This is TOTAL war! A Suebi AAR.

[Sociopsychoactive]

This is TOTAL war!

A Suebi AAR, Very hard/Very Hard

In The year of the Thrusting spear, that which the Greeks would come to know at 272, I came to lead my people. I, Clodochar of the Suebi will lead my people to greatness and glory, or death! As soon as the news of my father's death reached our neighbouring tribes they sent envoys and priests to establish relations with me as the new tribal chieftain of the Suebi. Their heads now decorate the standards of my armies, and all shall bow down in fear before my armies. The forests will howl with the screams of the dying before the year is out. My councillors call for calm, for restraint and political manoeuvring. Their heads make for less impressive trophies, so I will keep them for my own amusement. Only Baldovin and Gerulf understand the truth of my vision, so they are all the council I need. I called for the blessings of Wodanaz upon my great endeavour and heard his call in the blood of all who oppose me.

Karl leads troops beside me, though he is not of my house I respect his courage and understanding, but mostly his lack of ambition. He will be content to serve myself and my plans. The first task would be to unite Suebia under my rule, and the land in vast and varied, with no one tribe holding more land than their armies can control. First we will march north to Rhougion and take it's lumber and it's port, allowing me passage north east and north west along the coast, and ensuring that if the worst should happen and Lupferdum were to fall my tribe would not die with it. Karl will stay behind to protect it with a handful of men, but the bulk of the army travels north with me...

The journey takes longer than I had planned and it is not until the beginning of the year of the twisting serpent that the full force of my armies arrive at Rhougion. The enemy have recruited every man who can grow stubble to face me, but they can only match my forces in numbers, not in spirit. In an attempt to balance the odds in my favour I have my agents poison first the armies provisions and then the town, but it has little effect on the army and fails utterly on the townsfolk. No matter, death on the end of a spear is a more fitting end for them than death over a latrine pit, to battle!

The enemy fight well, and the inexperience of my armies show as my right flank collapses under the pressure of combat,

But with reinforcements bolstering the line we press on through and manage to fight our way to the town centre. With his army crumbling around him the enemy chieftain, Wolf, breaks and runs. With him defeated the remnants of his army breaks and the day is ours.

Though it was a glorious victory and Rhougion is added to our domain, it was a hard fought battle. Victory came at the cost of almost 500 men, and my armies will need to rest and recuperate before pressing forward.

Victory brings a decision, for mercy or death to the enemy. My father would have counselled for mercy and wealth, argued that enslavement or freedom would have brought more goodwill from the tribes. That is one of the reasons I slew him in cold blood!

With the town razed, the Rugii wiped from the face of the earth and those who chose cowardly surrender dead at my feet it is finally a victory worth savouring. Already my reputation as a conqueror grows, and with more battles it will soon make me a legend!

With new conquests and lands come new neighbours. The Cimbri and the Aestii will soon fall beneath the spears of my armies like wheat before a farmers scythe! Both tribes send me ambassadors to gauge my strength and distract me with politics and favours. Two more corpses decorate the banners of my army. They will never understand that I am not here for settlement or alliance, I will not accept bribes or favours. The only thing that will stop me is death!


We set camp in the ruins of Rhougion to rest our men for the remainder of the year, sending messengers back to Lupferdum for them to recruit a Shield Maiden to accompany me on my journey, only to receive no news. It was only later, months later, that I would discover what had happened. Seeing our main force occupied in the north the Boii, fiendish to their core, had moved a sizable force to take the city in my absence. My foresight paid off when their men found the walls guarded by Karl and what few troops he had managed to muster...

While I led with intelligence and a tactical mind, Karl, devoted though he was to my cause, led with fury and threats. Where my father would have called for brotherhood and unity, and I would have called for preparedness and strength, he threatened death if so much of one of his men were to abandon their post on the walls. Rumours of his fearsome lessons in discipline left his troops eager to throw themselves at the enemy if only to get away from his wrath! The way some men tell it he would grow fangs and fur at the full moon and devour any who stood in his path. I knew I had chosen well for my second...
The fighting lasted days. First the fiendish Boii brought ladders against the walls, but were driven back by a torrent of flaming javelins that seemed to burn the very sky above them, let alone the ladders beneath.

Though a few brave men reached the top of the walls many more were slain without ever setting foot on a ladder. As that assault was driven back another started on the west gate.

While Wolf himself led half his forces over to deal with the new threat a small contingent reached the east gate. Fortunately the force was so small and disorganised the towers alone drove them off. First the north gate burned down under the torches of the enemy, then the west but both had strong troops set in position behind them to drive off the attacks.

With all three generals dead the enemy lost heart and fled, but such was Wolf's ferocity that not a single spearman made it off the field alive, barely a handful of slingers managing to make it to safety.

Truly it was a heroic victory, one worth of song and praise for years to come. Such was Wolfs fury that those who had surrendered to him were publicly executed and their corpses displayed for all to see. While my father would have put them to work for our tribe wolf and I agree on this matter. The only good enemy, is a dead enemy.

With my men slightly rested, though far from fully refreshed I set out for the east and Ascaucalis, held by the Gutones. The journey down from Rhougion could be done in one day, but my troops are truly weary from the hard-won battle, so we march at normal pace and let the days drag on by. The Gutones are in no hurry and neither should we be, death will take them all soon enough.
With a victory under each of our respective belts the rewards of glory and fame began to appear. Wolf, devout and mindful of his place in the world attracted the attention of a seer to divine the proper course of action.

While I, though devout in my own way am more practical and mindful of the ways of the army and it's men...

With this fame came position, I appointed myself Wrakjon, defender of the tribes, and it is a title I wear with pride. Soon enough, with my army almost back to full strength we arrive at Ascaucalis to find the Gutones, despite knowing my reputation for ferocity and conquest, have left barely half a thousand soldiers there to guard their only stronghold, which in and of itself consists of little more than a field!

Once I manage to get my laughter under control I assault the feeble town with the full might of my army. Foolish though they may be, the fought well and with honour, sticking to the tree's and matching my frontline, blow for blow. It wasn't until their flanks crumbled under the pressure of my more formidable army that their line began to buckle and fall.

Again the inexperience and skill of my spear levies left them taking heavy casualties, one unit even fleeing the field in shame just as I was shouting words of encouragement at them. Despite this the Gutones were defeated in the field, and with no army left to defend Ascaucalis it fell to my army in mere moments.

Again the town was burnt to the ground, the pitiful collection of farmers huts burnt and destroyed before my troops. With a few more victories under their belt my troops are finally beginning to make a name for themselves, aside from my own. Thyrm's Chosen are now the Inexorable Hoard to our enemies, overwhelming their pitiful defences with a tide of blood!
Leaving the town burnt and useless my army will camp in the ruins while I busy myself with the far less glorious task of collecting taxes and overseeing construction back in the richer lands of Lupferdum. My plans for a meeting hall and a shrine are going ahead, and the port at Rhougion is almost ready to begin harvesting the sea's bounty. While I made sure none of my men starved on campaign it has only been by extensive foraging that my armies bellies have been kept full. Soon the meagre harvest will be supplemented by fish and the fields we now till turned to pasture for horses to further bolster my armies.

All this management and overseeing may be less glorious and enjoyable than slaughter, but one of the few lessons my father taught me before he died was the value of destroying what your enemy had, and building your own in its place. Though they may have been peoples of Germania, none of the tribes we have fought were worthy of being called brother, and all that rebuilding has left my coffers dry. Ascaucalis will have to lie in ruins for a time, until I can afford to replace it's pitiful farmers huts with workshops and blacksmiths, forging the finest mail and helms in the land, and fashioning spear that do not shatter on the enemies shields, and shields that hold back the sturdiest of spears. I will make this smoking ruin one of the greatest workshops in the world! When I can afford it that is...