War of Oakheart Succession

The War of Oakheart Succession was a sudden and bloody conflict that took place over the contested succession to the lands of House Oakheart between two contested claims between House Lannister and House Tyrell.

Prelude
Few had expected the vigorous young lord of House Oakheart, Lord Mathis, to suddenly die in the prime of his life, especially not himself, when he married off his sister and heir to the Lannisters. However, a shocking riding accident during a shortsighted attempt to cross a ford on horseback caused his tragic drowning, leaving the ancient seat of Old Oak ripe for the taking. Though heir by rights, the thought of a Lannister on the oaken seat terrified the Tyrells, who quickly pushed the claim of the late lord's uncle to deny the Lannisters their prize. Old wounds from previous tensions flared back up, with both the vassals of Lannister and Tyrell enthusiastically marching off to support their liege lord. With the king distracted in managing the Tarth crisis in the Stormlands, there was nothing to stop the two behemoths from clashing over the vacant seat of Old Oak.

House Lannister Strikes
An early victory for the Lannisters was scored when a force under the command of the Crakehalls took advantage of the divided loyalties of the garrison of Old Oak and scaled a sympathetic section of the walls, forcing the rest of the garrison to surrender in the Storming of Old Oak. A lightning campaign led by the forces of House Serret would further cause havoc across the land of the Rowans, routing the disorganized forces of knights attempting to stop them - Serret's Harvests, it was called, for the quantity of blood that soiled the grounds. Though early momentum was firmly in the hands of the Lannisters, the titanic force of the Reach was bearing down on their smaller army, and many of the Westerlords called for a council to negotiate while they still had the upper hand, to give up their claim on Old Oak in exchange for subsidies. Perhaps the war might have ended there, if not for the actions of Lord Lannister, who saw to it that the diplomat dispatched would be found unacceptable to the Reachmen, ensuring the war would continue. In fact, the overly confident Reachmen would insult the diplomat, infuriating the Westermen in turn.

The Disaster for the Reach
A proper clash of armies would take place outside the very walls of Old Oak a second time at the Battle of Old Oak, where a Westerner force ten thousand strong under command of Lord Crakehall would fortify themselves against the walls of the castle. The weather was atrocious, with rain pouring down on the field for days on end, delaying the main Reachmen force; especially after an advanced scouting party of Westerners managed to destroy an important crossing. Still, the host under the personal command of Lord Tyrell outnumbered the Westerners nearly two to one. The reinforcements would never have a chance to arrive, however, as another major raid on the Rowans' holdings, combined with the knights' desire for battle, would see the Reachmen preemptively attack, hoping to drown the entrenched Westerners with their superior numbers. It would not be, as the mud ensured the heavy knights of the Reach would be bogged down, suffering massive casualties by archers and repurposed siege equipment before even reaching the Western fortifications. The few who did make it were quickly dispatched by the superiorly equipped and led Western forces, whom, being to the back of the walls of Old Oak, knew they had no place to run, even if they were to break. Though fighting was brutal, the Westerners would come out as undisputed victors, losing few men, though many wounded. The Reachmen would be able to withdraw in good order, but took devastating losses amongst their knights, many of whom drowned in the mud after being knocked off their horses. Even a few minor lords were captured, with Lord Rowan himself - having personally led the first charge - being found dead, washed up in the rain a few days later.

Lord Tyrell emerged from the battle with his reputation in tatters only made worse, as he fell deathly ill from the horrid conditions on the march home, rapidly fracturing the Reach into feuding factions proposing their own strategies (not quite unlike the situation in the Stormlands). Most notably, the Arbor emerged as a respected force, after a naval ambush near Lannisport saw a small fleet of Lannisport vessels captured, giving the Reach their first victory. They formed a defensive party, favoring slowly choking the West through naval dominance and denying them battle. On the other side was the new Lord of Goldengrove, whose house had become widely respected by the knights of the Reach as his father went into the history books as a martyr who gave his life for his kingdom. The conflicting strategies of these factions would only further damage the already faltering Reachmen war effort, as now nearly every future move would have to be negotiated, wasting valuable time.

The Lion's Dilemma and the Reach fights back
Meanwhile, the forces of the Westerlands found themselves in a dilemma; what to do next? The Reach seemed no closer to negotiating, even after their two defeats at Old Oak, leaving the Westerlands stuck, especially due to the fears that if the war dragged on for too long Maelor would intervene on the side of the Reach. The Westermen could attempt to seek further battles with the Reachmen, but a war of attrition on hostile territory would be unsustainable, meanwhile besieging the major castles of the Reach would be costly and leave them exposed. Deciding that both would be too risky, the West pursued a strategy of occupying the castles of the minor houses of the Northmarch, while pursuing a diplomatic strategy of divide and conquer. In the time it took for the Reach to reassemble itself, several of House Rowan’s vassals fell to vicious Westerland assaults, with House Osgrey declaring nominal support for the West. Meanwhile, Coldmoat itself had come under siege, and though a strong citadel in its own right, it could not hope hold for long. In fact, it was only Lord Osgrey Webber’s ruthless decision to scorch his surrounding fields that hampered the Western siege effort enough for them to continue holding.

After days of useless bickering, a Reachman army consisting Caswell, Crane, the remaining forces of Highgarden, Goldengrove, and a small expeditionary force of a dozen loyal knights and five hundred men at arms of the Old Oak claimant, Lord Gerion Oakheart, marched north to relieve the beleaguered Webbers. Twelve thousand Reachmen would face off against a besieging army of ten thousand Westerners, made up of levies from the houses of the Golden Tooth. To the horror of the Reachmen, they saw that the Westerners had already constructed several siege towers more than capable of scaling the walls of Coad Moat and likely would, if a battle wasn't brought soon. So, under the personal leadership of Gerion Oakheart, he and a few dozen heavy knights slammed into the center of the Western camp at the dead of night, setting fire to the towers, turning them into massive bonfires in the night sky, using their light to cut down the panicked Western levies around them in the Oaken Charge. Still, the raid would be swarmed and would have been overrun if not for the garrison of Coldmoat heroically sallying out to relieve the beleaguered knights, suffering massive casualties in the process. Yet the incredible show of bravery and the loss of their siege towers broke the nerve of the West that led to their withdrawal after the Sallying of Coldmoat. Casualties favored the Westerlands, but there was no doubting the relief of the castle was a Reachmen victory, if a pyrrhic one.

With the war effort grinding to a halt, raids and skirmishes became the signature tactic for a time, while the conflict at sea turned into the new theatre for mass bloodshed. In a poorly judged attempt to one up their Redwyne rivals, the Rowans allied with the Hightowers of Oldtown to prepare a daring blitz against House Farman. Though the might of House Redwyne would assist the operation to a point, it would be largely up to the Oldtown and sellsail ships to escort the assault.

The War Intensifies
At first it appeared as though all was well, with the fleet sailing to Fair Island seemingly unspotted, unleashing its cargo of men and mail on the sandy shares of the island. Unfortunately, they would soon realise it was a trap, as the gates of Faircastle were thrown open, revealing a waiting Western army. Shortly after, a hidden fleet revealed itself to smash the outnumbered Reachmen on the shores of the isle. Men fled en masse to the safety of their vessels, but there simply wasn’t enough time, leaving nearly five thousand out of an army of seven thousand to be cut down against the sea, with another five hundred going down with their ships as stragglers were hacked piecemeal, in the Slaughter at Fair Isle. The Reach might have collapsed under its own weight, if not for a daring raid by Gerion Oakheart, who scattered a relief army of five hundred Westermen marching to Old Oak with a mere fifty armored knights. Though a minor victory, especially in the face of such overwhelming defeats, it served as the glue to hold the fracturing kingdom together for just a little longer.

The Reach, despite its shameful losses, was of monstrous size and strength, not lacking in manpower. The Battle of Blackburn and the Battle of Greengrove were not enough to fully clear away their past embarrassments, but it was indicative of the fact that they could still find victories of their own. The totality of the Tyrell's losses became more and more uncertain, as his bannermen prepared to launch a deadly campaign focusing on subjugating the castles of the Westermen, a strategy built on sheer numbers, if not skill.

Still, before such a rallying could occur, what armies had already gathered at Red Lake were struck by an advancing host led by Lords Broom and Prester. The Battle of Red Lake inclined towards victory for the Westermen, as the outnumbered Reachmen fell like grain to scythe. Yet, despair changed to hope and shock as the sound of hooves approached from the south: the King had ridden forth with a small detachment under him, all ahorse, wishing to stop an end to this madness. The Westermen, crazed by bloodlust and a victory that was to be theirs, either could not recognize their monarch's arrival, or paid it no heed. As diplomacy could not cut it, Maelor brandished his blade in silence, and bade his riders to plunge into the enemy ranks, himself joining in the suicidal charge. His foes buckled under the weight of his assault, wavering from the efficacy of his strike, and the fearsome reputation Maelor had already built on the battlefield. Soon, the Westerman ran, and the Reachmen tasted victory.

End of the War and Aftermath
The arrival of the King himself made it clear that the war could no longer continue, forcing the West to finally sue for peace. Anger across the whole of the West, even culminating in a riot at Lannisport, broke out. They had won the war on the field, there was little denying that, with the amount of decisive victories they'd attained, yet their war aims had to be surrendered. In exchange for some compensation, Old Oak was handed over to Gerion Oakheart, and the War of Old Oak Succession ended thus, with scars everlasting.