The Sun was burning brightly on our backs, but we did not shy away from battle, for we were, and still are, brave and proud Sicilians. We rallied to the Holy Cross in this desperate time of crisis, and I started to position my men around a few pillars implanted on the ground at weird angles.
The enemy were coming at us from three directions, so I used my years of military training wisely and positioned my men in a rectangle with the back open so that cavalry could maneuver in and out as needed. Oh, my father also helped me arrange the soldiers properly, so some credit must go to him too.
The first wave that came from the left of our position was led by a man whose name I didn't care to remember. His army was the most numerous, but still less than our total strength.
The second wave that came from the North-West was half the size of the garrison, and comprised of mainly infantry. They were led by a man named Abul-Fadl, and I only remembered his name because my father burst out laughing when I tried to pronounce it.
The third and final army approached our position from our front, but they did not have the numbers to trouble us.
The infidels were cowardly, hiding behind the treeline and refusing to come out and do battle. Instead, they started loading those enormous crossbows and fired blazing bolts at us.
I could not stand letting my brave men die needlessly from afar, and skillfully circumvented the main body of enemies and gallantly charged the heathen manning the oversized crossbows balistas.
My charge killed most of them, and the remaining survivors scattered, too frightened to continue facing the might of my men. Meanwhile, as I was dealing with the most important task of the battle, a company of crusader knights charged the first wave of reinforcements, and inflicted significant casualties on their archers.
The Mailed Knights also, together with the help of some brave fanatics, ran down a group of pesky Desert Archers.
At this point the Saracen army decided to surge forward and take the battle to us. My father advised me to let them come. They charged straight at us, screaming Islamic slogans that we did not understand, but our lines held fast and our men never once wavered. God and my presence held them together, and we stood and awaited the Fatimid's attack.
Just then, my father thought of a brilliant plan. We would let our men enter a depression in the ground so that our archers could fire over their heads and into the enemy's ranks. This shrewd move caused quite a number of Fatimid casualties as they took arrow and crossbow fire from the front. I marveled at the Fatimid's courage, for they kept coming despite seeing many of their friends take an arrow to the knee.
Just before our ranks clashed I saw one of the Fatimid captains. I wisely ordered my ranged units to concentrate fire on his company, and it was not long before he fell, his body riddled with arrows and bolts.
At his death, the entire Saracen army halted in confusion, and I used this opportunity to charge the third army under Captain Abul-Fadl, and decimated the ranks of his archers. As if my movement sparked something in the infidels, the Saracen armies then resumed their advance faster than before. Our left flank was under serious threat, as the militia holding the line there could not stand up to armored and trained heathens.
Our crusader sergeants then bravely held off three companies of Fatimid spearmen on their own.
This allowed me to commit an additional five units of mercenaries to flank the first Fatimid army under the now deceased captain Ukru...something. They routed under the pressure and I gleefully gave chase. However, there were so many of them such that all of my bodyguards had to kill a hundred men each.
We got the third Fatimid captain as he tried to save the situation by rushing to reorganize the fleeing army. He just hastened his own death.
By now our center had stabilized, and we were now in a very strong position to kill off the remaining enemies. Our center and right were slowly but surely whittling down the numbers of the enemy, and our left flank could be used to outflank the enemy in a matter of minutes. All we needed to do was hold the line. I personally killed off the armored Saracen threat on our extreme left, and now the way was clear for a flanking maneuver.
We duly completed the maneuver, and as such the battle was won. I left the chasing down of routers to my bodyguards, and sat down for a well deserved break.
The prisoners did not show respect to me and my father! When I asked them to say 'Bartolomeo the Great', they mumbled something in Egyptian. That was an affront to me and my father, and I immediately ordered their execution.
Their bodies joined those of the dead on the ground.
And so I, Bartolomeo the Great, had won a major victory against the Fatimids, and now stand proudly before the defenseless city of Alexandria. We shall capture it in due course, before you have even lifted a sword at the enemy, Romano.
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Re: [SS 6.4] To Change our Fate: Reforging Sicily with Steel and Heart ~Chapter 17, 1/1/13~
Originally Posted by Sweaft
Everything's fine on my endIt is possible to edit and quote something (as I have painstakingly found out) Here we go:
is it possible to edit and quote something?
Reply With Quote
But luckily I copy and paste to word before clicking preview post. Aha, unchivalric but yet he is Romano the Honorable.... 
