Chapter 4

A day after the battle, the Scout Boyz reported that the Yorksburg Vanguard had entered Yorksburg territory, meaning Blackpool pass was safe until they decided to try again. The Baron was very pleased with this development, a lot of his men were injured during the fighting, and they only had a single healing mage in his company, not to mention that said healing mage was not operating at peak efficiency on account of the cold. The Baron was in his tent personally writing letters to the families of the dead. He knew that some of their families were most likely unable to read, but doing such a thing was in the very least a heartfelt gesture. And, even if they felt insulted by the letters, they would not feel insulted by their sons’ pensions.

As he was getting lost in his apologies, Ludwin quietly entered his tent.

“You really should not enter my tent so quietly.”

“What?”

“If you open my tent flap so gently you sound like an assassin.”

“Well, I did not wish to disturb you, sir.”

The Baron sighed and turned to face Ludwin.

“The threat of assassination is far more disruptive than a loud noise. Now, what is it you want?”

Ludwin handed the Baron a scroll with a wax seal. The seal was a caricature of an Orc, with exaggerated tusks and pointy ears.

“A large army of Orcs was sent by the Skipper of Londonsburg to relieve us. We are to march back to Londonsburg for convalescence until we are sent on our next assignment.”

The Baron began putting away his papers and pencil.

“Alright then, tell the men to pack up. We march to Londonsburg as soon as everything is loaded up.”

Ludwin saluted the Baron and ran out of his tent. The Baron leaned on his knees and pinched the bridge of his nose.

“Well, what do we do now?”

At the Inn which made up Klarwasser Mercenary Company's temporary HQ, the Baron and his lieutenants were having a meeting, discussing the battle of Blackpool pass.

“So, everyone, while we won the battle, it was quite the pyrrhic victory. We took around 20% casualties, and I lay the blame at my own feet. My insistence on using rifles led to a noticeable decrease in volume of fire.”

Udo scratched the side of his head.

“Hmmm. I don’t know. Those cavalry guys were pretty tough, I think it would’ve been about the same even if a few more guys were dropped.”

Helmut nodded.

“Yes, I agree. Though the volume of fire was lessened by a somewhat significant margin, I would say that the increase in volume of fire by using muskets would not make too much of a difference. If we use optimistic estimates, I would say our casualties would still be around 15%.”

Jean and Ludwin nodded as well. The Baron was rapidly tapping his finger on the table.

“A 5% decrease in casualties would still be a decrease in dead men. Any decrease in dead men is good. A certain amount of losses it to be expected in this line of work, but I do care about my men, and doing anything which needlessly gets more of them killed is unacceptable.”

Fergus slapped the Baron’s shoulder.

“Ay, come on. You gotta experiment, and in experimentin’, you're gonna lose folk. You donnae wish tae see tae losses tae great Stríðsherra Björn Blóðöxi took when ‘e was figurin’ out how tae fight guns without guns!”

“Well, isn’t the strategy fairly simple there? Just close the distance.”

Fergus looked at the Baron disappointedly.

“Baron, you ken damn well it’s not that simple. You’re just try’na put yourself down at this point! You’re a great commander, an’ waistin’ your time caterwaulin’ ‘bout nonsense like this ain’t gonna get nothin’ done!”

The Baron looked to Fergus for a couple of seconds before slapping himself with both hands.

“Alright! You’re correct, Fergus. It’s disrespectful to the dead to refuse to learn the lessons they paid their lives to teach me. Now, does anyone have ideas as to what we could do differently?”

Jean raised his hand and spoke.

“Baron, I was thinking, if you want to use the rifles, per’aps we ‘ave just one row of rifles? At the front? They fire at rifle range, and then by the time the second row ‘as formed up, the enemy would be in musket range, so we are not wasting the range of our rifles? Per’aps that could work?”

Helmut folded his arms and nodded his head.

“Yes, I thought of that as well. It combines the range of rifles with the fire rate of muskets.”

“Well then, if two of my smartest men are suggesting it...perhaps the idea has some merit. Helmut, do you think that the men could do this immediately? Or do you believe that they would need some drilling?”

“Well, the concept is quite simple. I doubt the men would be too confused. we would simply need to explain it to them. Perhaps we could do something like this: Have the rifles in the first row fire and move to the back to reload, and then the other rows with muskets would kneel fire as usual. Maybe have four rows? One rifle, three muskets, and maybe the rifles could act as skirmishers after their first shot?”

Ludwin rubbed his chin in thought.

“Hmm…I believe that Idea has some merit. Though we would need to workshop it a bit, maybe train riflemen specifically for this strategy. Skirmishing requires a completely different skill set than line fire.”

The Baron nodded and bit his thumbnail. After a moment of silence, he simply shrugged his shoulders.

“It’s an interesting idea, but we would probably want to just hire new personnel for that, and not only are we on campaign, but we are surrounded by nothing but Orcs. Ok! I have made my decision! We are simply going to switch back over to muskets for the duration of this campaign. Jean said that his people use exclusively muskets for their infantry, it must be due to the volume of fire difference, something which we sorely lacked during our last battle.”

Gaius, who up until now was standing off to the side trying to not get in the way, spoke up.

“You mention the Orcs. It makes me think. Perhaps the Orcs would be willing to join you? To make up for our lost numbers?”

The Baron’s face scrunched up.

“You’re suggesting I hire Orcs?”

“You hired me, did you not? I’m not human.”

“Touché.”

“Excuse me?”

“It means you make a good point. Do Orcs enjoy using pikes? I only saw spears used by the cavalry.”

“Well how should I know? But, Orc swordsmen are better than no pikemen.”

“You are really quite intelligent, anyone ever tell you that?”

“Only ewery day of my life.”

“Excellent. You deserve it.”

Ludwin weekly raised his hand.

“Baron, there’s something I’ve been meaning to ask. For about a year now, actually.”

“Oh? Ask away.”

“Thank you, sir. I was just wondering, why haven’t you recruited cavalry? They would be quite useful.”

The Baron fiddled with his sleeve as he spoke.

“Well, I don’t know. Never really thought about it. Don’t really like cavalry that much, though.”

“But, you’re mounted?’

“I don’t like commanding cavalry.”

“You could have a company commander giving them orders, and give him an idea of what you’re looking for.”

“I don’t know, that seems like extra...that’s a pretty good idea though...yeah…yeah that’s a good idea. You know what, when we get back to Bickenstadt, we’ll discuss plans for this further. We will hire at least a company of cavalry, I give you my word.”

Ludwin smiled and nodded, satisfied with the Baron’s final answer. The Baron stood up and grabbed a piece of paper.

“Alright then, I’ve made my final decision for this meeting. We will announce that we are hiring Orcs, anyone interested should come to us in three days. We are looking for swordsmen to protect our pikemen and assault enemy positions when our pikemen make an opening. We should probably make some posters advertising that, or not, that's negotiable, but we should probably just go to wherever Orcs tend to congregate and spread the news by word of mouth. Most of them speak Reikers, but you should probably speak slowly, just in case. Oh, and Fergus and Ludwin should probably stick together, seems like you two work best that way.”

Ludwin and Fergus both nodded. Udo shrugged.

“Will they understand Fergus? I had trouble at first, though he’s gotten better.”

“Tha Orcs I dueled seemed tae understand me well ‘nough.”

“Well alright then. Hey Baron, what exactly do we say? Just, the stuff you said? Fight in formation, protect pikes, yada yada yada. That sort of thing?” The Baron thought for a second and then nodded.

“Yeah. That sort of thing.”

Udo nodded happily.

“Sweet.”

Around 100 Orcs and 40 Gobs showed up to Klarwasser HQ. The Orcs all had their arms and armor, brigandine, kettle helm, kite shields, Carolingian style arming swords, hand axes, and the occasional longsword. The Gobs all had either guns or bows. The Baron was not expecting so many people to show up, and he hadn’t even considered how he was going to make sure he hired only the best. The Baron looked to Ludwin to see if he had any ideas, and found that Ludwin was looking at him expectantly. Well, I suppose it can’t be helped.

“Welcome Orcs, and Gobs, to the Klarwasser tryouts! Since over 100 of you brave men have come to join us, we are going to have you all fight each other! Well, we are going to have the Orcs fight each other! Since you Gobs seem to have brought ranged weapons, we will be testing your sharpshooting skills! Ok Orcs! Pair up with whomever you believe will make you look the best!”

The Orcs all started grabbing each other and yelling, trying to find either an equal partner, if they figured out what the Baron meant, or the weakest looking Orcs so they could look strongest. After most of the Orcs had found a partner, the Baron spoke up again.

“You all are going to have a duel! Me, or one of my lieutenants, will watch your duel and decide whether or not to hire you! If the duel is close, and both Orcs are clearly strong, then you will both be hired! So, try not to kill each other! Gobs, you will be doing whatever tests my lieutenant Helmut and Jean come up with! I am giving them full discretion on who to hire! Orcs! Make six rows in front of me and my lieutenants!”

The Baron’s lieutenants fanned out and the Orcs quickly organized themselves into rows and the Gobs wandered over to Jean and Helmut. The Baron was already kind of impressed with how organized the Orcs were on short notice. His first ever recruitment drive didn’t go nearly as well, the farmers, hunters, and men generally unused to regimented life were very slow to pair up and form rows.

“Right! First pairs are to step forward, introduce themselves to my lieutenants, or me, and then duel!”

The duels were mostly uninteresting, it was just Orcs trying to show how skilled they each of them are. And skilled they were. The Baron and his men were impressed with the duels they watched, the Orcs were obviously well trained. Only about 30 Orcs were completely cut, mostly older men who were just there to see how age had slowed their movements. None of the Gobs had been cut. Helmut and Jean just placed small objects a couple hundred yards away and had them fire. The Gobs were pretty accurate, not as accurate as the men personally trained by Helmut, but they were still good. After the trials ended, all of the Orcs and Gobs, as well as the Baron’s whole company, gathered for the Baron to explain how things would work. Firstly, the Baron addressed his own human men.

“Right! Men, you will be working alongside Orcs and Gobs, well, working closer than before. These brave Orcs are joining our company! Treat them well! Treat them how you would treat your fellow man! If I find any discrimination by either side, then the responsible parties will be punished swiftly! Additionally, many of you will be switched over to pike, because the Orcs will be working as swordsmen! We will begin drilling those who have switched tomorrow!”

Some of the Baron’s men grumbled at this, but they all responded with a loud ‘Yes sir!’

“Now, for our new Orc and Gob allies! Since this is a special situation, any Orcs who do not wish to live in Bickenstadt will still be allowed to work with us, however, when we leave Orcland, you will be let go from the Klarwasser Mercenary Company! But, any who wish to stay with us after we leave Orcland, know that you will have to move to Bickenstadt, and that much of your time there will be spent drilling! Is that understood?”

The Orcs and Gobs all yelled, a bit incoherently, their acknowledgments.

"Right! Now, onto your responsibilities! Aside from battle there will be the occasional building project, whether that be repairs to a city, or field fortifications! Are Orcs trained in engineering?"

After a few seconds, a Gob spoke up. His voice was high, nazily, and rough.

"Wez Gobs go to university 'ere. Some o' us know geometry, dats just paper engineerin', roight? Wez can figure it out! As for da Orcs, well, dey can sod roight off! Get 'em to lift da 'eavy shit, yeah?"

"Um, is that a yes? Whatever, if you're educated, we can teach it to you easily enough. And now, for your places in battle."

The Orcs and Gobs looked visibly excited.

"Orc swordsmen will be placed just behind the pile formation! You have two jobs! First is to protect the pikemen should anything get past the pikewall! Second is to attack into enemy formations when our pikewall creates an opening! Simple enough, yeah?"

The Orcs roared with approval.

"As for Gobs, you will be part of the firing line! You will either use your own rifles or will receive our rifles if the quality of yours is worse. To be completely honest with you, we have two ideas that we have yet to decide on, so, you know what, I will allow you to decide for me, scratch what I said about the firing line for now! You have two options: Either you can fire in formation, standing at the front with your rifles, firing, and heading to the back of the formation to allow for the muskets to fire until you reload, or, we can just deploy you as skirmishers, fighting enemy skirmishers and then harassing the enemy lines."

A Gob raised his hand as the Baron was talking, and he called on the Gob.

"Well, why do wez gotta 'ead to da back o' da line? Wez is shorter dan you lot, why not just shoot over our 'eads?"

"That is a good idea, actually. That is mostly what our firing lines do, but with you men it would simply be kneel fire without the need to kneel. We will have to test that out. But, you all need to vote on what you would rather do, skirmish or line?"

The 40 or so Gobs all huddled together and quietly discussed what they would do. Again, the Baron was impressed with how quickly they decided to get together and discuss things. When they finished discussing things, the Gob who first raised his hand earlier spoke up.

"Roight! Wez decided to be skirmishers! Dats what we usually do in Orc armies, an' most o' us're already pretty good at dat!"

"Alright then! You will be working alongside Helmut and occasionally an Elf named Jean. Helmut will be your combat advisor, Jean will be your quartermaster. As for the Orcs! You will report to me or Ludwin, the blond man in the armor with a sun embossed on it!"

The Baron waved Ludwin over.

"This is Ludwin! He is my vice commander, though now that I think about it we never formally made you one, did we?"

"No we didn't, sir."

"Well now it's official! Anyways! I want all of you to meet back here at sunrise tomorrow! We have drilling to do before our next assignment! Dismissed!"

"Thrust! Thrust! In time with the men besides you! Thrust!"

Ludwin was drilling the men. The pikemen will all practicing thrusting together. A couple roughly horse sized and shaped blocks of wood on wheels were pushed toward them. Their goal was to strike at where the horses vitals would be and to push back the wood block. The block was too heavy for a single man to push back. Not only could he not move it, but his pike would break. The goal was for multiple men to strike the target at once and be able to push it back. It was a team building exercise, drilling into them the importance of working together, alongside training their precision with the pikes.

"Stick together! Don't get in the way of your fellow man! Er, Orc! Attack single targets together!"

Udo was drilling the swordsmen, who were now mostly Orcs, in fighting in very clumped formations. Mostly they were learning how to not hit each other or get in each other's ways while fighting another tight formation. There were various roughly man sized logs clustered tightly together, about the size of an average pike formation, with a small opening in the center. This was to simulate the pikemen making an opening in the enemy formation and the swordsmen pouring into an enemy formation and ripping it apart. The Orcs were strong and skilled combatants, but they were not used to fighting in such tight formations. While they were tearing through the 'enemy', they kept getting in each other's way, and sometimes they even hit each other on accident.

"Come on! Stay close but don't get in each other's way! Cover the backs of your comrades!"

The few human men still working as swordsmen we're used to this, and they were smaller, so they were having no problem with the exercise. The Orcs were getting the hang of it, they learned decently fast, though not as fast as the human swordsmen in Udo's opinion, but their progress was somewhat slow. Even though the Orcs hit harder than humans, the cramped conditions of this style was warfare limited their range of movement, so their strikes were about on par with the humans. They ripped through the logs quickly, but Udo kept track of how many times Orcs left other Orcs completely open with an unscathed log behind them, which would lead to casualties on a real battlefield. The Orcs would do well in battle, but, unless they learned how to cover each other better, they would take unnecessary casualties.

The Gobs we're mostly learning how to shoot quickly on the move. The Gobs were doing a mediocre job, Helmut was pretty displeased. Their stamina was high, but they didn't know how to aim and fire while on the move.

"Do you use mounts at all? This is not working very well, at this rate we will not be ready in time for the next battle."

One of the Gobs looked at his rifle angrily.

"I work better wif my bow! I can run n' shoot just fine wif it!"

Helmut sighed deeply.

"Fine, then grab your bow, I want you to hit a two inch square on the move. I can do it just fine with a rifle."

The Gobs practically threw his rifle vaguely where it was supposed to go and grabbed his bow.

"Also, wez don't use mount! 'orses 'r too big for us!"

"I've seen children ride horses just fine."

The Gobs started running into the woods, turning to stick his tongue out at Helmut and yelling just as he entered the treeline.

"Oh youz can sod roight off!"

A few moments later, an arrow flew out of the treeline, imbedding itself in the afore mentioned two inch piece of wood. The Gob ran out smiling.

"You slowed down as you aimed. It needs to be instinctual."

He walked over to the target and took the arrow out from it, tossing the target to the Gob.

"Also, your bows are too weak. Rifles do not care how strong you are, they hit just as hard whether you can lift a horse or can barely lift the rifle itself. Now, when I go into the treeline, throw the target in the air at a random time. I'll show you how it's done."

Helmut dashed into the woods as soon as he finished speaking. A few moments after he entered the woods, the Gob threw the target into the air. Almost as soon as the target got above their heads, a shot rang out from the woods, and the target was blown to smithereens. The Gobs all looked at the splinters of the wood with amazement.

"Do you understand what I am asking of you?''

Helmut appeared behind the Gob with the bow. None of them saw him exit the forest.

After two weeks of training, things were looking a bit better. The Orcs had made decent progress. They still got in each other's way, but it was better. About 25% less 'casualties' than before. Udo believed that with more practice they could become about as good as the veteran humans.

The Gobs had made some progress, but not as much as Helmut would like. After Helmut's demonstration they accepted switching over to guns, their child sized bows might have worked for hunting varmints, but it would do nothing against even light armor. However, they still slowed down quite a bit when they aimed, and they missed somewhat often. Helmut believed that in real combat they would end up stopping to aim and fire, and would need to stop completely to reload their rifles. They would still be useful as skirmishers, but they would easily be defeated by other more experienced skirmishers.

As the Baron was finalizing the hiring process, entering them into the payment ledger and other similar paperwork, a knock sounded at his door, and before he said anything it opened, revealing Fergus holding a scroll with a wax seal.

"Baron, Skipper's giving us new orders. Didnae read them, not sure if I'm allowed."

The Baron got up from his chair and took the letter.

"Only Ludwin and I are allowed to read these letters, though Ludwin will most likely tell you about it if you ask, as will I.

The Baron opened the letter and quickly read the contents.

"Ok, seems we are to head to Castle Cornwall to reinforce the garrison. We will be there for around two weeks. It's just about a day's march from here, south-western Londonsburg, close to the border. Near the city of Cornwall. Apparently Orcs only really care about the castles strategically, so even though it’s a huge castle right next to a city they don’t attack any of the civilians and things continue as normal..." The Baron looked at Fergus incredulously.

"I've heard that Orcs think differently than humans, but that really is quite a thing to claim. Well, whatever, the scroll also says that the garrison there has gotten very small over time, they've seen a lot of fighting. It seems as though Yorksburg really wants to control this castle, so, I assume it is very important strategically. Fergus, tell the men to get ready for march. Time for us to see how our new Orc comrades handle themselves in our style of combat!"

About three miles out from Castle Cornwall, a Gob scout returned to the Klarwasser column. Baron was at the front, flanked on either side by his lieutenants.

“Boss! Cornwall’s under attack! Does Yorksburg gits’re assaultin’ da castle!”

“You sure?”

“Saw it with me own eyes!”

“Great. Doubletime it men! Our allies depend on us!”

After basically jogging the rest of the way, the Baron ordered his men to halt and form up. He went to personally check on the state of the battle. As he rode to the edge of the tree line, he found that the state of the battle was somewhat poor. There were various siege ladders docked on the walls, being held in place by Orcs near the bottom. There was a single siege tower also docked on the wall, though it was currently on fire and pieces were visibly falling off. There was a battering ram at the gates, all around it were dead and dying Orcs, but it was still manned and actively being used. The castle was fully surrounded, though the side with the battering ram looked to be thinner than the other sides. If I don’t help them now, the castle will most likely fall.

The Baron rode back to his men and informed them of the situation.

“...Though, luckily for us, they do not seem to have noticed our prescience. We have the element of surprise. Men! I have a plan! We are going to break through their lines, destroy their battering ram, get everyone inside the castle, and then cleanse the castle of the Yorksburg infestation. Here is what we are going to do! Our formation will be wide and thin! Our gunners will be deployed in something like three rows, 50 or so men wide! Behind them will be our swords and pikemen, swordsmen in the middle, pikemen flanking them on either side! The rifles will fire and then affix bayonets and fight with the pikemen! The musketmen will reload and continue firing, no need for volley fire after your first shots! The swords and pikemen will charge and engage the enemy near and around the door and battering ram! Swordsmen are to kill, pikemen are to keep the enemy away from the swordsmens’ sides, and, most importantly, protect the wagons we will be driving up to the gates! After that, we get the defenders to open the gates and let us in! First the wagons enter, then the gunners, then the swordsmen, then the pikemen! Pretty simple plan if you ask me! Do you all understand!?”

The Baron’s men shouted ‘Yes sir!’

“Then form up men! One of the powder wagons will use some of their powder to blow up the battering ram before entering! The pikemen are not to advance past the swordsmens’ line! Remember! Your job is to protect the wagons and swordsmen!”

The Baron’s men again shouted their acknowledgements and ran to form up. One of the Gobs walked over to the Baron.

“Well, what do wez do? Wez is skirmishers!”

“Well, I suppose you should skirmish them. Or you could ride on the wagons and fire from there? Yeah, let's go with that. The Gobs are to ride on the wagons and fire from there, understood?”

The Gob yelled ‘Roight’ and left to tell his fellow Gobs.

The Baron headed over to his men’s formation and took up a spot near the swordsmen. He and Ludwin were still mounted, though he imagined Ludwin would largely be avoiding combat. The Baron was planning on charging ahead of his swordsmen. He loved battle, though perhaps as a Christian he really shouldn’t. He never really thought about it until Fergus asked back in Caprae Loco. Now it kind of bothered him. Whatever, can’t help being me.

“Alright men! Fire when you come into effective range! All troops, forwards!”