The Reach's Revenge

[Lucius Malfoy]

Under orders from an infuriated Mace Tyrell, two Reach armies enter the Westerlands. The main army, 25,000 strong, under the command of the Lord Paramount himself, has ordered an assault upon Crakehall. A second army, commanded by Lord Oakheart, lays siege to the castle of Cornfield, augmented by 21,000 men.

Lord Tyrell's Army - 25,000

Reach Professional Army - 2,700 men300 Reachman Lancers (Elite) 900 Mercenary Heavy Cavalry 1,500 Florent Heavy Infantry Militias of the Reach - 6,000 men 3,000 Polearms 1,000 Heavy Infantry 1,000 Light Cavalry 1,000 Heavy Cavalry Levies of the Reach - 16,300 men 12,300 Light Infantry 4,000 Archers

Lord Oakheart's Army - 21,000

10330 Light inf 2924 Polearms 4420 Archers 1508 Heavy Cav 1818 Light Cav

Main army has Mace Tyrell, Ser Edmund Karstark, Ser Colin Florent and Lord Florent. The 2nd army is full of NPCs.

[The Mad Skylord]

Crakehall sends out letters to Lannisport, Casterly Rock, its vassals and the neighboring Lords and High Lords.

[Poach]

As explained on Discord we normally only allow 3 Ravens. 50/50 chance, 10+. 2, 2, 19. One raven makes it to Fang Keep, where Lord Crakehall is encamped. The other two carry identical letters:

"Crakehall is besieged, send word to Lord Lannister and Lord Crakehall."

[Lucius Malfoy]

With the ravens having been seen, Mace knew he had little time to do what he desired to do. He drew his sword and pointed at Crakehall.

All units, begin your assault!

Having seen one of the surviving ravens head north, Mace orders the light cavalry to perform a screen. He still wasn't sure where the retreating army had gone off to, but he still needed to ensure his army was aware of their surroundings during the assault upon Crakehall.

[The Mad Skylord]

The hostages are hung from the walls.

[Poach]

Walls + Gatehouse orders, please.

[Poach]

Remaining troops:
1,955 HI
13,065 LI
2,867 Polearms
(~400 dead)

Mace Tyrell - Arm wound, -2 duels for 3 RL days
Edmund Karstark - Free
Lord Florent - Free
Ser Florent - Free

The family of Lord Crakehall, except the man himself, Tyrion Crakehall, and Bronn Crakehall, are captured. Lords Crane, Redding, and Osgrey are very vocal in their demands for blood, seeing as their families were just hung from the castle walls as the army advanced. Many Lords sympathise with them, with some agreeing that barbarity deserves barbarity, while others suggest the Reach is the home of chivalry and that it should be Lord Crakehall that is executed, not women and children. The argument rages within Mace's command tent in the aftermath of the battle.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Mace sat within a chair, letting the maester dress the wound upon his arm. He glares at the old man as he feels a jolt of pain before returning his gaze to the arguing lords. Lord Tyrell raises his hand to silence them.

The men will be executed, the women will be spared. 1 man for each family whose members were flayed and impaled... Lord Crakehall will be executed for his barbaric behavior in the Reach and the flaying of my cousin, Quentyn.

Mace orders that the treasury of House Crakehall be seized. There were three families that demanded retribution and Mace would allow it. All four men are brought forward; Alaister, Randal, Beric and Ralf.

Yet compared to the brutality of flaying and impaling, Mace remembers chivalry and has Alaister, Randal and Beric executed by sword and axe in the traditional ways. Three men for the three families that demanded justice.

Ralf and his sisters are locked away with the army to be transported back after Crakehall is razed.

[Poach]

The hour was late, and Mace's army had found the elusive army of Lord Crakehall as night fell. Both sides knew there would be battle on the morn, and had set heavy watches about their camp, each wary of the other attempting an attack in the night. Mace had retired some time previously, having issued his Lords their orders and positions that would be taken tomorrow, ready to bring the battle to the man who had butchered his way across the Reach.

Suddenly, shouts and the sound of combat. The camp was rapidly coming alive, men believing Crakehall had done what some of Mace's own Lords had urged that he do: use the darkness to catch the enemy unawares. Streams of Reachmen assembled, half armed and armoured, in hasty formations, scanning the dark for Westerman soldiers marauding the camp. It was not to be, however: no attack had come.

Mace, prepared in his own armour and accompanied by the household guard, strode through the camp to the pickets, where the commotion had started. There he saw a puzzling sight: several Florent men lay dead, as did several sentries, and Lord Florent was detained. Had this been some sort of probing attack by the West, that had turned tail and run once discovered? But then why was Lord Florent in the custody of Reachmen? One of the sentries, a knight who must be commanding this section of the picket line, stepped forth and handed Mace a piece of parchment.

He read it in growing horror. The parchment went through, in great detail, the very strategy Mace had agreed only hours earlier with his Lords.

"We caught him attempting to cross the picket, m'lord." said the Knight, "We'd not heard of any probing attack, so we said we'd seek your word before allowing the party through. They attacked us upon that, and Lord Florent attempted to flee in the direction of the Westerman: you'll find his horse shot dead halfway down yonder track." He motioned into the darkness, where a track used by local peasants wound into the darkness.

Treachery.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Mace, red with anger, stared directly at Lord Florent and then glanced at the parchment in his hands. This man had detailed reports on the orders of the Reach army for the next battle... and had attempted to go the Westerman side?! He turns to his guards and barks his order.

"Arrest Ser Colin! I want both of those Florents before my knees now!"

It was infuriating that this had happened. Perhaps he could attempt to reason with one of them. As he glances at the letter, he turns to Lord Florent.

"You better have a good reason why I shouldn't hang you right now like the dog you are! What has compelled you to betray your own homeland?!"

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[ficenzi]

As both Florent men were on the knees before lord Tyrell, very little sign of regret or shame could be seen on their faces.

'Don't speak to me of my homeland like you have the higher moral ground, lord Tyrell. You shouldn't hang me because a good portion of your army camped here are my men. I'm sure fighting in the Reach camp won't do you any good before a fight with the Westermen who boast more manpower than yourself.' Lord Florent said. 'Hang me and you might aswell be hanging yourself, so to speak. Just let me and my army march home to Brightwater Keep and you can have an official apology in front of all the lords and ladies of the realm at Highgarden.'

[Lucius Malfoy]

Mace looks down at Lord Florent calmly before speaking to him.

"I have a counter offer in mind... your army fights for me in this battle, for your homes and for your fellow Reachmen. Whether victory is assured or not, I will grant you 50,000 gold dragons and I will throw in a consideration of title for your son in exchange for your loyalty, your public and humiliating apology and your renouncement of any claim over the Reach. I may even consider making your son a member in a dream that I hope to achieve. You and your son keep your lives, your lands, gain money and perhaps titles... that is my offer to you, Lord Florent and know that anything you could gain for your betrayal were mere promises whereas I can truly give you what I promise presently."

Lord Tyrell stares down at the two Florents.

"The choice is yours... you are in no position to make demands due to your current status. So either accept my generosity or endure my wrath."

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[ficenzi]

'You ask me to renounce claim over what rightfully belongs to my ancestors and me, lord Tyrell, where is the honor in that?', Lord Florent says proudly before spitting to the ground aside. 'But so would these same ancestors turn in their graves if they knew greedy Westermen hands digged into the Reach. I'll accept these terms, lord Tyrell, for the Reach.' He then looked to his son, who aswell agreed to what his father had said.

[Lucius Malfoy]

"But where is your honor in helping the same people who slayed members of three houses by flaying and stakes? Would your ancestors curse you from beyond their graves for helping those same people?"

He raises his hand to silence Florent before he speaks. Mace didn't need to hear his answer.

"Remember that this fight is not for which side we support but for what was done to the Reach. It is one thing to raid our lands, but another to slaughter whole families for sport!"

Mace looks down at Lord Florent before nodding his guards who move to remove the bonds on Colin.

"Prove to me that Florent is loyal to the victims and not the aggressors, loyal to her home and not the invaders, and you will not have your name be dragged through the mud."

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[ficenzi]

Ser Colin stood up and it felt good to be free again, even if prisoner for only a short while. He looked upon his father who simply said. 'Go kill some ing westermen.'

'I assure you my troops will be loyal in the upcoming battle, my lord.', Colin said. 'We should pray to the Seven for a victory.'

[Poach]

The lines were arrayed, with around 18,000 Westermen and 24,000 Reachmen taking to the field to do battle. The Westermen, on the defensive, had left the centre painfully weak and aimed to achieve fast victories on the flanks to envelop the enemy, while the Reach hoped to breach the enemy centre with a thunderous cavalry charge and roll up the enemy flanks by filling the gap with their own infantry and pressing outwards. This gave a distinct advantage to the Reach, as the Westerman centre would be very easily overrun, perhaps well before the Reachman's flanks were forced back.

As it turned out, that is what happened: the Reach knights barely even slowed down as they crushed the weak and thin line of peasants underfoot as they rushed up the centre. The flanks had barely even engaged and already the Reach infantry and cavalry in the centre were wheeling outwards to press the enemy flanks.

This dashed the Westermen's attempted flanking movement on their right, as they found their own cavalry engaged from the rear by enemy heavy horse, while their light infantry on their left flank were able to harry the enemy archers by virtue of there being little to protect them by way of mobile troops on the enemy right.

Alas, with a shattered centre, the battle was as good as lost, and both Westerman flanks were forced from the field, even with Lord Crakehall giving half his light horse in an attempt to counter-charge the marauding enemy horsemen.

Westerlands

1508 H Inf
789 L Inf
1896 Polearms
497 H Cav
3960 L Cav
3956 Archers

~12,500 men (~5,000 dead)

Crakehall - 13 Free
Clegane - 19 Free
Lefford - 9 Captured
Damon Payne - 17 Free
Tybolt Payne - 19 Free

The army retreats to Casterly Rock.

Reach

1633 H Inf
10075 L Inf
2402 Polearms
255 E Cav
1501 H Cav
790 L Cav
3760 Archers

~20,500 men (~3,500 dead)

Tyrell - 15 Free
Karstark - 16 Free
Lord Florent - 14 Free
Colin Florent - 19 Free

[Pontifex Maximus]

The battle was faring poorly. Clegane's own horse had been killed form under him, so he had to pull a knight of the westerlands off his horse and mounted it in turn. "Bugger the Tyrells with a hot poker." he bellowed as he fled the field, towards Casterly Rock.

[Lucius Malfoy]

Mace sat down upon a tree stump after the battle was over, watching as his soldiers ransacked and burned Crakehall thoroughly. Ralf Crakehall was throw into the mud with Lefford forced to kneel before the victorious Lord Tyrell. Mace glances at Ralf for a moment before waving his hand.

"Since the Crakehalls are fond of flaying and impaling, have this boy be hung from the gatehouse as a warning."

The guards nodded and dragged Ralf Crakehall away. Since Roland had not been captured, his death would have to do. Afterwards his gaze turned to the captured Lefford.

"Lefford is it? What is your name? I hear you were the only one who treated hostages with respect..."

He sighs and points at the walls, indicating all the hostages that were now hung.

"This is what Crakehall did before we arrived..."

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[Poach]

Ryon could see the bodies, half decayed, hanging from the ramparts. He remembered Delena and Bethany Webber, two girls of prime marriage age, young and pretty. Crakehall's garrison had hung them. Ryon looked at them for some time.

"Lord Crakehall gave me command of the doomed centre because I dared challenge the foolish notion that we give battle today," he said distantly, still looking at the bodies, "While he himself remained well to the rear. He is a coward, Lord Tyrell, who hangs captives and flees the field even as those he commands are slaughtered."

[Lucius Malfoy]

Ryon could see the bodies, half decayed, hanging from the ramparts. He remembered Delena and Bethany Webber, two girls of prime marriage age, young and pretty. Crakehall's garrison had hung them. Ryon looked at them for some time.

"Lord Crakehall gave me command of the doomed centre because I dared challenge the foolish notion that we give battle today," he said distantly, still looking at the bodies, "While he himself remained well to the rear. He is a coward, Lord Tyrell, who hangs captives and flees the field even as those he commands are slaughtered."

"Then I see no reason to kill you as I did the others. You are a man who has a brain truly and understands the laws of war."

He nods to his guards who unchain him.

"Tell me, who else committed such atrocities in the Reach? I read reports of Payne and Clegane banners."

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