Siege of Forges

The Siege of Forges was a major battle during the Six Years' War, pitting an inferior Almeronian garrison against a reinforced Stahlheimian host. It occurred simultaneously with the Siege of Lundes, the result of a two-pronged assault by Imperial forces under the command of Grand Marshal Frederic Richter. The siege of Forges began 12 hours prior to the siege of Lundes and the castle was the first to fall, the besieging Imperial forces making use of a strong body of artillery to demolish the stronghold. The defeat greatly weakened the otherwise staunch defense of Lundes, lowering Almeronian resolve and ultimately bringing the forces of the Kingdom closer to utter defeat.

Background
Following a large loss of soldiers at the Battle of Mentanon, the Stahlheimian Emperor ordered Grand Marshal Frederic Richter to organize a secondary invasion force to reinforce the first. This led to an unprecedented lull in the war, recently defeated and scattered Almeronian forces under King Charles III attempting to regroup while the Empire prepared for the killing blow. Once Richter's forces arrived he overtook Marshal Erwin Mueller's command, immediately putting together a battle plan to march for the Almeronian capital. Three obstacles stood in the way of that goal: The sister castles of Forges and Lundes, and the sprawling city of Agenais. The Grand Marshal split his force of 50,000 men into two equal parts, one under his own command and one under the command of Marshal Mueller. They were to approach the castles and batter them incessantly until they had fallen, after which they would rejoin forces and sack Agenais before marching to the Almeronian capital.

So after several weeks of calm and deliberation, the reinforced Stahlheimian invasion force split in two and made for the castles. Mueller's force was delayed by poor weather and small pockets of resistance groups, allowing the Grand Marshal to besiege Forges half a day prior to his counterpart's arrival. He set up his artillery pieces and prepared to assault the garrison almost immediately, building siege equipment from a nearby forest.

The defending force was composed of a small yet elite garrison: knights from the Order of the Garter, Order of the Rose, and Order of the Horse all defended the castle under the command of Sir Napoleon the Bold. The defending garrison was composed of less than 500 knights, yet the hill the castle was built upon and the moat around it secured a strong defensive position. When it was demanded that he surrender, Sir Napoleon replied by laughing and demanded the matter be solved by single combat. He offered to face any champion Richter could muster yet was declined, and so with no peace in sight the siege was underway.

Course of the Assault
Nearly a week passed as siege equipment was gathered and constructed, accompanied by a near constant bombardment from cannons upon the castle's walls. Some of the battlements were reduced to mere piles of stone, though the defenders stacked the rubble on top of the ruins to make a passable defense. Few if any defenders were slain by the bombardments, but decades of campaigning had taught the Grand Marshal that even knights grew tired as they were deprived sleep and a sense of safety.

With such a massive host, Richter was able to assemble an impressive array of siege equipment and at the end of the week readied his forces to take the walls. Trained soldiers clambered into armored siege towers and the brave or foolhardy took up a battering ram to take the maidenhood of the enemy gates. At dawn the assault commenced, a final barrage from the Imperial artillery marking it's beginning. The defending garrison scrambled to what remained of the battlements, firing from arrow slits and heating water and oil to pour onto the attackers. The fighting quickly grew vicious, the vastly outnumbered knights fighting where the enemy's numbers were best mitigated and the Stahlheimian soldiers showing no mercy to the defiant.

Sir Napoleon led his men from the front, defeating a score of foes and standing only by a staunch refusal to give the enemy the satisfaction of his death. As more soldiers poured in the grim reality of the defense set in for those yet fighting under the Almeronian banner: Forges had fallen. The Almeronian banner remained flying for another two hours, less than a dozen remaining defenders under Sir Napoleon guarding the stairwell that led to it to the last. When the flag of Stahlheim was raised high above the battlements all the defenders had perished and some 1,500 Stahlheimian soldiers lay dead or dying in the dirt. The fall of Forges hurt the morale of Lunde's garrison, and the second castle fell not long after.

Aftermath
The fall of Forges and the following defeat of the garrison at Lundes opened a route for the Grand Marshal to lead his forces to Agenais. The relatively swift fall of the sister castles made the attempt to defend Agenais all the more vital and the seemingly inevitable Stahlheimian victory closer than ever.