1 Arriving at Stones Hedge!
I was currently standing in the Great Hall of Stones Edge, the ancient keep of the Brackens. House Bracken is one of the ancient Houses of the Riverlands, alongside the Tullies, Blackwoods, Freys and Mallister. It was currently 296 AC, I had just become 16 years old, being born in 280 AC as Alexander Bracken, heir of the Brackens, 1 year before the rebellion started. Hoster Tully had become bedridden 2 weeks ago, my father had travelled to meet The Dying Lord Hoster Tully at his dead bed, but he had been ambushed by apparently Bandits, however I believed no such thing as he took with him his most loyal and skilled knights, yet he still died against a few bandits, this was a plot. The first suspect would be the Blackwoods, a House whom we have been rivals with for ages. However the Blackwoods, while not honorable, would not attack someone wishing to meet their dying overlord. I could also suspect House Whent, but their Ladies husband is dying and therefore they would not do such a thing. I therefore suspected it to be a plot for any of the House around us, however there were too many and too little evidence to accuse anyone.
"My Lord!"
I looked towards whoever made the sound, it was the Master At Arms of Stone Hedge, Jason Flowers, he had served my father but he's been assisting me ever since I reached the age of 12.
"Yes, Ser Jason?"
"I have important news, our army has been crippled!"
This was not really that shocking.
"My Lord, of our standing army of 2 thousand, we currently barely have 1200 men. Your father took our 200 elite guards alongside our best 100 men of our army. This included almost 60% of our veteran officers and commanders. The only Commander left is Ser Tytos River, and he has 0 experience as a Commander, we also only have about 10 experienced, 90 inexperienced and 20 higher ranked officers. Our men are only new men recently conscripted. Around 300 immediately left the army after our Lord died as they didn't believe you could lead them properly. And 4 patrols of 50 each was ambushed near Stones Hedge!"
"This is indeed worrying." After thinking a bit I decided to introduce something new.
"Send a message to House Tully, tell them that we wish to order 3000 round shields." I said
"My Lord!?" The Maester exclaimed
"See that it is done, Maester. We need those as fast as possible!"
Even though the middle aged Maester was shocked he nodded before hurrying out.
"Jason, what weapons do we currently use? "
"Ser, our men are equipped with a rectangular shield and a slashing sword, they are also equipped with spangen helmets and leather armor."
"Alright, order our blacksmiths to make spears 5 meter longs, smelt all the slashing swords and make stabbing swords."
"My Lord!?"
"Lastly, have them make these helmets" I said as I handed him blueprints for the Corinthian Helmets
"Understood, My Lord!" he said as he composed himself and ran off.
I then turned to the guard beside me.
"Go to the Maester and order him to make custom orders with the Blacksmiths in King's Landing" I said as I handed him a paper of the roman lorica segmentata.
With that I stood up and left the hall alongside two guards, however they were no ordinary guards, they were large, 6'5 and 6'6 respectably, they were in fact not related but they were handpicked recently, about 2 year ago. They are 24 and 25. The first is named Jon and the second is named Jorgen. They followed me through a door on the right side of the main seat and into the strategic room, in the middle there stood a large map of the Riverlands.
Stone Hedge was placed beside the River Road, however it didnt connect and you had to take another road to reach Stone Hedge. Bracken was surrounded by the Tullies at Riverrun, Whent at Harrenhal, Lychester at Lychester Keep, House Roost of Harroway, and lastly a small Branch of the Vance at Atranta with the main House at Wayfarer's Rest.
There were a lot of potential enemies. However they were all small, House Lychester had a standing army of 1200 and could muster around 3000 recruits. House Roost was even weaker with 600 in standing army, but they could muster 4000 recruits due to their large population and being a town by the road. We could muster about 6000 without hurting our economy. Harroway or Lord Harroways Town is a town in the middle of the Riverroad and Kingsroad, they both meet at Harroway.
As my thoughts ended I heard the door open as our only high ranked Officer left entered, Commander Tytos River entered.
"My Lord!" He said as he went down on one knee.
"Rise, Commander." I said, he then stood up before walking towards the map.
I then took out a flag signalling the first army, his army. I placed it at Stones Hedge.
"As you may know our army is crippled, we lost 40% of our army in 1 week. Alongside almost every single veteran officer. Our veteran and experienced army is now reduced to a small and weak one. You have been promoted to General and you shall be named Commander of the 1st Army. The 1st Army will include 3 divisions, each division will have 1000 men in it."
"Thank you, My Lord" He said as he bowed.
"Do not disappoint me, although it is unfortunate what happened, this is an opportunity to change it. We will change from the widely used Legionaire Formation using shield and sword and then charge, we shall instead use a much more advantageous formation to use in the flat land of the Riverlands." I said
"The Formation will work like this..." I said as I began explaining it in dept to him. After I continued he saluted me before leaving.
And with this 2 months passed.
Nothing much had passed but we had gotten information, though we did not have a information network, we did buy information from merchants, and we had found out that House Roost was mobilizing their army, their patrols had come back to the city and they had mustered a force of around 2000 men, 500 experienced and 1500 recruits. Similarly we had gotten news from farmers that House Lychester had done the same. They had mustered about 2500 men. Together they had mustered around 4500 men and hired 500 mercenaries.
Similarly we had also regained our men, we have created 3000 spears and 1000 more is coming. We had gotten all the shields alongside 2000 sets of armor, our last 1000 was currently using the old leather armor. The swords have been smelted and the men have began drilling in the Phalanx Formation. Similarly I had decided to recruit a Calvary unit. I had created one company of Calvary, around 500 men. They are Heavy Calvary, the men have been situated with Gothic Plate Armor, it was expensive as sh!t but it was worth it. They had also been equipped with a Lance, a spear, a heater shield and the Horse had gotten some light armor.
The Horses themselves were also exceptional, Bracken is known for having the best horses, they were large destriers which were exceptionally large and strong. I had also hired in 10 mercenaries to train these men, they were largely new men and had been going through rigorous training. All these things were extremely expensive and we had already halved our coffers, however it would all help out in the end.
The Lord Paramount of the Riverlands, Hoster Tully was currenly bedridden and therefore couldn't control the Houses properly as his Son is just getting situated in the position of doing everything for his father, but additionally he's not the official Lord yet and therefore can't command Lords of other Houses.
Either way, war's between Houses were normal in every single region. It may be believed that the only battles happening are between Major Houses, or rebelling Houses such as Bolton vs Stark, but in fact there are small skirmishes between Houses, such as for land, towns or keeps. However taking the capital of the enemy house is strictly forbidden and frowned upon, unless the enemy house declared on you and attempted to take your capital.
It was then that Jon opened the door and a solider ran into the War Room.
"My Lord! We have gotten information, the armies from Lychester and Roote is marching towards Stone's Hedge! They have also sent letters to Lord Hoster Tully declaring their intention to take Donnelwood's currently under our control by Lychester, and the territory we own by the road from Roote."
Shit, this was bad.
"Thank you, Sergeant, you may leave." And with that he walked out.
"Jorgen, gather our council!" As I said that he nodded before running off, 10 minutes later we all arrived. 3 Commanders of the divisions, General Tytos, Master At Arms Jason and the Calvary Commander named Damon.
We all circled around the map, I then placed down 4 bricks, the Roote Army, The Lychester Army, the Bracken 1st Army and the Bracken Calvary Unit.
"Alright, so Lychester and Roote has declared war on us intending to take our territory. This includes the Donnelwood forest and the territory we have that closes with the road. Any ideas on how to proceed?"
"Why not wait for them? They only outnumber us with 2000 and with our Calvary we can even them out?" Jason said.
"We can't, we'd suffer heavy losses and our soliders are new recruits while they also have veterans and mercenaries." Tytos said.
"I agree" I said.
"We could attempt to send our entire force to the Lychester Army defeat them and then turn to Roote?"
"No, then the Roote forces will just retreat before we get there." I said.
"How about we take the calvary and 1000 men and move at lightning speed towards the Roote army while we send 2000 infantry to hold Lychester off?" I suggested.
"If so, then why the Roote Army?" Jason said
"The Roote Army is the one furthest away and therefore wont expect us, I assume they will rally together, they are probably expecting us to attack the Lychester Army or they dont think we know yet, either way they wont expect us." I said
"Sounds like a solid plan." Tytos said.
"Very well, then it is decided. Our first infantry divison and our 1st Calvary company will move towards the Roote Army while the 2nd and 3rd Infantry divisions move towards the Lychester armies. I shall take Command of the 1st task force attacking Roote, Tytos you will take the 2nd. Remember to station yourself on even ground as that where the Phalanx shine."
"Understood!" He said, and with that they all left. I then turned to Jon and Jorgen.
"Seems we will get some action, eh?"
"Indeed it does" Jon said
"Finally" Jorgen said.
