Battle of Vijayanagara
| Battle of Vijayanagra | ||
| Conflict: | War of Vengeance | |
| [[Image:{{{Battleimage}}}|250px]] | ||
| Date: | 1509 (Elw Calendar) | |
| Place: | Vijayanagra | |
| Outcome: | Decisive Elwynnese victory. Beginning of the end of the Yardistani war effort. | |
| Combatants | ||
 Barony of Elwynn
|
 Barony of Antya
| |
| Commanders | ||
| Count Harald of Araxion
|
Radru Umbarcotumo†
| |
| Strength | ||
| 13,000 | 10,000 | |
| Casualties | ||
| 149 killed, 541 wounded |
9,167 (includes killed, wounded, missing, captured); 45 ships lost (includes sank, captured, or damaged beyond repair) | |
| Notes | ||
| notes | ||
The Battle of Vijayanagra was a pivotal battle which took place in the year 1509 during the days of the War of Vengeance which ultimately determined the outcome of that war. It was fought just ouside the city of Vijayanagra between an Elwynnese army - of which the core was formed by the battle-hardened retinue of Huskarls of Count Harald of Araxion and which for war administrative purposes had been given the name of Huskarliregementet - and the Crusaders of Apollo, the Antyan invasion force, which was led by Radru Umbarcotumo, a half-elf paladin. The battle ended in a decisive Elwynnese victory.
Contents
Elwynnese Army and Count Harald's Preparations
In late 1508, with the Yardistani invasion looming, it was deemed time by the high nobles of Elwynn to muster forces for the defense of the Elwynnese realm. At the proposal of the Count of Lesser Zjandaria, Ardashir Osmani, Baron Richard Lyon of Elwynn isssued a decree requiring all males and females between the ages of 15 and 45 to report to their nearest police station for further advice. The Police of Elwynn was likewise ordered in the self-same decree to recruit every person who was physically and mentally fit for service in the militia.
The militia was specifically designed with guerrilla warfare in mind, to evade and harras the invading Yardistani forces yet also to defend with full vigour the major cities of the Flower of the North. An example of that was the digging elf pits along the likely lines of the Yardistani advance. (Elf pits are concealed holes in the ground at the bottom of which are to be found all manner of spikes and other assorted booby traps.) Such pits would be quite the bad news for the vanguard and would demoralise the rest of the invading force too. It was also recommended that explosive charges be placed upon the dams that span the two branches of the River Elwynn should the lower portion of the continent be lost to the enemy, the Elwynnese hydroelectric industry would furnish the Jewel of Many Facets with one of the finest vengeance weapon ever devised.
The aforesaid militia was to be augmented by professional (wo)men-at-arms from the retinues of the various high nobles of Elwynn; in Count Harald's case it were 2000 battle-hardened Huskarls from his comital hirð, veterans innumerable battles all over the world and were a highly respected – and feared - fighting force who were renowned for their effectiveness, lethality, brutality, and sheer ruthlessness on the battlefield. Those Huskarls were supplemented by 400 sister-archers of the Daughters of Freyja and 100 senior Priestesses of the faith which over time would become known as the Froyalanish Ancient Ways, both groups of Ladies were included in the Huskarliregementet to counter any magic that the Yardistani combatants might be using in battle.
Baron Richard Lyon dispatched Count Harald to the city of Vijayanagra which was situated in what was to become Agnesia over time. Vijayanagra was the largest Babkhi city in northern Elwynn and the gateway to Ribat al-Eluinshahr, an area heavily populated by Babkhis, and therefore an obvious and inevitable target for the Yardistani invaders. Shortly after arriving in Vijayanagra, Count Harald learnt from Eyði Gíslason, his spymaster, that it would be the Antyans - Yardistani allies from the Dutchy of Kildare who were led by a half-elf Paladin called Radru Umbarcotumo - that he would be facing in battle.
After carefully studying various dispatches, scouting reports and (military) maps of the Vijayanagra area, Count Harald chose Hampi Heights as the place to meet the Antyans in battle. This large rocky promontory commanded the Baronial Highway to the city of Vijayanagara and the Antyans would therefore have to take it if they were ever to get to Vijayanagara.
When attempting to take Hampi Heights, the Antyans would literally be fighting an uphill battle against the Elwynnese shieldwall. Should the shieldwall break, then the Elwynnese would resort to a Plan B and use the Elvish villas from the days of the Ducal and Baronial Reigns of Sirithil nos Fëanor and Mari Greenwood with which Hampi Heights was littered for the deployment of urban guerilla tactics. Since the virtually all of those villas had been built by the Sameinaða Erlendur Kaupsýsla Einokun Félagið for wealthy members of the Elvish elite, Count Harald had excellent knowledge of the secrets of those villas, especially hidden rooms and secret passageways.
A master of psychological warfare, Count Harald also pulled a trick on the Antyans - the Ship of Fools - that he already, several years before in the Days of the Old Tale, had succesfully used on enemy forces during his Conquest of the Heartland, by sending Lolle Jónsdóttir and a bunch of other freaks as his delegation to parley with the leadership of the Antyan invasion force. As very much expected Lady Lolle & Co screwed up completely and the Antyans were lured into a false sense of security and complacence thinking that they were dealing with a bunch of cowardly, inept and incompetent dweebs who would merely serve as their machine meat during the upcoming battle which would be little more than a walk over. (Boy! Were they in for a nasty surprise!)
Another miscalculation by the Yardistani in general and the Antyans in particular, was that they counted on the Elw and Elfinshi to rise up en masse against the Babkhi-dominated regime of the time to evict those 'foreigners' from the realm. The Elw, however, had always considered themselves to be a people apart from the other Shirithians and there was a societal trend among the Elw towards making common cause with the other dominant ethnic groups of Elwynn, to wit: the Babkhi and the growing community of Stormarkers in Wintergleam, who would eventually come to be regarded as the Froyalanish and the Haraldian Wintergleamish. And very unfortunately for the Yardistanis and their allies that Elwynnese societal trend just happened to culminate in the days of the War of Vengeance in which Elws, Vikings and Babkhis fought side-by-side to keep the Southern meddlers at bay.
