Near Thorn, 1238


It would have been a nice winterday in the fields in East Prussia, would it not have been that two armies had chosen this ground as their field of battle. A vast Russian army had crossed the borders of the province of Prussia-Thorn, belonging to the Holy Roman Empire, and chancellor Hans had ordered a small Franconian army to march against it. And even though the Franconians would be outnumbered 2 to 3 they decided that this was the best that they could do.
When scouts spotted the Russian army however they quickly saw that it lacked strenght and was mainly made up of levy's, apart from its regiment of Druzhina, but even these did not match up against the Teutonic and Mailed Knights in the Franconian army. The battlefield however was not in favour of the Franconians, it was a small forest, ideal for command with light skirmishers, and just the thing that the heavy knights did not like.
Thus Ansehelm von Kastillien, count of Thorn decided do deploy his little but strong force on a small hill just of the road and away from the dangerous forest, which might be full of ambushes.

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Well aware of the dangers lurking in the forest, and knowing the incapablity of his knights to fight in forests he moved his army to the right of the battle field in order to avoid the forest and move onto the enemy from one flank, forcing him make a turn while under arrow fire.

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Not soon after Ansehelm moved his army into position he ordered his missile units to open fire on the enemy ranks.

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The enemy however disregarded the punishment it was getting and decided to stay where he was. Inspired by his early success Ansehelm decided to send in his regiment of Mounted Sergeants to destroy the now almost destroyed unit of Boyar Sons.

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This bold move however was the signal for the enemy general to attack and he quickly moved in his forces. Now however the Franconians quickly took the advantage. The Spear Militia regiments were no match for the battle-hardened Franconian footknights and walked into a massacre. Ansehelm quickly ordered his father Günther to take the Teutons and the Mailed Knights and to swing around the enemies left flank, in order to attack from behind. At the sight of this show of force the enemy infantry regiments quickly started to rout, while the remaining men, who where still willing to fight fled into the woods.

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The battle was already lost for the Russian though, the Druzhina's had sacrificied themselves in a hope to save the battle but this did not help. Ansehelm himself, together with the Mailed Knights, led the charge into the forest and quickly the Crossbow Militia regiments started to rout. After Günther enprisoned almost an entire regiment of Crossbowmen he too turned and charged into the forest hoping there would be something left for him.
He was too late however, as the Russians had already decided to flee from the field and the Teuton and Mailed Knights made short work of the men who tried to flee and enprisoned them.

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Ansehelm won himself his third battle, an easy victory, given the fact that his men were far better than the ill-fated Russians.

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Ansehelm however was left with loads of prisoners, and because he did not want these men to return to Russia, which seemed a wealthy country he orded the prisoners to be executed, to teach these Russians a lesson: Do not even try to enter the Holy Roman Empire