The Ostburg Wars

## Description

In the year of 1002, with decades of a border dispute along the Ostland Strip, the Kingdom of Ostland found itself at war, after its Northern neighbor of Heilhofen sent men to the disputed territories to construct forts along the border. The Ostburgians were outraged and declared war in response to halt their expansion. Hans Schmidt, the Ostburg’s most loyal and best performing soldier, leads a sideshow force of 15,000 strong to defend their land claims in the West, while the king of Ostburg, Christof Deutsch IV, led a main military campaign in the East.

The war was a struggle in the West and a success in the East for the Ostburg armies, and then by 1004, a Thean Imperial ship is attacked by the Heilhofen, out of fear that they were about to attack them. The attack left no witnesses, or at least they thought. Two men survived and made it back to the mainland. The Thean Empire joins the war on a third side against Heilhofen. Giving the Ostburgs a bit of breathing room. By August 1004, Thean men land on the North coast and push inland, while the Ostburgs commence a counterattack. In September the Ostburgs capture the enemy capital and Heilhofen surrenders. Rather than continuing the war, the Theans offer peace with the Ostburgs, and the small state accepts. The Thean Empire would annex the coast while Ostburg would take the rest.

## Background

Afer the collapse of the Hallburg Empire in the 860s, many smaller, German speaking realms broke away, with multiple wars over border disputes soon afterwards. two states in particular being Ostburg and Heilhofen. The realm of Heilhofen held a large portion of the Eastern half of the former empire, with Ostbrug being all but a strip of land in the South East. After gaining independence, it sought to gain more land to secure itself and expand its influence, and Heilhofen was the main state standing in the way. Ostburg threatened war over what would then become the "Ostland Strip" in 993 AD. The disputed land remained in a status quo for a couple more decades before finally in 1002, Ostburg people discovered Heilhofen labor men cnstructing forts in disputed land. After reporting it to the Ostburg King, Kasper Ehrhardt IV, the Kingdom of Ostburg declared war on Heilhofen to put a stop to the fort building. The original strategy to win the war was to split the army into two, in the West led by the captain of the guard, Hans Schmidt, and Ehrhardt IV's forces taking on the enemy in the East.

Over the course of the conflict, the king's forces performed well on the feild, scoring victory after victory, meanwhile Schmidt and his men were struggling and taking heavy casualties in the West. By September 6th, 1002, the army in the West managed to storm a few forts and secure them under their control. After the battle, the army took the rest of the day to recover before setting off the following morning. Then on September 7th, the advance continued.

The Ostburg invasion was starting to slow down by June 1003. The Heilhofens had conducted a small invasion of Ostburg while they were distracted with the encirclement plan, however this was met with fierce resistance. Then in 1004, the unexpected would happen when a Thean Imperial War Ship was passing through the Baltic Sea. With the Theans near their coast, the Heilhofens were sent into a panic, and order their own ships to fire on the Theans. The Theans found out about the attack when two survivors returned to the North. The Thean emperor demanded that the Heilhofens pay 1,000,000,000 gold for the damages and death toll. Heilhofen refused and in March 1004, the Thean Empire joined the war on a third side

August 10th, 1004 saw the Theans perform a successful naval invasion of the smaller and weaker kingdom. With the new distractions for the Heilhofens in the North, the Ostburgs were able to revise their plan and reorganize to push the enemy back once again. The encirclement succeeded by September, and secured the surrender of multiple troops doing so. After this, the Ostburgs continued North and the Theans secured the beaches in the North. By the end of September, the Theans had taken over the entire coastline, and the Ostburgs were closing in on the capital. The Heilhofen King refused to surrender, but then in October, their capital had fallen and the king was seized in the Heilhofen Palace. On October 16, 1004, the Heilhofens announced their official surrender.

After the surrender of the Heilhofens, the Theans and Ostburgs were left in an awkward situation. The Ostburgs, not wanting to be conquered by the Theans either, came to an agreement to give them the North Coast while letting the Ostburgs taking the rest. The Theans accepted and the borders were redrawn to those agreements, officially ending the war.

## Leaders

### Ostburg:

Kasper Ehrhardt IV - King of Ostburg

Hans Schmidt - Captain of the Guard

### Heilhofen:

Heinz Sholtz II - King of Heilhofen

Oskar Lux - Captain of the Guard

### Thean Empire:

Glenn Fornes II - Thean Emperor

Gustav Svenson - Captain of the Guard