The Battle of Miften's Ford
The Conflict
Prelude
Unit Commander Danvor Sillimun was leading his troops through the town of Bolmond to help reinforce the assailed city of Guildgeley after it was attacked by pirates in a coordinated strike on it and the two other nearby port cities of Holingdon and Stanver. While stopped for the night to rest their horses before the hard ride across the Lesser Cagewich to Fendon a rider was spotted making great speed toward the town from the east. The rider was the young orc girl Ghorza. She said she and her family were travelling the river Luod bringing supplies to the beseiged city when they were set upon by a great number of pirates making their way by boat down river to the Lake Gathar. They were flying the colours of the Pirate King.
Fearing the attacks coastal assault was a diversion to help this force penetrate deeper into Gathamia the commander rallied the villagers to aid his troops in the defence of Miften's Ford, a tactically advantageous spot that he had seen used in a war game during his training.
Battlefield
The soldiers, along with the few brave villagers, set up on either side of the banks, and fashioned makeshift spike barricades that they submerged in the shallow Ford, ready to surprise their enemies. While setting up their defence they were happened upon by the druid Norrelwen, who offered to assist them in camoflaging themselves and their traps. Along with this they were able to send word to the city of Dal-Tondal to warn them of the possible invasion from the north.
Conditions
The battle began shortly after dawn. The defenders guessed that the pirates would use the early morning fog to help them cross the Ford unoticed. This decision would allow the defenders to remain well hidden for many hours into the fight while the pirates scrambled to assess the situation and decide how best to approach the ambush.
The Engagement
Using the initial surprise and confusion to great effect, the defenders were able to bottleneck the pirate forces in the river. The druid Norrelwen created a large wave to block the pirates' retreat back to the open waters of the great lake behind them. Surprised and caught off guard the pirates first attempted to fight back from their boats with bows, but quickly realized that their ambushers seemed to be able to see them better than they could each other.
After nearly an hour of exchanging arrow fire some of the pirates attempted to disembark onto the shores to fight in closer quarters, while their greater force tried to make the crossing and continue on to their destination. Seeing the pirates begin to cross the second part of the ambush was activated with the large spikes being pulled up from below the waters, making the terrain difficult and treacherous, as well as nearly impossible to carry boats through with the continuing onslaught of arrows.
As many of the pirates made it to the banks of the river they were met with tight, narrow trenches to navigate, further bottlenecking them. It was here that they encountered the well trained and well rested Ichuxir Infantrymen, who had positioned themselves in the most advantageous spots they could muster. Using slash and retreat tactics along with the tight trenches the pirate forces suffered terrible losses.
Seeing the bulk of the pirate forces disembark their boats Norrelwen realeased the wave of water blocking their retreat. With the wave gone some of the pirates decided to reteat from the losing fight, assuming that they were terribly outnumbered. As they tried to manouver their boats out the druid called upon the help of the trees, sinking their boats and forcing them to the shores and into the trenches where they suffered great losses throughout the day until eventually at the second hour of the new day the sound of clattering swords finally ceased and a great calm settled over the blood soaked shores.
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