Vorn-Ganelon Campaign

Vorn-Ganelon Campaign in Orange Plain is the first battle of the Battle of Orange in Madan no Ou no Vanadis series, where the Silver Meteor Army battled against Greast's lead Ganelon Army. While originally invited by Greast to join Ganelon, Tigre declined Greast's lucrative offer as he learned about Ganelon's malevolent nature via Greast's information. Because of this, Greast prepared his six thousand strong army to eliminate the Silver Meteor Army, only to be defeated and outwitted by Tigre's tactical strategy. This also resulted Tigre as an enemy to both Thenardier and Ganelon while further solidify his status as "traitor" by Brune court. It is also the initial stage of Battle of Orange before Navarre Knights attack the Silver Meteor Army.

Background
One month has passed since Tigre's feud with Olmutz, Tigre received more 1,000 men from Hughes for his protection from Ludmila's attack. With 5,000 total of troops due to his alliance with House Augre and Leitmeritz Army, Tigre would begin his attack Thenardier by marching towards Nemetacum. They also settled their camp in Orange Plains where they named their army as the Silver Meteor Army with Tigre, Elen, Lim and Hughes as the army's founders. Elsewhere, Ganelon summoned Greast to convince Tigre to join his faction. Despite the tactician's protest and urged the Duke to kill Tigre, Ganelon claimed that killing Tigre means "losing" another ally to defeat Thenardier and with his abundant influence and wealth, he could manipulate even the most honest person as his allies by any methods he could use for his gain.



Elsewhere. the Silver Meteor Army also learned Greast's visit from a messenger while being warned by Hughes to be wary upon the Marquis, whom he claimed to have a eccentric behavior. Upon Greast arrival however, he shifted his interest towards Elen before immediately stopped by Hughes, much to his annoyance. Regardless, the meeting immediately took place in the commander camp as Greast, on Ganelon's behalf, proposing an alliance with the Silver Meteor Army to defeat their common enemy: Thenardier and his massive army. Greast also added that as the "reward" for the alliance, the Silver Meteor Army would feel free to commit any atrocities (such as plundering, vandalizing and even rape) towards Rance and its residents while serving as Ganelon Army's first vanguard; additionally, he further warned that any defiance towards Ganelon could result grave consequences. Despite deeming the offer disturbing, Tigre requested Greast to take his time to reconsider but Greast insisted the Alsace Earl to make an immediate response, to which Tigre immediately declined.

After the meeting, Elen complained to Tigre for letting Greast go while expressed her loathe towards the Marquis, which prompting her wanted to kill him by her blade, though Tigre and Hughes calmed her down as they assumed that Greast did not came to their camp unprepared. However, situation became dire for the Silver Meteor Army as Lim reported that Ganelon Army's 6,000 men have already preparing their attack towards the army's main camp, shocking all three army's founders and an emergency meeting was held.

Battle Initiation
Elsewhere, Greast received news from a scout over a dried river. He called the general to discuss the battle which the general haughtily claimed that the enemy tried to use the "dried" river as bait to split them apart. As the solution, the general suggested that they would had their cavalry to take the detour and then split in three unit to attack their via its flank. As Greast "urged" the general to be wary especially the forest, the general reassures that because of the season where the forest were withered, he doubted his enemy would perform an ambush towards them. While remarking the general's overconfidence was due to his relation with Ganelon, Greast also told the general to bring Elen alive.

Ganelon Army crossed the seemly dried river to the other side but there were no movements from the Silver Meteor Army yet. To the general additional surprise, a message from Greast that while he would leave the command to him, he would stay behind to watch the battle from afar, prompting the general to think the tactician was a coward. Nonetheless, he sent his 100 men to guard Greast while the rest would march forward to find and chase down the Silver Meteor Army.



Lim acted as a decoy in order to lure Ganelon Army into the withered forest, prompting the general to order a full pursuit onto Lim's Unit just as the enemy made immediate retreat as soon as make a contact with Ganelon's Army. Unbeknownst to Ganelon Army however, they were actually lured to the forest where Tigre and the archer units, who blended into the woods with their new disguise, ambushed the enemy army with volleys of arrow shots. The relentless arrows shot immediately causing disorientation among the Ganelon Army's ranks but the general insisted the charge by sent 500 men to flush out the ambush unit in the woods while commanding his troops to defend themselves from their shields, until Tigre's arrow shot to the general's helmet which causing the general to made a full scale retreat. However, Lim's Unit caught up and intercepted their retreat by attacking any surviving Ganelon Army's soldiers, leaving the General and a few Ganelon Army's soldiers narrowly survived the ambush.

Aftermath
After defeating Ganelon Army, Tigre shot a signal about the end of the battle with his fire arrows. Gerard praised Elen for Zhcted's army's prowess and even deemed Tigre was "lucky" to met the Wind Vanadis. Elen however warned Gerard to keep his flattery in check as she deemed his words were dangerous.

Even with 1,500 dead soldiers as Ganelon Army's casualties, Greast remained calm and decided to pull off the army from the river. Staggeringly, this defeat also a part of Greast and Ganelon's plan to see the Silver Meteor Army's true capabilities. It also prompted Greast to wonder Ganelon's response over the army defeat and further worried that Tigre's current victory may increases his influence, on which also causing Ganelon's loyal followers to defect for the archer. Regardless, Greast began to plot yet another plan to obtain the Silver Flash Vanadis which come in fruition after he manage to capture Elen after Moonlight Knights defeats Sachstein Army on the west by ambushing Moonlight Knights but later it will led him to his own downfall because of his obsession towards the Silver Flash Vanadis due to extreme miscalculation that he thought he already saw the true potential of Moonlight Knights Army just like at this battle instead now he face the true might of Leitmeritz Army while Moonlight Knights has not deploy their full potential yet.

As the result of their tactical victory, the Silver Meteor Army held a feast and celebrated until midnight in a nearby village. Sadly, their celebration was short-lived as a news from Sofya Obertas about Pierre Badouin's declaration regarding Tigre's "treason", making him a traitor.

Trivia

 * Despite its appearance in both light novel and manga, this battle was not showed in the anime series. In the anime counterpart, Greast (who did not appear in anime series) did not visit the Silver Meteor Army and try to persuade them to join Ganelon's faction. Therefore, this battle never took place before the Silver Meteor Army's first battle against the Navarre Knights.


 * This is the only flawless battle for Silver Meteor Army where there are no deaths from the battle as they only suffered wounded soldiers but none deaths are counted for.