The Defensive Battle of Border Town

This is the attack on Border Town led by Osmond Ryan, for the attack on Bordertown by Lehman Hawes, see the Second Defensive Battle of Border Town

The **Defensive** **Battle of Border Town**, also known as the **First** **Defensive** **Battle of Border Town,** was a conflict between **Roland Wimbledon's** First Army and **Osmond Ryan's** Alliance of Longsong Stronghold Nobles. It was the first time that Border Town was directly attacked by an organised enemy as well as the First Army's first major battle against an organised enemy. This battle also marks the first time that gunpowder was used in human warfare in Roland's world.

## Overview

Osmond's forces consisted of roughly 1,500 men, most of whom were freemen and mercenaries. Around 300 of them were knights and 150 of those knights belonged to Osmond's knightage who were as good as King **Timothy Wimbledon's** Royal Knights if only less in number. His knights donned bright shining armour specially made by "Hammer and Dragon Tooth" Blacksmith's shop and rode strong horses imported from the King's city. Notable commanders include Osmond Ryan, **Hirte Medde**, **Rene Medde**, and **Shalafi Hull.**

The First Army had nearly 300 men and consisted of Border Town civilians, namely former miners and hunters who were professionally trained and drilled to quickly carry out repetitive professional orders. 270 soldiers of the flintlock squad were armed with Roland's Flintlocks. They also had four 12-pound field artilleries which were manned by the artillery teams and the remaining soldiers not armed with a flintlock. Notable commanders include Roland Wimbledon, **Carter Lannis**, **Iron Axe**, and **Brian**.

## Chronology

### Prelude

Roland was running out of gold royals and he needed more manpower/talents from Longsong Stronghold. Therefore, he started to brainstorm the plan to attack the stronghold after the winter. However, he didn't inform his men about his idea because they couldn't accept his plans to attack. When Timothy became king, Roland received his brother's decree to return to King's City. Duke Ryan became impatient as he thought this official excuse was a good way to force Roland out of Border Town and he can claim Border Town back for himself. However, Roland decided to play a waiting game in order to ruin Duke Ryan's patience and indirectly force him to reclaim Border Town by attacking the town. Days after the Months of Demons ended, Baron Cornelius Fletcher returned to Border Town and asked for mansion compensation, which was destroyed because his house was blocking the concrete wall. Roland found out that this was a perfect opportunity to give both the stronghold and Duke Ryan some "stress" and some final push, and forced the baron to treat his mansion as non-existent or to be executed for abandoning his Lord during the months of demons. A scared cornelius immediately chose the first option and then went back to the stronghold while fuming in anger and soon told all the nobles in the Longsong Stronghold about Roland's attitude. This plan has successfully riled up the nobles as they soon requested the duke to take action, which he did. However, they will never know this is all a trap orchestrated by Roland himself.

### Battle

Duke Ryan was confused when he first came onto the battlefield when he saw the 'weak' defensive formation taken up by Roland's army which was stretched very thinly and only two men deep in rank. Although most of the commanding nobles were dismissive of Roland, especially after seeing his army's formation, a few of them, including Osmond was wary of the prince who was able to hold of the demonic beasts during the Month of Demons with only his miners and hunters. Sensing that Roland might have a plan, Osmond gave the order for his army to reorganize, placing his mercenaries at the center of the frontline instead of his knights to use them as cannon fodder.

However, just as the slow procession of mercenaries were taking positions, the army was suddenly hit by four strikes of 'thunder,' killing one knight and severely injuring another. Unbeknownst to them, they had already stepped into Roland's planned battleground and into the striking range of the cannons. Shocked and confused by the sudden attack, Osmond's army didn't receive any orders and instead only attempted to calm down their frightened mounts as they took casualties. It was only after two rounds of attacks did Osmond realise that the 'thunders' were actually long-range attacks from the enemy.

When he realised this, he immediately gave the order for his knights the charge, believing that these unprecedented long ranged weapons would become useless once his cavalry closed the distance. Unfortunately for the knights, the accuracy of the cannons only became more accurate the closer they were, and when they were only 300 metres away, the cannon teams used grapeshot ammunition instead of the solid shells they were previously using. The grapeshot decimated the frontmost knights and caused the surviving ones to rout. When the mercenaries saw the fleeing knights, they too began the rout and soon enough, the entire army was in full retreat. Unable to reverse the situation, Osmond Ryan and his noble allies can only retreat.

### Aftermath

This battle was a humiliating defeat for the nobles of Longsong Stronghold, with almost all their knights lying dead or dying on the battlefield while many of their mercenaries and freemen were stomped to death in the stampede of running soldiers. They were even forced to kill some of their horses for food when the freemen left the food carts behind after the rout. Conversely, the First Army has suffered no casualties in this battle.

Soon after this battle, the Alliance attempted to regroup at Longsong Stronghold, planning how they would take their vengeance on Roland. But they soon capitulated after the events of The Annihilation of the Longsong Noble Alliance before their plans could come into fruition. The whole of the Kingdom of Graycastle and even the Church were completely surprised by Roland's seemingly impossible victory, later leading to Timothy ordering knight **Lehman Hawes** to attack the Western Region in an attempt to investigate Roland's victory.

## Trivia

* According to Earl Hull, at least 25 knights, 40 mercenaries and over 100 freemen were contributed to the Longsong coalition by the Honeysuckle Family.
* Petrov Hull had a feeling Duke Ryan will lose before the battle even began, and tried to convince his father and best friend to be wary of Roland, but his words fall on deaf ears.
	+ Despite Petrov's failure to convince his father to cease waging war against Roland, his father did heed some of Petrov's advice and endeavored to advise the Duke during the actual battle regarding the fatigue of their soldiers and horses, and the fact that Roland defended his town against demonic beasts during winter using only miners and hunters. Thus, he urged caution in dealing with Roland. Sadly, even if they had listened to Petrov's father, the outcome would have still remained the same owing to the overwhelming advantages of Roland's weapons, such as flintlocks and cannons.