Battle at Styrús
The Battle at Styrús was a major naval engagement in the War of the Velaran Succession, fought on 4 March 1771. It was the last and second largest naval battle in the war's West Velar theatre, before the Siege of Teyra and the various battles it entailed. Following the flight of Prince Miró of Txir from Semeria, he was pursued by the bulk of the Trellinese navy and its Arimathean allies, which had regrouped under Admiral Tizarek Er'hani.
The fleets met in battle outside the harbour of Styrús, where the Velaran warships had drawn up in preparation for the much larger Trellinese and Arimathean force. Outnumbered two to one, Admiral Kasan Licúfré's fleet nonetheless inflicted severe casualties before it was defeated. Estimates for the total dead range from 4,000 to 7,000 in what was one of the bloodiest battles of the war. Trellin's victory at sea cleared the way for a large army to be landed at Styrús, which became the beachhead for the Siege of Teyra.
Background
The arrival of Trellinese and Arimathean forces in early 1771 at the island of Adazakh, in the central Sea of Velar, was the culmination of a sustained campaign at sea. Velaran naval supremacy had been lost in late 1769 with their defeat at the Battle at Kalodin, the largest naval battle of the war, but even so they remained potent adversaries to the Trellinese navy and had greatly bolstered the defences of Miróist strongholds such as Parthenope and Txir. Trellin had suffered its share of embarrassments, particularly in the Battle at Rú Qoh which saw a large armada driven off by a minor coastal garrison. With the War of the Velaran Succession now in its third year, most Velaran cities had surrendered to forces loyal to Elcmar IV of Trellin, but Miróists on Adazakh held out. They had been joined by Prince Miró himself in January 1771, after the Siege of Txir and his subsequent retreat from Semeria. The Trellinese commanders, meanwhile — the Duke of Lindros, Earl of Jajich and Admiral Tizarek Er'hani, joined by the Ja'ekhan Prince of Garsaf and Arimathean general Theheckis Hisname — spent the next month preparing their invasion of Adazakh.
With the bulk of the Velaran kingdom now under Trellinese control, the Miróist cause found itself suffering from chronic manpower shortages. The Trellinese took their leisure in assembling a large force in southeastern Semeria. Miró established himself at Teyra, Adazakh's administrative seat. The defences at its harbour, the town of Lakon, were reputedly invincible and included thick casemates built to the same design as those at Rú Qoh. A network of coastal signal towers, maintained since the 1490s, meant Teyra would have advance warning of any attempted surprise attack. The Trellinese admirals — Er'hani, Gharat Reqriu and Pei Tisarol, joined by Arimathean commodore Teqial Jureniv — instead proposed to attack at Styrús, to the west of Teyra. Styrús' port facilities were far inferior to Lakon's, meaning it would pose a greater logistical challenge as a beachhead, but, with Velaran ambassadors lobbying abroad for support for Miró, the Trellinese coalition decided in favour of Styrús rather than take a greater risk attacking Lakon.
[ Section on Miróist preparations ]
The battle
Aftermath
Order of battle
Trellin
Arimathea
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Velar
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