The Battle of Axony

The Yurak Horde

Odin Afruthul (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

King Alexander Clement of Donnington (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Evan Woodsley (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Alana O'Breieann (as a Prisoner) (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Kendra Blakely (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Aethelwulf Byronson (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Konrad " TheGreywolf" Karlson (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Samuel Karlson (Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Taichu-Karha Avskura (The Yurak Horde)

Ivan Bogun Hmelnitiski-Avskura (The Yurak Horde)

Tolui Avskuro (The Yurak Horde)

Tarkhan Khan (The Yurak Horde)

Walt Vanheesem (The Yurak Horde)

Tolui Avskuro (The Yurak Horde)

Dons Revenge (The Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

 The Highland Raiders (The Yurak Horde)

Norkias Chosen (The Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

Kendra's Faithful (The Eastern Sovereign Alliance)

***The Battle of Axony***

The Battle of Axony was one of the largest battles in the Reichlandian Wars. in which the total amount of participating soldiers was over 966,000 men with another 200,000 participates of camp-followers, Priest, Scavengers, Tribals, Native-Non Humans, Local Villagers, and Bandits. The outcome of the battle was a key factor in the beginning and end of The First Reichlandian Civil War. The Alliances victory against the Yurak Horde would be the precursor to a continent wide coalition against the Yurak Horde.

***Prelude of The Battle***

Before the battle, several incidents had occurred that would act as a catalyst for the four year long battle. This began with the fracture of of an early Donnington-Norkish/Polanii Alliance after a dispute over who would occupy the prestigious city of Gold Peak. The altercation began when Alexander Clement had killed a Warlord in the region named Jaina Corel in 1605 A.T.F during The First Battle For Gold Peaks. After Alexander had killed Jaina and subdued the local tribes of Gold Peaks, he secured the old Duvan fortress bountiful with natural ores. Many of the members of the Early Alliance saw this as a power grab while others already had claims on the land Alexander had seized control over. During the infighting and chaos in the east Tarkhan Avskuro seized the opportunity and stormed the province of Mordhau obliterating The Kingdom of Mordhau, only taking under a month to do so. This alarmed many of the leaders of the Early Alliance who immediately ceased their infighting and moved to organize a meeting. Later it was decided to be hosted in the small province of Axony under the rule of Katrin and her Cultist. This decision was made due to the unimportance and remoteness of the region, making it the perfect place for the rulers of the east to convene. However a traitor in the meeting had leaked the information and location to Tarkhan. After learning about this information The Yuraks marched over 406,000 men to Axony, later in the battle calling up 100,000 levies to bolster their forces.

***The Calm Before The Battle and Sacrifice of Halfdan***

Before the battle began the newly formed Eastern Sovereign Alliance devised a plan to divide their forces and engage the Yurak forces in separate smaller engagements rather than a pitched battle. Captain Halfdan proposed that the longer smaller engagements were drawn out, the more time would allotted to them to slowly move reinforcements to the province. Furthermore the reinforcements from Donnington would be ferried out from New Ruzia on Barnes Barclays ships from his armada. Odin and Evan Woodsley both pointed out that they would need much more time as the Yurak forces were only mere days away from passing the Glasgov Mountains.

Meanwhile the Yurak Council reached every closer to Axony. Tarkhan laid out the Yurak strategy entirely himself, his plan was to use overwhelming numbers and their superior speed to out flank and eventually envelope the Eastern Army. The only man brave enough to question Tarkhan's seemingly oversimplified plan was his own son Tolui Avskuro. Tolui argued that the plan entirely relied on the Yuraks numerical advantage, and if the Yuraks lost the numerical advantage their forces would be routed by the technologically superior Eastern Forces. Tarkhan disregarded his sons concerns and instructed his Generals that this was his final decision.

With time running short, Halfdan volunteered to take his force of 40,000 men and delay the Yuraks from passing through the Glasgov mountains for as long as possible. On June the 7th 1607 A.T.F Halfdan marched his forces and secured several vital passes in the Glasgov Mountains. After occupying the passes The Battle of Glasgov began, and ended on June the 11th 1607 A.T.F with a decisive Yurak victory.

***The Start of The Battle***

After defeating Halfdan the Yurak troops passed through The Glasgov Mountains and had begun to set up of series of camps miles around the edge of the inner mountain range and along the valley that led down to the future location of the battle (The valley is known as Glasgov Valley, the Valley was surrounded by a series of tall mountains). While the Yuraks began to set up their camps the Alliance had received a large amount of reinforcements from Gold Peak consisting of nearly 180,000-200,000 men from the Donnington Army, and thousands more would begin to arrive from other allied fiefdoms being transported by Barnes Barclays Armada. By this point The Eastern Sovereign Alliance had under 300,000 men present at the start of The Battle of Axony, and in total would deploy 400,000+ soldiers to the battle. Both sides entrenched themselves in the Glasgov Valley setting up camps, fortifications, raiding outpost, and securing their supply lines. The Yuraks held their position in the Western Side of the Valley while the Alliance held the Eastern side of the Valley. On June the 15th 1607 A.T.F the first engagements began with a small skirmish near The Glasgov River between two foraging parties sparking the first stages of engagements on both sides.

***The First Engagement***

The first engagement began on June the 15th 1607 A.T.F, between the Yurak and Donnington forces at the Glasgov River. The conflict began when two foraging parties encountered each other and engaged each other firing arrows and muskets at the opposing side. Eventually Alexander Clement and Evan Woodsley were informed of the engagement and moved 25,000-35,000 men to the river and began to cross the river. Scouts from the Yuraks reported a huge movement of troops and warned Tarkhan of the incoming attack. Tarkhan ordered his Mercenary Captain Walt Vanheesem to take 10,000 heavy cavalrymen, primarily made up of mercenaries hired from Acrabia, and push the advancing infantry back. Walt employed his strategies he learned from fighting the Bandit Hordes who often outnumbered him years ago. Using an elite vanguard of 3,000 Dismounted Acrabian Mercenaries who volunteered to the be the frontline distraction, Walt moved a much larger contingent of the Acrabian Horsemen to the flanks and lured the Donnington's lines of Pike and Shot into the open. Once the Donnington's infantry was lured far enough out in the open flatlands Walt ordered his heavy horsemen to slam into the rear and flanks of the Pike and Shot formations. Within minutes all hell broke loose, and the Donnington lines broke in full retreat suffering heavy casualties. The Donnington Army suffered even more extensive casualties during the retreat, as the disorderly and chaotic retreat across the river resulted in many of the Donnington Soldiers drowning. Alexander himself almost nearly drowned, had it not been a foot soldier who carried him to the other side.

***The First Two Years of The Battle***

The first early years during the battle were the worst for the Alliance as the Yuraks pushed deeper and deeper into the Glasgov Valley. Each defeat the Alliance suffered was crippling, and the few victories the Alliance obtained in the minor skirmishes were pyrrhic victories at best. The loss of life became so discouraging even Alexander Clement "The Defiant" commented in his personal journal "For every handful of the bastards we kill, they take a whole regiment of us with them". In the winter months of 1609 A.T.F the region experienced an unusually cold winter, entire portions of the mountain passes that allowed entry to the region were blocked by ice and snow deposits. Both of the armies were massive in size and thus required extensive supply networks to maintain themselves. Quickly armies began to starve, and resorted to stealing from the local villages dotted around the province. Eventually the forced levy and stealing of food from the locals dried up due to limited supply, both armies resorted to butchering and eating their horses and pack animals. In the most extreme cases it was said that the Yuraks encouraged their men to eat their fallen comrades. By early spring of 1610 A.T.F the harsh winter had obliterated the Yuraks and Alliances horse supply. Now lacking any horsemen the Alliance had a level playing field, while still being outnumbered the Alliance also held the Technological advantage. In turn the harsh winter also depleted the Alliances supply of horses, making it difficult for them to transport any of the new supplies flowing into the region to other army groups in the valley.

***Odin Afruthul's Push***

In the summer of 1610 A.T.F Odin had requested that He, Konrad Karlson, Samuel Karlson, and Katrin Bauer move nearly 100,000+ troops to advance and recapture the center part of the valley to secure the vital farms needed to supply the army for the next winter. Alexander Clement accepted this request and gave command of a force made up mostly swordsmen, pikemen, and line infantry to Odin. Odin ordered that the Karlson Brothers push further south in the valley and secure the river that flowed out between the mountains so that shipments of new supplies could arrive. The Kalrlson brothers took a smaller force of 10,000 men and marched up stream successfully burning down several Yurak raider outposts and eventually after weeks of skirmishes and fighting the brothers secured the river end obtaining a vital strategic point. This success allowed Norkish Jarl Aethelwulf Bryonson, who was in charge of managing and defending the Alliances supply lines, to dispatch the first fresh supply of soldiers, food, artillery, and weapons in months to the Alliances forces. Towards the concluding phase of the push Katrin Bauer was tasked with rallying the peasants of the central part of the valley to rise up against their Yuraks lords. This strategy was implemented with hopes that the Yuraks would extend themselves too thin, allowing for a three pronged attack from Odin, Alexander, and Katrin 's rebels to overwhelm the already thinned Yurak forces.

Katrin was unable to gather enough support to cause a rise in the peasants but she gained the attention of a disgruntled Warlord named Ivan Bogun Hmelnitiski-Avskura. Ivan Bogun was furious when he learned that his brother Taichu-Karha Avskura was going to inherit the throne instead of him. Katrin offered Ivan a chance at power stating if the Alliance won this battle their remaining forces would move to Reichlandia and seize the capitol. Afterword's the Alliance would place Ivan as the ruler of the Yurak Horde as apart of the peace agreements that would be drawn up. Ivan agreed and assimilated what soldiers would follow to the Alliances side for several months, he claimed that the battle was a lost cause and viewed this as his only opportunity to seize the throne. His father Tarkhan was enraged, but more hurt than anything else at his sons betrayal. Ivan added nearly 60,000 troops to the remaining 70,000-90,000 troops Odin had with him as they pushed deeper and deeper into the valley. Finally by the winter of 1610 A.T.F Odin was ordered to stop as his task had been completed and was ordered to construct winter quarters. Finally ending the Odin Afruthul's Push. During this push it was said that Odin only lost soldiers in the thousands, while the Yuraks suffered casualties in the tens of thousands.

***The Madman's Push***

Tarkhan ordered his lower-khans not present to levy all who were fit for battle and march them to the Glasgov Valley for a retaliatory push targeting the center of the Donnington army lead by Evan Woodsley and Alexander Clement. Tarkhan's youngest son Taichu followed the orders of his father moved an army consisting of levies primarily from Reichlandia through the Glasgov Mountains. The reinforcements were estimated to have been 100,000 levies with thousand more unaccounted for. As soon as the army reached the main camp near the far western edge of the mountains Tarkhan began the "Mad mans Push". He advanced the Yurak army forward during the summer of 1611 A.T.F hoping to catch the Alliances army off guard with overwhelming force. This push would end in a complete disaster due to his army being made up of ill trained conscripts and de-moralized veterans was. Within the initial march to meet Alexanders lines Tarkhan's infantry columns were hammered by constant Donnington artillery fire. The once battle hardened Yurak army made up of their prestigious cavalry units, Acrabian Mercenaries, and professional Yurak Warriors, was now nothing more but an army of mercenaries, levies mostly made up of ethnic Humanians, and a small contingent of Veteran Yurak Warriors. This stark drop in quality and quantity almost caused near a capitulation of the Yuraks lines before they met the Donnington lines due to the constant artillery barrage. Further more Taichu, who accompanied Tarkhan during this stage, was not an experienced commander like his brother Ivan, and made a critical mistake that would later crippled the advance. Taichu was tasked with organizing the army before they advanced, he mistakenly neglected adding bannermen to the ranks who would display orders universally to the multi ethnic army. This lack of communication and order saw the Yuraks clash with the Donnington line quickly turn into a mosh-pit.

Consequentially Tarkhan was unable to give orders and could only watch as Evan Woodsley slowly moved contingents of Donnington soldiers around the flanks of the Yuraks. As the fighting progressed throughout the day the Donnington lines slowly surrounded and and slaughtered the Yuraks forcers. Taichu and Tarkhan both retreated falling back to their camps and slowly their army began to take hold of what was happening and proceeded to rout. Tarkhan became so desperate for a final decisive blow against the Alliance that he begged his son Ivan Khan to return to his side. Ivan feeling pity for his father and with most of his men disgruntled on his previous decision switched agreed and rejoined his father, only to leave the battle a week later removing his force from battle and returning to Fredfurt to stabilize his fiefdoms. Throughout the battle Tarkhan had now lost 300,000+ troops and his offensive had been defeated by Evan Woodsley and Alexander Clement. This would be the final Yurak led offensive during The Battle of Axony.

***The Final Stage of The Battle***

The final stages of the battle occurred in the late summer of 1611 A.T.F when Konrad Karlson, Samuel Karlson, Katrin , Alexander Clement, and Odin all advanced with nearly 120,000 men against 150,000 men lead by Tarkhan. The engagement was bloody lasting days with little strategy, few formations, minimal order, and chaos rampant throughout the ranks of both sides. One soldier reported "I couldn't tell who was who...some men had been fighting for so long they had full beards, some had no shirts or shoes. Some of the men even had their breast plate rust to a point where it was as useful as wood". Finally on August the 2nd 1611 A.T.F Tarkhan's forces were defeated and Tarkhan was killed in battle supposedly being slain by an unknown member of the famous guard unit of Alexander Clement named "The Golden Guard". After Tarkhan's death the majority of his forces surrendered, further adding to the blow Tolui Avskuro who was tasked with defending the Yurak supply lines throughout the Glasgov Mountains, was betrayed by his own men and relinquished to the Alliance in exchange for full-pardons.

***Aftermath of The Battle***

Immideatly following the defeat of Tarkhan, the mopup of Yurak holdouts began. During this time the Eastern Soverigne Allaince was plauged with a lack of discipline, as soldiers began looting the dead and executing the wounded. The rampant lack of order within the Army was quickly rooted out within the first few days but a situation arose amongst the Norks. After The Battle of Axony, Konrad had received numerous complaints from the upper echelon of The Eastern Sovereign Alliance that his younger brothers actions were unacceptable and unforgiveable. The leadership was informed that Samuel was executing Yurak and Norkish survivors he percieved as weak and was executing them in most brutal ways possible. He would often disembowel the survivors alive, or strangle them slowly. His behavior became a great concern to many of his allies, even his brother Konrad, who was known for his warrior mentality, was disturbed by his brothers behavior.

Although none of the other Kings and Lords demanded that Konrad remove his brother from his position, he opted to do so himself. Konrad had felt that Samuels mental state, and character had degraded and that he was no longer fit to serve. Samuel responded with anger and felt his brother had betrayed him, Samuel attempted to duel his brother for the title of Jarl. Konrad refused to accept the duel, and Samuel in a fit of rage lunged at Konrad with his sword and attempted to stab his brother. Konrad easily dodged the sword attack and quickly disarmed and dispatched his brother incapacitating him.

On August the 17th 1611 A.T.F Samuel was imprisoned in an Alliance holding cell located in New Norkia. Alexander Clement had requested that instead of Norkish guards, the cell be guarded by Donnington soldiers to avoid any loyalty complications that may ensue. Konrad and Odin agreed, Samuel only being in the holding cell for a week used the cloth prison garments he was allotted and hung himself ending his own life on August the 24th 1611 A.T.F. Konrad had suspicions that Donnington may have played a role in his brothers demise, but still felt guilt for his brothers fate. Samuel was buried rather than being given the Traditional Norkish Funeral, it was decided to burry him due to Samuels religious belief in Titus rather than the Old Gods.

The last pockets of fighting and all around resistance in the region was rooted out by February the 23rd 1611 A.T.F with the last engagement being a holdouts of Yuraks raiding Alliance baggage trains. The last captured Yurak lord was the mercenary Walt Vanheesem who was caught attempting to flee with region with groups of refugees. The total number of deaths in the battle was over 700,000+ dead on both sides. It is estimated large portion of these deaths could be attributed to hypothermia, disease, starvation, and malnourishment. Out of the 506,000 man army fielded by the Yuraks only a small few escaped the battle with their lives. It is reported under 4,000 Yuraks made it out of the Glasgow Valley. The remainder of the Yurak leadership present at The Battle of Axony were able to escape the battle. Alexander Clement quickly dealt with the captured lords putting them both on trial, and sentencing Walt and Tolui to death. On February the 29th 1612 A.T.F Walt Vanheesem and Tolui Avskuro were executed by hanging. Alexander with haste begun to draw up plans to move and besiege the capitol. However Katrin Bauer and Odin convinced him to abandon these plans, and instead recuperate the Alliance's losses.

Meanwhile in the Western part of Reichland the Yurak Horde immediately splintered into Three Separate Factions warring over the position of Great Khan. Tachiu seized the Capitol, Ivan stabilized and secured his home province of Adelhiem after leaving Axony, and Ayrat a Minor Khan roamed Central Reichland with a large horde. During the Yurak Civil War the Alliance spent its time recuperating and securing its border with peace talks between the Yuraks Hordes most powerful claimant, Taichu, and The Alliance being conducted. This endeavor ended up being was a waste and the war, now against several splinter factions, continued for several years. This was the largest loss of life in all of Nara since the Crusade into Norkia in 1582 A.T.F and the largest battle in all of Reichlands history. It would be forever remembered as "The Battle Heard around Reichland". This battle would serve as a pushing point for unification and would be used in calls to end the blood shed. Later the battle would be used as an example during the Reichlandian Unification Act by Tokuda.

The Province of Axony was devastated, many of it's original inhabitants had been driven out during the fighting or were killed. The region remained a wasteland for nearly a decade until Norkish Settlers fleeing The Donnington advance would settle the region. Many of the bodies after the battle laid unattended and were picked at by scavengers of all sorts. The town of Axony itself was rebuilt by the Norkish Settlers and the region became stable enough for the frontier region of the province to be settled. The town of Axony survived The Second Reichlandian Civil War, and the surrounding country side even became the home to a minor noble from pola.