World Conquest Online

"Strabo, we will attack the enemy Cavalry from the flank. Your Dory will cause chaos and that should turn the tide of the battle in favour of the Greek allied Cavalry." Ling Tong ordered from his new crouched position, much closer to the fighting where they could charge out from with limited exposed time to the enemy. The Cavalry were still fighting in front of them, a mess of warriors who were entangled amongst each other. "Iason, I want you and half of the Megaran Hoplite to head towards the thinning Cavalry after we have made our initial attack and borrow some horses permanently."

"How many General?" Iason asked, ready to do his duty for his new commander, whom he owed his life. Myron had already disappeared with the other Hoplite and Spartans that had joined Dom’s forces for the battle, with only the Wu Dang Archers and Balearic Slingers still with him from his original forces. The rest were with Alpheus, Phillip or back at their ship.

"As many as you can get, it will help us for later and we can use most of them to mount ourselves when we engage with the main Persian forces later." Ling Tong replied as Andrew beside him scanned the Battle himself. "We hit the enemy Cavalry from the flank, push it in favour of the Greeks and then retreat. Once we have retreated, we will move around and do the same thing against the Infantry."

"We cause enough chaos that the Greek’s get an advantage and push the Persians to put forwards more of their own forces and not rely on their new found ones." Andrew nodded in agreement, before continuing. "The smarter Strangers haven’t got themselves fully involved yet, the majority who are fighting are adventurers, warriors and other professions. Those that are Lords or Guild Leaders such as myself or Lord Lazarus are holding themselves back more, those are the ones we want to hit."

"Zhang Sui, have your Archers follow General Andrew." Ling Tong ordered the most senior Wu Dang Archer with him. "He will show you some targets throughout the battle, take them all down. Strabo, have twenty of your men also follow and their role will be to relieve their bodies of their goods, whilst acting as a shield for the Archers."

"That is definitely the plan we should follow." Andrew agreed as the two of them shared a knowing grin. "It wasn’t my idea, but if Reeves has threatened to do this, we may as well use his own strategy back at him."

"What about captives?" Zhang Sui asked, wanting to know if the target was death or just taking them out of the battle.

"Not in this initial Skirmish, but later that will be the target." Andrew replied, with the Wu Dang Archer nodding in acceptance of the task. Andrew wanted to capture some enemy Generals if possible, but Players didn’t bring much advantage.

"We’ll see to it General." Zhang Sui replied, his voice gruff similar to the way he looked. Ling Tong was from the same era as Zhang Sui and had fought against southern barbarians of his own, but the Wu Dang were exceptional and intimidating Warriors.

"Then positions men, I want us ready to strike at my signal! Our priority is small gains and disruption so that our Allies can succeed. Your own safety is more important" Ling Tong reminded them as he passed down his orders, as they all prepared themselves to charge from the tree line that hid them on the low slope of the mountain, only a couple hundred metre sprint now from their current location to the outer edge of the clashing Cavalry.

Ling Tong waited patiently, watching as the Cavalry continued to clash. Part of him wanted to charge now, but he was waiting on Andrew confirming that the enemies they wanted to target had began moving. If they moved too early, the enemy Lords and Guild Leaders that Andrew wanted to target wouldn’t get engaged with the battle.

He could hear the breathing of them men around him, their adrenaline was pumping and he knew that if he kept them waiting much longer, that killer edge that they currently had in them would start to be replaced by weariness as the adrenaline wore off. He watched and waited for one of the sides to show a clear weakness that would enable the expert forces to move.

"There!" Andrew exclaimed, trying to keep his voice down as over six hundred men behind them turned north to see what he was pointing at. The Greek Allied Players seemed to have a gap appear in the centre of their infantry line, enough that the Persian Guild Leaders and Lords decided it was a good opportunity to join in the battle, sending their infantry forwards. The Persian Player Cavalry did the same, pushing their forces forwards, meaning the Greeks had to either reinforce or retreat.

It didn’t take long to see the answer as the Greek Lords and Guild Leaders responded by sending their own forces forwards. Ling Tong counted the seconds in his head as the two forces on both sides began to clash, the Cavalry arriving first, with their infantry allies joining soon.

"Now!" Andrew said to Ling Tong as the Persian Cavalry fully committed themselves, the aim was to defeat their Greek counterparts so they could mop up the Player Infantry Flank and take that small Victory, putting the rest of the Greek Forces on the back foot. Ling Tong had been impressed at how the Stranger forces had not broken yet, with both sides fighting as if their deaths didn’t matter.

"Agreed." Ling Tong stated as he turned to Iason, Strabo and Zhang Sui who were close behind them, "Charge!"

The six hundred and a few extra men under Ling Tong raised themselves from their crouched positions, with the six hundred hoplite wielding their long dory spears as they charged down the small decline of the mountain and began running across the open ground towards the exposed flank of the engaged Persian Player Cavalry. The Skiritae Hoplite formed four formations that were twelve wide and eight deep, whilst the Megaran Hoplite formed two formations of the same depth. The remaining Hoplite would stay and act as a guard for Andrew and Ling Tong, before they followed Andrew on his own mission in the next part of the battle.

Ling Tong was impressed with how they kept formation as six rectangles of deadly overlapping spears appeared on the flank of the Persian Player Cavalry. Andrew stayed at the rear with Zhang Sui and the Wu Dang Archers and Balearic Slingers who targeted anyone that looked in their general direction as the Hoplite boxes moved forwards with deadly intent.

Some of the Players noticed their arrival, but due to the giant mass of Cavalry that were currently fighting, they couldn’t turn away from the oncoming spears, nor could they turn towards them due to the length of the Dory Spears.

"Keep formation and push forwards!" Iason shouted from his side, a large smile on his face at being able to kill Persian’s, even if they didn’t look like the Persians that had captured him and his fellow Megaran Hoplite. Strabo echoed the command, as did the other Skiritaen Commanders.

The Six Hundred Hoplite with overlapping Dory Spears struck at the exposed Persian Cavalry flank, striking both horse and rider’s alike as they continued to move forwards, their impaled spears being pulled back and pushed forwards again with deadly accuracy for such a long weapon. The sound of screaming horses echoed across the enemy flank, causing confusion within the rest of the ranks.

Ling Tong watched as a horse and rider that were both heavily armoured looked to try and organise some movement against them, but he was taken down by an Arrow to the throat before he had chance. The Greek forces seemed to notice the sudden confusion in their enemy ranks and began pushing their own Cavalry forwards, the morale now switching across the two sides. Seconds passed that felt like minutes, and then minutes past that felt like hours.

"Continue pushing!" Strabo shouted, his voice loud and commanding. He still wore his cloak, as did the rest of his men, making them look terrifying compared to other Hoplite that were based up and down the wider battlefield. The sound of horses and men screaming continued as spears pierced sides, whilst Greek Cavalry attacked them from the front.

Ling Tong would normally have been in the front row himself, however he wasn’t an expert with this type of fighting and stayed close to Andrew to monitor their progress and to work out when it was time to reposition themselves. Ling Tong had been involved in battles before, but for him this felt different, unlike the usual structure, it seemed like a free for all with no leniency given.

"If you see anyone in good armour, target them!" Andrew ordered from beside him to Zhang Sui, as the sound of sling could be heard whirring, before their deadly stones were let loose in to the Persian Player’s ranks.

"Like that one there?" Zhang Sui asked as he pulled back his bow, his head pointing towards a rider that looked to be wearing very expensive clothing and wielding a sword that looked to be encrusted with jewels.

"Yes, like that one there." Andrew agreed, as Zhang Sui nodded and let his arrow fly, hitting the rider in the side of his head and taking him from his horse. Zhang Sui got another arrow ready as he scanned for his next target, with arrows being let loose around him.

"Strabo, rotate slightly!" Ling Tong ordered as he saw that their flank would soon be exposed as they continued to push further forwards in to the enemy formation, the front lines now trying to step around the corpses of the horses and riders from their initial clash as they moved further in to the enemy lines. One of the weaknesses of the Hoplite was that once deployed in formation, they were difficult to manoeuvre, unlike the Legionaries whose strength was their flexibility.

As Ling Tong shouted his order, Strabo’s flank paused their steps, before rotating in step to stop any potential flanking attack, but Ling Tong knew they had caused enough damage that it wasn’t worth over extending.

"We’ve got you covered!" A voice bellowed from their right, as around one hundred Cavalry appeared from behind the Greek Player Lines and charged past them from behind and towards Strabo’s flank.

"Thanks!" Andrew shouted back, recognising that it was another Player and his personal forces that were covering them. He then turned to Ling Tong, "I think we should move to the Infantry clash now, we’ve caused enough disruption."

"I agree, we are going to get swarmed or trampled if we continue, or injure our own side." Ling Tong agreed as he looked towards where Iason was shouting encouragement to his men. Ling Tong could see the concentration across the forces as the commanders continued to rotate their front lines. He agreed it was time before ordering, "We are going to halt and then slowly step back and out of this fight!"

He needed the retreat to be well executed and for the gaps to be filled with his Greek Player Allies, rather than with Persian’s seeing it as an opportunity to counter attack. The arrival of the Player on Strabo’s flank had given them some cover, but he didn’t want to overly rely on strangers.

"I don’t think I am going to have the opportunity to loot at this battlefield." Andrew moaned from beside him, as he pointed out another Player to Zhang Sui who happily let fly another arrow. "We best conserve the rest of those for the next part of our plan."

"We’ve done enough damage that the Greek’s have the advantage again." Ling Tong agreed as he joined them both, the formation of Hoplite now fully removed from the battle as the six Hoplite Centuries made their way south around the Greek Cavalry that was fully engaged and towards the Infantry lines that made up the second part of the battle, where a recognisable Helot seemed to be waiting for them.