Battle reports thread - King of the Romans PBM

[Ramses II CP]

Near the walls of Hamburg, 1342.

'M'lord the moment we've been waiting for has arrived. I thought you would want to watch.' The weary Albanian shuffled his feet and gazed at the ground while speaking to Fritz von Kastilien. As well he might, Fritz had been ruthless in driving his men to reach the siege works, and then upon their arrival had set a close guard and given the men a watchful rest period. Now the scout was forced by Fritz's own order to interrupt his general's council with the captains of the army.

For once, however, Fritz appeared pleased, if briefly, and dismissed his captains with only a few final words. 'The same formation will be fine Robert, the flag men assure me that the garrison will sally when called and meet us in the field, but even if they don't the crossbowmen will have to hold the line. Make sure those Honor Guard banners are visible tied to the stake tips! Hans, you know what to do, make every charge count.'

'Now, take me to your vantage point, and be quick!' An imperious gesture sent the scout racing for his horse, Fritz right on his heels. The men rode out in haste and soon came to a small rock outcropping which provided a narrow look at the distant siegeworks north-east of Hamburg. Unbeknownst to the besiegers, who were watching an arranged distraction on the walls at Hamburg, a hundred and fifty badly treated Danes were crawling through the deepening snow to try to reach their position. Some of them were impossibly far behind the lead group, and more than a few had ceased moving entirely, but the front runners would soon be impossible for the siege army's scouts to miss.

Scarce moments after Fritz's arrival a stirring was visible in the Danish camp as a small group of Huscarls mounted up in response to some signal and rode into the snow field. As they reached the site of the first crawling ruin of a man several of the Danes drew up early, and after the shock passed half of them bent double in their saddles and puked violently into the snow. Fritz rubbed his hands together briskly, whether in response to the sickness of the Danes or simply to keep them warm the Albanian could not know, but whatever the cause the cavalryman shivered and thought back on what his general had ordered done with the prisoners when word came of the refusal to pay ransom.

At that time Fritz had seemingly taken the news calmly, standing and departing his tent in the camp near Hamburg with his arm almost jovially thrown around the messenger boy. Striding outside Fritz pulled the man along to the field where the battered Danish prisoners were kept. At a single gesture from their commander the German infantrymen and crossbowmen leapt to their feet and began pulling the Danes apart into groups. These valiant men, mighty veterans of the Danish wars, gave no resistance, perhaps thinking they had been ransomed, until it was too late. When they had been scattered into small groups and held hopelessly surrounded, Fritz's soldiers began the bloodletting. First they cut off the prisoner's fingers, all of them, with short chopping motions of their daggers. Next, as they lay writhing in pain, the Danes were hamstrung in both legs, and finally a cloth was tied around their mouths and a line formed to load them roughly into wagons.

Then Fritz had turned to the boy and spoke, 'You will carry no word back to your man Inge at Hamburg. He'll hear soon enough. You will instead ride north for Arhus as hard as you can. You will never return to German lands. Tell your King and every man you pass on the road that I am coming. Tell him I will ride through **** itself to find him.'

'And tell him if he ever wants to see his soldiers again, he'll have to start paying or stop sending them against me.'

And that was how over a hundred crippled Danes came to be crawling through the snow towards Hamburg. It was well that these remnants of men were the hardy veterans of the Danish Honor Guards, else none of them might have survived to be seen. As it was there were not many still crawling, and the Huscarls could only bring themselves to carry back the most lively looking in the group of frontrunners. Gruesome cries could be heard to echo up the field towards the rocky outcrop when the Huscarls slung that lucky survivor over a horse's back and rode away back to their camp.

A small, grim smile crept momentarily over Fritz's face before he stood, clapped the Albanian on the back, and walked quickly back to his horse. 'Keep a watch and bring word when they form up. We'll be ready. Well done!'

Riding back to the lines Fritz's headache had departed fully for the first time in weeks. This was a battle in which he'd have the advantage no matter the numbers, no matter the experience of the men. Either the Danes would fight with berserker fury and break sharply, like a firm, dry stick, or they'd fight with fear and flee at the first taste of the lance. No matter which was the case every one of them would be dragged down and destroyed.

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There was little infantry remaining in Fritz's army, but it would surely be enough to hold until the arrival of the reinforcements from Hamburg. Those men should be sallying to join him already, and would approach from the rear after departing the north gate of the city.



Han's orders were different this time. His intent was to terrorize the Danes rather than scatter them, to make them fear the unpredictable coming of the Teutons, and so he circled his men around to the rear of the Danish formation before striking home as the Albanians chased away a small contingent of mounted crossbowmen.



Inge drove his men on, demanding that they disregard the harassing attacks of the Teutons. Every brutal strike left dozens of corpses piled in the snow.



Inevitably the Danes started to peer over their shoulders while marching, leading to chaos in the lines and a slow, disorderly advance.



Seeing this, Fritz sent in the Merchant cavalry militia from Hamburg with the captain of the garrison at their head directly against the spearhead of the Danish army. They crashed through a company of crossbowmen who were desperately on watch against a Teuton attack against a their 'rear.'



Inge now struggled to organize his cavalry to defend the infantry. Seeing this, Hans switched sides and struck the Danes' left rear flank hard.



He paid for it when, while pulling back, his Teutons were hit by a charge from the Danish mounted Huscarls. Those men had no heart for this fight, however, and routed almost immediately.



Alas, while Hans was dealing with the enemy Huscarls one of his companies of Teutons bogged down during a charge and was hit with a volley from the Danish handgunners. Their horses reared in terror and began carrying them from the field, the riders unwilling to flee but unable to halt the flight. (Okay, WTH! There were only 4 handgunners remaining. This was an odd rout, and these men didn't recover their morale either, they were all captured or fled.)



Seeing his enemy in disarray Inge led his guardsmen on the attack! Fritz, watching from a nearby wood, saw the Danish general commit himself to battle and rode forth to aid Hans and the Teutons.



While struggling to find Inge in the crush, Fritz caught sight of the enemy's Chivalric Knights charging to join the battle. %&$^, thought Fritz, just when I was getting my blood up! Quickly he turned his guardsmen and pulled the Danish knights into a tail chase to prevent them reinforcing their commander.



Riding back towards his infantry, Fritz caught sight of the first clash of the lines. The Hamburg militia had arrived in plenty of time, and set their lines well supported by a fresh company of merchant cavalry. If nothing was done, the experienced Danish infantry (3x bronze mostly) would eventually overwhelm them. Shouting as he rode by, with Chivalric Knights still in pursuit, Fritz made it clear that he intended the fresh merchant cavalry to line up and charge cleanly into the rear of the Danish companies one by one until they routed.



Meanwhile Inge Henriksson had exhibited unexpected good sense and withdrawn from the fighting with the Teutons, alive but with a gutted bodyguard unit. Spotting a man in full plate Inge had no doubt taken him for the German general, but in fact it was only the captain of the Hamburg garrison.



The Danes courageously charged the fifty merchant cavalrymen with their seven guardsmen, seeking to behead the German army, pursued by the dozens of remaining Teutonic Knights. Only Inge himself would survive to assail and ultimately kill Captain Hugo.



At the line, however, the courage of the Danes had failed. With their general nowhere in sight, with their archers and crossbowmen slaughtered behind them, and with the unceasing charges of the fresh merchant cavalry militia against their rear the powerful Danish soldiers broke and attempted to flee the field. Perhaps their will was broken by the rumor which had swept through their camp of the fate of the Honor Guard army holding the bridge to their west, or perhaps they were simply outmatched. Very few would survive.



Inge Henriksson was not among the survivors, as the Teutons caught him and cut him down just as his valiant efforts routed the reduced company of merchant cavalry militia who were shocked by the death of their captain.



Fritz reached the safety of his lines moments after the general rout began, and his Chivalric Knight pursuers became caught up in it. Forced to choose between riding down their own to continue the pursuit or fleeing as well, they turned tail and ran.



In the end a slow, battered company of Obudshaer were all that still held their courage, marching bravely forward until a crushing Teutonic Knight charge caught them out of formation while passing a tree and butchered them to a man.



Back at the infantry line Fritz shook his head while watching the pursuit. Once again his men had done little in the battle, which had been won by the power of his wit rather than the might of his swordarm. Ah well, thought Fritz, now what in the name of God am I going to do with all these prisoners?

Ransom would've been quite nice, but it is refused:

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Fritz gets a reputation:

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