"Common military wisdom suggests having an attacking force at least three times larger than the defenders when assaulting and besieging a fortified defensive position. Personally? I favor having ten times as many, or five times at least." - Xie Long-Tian, famed general from the Huan Confederacy.
"Fucking hairy ballsacks… that's a shitload of 'em out there," commented Ylisera as she watched the streams of people gathering together several kilometers away from the fort they're in. Being a full-blooded elf she was one of the few who could see that far without a spyglass as aid.
Much like they expected, more reinforcements of the enemy army had arrived, just a day after Elfriede had caused talks within the fort over what she did. Some had cringed at what they deemed to be excessive cruelty even to an enemy, while others had appreciated what she did, especially those who lost friends and family already.
Now they had bigger things to worry about though.
The enemy reinforcements started arriving shortly before noon, and they kept streaming hours later. None of them managed to get an accurate read on the enemy numbers, but Ylisera and the other lookouts agreed that there was approximately twice as much as there was before.
In other words, twenty to twenty five thousand enemy combatants. Against the five thousand and change of them hunkered down in Fort Ascher.
At least they had not noticed any siege engines in sight, barring some crude ladders and battering rams that were improvised out of the plentiful trees from the nearby jungle, but that brought little relief.
"Think they're prepping up for the siege? They don't look like they're about to hit us today," asked Reinhardt from beside the elvish woman. It wasn't his turn on the watch, but he had went to the walls anyway once he heard of the news of the enemy's arrival.
"I can see them setting up camps…" said the elvish woman as she squinted her eyes and shaded them from the sun. "Looks like they're preparing for a longer siege to me, doubt they'd be stupid enough to try hitting us at night. They're all human."
What Ylisera said made sense. The majority of the forces defending Fort Ascher were dwarves, who favored living underground to begin with. Their eyes had long adapted to low light conditions, and they could even see well in total darkness.
As a full-blooded therian, Reinhardt also had excellent night vision. Night and day were of little difference to his kind. His wife, while human, perceived through magical means rather than her eyes, and she even found moonless nights to her advantage rather than a detriment.
No, if the human enemies they faced were to attack, they would most likely do so in daytime, which was more advantageous to them than any other time, and since it was already late in the day, it was unlikely that they would press the assault right away.
"By Pesca's hairy arse!" commented Barnaby from next to Reinhardt. The dwarven mercenary captain had just arrived and was peering through a spyglass to take a look of the situation. "Them be a lotta these goatfuckers."
"Twenty to twenty five thousand or so," confirmed Reinhardt with a grim nod. "Think we can hold them off long enough till help gets here?"
"Eh, lad, it's not a matter if we can hold 'em off or not," said the dwarven man with a shake of his head, before he turned to face Reinhardt and gave a manic grin. "It's either we hold the buggers off, or we die trying."
"Fair point," he conceded with a toothy smile.
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Much like Ylisera said, there was no attack that night. Even so, many of the people in the fort slept fitfully, mostly the dependents and younger soldiers. The veterans just slept when they were told to, and soon slept like a log as they snored loudly.
Reinhardt woke up early the next morning, refreshed and prepared for what he expected to be a grueling day. The walls were manned by the dwarven regulars, who were better suited for such holding actions, while the mercenaries under Barnaby and him were split into groups and tasked to hold the gates, when they were breached.
Reinhardt had split his already small group even further. Salicia and around eighty archers - some were survivors from the Second Company's archer detachment, whilst others were followers or dependants who were good with the bow - had stationed themselves atop the roofs of the building that had served as the fort's chapel.
The tall, one-eyed woman herself was perched atop the roof of the bell tower, the tallest structure in the fort as a whole, as it was erected atop an artificial hill as tall as the walls. Her role was to direct the rest of the archers as they laid down some indirect fire support for the rest of the defenders.
Unlike the archers, who wielded long and short bows of various sorts, the dwarven marksmen lined up on the walls wielded different armaments.
Most of them had repeating heavy crossbows with them, a crank-operated piece of machinery capable of firing ten bolts in as many seconds. Where most such designs that other races made were relatively low in power, these dwarven made monstrosities hurled their bolts with enough force to pierce through plate armor at a hundred meters, and lethal to lightly armored opponents up to twice that range.
Their accuracy beyond thirty meters left much to be desired however, and the crank mechanism was so heavy most other races, even bulky orcs, were unable to even use the weapon.
For every five dwarves armed with repeaters, was an expert marksman who used an even heavier windlass crossbow. The hefty bow hurled heavy bolts capable of lethal accuracy against most plate armor up to a hundred fifty meters away, with an effective range twice that if accuracy was not a concern.
The only worry the dwarves had were whether their supply of bolts and quarrels would suffice in a prolonged siege.
Behind the gates, Barnaby's men had split into three groups, one behind each of the intact gates. A single line of heavy shieldsmen were backed by two lines of pikemen behind them, behind which were the rest of Barnaby's heavy infantry strike force.
Reinhardt's crew were assigned the eastern gate, and he arranged those less skilled and the dependants who had volunteered to hold the sides of the half-circle formation.
He himself, along with nearly seventy of the best fighters in what was left of the company, stood in the middle. Mischka's people in two groups at their flank. They were the main force of the defense on whom the unenviable task of pushing back the enemy fell on.
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