The story so far…… King Hal of Eteng was concerned that the trade route between his realm and Gemist was beset by bandits. He had requested on several occasions that Gemist remove the bandits from its territory, but Gurth seemed unable or unwilling to act, and the Eteng merchants were getting vociferous. The final straw came when Gurth informed Hal that it was his responsibility to ensure that Eteng’s merchants were not ambushed. The Eteng nobility initially refused to fund an army to pursue the bandits, but when Hal indicated that a response was necessary or their loyalty would be investigated, they crumbled, and the Marcher Lords agreed to equip and lead an expeditionary force to clear the route. Recruiting rapidly from his own forces and locals angered by the depredations, the Warden of the East March lead a well advertised and rich train towards the border, upon the assumption that no bandit would be able to resist the lure of the rich pickings. He was right, but his plans went rather awry…. To the Most Noble and High King Hal of Eteng, Lord of the Marches, Duke of Edria etc. Greetings, My Lord King, I grieve to inform you that my Lord Wills, my counterpart as Lord of the eastern marches hereabouts, planned to entrap the Gemist bandits by a most cunning ploy. He equipped a nobly made up train of wagons, with rich finery and many trapping of gold and silver at much expense. He also took with him his own men, bills, bows and lancers of the royal garrison and loyal slaves. I have the report of some of the slaves of the rearguard. It would seem that, while crossing the pass of Stenguard, the train was ambushed by these border folk, jumping out of woodland nearby, and also from behind the hills that so litter the region. The train guard easily held those at the rear, but the vanguard of the convoy was overcome by numbers of bandits. These included my Lord, whose banner his servants saw fall in the midst of their prickers. I do not know if he is alive or dead. The rascals then looted the rich train, and the guards, including these slaves from my Lord’s household, who may, for all I know, be in league with them, fled. Indeed, this is a disaster for our control of the border trade, and I request to know your will on the matter, O Lord My King. Sir Humphrey Stanley, Lord of Westermarch. Although wounded, brave Lord Wills managed to escape the bandits, posing as a milkmaid. It has to be said his welcome was not of the warmest when he reappeared at court. King Hal, his honour slighted, tried to raise an army, but the money simply was not available, and Hal did not wish to summon a Parliament as a focus for the Lord's and merchant’s discontents. He attempted to split the opposition, but although they could not agree between themselves, the nobles were not to be separated from the traders. Eventually it was agreed to raise mercenaries in Scocom and this was done, but Hal refused to permit their use in Eteng. At this point, the international scene came into play. War was in progress between Spim and Maximp, to the east of Eteng. It was proceeding in a desultory manner as Felix of Maximp did not have the money to press his claim to the throne of Spim. Fillis, the Maximp ambassador to the court of Eteng, approached the opposition lords requesting to hire their mercenaries for the war with Spim. The lords agreed, and with considerable skill, Fillis persuaded Hal to permit the troops to pass, and make the necessary arrangements to pay the troops. Karles of Spim was kept abreast of the situation and raised an army to oppose this unexpected invasion, while keeping Hal under diplomatic pressure. The pressure was such that Hal refused to let the mercenaries pause in the kingdom. A large number of discontented Eteng nobles raised additional forces for the expedition, which crossed into Spim in early Kite. The Spim army, under Misloc attempted to use the valley of the river Kreff to offset their paucity of numbers. However, they were surprised by the arrival of combined Scocom and Eteng forces, and not properly deployed as Lord Wellesley and his Eteng demi-lancers hit the Spim foot, smashing through the front line and threatening to run amok in the rear. As the Scocom schilitrons lumbered up in support, Misloc reorganised his forces to entrap Wellesley and his men against the river, deploying the Spim cavalry against the arriving Eteng foot, who were followed by the Scocom highland warriors. This was successful, but Misloc now had nothing left to answer the weight of the Scocom pikes, and withdrew. He was defeated, but had dealt the Eteng contingent a heavy blow, many lancers falling and Lord Wellesley himself dying of wounds as the retreat began. The ballads of brave Lord Wellesley appeared almost immediately, and Hal managed to wrong foot the opposition by giving royal approval to them and negotiating with Spim to bring his lordships body back and giving it a state funeral. The corollary to this was that Hal cut off aid to the surviving members of the Scocom army. Karles of Spim was infuriated by the incursion but did not lose his head. Extra forces were raised and Misloc's army returned to full strength. The Eteng nobles also raised extra forces. A sudden raid by Spim into Maximp caused Felix to sue for peace, leaving the lords and the victorious mercenary army high and dry in Spim territory. Nothing the lords could do prevented the Scocom mercenaries from disbanding, and the Eteng lords returned home too, entering into negotiations with Hal to use their forces against the northern bandits. Felix's unexpected and precipitate capitulation did not please his factious nobles, and he made a further error in bungling an attempt to arrest his leading critic, Mannor, Duke of Nix. Mannor escaped to his estates and called his followers to arms. However, Felix recovered energetically, and moved against Mannor with only his household troops, catching him unawares. Negotiations followed, but when Felix discovered that Mannor was smuggling troops into Nix, Felix called to country to arms in defence of their liege lord and bought up a siege train. At this, Mannor’s nerve failed him and he sued for pardon. Felix didn’t have the power for serious retribution and granted reasonable terms. Wargame Mechanics Back to Table of Contents -- Lone Warrior #138 Back to Lone Warrior List of Issues Back to MagWeb Magazine List © Copyright 2002 by Solo Wargamers Association. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com