Recaps

James and Ron crushed the Fourth Legion’s roaming forces and reinforcements, clearing the way for Victor’s army to approach Ironwire City. Victor launched a midnight assault on the enemy camp, where James and Foss broke the defenders and Rick died after ordering surrender.

• James and Ron regrouped their cavalry, defeated Fourth Legion patrols, and trapped Bush’s force on Jade Belt Mountain while James devised ways to keep it contained.
• Ron suppressed Hank’s bandit camps, killed Hank, rescued captives, and then hurried to reinforce James against Jindio’s advancing army.
• James held Jindio’s larger force in confined terrain until Ron arrived, then the combined cavalry broke the Fourth Legion’s formations and forced its surviving soldiers to surrender.
• Victor learned that James and Ron had eliminated the Fourth Legion reinforcements and marched his army toward Ironwire City, planning a secret night raid.
• Victor split the army across three routes for a midnight march, and James’s separated unit rejoined the advance after finding Buffons and helping replace the wagon horses.
• Victor ordered the assault to begin without waiting for the more than three thousand separated soldiers, and James led his regiment into the enemy camp as fireworks signaled the attack.
• Rick rallied the remaining defenders and took command, but James and Foss launched a second assault together, and Rick died after ordering his troops to surrender.

Victor broke the Grand Duchy’s defenses in Ironvine Territory, defeated Ursus, and secured supplies before returning east. As the Northern Alliance Army and the Duchy fought to a costly stalemate, news of Haines’s death threatened Victor’s plans to replenish his troops.

• James joined Foss’s troops and attacked the camp’s eastern side while Lenster and Ron approached the inner walls, and Victor ordered Baron Brown to bring out the secret weapon.
• Victor’s Blazefire Gel burned through the wooden palisade, allowing his troops to storm the camp and advance toward Ursus.
• Victor held the Golden Sunflower flag as the Duchy’s forces converged, and James and Ron raced to reinforce him.
• James defeated Neville’s force, while Ernst attacked Baron Brown’s position and Ursus led the Fourth Legion against Victor.
• Victor’s troops repelled the assaults, and Victor disarmed Ursus and offered him surrender before Ursus died and the Fourth Legion laid down its weapons.
• Victor arranged the campaign’s spoils and supplied Ironvine Territory with grain, weapons, and livestock before heading east to support the war.
• The Northern Alliance Army attacked the Duchy’s forward camp and was caught in a trap, and Haines and three regiments were killed during the retreat.
• Victor returned to Golden Sunflower Territory and prepared to call up allied troops, but Haines’s death made him fear that eastern nobles might rebel or withhold reinforcements.

Victor captured Blackwater City through a combination of deception, local allies, and defections, then moved to rebuild trade and prepare new regiments. Meanwhile, Grand Duke Mora seized control of the Duchy Army from its nobles, leaving it vulnerable as Count Colt prepared the Northern Alliance Army to attack.

• Victor assembled troops, received Count Colt’s orders to rest and target the Duchy Army’s supply lines, and began gathering intelligence on Blackwater City.
• Victor discovered that Viscount Krick had diverted military grain and used the evidence to pressure him, while Gaita and Geshilton agreed to help capture the city.
• Rust led a cavalry sortie into Victor’s camp, where Victor’s forces trapped his men, while Gaita’s allies seized the eastern gate and let the Northern Alliance Army enter Blackwater City.
• Victor took control of Blackwater City, credited Gaita and Geshilton for their help, and set conditions for restoring trade and stabilizing grain prices.
• Victor began preparing two new regiments and reported the city’s capture, while the Duchy Army lost confidence and its commanders debated how to respond.
• Viscount Borey and the Silver Maple Secret Guard purged the Duchy Army’s Coalition of Nobles and transferred their forces under Grand Duke Mora’s control.
• Count Colt directed Alex and Hawk to open a retreat route for Kimberley’s Fifth Legion rather than risk a decisive battle, and both armies pulled back.
• Alex restored contact with surviving intelligence agents, and Count Colt ordered the Northern Alliance Army to attack the Duchy Main Camp in three days.

Victor rushed north with reinforcements after Alex warned him of Count Colt’s planned attack, while the Duchy Army prepared its own defenses. The armies clashed near Sextus County, and a disguised Duchy force struck at Count Colt’s vulnerable command post as Alex fought his way back from a cavalry ambush.

• Alex warned Count Colt that Grand Duke Mora’s forces had prepared countermeasures, but Count Colt rejected his advice and ordered him to stir unrest among the Duchy Army’s camp.
• Victor received Alex’s urgent warning, mobilized battle-ready troops and supplies in Blackwater City, and set out north with the Southern Marching Legion’s forces.
• Victor’s army passed through Wright County, where Michael learned of landlord Dede’s abuses and Victor sent Gaita a plan to drive inhabitants from the area and seize the landlords’ supplies.
• Viscount Borey arranged for Hurst and the Silver Maple Secret Guard to integrate imprisoned nobles’ private armies, while the Northern Alliance Army and Duchy Army assembled for battle.
• Count Colt and Viscount Borey rallied their troops, and the armies collided, and Rabia’s drug-enhanced soldiers stalled the Northern Alliance Army’s left flank as Count Colt committed more forces to the fighting.
• Count Colt’s army attacked the Imperial Guard Legion, pushed through its archers, and fought across the battlefield as Kimberley sent reinforcements to the right flank.
• Little Paru reported the battle’s location to Victor, who ordered his Cavalry to ride faster toward the battlefield.
• Alex and Hawk fought through Gais’s crossbow ambush, defeated his cavalry, and returned toward the main formation after Gais took poison and died.
• Count Colt sent concealed elite units to the front, while a disguised Duchy force overwhelmed his remaining guards and a black-cloaked officer beheaded their squad leader.