The Battle of Do'rville

[Greywall]

River Erde

The sudden strike of Frannerri firepower forced the UST to reel back, fall back lines were established as the UST infantry fell back. Their artillery guns being a priority but if more pressure came it would be hard to get them out.

Back in Do'rville the UST were digging mass graves to place the slaughtered Tafatu citizens into when word came of the rebounding Frannerri. Falalu was furious, the cusp of his greatest achievement was now facing him down in defending the ruined the city. In a cruel twist of irony, the infrastructure of Do'rville was devastated, as UST troops attempted to prepare to defend the city it was clear the ruined city would provide cover and not much else.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 542
Frannerre: 231

[callmedelta]

River Erde

It was a gambit, but it was one the Franerri Army had to take. The fallback trenches hadn't been bombarded by artillery, but with UST reinforcements potentially arriving at any moment and those at the front already in a rout, the decision was made to continue the charge and try to roll the Union's forces all the way back to Do'rville. The 50,000 Standard Industry and 60,000 Cavalry continued their charge, the remaining 130,000 Standard Infantry and 1,800 artillery marching forward behind them, though staying out of the Union's range for now.

Back on the Franerri side of the River Erde, the troops who had retreated from Do'rville were rested, resupplied, and ready for revenge. They marched, prepared to rejoin General Claude's main force.

[Greywall]

River Erde

The UST retreat became a full route abandoning their artillery and making a full break back to Do’rville. Once the retreat came in range of the UST artillery back in the city they were given relief as the artillery provided cover.

Falalu overlooked the map of the city setting his defenses, outlined trenches stretched east and west to prevent flanking but if he lost the numerical advantage he had no choice but to withdraw. A humiliating situation but one he laid at the fault of Taronki and the Kithium. He daydreamed of marching through Pareau and forcing the Franneri king to kneel before him, but now he to defend the graveyard that was Do’rville.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 721
Lost all artillery on River front

Frannerre: 101

[callmedelta]

Do'rville

General Claude looked through binoculars at what was once the city of Do'rville, sitting well outside of artillery range. This would not be an easy city to crack. Trenches on either side of the city, artillery presumably stationed within the city itself, and Do'rville only having the two entrances thanks to Franerre's own earlier defenses, unless they had bothered to clean that up. But all the butchery and barbarism of the Union's seizure of Do'rville had at least one grim silver lining for General Claude; there was almost nothing in the city the Union army could use. Still, General Claude did not find himself enjoying this position. In a head-on confrontation, just about the only tactic he could hope to use would be to charge headlong into the Union's defenses. With the Union's superior range, they couldn't hope to bombard the Union's defenses, and with their new rifles his own men would just be butchered.

A siege would be in order, then. General Claude ordered his infantry to evenly spread out and encircle Do'rville outside of the Union's artillery range, his cavalry split into two groups of 30,000 on opposite sides of the city to serve as rapid response forces. It was said that armies relied on beans, bullets, and bandages. With any luck, General Claude could knock out the beans leg of that trio. The infantry would dig in, and General Claude ordered the artillery to scout out good positions for bombarding the Union trenches and pre-calculate ranges, but not to move out yet. Under the cover of darkness, then half artillery crews would move out. With any luck, they would be able to bombard the Union trenches under the cover of night, then retreat before morning came.

[Greywall]

Falalu’s men were digging into the destroyed city but faced a problem. By destroying much of the city in their rampage they practically left themselves with no drinking water as the engineers now had to work around the clock to get Do’rville’s water system back to working order.

They had plenty of rubble to place rifles and Gatling guns in but dammit if that meant anything should find themselves without food and water. He sent companies to take food from the surviving women and children of Do’rville, they had slaughtered every male in the city, they rationed the taken food and left the women and children to starve or feed on rats and garbage.

That night enemy artillery fire signaled the second battle of do’rville. UST troops took cover and returned fire into the dark night. Falalu was determined to break the Frannerre for a third time.

Then came the illness. Some strange gastrointestinal phenomena was putting entire battalions down in severe pain and diarrhea. Medics were overwhelmed and Falalu was now in a slight panic, was it the stomach virus? No. This was too soon and striking through his ranks so…no. It was the food. The taken tafatu food was poisoned. The UST discarded it all and began hanging women in front of their crying children. But they all said the same thing before defending to their death, “Freedom for Tafatu”. Falalu now lost a third of his fighting force for gods know how long and their food situation was worse than expected.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 98
20,000 + from food poisoning incapacitated

Frannerre: 76

[callmedelta]

Seeing an opportunity, General Claude sent a lone rider forth under a white flag. He bore a simple message for the Union leader, whoever he may be, detailing that General Claude wished to discuss terms of surrender, or else he would attack tomorrow. The Union army had no chance of fighting like this. With a quick surrender, General Claude's forces would be fresh to keep marching southward, and he could leave a token force behind to deal with the Union.

[Greywall]

Falalu stared at the white flag rider, his eyes burned red with anger. His force was decimated but he had enough artillery to make any assault miserable for the Frannerre. He sent that the Frannerre could take the city in 48 hours if his forces were allowed to retreat south. Otherwise they would fight.

[callmedelta]

Franerre would have nothing less than unconditional surrender. The rider turned back to the Franerri line, relaying the news. General Claude ordered his army to rest for the day. That morning before the sun had risen, under the cover of darkness, the left their trenches and began to slowly make their advance with only the moonlight to guide them. 5 kilometers out from the trench lines was as close as they dared to go. Then, with the rising of the sun, the Franerri Army attacked. Artillery began their bombardment of the trench lines, ignoring the already ruined city, halting their bombardment as the infantry reached the trench lines.

[Greywall]

The panic of the UST fighters was unmistakable, from their trenches they fired before being pummeled by Frannerre artillery. As Frannerre shells came in their own artillery would open fire on advancing enemy.

Rifle fire deafened the still night with exchanged bullets between both sides. Falalu was severely outnumbered, he ordered riders to Taronki in Ferville to detail that the northern flank was compromised.

He had a largely immobile force that he couldn’t pull up quickly. He needed to prepare an outright route it seemed but even then that would require risking the trenches being undermanned. He ordered a still defense to test the Frannerre resolve but things seemed to only get worse.

[Greywall]

Casualties

UST: 2,109, 12 field guns
Frannerre: 981

[callmedelta]

With the outer trenches engaged with Franerre's infantry, it was not the cavalry's time to shine. They charged the city itself, gunning to capture, or failing that destroy, the new Union artillery guns. They were the only thing that had saved the Union thusfar, and without them the defenses would crumble. If they could capture the Union general, that would just be the cherry on top. As for the infantry, they would hop down into the Union trenches, engaging in a melee with the weakened and demoralized forces. Bayonets and shotguns would meet the Union troops as the trenches were stormed. All of Falalu's riders would be met with a wall of charging infantrymen, the messages they carried never to leave Do'rville

[Greywall]

Chaos gripped do’rville. The UST broke rank and fell into the center of the city. Ironically where they had slayed the frannerre just a few months ago.

They fought to a standstill at last but Falalu began to realize his predicament. He was surrounded. He had no chance in hell of breaking out. He ordered his troops to fight on and for the artillery to fire without ceasing it having fallen to his personal command center the old mayors house.