Red surprise revised

[Lord Dread]

With the Leffords being left at the Twins and a force of Ser Abelar moving unaware towards Golden Tooth,
the time has come for the Riverlords to act. Night shadowed the two keeps into a dark light. The position of the North in mind and being aware of the planned movements of their allies,
everything has prepared for the final surprise. While Ser Gyles has sharpened already his sword, wearing full armour and being guarded by silent guards of his host inside the fortress,
somewhere in the dark a bard was playing a lute from the distance of one of the Frey's towers:

"In a bright little brook
there shot in merry haste
a capricious trout:
past it shot like an arrow.
I stood upon the shore
and watched in sweet peace
the cheery fish's bath
in the clear little brook.

A fisher with his rod
stood at the water-side,
and watched with cold blood
as the fish swam about.
So long as the clearness of the water
remained intact, I thought,
he would not be able to capture the trout
with his fishing rod.

But finally the thief grew weary
of waiting. He stirred up
the brook and made it muddy,
and before I realized it,
his fishing rod was twitching:
the fish was squirming there,
and with raging blood I
gazed at the betrayed fish."

While the music with the sad melody was played, noises could be heard inside and outside the keep, screams of agony and surprise mixed with the shoutings of the Riverlords. Gyles looked at his sword pleased - it was perfect in shape.
While spotting the Lord Protector and some of his guardians, an alarmed Lefford man ran immidiately into the smith. Fear was seen in the eyes of the young lad.
"Lord Gyles, a rebellion upon the Riverlords broke out!", he warned him, "We have to gather the loyal troops and -"
Before the boy could continiue, the blade of Ser Gyles has shaped red and with a surprised but realizing look, the young man before him fell backwards, while the knight removed the blade with sorrow in his eyes.
"Good men have to die to ensure the safety of the realm", he then sighed towards his companions before going also on the hunt, "The Tyrant has forced us with foolish threatenings into this position, made me to lock away Edric in our own interest for freeing him later. We have spoken about this day at the council at Riverrun and now, mylords, our all awaited revenge for the humilations done to us, shall be fulfilled.
I'm sorry for Cersei and Daryn... but to protect the family, we have to protect the realm.
Down with the laws, down with those, who threatened us!
The trout shall hunt it's prey and unite with those, who fought for Daeron's cause!"

Situation: The Tully have turned against their allies, the Lefford host.
Both hosts should be at the Twins, as posted in the movements thread. Definitly a betrayal move, which is only the first step of a plan, being done by both Edric and Gyles before they arrested the Lord Paramount.
Since I posted before at the council, that Gyles told the Riverlords orders and other stuff, they do know about the signal for striking. The player lords are also informed about it and agreed with it, so it's not just a spontaneous move.


OOC: Hope you're not mad, Poach and PM, but anything else would have been suicide. Even honourable men like the Tullys of Riverrun are for the greater good, in which they believe, sometimes sacrificing their honour.
Furthermore, when the event will get common knowledge, whenever this will be the case, Cersei Lannister will definitly be furious about it and go on distance to the rest of the family. However, I guess that's just only one small water drop on the hot stone, I presume.

[Poach]

idgaf, have fun.

[Trot]

ooc this feels like what Manderly will be doing in the books pretty soon.
IC
Edmyn was armored and armed. His sword was in his hand as he waited a small force around him. He was uncomfortable with the plan. To go against the king may very well be paramount to suicide. But what other choice did he have. He and his men move to take on the enemy unawares however still he had doubts.

[jacb547]

Lord Danos was besides Gyles, clad in steel from head to heel and a face booming with grim satisfaction. Elsewhere in the camp Darry's men had risen and with swords and spears attack and butchered the Westermen. Danos laughed when the Lefford soldier was cut down and turned to speak with Gyles:
"Then it has begun, we shall free ourselves from the tyrants." With a nod he signaled some off his knights and Raymund off to the camp to command the butchery. "And what of Lord Edric? Have we heard from him?"

[Lord Dread]

Gyles shook his head, but was positive.
"Unfortunately the circumstances don't allow us to contact him, but since I told the Watchmen, he accompanied him, that he was only a refugee and will have arrived already at Moat Cailin to meet the commander of Stark's army, he will be alright as the rest of the family", he ensured him, "If someone will die from my House in this battle, it will be just me - and as my brother Uthor, I await the Stranger in Battle. Come now, this sad day is not right for talking about the future. Honour has fallen, Duty has to be done!"

[Trot]

Edmyn shakes his head.
"Pure treachery. The cause may be just, but the gods will still judge us all for this one day I am certain." He looks out at the encampment wondering how many of the Westreners managed to get their weapons before allied solders fell upon them. It was not a pretty sight but it had to be done didn't it?

[Lord Dread]

Gyles sighed also.
"Either a life in chains for our vassals, as I fear that Baelor would have bound the lords also to his crude laws some day or being punished by the Seven or the Old Gods for killing those, who prevented us from fulfilling our demands in peace, for the sake of the own soul. Both expectations are not very promising, Lord Blackwood, but as I told you earlier - the cost of thousands of life is better than the fate of million enslaved civilians and lords, who would suffer from Baelor's laws. Since it was my plan, I will take the responsibilities for ordering you to do so in afterlife. You only do, what we all have to do... bitter, but we have to as we have to remind ourselves, that the Lion would repay us with the same coin as we do.
Have the Lannisters ever been known for mercy, even during the times of peace under Baelor's regime? Remember Sirsha Stark..."

[Trot]

Gyles sighed also.
"Either a life in chains for our vassals, as I fear that Baelor would have bound the lords also to his crude laws some day or being punished by the Seven or the Old Gods for killing those, who prevented us from fulfilling our demands in peace, for the sake of the own soul. Both expectations are not very promising, Lord Blackwood, but as I told you earlier - the cost of thousands of life is better than the fate of million enslaved civilians and lords, who would suffer from Baelor's laws. Since it was my plan, I will take the responsibilities for ordering you to do so in afterlife. You only do, what we all have to do... bitter, but we have to as we have to remind ourselves, that the Lion would repay us with the same coin as we do.
Have the Lannisters ever been known for mercy, even during the times of peace under Baelor's regime? Remember Sirsha Stark..."

Edmyn nods.
"I understand it is necessary, but do not ask me to like it." He turns his head to look at Gyles, "this sin shall stay with me Gyles. I had an oppertunity to stop this and I did not. The cost of freedom from oppression is always steep for those who fight. This blood is on my hands as much as yours. And these men are just did not choose their lord. Many have wife's and children it does not make me happy to know that they might not grow up with husbands or father's. I would be ashamed of I did not face the gods for this event in the after life. May they have mercy on our souls."

[jacb547]

Danos looked at Gyles comfortingly "We are doing what needed to be done. The Gods don't judge good men." Or maybe they do but I don't give a Danos donned his helmet and unsheathed his sword. "If you excuse my Lords I believe there is killing to be done." ​With that the Darry knights charged into the fray.

[Honors Bastion]

Alright, I will be rolling this ambush shortly. I need numbers about how many Riverlander troops are joining in the assault. I already know the number of Lefford troops. I just need the Riverlanders.

[Lord Dread]

House Tully (10,350):
3,200 Light Inf
1,500 Heavy Inf
1,000 Polearms
1,000 Archers
700 Light Cavalry
350 Heavy Cavalry
600 Outriders
600 Household knights
2,400 Mercenary Crossbowmen

House Darry (10,294):
-3987 Light Inf
-1999 Heavy Inf
-1150 Polearms
-1259 Archers
-979 Light Cav
-920 Heavy Cav

House Frey (4,500):
1,850 Light Inf
750 Heavy Inf
500 Polearms
650 Archers
450 Light Cavalry
300 Heavy Cavalry

House Mallister (5,500):
1,850 Light Inf
1,150 Heavy Inf
900 Polearms
850 Archers
550 Light Cavalry
300 Heavy Cavalry

House Blackwood (3,500):

975 Light Inf
625 Heavy Inf
650 Polearms
500 Archers
325 Light Cavalry
175 Heavy Cavalry

OOC: Since their limit is due to a misunderstanding quite over the top in sum, as I have to agree with Ponti, I may take those, who are too much as extra causalties, if needed.
Realized too late, yesterday that my host is too big and would have stored the Freys at the Twins for a good opportunity elsewhere.
Sadly, Lefford decided to stay at the Twins and well - don't waste the moment of surprise, but accept a bitter price. Should have calculated better. :/

[jacb547]

OOC: I actually have 10.294 Soldiers.

[Lord Dread]

OOC: Oh, my fault. Will correct it after I have pushed back the ambush of my cat, trying to persuade me that I shall fondle it more than wasting my time on the laptop.

And before anyone asks: It's not a white persian cat.

[Poach]

Well, as I've been talked back in, I should post what orders Harmund would enact as best he could.

- He'd form an organised stand, bunching everyone up into a massed blob as best he could.
- He'd attempt to send his Light Cavalry, all of it, away from the battle, to get word to Ser Guy and the Westerlands.
- Ser Ulfric is Harmund's bodyguard, and he is always armoured (full kit, purchased), you can read every post I've ever mentioned him in as validation of that. He will protect Harmund and if a duel situation comes up it will be Ulfric that attacks Harmund's assailant.
- Harmund would attempt to withdraw in whatever order he could with as many men as he could, fighting his way out.
- Naturally Tully's troops have the element of surprise, but their camps would still be somewhat separated: they're two armies in the same place, not one army.
- Harmund has +5 battles and was always RP'd (both in this game and every other Lefford game I ever played) as less of a sword-in-hand man and more a thinker: he's a tactician by nature and will react with intelligence over 'grab a sword and cut as many down as possible before I'm dead'.
- Please bear in mind Harmund's infantry are almost entirely Heavy Infantry and elite Guardians of Casterly Rock and are almost entirely professional soldiers. The Levy make up only 4.5k of his nearly 20k men.

[Honors Bastion]

Alright, since this battle is more or less a surprise attack by the Riverlands troops on the Lefford Encampment, this battle will be done in three parts. Since there aren’t any guidelines to how do an ambush battle in the Rules thread, I will just do simplified rolls to determine the casualties for both sides. There is no reason to make this battle more complicated then it already is.

The way I did the rolls was to split the attack into several phases. Phase 1 was the initial attack and the casualties that were inflicted on the Lefford men. Phase 2 and after are the reactions by the Lefford men to being attacked and whether or not they can form a defense to allow for a somewhat orderly retreat. If they cannot, further casualties rolls are determined and another roll is done and continued to be done until the Leffords lose 50% of their men, at which point it is assumed that they have all routed from the field.

Starting Forces:

• Riverland Attackers: 34,144 Men
• Lefford Defenders: 19,562 Men

Phase 1: Initial Surprise Attack

• Was surprise achieved? – Since the Leffords/the Westerlands as a whole were suspicious of the Riverlanders in the first place, it’s only fair to assume that they don’t completely trust the Riverlanders in the firstplace. I will give them a 4/20 chance of detecting the attack and preparing a small defense (nothing major).
• Rolled an 11, so the Lefford men are taken completely by surprised.
• Initial Casualty Roll: Used a D20 * 2%, so a maximum of 40% losses initially by the Leffords. Rolled a 10 so the Leffords lose 20% of their men outright.
• Riverlanders do not suffer any losses in the initial attack.

Phase 2: Lefford Defense

• For this phase, a roll was done to determine if the Leffords can muster a defense of their encampment. If the Roll was determined to be yes, then it automatically heads to phase 3 with a Lefford retreat from the area with no casualty roll. If the roll is a no, another casualty roll will be done to determine how many casualties are inflicted on the Leffords and this phase will be repeated until either a defense is put up or casualties reach 50%
• Are the Leffords able to Mount a Defense: 5/20 chance of that happening as a base roll, with +3 modifier for the men being professional soldiers so the roll becomes an 8/20 chance. Rolled a 5, so the Lefford men are able to form up and resist the Lefford attack.
• No casualty roll and it moves to phase 3.

Phase 3: Lefford Withdrawal/Retreat

• With their defense set up, for this phase, a roll will be used to determine if the Lefford men can escape in an orderly fashion with some casualties, escape in disorder with more casualties being inflicted, or no escape and they are all to be captured or killed.
• The roll will be a D20 with 1-4 an orderly escape, 5-10 with a disorderly escape, and 11-20 with no escape/captured.
• Rolled a 3, the Lefford men are able to withdrawal there men in an orderly fashion. While some soldiers do their best to fight off the attacks, the remaining men are making a fighting retreat from the area.
• Lefford Casualty Roll: Again, I will be using a D*20 * 2% situation, rolled an 8, so 8* 2% is 16% casualties on Lefford men.
• Riverlander Casualty Roll: D*20 * 1%, Rolled a 5, so 5% of the Riverlander force was killed.
• Retreat Direction: Since I don’t know which side the of the Twins the Lefford men are encamped on, I ill assume that is the West side of the Twins so the two options of retreat are South towards the Oldtstone or Southwest towards Seaguard. A 10/20 will determine the direction with 1-10 being South and 11-20 being Southwest. Rolled a 9, so direction will be South.

Outcome:

• The Riverlander assault on the Lefford Encampment results in a success with the withdrawal of the Lefford forces from the field.
• 36% of the Lefford men are killed with casualties to be distributed evenly among all forces.

• 5% of the Riverlanders are killed with casualties to be distributed evenly among all forces.

• Remaing Riverlanders: 32,436 Men - 4,144 men over limit = 28,292
• Remaining Lefford Men: 12,520 Men
• The Riverlands Army fresh from there victory will be enforced a 6 hour RL wait limit before they can be moved.
• Similarly, the Lefford host will be imposed a 6 hour RL wait limit before they can move again, but during that time, they shall appear at the Oldstones hex.
• In 6 RL hours, word of what happened at the Twins will have spread to the ears of Ser Guy Lannister, the Vale, the King, and the North. For everyone else, it will take another 3 RL hours, or a total of 9 RL hours before they find out as well.

Mod Note:
I hope that this battle was rolled to everyone's satisfaction. I did my best to be fair to both sides on this matter. Some may say that the Lefford casualties seem a little low since they were ambushed, but do note that they had a chance to lose up to 80% of their men. The dice did not turn out that way and I had no control over it.

As soon as I know the character traits of all participants, I will do the survival rolls for the characters.

@Poach: I did the rolls before you posted your orders. However, we seemed to be thinking the same thing so I didn't need to make many changes for it.

[jacb547]

Damn, Lefford is a lucky guy.

Chars:
Danos Darry:
Full Armour
+6 Duels
+5 Field Battles
+5 Survival
+4 Loyalty
+1 Income
+1 Siege

Walder Darry:
Full Armour
+3 Jousting
+3 Dueling
+2 Survival
+2 Field Battle

Raymund Darry:
Full armour
+3 Jousting
+4 Dueling
+2 Survival
+2 Archery

[Trot]

Edmyn Blackwood
Acting Lord
age 21
skills
fate 1
duels 1
archery 1
escape 1
income 1
siege battle 1

[Hengest]

Lefford got off too easy

[Poach]

All I'd have to argue is

1. Harmund's +5 was completely ignored but the rolls went largely in my favour anyway I guess.
2. The Riverlands army is 4,144 troops larger than the legal maximum. LD agreed to simply add that as casualties. Thus, the Riverlords have 28,292 men, rather than 32,436 men.

Harmund +5 Survival
Ulfric +4 Survival (+full armour which doesn't give a survival bonus but I thought I'd mention)
Godric +2 Survival

Survivors

Of the Levy: 1263 Light Inf 612 Heavy Inf 406 Polearms 406 Archers 311 Light Cavalry 171 Heavy Cavalry = 3,223 men Of the Professional Soldiery: 4,992 Heavy Infantry 2,688 Archers 1,728 Guardians of Casterly Rock = 9,408 men Totalling: 12,631 men

* * *

A horn blew and a great roar was heard. Harmund stood up and peered out his tent door to see Riverlanders charging the camp's edge and slaughtering his forces. Betrayal.

Harmund had suspected this may happen, and had encamped some distance away and concentrated the bulk of his forces near the camp's south, spreading loose tenting towards the Riverlords so any assault would overwhelm only a portion of his army.

Swiftly mounting his horse, wearing only a hastily, and loosely fitted, breastplate, he rode through the camp.

"TO ARMS! TO ARMS! THE RIVERLORDS BETRAY US!" he bellowed, galloping through the tightly packed camp centre, "Form up in square! Archers to the centre! Cavalry to the front, harass the advancing foe! Give the infantry time!"

His men, largely a professional force, moved swiftly. Thousands were dead already, lost in the initial attack, but that was necessary. The bulk of his troops were now intact and in position, forming a solid square of infantry surrounding the archers, with the cavalry screening the formation and inflicting losses on the by now badly organised Tully host.

"WE WITHDRAW SOUTH!" shouted Harmund to the men, amidst a hail of arrows unleashed by his large archer force that cut down a semi-organised advance of Tully heavy infantry, "Captains! Co-ordinate your infantry! Archers, stay within the square! Send a rider to summon back the cavalry, they shall counter-charge any Tully forces that make an advance on the square! Move!"

Trumpets blared, drums boomed. The whole force moved slowly southwards, stopping under the direction of Harmund occasionally to unleash volleys of arrows or to enable the cavalry to reform under some protection.

After several hours, the Tullys broke off their attacks. Harmund's force looked depleted, he estimated 1 in 3 men to be lost to him, meaning 7000 men. Painful, but not fatal. From what he saw of the Tully horde, he'd killed perhaps 5 or 6,000 men. Content, then, that despite being outnumbered and ambushed, he'd inflicted roughly similar casualties.

The army formed into a marching column and sped south, the cavalry maintaining their screen alongside detachments of archers.

[Lord Dread]

Ser Gyles looked a little bit relieved, but also worried about the Lefford host disappearing unordered in the distance while most of the Riverlords were cheering their victory with their shoutings or mourning the dead. Dawn has reached the Twins and the crows were already seaking for their food.
"He reacted quickly, I didn't have expected that", the knight of House Tully said a little bit angered, "Nevertheless, we have done our buiseness and killed enough of his forces to prepare further movements due to our losses. Ser Guy is now trapped and will have to fear our blades, when the North is joining our cause, since we're one step near our goal, the abolishment of the new-founded laws and preparing the way for a new king, who does benefit the services of the Riverlands.
This day was a bloody one, and our people shall be reminded in future, that it was the day, where Ser Gyles decided to bring shame upon himself, since it was my idea to do it, not Edric's.
This step was needed, but from now on we will face our enemies again with honour. I ordered this whole mess and even if everyone could have had the choice to not take part at the slaughtering, I will be the one, who will join the Night's Watch when this war has been settled and the Stranger has allowed me to pass him another time. You did your orders, but I take the responsibility - undepending on the outcome I will take the Black after the war.
For now, however, we have to wait for our Lord Paramount, since he is the one, who leads us. The man, whom we all shall follow."