“Sometimes friends turn to foes in this business, but at other times, you do get to work together with people you’re befriended over your days. It’s a nice coincidence when that happens, it helps keep things cordial even when you eventually have to gut each other someday due to being under different employers.” - Joren “Ripper” Mauerhild, mercenary from Knallzog.
“Didn’t expect to see you here, Barnaby,” said Reinhardt with mild surprise when he saw the contingent of dwarven mercenaries over a thousand strong arrayed to the left flank of his own company. Said dwarves were from Barnaby’s Brewers, a mostly dwarven mercenary company that primarily worked for Knallzog and had fought alongside the Free Lances back at Theodinaz. “Thought you guys only work for Knallzog?”
Much like the Free Lances, the Brewers also took heavy casualties in the fighting back then, though they had clearly recovered almost back to their original numbers.
“Oy, ain’t seen you for a long while, Rein! Since Theodinaz wazzit?” replied Barnaby in a friendly manner as he noticed Reinhardt. To be fair, it was difficult to mistake Reinhardt’s rather unique appearance given how therians of his breed were practically nonexistent in Alcidea other than him and his daughter. “Me and mah boys saw that the higher-ups were giving everyone permission to hire on here in the west, good pay too. We had gone over just before the army came.”
“Ah, that might be why we didn’t notice you till today,” noted Reinhardt. The Free Lances had basically gone to the front lines right away. If Barnaby’s Brewers had only arrived recently, they were likely gathered in Algenverr or Dvergarder first before they marched to the front. Reinhardt didn’t exactly pay too much attention to the constant supply of additional equipment and manpower from the border duchies, so he likely hadn’t noticed their arrival. “We’ve been up front since we came here.”
“Ah’m envious. That must pay pretty well,” said Barnaby openly. The dwarven mercenary was the straightforward sort, and Reinhardt knew that the heavy dwarven infantry that accounted for nearly half the strength of the Brewers as a company was formidable, if maybe not quite to the quality of the actual dwarven army’s. Either way, he was a valuable partner to have on the battlefield. “Hope you don’t mind us butting in for a bit today!”
“There’s plenty for everyone,” replied Reinhardt. One thing he liked about working with a reliable ally was that there was minimal chance of internal discord since both companies would be professional enough to keep any disagreements for later. As luck would have it, straightforward people like Barnaby’s Brewers also rarely made much of a fuss as long as they were treated fairly, and Reinhardt knew Nestor well enough to know that he would pay his mercenaries what they deserved. “I know it’s rare for me to say that, but there’s almost two hundred thousand of them, and that’s just the half we have up here.”
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“Woo, plenty to share, all right. Best get mah boys ready to brawl. Our right flank will be under your care!” said Barnaby with an appreciative whistle. Due to the Brewers’ position to the Free Lances’ left, their flanks were naturally protecting each other’s. One reason Reinhardt shifted some of his stronger platoons to the right flank since the left flank will likely need no help with Barnaby’s heavies covering them.
“And our left’s under yours!” shouted Reinhardt back.
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On the right flank, the Free Lances met with more old friends, the reformed Silver Eagles in this case. Since Reinhardt caught and returned Michel – and his compatriots – to his old man, the siblings decided to reunite the Company under Wilhelmina’s lead and reassume the old name. They had yet to fully recover their former size, at only around eight hundred strong – a hundred of which was Michel’s cavalry contingent which gathered with the other cavalries and were thus excluded for the time being – compared to when they were a thousand strong at their prime.
Reinhardt had sent Erycea’s, Alycea’s, Alvaro’s and Mischka’s platoon to anchor their right flank. It was not that he had no faith in the Silver Eagles. The Silver Eagles were good, but even so they could not compare to the dwarven heavy infantry Barnaby’s Brewers had on the left flank. Reinhardt wished to keep the company progressing at roughly the same pace, so he sent more of his stronger platoons to the right to balance it out.
Erycea also had a good relationship with Wilhelmina, so that helped ease the communication between the two sides. The two of them were talking while the Silver Eagles got into formation. The Eagles’ infantry was more of the typical sort, with large shields and long spears as their primary weapons, but interspersed with warriors armed with two-handed weapons whose task was to deal with problem spots the way Blademasters did for the Kolitscheian Warforged back then.
One could even say it was a trick they learned from the Warforged, albeit adapted to match with the circumstances. Instead of relying on personal prowess the way the Warforged Blademasters did, the Silver Eagles instead had their warrior work in small teams of five that supported each other, with multiple such small units interspersed within the formation, backed by a team of around two hundred archers.
“We might push ahead a bit later, so do keep an eye on our right flank, okay, Will?” said Erycea as she clasped hands with Wilhelmina du Riffons right between the lines of their respective companies. The Free Lances were positioned on the right side of the central force, part of the five thousand or so mercenaries sent to reinforce that side, and further right would be ten thousand auxiliary troops from Knallzog. A similar arrangement was mirrored on the left side, though those weren’t Reinhardt’s or Erycea’s concern.
“As long as you help us in case we got into trouble,” replied Wilhelmina back. The older mercenary woman was all too aware that her company was definitely on the weaker side – on their flank, at least – and knew not to push her luck. Like all mercenaries, they were there to do the job and get paid for it, and one needed to be alive to collect their pay after all.