ᴍ:First East Alaxian War

First East Alaxian War
Date 16 March 2342 – 2346 Location East Alaxia
Belligerents
Three Empires: Anternian Empire Peryzi Empire Quadi Empire	Hveden Federation Terasian Empire Empire of Brouwen Kingdom of Brange

The First East Alaxian War was a large-scale war between East Alaxian powers that took place between 2342 and 2346. The Three Empires (Anternia, Quadi, and Peryzium) faced many opponents, primarily the Hveden Federation but other notable participants such as Brouwen, Teras, Brange, Durbinia, Kloresa, Empherias, Vreitrijk, Vanstoff, and Vitoria.

Background

Instant communications and advances in warfare technology saw quickly rising tensions. Suspicions were high surrounding the Hveden Federation's intentions with the Imperial Oraclus. The Anternian Empire to its southwest feared that if the Oraclus was incorporated into Hvede, then it was hoard two oracles which could make it too powerful having already expanded dramatically in the past four decades.

The Anternian Empire had discussions with several other countries, particularly the Empire of Quadi and the Peryzi Empire of whom they had deep historically connections, and wanted to form a coalition to prevent the Hveden Federation controlling the oracle. However, the Anternian Empire was disliked by many other countries to it's south, particularly the kingdoms of Durbinia, Kloresa, Empherias, Vreitrijk, Vanstoff, and Vitoria.

2342

The Imperial Oraclus of Eselgor was incorporated into the Hveden Federation in 2341. Emperor Valerio III of Anternia sent an ultimatum to the Hveden Federation on 1 January 2342 to retreat from the oracle or face war - to which Hvede refused. On 15 March 2342, the Anternian Empire declared war on the Hveden Federation. Almost immediately after on 16 March 2342, the Empire of Quadi and the Peryzi Empire declared war on the Hveden Federation.

Frontlines would not be drawn immediately as none of the countries shared a border. The first victim of the war would be the independent country of Teras.

Military strength

At 2342:

• Anternia – 1.2 million troops
• Hvede – 2 million troops
• Quadi – 1 million troops
• Peryzium – 800,000 troops
• Teras – 300,000 troops
• Brouwen – 300,000 troops
• Brange – 120,000 troops

Invasion of Teras

The Anternian Empire to reach the Hveden Federation's southern flank in Matkalvina would deploy 700,000 troops to invade through Teras on 1 June 2342. The Terasian government heavily protested this decision and ordered the removal of troops by 8 June 2342, but by the deadline's passing, the Anternian army had already conquered several key military headquarters in the southern border. The Emperor of Teras signed a Mutual Defence Pact with the Hveden Federation on 10 June 2342. 110,000 Anternian troops reached Centrum, capital of Teras, on 28 June 2342 to a resistance of 20,000 Teras fighters. The Battle of Centrum was a key Anternian victory, and most of Teras fell easily by August 2342 with a collapsing army and government fleeing to Matkalvina.

Hveden troop formations were only finalised on 15 June 2342 and had no time to adapt their plans to incorporate the invasion of Teras, and thus maintained defensive positions in Matkalvina. They did accept Terasian army volunteers into their ranks, bulstering their troops on the southern flank from 950,000 to 1,200,000. Anternia would hold defensive lines at the border with Hvede from September 2342 to plan for a full scale assault later in the year.

Invasion of the Canal

The Hveden Federation had only gained control of the canal in 2338 and had little time to setup major fortifications. The Peryzi Empire was a considerable distance from being able to attack and conquer the canal. Their plan was to move through the Brouwen Empire, through the Kingdom of Brange, and through the Duchies of Averia and Pilovia, to conquer the southern parts of the canal and destroy the southern entrance. This would require considerable manpower and time to achieve however. After months of preparation, Peryzium invaded the Brouwen Empire, who was able to counteract their advances despite inferior manpower. Brouwen had believed an invasion would come and set up defensives and traps in advance. At the Battle of Broud Forest, the Peryzi army suffered 25,000 casualties in a single battle to Brouwen's 5,000. The offensives of September–October 2342 would see over 100,000 Peryzi troops out of action compared to Brouwen's 25,000. Brouwen had been supplied in secret over 200 fighter planes too from the Hveden Federation in early August who believed that an attack would come. These fighter planes were able to destroy the majority of inferior and outdated Peryzi planes, of which there were few.

The Pause

Having failed significantly in their offensive, Peryzium paused their offensive in Brouwen in early November 2342 to reassess the situation. They were at an aerial disadvantage and tactical disadvantage, and had lost 13% of it's army in two months. To overcome this disadvantage quickly, they required way more manpower. Quadi reinforcements numbering 400,000 troops would reach Peryzium in late November, and could combine their troops to a total of 1.1 million to Brouwen's 275,000. However, Brouwen did receive Hveden reinforcements numbering over 400,000 troops too, raising their numbers to 675,000 total. This was still less, but far more than the Three Empires anticipated. Hvede had also now supplied bomber planes to begin destroying Peryzi infrastructure and supply, alongside spy planes to map out their routes. Peryzium, near Brouwen's border, had no anti-air attacks or any notable airforce they could use to counteract this. To make thing's worse, the Kingdom of Brange had realised the plan of the Three Empires and declared war on them on 7 November 2342. This added their army of 120,000 troops to the Brouwen front's 795,000 total.

Hvede was able to supply Brouwen so easily because they maintained incredible superiority over the East Alaxian Sea. Not only did they use significant numbers of naval bombers to destroy any Anternian fleet in the area, but the Hveden fleet was more modern and larger in every regard. That being said, the Anternians did conduct many raids on the Hveden fleets between March and November 2342, but these did not harm the supplying initiative significantly. With the attack on the Hveden canal stalled, the Anternians had to worry about their canals in the Manar regions. The Hveden navy exploded the entrances to the Northern Canal on 28 November 2342, disallowing the Anternian navy from reaching the East Alaxian Sea from the southern ports. What was left of the fleet currently in the East Alaxian Sea was destroyed quickly without reinforcement. This disaster cost the Anternians 30% of their navy, and the canal would not be up and running again until at least 2344 if no more bombings took place.

The Anternians were pleased however with the front in Teras. They had occupied the entirety of the Terasian Empire since August 2342 and had setup a puppet government that had been running it from September 2342. They maintained the front line, consisting of 750,000 troops with 400,000 more Quadi troops arriving throughout November 2342 to make a combined force of 1.15 million troops. Their plan was to begin an assault in December 2342 to capture key points in Matkalvina, including airports. Hveden air superiority was a huge problem for the front. They had been consistently doing daily bombing runs of Anternian defensives which caused over 20,000 casualties in November 2342 without any fighting taking place. The Anternians could not fight them without dramatically ramping up their production of aircraft, which they decided to do in December 2342, driving it up 500% across 2343. The Hveden side of the front had 1.2 million troops, a very slim numerical advantage.

Anternians believed that tanks were not very useful to warfare as they were slow and would break down too often. Their fighting spirit led to them remaining with classically trained armies as their focus. They had just 50 tanks in 2342. They did not pursue tank development either and would focus primarily on aircraft and equipment manufacturing throughout 2342–2343. Meanwhile, the Hveden Federation had adopted their new tank designs which were way more effective and broke down a lot less. These were prototyped in a few wars in the previous decade and were tremendously successful. The Hveden Federation had 988 tanks in the field as of November 2342, which approximately 9 more per week. The Anternians did not focus primarily on preventing tanks because they believed they were easy to be destroyed, and were not expecting the unleash of power that these new tanks would bring. Tanks would feature commonly as part of offensive divisions on the Matkalvina front line, which would be at points where the Hvedens could break through.

Summer offensives

Beginning in December 2342 and lasting until March 2343, the Hveden Federation would conduct the Summer Offensive. It aimed to reconquer the lost territories of Teras and establish a new front line deeper into Anternian territory than their fortifications lie at great speed. The offensive began with large scale bombing runs in key checkpoints, where the Hveden army began amassing troops and primarily tank brigades. After over two months of constant bombardment by bombers, mostly unopposed, and artillery barrages, 3 select points across the entire Terasian front were chosen to push through. These were considered those at the weakest areas where major infrastructure remained and supply points held. Luckily, the Hveden government had access to Terasian intelligence and maps and were very well informed on key locations to retake. The key point closest to the coast, nicknamed, Point Anabelle, was ordered as the first to break through. On 10 January 2343, the Hveden army attacked directly through the front line here, smashing through 120,000 troops alongside by 200 tanks. The exhausted troops on the other side mostly deserted or surrendered immediately after a month of constant shelling, and the Hveden army inflicted 20,000 casualties and took 60,000 prisoners of war. By 21 January, the quick speed of the tank brigades saw the entirety of the northern lands cut off from the rest. Smaller divisions were sent to capture remaining troop deployments, numbering just over 20,000 more POWs captured. With the north taken, the Army would have to capture the major town of Pisca on the eastern river. The Battle of Pisca saw 120,000 Hveden troops against the Anternian defence force of 80,000 troops. It was very costly to the Hvedens, as they had to trawl through a harsh urban war, and they took 10,000 casualties. However, the Anternians lost 15,000 troops and their remaining 65,000 troops were captured as POWs as the Hvedens eventually took the city and prevented escape.

The Anternians had lost 200,000 troops, over a quarter of the 750,000 strong army they maintained, and so were forced to reorganise their defences. The majority of these troops came from the north, which left a considerable gap which the Hvedens could exploit to push through to Anternian-proper. It was ordered for the remaining 550,000 men to focus on preventing the main Hveden army from pushing through, and thus the eastern side of the front was negated throughout January to February.

From Pisca