NationStates Jolt Archive

The council of Generals and eastern governors was seated in the palace of Pergamum, the greatest city of the Ionian regions, for hundreds of years it had been a frontier region, however all that was about to change.
The King of the Spizani entered and waved aside the salutes of the other occupants of the room.
"As you know, our eastern armies are amassing on our eastern borders, what you do not know is their objectives or thier plan of attack."
He layed a large papyrus map of the known world, that he had carried on the table.
http://img122.imageshack.us/img122/1999/expansionplan6od.png

"As you can see I plan to expand the empire hugely."
"Force A, comprised of one hundred thousand light cavalry will attempt to set up a series of semi-independant satrapies on the northern border of this empire that according to several traders is known as Tadjikistan. This force will be commanded by General Ossuis," he looked up "General, if the afforementioned empire makes contact with you, you are to conduct treaty negotiations inorder to make this people our allies.

Force B will be led by General Theocrades, he will lead eighty thousand men, mostly pike of the south and light Spizani horsemen, and establish a new border on that of the Tadjikistan empire, likewise you are instructed to make peaceful contact with these people."
"Ofcourse sir"
"Finally Force C will be led by myself, since we expect noticeable resistance here, it will be composed of two hundred thousand men" he stood fully erect "That is all, we march two weeks from now"

tag. this is way too far away for me to be involved, but I'll keep an eye.

TAG: this is too close for me to not get involved, but I can't post right now. I'll get back to this later.

Almohed City, Almohed

His Majesty was tiring of expanding only in Africa and on islands, it was time to strike. He had been planning a full-scale invasion on Spizania for quite some time now. It was time to send out the Knights Damar. Eighty thousand rangers were a force to be reckoned with. But it would be the day after before they would be fully mobilized, it would be a good day's ride towards the border, and then they would have to have a day to relax. So he was sending Brigadier John Thomas and 5,000 foot soldiers ahead of them. He had informed Brig. Thomas three days ago of his plans, and the army was fully mobilized. Also, it would take only a few hours for them to cross into Spizania due to the location of their base. He ordered that the invasion of Spizania begin.

OOC: No offence, but an invasion of 80,000, and giving them only three days(ish) to prepare? Esp since Spizania hasn't been around much lately? Seems...harsh.

Tag.

The men had mustered on the border with the country that had in recent times become called Almohed. The border defences along this stretch of the wall were minimal, a small pallisade ran the length of the border, and forts had been placed on the wall at natural high places to allow them to always see the fort on either side of them, these forts had swelled to full capacity upon the order to march into the territory, and given a delay due to unfavourable augeries from the Temple of Aries in Sparta, thousands of men were arriving in the forts, taking the oppurtunity to take a walk on the empty clean frontier, few expected to have to fight, how wrong they would be proven in the coming days.

OOC: No offence, but an invasion of 80,000, and giving them only three days(ish) to prepare? Esp since Spizania hasn't been around much lately? Seems...harsh.

I'll give him plenty of time to prepare, I don't plan on conquering Spiz all in a night. It'll take a while to conquer them. Remember, people fight hardest when they are fighting for their homes. I'm the invader, though I have the numbers and discipline on my side, he probably has discipline and home to fight for. This'll be quite interesting. My guys are not quite fully assembeled yet either, just because they are in Spizania, does not mean I'm invading yet.

Later Edit:

Also, I was not sending the full 80,000, just the 5,000 infantry. Now all 85,000 are in Spizania, but not quite fully organized. They will be soon though.

The rangers made quick hit and runs along the Spizania border for a while, about 20 here, thirty there. But after night struck, the rangers returned to camp. It was time for the biggest strike of the day.

About five hundred rangers approached the palisades on foot. They did not want the horses making noise. About three hundred lit their arrows and released three volleys, hoping to catch the wood on fire.

The remaining two hundred released night arrows, hoping to kill as many guards as possible. All in all, for the night they fired about five to six times. Before beginning their retreat.

(OOC Note: I'm leaving room for casualties, and retaliation.)

OOC: Oksie, I'll keep my nose out. No worries.

lol. no worries

((Looks like the newly made Whyatica is in the way of your plans according to the new map.))

Secret IC:

While the raiding rangers were out, Brig. Thomas was trying to figure out how to organize the 85,000 men. He knew he would divide them into five seperate groups: Alpha Corps, Beta Corps, Gamma Corps, Delta Corps, and Epsilon Corps.

They would each consist of 1,000 infantry and 16,000 rangers. Alpha would hold occupied territory.

Beta and Gamma would advance to the mainland North.

Delta and Epsilon would advance to the Black Sea, and secure the Mediterranean and Black Sea borders.

Afterwards, Delta would flank behind the Beta-Gamma force, and secure their rear while Epsilon and Alpha held occupied territory.

In all, it would take about three months or more for the area to be secure enough for Almohed to expand its border to the Black Sea.

(PS OOC: What is your military size?)

OOC: Not really that big normally, but there are about fifty thousand men on the border at the moment, preparing for my push to the Indus, which has been delayed, I can keep raising armies until i run out of able bodied men, problem is that it takes time to gather armies of horsemen from across my northern steppes, so once my current horse are gone, you get to hit only hoplites pikemen archers and a few light cavalry from the city states for a few weeks until another army can be raised.

IC: The guards on that section of palisade were taken by suprise, but they quickly overcame it and kneeling behind the charred wooden battlements on the top of the wood and earth pallisades, they notched their arrows, each of the eighty men shooting first a volley of slow "torch" arrows ,before aiming at the figures illuminated by the light.

OOC: Hmmm... interesting so you are planning on waging war to conquer a huge amount of land. If you need any help in the war just ask and I will see what I can do.

By the time the surprise attack was through, about 50 men were dead, and about 100 were seriously injured, probably not making it through the night. Another 75 or so suffered minor wounds. The remaining 275 or so made it back safely to camp.

OOC: Time for your casualties. And due to the fact I was out of town...

Next Day IC

Alpha, Beta, and Delta Legions made a full strike effort on the Spizania defenses that the small strike party had attacked the night before while Gamma and Epsilon protected the base.

The Spizania guards were up against a force of 3,000 footsoldiers (mainly spearmen and axemen), and 48,000 rangers. A total force of 51,000 men.

The legions did not all leave at once. They were sent out in groups of 500 to 1000 men at a time, sending about ten or so of these groups at a time. This would give Almohed a steady supply of reinforcements. Ten thousand would be in battle, then about two hours later, another ten would come to reinforce them. By midnight all 51,000 would be at the battlesite location.

At about noon, the first ten thousand began their assault on enemy defenses. They began with arrows of greek fire, keeping the infantry behind firing range so that they would be fresh for a all-out charge on the defenses. Almost ten thousand rangers firing greek fire arrows could not be a quick escape, or much of an escape at all, due to the defenses made of wood, and the fact that water caused greek fire to spread.

OOC: About 100 men

The archers on the wall were reduced to ducking behind their firing parapetts, and covered the greekfire arrows that had taken in the walls with bucketts of sand that were filled from behind the wall, unfortunately they could not reach the arrows that had embedded in the base of the pallisade and so the pallisade had started to burn.
Riders had been dispatched to the nearest 2 forts about 15 minutes ago when the attack had begun, and there was a plumes of dust in both directions showing that the three hundred man garrison of each fort was coming to aid them, unfortunately there were ten thousand men assaulting the wall section and even a phalanx across the breached section would be unlikely to do more than delay the outcome. A hundred more archers had arrived from the other wall sections allow this part of the wall, and now they either tried to put out the fires or shoot back at the archers pouring the hurt on the wall.

Meanwhile one of the riders raced towards the town of Korimpys to the east, where two thousand horsemen waited for the start of the invasion that would take them to the indus.

During the attack, the rangers were on horseback as they attacked. When they saw a volley of arrows coming for them, they tried to evade by spurring their horses. Unfortunately about twenty or so were killed by the enemy's retaliation.

About thirty minutes into the battle, the foot soldiers finally came of use, five cannon had been moved into place, out of range for archers, but well in range for the use of gunpowder. They had been moved into place by 250 men each, and 20 oxen.

The cannon were 19 tons, and made of cast iron. The iron balls were 14 inches in diameter.

Five men manned each cannon, one loaded the powder, two loaded the ball, one lit the fuse, and there was an extra in case one of the others were killed.

All at once, the five cannons fired. Each was aimed at a seperate guard post. If the cannon ball hit that post, the chances were likely that the post would fall, and the men in it would die, being stuck with wood shards. But there was always the chance that the ball would not hit, or someone who fell wouldn't die.

Three volleys from the cannons were fired.

(OOC Note: Cannons were first used on land in 1346/1347. Long before this war, and in the Turks or the Arabs invented it, so it makes sense that I would have it in my arsenal. Just to be clear that it is allowed. A cannon dating from the 1400s could hurl an iron ball 18in in diameter as far as a mile.)