“Contrary to popular belief, the arrival of reinforcements does not always mean that the tides of battle would turn in favor of the side that received them. In fact, many battles in history have been lost because the forces that originally fought the battle and their reinforcements couldn’t see eye to eye. As with all things, it depends on the situation.” - Anwar Ismail Efiram, Historian from Al-Hassid.
“Thanks for being able to come on quick notice, Captain,” said Nestor as he greeted Reinhardt. He had sent a missive to the forest camp asking for Reinhardt’s presence when they welcome the arriving dwarven reinforcements since he knew Reinhardt had good relationship with several of Knallzog’s nobles. A good first impression was always useful especially when dealing with people they would have to work together with.
“Just coming as requested, Your Grace,” said Reinhardt nonchalantly. He too knew why Nestor had called for him. Establishing a good working relationship was vital for a coalition army to work properly, as disagreements between the leaders from the various sides could easily lead to disarray and catastrophe instead. As such, Reinhardt was all too happy to lend his face and relationships to ensure that doesn’t happen.
The dwarves of Knallzog had taken the situation seriously – which made sense since they would be next in line should Posuin fall – and sent out a hundred thousand soldiers just in the first wave, with reassurances that a second wave of reinforcements would follow within a month at most. That force split into two halves that each headed for the two battlefronts, and the fifty thousand strong force was already a relatively short distance away from the defense camp. Nestor along with Griselda, old Duke Banitu, and Reinhardt were meeting them by Kolitschei city.
Out of the fifty thousand, reports they received from Reinhardt’s flying scouts indicated that around fifteen thousand were cavalry forces, while another fifteen thousand were elite dwarven infantry. The remaining twenty thousand were auxiliaries, composed of people from the non-dwarven races that joined the Knallzog military, which had their own arrangements.
Now that the force was within range to be seen without aid, Reinhardt could tell that out of the fifteen thousand cavalry, most were light cavalry, with around two thousand heavy cavalry and around a hundred war chariots. The relatively flat area by the defensive fortifications west of Kolitschei city meant that the cavalry and chariots could be used to devastating effect, and if they pushed the invaders back, former Gestis and Wanarua territory had quite a few regions suitable for cavalry operations.
Not that dwarven cavalry cared all too much about the terrain anyway.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
A third of the infantry wore the gear of dwarven heavy infantry, while the remaining two-thirds were light infantry by their standards. Out of the auxiliaries, they were clearly divided into two groups of ten thousand each. Each group had around a thousand cavalry – more traditional light cavalry, in their case – with the rest being infantrymen.
Since the fighting at Lovia-Hosberg had also entered a stable stalemate and the invaders had not sent more troops that way, everyone had agreed to focus the northern half of the reinforcements on the Kolitschei front to rapidly solve the situation there first before dealing with the remaining enemies further north.
The advancing reinforcements naturally saw the welcoming committee by the city’s gate already waiting for them, and a smaller group broke off from the main force and went ahead. A lone war chariot rode ahead of that group and stopped before the group, and eight people disembarked from the vehicle to meet with them.
Two of the eight were familiar faces to Reinhardt.
“Dukes Nestor Ambroglio da Nunez and Orsla Banitu, I presume?” asked Graf Angus Harscape of Bærengant as he strode ahead of the group. “I presume this lady would be Duchess Griselda Kris Al-Geroulaz da Nunez, correct?” he asked with a grandfatherly smile on his wrinkled, bearded face. “No need to introduce that one to me. I’m not so old I’d forget about my own good nephew.”
“Nice to see you again, Uncle Angus,” said Reinhardt as he gave the old dwarf a warm familial hug. “And you too, cousin Siobhan,” he added, addressing a younger female dwarf that closely followed behind Angus. Siobhan Eilidh Harscape was the second daughter and heir to Graf Angus Harscape, and was naturally also familiar with Reinhardt.
“Actually, you should be calling her Your Grace instead, nowadays. She’s the Grafin now, I’ve passed it down to her just a month ago,” said Angus with a smile. “I’m just here since my old bones still want the thrill of battle and this one’s looking to be the biggest one I’ll probably see in my lifetime, haha!” added the old dwarf with a boisterous guffaw.
“Glad to have you with us nonetheless, Uncle,” said Reinhardt sincerely. As the noble in charge of Knallzog’s northern border, Angus Harscape was probably the one dwarf in Knallzog that had seen the most battles in his lifetime, and that experience would be of great help to them.
“A pleasure, Sir Harscape, Grafin Harscape,” said Nestor as he returned the greeting with an equal bow. He was technically at equal rank with them, after all. “We offer our gratitude for your willingness to lend a hand during this time of our need.”
“We’re doing this partly for ourselves, as I’m sure you can understand, Duke Nunez,” said Siobhan as she walked by her father and greeted the Dukes. “Should Posuin fall, Knallzog would be next in line since no invader would be stupid enough to try going through the marshlands or the Forest of Despair instead,” she added. “Since we’re bound to have to fight them anyway, it’s better for us to do it in your lands rather than ours.”
“A blunt statement, but one I definitely cannot disagree with given that I’m doing the same myself,” replied Nestor with a satisfied smirk on his face. His choice to support Kolitschei was made under the same logic, to keep the fighting outside his territory. Old Duke Banitu frowned at their blunt words but shook his head. He knew that this was a situation where he had to take the loss as he had no other option.