Moonstone Offensive of Summer 1165

[India]

Bloody day on Moonstone Lake

Summer 1165 saw a major offensive on Thakria that resulted in the loss of 10000 Thakrian troops. Mercinae and Springdale took advantage of a tactical error to launch a major raid on the City of Darkness.

Mercinae had Sphere of Influence (SOI) legions in place on Moonstone Lake and had been gradually expanding their control up to the western gates of Thakria throughout 1165. As dawn broke Prince Myth and Fieldmarshall India led small legions into the last remaining Thakrian SOI. As the defensive camps were being set in time for the new month a scout reported back that the Thakrian Fortifications on their south-west gate had been left lowered.

The Prince and his Fieldmarshall immediately moved to the shadow of the gate to confirm the status of the Thakrian defences and were amazed to find the fortifications were indeed lowered and the slovenly camp of 4561 Thakrian soldiers had no watchmen. The gates to Thakria were open and unguarded.

There was an opportunity to hit the Thakrian army hard and possibly force a way into the city.

Back at the command tent the Mercinean generals pored over the maps of the ground around the open gate and began to formulate a plan. The battlefield where the attacking troops would need to assemble could fit a 5 thousand strong force. It would be tough to take out the Thakrian gate legion without reinforcements throughout the battle. In addition the approach was through the waters of the Moonstone Lake and River Leithe. The Mercinae plan was to commit 5500 troops to destroy the fort legion if there was no resistance a push into Thakria itself.

A runner was sent to Springdale informing them of the opportunity to raid their old enemy Thakria. A response was received that Springdale would join the battle once the way was clear and the fort legion destroyed.

The plan was not without flaws in that the fortifications could have been raised easily leaving the Mercinae legions exposed. Fortunately during the week it took to covertly mobilise troops to the attack location no senior Thakrians appeared.
On the morning of the attack the sun rose in the east directly behind the 5000  proud troops of Mercinae, its rays glinting off the polished silver of their armour. Prince Myth inspected the legion and ordered the attack to commence.

The Thakrian troops were still in disarray, abed with whores and sleeping off the effects of the various addictive herbs and poisons whose usage was rife in the absence of any command. Mercinae took them by surprise and rampaged through their camp annihilating any resistance. The Thakrians were fully over come overcome in a few hours with the loss of only 800 brave Mercineans.

Springdale was notified that the way into Thakria was open and committed 2000 troops to the fray. Myth and India began to break the attack legion into smaller platoons to pass into the city to form a raiding party. The Springdale Generals Rikki and Pahn took control of the newly arrived Springdalians.

At this point the Thakrian Maleki arrived and commenced a sustained attack in defence of his city targeting Generals of both Springdale and Mercinae as they directed their troops. The Springdale fighter force joined the fray repelling him again and again as the forces of Light assembled on the lowered forts of Thakria.

By arcane methods Maleki contacted the other senior Thakrians, Generals Plaman and Narissa and aged fighter Zenichiro. Two Thakrian 1000 man reserve forces were quickly moved into the streets near the gate and they launched a counter attack on the assembling Mercineans and Springdalians. The raiding parties repelled the reserve forces quickly, including a third 1000 man legion.

The Thakrian generals Narissa and Plaman went back to their barracks to regroup whilst the Springdalians completed the assembly of their raiding party and Mercinae continued to add to theirs. All the while fierce battles raged between the fighters of Thakria and the fighting forces of Springdale trying to prevent the Thakrians reaching the Springdale and Mercinae Generals.

As the sun began to set Myth and India were seen to confer in their command tent. Myth’s time in the land was limited and the main river bound legion of 3400 was still grouped under his banner. The Mercinean raiding party consisted of 1200 and were stood  preventing the Thakrians raising their forts.

The tide of battle was turning in Thakria’s favour. Springdale fought valiantly as Thakria brought out their larger defensive legions. The Mercinae raiding party and river legion fought a rearguard distracting the Thakrian legions. This allowed the two sets of Mercinae troops to be brought home into the Mercinae river gate in an organised retreat saving 900 to fight another day.

The final tally of the dead was 10000 Thakrians, 2000 Springdalians and 4600 Mercineans. Thakria lost a significant proportion of her army due to the folly of her leaders and the courage and persistence of Mercinae and Springdale.

[India]

Note: the original source document had review comments from the then Fieldmarshall of Thakria Narissa. Historians therefore believe the document to be a factual account.

[Narissa]

Oi oi, someone get on the wayback and find my version! It was fun! There was wine!

[Narissa]

Thanks go to Elmak for finding this for me!

=====================================================================

ahem, the real account -

Narissa awoke from her slumber, making a cursory glance around her Money Pit, tidying a few bales of rare silk that had been bumped into during the previous night. She chuckled, knowing that the rest of Thakria was surely still sleeping off the party; the wine had been a paticuarly special vintage of Sir Epicure's, one known as much for its exquisite taste, as for its potency.

Giggling in memory of their midnight, slightly meandering, dash through the streets in the city's caravan, she assessed Thakria's animal stocks with a proud nod. It might have been a more indirect route than usual, but it had been worth it, even if Tyr had fallen out somewhere around Krempton, and had been forced to slog his way back.

"Hmm..." she pondered, then. Something nagged at her mind, something about that ride...

Her senses attuned to the ether, she noted Sir Maleki slaying the city's foes, one after another. Impressed, she turned her mind to locating the fight, shocked when she discovered it was right on her doorstep! After a quick preparation, she launched herself into the battle, dashing to cover the warrior's back.

"What's...going...on...?" she panted between stabs and flips.

"Mercdale...troops...invading..." came the reply, between jabs and scythes.

"Damn...Kill mages..." And with a yank, then another, Rikki and India found themselves looking down the blades of Maleki's swords, briefly aware that their quiet, uncontested time with troops was at an end, before their souls were separated from their bodies.

Maleki nodded briefly in satisfaction, before cleaning his weapons on India's tunic. As he prepared to rejoin the battle, his unicorn let out a loud cry, rearing up onto its hind legs. A magical portal swirling into existence confirmed the steed's sensing - Zenichiro was awake and ready for action.

"Thank goodness," Narissa breathed, quickly scanning the horizon, and tallying up the opposing forces. "You guys are going to have to hold them off while I rally the troops..." Biting her lip doubtfully, she worried how just the pair of them would be able to stop the nearly two dozen generals posed to strike against Thakria.

"Need a hand?" a quiet voice murmered, making all three fighters whirl about in suprise. Behind them, grining slyly, was the infamous Plaman, known, among other things, for his good timing. The trio grinned back, feeling more at ease. Suddenly things were beginning to look a lot more doable.

The thieves retreated to the barracks to assemble their loyal soldiers, as Maleki and Zenichiro waded among the foes, dealing death with swift strokes. Staves glowered menancingly down at the corpses littering the Lakeside Promenade. Feeling the pressure intensify, the Mercinean and Springdalian generals tried to speed their troops along, but the rush only increased mistakes, making them falter...

Narissa marched out a legion she had kept prepared for times like these, one thousand loyal soldiers, atuned to a constant state of readiness. Bravely, they marched into the fray, and began to decimate the many fifty-man contingents that had just emerged from their watery marches. Plaman, in the meantime continued to assemble his men, aiming for a large legion to take out the growing Mercinean masses.

Pahn, seeing the Thakrians close to action, chose to march his legion into the city - right into Narissa's second legion, set for an ambush. As her troops crashed into the eastern flank of his army with a roar, Maleki let out a bloodcurdling cry, sending the Springdalian general to ride the ships of death along with his soldiers.

India, panicking at the rout, attempted to retreat, but her small legions all slain by the initial attack, found she only had one large force to break down before she could manage an escape. Attempting to give the order to disband, a shadow fell across her legion. Turning in horror, she saw Plaman advancing, before his men fell upon hers with a bloodthirsty hunger.

Sitting back in exhaustion, Narissa and Plaman watched as their men hunted down and slew the remaining soldiers from the Mercdalian legions. Agonized cries intermittently pierced the air, as Maleki and Zenichiro chased the generals back to the protection of temples and stockrooms. Grinning wryly, Narissa turned to Plaman, gesturing at the carnage.

"We managed to turn the tables quite well, don't you think?"

He nodded back, before smirking softly. "Would you like a glass of Sir Epicure's finest, in celebration?"

Her eyes shooting daggers at him, Narissa groaned and shook her head. "I think I will....never...touch that vile brew again!"

***

(or if you prefer an out of role synopsis:

In truth, that day was an amusing display of the lack of warfare ability from both Mercinae and Springdale. Given the immense opportunity our slip-up offered, combined with a fighting squad of nearly 20 people to our 4 (2 of which were the generals busy assembling), I'm shocked you not only failed to destroy anything, but lost more troops than we did.

The majority of Thakria's losses were in the initial legion that had been manning forts. After that point (ie once anyone came online), we were able to pick off the 50s coming off the water and then completely anhiliate the assembled legions as their leaders were riding the ships of death, thanks to our well coordinated fighting.

You failed to mention the near 1000 men you left sitting in the middle of the lake, which I was able to assail later at my leisure...

Doing the math, totalling up your losses and Springdale's (at least 8000 vs our poor little fort legion's death) it seems a costly price to pay to simply take out a legion that isn't considered part of the effective army anyways.)

[Narissa]

As a followup note - we found out a few RL months later that the "kid" who left the forts down was actually a second who did it intentionally.

[India]

The whole point of getting you to review the original write up was to confirm the numbers. I assumed when you reviewed it for me that was what you were doing. Not sure what your later comments about inaccuracies are supposed to mean. The account I wrote was meant to be a factual representation of what happened - including the losses. I have little time for those who lie and I try never to lie myself - certainly there was no place for lies in this type of document, that was the whole point of the review process and indeed posting.

If I made errors in the losses then they were genuine and you missed them on in your first review so I apologise for misleading the wider population if indeed that is the case - there was no intentition to exagerate. I don't see the point of that.

In my warfare actions for Mercinae I have *always* made the best attempt possible with the resources (in this case Myth and myself) and the timeframes (most of the day until Myth had to leave). I *did* manage to bring a decent amount of men back to Mercinae, through the rivergate and into our East barracks. There was a decision point where we stopped trying to move forward and Myth redeployed into 50s for me to lead home whilst Thakria was tied up with Springdale. We did not get all our men out but we got enough. This whole attack was not planned - or even supposed to get into Thakria particularly. We took enough men to take out the fort legion which was the Mercinaen objective, most of the time we expected to get caught, have the forts raised and lose our men as they were in 50s to some sort of counter attack on the retreat

I will never be good enough to match you, Circe, Plaman, Kodiak or any of the Thakrian generals but sometimes you just have to take a chance and go on the offensive and that is what we decided to do.

[Narissa]

Geez, breathe woman. Don't take things personally - we're both generals, talking about our armies.

NOTE:

Thanks go to Elmak for finding this for me!

My post above is just the original one that was made on the guildhouse a few RL YEARS ago. Hell if I have any record of the numbers now - though I suspect my post from back then was accurate, as I included Springdale losses in the total. Fort legions can only be 5k at max, and I know we had less than that, since we used that as a common exit for SOI, so 3500-4000 is the logical amount lost there, leaving 6000-6500 other men who "died". There is no possible way we lost 6k men when we had 1k man legions (Plaman's) and a 2500 man legion picking off 50s (we didn't even HAVE 6k men out of barracks), so there, you are, a review of numbers disputing yours, using simple logic.

Circe was not Thakrian at that point - she was Mercinean and avoided any conflict of interest by simply not telling me about what was going on.

Kodiak did not log in at any point during the campaign.

I'm not disparaging your efforts, mostly the Springdalian ones. Your troops were busy with the assailing, their's were not, yet they still failed to group them into any strong setup. In addition, there were a LOT of fighters, staves and rits on your side. Our side had literally four fighters. It's a victory, I suppose in that we lost *some* troops, but one through attrition, if that.

[India]

My post here was my original post and the numbers are what I recorded then. We took 5k and fully expected to lose 5k in exchange for the 4.6k on your forts.

I made no mention of Kodiak et al being involved just as I made no mention of any other Mercinae fighters there - if I had had any fighters available then clearly it would not just have been me and Myth marching and assembling.

I made reference to Kodiak, Plaman and Circe to drive home the point that I ADMIT that I am nothing like the tactical genius' that reside in Thakria and could not possible hope with my mere slither of marching ability hope to raze mighty Thakria.

We made a calculation that we could afford to lose 5k  and took a risk to march because someone had been stupid enough to leave the Thakrian forts down. That's it - there was no plan apart from that.

[Narissa]

As a followup note - we found out a few RL months later that the "kid" who left the forts down was actually a second who did it intentionally.

[Dunccan]

Again,

Lies and idiocy.

Mercinae was told to leave men on the fort location. If you had left men on the fort location they couldn't have raised them without whiping them out. I told myth this. I said bring in another 20,000 takeout all their barracks legions they are probably facing the wrong way.

But no, they ran around the city like chickens with their heads cut off they raised the fots and the rest is history. A stupid one.

[Rajj]

Again,

Lies and idiocy.

Mercinae was told to leave men on the fort location. If you had left men on the fort location they couldn't have raised them without whiping them out. I told myth this. I said bring in another 20,000 takeout all their barracks legions they are probably facing the wrong way.

But no, they ran around the city like chickens with their heads cut off they raised the fots and the rest is history. A stupid one.

Yup!!!