Ludwiggian-Monovian War

Ludwiggian-Monovian War
Date II.1702 AN - present Location South-East Cibola Status Ongoing
Belligerents
Sankt Ludwigshafen	Monovian militants
Commanders and leaders
Adam Rettich	Elonzo XII
Units involved
Dragonerkorps Ludwigshafen Kriegskorps Ludwigshafen	Royal Guard of King Elonzo XII Monovian Royal Army

The Ludwiggian-Monovian War was a conflict that was fought out between the Republic of Sankt Ludwigshafen and the Monovian militants from the Green in the early 1700s. Prior to the war, Monovian troops had invaded Zandarijn, which was defeated after the Sack of Hamstadt. In 1699, Sankt Ludwigshafen launched a limited military incursion called Operation Enduring Fellowship, into Zandarijn, to protect Ludwiggian interests in the town of Oudorp and also to protect that town's inhabitants. Operation Enduring Fellowship was considered by the Stadtparlement to be completed in late 1701, but this appraisal of the situation proved to be premature. In XIII.1702 mounted patrols belonging to the Dragonerkorps Ludwigshafen encountered Monovian scouts, belonging to the Monovian Royal Army trespassing into the Lanzerwald. The scouts were apprehended and their belongings searched, they were found to be in the possession of maps detailing the fortifications of Stadt Sankt Ludwighsafen and the defences of Oudorp and Louisville. The Stadtparlement was informed of the findings and in XIV.1702 it resolved to declare that the republic was under attack, and that it would have to fight a war to stamp out the Monovian threat.

In XV.1702 Stadtholder Adam Rettich petitioned to the Stadtparlement to form an expeditionary force to combat the Monovian threat both within Ludwiggian borders, as well as in the the Green. This Kriegskorps Ludwigshafen as it was called, consisted of 5,000 infantrymen belonging to the various Bezirkbürgerwehrs along with several donkey-drawn pieces of artillery. The Kriegskorps was assisted by ten patrols of scouts belonging to the Dragonerkops Ludwigshafen, who were sent out to find hostile positions.

First skirmishes between the Kriegskorps Ludwigshafen and the Monovian Royal Army took place in III.1703, when the Monovians attacked a Ludwiggian forward base approximately 50 kilometres south of the Ludwiggian border, north of the ruins of Prins Haven, Zandarijn. No soldiers on either side were injured in the gunfight. Such attacks became more frequent, and seemed to be intended more to intimidate the Ludwiggian forces, than to destroy them. In VI.1703, for the first time since Operation Enduring Fellowship, two Ludwiggian soldiers were wounded by a Monovian attack, one of them fatally. The attack took place 30 kilometres west of the ruins of Grenstad, Zandarijn. After the discovery of a large Monovian encampment in the woods east of Monoviaville by the Dragonerkorps Ludwigshafen in IX.1703, the Kriegskorps Ludwigshafen retaliated and killed 14 soldiers belonging to the Monovian Royal Army. From X.1703 to II.1704 Monovian attacks on Ludwiggian forward bases continued, but no serious injuries were reported.

Difficulties navigating the forests and mountains of South-East Cibola inspired the Ludwiggian military engineer Theodor Holzmännchen to develop the first Ludwiggian aeroplane. Starting his work in late 1703, he presented the J-1 Lärm in IV.1704. The primitive fighter plane was made of wood, covered with cloth and had to be launched by a winch to become airborne. Despite its obvious shortcomings, the aeroplane provided a tactical advantage to the Kriegskorps Ludwigshafen as it was able to scout more effectively and it could detect Monovian attacks much earlier. The Monovian Royal Army responded by trying to acquire man-portable surface-to-air missiles from the stocks of failed Micran nation states, but the high price of these air defence systems hindered the Monovian war effort. In most cases, the Monovians would only shoot rockets at Ludwiggian planes engaged in aggressive manoeuvres, and rarely at scouting planes.