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...

[Sociopsychoactive]

The plans for the beginning of my workshop are laid without delay, though the town itself is still recovering it worries me not in the slightest. My troops are all relieved after a brief rest and we are about to set off on campaign far to the north to Alabu, the last territory needed before we can call all the land of Suebia ours again when disaster strikes my army!

I instantly regret bringing cheap whoars with me on campaign, but the effect on the men's moral seemed to be worth the risk, that was until a sickness began spreading through the troops like wildfire. My barely-rested army, which had taken heavy losses and had only just started getting foodstuffs delivered from the capitol was crippled, doomed to spend the next couple of years bleeding off men and poisoning any we came into contact with. In a desperate act to continue my plans I order Karl and his army, barely half the strength of my own, to travel north with all speed and lay siege to Alabu on their own. With luck, skill and cunning they will be able to take the city on their own while I moulder in Ascaucalis counting our dead.

As soon as Karl and his forces left the Fiendish Boii turned up at the gates of Lupferdum again! This time they had concentrated their forces into one army, but with only the militia standing guard it would be a close run battle to say the least...

The enemy brought up ladders just as before, and just as before they were greeted with a hail of flaming javelins.

This time however the onslaught was not enough to burn the ladders down. Thought the first assault was driven back, the enemy were no less determined when they launched a second, and the Javelins that had held them back before were in short supply.

This time they reached the gates in numbers, and it was only a matter of time before they fell. Into this breach wave after wave of Boii freemen poured, fighting against troops ready and set for them, but overwhelming them with sheer numbers and brute force.

Though the fighting was long and hard, and the enemy suffered great wounds and horrific casualties before the day was out their numbers began to tell as one after another the exhausted and depleted men of Lupferdum fled the battle. Soon enough only the garrison commander remained, but seeing his army defeated he too fled the field.

The enemy had taken our capitol the moment Karl's back was turned, but the fault was mine, not his. I had underestimated the Boii, thinking the bloody nose we gave them before would make them wary of attacking so soon after their defeat I did not realise they would spring upon us the moment our guard was down.

I immediately made plans for my Ill and dying troops to begin marching back toward the capitol, where we would throw ourselves against the walls in hope of taking it back before the enemy could recover too much.
Before I had even set off I again sent messengers after Karl to tell him the sad news but entreat him to press on against Alabu. Again I received no word back for months. Trusting in his loyalty I feared the worst, perhaps the Cherusci had seen his rapid march and laid an Ambuscade against them...

I received an account of the battle some moths later from one of the men who had formed Karl's personal guard. He told me that Karl, ever mindful of my orders had driven his men north with threats and whippings, pushing them beyond the limits of endurance that lesser men have. It was then, when the men were exhausted and unprepared that the Cherusci struck.

Karl himself was quick to form a battle line as best he could, but the enemy had caught his men so utterly unprepared that they found themselves surrounded before they had even finished gathering their wits.

With two units of spear holding back the Cherusci Cavalry, the rest of the army followed Karl's lead to take on the smaller of the forces arrayed against them. The force contained Hartwin, the enemy commander, and he and Karl faced off in personal combat.

Karl proved the stronger tactician, if not the stronger warrior as his Club levee slammed into the back of Hartwins personal guard, surrounding them and driving them to flee in mere moments.

With the Enemies Cavalry driven off and killed the last few remaining spearmen turned back to rejoin the bulk of the army, only to find themselves hotly pursued by the enemies spears, and pelted with javelins from the side. They hoped to rejoin the line and smash into the flank of the Cherusci forces, but their exertions against the enemy cavalry left them the slower, and soon they were forced to turn back and fight or be caught from the rear.

For a few moments the line held, and victory seemed to be within his grasp, but Karl foolishly let overconfidence consume him, stepping forward to the front line when another of his guards fell. For a few glorious moments his men felt their spirits lifted as they saw the man they feared more than death itself skewer the enemy, but in the end it was a foolish risk. He was surrounded and spitted himself soon after.

With Karl dead the men's hearts died with him, and it was only moments before the whole battle line crumbled and fell.

Though he was badly outnumbered and caught in ambush, Karl fought bravely to his last breath. The only solace to be taken in his defeat is that nearly a third of his army managed to make it free of the ambush and to safety.

Though they were fleeing for their lives the men took the time to honour him properly with a funeral befitting a hero.

His troops hid on the edge of the forest while the Cherusci pressed on toward Rhougion. Fortune was with us, and they did not reach the city gates before the end of the year, giving us time to plan our defence. Karl's forces, dispirited and depleted though they were, needed a new commander and rather than promote a fresh young warrior Baldovin, trusted statesman of the elder tribes and brother to Clodochar stepped forward into the role. Though he lacked any real combat experience he had a tactical mind and my complete faith.

The elders of the tribe approached me then, bringing news of Karl's defeat and a holy mission from Wodanaz himself. Lupferdum, ever our strongest city, could not stay in enemy hands, it must be retaken and soon.

I set out with my diseased and dispirited army on a slow march to the capitol, keeping to the main roads and taking no chances. The Boii forces would be back to near full strength and my men were still suffering greatly.

Meanwhile Baldovin avoided the Cherusci forces long enough to march to Rhougion ahead of them. Though he did not make it into the city proper, he was close enough to assist them if they attacks, and they him if he were caught on the road. While there he sent a frantic stream of messengers back and forth desperately trying to bolster his severely depleted forces into a force able to withstand the enemy, making use of our newly completed pastures.

After the tragic losses of the previous campaign season, we could do little more than wait and hope that our preparations would be enough...
Predictably enough the Cherusci, seeing how depleted Baldovin's men were, attacked in hopes of finishing what they had started, but with reinforcements on the way Baldovin was determined to give them a hard fight of it, whatever the outcome. The enemy army, having suffered its own losses at Karl's hands, was now commanded by a fresh new general, Rainer.

[Sociopsychoactive]

This would be Baldovin's trial by fire, and if Rhougion fell, my empire would consist of a burnt out village and a half-built workshop. Baldovin knew that his forces could not hold alone, that he needed to unite what few men he had with the militia from the town to have any chance at victory, so set off downhill to meet the militia, giving away good ground that he knew he could not hold alone.

The battle soon turned to a race for position as the enemy closed on him while the militia were still sorting themselves out. Foolishly Rainer sent his two lone cavalry scouts over the lip of the hill to locate Baldovin's forces, only for them to be met with a flurry of Javelins before they could report back their findings.

The lines drew closer, Baldovin's forces finally having found some sort of order, only for him to immediately sound the retreat!

Doggedly the enemy pursued them further downhill, unwittingly separating their frontline troops from the remainder of their army, just as Baldovin had hoped. His tactical mind proved far superior, but battle was not yet joined.

With both armies upon each other the lines met with the clash of spear on shield. Baldovin himself led a handful of picked men around the flank to surround and utterly destroy his foes, and it seemed to be working well for a time.

The Cherusci front line was driven off, and though Baldovin's depleted troops felt the sting the line held and pushed back. Now the real struggle would commence, tired men fighting uphill against fresh troops in set positions. Baldovin himself led the charge, determined to prove his valour, and he was immediately beset on all sides. Though spearmen rushed to his aid, his troops suffered horrific casualties in those few minutes of fighting.

In the end Baldovin's actions left the few remaining enemy melee troops occupied for long enough that his men could sweep uphill, smashing apart the enemy skirmishers as soon as they reached them. While a victory was unfolding around him Baldovin saw his men dying around him and shamelessly fled the field rather than die in glorious battle as his predecessor had.

Despite his cowardice his men fought on like lions, smashing apart the enemy skirmishers and so leaving Rainer's army so utterly defeated that Rainer himself put up little fight at all before fleeing.

Though the price in lives was high indeed, especially in the fighting around Baldovin, the victory was gained and the enemy defeated, driven back from Rhougion with barely a quarter of their army surviving.

In the aftermath Baldovin was found back at the army camp, packing his things read to flee. While he is still valued for his strategy and tactics, he knows his place is not on the front line.

Back outside Lupferdum, I had prepared my army, diseased though it was, for an attack by the Boii. I had expected them to fall into the trap of overconfidence and march out into the field to further their conquest. My surprise was overwhelming when the scouts rode back in warning of an army approaching from the south-east! It seemed the Lugii, sensing weakness, had marched into the lands now controlled by the Boii, hoping to take their prize for themselves but finding my army instead! They cared little who they fought, so both armies formed up for battle. Normally this would have been a relatively even fight, but with my troops spending more time at the latrine pits than at rest I fear they will be fighting at a significant disadvantage...

I, Theodon, second to Clodochar, was fortunate to witness this battle first hand, for it was both a great victory, and a great defeat in the eyes of my people. Despite their disease and disadvantage Clodochar's forces comported themselves with honour and bravery in the face of the enemy. The battle lines formed and marched toward each other on a flat and featureless plain outside Lupferdum.

The lines met with a terrible crash of wood on wood, and spear on flesh. Clodochar, aware that his troops were more experienced, but dispirited hung back for a few moments just behind the fighting to assess where he would be most useful, only for the Lugii to spot him and let fly with a swarm of Javelins. Before any of his personal guard could intervene, Clodochar took more than half a dozen hits to the chest, and collapsed on the field. Barely had the battle begun when it seemed all would be lost.

As his death could well mean the death of our tribe and its ambitions, many feared it would spell doom for us all, but instead of despair the army was overcome by rage! Fury that the greatest warrior of our time had been felled by such a cowardly trick the lines pressed on and set upon paying the enemy forces back tenfold for their crime!

The enemy line buckled and fell as the Suebi forces surrounded and slaughtered them. So great was the massacre that the enemy generals both hung back from the fighting, unwilling to throw themselves against so desperate an enemy to save their soldiers lives. The slaughter continued unabated until all but the generals had died or fled.

Then the enemy tried a last desperate attempt to rally their forces, managing to get only one unit to turn and fight alongside them.

The pitiful strength of their courage showed when they broke almost as soon as the lines met once more, and victory was ours, but at the price of almost half the army, and Clodochar himself.

We raised a great pyre for him after the battle, which burned for ten days and nights in honour of his rule. Into the fire the bodies of his trusted servants and bodyguards were placed, those who had volunteered to follow him into the otherworld. The ashes of Clodochar were taken to a sacred sight and a great barrow was erected over his final resting place, and all his worldly goods were placed inside.

Truly the tribe, nay the world, has suffered a great loss this day. He will be remembered with honour. Baldovin inherits leadership of the tribe, being his younger brother. We hope he will lead us to glory and victory, but truly he is following the path his brother laid out for him.
In the aftermath of painful victories with great cost, I, Baldovin, leader of the Suebi people, take control of both an army and a tribe. I know the fearsome reputation my brother built, his appetite for the blood of our enemies was insatiable and I hope to live up to the name he made for himself. The present holds opportunities and challenges that will see me either lead us to glorious victory, of shameful defeat and I intend to meet them with every weapon in my arsenal!
The disease that had been crippling Thrym's Chosen has finally run its course, but the army is so utterly devastated by it and their fight against the Lugii that I have no choice but to order them north, to the outskirts of Rhougion's territory to recover and rest.

Though the men mock me for a coward I know that prudence, not rash action, will rule the day. With Lupferdum suffering disease and ruin under Boii rule a delay will hurt the enemy and help us.

My own forces, still weak from hard fighting, will take on the remnants of the Cherusci forces to kill them to the last man. Once that is complete we can get back on track toward Alabu and the unification of Suebia we all so desire...

The battle is short and swift, their army so pitifully weak that it can barely mount and effective defence against us.

And soon we crush them with minimal losses on our side.

In the aftermath of the battle I finally receive the recognition from my people, being named War Chief rather than defender as my brother was. Karl's death is properly avenged and the people of the Suebi have finally accepted me as their leader.

[Sociopsychoactive]

With the Cherusci no longer a threat I march my troops south. Though they are tired and depleted themselves they fare far, far better than Thrym's Chosen, so I set to merging the armies until the best and least wounded can march of Lupfurdum as soon as possible, and the badly wounded and depleted men can begin a slow march north with me towards Alabu, recruiting replacements along the way.

With the exchange over, I am left with a pathetic number of exhausted and depleted troops. Less than a hundred and fifty able bodied men make up my army, but it will grow as I muster more troops and replace those that have fallen in battle. Nibelung now leads Thrym's Chosen, as he should, but even with these replacements it will be a long time before they are back to full strength. As we muster and rest the Boii, fiends in human form that they are navigate their way past Nibelung's forces to strike at me and my depleted men! Less than a hundred and fifty against their twelve hundred and more. No sooner have I taken up the mantle of leading my tribe than it is threatened...

The battle is a massacre, as predicted. With no retreat possible Baldovin Threw himself at the enemy in a selfless attempt to hold them back.

Brave though it was the effort was wasted as the army crumbled and fled, not even making it as far as the tree line before being overrun and destroyed.

With Baldovin's death the leadership of the Suebi falls to me, Nibelung. My forces prepare to destroy the Boii for their treacherous and ignoble attack.

Baldovin's ashes were buried in honour not far from his brothers Barrow, so that he can join his brother in the otherworld. While he may not have been the strongest fighter in life, his brilliant mind will surely help his brother overcome the trials of the next world.

Just as it seemed our darkest hour, the situation went from bad to worse. An assassin, sent by the Boii found me in my tent and managed to slip poison into my mead. Though I was strong enough to survive, I lay on my sickbed while my troops were attacked on all sides by the fiendish Boii. Dispirited and leaderless, this may well be the end of the Suebi people once and for all...

Our only solace is that we were forced over the river by the destruction of Baldovin's camp, and this may turn to our advantage in this, our most desperate battle of all.

I, Theodon, Nibelung's second am left with the honour of commanding this battle. Though I have seen combat many times, this will be the first time I have commanded anything larger than a raid, so I am wary of making fatal mistakes. It seems the gods are not with me, as my first mistake is glaringly apparent as soon as the horns call for the battle to commence, I chose the wrong crossing of the river!

Mindful of the importance of controlling the crossing my troops and I march at speed to the ford the enemy have chosen, wary of their reinforcements coming at our back. While the river is between us and the bulk of the Boii forces, two other generals have joined the battle, and both could well come from our side of the water.
Soon enough the enemies generals approached from our left flank, one on horseback the other with good, stout swords and shields. I dispatched what troops I could spare to defeat them, but once again showed my inexperience.

The Boii by the ford seemed content to wait for my forces to array themselves on the opposite bank, and I wasn't about to miss the opportunity they had given me.

By then the small force had engaged the generals, but to my utter dismay the enemy proved the far stronger, despite being charged to the rear they made short work of the club wielding commoners.

And with them out of the fight both units made short work of the remaining spearmen and riders.

By then the real fight for the ford had begun, with the Boii crossing in force against my severely outnumbered army.

We fought hard and well, but the weight of numbers soon told against us, despite my men going into a frenzy and inflicting great wounds on the enemy front line, it was not long before we were driven back.

With the crossing lost the Boii were able to get their remaining troops out of the water and into my lines, which soon folded and ran.

The army was defeated, only those few who still had the breath to run making it off the field alive. The Boii had destroyed all hope of re-taking Lupferdum, and with it the hopes of our entire tribe had been dashed...

The few troops that remained fled east, back towards Ascaucalis and the safety it represented. With the town finally repaired it represented the best hope we had of rebuilding the army, and the only hope for survival for my people. Slim hope though it was, it turned out to be wholly in vain. The Lugii, eager to seek revenge for the losses they had suffered against this army crossed the border once more. The forces they had were pitiful compared to what we had beaten a short time ago, but they were more than enough to threaten the scarce remnant that had survived the Boii assault.

Having lost three leaders in as many days, the troops were led onto the field by Boiorix, a Suebi by adoption but a Celt by birth.

In truth, the enemy forces were not insurmountable, the men still had experience and skill on their side, but defeat after defeat had left them without hope, and the battle was a massacre.

The Lugii sword masters tore through our depleted men like a hot sword through butter, and barely had the battle started when it was over. Defeat and shame followed the remnants of Thrym's Chosen to the grave.

The journey that Clodochar started us upon has ended in defeat and destruction for our people, while Rhougion and Ascaucalis remain under our control we have not a single soldier, not even a single relative of Clodochar remaining. Defeat is ours this day, and it is with a heavy heart indeed that we give in...

[BroskiDerpman]

The Suebi are back once again!

Hooahguy will be proud of you.

[Hooahguy]

Wait, so is that it?

[Slaists]

Wait, so is that it?

I believe, that's it

[Sociopsychoactive]

I could continue with ths, and indeed I'm willing, but I was very deliberately roleplaying it out, hence Clodochar making bold attacks and trying to forge and empire out of blood. Baldovin, short though his reign was, was more tactical and defensive and after he fell, followed by every other general in the same turn, there was truly nothing left to fight for. Only Nibelung survived and is wounded, and with no army at all I doubt the campaign is winnable. Should I carry on anyway with a new dynasty?