Black Axes & White Lances - An EB AAR

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Hi all, i have returned. After my last AAR here, i have considerably rethought my style of writing and i hope to present a much more favorable and professionally done AAR. So here we go.

Prologue: A Tale for all Time

The Codexsis of Germanian History: Chapter 2, Section 1
The rise of Germania in the First Century was by no means certain. Increasing Roman influence amongst many of the smaller tribes and the invasion of the areas just to the east of the Rhine, made many in both Rome and Germania believe that it was only a matter of time before the tribes on the region were absorbed into the Empire. The begging of this culmination began in 12 BC by the Roman calendar and 1364 OR by the Jurixoz Tables. The Roman General Germanicus invaded the major western tribes at the time and either subdued them or forced them into an "alliance" with the Empire. While this, as you can imagine, did not make many Germans happy, there was little they could do about it After all their current leadership was hopelessly divided at the time. They fought petty wars with each other, driven on by Roman gold and Roman promises of support. The Chatti had fallen and the Cherusi were next up on the list.

However, soon enough an event the would led to the alteration of history itself was about to occur, an event that no one even thought possible, the repulse of nearly all of the Roman forces by the Germans. This itself was undertaken by a then unknown named Irmin, Arminius in Latin. Up to this point the most powerful German chieftain was a man named Marbod. This man was the leader of the Macromanoz Tribe in what is today Bohemia. Whilst having fought the Romans on numerous occasions, and even migrating to escape their reach at one point, he was still a supporter of Rome more or less. The Romans typically had him on and off of their payrolls. By 6 AD the Roman Emperor Augustus had had enough of this foolishness and decided to instead subdue Marbod once and for all. However, events elsewhere prevented this from happening, and in a way began the chain of events that would led up to the freedom of Germania and so much more....

[gamegeek2]

Hoping for some real EB this time :laugh4:

[the man with no name]

I like this start Olaf. Keep it up.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter One: Abuses
Illriya, 6 AD
A line of men under arms was marching down the valley, marching towards their destiny. Their leader Bato of the Daesitiates had been for a long time now attempting to make this happen. As the scared and battered veteran rode down the Roman rode towards the meeting point he thought back upon what had been done, not only to his people, but to their entire land as well. He had seen his mother raped by Roman soldiers when he was five, his father had been taken away to the mines at eight, a fate he had narrowly avoided due to being young, his sisters had been taken as Roman brides, a "willing" union that was more akin to slave taking under another name. He had finally become fed up with all of the evils that Rome perpetrate upon his people on a daily basis.
But at the age of 19, before he could go anywhere, he had been recruited into one of the numerous armies during the civil war after the first Great Caesar's death in 44 BC. He had fought for Rome in numerous places and had even been on one of the ships that had seen action in the great Battle of Actium. He had taken a bolder to the head fighting in Armenia,had been sliced up in Greece, and had even lost an eye in Rome itself to a cut-throat. All the while he and the men of his unit had received little to no pay, and had been abused by many of their Roman "masters", being forced to do slaves work, take the first waves in battle, dying so that Romans may live and a long string of other abuses that he couldn't even begin to count by now.
His unit had finally been released from duty about 15 years ago, when most of the armies that had been formed during the Civil War were released by the second Great Caesar, Augustus. When they finally returned to their village, all that they found was a ruined wreck, their homes had been burned during the Civil War, their families had been quite possibly raped and killed in horrible ways, and they had nothing left. Their pay was insufficient to even feed themselves for a month. They had wandered across Illriya for nearly 14 years, moving from horrible job to horrible job, guarding merchants that abused their services, being bodyguards for important generals in the region, ofter forced to foil many an attempt on said persons life, only to receive lip and scorn from the men whose lives they had saved. As they traveled they saw many such abuses against his people, men and women forcibly enslaved for not being able to meet ridiculously high taxes, families evicted from their homes so that settlers from Italy could move into their place without any consideration for the well being of those whom lost in this equation. Often times these people were enslaved when their taxes became overdue, or they were forced to live at their places of employment, which was usually under a Roman roof or bussiness. In many families sons and daughters were taken from mothers and father, sent off to other provinces and had gods only knew what done to them. All of this was done for the "Glory and Honor" of Rome, done in the name of peace and security and in the name of prosperity. All a lie.

But then, about a year ago, a call for troops had been sent out all across the province of Illriya, a call for an able fighting bodies to report for duty. Naturally, the Romans had come for him and his unit. When he asked the magistrate where their unit was to be sent to, the man had said a place that was far, far to the north called Germania, to subdue other tribes that were still free. At that he had finally had enough. All of the years of abuse, mistreatment, scorn and in many case outright hatred at the hands of the Romans had finally gotten to the old veteran. He became so enraged that he had wiped out his sword and took the magistrate's head off. When his bodyguards had tried to arrest him, the rest of his unit had sprung into action to defend him and they had killed all of those present with little fuss.
Upon leaving camp, events had happened quickly after that. The men of his unit had named him their leader in the rebellion that they were now undertaking, for they were all in on it now as far as Roman law was concerned. Upon arriving at the next town, word had spread amongst the Illriyans about the call to arms. Many were simply refusing to fight. Others were taking up arms against the Roman recruiters. What few Romans were in this deep mountain town had already fled. The confused men of the town, whom were now in rebellion naturally gravitated towards that veteran warriors that had entered the town. Bato knew that the Romans would be back looking for revenge and probably level the town as a result. So now he was marching towards an ambush point with his new-found army, hoping to stop the Romans before they killed even more innocents.

"My Lord.", a voice said that snapped Bato out of his reverie, "We are approaching the site for the ambush." Bato looked down at the man whom had spoke, called Juxta and simply said,"Yes, thank you." Juxta nodded and marched on ahead of Bato. As Bato looked down into the valley, he thought to himself,'I can only pray that this works.' He had no idea at that moment what his actions were about to trigger.

[the man with no name]

Nice cliff-hanger. We can only imagine what those damned romans did to my German ancestors.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

To be honest not nearly as much. The Romans have had well over 200 years by this point to screw with the peoples of Illriya. The Germans OTOH were only conquered for a period of 20 or so years, and lightly at that.

[Olaf Blackeyes]

Chapter 2: A Simple Beginning
A few days after arrival at the site, it was proven a very wise move.
Captain Marcvs Allivs Appivus was a VERY confident man. He had been, since his promotion two years ago, enjoying his stay in the Dalmatian coastal cities, the only truly Roman area of the otherwise barbarous province. However, once the mighty Augustus put out a call to arms, his unit had responded. Marcus himself did not look forward to going into the wild lands of southeastern Germania, what with its tales of wild tribes, monstrous beasts, evil demons that lurked behind every tree and other such things. The tales of the Germans themselves were equally as fearsome. He had heard that the tribes typically tended to nail the head of their slain foes to the trunks of trees around their territory, and go to get more when those rotted away. It sounded like an awful place to live and much more so a worthless place to conquer to him, but this was Lord Augustus's command, so he was bound to follow.
However, about a week ago he had received a message from his higher ups. A villages of the natives had rebelled at the news that they had to go and fight. His unit and several others were to go and put down the revolt, and he was to be in command. When he had read the message his heart leaped for joy. This was his big chance to prove to his commanders that he was competent, and that he was worthy of promotion. All he had to do was defeat some rebellious ingrates, inflate the numbers a bit and he'd been richly rewarded. He might not even had to go on to Germania if he did this right.
As he marched towards the town with his men, he simply had to wonder how anyone could want to rebel against mighty Roma herself. Why would anyone wish to resist the wondrous offerings that being a part of the Empire brought to the table? Why would they want to fight against those that provide such wondrous care and many great markets for them to trade in? This he did not know, nor did he really care, all that really mattered to him was killing these bastards as soon as possible, and moving on to bigger and better things.
And as his unit marched along, Marcvs's head was filled with thoughts of gold and glory. "CAPTAIN!.", one of the men from the front of the line said, disturbing his thoughts, "You need to see this." Marcvs, being very pissed at having his line of thought interrupted, said to the solider,"What is it?" "Sir...i cant really describe it. You just need to see this.", the man replied. By now the column had come to a halt, so Marcvs began to wonder if it was really that bad. "Fine.", he muttered, as he walked past his men.
Once he got to the head of the column he immediately realized why the soldier could not describe the scene before his men to him. "What in the name of Mars.....?!?", he exclaimed as his brain attempted to take in the scene before him. "Sir....", one soldier said,"It looks like buildings." Indeed it looked as if a group of buildings had been throw down into the valley, making a huge mess of the road and blocking the way forward. As the men began to chatter about this turn of events, Marcvs became enraged and roared,"SHUT UP YOU IDIOTS!!!" All of the men immediately got a lot quieter. As Marcvs thought about this obstacle, he called the Centurion forward. "Sir?", the man said as he walked up. "Tell me something centurion, doesn't it look like we can cross over this obstacle if we were to simply move around a number of the stones?", Marcvs asked him. The centurion looked it over and said, "Well yes but that would take a lot longer than the eye can tell. And we do know that there are hostile rebels around, this might be their doing. So if we wait too long they could attack us out of formation, which would quite possibly mean us ending up under so rocks as well, sir." Marcvs could not doubt the wisdom in that, and asked,"Well can we find a quicker way around then?" The centurion looked at the general area and saw an opening. "Sir i think there way past this and back onto the road to the southeast.", he said. "Very good.", Marcvs replied smiling,"Tell the men to head for that gap, we need to get this march back on track." "Sir!", the centurion said saluting. As he got the men moving again, Marcvs wondered just what the rebel had used to move buildings like this. He had heard rumors of monsters in northern Illriya and northern Achaea, but he thought that they were father away from proper Roman territories. Well it was just something else to report back to his superiors once he got back.
Meanwhile, in the woods to the southeast, Bato of the Daesitiates was waiting for the Roman bastards. "My Lord!", said a scout,"They are heading this way, just as you planned!" Bato smiled and said,"Excellent! MEN INTO YOUR POSITIONS!!!" They hurried to reform the ambush site into a proper killing ground. As the sun wore on for a bit, the men prepared themselves well.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-19-04-38.jpg
And all too soon, a man came up to Bato and whispered to him, "Sir they are approaching.", in spite of the fact that they were clearly visible. "Yes i can tell that.", he told the man,"Im not an invalid."
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-18-55-71.jpg
Marcvs looked onwards towards the trees in front of his men. As he did he was blissfully unaware of what was about to happen. As his men approached the treeline, they heard a sharp whistle. The suddenly hundreds of VERY angry Illriyans poured out of the trees.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-21-01-00.jpg
"ITS AN AMBUSH!!!!!!!", someone yelled. But by that point it was too late for many of the front ranks had been forcefully deployed. The fighting was fierce and several units had already been severely depleted.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-21-34-18.jpg
The only thing that was keeping the men together was the Roman discipline that had been drilled into them. The only real problem here was that that was quickly fading away. Bato was not actually amongst those fighting but was instead with a group of cavalry that was flanking the Romans through the woods to their left.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-21-11-67.jpg
As Marcvs looked over the battle, he was getting less and less worried. His men were managing to hold back the rebels. He even thought that at this rate they might be able to win. However, such hopes were soon broken when he suddenly heard the sound of horses screaming behind him. But then a spearpoint went through his head and he could never find out just what had happened.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-21-47-35.jpg
With the death of their commander, the Roman levies quickly began to break and flee back up the valley.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-22-23-80.jpg
But Bato's cavalry went on after them so few escaped there. The only source of fighting that was left on the actual battlefield was the surrounded cohort of legionaries.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-22-35-36.jpg
The centurion attempted to surrender his men, but with their leader away and their bloodrage up, the rebels were having none of it. The Romans were cut down to a man, and the bloody day finally came to an end.
https://i477.photobucket.com/albums/rr133/Maurl/RomeTW2009-09-2001-25-30-11.jpg
That evening, Bato looked out over the piles of corpses on the battlefield, watching them as they burned. "I can only hope that we are successful in this little gambit of ours.", he said to no one in particular. "Sir?", a soldier sitting near him said. Bato looked at the man and said,"Well think about it. We are just one tribe against the might of an Empire. How long do YOU think we will last?" The man thought it over for a little bit, and then said,"While you do make an excellent point sir, we can last for a long, long time. These mountains and valleys are our home, and more and more of our tribe's villages and towns are joining us by the day. I think that we can win." At this Bato laughed, a long and hard laugh. He then said,"Well said." The man then simply left his leader to his thoughts. The more Bato thought it over, the more and more hopeless it looked. They were well short of manpower for one. He'd been lucky to think of hiring mountain giants to throw those houses into the valley to set up the ambush to begin with, but he simply didnt have the resources to do things like that over and over again. They were also short of weapons, armor, food, and on the VERY wrong end of the soldier scale. He knew that they needed more help, and he prayed that it would come. Little did he know that it would come very soon, and in a very big way.

[the man with no name]

:2thumbsup:

[Julius Augustus]

Very well done!