Tyranny of Steel

It was early morning in the mid of summer within the southwestern borders of Andalusia. Sitting within a fortified trench line was a Regiment of Landwehrs comprised roughly 2,000 men. Merely two artillery batteries supported these infantrymen as they gazed off across no man ’s land, bored out of their minds while they guarded a portion of the border that was deemed the least likely to engage in combat.

At the moment, the Austro-Granadan Alliance comprised of roughly 75,000 men deployed to the borders of Andalusia, because of this, their forces were spread thin throughout the area, as they waited for the attack of the Iberian Union who had now gathered four separate armies of roughly 100,000 men each in different locations.

While the King of Austria led the cavalry to eradicate the Royal Families of the Catholic Iberian Kingdoms, regular soldiers such as the ones in this trench line drank their coffee and entertained themselves with card games. Colonel Johan Vilinger was drinking from a stainless steel field cup as he fulfilled his duty by gazing, watching over his men, and ensuring that their defense area remained under Austrian control.

The man had graduated from Officer training with high marks. However, he never believed he would be sitting at the rear lines in a hardly noticeable section of the Andalusian border while the rest of his comrades were fighting off waves of medieval soldiers. He was in a state of depression as he thought about how mundane his life as an infantry officer had become.

As the man lamented his current position, he decided to fulfill his obligations; as such, he peered his head over the sandbags to look into the distance, where he saw a sea of shimmering iron, though its reach was far off, one could tell this was no natural structure. Instantly alerted by this discovery, the man pulled out his binoculars to get a better glimpse of what he was looking at.

In the distance, an army of roughly 100,000 men flying various banners, especially that of the Kingdom of Portugal, were clad in various forms of armor. The glance of the sun reflected towards the Colonel ’s position as he gazed upon the sight of tens of thousands of iron-clad warriors. At the same time, they marched towards the entrenched Regiment of Austrian Soldiers.