"Perhaps we should give our troops some field experience and let the recruits learn how cruel the battlefield can be before they face the Scourge. That way, we can keep them from making mistakes when the time comes." Although the people of the Kingdom of Stromgarde made excellent soldiers, there was a vast difference between those who had shed blood and those who had not. Galen Trollbane shared this concern with Marshal Oslett.
After hearing Galen Trollbane's analysis, Marshal Oslett wholeheartedly agreed. "You're right, Prince. Our recruits need a baptism of blood. Only then can we be sure they won't lose their nerve in battle."
A baptism of blood was something training alone could never provide. Even a formally trained noble scion of the ninth rank who had never shed blood might lose to an eighth-rank gladiator seasoned in the arena.
At present, there were only three powers in the Arathi Highlands. The strongest was naturally Stromgarde, led by Galen Trollbane, followed by the orcs who remained in Hammerfall. The weakest were the Witherbark trolls of Witherbark Village.
Galen Trollbane knew perfectly well how formidable the orcs were. According to intelligence reports, at least fifty thousand orcs lived in Hammerfall, most of them young adults in their prime. The orcs were a race capable of putting their entire population under arms, and their fighting strength far surpassed that of humans. Galen Trollbane had absolutely no desire to take them on just yet.
It was best to go after the weakest target. The Witherbark trolls were only a small-to-medium-sized forest troll clan, found exclusively in the Arathi Highlands and the Hinterlands.
Most Witherbark trolls lived in the Hinterlands. Those in Witherbark Village in the Arathi Highlands numbered fewer than a hundred thousand, including many elderly and young. Nor were trolls as powerful in combat as orcs. That was why, in the future, they would have to ally with the Stonesplinter ogres to withstand attacks from the orcs of Hammerfall.
Having chosen his target, Galen Trollbane led ten thousand elite Stromgarde militiamen and thirty thousand Stromgarde recruits out of the city, heading east.
The Arathorian Empire had risen through its struggle against the trolls, and the Trollbane family, its direct heirs, had carried on that proud tradition. Their artifact, Trol'kalar, was also known as the Troll Slayer. Once wielded by their ancestor Ignatz, it had earned its fame alongside Strom'kar, the artifact that symbolized the authority of the human empire.
The forty thousand Stromgarde militiamen followed the main road all the way to the outskirts of Go'Shek Farm.
As its name suggested, the Arathi Highlands was a highland region. Relatively fertile, it had three farms that produced large quantities of grain: Northfold Farm, Dabyrie Farm, and Go'Shek Farm.
Go'Shek Farm lay farthest east, just north of Witherbark Village. The Witherbark trolls did not know how to grow crops, so they frequently raided Go'Shek Farm, effectively turning it into a training ground for the Kingdom of Stromgarde's troops.
That day, however, Go'Shek Farm had come under attack once again-not from the trolls of Witherbark Village, but from ten thousand brawny orcs.
"Prince, the orcs of Hammerfall are attacking Go'Shek Farm. There are roughly ten thousand of them." Lieutenant Varokar, his trusted aide and cavalry commander, had ridden ahead with the cavalry and brought word of the situation at Go'Shek Farm back to Galen Trollbane.
Hammerfall's fifty thousand orcs naturally needed food to sustain themselves, and Go'Shek Farm, the closest farm to Hammerfall, had inevitably drawn their attention.
In the future, when World of Warcraft launched, Go'Shek Farm had already fallen into the hands of Hammerfall's orcs. He had learned then that they had taken the farm long before, and this attack was very likely the reason.
To restore the Kingdom of Stromgarde, he had to secure control over the Arathi Highlands at the very least. Although he could not deal with the orcs of Hammerfall anytime soon, Galen Trollbane would not stand by and watch Go'Shek Farm, one of the kingdom's three great granaries, fall.
After winning the coming war against the invading Scourge, he intended to call on refugees from Lordaeron, Alterac, and Dalaran to join Stromgarde. He therefore had to ensure an ample food supply.
With that in mind, Galen Trollbane knew this battle was unavoidable. He placed the ten thousand elite Stromgarde militiamen in the vanguard, with the thirty thousand recruits behind them, and hurried to reinforce Go'Shek Farm.
Before long, Galen Trollbane arrived at Go'Shek Farm and saw the orcs attacking it. Far taller and stronger than humans, they wore little over their muscular green bodies and wielded stone axes or human weapons.
"Protect Go'Shek Farm!" Galen Trollbane spurred his Arathi Highlands warhorse forward, leading the charge himself. As a heroic-rank warrior, fighting at the head of his troops would raise morale enormously and have a tremendous impact.
The orcs attacking Go'Shek Farm had clearly never expected a large Stromgarde army to appear there, and they froze in shock. But orcs revered battle by nature. Rather than retreat, they roared and charged to meet them.
These orcs had only recently been liberated and had yet to fully shake off the effects of demon blood. They were therefore badly weakened, nowhere near as formidable as they should have been. Meanwhile, with the heroic-rank Galen Trollbane as their spearhead, the Stromgarde Militia drove straight into their ranks.
In the hands of a heroic-rank warrior, Trol'kalar-a weapon of peak epic quality, infinitely close to a legendary artifact-was extraordinarily deadly. Almost no orc could withstand a single stroke from Galen Trollbane.
Seeing Galen Trollbane unleash his might, the orcs naturally wanted to bring him down. Yet even when dozens of burly orcs rushed him together, he finished them all with a single Cleave.
The fighting strength these orcs displayed was nowhere near that of the ten thousand elite Stromgarde militiamen. With the veterans leading the way, the army soon crushed the Hammerfall forces in a one-sided battle.
After leaving more than a thousand corpses behind, the ten thousand orcs from Hammerfall withdrew from Go'Shek Farm.
Lieutenant Varokar wanted to lead the Stromgarde cavalry in pursuit, but Galen Trollbane stopped him. "Varokar, a dying beast is at its most dangerous. If we pursue them, we'll provoke a desperate counterattack from the orcs of Hammerfall."
One day, Stromgarde would fight the orcs of Hammerfall, but that day was certainly not today.
Galen Trollbane tallied the casualties. Even against the badly weakened and poorly equipped Hammerfall orcs, the Stromgarde Militia had lost five hundred men. Most were recruits whom dying orcs had dragged down with them in their final bursts of strength.
Most of the Stromgarde militiamen had no idea why they had defeated the orcs so easily. Ever since Thrall's campaign to liberate the orcs, the human kingdoms of the Alliance had scarcely won a single victory against them. As far as the militiamen were concerned, they had defeated the mighty orcs under Prince Galen Trollbane's leadership, and their morale soared.
Galen Trollbane, who knew the whole truth, had no intention of telling them. This was the perfect opportunity to lead the high-spirited Stromgarde Militia against the Witherbark trolls of Witherbark Village.
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