Battle of Robnai

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The Xaspeshi army entered Eastern Xagreau and were close to the capital Jakka, the first obstacle in their path was the town of Robnai which was being flooded with drafted conscripts to slow the Xaspeshi invasion. Field Marshall Carrigan knew taking the town was the first major step in laying siege to the capital but the Xagreau were working overtime in digging defenses and enlisted the town population. 

Robnai was turned from a simple farming town to a heavily fortified military outpost of the Xagreau, trenches, wooden fortifications and makeshift foxholes were everywhere they could place them. The Xaspeshi scouts reported the heavily fortified positions of their enemy to Carrigan and he began placing artillery carefully to prepare a full assault on the town. 

The bulk of the Federation army would be involved in taking the town and punching their way straight toward the Xagreau capital. Around that evening in the cool autumn sunset the Xaspeshi artillery fired full salvo on the town defenses to soften them up for the ground assault. It was one of the largest artillery strikes in Federation history devastating the town and area without end, Carrigan knew it was harsh but was going to keep his promise and end the never ending Xaspeshi civil war. 


By morning with the artillery still firing the majority Xaspeshi infantry began making their way toward the town, the artillery stopped at around 8:00am and the Federation infantry moved in to find Xagreau resistance despite the heavy shelling. A brutal firefight would begin spanning over 7 miles North to South for the town of Robnai as Xaspeshi forces moved to take the first Xagreau town in the war. 

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Casualties


Xagreau: 499
Xaspeshi: 94

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A prolonged and stalled out fire fight stretched across the battlefield, Xaspeshi soldiers fired from where they could many of whom hid in cover and were pinned by enemy fire. Xagreau militia forces greatly outnumbered them and it seemed that some noncombatants were bringing up ammunition to assist them. Both sides used single shot rifles, gatling guns and field artillery in which they had no clear advantage. 

Another artillery strike was ordered to assist in moving the assault forward. Shells rained down striking the Xagreau defenders hard but now with their own field guns they fired on the Xaspeshi in the open field. With no real cover from the enemy artillery the Xaspeshi forces had to withdraw and the battle broke down into a back and forth between artillery guns. 

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Casualties

Xagreau: 653
Xaspeshi: 593

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Xagreau Army vs. Xaspeshi Federation 

Fall of 1932

Xagreau

100,000 conscripts
100 field guns

Xaspeshi

50,000 standard infantry
10,000 heavy infantry
150 field guns
200 mortars

The Northern borderlands, especially around Robnai had become a devastated battlefield. Trench warfare dominated the engagement as artillery exchanges between both sides ravaged those unfortunate enough to be out in the open. The Xaspeshi had the advantage with better equipped soldiers and field guns, but the Xagreau pumped drafted souls into the front doing everything they could to stop the Federation's advance. Xaspeshi was less than a day's march from the capital of Jakka and the Xagreau were willing to throw everything they had to stop this invasion. 

Xagreau's turn to assault the Xaspeshi had come, thousands of men climbed over the top from their trenches and from the city defenses across the crater mocked field as Xaspeshi guns opened on them. Federation guns rained death on the unlucky as rifle fire and machine gun fire pinned the rest of the advance. 

The mass assault reached the first section of defenses where the Xaspeshi infantry easily staved off their attackers. After several hours of fighting the Xagreau assault was called back. It gained nothing, another bloody day of status quo. The Xaspeshi couldn't advance either, both sides were stuck in a quagmire of trench warfare. 

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Casualties:

Xagreau: 3,921
Xaspeshi: 1,320

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It was now several weeks into a brutal battle, lines had remained static with both sides trying infantry assaults. The Xaspeshi had relayed back to their homeland that they needed reinforcements, despite the shaken quality of the Xagreau forces they simply outnumbered the Federal troops. Every day several fire squads would be pulled up to test the Xagreau line right after shelling it with artillery.

Private Naroki Zimbazi was part of one of the fire teams, over 230 Xaspeshi were going over the top after the artillery strike to test the enemy defenses. The commanding officer held his hand up a whistle in his mouth waiting for the unmistakable sounds of artillery shells flying over head. When they whistled over head so did he, "GO GO GO!" Zimbazi climbed up the ladder and into the destroy field as artillery rounds shelled the distant town and trench line. He ran with his fellow soldiers before enemy rifle fire opened up forcing him into a muddy crater kicking up the dirty water all over him, "Shit!" he muttered.

He chambered a round into his Modele 1888 rifle, and peered up aiming down sights but dropped quickly before more bullets entered the ground around him. He was pinned down, he looked around and noticed other Xaspeshi pinned as well. "Zimbazi!" he turned seeing the officer calling out to him, "We're going to fire a volley to cover you, head back and tell them to give us another artillery strike to fall back." Zimbazi felt his heart racing nearly out of his chest, the moment he heard his comrades open fire he sprinted out of the mud crater and back to the trench. He heard bullets flying at him and his comrades yelling "KEEP GOING!" as he approached the trench he felt a fast sharp pain enter his back and he fell face first into the Xaspeshi trench, when he came to he felt like thousands of pounds were on him as his comrades tried to tend to him, "ar...ti...le" A soldier shook his head at him saying, "Sorry, its too late, we lost them all." Zimbazi passed out from his wounds and another artillery salvo fired away.

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The Xaspeshi in their bloodied work had become experts in trench warfare, their artillery hammered the enemy positions prior to hard and swift infantry assaults to set up closer and closer to the Xagreau and pull up their heavier guns closer. The Xaspesh hit in hard strike teams overwhelming their enemy quickly, but the Xagreau still outnumbered them considerably. But they had an issue of their own, a big one.

All of them were hungry, cold and bitter conscripts. Xagreau officers were harsh to the conscripts, berating them without end and often punishing them, but when word came that food was going to have to be severely rationed and that winter equipment was not coming. Well things started to get ugly, they were dying in droves and the moment the harsh winds of winter swept across the Robnai valley and they didn't have but salt crackers to eat. That put the officers in a precarious position. They wrote to Jakka to send professional soldiers immediately as morale was tanking fast. Some groups were refusing to go over, choosing to instead remain in cover and fire at the enemy and allow them to move up. Robnai had been breached to the outer sections of the town, such a large numerical advantage meant jack shit if the soldiers didn't want to fight anymore.

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Casualties for both phases

Xaspeshi: 4,923
Xagreau: 5,399

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The sound of the whistle again, Xaspeshi forces surged forward as artillery shells flew over them striking the Xagreau hard again. Recovering from his last mission in the mud, Private Zimbazi found himself in another battalion firing on the Xagreau defenders who were much less effective than before. Xagreau field guns were the best defense that was on hand for the defenders, conscripts had utterly lost their stomach for the fighting and were now utterly breaking.

The outskirt defenses of the town were being breached for the first time. Xaspeshi officers pushed their men hard to enter the breaches and begin the fall of the capital's first defenses. Even with their large numbers the conscription forces struggled to hold much ground as Xaspeshi troops entered the town at last starting a grueling urban fire fight. Several hours passed in the bitter Touli Winter cold and as the short lived sunlight began to fade so did the fighting, Xaspeshi forces set up their new front and moved their artillery forward to reach deeper into enemy lines firing without end this time. Carrigan knew the enemy was about to break, he needed to keep the pressure up on them and then finish them off to reach the capital.

Meanwhile the Xagreau infantry had enough, so many of them had died and they were no longer willing to fight. Despite that, Xagreau officers still pushed them to the front for a full assault in the dead of the cold winter night, "I don't give a fuck about your families, your kids, you'll do your job and follow to the letter or I will fucking kill you myself!" some of them barked, and so came the unfortunate conclusion to what was to be the battle of Robnai, the midnight charge in the late winter. Snow had begun falling again, it was getting to negative 4 degrees when the officers forced their infantry to huddle near the front and order an all out charge on Xaspeshi defenses. Whistles blew and several men plunged into the dark cold to the shock of Xaspeshi watchmen, "Rally! Rally! They attack!" Xaspeshi infantry manned their positions and gatling guns, maxim guns from their time as a UKUG colony now also manned the front. What followed was an utter waste of human life. Xagreau were cut down by the hundreds in sheer minutes, Zimbazi was stunned at the whole thing. They were out in the open just being slaughtered. Another whistle blew and more men were sent in, "Fire Fire!" Zimbazi fired his Modele rifle cutting another man's life short, a hail of bullets shredded those around them. Another whistle blew, "For the love of god make it stop!" surprisingly coming from the Xaspeshi line as more men threw themselves to their deaths, another whistle blew more men sent forward. "Goddamn useless fucks!" raged an officer who blew his whistle but this time no one moved, "Get in there!" he blew his whistle, no one moved.

"YOU ARE ALL WORTHLESS CURS, SHIT STAINED FARMERS WHO CAN BE REPLACED TOMORROW! GET IN THERE AND DO YOUR DUTY!" he blew the whistle, silence, "You fucking assholes!" he looked and saw the other officers couldn't budge their men forward either. The officer grabbed a young boy from the ranks, he couldn't have been more than 16 years old drafted into service. "Go boy! Show these useless men!" the boy stood frozen in terror at the sea of corpses before him. He heard a revolver cock behind him, "Boy you either go or i'll blow your brains out!" angry murmur broke out when the officer did this. He realized he was losing control of the situation. "Get in there now! NOW NOW NOW GODDAMN YOU!" a gunshot rang out. Silence filled as more gunshots and fighting began to break out among the Xagreau. The Conscripts had enough. They mutinied killing their commanding officers and anyone who thought it wise to fight and die here. It lasted only for a few minutes but shook the Xaspeshi who waited in the darkness. By morning, the other side of Robnai would be vacated. The conscripts going home to their families in the countryside, the path to Jakka was now clear.

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Casualties

Xaspeshi: 764
Xagreau: 3,467