Battle For Hex 70: Beerstein Invades Fezia But Is Outnumbered & Unable To Besiege Castle (OR Battle Of The Sorceresses).

      

Late in the battle, Beerstein Lobsters are overwhelmed by numbers and even the Fezian leader, Epheba charged in to finish them off.  

                                                         Fezian positions in their castle.

   Fezian plate pass in front of the castle but receive casualties from Beerstein archers and musketeers stationed on the other side of the river. However, they were able to devastate the Hillmen mercenaries who were acting for the Beersteiners.

  The Beerstein sorceress, Sylvia the Serpent, narrowly escaped death from the Fezian mounted light archers before she turned herself into a dragon!

               Some Beersteiner cavalry were, unusually, clothed in blue instead of the customary red.

Is the Fezian sorceress, Ilkiiune bungee jumping?

            The large Fezian force at right threatens to overwhelm the Beersteiners left on the castle side of the river.

                                             Beersteiner musketeers on the bridge over the river

       The dragon fancies elephant ribs for lunch. It attacks and the brave elephants stands its ground until reduced to one wound. It then goes berserk and attacks the unit of Fezians to its right. Then it changes course and ploughs into the Beerstein pike, who kill it after it inflicts damage to them.

   Fezian archers include tribal levies from many parts of the empire and also those from the black nation of Ebony.

                  The Beerstein Lobsters had early success against enemy mounted archers.

      Beerstein longbows and muskets established over the river initially deter the advance of Fezian plate. The fire was enfilade and so increased the effectiveness.

                                          The crazed Fezian war elephant attacks its own side! Bambam, the mahout could not stop its insane fury.

              The Fezian sorceress is not about to bungee jump; rather she casts spells to improve the archers' accuracy. They finally inflict two wounds on the dragon.

                                 Fezian tribal levies were poorly equipped but had the numbers.

     It is down to the wire as Fezian spearmen in chainmail fight Beersteiner pikemen and the hero, Ademus Hobbes. The Fezians may be soon helped by approaching Fezian plate.

THE NATURE OF THE BATTLE:

Fezian forces approached from the South and were on the castle side of the river. It was soon clear, however, that they faced overwhelming numbers. Most of the Fezian forces were lights. However, two units of the Fezian infantry were also equipped with plate armor and one with mail. A cavalry unit also wore plate. One unit of Beersteiner cavalry had plate - the Lobsters. The other was heavy cavalry. The Beersteiners had heavy infantry (cuirass and helmet or chainmail tunic, shield and helmet (the latter being two units of Hillmen mercenaries one which was made up of axmen) and light missile troops.

The Beersteiner strategy was to form a firing line across the river and to safeguard the passage of supply wagons and two cannons. At a later time, they could fire the cannons at the castle, at their leisure. The missile troops had to cross the bridge and move along the river edge. To buy time the two units of Beersteiner cavalry charged the enemy light mounted archers. The pikemen also charged forward, supported by two units of Hillmen. The latter were extraordinarily loyal for sell-swords.

Beersteiner sorceress, Sylvia the Serpent, nearly died from enemy horse archery but skillfully dodged most of the arrows. One lodged in her hair. For a moment she fell to the ground and the Fezians breathed a sigh of relief to have destroyed such a dangerous opponent. But then she rose, and shaking in anger, she screamed the words of the most powerful spell from the Lore of Beasts.  Her skin began to darken and turn to scales and her eyes turned amber. Suddenly, her form changed completely and she gained the enormous dimensions as a Fire Dragon.

   The Fezian war elephant had joined a melee against the Fezian cavalry but Sylvia, now a hungry dragon, charged the elephant and ripped off a piece of its ear. The elephant was bleeding profusely.  Suddenly crazed with a mixture of fear and anger it tuned to its right and charged into the chain mailed Fezian spearmen. After squashing a few it then turned to charge the Beersteiner pikemen. The latter sustained some casualties before driving their pikes into the hapless beast's eyes. With a shudder, it fell to the ground, dead.

The dragon variously charged or flamed the closest Fezians. The Fezian archers, in the castle battlements, received magic support from Ilkirine and their arrows began to take some effect. The dragon suffered two wounds but scarcely paused in her rampage. Among the victims was Fezian commander, Epheba. However, the Fezians had a second commander in the castle so no army morale test had to be taken.

One of the late arriving Beersteiner cannons had unlimbered and shot a cannon ball into the Fezian ranks, killing six of them. The other cannon unlimbered on the bridge.

The two Hillmen units were devastated by the enemy plate and had fled before rallying. Only the dragon stood in the way of the attacking Fezians to save the few remaining Beersteiner forces, on the castle side of the river, from being completely destroyed.

  The battle concludes tomorrow.