The Invasion of Mercinae 1082

[India]

This bloodstained note was posted on the Mercinae notice board moments after the Mercinaen defence legions on the North Gate had been vanquished by the Thakrian Horde and the city defenders including myself overwhelmed by the Thakrian fighter force.

To Everyone,

The city of Mercinae defences were breached on this day 9th Paglost 1082.


I ask that the forts remain lowered at all gates and I will post this afternoon to explain my actions in the defence of the city.

Special commendations go to Blueknight (Maverick) and Tenebrae for their determination to attack the enemy in the face of overwhelming forces. Kahn also deserves mention.

I give you this final thought, the city of Mercinae is not our buildings and comms but our people and I would like to think you all remain Mercinean whatever the circumstances.

India

[India]

At the time of this invasion fortifications and manned fortifications were significantly weaker than they are now. There were also no location caps on legion size and we will likely not see Warfare on this scale again.

The city army was after the attack on Thakria, about 53k with the addition of some small guild forces. The Thakrians had around 90k, plus some large guild forces.

The Thakrians chose perhaps the most expensive way in both time and rations, to march on us which was quite amusing to watch. There were 60k troops - a 40k under Yairi and two 10ks one of which was under Ender. The march lasted many RL days. Each location cost 1000 rations for the 40k men so quite a lot across the whole march.

Having worked through the calculations it was clear that the Mercinaen forces would be most effective standing in city defence rather than manning the fortifications. Given the time available I was able to unman both the East and North gate fortifications. Omacron gathered a 10k to protect the River Gate and I gathered four 10k at the North Gate.

The intention all along was to use our four bannered 10k to march out and attack the 40k. Four attacking legions would have beaten the much larger single legion which could only attack one at a time. However the difficult part was timing. I was not available during the days, the nights were full of Thakrians and it takes over 3 hours to rebanner 10k to another commander.

Fortunately, today I had planned a day off to cater for an 11am appointment and based on the steady rate of march of the 40k through out the previous days would have had time to start the Mercinaen troops marching to the attack on my return at 1pm.

However these plans and indeed our 40k attack calculations were at risk if the Thakrians split their 40k or as perhaps I would have done, moved their 10ks as an advance attack.

So this morning as I logged on for my morning check I found things had changed and the Thakrians had split their 40k into seven 5-6k legions to fast march from Path Entrance to the North Gate of Mercinae.

So, what to do?

The Thakrians had significant prescence as expected - Plaman, Zenichiro, Yairi, Kodiak, Ender, Lancelot, Mohrion, Alethia, Belgadeth and Tleilaxu and we had Blueknight, Tenebrae and myself.

I had the three of the 10k legions plus 4.4k mages just south of North Traders Way and one 10k just to the east  in the Side Street - intended to repel just this sort of attack in the North Traders Way location, all it would require would be the assail command.

So I stood and waited a while - if they had marched then with their seven smaller 6k legions and two 10ks they would have easily walked through our 100k forts with little damage, but maybe would have been hit quite hard by our troops.

However they started to reassemble into bigger legions to attack the fortifications which was bad news for me - to reassemble a 6k takes around 2 hours and I had a deadline of 11am.

Our test in preparation to march on the 40k had proved that leaderless legions are pretty weak so I wanted to be there to issue an assail command - but the Thakrian reassemble made it unlikely they would come to me in time.

Therefore I took the decision to march the 40k to meet them.

In order to do this the forts had to be lowered and my decision not to raise them again was based on the fact that the now three 10k+ legions they had would destroy the forts quickly if they assailed together.

So there followed an interesting hour of issue the march command, die to the Thakrians, ship, walk back dp through the staves, issue the next command etc. The troops slowly covered the few locations between them and the assembling Thakrian legions.

As my four 10k legions drew close to the Thakrian assembly point Yairi marched ahead his assembled 20k giving me the target legionfor my assail command.

However by the time I had returned from the ship ride after issuing the final march command Yairi had already ordered his own assail on our troops and the Mercinaen legions had lost 25%. In addition the smaller Thakrian legions had now moved up to join Yairi's legion.

I issued the assail command to our remaining troops and they commenced their attack on Yairi's legion. They were significantly out numbered as the other legions assailed and our main force of troops perished - however taking a fair number of Thakrian troops with them.

By the time I arrived back from that last ship ride the troops were dead and the city had fallen. I then left for my appointment.

Although they did not take out as many Thakrian troops as I had hoped because of the shipping and delay in ordering the assail I believe that it was the right approach to march out. Bannered legions act independently and if I had left them as placed and gone without ordering the assail the damage to the Thakrians would have been less that it actually was as only the attacked Mercinae legion would have engaged the Thakrian agressor legion.

So, I did what I could with the time and forces available to me, I'm sorry it was not enough to prevent the razing of the city, had they delayed their big push another day the outcome could of been quite different.

Our New Year's Eve raid was planned to take minimum time, troops and rations and I would hope you will all allow yourselves just a tiny smile to think how many rations the Thakrians spent getting here (many more than we have for them to steal when they raze) and just how many they will use up to get back.

[Dunccan]

I'm Glad i ran into this little tidbit.

Let us paint this picture with some primary colors.

I am only going to say one thing. You are an absolute liar.

You could have saved mercinae that day. You had a 25k man the 40k man was not assembled yet they did not march it in 40k liar, they had them in 10k's and then redeployed. i know i was there i saw it you marched out 20,000 mercinaen men wigh which you could have taken out 3 of the 10's at least. You died though. You died and kept dp

And as you kept dp the thakrians redeployed and hammered your legion.

Aryanna and I SAW this happen we were there, I was no longer mercinaen I had left mercinae earlier due to the betrayal.

Aryanna was, Had you kept your 20, and assaulted as you were told. As I told you to instead of keeping DP if you had multi engaged the legions You would have won. Those thakrian legions were OUTSIDE mercinaen walls because the marchers didn't have time to redeploy the day they marched them out. It takes forever to redeploy.. well took forever.

That is the truth

What is it about people who MUST lie about their history.

[India]

You had a 25k man

Please see below for troop placements on 11/01/03, six days before the Thakrian Invasion on 17/01/03. I have highlighted three 10ks at the north gate. As far as I can remember in the six days we stripped the East Gate to make the other 10k.
 
920h, 920m deiv- battlefield
4091  9019 Mercinaens     Omacron      By river jetties
5746  10000 Mercinaens    -            Next to the north gate
6060  500 Knights         EDGTHO       Forge stock-room
      * Marching to the elsewhere.
8425  10000 Mercinaens    INDIA        Traders way
9748  11 Mercinaens       -            Before the Mercinaen gate
18845 389 Mercinaens      -            Barracks interior
19103 11 Mercinaens       -            Within the courtyard of the gate
29244 100 Mercinaens      -            Before the eastern gate
32094 1501 Mercinaens     -            Outfitters stock-room
32202 171 Mercinaens      -            Barracks interior
32574 5000 Mercinaens     -            Road to the Eastgate
38515 750 Mercinaens      Foxedup      The Queensway
42917 6510 Mercinaens     -            The Eastgate of Mercinae
51166 100 Mercinaens      -            Under the eastern gate
65828 100 Mercinaens      -            Outside of Mercinae
68995 10 Mercinaens       -            South of the rivergate
90534 10000 Mercinaens    INDIA        Traders way
94173 12 Mercinaens       -            Barracks interior
 

the 40k man was not assembled yet they did not march it in 40k liar, they had them in 10k's and then redeployed

Please find below various Mercinaen citizens reporting into me as their FM positioning of the Thakrian legions as they marched towards Mercinae. As you can see they marched as I stated. They legions were split on the morning of the 17th into smaller legions which were then assembled a few locations outside of Mercinae.
 
From the same log:
11th of January.
Tenebrae: "To chronos and india 8.09 gmt Marshland beside fouled river East
thakrians70667 e (40000), 1 west of there North thakrians20885 s (10000) .
 
From a log on 17/01/03 post-invasion, reviewing msgs.
 
17th of January.
Warakurna: "Ok 40k 10k 10k of troops nw of woodmans hut as of 00:30 17/1/03"
 

know i was there i saw it you marched out 20,000 mercinaen men wigh which you could have taken out 3 of the 10's at least.

I did attempt to march out my 4x 10k as I said in the post but I was defeated by the time taken by large legions to march and my dentists appointment looming.
 
Having just done a brief calculation in my old Warfare calculators:
To march 10k 3 urban and 3 wildland locations which would have taken me up to the rough area the Thakrian's were assembling would have taken 2h 45min. That of course excludes the time to order and ship inbetween orders which was what happened.
 

You died though. You died and kept dp

And as you kept dp the thakrians redeployed and hammered your legion.

From a log on 17/01/03 post-invasion, reviewing posts.
 
Message #19685.
Date: 17-1-2003 at 14:02.
From: Loremonger Yairi.
To  : Everyone.
Subj: India.
I'm sure there will be many posts relative to the invasion but I did
 want to say something about India. She gained my full respect tonight and did
everything she possibly could do to fight us off. She faced overwhelming odds
and had basically ZERO fighter support.
I lost count of the number of times she shipped. It's a shame her fellow
citizens weren't about to lend her a hand. Things MIGHT have turned out
differently.
So to India, my hat is off. To the rest of Mercinae I say Muhahahahahaha!
Written by my hand on the 11th of Paglost, in the year 1082.
 
 
As to what happened in the actual invasion I did not take a log as I don't auto-log anything, I just save buffer if needed, but here is an extra from the night of the 17th.
 
From the same log reviewing msgs:
 
Plaman has declared you a personal enemy.
Hermione has declared you a personal enemy.
Blueknight: "Let me know what to do And I will do it."
Pahn: "Can you match their troop strength?"
Pahn: "Mutter. So merc is gonna take a pasting?"
Chronos: "What are the repercussions of moving comms at this time?"
Type RMSG 2925 to continue reading.
350h, 520m ev-
Tenebrae has just left you a message.
350h, 520m ev- rmsg 2925
Rajj: "What can I do to help?"
Blueknight: "Any thoughts?"
Camaris: "You're ready to give the assail command at the right moment ?"
Camaris: "Order legionxxxxx assail legionyyyyy, order legionxxxxx assail
legionyyyyy, order legionxxxxx assail legionyyyyy, n, e, order legionxxxx
assail legionyyyyy"
Tenebrae: "Locations?"
Camaris: "That north command work ? You have raised forts there I think"
Camaris: "I wonder if it might be worth your while lowering the 100,000k
forts, they will do nothing against their army and that was you will at least
save them"
Camaris: "I think if you are riding and you set you set steedflight to 1 you
will not be affected by fear"
Tenebrae: "Lower 100k here?"
Tenebrae: "We gave it our best shot. It was an honour to fight with you. "
Ender: "Respect to your young mages btw, they just kept on coming and coming"
Ender: "For what its worth, really good show today, I echo what yairi said.
Mucho respect my dear, mucho"
Tenebrae: "Dont forget Kahn . He was attacking them and taking their rations.
He did really well. We're goingto organise some practise team fighting after
the tournament for Mercs our age."
 

Had you kept your 20, and assaulted as you were told. As I told you to instead of keeping DP if you had multi engaged the legions You would have won.

I assume you are referring to your city post here, which is all i could see with regards to you "telling" me anything. We discussed this in the city but hey, with no proof and no models or calculations to back this up why on earth would we change our careful preparations on your say so?
 

Message #12279.
Date: 15-1-2003 at 20:45.
From: Dunccan [Baron].
To  : Everyone.
Subj: arrogance.
One last boon for you folk b4 i go,

march 4 6 man . that is four... 6 man legions and assail the thakrian main legion. if you see that it only counterattacs to each
legion one at a time this is what you must do.
Take ten 251 legionas and everything else we have divided into 3001 man legtions (to get maximum damage_) and assail the main
legions first with the buffer legions then with the 3k ones, the big legion would only do 250 damage then ONE damage to each
of the smaller legions succesively while your 3k legions did max damage.
As you notice you could also do this with say 100 ,6 man legions i dont think gods would look favourably on that but attacking
it with enough legion strength so the thakrians can do max damage back should be enough. it does not break reality you are
attacking a superior number of LEADERLESS (]THIS IS IMPORTANT) men with superior tactics or whatever, the point is you must
first chedck if this is possible with the 4 ...6 man lehgions
Why am i posting. because despite your arrogance and lack of gratitude i still love mercinae and its still my job. take my post,
leave my post i dont care, but its the only chance you have they WILL attack this weekend
farewell.
Godspeed
dunccan

   
 
So. As I said. We did the best we could with the people and time available to us.
 
We were going to take our 4x10k out to meet Thakria and it would have been that afternoon as I was off work and the legions were all pre-bannered. It was pure coincidence that I was even there during the attack - no doubt they assumed I would not be as I had a job and work weekdays.
I seem to remember that they had brought forward their attack for some reason, but I can't exactly remember and I was not party to their discussions.
 
 

I am only going to say one thing. You are an absolute liar.

I think I have answered all your points, there are no lies in my reports.