World Conquest Online

"So we need to understand the enemy forces, discover the situation with the Ionian’s and then plan the attack." Dom stated, taking over from Artemisia’s Uncle. Both her Uncle and Mardontes stood, waiting for questions that they were sure would come. Dom looked towards Zhou Yu who nodded at him, before standing himself.

"Based on the information we have, we should split our forces in to three. A Fleet should head to the north bay and capture the enemy ships, whilst also landing their forces and heading eastwards. They should send a delegation to Priene and see if we can raise more forces or at least understand the situation there. The rest of them should then head across the uneven Terrain and attack Mycale from the east." Zhou Yu began, Xanthippus was already a fan of the Han Admiral and listened intently. Whilst Leotychides had a look of interest on his face. "The second group should land directly opposite us at the Beach that the Elder from Halicarnassus has explained, attacking with full force and drawing the most attention. The final group should land in the hidden cove to the south, before taking the hunters path to cause chaos in the path."

"Can you elaborate a bit more?" Leotychides asked, his tone polite as the Warriors in the meeting began to get excited at the talk of battle.

"The West Group will be the main frontal assault, this should be made up of around half of the original forces. The East Group will be the hammer that hits Mycale when they are fighting the West Group, these should be the other half of the original forces. Both groups will take some elite units from our forces to clear traps and counter the enemies elite units." Zhou Yu explained, not hiding that he felt his forces were better than those of the Hoplite. He wasn’t confident in the other Players Warriors, but he was in his own. "The third group, the South Group, will take the path. This will be a fire attack, using fire arrows to cause chaos within the enemy camp so that they will have to leave their base and expose themselves to the attacks."

"And who should lead each group?" Xanthippus asked, already knowing which side he wanted but wanting to see if Zhou Yu agreed.

"That is for you to decide." Zhou Yu replied with a coy smile. "I propose that we are the South Group, our forces are well set up for this type of terrain and it means not risking the larger forces of yourselves."

"We will take the East Group." Leotychides declared, choosing the same direction that he had in history. He wanted the Victory by choosing the harder path, whilst also hoping to make the Ionian’s owe him some favours.

"Then it is settled and we will take the West Group." Xanthippus agreed, wanting to take the Mountain before his Spartan counterpart.

"Ideally, the Athenian’s should take the forces of the Corinthians and related states with them, whilst the Spartans should take those from Argos. This should even out the forces equally. We will dispatch a group of our Legionaries to each group, as well as some of our Wu Dang Archers who are excellent in this type of terrain. They should discover any traps and be a good support for both sides. We will discuss with Mardontes the other enemy units and see what our knowledge on them is" Zhou Yu put forwards, looking towards the Player Captains who smiled, knowing that their knowledge would be helpful in this battle. Zhou Yu’s commanding side had started to break through now that he knew they were accepting his strategy. "We should send some ships tonight to scout the enemy fleet, there is a risk they may burn it so that we do not get any gains. It would be great to stop that and claim it as a small victory in advance. Not only will it raise our morale even further, it will also frustrate the enemies." 𝒇𝓻𝓮𝓮𝙬𝙚𝒃𝒏𝓸𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝓬𝓸𝒎

"I will send some ships." Pisindiles stated, having not had a role so far. "My Warriors will follow Lord Lazarus, I have already dispatched them to march north and make camp near to the southern bay. I will send a messenger to prepare them. My Ships are fresher than the rest of the Navy and we want to do our part."

"Our other Ships will support." Zhou Yu stated, looking towards GiantWrangler and Wine Wind who both smiled seeing that there were more gains that they could claim from the battle. Those from the rest of Astrid’s fleet would also support, whilst the ships they had already claimed had been agreed with Crassus. Dom listened and knew that Crassus would put forwards that a percentage should fall to them of anything that is gained in their night time hunt, as it was Dom’s forces that gave them the opportunity.

"I think that we have a plan agreed then, I will leave it to your Strategist to plan with the Captains directly." Leotychides smiled as he accepted the plan, whilst Xanthippus did the same. "Us Leaders drink and celebrate Dom was about to break in to conversation as Zhou Yu dismissed Gan Ning and Sun Ce, who already knew what their plan would be tomorrow.

"Lord Lazarus, your General Kai wanted me to pass on a message." Pisindiles said to Dom from beside Artemisia. "He said that he is sorry he may not make the battle, he is trying to buy an island. I gave him permission, as my islands are my mothers anyway, which means that we are also connected."

"An Island?" Dom exclaimed, wondering how much of the game mechanics Kai was trying to push now he had a large some of Gold and realised that Dom’s Kingdom was much larger than he could have initially intended!

...

"The Persians are breaking!" Iason exclaimed form beside Ling Tong. The Persian Cavalry had already retreated, or what could retreat had done. The rest had been cut down by Ling Tong’s forces and the Player and Greek Cavalry that had turned to entrap them. The ground near the Embankment had been littered with bodies of Horses and Riders alike, mainly of the Persians but some Players were also mixed in. Ling Tong had ordered his Infantry, alongside the Horse Trainer Prisoner to gather as many horses as possible, and they now had over a thousand with them, enough for every Hoplite to be mounted with some spares. He had made sure that all those that were with him could ride and fight on horseback, with the rest of his forces now leaving to the prearranged location with their spoils.

The Player Commander DragonKnight had been happy for Ling Tong and Andrew to take the horses as they had been the instrument to their victory, whilst the other winning Players had been happy for the loot of horses, weapons and armour from the Persians. Andrew had made it clear that he was part of Dom’s group and the word spread that the number one Lord Player Lazarus was involved in the battle, pushing the morale of the Allied Players even higher now that one of the current top three players was involved in their battle.

The Allied Cavalry had then hit the flank of the Persian Infantry, a mixture of forces from their own allies and the Persian’s themselves. Some of those allies had decided it was a good time to leave and had began to retreat, mainly built up from those of Macedonia, Thebes and other Greek Allied States that were on the Persian side. They had began pulling away and leaving only the falling Persian Immortals to fight a poor retreat under the pressure of Spartans, Athenian’s and others. Pausanias and his Athenian counterpart Aristodemus pushed for their forces to chase the retreating enemy down and give them no option to surrender.

The Player Cavalry was now clearing up one part of the battle and some disorganisation had began to seep in as they fought or looted as they went, their cohesion as a force now disappearing as they felt victory was theirs.

Ling Tong watched, beside him was Andrew and his Commanders as the rout took place before them. The fall and unknown situation with Mardonius had spread chaos and a sudden lack of organisation across the whole of the Persian forces who retreated in the direction of the their camp at Plataea. The Greek forces chased down the retreating Persians, and Ling Tong heard a click from Aristodemus from beside him.

"Do not worry, it is our time to strike now." Ling Tong replied. The Hundred Spartans under Aristodemus were with him, all mounted, as were two hundred of the Skiritae under Strabo and one hundred of the Megarian’s under Iason. Four hundred Hoplite from his seven hundred all primed and ready to strike at their next target.

"There!" Andrew pointed, in the direction of the reserve Cavalry of the Persians that had not been involved in this side of the battle. They were charging from the other flank and would soon hit the line between the retreating Persians and the Greeks that were chasing them.

In history they had provided a cover for the retreating Persian’s. They were mainly made up of the Boiotian Cavalry, led by the Theban Asopodoros. They had caused a lot of damage to the Athenian infantry that were chasing, slowing down the counter attack and allowing more Persians to make it in to their camp at Plataea. Thucydides has warned them about this, and this was one of the key part that’s Centurion Phillip was supposed to be involved in with his undercover mission. Around a thousand of them could be seen, wearing their light armour and wielding their long spears as they charged aggressively.

"We hit them before they hit the Athenian’s. They are double our number but we should be able to get them to disengage if we hit them fast and hard. Hopefully some of them will move when they see us." Ling Tong stated as he prepared to charge down the hill, the men behind him excited to be involved again.

"What do you mean they may disengage? Whilst the Theban’s are cowards by nature, I do not expect they’ll turn away from us." Aristodemus asked, not in an accusing voice, but more in confusion as he was happy to be able to try and fight again.

"We hopefully have some friends amongst them." Andrew replied with a grin as Ling Tong beside him charged forwards, with four hundred Cavalry behind him. They directed themselves to the back line of the Spartans in the centre, before passing by them in a gap that had been left between the different forces.

"Good Luck General!" A voice could be heard from the charging Spartans as they overtook them, which Ling Tong recognised as Dieneces, one of the Spartans that had accompanied him to the battle from Riverside. He didn’t turn to look, but he imagined a grin would be on the Spartans face.

They then began to overtake more and more Spartans, and other Greek Allies as they could now see the Boiotian Cavalry before them, closing in on the Athenian’s who were leading the way in the chase.

"What are the Athenians doing?" Strabo shouted from just behind Ling Tong as he looked at the Athenian Hoplite run in a loose formation, some with just sword in hand as they chased on the hunt. He shouted towards them loudly, "Get in formation you idiots!"

Some seemed to hear him, but it was too late as the Boiotian Cavalry began hitting them before Ling Tong’s forces had chance to catch them. Athenian’s began to disappear under the mass of horses and those that were following behind began to slow themselves and try to scramble themselves in to some sort of Phalanx as their allies in front of them fell man by man.