Battles of Vengeance and Justice

by Psykic Ninja

Here I shall be posting brief overviews of each of the battles that take place in the main story of A Game of Vengeance and Justice. There will be conflicting details about numbers of losses etc between this and the main story. This represents false reports etc. If you come across one of these discrepancies, assume this is the fact and the main story has what the characters hear.

21. The Battle of Longtable

The Battle of Longtable

Conflict: The War of Dragon and Stag

Date 301 AC

Place; Longtable

Result: House Baratheon of King's Landing tactical victory, House Targaryen (Aegon) Strategic Victory

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Combatants

House Baratheon of King's Landing... House Targaryen (Aegon)

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Commanders

Hand of the King Jon Connington ... King Jasper Baratheon
... Queen Arya Stark

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Strength

18,000 (2000 of the Golden Company) ... 14,000

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Casualties

Less than 4000... no more than 2000

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Prelude

Having conquered the heart of the Reach, Aegon planned his campaign to take the throne of Westeros. He knows the enemy is coming at him from three directions, the Westerlands, the Crownlands and the Stormlands. However, he plans to take advantage of the Targaryen support in the Riverlands and invade there. But to tie down the enemy he sends the new Florent overlords of Highgarden to confront Tywin Lannister and his Uncle Oberyn's Dornishmen to bleed the Stormlander offensive.

Hand of the King Jon Connington marches on the Crownlander force, led by King Jasper himself, and supplemented by loyalist Reachmen. He knows he doesn't have to win, he just has to make King Jasper believe that he is Aegon, to allow the Targaryen to attack the Riverlands unnoticed.

The Battle

Jon Connington leads his men silently across the river at night, in an attempt to launch a surprise attack on the Baratheon forces, he may be able to kill or capture King Jasper and end the war there. However, he had not counted on the Stark Queen or her Direwolf, Nymeria, who detected them while most of the army was on the far side of the river. This alerted Jasper's camp who charged out to meet his men in a sprawling melee in the night.

The fighting was fierce, but eventually the Baratheon forces prevailed and pushed Jon Connington's army back across the river.

Aftermath

Thinking that he had routed Aegon himself, Jasper allowed his host to rest the next day, but Jon Connington had sold his deception. Aegon had been allowed to march north uninterrupted by Jasper Baratheon's host.