Wars of Ottonian Unification
| The Allamunnic Wars of Unification | |||||||
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The Allamunnic Wars of Unification were a series of armed conflicts fought between 1852 and 1872 which led to the creation of the original Allamunnic State, later renamed to the Ottonian Federation (now commonly known as Ottonia).
The Wars of Unification are generally considered to have begun in earnest with the Siege of Roan, although small, local level armed-conflicts between state forces and nationalist agitators had been occurring sporadically for approximately a decade prior.
Background & The Siege of Roan
The siege itself was precipitated by creation of the Unified Army of Allamunnika by a vote of the members of the Pan-Allamunnic Union which was seen by the monarchs of Staalmark and Onneria as an attempt to seize power and subsume the Allamunnic monarchies. In response, the two states, with the assistance of the allied realm of Æthele dispatched an army to disarm the Union. The siege was unsuccessful in taking Roan, and the forces were dispersed in disarray. However, what followed was almost a full year of continuous peace as the Union regrouped and retrained its forces, incorporating the now-flocks of volunteers from the various Allamunnic states.
The Tyrrslynd Revolution
By 1854, the monarchy of Tyrrslynd was still wavering in its support of the Union. Although the Union provided economic opportunities and a way to lessen costs of defense, the Union also benefitted Tyrrslynd's traditional rivals in Jormundea. Adding to their indecision was the broad popularity of the Allamunnic nationalist movement in Tyrrslynd, particularly in its largest cities. In fact, there were significant indications that the Tyrrslynder monarchy was prepared to side with Onneria and Staalmark.
That April, Tyrrslynder citizens, growing impatient with the monarchy and fearing it might go to war to aid a second attempt to disarm the Union, took to the streets. Armed mobs marched on the palace in Ardryk, forcing the royal family to flee to Draakurr. An elected governing body was set up by the revolutionaries, who formally entered Tyrrslynd into the Union properly (rather than as an outside ally, as it had been previously).
Initial attempts by pro-monarchist forces to overthrow the republican government found themselves stymied by a supporting invasion by Union general Rikard Filius at the head of a 40,000-strong army, which helped a Republican force rout a Monarchist & Onnerian force at Roedgaard. With the Republican government's position secured, fears began to reach a fever pitch in Staalburg and Onneria.
The Riverland War
After a year of preparation and planning, the new Triple Alliance of Onneria, Staalmark, and Ostmark invaded Skraelingia in 1856, with an eye to cutting through there and Innia, turning both states against the Union (by coercion or regime-change), and then decapitating the Union's leadership in Roan.
The Allied force numbered approximately 200,000 troops, with half that number coming from the north (a combined Staalmarker-Ostmarker force) and half coming from the south (Onnerian, combined with Ghantish mercenaries). They quickly found themselves opposed by Union forces under Major Generals Rikard Filius and Moergyn Grahulm, two armies of approximately 50,000 troops each. These were augmented by local forces, 35,000 Skraelingians under Prince Graegur of Skraelingia and 18,000 Innians under Major General Kristiana Torren.
Through three years of fighting, both sides absorbed heavy losses. The Union forces mostly conducted a defensive campaign, forcing the Allied forces to divide themselves and attack at a disadvantage in many cases, evening the odds. Moreover, Filius and Grahulm frequently utilized their own allies to attack the long, vulnerable supply lines of the invading armies.
The turning point in the conflict came in 1859, when another 50,000-strong Union army led by Major General Rikard Filius, marched from Tyrrslynd into Onneria, defeating one Onnerian force at Kristofsburg before besieging another at Rynnurspurt.
The invasion forced Onneria to draw on their forces in the Riverlands, which in turn allowed the Union forces to regroup and take the fight to the remaining Allied forces. It would take another two years of campaigning, but by 1861, Allied forces had been driven back to their own borders.
The Highland War
By 1862, the Union had managed to regroup and consolidate its forces. Following the defeat of the Allied invasion of Innia and Skraelingia, the four member-states of the Union (Tyrrslynd, Jormundea, Innia, and Skraelingia) voted to formally combine their forces into the Unified Army of Allamunnika. In functional terms, most of the formations remained the same, and remained under the leadership of the same officers they had always been. However, henceforth there would be greater coordination and cooperation of national forces, all fighting under the same blue-and-gray banner, under the overall leadership of Captain-General U'Daanyl.
Ten years after the Siege of Roan began, the Union undertook its first strategically-offensive action. Leaving Kraag's force to defend Innia, Filius' army struck north from Skraelingia, while newly-promoted Major General Kaarla Redmunn struck into Staalmark's western border from Jormundea, complemented by Moergyn Grahulm's force striking north from Innia.
Filius' target was Ostmark, and his troops marched into the country and began to face local resistance. However, their forces were also aided by Nationalist partisans who harried opposing supply lines and blinded scouting expeditions. For all intents and purposes, Filius' was an independent campaign into Ostmark.
Further west, Redmunn and Grahulm's two-pronged attack had caught the Staalmarker Royal Army under-prepared. Redmunn slowly drove in from Jormundea, fixing most of the Staalmarker Army's attention, even as Grahulm drove a forced march north, with an eye to taking the port of Spaal. What quickly became clear was the endemic pro-Union sentiment in the mountainous regions of Staalmark; more than one small-town garrison found itself in conflict with the local population, who often as not handed towns over to Grahulm without his troops even firing a shot. By the turn of the New Year, Grahulm had invested Spaal, and his troops, now with friends at their backs, settled in for a siege.
Although Redmunn had faced setbacks in her own campaign, she had succeeded in fixing the Staalmarker Army of the West's attention; despite a handful of victories for Staalmark's Prince Adolfus, he had not managed to gain the separation needed to disengage with Redmunn's force, leaving the defenders of Spaal on their own; Staalmark's Army of the East was even then, attempting a strike into Innia in a bid to take pressure off their own local forces. Still, they quickly found themselves running up against Kraag's army, which managed to force a bloody stalemate.