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Authors: Michael O'Neill
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catapults down the mountain, and there was sufficient “ammo” on the mountain to cause havoc. Several companies of bowmen were also moved. Other than that they just waited. Conn really hated waiting.
Chapter 04
They actually had to wait twenty days before the message was passed around to the Captains of each company by a drummer and a lone bagpiper. The sounds echoed through the mountains, and its import was clear.
Prepare your men; the Merians are attacking.
Derryth stood and listened quietly to the echoing sounds. ‘I still don’t get how you enjoy the bagpipe thing, and even call it music. Hideous.’
Conn laughed. They were running up the hill to a small stone donjon cut into the mountain side with a commanding view over the stony pass. The music had stopped by the time they arrived and was replaced by eerie silence, soon replaced by the sound of marching men and the whistle of Ancuman catapults.
As expected the Ancuman were aiming their mangonel at the stone towers and the wooden gates that protected the pass. They were empty – though you wouldn’t know that from looking because they had only been vacated overnight. It took a while for the catapults to find their mark but eventually they did so and the boulders started to hit the walls and gatehouse – and as planned smoke immediately billowed from the rubble piled up behind the walls; carefully prepared with green bush and oils to create as much smoke as possible. With luck, and it seemed to be following him, the winds would direct the smoke towards the invaders – providing a small amount of discomfort as well as cover for Conn’s plans.
On a yell, wiga now streamed up the valley, in the testudo formation with shields held over their heads. Perhaps a thousand men, mostly Samrians, they appeared to be led by Ancuman Folctoga.
The archers that would have been in the towers and on the wall were now thirty yards in front of the walls, stationed in the new trenches dug as the snow melted. It had been hard work. Conn fired a flare into the air. As soon as it exploded, a swarm of arrows exploded from the top of the mountains down to the shields being carried by the wiga. Raised higher to protect themselves, they didn’t see the arrows in the second wave; from the bowmen in the trenches, aimed at their legs.
It was not easy to aim low from a low position and it was not without problems – but it did have the desired effect on the charging wiga. Not expecting the second wave, they inadvertently lowered their shields to defend their legs, and the stream of arrows from the sky started to impact. The first wave of men was thus halted in their tracks, and surrounded by wounded or dying men. The second wave were more cautious; they now protected both top and bottom and marched slower.
Conn then let his mangonel loose by firing another flare. Until now silent, his two catapults started firing. He wondered if Agkell had told Dagrun that his enemies had catapults – he doubted it. He wasn’t military and he spent most of the battle hiding. It would have come as a shock probably. One was aimed at the Ancuman mangonel, while the other at the marching testudo. The slow marching fyrd was a much easier target. Men scattered as the rocks rained down on them; and without cover, the arrows found their mark.
Their job done, the bowmen in the trenches quickly retreated up the tunnels, behind the wall and down into the valley; the smoke from the burning rubble providing cover. By the time the Samrians arrived at the wall, they found it deserted. They stopped advancing; and hid under the cover of their shields, while being peppered by Conn’s bowmen on the hills.
As they rapidly descended down the hillside slope to re-join the small forces of a hundred Cataphracts, Conn and Derryth heard a trumpeter announce the success of the Samrian advance, and they then heard the sound of what turned out to be five hundred cavalry galloping up the slope at top speed.
Conn had
Chapter 04
They actually had to wait twenty days before the message was passed around to the Captains of each company by a drummer and a lone bagpiper. The sounds echoed through the mountains, and its import was clear.
Prepare your men; the Merians are attacking.
Derryth stood and listened quietly to the echoing sounds. ‘I still don’t get how you enjoy the bagpipe thing, and even call it music. Hideous.’
Conn laughed. They were running up the hill to a small stone donjon cut into the mountain side with a commanding view over the stony pass. The music had stopped by the time they arrived and was replaced by eerie silence, soon replaced by the sound of marching men and the whistle of Ancuman catapults.
As expected the Ancuman were aiming their mangonel at the stone towers and the wooden gates that protected the pass. They were empty – though you wouldn’t know that from looking because they had only been vacated overnight. It took a while for the catapults to find their mark but eventually they did so and the boulders started to hit the walls and gatehouse – and as planned smoke immediately billowed from the rubble piled up behind the walls; carefully prepared with green bush and oils to create as much smoke as possible. With luck, and it seemed to be following him, the winds would direct the smoke towards the invaders – providing a small amount of discomfort as well as cover for Conn’s plans.
On a yell, wiga now streamed up the valley, in the testudo formation with shields held over their heads. Perhaps a thousand men, mostly Samrians, they appeared to be led by Ancuman Folctoga.
The archers that would have been in the towers and on the wall were now thirty yards in front of the walls, stationed in the new trenches dug as the snow melted. It had been hard work. Conn fired a flare into the air. As soon as it exploded, a swarm of arrows exploded from the top of the mountains down to the shields being carried by the wiga. Raised higher to protect themselves, they didn’t see the arrows in the second wave; from the bowmen in the trenches, aimed at their legs.
It was not easy to aim low from a low position and it was not without problems – but it did have the desired effect on the charging wiga. Not expecting the second wave, they inadvertently lowered their shields to defend their legs, and the stream of arrows from the sky started to impact. The first wave of men was thus halted in their tracks, and surrounded by wounded or dying men. The second wave were more cautious; they now protected both top and bottom and marched slower.
Conn then let his mangonel loose by firing another flare. Until now silent, his two catapults started firing. He wondered if Agkell had told Dagrun that his enemies had catapults – he doubted it. He wasn’t military and he spent most of the battle hiding. It would have come as a shock probably. One was aimed at the Ancuman mangonel, while the other at the marching testudo. The slow marching fyrd was a much easier target. Men scattered as the rocks rained down on them; and without cover, the arrows found their mark.
Their job done, the bowmen in the trenches quickly retreated up the tunnels, behind the wall and down into the valley; the smoke from the burning rubble providing cover. By the time the Samrians arrived at the wall, they found it deserted. They stopped advancing; and hid under the cover of their shields, while being peppered by Conn’s bowmen on the hills.
As they rapidly descended down the hillside slope to re-join the small forces of a hundred Cataphracts, Conn and Derryth heard a trumpeter announce the success of the Samrian advance, and they then heard the sound of what turned out to be five hundred cavalry galloping up the slope at top speed.
Conn had
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