe that recent event shows that we prioritise them over minor houses. Like House Darry on Cox but you slowed it with your alliance with them. Or Frey on House Mudd. Blackwood has been taking a lot of land close to them, making a chain of defences as well as ceasing trade with many minor houses close." He said before taking a deep breath.

"House Mallister and House Frey has also began having minor clashes. However there is one thing we need to address. House Piper has been active hostile. Especially against House Smallwood. There is also a large disputed land between Pinkmaiden, The Reach and Briarwhite. Essentially, I need a loyal Major house to support us in these times, and I trust you. Therefore I will give you the disputed lands in the middle of a straight line through Lychester and Stoney Sept and to the Reach Border and following that to Gods Eye River and back to Rippledown Rill." He said as he stopped.

"Very well, I can do that, and I thank you for the trust you have put into me. I shall not dissapoint you." I said as I bowed.

"Very well, as a gift for your assistance in this I will loan you 3000 Tully men and the Blackfish for 18 months."

This was extremely shocking, just the Blackfish alone is invaluable. Nobody knows the Riverlands as he do, plus an additional 3000 men? This is a great gift.

I bowed again.

"Thank you very much, My Lord!"

"No problem, now before you leave I'm gonna require you to swear an oath to me."

"Of course my Lord, it shall be done."

We then got him transferred to the Great Keep where I bowed and sweared an oath to him. After that I told them to tell the Blackfish to meet me at Lychester.

I then went straight to Stones Hedge. Currently we had an army of 6000. I immediately ordered 3000 infantry to return to Stone Hedge. 500 was stationed at Donnelwood + the 500 garrisons of all our forts. I then had the other 500 move to Harroway increasing the garrison to 1000 + 1000 potential marines. I also ordered both the Cavalry units to return.

After 7 days all the troops arrived including the Riverrun ones. I had also hired 2700 builders.

The first thing I did was send 1000 men alongside 500 builders to make a fort. The fort would be a pure military outpost with no town. It would be placed Wayfarers Rest on the same y axis as Stoney Sept, it would serve to defend the land. Next I sent an additional 500 Light Cavalry, 1000 infantry and 500 builders to Old Willow, they would rebuild it. I sent 500 builders and 1500 Tully men each to Stoney Sept and Tumblers Fall. In the end I also sent 1000 Infantry, 500 Heavy Cavalry and 700 builders to the end of the Blackwater Rush River that reached the middle of the new area.

With this, the new area would be quite secure. The last thing I did was recruit 2000 more infantry and 500 more light cavalry.

Now, all I could do is wait as we were closing in on the end of 196.

And with that quickly 3 months passed. We entered 197. The major things that happened was, we increased our naval force to 1500 Marines, we now had 20 Longships and 20 River Galleys. We also increased our forces by 4000. 6500 Infantry, 1500 Marines, 1000 Heavy Cavalry and 1000 Light Cavalry. Secondly, the repairs on Donnelwood was complete, it now being a full fortress. Tumblers Fall, Stony Sept and Old Willows was about 60% complete.

The fort in the middle of the new territory, which I called the Bastion was 80% complete, it and almost twice the workers as the others and they got most resources. The other fort beside Wayfarers Rest named High Crimson was also about 60% complete. Even though they were not fully completed we had already began with buisness in these areas.

Old Willow had gathered a lot of fisherman and loggers / lumberjacks. Tumbler and Stony has gathered a shit ton of farmers, us earning a lot from just selling land and taxing it. I also sent 250 men from both Tumbler and Stoney to a small outpost on the Goldroad and they also began taxing giving us a hefty income. Stoney Sept also gained a lot of Miners and after report of funding Gold, I sent 500 Light Cavalry and 1500 recruits there, and since we have taken control of it. Those mountains with 3 current found gold mines currently giving us over 50% of all income.

The Bastion also gathered a lot of miners, we have also hired a lot of workers to make roads between all the forts and to the Bastion, even High Crimson and Lychester.

Bastion has also been having a lot of permanent settlers. Many setting up shops already, a certain Baelish tried as well but I luckily managed to stop him. Something else that has been very interesting is the fact that pirates from Essos showed up at Bay of Crabs and have been demolishing the Mooton Navy however they don't seem to wanna plunder, they just destroy their navy, then their port.

It was then that seeing all these troubles I ordered another 20 River Galleys, and 1000 new men, I bought 10 from Tully and another 10 being created.

Similarly, Darry has been attempting to get control over the Crossroads Inn, however it has a lot of mercenaries residing there and the feudal Lord refuses to let Darry take it over. Therefore I have sent 1500 Marines and 1500 Infantry to Riverbend. I also have stationed 1000 men at Harroway. There is also a total of 1500 men on Donnelwood + 500 garrison. Lastly I moved 1000 Heavy Cavalry to Lychester.

If Darry decides to do anything funny then we would deal with them. And like that a month passed. I continued to grow my industry, buying more and more caravans, selling stuff to Houses and other stuff. At the end of the month the Bastion and High Crimson finished while the others where at 80%

The Pirate problem had gotten larger, there were reportedly 40 ships, they came from Essos. After reading the report I immediately asked Cox to send their ships to Riverbend, they wouldn't stand a chance alone and the pirates aren't plundering, only fighting. It only took them 2 weeks to obliterate the entire Mooton Navy, they won every battle and Mooton stopped creating new ships, deciding to wait it out. However the pirates didn't push through and stayed there.

However, once they lost their navy, instead of admitting defeat and wait. They immediately attacked the Crossroads Inn, I couldn't do anything until Hoster answered my letter.

The Inns fought hard, defeating the Darry's 6000 men once, but they just filled up their army again and attacked, this time the Inns couldn't stand. However they had bought enough time. My 1000 Heavy Horses, 6000 Infantry, gotten from Lychester, Donnelwood, Riverbend, Stones Hedge and Harroway.

We arrived at the Inns 1 hour after the battle ended. The scouts managed to spot us at the bridge and therefore had time to warn their army. When we arrived they had been waiting. I want standing in the back alongside Daeron, Tytos, a new Commander named Arthur, Jon and Jorgen. I named myself General. Tytos took the middle. Arthur the left wing and Daemon the right wing. The main force was a total of 4000, the right 1000 Heavy Cavalry and left 2000 Infantry. The Darries did something similar with 1000 infantry on the left wing. 500 infantry, 250 Heavy Cavalry and 500 Light Cavalry on right wing. And 4000 in the middle.

They had studied our formation and had came up with tactics on how to counter it. The javelin wave did as well as ever as there was really no very good counter. Quickly enough they got back their foothold and began pushing us back. They would have multiple guys form together and attempt to block the spears. They would also have people duck under and then come up and try to break the spears.

It worked a few times but mostly you just got killed. However they did often get through. They used their shield more effictivly and therefore managed to equal the battle in the middle a bit. However they were getting destroyed on the left flank. Arthur decided to instead having a deep formation he spread out, having a row of men, this made it so when the middle began retreating a bit, the sides pushed inwards, and the cocky commander never knew what hit him. Alexander is teaching his commanders well.

Similarly on the right flank, the heavy cavalry was decimating the 500 infantry and 500 Light Cavalry. The 250 Heavy Cavalry was doing well but they began to get pinned down more on more until they were routed. When the heavy cavalry routed the light tried to fight back but eventually had to retreat which caused chaos in the 500 infantry, to which of whom very few survived what came after.

Very shortly after, both the right and left flank came into the main Darry Army and they stood no chance against attacks from 3 different sides. Just as they were about to retreat from the one opening. 1000 men came running from the shore and quickly blocked it. The 3000 remaining men was completely surrounded and had to surrender.

Alexander also took official control of the Crossroads Inns. This would indeed be a great boost.

However, now it was time to cripple the Darrys only remaining ace.