River War

The River War, also called the 1874 Upper Mbassa Delta Campaign, was a colonial campaign fought by the Kingdom of Liotain to depose Luis Breda.

### Overview

In 1853, the mercenary, explorer, and military adventurer Luis Breda, working for Sebiris, conquered the Upper Mbassa Delta. However, he exerted personal control over the region himself, and began ruling the state of Breda, named for himself, as an absolute monarchy.

In 1873, some of Luis Breda's forces raided Mbassa for slaves. The raid was repulsed, but irritated the Liotainian Governor-General, Edgaras Straizys, who received permission for a military expedition to crush Breda's independent kingdom.

### Forces

#### Liotain

The joint Liotainian and Impassi forces were commanded by Edgaras Straizys, the Governor-General of Mbassa. As a knight of the Sovereign Military Order of Svent Mykolas, Straizys had a long history of military experience, and a particular hatred for slavery. Having spent three years familiarizing himself to the Mbassa Delta, Straizys developed a plan to leverage Liotainian technical skills and expertise against the formidable challenges against invasion.

Straizys dedicated six thousand men from five regiments to the operation, which he himself led personally. The infantry were freshly armed with new bolt-action Vetterli-Vitali rifles (10.4mm), and spent four months training in the Lower Mbassa Delta in order to practice tactics and familiarize themselves with the terrain.

For the coming campaign, Straizys constructed a total of sixteen riverine ironclads, and armed fourteen shallow-draft steamers. In addition, the Wa Pret contributed seven thousand native soldiers, and the soldiers spent the final weeks constructing canoes and flat-bottomed *barcaccias* (the latter to Liotainian design plans).

Practice determined that the Liotainian troops worked best as the assault troops, as they were far better organized, equipped, and trained for combat. The native Impassi troops made excellent auxiliaries, however, and units such as the Wayal Gad (Royal Rangers) usually exceeded the Liotainians in bushcraft.

#### Breda

Luis Breda commanded the overall Bredan forces. Breda had conquered the territory in 1853 using only a small group of mercenaries, and successfully used the terrain to repel two prior invasions, first by his original employer of Sebiris, and then later in 1860 by Mbassa. However, in the fourteen years since then, Breda had slowly showed signs of mental instability, and increasingly isolated himself from his rank-and-file commanders and warriors, only issuing orders through the women of the Caracal Knights, his personal protective detail.

Breda had established a military upper-class, composed of a half-dozen distinct orders of soldiers, most of whom were trained from the age of twelve as fanatic warriors. Among these, the Serpent Elites stood out as the best, being equipped with fairly modern breech-loading carbines from the early 1860s. Superior in number, but inferior in quality, were the **Crocodile Knights**, the **Mosquito Knights**, and the Salamander Guard.

The vast majority of the territory's population, however, was composed of the Peasant Caste, who were often victimized by the caprice of Breda's warrior caste. The Peasant Caste, however, needed very little motivation to change allegiances, and this failing on behalf of Breda's system proved decisive.

### Campaign

The campaign opened in February 1874 when the Delta began to rise due to seasonal winter and spring rains. Straizys took his river fleet up a branch of the Boana, in order to attack Breda troops at Shout. From there, he attacked Sounghi and Barkiavel, forcing those cities to capitulate after almost inconsequential resistance.

In March, Breda ordered his troops to attack and retake Shout. This movement was betrayed to Straizys, and between March 12th and 18th, the Liotainians demolished the Serpent Elite in the one-sided Battle of Lake Sahona.

After a pause to resupply his men, Straizys outflanked Breda's attempted defense line, arriving in the capital of Korientze with three thousand troops, finding it nearly unguarded. Breda himself fled Korientze only minutes ahead of the Liotainian infantry, barely escaping by canoe.

After the seizure of Korientze, Breda attempted to shift to a guerrilla strategy. However, Straizys quickly began cordoning off areas of resistance, and then used his superior firepower and now massively-superior numbers to encircle and wipe out pockets of combatants.

As he had expected before the beginning of the campaign, Straizys found the Worker caste population welcoming to his joint army. Having suffered mistreatment by Breda's warrior caste, the worker caste increasingly shifted toward active participation in the war, revealing the location of Breda's troops and supply depots, turning in escaping guerrillas, and denying them support and assistance.

Luis Breda himself was captured on June 24th, and was placed on public trial in Refij. Combat with his forces, however, continued until October, as individual units continued to resist.

#### Marine Operations

One of the keys to Liotainian success in the campaign was Straizys' mastery of lacustrine warfare. The numerous braided channels of the river delta served as barriers to pure infantry troops, but the land could not be controlled entirely by ships.

Luis Breda previously used fluid combined maneuvers with both land-based infantry backed by troops embarked aboard canoes, who could outflank, disorient, and overwhelm ill-prepared enemies. The waters of the Delta were shallow enough that competent swimmers with light combat kit could cross multiple river channels, sometimes allowing a "secure" flank to be compromised, or a trapped enemy force to escape.

Having studied Breda's prior campaigns and conducting his own research and experiments, Straizys developed a fixation about training the Liotainian troops to equal or excel at this sort of warfare. Straizys intentionally timed his initial operation to come at the start of the annual floods. This meant the rivers were deeper, and the mobility of his heaviest ships was maximized.

As part of his preparations, Straizys constructed sixteen shallow-draft ironclads in Liotain, then had them disassembled and shipped out in pieces. These tiny vessels came in three different designs, including some of the first *"flat-iron"* gunboats, which were widely sold worldwide. At the Battle of Lake Sahona, Straizys deployed twelve of his sixteen ironclads, which exacted a deadly price on the Serpent Elites during the course of the battle – sometimes with their guns, but quite regularly by ramming. Since Breda’s forces were very poorly equipped with artillery, their ironclad armour was primarily designed to resist small arms, grenades, and very light cannon.

The combination of armed steamers, ironclad gunboats, canoes, and marine infantry - all working together - proved utterly decisive during the campaign.

#### Counterinsurgency

The key to Straizys' counterinsurgency doctrine later in the campaign was the development of the *oil spot*, employing an overwhelming number of troops to secure an area. The 'spot' provided safety for friendly civilians, and slowly expanded, driving insurgents out of areas that became increasingly hostile to them, until there were no more refuges.

### Trivia

* In the aftermath of the River War, Edgaras Straizys published a book of strategy and tactics for defeating an insurgent force. It is still recognized as one of the best doctrinal studies for how to conduct counterinsurgency.