//------------------------------// // Shogun 2; Total War, Game 1; What the heck is a Donderbuss!? // Story: Let's play some games with Leon, Luna, and Eddy // by Fireheart 1945 //------------------------------// "Glad you were all able to make it tonight," Edward said as they all came into the session. "Honestly, I was afraid I might not be able to come," Luna replied. "Court has been busy this week, and there have been a multitude of cases coming up, almost as if from nowhere." "What kind of cases?" Twilight asked. "Many of them were the regular, including nobles wanting 'old rights' which they had never had in the first place and business ponies wanting some sort of leeway to do something morally questionable. Admittedly some were valid, like one where a family was facing homelessness because they had fallen into debt. As it turns out, they had been goaded - bullied is perhaps a more accurate term - into taking loans, which those offering them knew they couldn't afford to repay. Needless to say, the whole thing didn't turn out pleasant for the loan sharks, most of whom are now in prison for conspiracy against the citizenry and the rest being slapped with community service and required to give out much of their money to charity groups and to the state. It's cases like this last one where I can sometimes tell myself that the job is worth doing." "Wow. Hopefully not every case you face is as infuriating as that." "Most aren't. Its quite common actually for a misinterpretation or a mistake to have been made concerning the law, which I am always happy to correct. However, other cases have turned up which are not so easily resolved. Bullying, especially that occurring in school rather than in a work or home environment, is one such problem. It just feels like such a tangle because the victim can be accused - sometimes with merit - of being the real culprit, and the parents of a bully usually do not know what their child gets up to when they are not in the house. And, naturally, there is cyber-bullying, which is even harder to determine than normal bullying because of internet anonymity." "Do you ever wish..?" Leon began. "No. I do not regret bringing human technology into our world. I do sometimes detest the uses to which it is put, but that is the fault of the user, not the technology itself. And, recently, the tide of battle seems to be turning," the blue alicorn said, sounding more confident. "Let me guess; you took a page out of Curt Schilling's book, didn't you?" "Indeed I did. We, meaning I and my royal officials, sought out the information we needed. Unfortunately, some of them are human and were therefore out of our immediate grasp, but most were ponies, who are within the borders of the country and who were able to bring to justice. Several lost college and high school memberships, a number lost jobs, and we sent a couple to special schools that deal with this kind of problem in individuals." "Wow," Eddy said in a voice different than that of Leon's a few moments ago. "Nice coup, that." "I suppose, though I doubt it will stop the problem entirely," Luna said ruefully. "Hopefully it will teach youths to think before they act, and thus suppress the issue most of the time. But enough of my troubles. How did the day go for each of you?" "Oh, my day was great!" Twilight said excitedly. "I studied the legends of King Arthur this morning, then I went to the spa with Rarity and had dinner with the rest of the gang." "Normal sixth-form college day," Ed answered. "Rather normal, except for an accident in carpentry, where one poor sod was taken out of school to the hospital. Hope the poor bloke gets through okay. They said he cut his arm by mistake, but that it wasn't going to be permanent, and if they tell the truth, he'll be fine, but I can help being a little anxious about class down there tomorrow." "Usual day in high school," Leon said after a moment. "No accidents, but math was... math." "Which is to say it went badly." "Well... yes..." Leon made sure to check the units in his army. During all the talking, he had made a force of a squadron of Donderbuss Cavalry, along with four Yari Cavalry. A bow hero, two bow monks, and a couple Bow Samurai formed most of his ranged attack force, with a squad of Hand Mortars providing artillery support. The rest of his army was made up of Katana Samurai and a couple No-Dachi Samurai, with a tetsubo hero set in with them. All his units were veterans with some upgrades. His avatar, who he had named Firestar, was clothed in armor and garments of dark blue, as were all of Leon's units. The symbol on the flag on the back of his men was also dark blue, with a cross in the middle of a circle at the top. "Unfortunately, the school in Ponyville has been underequipped lately," Twilight said regretfully. "They've had to retire a lot of the old material, since it was obsolete, and they don't have the money to buy newer, up to date textbooks." "I shall see to that as soon as I can," Luna promised. "Education is a priority, especially considering the enemies and situations Equestria has faced in the past few years." "Anyway, I think the teams are going to be me and Edward against you and Leon?" Twilight asked. "Yes, the old guard against the new." "You sure of that? Me and Twilight have Franco-Prussian war tech against your swords, spears, and bows," Eddy queried. "Just because you have modern weapons does not mean you will win," Luna warned. "The old guard has more than a few useful tricks up its sleeve." "Yeah, well, good luck," Eddy said in an amused voice, before he and Twilight switched to a different channel. "Well, he's confident," the Lunar Princess remarked. "No matter. They'll soon learn the strength and courage of the samurai." "Indeed." Then, in a more serious tone, she asked, "Do you have access to any DLC?" "Yes. The Otomo pack as well as the Saints and Heroes pack, as well as one or two others." "I see. Sounds like Japan had a lot of religious tensions in the... what was the name of the era again?" "The Sengoku Jidai, or Age of the Country at War. And yes, thought to be one hundred percent honest, I didn't know about the Ikko Ikki until this game came out." "Neither did I. So it was largely an issue between Christians and Buddhists?" "It was, though there wasn't a major conflict between the two faiths until the Shimabara Rebellion took hold some forty years into the Tokugawa Shogunate. Christians, sadly, were persecuted much of the time, due to the suspicions of the Japanese leaders." "But why? Christian missionaries, along with those of other faiths, have moved to Equestria, and while they haven't had a big following, they have caused little, if any, trouble at all. I found some of them very uplifting and pleasant to talk to." "Because the Japanese believed that the Christian Japanese would support an invasion by the Spanish or Portuguese; you know, supporting their co-religionists. After the Shimabara Rebellion was crushed, the Tokugawa Shogunate went gung-ho in wiping them out, though a few survived and carried on the faith in hiding. The invasion never happened, but it didn't stop the persecution." "So they.. did what they did because they thought, and only thought, that Christians were traitors?" "Yes. And, unfortunately, not all the westerners were nice and polite; some were pretty nasty, which reinforced Japanese suspicions. In the campaign, you get options regarding western intervention, usually in Fall of the Samurai. If you favor your own people over the foreigners, you usually get the shaft, and your economy suffers for it." "I see. It does not excuse the persecution, though." "No, it doesn't. After the Sengoku Jidai was over, the Japanese slowly gave up on guns; by the time Admiral Perry came in 1854, they were making swords and spears, while the guns were mostly in storage. About the only time in history when the clock has been turned back." "Why?" "Tradition, and because the idea that a mere peasant could kill a samurai more easily than a samurai could kill the peasant was shocking to them. War didn't have the same feeling for them with guns. By and large, guns weren't really needed in the isolationist Japan that emerged, with the exception of a few revolts." "Hmmm. Let me see your army." After a few seconds, she said, "It looks decently balanced, but there's no real specialization." "Yeah, well, if you try to specialize, you end up getting stabbed in the side from some other quarter. Better to be able to respond to any threat that comes my way." "Jack of all trades and master of none. I suppose I cannot argue overly much with that. But trying to keep all angles covered isn't always the best way to deal with something." "No spoony bard could spin a finer tale." "Ha ha! That was actually funny." "Look, if I focus on..." Just then, Eddy and Twilight came back to their channel. "Princess, can we have a team change?" Twilight asked. "Why, what happened?" "Well..." "Short, sweet, and to the point, we had some arguments about our two countries' monarchies and how useful they are in their current stations" Eddy said, sounding as though he were still mildly frustrated. "And no, I am not going to tell anyone what we said, I just think I need a different teammate right now." "I... see. Sort of," Luna mumbled. "I'll be your teammate, in that case. Leon, you can be teamed up with Twilight." "Um, okay." "I know you were looking forward to playing with me on your side," Luna said in sympathy. "But it might be the best idea for now." "Right." Leon hadn't had much experience playing with Twilight as an ally, and felt more comfortable playing with someone he knew better. "Shikata ga nai," he muttered in response. The Japanese phrase was particularly fatalistic; it literally meant Nothing can be done about it or It can't be helped. It wasn't that he disliked the purple unicorn; on the contrary, he did like her, and often had positive things to say to her older brother. However, he knew how Luna would operate, and knowing what an ally could and would do had been instrumental in winning battles before; he had no idea what Twilight would do. She also liked to ask questions, and Leon usually wasn't in the mood to answer them. "Don't worry," Twilight said confidently. "We'll have decent mix of old and modern units. I suspect we'll do fine." Leon switched chat to one with Twilight as the only other recipient. "Hopefully. Going up against guns isn't always what its cranked up to be." Before the unicorn could respond, the timer began to tick down, and the screen switched to one depicting Samurai fighting - and dying - in the background. In the foreground was a map of the battlefield the two sides would fight on, along with their respective starting positions. "Okay," Leon said, "what's the real reason Eddy wanted to switch teammates?" "Oh, that... well..." Twilight sounded reluctant to respond. "I guess it was pretty stupid. We were talking about the Princesses, and then I said that I wished the British King and Queen had achieved what Princess Celestia had." "You said... that.?" "...Yes. It was a really stupid mistake, and as soon as it was out, I tried to apologize, but he started cutting through me, shouting about how important the King and Queen were; I think he was upset because he thought I implied that they weren't as important or as useful as the Princesses were, and that I was talking about how they'd basically been figureheads for quite a long time now." "Yeah. Sounds just like him. He may not be the typical, tea-drinking Briton people stereotypically expect, but he loves England, and implying those kinds of things, even by accident, would be enough to set him off." "Sadly, yes. And, though I'm not happy to admit it, when he said something rather... uncomplimentary about our own government system, I got angry too, and lashed back." "Good thing you guys decided to split up. If this were real, your armies would probably kill one another off and leave me and Luna with just a clean up job." "Yeah. Anyway, looks like the battle's about to start." Leon looked up and saw that the screen had flipped to black; seconds later, it flipped to a position just above his army. "Oh, right." He began setting up his army; he put his cavalry on the flanks of his force, with his melee units behind the ranged ones; he set the ranged units in loose formation, which would make it harder for enemy missiles to hit them. He set his hand mortars with his other ranged units. He looked at Twilight's deployment. Her army had one unit each of United States Marines, Royal Marines, and Infanterie de Marine, as well as four units of Tosa Riflemen, several Imperial Guards, a unit of Kyoto Police, and a battery of Armstrong artillery, in addition to four units of Yari Ki, which were spear cavalry in Fall of the Samurai. Over all, their armies weren't bad, but Leon knew he had a bit of a bad habit of relying too much on elite DLC units, like the Tesubos and Seigen Swordmasters, which were expensive to put in an army and had considerably fewer soldiers in a unit than generic Katana Samurai. Not that these units were bad; in fact, they were awesome. But to throw them at an army without some ordinary Japanese Joes to back them up, they best they could do was usually slaughter a lot of enemies before getting wiped out. Luckily, he was trying to break that habit, but it still kept coming up every now and again. Leon hit the button that signified that he was ready and waited for the battle to begin in earnest. As soon as the timer wound down and the fight started, Leon got a good look at the other side. Luna had a main force of Katana Samurai with three archer units and six cavalry (four Yari and two Katana), as well as a Long Yari Ashigaru and a couple normal Yari Ashigaru. The cavalry was what held Leon's attention. He wondered why ponies liked to use cavalry units; although Applejack, Rainbow, and other ponies had allowed humans on their backs in a previous rodeo, he doubted they liked the idea of a horse being forced to do what a rider wanted them to, especially if it were war-oriented. Eddy had a large force of regular Imperial Infantry and some Carbine and Yari Ki to bolster them, along with a battery of Armstrong guns, as well as a few Sharpshooters. A potent force, if used properly. The trick with an old army was getting close enough to use melee weapons, which wasn't generally easy. Leon pondered what to do. "Hmm, not a bad army," Twilight noted. "I've got the Princess to deal with. Hopefully I can beat her quickly. Hold on until then." "Just make sure to watch for cav. They'll butcher us if we let them." "Oh don't worry; I have a talent for micro-management." "Well, you're not the one under artillery fire," Leon said as shells began to land around - and, unfortunately, in - one of his frontline Katana Samurai units. Blue-clad armored men started flying. "We'll have to send our cavalry to deal with them, but only after we've beaten theirs." If we can beat theirs, Leon thought. Rifle-armed cavalry were goners if they were hit from the side, but try approaching from the front and they'd make you pay. Already, Eddy and Luna were advancing, though Ed was only moving his cavalry; everything else was staying put. Luna no doubt knew that her army wasn't going to do well if it stayed under fire, and likely she was trying to force the issue. Most of her army was moving to attack Twilight, but she was sending her Ashigaru toward Leon. Leon responded by sending all of his Yari Cavalry to flank Ed, while sending his Donderbuss unit to set itself next on the left side of the unicorn's army to help guard it. And, little as he liked it, he knew that his army was going to be hammered; if he moved it back, that would increase the time it would need to come back forward, and it would leave Twilight largely on her own for a few minutes, and that would be all the time the other side would need to inflict decisive damage. Reluctantly, he decided to advance as well. Twilight was already moving forward, and Ed could flank her if he sat still. Yeah, better I don't let that happen. All the while, Eddy's guns were landing rounds in and around his army. Luckily, Armstrong Guns tended to run out of ammo quickly due to how fast they fired, but they could do damage more quickly than Parrot Guns, which had the same amount of ammunition but fired more slowly. So far, only twelve rounds had landed; each of the Englishman's cannons still had seventeen shots left to fire. Yeah, I'm not letting you just sit there and kill me at will. Sorry, ain't happening. He continued to move forward, all the while trying to keep an eye on the enemy cavalry. Ed had sent his Carbine Cavalry to attack Twilight's cavalry, but his Yari Ki were all to eager for a fight with Leon. Two of them raced out to face Leon's Yari Cavalry, with a third unit bringing up the rear. Leon could see a delaying tactic when he saw it. Three units of cavalry weren't going to stop four, but they could delay them and inflict casualties. Large numbers of warriors from both sides toppled from the saddle, and horses screamed and fell with their riders. Leon had sent three cavalry, one for each enemy unit, to match the enemy, while a third crept up from the side and hit one of the enemy cavalry. Men and horses continued to fall, but more of them were the red-clad warriors Eddy favored. Finally, after about a minute of battle, the flags on the enemy units began flashing white, indicating that they were about to rout. They did so a few seconds later. Only a handful of the enemy cavalrymen had survived, but they had delayed Leon's units and inflicted moderate casualties; out of about 45 men that had started out in each unit, he was down to 22, 18, 23, and 39. The losses weren't bad... Until, of course, Eddy turned his guns on the bunched up survivors. Several shells reduced their number before Leon could scatter them; one routed. Leon let his fist fall on his desk. His cavalry was badly weakened, both from the fight and the volley, and now it wouldn't have the strength to do damage that it would have been able to do otherwise. By this time, Leon's Hand Mortars were close enough to enemy lines to fire on the enemy line. He targeted a unit of Imperial Infantry; the mortars would be unlikely to kill many of the enemy gun crews. Eat this! The small shells landed around and in the enemy unit. While not as spectacular as cannon shells, the mortar shells were more in number, and soldiers in orange - the color Eddy used for his infantry - were thrown for yards around. Leon's plan was for his archers engage the enemy riflemen while his other infantry came from either side of the enemy, outflanking them and forcing them to divide their attention. His cavalry would sneak in from behind and hit them where they were weakest. It was a good plan... or it would be, if it worked. ---------------------------------------------------------- Twilight wasn't sure whether Leon's attack would work, but it would keep the heat off her. Princess Luna was continuing her advance. Her archer units were in front, and her cavalry were moving off to either side; the ones to Twilight's left were aided by Edward's own cavalry units, which were armed with guns. She moved her Kyoto police to her army's right flank, to help guard against cavalry attack there. It was all she could do other than keep some of the riflemen on that side facing the enemy cavalry. She sent her own cavalry to intercept the cavalry coming up on her left. She wished she had gotten cavalry with guns. Her cavalry took numerous losses before they actually struck. Of course, once they got into melee range, they inflicted heavy casualties, but the damage done to them showed. And it wasn't as if the enemy weren't doing damage of their own. Luckily, she had copied Leon's trick, and sent a unit in from the side. It caught a unit of Carbine Cavalry by surprise, and knocked large numbers of them out in seconds. However, the units that had already engaged had taken a great deal of damage from rifle fire, and Luna's own Yari Cavalry, being armed with spears, did enough damage to counter that she had inflicted. After about thirty seconds, her cavalry began to rout one after the other. Twilight would have been more upset if she had expected more. She disengaged the unit that had launched the flank attack and managed to withdraw it. She had at least heavily damaged the enemy cavalry contingent; apparently, Eddy and Luna had been hoping that a successful cavalry strike would cripple her army, leaving them to take down Leon. She couldn't help a confident smile. That wasn't going to happen now. And for such an attack to work, it would be better to use an entire army of cavalry rather than mixing unit types. Luna still had undamaged cavalry units, though, and she used them to strike Twilight's right side. Two units of Imperial Guards and a unit of Tosa Riflemen had been hit. She sent her Kyoto Police forward, along with her last cavalry unit, as well as sending a unit to open fire from the side. It was likely that she might hit some of her own troops, but she needed to stop those cavalry from wrecking her army. The Kyoto Police - an elite spear unit - immediately went to work. After a few moments, her last Yari Ki arrived as well, hitting one of the attacking units from the side. It took another minute for the enemy to be driven off, and by then she'd lost the Riflemen who had been attacked and suffered heavy damage to the Imperial Guard units. A unit of Yari Cavalry survived and withdrew, no doubt to trouble her again later. Still, the enemy cavalry force had been virtually destroyed, and the surviving units wouldn't be able to inflict the kind of chaos a luckier force might have been able to pull off. Now it was a matter largely of infantry vs. infantry. She looked over at Leon's army as he began to engage. Leon's general was close to the action, which was good for morale if he lived, but bad if he was killed. His archers were inflicting losses on Edward's infantry, which were moving forward and were about to fire. Leon's melee infantry were already being shot at and suffering losses. However, they continued to advance. Twilight wasn't sure if Leon's plan would work, but it was probably not the worst idea ever. If she could defeat Luna quickly enough, she might be able to come help him. ---------------------------------------------------- Luna wasn't discouraged by the loss of her cavalry. It was true that she had hoped for more, but Twilight was very intelligent, and Leon wasn't a fool, even though he did make mistakes. She sent her Yari Ashigaru after Leon's only intact cavalry unit, which was just sitting there doing nothing. Apparently, he'd forgotten about it. She was going to make him pay for that. Her first ashigaru approached. She grinned.... ...a grin that turned to shock as almost half of the unit was shot down in seconds. "What the -" She just barely managed to keep from cussing... barely. "What in the name of the stars!?" She quickly zoomed in on the unit in question. All of them were armed with muskets, with the barrels having a cone-like end. "Oh," she said to herself. "I probably should have looked up what 'donderbuss' meant before the battle started." She ordered a retreat at once. The unit that had taken the initial blasts had been routed, shattered. It wasn't coming back, not when only fifty men out of 120 were still alive. And as she pulled back, Leon sent the unit forward, where it continued to inflict a horrendous number of losses on the retreating units. That wasn't forgetfulness; he deliberately waited for that to happen. Luna felt a sense of reluctant admiration. It had been a good tactic against someone who had no idea what the unit could do. Just because she admired the move didn't mean that she intended to let it happen again, though. She had her archers target the incoming cavalry, which disengaged and fell back; in fact, Leon moved it to the other side of his army, ostensibly for use against Edward. "Well played," she murmured under her breath. "Well played." "Hmm, what was that?" Eddy asked. "Never mind. How are you faring?" "Fine, but he's going to hurt me before I crush him. You might want to be worried about you; that's Twilight you're facing." "Indeed. Trust that I will not underestimate her." ------------------------------------------------------- Leon continued to advance despite loss; a traditional army usually suffered heavy losses against a modern one. And the flanking maneuver had kind of worked; Eddy couldn't concentrate his fire against any particular unit, because he was forced to turn them to face the units Leon sent at him. Still, Leon felt his heart sink a little at the casualties he was taking. His men did manage to reach the enemy lines, where they began doing some pounding of their own. His cavalry, although in tatters, came in from behind to hit the enemy general. If the general could be taken out, perhaps the losses he'd taken would be worth it. On the front line, men hacked, bashed, and stabbed at one another. Swords slashed and jabbed; blue and orange soldiers fell, with yells of pain. Most of the losses were orange; in general, units dedicated to melee, like the tetsubo hero and Katana Samurai, were naturally better at melee combat than most gun-armed units. There were exceptions; the Portuguese Tercios, wither their heavy swords and armor, would defend castle walls extremely well. But naturally, Eddy didn't have access to those, not with a modern army. Even so, the orange soldiers had more men remaining. Leon activated the Gunbatte and Rally abilities from his general to keep his men in the fight, as well as activating the Banzai ability on the No-dachi Samurai, which made it impossible to rout them for a time. However, these were measures that could only buy time. His units at the front could be overwhelmed by sheer numbers. "Come on, come on... No!" he hissed angrily as his cavalry began to rout, one after the other. In frustration, he ordered his Hand Mortars to fire on Eddy's general. Moments later, he got the message that the enemy commander had been killed. He breathed a sigh of relief; that had been lucky. And the effects showed. Eddy's soldiers immediately knew that their commander had fallen, and two banners, both representing units that had been hit hard by the melee attack, began to flicker. Leon grinned. Eddy's guns had gone silent during the melee. Now, one of the gun crews opened fire; the shell landed in the middle of a group of struggling soldiers; men from both sides were thrown around like broken toys. He took personal control over that gun. Apparently, he doesn't want me to win that easy. The one gun probably wasn't going to turn the tide. In fact, many of the soldiers who were killed by the gun were Eddy's own. Leon prepared to send his Donderbuss Cavalry to finish the job, but it wasn't necessary; other units began to flicker and rout. Soon enough, the enemy artillerymen were falling to swords and heavy, spiked clubs. Leon watched as the enemy army began to disintegrate. He sent the cavalry in anyway; he wanted more veterancy for it, and killing routing units was the easiest way to get it. Leon sighed. His units, though victorious, had suffered massive casualties; his Tetsubo unit had only ten men out of an original thirty standing. His other units were little better. Two were so badly demoralized at the loss of men that they routed even though the fight had been won. One Katana Samurai unit had about thirty six men, another forty nine, with a No-Dachi unit left with twenty five. His bow units had ben shredded; most were gone, routed, with the one unit of Bow Monks reduced to twenty men. His cavalry had been all but destroyed, with the Donderbuss troops being about the only unit he still had that had suffered almost no losses. His general was still alive, but only five other men remained in the unit with him. He looked to the left. Twilight had engaged Luna in combat. Luna was using her ashigaru to shield her main line units. It was a ruthless tactic, and he doubted that she'd use it in a real conflict, but it had the effect of allowing the real combat units to advance without being shot up too badly. The bow units kept up brisk fire on Twilight's Guard units, inflicting casualties and reducing the number of riflemen who were shooting at the incoming troops. Leon moved to outflank Luna. His badly reduced army would ordinarily be no match for her army, but considering that the Princess was engaged already, he would probably be able to do something good. ------------------------------------------------------- Luna watched as her soldiers finally reached Twilight's lines and began cutting into the violet-clad infantry. Her own men, wearing blue that was even darker than that of Leon's warriors, who were forming up to her right. That wasn't good; she had engaged Twilight with almost her entire force, with only her general free. Only a unit of No-Dachi were free to fight the newcomers. She sent them. Leon's army outnumbered her lone unit, but not substantially. She activated the Banzai ability as they closed. With that matter taken care of, or at least dealt with for now, she turned back to the fight with Twilight. The purple unicorn was trying to hold off her army. The Imperial Guard units were better at melee combat than Imperial Infantry, and were holding their own. She switched her archers to fire at Twilight's artillery. Purple and blue soldiers fell, swords flashed, and warriors shouted battle cries. In spite of everything Twilight could do, Luna's units were still better at melee combat than hers, and they were starting to really bring the pressure on her. Twilight's troops were losing the battle. The unicorn was attempting to disengage some of her frontline units, but that wouldn't do any good for the units still engaged. Luna could see Twilight's remaining gunners start to pack up their guns in an effort to get them out of danger. Ha! Which army is the best now? On the bad side, her No-Dachi were getting overrun; Leon had surrounded the unit and engaged it on all sides. Leon's general and Bow Monks had ignored the fight completely and were now shooting at the flank of the Katana Samurai on the rightmost of the melee. "Hmm." Luna had her general activate his Gunbatte and Rally abilities, hoping to push the fight with Twilight to it's conclusion. Hopefully, we can get this done in time. Not that he has much, but a flank attack now would be bad. At least I have a cavalry unit coming behind my general in order to... wait, we have no cavalry left... The unit that had caught her attention suddenly stopped just behind her general and mowed him and his guard down with shotgun blasts. Oh, blast and botheration! it's Leon's stinking cavalry! "Oooh, that sucked," Eddy commented. "You think!?" Leon didn't stop there. His unit, after routing her general, moved up behind her frontline units to attack them. To top off the disaster, her No-Dachi had finally been overwhelmed, and the three men left were running. Luna sighed. She had no choice. She began to withdraw her units from the battle; she left a few as a sacrificial rear guard, to prevent Twilight from coming after her immediately. I have one more surprise waiting; I hope it's enough to turn the fight around. ------------------------------------------------- Leon felt a surge of happiness as Luna began to retreat. They had the enemy on the ropes, and he had his doubts that the other side could turn things around. He began his pursuit; Twilight was still dealing with leftover units. "We whipped them!" he said out loud. "We whipped 'em, and now they'll pay the price!" "We did, but be careful. Oh, and please don't mention the idea of whipping to a pony. I know what you meant, but..." "Oh. We licked 'em, then." "Better. but I don't think the licking's over. Luna's still going to put up a fight." "Not enough of one. We got her." Leon watched as his troops approached a small stand of trees. His cavalry was shooting down the enemy as they fled, and his melee troops weren't far behind. Suddenly, bombs began falling into the midst of his infantry; they exploded, throwing warriors in all directions. "What the...?" Leon looked at the trees; a band of ninjas had thrown the bombs, and were now advancing. He mentally cursed when he saw that one of those three units was Hanzo's Shadows, no doubt one of the best of the DLC units. He watched in surprise as they quickly routed his foot soldiers who had survived the bombing. He was just quick enough to prevent his Donderbuss Cavalry from falling prey to the trap. "Next time I urge caution, could you please listen to me?" "Yeah, especially after seeing that." Leon withdrew his bowmen, which, along with his cavalry and his general, were his only remaining units. Twilight, in the meantime, had routed the units that Luna had left as a rear guard and was now advancing her entire force. While she had suffered heavy losses, her force was still numerous, and she still had three cannons out of four in action. Leon stopped his retreat and turned his exhausted units around. Twilight's infantry approached the little group of trees. Some stopped, facing the trees, while others continued. Leon nodded. The unicorn was going to surround the position before directly engaging it. Apparently, Luna saw this, and moved to counter it. Her other units began to attack the units on the flank. For about thirty seconds, things went okay for them, but Twilight brought up reinforcements, which blasted the attackers with rifle fire. All too soon, counterattack became retreat. With that threat taken care of, Twilight finished surrounding the woods, then advanced a troops of Guards forward. More bombs were thrown their ways, but the enemy ninjas were revealed, and Twilight turned her artillery on them. Shells exploded in their midst, and the ninjas, likely to die to no good purpose if they simply remained where they were, launched a savage attack against the Guard unit they had bombed. Before Twilight could bring up her other units, they had succeeded in routing it. It did them no good. Twilight's men shot them down. After another half minute of firing, the battle was over as the few surviving ninjas fled. "Costly victory," Leon said, reading the message that came up. "Well, yeah." "I suppose congratulations are in order," Luna said as she and Eddy came back on their channel. "That was close," Twilight said. "You almost had us." "We might have done better, if not for that forsaken unit of cavalry Leon had," Luna grumbled. "Hey, next time, buy the DLC before coming to battle, and you'll have them to play with too." "Oh, I'll make sure of that," Luna said. She chuckled unexpectedly. "I suppose I can hardly complain. But next time, we'll win. Count on it."