Upon leaving the inn Amondo made his way to the castle where he asked the first servant he met if anything had occurred while he was away. From the servant, he learnt that the only thing of note was then that the map room was now ready for his inspection thus he headed over to it. The map room was twelve foot long and fifteen-foot wide with a wooden five by seven foot table in the middle that rose about two and a half feet off the floor. A single door was the only entrance to the room and bookcases lined both walls either side of it. A large map of the barony and the surrounding area was located on the wall opposite the door. You could tell that the map was at least fifty years old by the fact that it included the now extinct Barony of Carlette.
Under the table were several chubby holes containing further more detailed maps of the area plus maps of other locations in the Empire of Bantis that members of the Malla family had collected over the years while campaigning with the imperial army. The bookcases on the right of the door once contained books on military tactics while those on the left ones on history and geography. During the early days of his brother's reign, these had all been moved to the castles main library and upon seeing the bare shelves he asked the Constable to move them back.
"Good job constable, now show me the most detailed map we have of the barony and we'll have a look at it before everyone else arrives for our meeting. No, before you do that can you tell me what we are actually up against when it comes to the barony of Dagleana and the forces it has at its disposal."
"Well, sir besides whatever mercenary he is able or willing to hire, well things don't look good for us at all. I will begin by mentioning the forces our former fiefs of Antwa and Ruehasen will bring to his table. Ruehasen under the traitorous Lord Cole Keddy has a force consisting of ten knights, fifteen men at arms and five crossbowmen plus he should be able to field a levy of three hundred and fifty men. Seventy-five of which could be described as reasonably well-armed and fifty of which are trained archers.
Antwa and it's newly installed lord Pawl Bohyde who as you know is a childhood friend of Eugene and the second son of the lord of Lanty in the Dukedom of the Western Marche has a slightly smaller force, we think. They include five knights, seven men at arms, a few crossbowmen and he can raise a levy of three hundred men including fifty who are reasonably well-armed and twenty archers. This number doesn't include whatever men he might have brought with him from Lanty or elsewhere.
How much Eugene can trust either of these forces or thinks he can is unknown but it is likely that most of these forces will either be left behind when he attacks us, kept under his command or split into small packets all over the place. By themselves, the four original territories of the Barony of Dagleane can field a larger force than our remaining three.
Dagleane itself has seventeen knights, twenty men at arms, ten archers, the same number of crossbowmen and five light calvary. It has a four hundred and fifty strong levy that includes a hundred well-armed men and fifty archers.
Breeve has ten knights, fifteen men at arms, four crossbowmen and a three hundred strong levy of which fifty are well armed and another fifty of which are archers.
Elmsey has eight knights, fifteen men at arms, ten archers, ten light calvary and a three hundred strong levy of which twenty or so are well armed and twenty-five are archers.
Lastly, Shanoky has ten knights, ten men at arms, twenty archers and a four hundred strong levy of which fifty are well armed and twenty of whom are archers.
Altogether not including whatever mercenaries he manages to hire the force he has at his command are sixty knights, eighty-two men at arms, twenty-one crossbowmen, fourth professional archers, fifteen light Calvary and the levy. This being made up of three hundred and forty-five well-armed men, two hundred and fifteen archers and one thousand, five hundred and forty-five lightly armed men. Not to mention several squires, a few siege engines, Eugene himself and a single Magi worth his weight in gold."
"That does seem like a lot of enemies even at our height in my grandfather time we couldn't have matched it. What size of a force can we currently field against them, constable?"
"Well at last count and this includes those you brought with you Membe itself can field ten knights, fourteen men at arms, twelve archers, thirteen light calvary and a four hundred strong levy of which a hundred are well armed and fifty of which are archers. Hasford brings to the table five knights, twenty-five men at arms, ten crossbowmen, two light calvary and a three hundred and fifty strong levy of which twenty-five are well armed and thirty of which are archers. Wainthe adds a further ten knights, ten men at arms, five crossbowmen, five light calvary and a four hundred strong levy of which fifty are well armed and fifty are archers.
The exiles from Antwa and Ruehasen number five knights, three men at arms, four archers and fifteen well-armed levy troops. Not that we can trust them any more than Eugene can trust his forces from our former fiefs. These troop numbers mean that to combat his over two thousand strong non-mercenary forces we have over half his number of men. These include thirty knights, fifty-two men at arms, fifteen crossbowmen, sixteen professional archers, twenty light calvary and our levy. This being made up of one hundred and seventy-five well-armed men, one hundred and thirty archers and eight hundred and forty-five lightly armed men. Plus yourself, the squires and several siege engines.
The good news is that not counting whatever mercenaries we both manage to hire we aren't quite outnumbered two to one. However the bad news is that we are nearly outnumbered two to one, I can't imagine us hiring more mercenaries than they can never mind twice their number. All this leads me to the obvious conclusion that we should just give up now, admit defeat and get the hell out of this barony as fast as possible. Not that I intend to do so, after all, it's not over till the out of tune old granny sings and miracles do happen or so I'm lead to believe."
"Well said constable the fact is we won't have to face them until next year well at least directly. I imagine that a group or two of bandits might set up in the area after all they do exist elsewhere, I even ran into one on my way here. This possibility means that we'll have to secure the barony's borders as best we can if it's not too late that is."
"That's not a small amount of land to cover about a third of what it once was but still a lot and we can't call up the levy to do so. We already have the roads covered by the toll booths and the forces assigned to back them up if necessary and we have the towers that guard the river entrances to the barony. Looking out for bandits will require patrols of light calvary and I suppose we could have some of the foresters and our hunters help out as well. Perhaps someone attending the upcoming meeting can come up with other ways to deal with them."
"They should be arriving any minute now, they're all coming aren't they?"
"Martin Garcia said he might be a few minutes late but everyone is expected."
"What is delaying the chief forester do you know?"
"Some kind of argument broke out between one of our foresters and one from our neighbours in the lordship of Kincarn in the county of Neudon. Something about whether a tree that was cut down was located within our borders or theirs. This kind of thing is known to happen on occasion and with things the way they are we don't want to upset them if it can be helped."
"Sorry was this tree cut down by one of our foresters or one of theirs?"
"Theirs I believe sir."
"Well if this is a common occurrence why don't we both just avoid cutting down trees in the disputed area?"
"Well sir for some reason the trees in the area in question tend to grow taller than the ones elsewhere and things usually are worked out to everyone satisfaction mainly by splitting the lumber in question between both parties."
"Good to hear, now is the problem merely a poorly defined border or does the terrain on the ground just not match that on the land deeds?"
"As far as I am aware the border between our two territories was defined by a small stream that dried up over two hundred years ago and these days you can't tell where it used to be. It isn't worth the bother that we would have to go through to fix it so we both just leave it alone. If there were any other issues with the borders I imagine things might be different but live and let live."
"Alright I'll have a quick word with Garcia at the end of the meeting and we'll leave it at that. Now before the meeting begins let's have a quick look at the map I'm not as familiar with it as I should be."