Battle of Bast Fulmar

The Battle of Bast Fulmar was the first major conflict in the Awl Campaign after Redmask united the Awl against the Letherii Empire. Under Factor Letur Anict of Drene, the Letherii had engaged in a years-long strategy to conquer the lands of the Awl'dan and subjugate its people using theft, subterfuge, and outright extermination.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 1, US HC p.37-40 The Factor's plot to buy off Hadralt, the Awl's last major warleader, collapsed when Redmask returned from exile to lead his people in their darkest hour.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 6
Redmask launched the fighting with a raid on one of Factor Anict's drover camps, killing all the Letherii and their families who tended thousands of the Awl's stolen Myrid and Rodara. In response, the Factor sent Atri-Preda Bivatt and the Eastern Army to kill Redmask and shatter his army. Overseer Brohl Handar, Emperor Rhulad Sengar's representative and the Factor's theoretical Tiste Edur superior, accompanied and funded the expedition.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 8, US HC p.205-208 He hoped to end the fighting quickly with minimal bloodshed and seek terms with the Awl. Bivatt and the Factor would accept nothing less than the Awl's complete surrender and enslavement. 
Bivatt was confident of her army's success as the Awl's undisciplined fighting style and their intra-clan feuds and rivalries made them ill-suited for any organised combat beyond raids and ambushes. The Letherii's mastery of unit tactics, combined with their powerful sorcery and their superior armour and weaponry, had proven insurmountable against the Awl in the past. The Letherii had only to force the Awl to stand and fight and the enemy would be annihilated.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 6, US HC p.149 Internal politics involving the Factor's corruption and the Overseer's threat to expose and remove him meant that the Overseer's safety on the battlefield was not guaranteed even in his own camp.
==The Battlefield==
Bast Fulmar was a grassy valley running roughly north to south with broad, gentle inclines. The long-dead river that once ran through was now only hardpacked sand, but it had carved a broad curved bend on its western side. The eastern slope was more undulating with a bulge at its centre. The valley's northern end narrowed to a defile below a bluff while the south offered a wide approach. The floor of the valley was wide and flat.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.304-305/326/327/332 The summit of the valley's eastern ridgeline was largely bare rock overlooking another valley where the Awl made their camp a third of a league distant. Visibility was high within the valley, with no features beyond the rolling hills to block lines of sight. But once down in the valley, the ridgelines on either side prevented sight outside the immediate area. Seven narrow, shallow drainage channels ribboned the valley's flanks, separating those areas into segments. Three were in the valley's southwestern quadrant, two in the centre-east of the valley, and one each in the northeastern and southeastern quadrants.
The Awl established no pickets around their camp allowing Bivatt, Handar, and a small troop of scouts to observe them the night before the battle. Based on the campfires, Bivatt estimated the Awl numbers at ten to eleven thousand warriors and an untold number of non-combatants.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.304-305 In the final two bells before dawn, she stole a march on the Awl in an attempt to enter the valley and array her troops so that Redmask would lose the initiative. But the Letherii army was still a half-league from the valley when their scouts discovered the Awl already there in strength.
Spear-wielding Awl foot soldiers formed in five distinct wedges, each with a thousand warriors, on the northern end of the valley's eastern slope. To their south was a chaotic mass of mounted horse-archers, kicking up dust that obscured their numbers. 
The Letherii's Dresh ballistae were mounted on the bluff above the defile on the valley's northern side where they could not be assaulted from the valley floor. Bivatt anchored her line on this position, placing her troops along the western ridge in a line running south. She intended to sweep down into the valley and flank the Awl from the south. Then she would push them north into the chokepoint of the defile where they would be cut down from behind, devastated by artillery, and trampled in their own panic. Directly south of the ballistae, on the Letherii's left flank was a shield-wall of fifteen hundred Medium infantry from the Crimson Rampant Brigade followed by a sawtooth formation of the brigade's thousand Heavy infantry. To their right were three half-legions of heavies from the Artisan Battalion screened in front by a thousand Light infantry Skirmishers of the Harridict Brigade. Three companies of Bluerose Lancers waited behind the Artisan Battalion ready to sweep around the ballistae from the north and bottle up any Awl caught in the defile's trap. 
At the Letherii line's centre where Bivatt commanded was the thousand heavy infantry of the Merchants' Battalion in sawtooth formation and fifteen hundred medium infantry from the Drene Garrison. The army's right flank consisted of a thousand light infantry skirmishers placed in advance of five hundred heavies of the Harridict Brigade and fifteen hundred medium infantry of the Crimson Rampant Brigade in shield-wall formation. Another thousand light infantry skirmishers of the Crimson Rampant Brigade marked the end of the army's right flank. A further fifteen hundred Bluerose Lancers were placed behind the right wing's infantry with orders to instigate the push north. A majority of the Letherii army's Medium infantry were held in reserve on the western ridgeline in platoons of five hundred, each protecting a Letherii mage.
Brohl Handar and the Edur forces were left west of the valley midway between the Letherii reserves and the baggage train, divided into eight cohorts of 250 warriors. Four hundred mixed Letherii infantry guarded the supply camp itself.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.327/333
==Opposing Forces==
===Awl===
Redmask
Around 14,000 warriors
*Spearmen - 5,000
*Horse-archers
*Medium cavalry
*Skirmishers/Light infantry (armed with slings, shortbows, javelins, or scimitars and shields - later spears and copper-sheathed shields)Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.329/331
*Light infantry (wagons) - 100+ wagon loads of bare-chested spearmenReaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.332
*Dray and herder dogs - 3,000Reaper's Gale, Chapter 10, US HC p.266
*K'Chain Che'Malle - 2
**Gunth Mach
**Sag'Churok
===Letherii Eastern Army===
Letherii contingent
Atri-Preda Bivatt
Over 16,000 soldiers (not all accounted for below)
*Artisan Battalion - 750 heavy infantry, 1,500 light infantry skirmishers, 500 medium infantry (reserve)Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.331
*Bluerose Battalion - 3,000 lancersReaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.327-328
*Crimson Rampant Brigade - 3,000 medium infantry, 1,000 light infantry skirmishers, 1,000 heavy infantry 
*Drene Garrison - 1,500 medium infantry 
*Harridict Brigade - 500 heavy infantry, 1,000 light infantry skirmishers 
*Merchants' Battalion - 1,000 heavy infantry, 750 medium infantry (reserve) 
*Mage cadre
*War dogs
**Hound Master Bellict
*Dresh ballistae
*Mixed infantry - 400 guarding supply train camp and hospital tents
Tiste Edur contingent
Overseer Brohl Handar
*Arapay war leaders - 8
*Den-Ratha K'risnan - 1Reaper's Gale, Chapter 8, US HC p.205Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.325-326
*Warlocks - 4
*Tiste Edur - 2,000 mixture of light and medium infantryReaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.333
==The Battle==
Atri-Preda Bivatt's plans for the battle went awry from the start. Redmask counted on Letherii overconfidence and developed unexpected tactics to neutralise their enemy's superiority. He chose Bast Fulmar as the battleground because an ancient ritual had left the ground inimical to magic. Letherii sorcerers would not be able to unleash their dreaded offensive power or monitor the strength and movements of the Awl.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.320-321/327 When Letherii scouts located the Awl encampment, Redmask let them see only the fires of the Awl elders, lame, and young while the warriors hid elsewhere on the plains. This led Bivatt to underestimate the size of her opponent's forces by as much as forty percent.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.305 - Bivatt expected ten or eleven thousand Awl, but faced fourteen thousand
The night before the battle, Bivatt hoped to secure her position early on the field, but Redmask was already in place putting the morning sun in the Letherii's eyes when the fighting began. The Awl also used poisoned meat to eliminate the fierce Drene war dogs. Bivatt launched the battle by sending the Harridict Brigade skirmishers and Crimson Rampant heavies forward on the left flank and the Artisan Battalion skirmishers and Crimson Rampant light infantry forward on the right. The left flank Bluerose Lancers were ordered to take their position north of the battlefield blocking the exit from the defile. The Awl side of the battlefield remained obscured by the sunlit dust cast into the air by their horses. Next to move forward were the Bluerose Lancers, Crimson Rampant mediums, and Harridict heavies on the right flank.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.328-329
Awl skirmishers moved to meet the Letherii advance in the north and south and launched javelins against the Drene Garrison troops in the centre. Meanwhile, the Awl horse-archers had largely disappeared sending sporadic flights of arrows into the enemy skirmishers from the eastern ridgeline. When both forces were about to make contact in the valley, the Awl hastily withdrew. Bivatt hoped this was the moment the Awl would break and sent in the heavies of the Merchants' Battalion and the Crimson Rampant Brigade on the left flank. Suddenly a narrow column of Awl horse-archers charged toward the centre of the battlefield. In a complicated maneuver they reformed in a line to race south and attack the flank of the Artisan skirmishers, routing them, before realigning to fire arrows into the lines of the Harridict heavies and Crimson Rampant mediums before racing back to the east.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.328-330 
The Bluerose Lancers on the southern flank began to charge after the horse-archers before Bivatt could stop them. But a new line of heavier-armed and armoured Awl cavalry appeared on the eastern ridgeline, swept through the Letherii skirmishers, and hit the outnumbered Bluerose Lancers. Bivatt sent forward the Harridict and Merchants' heavies, but the Crimson Rampant skirmishers and Bluerose Lancers were largely wiped out deeply wounding the Letherii right. Even as Bivatt prepared to respond, the Awl skirmishers reappeared at the top of the hill, this time bearing spears and copper-sheathed shields. Then reports arrived that the Bluerose Lancers sent beyond the northern defile had been routed by thousands of Awl dogs hidden in the tall grass. Bivatt moved her Merchants' medium reserves to her left flank as the widely spaced wedges of Awl spearmen in the north moved to meet the Crimson Rampant heavies.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.330-331 
Bivatt hoped to fire her ballistae into the advancing spearmen, but frenzied barking and cries from the north revealed they had been overriden by the Awl dogs. She sent her Artisan medium reserve to handle the dogs when Redmask launched his next surprise. Through the gaps in the spearmen wedges came as many as a hundred enormous Awl wagons barreling down the hill. Each was crowded with spearmen and protected by forward-facing shields. The wagons tore apart the Crimson Rampant heavy infantry before the spearmen disembarked and the Awl wedges charged forward. Bivatt had seen enough, sending the Artisan heavy infantry to cover the army's retreat even as another charge of wagons hit her southern flank.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.331-333 
Meanwhile at the Letherii army's supply camp, the K'ell Hunter Sag'Churok, slaughtered the mixed Letherii infantry guards and tore apart their tents. Those Letherii who fled the carnage were killed in ambush by Awl hiding in the high grasses. Brohl Handar led his K'risnan, warlocks, and Edur warriors to defend the camp, but the K'ell Hunter easily dispatched the warlocks and sent the Overseer's horse crashing to the ground. Handar suffered a serious wound to his leg, but his life was saved by his K'risnan.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.333-336Reaper's Gale, Chapter 16 The other K'Chain Che'Malle, Gunth Mach, attacked one of the Artisan reserve units and dismembering its mage within sight of Bivatt's retreat up the hill. It was eventually forced to flee as the Letherii mages discovered their magic returned once out of the valley. Redmask was content to remain at Bast Fulmar as the Letherii retreated.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 12, US HC p.336-337
==Aftermath==
The Letherii suffered over eight hundred dead and wounded, and remained camped for two days on the south side of Bast Fulmar giving the Awl plenty of time to disappear. Afterwards, the Letherii desperately tried to draw the Awl into battle, but Redmask's forces only ambushed and killed the Letherii scouts, collecting their horses, weapons, and armour. Bivatt refused to send out a reconnaissance in force to find the Awl knowing that Redmask would overwhelm and slaughter any such expedition. Brohl Handar led thirty of his best riders out in search of the Awl everyday without success. With their supplies dwindling and their wagons crowded with wounded, he soon concluded their best option was to withdraw to Drene to force Redmask to bring the war to them, but he deemed Bivatt unlikely to approve such a strategy.Reaper's Gale, Chapter 16, US HC p.448-450/451 The armies of the Awl and the Letherii would next meet again at the Battle of Pradegar.
==Notes and references==
Category:Battles