Starting Narrative
260AC.
Maelys the Monstrous, one of the Band of Nine, lands on the Stepstone Isles and establishes a base of operations, intending to use the isles as a launchpad for an invasion of Westeros itself. King Jaeherys knew this, and sent his own army to the Stepstones to meet Maelys and prevent him advancing any further.
The Army, commanded by Lord Baratheon, was built around a powerful core of Westerlands troops, with Riverlanders, Stormlanders and Crownlanders comprising the rest. At sea, the fighting ships were provided by the Greyjoys.
Upon landing battle was soon joined, as the Targaryen forces advanced inland and met Maelys, who had drawn up positions between the Targaryen troops and his own ships. He held the better ground, standing atop slightly sloped ground and anchoring his left flank against a dense patch of decaying forest, impassable to Knights and a death trap to any infantry caught within it should archers sight them, while his right flank had ample room to flex, the route back to the ships being behind his left.
Maelys' centre was formed around the mighty Golden Company, an elite mercenary force, while his flanks were built up around various other sellsword units of lesser quality. The Targaryen forces massed the Westerlander troops on the right, meaning to smash Maelys' left flank and cut off access to his ships, with the Stormlanders and Crownlanders forming the centre and the Riverlanders comprising the left.
Early on the battle turned desperate for the Targaryen troops. The reserve of the Golden Company were committed against the Westerlanders, and succeeded in forcing a wedge between the Westermen and the rest of the Targaryen line, isolating the Targaryen right from the rest of the army. It was only late in the battle that a ferocious charge by Westerland knights succeeded in breaking through this wedge, but this succeeded only in allowing those Westron knights to retreat with the rest of the army when the day ended: the bulk of the Westerlands contingent was utterly destroyed, isolated behind a mass of enemy troops and unable to go anywhere except into the dense, dead woodlands. Many died in the mud, many more died to the rain of arrows.
The Targaryen centre and left fared little better, but at least escaped in good order. Losing the right flank allowed Maelys' knights to infiltrate the gap, embroiling Lord Baratheon's reserve and personal guard in a vicious melee, preventing direction of the troops. Amidst this chaos, the superior fighting power of the Golden Company steadily pushed the centre backwards, threatening to isolate even the Targaryen left. Only a shrewd withdrawal by the Riverlanders maintained what remained of the Targaryen line.
The day was thus Blackfyre's. The Targaryen host was pushed and pushed until cohesion broke and they withdrew, in some chaos but still in fighting order, back to their own ships who had, in the meantime, been dealt their own sharp defeat by Melys' sellsails, who had been driven off but at terrible cost. The battered remains of the Targaryen army limped home, making port variously in the Westerlands, Stormlands, Crownlands and Iron Isles: they had effectively disintegrated as a single army, returning to their own Lords Paramount in defeat. The Westerlands received only a paltry few hundred survivors of the eleven thousand sent, comprised of those knights and men at arms that succeeded in breaching the Golden Company's cordon in the dying hours of the battle.
King Jaeherys was found dead in his bed the day after the dreadful news arrived: Maelys had commenced his invasion of Westeros, having been sighted unloading his forces a days march from Storm's End. A heart attack was suspected after the King had retired to his chambers that evening in a legendary rage. The would-be King Aerys, waylayed in his return to King's Landing by storms, would not arrive in the city until several days later. In rapidly proliferating chaos, Aerys would be hastily crowned and asked to lead the Seven Kingdoms against the enemy.
Starting Events:
- Maelys arrival at Storm's End.
- Aerys coronation at King's Landing.
Players are expected to attend the coronation but may elect not to. Maelys and Stormlander players may attend his arrival at Storm's End.
Starting debuffs:
- Westerlands may raise only 75% of the levy they would normally be able to raise. This will continue until both of the following happen: 1. Someone conclusively wins the War for the Iron Throne. 2. The Westerlands sends their army home.
- Ironborn may not raise any of their AoR ships until the same conditions as above are met.
Starting buffs:
- Maelys gets the following army, which will disband after he is killed or he has conclusively defeated Aerys II. (ie, there are no more major battles to be fought, to be decided by mods if there's any confusion)
Army of the Pretender
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Originally Posted by Lucius Malfoy
