386YE Summer Solstice winds of war

The horns blow, and glory beckons.

Overview

Over the last three months, Imperial forces have engaged in military campaigns against barbarian forces. Sometimes those engagements have been wide ranging and dramatic, other times they have been more sedate. Continuing the approach we took last year, we're presenting a summary of the campaign on this page. Where there has been more dramatic action, or where there are opportunities, we've given a Wind of War its own page. We're also continuing to provide information about the battle opportunities, listed in the theatres that they concern.

As always, how much or how little of this information you choose to know in character is up to you. Part of the purpose of Winds of War and the Winds of Fortune is to make players aware of things their characters should know, based on what their roleplaying says they have been doing, and to maintain the Empire as a living, breathing place where all kinds of events take place beyond the scope of Anvil.

It should go without saying that we ask everyone to abide by the rules about online roleplaying with regard to the military campaign. It's important that the key in-character activity of the Empire world takes place at events. The game is busier and better if everything that can happen in the field, does happen in the field. Military planning and political discussions should happen at events. For this reason we generally discourage too much downtime roleplaying between events and put strict limits on what can be done online particularly using our forums and Facebook groups.

All that said we now present a summary of the key military activity in the Empire - both with links to the expanded Wind of War pages and notes about other important things that have happened that didn't need a full battle campaign write-up.

The drums beat, irresistible, as armies march, marking out the heartbeats and the boot-treads of those who might die today.

The Drums Beat On

The Summer sun hangs high in cerulean skies, but only over some of the Empire. It has been a season of storms, of harsh weather, of war. From unseasonable blizzards in Skarsind to a cataclysmic hurricane in Madruga, it seems to many that the world has slipped from Spring to Autumn without as much as a year of nice weather in between. Across the Empire, the season echoes with the thunder of steel on steel, a downpour of blood rain, the last sighs of the dying a sorrowful gale of lives lost and ambitions ending.

The scions of Cold Sun first appeared barely a year ago, launching scattered raids in pursuit of their master's dire plan for creation. Their warbands gave way to full armies, thousands of heralds of the Day realm rising from regio across the Empire. One by one, Imperial soldiers have defeated them, Imperial heroes thwarted their schemes. After the Spring Equinox, two armies remained. The Empty Hands in Miaren, the Silence Arc in Hahnmark. Now, the Empire moves to bring this unnatural invasion to an end. Raise eyes to the sky, and look for the Last rays of the sun.

In the west, the Empire and the barbarians clash. In Kahraman the Lasambrian Jotun continue their efforts to conquer the cinnabar hills, but they have counted without the reinforcements that are coming to end their ambition. Yet they are not without reinforcements of their own. The drums beat, the armies clash, and the symphony of war among the red rocks spins out Another verse.

The Jotun are not only interested in Kahraman of course. Even as two armies march south from Liath's Glen into Braydon's Jasse, two more armies march north from Liath's Ring into Gravenmarch - which many jokes suggest is the only dry land in the whole of Bregasland. The details of their conquest - embodied by the motto of the Southern Bear - is told in Only forward.

Next season sees the sixty-year anniversary of the Ore Hills rebellion that took place a handful of years before the Jotun conquered Mournwold. This season, armies of the western orcs march again, into Southmoor, keen to return Jarl Haakon to his seat of power, and perhaps as a foresentiment of a full invasion to come. The tale of the siege of Sarcombe is told in greater detail in the wind of war we have called Standards.

South, then, to where the Empire and the Grendel and the children of wrecks fight for control of battered Madruga. As the fighting rages, the worst storm in a century strikes the coast, evoked and empowered by the followers of Siakha who now possess Free Landing. Rivers burst their banks, cliffs crumble, fire and air and water carve the land into new shapes, and all of this as the backdrop between a deadly clash of armies. Orc and human alike will write songs and poems about the battles that took place here, Below the thunders.

Across the Bay of Catazar, by contrast, there are no storms. No hurricanes, no terrible rains. In dry Mareave, the sun beats down mercilessly from the cerulean blue sky. There is no tempest here... and neither is there any fighting. The Senate has reached a compromise with the city-dwelling orcs of Beoraidh. Rather than fight four Imperial armies, rather than risk destruction at the hands of the Citadel Guard, the Golden Axe, the Seventh Wave, and the Winter Sun, the Brine Turtles have retreated south taking many of their sept along with them. The Imperial armies claim Fleisardh and the Imperial Orcs control of the territory becomes uncontested save for the city-state of Beoraidh.

And then lastly, north. We come to the Mallum, and the malice of the Druj. To the Barrens where two armies of Dawn watch the Black Wind as their sept seeks to flee the territory. And to Therunin, as a great host of the Druj pour out of the Sarangrave, burning, and killing, and leaving behind only Ashes.

Military Considerations

Several territory pages now contain details of strategic obstacles presented or advantages provided by movement through or fighting in those lands. There are also several fortifications that follow different rules. Several armies or nations have special rules or opportunities related to the orders they can issue, which should be borne in mind when discussing military strategies during the Summer Solstice.

• Billeting: Any Imperial army can take the Billet order in Bregasland, Upwold, or Mitwold. Link
• Dawn:
  • Dawnish armies cannot take the Cautious Advance order or the Give Ground order. Link
• Imperial Orcs
  • An Imperial Orc army can take the Forge Hammers order whilst in Skarsind. Link
• The Marches:
  • Marcher armies cannot take the Give Ground order. Link
  • The Strong Reeds receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Bregasland. Link
  • The Tusks receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Mournwold. Link
  • The Drakes receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Mitwold. Link
  • The Bounders receive an additional 1000 strength when fighting in Upwold. Link
• Varushka:
  • Varushkan armies involved in the same campaign as an army from the Brass Coast or Wintermark generate 10% fewer victory points. If armies from both nations are present, the reduction is increased to 20%. Link.
  • Varushkan armies can take the Hospitality of the Boyars order whilst in Ossium. Link.
• Wintermark:
  • Wintermark armies can take the Fight with Honour order. Link.
  • Wintermark armies fighting against the Jotun will gain 10% more victory points but inflict 20% less casualties. Link
  • Wintermark armies fighting against the Jotun have their casualties taken reduced by 10%. This effect continues as long as the Winterfolk continue to fight honourably. Link

Click Expand to see military considerations that are less relevant at the current time but are still active.

• Zenith: Any Highborn or Urizen army attacking into Zenith from Morrow gains a 20% bonus to any territory captured and suffers a 10% reduction in casualties inflicted. Link
• Morrow: Any Highborn or Urizen army that defends in Morrow against an army attacking from Zenith gains a 20% bonus to defend territory and suffers a 10% reduction in casualties inflicted. Link