The battle for Grunewald Castle, part one

[Simulator starting]

[Select the officer identity of a company commander in Veluca's Second Legion?]

[Yes]

[You arrived in Calradia.]

[Time: one morning]

[Location: commander's tent, Second Legion camp, Veluca]

[You entered the command tent of your immediate superior, Matheas. Your four fellow company commanders had already gathered there, waiting for him to arrive.]

[You briefly greeted the other commanders. The First and Third Company Commanders welcomed you warmly, but the Second and Fourth seemed unhappy that you, the Fifth Company Commander, had risen to their rank in such a short time. They ignored your greeting. You paid them little mind and found a seat.]

[A short while later, Commander Matheas entered with the captain of his guards. He announced that every company had to be fully equipped and ready by this time tomorrow. You would have two days to reach Grunewald Castle and help its lord defend against a possible Swadian attack.]

[In fact, you had already received this news when you returned yesterday. At noon, you invited Quartermaster Bob, Commander Matheas's brother-in-law, over for drinks. You also summoned the nine squad leaders newly assigned to you and announced Commander Matheas's decision.]

[Despite their orders, two burly squad leaders wanted to see how well their new superior could fight. They dressed it up as a way to coordinate better with their company commander in battle. You told them they could both come at you together.]

[The fight began quickly and ended just as fast. You dealt with the two troublemakers with a few punches and kicks. Though you left their faces bruised and swollen, that did not stop them from forcing smiles and offering you toasts. That settled the matter of your promotion for the time being.]

[Once everyone had eaten and drunk their fill, you informed your men that they would march out tomorrow and told them to prepare early. If they let you down when the time came, they were not to blame you for showing no mercy.]

[The next morning, all 110 men in your company stood in an 11-by-10 formation on the camp's parade ground, waiting for Commander Matheas. Though your ranks were far from orderly or uniform, their bearing was vastly better than that of the other four companies. The entire afternoon you had spent pushing them with threats and incentives had not been wasted.]

[A quarter of an hour later, Commander Matheas arrived unhurriedly at the parade ground with his mounted bodyguards. After a brief address, he ordered every company to reach Grunewald Castle before sunset the following day.]

[The entire force, roughly six hundred strong, then set out for Grunewald Castle. Once the march began, everything fell into chaos. It was not that the terrain was particularly difficult; a road connected Veluca to Grunewald Castle. Rather, Matheas had given them too little time. The journey normally took three days, but the troops were now required to complete it in two.]

[At first, things went well enough, and most men could keep up. By afternoon, however, military bearing was the least of their concerns. Entire units began falling behind, and your company was no exception.]

[There was little you could do except run back and forth, keeping your troops moving within your reach. Strangely, as you kept gathering up stragglers, many squad leaders you did not recognize brought their men into your force as well.]

[This made your force grow larger and march ever more slowly. You could only keep running from front to rear, urging them to hurry. Military punishment was no laughing matter. To make up time, you also rested only briefly that night.]

[In this fashion, your troops stumbled into the camp near Grunewald Castle just as the sun was setting the next day. When you reported to Commander Matheas that your expected strength was 110 but your actual strength exceeded 190, he sprayed a mouthful of tea across his desk. Then he waved a hand and told you with a smile that, since you had brought all those men here, you could deal with them as you saw fit.]

[With his orders secured, you left Commander Matheas's tent and had a fierce argument with the four company commanders who rushed over. Of course, they did all the arguing. You simply repeated the same thing: you would not return a single man. Commander Matheas had given the order, and they could take their complaints to him. Seeing that they could not get their men back, all four declared that they would complain to the commander. They shot you resentful looks and left one after another.]

[After returning to camp, you called all your squad leaders together for a meeting. You presented Commander Matheas's orders and told them they would be serving under you from now on. Through the ensuing discussion, you also learned the composition of your force.]

[Your company now had 196 men: one Rhodok sharpshooter, sixteen trained Rhodok crossbowmen, fifty-eight Rhodok crossbowmen, eleven trained Rhodok spearmen, and 110 Rhodok spearmen. They formed eighteen squads in total, seven of crossbowmen and eleven of spearmen. In addition to your own ten full-strength squads, the extra eighty-six men formed seven full-strength squads and one understrength squad with only nine men, including its leader. You made no further changes, instead ordering them to get as much rest as possible that night and bring their squads outside the camp to wait for you tomorrow.]

[You were somewhat puzzled by the poor quality of Veluca's troops. It was not just your own soldiers: eighty percent of the entire Second Legion consisted of recruits. Only the company commanders and squad leaders had any real fighting ability. The rest would be little more than cannon fodder on the battlefield.]

[Your confusion did not last long. Bob came to drink with you that evening and answered your question. Veluca's true elite force, the First Legion, had been taken to Gamich Castle on the Sarranid border by Lord Matheas three months earlier. The lord of Grunewald Castle had gone with them.]

[There, they joined the kingdom's other legions to resist the great Sarranid army stationed at Wercheg Castle. The entire Second Legion consisted of recruits enlisted within the past two months. Its primary purpose was to intimidate Swadia into abandoning its ambition to attack the northeastern Rhodok lands.]

[Clearly, this plan had failed before it even began. The kidnappers captured a few days earlier had confessed that Swadia had already assembled several thousand troops at King Harlaus's summons. They would arrive here any day.]

[According to the intelligence, the Swadian army might appear outside the castle in another two or three days. By this point, Bob had clearly drunk too much and looked rather dejected. Still, he had not forgotten his real reason for coming. He placed a small chest of denars on the table and pushed it toward you.]

[He told you that this contained the spoils from your defeat of the kidnappers and Matheas's reward for you. He also hinted that, if you thought the danger too great, he could arrange for you to leave the castle and return to Veluca with him. The price, of course, was that small chest of denars, and the offer applied to you alone.]

[You did not accept Bob's suggestion, nor did you take the denars he had pushed toward you. Instead, you pushed the small chest of gold coins back into his arms and asked him to exchange all of it for armor-as much as he could get.]

[Bob was surprised by your decision but said little about it. He explained that the money would buy only a few suits of iron armor, but if you wanted padded armor or pleated armor, he could get you plenty-enough to equip every man currently under your command, at the very least. He even had stock at Grunewald Castle and could deliver it the next morning. He asked whether that would suit you.]

[You gladly accepted Bob's suggestion, while discreetly asking whether this might arouse Commander Matheas's suspicions. Bob waved the concern away and told you not to worry. Before leaving, he also discreetly warned you that this war might be exceptionally brutal and urged you to make plans early.]

[The next morning, you and your bodyguards-the ten trained Rhodok crossbowmen-kept order as you distributed all the padded armor you had obtained from Bob. Once your men changed out of their ragged uniforms, they finally looked a little like soldiers. After handing over the armor, Bob said goodbye to you.]

[Commander Matheas made no direct response to your actions. Instead, he sent a messenger with orders for your force to defend the wall to the left of Grunewald Castle's gate. That afternoon, you led your troops into Grunewald Castle.]

[Grunewald Castle covered an exceptionally large area compared with most castles. It stood atop a steep hill, with an unbroken mountain range behind it and sheer cliffs along most of its flanks. Only a winding path in front led directly to the gate. Farther out lay a vast forest, with a small stretch of level ground between it and the castle. This was an important trade route, where Grunewald Castle's soldiers normally set up checkpoints to collect tolls.]

[Grunewald Castle currently housed a garrison of around two hundred men. Even with the troops Matheas had brought, the combined force of seven or eight hundred did not make the castle feel crowded.]

[After reaching your assigned position, you carefully inspected the wall you were to defend. It stretched nearly two hundred meters, with a projecting lookout platform twenty or thirty meters from the gate that offered a clear view of the entire wall. Most of the wall stood atop cliffs. Only two places were vulnerable: a six- or seven-meter-wide section adjoining the gate stood relatively close to the ground, and a gentle slope four or five meters wide and over ten meters long led up to the middle of the wall, allowing enemies to climb toward it. If you were attacking this wall, those two weak points would unquestionably be your best choices.]

[You then gathered all the squad leaders at the lookout platform and issued your defensive orders. You divided the spearmen's squads into two groups and assigned them to the wall's two weak points. They were to remember their positions and never leave them during battle, no matter what happened.]

[You also distributed the crossbowmen evenly along the wall and the three sides of the lookout platform to give them good firing angles.]

[While you were arranging the defenses, two grim-faced Rhodok sergeants approached you. They belonged to Grunewald Castle's original garrison. Though they were only squad leaders, their fighting ability far surpassed that of your troops. They led two squads of veteran Rhodok spearmen, who carried exceptionally long war spears and wore kettle helmets and full suits of mail beneath surcoats. All were seasoned veterans, leagues ahead of your men in combat.]

[They were not under your command, however, and said only that they would cooperate with your force in the defense. You had an inkling of Matheas's intentions. He knew your men were all recruits and were very likely to flee once fighting began. These soldiers might well be a blocking detachment he had assigned to prevent desertion.]

[You welcomed them with a delighted expression. You knew perfectly well that your motley force of fewer than two hundred men was unlikely to hold against a fierce enemy assault. Whatever these supposed blocking troops had in mind, they would have to join the defense when the time came. An old saying from your homeland described the situation perfectly: when the nest fell, no egg remained intact.]

[Two peaceful days passed, but you did not waste them. Tirelessly, you warned your men again and again not to flee. If they died at the enemy's hands, their families might still receive compensation. If they died at the hands of the blocking troops, their families would certainly suffer as well.]

[You also explained in detail how to shoot from behind the battlements, how to raise their shields against enemy fire, and how to kill enemies the moment they climbed up the siege ladders. Clearly, Rhodok equipment was exceptionally well suited to defending walls. Besides powerful crossbows and long spears, even the lowest-ranking soldiers carried simple broad shields. If enemies reached the battlements, your men could even form another wall of raised shields inside the defenses.]

[On the morning of the third day, you had just left the keep and climbed onto the wall when you saw a great crowd of villagers gathered at the gate, making their way into the castle. There were roughly a thousand of them.]

[For the nearby villagers, this was a routine occurrence. Living on the border between two kingdoms, they were obliged not only to support the castle's garrison but also to bring their families into the castle for refuge whenever war broke out. Otherwise, the enemy might drive them into joining the assault on the castle. Of course, no matter how experienced they were, their entry always caused some confusion.]

[The confusion lasted until nearly evening before finally subsiding. As darkness approached, you saw numerous banners of Swadian nobles flying north of Grunewald Castle. The enemy had finally arrived.]

[The Kingdom of Swadia had a fairly balanced military. Though its infantry and missile troops were slightly weaker than those of the Kingdom of Rhodoks, its cavalry was unrivaled across Calradia. The fearsome reputation of Swadian knights hung over the nobles of every kingdom and never faded. No king would be foolish enough to face King Harlaus's armored cavalry alone, especially after he had summoned all the nobles of his kingdom.]

[The Kingdom of Rhodoks, Swadia's ancestral enemy, relied entirely on its mountains, rivers, and forests to thwart King Harlaus's ambition to reclaim his former vassal kingdom.]

[Grunewald Castle and Agalon Castle were the two most important strongholds along the northeastern Rhodok border. Whenever conflict erupted between the two kingdoms, the opening battle inevitably took place at one of these castles-or even at both at once.]

[If Harlaus broke through either castle, nothing would remain to stop Swadian cavalry from sweeping across the broad plains around Veluca. Veluca would then be in grave danger as well. If it too fell, the whole Rhodok kingdom would be left wide open.]

[Now, taking advantage of the confrontation between the Rhodoks and the Sarranid, King Harlaus had finally brought an army of over ten thousand to the foot of the undermanned Grunewald Castle.]