V&V Battle Reports Thread

[phonicsmonkey]

King Wladyslaw of Poland was mightily pleased to hear that his quarry the whelp of Wien had deigned to return to the field to face him. As his army drew itself up into battle lines he chuckled to himself at the though of skewering the German Prinz on the point of his lance.

Arrayed in front of him was his invading army: three companies of mercenary crossbow, seven of spear (a combination of native Polish levies and mercenaries), one mob of Polish peasants native to Breslau and bent on revenge for the rape of their village by the Austrians and a group of mounted Polish nobles.

His scouts had not been able to determine precisely the makeup of Prinz Leopold's force, but given the reported poverty of the Reich and the meagre resources available to the then-Duke at their last meeting he did not expect to be challenged.

He waited, confident and eager, watching the tree line across the snowy field for any sign of movement. He did not have to wait long, for with a crash, out of the undergrowth sprang the Prinz himself and his bodyguard, in full armour and regalia, galloping across the field towards him.

His missiles readied their arms for firing as the knights of Austria approached but at the last moment, just as they were about to release their deadly load, the Prinz and his bodyguard wheeled to their right and began to dash away from the Polish army.

The front ranks, almost involuntarily, gave chase and soon the whole Polish force was dashing across the open ground in pursuit of the Prinz. Even Wladyslaw, in the heat of the moment, began to gallop in pursuit before he began to realise the trick.

As the Prinz and his mounted companions dodged and weaved in a circled around the field, the Polish King began to shout orders to his men in an attempt to stop them from wasting their energies in pursuit.

Unfortunately the noise and sheer mass of his army made communication difficult and he was forced to follow them, red faced and shouting in vain as they legged it three times around the field, trailing the cantering Austrian horses.

Finally the Prinz wheeled once more and headed back towards the treeline and up the steep slope into the forest.

The Polish army, overtaken by mob instinct and deaf to the entreaties of their general and King, gave hot pursuit, stumbling up the slope through the thick undergrowth to the crest of the hill under the dark green forest canopy.

Through the trees they could just make out the German Prinz and his company, some way off and partly silhouetted on the crest of a ridge. For some reason he and his bodyguard had halted there and the sight of their quarrey now stationary enthused the Poles still further to redouble their efforts to climb the hill.

It was at this point that Wladyslaw got the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach. This was clearly a trap.

And indeed it was so, for out of the undergrowth sprang the German spear and crossbows to block the route to Leopold and confront the exhausted Poles.

The weight of numbers still favoured the Polish King by some distance, but with the advantage of the high ground, the element of surprise and his own troops having tired themselves in pursuit of the tricky Prinz, he could see that this was a battle he was most likely to lose.

He charged into the fray, hacking about him in an attempt to singlehandedly turn the tide of battle. Ahead on the ridge the German crossbows were firing repeatedly into the melee, cutting the Poles down like hay, while behind him his own crossbows were harried and driven off by the charges of two companies of German Mailed Knights.

The day was indeed lost when the Mailed Knights turned and charged into the rear of his engaged infantry line, causing the men to rout and flee for their lives down the now-bloody hillside.

The last thing King Wladyslaw saw before he died was the crossbowman who would kill him, levelling his weapon and sighting him with a single eye down the barrel.