Disclaimer: I don't own A Song of Ice and Fire. I don't own the TV show associated with it. What they did with some characters who might or might not be mentioned in this chapter was unforgiveable. A man is not skilled in tactics and strategy just because he is evil...

raw666: To be fair, in the Middle Ages, generals and officers had a huge influence over their own vassals and common fighters. If the men supposed to teach restraint are bloodthirsty fanatics, the final result is not going to be pretty...

Master of Dragons God: It's okay, I don't think GRRM read a lot of Viking stories before creating this culture of murderers and pirates...

X59: Good points. I must also point that Tywin, for all his ego, his arrogance and his power, is still a rather average general on the battlefield. His real strength lies in exploiting combined military and politic situations to his advantage (like canon Red Wedding). But give him one army who is not outnumbering significantly its enemy, and his generals skills do not appear as brilliant as the propaganda says...

The Mountain will survive this chapter (though his fate is not mentioned). His performance will be discussed in the next chapter.

Revan3363: Many thanks for the support.

Paul: Now, now I have to find a good chapter title and it wasn't a lie, was it (grin)?

I would not say Tywin is a bad general. I reserve "bad" to a man like Renly Baratheon, who thinks charging head-on an enemy where you haven't recognised the field before is a good idea. For all his faults, Tywin knows how to command, move and use an army on the battlefield. His problems are he's a kind of narrow-minded, calculating general, and so he need time to react when his enemy sprang surprises on him. As you will see, it can be a very bad thing in some cases.

Matt Quinn: Thanks and now we have a new one with a lot of fire and blood...

Magic is might

The Campaign of the Stormlands Part II

"Sorcery won the day" Ser Lyle Crakehall, 300AC.

"My father didn't lose the battle because of magic. He lost because Stannis was and still is a better general than him." Tyrion Lannister, 300AC.

In term of battlefield conditions, the plains surrounding Bronzegate were certainly not the best choice to fight a major battle three hundred years after Aegon's Conquest. In the last days preceding the fight, the rains of autumn had delivered so much water to the point that the men present could describe what was in front of them as a "mud river ",a "mud plain "or other characteristics having in common the name "mud". While the southern parts of the Kingswood and the protection of the trees had at least somewhat protected the soldiers from the bad weather, now the combined Reach-Westerlands force faced what could only be described as "horrible terrain conditions". Thankfully for everyone, it didn't rain anymore, and the Lannister scouts were able to watch 7 000 Baratheon infantrymen retrenched behind a wood-earthen fortification on a nearby hill. This was the good news for the Westerners, as they had finally found a large part of Stannis's forces. The bad news , of course , was that these forces weren't Stannis's entire army ; in fact , judging by the Swann , Estermont and other banners , King Stannis himself wasn't here . Moreover, the soldiers in question didn't appear to be hungry, tired or filthy like them: this was evidently an army which had had time to recuperate from its disastrous defeat at King's Landing. The earth and wood fortifications themselves, while pathetic compared to the Bronzegate's stonewalls in the distance, were more than enough to protect from any direct cavalry assault. Added to the presence of a large quantity of mud in front of them, and the lords and knights knew what they had to do in order to win the day. The orders of Tywin Lannister only confirmed their suspicions and fears.

The army was divided in four parts: the first was a reserve of 2 000 cavalrymen under the personal command of Lord Tywin Lannister. The left wing, under the command of Ser Lyle "the Strongboar" Crakehall, had 2 000 pikemen and bowmen. The right wing, under Lord Terrence Kenning, received as many infantrymen. The rest, approximately 8 800 men, were given to Lord Randyll Tarly as the vanguard and main body of the army. Most of the heavy infantry, light infantry and the unmounted knights were there, the Old Lion wanting to break the Baratheon lines at the earliest possible opportunity. Most of the cavalry of the Rock and the South was forced to leave its horses behind, as the mounts would be more than useless in such conditions, an order which was badly received among the Western lords, judging such a command was putting them at the level of the peasants. The plan of battle, as ambitious as it was risky, was to smash the weaker Baratheon army by the numbers. If the vanguard's assault did not prove sufficient to destroy the defences, then the left and right wings would advance further and flank the Swann banners. Attacked from everywhere, the Bronzegate's defenders would thus be forced to throw down their weapons or fight encircled and outnumbered inside their own positions. From the beginning, the scope of the plan proved its downfall. Not trained to fight without their horses or in a muddy field, the Lannister knights had badly underestimated how difficult it was to advance in full armour when the ground under your feet wasn't willing to cooperate. When the Baratheon bowmen began to shoot their arrows, the situation began to change from annoying and tiring to bloody and murderous. Many soldiers, forgetting all their leaders' instructions, tried to break formation and charge the enemy lines at full speed. Not only it was impossible, as the mud slowed down everything, but it disrupted Lord Tarly's lines, who had to reform his formation in order to compensate his losses just before the assault .Needless to say, the men who had tried to charge headlong had paid their errors with their lives. At the same time, the left and right wings advanced, facing the same problems but with less intensity. As Randyll Tarly's force was nearly in contact with his Stormlords counterparts, the battle plan appeared to be still on the path of success.

This instant was instantly shattered by the apparition of a gigantic fire in the middle of the Baratheon lines. Although none of the Reachlords or Westernlords had any means to know, it was Melisandre of Asshai who was burning traitors to King Stannis Baratheon. Lord Alester Florent, Ser Axell Florent and many knights of their House, among many others, perished in a fire which had nothing in common with a 'normal ' fire. Normal fires don't burn people outside the fire. Non-magical fires don't attack Lannister troops deliberately. Because that was it was: magic. Otherwise, how to explain the hundreds of soldiers suddenly attacked by creatures of flames and shadow? Close enough to see the colour of their opponent's eyes, the men under the command of Randyll Tarly received the magical shockwave in its full intensity. Some warriors began to burn for no apparent reason. Knights, who appeared fine at one moment, fell the next with their throat sliced by a weapon of shadows. Veterans of dozens battles screamed when fire and shadow engulfed them and tore them apart. The wizardry done, in fact, was more impressive than damaging. Less than a thousand men were dead or wounded on the Lannister's side, and if the men of the vanguard had continued to advance, they could have forced the Stormlords soldiers under Ser Donnel Swann to retreat to Bronzegate itself. But fighting magic and witchcraft had not been the common soldier's idea of fun. The terror of flame and shadow upon them, lords and common soldiers did the only action which they thought was the intelligent thing: they ran. Lord Tarly, who tried to oppose the move, was struck and trampled on by his own soldiers. Hundreds of men-at arms from Houses Farman, Garner, Algood and Stackspear fell at the hands of their own comrades when they tried to restore order, leading to a total collapse of the main force's cohesion. The Baratheon force counterattacked, and Lord Philip Plumm and his heir Ser Dennis Plumm died at the hands of Ser Donnel Swann.

The left and right wings, having escaped the sorcery's strike, tried to intervene, only to hear a war horn sounding on their right. In the distance, King Stannis and Ser Brus Buckler emerged from the woods where they had been hidden with 3 000 cavalrymen. The moment chosen to strike was perfect. The centre of the Lannister army was in complete chaos, and not even the Warrior himself could have made them warriors again in such short a time. Having only infantry under his command, Lord Terrence Kenning was not in any measure to counter the cavalry assault, and the mud wasn't enough to avoid disaster. The Western pikemen having not had enough to form a wall, King Stannis and his force of cavalry crushed the Westerlands infantrymen. Stannis Baratheon killed himself Lord Kenning, and the right wing of the Lannister army was no more. On the other side of the battlefield, the bowmen of Ser Rolland Storm had arrived and unleashed hundreds of arrows on the soldiers of Ser Lyle Crakehall, preventing him from helping the centre and the right. Defeat , which had seemed impossible , was now almost real for the soldiers of King Tommen Baratheon .Lord Tywin , warned of the impending disaster by the Horn of Herrock ( sounded in his last moments by Lord Kenning ) tried to salvage what he could with his reserve , but it wasn't enough . While Stannis had not hesitated in launching his horses in the mud and blood soaking the plains, the Lord of Casterly Rock couldn't launch a counter-cavalry-charge at the decisive moment, not when his infantry was between him and his target.

In less than a few minutes, the massacre was total, with the right and the centre of the Lannister army ceding and fleeing before the Baratheon troops. The left, under Ser Lyle, was in full retreat. It was the moment the Lord of the Lions chose to launch his last charge. As the Westerosi strategists would conclude afterwards, it was more an act of desperation than anything truly reasoned. Hundreds of Reachers and Westerners were in the way of the Lannister cavalry, and got pulverised by the massive charge. The mud, the size of the cavalry formation, the weight of the warhorses and the fleeing soldiers ensured most of the cavalry beyond the first line was bogged down long before coming close to the enemy. By all accounts, less than three hundred horses, not all with their knights, managed to come close to Stannis's cavalry, which had been their target. Lord Tywin Lannister himself and twenty of his guards managed to come to blows with King Stannis and the Baratheon royal guards. The duel between the Lion and the Stag was brief, and left the two participants wounded. King Stannis had suffered two wounds, one to his arm and one to his chest, both of them superficial . Lord Tywin had lost part of his right leg, cut by Lightbringer in one clean strike. The horse of Lord Lannister, made uncontrollable by the sword of flames, took the next blow destined to his master and Lord Tywin Lannister fell to the ground, his last household guards alive throwing themselves between him and Stannis to prevent the fatal blow. Their actions saved the Lord of Casterly Rock, but most of them died by the steel and flames of Lightbringer. This was enough for the Lannisters still fighting. Seeing their lord fall, most of the infantry and a large part of the cavalry who until there had tried to resist threw down their weapons and fled the battlefield, with only the idea to escape the vengeful Baratheon army. Knights of House Hamell and House Lannister were the last off the battlefield, carrying the wounded Lord Paramount of the Westerlands to safety.

All told, the Battle of Bronzegate, which was soon going to enter the history of Westeros as "the Battle of Mud and Flame ", was carnage beyond recognition. Between 2 500 and 2800 Baratheon men lost their lives for King Stannis. Among the most notable casualties were Lord Harwood Fell and Ser Bonifer Hasty. If the losses were important for the Stormlords, it was nothing compared to what had been inflicted to the Reach-Lannister army. Between the battle of the Wendwater and the battle of Bronzegate, the Westernlords and the Reachlords lost approximately 8 000 men dead and 300 prisoners (given the acts of the Mountain, few were inclined to take men in custody). Lord Randyll Tarly was dead, along with Lord Tytos Algood, Lord Robert Peckledon, Ser Flement Brax, Lord Philip Plumm and many others, whether knights, lords or men-at-arms. Lord Tywin Lannister, unconscious following his duel with King Stannis, was unable to command, and the rout of the Lannister army continued. King Stannis, whose wounds were less serious (or had been healed by Melisandre's sorcery according to more debatable rumours), ordered the pursuit. The campaign of the Stormlands, which had been supposed to destroy the master of Storm's End's cause, was already over before it had fully begun. And now the Crownlands and King's Landing were defenceless before the Stormlords and R'hllor...