Steel Empire
Road Direction Blocked

Rain fell on the border of Tyrol and Bavaria. Right now, the Bavarian army is marching. At the head of the military there was a Count who was quite annoyed with his current duties. For the most part, he and those of his troops were proud members of the German Reformation, and Duke Dietger had tasked them to strike at the heart of their movement. Tyrol was not only an important place in the hearts of the German Reformers, but also housed two of their leaders; berengar and Ludolf. Because of this, very few men in the army wanted to fulfill this task. 

On more than one occasion, the Count by the name of Siegmund had considered outright defiance. However, it was here that he was on the border between his homeland, and the reform capital, debating whether he should carry out his orders or not. However, the closer his troops approached Tyrol, the more they could see that a fortress was built in the area, whose design was unlike anything Siegmund had ever seen before. It was in the form of a star and flew the coat of arms of House von Kufstein. It was a fortress built by Berengar to protect the route to his land. 

Siegmund decided to stop his steps when faced with such a powerful fortress, the invisible ones were defended by relatively large cannons and hundreds of people armed with what he considered to be hand cannons. He was not stupid, and he could tell from the design of the fortress that if he tried to take over, it would be a long and bloody battle. Not only were his men vulnerable to gunfire from all directions, but there were no blind spots to take advantage of. If rumors are to be believed, the hand cannons the defenders used were devastating weapons. 

When facing such a challenge, Siegmund had only three options; first and foremost, he could retreat from the territory and find another route to Tyrol, which he hoped would not be too defended. The second option was for him to ignore his losses and attack the fortress in an attempt to force his way into Tyrol. His third and final choice was to give in to the idea of invading the region, and set up camp on the edge of the border, and act as if he was doing something, he said, hoping that his subordinates would not realize that he had been sitting still and doing nothing. . After all, neither he nor his men were too interested in attacking Tyrol.

Count Siegmund von Augsburg took a moment to ponder his choice when one of his commanders approached him. 

"Your Majesty, the road ahead is blocked by a strange fortress; I fear it will be difficult to attack Tyrol."

Count Siegmund immediately felt a headache looking at the situation before him. If he did not advance to Tyrol, he would be branded as an oathbreaker, and after the war was over, Duke Dietger would definitely come for him and possibly his family. Therefore, he gathered his courage and ordered the Army to advance to the fortress.

"Prepare to surround the fortress! We have orders!"

While giving orders to his troops, Siegmund said to himself at the back of his mind.

"May God have mercy on my soul."

Thus, a siege camp was set up, and within hours of preparation, the Bavarian army began to attack the Star Fort. The gunmen rushed towards the curtain of the fort, hoping that the sturdy section of the wall would provide a stable platform to raise their stairs. However, as they came within fighting distance, the several hundred Berengar army soldiers stationed at the fortress unleashed a 24-pound siege cannon at the invaders. Explosive bullets tore through the besiegers long before they made it to the wall section, which was their goal. 

By the time the third cannon shot exploded, the besiegers had escaped back to their siege camp, which unbeknownst to them was within range of the mighty 24-pound cannon. However, the defenders did not attack the encampment. Instead, they stopped their fire and let the enemy retreat. The goal was not to annihilate the enemy force as quickly as possible; if they were to do such a thing, Duke Dietger would take one of two actions, instead, he would abandon Tyrol altogether until he managed to take control of all of Austria except Tyrol, or he would send a massive invasion that was far more significant than his current strength in retaliation. Nothing of interest to Berengar; therefore, the young Count of Tyrol had assigned his defenders to wage a war of attrition. 

If Berengar's forces could keep these tens of thousands of people trapped outside their borders indefinitely, Duke Dietger would definitely continue to send reinforcements and supplies to ensure the attack on Tyrol continued. This would significantly weaken their attacks on the rest of Austria and divide their forces, allowing the Austrian ruler a decent opportunity to fight back. However, Count Siegmund had no way of knowing Berengar's plan and was simply amazed by the weapons his opponents wielded. So he stood with his mouth agape after watching his army collapse so quickly against the mighty star fortress. The man was so shocked by the disastrous outcome of that brief engagement that he inadvertently voiced his thoughts out loud to be heard by all the men nearby.

"God is on their side, for how can man make such a destructive weapon without God's intervention?"

These words weakened the morale of the already lowly forces, many of whom were Reformers, and had no desire to strike at the heart of their religion. After saying these words, one of the commanders under Siegmund voiced his concern.

"If God is on their side, then how do we keep our orders?"

It was only at this moment that Sigismund realized that he had spoken his thoughts out loud, and therefore, had, he quickly devised a scheme to avoid further conflict while making it seem like he was actively participating in an attempt to seize Tyrol. 

"Write it to Duke Dietgar, tell him that the Northwest Passage to Tyrol is blocked by powerful forts, and we need reinforcements if we are to reach our destination. He'll send us help, which will give us a reprieve, or he'll ignore our pleas, and we'll have our justification to sit down and do nothing."

Hearing the orders of their subordinates, all the commanders agreed that it was the best course of action and immediately began the task. As for the defenders in the fortress, no one was injured in the conflict, and therefore, they sat down and relaxed; after all, they had access to a lot of supplies and relieving power. Theoretically, they could stay and guard the Northwest Tyrol border indefinitely. While the besiegers lived in the open and muddy encirclement camps, the defenders stayed in nice barracks to protect them from the elements, which made them feel comfortable while guarding the Tyrol border. 

The standoff at the Tyrolean border had just begun, and this star fortress was not the only one facing a similar situation, in the Northeast near the edge of Kitzbuhel, the defenders also faced the same problem, as well, after all the invasion attempts to Tyrol failed.the two-pronged attack designed to encapsulate the territory quickly. However, in its initial progress, it was completely stopped. When Duke Dietger finally learned that his troops were unable to penetrate the Tyrolean territory, he would be surprised that his strategy had failed miserably. However, the cost drowning mistake was a severe matter of the human psyche, and the old Duke would definitely continue to send help to the besiegers of Tyrol at the expense of his own troops. 

As for the rest of the Austrian invasion, aside from Vorarlberg, the rest of the Austrian counties were not as fortunate as Tyrol had a natural defense barrier, and as such, it would be much worse in the ongoing invasion. As the war progressed, Tyrol would become a symbol of the Austrian resistance against the Bavarian occupation, and Berengar would gain recognition as the leader of the resistance. As for now, the invasion of Bavaria had just begun, and thus, no County had yet fallen into enemy hands. While attempts to attack Tyrol had been halted at their initial steps, Berengar was sleeping soundly in the arms of his lover.