The Danish Subjugation of Dithmarschen

Finally ready to put down the so-called "Peasant's Republic" of Dithmarschen, Prince Frederick of Denmark leads his brother, King Johan II of Denmark, to the northern edge of the rebellious swampland, accompanied by three thousand landsknecht "Black Guards", a thousand feudal knights, three siege engines, and 3500 other levied troops. To the south marched commander Thomas Slentz with a thousand of his own Black Guard landsknecht, another thousand feudal knights, and 2500 levied troops. With a combined force of over 12,000 troops, it should be a simple undertaking to take out just over 4000 dirty peasants armed with spears, pikes, and bows. Johan even predicted the most likely of the peasant moves - breaking the many dykes around the area to cause muddy conditions and difficulties travelling - and managed to get a decent map together of possible flooding locations to watch out for [66]. It turned out to not matter so much anyway, as most of the peasants were too scared to destroy their own land and refused to break the barriers, leaving only a few routes impeded by water and mud [35].

Preparations and troops ready, Frederick and Johan begin their march into Dithmarschen. Their march to Tellingstedt - their first target - manages to go quickly and without much impediment by mud [94], although the peasants manage to get in a few ambushes [70] that kill 385 Danish troops, mostly the levied spearmen and crossbowmen. Approaching Tellingstedt, they arrive to find the entire town drunk and unable to walk [6]. They easily slaughter anyone who lunges for a weapon, but only managing to kill 289 of the 600 peasants stationed in the town, the rest escaping in the panic. These fleeing men attempt to sabotage all the signage between Tellingstedt and Heide, but are too drunk to do so [14], with one man actually fixing a broken sign.

These peasants are, however, able to warn the people of Heide of the incoming Danish force [62], and they quickly break a few dykes around the town to muddify the surrounding land. The Danes arrive fairly quickly and relatively unscathed [76], and shout to the town that if they surrender, they will be unharmed. Despite the reservations of much of the town, they decide not to back down [45], forcing the Danes to set up for a siege of the town. The muddification of the land, however, prevents them from actually encircling the area [29], so they set everyone up at the eastern gate. Their 500 sappers and three siege engines make quick work of the relatively think Heide walls [73], and knock down much of the stone surrounding the gate. Seeing this, many of the peasant fighters manage to slip out the back [63], leaving a token force behind to slow down the massive Danish army.

Unfortunately, these remaining fighters are not looking to die just to slow down a superior enemy, and the entire town surrenders en masse [Nat 1]. The Danes, however, are not looking for surrender anymore, they are looking to send a message. So after confiscating every remaining weapon in the town, the Black Guard systematically go through and murder every single man, woman, and child left in Heide. They quickly clear all the bodies, and prepare the town as a staging ground for the rest of the war. From here, small raiding parties are sent out to secure the northern coast. The first raiding party [20] gets into a wholesale slaughter with the peasants left to defend the coast [22], and by the end most on both sides are dead, and there is no real sense of control. The other, however [63] slaughters the far less experienced Dithmarschen force [31], taking control of the area.

Meanwhile, to the south...

Thomas Slentz wishes to be back home, and so leads his force with unbelievable speed through the mud [Nat 100], with the mud in their way just ending up all over themselves. In fact, they arrive at Thaden so quickly and so covered in mud that the town believes that they are the force from Dithmarschen [9] and help them prepare for the incoming "enemy". So when the peasant force actually arrives, they walk into a wholesale slaughter [47 to -21]. 610 of the peasant force die, while only 32 of the Danes fall to return fire.

Capitalizing on the speed of their victory, the Danes attempt to march further north still, making great time [89] and losing only a few stragglers to peasant traps [59]. They arrive at Süderhastedt only to find it well prepared for any attack [70], and unwilling to surrender [51]. The Danes prepare for a siege, but once again fail to encircle the town due to mud traps [22]. This turns out to be a non-issue however, as the siege engines [99] decimate the walls [36] almost immediately. The peasants once again manage to help a good number of their fighters escape [63] and leave behind a deterrence force to prevent a massacre. Unlike in Hiede, this token force is unwilling to go down without a fight [65] and fight with a ferocity that takes the Black Guard completely by surprise [38]. While they cannot keep it up for long, overwhelmed by superior numbers, they buy enough time for 463 of the 500 peasants remaining in the town to escape, while taking out 289 Black Guard landsknechts.

This unexpected setback prevents the Danes from marching with the same enthusiasm as before [50], giving the peasants time to set up a number of traps and diversions [66]. It is the hardest the Danes have had it so far on a journey, as every road is either flooded, mudded, or literally covered in shit. This slow movement forms a number of different straggler groups, who are quickly accosted by the Dithmarschen peasants. The Danes are too encumbered by armor and heavy weapons [-3] to keep up with the far more lightly armed peasant guerrilla fighters [101], and lose 1215 of their forces, while only able to take 293 peasants with them to the grave.

Despite all the losses, the Danes are still determined to make it to their most important battleground yet - Meldorf, the seat of the Dithmarschen ruling council [65]. When they arrive, however, they discover that Meldorf has been made into a fortress [105]. The slog the Danes have had to go through has given Meldorf enough time to become extremely defensible, fortified with a ring of trenches and spiked pits, and stocked with supplies for a longer siege. Weary and in pain, the Danish force attempts to prepare for a siege [55], but the prepared peasant force is able to prevent any sort of encirclement [62]. This is going to be the toughest battle yet.

The Danish sappers being to do some work on the town walls, but as they do so a volley of arrows flies over the walls and towards the encamped Danish force [72]. The Danes end up being in all the wrong places at the wrong times, with anyone able to set up for a return volley eating an arrow [12], for a total of 442 casualties. The sappers have been distracted by this fighting [55], but still managed to make a single entryway in the walls large enough for men to get through, although this could easily become a deadly choke-point. The soldiers turn to commander Thomas Slentz and ask him what to do. He ponders this for a minute before putting out his order [22]...

C H A R G E E E E E E

The Danish troops surge forward through the gap, while the Dithmarschen peasants [81] laughing and waiting for them to surge in, setting up traps and jamming spears and pikes at every soldier coming through the gap. The Danes suffer heavy losses totaling 623 men, and can only take 190 peasant fighters with them. At this point, over half the Southern Danish Force is dead, and the rest of the levied soldiers have had enough [6], many deserting wholesale and some even defecting to join the peasants, who welcome them with open arms. Seeing this, Thomas Slentz, fearing for his own safety, has the rest of the mercenary force at his disposal break off the attack and protect him on his flight back to Denmark. The peasants had attempted to sabotage any signs that the Danish force passed after their first time going past them, but failed to do so [6], allowing Slentz a relatively uneventful journey back home [76].

Meanwhile, back north...

The northern contingent, despite the general issues of inhabiting a city covered in the stench of hundreds of dead bodies, is doing fine [62]. The secondary scouting parties sent out by Prince Frederick have done very well [95] and inform their commanders of the situation. Frederick is furious to hear of Slantz's failure to take Meldorf, and King Johan is interested to hear that the peasants have been fortifying a town off the coast called Büsum. Upon consideration of the options, Johan makes what he believes is the best possible call to end this war [96], which is to split the force in half, with Frederick leading a large force south to burn Meldorf to the ground, while he leads the remaining forces to secure the coast and prevent any more peasants from making it to Büsum.

Frederick makes good time marching his force south [88], although the peasants manage to take out 162 men with some well-placed traps [64]. They reach the northern gates of Meldorf, and find them virutally undefended [24], as the peasants have been busy fortifying the southern gate where the first attack had come from. The Danes, not looking to offer surrender, go right to work on the walls [107], which crumble almost immediately. The Danes flood in, meeting the confused Meldorf force fortified with deserted Danish troops. The bloodbath begins immediately with the Danes [47] taking an early advantage over the peasants [28]. They cut through the relatively unarmored Dithmarschen force like butter, but the peasants are fighting back with ferocity. Flames begin to spread out around the village, bathing the battle in a hellish red glow.

The bloodbath continues on, but the Danes [51] are starting to lose ground to the peasants fighting for their lives [52]. But even as more and more Danish troops flood in [29], the peasant force fights back with a determination not seen by these Danish soldiers in all their years, with skin colored as dark as the night from all the soot, and eyes glowing as red as the flames surrounding them. The Danes are losing ground fast, and Prince Frederick has to make a quick decision or risk losing once again to an inferior peasant force. Driven by anger and hatred, the Prince jumps into the battle himself, hoping to bolster the resolve of his men. But the peasants fight on, seeing the weakened force and charge directly at the front lines that Frederick is leading [46]. Frederick fights valiantly, but is so focused on the battle that he misses a deranged peasant, set alight by the fires surrounding him, charge straight at the Danish Prince and impale him through the midsection with a spear [6]. Broken by the loss of their leader, the rest of the force begins to desert the battlefield, though at this point virtually every peasant has been killed, and the entire town of Meldorf burned to the ground.

Word makes it back to King Johan about the death of his brother. Despite being stricken with grief, however, he still makes the correct call of waiting out the Dithmarschen force [94]. By occupying the coastline, no further supplies can reach the town of Büsum, which sits on an island just off the shallow coast. He also sends the Danish navy into the deeper waters off the island to prevent any funny business from the peasants. Unfortunately for the Dithmarschen force, they have not been able to stock the island well for a long siege [27], with supplies of food and fresh water especially low.

Two weeks later...

The remaining peasants are starving.

No food or water has made it onto the island in over a week, and while a few peasants have tried to swim to the mainland in the dead of night, they have either gotten sucked into the silty water surrounding the island or killed by the Danish force upon reaching the shore. Wulf Isebrand, commander of the Dithmarschen forces, seeing no other option, goes with the desperate, last-ditch plan [34] - he orders all his men, fully armed and armored, onto small fishing boats to try and make it to the shore under the cover of darkness. This does not fo well at all [45], with many of the peasants dying in the attempt, sucked into the water and silt as their boats capsize. But about half of the remaining peasant force, 1500 total men, make it to the shore. The Danes notice very quickly [71], and form into a cohesive unit, ready to end this war once and for all. Johan is very blinded by rage [24] and will be fighting alongside his troops. He steps to the front and attempts to make an impassioned speech, but this ends up confusing the troops more than anything [22]. But the end of his speech they all understood...

C H A R G E E E E

The Danes surge forward at the starving peasants, who are preparing to fight to the death. Unfortunately this does not go well, as the Danes [90] cut through the peasant force like butter [9], with Joahn himself slicing a way through the mass of soldiers to engage Wulf in a battle to the death. Unfortunately, his victory is not very satisfying [12], as Wulf is stabbed from behind by his own men by accident just as Johan is going in for the kill.

COMPLETE DANISH VICTORY

Dithmarschen losses -

• 4,257 peasants
• Wulf Isebrand

Danish losses -

• 2713 Black Guards
• 1567 Feudal Knights
• 780 Sappers
• 2152 Levy Spearmen
• 1518 Levy Crossbowmen
• 3 Mercenary Siege Engines
• Prince Frederick of Denmark