Thursday, July 18, 2013

Legends of War: The Battle of Raterillan Flats

In the opening days of 1784 a.d.c., the Ratkins of Ratilvaria found themselves the unexpected hosts to a large army of Garmarians. The army in question was known as the Nineteenth Army, and its leader, Field Marshal Granger LeeMen, had been tasked by The Parliament with destroying the Ratkins. Shocked by this revelation, the Rat-Chief Liret Raterillan clawed together all the Ratkins that he could find and marched out to defeat this threat. Between then, there was about four months of maneuvering and skirmishing between both of the armies, before the Ratkins were finally forced to give battle near on the Raterillan flats. The first day of battle resulted in large numbers of Ratkin casualties as they assaulted Garmarian field works, which forced the Ratkins to erect their own.

For five days after the first encounter, both sides fought a series of fierce skirmishes while waiting for the other side to launch an attack. Concerned by the lack of progress, Liret Raterillan personally consulted with his lower rat-chiefs and rat-priests and made plans for a breakthrough of the Garmarian lines. In the Garmarian camp, Field Marshal Granger LeeMen was also planning an attack of the Ratkin lines. Somehow, both sides decided on the same time to launch their attack as well as attacking at the same place. As the final battle plans were drawn up, Rattail Bend was marked as the perfect place to attack.

The 12th day of Tailu opened up to be an exceptionally cold and wet day, as both sides attempted to use the storms to cover their movement. Exactly an hour before the sun was set to rise, the Garmarians opened up the battle with a fierce artillery barrage followed by a charge from ten thousand soldiers. Stunned, the Ratkins reeled under the surprise attack, before the sheer number of Ratkins in the area allowed them to recover. For the rest of the day, both sides fought in the pelting rain as no less than a dozen attacks and counter attacks were launched by both sides and the dead were trampled underfoot. When the fighting was done, all either of the sides had to show for it was a thick carpet of bodies slowly sinking into the mud.

While the Ratkins managed to absorb the losses that they accumulated during the battle, the Garmarians had lost almost a quarter of all their troops. While the battle continued for eight more days, it was obvious to the Garmarians that they risked loosing their whole army if they remained. Under the cover of a fierce thunderstorm, the Garmarians quietly struck camp and began to leave Raterillan Flats. However, just when the army thought it had escaped the Ratkins, an army of Storm-Rats ambushed the Garmarians and scattered the army. The Storm-Rats managed to capture LeeMen, and brought him to The Court of Siçovul taun, where his fate has been relegated to myths.

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