Wood and Air

Dom paused for a few seconds and let his mind work. He reminded himself that even though it seemed so realistic, it was infact a game. So he had to break down the roles of the villagers in to their strategic counterparts. The Shepherds were his archers, and he had 15 of those, the the Fishermen were his spearmen, and he had 15 of those. The 7 remaining Woodsmen were his heavy infantry with their heavy axe's and thick bear skin outfits. That left the remaining guards as his skilled infantry.

He didn't have a full composition of the enemy forces, but he knew he needed to use what he had to the maximum. Ideally thinning the enemies available forces so that they couldn't use their numerical advantage. His mind started whirring, thinking of possible tactics that he had learnt through his years at military school.

He saw two options in front of him. Defend at the village, using the small palisade as a defensive shield, pinning the invaders down at the main gates. Or use the local terrain to his advantage.

"The plan is simple, but I believe affective." Dom started, "we will leave the Village and meet them on the field."

"Leave the Village?" The Chief replied, "This Village has been our home since my grandfather built it, I am not just abandoning the villagers to it because some bandits are going to attack us. We should be fighting here and using our walls and defending our land! Meeting them on the field is ludicrous."

The Chief went to stand up in anger, but Mary put her hand on her father's shoulder and gently pushed for him to sit down.

"Explain." Mary demanded.

"Very well," Dom replied. "If we stay here, we have no fallback option and will be fighting until either we are all dead, or they have lost too many men to wish to continue. If we meet them in the Valley, it will surprise them and allow us to thin down their numbers. Allowing us to have the advantage of control, rather than allowing them to choose the terrain."

"I don't like it." Grumbled the Chief, "If you fail, we have no one left to defend the village."

"If we don't, I think we'll fail either way." Replied Dom.

"What's your plan boss?" Paul asked, nodding his head in agreement.

"4 Simple words; Wood, Air, Water, and Earth"

[You decided on a plan of action, to face the enemy in the field. This has affected your overall score, good luck]

.....

30 minutes had quickly passed as orders had been sent and members of the village had got themselves in to position. The Enemy were now in view, with their infantry at the front and their cavalry to the rear. The way in which they marched slowly showed a huge amount of confidence and a serious lack of fear.

The enemy infantry were dressed in light leather armour, with a large selection of infantry at the front that mainly carried spears, there were also some that seemed slightly better dressed holding on to swords or shields. Behind them followed a collection of archers, who wore very little armour at all, mainly dressed in loose fitting robes, with their quivers on their backs.

At the rear where the cavalry, who cheerfully chatted amongst themselves as they marched forwards. The majority rode brown muscular horses, and wore similar leather armour to the infantry that marched at the front. Those at the front of the Cavalry wore red cloaks and seemed to be chatting away happily the most.

Dom clenched his fists tightly in excitement as they approached his first marker that he had placed at the entrance to the valley. The enemy hadn't sent forwards any scouts and seemed to be completely unaware of the chaos that would soon happen.

The first of the enemy infantry reached the first marker that was placed. A large stone was the marker that wouldn't have seemed out of place to anyone as slowly marched past it. They continued to walk past. The second row soon walked past it, and Dom struggled to keep in the excitement as they entered his trap, he just hopped that the few men that he had sent under John's command had completed their task.

As the third row passed the marker, there was suddenly a loud rumble from the mountain side. Dom looked up and smiled as large logs rolled and bounced down the mountain side towards the centre of the valley pass, with the approaching infantry suddenly waking from their casual march and noticing the oncoming trouble. There was sudden panic as the infantry had to work out if they should move forwards or backwards to the logs that sped quickly towards them. Panicked cries came from the infantry, the better equipped swordsmen that were in the middle were stuck between those behind who began rushing forwards and the others at the front were rushing back. They looked up aghast towards the incoming logs that soon landed amongst them. Crushing and mangling bodies as more and more came down.

.....

"Wood, Air, Water and Earth?" Mary questioned.

Dom smiled slightly at her reply. The game would not give him a mission that was impossible to accomplish, so he decided to make some educated guesses on the terrain and situation, based on what he had heard and seen during his brief time in the village.

"Yes." Dom replied. "Wood represents the log's that the the woodmen have been cutting. I haven't seen any new houses and the palisade is old and in need of improvement. What have the woodsmen been doing with their time, I am assuming that they are storing the logs somewhere for future works?"

"That is correct." Paul replied. "They were due to bring them back today actually, as they have been building a large collection over the last few weeks. Obviously due to the news of the approaching force the Woodsmen all ran back to the village. We had some construction plans for some upgrades to the housing in the village. We were also planning, as you are aware, to move the wall further south, increasing the space for new housing."

"And where are they currently stored?" Dom asked with a smile.

"Still high up the valley, ready to be pulled down and dragged to the village." Paul replied.

"Fantastic." Dom added, "Wood is the first aspect, we'll use their location as our starting point, and have them roll down on the enemy, causing chaos in their formation and hopefully taking out a large percentage of their troops. Depending on the formation, we could cause a lot of damage. What will follow then, is Air."

....

As the chaos ensued between the infantry at the front, the cavalry who had seen the logs rolling down the hillside stopped their relaxed manner and had to act serious. A lead man on horseback, wearing a long red cloak, charged forwards to get control of the infantry. He had obviously expected this to be a relatively easy situation. They had a key member of the village on there side, easily bribed with loose promises, who would kill the key members of the defenders. This should have allowed them to roll in and take control. It was a key location that would allow them to expand in to the Plaines. There shouldn't be any need for a battle, and they should simply have been able to bully the villagers in to submission.

Had Judas betrayed them? They hadn't even sent out any scouts it was supposed to be that easy, but now they had disorder and mangled men. Men who were not cheap to come by. He would be in so much trouble if he did not get control of this situation, and quickly.

There was suddenly the sound of piercing shrieks from the horses behind him. As he went to turn, his horse was bumped in to aggressively, knocking him from his horse. His rose with a shriek, stamping down on the ground next to him, as it then charged forwards uncontrollably.

He landed hard on his side, banging his head heavily on the floor. He grabbed his head and felt a gentle trickle of blood. Whilst cursing, he looked up dazedly to see the other horses running towards him. The riders seemingly to have lost control.

A brown mare, with blood trickling down its throat and white foam adorning its mouth, stampeded towards him.

....

"And what is Air?" The Chief asked.

Dom looked towards Paul again, before smiling.

"The Shepherds should be a reasonable shot with a bow?" Dom asked.

"Of course, none are as good as Peter, but they are adequate hunters." Paul replied.

"Then Air is once the Wood has caused chaos, we will have the shepherds shoot down from the other side in to the rear of the cavalry, who should hopefully be at the rear, which is where someone who is overly confident would put them in his formation. This should then push them forwards towards the infantry that should hopefully be in chaos at this time. Ideally they should aim for the horses themselves to cause panic. This should cause a stampede that will reduce the enemy numbers. From this they should continue to aim in to the enemy formation whilst their is little control. If for some reason the Cavalry are not in the rear, they should aim for what ever forces are, as the next steps will deal with them."

"Interesting, so let's say we go ahead with Wood and Air" Mary commented, "Then what is the next step Water?"