AAR: Authen's Struggle

                                                              Exposition

    Authen felt his breath catch as he saw the Sarrinad was party pass. Adjusting the grip on his spear, he waited for the signal. Men around him noticed what he was doing and copied his movements, anticipation mark all features. Authen suddenly felt a twinge of doubt, what is things went wrong? Quickly shaking the thought away, he checked his weapons one more time. Suddenly, many snaps filled the air as hundreds of bolts shot into the air, and sunk into the ranks of the Sarrinads. Knowing what to do, the men jogged at a steady pace before angling their spears and plunging them into the unsuspecting men.
    Authen felt a sickening feeling as he plunged the spear into a chest, and heard the man's strangled moan, but then shook it off as instincts took it's course. Spearing another man, then drawing his sword as another was on top of him, he fought for his life next to his comrades. He sliced the man's arms and kicked him onto the next rank of soldiers, then moved his head to one side as a spear sliced his ear. The pain was unfelt, as the heat of battle had taken him. He found the owner and wrestled the spear away from him. Authen thrust the spear, then pulled it out of the corpse in time to lift his shield to deflect an arrow. He peered over the rim and threw the spear at the archer, and then noticed that was the last Sarrinad.
    A jolt of pain brought him out of his war-daze, looking down, he saw that there were cuts numbering his arms and his legs, but he saw that there were friends and allies more injured than he was, so he went and helped carry them to the infirmary. After he recovered his spear, Authen set up his tent and plopped into bed, looking forward to the march home the next day.

Exhausted, Authen slept.

Edit: in my stupidity, I forgot they used crossbows.

That was an exceptionally and suprisingly good AAR. If I hadn't read it all ready I'd read it.

Thank you, I slept on it for more ideas. I will write one or two chapters in the afternoon.

                                                      Chapter one

    Authen jogged in the disciplined line with the rest of the troops. There were no leaders in this army, the past one was killed in the battle seven days ago. Now, it is just a council of ten or so members. Authen sighed. The war has left many Rhodok men dead, but even more Sarrinad troops.
  The war. Authen searched his brain for the rest of the details. Ever since we rebelled against the Swadians they were pushing constant war on us. Finally, they accepted a peace treaty, and the Rhodokians took a fresh breath of air at last. But then, the Sarrinad Sultanate declared war. Our spy indicated that the Sarrinads and Swadians were working together, this way they could bombard the Rhodoks and still rest their armies. Authen groaned silently, more war meant less rest, and less pay. Yes, they were raiding our caravans. Authen stopped his thoughts and paid attention to what was going on around him.
  He saw now that there was a messenger, asking for one of their leaders. Authen beckoned him over.
"What is it?" Authen snapped bitterly. He could tell by the messenger's face this would not be good news.
"Sarrinad troops barring the way ahead," He hesitated, unsure if he wanted to say the rest. "There are six hundred."
  Authen looked startled, that was the largest number created by the Emirs. Finally, he came to a decision. "Let them come." The messanger left, and Authen never noticed the leather come off the man's shield and reveal Sultan Hakim's banner.

That was a good chapter but the Rhodokians are actually just called the Rhodoks. I can't wait to read more.

You should get faction names right, it's a bit of a "atmosphere"-killer to see the wrong names. Same would count for NPC names, and place names. And make it longer. 5 to 10 paragraphs like that in one chapter makes it more exciting to read too.

2 above: Yeah, it was just improvisation...

1 above: I like to keep my chapters short, so it's not a wall of text. You will find some chapters will be long, and others short. The one I have been thinking up will be a long one (Most Likely)

Pics or never happened.

Uhh... I do not understand what you mean.

I am making up the story based on certain events, such as the battle, filling in other parts along the way.

He was joking.

I knew that...

Maybe 

                                                        Chapter 3

  Authen marched confidently with the rest of the men, when the Sarranid troops came into sight. What they saw was not anything like they expected. One thousand men stood in front of them, lacking horsemen, but an oncoming shout from the rear proved their location. The Rhodoks, thinking quickly, made a defensive barrier in a rectangular shape, the farthest rank out held their shields vertically, the rank behind them diagonally, then any rank beyond held horizontally, prepared for any arrows that may come near. Spears pointed outwards, the outer lines prepared for the charge at any moment, but first came the arrows.
  Authen, on the outer layer, saw that they came from the trees. They were utterly surrounded. The deep thrum sounded like a great band was released, using all the tension in one giant force. It was well rehearsed, that was easy to tell, Authen suppressed a laugh as many tiny pinks were heard, but then the Rhodoks released their own surprise. The second rank shields moved and bolts flew from the vents, then resealed in time to catch the next onslaught of arrows.The same went one for another half hour. Occasional screams were heard as an arrow or bolt hit it's mark. Finally, there were no more. Then, the pounding of feet began.
  The rectangle quivered slightly as the braced themselves, the outer rinks with their spears, the inner with their swords. Bodies threw themselves on spears, as if fearing no death. Soon, each spear on the north side had as least four corpses on each spear, and dropped them to the ground, and many sighs of relief were heard as the weight was released. The men grabbed some swords and the spear wall broke, more like a hut now. On the south side, a stream of Rhodoks ran out of the cover of the shield wall and placed the spears of everyone on the inside of the rectangle into the ground. Hoofs and feet pounded as the horsemen and archers ran to meets the onslaught.
  Authen fought unyielding against the men, his fear of bloodshed gone as he sunk his blade into men after men. He saw his allies fall from weight of the Sarranid troops, but more fell into place. the perfect formation was breaking up, and Authen heaved an inward sigh of relief that the enemy had no more arrows. He felt a blinding pain on the side of his head as a Sarranid thrust the hilt of his sword into Authen's helmet. Everything went black, and the battle line passed over him.

(This is NOT the end of the AAR, it will work into the main part of the story, this is not over.)

I like the fact that you can get a lot of action and tension into such short chapters but also try not to give too many spoilers.

Okay, I will keep that in mind.

I would suggest writing a draft of your chapters one day and polishing them the next. When writing you have an idea in your head and my not express it very well on your first try but when you read it again right then it seems fine because you remember what you wanted and impart the words with meaning well beyond what other's will. I mention this because sometimes your action is not clear. Weapons and people appear from nowhere, jarring the image we have in our heads. Example: your first chapter when he has a spear - I imagined a 2-handed spear but then am surprised to read he has a shield. Also in that chapter he has a sword but then wrestles a spear from a man and throws it. What happened to the sword?

Well noticed.

Edit:+50 points for first post on page 2!

Authen's back!

                              Chapter 4

Authen woke by a hand shaking his shoulder. His head throbbed terribly, and dry blood crusted his eyelids, but Authen finally opened his eyes to see his brothers dead and scattered about, but some men were struggling to their feet, only to be bound and dragged by the surrounding Sarrinads. He slowly looked at the man who woke him up to see Will, his old friend. Authen sighed with relief, and then saw the Sarrinad soldier behind him. Will spoke with hatred in his voice to Authen.
  "Well, here we are, captured and sent to the Sarrinad capital." Authen spoke slowly, and found it hard to think with his head throbbing.
  "We...lost?" He coughed weakly as he was roughly brought to his feet and bound and disarmed by the Sarrinad soldier. Authen collapsed by being brought up so quickly, but was dragged until he regained his footing. The rest of the Rhodok men looked with guilt at him.
  "Why do they look... as if they betrayed me?"
  "Because they singled you out as their leader!" Adam didn't answer, the Sarrinad did. Authen found it strange... the accent was so different from the Rhodok accent, as if he were gargling gravel as he spoke. But then he thought what that meant. They are going to torture me. Authen suddenly felt like he was going to throw up. He turned around and fought the guard, trying to escape. He then felt the same pound on his skull, and the familiar darkness came, which he welcomed to quell the pain.
 
  He awoke and found that his head hurt doubly as bad, he tried to put his hand to his head, but his hands wouldn't move. Authen looked down and noticed that he was tied to a pole. Hot sand was where the ground was, and the cold air told him it was night. He still struggled. A hand swooped down and cuffed him on the back of the head.
  "Stop." The soldier was too self disciplined to say more, but Authen pressed further.
  "Where are we?" The soldier sighed and said something that chilled Authen to the bone.
  "One day from Shariz." Authen was too distraught to ask more. He just fell asleep, resigned to his fate.