1422

## **Trolling the Southern Front**

### **1422****DR: Assault on the Southern Frontier**

The marquisate had currently claimed about 30 miles south of North Point, the thinnest part of the “peninsula.” Right there at the southern border were villages, both just inside claimed territory and some just south (looking to do business but avoid tax).

Some six years after the abortive attack on Mageweave, these soft civilian targets looked (literally) delicious. Two of the southern villages were attacked and destroyed, with survivors carried off – presumably for food.

The Stonehearth villages had gone into lockdown, accepting fleeing refugees, but the militias weren’t prepared to counterattack. The troll wave did eventually slam a Stonehearth village and stalled in a stalemate for several hours as they held the trolls at bay.

That’s when a Stonehearth Platoon arrived from the north.

The Stonehearth platoon was packing the new explosive ammunition and interdicted the trolls before they could break through the defenses.

The trolls weren’t just routed, they were tracked and hunted down. More than a hundred survivors from the southern, non-marquisate villages were rescued.

After the dead were counted, there were 522 casualties from non-marquisate settlers.

For the 233 survivors, there was a new audience with Stonehearth about settling on the frontiers – and attracting trolls – *especially when they weren’t equipped to defend themselves*. There were three key geographic points as the Marquisate looked at lessons learned:

* The southern border of the marquisate was around 30 miles long, right to the next eastern-bend of the Winding Water River. From there, river went about 20 east before turning back south, essentially widening the peninsula to about 50 miles. The river had a south-southeast meander at that point, eventually widening the base of the “peninsula” to about 85 miles.
* The wide base was only 150 miles north of Baldur’s Gate, which was still about 100 miles beyond the Gate’s jurisdictional territory (they kept a loose 50-mile border).
* The southeast corner of the wider base was only about 50 miles west of Trollclaw Ford. This became another factor in the conversation about expanding the marquisate’s jurisdiction…

### **A call for an expansion of the Arms**

A strong defensive system was necessary – and they had one. Two garrison battalions were holding their own, but the pendulum of defense was wearing on the support town.

There was no good “Sweet Spot” for an area as contested as North Point. The best defense was a good offense, so there were active patrols, but there still had to be walls to retreat to, if anything just to buy time as they create a Plan B response.

The problem was that the walls represented a physical commitment to a strategy. *It was either:*

* Build walls protecting a small area and not everybody fits, *or*...
* Build walls protecting a wide area and foes find a way in.

Hence the necessity of a very active, mobile defense. Find the foe and meet them before they reached the vulnerable civilian population.

Regardless if the marquisate expanded or not, the threat was deep enough that they needed to be able to rapidly respond. This meant patrols further from home and when necessary, applying pressure at the source. It meant an expansion of the arms – with forces designed and equipped to operate independently for more extended deployments.

Some 13 years after the North Point groundbreaking, 16 years after the northern battalion was commissioned, 125 years after the Stonehearth Arms were chartered… The House was about to commission their first major military unit that wasn’t assigned as a defensive garrison. This future outfit was *Expeditionary*.

#### **Commissioning the 3rd Battalion, Expeditionary**

Recruited from both Baldur’s Gate and the North Point area, the new battalion took the proven ConOps of 1st and 2nd battalions, and adapted it to the changing needs. Everything was worthy of analysis and consideration, including best practices and lessons learned from other successful organizations.

Among the source material was the Zhentarim, who was well practiced in deploying units far from a base for an extended period. Half the practices simply weren’t sustainable in the long run, depleting local resources and political support, but there were plenty of tactical and strategic lessons in Logistics, especially keeping supply lines open.

The lessons learned rolled in from all over Toril in this respect…

The nominal base would be at a temporary fort, some 60 miles east southeast, in the upper northeast portion of the expanded peninsula. This was roughly 30 miles beyond the claimed marquisate borders and wouldn’t function as a defensive keep so much as a supply site for constant armored patrols. Just across the river from the mid-Troll Hills, it was an area identified as a regular region for “safe” troll crossings. *Given the troll crossing, the fort was named “Rivergard.”*

#### **The Rolling Thunder**

The unit insignia was symbolic of the operating concept: putting heavy firepower on wheels.  They would be the first to incorporate the new post-steam magically-driven motors.

3d Bt, Rolling Thunder, was recruited, indoctrinated, educated, trained, conditioned, equipped and deployed within two years. By 1424, they were operating out of their designated fort – getting into an immediate series of skirmishes. They arrived just as there was a rising tide of incursions, and prevented more sustained troll attacks against the marquisate itself.

There were five combat companies and a command company. Each infantry company included a dedicated logistics platoon that doubled as artillery support when parked, including light cannons and howitzers.

* Mobile Infantry
* Mobile Infantry
* Mobile Infantry
* Cavalry
	+ Cavalry logistics was exceptionally expensive, utilizing bags of holding for heavy armor transport. They traveled as light cavalry, but could quickly re-equip to heavy cavalry when the fight called for close encounters.
* Artillery