The Great Darmonican War 1/7/2013

The Great Darmonican War has been mentioned in a previous post, so the objective of today's post is to give a summary of the conflict with the intention of producing a fuller guide on it in the future.

Opening Shots

Fifty years after its embarrassing defeat during the Tyland-Artian War, the Tyland Royal Army crossed the Tyland frontier with the aim of settling accounts. The Tylanders hoped that a strong show of force coupled with a quick and easy victory would be enough.

It wasn't.

The resultant battle would last for much of the war as the Tylanders and Artians clashed repeatedly over the war torn stretch of ground. Tyland's ally the Holy Sodkan Empire made moves towards flanking the Artians, trying to relieve the pressure on their allies. The Commonwealth, a long time enemy of the Tylanders, then made its move and attacked both the Sodkans on land and threatened Tyland's colonial holdings.

Stalemate

The fighting bogged down as neither side seemed able to gain an advantage; the Artians and Sodkans fighting themselves fighting on two fronts, the Tylanders' forces split between defending their homeland and their colonies whilst the Commonwealth's forces were even more far flung. All sides found that if they tried to deliver a knockout blow on one front, they could risk losing on another.

Thus a stalemate endured for six long years as armies threw themselves against one another time after time.

Beginning of the End

The war's conclusion began when the Holy Sodkan Empire was racked from within by large scale unrest organised by the Order of the Great Machine, the Empire was eventually to withdraw its troops from battle to deal with this threat. The effective Sodkan exit from the war meant that Artian and Commonwealth troops were freed up to finally deal with Tyland, the Commonwealth made strikes against islands off Tyland's coast whilst the Artians focused their efforts into smashing a hole through Tylander lines. The result was a disaster for Tyland as its defences crumbled and its army was routed, leading to a worse defeat than what it had suffered half a century earlier.

After being forced to sign a humiliating peace treaty, Tyland was left with a rump of its former self known as the Free State and to lick its wounds. The Artians hold a vast amount of occupied Tylander territory, though under the treaty the Artians will eventually have to give this land up and until that time Tylander resistance fighters continue their war to drive the Artians sooner than the date set down in the treaty.