As the leader of the Marcomanni, I, Theodoric, have been entrusted with leading this faction from the shadows of obscurity into the light of eternal glory.
We have a long journey ahead of us. We are surrounded on all sides by tribes and factions who are probably not very friendly to us at all. To our southeast, we have our sworn enemies, the Vindelici. We have been skirmishing for over a decade now, and perhaps soon it is time to take the fight to their own lands and claim their town, Kelheim. The thorn must be removed swiftly, otherwise the pain will increase.
To the southwest are the Romans. They used to be unified into an unstoppable force, but recent internal strife has broken them into civil war. As a result, we should be very cautious about how we deal with them. Getting involved in their affairs too early could spell disaster for us.
Directly south are the Helvetii. They do not seem like much of a threat right now, but things could quickly change.
To the north, are the remnants of the Suebi, now known as the Semnones. Not much of a threat, if at all. The civil war that tore the first Germanic empire apart really set them back as a regional power, even almost eighty years later.
To the northeast are the Quadi. They do not seem like much of a threat right now, and we actually are on good terms. But we will have to either absorb them in a confederation or absorb them by force.
And finally to the northwest we have the Cherusci, who are in the same position as the Quadi.
My father, the former leader of our nation, died last winter. After I took the throne, I began to gather our forces. My father was a wise man, but he was far too soft on our enemies. Never once did he attempt to end the war between us and the Vindelici. That will change. Now.
I raised two armies, one led by me, the other by Farabert, who led the other clans in political opposition to me. Together we marched towards Vindelici lands, where two large Vindelici armies were waiting for us.
There is a river between our lands, and on the banks of that river our great armies faced one another. For a week we sat by the river, until finally the Vindelici made a move.
It was a rainy day. Why they chose that kind of weather to deploy against us I will never know, but regardless of the conditions we had to prepare for the impending assault.
Farabert set up alongside the western bank with his men, waiting for the Vindelici to come across.
Meanwhile, I took my forces down the river, forded it, and set up behind a hill. We would strike from the south as Farabert struck from the west.
But the Vindelici commander saw our moves and managed to redeploy some of his troops to meet the new threat that we presented. This victory would not come as easily as we hoped.
My forces slammed into the hurriedly-prepared flanks of the Vindelici forces, forcing their commander to send more men into the fray to prevent a total collapse of their lines.
Because their forces were fragmented, the battle turned into a number of smaller melees.
As forces were being diverted, Farabert charged his forces into the Vindelici lines which were in something akin to a state of confusion.
The fight on the banks of the river was a ferocious one. No quarter was given by either side as we hacked and slashed into each other in a violent mob. With only a small area to ford the river, it constrained the number of men we could bring to bear against the foe. But slowly we managed to gain a larger foothold on the banks of the river.
Meanwhile my bodyguards and I participated in a lively game of “run down fleeing enemies.”
The Vindelici left flank collapsed, and we managed to catch the waiting Vindelici formations totally by surprise, shattering them very quickly. It might have also helped that they were mercenary units who didn’t really feel like fighting us at that moment.
With no enemies in our way, our men, now rather tired, jogged to position themselves behind the large mob of Vindelici soldiers who continued to resist Farabert’s men.
An enemy unit of slingers saw us move into positon and tried to escape, but we caught them before they fled.
We charged, slamming into the rear of the Vindelici formation, instantly causing half of them to begin to waver.
As more enemies began to waver and flee, my bodyguards and I continued our task of running down the ones who fled. It’s always a mistake to flee from this kind of thing; it makes it easier for your opponents to kill you if you show your back to them.
As we enveloped the Vindelici formation, a number of enemy units appeared out of the woods, taking us by surprise. They charged towards the rear of our men. I saw what was happening but I was too far out to get a message to the lower level commanders to intercept. Thankfully one of the unit commanders saw it too and ran to intercept.
With their units surrounded, we moved in for the kill.
When it was all said and done, the bank of the river was covered in bodies and blood.
Our men were exhausted, but victorious.
We had crushed the Vindelici armies, wiping one out completely and seriously damaging the other, while sustaining relatively few losses.
As the shattered remains of the Vindelici army fled towards Kelheim, our armies prepared to move in for the kill.
Reunification: a Marcomanni AAR (updated chapter 25)
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