The crossing at Wennick was a disaster from the start. Heavy rains over the course of the previous weeks had swollen the Caldar to a point where loading ships with horses was very difficult and couldn't be done quickly. Thus, the first Imessian troops across the river were completely unsupported and without any cavalry or heavy armor. Once the horses and cavalry were loaded, they were forced to land nearly 6 miles further downstream from the place where the foot landed and were further delayed in being able to support the beleaguered foot soldiers.
The Wennick force was led by Maxin am Maxalli, the son and heir to the Baron of
Southridge. Frustrated by poor planning and lack of coordination, Maxin was stuck with his cavalry miles from where he was supposed to be.
20 miles upstream at the fords of Minsloth, the crossing went much smoother. Within 10 hours of boarding the first river craft, the 12,000 foot and 2,500 horse were across the river, but delays had cost them the daylight. Temporary palisades were erected and the force of nearly 15,000 invaders hunkered down for the night. By morning's light, the Imessian force could see that nearly 5,000 Cobalian
Dragoons and another 5,000
Rangers had become firmly entrenched on the hills overlooking the fords.
The leader of this force, Baron Donric am Mollus of Minsloth, knew he was in trouble. He quickly had his cavalry mount up and charge the nearest line of Rangers, which was about 500 yards to the south and numbered (it seemed to him) about 500 men. As soon as the lead elements of the Imessian charge came into bow range, the Cobalians loosed a deadly shower of arrows that dropped or killed a full one-third of the charging horses and killed or injured the majority of their riders.
When the remaining cavalry engaged the Rangers at the crest of a low, grass-covered hill, it became alarmingly appearant that there were more than 800 Rangers here, not the 500 that Mollus had originally estimated. Using pikes, spears and lances, the Rangers killed or disabled another third of the Imessian horses, and the remaining mounted troops were forced to flee back to their camp because the Dragoons were no moving in from the north.
