“Say the prayers and march with grace,

As one would death itself embrace,

For one’s fate was yet to be coined,

At the very moment the battle was joined.” - Poem by Gadran of Histur, Warrior-Chief from the area that later became the Kingdom of Posuin.

“They sure brought quite a few of them out and waited for us, huh?” commented Reinhardt as he watched the enemy army’s formation with a spyglass from near the top of a tall tree. Across the Nedja plains, the army of Kolitschei had been arrayed as they awaited the arrival of the Algenverrian troops. His best estimate in numbers - matched by that of Hannah’s, who returned earlier in the day - was that there were at least twenty five to thirty thousand soldiers on the other side, roughly even in numbers with the troops under Nestor’s leadership.

From what he learned, Kolitschei should have at least ten thousand more troops than that, but those were likely left behind to hide the city itself, in fear of Nestor pulling a feint with his very obvious advance while having a second group attack the undefended city from elsewhere. Reinhardt knew Nestor had no such plans, but that he also planned for his too-obvious advance to make the enemy draw that exact conclusion as well, which led to the current battlefield.

For Kolitschei to send out a roughly equal amount of troops as Nestor’s was not unexpected. It was enough to ensure that the battle would likely be hard fought, and should the army lose, it was unlikely that Nestor’s army would not have paid a hefty price for their victory, a price that the Kolitschei tacticians likely expected would prevent him from being able to lay a proper siege on the city.

Nestor was naturally aware of the same logic, which was why he had paid the Free Lances up front for them to take on the daring mission assigned to them. Where the troops of Kolitschei desired to take the battle into one of attrition that would take place over weeks if not longer, Nestor had no desire to do so. Instead, he planned for an all-or-nothing assault, a high-risk, high-reward gamble to decisively set the course of the battle at the very first day.

At the moment the Algenverrian army, their allies from Jonkver, and the hired mercenaries were still setting up their formation, which gave Reinhardt the time to take a look at the enemy formation himself. His Company knew where they needed to go and had already arrayed themselves behind the second legion of Algenverr’s army, right at the edge of their formation’s left flank.

To their right was the first legion - Nestor’s own - interspersed with nearly half the levy they brought, while the ten thousand from Jonkver under Miriam Levan-Tovmund’s lead held the center of the formation. To her other side at the formation’s right flank was the rest of the Algenverr levy with the fifth legion, while the two thousand men of the fourth legion was positioned directly behind the centerline as reserves, where they were positioned to render aid to whichever position needed it the most.

A bit ahead of the army’s formation, Reinhardt noticed a smaller number of men and women dressed in good armor, probably around a thousand in all, who flew many banners he recalled seeing in his Company’s passage through Algenverr. From Nestor he had heard about the intention of those commanders who disagreed with his tactics and strategy and adhered strongly to the old ways, and he shook his head at their folly.

What the group of less than a thousand nobles and their retainers intended to do was to march ahead of the army and announce their presence openly, demanding their foe to face them honorably. That usually involved a roughly equal number of men of similarly good standing to face them, and they would then tussle until a winner was decided.

Supposedly at times in the past such miniature battles alone at times decided who won and lost a battle, though when Reinhardt considered what Nestor mentioned to him during the planning, the young nobleman clearly had no intentions whatsoever to adhere to those traditions. He noticed him standing atop a small hill behind their army as he similarly surveyed the enemy army, and saw the cold look he gave towards the small detachment of nobles ahead.

When those nobles had finished their preparations and started to march ahead with great fanfare from horns and drums, Reinhardt had to suppress an urge to wince at the display, and he leapt down from the tree as he walked towards the hill Nestor and Griselda watched the enemy from. They noticed his approach and welcomed him with a polite nod.

“Glad to see you joining us, Captain Edelstein. I noticed your troops are already in position, my compliments,” said Nestor as he welcomed Reinhardt.

“Thank you, Your Grace,” said Reinhardt in return. He then looked once more towards the small group of nobles and their retinue who advanced until their were roughly mid-way between the two armies, and from what he could catch from so far away, seemed to be yelling out challenges to the enemy army, their voice amplified and carried by wind magic to cover the distance. “Are they just… going to slug it out over there on their own while we fight our own battles?”

“That’s what they would’ve wanted, but I have no intention of letting things happen that way,” said Nestor with a smirk on his face. Then he seemed to notice something and brought his spyglass back over his eye. “Huh. Had not expected that, but I guess you can’t have it all.”

“What is it?” Reinhardt asked as he peered through his spyglass in the same direction Nestor was looking at, and notices how twenty small units in neat rectangle formations moved out from the Kolitschei army, before they formed a larger formation, the twenty small units seamlessly integrating together in a five by four rectangle with barely any distance between them.

“That, Captain, is the Warforged,” said Nestor with some annoyance in his voice. “It would appear that Kolitschei had raised more of them than expected over the last couple generations, and they likely sent them out as an insult to the challenge of those nobles out there. I had hoped that they might be able to lure some of the Kolitscheian nobles and thus catch them out of position, but such is life.”