Of course, the enemy wasn’t going to give Micky or Aene all the time in the world. They assaulted his defenses. But Micky planned for this. Hopefully these battle crazed bloodthirsty murderers that he had to command wouldn’t fuck it up… Who was he kidding?

The enemy at first set themselves up defensively. And the armies stared at each other. And they waited. And Aene waited. And nothing continued to happen as commanders in tents argued and screamed at each other. Micky however, waved them off, if they were content with standing there looking foolish, Micky was content to stand there and look foolish with them. Just so long as the soldiers maintained ranks it would be fine.

The centurions did not see it that way. Micky almost courtmarshaled one of them. “The simple answer is that we are here to defend the line, and that is all. Later there will be a larger for stationed here in order to conquer the lands, and take slaves, until then we must hold and defend.” Micky said in a tone that broke no argument. Which was a tone he needed to work on since the woman wanted to keep arguing.

Micky was outnumbered by his centurions and commanders. But there was one thing that was obvious to everybody, what they were doing wasn’t working. Micky was loath to feed the spies and turncoats everything that he had. And if Micky was a betting man, though he was more of a losing man, he would place his bets on each and every one of those traitorous swine to give up Aene in a heartbeat.

Which left Micky at a conundrum. He couldn’t trust them, and he couldn’t truly work with them without giving them anything. The truth was that he had blatantly lied back there. At this moment reinforcement weren’t coming. And Aene had completely given up on this skirmish. They would try again, but that would be after they mustered up a stronger force under a… more connected commander. Aene couldn’t back down now and show her face without punching these bastards in the face hard. This made his defensive strategy almost traitorous itself in her eyes. If he didn’t gain some results from it he would probably find himself and his entire family and the small retinue that he had, hanged at the minimum.

Micky looked out at the men and women gathered in straight rows. They had been trained to stand like this on moderately warm days like this. Any hotter and they would need to take shifts. Funnily in a standoff like this it was going to be the armor that defined the engagement. An engagement that Aene would win since she had leather with some leather padding as her standard armor set with a reinforced studded leather skirt to protect the legs. Those bronze studs are going to be skulding. This was a mimicry of a southern empire's own armor set that Aene supposedly shares ancestry with.

Across the way the soldiers from the enemy were wearing thin wool that was dyed into intricate colors to demonstrate clan relation. The leather also covered this thin wool and used it as padding. Normally that would have been the better padding and reduced the strikes hammered into their own leather armor into nothing but the strike of a hard pillow. Some ‘smart’ soldiers even increased the padding inside their armor in order to further reduce the blows. However, it was far more insulating than the soft leather padding of Aene’s own. In addition they had leather reinforced wool skirts to match Aene’s leather breezy skirts. And their wool stockings and shoes were also more insular.

Give it any other day of mildly colder temperature and the Aene soldiers would be cursing the enemy kingdom in jealousy. But this mildly warm day was surely turning into hell for these soldiers across the way. After all, the Aene design was designed after a warm weather empire. While these enemy soldiers were wearing a cold tough design that was even slightly superior in most ways. This included being warmer. If it weren’t for the bronze studs burning the skin Micky would say that they had already won. Unfortunately for both sides of basterds he could already see the subtle shifting of discomfort. Aene was trying to shift from on skulding stud to the next. While across the way, he couldn’t truly see how they were shifting but he could guess.

Honestly, Micky had no doubts that his soldiers would jump straight into a river when this was all said and done. Luckily he didn’t have to worry about such things, as he would be staying in the command tent.

Micky looked back at the command tent, maybe in a little bit, he still had to inspect the troops. Getting on his quilin Micky marched alongside the troops bringing along some squires and attendants to distribute water. His soldiers were thankful and couldn’t praise him enough. He saw many faces, many too young faces. Some even younger than himself. Now that he thought of it, he himself was young… No, he was an adult, these were just kids, yeah.

Micky marched the line, all the time keeping an eye on the enemy. It didn’t look like they were going to be battling today, but that itself was a battle. Should they show any signs of weakness the enemy army would march at them with the speed of a rampaging bull. On the other hand, he could almost see the wagon wheels turning in the enemy commanders’ heads. They couldn’t understand Aene’s new approach. By now she should be charging them like a mad monster. So what was she doing, when was she going to charge them. They couldn’t wrap their heads around it.

Micky almost laughed as he stared out upon the enemy. Already his new stratagem had bought them time. Time they would need if his plans were going to come to fruischen. But Micky doubted this would last. And these enemies would not stand around this entire time. Micky doubted that if they did not attack today, they would attack tonight. Meanwhile the staring match continued for hours more. All this time stone was being quarried and wood was being chopped. All too soon they would have the materials to build a giant fortress the likes of which the world has never seen. And Micky would have his name on it. He couldn’t wait.

Eventually the enemy empire backed off. All too aware that Aene was not going to attack, which had been its modus operandi until then. Micky then ordered Aene to immediately retreat itself, and then all of the soldiers not on guard duty to rest. Micky would guarantee a night fight and was going to prepare for just that. Unlike the former legate, Micky could pretty much predict the enemy. He was inside their heads. He knew them, but they did not know him. And that was going to be his key to victory!

Luckily in night fights it wasn’t so easy to use siege magic. It was why they weren’t ‘in practice’ in modern warfare. Because it is fairly easy to see a giant glowing sigil in the night. And if they weren’t close to the battlefield they would likely do more damage to their allies than the enemy. So maybe a first or second shot if the scouts didn’t detect them early enough. He would have his own mages run counter magic of the basic elements as well as magic sensitivity into the night. It wasn’t common without more permanent structures to reduce the costs but Micky was sure about the enemy tactics, so he would take the expense.

Micky also set up siege equipment. Some of which would be extremely hard to actually use in a battle but he could use the smaller balistea and the chariot mounted skorpions. Catapults and trebuchets were right out though. Same with cataphracts though those would have been much more welcome. He did all this before twilight as they would be attacking either at sunset, or past, into the dark night. Micky could already see them playing their hand. To him this was already done, and he had them checkmated. He smiled as he watched on at the preparations. He would have the day, or the night as it were.