The Princesses War

I own nothing but my OC's

Chapter Four

A New Strategy

The army of King Renly, which had been assembled south of Highgarden, was truly massive. The largest gathering of men which Sam Tarly had ever seen before was in Farsos during the Feast of the True Queen, that being the Farosi New Year celebration, where a massive military parade, made up of all branches of the armed forces, the infantry, the cavalry, both light and heavy, the artillery and the navy, the Royal Engineers, the Army Medical Service and the Commisariat, all marched through the streets of First Sight, finally stopping at Her Majesties Square below Senate Hall Hill. On the day which Sam hed been able to attend amongst the crowds he saw an entire Corps perform it, that numbered just under foteen thousand. Now he was amongst an army of almost eighty thousand, everywhere he looked he saw young levies practicing with their weapons, sell swords trading stories about their victories and conquests on and off the battefield, knights who proudly walked about reminding all of their victories in tourney's and older knights who shook their heads in frustration at the younger men.

Sam, well, it was obvious that he was a lord. He wore fine clothes and a cloak held in place with a clasp in the shape of his houses huntsman. The only elements of Farosi left on him was his revolver, for which he had sixty rounds of ammunition, his Farosi sword which, while he was nowhere near as good as Jon at, he could use if he had to, and his boots. The Farosi boots were certainly good. His uniform he had shut away in a chest in case he would ever have need of it. At that time he was heading towards King Renly's command tent where he would deliver his advice to the council in command of Renly's army. He was not looking forward to that, his father had just arrived back that morning. Apparently the man had engaged a Farosi force north of Oldtown at a village called Upton where he had been forced to retreat. That was a surprise, he had only ever been defeated once although in this fight he had only a small force of about four thousand. The point was that his father would be at the meeting and Sam would have to give advice to him.

He entered the large tent and saw the many lords of the Reach and Stormlands looking over a large map of Westeros with wooden blocks on it marked with small banners representing all of the armies. He soon heard what was being discussed.

'Lord Hightower was forced to surrender the city and his home, he is now under house arrest,' said one lord. 'Since then the Farosi ships have launched attacks against the castles along the south western coast, Three Towers and Blackcrown have both been reduced to rubble.'

'We must lure them out into open battle,' said Mace Tyrell. 'Our cavalry force alone outnumbers their whole Corps.'

'Do not under estimate the Farosi like I did.'

His fathers voice was filled with anger. Sam finally got a look at him and saw a man who was still reeling from what had happened.

'Lord Tarly, you are speaking to your Liege Lord.'

'I am telling you what I know.'

'Let Lord Tarly speak. His recent experience could prove to be valuable,' it was King Renly who said that.

'My thanks Your Grace. I led a force to Upton to attack any Farosi scouts or foraging parties. We found a company of Farosi infantry at Upton, by th elook of it they were not expecting us and they were making camp. We moved to attack and at once the Farosi withdrew into Upton itself. Upton didn't have a wall, it only had a small holdfast but because of the buildings I could not order a cavalry charge so I sent in my infantry. We took many casualties in the attack, their bullets tore straight through shield and armour as if they were not there, but when we came into hand to hand combat we threw the Farosi back into the holdfast. I was preparing to attack it when we were attacked. The Farosi had two cannons, I saw them after they began to fire, but they were on a hill almost two miles away from us. The cannons released weapons which exploded in the air above my men, they were torn to shreds by them and most of my infantry were routed. After that Farosi cavalry charged my remaining men from the woods close by and I had to order a retreat. Numbers do not matter when we are fighting the Farosi.'

'He is right,' said Sam, stepping towards the table. 'I apologise for being late Your Grace.'

'You are forgiven,' was his response.

When they fled from the capital, Sam going with Lord Stark, they soon caught up with Renly and when he had been told what happened, with the Farosi backstabbing them, he was furious. They had never spoken, other than Sam being told that his experience in the Farosi army would make him useful.

'Thank you, Your Grace. The Farosi army is trained to fight armies larger than their own thanks to Gwaithol.'

'Gwaithol has a large army?' asked Loras Tyrell.

'Yes they do. I heard that there it is common for a mother to have twins or triplets more than once in their lives, so in the last war the Farosi were often overwhelmed by massive collumns of Gwaitholi troops. The new army has been trained to fight against them.'

'How so?' was Mace Tyrell's question.

.'The Farosi usually deploy in lines only two or three men deep but it means that a single regiment, that's a thousand men, can bring all their rifles to bear on the enemy. A single Farosi infantryman can use his rifle to accurately wound or kill an enemy up to eight hundred yards away from them and a well trained man can reload his rifle three times a minute. Every minute that one regiment will fire three thousand times. Right now the Farosi have up to ten of those regiments in Oldtown.'

'Their line is still so thin that we can break them easily,' Lord Caswell declared to them. 'With just three ranks thick a strong cavalry charge will break them.'

'The cavalry will not be able to reach them,' Sam told the man with as much strength as he could muster. 'All of our knights will be shredded by the time they reach fifteen yards of the Farosi line.'

'I believe my son is right,' Sam looked with surprise at his father. 'We cannot face them in open battle but if we lure them into the Reach we can ambush them.'

'Can it be done?' asked Renly.

'It won't be easy,' was Sam's response. 'With an army as large as ours the Farosi could easily spot us.'

'Then we form a small force,' said Renly. 'If we can draw a part of the enemies army out and destroy it we can then attack Oltown itself, the city walls are so large they will never be able to defend it all.'

'And this small force?' asked Mace.

'I will lead it. I need five thousand infantry, a thousand cavalry and Samwell Tarly.'

'Me Your Grace?'

'You know how the Farosi fight. I'll need your advice.'

'Then you'll have it Your Grace. I'm no fighter, but whatever I can offer you I will.'

'And I'm glad to have it. Now, what news of the Lannisters?'

'Tywin Lannister is stuck at Harrenhal,' one lord told Renly. 'Lord Stark is gathering more troops across the Riverland's. He is mustering them at Stone Hedge, with any luck he will strike against Lannister soon.'

'Good. With the Lannister's crushed we can take Kings Landing and throw everything against the Farosi. The Lords of the Narrow Sea have declared for us as well and they're preparing to set sail to join us.'

'So we can recover from our defeat at Arbor,' Renly said with a dark look.

Sam understood why as well. It seemed so obvious now, in one fell swoop the Farosi army in the Arbor for "training missions" had occupied the entire island and destroyed the Redwyne Fleet. Their follow up naval raids across the coastline of the Reach had destroyed the largest part of Renly's available naval force.

'The Storm Lords fleet has also assembled at Storms End,' Loras told him and pointed to the relevant castle. 'With so many ships filling the sea and our armies cutting the city off there is nothing that can get food to them.

Sam listened but he was not needed for now, so he stood back and let the others discuss the Lannisters which was largely focused on the idea of letting Lord Stark handle them. After that the meeting was ended and Sam was about to leave when his father stopped him and insisted on speaking with Sam in private. They went to Lord Tarly's tent, on the inside it was decorated very simple, his armour stood on a rack in the corner and a table was in the middle of the room, a bed was at the edge of the tent.

Sam and his father sat down at the table, Sam's father spoke first.

'When I sent you away to Farsos I did it to make you a man. I did it to make you a fighter. I then learned that you joined their armies engineers and I wanted to drag you back here.'

'The engineers are a vital part of the army,' Sam told him, tired of the jokes engineers recieved from the fighting men.

'But they do not lead the charge or win glory for their family name.'

'But they build bridges so an army can cross an impassible river, they build the defences around camps so they cannot be attacked in the night and they can turn an ordinary hill into a fortress in less than a day.'

'You've never understood what it takes to lead my house.'

'Our house.'

'Still, leaving their army gives you one last chance. If you help us defeat the foreign army then you will have Horn Hill when I die. Do not fail me. Get out.'

Sam stood up and left at once, he couldn't be bothered dealing with his fathers latest tantrum. He had more important things to do, he was going to war now.

AN: Sam enters the world of warfare, Renly gathers his armies and plans are made to strike against the Farosi army. What will happen next? Read to find out.

I would like to say sorry for the fairly short chapters but they will get longer as the story goes on.

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Puffgirl 1952 the 2nd: Oh I will keep writing.