>>3787602
>>You hired some farmers and laborers and started your own mercenary company

>>3787602
>After returning from the war and finding your fiancee in bed with your (former) best friend
Fucking Craig. What an asshole.
>>You hired some farmers and laborers and started your own mercenary company

>>3787602
>You bought a few acres of land and became a farmer in a small village

>>3787602
Guess it's time to become a farmer

>>3787602
>You bought a few acres of land and became a farmer in a small village
I kinda like the idea of being a retired badass who keeps trying to live a calm life but gets pulled back into action.

>>3787602
>You hired some farmers and laborers and started your own mercenary company

>>3787602
>You hired some farmers and laborers and started your own mercenary company

Hell yea we could rape and pillage our way across the lands.

>>3787602
>You bought a few acres of land and became a farmer in a small village

>>3787602
>>You hired some farmers and laborers and started your own mercenary company

>>3787612
>>3787616
>>3787725
>>3787743
>>3787765

Vote closed. Writing.

The few pieces of gold and silver and the trinkets you pocketed from the dearly departed are just enough to buy the services of a few farmers and daytalers. Ordinary men, not soldiers.

But even a dozen ordinary men, equipped with cleavers and pitchforks and axes can put up a fair resistance. It's not a force you would bring to a major battle between kings, but it can handle the likes of highwaymen or bandits or peasants all the same.

The last of your money is spend on getting a few pack mules to carry all the supplies for the group. The farmers are heavy eaters especially and will probably desert at the slightest sign of starvation. You'll need to acquire an income stream as soon as possible. Luckily an unstable kingdom is a kingdom ripe with opportunity.

>You decide to do some escort jobs, the roads are dangerous and the caravaneers are always looking for protection
>You decide to raid the peasants, a life of banditry can be lucrative indeed--especially with no one to enforce the law
>You decide to clean up the kingdom and hunt down bounties, selling bandits into slavery will fetch a pretty price
>Write-in

>>3787602

>You bought some specialized equipment and training and became a Monster Slayer

>>3787801
>You decide to raid the peasants, a life of banditry can be lucrative indeed--especially with no one to enforce the law
Blame the king for not giving us a pension

>>3787801

>You decide to do some escort jobs, the roads are dangerous and the caravaneers are always looking for protection

>>3787801
>>You decide to raid the peasants, a life of banditry can be lucrative indeed--especially with no one to enforce the law

>>3787801

>You decide to do some escort jobs, the roads are dangerous and the caravaneers are always looking for protection

>>3787801
>You decide to raid the peasants, a life of banditry can be lucrative indeed--especially with no one to enforce the law

>>3787801
>You decide to do some escort jobs, the roads are dangerous and the caravaneers are always looking for protection

>>3787801
>You decide to raid the peasants, a life of banditry can be lucrative indeed--especially with no one to enforce the law

>>3787846
>>3787822
>>3787809
>>3787806

Vote closed. Writing.

Life hasn't been fair to you, and if there is a providence he must have a cruel sense of humor. Well, two can play at that game. Your company soon gives up on trying to stay on the straight and narrow and resolves to a life of banditry and pillage to stay afloat.

Success comes immediately. With most of the king's men fighting in yet another war, the villages are easy pickings. You rarely even get into a confrontation, the villagers are smart enough to just hand over whatever you ask for and you are smart enough not to push them too far. Suppose they hire some bleeding heart soldiers or knight errants, what then? And so, you temper your greed.

Even so, you manage to fill your bellies and still have some left over for extra purchases. Your runaway success has also attracted some unwanted attention. There's a sizeable bounty on your head and men eager to collect.

>Hire more men with the proceeds, actual soldiers
>Buy some better equipment for everyone
>Get some mounts for your men, mobility is key to banditry
>Write-in

>>3787872
>Get some mounts for your men, mobility is key to banditry

>>3787872
>Get some mounts for your men, mobility is key to banditry

>>3787872
>Get some mounts for your men, mobility is key to banditry
Blood for the sky god!

>>3787878
>>3787902
>>3787911

Vote closed. Writing.

>>3787872
>Get some mounts for your men, mobility is key to banditry

Mobility is the key to banditry and mounts are the key to mobility. Although you can't afford the two legged running raptors that the knights all use, ordinary horses are available and affordable.

With all dozen of your men now on horseback, you're able to avoid some close calls with bounty hunting parties. But a new trouble arises. Many of your men are former peasants themselves (in fact, pretty much all of them) and some are having second thoughts about stealing and abusing their own kind. They are the minority, but they can no longer tolerate your vicious tendencies and have decided to quit the company. You're now down to just nine men.

Meanwhile the king of your kingdom has lost the war and the enemy has begun a full scale invasion. This has led to some unique opportunities.

>You find an abandoned fortress that you decide to take over as a base of operations
>You loot the corpses of the larger battles and make a tidy profit
>You hire a group of veteran deserters as jaded with living as you are

>>3787938
>You hire a group of veteran deserters as jaded with living as you are

Can’t defend a fortress with nine men.

>>3787938
>You loot the corpses of the larger battles and make a tidy profit
Better to have men who are well armed and loyal.

>>3787938
>You hire a group of veteran deserters as jaded with living as you are
>You find an abandoned fortress that you decide to take over as a base of operations

>>3787938
>You hire a group of veteran deserters as jaded with living as you are

>>3787938
>You hire a group of veteran deserters as jaded with living as you are

Lets go on the straight and narrow.... for now.

>>3787938
>You loot the corpses of the larger battles and make a tidy profit

>>3789530
>>3788616
>>3788532
>>3787948

You encounter a group of veteran deserters, jaded with fighting for careless lords over conflicts in which they have no stake. With them your numbers swell to thirty strong, a miniature army. You rove the countryside taking advantage of the anarchy of war, sometimes attacking routing forces on the field, never actually taking any sides.

An entire year passes, swift as the weaver's wheel. The invasion has come to a standstill, as other kingdoms have come to claim their own piece of the spoils. Your little bandit band has gained some renown, and your name has passed through the lips of even the highborn.

>You are known as the "Thunderbolt", for your speed in the chase is legendary
>You are known as the "Eagle" for your keen tactical eye, in always swooping down at the enemy's weak point at the right time
>You are known as the "Golden God", for your uncanny ability to turn every misfortune into an opportunity for money

>>3796887
>You are known as the "Eagle" for your keen tactical eye, in always swooping down at the enemy's weak point at the right time

>>3796887
>You are known as the "Eagle" for your keen tactical eye, in always swooping down at the enemy's weak point at the right time

>>3796887
>>You are known as the "Golden God", for your uncanny ability to turn every misfortune into an opportunity for money

>>3796887
>You are known as the "Golden God", for your uncanny ability to turn every misfortune into an opportunity for money

>>3796887
>You are known as the "Eagle" for your keen tactical eye, in always swooping down at the enemy's weak point at the right time

>>3796891
>>3796934
>>3797054

They call you the "Eagle" now, even your own men. Your long experience in warfare has flowered into a keen tactical eye. Almost without effort, you can point out the exact weak points in any formation and strike at the exact moment when the battle will turn. Your abilities have attracted the attention of powerful agents, movers and shakers of the world.

Your record has also attracted its share of challengers, and admirers. Your ranks have been flooded with new recruits, veterans and greenhorns alike. Your force is now two hundred strong with a mix of infantry, cavalry and even a small regiment of archers from the north. You are a true mercenary company now, and are no longer able to sustain yourself with mere petty banditry.

>You pledge your allegiance to a king and become one of his retainer's, in time you may even become landed
>You declare your own independence, taking over defenseless, overlooked villages while obsessing over dreams of empire
>You remain a free agent for all, a soldier of fortune, offering your services to the highest bidder

>>3797065
>You declare your own independence, taking over defenseless, overlooked villages while obsessing over dreams of empire

>>3797065
>You declare your own independence, taking over defenseless, overlooked villages while obsessing over dreams of empire

>>3797076
>>3797079

You move on to securing a more permanent livelihood. With the war on, landed holdings are confused. No one knows who owns what anymore, and it's mostly just dependent on who claims and who is able to hold that claim. Many smaller villages suffer from neglect, too poor to provide enough incentive for a noble to protect them.

That's where you come in. Your mercenary force gives up on fighting other men's battles and now works on securing as many of these villages as possible. Deeds are even drawn up in your name and soon you have a half-dozen scattered holdings all across the kingdom. They provide you with tax, men, and supplies. And you make sure that no one harasses them. Your reputation alone is enough to keep the rabble at bay. They know your background as a bandit and fear your cruel executions if caught.

And all this fuels your visions of a grand empire, not merely a kingdom of your own, but a holding which stretches through the continent, from the harsh red deserts of the north to the pleasant weathered seas of the south. Progress on this front is initially slow, but suddenly there is a change.

>You attract the favor of a highborn lady, the daughter of a wealthy, foreign king
>Some of your peasants discover a rich ore deposit near one of your villages
>You manage to rescue the prince of a powerful kingdom from perishing in a great battle

Whatever you choose, roll 1d20

Rolled 4 (1d20)

>>3797089
>>You attract the favor of a highborn lady, the daughter of a wealthy, foreign king

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3797089
>>Some of your peasants discover a rich ore deposit near one of your villages

Rolled 16 (1d20)

>>3797089
>You attract the favor of a highborn lady, the daughter of a wealthy, foreign king

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3797089
>Some of your peasants discover a rich ore deposit near one of your villages

>>3797098
>>3797111

Princess Katarina, the black-haired beauty from the red desert, encounters you while visiting her brother, here in these war torn states to bring home spoils for his father's coffers and concubines for his bedchambers. The Princess's train is ambushed by a rivaling kingdom, seeking to hold her ransom for a substantial payout. While her escorts were killed, her personal retainers managed to sneak her away to a nearby village. One of yours.

You took her in, not knowing at first who she was, but willing to help her out of a forgotten sense of chivalry. In short, she was wounded and beautiful, a songbird with a broken wing, and while you were reminded of the woman who once broke your heart, you stayed with her until the ambushers and their lord came for her in person, demanding that you hand her over, offering you a cut of the ransom in exchange, and, when you refused, threatening to burn your villages to the ground if you did not comply.

You resisted and for the first time, fought a battle which was not won before it even began. Indeed you would have even lost, if the princess's brother hadn't heard of the situation and rode at once to your aid. The prince then offers his sister's hand to you in marriage, assuring you that once he tells his father of your deed, he will certainly approve, for desert peoples value honor and honesty above station, and you have shown your courage and valor in the field.

Princess Katarina does not love you, and perhaps even hates you because of your meager holdings. Her blood is cold, her beauty cuts like the winter chill. But she is also wholly proper and knows that she must be grateful and must obey the word of her father and brother. For your part, you do not believe you are even capable of love anymore, no longer capable of trusting a woman. The two of you marry in the summer month, in a small quiet wedding in one of your more scenic villages. Her father sends you four dozen desert stallions, the hardiest, fleetest feet on the continent, a dowry worthy of his only daughter and of a king.

But your marriage is troubled and strained.

>Your neglect of the princess leads her to seek pleasure in the arms of numerous lovers, until she inevitably sires a bastard
>Your past grievances compel harsh treatment against your well-meaning wife, leading to frequent, enraged, unjustified beatings
>Your wife is unable to perform her primary duty and is unable to hold your seed and make it flower

>>3797140
>Your past grievances compel harsh treatment against your well-meaning wife, leading to frequent, enraged, unjustified beatings
Bad choices. But least worst for us

>>3797140
>Your past grievances compel harsh treatment against your well-meaning wife, leading to frequent, enraged, unjustified beatings

>>3797140
>Your wife is unable to perform her primary duty and is unable to hold your seed and make it flower
I'm worried beating the shit out of our wife might bring down the wrath of her powerful family. At least this way the failing is on her part, not ours, and we can always sire a bastard and legitimize him, or take a wife later.

>>3797140
>Your wife is unable to perform her primary duty and is unable to hold your seed and make it flower
Switching to this. Love can bloom again, right? Even if she can't make a kid?

>>3797161
>>3797171
>>3797176

All creatures are composed of good and evil, but every gesture and grace of your wife you see the woman who betrayed you. All you can see is the bad in all that she does and you fall to hideous punishments unjustified in their cruelty. You beat her for the slightest front. For the slightest word, for any word at all, you smack her without preface or prelude. You strike her with an iron rod specific for that purpose until even her haughty noble pride cannot bear her up, and she clutches your knees, quivering and sobbing, and begging for mercy, and in those moments you do the absolute cruelest thing possible: you hold her tenderly and kiss her brow and beg her pardon a thousand times. And the next day you beat her to unconsciousness.

She grows devoted to you out of fear, moving always like a scared kitten, unsure of your tempers. She adopts a perfect silence, fearful that any speech will bring down your wrath. Your attendants see this ill treatment and some of them lose their respect for you. But none more than yourself, for the guilt of destroying such a harmless, innocent creature weighs heavier than anyone can know. You begin think that your harshness will lead to another betrayal and so you beat her harder and you fall to drinking to numb the pain, which only makes things worse.

Then one day, she places her head at your feet and with silent tears (for now she's learned how to cry quietly) she begs that you spare for these few months. She is with child. She wishes to return home and give birth among her people, to obtain the blessing of her father for her first born.

>Refuse, she must remain here, for if news of her treatment reaches her father it will spell calamity. You promise to rein in your punishments for the duration of her burden
>Accept, you're not sure you can control yourself anymore and it's better she is safe so your child can be born healthy and strong

>>3797201
>Accept, you're not sure you can control yourself anymore and it's better she is safe so your child can be born healthy and strong
I wonder if we get to play as our son should we die.

>>3797201
>Accept, you're not sure you can control yourself anymore and it's better she is safe so your child can be born healthy and strong

>>3797201
>Refuse, she must remain here, for if news of her treatment reaches her father it will spell calamity. You promise to rein in your punishments for the duration of her burden
>>3797205
We might have a daughter

Forgot to mention:

whatever you choose, roll 1d20

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3797213
Dice

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3797213

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>3797213

>>3797214
>>3797225

You let her go, knowing that she will reveal everything to her father and that, if he loves his daughter even a little, he will seek retribution. But what can you do? You know that it is your child she carries, for despite all your abuse she has remained faithful to you and you do not know if you can stay your hand even for a few months.

Before she boards the carriage to the desert, you ask her to hold her tongue until she gives birth, to give you some time, for the sake of your first born. She makes no sign either way, and whether she will keep her promise or not, you do not know. Nevertheless, you begin preparing for the worst.

>You'll need to muster an army, drain your coffers to hire as many men as you can, conscript from your villages, negotiate alliances with rival lords, buy slave soldiers
>You'll need more land, something more substantial then provincial holdings, spend your money on siege equipment and attempt to capture a major settlement
>You'll need more money, invest all your liquid capital in trade and industry across the kingdom

Whatever you choose, roll 1d20

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>3797234
>You'll need more money, invest all your liquid capital in trade and industry across the kingdom
More money means we can hire more mercenaries if the time comes and we do have to fight a war against her father.

Rolled 3 (1d20)

>>3797234
>You'll need more money, invest all your liquid capital in trade and industry across the kingdom

Rolled 14 (1d20)

>>3797234
>You'll need more land, something more substantial then provincial holdings, spend your money on siege equipment and attempt to capture a major settlement

>>3797237
>>3797245

You drain your coffers, sell what you don't need and invest everything into productive enterprises: shares in caravans from the east and great trade ships down south, craftsmen and their workshops, even gambling dens and brothels. Initial failure results in many of your soldiers deserting for lack of pay. The most loyal remain with you, and near the end of the year your fortune is made. A storm in the southern seas devastated the coast and your ships and caravans return laden with gold and oil.

You are more wealthy than you have ever been, a fortune to make even rival kingdoms envious. It is around this time that news of your wife reaches your lands. She has given you a beautiful baby boy, your son, and she has obeyed your request delay the history of her abuse--she still cannot say it now, for she has fallen severely ill from the birth. To your great surprise, she has requested that you visit her, fearing that her death is at hand.

>You can't trust any of your retainers to handle your money responsibly, reply that you cannot go, even as it plunges you deeper into guilt
>For all the abuse you've given her--you know this will not absolve you, but at least you can ask her for forgiveness, you can lay your head at the feet of the mother of your child.

>>3797234
>>You'll need more land, something more substantial then provincial holdings, spend your money on siege equipment and attempt to capture a major settlement

>>3797259
>>For all the abuse you've given her--you know this will not absolve you, but at least you can ask her for forgiveness, you can lay your head at the feet of the mother of your child.

>>3797259
>For all the abuse you've given her--you know this will not absolve you, but at least you can ask her for forgiveness, you can lay your head at the feet of the mother of your child.

>>3797259
>For all the abuse you've given her--you know this will not absolve you, but at least you can ask her for forgiveness, you can lay your head at the feet of the mother of your child.

>>3797259
We really need to find our ex and that asshole who slept with her to really fix our pain. Erase them from the earth.

>>3797270
>>3797274

You ride just as soon as the message arrives, the day, the very hour. For in your wife's absence you have only deepened your guilt, you have grown insane with it. You ride with a feverish pitch for four straight days, exhausting even the hardiest of the men in your company and then you leave them behind and ride without sleep or food into the red desert itself, until the strong marble, alabaster pillars rise in the great distance.

When you arrive you are in a maddened state, barely recognizable, barely coherent enough to state your purpose. But somehow, you make your way to the king's palace and while he is suspicious of you (for your wife has maintained the strictest silence of your affairs) he brings you immediately to your wife's bedside.

She is alternately racked with fever and ice, her pale, perfect skin is paler still, a death pallor. And the weight of all your sins comes crashing down at the very instant that you see her, that you see your darling child sleeping in the crib beside her bed. You cannot even bring yourself to enter her room, feeling so much shame that you wish you could rip your own heart out and stamp on it--until she calls for you to enter.

So you kneel by her feet, afraid to see her face, you lay your head there like a penitent before a temple. Unable to speak, weeping like a foolish child. And she says, "Do not blame yourself, my dear husband."

"My dear husband? Call me viler things than this, call me anything, curse me, hate me! Only do not die, please, I know I will never have your forgiveness for what I've done, but let me work for the rest of my life toward the smallest part of absolution."

And she sighs, and the breath goes out of her like life itself. "I have forgiven you everyday, and every hour have I absolved you. And every minute I have prayed that you would come to this moment, and every second I have dreamt of it--"

"No, no, no!" you kiss her feet, wetting it with your tears. "Don't say this, don't say this when what I have done to you--don't forgive me, never, never! You should have betrayed me in the first instant, my Katarina!"

She reaches for you with her hand, sitting up a little so she can stroke your hair. "I know your heart my dear husband, I know your twisted suffering and I knew how easy it would have been to spite you and despise you--but I pitied you, and I desired a virtue that could bear anything. And so, for a thousand faults, you are forgiven a thousand times--only, raise our child with the love and devotion that you never gave to me."

"Please, please, I swear I will never hurt you again. Inflict double on me what I gave you, if it pleases you even the slightest--but do not leave me now, let me love you with my all heart, for the rest of my life, forever."

"Come close. Will you kiss me?"

1/2

>>3797333
You rise and lift her up and gently press your lips against hers, with all the tenderness you have never shown. She touches your heart. "Forever is too long my darling, just this one moment is enough. Carry it with you always, as you have carried your other burden, and from now, be better for it." She stretches to kiss you again, chastely, on the brow. And in that moment, she dies.

The funeral is elaborate, as all desert funerals are, but you are too grief-stricken to attend. You fall sick yourself from the restless ride here, for seven days you are bedridden, but you will mourn for the rest of your life.

As for your newborn son, Katarina's father wishes to keep his grandchild with him for his developing years, to grant him all the luxuries of a prince: tutors, servants, martial education and whatever his heart desires, more than you can give him. But on the other hand he'd be away from his father.

>You'll take him with you and raise him yourself as best you can
>You'll leave him here to be raised in the best environment, one you cannot yet match

>>3797336
>You'll take him with you and raise him yourself as best you can

>>3797336
>>You'll take him with you and raise him yourself as best you can

Tell the king that if he wishes to help his grandson, he can send with us a tutor to help with the boy's academic education, since we have nothing to teach him in that area

>>3797336
>You'll take him with you and raise him yourself as best you can

>>3797336
>You'll take him with you and raise him yourself as best you can

>>3797340
>>3797347
>>3797351
>>3797353

You cannot bear to be separate from your son now, you've made a promise that you will never break. So you remain in the king's house a few months, to appease him, but ultimately refuse his offer, and he decides to send a few tutors and nurses back with you, to shore your weaknesses.

As expected, your finances are in shambles when you return. The attendant you left in charge has actually managed to increase your wealth (and that quite substantially) but did so by illegal and abusive practices, incurring the wrath of several powerful agents, including the nearby northern kingdom--who he has incensed so much (by continuously raiding their lightly escorted caravans) that they are marching with an army to destroy you.

>Attempt to buy them off with a hefty lump sum and a steady promise of tribute for a few years
>Muster what men you can from your villages and what your money and reputation will buy and meet them in the field
>Try and negotiate peace through a third, more powerful party, though you'll surely be in their debt for years to come

>>3797364
>Muster what men you can from your villages and what your money and reputation will buy and meet them in the field

>>3797364
>>Try and negotiate peace through a third, more powerful party, though you'll surely be in their debt for years to come

>>3797364
>Muster what men you can from your villages and what your money and reputation will buy and meet them in the field

>>3797373
>>3797399

Rather than lie down or kneel to other powers, you take matters into your hands. Conscripting as many able bodied villagers as you can and spending you vast wealth on as many mercenaries as will work for you, you field an army large enough to match the one riding out to meet you.

It is on a fresh summer's day that the two armies ride out to do battle. The northerners are force consisting mostly of archers, deadly at range. They also have some heavy infantry to hold the line and light cavalry to distract enemy cavalry from approaching their archers.

Your own forces are heavily focused toward mobility, going back to your days as a bandit. Consequently, most of your men are mounted. The best of your cavalry are mounted on the desert stallions, and equipped with the best weapons and armor you could buy. Your infantry consists of a mix of veteran soldiers and fresh recruits, and will not hold long against a prolonged engagement. You have a few archers, but not nearly enough to match the sky-darkening hordes of the enemy. Finally you have your cavalry horde, the majority of your force, also a mix of veterans and recruits, though most are good riders.

You outnumber the enemy, but it's clear they are better equipped and better trained. The terrain is mostly flat, with a small hill to the left center and a dense forest to the rightmost flank, that curves around like a cresent moon, behind the enemy ranks.

>Deploy your forces in thin and wide, in open view, hoping to envelop and dishearten the enemy with sheer numbers
>Deploy the majority of your forces in the forest, hoping to surprise the enemy from the rear
>Deploy your cavalry up front, hoping to capture the hill quickly for your infantry and discourage the enemy archers from reaching it

>>3797435
Right, so, a defensive strategy is just going to get us picked apart by their archers. I think we need to deny them the terrain advantage, so I'm going with:
>Deploy your cavalry up front, hoping to capture the hill quickly for your infantry and discourage the enemy archers from reaching it

>>3797435
>>Deploy your cavalry up front, hoping to capture the hill quickly for your infantry and discourage the enemy archers from reaching it

>>3797442
>>3797447

Mobility is only useful if you can take the initiative, thus you deploy your cavalry at the very front, within range of the enemy's archers but free to move where they will. Just as soon as the trumpets are sounded, you charge straight toward the hill, hoping to deny it from your enemy. They send out their own cavalry in a half hearted effort, but these are quickly overwhelmed and many are cut down. Some of your cavalry are taken out by the hail of arrows, but this leaves your infantry mostly intact.

The enemy has decided to abandon the hill and make a steady march toward your infantry line. Your reserve cavalry is still waiting in the wings, but there is an opportunity here to ride behind their front line and strike at their archers. Of course, there's always a risk that you get entangled and are unable to return to the hill, losing control of it.

>Seize the opportunity and harass their archers
>Stay on the hill and wait

Whatever you choose, roll 1d20

Rolled 9 (1d20)

>>3797456
>Seize the opportunity and harass their archers
Gotta maintain the initiative.

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>3797456
>>Seize the opportunity and harass their archers

Rolled 10 (1d20)

>>3797456
>Stay on the hill and wait

>>3797461
>>3797479

Seizing the narrow opportunity you descend the hill with your cavalry, striking deep and fast into their archer columns from the left flank. Unfortunately it appears that the vulnerability was a facade, a cunning trap.

Behind the archers, at the center, are another unit of heavy infantry, what looks to be the vanguard of the whole army. The archers scatter as soon as you reach them, throngs of them are cut down at once as you drive a wedge deep into their ranks, but then the infantry comes to bear from the front and the archers close behind you, cutting off your escape.

You manage to find a weak point in the formation and are able to breakthrough, and even without much casualties, but the enemy archers have taken the hill and the front line has finally reached your own. Your infantry will not last long against the combined assault.

>Catch your breath and wait for an opportunity to strike their rear
>Regroup and attempt to recapture the hill
>Charge the front line infantry from the rear, in a series of lightning strikes

Whatever you choose, roll 1d20

Rolled 11 (1d20)

>>3797495
>Catch your breath and wait for an opportunity to strike their rear

I think this plays to what's best established about our character so far. I dont want to try and slog uphill while getting peppered with arrows.

Rolled 6 (1d20)

>>3797495
>Catch your breath and wait for an opportunity to strike their rear

Rolled 19 (1d20)

>>3797495
>Catch your breath and wait for an opportunity to strike their rear

>>3797563
Saved it.

>>3797495
This quest is really good. Nice job, QM

>>3797504
>>3797539
>>3797563

You hold back, letting your infantry get cut to pieces by the enemy front line. You wait patiently for a chink in their formation, a slight weakness that you can drive your entire force into. The archers have exhausted their arrows and initially hold at the hill--then blunder, in their overconfidence they are moving forward to help the heavy infantry.

It is in that moment that you see your chance, a brief hole forms in their ranks into which you charge. The reserve cavalry, which had been waiting all this time, which the enemy had not feared for their small numbers slams repeatedly into the flanks, eviscerating the archer squads. Your infantry was able to hold out long enough, through sheer numbers and will, for the charge to the rear to be successful.

The heavy infantry rout, about three-quarters of the archers are cut down, a devastating blow considering the expense and time to train them. You split your cavalry into smaller squads and have them chase, kill or capture as many of the routing as they can. By the end, you've put a thousand men to the sword and five hundred in chains--including the prince that led them. A crippling blow to the northern kingdom.

>Ransom the men and prince back to recapitulate your losses and make a modest profit on top
>Seize the advantage while you have causus belli and march on the northern border, taking as much land and gold as you can grab
>Sell the men as slaves to the rivals of the north, garnering an ally and an enemy

>>3797722
>Seize the advantage while you have causus belli and march on the northern border, taking as much land and gold as you can grab
If they surrender, spare them. If not, LOOT baby

>>3797722
>Seize the advantage while you have causus belli and march on the northern border, taking as much land and gold as you can grab
Need some buffer space. Then we Ransom them.

>>3797722
>Seize the advantage while you have causus belli and march on the northern border, taking as much land and gold as you can grab
>Sell the men as slaves to the rivals of the north, garnering an ally and an enemy
Both

>>3797729
>>3797732
>>3797739

While your little boy sits home, you march onward to secure his future. He will sit on a throne one day, overlooking an empire that would embarrass his grandfather, and he will be able to look up to his mother's eye in heaven with pride, without shame for what his father has given him.

You have the prisoners brought to the largest of your villages, retaining a few (including the prince) for insurance and guidance in the harsh deserts, for their lands are distant from that of your father-in-law. The prince, Alhamad is young and brash, only sixteen years old and eager to prove himself. But he is better at socializing and courting, with his good looks and his boyish charm, than he is at war. Despite your better judgement, you find him endearing and become something like friends. He does all he can to keep you from attack his father's personal holdings, opting instead for his father's rivals.

The desert is filled with ancient fortresses, built around oases and wells. Small villages surround them, and these are your targets, along with the frequent sandships that ferry goods and gold from one fortress to another. Thirty horses laden with gold and spice and sent home--the desert khans try to chase you, but with your experience in banditry and with the prince's expert intelligence and the council of his guides, you avoid them all. You even manage to capture two of the forts, creating a permanent foothold.

>Leave Prince Alhamad in one of the forts and give him a regiment of men to defend them with, if he will swear allegiance to you as your vassal
>Gather as many men as you can and wage a swift and total war against the quarreling khanate tribes--with the Prince's help
>Ransom the prince back to his family, sue for peace, sell your forts, take your massive spoils and return

>>3797768
>Ransom the prince back to his family, sue for peace.

Also they have to help us with the Kahns.
>Gather as many men as you can and wage a swift and total war against the quarreling khanate tribes--with the Prince's help

>>3797768
>>Ransom the prince back to his family, sue for peace, sell your forts, take your massive spoils and return

Who knows what we will find back home

>>3797768

>Gather as many men as you can and wage a swift and total war against the quarreling khanate tribes--with the Prince's help

Let's expand our allies. The more connections we have, the easier and better our son's life will be. Better be the son of just ruler than a blood king.

>>3797768
>>Gather as many men as you can and wage a swift and total war against the quarreling khanate tribes--with the Prince's help

>>3797777
>>3797884
>>3798075

The foothold secure you begin plans for a longer, more elaborate campaign. With Prince Alhamad's help, you take advantage of the quarrels between the khanate tribes and through a series of quick and brutal battles manage to conquer a quarter of them within the year. In the process you miss your son's first words and his first step, but now you have carved out a true kingdom for him.

The other tribes finally begin to understand that your method of war is not the playful skirmishes which they love, but affairs of total domination. They band together to form a coalition. Those who believe in your abilities, and those allied with Alhamad's family go over to your side, which they believe will win. After a series of small battles, the coalition gathers on the sands for in the winter month, for a final decisive confrontation.

The enemy is ten thousand strong, with specialized heavy infantry born and bred to fight in the desert heat. The archers here are mounted on desert stallions and are even better shots on horse than on foot. They cannot hold against a prolonged engagement, but they need not, as they are swift enough to engage and run forever, a truly terrifying force.

On your side, you have elite shock cavalry, specially chosen from the retainers of the khans you have conquered. Your infantry is a ragtag group of the hardiest, most experienced veterans, taken from several different tribes, who have seen more action than all the enemy's elites combined. But they are few in number, one for every three of theirs. Though you have tried to keep the majority of your forces as cavalry, the horse archer tribes are all on the other side. What you have instead are a horde of regular archers, a mix of elites and veterans. The one advantage you have is that your men have much more experience than the enemy, and even the rawest member of your army has seen more blood and carnage, true war, not games, than one of their veterans. The other advantage is the fortress three miles south of the battlefield, to which you can retreat and regroup if necessary.

>Underdeploy your forces, mostly the weaker ones, to exhaust and lower their numbers and supplies as much possible with the intention of retreating to the fortress and forcing a siege
>Deploy everyone at once, the entire war will end today with only one victor emerging from the dust
>Deploy your forces as needed, making small surgical strikes in the enemy formation and conserving your supplies as much possible, turning this into a war of attrition

Rolled 7 (1d20)

>>3798136
>Underdeploy your forces, mostly the weaker ones, to exhaust and lower their numbers and supplies as much possible with the intention of retreating to the fortress and forcing a siege
Horse archers excel at surgical strikes and quick offense in general, so the best thing for us to do is pin them down in one place.

>>3798136
>>Underdeploy your forces, mostly the weaker ones, to exhaust and lower their numbers and supplies as much possible with the intention of retreating to the fortress and forcing a siege

>>3798136
>Deploy your forces as needed, making small surgical strikes in the enemy formation and conserving your supplies as much possible, turning this into a war of attrition

Coalitions like theirs do not last long.

>>3798136
>>Underdeploy your forces, mostly the weaker ones, to exhaust and lower their numbers and supplies as much possible with the intention of retreating to the fortress and forcing a siege

>>3798235
+1

Rolled 8 (1d20)

>>3798136
>>Deploy everyone at once, the entire war will end today with only one victor emerging from the dust