Beval, a squire named Darby, and a unit of twenty men-at-arms rode their horses up onto a far-off hill overlooking the fortification the king's army was slowly marching toward. Beval removed his helmet and leather gloves and handed them to Darby. He pulled a cloth from the inside pocket of his surcoat and mopped his sweaty forehead. He studied the fortification for a few moments, and then looked at the assembled men saying, "Ok men, may as well dismount and stretch out for a bit." He smirked at the grateful faces of the men as he swung down from his own saddle. They'd been riding hard for two days, and he couldn't blame them for being happy to rest up a bit.
He handed the reins to one of the men, and motioned for Darby to follow. The two walked off a short ways. Beval crossed his arms and began to study the fortification once again. He remarked, "Darby, this is going to be a tough egg to crack." Darby responded, "My lord?" Beval looked at Darby and smiled before looking back, and pointing at the fortification. He said, "It's four stages of defense boy. There's the outer wall surrounding the entire estate. It's not terribly high, constructed of stone, but still not terribly hard to penetrate as there are four doored entrances. By now they're fortifying them heavily, but still, there are four possible breaching points, so we should penetrate the first defenses by end of second day at the latest."
He shrugged before continuing, "depends on their archer support mostly. Now, once we're passed the outer wall, we're going to have to deal with the town itself. Our liege has put heavy reliance into mercenary troops for this assault, and they're going to be held up with looting and other unsavory barbary once we get passed. I suppose it's up to the field marshall on when those troops will be used, but my guess is king's orders are to use them as fodder for the initial assault. So, we'll be passed that wall within a day or two, but then we'll be sitting on our hands for about three while we lose control of our own troops."
He shielded his eyes from the sun as he continued to study the fortification before saying, "Now, the tricky part is that damnable moat they've built themselves. It's impressive to say the least. See how it laps against the inner defensive wall? It means there's no place for us to bridge over and set ladders. It means we can't roll towers up to the wall. It means alot of bloodshed on our side. There's only the one bridge on the south wall as a traverse point." He frowned as he attempted to formulate some manner of breach technique. "We might do well to pay some coin and find out a bit more about that moat", he advised the squire.
He looked at Darby and continued, "The rest is standard siege tactics. Another wall, and the final reinforced fortification." He pointed down at the fieldworks the enemy was already preparing. "They're anticipating our arrival already. Looks like a lot of ditchwork, which shouldn't be that hard to overcome." He rubbed his chin thoughtfully as he looked at the ground surrounding the estate. He pointed at a large forest to the west. He said, "That's where we'll begin our preparations when the main army arrives. It should provide ample wood for our engines." He nodded, clapped Darby on the shoulder, and the both returned to the horses.
He climbed back into his saddle, took his helmet and gloves from Darby, and put them back on. "Ok men", he called out, "it's time to ride back to rejoin the collumn." The men all remounted and the group rode off.
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