The Battle of the Valley of Death
Spring 271 B.C.
My army is delayed and cannot set out yet, the contingent commanded by aryandes is late and will not be arriving for several months, I hope this does not cause difficulties in the campaign. The people of Sulek must surely know I'm coming now.
Autumn 271 B.C.
I write this from the back of my horse as I look over the valley, it is filled with the bodies of my enemy. the blood has drained to the lowest part of the valley and now there are large puddles of it. When we had started out on the journey I had hoped that Oxyboakes and his army had no intention of attacking, but I was wrong.
He outnumbered me by about two hundred men but in truth I had the advantage. My army was almost exclusively horse archers while he only had two units of Saka riders the rest of his cavalry were either lancers or skirmishers armed only with javelins. He had some missile foot troops but they did not pose much threat. To take advantage of my superiority in cavalry and missiles I formed my men in a long spread out line with the foot archers in the center and the Saka cataphracts behind them.
The enemy general decided to approach in a rather clustered formation making an easy target for my horse archers.
once his army got close the enemy cavalry skirmishers broke off and attacked my left flank.
The javilineers are out ranged and begin to take casualties fast.
while my left is engaged in a missile fight, his heavily clustered center begins to fire upon my center. My foot archers volleys begin to rip into the enemy ranks and thanks to Oxboazes choice of formation, the arrows rarely miss.
At this time I order my right flank to circle around and unleash their arrows int the enemies back.
This point the enemy general realized that their was only one thing he could do.
The saka lancers charge impetuously only to be met by the unforgiving lances of my cataphracts
An enemy unit of horse archers ride out to meet the flanking movement of my right side but are quickly dispatched by the skillful archery of my men
a group of horse archers take aim at the approaching enemy riders
after only a few minutes of fighting the rebel lancers break and run, the enemy general is killed in the pursuit. I order my heavy cavalry to continue into the mass of men before them.
My heavy cavalry charge into the enemy center while there left side is barraged with arrows.
Soon the left flank, having routed the skirmishers that were sent against it, circles around in a pincer movement
First the death of their general, then being charged by the most heavily armored cavalry on the battlefield, and now being bombarded by arrows from all sides is too much for the eleutheroi army to handle and they completely lose their courage. Soon the remaining enemy unit of horse archers is forced to retreat and the engagement turns into a slaughter.
the last of the enemy warriors are shot down, only a small portion of the cavalry escape.
the valley of death
Luckily, my foot archer absorbed most of the casualties while my precious horse archers remained mostly untouched. Not only did this gain me much respect among the clan chieftains, but I still have enough men to take Sulek. I cannot write any further as we are moving out, we should be in Sulek in one week.
Re: Out of the Steppe, Into the Fire
it should work out alright anyway, I have a plan :P
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