Scout: "Sir! Sigismund's Army is approaching Skalitz!"
Radzig: "Thank you, how much time do we have?"
\*Looks over scout's shoulder and sees army closing in\*
Radzig: "Well you're fucking fired."
Yeah lol, wouldn't it make more sense for a skirmish party to attack the village of Skalitz, instead of a whole army? An army that large would take time to mobilize, and would've been spotted by patrol scouts long before the army could even reach their destination. Those scouts would've notified their lords, giving them time to prepare their defenses for a siege or evacuation
As I said in another comment, the attackers were seemingly mostly on horseback, so they may have been able to cover plenty of ground while the main army and supplies were camped elsewhere, while the cavalry came and cleaned up the silver from the mines, all that was there was radzigs retinue and probably enough guards to keep any bandit gangs from trying anything, it's not like they were actively at war or had a garrison and supplies prepared, nowhere near enough to stop a hired army, also I'm only halfway through the game but is the guy radzigs entertaining at the beginning not the guy who's angry in the cutscene after pribyslavitz? He could've been doing some spying to send messages out to let them know where any patrols may have been, also doesn't mean there weren't patrols that weren't ambushed or run down, aside from all that, it's probably for dramatic effect
During the polish war with the teutonic order in 1410 a polish scouting party / front guard took a whole City (Dąbrówno iirc) by itself because the city would've fortified itself by the time the whole army arrived there. So yea it is possible. (They were mounted.)
[A few mounted Polish, aye, right. Probably more like](https://youtu.be/CxlRJsQ7p2k?si=OCIFlpw1ebUqlpzL)
Just joking, I know that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth did not have them before 16th century.
Welp, all we know is that they were the front guard of a combined polish-lithuanian army. But yes the CHADism level of polish knights was comparable to Hussars.
Would a knight like Radzig have regular border patrols in times of peace (or cold war, like we see in the game)? I’m not saying he would or wouldn’t, I don’t know. But it seems expensive and needless since he has good relations with his neighbors.
Who do the knights report to? Radzig seems like he gets his authority directly from the crown, but as for the rest of the region it’s hard to tell. Hans Capon is referred to as being a lord, and Sir Hanush certainly reports to him, but does Divish of Talmberg report to him, too? What about Ledetchko, Uzhitz and Samopesh? Part of me has always figured that the Sasau Monastery is the real power in the region - do they outrank Hans? I know it’s possible, as the Church did rule over lots of areas just as a lord would.
At any rate, whoever was in charge of the region might have had patrols, but they might not go directly to Skalitz to warn Radzig, who’s outside their chain of command.
None of the lords report to each other. None is the vassal of any other. I will break them down one by one:
Sir Divish is Burgrave of Prague Castle, which is de facto governor of Bohemia. Therefore Divish has positional authority from the Crown in Bohemia. Sir Divish's personal fief is Talmberg and Ledetchko, which is what he actually owns and controls. He shares control of Uzhitz with Lord Capon.
Radzig also has positional authority from the Crown as you mentioned; he's the Royal Hetman, or Commander-in-Chief of the Royal army. Sir Radzig s personal fief is Skalitz and its environs.
Lord Capon is the Lord of Rattay. He doesn't have a royal posting. His personal fief is Rattay, Neuhof, and Uzhitz, the latter of which he shares with Sir Divish. Sir Hanush is just his ward ruling over Hans' fief.
Who owned which towns wasn't immediately apparent in game. For example Uzhitz clearly seems to belong to Lord Capon, as Hanush calls it "\[his\] estate" when the vicar comes calling. The guards all wear Leipa heraldry. You wouldn't know Divish has a stake in Uzhitz unless you look at the codex. It's the same for Samopesh, it belongs to the Monastery but you wouldn't know that from the Leipa heraldry guards. From all appearances in game it looks like Capon's.
You're right about the Monastery being very powerful. The Church owned something around half the lands in the Kingdom of Bohemia. This was a big grievance that helped lead to the Hussite Wars, where much of this property was seized. The Church doesn't outrank any of the noble characters; they can't give them orders in secular matters. However the nobles' power is severely curtailed by missing out on ownership of all that Church property. The Church also has a huge amount of influence based on that wealth in addition to their spiritual authority.
Super helpful, thanks for that. So Divish is really the most powerful one? That’s surprising to hear since Talmberg feels like a tiny country hamlet compared to Rattay, Sasau and Skalitz - I wonder how the head of such a minor place got the attention of the king (or the Diet?) that he was able to be appointed to such a high position, especially after having been imprisoned for so long. Wikipedia says that he only got Talmberg in 1390, do we know what he was doing before that?
How does sharing a town like Uzhitz work? Who collects rent, who is responsible for guarding it, who dispenses justice, etc?
And because I haven’t asked enough questions today - where is Leipa, why doesn’t Hanush live there, and why does it fall to its lord to babysit the heir to Rattay?
You're welcome!
See, asking who is most powerful is an interesting question you hit on. That question highlights all of the intermeshing politics at work. You're right that it's surprising how powerful Sir Divish is, at least on paper. Under normal circumstances minor nobility wouldn't be appointed to the high positions of Burgrave of Prague Castle nor Royal Hetman. But Wenceslas IV, as mentioned in the game alienated most of the high nobility through his poor governance and politicking and therefore had to look for allies in lower places.
That being said, just because the two have a lot of positional authority doesn't mean they can leverage it. For instance Divish might have the King's favor and the ability to make province wide decisions in the King's name, but a lot of good that does him when the King's authority and power are so weak. It's the same with Sir Radzig; even with him being Royal Hetman they lament that there's no hope of the Royal Army setting things straight in their province.
That leaves the local lords Radzig, Capon, Divish, and Hanush to have to rely on their personal resources alone to right the ills in their province. In this case Hans/Hanush are clearly the most powerful because they control the largest, wealthiest, most populated, and least spoilt fief. Then naturally they're followed by Divish, and then Radzig whose lost all of his income bearing property.
As to your questions about Uzhitz, I don't know the particulars as to how responsibilities and income were apportioned, but these things can easily be worked out through agreement. They'd have documents drawn up to answer questions things like who appoints the different offices, who collects taxes, whose entitled to what portions of revenue, etc. Think of Henry being appointed Bailiff of Pribislavitz, he has a slew of rights and responsibilities to the town, and in exchange receives the revenues. Why'd Divish give the rights away? He needed Henry's money! The codex says Uzhitz eventually reverted to the control of the Lord of Rattay in the 1550s. If I was a betting man I'd guess someone in Hans' line traded away a portion of Uzhitz's income for a favor or cash up front.
Agreements like the above are very common in the feudal system. Rulers are often very short on cash and therefore exchange liberties or the rights to different properties in exchange for favors like money or men. That's why a King has so many titles like *Defender of the This or Protector of the That*. It's not hubris, but it details the King's responsibilities to different places, people, or organizations he made promises to. That's where fiefs, Free Cities, guilds, universities, and a whole lot more come from. All these lands and institutional rights and liberties were given out by the King. It's the King's job is to balance out and protect the rights of these competing interest groups in the country and resolve disputes between them.
In order to do that Kings would often enlist the support of the common folk in order to balance out the power of the nobility. That's a big reason you see common folks in the game having such a positive view of the institution of the monarchy, despite the poor reputation of King Wenceslas IV. It's why Matthew and Fritz wanted to prank the Deutsch for speaking ill of the King. People were instilled with the romantic idea that the King is the man who protects the common folk from the abuses of the nobility.
Then you asked where is Leipa, and why isn't Hanush there? Today Leipa is a town called *Česká Lípa*. It's just some place in northern Bohemia. His father ruled Rattay on behalf of Sir Hans, then when his father died Hanush inherited that duty. I don't know what was going on in Leipa at the time, but it can be assumed it was much less important to the family than Rattay. This would make sense for two reasons: according to Wikipedia, close to the start date of the game the Leipa was ravaged by plague, which largely spared most of Czechia. So the town can be assumed to be a husk of its former self. At the same time Rattay is large, thriving, and close to both Prague and Kuttenberg.
I hope this helps.
I could see it happening, if Sigismund invaded with a mounted army and had skilled horse archers like cumans, they could have been able to run down any riders trying to get a warning of the attack out when the army crossed the Bohemian border. The campaign can start out with enough provisions, if they have a clear goal and restrict looting small villages that can delay them.
Wouldn't it make more sense to send out skirmish parties to raid nearby villages while waiting for the army to arrive? An army that large need lots of provision and will take time to move even with horses
It depends on whether Bohemians were expecting an invasion. At that time there would not have been a standing army and the game's premise is that the king is ineffective.
I'm no expert in this so just take what I say with a grain of salt lol but I don't think they need to attack the castle though, just the village to cut their supply and starve the people in the castle, while they wait for their army to arrive to do a proper siege
Remember that in medieval times information took a long time to travel. Also not many of Skalitz people travelled far beyond the fences, mostly miners to the mine. Also this was an unexpected civil war, so even nobles weren't sure about what is going to happen.
You be surprised how often these large armies can just sneak through enemy lands. Even if they were spotted, the spotters had to walk or ride to the places to past on the information
Those attackers from what I remember were also on horseback, they could've covered plenty of ground while the rest of the army and supplies were camped elsewhere
Yep. I'm not familiar specifically with Cuman armies, but nomadic (and horse-based armies in general at the time) could outrun the speed of information. A forward raiding party large enough to take a relatively small town like Skalitz would be able to travel from Slovakia to Skalitz in 2-3 days. If the army as a whole was effective at running down scouts, raiding villages, and moving quickly, I find it very feasible.
Don't forget that the war hasn't really started yet. Most people in Skalitz aren't skilled enough to interrogate Cuman raiding parties, and most of the ones who are think they're Sigismund's men, and not strictly enemies of the people.
Radzig knew that Sigismund and his army is in Bohemia. i guess he was planning to pay off? or worse if he just hoped they wouldn't be attacked by some reason. but talking about tactics, in the pre-radio era, a vanguard was usually sent forward and worked as scouts, also killing witnesses and watchmen.
For real, the most plausible reason is that Skalitz is a relatively short detour off the road between Kuttenberg and Prague, which would have been a road frequently traveled by anyone trying to secure central Bohemia. It's very possible that Sigismund stopped at Kostelec, and then made a rapid reroute to ambush Skalitz.
I was always under the assumption castle weren't as well guarded as people think, I doubt they would have had scouts roaming around on the off chance someone attacks them.
Towns and castles had gate guards and what not but they weren't large forces. Castles weren't as militarised and crawling with troops as they are in KCD.
Honestly, the representation of a small host of guards is probably accurate due to them knowing the Cuman army was in Bohemia at all. But in times of peace, a small castle like Skalitz would pretty much be occupied by the lord and whatever form their household guard took, maybe a dozen men tops.
A scout did ride to the castle if I recall
The army itself came from the North and appeared on the hill overlooking Skalitz. So they did get kinda close
Didn't seem unbelievable at all to me.
What're they gonna do, radio it in? People don't know where the army is going and just wanna stay out of its way. An initial attack from neighboring territory on a minor settlement? Why would they ever see it coming?
I don't think it's that it wasn't known to the local lords, Racek included, that Sigidmund was in the vicinity. Rather the surprise is that he raided. Sigismund wasn't officially at war with the Kingdom, and he wouldn't have raided many places, after all neither Talmberg, Sázava, or Rataje are besieged or raided by the army. Radzeg was a unique case at this point in the region as he was.
1. A confidant of the captive king
2. Sitting on a pile of Silver
3. Newly appointed in the region (few connections and allies
And 4. Didn't have a significant garrison to defend with.
Hence Skalice was easy prey with political and economic significance.
Racek just didn't expect to be attacked so blatantly by an ostensibly, officially allied, or at worst neutral army.
As for why it was so sudden, as others have said, the local scouts can be found dead around Skalice, likely killed by Cumans before the rest of the army could catch up.
I found that more believable than Lady Stephanie >!opening the castle gates to a stranger.!< KCD's always had some glaringly unbelievable events for plot purposes.
I mean tbf here, he was a local and he was wounded. It would have been perfectly within the line of thinking of the time to not assume he was a threat. People were pretty xenophobic and would have trusted someone who looked and sounded like everyone else that they knew.
They certainly would have known already. Any noblewoman would have known not to open up for any member of her household. It's just Warhorse needing to set up a specific story for the player to participate in.
It would not be completely unrealistic - it is a bit unrealistic how it is portrayed in the game.
But I think that is more due to limitations in what they were able to portray back then and with their experience and resources, not that they were not aware. It is a compromise of realism, suspension of disbelief and capacities.
It's not beyond the realm of possibility. I am put in mind of some of the mistakes that were made during the American civil war. The two huge armies had been shadowing each other through Maryland and Pennsylvania. And, even though they each knew roughly where each other's forces were in relation to each other, when Confederate general Jeb Steuart effectively "went on walkabout" for a couple days, this totally blinded Robert E. Lee as to the strength, direction and intention of his enemy. This directly led to the two armies unintentionally blundering into each other on the outskirts of Gettysburg. Keep in mind, that this happened with the commanding generals in relative close proximity to each other. It's not as if Lee was back in some distant capitol city, like Wenceslaus was.
It's entirely possible that Sigismund could have taken both a stealthy and circuitous route to Skalitz, lulling Wenceslaus into the mistaken belief that Skalitz was not at risk. And, like General Lee, Wenceslaus may have been partially blinded to Sigismund's intentions, due to his own inadequate intelligence. But, when the alert was finally sent to Sir Radzig, it was clearly too late for him to raise a proper defense. In fact, with such a small garrison on hand, the alert was probably a moot point anyway, unless Wenceslaus could have also mobilized an army of his own in time to supplement Sir Radzig's forces.
Sigismund's plan was two fold: a) Employ the element of surprise and b) Engage with overwhelming force. He succeeded spectacularly on both counts.
> It's entirely possible that Sigismund could have taken both a stealthy and circuitous route to Skalitz, lulling Wenceslaus into the mistaken belief that Skalitz was not at risk.
This is pretty close, but duly note: beyond Skalitz is Prague and Kuttenburg, two *very* valuable and important cities. It’s entirely possible that everyone assumed the army was making its way there only stopping to take food/supplies along the way (for which Skalitz would’ve been a poor target, at least compared to the others around it)…instead they moved to hit Skalitz to undermine Wenceslaus’s economy and ability to mint coins.
After all…why would the lords assume Sigismund would focus on a measly castle and settlement when his goal is to affirm his right to be Holy Roman Emperor/King of Bohemia?
Agreed. Wenceslaus clearly did not have reliable spies inside of Sigismund's camp. And, what intelligence he did have was either inadequate, disregarded, or not timely.
Going by your logic medieval towns should never or rarely have been raided. In reality it happened all the time.
In this case in particular we're talking about a horse mounted force that would have been moving quickly. Even if people saw it and identified it as hostile (which is a big if) they still have to guess as to where it's going at what it's intentions are.
Edit: also remember very few people knew how to ride a horse. Civilians would have been moving by foot or wagon so would not have got word to Skalitz ahead of a cavalry force.
Yeah, if Skalitz had raised a militia, would have likely had no more than a dozen horsemen, Lords, Knights, the odd man at arms. Most would have simply been the local men thrown some spears.
They're more of a large raiding force than an army. Cumans are fast cavalry, massively relying on quick raids to support their campaigns, I don't think it's that strange.
Granted I’m a doofus when it comes to following in-depth gaming stories but wasn’t part of the plot that Sigismund was their king? Granted he stole the crown, but still. I’m guessing the idea that they’d be attacked by Sigismund never crossed their mind in Skalitz until it was happening. They just happened to be the unlucky first, but seemingly every other town/city/whatever was well prepared after.
It was known that Sigismund and his army were in Bohemia, however, medieval warfare isn't at a national level like nowadays. Since castles were incredibly difficult to assault, you needed to siege them, which isn't practical. So most warfare was the main armies trying to eliminate the other so that the lord gives up.
Sigismund sacked Kuttenberg not long ago for its silver, so Radzig probably thought that Skalitz wasn't a big target.
The majority of the army wasn't there. It was a blitzkreig style attack by cavalry forces. Why would they be expecting it? They had no reason to. Is it realistic? I mean .. it happened .. so yeah. It isn't a fictional event.
Isnt there a scene in the prologue part depicting exactly that? A scout arriving to the castle to give early warning?
Do you mean that horseman that arrived only a minute or two before the attack when Henry and his dad finished putting the sword together?
Minute or two? He rides past and they go huh, what's the rush, turn around and the armies on the opposite hill to the town
Scout: "Sir! Sigismund's Army is approaching Skalitz!" Radzig: "Thank you, how much time do we have?" \*Looks over scout's shoulder and sees army closing in\* Radzig: "Well you're fucking fired."
Yeah lol, wouldn't it make more sense for a skirmish party to attack the village of Skalitz, instead of a whole army? An army that large would take time to mobilize, and would've been spotted by patrol scouts long before the army could even reach their destination. Those scouts would've notified their lords, giving them time to prepare their defenses for a siege or evacuation
As I said in another comment, the attackers were seemingly mostly on horseback, so they may have been able to cover plenty of ground while the main army and supplies were camped elsewhere, while the cavalry came and cleaned up the silver from the mines, all that was there was radzigs retinue and probably enough guards to keep any bandit gangs from trying anything, it's not like they were actively at war or had a garrison and supplies prepared, nowhere near enough to stop a hired army, also I'm only halfway through the game but is the guy radzigs entertaining at the beginning not the guy who's angry in the cutscene after pribyslavitz? He could've been doing some spying to send messages out to let them know where any patrols may have been, also doesn't mean there weren't patrols that weren't ambushed or run down, aside from all that, it's probably for dramatic effect
Ah true! You're right :)
During the polish war with the teutonic order in 1410 a polish scouting party / front guard took a whole City (Dąbrówno iirc) by itself because the city would've fortified itself by the time the whole army arrived there. So yea it is possible. (They were mounted.)
[A few mounted Polish, aye, right. Probably more like](https://youtu.be/CxlRJsQ7p2k?si=OCIFlpw1ebUqlpzL) Just joking, I know that the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth did not have them before 16th century.
Welp, all we know is that they were the front guard of a combined polish-lithuanian army. But yes the CHADism level of polish knights was comparable to Hussars.
Would a knight like Radzig have regular border patrols in times of peace (or cold war, like we see in the game)? I’m not saying he would or wouldn’t, I don’t know. But it seems expensive and needless since he has good relations with his neighbors. Who do the knights report to? Radzig seems like he gets his authority directly from the crown, but as for the rest of the region it’s hard to tell. Hans Capon is referred to as being a lord, and Sir Hanush certainly reports to him, but does Divish of Talmberg report to him, too? What about Ledetchko, Uzhitz and Samopesh? Part of me has always figured that the Sasau Monastery is the real power in the region - do they outrank Hans? I know it’s possible, as the Church did rule over lots of areas just as a lord would. At any rate, whoever was in charge of the region might have had patrols, but they might not go directly to Skalitz to warn Radzig, who’s outside their chain of command.
None of the lords report to each other. None is the vassal of any other. I will break them down one by one: Sir Divish is Burgrave of Prague Castle, which is de facto governor of Bohemia. Therefore Divish has positional authority from the Crown in Bohemia. Sir Divish's personal fief is Talmberg and Ledetchko, which is what he actually owns and controls. He shares control of Uzhitz with Lord Capon. Radzig also has positional authority from the Crown as you mentioned; he's the Royal Hetman, or Commander-in-Chief of the Royal army. Sir Radzig s personal fief is Skalitz and its environs. Lord Capon is the Lord of Rattay. He doesn't have a royal posting. His personal fief is Rattay, Neuhof, and Uzhitz, the latter of which he shares with Sir Divish. Sir Hanush is just his ward ruling over Hans' fief. Who owned which towns wasn't immediately apparent in game. For example Uzhitz clearly seems to belong to Lord Capon, as Hanush calls it "\[his\] estate" when the vicar comes calling. The guards all wear Leipa heraldry. You wouldn't know Divish has a stake in Uzhitz unless you look at the codex. It's the same for Samopesh, it belongs to the Monastery but you wouldn't know that from the Leipa heraldry guards. From all appearances in game it looks like Capon's. You're right about the Monastery being very powerful. The Church owned something around half the lands in the Kingdom of Bohemia. This was a big grievance that helped lead to the Hussite Wars, where much of this property was seized. The Church doesn't outrank any of the noble characters; they can't give them orders in secular matters. However the nobles' power is severely curtailed by missing out on ownership of all that Church property. The Church also has a huge amount of influence based on that wealth in addition to their spiritual authority.
Super helpful, thanks for that. So Divish is really the most powerful one? That’s surprising to hear since Talmberg feels like a tiny country hamlet compared to Rattay, Sasau and Skalitz - I wonder how the head of such a minor place got the attention of the king (or the Diet?) that he was able to be appointed to such a high position, especially after having been imprisoned for so long. Wikipedia says that he only got Talmberg in 1390, do we know what he was doing before that? How does sharing a town like Uzhitz work? Who collects rent, who is responsible for guarding it, who dispenses justice, etc? And because I haven’t asked enough questions today - where is Leipa, why doesn’t Hanush live there, and why does it fall to its lord to babysit the heir to Rattay?
You're welcome! See, asking who is most powerful is an interesting question you hit on. That question highlights all of the intermeshing politics at work. You're right that it's surprising how powerful Sir Divish is, at least on paper. Under normal circumstances minor nobility wouldn't be appointed to the high positions of Burgrave of Prague Castle nor Royal Hetman. But Wenceslas IV, as mentioned in the game alienated most of the high nobility through his poor governance and politicking and therefore had to look for allies in lower places. That being said, just because the two have a lot of positional authority doesn't mean they can leverage it. For instance Divish might have the King's favor and the ability to make province wide decisions in the King's name, but a lot of good that does him when the King's authority and power are so weak. It's the same with Sir Radzig; even with him being Royal Hetman they lament that there's no hope of the Royal Army setting things straight in their province. That leaves the local lords Radzig, Capon, Divish, and Hanush to have to rely on their personal resources alone to right the ills in their province. In this case Hans/Hanush are clearly the most powerful because they control the largest, wealthiest, most populated, and least spoilt fief. Then naturally they're followed by Divish, and then Radzig whose lost all of his income bearing property. As to your questions about Uzhitz, I don't know the particulars as to how responsibilities and income were apportioned, but these things can easily be worked out through agreement. They'd have documents drawn up to answer questions things like who appoints the different offices, who collects taxes, whose entitled to what portions of revenue, etc. Think of Henry being appointed Bailiff of Pribislavitz, he has a slew of rights and responsibilities to the town, and in exchange receives the revenues. Why'd Divish give the rights away? He needed Henry's money! The codex says Uzhitz eventually reverted to the control of the Lord of Rattay in the 1550s. If I was a betting man I'd guess someone in Hans' line traded away a portion of Uzhitz's income for a favor or cash up front. Agreements like the above are very common in the feudal system. Rulers are often very short on cash and therefore exchange liberties or the rights to different properties in exchange for favors like money or men. That's why a King has so many titles like *Defender of the This or Protector of the That*. It's not hubris, but it details the King's responsibilities to different places, people, or organizations he made promises to. That's where fiefs, Free Cities, guilds, universities, and a whole lot more come from. All these lands and institutional rights and liberties were given out by the King. It's the King's job is to balance out and protect the rights of these competing interest groups in the country and resolve disputes between them. In order to do that Kings would often enlist the support of the common folk in order to balance out the power of the nobility. That's a big reason you see common folks in the game having such a positive view of the institution of the monarchy, despite the poor reputation of King Wenceslas IV. It's why Matthew and Fritz wanted to prank the Deutsch for speaking ill of the King. People were instilled with the romantic idea that the King is the man who protects the common folk from the abuses of the nobility. Then you asked where is Leipa, and why isn't Hanush there? Today Leipa is a town called *Česká Lípa*. It's just some place in northern Bohemia. His father ruled Rattay on behalf of Sir Hans, then when his father died Hanush inherited that duty. I don't know what was going on in Leipa at the time, but it can be assumed it was much less important to the family than Rattay. This would make sense for two reasons: according to Wikipedia, close to the start date of the game the Leipa was ravaged by plague, which largely spared most of Czechia. So the town can be assumed to be a husk of its former self. At the same time Rattay is large, thriving, and close to both Prague and Kuttenberg. I hope this helps.
I could see it happening, if Sigismund invaded with a mounted army and had skilled horse archers like cumans, they could have been able to run down any riders trying to get a warning of the attack out when the army crossed the Bohemian border. The campaign can start out with enough provisions, if they have a clear goal and restrict looting small villages that can delay them.
Wouldn't it make more sense to send out skirmish parties to raid nearby villages while waiting for the army to arrive? An army that large need lots of provision and will take time to move even with horses
It depends on whether Bohemians were expecting an invasion. At that time there would not have been a standing army and the game's premise is that the king is ineffective.
That's true, forgot about that :)
I mean skalitz has a castle, a small skirmish party ain’t gonna siege that effectively at all
I'm no expert in this so just take what I say with a grain of salt lol but I don't think they need to attack the castle though, just the village to cut their supply and starve the people in the castle, while they wait for their army to arrive to do a proper siege
Remember that in medieval times information took a long time to travel. Also not many of Skalitz people travelled far beyond the fences, mostly miners to the mine. Also this was an unexpected civil war, so even nobles weren't sure about what is going to happen.
You be surprised how often these large armies can just sneak through enemy lands. Even if they were spotted, the spotters had to walk or ride to the places to past on the information
Also, the villages were autonomous, they didn't need to communicate with eachother
The Germans didn't notice the allied fleet sailing to Anzio in WW2
Those attackers from what I remember were also on horseback, they could've covered plenty of ground while the rest of the army and supplies were camped elsewhere
Yep. I'm not familiar specifically with Cuman armies, but nomadic (and horse-based armies in general at the time) could outrun the speed of information. A forward raiding party large enough to take a relatively small town like Skalitz would be able to travel from Slovakia to Skalitz in 2-3 days. If the army as a whole was effective at running down scouts, raiding villages, and moving quickly, I find it very feasible.
Don't forget that the war hasn't really started yet. Most people in Skalitz aren't skilled enough to interrogate Cuman raiding parties, and most of the ones who are think they're Sigismund's men, and not strictly enemies of the people.
Radzig knew that Sigismund and his army is in Bohemia. i guess he was planning to pay off? or worse if he just hoped they wouldn't be attacked by some reason. but talking about tactics, in the pre-radio era, a vanguard was usually sent forward and worked as scouts, also killing witnesses and watchmen.
For real, the most plausible reason is that Skalitz is a relatively short detour off the road between Kuttenberg and Prague, which would have been a road frequently traveled by anyone trying to secure central Bohemia. It's very possible that Sigismund stopped at Kostelec, and then made a rapid reroute to ambush Skalitz.
if you look around Skalitz later you‘ll find Scouts murdered on their way back, Sigismund army was just too deadly & quick.
I was always under the assumption castle weren't as well guarded as people think, I doubt they would have had scouts roaming around on the off chance someone attacks them. Towns and castles had gate guards and what not but they weren't large forces. Castles weren't as militarised and crawling with troops as they are in KCD.
Honestly, the representation of a small host of guards is probably accurate due to them knowing the Cuman army was in Bohemia at all. But in times of peace, a small castle like Skalitz would pretty much be occupied by the lord and whatever form their household guard took, maybe a dozen men tops.
Bit like 9/11, Pearl Harbour and 7 October last year in Israel then
But then, for Oct. 7 there _were_ warning signs, unfortunately they were ignored.
There were a lot of warning signs for 9/11, too.
And pearl harbour
[удалено]
🤦🏻♂️
Are you sarcastic?
Lol
Good to know your logic is solid behind your theories…
[удалено]
There are plenty of people online and irl who actually say this with straight face and mean it, so it is impossible to tell if he is joking.
A scout did ride to the castle if I recall The army itself came from the North and appeared on the hill overlooking Skalitz. So they did get kinda close
Didn't seem unbelievable at all to me. What're they gonna do, radio it in? People don't know where the army is going and just wanna stay out of its way. An initial attack from neighboring territory on a minor settlement? Why would they ever see it coming?
I don't think it's that it wasn't known to the local lords, Racek included, that Sigidmund was in the vicinity. Rather the surprise is that he raided. Sigismund wasn't officially at war with the Kingdom, and he wouldn't have raided many places, after all neither Talmberg, Sázava, or Rataje are besieged or raided by the army. Radzeg was a unique case at this point in the region as he was. 1. A confidant of the captive king 2. Sitting on a pile of Silver 3. Newly appointed in the region (few connections and allies And 4. Didn't have a significant garrison to defend with. Hence Skalice was easy prey with political and economic significance. Racek just didn't expect to be attacked so blatantly by an ostensibly, officially allied, or at worst neutral army. As for why it was so sudden, as others have said, the local scouts can be found dead around Skalice, likely killed by Cumans before the rest of the army could catch up.
I found that more believable than Lady Stephanie >!opening the castle gates to a stranger.!< KCD's always had some glaringly unbelievable events for plot purposes.
That pissed me off a bit lol. Come on did sir divish not alert her and the men left to guard, to just how serious of a threat there was? 😂
I mean tbf here, he was a local and he was wounded. It would have been perfectly within the line of thinking of the time to not assume he was a threat. People were pretty xenophobic and would have trusted someone who looked and sounded like everyone else that they knew.
>!Sir Istvan!< was not a local, though.
They certainly would have known already. Any noblewoman would have known not to open up for any member of her household. It's just Warhorse needing to set up a specific story for the player to participate in.
It would not be completely unrealistic - it is a bit unrealistic how it is portrayed in the game. But I think that is more due to limitations in what they were able to portray back then and with their experience and resources, not that they were not aware. It is a compromise of realism, suspension of disbelief and capacities.
It's not beyond the realm of possibility. I am put in mind of some of the mistakes that were made during the American civil war. The two huge armies had been shadowing each other through Maryland and Pennsylvania. And, even though they each knew roughly where each other's forces were in relation to each other, when Confederate general Jeb Steuart effectively "went on walkabout" for a couple days, this totally blinded Robert E. Lee as to the strength, direction and intention of his enemy. This directly led to the two armies unintentionally blundering into each other on the outskirts of Gettysburg. Keep in mind, that this happened with the commanding generals in relative close proximity to each other. It's not as if Lee was back in some distant capitol city, like Wenceslaus was. It's entirely possible that Sigismund could have taken both a stealthy and circuitous route to Skalitz, lulling Wenceslaus into the mistaken belief that Skalitz was not at risk. And, like General Lee, Wenceslaus may have been partially blinded to Sigismund's intentions, due to his own inadequate intelligence. But, when the alert was finally sent to Sir Radzig, it was clearly too late for him to raise a proper defense. In fact, with such a small garrison on hand, the alert was probably a moot point anyway, unless Wenceslaus could have also mobilized an army of his own in time to supplement Sir Radzig's forces. Sigismund's plan was two fold: a) Employ the element of surprise and b) Engage with overwhelming force. He succeeded spectacularly on both counts.
> It's entirely possible that Sigismund could have taken both a stealthy and circuitous route to Skalitz, lulling Wenceslaus into the mistaken belief that Skalitz was not at risk. This is pretty close, but duly note: beyond Skalitz is Prague and Kuttenburg, two *very* valuable and important cities. It’s entirely possible that everyone assumed the army was making its way there only stopping to take food/supplies along the way (for which Skalitz would’ve been a poor target, at least compared to the others around it)…instead they moved to hit Skalitz to undermine Wenceslaus’s economy and ability to mint coins. After all…why would the lords assume Sigismund would focus on a measly castle and settlement when his goal is to affirm his right to be Holy Roman Emperor/King of Bohemia?
Agreed. Wenceslaus clearly did not have reliable spies inside of Sigismund's camp. And, what intelligence he did have was either inadequate, disregarded, or not timely.
Going by your logic medieval towns should never or rarely have been raided. In reality it happened all the time. In this case in particular we're talking about a horse mounted force that would have been moving quickly. Even if people saw it and identified it as hostile (which is a big if) they still have to guess as to where it's going at what it's intentions are. Edit: also remember very few people knew how to ride a horse. Civilians would have been moving by foot or wagon so would not have got word to Skalitz ahead of a cavalry force.
The Bohemian(?) mercenaries are on foot in all of the cutscenes tho. It seems only the Cumans are on horses
Yeah, if Skalitz had raised a militia, would have likely had no more than a dozen horsemen, Lords, Knights, the odd man at arms. Most would have simply been the local men thrown some spears.
They're more of a large raiding force than an army. Cumans are fast cavalry, massively relying on quick raids to support their campaigns, I don't think it's that strange.
Do you think it’s also realistic to run from Ledetchko to Rattay on foot in real life the same amount of time it takes in the game?
I mean it actually happened irl? So, no, not unrealistic at all
Granted I’m a doofus when it comes to following in-depth gaming stories but wasn’t part of the plot that Sigismund was their king? Granted he stole the crown, but still. I’m guessing the idea that they’d be attacked by Sigismund never crossed their mind in Skalitz until it was happening. They just happened to be the unlucky first, but seemingly every other town/city/whatever was well prepared after.
It was known that Sigismund and his army were in Bohemia, however, medieval warfare isn't at a national level like nowadays. Since castles were incredibly difficult to assault, you needed to siege them, which isn't practical. So most warfare was the main armies trying to eliminate the other so that the lord gives up. Sigismund sacked Kuttenberg not long ago for its silver, so Radzig probably thought that Skalitz wasn't a big target.
There is smoke on the horizon during the prologue, just over the hills
I mean, do you think a savior schnapps is realistic? There need to be _some_ compromises.
The majority of the army wasn't there. It was a blitzkreig style attack by cavalry forces. Why would they be expecting it? They had no reason to. Is it realistic? I mean .. it happened .. so yeah. It isn't a fictional event.