fandomhigh | Battles That Changed History, Second Period, Friday 2/5

The students had ~~handwavily~~ been informed that they would be meeting in the Danger Shop today. When they arrived, they would find themselves in a mountain pass. Their teacher was standing next to a pile of red and blue jerseys, and another pile of assorted weaponry made out of Nerf foam. As the students entered they were advised to select a jersey.

"Welcome to Roncevaux Pass," Steve said once they were all assembled. "Modern-day Spain. It wouldn't have looked like this, exactly, but we'll take what we can get. This is an interesting battle; its actual impact on historical events has little to nothing to do with what actually happened here and a whole lot more to do with what people who weren't here would claim had happened hundreds of years later. The year is 788 AD. Charlemagne's forces meet with a Basque army. Charlemagne's army is defeated. His nephew, Roland, is killed, inspiring the famous Song of Roland. The Basque establish their independence." He paused. "Some people believe this was a battle between Christian forces, under Charlemagne, king of the Franks, and invading Muslim forces. This is not so. Both belligerents were Christian, in fact. Elsewhere, in other campaigns and other battles, Charlemagne did hold off the Muslim invasion, keeping them to Spain and keeping the rest of Europe Christian, which resulted in a lot of cultural developments on both sides and a lot of problems between the two religions regarding territory that persist to the present day. Charlemagne united Europe and helped set what it would be...but he didn't do it at Roncevaux. Here, he had a bad day. It's funny how legends get built, isn't it?

"So!" he clapped his hands. "Reds, you are the Franks. Blues, you are the Basques. Reds, see if you can change history. Blues, try to preserve it. Select your weapons, and begin."

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"So," Arthur said, sounding sporting about the whole thing, "I think we can turn this around."

Mat plucked at his red jersey and then looked up. "I prefer winning," he said, glancing around at the terrain. "How did the Roland man make his errors? We don't want to do the same thing."

"From what I've read?"

Of course Arthur knew a few things about this. Please. "He added to the enemy's forces by taking a few unpopular actions in the beleaguered city, then the Basques employed their superior knowledge of the terrain to trap and attack them."

"So we can't change how bloody angry our opponents will be at us, but we could send out better scouts," Mat replied.

"Better scouts," Arthur agreed, "But we still have the massive disadvantage of being somewhat trapped in a narrow space. We might have to lay our own traps."

Mat glanced around again, eyes narrowing in thought. "This really is terrible ground," he admitted in an undertone. "What can we use to defend our heads? Do the shields lock?"

"If they don't, we'll simply have to make them," Arthur said, glancing at a couple. "Get a few archers in, get them a roof over their heads, point them up."

He looked at the rest of the group. "Get the rest of them to run like hell?" he said. "There has to be better ground somewhere else while the archers hold the attack off."

Arthur shook his head. "That'll leave the archers with too little protection," he said, "We'll need to run a trap down along the beginning of the pass. I'm not sure if we can manage a proper fire trap, but we should be able to fashion something akin to a barricade. Give the archers some space to move towards the back, leave some cavalry at the rear..." He scrunged up his face.

"We're in a bloody pickle," Mat said, making a similar face. "Don't suppose any of our classmates can make bloody holes in the air to get us out of here?"

And they were really screwed if Mat was even thinking about using magic.

"Shouldn't have pissed off the villagers," Arthur muttered.

Although this was the sort of pickle his father would probably get himself into in a worst-case scenario.

"I'll remember that," Mat said with a nod. "Which doesn't do us a lot of good now, but we can't really die in here."

Beat.

"Right?"

"...Not as far as I know," Arthur said, glancing along the pass. "On the upside, our opponents aren't the actual Basques."

"True, and they won't really have the same knowledge of the terrain."

That cheered Mat up considerably.

"Think anyone in our group but us can use a bow?"

Battles That Changed History, Second Period, Friday 2/5

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