1114 AD - The Battle of Lorsch Abbey
Vaclav struggled to wakefulness as he heard shouts all around the camp, just as an aide rushed into his tent.
“What is going on?” The old Duke grumbled.
“My Lord, the Poles are attacking!”
“What of the siege?”
“Polish flags fly on the ramparts of Frankfurt, we noticed just now as dawn arrived.” The aide hurriedly explained.
“WHAT?!” Vaclav nearly dropped the chest plate he was strapping on.
“I'm sorry my Lord, but it seems we were camped too far away from the city to realize anything was amiss...” The younger man's voice trailed off as the Duke of Bohemia waved him off and heard some grumbling about missing out on the winter game because no one else could be bothered to defend Frankfurt.
Moments later, the aide was helping the old Duke unto his horse. He was soon joined by his retinue and noticed, with some pride, that even his militia had formed into ordered ranks. Vaclav also spotted the approaching army, consisting of two spear regiments, two crossbow regiments, six mounted crossbow regiments and the Polish general. It seemed as if the Poles had taken Frankfurt with minimal losses as their army was mostly intact. Vaclav positioned his small army in a hilly forest near Lorsch Abbey, placing his regiment of mercenary crossbowmen and his regiment of archers at the front. Behind them, forming a line, he placed his regiment of mercenary spearmen on the left with his two regiments of spear militia forming the center and town militia taking up the right. Behind the mercenaries, Vaclav and his retinue observed the advance of the Polish army.
The Duke of Bohemia's ranged regiments spread out and soon opened fire on an approaching Polish spear regiment. After a few volleys, they were bombarded by the eight ranged regiments of the Poles and hastily retreated behind their lines. The two Polish spear regiments marched up the hill under cover from a hail of bolts from their army and quickly found themselves in a heated battle against all of Vaclav's militia. Meanwhile, Vaclav noticed some of the mounted assailants had come to close and initiated a charge at them. When the two mounted units made contact, the crossbowmen didn't far well, but the Polish general then charged at the back of Duke of Bohemia, obviously thinking to end this battle early. As such, the Pole was quite surprised to find that he was suddenly in a pincer between Vaclav and reinforcing mercenary spearmen, held in reserve for just this eventuality.
With more luck than skill, the Polish general somehow managed to extract himself and half of his retinue from the deadly melee, leaving his mounted crossbowmen to fend for themselves. The mercenary spearmen then charged at another regiment of mounted crossbowmen, but after a short melee it got away. On the left, the battle remained a stalemate and everywhere Polish bolts where thick in the air.
Then, the Polish general, still feeling bold, lead the remainder of his bodyguard in between the two concentrations of the Duke of Bohemia's troops and began to slaughter corssbowmen and archers alike. As if this turn of events wasn't bad enough for the Reich, in the heat of the melee with the mounted crossbowmen, Vaclav was dismounted by an errant bolt. As he fell to the ground, he barely had time to recover before being trampled to death by a number of horses involved in confused melee. As his pennant went down, nearly all of his wavering troops lost all of their countenance at once and fled the field in disorder, a number of found themselves captured, the others escaped towards Madgeburg. Yet, the mercenary spearmen who had fought at the side of the Duke during the battle held their ground as other regiments collapsed. Seeing the situation was hopeless, they managed to grab the Duke of Behomia's smashed corpses as they effectuated an orderly withdrawal.
Re: V&V Battle Reports Thread
Originally Posted by Sasaki Kojiro
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