Recaps

Jackson defeated Wuqida, but Heshima’s Iron Bone Tribe gathered a vast force and began a siege of the Border Fortress. Bone Baldy and Priest Sparison used herders to fill the defenses and build earthen ramps, while Tuowutuo rose through the Faith Order’s ranks as the fortress prepared for the next assault.

• Wuqida’s Iron Bone Tribe cavalry attacked Jackson’s Two Rivers Legion, whose Heavy Cavalry broke through the Barbarian formation and forced Wuqida and his surviving troops to surrender.
• Heshima placed Muli and Muheda under house arrest, reorganized their units, and used raiding parties to seize people and supplies from smaller tribes.
• James prepared the Border Fortress for battle as Heshima’s force arrived and built guarded Forward Bases, while Victor suspected the Faith Order was helping organize them.
• Heshima assigned Bone Baldy to lead an assault, and Bone Baldy repaired and equipped a force of nearly twenty thousand while Sparison organized believers and herders for the operation.
• Bone Baldy sent herders to fill the fortress’s trench under heavy fire, while Sparison recruited among them and Tuowutuo earned tokens, became a squad captain, and gained weapons and followers.
• James ordered a concentrated barrage against the trench-fillers, and Northlands Cavalry routed them before Bone Baldy and Sparison reorganized the surviving force.
• The Barbarians filled the moats and trenches, then used grass sacks to build three earthen ramps despite heavy losses, while Tuowutuo mourned his dead and steadied himself for the coming battles.

Heshima gathered a massive Barbarian army and repeatedly attacked the Border Fortress, while James’s defenders inflicted heavy losses with crossbows, catapults, and fire oil. The siege continued as the Barbarians began building earthen ramps, and Keledu advised Heshima to withdraw and modify the catapults.

• Bone Baldy and Priest Sparison led an assault on the Border Fortress, but James’s defenders repelled it and inflicted heavy casualties.
• Keledu and Heshima arrived with a larger army, and James learned from Ranger Cavalry that the Barbarian main force was approaching.
• Soyasdin’s crossbow fire struck a man beside Heshima, and James sent Horne to retrieve Heshima’s bearskin cloak before the Dire Wolf Guard could stop him.
• Heshima launched further assaults, but the fortress defenders destroyed the attacking force and killed its commanders with crossbows and catapults.
• Victor promoted Soyasdin, while Bone Baldy struggled to manage the remnants of the defeated Barbarian unit and Keledu warned him that the invasion might fail.
• Heshima ordered nearly two hundred thousand herders and slaves to build ramps beneath the fortress walls, using executions and threats to force them forward.
• James ordered fire-oil bombs used against the Barbarian archers and catapults, while Solington pressed him to deploy Thunderfire Cannons and Flowering Shells.
• The fire oil set more Barbarian catapults ablaze, and Keledu recognized it as a weapon used by the Raine Kingdom before advising Heshima to withdraw and modify the remaining machines.

The Two Rivers Legion repelled the Iron Bone Tribe at the border fortress, while Marvin’s forces raided Barbarian-held villages and endured repeated attacks at Blue Lake Bay. The Barbarians withdrew after their front-line commanders disobeyed Shikele’s orders, leaving their conflict with Heshima unresolved.

• Heshima’s siege assault faltered as the defenders killed herders, slaves, and officers, and James’s forces drew many laborers into the fortress.
• Keledu proposed using water-frozen felt to protect siege engines, and Heshima prepared an elite assault after promising the warriors plunder.
• James requested reinforcements as Victor publicized the victory, strengthened the Northwestern Border Fortress, and turned attention to threats near Blue Lake Bay.
• Marvin sent Saster and three hundred raiders to burn Barbarian-held settlements, and Big John guided Saster’s squad through Front Bay Village.
• Saster’s raiders attacked Barbarian archers and ignited five courtyards, then escaped with nineteen dead and forty-three wounded, and Marvin enlisted Big John and other militiamen.
• Shikele’s forces repeatedly assaulted the Blue Lake Bay fortresses, but the defenders used crossbows, artillery, logs, stones, Golden Juice, and Fire Oil to repel them.
• As Shikele ordered a withdrawal, Saster’s defenders weakened their ranged fire to draw more attackers onto the walls, and Barbarian front-line commanders disobeyed Shikele and intensified the assault.
• Shikele withdrew his own forces and planned to report the disobedient commanders to Great Chieftain Heshima.

Shikele and Kuba led a reinforced Barbarian assault on the Blue Lake Bay fortresses, but Victor’s artillery and the Two Rivers Legion shattered their army. With the fortresses secured, Victor moved toward the decisive battle while Marvin organized a thousand troops to join him.

• After Shikele withdrew the Barbarian troops from the walls, Saster’s defenders destroyed or captured the stranded Iron Bone Tribe forces, and their officers formed an alliance against Shikele.
• Shikele refused to punish the disobedient Legion Commanders before hearing from Heshima, then accepted a plan to wear down the fortresses while Marvin conserved his troops and Victor reinforced his forces.
• Kuba arrived with Heshima’s orders, and Shikele helped execute eight Legion Commanders and purge their followers before the Barbarians prepared a renewed assault.
• The Barbarians battered the Blue Lake Bay fortresses, but Marvin’s sorties and the arrival of the Marquis’s Golden Sunflower reinforcements helped the defenders hold until Victor’s artillery struck the Barbarian army.
• Victor’s Mortars and the Two Rivers Legion broke the Barbarian formations, and Shikele surrendered while Kuba was killed in the battle.
• Marvin reported heavy losses at Blue Lake Bay, then organized prisoners and selected a thousand troops under Saster to join the coming decisive battle.
• Victor moved toward the Northwestern Border Fortress with Shikele, received Alex’s plan for the allied forces, and worried that his army lacked enough shells for the field battle.