Battle of Otterstaff

The Battle of Otterstaff was the only battle of the Calamann-Berskin War, fought between the Calamannic Kingdom of Cainraine and the Berskin Halmarian Army on June 22nd, SA 315. The battle was a decisive victory for the Berskins, doubling the size of their nascent empire and securing their grip on Northern Westreach. The defeat and dispersion of the Calamannic tribes had severe consequences for the Regency, as the dismemberment of Regental hegemony in the North was completed and Calamannic warlords were incorporated into the Heathan Line Army, leading directly to the SA 317 Sack of Harerok.

Background
By SA 315, Regental authority in Northern Westreach had effectively broken down, with local warlords and tribal chieftains assuming sovereignty in the war-torn Middefold. The Berskins of King Logen Blackdon, empowered by First Regent Julian Saric in the aftermath of Clements Revolt, had aggressively expanded their domain, exterminating and overrunning the Geteans in late SA 312 and extending their hegemony to the border of the Calamannic Kingdom of Cainraine, which had emerged in SA 307 and since conquered much of the Middefold at the Regency's expense. The Northern March remained at least partially under Regental control, but with the Middefold lost the Northern magnates were largely isolated, and thus, autonomous.

Though King Logen I of the Berskins, as councillor of the Northern Line Army, was nominally a Regental proxy, the extent of the Berskins expansion and the threat of eventual Berskin control over all of the Middefold induced Saric to begin shifting his support to King Megnovic I of the Calamanns. Blackdon, effectively autonomous in his Northern power-base, largely neglected tax collection and began to entirely disregard Saric's edicts, refusing in SA 314 to participate in a campaign against the Berskantar. The final straw came in late SA 314 when Blackdon, under the implied threat of force, requested that he be elevated to the status of Constable-General, a title that would allow him to exercise complete control over Northern Westreach. Under the guise of a feast, Saric invited Blackdon to Harrow in January of SA 315, but upon arriving in the capital in Blackdon, his son Raen, and their entire entourage were set upon and slaughtered by Saric's men.

Campaign
The betrayal of Blackdon provoked an unexpectedly strong response from the Berskins, who swiftly elected Blackdon's deputy Harris Halmar as King and prepared to invade the Middefold in retaliation. An army of 20,000 Berskins was hastily raised and by early May had struck into the southern Middefold, crossing the Gutlet and closing on Haleston. The Berskin military was perhaps the most sophisticated of the tribal armies that poured into Westreach during the Herrenkrieg, with a relatively standard system of mobilization and the capacity to maintain armies in the field for extended periods. The backbone of the Berskin army was comprised of bloodsworne, the household troops of the chieftains who were maintained year-long and were the military elite. The remainder of Berskin armies were supplemented by 'tribals' and mercenaries. Due to the Berskins nomadic origins, all men had some training and experience, thus creating a deep pool for recruits. The largest difference between the Berskins and other Northmen-Gailian confederations, however, was their large and sophisticated cavalry arm, the result of centuries of contact with the Kamujis and other Horsepeople.

King Megnovic I of the Calamanns, from his capital of Cainraine, hastily assembled an army of tribal levies and mercenaries to face the Berskins. Saric, recognizing that the Calamanns were now the last remaining bastion of Regental hegemony in the Middefold, dispatched some 7,000 men to join Megnovic, who he also declared councillor of the Middefold. Megnovic led the combined army south and prepared to give battle near the hamlet of Otterstaff.

Battle
The battle took place during a