The Great Slavslaying

The Baltians today met the Kolotchinians in a mighty battle near Polovtsk  to decide the fate of Kolotchine.  The Baltians arrived first, and selected a  battlefield covered with woods, hills, and a river.  However, the heavily
outnumbered Kolotchinians sought an arena more suited to their knights,  and retreated until they found an empty flat plain, with some hills, woods,  and a river on their extreme right flank.

King Mroz was worried about being outnumbered almost 2:1, but was  confident in the superior quality of his troops.  King Vicas's main problem  was fitting all his troops into the battlefield, and avoiding the knights.

Vicas moved first, boldly occupying the hills on his left flank with  thousands of warriors.  These then advanced on the woods to their  front, revealing a few light infantry.  Vicas hoped to move this huge body  of troops through the woods and into the enemy baggage, but despite  outnumbering their foes by 4:1, the woods and river slowed them down  too much before they could attack.

On Vicas's left centre, King Mroz's ally, Guylas the Herul, deployed his  knights and bowmen, and marched as fast as possible on the Baltian  horde.  The Baltian Auxilia deployed five lines deep, but were repeatedly  smashed by the knights.

The centre of the battle was occupied by the Baltian guard, warbands  who quickly had their opponents on the run.  Eventually, they tore a huge  hole in the Kolotchinian centre.

On the Baltian right,  auxilia and kings with their cavalry bodyguards  struggled all day for advantage.  King Mroz personally wiped out two  Baltian units, while Baltian cavalry did terrible damage, executing many Kolotchinian auxilia.  At one point, King Vicas was surrounded and in  terrible peril, but managed to retreat to safety.

Guylas continued to demolish the lines and lines of doughty auxilia, who  bravely charged his fast-moving knights again and again. Slowly, the  knights were going down to the suicidal attacks. Baltian auxilia crossed  the river and advanced behind Guylas, but were held back by Mroz's  reserve.  Guylas's bowmen were dead or in full retreat.

The Baltian guard had advanced as far as the Kolotchinian's last line,  when the Kolotchinian auxilia launched a ferocious attack, and destroyed  half their opponents.  King Vicas was unable to fill the gaps, and the  warbands were soon overwhelmed.  With the fate of the entire army in  their hands, a two -pronged attack by superior warband on the Herulian  bowmen also failed.

Guylas's knights were critically short of men, but had ridden down the  second last line of Kolotchinian auxilia.  The huge Kolotchinian allied  command finally broke.  However, the fight had been hot, and for many  hours it had only required the loss of one knight or bowman to see off the  Heruls.  In desperation, the Vicas's ally Ringaudas charged with his  cavalry against the knights, only to be speared through and routed
himself.

Seeing the entire Baltian centre in rout, the rest of the Baltian army  broke, leaving the exhausted Kolotchinians cheering their hero king, and  the Heruls lining up to be paid.
 
 

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