Chapter Summaries

Major General Marlow halted the Ninth and Tenth Corps and fortified their camp to foil Prince Sebas’s planned cavalry ambush. At dawn, Viscount Hohenheim found the camp transformed into a heavily defended position and hesitated to attack.

• Marlow learned that Raitelia’s elite cavalry was tracking his army and likely preparing to strike while it marched.
• Marlow rejected a forced march and a slow march in battle formation, reasoning that both would expose the troops to cavalry attacks.
• Marlow ordered the army to halt, fortify its camp, and wait for the cavalry, arguing that nearby forces could support them.
• Hohenheim and the Northwind commander reached their attack positions before dawn and discovered the Bagnia camp ringed with wire, chevaux-de-frise, and cannons.
• Hohenheim recognized that Marlow had anticipated the ambush, while the Northwind commander questioned whether they should attack.

Raitelian cavalry withdrew rather than attack Marlow's fortified camp, and Seba Retalia rebuked Hornheim after the failed expedition's costly losses to the winter. Chris spent the ensuing stalemate planning Tavitsky's defenses while the players raided another Raitelian camp, leaving both sides waiting for spring.

• Chris watched Raitelia's cavalry approach Marlow's camp, but the cavalry rode away without attacking.
• Seba Retalia angrily confronted Hornheim over the failed assault and learned that frostbite had disabled soldiers and killed or injured horses, though no men died in battle.
• Chris redrew Tavitsky's land divisions and marked sites for farms and defensive structures, while additional laborers accelerated railway construction toward Anvil Fortress.
• Players spent the winter pursuing Raitelian scouts, and Little Knife led a force of three thousand players to raid a camp in Dul Province during a blizzard.
• The Raitelians withdrew from the Dul Province camp in good order after inflicting heavy player casualties, and the players burned the camp and left with more than a thousand horses.
• Both sides settled into a stalemate that was expected to last until spring.

Chris received an Inquisition report revealing that Bagnia's strategic granary had been emptied and ordered the Inquisition expanded as he suspected a wider threat at home. He returned to Tavitsky, where the Minicia royal family had arrived and player-run City Hall was already rebuilding and cleaning the city.

• Chris received an urgent Inquisition dispatch reporting that corrupt officials had replaced grain in a strategic warehouse with sand and cotton, and he suspected the missing supplies might support a conspiracy in Bagnia.
• Chris ordered the number of Inquisitor positions increased from one to ten and sent the Clerk to carry his orders home.
• Bruno told Chris that the Minicia Kingdom had released both Their Highnesses and their families, who were now in Tavitsky.
• Chris returned to Tavitsky and saw players and civilian laborers demolishing the old city walls, clearing rubbish, and building new drainage works.
• Chris learned that Tavitsky's newly elected player mayor had funded the works by auctioning planned shops, warehouses, and residential plots to players who held shares in the city.

Chris received Edgar and Lucas, his returned elder brothers, and sent them to Bohemia as deputy envoys while keeping their children in the royal palace. Suspecting that Charles Stuart had returned them to create internal trouble and signal Minicia’s plans against Retalia, Chris called for a war council to decide how Bagnia should respond.

• Edgar and Lucas begged Chris to believe they had no ambitions, and he offered them a choice between serving as deputy envoys in Bohemia or ambassadors in Minicia.
• Edgar and Lucas chose Bohemia with their wives, leaving their children in the royal palace under Chris’s care.
• Chris ordered the clerk to record their appointments and learned that his elder sisters had married into Minicia’s great noble families.
• Chris suspected Charles Stuart had returned his brothers to sow division and discourage Bagnia from helping Retalia, and he questioned why Minicia expected to defeat the Retalian army.
• Chris summoned Marquis Dirac, Commander-in-Chief Isaac, and Intelligence Bureau Director Connie for a war council.

Chris learned that Charles had seized the Tia Family’s fleet and that the displaced family was offering Bagnia protection in exchange for half of a secret Guano Island and Elena Tia’s marriage to Chris. He accepted the offer and sent Marquis Dirac to bring the family to safety, while Elena waited in a mountain refuge, fearing for her father and her family’s future.

• Marquis Dirac told Chris that the Tia Family had fled after Charles took its fleet and businesses, and that they sought Bagnia’s protection.
• Dirac revealed that the Tia Family offered extraction rights to half of Guano Island and Elena Tia as a bride in exchange for protection.
• Chris agreed to the terms and ordered Dirac to take the Hegrande Legion to bring the Tia Family in, while considering the island’s strategic value and the need to secure it by sea.
• Elena waited with the Tia Family’s vulnerable members in Eagle Beak Valley, worried about her missing father, dwindling supplies, and sick children.
• Nanny Martha urged Elena to endure and trust that Chris would protect the family, and Elena resolved to care for the sick while awaiting rescue or pursuit.

Old Smoker infiltrated a tavern in Omdur Harbor and learned from Raitelian sailors how Minisian ships and cannon tactics had routed their fleet. When three Minisian fast ships appeared outside the harbor, he slipped away to report the impending attack and likely fall of Omdur Harbor.

• Old Smoker posed as a drunken Bagnian mercenary and paid a scar-faced Raitelian sailor for information.
• The scar-faced sailor and a young sailor described how Minisian ships used speed and accurate iron cannonballs to destroy Raitelian vessels built for ramming and boarding.
• The sailors explained that King Charles had taken control of Minisian ships and transformed the fleet into a ruthless fighting force.
• A messenger announced that three Minisian fast ships were outside the harbor and ordered the Raitelian personnel aboard to prepare for battle.
• Old Smoker escaped through the tavern kitchen passage and headed off to report the danger.

After Minisia destroyed Raitelia’s fleet and bombarded Omdur, Chris recognized that the Raitelians’ unexpected retreat signaled a hidden danger and ordered the Marlow Army Group to withdraw from First Main Camp. His army escaped just before more than ten thousand Raitelian cavalrymen attacked the abandoned camp.

• Minisia annihilated Raitelia’s fleet at Omdur and bombarded the harbor overnight, while the Raitelians abandoned the city’s defenses.
• Chris noticed the Raitelians’ unusual retreat and ordered Marlow’s army to fall back to Tavitsky, taking food and cannons and destroying supplies that could not be moved.
• Marlow questioned the order and considered delaying the withdrawal, but discovered that Chris’s military judges, guards, and instructors had already set the army’s evacuation and destruction plans in motion.
• Marlow accepted Chris’s authority and ordered the army to follow the withdrawal directive to the letter as First Main Camp burned behind them.
• More than ten thousand Raitelian cavalrymen attacked and surrounded the deserted First Main Camp the following day, after Chris’s swift decision had saved Marlow’s army.

Chris recognized that Minisia and Raitelia were preparing to eliminate Bagnia before turning against each other, so he ordered a surprise attack on Golden Ear City. Charles Stuart rallied the city’s defenses and summoned Sebas’s cavalry, leaving the battle poised to become a race between Bagnia’s assault and Retalian reinforcements.

• Chris concluded that Bagnia could not survive a prolonged three-way standoff and ordered his forces to attack Minisia at Golden Ear City.
• Chris formed the First Army Group from regular troops and the Second Army Group from players, then marched both toward Golden Ear City while leaving defenders at Tavitsky.
• Charles Stuart prepared to make Golden Ear City a secure base and dismissed the danger from Bagnia, but he grew concerned when three groups of scouts failed to return.
• Bagnian forces suddenly charged Golden Ear City, catching Charles’s army before its outer defenses were complete.
• Charles ordered his troops to fall back to the walls, prepare defensive positions and artillery, and sent messengers to summon Sebas’s cavalry from Chivilevka.
• Bagnian players collided with the retreating Minisian screening troops as Charles prepared to hold the city until Retalian reinforcements arrived.

Chris’s forces attacked the Minisian defenses outside Golden Ear City, with an expendable player vanguard breaking into the hastily formed line while artillery fire added to the chaos. As the vanguard began to falter and siege guns bogged down in mud, Chris ordered the main force forward and demanded that the heavy artillery fire sooner.

• The player vanguard charged the Minisian screening force, enduring musket volleys before smashing into its disorganized defensive line.
• The Second Army Group’s main force rested behind the fighting while Little Minion deployed fifty field guns and ordered them to bombard the Minisian positions.
• The barrage caused casualties and confusion on both sides, and several Minisian units fled before fire from Golden Ear City forced them back into battle.
• Chris judged that the vanguard would last no more than twenty minutes and ordered the Second Army Group to advance while the First Army Group deployed.
• Koushe reported that the heavy siege guns were delayed by muddy roads, so Chris ordered the sixteen-pounders to fire within thirty minutes and the twelve-pounders within twenty.

Black-and-White Bear led the Han-Tang Warriors through the Minisian center toward Golden Ear City's gate while the Second Army Group attacked the enemy wings. As Minisian reserves began forming to block the gate, Chris ordered the twelve-pounder batteries to bombard the area and clear a path for the assault.

• The Minisians sacrificed a cavalry unit to destroy the Vanguard Players, and fewer than a hundred survivors were soon wiped out.
• Black-and-White Bear advanced with five hundred Han-Tang Warriors through musket fire as Bagnian artillery and Gunpowder Arrows struck the Minisian lines.
• Black-and-White Bear led the Han-Tang Warriors in a charge that broke the Minisian center and scattered riflemen and sword-and-shield fighters.
• The Second Army Group's players attacked the Minisian wings, pinning them down and exploiting gaps as they tried to reinforce the collapsing center.
• Black-and-White Bear continued toward Golden Ear City's gate with about four hundred warriors, cutting through units attempting to stop them.
• After learning that heavier cannons would not be ready for fifteen minutes, Chris ordered the twelve-pounder batteries to bombard the gate area immediately, even at risk of hitting Bagnian troops.

Black-and-White Bear’s Han-Tang Warriors were driven back from Golden Ear City’s gate by Minisians using close-range grapeshot and a heavy counterattack. Seba Retalia ordered his army toward the battlefield, planning to attack whichever side was weaker and sending Marquis David Neil to Tavitsky.

• Black-and-White Bear led the remaining Han-Tang Warriors to the gate district, where Minisians unleashed grapeshot from imitation Crouching Tiger Cannons and countercharged behind their shield wall.
• Black-and-White Bear ordered fewer than two hundred survivors to retreat as Chris sent heavy cavalry to cover them and ordered the First Army Group to prepare to advance.
• A Minisian messenger begged Seba Retalia to honor the alliance and send troops to aid the defense of Golden Ear City.
• Seba ordered the Retalian army to break camp and head for the battlefield, while privately weighing whether to attack Chris, the Minisians, or both weakened forces.
• Seba ordered all generals to bring their armies to Golden Ear City by the day after tomorrow and directed Marquis David Neil to take his men to Tavitsky.

Hector survived the Bagnian assault on Golden Ear City and watched the Han-Tang Warriors withdraw after a brutal clash with the defenders. Chris ended the fighting and established camps on Boulder Heights, preparing for the Raitelian army’s arrival while facing the task of resurrecting fallen Players.

• Hector fled the artillery-driven rout, evaded the Discipline Squad, and reached Golden Ear City’s gate.
• The King’s Guard and Mercenaries fought the Han-Tang Warriors at the gate, suffering heavy losses before the Warriors retreated and Bagnian Heavy Cavalry arrived to cover them.
• Chris ordered a general retreat after realizing the Raitelians were approaching and directed his forces to establish camps around Boulder Heights.
• Bagnia and Minisia stopped fighting and recovered their dead and wounded, while Chris received a report of heavy Second Army Group casualties and comparatively light First Army Group losses.
• Chris surveyed the new camp at dusk and worried that he would have to resurrect the fallen Players manually overnight.

Old Alistair received clean, effective treatment at a Bagnian field hospital and marveled at its anesthetic and blood transfusion. Nearby, Milu suffered in Golden Ear City's filthy makeshift hospital, where crude surgery and brutal treatment left him wishing for death.

• Bagnian medics treated Old Alistair's bullet wound with anesthetic, stitches, a blood transfusion, and antibiotics.
• Old Alistair learned that the treatment was part of a first-aid assignment and thanked Demeter for Prince Chris before resting safely.
• Milu lay with a shattered leg in Golden Ear City's Sea God Cathedral, where wounded Minisian soldiers suffered amid filth and untreated injuries.
• A surgeon amputated a soldier's arm with a dirty saw while assistants used liquor as anesthetic and a red-hot iron to stop another soldier's bleeding.
• Milu feared the same treatment, envied the Bagnians' care, and prayed for death as he lay in pain.

At Golden Ear City, Charles concealed the army’s medical shortages and failing morale behind a victory banquet while ordering supplies seized and priests sent to the camps. At Boulder Heights, Chris learned his army faced a severe water shortage and arranged to use the online shopping platform to supply water.

• Charles learned the Sanctuary had run out of bandages, many severely wounded soldiers had died, and several army doctors had deserted.
• Charles ordered his steward to send palace linens to the wounded, requisition supplies, increase patrols, and have Sea God Priests encourage the soldiers.
• The Clerk reported that five poorly producing wells could not meet the needs of more than thirty-one thousand troops and laborers at Boulder Heights.
• Chris considered the hazards of drawing water from Green Creek and rejected blasting the rock to find groundwater.
• Chris arranged to buy bulk drinking water through the online shopping platform and ordered the Clerk to prepare ten waterproof-lined reservoirs.

Raitelia's armored cavalry arrived outside Golden Ear City, giving Charles hope, while Chris prepared Bagnia's defenses for battle. After assessing the battlefield and Minisia's weakened army, Sebas decided to ally with Charles against Bagnia before turning on Minisia.

• Chris ordered Bagnia's forces to full combat readiness as Raitelia's twenty thousand cavalry deployed southwest of Golden Ear City.
• Charles announced the cavalry as Minisia's reinforcements and urged his soldiers to prepare for a counterattack, but grew uneasy at Bagnia's calm defenses.
• Sebas inspected Bagnia's fortified camps and the previous day's battlefield, concluding that the Minisians were badly demoralized and Bagnia was stronger than he expected.
• Sebas decided to support Minisia against Bagnia first, then planned to defeat Minisia afterward.
• Sebas called for a messenger to meet Charles and discuss an attack on Bagnia the next day.

Chris relied on the Raitelians’ urgent need for a quick victory while both sides around Golden Ear City gathered reinforcements. Norton warned Charles that the Raitelians threatened Minisian lands and said the Bagnians could help defeat them on the battlefield; Sebas decided to attack Chris’s camp the next day.

• The Raitelians tried to intercept Chris’s supply convoy, but the Mountain Tiger Warband drove them off, and the two sides avoided further fighting for several days.
• Raitelian reinforcements and the Minisian Noble Coalition Army arrived near Golden Ear City, where Norton Perrier warned Charles that the Raitelians would not leave Minisian lands after defeating Chris.
• Norton admitted that the Minisians could not defeat the Raitelian main force alone, but said the Bagnians could help them on the battlefield.
• Sebas watched a poorly guarded Minisian supply convoy and considered destroying it, but decided to wait until the Bagnians on Boulder Heights were dead.
• Sebas rejected Perron’s suggestion that the Bagnians could be starved out and ordered an attack for the next day.

Chris held his players back as Raitelian forces attacked Boulder Heights, where five heavy cannons shattered the advancing infantry and forced Sebas to abandon his eastern plan. Sebas then sent his heavy cavalry and infantry against the Hegrande Legion’s southern camp, leaving the battle’s outcome to the assault.

• Chris told Dirac to bring the Hegrande Legion into action if the Raitelians attacked from another direction, and planned to keep the players in reserve.
• Glenn Master led his century toward Boulder Heights, where cannonballs tore through the packed Raitelian ranks and drove the survivors into a panicked retreat.
• Sebas watched his eastern attack collapse under the cannon fire, while the Minisians also failed to advance as planned.
• Sebas ordered the first and second heavy cavalry echelons to charge the southern gate of the Hegrande Legion’s camp, with infantry and Stone-Throwing Cannons following.
• Sebas demanded that Charles launch a real attack from the east and sent the Raitelian cavalry charging toward the camp, staking the battle on the assault.

Lennart's company waited behind the breastwork as Raitelia's knights charged through artillery and gunfire, then struggled to breach the Bagnians' barbed-wire defenses. After Carlisle and his men opened passages through the obstacles, the surviving knights charged forward and plunged into a hidden, spike-filled ditch.

• Lennart reassured his nervous soldiers while artillery battered the approaching Raitelian cavalry.
• Carlisle led Raitelia's heavy knights through cannon and flintlock fire toward the Bagnian defenses.
• Carlisle's lance broke against the barbed wire, and his men failed to cut through it with swords.
• Carlisle ordered retainers to hook ropes onto the obstacles and drag them away with their horses while Raitelian shooters covered them.
• The knights tore open breaches through the three rows of wire and stakes, then charged toward the breastwork.
• The Bagnians' hidden second ditch caught the charging knights, sending them into its iron spikes.

Lennart led the Bagnian halberdiers in slaughtering Retalian knights trapped in a spiked trench, but the attackers eventually broke through the first defensive line. As the Retalians charged the second line, Street-Sweeper’s gun crew fired six rapid cannon shots and forced them to retreat from the guns’ immediate range.

• Lennart rallied his halberdiers and ordered them to stab Retalian knights who plunged into the spiked trench at the breach.
• Retalian crossbowmen and matchlock troops shot Bagnian soldiers as Lennart and his men fought to keep the trapped attackers from climbing out.
• Retalian knights used bodies and planks to cross the trenches, captured part of the first defensive line, and drove Marquis Dirac to order a retreat to the second line.
• Street-Sweeper and his crew rapidly loaded and fired their Three-Pounder Field Gun at Retalian knights charging across open ground.
• After the crew’s sixth shot tore through their ranks, the Retalians halted and retreated or scattered away from the concentrated cannon fire.

Chris watched the Retalian assaults batter the Bagnian defenses while the disorganized Minisian attack on Boulder Heights faltered. After the Hegrande Legion repaired its defenses and treated its wounded, Lennart saw the Retalian Horsemen charging again.

• Chris watched the Retalians break through the First Line of Defense before cannon and rifle fire stopped their attacks at the Second Line.
• Chris saw the Minisian infantry approach Boulder Heights in scattered groups, where Bagnian defenders picked them off and sent some fleeing.
• The Retalians found the captured First Line exposed from behind, then launched another charge and sent five thousand troops around the Bagnian camp to attack from the west.
• Lennart ordered Combat Engineers to repair the wire and obstacles and had ammunition distributed to his Riflemen.
• Lennart visited the medical station, saw surgeons treat wounded soldiers with improved methods, and returned to inspect his company's morale and readiness.
• A lookout warned Lennart that the Retalian Horsemen were charging again.