Immediately after we defeated the first Spartan army we moved over the Achelous River to confront the other two Spartan armies.
We didn’t attack immediately. We stalked them for two full days. We did not want to confront both armies at the same time. After all, divide and conquer was the way to victory! The Spartans surely knew where we were but neither side attacked, leading to something that resembled how a cat and mouse interacted. But instead of a cat and mouse, it was two large armies facing off.
But of course our plan was not to just hound them forever. When one of those two armies was nice and comfortable inside their temporary fort while it was pouring rain, we struck.
We sent in our men to cover all entrances to the fort. Nobody was going to escape this battle, and while those Spartans took cover from the rain we would strike, hopefully launching our assault before any meaningful defense could be organized.
But they were not totally oblivious to the ways of war, for they had sent out numerous patrols. When they spotted us, they headed back to their fort at full speed to tell their army to rise and prepare for attack. It was hard to hide over ten thousand men from an enemy army, so we wanted to make sure none of their scouts made it back alive to give them any information that might hurt us.
But those scouts did not make it far; we were able to catch them with our cavalry and slay every last one of them.
There wasn’t only cavalry though: they had sent out infantry as well to help patrol. While our cavalry was mopping up the cavalry, our infantry took on the other patrols.
And once the cavalry finished, they joined the infantry in the fight, ending that fight rather quickly.
With the scouts finished off, we charged the fort! Everyone was equipped with a torch to help burn down those palisades that they seemed to foolishly rely on for defense.
Their defense was better in some areas than others. On the western side the Spartans failed to form a solid line of defense, and we managed to enter the fort and establish a foothold. Of course the Spartans quickly recovered from that, but we held that foothold.
On the southern end they had held their gate well, not allowing us initially to break through. We would need to burn down their walls to gain access.
And on the eastern side… well, nobody really knew what was going on there; the fight kept going back and forth between us gaining a foothold into the fort and being pushed back.
Finally the southern walls began to collapse, and our men had a much easier time to storm the fort, but they were still held up by stubborn Spartan defenders.
On the western side our men had made significant headway, with our archers helping thin enemy numbers. And with their help, we finally managed to break the defenders on the western gate, and we spilled into the fort.
With one gate fallen, many Spartans tried to flee the battlefield, but they were run down by our cavalry. We counted dozens slain by our men, and maybe only a dozen who was able to escape.
Back inside the fort, the tight and organized Spartan lines melted into one on one combat, the kind of combat that we excelled at.
Finally we were able to break the final defenders holding up our forces at the eastern gate with a substantial charge into the rear of the Spartan formation. After a few minutes of fighting, the remaining few hundred defenders surrendered. We did not accept their surrender, and we carried on.
The slaughter of the Spartan army continued until there was nobody left to kill. When our swords were lowered and the clamor of battle subsided, we surveyed the damage. Almost three thousand soldiers from both sides lay dead within the fort. After burying our dead and burning the remainder of the fort, we packed up and moved towards our next battle.
We had sustained more casualties than in the last battle, but still managed to escape this battle with fewer casualties than expected. Perhaps the legends were exaggerated…
Re: Zalmoxis's Lightning: A Getae AAR (updated ch.13)
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