Here's a bit of background I wrote to explain the colourful scheme I used on a canon I just painted up... Hope you like it, and should you find an error in the text, let me know....
Lessons learned…
It was a time of darkness and strife. A time of bloodshed and tears. But also a time of wonder and heroism.
The story I am about to tell you is a tale of that era, the era known to scholars as the End Times. I was a lieutenant in the Corps Pistoliers, and assigned the task to protect the town of
Helmskreuz, a location on the crossroads of two important trade routes.
We arrived in Helmskreuz in the pink light of morning. The sky looked as if painted in pastels, promising a sunny day… The village looked blissfully ignorant of the fact that war was raging all around it. Pigs and dogs ran free in the streets, and the smell of freshly baked bread drifted towards us on the wind. Our mouths were watering and Helmut, my second-in-command (Or first, as he saw it, me being a young lieutenant and he a grizzled veteran), spoke words that would for years to come be inscribed in my memory.
“Well, that bread sure smells fine, but unless we stop them, it will be the servants of Chaos eating it, not us, not these peasants. Not even the Emperor.”
That statement suddenly made me realise why I was there. Helmut’s view reflected that of the ordinary men and woman of the Empire. They cared not about politics, great schemes of nobles and clergy. They cared not for glory, honour or fame of the soldiers defending them. They merely wanted to be able to eat the bread they had previously baked. Simple as that.
Our arrival did not go unnoticed, but then again, no wonder. The sight of a platoon of pistoliers of the Reikland is one that tends to impress those who look upon it. Our uniforms impeccably white, coloured plumes and ribbons adorning our polished helmets, we looked every bit the noble warriors, and I am sure many a villager breathed a sigh of relief when we arrived.
Outside the local inn, easily recognisable by the wooden panel over the door, depicting a noble white destrier, and aptly name the ‘White Stallion’, a man stood waiting for us.
He adressed us.“Good day gentlemen. My name is Knut Schindler, and I am town elder here. I was forewarned of your arrival by the local militia sergeant. Welcome in our town.”
I replied “ Good day, Herr Schindler. Forewarned of our arrival you say ? Looking at your town, I see no sign of you being forewarned of anything. No ditches have been dug, no barricades erected, not even you windows have been boarded up. The first enemy to walk into this town can take it without effort. I demand to speak with your militia sergeant at once.”
“That can be arranged”, a voice from behind me said. As I turned around, I saw a man in Altdorf uniform. Blue pants contrasted with a bright red shirt, and upon his blue hat, a large set of red feathers stood fluttering in the wind. “ I am the one you’re looking for. Fritz Faulmann is my name, and I am the local militia sergeant ever since my arrival last week. The former holder of that position seems to have taken a leave of absence as soon as he heard the enemy was closing. Your assesment about the town needing defence works is correct. Unfortunately, most able bodied young men have taken the emperor’s coin and fight in Reiklands army. Only a handful of militiamen remained, and I have chosen to assign them scouting duties, thus giving the villagers an opportunity to flee the town when needed, rather than trying to defend it with a fraction of the men neede for such a task…”
I must admit that at that point, under the stern gaze of this man, my cheeks reddened when I realised I had spoken too soon. His strategy was sound in the given circumstances.
“Well met then, Herr Faulmann. My apologies. I should have evaluated the entire situation before speaking my mind. Perhaps we could share a tankard of ale while you and the major explain the military situation of this town further.”
The eyes of the Altdorfian softened, and he happily agreed to my proposal.
“Firstly, I would like you to take a look at this map of the area. As you can see there is a rock formation south of here, which lends itself to defense much better than this place. Steep rocks flank a relatively narrow pass, and caves provide shelter for the women and children. Franz, one of the villagers, has taken some men to build defences there. I let him take charge of this because before he met Linda, the local woman he married, he was a soldier in the Stirland artillery. He claims that he knows everything there is to know about earthenworks, because in the Stirland army, there is a far greater supply of mud than of gunpowder, so defending the guns was more a matter of digging than of shooting.”
At that moment, a young boy dashed into the room. “Murderers”, he cried out. “ They were upon us like lightning. The others are all dead. I ran. I ran….” The boy collapsed into a small heap of sobbing misery. Fritz ran out the door and to the temple, where he started to hit a large kettle that stood there seemingly unintentional. From every door and side street, villagers started to pour into the square, carrying packs that must have stood ready by the doors, loading them on handcarts and forming an orderly file that headed south.
It was obvious from the smoothness of the events, that this had been practised on several occasions. The villagers’ facial expressions were a mixture of fear and grim determination, and not a word was uttered, not an unneccesary sound made.
Fritz ran towards me : “Quick, form up your men to the sides and rear of the column. That way you can cover our retreat.” When I nodded my head to Helmut, these orders were rapidly translated into military orders, shouted in such a way as only sergeants can.
Barely had we left the village, when we saw a horde of almoast naked men, clad in furs and brandishing all kinds of weaponry, bearing down upon us. “Fire at will” someone shouted. It took me some time to realise it had been me, but my men had clearly heared my command. As soon as the attackers moved into range of our pistols, those that could fired a hail of bullets at them. The ensuing carnage left most of the enemy dead or wounded, those that did reach our line were cut down by our sabers.
Fighting off more of these attackers as we went along, we reached the rocky formation Fritz had been talking about. Cleverly hidden ditches, woooden stakes, earthenworks, it possesed them all. Rarely had I seen better defences, and then only surrounding the Empire’s greatest fortresses. I ordered some men to take the horses further back and let the others take up defendable positions. The enemy came at us in waves of blood-mad deranged warriors, only to fall prey to our bullets or sabers, and failing that, to the improvised weaponry of the villagers. Nevertheless, the relentless attacks started wearing us down, and although ten enemy were killed for every fallen defender, the tide of enemies seemed endless. I therefore issued the order for the defenders to fall back to the second line of defense, thus tightening our battleline before the enemy could break through the gaps which were bound to be made.
This second line of defense was a rim of earthen battlements, kept in place by reedwork.
From there we continued the fight. Suddenly the enemy started to pull back, and it seemed we had won the day. Shouts and cheers broke from our throats…
Then we saw them… Dark steeds, clad in armour only matched in blackness by the suits of their riders, tall proud knights all. Mind you, not the noble men of the Empire, but knights of an other persuasion. The barbarians that had been attacking us made way, leaving a path for their heavy cavalry to attack. The ditches that had been dug to stop horses filled with bodies, the stakes broken off, the earthenworks weakened, we stood no chance against the oncoming charge. Nevertheless I ordered my men to mount their steeds, thus evening out the odds a little… I hoped.
Fritz, nearly breathless, his uniform stained with blood, came up to me and whispered : “Whatever you do, don’t counterattack… shoot for all you’re worth and take their charge if you must, but don’t attack. I have no time to explain, trust me on this…” Then he ran off to the earthenworks, a man in Stirland colours –probably Franz- and the town elder, whose name I’d already forgotten, right on his heels.
The leader of the enemy knights, a towering giant riding the largest steed of them all raised his sword and shouted “ Blood for the blood god… CHAAAARGE”. As one, the knights spurred their horses and attacked, gaining momentum as they rode….
As soon as the enemy was galloping, we were startled by the collapse of the right earthenworks, followed by an explosion in the same spot.
When the smoke cleared, I saw the knightly charge had ended in disaster… for them.
Many lay dead or injured, horses had broken their legs over the bodies off those in front of them, what remained was in dissaray and started to flee… When I ordered my men to fire into this bloodied heap, their spirit was completely broken and they turned tail. Naturally, we went after them, killing most of the remainder. Seeing their best unit utterly defeated, the remaining Barbarians decided not to stick around, and soon the entire raiding force was running… I killed those I could catch, and let the rest go. Perhaps the news of their defeat would make their comrades think twice before attacking Helmskreuz again.
I rode back to the earthenworks, to find three men clapping eachother on the shoulders and grinning like idiots. When they saw me coming, they dispersed a bit, revealing what the earthenworks had been hiding all the time : A small type of canon, barrel still smoking. The shot it had fired was what had caused the knights’ charge to fail…
Franz, the Stirlander, spoke to me for the first time “Ya see, sir, when I was in the army of Stirland, they taught us to use powder sparsely, and we developed some tricks to make every shot count…”
The town elder, Herr Schindler, continued : “And as you can see, we were pretty well forewarned…”
Then the Altdorfer : “And better prepared than meets the eye, don’t you think ? Although I must admit the day might have ended differently if you had not arrived when you did…”
It was then that I started grinning like an idiot myself…..
