Battle Of Pawns

The Battle Of Pawns, named after the cult pawns slain in battle, is one of the few times that it was deemed necessary to deploy the 9th Legion to the field.
The 9th was deployed alongside some auxiliary troops to the northern regions of the empire after reports had come forth that there was a stronghold belonging to the Followers of the Deceased cult and it was believed that the security of the stronghold was high enough that the local garrison was not suited to deal with it without the help of more elite troops so it was requested by the local governor that Pearlhal was to send some legionaries and because the 9th legion had a detachment on exercise only a week from the area it was decided that the 9th was to supply the elite troops.
The aftermath of the battle was the believed removal of the Cult from the region.

The Conflict

Prelude

Before a battle plan was drawn up the officer of the detachment from the 9th, a young promising lieutenant had the local garrison troops scout the area around the cult stronghold before a battle plan was drawn up.
Having the scouts return with information that the number of cults was lower than anticipated the young lieutenant instead of planning ordered a frontal assault on the Stronghold.

The Engagement

The engagement opened up with a volley of arrows from the cultists that wounded a few of the auxiliary troops and killed the lieutenant. right behind him was Azran who noticed that while the legionaries of the 9th were still in an orderly formation the auxiliaries were beginning to break up because of the lack of orders and the hit to morale, Azran thought quickly and ordered the men of the 9th to fall back and noticing this the auxiliaries followed up.
Back where they started the men of the 9th accepted Azrans' temporary leadership, Azran was sitting in front of his tent and thought about ways to deal with the Stronghold and after some time and counselling with the more experienced soldiers, Azran came up with a plan, they were to wait until dark were after they should light up several campfires and torches as a mean to make it look like a group of reinforcements had arrived, this hopefully would make the cultists retreat right into an ambush.
Soon after half of the auxiliary forces and the men of the 9th left to prepare for the ambush and a short time after this the rest of the forces began lighting the campfires. Just as predicted the supposed sudden arrival of reinforcements made the cultists abandon their stronghold and walked into the ambush set by Azran.
Following the ambush and the bodies were counted it was discovered that the number of bodies was as predicted the first time.

Outcome

On the small level the result of the battle lead to the promotion of Azran from the 9th Legion to that of a member of the Imperial Guard and because of this he will come into contract with Crown Princess Ira.

Conflict Type

Battle

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

21st of Ekax 1285 I.C

Ending Date

4th of Selik 1285 I.C

Conflict Result

Dercian Victory

Belligerents

Empire of Dercia

Followers of the Deceased

Strength

• 12 legionares of 9th Legion.
• 100 auxilary consisting of members of the nearby city garrison.

100 armed cultists.

Casualties

• 1 legionnaire (dead) and 3 wounded.
• 5 auxiliary (dead) 30 wounded.

Total wipeout.

Objectives

size a stronghold of the Followers of the Deceased

Repel the attack, retreat and regroup.

Maps

• 

  Mirateia