“Pray for the best, but also prepare for the worst. Just in case.” - Old folk saying.

“Tch. Already?” Estelle asked when she saw Albrecht barge into her tent uninvited with a slightly worried look on his face. It had only been two days since they had a meeting with the Caromans to discuss a retreat since their home nations were under attack. The fact that the usually unflappable old commander had a look of worry on his face was enough for her to guess that the worst had likely come to pass.

“Unfortunately so, Madam Chairwoman,” replied Albrecht with a shake of his head. “Our scouts just reported back that they sighted the Southern Coalition’s army just a day’s march away last evening, so we should be seeing them this afternoon by the latest,” he said openly. “I’m afraid we wouldn’t be able to avoid a battle against them.”

“I had guessed that this might end up being the case, but at times like these I hate being right,” said Estelle with a loud sigh as she covered her face with her hands for a moment. After only a short while she lifted her head once more and steepled her fingers as she thought about the situation. “How many men are we looking at, Commander?”

“Estimates are around fifty thousand, Madam Chairwoman,” answered Albrecht without missing a beat, clearly having memorized the report on his way to her tent. “Curiously though, we noticed banners from Cezar, Olfas, and Sebaque amongst the army, together with the flags of the remaining minor states further south, but didn’t spot any belonging to Nomen.”

“That’s better, at least,” noted Estelle with a thoughtful look on her face. “Nomen is one of the First Lords’ territories, so if they didn’t participate there’d be less elites for us to deal with. We also likely burned most of Sebaque’s elites to death on the plains months ago, so that leaves only those from Cezar and Olfar remaining.”

“That is my assumption as well, Madam,” said Albrecht. “Our scouts naturally couldn’t get a clear look at the situation, but they estimated that only around twenty thousand or so of the enemy looked properly equipped, while the rest of the army looked more like conscripts. That matches up with what we know of the Coalition’s habits.”

“Still a lot of them, though, and we don’t exactly have our full force available either,” argued Estelle. At the moment, since part of the armies from Levain and Caroma were occupied with keeping order in the territories they already occupied, neither of them were at full power. There were only around twenty thousand troops in each of their armies, which placed their foe with at least a quarter as many soldiers. “Any knight orders in sight?”

“They were too far for the scouts to be able to identify their pennants, but they estimated at least two to four thousand knights,” replied the old commander honestly.

“So probably all the knights in Cezar and Olfas then, assuming Nomen is truly staying back,” said Estelle as she thought about the situation. The southern coalition didn’t exactly care much for light cavalry as their lands were poorly suited to raising horses, which meant that most horses used in their military were imported ones.

As a result, horses were pretty much something only ridden by commanders, nobles, or knights. The knights numbered the most of the three groups, and served as heavy cavalrymen that would charge through and shatter army formations on the battlefield. While the border regions did not put much value in heavy cavalry due to how they were poorly suited with the external foes they had to worry with, the Southern Coalition’s lands were part of the former empire’s interior.

Where most of the fighting they saw was amongst themselves.

In comparison, Caroma’s cavalry was entirely light cavalry, a tradition that carried over from their past when part of the region was the nation’s frontier against the tribal orcs of the northern plains. In the present day, the Caromans had pursued peace and trade with their neighbors, but the Empire had been enemies with those tribes for centuries in the past.

Heavy cavalry was of little use against said orcs since their superior physical prowess meant that most heavy cavalry charges – while they would still claim their prize in blood – would just end up getting bogged down and killed by the orcs. In contrast, speedy and nimble light cavalry that used hit and run tactics were more effective, and also a good bit more likely to actually return from their sorties.

Levain’s own cavalry were primarily light cavalry since they learned from Ze’phane, who was an orc from the north. The orcs’ idea of “heavy” cavalrymen were people who rode the rare tamed giant lizards that lived in those plains, with some of the largest of the creatures acting more like mobile archer platforms rather than any sort of cavalry.

Since Levain lacked such beasts and only had horses suitable for their soldiers to ride on, they were trained as light cavalry instead. It would have been possible to train some as heavy cavalry, but the horse breeds that were favored by the late Imperial family – which was the stock Ze’phane used to breed the current herd of mounts used by the cavalry – were northern prairie horses, which were swift and fast, but not suitable for carrying heavy loads.

Besides, it would have cost twenty times as much to outfit a heavy cavalryman properly compared to a light cavalryman, and the Free City’s budget was rather limited.

The combined force from Caroma and Levain likely had more cavalry compared to their foes, as between the two of them they totaled around six thousand cavalrymen, with three quarters of those from Caroma. They also likely boasted an advantage in soldier quality, but the difference of quantity remained worrisome even so.

“Pass the order to the soldiers to prepare for a battle,” commanded Estelle in the end. “Make sure to send this info to the Caromans as well, in case they didn’t know of it yet, though I doubt that. Also ask the Marshals to meet with me as soon as they can afford it.”