Battle of Castle Tomić

The Battle of Castle Tomić was a decisive battle in the Agivaean Civil War, where the Danior Free Army was effectively destroyed as a viable military threat.

Background
House Tomić, the leading noble house in Danior, was effectively destroyed in an attack by the DFA on their castle in the Northern Hills. The small garrison of both Agivaean Regulars and Stratioti fell within hours of the initial attack. A few locals who witnessed the attack fled to a the nearest Agivaean garrison and told how servants had let DFA units in through the rear of the castle. The House-lord of Tomić was said to have gone down fighting alongside his men.

The DFA had assumed they had wiped out the whole Tomić bloodline but they had forgotten about the Lord-Commander of the Stratioti, Bartolomej Tomić.

Battle
Bartolomej Tomić soon made an attempt retake his home. The Lord-Commander called his Stratioti to the capital where they begun their march to Danior. Along with the Stratioti, the Doge has assigned some Cavalry, Cavalry Artillery and some, yet untested, Armoured Cars. Tomić instructed his mobile units to escort the Horse Artillery to the ledge overlooking the DFA trench-line. Unknown to him the DFA had laid a perfect ambush in the village of Dvorac. When looting the Castle, The DFA had found some antiquated machine guns in the castles armoury (and some more modern HMGs found on the defenders) and used them to spring their trap.

The ambush killed most of the Cavalry Outriders, but the DFA was unable to penetrate the armor of the armored cars and were quickly destroyed by machine-gun fire. The column moved through the village and encountered no more resistance. The Artillery began the battle by pummelling the Castle wall after a few salvoes it came crashing down killing multiple DFA defenders in the process. After the wall collapse the guns changed their focus on the DFA trenches blocking the way into the breach.

The artillery barrage finished and the Stratioti charged headlong into the surviving DFA units. The untrained gunners and the antique machine guns used by the DFA was not fully effective at stopping the charge and were completely routed when the Stratioti reached the line and engaged in brutal melee combat.

While the front was under attack by the Stratioti, the flanking artillery began to shell the side wall to create another breach for the supporting Lüttenbergian Mountain troops. They swarmed the breach and caused massive disarray within the DFA ranks.

An hour after the Stratioti reached the front line the battle was over. Castle Tomić had been freed and all prisoners were executed by Stratioti officers.