Tyranny of Steel

Berengar was mounted on his trusty steed as he gazed off into the distance. In his field of view were the borders of Lower Austria and his final destination in this conflict. While Eckhard laid siege to every corner of Upper Austria currently occupied by the Bavarians, Berengar would march on Vienna with nearly 20,000 men.

Berengar vowed that after he finally won this war, he would do two things immediately, develop a new weapon, and start building a great navy. Though Conrad might protest his every action, ultimately, as Regent, he had the power to accomplish these things. Besides, Conrad would live another few years at best.

As such, he greatly desired to finish this war and focus on consolidating his territorial gains as quickly as possible. To Berengar, war was a means to settle disputes and acquire territory; the more critical aspect was the development of the land after the fighting had ceased. As a visionary, he had grand plans to construct an Empire that would last a thousand years.

For now, he needed to take Austria and establish his dominion over the region, and that was precisely what he planned to do. With the death of the enemy General at the hands of Berengar ’s assassin, a nobleman had taken his place and decided that the best course of action to stop Berengar ’s siege of Vienna was simple, they would sally forth and deal with his army once and for all. They would use the citizens of Vienna as human shields.

Thus as Berengar and his army entered Lower Austria, they saw a large force gathered, close to thirty thousand in total. The citizens of Vienna had been conscripted by the Bavarians and armed with anything that could remotely be used as a weapon. They were placed in the vanguard so that they could soak up the bullets of Berengar ’s forces, allowing their main troops to survive the initial onslaught and close the distance.

Seeing the enemy formation, Berengar began to frown, he would prefer not to slaughter over 10,000 of Austria ’s citizens, but this would be not easy to avoid. The Bavarian forces were behind the vanguard of Austria ’s common folk and nudged them forward with their spears, bills, and blades. This was not a good situation. As such, Berengar contemplated for a few moments before coming up with a course of action. Thus he rode towards his Artillery units and gave his commands.