User:Gibbs/Sandbox
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| Part of the Great War of the North | |||||||
 Sjealandic infantry defend the Staksrode Gate against Ambrosian cuirassiers, Alfons af Nørremarken | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
 Ambrose |
 Sjealand | ||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
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Godfred Crovan † Brinton ap Rhys W.H.L. Reynolds Desmond Sickles |
Frederik Læssøe Georg A.D. Gerlak Karl W. de Mesa Glode Henrik du Plat | ||||||
The Siege of Asgård was fought between October 29, 1864 and April 28, 1865, during the Great War of the North. The Ambrosian commander-in-chief, General Godfred Crovan, landed on Sjealand proper with his Army of the Kings in August of 1864. After several maneuvers, he was able to flush the Sjealandic army, under Georg A.D. Gerlak, out of the Tynnevirke fortification line and amanged to trap them in Asgård, the capital of Sjealand.
The six month-long siege was characterized by trench warfare punctuated by occasional attempts to break the siege—bloody engagements such as Ønnerød, Grejsdal, Kollerup, and Rhys's Landing.Crovan knew that he could not outright defeat the entrenched, numerically-superior Sjealandic Army, but hoped to pressure them into abandoning the capital and allowing the Ambrosians to take it unopposed. However, the Sjealandic king, Håkon VII, refused to abandon the capital, saying "I will conquer or I will die in my nest". Though they maintained naval superiority from the sea, the Confederal Navy weas unable to gain control of the Kongeelven River, allowing the Royal Sjealandic Navy to continue to resupply the capital (a fact which has lead certain commentators to question whether the operation was truly a "siege" in the classical sense of the term).
In February 1865, Crovan was killed by a Sjealandic sharpshooter, causing a mass reorganization of the Ambrosian Army. Several factors—the continued resistance of the Asgård garrison, pressure from a relief force led by Glode Henrik du Plat, and the breakout of the Sjealandic fleet from the Nordvakt Straits (which threatened their supply lines)—caused the new Ambrosian commander, Brinton ap Rhys, to withdraw to the positions of the captured Tynnevirke. Due to the exhaustion of the Sjealandic Army, there was little further action on the Sjealandic front for the duration of the year.
Background
Military situation
Sjealand had been at war against the Coalition—Ambrose, Engatia, Suavia, and the Valish states—since late 1861. In the intervening years, the forces of the Royal Sjealandic Army, led by Field Marshal Frederik Læssøe, had been largely pushed off of the Aldinean continent, rolled back through various defeats or inconclusive engagements such as Ildre, Gryby, Damstorp, and, in late 1863, Fleninge, at the hands of a Valish-Engatian army. With the Royal Sjealandic Navy largely having been confined to port after the Battle of Cape Heria the year before, political elements in Asgård feared that the Sjealandic mainland was now excessively vulnerable. With mounting political pressure, as well as concern over their supply chain across the Tynic Straits, Læssøe withdrew the bulk of his army to Sjealand in a series of planned evacuations, coinciding with a ceasefire and peace talks in Klarvann. Though the talks would end in failure by early 1864, by their end, Sjealandic control on the continent would reduced to Thy and the surrounding highlands, while the majority of the Sjealandic Army was safely rearming in Sjealand proper.
As the Sjealanders were expelled from the continent, Godfred Crovan, the president and commander-in-chief of Ambrose, had won a series of striking victories against Galideen, Kulavia, and the Frysan states. As the invasion of Galideen continued, however, Crovan became increasingly convinced of the need to knock Sjealand out of the war. In a conference with the Valish commander, Field Marshal Johan Axel Mardefelt, in January of 1864, the two coalition leaders settled on a two-pronged invasion of Sjealand; one, a Valish army moving towards Nordvakt, and the other, an Ambrosian army moving towards Asgard. The invasion was set to commence in the early August of 1864, after Crovan returned from campaigning in the East.
Initial movements
The Ambrosian army landed in western Nillas Bay on the 8th of August, 1864. In a careful display of maneuver warfare, Crovan threatened to overrun the Tynnevirke, the Sjealandic Army's defensive line. With their rear threatened, on the 20th of September, Field Marshal Læssøe took the decision to pull back from the fortifications, despite the strenuous objections of his own staff, such as Lt. Gen. Karl Vilhelm de Mesa, as well as politicians in Asgard.
The armies met at Lamborg on the 6th of October. Due to the inadvertent movement of General Niels Lunding's corps, a large gap was opened in the Sjealandic line. A cavalry charge by the brigade of H. Alexander Fitzpatrick threw the Sjealandic Army into disarray. Partially due to the incompetence of Ambrosian Gen. Wager ap Henry, and partially due to a brave stand by the 8th Brigade of Sjealandic Gen. P.L. Møller, the Sjealandic Army was saved from a decisive defeat. Læssøe was bought time to form an organized retreat to the safety of the Asgard fortifications, where his army would rest and regroup.
Despite quartering his troops in the capital, Læssøe did not plan to weather a siege and made plans to leave the confines of the city before the winter ended the campaigning season; he reasoned that the city's fortifications were already impregnable and that Crovan's expeditionary force could only be defeated in open battle. Nevertheless, the Sjealandic government immediately undertook a massive effort to further the city's already-formidable defensive works.
Crovan had not planned on investing Asgård; his plan had been to decisively defeat the Sjealandic Army in battle—which he had attempted and failed at Lamborg—and hopefully force the Sjealandic government to ask for an armistice, allowing him to march into the city unopposed. In any case, he had no intentions of directly assaulting the city's fortifications, and especially not when they were manned by the intact, if battered, Sjealandic Army. He considered moving his troops across the Kongeelven Rover and abandoning Asgard entirely, though he concluded it was too late in the year to begin a scorched earth campaign deep in enemy territory. Instead, Crovan settled on besieging the city while continuing to apply pressure in order to bring the Sjealandic military and civilian administration to their brink.
After Crovan took the railroad junction of Krusbjerg on 20 October with little effective resistance, the city of Asgard flew into an all-out panic. Læssøe was confronted by his staff, who argued that a siege was now inevitable; he offered his resignation to the king, king, Håkon VII, but was refused. The offices of the Sjealandic government evacuated the city on the 26 of October, effectively leaving the city under martial law.
Opposing forces
Ambrose
| Key Ambrosian commanders |
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The Ambrosian forces were that of the Army of the Kings (named after the Kongeelven, or "King" River). This formation had been assembled in early 1864 in Valland, cobbled together from the Army of the Kenetcy and detached regiments of the Army of the Els. At the time of the invasion of Sjealand, it numbered approximately 75,000, having been gathered and trained at camps along the coast of Valmark.
In keeping with the typical structure of 19th century Ambrosian field armies, the Army of the Kings was divided into two "wings" (right and left), each commanded by a lieutenant general. The Right Wing of the army was commanded by Brinton ap Rhys and was made up of:
- II Corps, under Maj. Gen. Desmond Sickles, and later Redwulf H. "Baldy" Wilson
- V Corps, under Maj. Gen. G. Kembell Warren
- VI Corps, under Maj. Gen. Tostig Anderson Cromwell
- X (Valish) Corps, under Ole, Prince Fasting
The Left Wing of the army was commanded by Lt. Gen. Wulfred Horace Lucan Reynolds (the former Lord Reynolds), and consisted of:
- IX Corps, under Maj. Gen. Gordon ap Seward
- XX Corps, under Maj. Gen. Llewelyn A. Wallace
- XXIV Corps, under Maj. Gen. John Edward Ord
- III Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. Alfred Alfredson. Often on detached service, they were nominally part of the Left Wing but were in practice under Crovan's direct command.
After Crovan's death, ap Rhys assumed command of the army by virtue of seniority (promoting Desmond Sickles to take his place). Elite units in the army included the IX Corps' Ice Brigade, an all-Northumbrian unit led by Brigadier Alfred Taymoor, as well as the feared Presidential Guard.
Sjealand
| Key Sjealandic commanders |
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At the outset of the siege, the Sjealandic forces were under the command of Field Marshal Frederik Læssøe. The cornerstone of the defense was the 1. Army (under the immediate command of Georg A.D. Gerlak), numbering approximately 80,000 regular troops. Læssøe also assumed command of the Capital Garrison, though most of these soldiers were "green" recruits that had not yet seen battle. In total, the regular army that had been trapped in the city was made up of:
- I Corps, under Lt. Gen. Karl W. de Mesa
- II Corps, under Lt. Gen. Valdemar Neergard
- III Corps, under Lt. Gen. Ulrik Scarpenberg
- Cavalry Corps, under Maj. Gen. Ditlev Hegermann Lindencrone.
In addition to the regular army and garrison troops, the local Home Guard was made up of approximately 100,000 men, though their training, equipment, and even their ages varied widely. Some of these units were well-disciplined local militias and rifle clubs, though others were scattered groups of poorly supervised and inexperienced civilians, or in some cases, discharged soldiers which had previously been declared unfit for service due to wounds.
The 2. Army, under Glode Henrik du Plat, existed the north of the country; however in late 1864 it was by no means an effective fighting force, made up of reservists, volunteers, and understrength 1. Army regiments that had been depleted in previous campaigns. It would take several months before it was to be organized into an army capable of relieving the capital.