“Some people love to weave intricate plans. That is a practice I loathe, for such complicated plans often fail to manifest should any one of the many factors involved in it fail to happen as planned. Instead, I believe that when it comes to plans, simplicity has its own beauty.” - Saying attributed to Xaliburnus the Conqueror, First Emperor of the Elmaiya Empire.

“Quite a few of them out there indeed,” commented Reinhardt as he took a closer look at the Warforged. He had not noticed them at first since they wore the same colors as the rest of the Kolitscheian army, but on a close inspection, he noticed the difference between them and the rest of the army they lined up beside. Reinhardt estimated that there were at least five thousand of the Warforged, maybe more, gathered on the right flank of the enemy formation as Nestor predicted, not counting the thousand or so who went to meet the challenge from the Algenverrian nobles.

At first glance there was little difference between the Warforged and the levy or men-at-arms next to them. On closer inspection however, Reinhardt noticed how the slave soldiers were dressed far more uniformly than the rest. All of them wore some sort of knee-length tunic of light gray on dark blue - the colors of Kolitschei - over which they wore a breastplate that seemed pretty well made, if left unpolished. The drab gray coloring of the unpolished breastplate was what tricked his eyes the first time.

The main difference was how they were equipped compared to the rest of the Kolitscheian soldiers. From the detachment that went forward to meet the nobles, Reinhardt got a closer look at their equipment. Like Nestor mentioned, the frontmost line of the Warforged formation was almost entirely covered by large tower shields taller than their wielder.

Given that they were humans, Reinhardt doubted that they would have been able to carry those with one hand - the shields were similar in size to what some of his Company’s stronger shieldbearers carried, though they seemed to be made of hide-covered wood - so probably specialized shieldbearers who carried the shield with both hands, he thought.

It took a moment longer before they advanced enough for him to get a glimpse of the Warforged arrayed behind the shields properly. Those men and women seemed to have a smaller circular shield held by a strap against their neck and tied to their left upper arms, while they carried long pikes roughly six meters in length with both hands. He also noticed small hatchets carried by their belts, probably as a self-defense weapon for enemies that managed to close.

As for the elite swordsmen Nestor mentioned, they were the easiest to identify. Unlike the rest of the warforged who only wore a breastplate and a simple metal cap of a helmet for armor, they were more heavily armored, their arms and legs covered in half-plates that protected them from most attacks. Those men and women carried no shields, as they instead carried a single two-handed blade with them - Reinhardt hesitated to call some of what he saw as swords, as they seem to come in great variety, probably up to the individual - and advanced closely behind the shieldbearers.

“Damn, those are well disciplined troops all right,” praised Reinhardt as he took a closer look at the Warforged formation. The slave soldiers marched almost as if they were merely the same individual turned into a thousand, their steps and movements in synch with each other. Their formation was so seamless and compact it would have been the envy of many commanders and generals Reinhardt knew of.

The only army he had seen so disciplined in formation was the dwarven army back at Theodinaz, so he was confident in saying that these were one of the most disciplined human armies he had seen in his life.

“I had hoped that the tradition might suffer after a couple generations of relative inactivity, but that was wishful thinking on my part it seemed,” Nestor admitted as he looked at the advancing Warforged with a slight look of consternation on his face. “Then again, that was the main reason I insisted on having your Company with my army, is it not?”

“Should we do anything about them?” Reinhardt asked as he watched the two smaller detachments about to meet in the midpoint of the two armies. The difference in discipline was so obvious, as the nobles and their retainers were clearly less disciplined compared to the slave soldiers that opposed them.

“Nah, this is what they asked for. They can have it,” said Nestor coldly. “It is a bit of a waste of life, especially with the men-at-arms who just had the misfortune of choosing a wrong lord to serve, but that’s just how life goes sometimes. Instead, I’d advise you to take this chance to have a good look at how the Warforged fights, Captain Edelstein. The least these arrogant fools can do is gain us some information with their lives.”

“If you say so. You’re the boss here, Your Grace,” said Reinhardt with a nod. Some people probably would have thought of Nestor as callous or ruthless to use the lives of a thousand men - many of them nobility - to gain information, but he understood the political issues behind the call. After all, those men were most likely his political opponents and had caused him no little trouble, so he took their indignity with his decisions and used it to encourage them to make a decision that would cost them their own lives.

Two birds with one stone, so to speak.

While normally Reinhardt would have been worried about a ruthless employer, he believed that Nestor was clever enough not to break contracts with the mercenaries under his employ - which would have alienated all mercenaries worth their salt from him in a wartime situation - and he also understood the logic behind Nestor’s plans.

After all, they were in enemy territory. While the nearest neighbors of Kolitschei from the Central faction, Lovia-Hosberg and Gestis, were likely still recovering from the last war, if they took too long then there was a good chance that either Duchy might meddle in the situation. They might even find the further away Wanarua intervening to boot. As such, Nestor’s plans had revolved around speed in the first place, although he also prepared enough rations and other supplies for a worst case scenario of the fighting extending all the way into autumn.

As he thought of those, the two smaller detachments began to clash.