Thirty Years' Siege

**The Thirty Years' Siege** was a siege committed to by the Emirate of Lonen against the city of Lenorum and *Solernia* as a whole. The Omerads of Tyrrhos and Cascadia, which comprised Lonen, were to incorporate Espios into their territory after the Kaiser Horace Virilo installed an Omerad governor. However, after the Castigation of Espios, the governor was executed for insurrection and Virilo's son, whose mother was the true heir to Espios, was to be made governor when he was of age. This betrayal not only led to Virilo's death, but also drove Lonen to launch an attack on the Dinamid Republic.

As they were forbidden to step into Espios until they were invited as part of the Cult of Orcus, Lonen instead elected to besiege the capitol of Lenorum and prevent them from engaging in naval activity as well as trading with the rest of the Solernian peninsula. The goal was to force Dinam into submitting to their demands and reinstating a new Omerad governor in Espios. This demand would not be met.

Many historians and scholars consider the siege to be somewhat farcical in nature given that it went on for so long, but it is best remembers for its conclusion as a showcasing of Gaius Virilo Olivius and his tactical prowess.

## Procedure of the siege

The siege was atypical in that it lasted for such a long time without much change in territory. Lenorum's catacombs functioned as a secret causeway where goods were easily brought into the city. Trade goods and large commodities, like lumber and meat, were harder to transport and thus were in constant shortages. However, vegetables and even luxuries like ink and spice found their way through the Dinamid tunnels into the city.

Initially, the siege was intended to end after a year or more based on the discretion of the *emir*. However, once he fell ill six months later and passed away, his aggressive and belligerent son swore to never end the siege so long as Dinamians drew breath. The initial furor surrounding this promise was intense, with much of the countryside being depopulated and stripped of its timber. However, as the following years wore on, resources grew scarce. The soldiers in *Solernia* were quickly drained of morale, and bringing in food and supplies grew to be logistically taxing. However, having made a promise before Orcus, the young *emir* maintained the siege at a maintenance level. Fresh troops were brought in yearly to garrison the siege camp, though new siege equipment, organized invasions, and siegecraft as a whole was foregone, as Lonen was also facing down internal issues.

As it has been throughout history, Dinamians were difficult to bring to heel in a siege, as they were as resourceful as they were proud. In particular, the siege of the holy capitol city was a point of pride for even a war-weary populace.

## Battle of Scorpions

### Battle of Spartan Springs

After declaring he would end the siege to an excited populace, Gaius Virilo brought a single legion to the Spartan River in August CE 30, along which sits the Tomb of Spartases, eldest son of Tomyra the Great. Here, Gaius Virilo left a letter to a routine Lonenite patrol: a challenge to the *emir*, claiming that "Here, Dinamians draw breath indeed, and drink from your cold springs [...] I venture that not a one fearful *quiminos* [subhuman] Lonenite could drive us from your fresh water."

As the Spartan Springs provided much of the water to support the siege camp, Lonenite scouts concluded that less than 500 men were accompanying Gaius Virilo. Believing this was some sort of diversion to launch a larger attack on their main camp, the acting general sent 1,000 men to quickly dispatch the trespassers: 900 light infantry and 100 cavalry.

Advance scouts informed Virilo of the approaching force, and they divided themselves into a unit type made famous by Virilo called the "scorpion." This unit was exceptionally small, being composed of only 25 men to each unit. Its first two ranks were heavy infantry in classic Dinamid armor and wielding a scutum and gladius. The heavy infantry were hardened and drilled every day for the year preceding this battle. The following five ranks were light infantry who wielded javelins and secondary pilums. The ranks of heavy infantry were five across, while the light infantry were two across.

The scorpions wedged themselves below Spartan Springs and waited for the advance of the coming Lonenite army, and once it broke past the tree line, Virilo had it advance without parley, giving the enemy little time to think. The acting commander attempted a pincer maneuver to engage the much smaller opponent, but did so at his own peril. The cavalry, when attempting to circle around to break the line, were struck by hundreds ot javelins and chased off as the battle began.

As seen in the image to the right, the staggered scorpions were the key to the strategy. Virilo anticipated a maneuver to encircle his legion, and ended up pinning the left flank of the army against the Spartan River, where they were easily pushed into the river by the hevay infantry. Despite the size difference of a Corrivalian and Omerad, the pilums were able to easily penetrate the hard flesh of their enemies and cause panic and disorganization.

The larger component, now 600 Omerad soldiers, engaged the wide line of scorpions. The scorpions fanned out and then became a single rank of soldiers, meeting the opposing line and further driving them apart. Finally, once the left Lonenite flank was dealt with, the right Olivian flank came forth and ran into the back of the wide Lonenite line. This broke apart their line into several sub-units with no clear view of their commanders. This led to the individual incirclement of the Omerads as they faced down the scorpion units. The center was to far back to support the left flank, and each part was systematically destroyed. The entire 1,000 Omerads were slain to a man.

Gaius Virilo sent a letter to the final Omerad man, who was hobbled and sent back to the siege camp. The letter is allegedly a taunt, saying, "I've slain your first thousand; my men and I are ready for your next thousand. This, of course, infuriated the leadership in the siege camp.

### Prelude

For the following two weeks, the scorpion units dispersed over the Solernian countryside and harried supply camps surrounding the Lonenite camp. Scouting units or unified Lonenite arms were both met with scorpions gathering and surround the enemy force, whittling their numbers down until they were routed. This further dampened the green troops' morale.

Determined to crush the harassing force in a brutal show of power, a force of:

* 4,500 heavy infantry
* 2,000 light infantry
* 1,800 bowmen
* 800 rhinoceros cavalry
* 10 war elephants
* 120 catapults

were mustered and fielded to meet Gaius Olivius and his forces in battle. Led by the Lonenite general Uzkab the Annihilator, the army marched for the walls of Lenorum, feinting for a run at the walls. However, Olivius and his legion stayed hidden in the countryside, calling the bluff and allowing them to pillage the camp, overpowering the garrison of equal size to their own forces. This, however, was a double-feint produced by Uzkab to gather all of Olivius' scorpion units into one place.

Turning back to face the raiding band, Uzkab's troops began their march before dawn on 25 August CE 30. They approached their siege camp to intercept the legion as it plundered their camp, which allowed Uzkab to do the choosing the ground for the
battle. Olivius, upon hearing of the coming formation with little time to prepare, organized his scorpion units downhill from the siege camp, on a
 small flattened hill some quarter-mile away. The hill was surrounded on one side by the nearby river sourced from Spartan Springs, the other a steep incline. This slight edge would allow him to utilize the terrain to great advantage.

### Olivian Disposition

The Olivian legion positioned itself in the narrows between the creeks and an uphill slope, which faced perpendicular from the siege camp. Any loot found in the camp was left where it was, and the scorpions were splayed apart to form a two-by-two rank where the combined width of the two units left no free space between the shields of the heavy infantry.

The bank on the south side of the ridge was not steep nor was it a far fall into the creek, however its loose clay composition made footing uncertain. On the opposite side was the hill, which rose sharply up towards where the siege camp was positioned over the shallow creek. Though the terrain was not especially dramatic, it did provide a serious advantage to Olivius as a defender.

### Battle

Uzkab sent his light infantry and a third of his bowmen to take position up on the ridge overlooking the defensive position from the camp, but the degree of the incline and tree cover made these bowmen ineffective against the defending legion. Uzkab sent the remaining two-thirds of the bowmen to cross the river and attack from the other side facing the scorpion units, not yet realizing that the scorpions could effectively attack from the side with their light infantry. The javelins thrown by the rear helped drive the bowmen back to a relatively ineffective range. Uzkab then kept these in reserve, believing the battle would be short nonetheless.

The first wave of attackers were mounted on rhinoceros, who could easily drive a wedge through the front line and send the southern defenders into the river. As the rhinoceros cavalry formed up into a solid line, Olivius had his men extend backwards to create gaps for his southern scorpions to fill into. When the rhinoceros charges into the center, the southern ranks sidestepped to the north, sending a wall of cavalry past. Unable to change course, the riders made attempts to use their flails and lassos to attack the exposed left flank; this also proved fruitless, as every rank behind the first few turned to face the rhinoceros riders and struck them with pikes and swords..

The alternating ranks also made it difficult for the charging army to pick out the easier targets, and eventually the rhinoceros cavalry rode past in its entirety. As it needed ample space to turn, the narrow bank could not be rounded effectively and the cavalry line rode off for a mile before being able to turn around.

Uzkab's war elephants were dispatched to trample their way through the first few ranks of Olivius' scorpions, creating a wall of their own. In a desperate but courageous move, the front lines of the legion charged at the elephants while shouting, and caused the beasts to panic; they turned back and Uzkab barely could keep his infantry from being trampled themselves. He then formed up his heavy infantry and advanced.

Catapults also struggled to find their mark, letting loose only to have boulders land in the water or in the siege camp. What few rocks made their mark had little impact on the performance of the legion, as they were spaced far enough to avoid the rolling munitions.

As the heavy infantry advanced, the rhinoceros cavalry returned full force and charged the Olivian rear, two by two. Realizing the predicament, Olivius had his army retreat down the slope while strafing into the shallow creek. His legion was disorganized in the retreat, and many were slain in the turn by the heavy Omerad infantry, inflicting the greatest losses Olivius suffered in the battle. However, the swift evasion led to a number of rhinoceros crashing into the heavy infantry line, unable to stop the charge.

The Olivian retreat into the water led to the heavy infantry leading a charge into the water, however many were caught up on the hill by the scorpion units and were cut down on the descent through the clay and peat, which was now torn up and unsteady. Once Uzkab saw the extent of this, he had the light infantry come from their reserve and rush the legion in the creek as they attempted to push back an advance. However, the narrowness of the creek too aided Olivius, and the reinforcements were not effective. The light infantry was also no match for the heavily armored and skilled Olivian line, and too was caught on the ledge. A staggered advance on more steady ground gave ample opportunity for scorpions to barrage them with javelins, killing many.

The fighting continued for hours until over half of the Olivian legion had been depleted, and at least 2,000 heavy infantry and 1,000 light infantry were slain. Seeing his cavalry as not being viable and leaving his bowmen to cover a retreat, Uzkab ordered an orderly retreat for his cavalry, leaving the siege camp mostly abandoned and the infantry, confused, being routed into the Solernian countryside.

### Outcome

The Lonenites suffered at least 3,000 in casualties while facing a veteran force of less than 500; in addition to this staggering loss, Uzkab was severely embarrassed by the backfiring of using rhinoceros cavalry and war elephants, to which he took his own life weeks later in the remains of the siege camp. After this, the remaining Lonenites dispersed into the countryside, where their lack of organization made them easy targets for the scorpion units to dispose of in the coming months.

The abandoning of the Thirty Years' Siege sent shockwaves throughout Lenorum, and the full extent of the battle was and continues to be praised for the quick thinking and rapid response of the Olivian Army. Gaius Olivius was granted his title by the Senate for his driving off the Lonenites, with only minor pillaging and razing of towns on their way down the coast.