A/N: Hello all, I am back with another Chapter. The War of 471 continues as the National Triumvirate combat the Germannic Confederation. How will they far? Only one to find out...
The War of 471 Part 2
The War of 471 had already become a bloody, brutal affair after just 1 month and there was no quick end to the war in sight.
Soon after the Battle of the Laurian Hills the Alemanni had to engage in their own battle with the Rugii, as a force of 15,000 Alemanni under Barodur fought 30,000 Rugii at The Siege of Fort Malthan, beginning on the 9th April.
The Rugii outnumbered the Alemanni 2:1, however the Alemanni were in an elevated and fortified position. To add to it, the Rugi would also have to cross a river in order to get to the fort.
When the battle began, the Alemanni archers opened fire on the Rugii forces, concentrating on the cavalry to slow the Rugii, taking out much of said cavalry in the process. Flaccitheus thought that there would be enough cavalry to continie with his plans, so he pressed on, beginning the siege, this would be the beginning of what would become a month long siege of the fort, as the Alemanni held off the Rugii. Flaccitheus knew that if he could take out the fort and the army manning it, then the rest of the Alemanni kingdom was free for conquest. He could not waste this oppertunity, nor could he allow the Alemanni forces to catch him in the back.
Since the Battle of the Laurian Hills, the Roman/Ostrogothic forces have used fabian tactics, shadowing Feletheus's forces as they pulled back to a more advantageous position. Finally, on the 16th April, The Roman Ostrogothic forces clashed with the Rugii forces at the Battle of Vandia, at the outskirts of the . The battlefield consisted of the the river Danube to one side, a series of hills on the other, with a narrow path in between.
The Roman/Ostrogothic forces took the hills, deploying the archers and cavalry on the hills, whilst the infantry was positioned at the end of the path. Feletheus could tell what Nepos had planned, he was trying to lure the Rugii army into the narrow path. He knew that if he did this, his army would be easy pickings. But he also couldn't afford to wait, as that would risk reinforcements.
He decided to try and go around the enemy, that was the most sensible option. He left a small detachment of his force at the entrance of the path, around 2,000 strong, setting off around the mountain with the rest of his army. He was shadowed by the enemy forces on the hills as they pelted his army. He was eventaually able to find his way around to the other side, only to find Nepos and his army on the other side as well.
Nepos knew that Feletheus would try this, so he made an effort to frustrate the Rugii prince. He went straight through the path when he knew that Feletheus was part way around. The bottleneck did bring some pain to the Roman/Ostrogothic forces, but with them controlling the hills they were able to get through with few enough casualties, wiping out that portion of the army in the process.
Feletheus was now in an even worse position, trapped between the Ostrogothic land and the enemy forces. This was when Nepos employed one final trick. He had a small portion of the army, around 500 strong hide in the hills themselves ready to strike, all of these were Ostrogoths. When ready they came through the hills to the other side of the Rugii army and charged. This caused panic in the Rugii lines, who assumed this charge was Ostrogothic reinforcements. They paniked, charging straight through the pass.
This was what Julius Nepos had been waiting for. He had caught them in the bottleneck. By the time they realised their mistake, it was too late. Much of the Rugii force was slaughtered, the rest having to carve their way back out to escape.
It was a crushing victory of the Romans and Ostrogoths. The Romans and Ostrogoths in total lost only 1,050 men, the Rugii on the other hand lost 9,000 of the 16,000 strong army. The Romans had avenged their humiliation at the Laurian Hills, and now looked set to press further.
Things on the Frankish side were oddly peaceful, as the two sides settled into a stalemate, as the Franks employed Fabian tactics to shadow the Roman/Alemannic forces, keeping from engaging in major battles. There were several minor skirmishes, but no major battles would take place on the Frankish front until June, when the Eastern Roman army arrived to support.
Whilst the Franks had their frontier stabilised, the situation was very different for the Burgundians.
On the 20th April, Majorian and his army of 10,000 gathered from bit of Hispania, Italy and North Africa finally arrived. It had taken so long as one the way, Majorian had suffered a seizure and needed a few days to recover, delaying the effort even more than it had already been delayed.
Majorian's forces met up with the few Alemannic forces left defending the Burgundian border to plan their next move.
2 days later, they co-ordinated an attack on the city of Vesontio to break the Burgundian advance. They laid siege to the city, intent on taking it as a show of force. After 5 days, Gundioc was able to gather up his forces and meet Majorian's forces at the 471 Battle of Vesontio on the 27th April. The 5,000 Burgundian soldiers faced 12,000 Roman/Alemannic forces.
The Burgundians fought like devils in one last stand, trying to fight off the Roman forces as best they could. Majorian decided to use this against them, giving ground to the Burgundians as needed. When the Burgundians were far enough in, the army turned inwards and forced the Burgundian army together. Gundioc was taken prisoner whilst most of the rest of the army surrendered under threat of death. The city of Vesontio surrendered shortly after.
The battle was another decisive one for Rome, as only 500 Romans and Alemanni died to 1,500 killed and the other 3,500 captured. This battle would mark the breaking point of the Burgundian Kingdom, as not only was the army defeated again, but their leader was captured. This battle would not only mark the end of Burgundian participation in the war of 471, but the point of no return for the once proud nation. Though the nation continied on for a couple years more, it was essentially a shadow of it's former self.
The war would rage on however, as both the Franks and Rugii continued to fight, as things were about to come to a head for all involved.
A/N: And that is all for now, I hope you enjoyed. The next and final part of the War will take a little longer to complete as I want to try a get it as good as possible. Thank you all for reading, the feedback is always appreciated. See you next Chapter!
