War of Lost Brothers

War of Lost Brothers
Part of Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation
Date 1653–1657 AN Location Worldwide (Apollonia, Benacia, Keltia) Result 1st Partition of Floria Occupation of New Blackstone Bassarid Federation War of the Harpy War of the Casks
Belligerents
Krasnarus-Corian Pact (until 5.I.1657 AN) Krasnarus Kingdom of Coria USSO Jingdao Hondon (from 17 November 10.IX.1654 AN) Anti-Treaty Florians (X.1654 AN–XIII.1655 AN) Florian State (from XIII.1655 AN) Nova English Trading Company Support: Kalgachia {from 15.II.1655 AN) Passio-Corum Xang Muang	Florian Republic (until X.1654 AN) Srbozemlje (until XIII.1654 AN) Shireroth Elwynn Goldshire Kezan Malarboria Allied Volunteer Forces (X–XV.1654 AN) Pro-Treaty Florians (from X.1654 AN) Bovic Empire of the Natopian Nation {after 8.XV.1654 AN)	Rivorian Liberation Army Support: Senya (Unofficially, V–XV.1655 AN)
Strength
848,631 5,369,797 1,784,791 1,095,013 19,590 4,617,356 1,024	2,959,903 2,791,966 2,144,000 48,000 120,000 611,291 185,698	3,044 481,733
Casualties and losses
est. 700,000 KIA, 520,000 WIA 5 warships & 45 submarines, 188 Raven fighters (Keltian Theatre) est. 16,486 KIA	286,060 KIA, 458,352 POW Allied Losses: Apollonia Command: 423,382 Benacia Command: 149,599 Keltia Command: 25,112
Civilian deaths Corians: ~2,000 Florians: 1,350,000

The War of Lost Brothers, also known as the Florian War, was a global conflict originating in Apollonia. The war was triggered by the assassination of the Corian King in a visit to its dependent territory of Astaronia. Immediately afterwards, it was believed that the assassin came from - or at least was supported by - the Florian Republic as a possible reaction to the Corian plans to annex the Forian territory of Srbozemlje. This set off a diplomatic crisis and both the Florian Republic and Coria exchanged declarations of war against each other. It was announced later in the evening that Krasnarus joined the Corian side in the conflict.

Jingdao, who saw the Corian reaction as a potential way of countering the Shirerithian influence in the region, declared support for Coria in case war would break out. Shireroth in the mean time saw itself obligated to act as protector of the Florian Republic, after the recent signing of a treaty which aligned Floria to Shireroth. After a few weeks of diplomatic failures war ultimatums from both Jingdao and Coria were refused, after which both declared war.

Growing beyond its parochial origins in the Micras Balkans, the war quickly became global in scope and has been unusual in its duration and ferocity. Ultimately it has become a clash of empires, alliances and economic systems, and as such, it developed a momentum and internal logic all of its own.

Background

Arms race

A result of the War of Jingdaoese Immolation was the huge investments in military equipment and expansion of both the navies of Jingdao and Shireroth. Jingdao's fleet, plagued by budget cuts and investments in huge construction projects, made it look good on paper and a worthy rival of the Imperial Navy of Shireroth. However, at the outbreak of the war, several members of the naval staff warned the Jingdaoese Headquarters for the Navy's lack in both ammunition, training upkeep of the older ships. The Imperial Navy of Shireroth, which had been substantially built up during an earlier phase in the Sxiro-Jingdaoese Confrontation, meanwhile had suffered from becoming a lower budget priority whilst the Imperial Army's relentless pursuit of gravimetric technology.

It should be noted that the Shirerithian figures only cover the Imperial Navy and not the naval assets maintained by the defence forces of the largely autonomous Imperial States, such as Elwynn and Goldshire. These coastal defence forces, by their nature, remained confined mostly to home waters during peacetime in any event, and would take time to be integrated into the overall operations of the Imperial Forces.

Both Coria and the Florian Republic, being comparatively young nations, were still in the process of establishing naval traditions and acquiring the engineering knowledge base and industrial capacity to sustain their own domestic shipbuilding industries. To this end both nations pressed a number of training vessels into service in the roles that would be performed ordinarily by capital ships. The Florian Republic, with the assistance of Shirerithian naval instructors, was able to make ready a number of warships acquired via the USSO Common Market and return the training vessels to a more sustainable inshore support role. Coria meanwhile had equipped itself with a formidable selection of short-range coastal submarines and submersibles, which would make venturing into its littoral waters a more risky venture than might otherwise have been the case.

It might be worth noting that the systematic overmanning of the naval arms of all the major combatants opened up the possibility of large numbers of "naval infantry" making an appearance during the war, as surplus personnel could be formed into battalions and transferred to the land theatre of operations.

The naval strength of the major forces at the start of the war, not counting air assets and hybrid vessels, was as follows:

Country	Personnel	Aircraft carriers	Battleships	Cruisers	Frigates / destroyers	Corvettes	Submarines	Auxiliary vessels
Shireroth	399,900	5	2	2	35	20	126	1,035
Florian Republic	350,000	1	0	5	0	5	6	169
Total	849,900	6	2	7	35	25	132	1,204
Kingdom of Coria	154,367	0	0	4	7	6	18	175
Jingdao	351,045	4	5	17	27	17	120	378
Krasnarus	199,037	0	0	5	9	8	22	214
Passio-Corum	863,201	1	4	0	14	10	8	--
Total	1,567,650	5	9	26	57	41	170	767

In contrast to the naval arms race, where Shireroth had been content to maintain parity with Jingdao, the Imperial Republic had placed a great emphasis on trying to build up a comparatively large long-range strategic bomber force. Supporting this force, in addition to the 1,626 multi-role strike aircraft, notably the now venerable F8 Shrike, was a nascent emergency fighter programme based around an existing light attack aircraft that could be rushed into full scale production if the attrition of its existing air assets proved unsustainable and the conflict carried on longer than envisaged.

Jingdao's standard jet-fighter meanwhile was the Raven IV, whose storied operational history had included being used as a kamikaze delivery vehicle for a thermobaric device used in an attack on Pontus Felix during the Euran War. Whilst Passio-Corum was not known to have a dedicated multi-role fighter aircraft, it had however developed indigenous ground attack aircraft and attack helicopters, and had proven itself to be a pioneer in the use of unmanned aerial combat vehicles on Micras.

The comparative standings of the aerial armadas available to the initial participants in the war was as follows:

Country	Personnel	Strike aircraft/fighters	Stealth/advanced fighters	Bombers	Light attack aircraft	Attack helicopters	Utility helicopters	Hybrid air vehicles
Shireroth	433,078	1,626	24	2,602	120	180	180
Florian Republic
Total
Kingdom of Coria	215,132	329	20	44	14	0	12	0
Jingdao		1,324 1,009 (IAF) & 315 (IJN)		241		2	12
Krasnarus
Passio-Corum
Totals

Political and military alliances: A web of intrigues

Alignments at the start of the Lost Brothers War.

During the period following the War of Jingdaoese Immolation, the major powers of Micras went to great length to strengthen their positions throughout the planet. While during the Hammish Civil War and the subsequent conflict between Shireroth and Jingdao, the war had remained limited to certain regions (mainly Keltia and Northern Apollonia), the first direct conflict between the great powers and following armistice had convinced both sides that the key to victory was on Apollonia.

The run-up to the war saw some very important shifts, changing the balance of power. A staunch ally of Shireroth, Alexandria, collapsed under the pressure of the Alexandrian Flu which killed over 60% of its population but could eventually be contained to the Alexandrian territories, while the USSO grew both in numbers as strength. The occurrence of the Auspicious Occasion in Shireroth in 1651 AN, saw the nation also losing the possibility of Stormark joining their sides in any armed conflict.

Now confronted with the possibility of being unable to fend off all the strength that the USSO was gathering, Shireroth started an intensive campaign in the small, but strategically located Florian Republic. The nation, slightly impoverished during the Xhusor War and subsequent changes in government (including a shift from a very democratic to a strict Police state), felt betrayed by the lack of support it received from the members of the Union. In the end, the Florians were downgraded from a full-fledged Member State into an Associate Member. Not much later, on the 18.X.1653 AN, they signed a treaty with Shireroth, effectively turning over any defence capacities to Shireroth.

The Jingdaoese Grand Secretariat felt alarmed by the sudden changes near its doorstep. Tensions further increased when the Tegong confirmed potential Shirerithian-backed plots to further increase their influence in the Eastern Apollonian territories, which Jingdao considered their own sphere of influence. It found allies in Coria and Krasnarus, who felt threatened by the recent policies of the Florians.

Prelude

The Astaronia assasination

The assassination marked the start of increasing tensions in Eastern Apollonia.

On 9.X.1653 AN, Nikolaj I of Coria visited Astaronia, an autonomous territory of the Kingdom of Coria. During his visit, he was killed in public by a long-range sniper firing from a concealed position. After a brief manhunt, the assassin, known only by the nom de guerre of "Stronk", was run to ground and captured. It transpired that this Stronk was reputedly a citizen of the Florian autonomous region of Srbozemlje.

It has been claimed that the alleged assassin was hired by Florian Secret Intelligence to stop Corian King from performing his plan of expanding his state, and most likely forcing Srbozemlje to become independent. The sudden and brutal slaying of the Corian monarch, at a well-publicised public gathering, caused an outpouring of grief and anger on the part of the Corian people, the effect of which was to drive its politicians towards an alliance with Krasnarus.

Expansion of violence in Apollonia

The assassination of the King of Coria fuelled indignation in that country and played into certain pre-existing propaganda narratives.

Even with the capture of the assassin Stronk peace did not return to the streets of Coria. Emergency meetings were held in the capital of Grandbay and preparations made to crown a new king as fast as possible. Voices in favour of war, fuelled by the outcries in several newspapers (and sponsored by several industrial and nationalist groups), were increasingly heard. In the meanwhile, protest marches and the anti-Florian riots in several Corian towns and cities spread to nearby Krasnarus.

In Jingdao, the Grand Secretariat first reacted with caution, but when the news was leaked to the public, people saw in the assassination an international Shirerithian ploy to increase its influence on the continent, as it had done recently before in Floria. A war scare broke out across the nation, soldiers were mobilised and the Army and Navy put on highest alert.

In the meanwhile, the Apollonia Command reacted swiftly by launching a twelve days-campaign against Xhusor. This attack on a neutral nation, with the goal of establishing a better front line, angered the public even more. Those who had doubts about possible Florian accomplishment in the assassination were now decreasing quickly in numbers.

Ultimatum and taking sides

Confronted with the assassination, an angry population and strengthened with Krasnarus and increased tensions between the Florians and Jingdaoese, the Corian Kingdom decided to send an ultimatum to end the Florian menace once and for all.

On the 4.I.1654 AN the Grand Secretariat handed the Florian administration its 1654 AN Ultimatum, or Juichi Tsuki Ultimatum. Severe demands were made, including the demilitarisation of the borders, a payment of over 900 million Kala to the Hondonese for the damages made during the occupation of Xhusovo. The Florian authorities accepted all articles, but disagreed with article 5, which would have taken away the only coastal access of the Republic and given it to Xhusovo.

Progress of the war

The Apollonian Theatre

The Florian campaign

The collapsing Florian front in late 1654 after the loss of Xhusovo, the retreat of the 5th Army towards the south, landings to secure the Florian Navy, and the fragmentation of the 6th Army into Pro-Smith (Orange) and Pro-Treaty (Blue) factions

The Florian campaign, which began as a follow on to the occupation of Xhusovo by Jingdao, was considered quite remarkable on account of the numerous shifts in position undertaken by Florian Government over a comparatively short period of time. By arresting the former President, Edwin Farrar, and precipitously seeking an independent peace with Jingdao, in violation of the Treaty of Friendship and Association with Shireroth, the Florian Government had caused a rupture in its relationship with the Imperial Government.

That the Florians chose to begin these diplomatic manoeuvres at a moment two Jingdaoese field armies were bearing down on the positions of the 6th Army, dug in along the Florian western frontier covering the approaches to Northcliff, was unfortunate in its timing to say the least.

The Shirerithian led Apollonia Command, operating on the basis of a previously established contingency plan, moved swiftly to disengage the 5th Army, which had a sizeable contingent of Shirerithian volunteers, advisers, and officers, from the advancing Jingdaoese forces. Faced by what they perceived as a Florian betrayal, Shirerithians declared the Florian Government to be in a state of rebellion and enacted a further contingency plan to restore some semblance of order in Northcliff whilst preventing the capture of the Florian fleet by the Jingdaoese.

The sudden ferocity of this attack, a missile barrage which resulted in the partial destruction of the country's sole aircraft carrier at its moorings, saw the Florian Government go beyond its obligations under the capitulatory treaty of Chuán Ké and declare itself to be in alignment with Jingdao as a co-belligerent against the Shirerithian Imperial Forces present in the country.

These tensions, combined with the extra-judicial execution of Jeremy Spencer, the controversial anti-Jing politician, by the incoming liberal administration of Jessica Smith, not only fractured the alliance but also the unity of the Florian Armed Forces themselves. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the 6th Army around Northcliff, where ineptitude, mutual loathing, and the insidious influence of the Shirerithian High Commission, induced a cabal of senior officers, under the leadership of General John Lambert, to stage a brutal military putsch against the Florian Parliament and Presidency.

The 'liberation' of Northcliff by Jingdaoese soldiers came at a heavy toll: more than 1.3 million civilians had died in the siege. In total, both sides together lost over 500,000 men in the siege (with the majority of deaths coming from the militias which fought for or against the Shirerithians or Jingdaoese). Over 400,000 men were taken POW.

The failure to capture president Jessica Smith, who escaped the capital with Jingdaoese help, led to the de facto failure of the coup d'état. With the Florians still divided and a collapsing frontline in the north, the Jingdaoese Third Field Army surrounded the capital city. However, in another inexplicable surprise move by president Jessica Smith an armistice agreement was reached on the 28th November between the Florian and Shirerithian administration. The Jingdaoese were taken by surprise and furious. Field Marshal Tzao Yao ordered the Tegong and military officers to respond by orchestrating a massacre in Southgate as a punitive response and warning. The Florian administration finally gave in, while several members were placed under house arrest.

It wasn't until the 2nd December that the Jingdaoese actively launched an attack on Northcliff. Until then, they had sent of Florians to fight the war for them. The decisive victory of the Sxiro-Natopian air offensive in Dalmacija, together with the entry of Natopia into the war pressured Yao into launching an assault on the surrounded city. After several days of fighting, the Third Army claimed control over the capital. Several officers, however, escaped through the sole remaining airport in Shirerithian hands.

As the campaign wore on, particularly as the Jingdaoese attempted to push south in an effort to capture Dragonmoor and relieve long besieged Fosvalos, the Florian Republic began to lapse further into chaos. Jessica Smith belatedly sought to appease the Sxiro-Natopian allies, firstly through the establishment of the Community of Sxiro Municipalities and finally by ceding Blyth and the republic's southern coast to Natopia. This latest capitulation resulted in Jingdao's decision to establish a General Government in an effort to ensure some measure of sanity in government. The attempt failed and as the Florian government sought once again to repudiate all of its previously held positions, the country sank further into chaos as ever more improbable guerrilla groups came to the fore.

The Eastern Apollonian Front

The eastern Apollonian front in contrast had remained largely silent, excepting Florian drone strikes and an unopposed Corian incursion into the Florian exclave on its border. The collapsing situation of the Florian Republic had perhaps made a swift capitulation inevitable on this front, where an informal armistice was swiftly reached on the promise of a future partition of the disputed "Floroserbian" lands.

River Warrior Front

The River Warrior Front opened on 20.XI.1654 AN after the Rivorian Liberation Army (RLA) launched a terrorist attack on the Jingdaoese government in the city of Mahūti, killing 23 people. The attack was launched in revenge for the alleged mistreatment of the Rivorians since the region of the River Warriors had joined Jingdao following the River Warrior War.

Subsequently, the RLA launched a guerrilla insurgency against the Jingdaoese state, taking the strategically important village of Brůz̀c͂awř on 5.III.1655 AN, and making large gains in the rural areas in the northern and eastern parts of the region. Following a wildfire in Senya that was started by a Rivorian secret agent that destroyed a large amount of crops in Senya, the Senyan government agreed to buy en masse crops from the River Warriors, in exchange for weapons technology in a secret agreement that was signed on 10.V.1655 AN.

The Dalmacijan Front

Babkhi conscripts posing with abandoned Dolstier I during their push into northern Jingdaoese land in late 1655.

• See Dalmacijan Campaign

By the final month of 1654, the late Natopian entry into the war had opened up a new front. While the war in Floria received a lot of attention, the northern front line proved to be extremely deadly for both sides. Huge losses were counted, while few gains were made. Both sides saw their tactical manoeuvres being halted, often even before the offensive had really started. Mobility was at an all now and made impossible by the destroyed underground. Even the antigrav tanks of the Shirerithians which had been able to levitate across no man's land found that their essential support vehicles, the ubiquitous Horjin AFVs, carrying their supporting infantry, ammunition, and fuel cells were frequently bogged down in the shell-scarred terrain to their rear. The local air supremacy of the Shirerithians hampered the supply lines of the Jingdaoese Armed Forces and hindered Jingdaoese offensives, but the Imperial Shirerithian Air Forces lacked the airlift capacity to keep the mobile legions supplied. A pattern was established whereby the Shirerithian gravimetric armour would achieve a breakthrough, secure a location for a time but then be obliged to withdraw, usually within the 48 hour lifecycle of their armoured vehicles onboard fuel-cells, as their supply situation deteriorated and Yobi-gun human-wave attacks began to eat away at the edges of the hastily established defensive perimeters.

Some breakthroughs and gains were made in 1655, when an incursion by the Exercitus Comitatenses led to the capture of Setouchi and caused the collapse of the western lines as the 2nd Army Group poured auxiliary reinforcements into the corridor opened by the advance of the legions. The 6th Field Army was shattered and its remnants were obliged to fall back towards Port Nevermore, which was now isolated from the remainder of the province now in range of Shirerithian artillery. One consequence of this sudden development was that Jingdaoese command and control structures broke down whilst panic infected the civilian population. Mobs besieged food warehouses or else converged upon the port's harbour district in a frantic scramble for places on the last departing boats. The Tegong was obliged to rush a detachment, reinforced by the 2nd Banner Brigade, via a risky nighttime airlift, into the besieged city to restore discipline by executing looters and "faint-hearts" in the 6th Field Army's command staff. This exemplary and severe punishment had the requisite effect, galvanising the remnants of the 34th and 35th Heavenly Corps, augmented by civilian militia, to hold the outskirts of the city at all costs.

The urban landscape of Port Nevermore proved to be an adverse environment for the Shirerithian Bandersnatches, where the defenders - having despaired of their ineffective 37mm anti-tank guns - resorted to acts of suicidal bravery. One notable tactic was the use of hastily armoured trucks and SUVs packed full with plastic-explosive, jerrycans of petrol and surplus anti-tank munitions, which a martyr-volunteer would then park in an inconspicuous alleyway, disguised as another abandoned vehicle, and wait for enemy hover-vehicles to appear on the main street whereupon the driver would rev up his rigged vehicle and drive it at full speed into the midst of the Shirerithian armoured convoy with the hope of detonating beside or preferably underneath one of the levitating steel behemoths with the hope of using the blast to disable the tank's gravimetric drive or else flip it over crashing it into one of the ruined buildings lining the street.

Ironically most damage to the city's infrastructure, which slowed the Shirerithian advance and aided the defenders by creating a churned landscape of craters and rubble from which to create improvised defensive positions, had been made by the obliteration bombing campaign waged by ISAF Bomber Command after the 3rd Tactical Air Force had gained air superiority over northern Dalmacija. The onset of an unusually severe winter, combined with night harassment raids on Shirerithian supply routes led to the invading force to lose momentum, which allowed the Jing to properly regroup and send in reinforcements.

Although they had come within an ace of capturing Port Nevermore and destroying the 6th Field Army, the Shirerithian Field Army and the Army of Arboria, now found themselves trapped in a war of attrition, losing a third of their established strength to death or injury. Rather than withdraw the decimated cohorts and worn out regiments to reform and retrain, Apollonia Command instead fed in a continual flow of auxiliaries to plug the gaps. Over time the overall fighting quality and professionalism of the legions began to deteriorate. The Jingdaoese defenders, alongside those sent as reinforcements by sea or air, also suffered an appalling rate of attrition.

Rather than relieve Port Nevermore directly, the IAF opted in early 1656 to launch a counter-offensive against the newly formed 4th Army Group, comprised of Arboreal Volunteers and 3rd line infantry brought over from Elwynn and Goldshire, which now held the allied left flank, extending from north-east of Kuomi all the way to the Senyan border. A bitter back and forth battle ensued which had brought both sides back to where they had started. By then, morale in the Jingdaoese trenches had collapsed and calls for an immediate end of the war resounded loudly among most of the men. Leftist revolutionaries, like Yamato Wei, sparked feelings of rebellion among the (mostly Kildarian) soldiers. The arrest of a Kildarian soldier by a Jingdaoese officer for spreading pamphlets of the socialist movement sparked a mutiny.

The Keltian Theatre

War of the Harpy

The Strait of Haifa Campaign became a convoluted tussle for control of the Gulf of Jangsong.

Xangese Civil War

Despite being vastly removed from the primary region of conflict in southern Apollonia, the civil war in Xang Muang occurred concurrently with the War of Lost Brothers and was deemed a proxy war between Jingdao, through the USSO-aligned legitimate government, and the Shirerithian-backed rebel forces in the east of the nation. Ultimately, the War of Lost Brothers' closure led to the rebels' strength decreasing significantly and the civil war ended with governmental victory a matter of weeks later.

Naval war

The six surviving submarine captains (Saigo, Hayao, Goro, Togo, Inoue, Fushimi) were portrayed in Jingdaoese press as great heroes who had broken through enemy lines against all odds and had almost single-handedly saved the Empire from doom at the hands of the invader.

The Battle of Carama Bay, fought in the year 1655, was reputedly the largest naval confrontation in the modern history of Micras. On it hinged the fate of the Shirerithian occupation in the southern third of the Florian Republic, the besieged Jingdaoese enclave of Fosvalos, and the Natopian demesne of Saint Andre, where the war was now drawing ever closer. The battle was triggered by a Sxiro-Natopian attempt to interdict a sortie by a Jingdaoese carrier group. In ordering its own u-boat wolfpacks to swarm Carama Bay, whilst two Natopian fleets converged on the scene to reinforce an allied flotilla in theatre, Apollonia Command had unwittingly set the Eastern Armada on a collision course with a massed breakout attempt by the Jingdaoese submarine arm. The Jingdaoese objective in this operation having been to establish a blockade of Port Saint Andre and the Shirerithian occupied port of Blyth. Only six Jingdaoese submarines made it out into open waters.

A catastrophic blunder by the Natopian admiralty, acting under the orders of the Natopian Defense Secretary, and the commander of the Shirerithian Task Force 90, saw a full scale naval battle being fought in the confines of the bay, which - unforgivably - laid comfortably within the range of two fully operational anti-ship ballistic missile bases. Balancing out the slaughter of allied ships on the surface, the Shirerithian u-boats, combining the use of torpedoes and drift mines, caught the Jingdaoese submarines exiting the Antya river estuary into Carama Bay, inflicting catastrophic losses and deflecting two Jingdaoese carriers and the surviving submarines back to the safety of their respective bases.

Nonetheless 70% of the surface combatants belonging to three allied fleets had been either sunk or rendered completely inoperable. Upon receiving a full debriefing on the course of the battle Steward Waldemar Zinkgraven was heard to exclaim that "a few more victories like this and we will have lost the war!" In overview, the Sxiro-Natopian allies had secured a tactical victory, in thwarting the Jingdaoese sortie, albeit at intolerable cost to themselves, but with two Jingdaoese ballistic missile bases still operational, a strategic stalemate was the enduring consequence of the battle - with Port Saint Andre and Blyth effectively closed to surface shipping whilst the Jingdaoese enclave of Fosvalos was itself blockaded in turn by the prowling wolfpacks of Shirerithian u-boats.

From a Jingdaoese stance of view, the Battle of Carama Bay was portrayed as a total victory over the Shirerithian-Natopian Fleet. The loss of the submarines was deemed collateral damage and the six surviving submarine captains that pushed through were elevated to a position of heroes. The main goal, at least publicly, had been reached: supplying the Florian frontline became a lot more troublesome. In private, the High Command - just like the Shirerithians - had become increasingly aware of the weaknesses in their naval plans, especially for the submarines which were forced to remain inactive.

In the aftermath of Carama Bay the naval war became increasingly characterised by commerce raiding, piracy, unrestricted submarine warfare and a game of cat and mouse between task forces of the Sxiro-Natopian allies and the New Zimian War League. Notable incidents included the Bombardment of Blore Heath, the Siege of Talenore and ongoing mutually opposed attempts to isolate New Blackstone and Antonia in the Great Western Sea.

Propaganda war

SANE aligned

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  Most notable poster in a series depicting Shirerithian forces as defending the rights and liberties of Micras' human population.

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  Advisory note air dropped over Port Neil.

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  Late war propaganda increasingly featured Braxians as the embodiment of the "alien otherness" of the USSO.

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  Both sides made appeals to the dispossessed populations of Keltia at various times during the conflict.

USSO aligned

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  (Spoiler: They did.)

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Aftermath

Briefest of overviews: The Sxiro-Natopian alliance achieved the greater share of tactical victories whilst on the USSO side Passio-Corum improved its strategic position in Keltia. Jingdao's armed forces were put through the grinder in a war of attrition along its western and eastern frontiers where armoured warfare ground to a halt and was replaced by static trench warfare of the kind that was considered unimaginable in the modern era. Floria, the scene of Jingdao's most successful campaign, meanwhile experienced a spectacular downfall, ceding territory to the Kingdom of Coria, Hondon, and Natopia whilst simultaneously being ravaged by Jingdaoese and Shirerithian armies and lapsing into a concurrent civil war.

The political implications of what was essentially a stalemate were to prove to be especially severe in Shireroth and Jingdao, which had invested for decades in armaments for what was meant to be the decisive final battle. Finding that, even now, they had been unable to break the deadlock which had begun with the independence of Kildare rebounded upon the architects of the war-effort. This was especially true in Shireroth where the conflict had come to be identified particularly as "Zinkgraven's War" on account of his decision, reckless in hindsight, to expand the conflict into Brettish Isles and the Great Western Sea - a move that brought in Passio-Corum and Nova England onto the side of the Jingdaoese - for no purpose other than to achieve the short-term plunder of vulnerable island and coastal communities in what Shireroth considered to be its near abroad.

This rapaciousness in turn tipped the balance in Kalgachia, shifting that country from a position of true neutrality at the onset of the war towards one of a distinct partiality and preference towards the USSO in general and Nova-England in particular, where the bunker-dwelling gnostics appeared to have found a kindred spirit in the doughty survivalists of north-eastern Keltia. The failure of Shireroth to capture Tianhoucheng and close the Batavian campaign with a decisive victory certainly cheered the Kalgachi Defence Force, on whose behalf a staggering proportion of that country's GDP had been invested in fortification works and the amassing of strategic reserves of tungsten.

Nonetheless, the greater portion of the Benacian continent remained firmly in the grip of a heavily industrialised and militaristic feudal power, whose ruling elites remained wedded to an uncompromising supremacist doctrine

Timeline

1653 AN

• 9.XI.1653 AN
  • Nikolaj I of Coria is shot on his trip through the autonomous region of Astaronia. The murderer is suspected to be a Florian and backed by the Florian intelligence service.
  • The assassin, called Stronk by authorities, is captured after a brief manhunt. Start of the process.
• XI.1653 AN:
  • Ongoing conflicts between the USSO and Florians led to the downgrade of the nation from Full Member to Associate. The Florians find support in Shireroth, with whom they sign a treaty. All defence capacities are turned over to Shirerithian control.
  • A pre-emptive invasion of Xhusovo by Florian-Shirerithian troops starts. This leads to public outcry in Jingdao.
• XII.1653 AN: With ongoing tensions, the USSO ends formal ties with the Florians and strips it of its Associate status.
• 1–14.XV.1653 AN: Shireroth begins the forward deployment of certain assets from Goldshire to Kezan.
• 24–36.XV..1653 AN:
  • The Corian government delivers an ultimatum to the Florians. Demanding compensation and revenge for the loss of their king. For a moment, the Florians seem to accept, but in the end, refuse. This slight moment of doubt leads to a strengthened feeling of euphoria in Krasnarus and Coria.
  • After more than a week of public pressure, the Grand Secretariat proposes to send an ultimatum to the Florian authorities.
  • Goldshire announces the construction of an East Wall, to fend off any potential Jingdaoese invasion [1].
  • Jingdao evacuates a significant part of its population from Tianhoucheng to its other Benacian territories.

1654 AN

• 1–12.I.1654 AN: The Florian government refuses to agree with all articles of the November ultimatum.
• 13–24.I.1654 AN:
  • Xantus Yastreb, the reclusive and unconfirmed leader of Kalgachia is approached, via esoteric means, by agents of the Tegong and the Vigiles Arcani to act as a discrete intermediary for their interests in the forthcoming conflict, namely preserving balance and order in the face of an impending cataclysm (OOC: Krasniy agrees to become the recwar's judge).
  • The impending prospect of invasion prompts a political crisis in the Florian Republic, resulting in the unexpected resignation of Edwin Farrar.
  • Debate in the Natopian legislature on taking steps to respond to the Jingdaoese violation of the armistice.
• 13–24.II.1654 AN: After a hastily convened show-trial, the former Prime Minister of the Florian Republic was sentenced to a maximum of thirty years imprisonment for sanctioning the genocidal response to the initial Xhusor uprising.
• 13–24.II.1654 AN::
  • Shireroth begins mobilising reserves and state troops, shifting to a wartime economy.
  • In a snap election, Jessica Smith becomes the first woman and liberal party leader to be elected as president of the Florian Republic, after her promises of stabilising peace in the country and Apollonia.
  • The Synklētos of Constancia votes in favor to advise the Basileus to begin the process of entering into diplomatic relations with its neighbor on Kendall Isle, The Khanate of Krasnarus.
• 1–12.V.1654 AN::
  • Massed Jingdaoese artillery barrage on entrenched Sxiro-Florian forces along the entirety of the Florian Front. Jingdaoese General Staff ordered to commence general harassment of front line in support of an advance against Xhusovo.
  • Edwin Farrar, the deposed Florian president, reappeared in Shirekeep following what was reported as his escape from custody. Owing to his ambiguous circumstances, his application for asylum was rejected and he presently remains a guest of the Imperial Government in the Mango Suite of the Golden Regent Hotel, Shirekeep.
• 13–24.V.1654 AN:
  • Jingdaoese forces begin an overwhelming advance into Xhusovo, led by the 19th Armoured Corps which attacks and captures the city of Chuán Ké.
  • The new adminstration of Jessica Smith announces the Florian Republic's immediate withdrawal from its treaty with Shireroth, refusing to honour the treaty's delay clause which requires a period of two Norton years before its termination takes legal effect. Sxiro-Florian relations begin a period of rapid breakdown.
• 1–12.VI.1654 AN::
  • Outnumbered Shirerithian forces in Xhusovo begin retreating toward a prepared defence in the city of Hull.
• 13–24.VI.1654 AN:
  • The city of Hull is encircled and besieged by the Jingdaoese.
  • Shireroth appoints a High Commissioner for the Florian Republic, attempting to utilise certain clauses in the renounced Sxiro-Florian treaty to assume wide powers of governance over the Florian Republic.
• 1–12.VII.1654 AN:
  • The Shirerithian XIV Corps begins a counter-offensive to relieve Hull, assisted by newly-arrived Natopian air support.
• 13–24.VII.1654 AN:
  • Hull is momentarily relieved, allowing the forces of Shireroth and its allies to escape the city and conduct an organised retreat from Xhusovo.
• 1–12.VIII.1654 AN:
  • A Shirerithian commando team is landed on the small Jingdaoese coastal outpost of Haihan in northern Apollonia, where it begins a series of harrassment attacks against the local Jingdaoese garrison.
  • The Florian Republic declares itself neutral in an unsuccessful attempt to force a cessation of hostilities on its territory.
• 1–12.IX.1654 AN:
  • A flight of Florian UAVs launch a surpise attack on Grandbay, the capital of the Kingdom of Coria, causing widespread damage to the city's industrial quarters and the Corian parliament building. Corian anti-aircraft artillery responds belatedly and claims four Florian UAVs shot down.
  • Seeking to avenge Florian renunciation of their protection and deny strategic military assets to the advancing Jingdaoese, cruise missile submarines of the Imperial Shirerithian Navy launch an even more surprise attack on the Florian naval base near Blyth, targeting the country's sole Esper Class Aircraft Carrier at its moorings. Not expecting direct hostilities from Shireroth, the Florian fleet are caught completely unaware and the impact of five cruise missiles wrecks the Florian carrier beyond repair. Meanwhile Shirerithian ground forces begin a general relocation from Xhusovo to the southeast of the Florian Republic.
  • The Kingdom of Coria invades the southeastern frontier of Florian Srbozemlje with a pre-positioned army of almost 90,000 infantry, the path of their creeping advance being softened up by tactical air support.
• Jingdao proclaims the establishment of the Empire of Hondon, effectively replacing Xhusovo with a puppet state.

The late Jeremy Spencer: Reputedly not a nice chap.

• 13–24.IX.1654 AN:
  • The Imperial Jingdaoese Army successfully pushes through the frontline near the town of Ironwell. On its way eastwards it discovers several trenches filled with dead Florian soldiers, shot from behind. In Ironwell, they are however met with heavier resistance. A mix of Florian and Shirerithian troops succeed into holding the line for a day, but are in the end forced to retreat.
  • Talks between the Florians and Jingdaoese end up in an agreement [2]: the surrender of the Florians, the recognition of the status of the Empire of Hondon, the payment of war indemnities and a combined effort to push out the Shirerithians.
  • Jeremy Spencer has been executed by Florian authorities for treason. Rumours about a potential Shirerithian attempt to liberate Spencer could have played a role in the swift punishment of the politician who had influenced the Florian administration into leaving the USSO and signing the pact with Shireroth.
• 1–12.X.1654 AN:
  • 'Loyalist' (Pro-Treaty) forces were rallied to assault the Presidential Palace, Parliament building and pro-Jingdaoese protesters in Northcliff.
  • Airports in Northcliff, Dragonmoor and Srbograd were occupied by the Shirerithian forces originally assigned to their defence.
  • In the south of the country, around Dragonmoor especially, reprisals against treacherous Florian conscripts and the civilian population continued. Regiments are taking it in turns to break off from the armoured columns to rape and plunder in settlements along the line of march.
  • The 2nd Marine Division, attached to the Eastern Armada's Task Force 90, staged an airborne and amphibious landing to continue the work of capturing or destroying the Florian Navy which operates from a port south of Blyth. Carrier borne aviation attached to the 2nd Marine Division has begun a routine of aggressive combat air patrolling over Blyth, Dragonmoor and Carama Bay.
  • Unknown persons have conducted the targeted killing of Florian border guards and police officers along its southern border with the Natopian enclave of Saint Andre.
  • An airborne assault began on the city of Blyth with unidentified commandos being landed to capture military and civilian facilities.
• 13–24.X.1654 AN:
  • With the Presidential Palace under siege by Pro-Treaty troops, Pro-Smith Florian forces outside the capital openly align with the Jingdaoese.
  • A sudden volcanic eruption effectively destroyed Brettania, decimating the population of the Brettish Isles and engulfing the region in successive waves of vast pyroclastic flows. Survivors of the destruction were evacuated to the Skerries whilst the international community offered humanitarian assistance. With the destruction of a USSO member state, the Imperial Government in Shirekeep ordered its fishing fleets to plunder the Keltian country's exclusive maritime economic zone.
  • In response to the looming intrusion of unlicensed Shirerithian trawlers into Keltian waters, the Nova English hastily organised a fisheries protection squadron to defend its own territorial waters and economic interests, setting in motion the chain of events that would lead to the Keltian Cod Wars.
• 13–24.XI.1654 AN: The Rivorian Liberation Army launches a terrorist attack on a government building in Mahūti, declaring an insurgency against the Jingdaoese government.
• 13–24.XIV.1654 AN:
  • Armistice of Blyth brings an end to Sxiro-Florian conflict and inter-Florian fighting. Three major cities in the south of the country will remain under Shirerithian administration in order to provide a safe haven for supporters of the Pro-Treaty forces.
  • Shireroth announces the execution of former Florian president Edwin Farrar, quashing rumours circulating in the Florian press that the fugitive had committed suicide whilst detained in a luxury hotel in Shirekeep.
• 1–12.XV.1654 AN:
  • The Jingdaoese Tegong orchestrated a massacre in Southgate as a punitive response to the Armistice of Blyth.
  • Natopia formally commits the Natopian Defence Force to the allied war effort, improving air support and intelligence sharing, as well as redressing the naval balance of power which appeared to be tilting in the favour of the USSO.
  • The Shirerithians, supported by their Natopian allies, commit to a large scale aerial offensive against military targets in the Jingdaoese region of Dalmacija.

1655 AN:

• 1–12.I.1655 AN: Shireroth makes preparations for a naval sortie into the Great Western Sea.
• 13–24.I.1655 AN:
  • Sxiro-Natopian air offensive results in loss of Jingdaoese air supremacy over Dalmacija above the 22nd Parallel.
  • Jingdao rejects Shirerithian offer of a cessation of hostilities on the Florian Front, moves to occupy Floria as a base from which to attack Natopian Port Saint Andre.
  • The Jingdaoese Third Army broke through the final line of defences to reach the Presidential Palace, effectively ending the Siege of Northcliff.
  • Jingdaoese and Sxiro-Natopian naval forces launched sorties to assert dominion over the Florian Coast, leading to what would become the Battle of Carama Bay.
• 3rd December: The Batavian Front opens with large-scale air-raids on Tianhoucheng whilst naval engagements cover airmobile landings on Diwangdao.
• 13–24.II.1655 AN
  • With air supremacy in jeopardy and large-scale destruction visited on its rear-area infrastructure, the Jingdaoese garrisons in Tianhoucheng and Iretta launch a desperate counter-offensive to throw the Shirerithians off-balance.
  • Shirerithian agents support a coup toppling the government of Mir Hossain in the Raspur Khanate, replacing the non-aligned regime with a pro-war administration.
  • Perhaps in light of the foregoing development, Jaime Augustin Joaquin Primo de Aguilar is appointed Autokrator of Constancia by Petros III
• 1–12.III.1655 AN:
  • The IRS Medusa, a Shirerithian "Gravrig", began commerce raiding operations in the Great Western Sea, specifically targeting USSO vessels participating in a humanitarian relief mission to the Brettish Isles.
  • The Rivorian Liberation Army capture the strategic village of Brůz̀c͂awř.
• 13–24.III.1655 AN
• 13–24.IV.1655 AN.
  • In a shock decision, the Florian government decides to re-apply to the USSO as a an associate member. While the application is rejected, discussions result in the ratification of a trade agreement between the Florian Republic and Passio-Corum.
• 1–12.V.1655 AN
  • Shirerithian auxiliaries raise the flag over the desolate arctic colony of New Blackstone in the Brettish Isles
  • Xechaspolis (Eura) destroyed by an orbital bombardment for its part in the abduction of the Natopian Emperor.
• 13–24.V.1655 AN
  • Following a wildfire that destroys a large amount of Senyan crops, the Senyan government secretly agrees to buy food from the Rivorian Liberation Army in exchange for weapons.
• 11th December:
  • Sea-Reavers become notably more active in their depredations around the Brettish Isles.
  • Diwang Zhang San calls upon the Union to act against the Shirerithian aggression [3]. Passio-Corum responds to Mr.San's call with the formation of the 'Grand Army of the East.'
  • Jingdao launches its campaign into the south of the Florian Republic [4]. The start signal was given with an missile attack from MB9 (a military base, constructed under by the National Redoubt Defence Program), followed by carpet bombardments from the 1st and 2nd Air Support Corps.
  • Jaime Augusto Joaquin Primo de Aguilar, Autokrator of Constancia, secures the borders of the Constancian territory Oranje (officially, the Thema Oranjēsiōn) in Kendall Isle, unifies the command of all military forces within, and places them on high alert. [5]
• 13–24.VII.1655 AN
  • Mesazōn Basil Tzimiskes of Constancia is appointed to the SANE Joint Military Council by Autokrator of Constancia Jaime Augusto Joaquin Primo de Aguilar, who, by the same decree, assumes the role of Plenipotentiary of the Free and Associative Kingdom to SANE. [6]
  • The Synklētos of Constancia opens debate on whether to formally advise the Basileus to begin the process of entering into diplomatic relations with The Republic of Gerenia [7] and the Kingdom of Nova England [8], both members of the USSO.
• 1–12.VIII.1655 AN
  • Amused by reports of a revolt in Srbozemlje the Shirerithians offered unconditional recognition to Dimitrije Golubović as King of Nohavland, including unlimited credit with which to purchase Shirerithian armaments and the offer of landing rights for Nohavland Airlines in Benacia.
  • Passio-Corum deploys a segment of its Grand Army of the East to combat the efforts of Shirerithian Sea-Reavers along the east-Keltian seaboard.
• 13–24.IX.1655 AN:
  • A number of mid-air collisions and near misses are reported between training aircraft of the Imperial Shirerithian Air Forces and neutral cargo transports chartered by the OIEC. Shireroth subsequently apologised to Kalgachia and promised to reroute training flights away from civil aviation corridors transiting the Inner Benacian Quarantine Zone.[9]
• 1–12.X.1655 AN
  • An attempt by the Tax Guild of the Great Western Sea to subvert the Sea-Reavers nearly came to an end when some Sea-Reavers in turn attempted to defraud the Tax Guild. The stratagem of attempting to subvert privateers with cash payments was an interesting one but one that presumed that mariners, accompanied by armed Imperial auxiliaries, would readily betray their fatherland in return for what they were already engaged in divesting from the USSO by force of arms. The mere suggestion that some were even tempted was enough to prompt the dispatch of a team of Crypteia agents to New Blackstone with orders to torture and decimate as circumstances dictated. The salaries of auxiliaries assigned to the Keltian theatre of operations was also quietly reviewed.
  • Quixotic single-issue protest groups begin to appear in Shireroth. No-one is entirely certain whether they comprise of pro-war government stooges, an anti-government movement in disguise or whether they might be a mixture of both, a blend of the disaffected and marginalised who have been encouraged by the state to distract themselves with trivialities.
• 13–24.X.1655 AN:
  • A peace treaty between the Florian Republic and Natopia stabilises that front-line, bringing an end to the war in the Florian Theatre into prospect.
  • Heavy casualties endured by the 1st Army Group (southern Floria) obliges Shireroth to send auxiliaries and state troops from Elwynn and Goldshire as reinforcements to prevent the collapse of Apollonia Command.
• 1–12.XI.1655 AN
  • Passio-Corum boldly takes the initiative, reinforcing assets deployed to Eastern Keltia whilst simultaneously establishing a blockade of Talenore and mobilizing forces in an effort to monitor the flow of goods into and out of Princely Isle.
  • Strait of Haifa Campaign begins, with USSO-aligned pirates beginning to make an impact upon coastal shipping in the territorial waters of Elijah's Rest.
    • In response the demesne defence forces of the Elian Lands belatedly join the Natopian mobilisation.
  • The Naval Phalanx of the Most Holy Order of the Armored Goats embarks upon the perilous journey to relieve their kin, the Order of the Wardens of the East.[10]
• 22nd December 13–24.XI.1655 AN
  • The Western Armada commences a major sortie into the Great Western Sea, hunting for Palliscan and Nova English warships.[11]
  • Following reports of pirate groups targeting Natopian vessels in the Straits of Haifa, the mission is delegated to the Aerospace Command of the Natopian Spacefleet, which dispatches a Virgo-class scout ship and five Black Angel Fighters to Nynormarksudda to investigate.
  • The New Zimian War League deploys portions of Task Force 36.62-001 on a mission to establish preeminence in the Gulf of Jangsong, and to limit the movement of hostile vessels around the island of Anatonia. In the south Captive Sea the War League expands the scope of an active blockade of the central Skerry Isles by beginning to shell the island of Talenore.
• 1–12.XII.1655 AN
  • The Synklētos of Constancia, by a vote of 54-4-2, formally advises the Basileus to begin the process of entering into diplomatic relations with The Republic of Gerenia [12], and by a vote of 49-10-1, with the Kingdom of Nova England as well [13], both members of the USSO.
• 1–12.XIII.1655 AN
  • In response to the bombardment of Talenore, the Auxiliaries garrisoned on the island take charge of preparing defences for a possible invasion, whilst the Talenore Defence Force, supported by employees of state utility company TalCorp, worked to repair the considerable damage wrought in the harbour area and the onshore MoMA Station. The island's garrison reportedly endured 592 casualties of whom 137 were fatalities.
    • With naval assets stretched merely containing Jingdao in the wake of the Battle of Carama Bay, the Imperial Navy takes the decision to respond to Passio-Corum's entry into the war in the east by activating the Musican fleet. Crewed under the feudal system for local defence, the Musican Navy operates vessels whose oldest hulls have been in existence for fifty years and have enjoyed or endured numerous in-service refurbishments and rebuilds. [14]
    • One of the relief mission's objectives will be to deliver special munitions to the Talenore garrison prepared by the Gentlemen of Assay, a secretive company with a close relationship to the King of Goldshire. [15]
      • The Musican Fleet puts into MoMA Station Sabatini following a boiler explosion aboard the MDS Tempus.
  • The Western Armada's sortie into the Great Western Sea continues, with efforts focusing upon the pursuit of a Sheng-class cruiser.[16]
• 13–24.XIII.1655 AN
  • The Siege of Talenore escalates with an assault being launched by a "division-strength semi-mechanised landing force". The assault, which subsequently proved to be a feint to mask an intelligence gathering operation, was opposed by the local garrison.
  • Constancia lands a task force to secure the strategic settlement of Aqaba, a lawless site founded on the location of a ruined Babkhan port in central Eura. [17]
  • Perhaps lured by the prospect of easy plunder, the Jogi Regiment joined in the raiding Elijah's Rest.
  • The Florian Republic is replaced by a military occupation government: the General Government of Floria.
  • Musican Fleet departs MoMA Station Sabatini for MoMA Station Sagittarius.
• 1–12.XIV.1655 AN
  • Natopian air attacks on enemy shipping in the Gulf of Jangsong begin.[18]
  • The Synklētos of Constancia opens debate on whether to formally advise the Basileus to begin the process of entering into diplomatic relations with the Democratic Environmental Society of Senya, a member of the USSO. [19]
  • Autokrator of Constancia Jaime Augusto Joaquin Primo de Aguilar decrees the opening of the Oranje Thema to residency for 50,000 refugees [20]
  • An expansion, and logical next step, of Sxiro-Natopian policy sees all commercial and civilian vessels entering and leaving Jingdaoese ports, particularly in Apollonia, become liable to be targeted and sunk, without warning, as the beginning of a new campaign to impede the flow of goods and raw materials into the Jing war economy from the USSO Common Market.
  • Locusts are an invasive pest, but when fried they make for a delicious meal[21]: Prince Janus, leader of the Most Serene Union of Thalassa, Neridia, Istvanistan, and St. Andre, made a visit to Port Saint Andre to bolster the morale of its defenders, who have endured periodic episodes of bombardment by short-range ballistic missiles since the Battle of Carama Bay. During his speech the Prince addressed the attacks mounted by followers of the Stripping Path upon Natopian citizens living in the south-apollonian enclave. The Prince promised retribution against the Haifan emigre group known as the Sons of St.Andre and this pledge was swiftly followed up by an official decree.
    • Nine unmarked multi-role combat aircraft, believed to resemble the F-18 in configuration, disperse napalm and defoliant chemicals over the settlement of Poblenou, reputedly the organisational and religious heart of the Stripping Path community in Apollonia.
  • Musican Fleet arrives at MoMA Station Sagittarius.
• 13–24.XIV.1655 AN
  • Autokrator of Constancia Jaime Augusto Joaquin Primo de Aguilar decrees that the territories, airspace, and waters of the Free and Associative Kingdom of Constancia are a Zone of Peace, and that as a matter of state policy, Constancia shall not enter into any acts of war or violence with the Greater Pallisican Trade Association, otherwise known as the Realm of Passio-Corum, and the Kingdom of New Zimia, particularly in the Euran or Corum continents [22]
  • The Permanent Commission of the Shireroth, Alexandria and Natopia Entente (SANE) convenes its inaugural session in Raynor's Keep, Shirekeep, Imperial Republic of Shireroth. [23]
  • Battle of Sagittarius between Musican Fleet and unidentified contacts begins.
• 1–12.XV.1655 AN
  • Senya officially offers Jingdao reperations for their support of the RLA, and declare neutrality in the conflict.
• 25–36.XIV.1655 AN
  • Naval and airborne raiders dispatched by the Central Skerry Isles Exploratory Mission are engaged by the garrison of MoMA Station Talenore.
  • Raiding of outlying settlements in Elijah's Rest.
  • The Battle of Sagittarius ends with awkward apologies, the exchange of hostages and the promise of reparations, after which the Musican Fleet is allowed to depart on its westward course.

January 2018

• 1st January:
  • Batavian Front considered to have reached stalemate.
  • After a difficult voyage the Musican Fleet arrived in the straits between Keltia and North Island.
• 2nd January:
  • Occupation of Diwangdao by Task Force 94 is confirmed by the Shirerithian Ministry of Military Affairs.
• 3rd January:
  • Bombardment of Blore Heath by the Musican Fleet.
• 4th January:
  • The Kalgachi diplomatic corps, following a change in its leadership, aligns with discontented elements of the Troglodyti in assessing that fluctuations in the Micran balance of power arising from the war have escalated beyond the latter's ability to moderate by arcane working. Kalgachi leader Xantus Yastreb, a Troglodyte himself, agrees to the suspension of such workings. (OOC: Krasniy resigns as the recwar's judge due to an unmanageable workload).
• 5th January:
  • The aftermath of a virtually unprecedented tank battle fought over an extended period of time in the southern portion of Floria leaves swathes of the country virtually uninhabitable and has caused the armies of Jingdao and the Sxiro-Natopian allies to recoil in shock. Jingdaoese forces begin to withdraw into their Hondonese client state whilst the Sxiro-Natopian 1st Army Group retires into the expanded territory of Fosavlos-Blyth-Saint Andre, which becomes the primary bridgehead of Apollonia Command in the southern portion of that continent.
  • Shireroth confirms the capture of Fosavlos after a protracted siege. Surviving Jingdaoese garrison was evacuated via convoys of small boats operating within Gerenian territorial waters.
    • Suggestions begin to be made that Misnir might be permanently or temporarily occupied by Jingdaoese and Hondonese forces in exchange for territorial concessions elsewhere.
  • Purges begin in the officer corps of the Imperial Forces: Hassan Soroush Khoroushi, formerly Magister Militum of the Frontier Army's IV Corps, who led the efforts of the West Benacia Garrison to defend Batavia, Dietsland, Puritania and Voltrue, is relieved of command. Although he was successful containing the Jingdaoese breakout attempt, his failure however to conquer Tianhoucheng in turn brought his career in the Imperial Forces to a premature close. He is replaced by Constantine Loup, architect of the successful Shirerithian operation to capture the island of Diwangdao. Legate Teodor Doru Vasile, commander of the Vth Legion of the Imperial Army, was summarily executed by officers of the Crypteia for his rank incompetence in losing the legion's forward base of operations. The remaining legates of IV Corps, Ewald Ermenrich Ionesco, Waldomar Hermanus Dumitru, Meino Ionuț Vasile, Baugulf Seneca Șerban, Quintus Tacitus Cojocaru, Iancu Hortensius & Kian Charmchi, have been cashiered from service and sent into exile on the island of Raikoth. The punishment was believed to have been occasioned by the failure of these commanders to utilise and support their expensive gravimetric armoured vehicles effectively on the battlefield.
• 6th January:
  • Battle of Kares Island begins.
• 7th January:
  • Orbital strike on Ardclach undertaken by Natopian Spacefleet.
• 8th January:
  • Maritime Markets of the Strait of Haifa raise their flag over Jangsong, occupied by USSO aligned forces. Beginning of retaliatory raids by paramilitaries, partisans, and tribal militias, from Elijah's Rest.
  • Falling missile debris causes a fire to spread through the island of Talenore's main grain silo. Rumours persist that the molten metal shards came from one of the garrison's own surface-to-air missiles.
• 11th January:
  • Bread ration reduced on Talenore as food shortages begin to become noticeable.
• 13th January:
  • Battle of Kares Island ends.
• 15th January:
  • War moves towards its obligatorily acrimonious end as Natopia shifts its garrisons and frontiers in Elijah's Rest, abandoning the desolated southern frontier and attempting to isolate the Haifan garrison of Jangsong whilst preparing to lay claim to Ardclach. The New Zimian War League, in response, authorizes the wholesale slaughter of all Natopian men and pregnant women, and the arrest of Natopian children who lack one Haifan or Pallisican parent.
  • Indications of sorties against Talenore and Princely Isle.
  • The Musican Fleet & 2 City Class Diesel Submarines from Wolfpack Merrick enter the Captive Sea.[24]
  • The Vth Legion is subjected to the traditional punishment of "decimation". The legionaries were divided into groups of 10 and forced to draw lots. In each group whoever drew the marked pottery shard was then cudgelled to death by the remaining 9. Afterwards the name of the Fifth Legion was struck from the records and the formation thereafter known as the "Legion of Detachments" a cursed posting for the strays, stragglers and recaptured deserters of the entire Batavian Front.
• 16th January:
  • Four kinetic kill vehicles and a matter/anti-matter collision sphere are deployed in an attack against Jangsong.[25]
  • The Naval Phalanx of the Armoured Goats, a Bovic military order, continues active patrolling around Princely Isle to deter any hostile landing force from attempting the crossing.
• 21st January:
  • The Shirerithian Steward drunkenly ordered the obliteration bombing of Jingdaoese-occupied Blackstone. Nobody dares to countermand the order.
  • The agreement of a system of "truce days" between Nova England and Shireroth is made conditional upon the surrender of two obscure brewers to the Steward, to remain in his service for an entire Norton year.[26]
• 22nd January:
  • Synklētos elections proclamation in Constancia is delayed by technical difficulties, namely an inconveniently exploding thermal power generator. Autokrator of Constancia appeals for calm. [27]
  • Allegations about the inhumane treatment of Natopian prisoners of war by Natopian forces in Elijah's Rest, detained on suspicion of belonging to the hostile garrisons and insurgent groups of the newly claimed territories, featured prominently in the New Zimian Standard, are met with reminders about the orders given to followers of the Stripping Path to engage in murder, ritual sacrifice, rape, forcible abduction, and the sale of half-caste babies, as commodified activities. To quote one Natopian officer, speaking strictly off the record, "there is a reason why we scalp these bastards".
  • Misnir comes under Hondonese occupation, opening a land corridor to Sxiro-Natopian occupied Fosavlos.
  • The attack on Blackstone leads to a heavy retaliation from the Jingdaoese. A large part of the missiles and airforce are ordered to bomb "Port St. Andre to the ground" (quote of the original battle order, sent to the troops).
  • The marketing department of Old Monk's Brewery releases its latest promotional campaign for Holy Communion.
• 23rd January:
  • With his request that the master brewers be surrendered into his custody spurned, Steward Zinkgraven accelerates preparations for his Great Enterprise of Keltia, known as Operation Cask after the Joint Military Council failed to talk him out of it.
    • Apollonia Command is left outraged as Steward commandeers all 157 landing ships and logistic support vessels earmarked for assault on Port Nevermore.
    • The Jaysh al-Sathrati, a notorious Babkhi militia pledged to the Kalirion dynasty and garrisoned in the isles of Amity and Yardistan receives Imperial contracts and banners.
    • The Zjandarian Guards, an Elwynnese mechanised corps primarily recruited from Babkhi counties, receives mobilisation orders.
    • Commandeered merchant vessels begin to gather in the harbours of Vijayanagara (130 ships) and Novi Nigrad (165 ships).
    • The Admiralty is left outraged after all 11 new Elwynn-class corvettes, produced under the Sxiro-Natopian Production Matrix and allocated to replace losses endured by the Eastern Armada, are commandeered by the Steward.
    • Publicans in Shirekeep protest as cudgellers, following the Steward's instructions, collect an "amicable grant" from small businesses to fund the great enterprise. Denizens concerned lest practice spread beyond the capital.
    • The sale of indulgences for the remission of sins by itinerant Cedrist clerics is officially sanctioned in return for the remittance of 20% of the sale value to the Office of the Steward.
    • The procurators and clerks of the Imperial Government are ordered, on pain of dismissal, to increase the intake of revenues by 20% for the remainder of 1656. Innovative fines and administrative fees proliferate.
    • Keltia Command is left outraged as the Aurangzeb Banner Group is recalled to New Blackstone from shadowing Pallisican naval task groups.
    • Coastal Command is less than amused at being asked to transfer 400 gunboats to the Great Enterprise.
    • A group of officers uniquely sensitive to the shifting currents of the popular mood attempt to discretely advise the Steward that he risks losing the confidence of the nobility. He brusquely dismisses their concerns with promises of a great conquest and an end to the stalemate.
  • Rumours of another coup in Raspur are denied.
  • With an unprecedented round of heavy-handed requisitions and disgruntlement in the Shirerithian military beginning to tip off Kalgachi intelligence organs, Kalgachia perceives an imminent Shirerithian military assault on its ally, Nova England. Observing that the previous threat of such action if Kalgachia exported high-end weapons systems to Nova England was now moribund, but forbidden by treaty from offering such exports after the outbreak of hostilities, Kalgachia moves to activate a pre-arranged technology transfer of SEAD-hardened air defense systems and mass-produced anti-gravtank missiles to the Nova English Armed Forces before the faltering Nova English-Shirerithian truce breaks down. Kalgachi military advisors are subsequently evacuated from Nova England with some haste.
  • The disgraced and decimated Legion of Detachments (formerly the Fifth Legion) is withdrawn from the Batavian Front and dispatched to a "quiet sector" of Batavia facing Kasterburg. The legates and tribunes found, to their discomfort, that they had each been assigned a designated political officer. The command staff was joined by another individual who asked merely to be listed as an observer.
  • Following the receipt of intelligence denoting the Shirerithian build-up at New Blackstone, the Nova English Military alert status is increased to its maximum level of ‘Critical’. The Ministry of Defence authorises the activation of the Unwalic Plan.
• 24th January:
  • Operation Cask:
    • Propaganda war begins in earnest with Keltia Command claiming to be effecting the liberation of Nova England from the corruption of USSO & Kalgachi influence. Nova English National Defence Initiative focuses heavily on reports of atrocities committed by Shirerithian forces, some of which were exaggerated.
    • Task Force 100 establishes its forward headquarters at New Blackstone whilst Task Force 101 begins concentrating forces in the Horjin Roadsteads of MoMA Station Sagittarius. Invasion ports are screened by all available surface combatants of the Western Armada.
    • Requisitioned shipping begins to depart from Yardistani ports and the Elwynnese coastal region for MoMA Station Sagittarius and New Blackstone respectively.
    • Arsenals and depots throughout the Imperial Republic are ransacked by frantic quartermasters searching high and low for every last non-time-expired anti-tank weapon or munition still held in stores. Several inventory managers were subsequently executed.
    • The price of rice and tinned foods begins to increase perceptibly as requisitioning steps into overdrive.
    • A baker from Monty Crisco was elevated into the nobility and rewarded with estate in his home county for fulfilling an Imperial contract to provide six million packets of ration biscuits in record time and with the lowest competitive bid. Lord Boyt's Biscuit rapidly became famed for its near indestructible properties.
• 25 January:
  • Operation Cask:
    • Embarkation begins at the invasion ports. Air lift of panzerfausts and RPGs to MoMA Station Sagittarius by chartered civilian aircraft/airships from Sansabury and Shirekeep International Airport.
    • Small boats gathered from fishing villages in Florencia, the Iridian Isles, Lywall, Puritania, and Voltrue. Owners issued with compensation forms and told not to expect their return.
    • Western Armada conducts anti-aircraft / anti-submarine warfare drills off the Puritanian coast.
  • Under the Unwalic Plan, all non-critical industry is suspended within Nova England with employees released into their respective People’s Militia units or to assist in defence works managed by the NDI. Foreign visitors advised by the Ministry of Internal Affairs to evacuate on emergency flights running between Port Neil/Newcastle-Upon-Eastmoor to Mercury.
• 26 January:
  • Operation Cask:
    • Armada arrives in Hampton Bay, Waring Isles.
    • Gravimetric vehicles survey Nova English coastline.
• 27 January:
  • Peripheral: Caputia proposes revival of non-aligned movement.
• 30 January:
  • Operation Cask:
    • Significant air battle between Shirerithian and Nova English forces.
• 31 January:
  • Peripheral: Large scale violence, including rioting occurs during and following a Confederations Cup football match between the national teams of Coria and Shireroth in Grandbay. Some sources suggest that the violence was premeditated, perhaps even government sanctioned, as a form of delayed payback for the Khanate of Krasnarus and Kingdom of Coria initiating the war in the first instance.
  • Results of the Constancian election are certified and proclaimed. Ruling party Kómma ton Syntiritikón Monarchikoí - KSM (Party of Conservative Monarchists) loses 7 seats and its majority, and is forced to form a coalition government with junior partner Fileléfthero Kómma Foní - FKF (Liberal Voice Party). Disillusionment by the electorate and increased democratic space results in the splintering of establishment ideologies and entry of several new political movements. The Ninth Synklētos is convened. [28][29]