Zagorlad War
The Zagorlad War: 24 September - 14 October 1728
Contents
Introduction
Zagorlad, a small nation in the north, was carved out of the chaotic period of Laatzenian disintegration. However, it quickly brought itself out of chaos and began to assert its local power by threatening the Sicinian colony of New Martinique as well as its neighbor, Hasilthec. Diplomatic wrangling soon followed but negotiations went nowhere and the world still teetered at the brink of war. Akaeia, by now allies with Sicinia Salis, decided that to wait any longer was to invite destruction, and signed the first declaration of war on September 14th, closely followed by Sicinia.
Plan of Attack
The Akaeian General Edas Anentophras was placed in tactical command of the Coalition forces that were to assault Zagorlad. Although Zagorlad possessed an army of 90,000, more than 60,000 were garrisoned on the mainland, while only 30,000 men held the Ile d'Aceline where the Zagorlad capital of Ongro is located. The Coalition commanders decided to take advantage of their extreme naval superiority and land the Coalition forces on the Ile while simultaneously preventing the Zagorlad army from sending reinforcement from the mainland.
Order of Battle
The Coalition forces that took part in the Zagorlad War were as follows:
Naval
- 3rd Imperial Fleet (Akaeian)
- 4th Imperial Fleet (Akaeian)
- 1st Fleet Straits Squadron (Sicinian)
Total= 300+ vessels
Land
- 3rd Imperial Army (Akaeian)
- 4th Imperial Army (Akaeian)
- 3rd Shock Army (Sicinian)
- 4th Shock Army (Sicinian)
Total= 180,000+ men
The Zagorlad forces that fought in the Zagorlad War were as follows:
Naval
- Sacred Fleet
Total= 30 vessels
Land
- Sacred Army
Total= 30,000 men
Initial Onslaught
Although the first Coalition forces, officers and marines from the Sicinian 1st Fleet, stepped ashore on the Ile d'Aceline on October 2nd, the initial assault was not begun until two days later, the 4th. Akaeian marines landed in the early morning at the village of Stdethgath and secured a beachhead. A company of Sicinian Royal Marines attempted to capture the minor fishing port of Killaney, but were stopped by musket fire from the village buildings. It was not until that evening that Killaney was taken. The process of offloading troops continued all through the night, but by the afternoon of the 5th all 180,000 were ashore.
To protect Sicinian colonial interests in New Martinique General Anton Poiret, the best in the People's Army, was sent to the long road west of Turnholl with several Akaeian Marine battalions and the Kingsland Rifles, the 40th Foot, and the 77th Fusiliers. The Coalition set up a patrol across the Strait between the Ile and the mainland to head off any reinforcement efforts.
First Blood
4 Brigades of the 4th Shock Army, which were the first Sicinian units ashore, marched under the command of General Edouard Alexandre on the far left flank of the advance, with the 3rd I.A. in the center and the 4th I.A. on the right Personal Account 1. Skirmishing with Zagorlad units continued through the day but the advance ground steadily on, before halting for the night along a sunken roadway. The main body of the Sacred Army was spotted a dozen miles beyond the main advance, and it was assumed that they too were bedding down for the night. An incorrect observation, it was later to be noted.
Meanwhile, the Coalition fleet closed the Sacred Fleet of Zagorlad, and battle was joined that afternoon. It was so one-sided that most of the Coalition ships didn't even get a chance to fire, and within twenty minutes the Sacred Fleet lay broken upon the sea bed. However, on land everything was quiet, but not for long.
Surprise Assault
The Sacred Army attacked Coalition positions along the 4th S.A. and 3rd I.A. lines Personal Account 2. All was confusion as men pulled themselves from tents and joined in the fighting. On the Sicinian lines the 1st Battalion of the 9th Foot had been camped at the edge of a wood slightly ahead of the main line, and it received the brunt of the inital attack. The men of the 1st Battalion bravely tried to hold, but they were unorganized and eventually broke and ran, leaving some 400 of their comrades and at least as many of the enemy dead or wounded. The remanants of the 1st Battalion streamed back through the 4th Army HQ, and General Alexandre personally directed the defense. It was now the Zagorlad's turn to be blooded, as hundreds fell to the rapid volleys and canister fire of the reinforced Sicinian line. Personal Account 3
The battle along the Sicinian front died away with the coming of the dawn, as most of the remaining Zagorlads made their way to where the bulk of the Sacred Army was engaged in a life and death struggle with the 3rd I.A.
Battle of Kargden Hill
The Akaeian 4th Imperial Army had been bivouacked below an eminence called Kargden Hill, and it had been from this spot that the Zagorlads attacked. The 3rd I.A. had not only held off the assault but had moved forward and captured the hill proper, digging in by the morning of October 5th and causing death and confusion among the Zagorlads at the hill's base Personal Account 4. The Sacred Army began to withdraw and General Anentrophas, seeking to end this as soon as possible, had marched after them. The two sides met and too late did Anentrophas relaize he had left the range of his artillery atop the hill.
The battle went back and forth, each side evenly matched as the clash of steel upon steel and crackle of musket fire echoed across the fields blanketed with powder smoke Personal Account 5. The armies had been fighting for almost six hours (Noon until 5:40) when a bugle sound from the left flank and in the manner of the cavalry coming to save the day, the Sicinians charge onto the field.
General Alexandre, upon hearing of the bloody battle being fought by the 3rd I.A. to his right Personal Account 6, ordered Brigadier General Nicholas d'Fayme to take his brigade and three others of the 3rd Shock Army to relieve the Akaeians while he took the 4th S.A. and some of the 3rd in a circular march around to the Sacred Army's rear and set up defenses at a town that sat astride the main highway into Ongro: Beldorford.
D'Fayme, meanwhile, marched his battalions eagerly into the battle, colours snapping in the wind Personal Account 7. The tide immediately turned and the Zagorlads beat a hasty retreat back towards their capital, leaving the Akaeians and Sicinians in control of the field, where they camped for the night.
March to Ongro
News reached the remainder of the Coalition on October 6th that the 4th I.A. had, like Alexandre, decided to try and outflank the Sacred Army while it was engaged. However, the 4th I.A. had not stopped heading northwards and now was within sight of the steeples of Ongro. With Alexandre and the 4th S.A. entrenched at Beldorford General Anentrophas, who now comanded d'Fayme's brigades as well as his own army, marched north along the highway, hoping to catch the Sacred Army in a vise between the two Coalition forces Personal Account 8.
Alexandre, however, was furious that the Akaeians would take Ongro and not the Sicinians Personal Account 9. Instead of remaining at Beldorford he marched north, leaving only a brigade under the command of Brigadier General Ieache Julien to guard the town.
The 4th Shock Army was harrassed by enemy light cavalry, but it brushed such opposition aside. The Sacred Army was content to set up a line of fixed defenses along the Beldan Ridge, an elevation of land that ran across the highway and sat across the route Anentrophas would have have to traverse to proceed north Personal Account 10. The focus of the war now returned to that little town of Beldorford, although events on the mainland also drew the world's attention.
War on Laatzen
Hasilthec, which had joined the Coalition on October 4th, had moved its army across the northern frontier into Zagorlad on the 5th. The mainland section of the Sacred divided its force in half and sent 30,000 of its men north to fight the Hasilthecians, while the remainder prepared to assault New Martinique.
General Anton Poiret was worried, but ready, for such an attack. His army consisted mostly of raw native colonials, but he had enough veteran units to wreak havoc upon any invaders. To make the defense easier, the only way to reach Craig Bochune from Zagorlad was by marching along the Long Road, a single track that wound its way along the coast for a hundred miles before coming to more open country. Poiret sent the Kingsland Rifles to attack Zagorlad forage parties Personal Account 11, and thenset about organizing a series of roadblocks and other defenses Personal Account 12. He would fight any invaders for a hundred miles along a single road and it was there, on the snowy ground, that his enemy would fall.
Battle of Beldorford
While General Anentrophas made preparations to blast a hole through the Zagorlad defenses atop the ridge Personal Account 13, the Sacred Army under General Scott finally recognized the small number of troops garrisoning Beldorford and attacked, leaving only a token force to hold Beldan Ridge. The ground before the earthworks was quickly strewn with Zagorlad dead and wounded, but numbers began to tell and Julien's Brigade was forced to abandon its defenses. The fighting continued into the town proper, the house-to-house fighting fierce and bloody, but the brigade was at last forced out of town, leavin 2/3rds of its men behind Personal Account 14.
The remainder of Julien's brigade was saved from complete destruction by the arrival of the 2nd Combined Army under General Anentrophas atop the Beldan Ridge. Hearing the sounds of battle from somewhere beyond the ridge Brigadier d'Fayme had begun a probing attack against the ridge positions and, finding them lightly manned, turned the probing attack into a full-scale assault. The Akaeians and Sicinians pushed easily through the ridge positions and now perpared to lay siege to Beldorford, where the Sacred Army had fortified.
March to New Martinique
Zagorlad, seeking to divert Coalition troops elsehwere, launched its assault on New Martinique Personal Account 15. However, the work of Chiraz Sea Company engineers and the Kingsland Rifles saw the road blocked and the Zagorlad advance temporarily halted Personal Account 16.
Meanwhile Poiret made the last finishing touches to his defenses, preparing to repulse the Zagorlad assault whenever it would come.
The War Ends
The Coalition and Zagorlad had begun to discuss terms, with an uneasy truce called between the two armies. However, with the assault into New Martinique the war continued. Siege mortars were brought up and began to pound Beldorford into a flaming ruin Personal Account 17. However, another truce was called, and diplomats met to discuss the terms. The Treaty of Ongro was first put forward on October 10th, but disagreements between the Akaeians, Sicinians, and Zagorlads, kept the final peace from occurring until October 14th, when the Treaty was signed, handing over the Ile d'Aceline to the Akaeians and more than a million coronums in reparations for the Sicinians. The war was over, and everyone at last could return home Personal Account 18.
Aftermath & Casaulties
Original Sicinian forces: 95,000
Sicinian casualties:
- Surprise assault (600 killed, wounded or captured)
- Flank attack at Kargden Hill (300 killed, wounded or captured)
- Battle of Beldorford (1900 killed, wounded or captured)
- Battle of Beldan Ridge (170 killed, wounded or captured)
- Miscellaneous skirmishing (100 killed, wounded or captured)
total killed, wounded or captured: 2900
Original Akaeian forces: 85,000 (approx.)
Akaeian casaulties:
- Battle of Kargden Hill (5350 killed, wounded or captured)
- Battle of Beldan Ridge (130 killed, wounded or captured)
- Miscellaneous skirmishing (150-200 killed, wounded or captured)
total killed, wounded or captured: 5630-5680 killed, wounded or captured)
Original Zagorlad forces: 30,000
Zagorlad casaulties:
- Surprise attack on Sicinian positions (700 killed, wounded or captured)
- Battle of Kargden Hill (5790 killed, wounded or captured)
- Battle of Beldorford (3000 killed, wounded or captured)
- Battle of Beldan Hill (160 killed, wounded or captured)
- Miscellaneous skirmishing (200 killed, wounded or captured)
total killed, wounded or captured: +/- 9000
