King Aerys Targaryen Sl

ch.4

Robert Baratheon, Lord Paramount of the Stormlands

To the Targaryen loyalists, he was a rebel, a criminal, and a traitor. To his supporters, he was a hero and the rightful King. But for Robert? He was none of those things.

No, he was fighting for the girl he loved.

It wasn't just that though, it was also about justice. Justice for Rickard and Brandon Stark. It was about freedom so that Westeros could be free of the Mad King and that horrible family. It was about vengeance, about someday wrapping his hands around Rhaegar's neck and squeezing the life out of him. Robert supposed it was also about proving himself, testing his might and the might of The Stormlands, and seeing how he matched up.
But chiefly it was all for his Lyanna.

When the news reached The Eyrie that the Mad King had had some kind of fit and might never awake, Robert grabbed the opportunity and rushed back to Storm's End, bypassing the Grafton's blockade completely. After a week at sea, he arrived back at Storm's End and called for his banners. Estermont, Tarth, and most of the Marcher Lords had answered the call, while House Selmy, House Connington, and many of the lords whose holdings bordered the Crownlands sides with the Targaryens.

He heard that Owen Merryweather Hand of the King, was desperately gathering an army but before he could do much about it he heard that three of his bannermen who had sided with the Targaryen had built armies of their own.

Lords Grandison, Cafferen, and Fell had built their hosts and had originally planned to combine them before marching on Storm's End. That plan had to be scrapped when Robert's army grew to be 16,000 men, far more than their combined 4,000.

Instead, the bastards hunkered down in their castles and only a siege of each could defeat them. Robert had considered storming the castles but he'd lose far too many men. He then considered just leaving them and dealing with them after the war was won but that would be like leaving a dagger at his back. No, the best of the bad options was to leave a portion of his men behind to siege down those castles, otherwise, they'd terrorize the Stormlands. It only took a week to gather the rest of his banners, 25,000 men.

And so Robert left The Stormlands with only 16,000 men, the rest 9,000 men over a third of his army. He left with his brother, Stannis who was given the job to siege the castles. before Robert left he told Stannis to take care of those traitors.

whill he took the rest of his men west to Reach

For Robert's first battle, he knew he would have to deal with the Reachers before they could join their armies together, so he thought it best to try taking them out piecemeal, so rather than marching into the Crownland as expected, he took his army into The Reach.

Robert easily crushed the hosts of the Lords Meadows and Caswell and was preparing to attack a host gathering at Longtable, the Hand's own seat.

Note
1 so what happens is that because of Aerys stroke Robert felt more confident so he arrives at the Stormlands a lot earlier which allowed him to gather more of his banners than he did OT which in turn made Lords Grandison Cafferen, and Fell simply return to their castles and prepare for a siege Robert unwilling to siege their castles leave his bother with 9,000 men 1/3 of his army to deal with Lords Grandison Cafferen, and Fell .whill he and the rest of the army moves on with fewer men then he had OT