Second Battle of Steel Fort

Combatants| **Kingdom of Workhold*** Legio Ardostum
* King Cult

The 2nd Battle of Steel Fortress was a battle fought in the winter of 308, during the Steel War. The battle was initiated when the Hawk Administration and Prince Diarmud declared the Steel Order renegades and outlaws. Prince Diarmud commanded Mennos van Dire to neutralize the Steel Order.

## Background

The Steel Order and the King Cult had been enemies ever since the Evangelion Coup, in which the King Cult attacked and took control of the Steel Fort, the holiest and only fortification owned by the Steel Order. This forced the Steel Order to flee to the Iron Forest and reorganize their forces. There, led by Heuteclere Nilsson, the Steel Order prepared to recaptured the castle, and the so the Steel War began.

In 22nd April 308, the Battle of Steel Fort was fought between the Steel Order and the King Cult forces. The battle was a decisive Steel Order victory, when the Steel Order, led by Marsius and Heuteclere Nilsson defeated Sir Ritser and slew him in the battle. As a result, the King Cult lost control of the Steel Fort to the Steel Order who in turn began to fortify the castle and recruit the 'silent-brothers' who worshipped the Faith of the Forgotten Sword in secrecy. The King Cult could not initiate a counter-offensive, as the Fortudatum Crusade just began which shifted the Couriers, the military wing of the King Cult, to the crusade. This gave the Steel Order little-less than a year to prepare their defenses against the upcoming enemy.

## Prelude

Mennos, tasked to take care of the Steel Order, began to plan his upcoming siege. Mennos's advisers, mainly Bannestan Hope, advised for Mennos to seek more allies, as the Steel Order ranks had grown considerably. The first ally that Mennos and the Ardians agreed upon was the obvious King Cult soldiers, especially Olanius Dante. Olanius Dante's friend, Nakaal Mercer had been taken captive by the Steel Order during the Battle of the Steel Fort. Dante immediately joined Mennos without hesitation, which bolstered Mennos's forces. Mennos then sent emissaries to seek alliances or aid from: Baron Grisweld Mittelhoss, Warmaster Hirano Kanzaki, Grand Duke Samuel Berghof, Count Phasib Atlas, General David Lange and even King Octavio Perickard of Olav.

All besides Phasib and Octavio sought to aid Mennor, though some of these factions also aided the Steel Order, thinking investing on both sides was beneficial to them. In the end, neither the Steel Order or Mennor received that many allies. Most significant allies the Steel Order gained was Thomas Meyer, who appeared once more to aid the Steel Knights and the Abyss Watchers. Mennor's greatest ally was the King Cult and the Caenorian Diaspora led by Caifas Thorn.

## Order of Battle

### Royal Army

Mennor's OOB was hindered by favoritism. Olanius Dante, one of the most brilliant cavalry commanders in Workhold decided not to take command of Mennor's left-wing, instead granting the position to Leon Speer, for Olanius wanted Leon to redeem himself after Leon's shameful retreat during the First Battle of Steel Fort.

Ultor Magon, one of Mennor's most hot-headed and impatient commanders got command of Mennor's right-wing, due to Ultor annoying Mennor enough to give him the assignment. Lastly, Mennor's centre-wing was given to Caifas Thorn, the only proper commander in Mennor's oob. Mennor gave the reserve command to his lieutenant, Bannestan Hope.

* Left-wing: Leon Speer - 800 men
* Centre-wing: Caifas Thorn - 1 400 men
* Right-wing: Ultor Magon - 1 000 men
* Reserve: Bannestan Hope - ~2 000 men

### Steel Order

Steel Order had shorter supply of capable commanders. Marsius, the chief-commander decided to take the command of the main centre-wing of his forces, whilst he gave Left-flank to Thomas Meyer, a man Marsius trusted due to Meyer's participation in the previous Battle. Right-wing was given to Manabus, Marsius's prior lexitor. Reseve command was granted to Willem Caedus, Marsius' mentor.

* Left-wing: Thomas Meyer - 1 100 men
* Centre-wing: Lukyan Marsius - 1 400 men
* Right-wing: Manabus - 800 men
* Reserve: Willem Caedus - 600 men

## Battle

The battle began with an intense cavalry charge by Thomas Meyer into the forces of Ultor Magon. The charge was incredibly successful, routing all of Ultor's 1 000 men within less than thirty-minutes. Mennor wanted to mirror this charge and commanded Leon Speer to initiate a cavalry charge against the enemy's right-wing. This charge was only a shallow attempt at imitating Meyer's charge, as Leon's cavalry was halted quite fast by Manabus. Thomas's charge was stopped for a while, after Thomas himself was wounded in combat, when Thomas was fighting Rexton Scale. Thomas's second-in-command, Galahad Trost, quickly took up command and continued Thomas's attack, thrusting the cavalry into Mennor's central-flank. Mennor's centre-commander, Caifas Thorn, responded by enveloping Galahad's cavalry. Ultor, who received reinforcements from the reserve, aided Caifas in completing the envelopment and thus Galahad was trapped. Galahad found a small exit and withdrew his cavalry out from the encirclement.

Meanwhile, Manabus was trying to defeat Leon Speer's forces. During the battle, Manabus found Leon and attacked him. Young Manabus gravely underestimated the old Leon and was surprised, when Leon utterly defeated him in combat. Manabus was wounded and taken captive by Leon, however, not-soon-after Sir Roher of the Steel Knights came to help his master. Roher attacked and defeated Leon only to be himself wounded when faced with Olanius Dante. Roher survived but his master, Manabus was taken as prisoner.

The situation began to look sour to Marsius, who began to prepare an all-out charge with his central-wing. This order was eventually issued, but the charge was soon cancelled, as Caifas managed to force a gap in Marsius's line, forcing Marsius to withdraw his men and re-organize them. Marsius retreated a short distance, and rallied his men to fight in a defence against Caifas's charge. Caifas and Ultor charged their men into Marsius's men, who tried to hold on as long as possible. The overwhelming numerical superiority of Caifas, as well as Caifas's military prowess, proved decisive and Marsius's was forced to withdraw from the battle altogether. The rear-guard action of the Steel Knights was commanded by Willem Caedus, Marsius's mentor. Willem fought and held Mennor's army at bay whilst Marsius withdrew. Olanius Dante, who assumed command of Leon's cavalry, attack Willem Caedus. Willem managed to not only defeat but take Olanius prisoner, following this, Caedus quickly fled the battle, leaving the victory for Mennor.

## Aftermath

Though the battle was a defeat for the Steel Order, they still had enough men to defend the Steel Fort. They also had two prisoners; Olanius Dante and Nakaal Mercer whom they had captured in the previous battle. The Royal Army had only managed to capture Lexitor Manabus, which was not on equal rank as Dante and Mercer.

Tyran Mennor van Dire was forced to negotiate with Lukyan Marsius. During the negotiations, the King Cult hindered any possible resolutions Mennor suggested. Eventually, it was decided that the Steel Order would surrender the Steel Fort to the King Cult and leave Workhold and march to the Kingdom of Olav. This bolstered the Perickardian Army strength a lot. The Steel Order, who held Olanius captive, promised to free Dante after their safe arrival in Olav. However, in Olav, Arthur Vigfusson took custody of Olanius. This made it impossible for the Steel Order to follow through with their promise, but at the same time, Arthur had no obligation to free Dante, giving Olav a significant political hostage. This left a sour taste for the Worvians who had to bite their tongue and leave.