Battle of Vorgebirge

The Battle of Vorgebirge took place in 502CE between the Tungrid horde, led by Adagan Khan, and an alliance of Trade Lake states, commanded by the Varholdian warlord Kurt. The decisive defeat of the allied forces led directly to the disintegration of Varhold and the destabilisation of the north shore of the Trade Lake.

## Combatants

The defending force, the Tungrids, were led by their chief Adagan Khan and numbered five hundred thousand strong. This included women, children, the sick and elderly, meaning that Adagan's effective fighting force was around one hundred and twenty thousand, mostly mounted.

The largest contributor to the allied forces was Varhold, sending fifty thousand men under their warlord Kurt. Scanbrough sent forty thousand, though they arrived shortly after the fight due to logistical issues, possibly tipping the balance of the battle. Other allied forces included sixty thousand from various cities in the Spur, as well as twenty five thousand from Lacrive. Details beyond here become fuzzy as many allied combatants, following the battle, tried to hide their involvement in such a disaster.

## Equipment

The Tungrids were lightly armed and armoured - the Tungrid infantry, led by Adagan's second son Behnam, were little more than tribesmen, armed with simple spears, axes and clubs. The luckier among them had access to shields and leather armour.

Adagan's eldest son Kaihan led the missile cavalry, who wore no armour at all. They were armed with recurve shortbows and several bags of arrows each, as well as daggers and short swords for combat.

Adagan himself led the five thousand melee cavalry, armed with lances and cavalry swords, clad in treated leather armour with iron helmets. This force comprised the elite of Tungrid society, the men who had trained their whole lives for a day such as Vorgebirge.

The alliance was more of a hodge-podge. The Varholdians contributed by Kurt were all volunteers, and were arranged with the heavily-armoured men at the rear with lighter troops up front. These men were primarily armed with short weapons such as swords and axes as well as billhooks and short spears. Armour ranged from nothing at all to chainmail hauberks, and most of the Varholdians carried round or teardrop-shaped shields depending on their social standing. These men were led in battle by a minor noble, Folkart of Haselgard.

The Lacrivians, led by Cont Valentin Bousquet, were the only uniformed force on the field, all wearing identical steel breastplates and helmets. Aside from this, undershirts and leg armour varied per soldier, though a common theme was followed in that the Lacrivian troops carried blunt-force weapons and small shields - they were armed for Lacrivian warfare, not Tungrid warfare.

The Spur contributed around sixty thousand men, coming from a plethora of Spurnese principalities. Most were pike-armed, and wore brigandines or studded leather armour. These contingents were each led by a local leader, and were fairly disorganised on the battlefield. The Spur also hired fifteen thousand Parsanian mercenaries, led by Faruj the Black. These mercenaries were light cavalrymen, recruited from the nomadic desert tribes of the northern Vardanid empire, and carried lances and sabres while being mostly unarmoured. Kurt homself rode with these horsemen, amalgamated with several hundred other assorted cavalrymen from all corners of the alliance.

The final contingent confirmed to be present were the Lastornians, led by Amadeu Galçeranos. There were ten thousand total, of which half were armed with longswords and the other half with longbows. These men, coming from close to the Spur, also donned brigandines and studded leather.

## The Battle

Adagan's horde was travelling west between the realm of the Mountainfolk and a ridge of low forested foothills, in the far north of Varhold. They had been harassed by Varholdian forces since crossing the border two weeks prior and were beginning to tire of constant vigilance.

Allied forces marched parallel to the Tungrids and a few leagues behind, south of the foothills. Most were on foot, armed and armoured heavily. Kurt wished to keep his presence concealed until Scanbrough's detachment arrived to give him an edge. As such, his troops were pulled back far enough to trick Tungrid outriders.

Eventually the Tungrids reached a river flowing south and, seeing no ford nor bridge, began to move south to find a crossing, traversing the foothills and coming onto the wide, flat valley the allied forces were marching along. Kurt, having not been informed of any such river, continued to march and eventually his vanguard came into view of Tungrid scouts.

Having been alerted, Adagan whipped his fighting men into a frenzy and sent the non-combatants ahead to find a crossing. Adagan split his men into three groups - between thirty and forty thousand infantry, those too poor to afford horses, stayed ahead of the allied forces and acted as bait while melee and ranged cavalry circled behind - the ranged, a formidable force of nearly eighty thousand, out in the open to the allied forces' left, and the melee cavalry, only five thousand, hid in the forested ridge a quarter league ahead of the infantry.

Kurt, realising he had to fight as the horse archers circled behind to cut off his escape, decided to make for the Tungrid leader Adagan, whose banners were behind the Tungrid infantry. Little did Kurt know this was a diversion planned by Adagan's second son Behnam, who had placed his father's banners behind his own position. Kurt was aware of the ranged cavalry harassing his left flank, but his own cavalry were few and too slow to catch them. He deployed Varholdian men in the centre, the Lacrivians and Lastornians with their heavy armour on the left flank and the pike-armed Spurmen on his right, near the ridge. All the cavalry was held in reserve, behind the Varholdian forces. He then ordered the general advance, ensuring to dress his lines often.

Kaihan saw that the Lacrivians were heavily-armoured and had his men circle behind them. Companies of horse archers took turns to gallop close and loose volleys before the Lacrivians could turn and present their shields. Duke Amadeu, in command of the Lastornian contingent, marched his men near to the Varholdian centre to save the lives of his men. The Tungrid horsemen were initially chased away by the allied cavalry, though this stopped once more companies of horse archers circled behind the cavalry and decimated multiple squadrons.

The ranged cavalry could only weaken the allied force; they could not stop or slow their advance. Before long the Tungrid infantry were engaged, and were hopelessly outmatched and outnumbered by the allied forces. Behnam himself was wounded in action, losing the use of his left hand by desperately blocking a sword blow with his forearm. It was at this point that the Tungrid melee cavalry, led by Adagan himself, burst from concealment and began to approach the rear of the allied army.

Tungrid horse archers continued to harass the allied force, picking off men here and there, and managed to finally goad the cavalry reserve out of place. Kurt, riding with them, was slain by an arrow to the gut, and with him went several of his vice-commanders. Faruj the Black was hit in the leg, and shortly afterwards withdrew his mercenaries from what was becoming a desperate situation. The allied army was leaderless and started to disintegrate as they realised they were outflanked. Adagan delivered the finishing blow by charging into the rear of the Varholdian section of the line, routing Varhold's contribution almost instantly. Folkart, to his credit, kept a core of men fighting for a while, but before long he was forced to take cover inside the Lacrivian formation. The Spurmen followed the routing Varholdians shortly afterwards, and the Lacrivians withdrew last, conducting a fighting retreat.

Caped Man Lanfold and his Scanbroughans arrived on the field shortly afterwards, all mounted, and held their own against the tired Tungrids for a fair while before Adagan brought his horse archers to bear. The Scanbroughans were shot to pieces and their commander pulled them back after an hour of combat.

## Aftermath

The cities of the Spur suffered the least; their forces suffered negligible losses, or are assumed to, at the very least. Varhold lost seventeen thousand men, of whom six thousand were killed outright and the rest injured or disappeared. Lacrive, of its twenty five thousand men, only counted eighteen thousand returned, and those eighteen thousand were exiled from Lacrive for their defeat. They continued to roam the Trade Lake as the mercenary Fallen Company for several decades before settling in Talor.

Kurt's death and the loss of his army led to the disintegration of Varhold. Fringe counties and burghs seceded one by one with the government unable to stop them. Eventually Varhold itself was no more.

The Scanbroughan force had struck out unauthorised by the King of Faramond and is leader, Caped Man Lanfold of Newcrenne, was struck down to a Riding Man, replaced by the house of Trenble.

The Tungrids continued to travel unhindered through Varhold and came out of its western border several weeks later, proving Kurt's allegations false. No other countries were foolhardy enough to stop them, and they eventually settled near the West Sea.

## Legacy

It is suspected the casualty figures for the battle have been embellished, as the allied figures seem unrealistically high. This may be the work of the allied countries to justify their defeat - if the Tungrids were made to look more dangerous and deadly then perhaps there was nothing the allies could do anyway.