Battle of Koleta

The Battle of Koleta was the final decisive engagement of the Adrypnii War, fought between Thesia and Kostaenea near the Reia Farmstead in the Koleta Marshlands. The battle was fought on the 8th of Duderai under commands of Thesian General Romev and Kostaenean General Eiknos, and ended in decisive Thesian victory strategically-speaking.

## Background

The Adrpynii War began on 4th Trai, 877 following a build up of diplomatic tensions with a sudden and decisive Thesian attack on the Kostaenean-held Kuis Redoubt. Both Thesia and Kostaenea had mobilised for conflict prior to official declarations, but the latter lacked manpower following large-scale disbanding of many military units to save funding due to economic turmoil.

Thus, a grand majority of the war was fought between Thesian armies and bands of Kostaenean infantry, turned guerrilla fighters and skirmishers to make up for lack of troops to engage in open combat. Most of these unconventional efforts were in vain however, shown off by the sudden and rapid Central Border Offensive in early Decilai in which Thesian armies under grand control of General Romev advanced towards the capital of Kostaenea, Olynthida, with almost no resistance.

The flaw in Thesian plans to overtake the capital laid in their time span to do so. With a pressured government-issued deadline of the 15th of Duderai to completely overtake Olynthida, Romev hastily sent his main army of 20,000 on the nearest sizable road system leading directly to the capital. However, the roads he chose led him and his men into the Koleta Marshlands, a large complex of swamp and damp earth, which brought forth numerous hardships as they marched. Kostaenean high command quickly noticed this, and, sensing a possibility to throw the Thesians back, rallied and mobilised a mixture of veterans from skirmishing units and militia from nearby towns south of the marshes, the largest and only proper standing Kostaenean army to be rallied during the war.

Led by General Eiknos, the grand commander of Kostaenea, the army traveled well into the swamps themselves to meet the Thesians and catch them with their pants down. Despite this intent, however, Thesian pickets spotted the slow-moving force on the night of the 7th, and their subsequent messages saw to that every capable Thesian soldier was ready to fight come dawn.

## Battle

Thesian troops were in position by 06:54, forming a crescent line centred around the Reia Farmstead, which in just a few hours had been turned into a fortress, complete with waist-deep trenches and stakes.

General Eiknos determined the Reia Farmstead to be the most important strategic position in his enemy's line even before the first shells were fired. Of the 14,000-man Kostaenean army, he committed 60% of the force to take the farm. The first Kostaenean charges occurred some time around 8:30, and were met with hellfire from the building complex and outlying defences. It broke up before the Thesian lines could be reached, and so an intense artillery bombardment followed before the second attack was launched around half an hour later. Angered with the results and desperate for a positive outcome, Eiknos continued to send frontal attacks against the enemy in the hopes that they could be worn down through the sheer force of charge after charge.

The fifth charge of 8,500 Kostaeneans did in fact reach the farmstead and surrounding trenches, and a violent melee erupted between the sides quickly. In some areas of the line around the farm, Thesian troops were unprepared for such a successful push after the failure of the first Kostaenean attacks, and were not readied with bayonets when their lines were eventually overrun. Bodies stacked high enough that some of the 'waistwork' trenches had to be abandoned, and many of the first lines of defence collapsed to the attack. Kostaenean troops managed to take over the Reia household itself after clearing it of Thesian soldiers, marking the farthest advance of the entire battle.

Once again, the artillery batteries of the Thesian army opened up in fury. The captured defences were subjected to immense concentrated fire from the 150 guns of Romev's army, destroying nearly the entire farm, bringing down barns and turning the fields into a muddy mess no better than the marsh around them. Several shells threatened to bring down the entire Reia household itself, forcing its defenders to finally pull out after beginning to suffer heavy losses to the shrapnel and explosions (it should be noted that roughly half of the house's edifice was in fact destroyed in the bombardment). A bayonet-led counterattack by 9,000 Thesian troops successfully saw the capture of thousands of Kostaenean soldiers and sent the remainder of back from Thesian lines, but many Kostaenean units, urged by the thought of their capital falling and country with it, rallied in the cold mud and marsh between the two lines, and turned to face the Thesian charge, which had not lost its momentum. What resulted was a bloodbath, a bitter melee in the mud between either side, with artillery from both belligerents crashing down in the center. By the time it ended both sides were falling back from the no man's land between the frontlines, but a victor was clear. Kostaenea's last chance had slipped.

## Aftermath

The Battle of Koleta sealed the fate of the Adrypnii War. Having lost a third of his army in the fight, nearly a third of what remained of all Kostanean regular troops, General Eiknos had no choice but to withdraw. In the days after the battle there was talk of defending Olynthida itself to the last, and defences were prepared, but such never occurred. Drowned in even more debt than before as a result of the war, the Kostaenean government had little choice beyond unconditional surrender to the terms of Thesian reparations. Though General Romev had brought victory, he was demoted due to the ineptitude of his command at the battle and losses it had come with.