After returning home hurried for a shower and went over the official forum of the game for fishing some information but unfortunately, there wasn't anything important so I quickly closed my laptop and went to my new game cabin.
I guess I hadn't introduced myself so here we go, I have a family of four including my parents and my brother who is 2 years younger than me. My parents live in a village 60 KM away from this city while my brother lives in New Delhi near his college. So yeah I live alone in this apartment.
It would be 10 PM at which game was going to start. Time dilation in the game was in the ratio of 3:1 that is 8 hours in real life will be 24 hours in-game, and the game world will pause at 6 AM and again resume at 10 PM, so it was actually a very convenient setting.
At 9:55 I entered the cabin and when the timer turned to 00:00:00, I was engulfed with a red light which sucked to who knows where, or at least that is how I felt. When I opened my eyes I was on a very realistic looking open field with a screen in front of me displaying a welcome message
[Hello Neel Roy, welcome to the Kings uprising]
[Please select your username ---]
[...Aragorn...] Just as I thought in my mind it got imprinted on the screen.
[Hello Aragorn, please get ready for the battle of trial]
And with this, a new window opened on the right side of the screen showing various troop types including Swordmen, Spearmen, Militia, Archers, Archer cavalry, Light cavalry, Heavy Lancer cavalry, Shock infantry, siege weapons, pikemen, etc. along with their cost. On the left side was a new message describing the objective and rules of the trial.
[You will be given 10000 points to command any number of troops given in the box. With this, you can choose between 'Siege Attack', 'Siege defense' and 'Open field' battle mode to proceed]
'Interesting', I thought. A siege defense should be very easy, but if it's a trial, then I guess my chance of scoring high should get lowered for the sake of keeping things fair. A siege attack can get very disadvantageous if certain factors like terrain don't favor me, so uncertainty is very high.
"I choose Open field battle", I said aloud after pondering for a bit.
[Please choose units to field in battle]
With this, I chose 500 fodders...I mean Spear militia for 1000 points, 500 Archers for 2500 points, 50 Heavy Lancer cavalry for 1000 points, 250 Light cavalries with spears for 2500 points, 200 Sword and Shield soldiers for 2000 points, and 100 Shock Infantry for the remaining 1000 points.
'I hope it's enough to win the battle' I thought before confirming my choice.
[Units selected, battle commencing in 00:00:05 hours]
And after 5 seconds I got teleported to a camp built on a hill. It was slightly dark but will probably be the sunrise in an hour. Soldiers were starting to get ready for the battle and I was with 7 other people around the campfire. After asking about them I got to know they were Captains of different units.
"So how far is the enemy camp from here and where are we going to meet in the battle map and what is their strength?" I asked probably the most important question in the situation.
"Sir, the enemy camp is situated 10 miles north from here beside a lake and we are going to meet probably 4-5 mile from our camp on completely open grassland. They have around 2000 men who are mostly Infantry and around 500 light cavalries." replied the captain of a light cavalry unit.
'Hmm, this is going to be a pain' I thought after listening they have 500 light cavalries. 'I have to use my cavalry defensively', I concluded.
"Order 20 of your men to try to get their exact composition and get everyone ready we are setting half an hour early than designated time and ask someone to carry these wooden stakes with them". I commanded immediately before started wearing my armour. It was a typical set of armour with metal chest piece, shoulder guards, gauntlets, and a metal kettle helmet. I chose a spear which I had no idea how to use but at least I can poke with it if needed and 4 javelins because I had some practice in the javelin throw from the armoury before getting on my horse which miraculously was very easy to ride despite having zero experience.
After about an hour we arrived at the spot 1 mile away from the supposed battlefield. Since the enemy had more men and hence they had to come to attack us, with this thought I chose a slightly elevated terrain to defend. According to scout reports they had around 500 archers and among infantry most are swordsmen.
With this, I arranged our formation which was a standard one with archers spread on the elevated ground with 300 militia spearmen forming a front line with, 200 sword & shield soldiers were placed behind archers to reinforce the frontline at any moment with 100 shock infantry with 2 handed axes placed at flanks of infantry formation, wooden stakes were placed at flanks to prevent cavalry charge on infantry. I also arranged 1500 light cavalry on the right flank and heavy lancers with 100 light cavalries on the left flank. 200 militia spearmen were arranged at the backline to prevent any surprises while I was at the center with the whole battlefield present in front of me.
Half an hour later enemy army arrived and stopped half a mile away from us. They have archers at the front with swordsmen just behind them to support at any moment. Spearmen were at the flank of the infantry. Their commander was at the back with 50 light cavalries and the rest were equally divided on both flanks. With the blow of horn from both sides, the battle officially started.