First Ophelian War

Commanders| yes | * Grand Chieftain DoDo XXVIII
* Gavinus Xenopho

The First Ophelian War (also known as the First Coalition War) was a major continental conflict which lasted from February 20th, 1030 to June 13th, 1037. The war was mainly fought over the Felian Valley and Northern Espos but also included fighting in the Renstein, North Sakara and along the coast of Western Nissaria.

The War (at the time) was the deadliest conflict in Human history with increased industrialised weaponry, trench warefare and increased war production that came with Industrialisation being the main causes of the high death toll.

The war came to an end when Korastgrad signed a peace agreement with the Iron Alliance on August 19th, 1037 though all actual fighting came to an end on June 13th, 1037 when Norfolk surrended to Viveky Forces.

## Background

### Arms Race

Beginning around 1010 ANC and going through to the 1020s, an arms race had taken hold over Espos and Nissaria, kickstarted by the Viveky Empire. The Viveky Empire, Sakaran Imperium and Korastgrad People's Republic all poured more and more money into their armies and used them to act more aggressively on the international stage with acts such as the Viveky Annexation of the Renstein province of Noogly and the various threats made against North Sakaran independence by the Sakaran Imperium. These acts and the growing militaries of these nations scared other countries such as Æelostium and Norfolk into investing in their militaries. This in turn led to heightened tensions among the nations in and surrounding Espos/Nissaria.

### Industrialisation

With the dawn of 1000 ANC, the world was also launched into an Industrial Age, pioneered by recent advancements in technology and industry. The arms race launched by the Viveky Empire also helped to speed along Industrial Age, and the discovery/creation of new machines of war caused an Industrial revolution all of Espos and Nissaria in particular. Weapons such as cannons reached their advanced potential, and new creations such as bolt-action rifles and artillery began to dominate the field of military technology. These advances in technology helped to begin the Arms Race mentioned above, and secret military inventions began to seed mistrust between the nations of the world.

## Course of the War

### Opening Hostilities

#### Viveky Offensive into the Felian Valley

##### Initial Viveky Gains

Upon the opening of the War, most of Viveky's army had already amassed on the Ophelian border with only a small portion of the armed forces located elsewhere in the form of the 17th Viveky Corp put on the Æelostium border, bolstered by Halvericks 1st, 3rd and 4th Armies and the 7th Viveky Army which was sent to Czarlinia in order to help with offensive operations in the west. The rest of 48 divisions, encompassing 6 armies and 864000 soldiers were stationed on the Ophelian border and began their offencive into the valley around the 23rd of February 1030, quickly creating gaps in the Ophelian lines along the border in the battles of Dorichino Hills and Alemico causing a never ending retreat in the Ophelian army . The never ending retreat was made possible by the Viveky Army's utilisation of fast manoeuvring tactics that they perfected in the Dababy-Viveky war of 1017, which would allow the Viveky Army to constantly outflank Ophelian forces every time they attempted to stabilise their lines, forcing them to retreat again and again. By the 6th of August Viveky troops had taken all of Southern Ophelia, the Paladonian heights and were advancing on Ophelia City and the Peldrin river. But they were beginning to face the problem of Ophelia's allies of Norfolk and Æelostium who even had finally finished mobilising troops which begin to trickle into the valley. This issue was also compounded by the stubborn resistance of the Ophelian troops in their capital, who survived several assaults by parts of 4th army, forcing Pavan Babilu to order the 3rd army back from the advance to deal with Ophelia City, taking away men and material from up north that could have been used in the coming allied counter attack.

##### Ostorian Protests and Mobilisation

In the small nation of Ostoria, to the east of Æelostium, many citizens were outraged by the Viveky Empire and their unwarranted invasion. Over 75% of the Osterian population is said to have demanded their nation join the Ophelian Coaltion, but the small and relatively weak government of Ostoria refused. This led to mass protests and almost began to break apart the already fragile government of Ostoria. But they held strong in their decision and would not commit any Ostorian troops to the war. As a result, many soldier in the Ostorian Army and new recruits defect to join the Æelostian Army, so that they could fight. A common rallying cry between the defecting soldier was. *"If you won't let us fight, Æelostium will!"*

The Æelostian Army welcomed the new soldiers, as the 5th Army of General Michael Atkinson was desperately in need of reinforcements. As a result of the thousands of Ostorians joining Æelostian forces, the X Corps was formed, comprised of two fully Ostorian divisions and one Æelostian/Ostorian divisions. The Ostorians would later prove to be worthy opponents of the Viveky Empire, and many soldiers were described as having "courage only found in myths and legends."

#### Czarlinan Offensive into Norfolk

Before the outbreak of the war the Czarlinan Federation had been closely planning with the Viveky Empire and had agreed that an immediate and rapid advance by Czarlinan forces into Norfolk was necessary for a quick victory as it would tie down Norfolk forces from being able to stop the Viveky advance from cutting off the allies from one another via its valley push. Czarlinia therefore told the Viveky higher ups that they aimed to rapidly march into Norfolk until they reached the Ventulia Line (drawn up by Pavan Babilu) and then defend the position, tying up Norfolk men and material. In actuality though Czarlinan Government officials were instead planning a large scale rush towards the Norfolk capital in order to knock them out of the war in a quick offensive which Viveky officials argued heavily against and threatened to end their alliance over it due to how resource heavy and risky it was. Plans for the quick assault of Savant were therefore made in secret as to not alert the Viveky Empire and cause the end of the Iron Alliance. The plan called for

#### Allied Counter Attack

##### Initial Attacks

Despite Ophelian warnings and intelligence reports the Viveky invasion into Ophelia caught the allies off guard leading to both Norfolk and Æelostium beginning mobilisations after the Viveky offensive had already begun. The III Corps of the Æelostian 2nd Army (under General Herman DoDo) were the first to arrive in the valley but were beaten back in the battles of Elmenca and Latilia City. The later arrival of the IV Corps (who were held up by bad weather in Eastern Oculum and were delayed) did not help the attacks and the Æelostians were defeated again in the Battle of Porsu, with their forces joining the Ophelian "route".

Successes did exist in the early stages of the war for Æelostium though, with the 5th Æelostian Army under General Michael Atkinson defeated the Viveky 13th and parts of 14th Divisions in the Æelostium side of the Paladonian heights simply by defending strong, but isolated groups of border forts which the Viveky force could breach, forcing them to retreat onto the Ophelian section of the mountains.

##### First Battle of the Peldrin River

Once the I and II Corps of the 1st Æelostian Army and the 1st and 2nd Norfolk armies arrived in the Valley, Allied Joint Command under Otto Salitanus of Æelostium immediately put all their forces on the offensive and attacked in a last ditch, disorganised effort to stop the Viveky forces from crossing the Peldrin River, which if they were able to do would leave the road to cut the two allies off from one another open, leading to certain victory for the Viveky Empire. Luckily for the Allies Viveky troops attempting to cross the river were currently being bottlenecked by small regional bridges, meaning that at the time of the attack there were only a small amount of men on the opposite side with little to no heavy guns or supplies, not nearly enough men or material to stop the entire Allied combined force. The attack, which would become known as the First Battle of the Peldrin River, was a victory for the allied forces who were able to push most of the Viveky troops back across several bridges, gaining some bridgeheads of their own in the process and crucially halting the Viveky advance. After the conclusion of the attack which left 10,000 men dead, both sides, out of fear of further counter attacks pushing their positions back began to dig in along the banks of the Peldrin river, beginning trench warfare inside the valley. Machine gun nests were shortly set up on both sides making potential future casualties in any attacks in the region extremely high.