“Engaging an enemy in a well-prepared defensive position of their choosing is the worst way to wage a war, but sometimes, it’s also the only option available to you due to the circumstances involved, so suck it up and tighten that belt and go earn those coins, or die trying!” - Speech by “Gregarious” Georg Gursen of the Gursen’s Gremlins mercenary company, shortly before their defeat and disbandment after a failed assault on a position defended by the Horst’s Hellraisers, circa 449 VA.

Defensive position two kilometers west of Kolitschei City

Duchy of Kolitschei

Western Alcidea

4th Day of the 1st Week of the 9th Month, Year 20 FP.

“Well, now. Ain’t this a mighty fine place to make a stand,” said Reinhardt with an appreciative whistle as he led the Free Lances towards the prepared defensive position west of the city. The Free Lances had departed Algenverr together with the main force under Nestor’s lead just a week ago, whereas a detachment from Horst’s Hellraisers were gathered and sent to Kolitschei mere days after Erycea’s scouting expedition left back then.

Said detachment had spent the past month preparing defenses west of Kolitschei city with help from the city’s civilians and soldiers, and what they had prepared was quite something to behold.

The chosen defensive position was one that fully made use of Kolitschei’s geography. The Duchy of Kolitschei was separated from their northern neighbor Lovia-Hosberg by a succession of mountain ranges and dense forests, and the region in general was dominated by said dense forests for the most part, outside the inhabited areas.

It was possible to march through said forests, but it would be horribly impractical, slow, and torturous to bring an army of substantial size anywhere through them. As such, due to their own size, the invading army was practically limited to the main roads. As such, the defensive position was laid right on the one main road that led westward from the city.

With the northern and southern flanks of the region covered by dense forests, the defensive position was relatively safe from flanking attempts. Besides, the Hellraisers detachment also trapped the forest by their flanks generously, just in case. Other than that, the defensive position was centered around a base set at the summit of a small hill the road curved around.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

Countless ramparts and trenches dotted the west side of the hill, with shallow trenches dug behind the earthen ramparts to allow the defenders to hide their bodies despite the low height of the defensive structures. In effect it turned the hill into a giant makeshift fort capable of holding tens of thousands of defenders.

Further west from the hill, more trenches were dug in seemingly random patterns and depths and covered a whole kilometer-wide region, ranging from shin depth to knee depth. Those trenches were then cleverly covered with netting, soil, and even grass where appropriate, making them practically invisible. As a result, the whole region would cause many accidents should an army charge through it.

A fully armored soldier running at speed who tripped themselves on one such hidden trench might well break or twist their ankle or worse, and if it was galloping cavalry that caught one instead, it might well result in a crippling if not fatal crash for both rider and steed. At the same time, the dwarves left routes for friendly cavalry to use when they needed to make their own forays, routes that were circuitous and difficult to find without prior knowledge.

Both the forces from Algenverr and Kolitschei shared the burden of holding the defensive positions, with around a third of their number positioned on the hill, another third on the road, while the rest remained behind as reserves. Other than that, several units like Reinhardt’s Free Lances were tasked to perform more irregular operations and slunk off into the dense forests to the sides of the defensive position.

Naturally, they were given maps by the Hellraisers so they knew which areas to avoid in the forest. Reinhardt actually had his people add even more traps on the southern forest they were deployed in. It was the forest the enemy was more likely to infiltrate and attempt to bypass, since they could move towards the road from there, whereas the northern forest bordered the hill.

All in all, it was a good position to tackle their opponents from, Reinhardt thought. They learned a good bit more of their enemies from the reports given by Erycea’s group, and while nobody could read the odd letters used by the enemies in their documents, maps used symbols, and those were more decipherable by people with military minds.

From the maps and the symbols on them, the allied defense forces learned that their enemy was likely a rather meticulous one, and they also learned that those same enemies would likely stay on the main roads. Some markings on the maps were deduced to be a failed attempt to cut a path through the forest in Wanarua’s territory, and other markings that denoted troop movements seemed to corroborate that as well.

Other than that, the maps also hinted that the enemy force they faced in the north might be somewhat separated from those facing the Bostvans in the south, as their documents lacked any reports or anything similar that touched upon the situation on the south. If the military command was unified, it was unlikely for them to not even possess a map of the southwest, so either the command was on the Bostvan side, or these invaders were from two separate forces.

Either possibility was plausible, and difficult to ascertain due to the language barrier, so for the time being, Reinhardt could only focus his attention on the enemies he directly faced in Kolitschei. His force of two thousand mercenaries seemed so fragile and insignificant in a battlefield of over two hundred thousand people, but he knew from experience that even a small force could be lethal when used well, and he definitely planned to use his forces very well indeed.