“The general tactics of warfare often differed greatly from race to race, but one prominently noticeable pattern is that races who had longer lives and usually less population tend to favor fast, decisive battles, so as to minimize the waste and casualties caused. It fell in line with their life philosophies, which their longer lifespans inadvertently affected.
On the other hand, shorter-lived races, especially the ones who reproduced prodigiously like the humans and goblins, often had battles that lasted days, weeks, even months on end, where they ground each other to dust via attrition. The horrible losses of life such battles caused were nothing, as these promiscuous short-sighted people would likely have repopulated it several times over in a few generations.” - Iyaslen Dovr’eniel, Elven researcher of History at the Levain Institute for Higher Learning, circa 650 FP.
“Take it easy, just keep the surveillance up,” Reinhardt commanded to the Company. When he received the reports that the Bostvan forces had stopped outside projectile range of the fort and set up camp, he knew they were likely planning for a prolonged fight, rather than a short, decisive battle.
It would have been folly to commit his troops too early in such a fight, especially when the enemy had not even realized his presence yet. Instead, he ordered the Free Lances to relax and just keep up with their scouting and elimination of scouts that went into the forest.
In the end, the battle had not started that day. The larger Bostvan forces chose to rest after they built their temporary camp, while the defenders also saw no reason to sally out either. Other than a few people who braved arrow range to shout some insults, there was no actual action on the battlefront.
Neither side attempted to pull a night attack, as both sides were all too wary of such tactics and had their defenses set up accordingly. The night passed rather uneasily, before finally the sun rose once more, and the battle began for real the following morning.
An hour or so after sunrise, the Bostvan forces marched and assaulted the makeshift defense lines built by the reinforcement forces from Dvergarder. Despite the week-long effort of their engineers and mages, the earthen ramparts were naturally weaker compared to the ancient fort with its reinforced and heavily enchanted walls.
A portion of the Bostvan army besieged the Fort from three sides, while the rest of them threw themselves against the earthen ramparts defended by the Dvergarderian forces. Arrows were loosed as the soldiers marched in formation, shields raised to defend themselves from the defenders’ retaliatory fire.
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Despite the numbers involved, the battle was far less intense than the ones at the Theodinaz conflict, Reinhardt thought. Unlike there, neither side were full of fanatical zealots without a care for their life, and as such the battle was far less intense, as soldiers retreated to the rear when they were injured, and deaths happened more by accident or bad luck most of the time.
Where in a battle against the Zealots of Theodinaz the dead would outnumber the wounded by a large margin, in normal warfare it was the reverse. Injuries and incapacitations were far more common than death, as soldiers were taken prisoner or simply wounded and retreated behind the lines.
It helped that both sides also had better armor to equip their soldiers with, unlike the zealots who often just fought with what clothes they usually wear in their daily life. Even the lowliest of soldiers in either army were given either gambesons made of thick layers of cloth or suits of cuir bouilli, cheap armor made from plates of boiled, hardened leather.
Neither was the most effective form of armor for war, but just having them greatly cut down on the deaths, as attacks that would have killed without them became less life-threatening injuries instead. Reinhardt kept his crew watching the battle from the sides, all too aware that the fight that day was likely just the first of many probing attacks to the defenses.
By sunset, both armies ceased hostilities as the Bostvans retreated back to their camp in an orderly manner. The defenders had not given chase, and before long, an uneasy peace settled in together with the night.
Despite how the battle lasted the entire day, with easily sixty thousand or more people involved, Reinhardt guessed that at most a thousand had died in total. There would be many times that number in injured of course, but most would only be of light injuries, the sort that would not prevent them from fighting some more the next day.
That evening he sent his observations to the Young Duchess Utghwes, along with a mention that he would commit his troops when an opportune time arrived after the battle was truly joined. A reply letter arrived before dawn the next morning with her approval, and agreement that at least the next few days would be the same, as both sides continued to probe each other.
Their guess indeed came true, and for the rest of the week, the battle seemed almost half-hearted, with neither side committing their forces for real and only probing for weaknesses. Those that died during that period of time could only blame their own poor luck.
On the firstday of the next week, the atmosphere around the normally half-hearted battlefield intensified in a way that all the soldiers and commanders could feel in their hearts. That day, the Bostvan forces made their first serious foray, as they brought out the reason they had mostly dithered and probed for the past week.
Members of their army had cut down lumber from the edges of the forest behind their lines - too many and too close to the edge for Reinhardt’s men to take them out unnoticed other than sending an occasional band of wild animals their way - and used them to build siege engines. Large trebuchets were erected on the backside of the Bostvan lines, where they could hurl large boulders at either the fort or the earthen ramparts from safety.
To the soldiers that defended the Fort and ramparts, the siege engines were a major source of fear and worry.
To the Invading Bostvans, they were a source of confidence and strength, one that assured them of their victory to come.
To Reinhardt and the Free Lances, the siege engines were bags of gold for the taking.