The paper empire strikes (Shiysil frannerre tafatu)

[Greywall]

Casualties



Frannerre: 2,100 standard infantry, 900 light infantry, 1,400 heavy infantry
Shiysil: 5,090 standard infantry, 2,100 heavy infantry, 50 field guns, 10 siege guns, 90 mortar guns, 10,000 light infantry
Ashinara: phase waiting

[Greywall]

Shiysil front

Shiysil was finally making advancements on Frannerre after over a year being stuck in a brutal trench front, but it came a horrid cost, thousands of Shiysili men were dead. And even with the Frannerri lines being breached, the assault was not sustainable with the Frannerri holding their ground. After sacrificing on a mud and bloodied alter the Frannerri finally retreated giving Shiysil the victory her commanders desired so intensely. Vokni was for the moment, safe from being executed, his men were exhausted, broken and as they looked at the monumental loss of life around them...changed. 

These were no longer the brim shining faces of the Shiysil nation, who stepped forth to rebuild their lost empire against a nation of thieves and rat bastards...no, these were broken human beings covered in mud and the blood of fallen comrades. As the fighting died down, thousands upon thousands of wounded Shiysili returned to the rear of the line to be treated. Or at least be told they would, the supply lines never sustained with the Ashinarians raiding them. Meaning medical supplies were hopelessly short. But Vokni and his officers still toasted to their 'victory', "We shall be in Pareau soon!" Vokni exclaimed. 

Shiysil had no more men, boys back at home and old men, the last of her entire generation were here on the front lines. 

Saint Parsson

With one hand giving victory another gives defeat. The complete destruction of the Shiysili Tafatu invasion force sounded off a small sense of revenge for the Tafatu fighting in Frannerri uniforms to restore their homeland. It left Shiysil with few options, it left them utterly gutted in manpower and morale. Vokni had to make a choice, attempt his march on Pareau to impress his president and Galra or sustain the battle line. He knew Azeri wanted Pareua more than anything and that Galra needed them to help close the warfront. But sustaining such massive losses made it hard to buy into. For now the Shiysil forces would regroup and plot their next move for the following season. Giving Frannerre, finally, a relief from one warfront.

[aimway921]

Observers peeking from concealed machine gun and observation posts saw that the Shyisil troops were doing the "divide" part of "divide and conquer" for them. Messages were sent down the tunnels to inform the officers. Machine gun posts would wait to open fire until the very last moment, so as to not give their location away if they weren't spotted. Meanwhile, several squads of Light Infantry - armed with captured enemy rifles - would emerge in areas that the Shysili have already swept and open fire at their backs. Once the enemy fireteam has been eliminated they would estimate their chances of fighting another fireteam based on sustained losses. If they couldn't, they would retreat back into the tunnels. However, they would take great care to ensure that their tunnel entrances were not seen - thus, if they were engaged with the enemy, they would stand and fight, to the last man if need be, but not reveal the tunnel entrance by trying to crawl into it in full view of the enemy.

Around half of the entire Ashinaran force hiding in the tunnels was ordered to rest. The other half will keep the Shyisili occupied with this wild goose chase until nightfall.

[callmedelta]

General Ranulf was close to calling a retreat on the main Franerri lines, had the Shysil assault continued for only a week more. Miraculously, the line held just long enough. The breaches in the line couldn't be repaired yet, but the cracks didn't grow any wider. This round of the slugging match was over. Well, mostly over. With the assault around Saint Parsson decimated, Franerre had the momentum again. Ranulf knew he had to act upon it, lest he never get another chance. He left 10,000 Light Infantry and 100 Field Guns to garrison Saint Parsson, taking his remaining 38,010 Light Infantry and 400 Field Guns and began to march west, surrounding and destroying Shysil's frontline in pockets by flanking their rear. God willing, he'd break their lines and cause a route or strip away some troops from the assaults into Shysil, buying himself some time to reconstitute broken divisions.

[EpicToaster1]

Continuing the Fight on Broken Wings
Special DM Event

Interior Franerre

As the fighting raged on, citizens deep within the heart of Franerre still had daily lives to tend to. Fields to plow, mines to dig. Warehouses needed to be stocked and food still needed to be distributed. As one warehouse worker stepped out to take a quick smoke break, he leaned against the wall he always leaned against in the back alley. As he little his match to bring to the cigarette hanging out of his mouth, the wall behind him crumbled and gave, sending the man tumbling backward with a yelp. His coworkers rushed to the sound of the commotion, to be met with a sight that would put generals in tears.

Out in the countryside, many farmers met at their local townhall, all seemingly arriving for the same situation but without knowledge that anyone else was gonna be there. They flooded the lobby, the secretary overwhelmed with people demanding to see the mayor about damaged tractors and untillable lands.

Deep within the heart of the National Chamber, even the political elite found themselves encountering something they didn't quite expect. While two were chatting as they drank some water outside the chamber, the floor cracked under the foot of one. He'd step away, alerting security to come check it out. A guard came over, getting down on a knee and placing a hand against the floor, feeling it give as if the floor was missing. He pulled out a baton, smacking the floor and watching pieces of the tile break away into the abyss below. A few more smacks and soon a massive gap shown through the floor, revealing the hidden contents below.

In Franerre's biggest time of need, her oldest trick in the book finally came back to save the country. Across the nation, citizens were uncovering hidden caches of arms, munitions, and support equipment. Older models, obviously not the SATO equipment the military received after the Notch War, but a gun's a gun and it can be used to protect the motherland from her greatest threats.

---

Pareau, Franerre

In the dead of night, as fighting raged on far in the distance, a small wooden vessel snuck quietly through the Galran blockades closing down the Bay of Pertuis from the outside. The Port Guards apprehended the vessel as soon as it docked, but soon relinquished as soon as the figures on board were identified.

The group of four were quickly ushered to a safe location to meet with the Queen and the Minister of Commerce and Prosperity. There, the group of four placed a wooden crate lined with plastic inside to protect the contents from the seas. Inside was a prize the four men risked their lives over.

"Blueprints smuggled through the blockade from Amali. Anti-Air Artillery, as they called it. Cheap, easy-to-make blueprints our factories should be able to handle and put up a fight against Galran planes."

The blueprints would be relinquished to the state, allowing for the creation of towed AA artillery.

[Greywall]

Frannerre: 1,490 standard infantry, 400 heavy infantry
Shiysil: 6,750 standard infantry, 450 heavy infantry, 200 light infantry
Ashinara: 250 heavy infantry, 90 special infantry

[Greywall]

Azeri was furious, but the overweight dictator was powerless to do much. Shiysil was out of manpower at the homeland, a brutal reality settling in as literal children were pressed into the workforce into mines and fields to keep the Shiysil economy from complete collapse. The nation was coming up short on everything, failing to ship out raw materials to Galra and invoking angered responses from the Galrans wondering why their shipments failed to materialize. It was because Shiysil had almost no output economy. 

The analyst too scared to respond to Azeri figured the nation had a season, two at the most before everything fell apart, Azeri sent word to Galra of the situation where deaf ears would reach them. 

Shiysil front

Vokni's victory was turning more and more into a larger problem, supplies weren't coming up not because of raids as more troops were being sent to deal with the Ashinarians, but because the supplies were drying up. But supplies weren't the biggest problem, Shiysil morale was bottomed out, thousands of troops dead in a war that wasn't producing results. Vokni's assault on Saint Parsson was an utter failure forcing him to divert troops to deal with the Frannerri taking the city back. Troops moved at a sluggish and utterly unmotivated pace. Officers could not get them to commit to a better pace. Vokni's plans to storm the Frannerri capital were drying up as Galran forces finally began to break across the Marse. If Galra could finish off the Frannerri military before he reached another major engagement, he would be able to buy some time. But the Shiysil army was pretty much gassed. 

The Battle of Forêt de Frontagne

Shiysil troops were utterly devastated by Ashinarian ambushes, reinforcements were on the way a good 10,000 standard troops with 5,000 heavy infantry. But they were weeks out and the Shiysil were struggling to hold off Ashinarian ambushes from underneath. "Get on the high ground! Fire and pin them down!" Shiysil forces fell back to the entry of the Ashinarian base, firing their rifles wildly hitting everything that moved even their own men falling back. 

[aimway921]

The Ashinaran troops have continued skirmishing and sowing confusion among the Shyisili until nightfall. Now that the forest became e shrouded in darkness only barely diluted with moonlight, now it was their time to shine. Unlike humans, Ashinarans could see decently well in the dark. Added to that was the fact that most Ashinarans were wearing capes made of local foliage weaved into a rope net to act as an improvised camouflage.

With bayonets fixed, several thousand soldiers would quietly sneak out of multiple tunnel holes. They would converge upon the central surface base where they were first caught off-guard, surrounding the Shyisili from all sides.

The assault would beging suddenly and overwhelmingly. First, several hundred grenades, pretty much all the ones the Ashinarans had remaining, would be hurled at the Shyisili troops. This would be followed by rattling of over a dozen machineguns from every direction, accompanied by a salvo from a couple thousand rifles.

The second the machineguns fell silent, the Ashinaran soldiers - all roughly 7,000 of them, not including several high ranking officers - stood up, and with a loud, deafening "URA!" that even pierced the ear ringing of those who were concussed by the grenade blasts, lunged into a bayonet charge.

[callmedelta]

Ranulf ordered the army from Saint Parsson to continue the march west at breakneck speeds. He needed the Shysil frontlines crushed, and the divisions that were on the frontlines would now have to begin setting up fallback lines to prepare for the oncoming shitstorm coming from the Marse. Time was needed to set up defenses, and that was time that these battered divisions would have to give. This would also allow time for the Franerri army's engineers to begin sabotage operations for the divisions retreating from the Marse. Any infrastructure torn up when the army retreated was infrastructure the Galrans couldn't use. Meanwhile, with his divisions on the other side of the Sarhone, Ranulf ordered them to push. They would have Conscripts to reinforce their lines soon, but it took them time to organize, and that was time that Franerri defenders weren't building up defenses along the river. Gambling on the strength of his own troops against

[Greywall]

The Battle of Forêt de Frontagne

By the time reinforcements arrived, the Shiysil lines were a total disaster, Shiysili infantry were scattering into the countryside running from Ashinarian troops as fresh infantry rushed to the faltering lines. "What happened here!? Find me the commanding officer!" shouted a Shiysil major. The influx of reinforcements simply replaced the mass loss of life as Ashinarian forces butchered the initial assault. Shiysil wasn't able to press now, holding a position of high ground near their camp and firing down hill. They needed to regroup and plan a new attack if they wanted to catch the foxes. 

Shiysil front

The creaking of wood splintering apart as Shiysil soldiers desperately opened crates of supplies finally arriving created a scene of hasty and depressing humans getting their hands on ammo and food, Vokni finally received supplies from Shiysil as supply lines began to level out with Galran stocks being refilled. Meaning the Galrans had built a proper supply line across Tafatu to feed the Shiysil military. It still didn't fix the problem of manpower shortages as the Frannerri were reported to be on the move. Vokni was preparing his army to brace for the counter attack, digging trenches and placing his artillery and armored units at priority to attack the oncoming enemy. 

"Fucking Frannerri, where did they come off fighting this hard?" Vokni was infuriated at yet another hard wall of Frannerri soldiers to deal with. While Galra prepared to assault Central Frannerre across the Marse, Vokni was going to have to hold on for dear life against what was coming his way. 

[Greywall]

Frannerre: no losses this turn
Shiysil: 900 light infantry
Ashinara: 50 heavy infantry, 90 special infantry

[callmedelta]

It was time. 50,000 Conscripts had been raised and given what training they could. Now, there was only one mission: take the Sarhone. Gathered at the Franerri trenches at the west bank of the river, the Franerri artillery in the area would be ordered to expend every munition they had on a massive opening barrage while the Franerri air force ran sorties to provide more accurate targeting information for the artillery and bomb whatever the artillery couldn't reach. And then, once every munition was expended, 50,000 Conscripts surged forth from the trenches to secure what would be their defenses for the oncoming Galran onslaught. Elsewhere on the western bank of the Sarhone, Franerri troops would continue to push, though not in such a frantic manner. These Light Infantry were still tired, and would take what battles they could where it was advantageous for them. Meanwhile, still on the east side of the Sarhone, the army that had retaken Saint Parsson would continue to march, though now they were beginning to tire with stiffer resistance being met each day. Still, they had to push on while they had the flanks exposed, for what very well may be Franerre's last offensive action this side of the river.

[aimway921]

The Ashinaran assault ended off as suddenly as it began. As the Shyisili reinforcements were spotted, a tactical retreat was ordered, and the Ashinarans, once again, scattered into the forest. So far they were inflicting much more losses on the enemy than they were taking themselves, but they couldn't keep this cycle up indefinitely, now that they took all the supplies they could carry and all exited the tunnels. Besides, eventually the Shyisili might realize that they are just running circles around them.

It was time to finally pull out. And they would go in the direction the enemy would expect it least - North, towards the main frontlines. Which seemed to be not that far, as during a lull in the fighting, the Ashinarans heard the echoes of distant cannonade that marked the beginning of Franerri offensive towards the river Sarhone. At least they hoped that it was the Franerri artillery tearing into the enemy, for they had no way of actually knowing.

Lishenko ordered for the remnants of the division to travel in small groups to attract as little attention from enemy scouts as possible. Meanwhile, several dozen sharpshooters and a dozen machine gunners would stay back as rear-guard. The machine gunners would occupy the tunnel observation posts that were still intact, while the sharpshooters would hide themselves on top of trees at take pot-shots at the enemy searching the forest, taking care not to reveal their location as much as possible, using a combination of foliage capes that they have perfected over the last several months, and only shooting when the enemy is far enough. When picking their targets, they prioritized the ornate insignia of officers and squad leaders.

Meanwhile, as one of the groups force trekked North, they have finally, after a whole year, made contact with their ally - sort of. As they were walking through a clearing in the forest, they have heard the rumble of an engine. Not long after, an aircraft came into view. Taking cover under tree canopies at first, several officers who had binoculars have quickly identified Franerri markers on the plane. Filled with new hope that they might finally make it out of the enemy rear after all this time, they have began shouting, waving their hats and helmets, and even taking a few shots in the air to grab the pilot's attention.

[Greywall]

The Battle of Forêt de Frontagne

With the enemy vanishing came Shiysili troops advancing into the area and discovering the tunnels, "the rats were under us the entire time!" the deployed unit sent scouts to track the Ashinara. The rest remained to get wounded shipped South, the battle was a disaster, not only did they fail to kill off the foreigners but they sustained heavy losses.

Battle of Sarhone

This was it, the entire Shiysil war effort came to this one battle. Win here, break the Frannerri and march right up to Pareua and give Azeri his tour of the city that he wanted. Lose here, and Shiysil would be fighting a defensive war that desperately needed Galran aid. The writing was on the wall, this battle alone would determine so much that it would make or break the Western Frannerri front. Vokni had prepared his army for it, he gathered all he could to fight off the Frannerri coming.

Shiysil had sent the last of their available young men from home, 20,000 standard infantry. Fresh, armed with Galran Talbh rifles and bringing machine guns.

Vokni's forces

70,000 standard infantry
30,000 light infantry
350 field guns
120 siege guns
20 landships
15 light tanks
30 bi plane bombers
20 light biplane fighters
20 heavy biplane fighters
40 heavy triplane fighters

The entire might of Shiysil that was left would be here to fight the battle of Sarhone. A final gamble to break Frannerre and bring glory to the Empire that never war. The so called president of Shiysil, Azeri would write letters to his officers detailing how important it was to win here. To prove to Galra that Shiysil was a true power on Touli and that it be given Western Frannerre and Southeastern Elenria to restore the Empire. Failure would mean not only the death of the dream for Empire but their death as well. They were told if they failed to retain ammo in their personal sidearms for their personal removal rather than return home.

Shiysili Great War uniforms and equipment

[Greywall]

Frannerre: no losses this turn
Shiysil: 40 standard infantry
Ashinara: 20 heavy infantry