Dreadbolt: The Grey Army
Ch II-9: The Young and Old Fight
Though Soderino's First Army made good speed westwards towards the Roman cities, the reinforcements from Italy were even faster thanks to marching though the now-secured roads. As a result, when scouts brought reports of a Roman force headed in their direction, Soderino had a full number of soldiers and was not about to be stopped.
Soderino: Romans trying to stop us? Attack, and scatter them!
_Officer: Shouldn't we wait for the men to finish forming up?
As they were having his conversation, the officers had already begun reforming the marching units into a battle line. Though there was no pressure due to the timely scout report, Soderino did not feel like giving the Romans a chance to detect them and fall back.
Soderino: Let's charge into them -
As he had moved to a good vantage point to survey both his and the Roman army, Soderino laid eyes on a unit of Roman axe militia which were marching ahead of the main spear-armed infantry. He immediately seized the initiative and spurred his bodyguard unit into battle. Italian lances were brought to bear against the surprised Roman infantry.
Soderino: Even if I am three times your age**, you will still fall before me!
_Officer: Wait what? Quickly, follow the Podesta!
**He is something like 55 years old at this point
With nearly 50 heavy Pisan horse bearing down on them with lances, and even more horsemen rapidly approaching to join it, unsurprisingly the axemen turned to run. Equally as expected, they were mostly skewered on the lances of those pursuing them. Soderino's own unit nearly chased the routers into the confused main mass of Roman infantry.
Fortunately, his officers convinced him to pull back from the spearmen, as the infantry had managed to prepare themselves and move into range. The cavalry moved off to their side and watched as the Pisan crossbowmen began to take apart the Romans with their bolts.
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Another Roman general was assassinated on his way to take command of a Roman force. Nothing new.
Engelbert von Karnten (senior) pulled on his armor as he saw Pisans approaching. His men had been on watch for any assassin that might target him, but any chance of dispatching his son's killer personally came to nothing.
Instead, it was time for a straight-up fight.
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Ugolino de Gorgeto watched his Fourth Army prepare for battle. His objective, the Large Town of Freiberg, was surprisingly well defended contrary to expectations at the time his army departed Italy.
Ugolino: This is not "lightly garrisoned" at all.
____Aa: Well the Romans do get the choice to not smash themselves against Marco's forces.
Ugolino: The enemy always does get a say. But we're well able to deal with them.
____Aa: I expect good results on this field.
Engelbert pushed his men forward, to take control of a critical bridge before the Pisans arrived. Unbeknownst to him, the Fourth Army had already crossed the bridge and was formed up waiting for his army to arrive.
Ugolino even had the time to give a bit of a speech before his first major battle.
For their part, the crossbowmen were a little further away, lying in ambush as part of Ugolino plan of battle. The long range of a crossbow added to their raised position would allow them several shots before the enemy could close to melee.
The elite crossbowmen in particular were anxious to show off (to one another) the performance of their custom-made weapons.
As Engelbert's men began to maneuver a particularly steep incline, suddenly people began to slip and fall while screaming. In truth, they had been hit by a Pisan crossbow bolt. Barely visible in the distance above, Ungolino's soldiers shot the Romans and then moved back to allow others to take their place.
Although their commander had wanted to use a massive initial volley, the geography didn't allow for such an attack to be stealthily prepared.
Engelbert: Don't falter, we have them now!
Enraged by the trickery of the Pisans, Engelbert rushed forward at a group of crossbowmen who kept on rotating to shoot at his unit. He gained on them, all the while losing men when a second unit appeared to the side with a clear shot at his side profile.
Ugolino did get to see a volley. Engelbert got to experience the impact of it.
The Romans tried to fall back down the slope to regroup, but they were in full view of all the Pisan crossbows, while the fresh Pisan infantry confidently made their way down towards them.
There was little hope for the Romans, but when men started to run, it was all over. Cavalry easily cut them down from behind.
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Flush with his first real victory, Ugolino marched towards a reported force of Roman reinforcements. This time, he was positively eager to get into the fight.
Waving his sword in the air with a flourish, he quickly prepared another ambush.
Much like the previous battle, he intended to take the Roman marching column by surprise from an elevated position.
This time, he was able to pick a somewhat better location that allowed him a good view of the massive volley he ordered.
The ambush went off just as Ungolino had planned. The Romans were quite well-armored but it didn't avail them much when the bolts began to fly toward them.
With missiles slamming into Romans up and down the length of their force, the Romans attempted a brave charge but were ultimately cut down by the spearmen waiting for such an occasion.
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By the way, Ugolino's capture of Freiberg was the one settlement needed to officially allow Soderino to announce the Pisan Empire, the largest unified faction in the known world!