Also known as the War of Skisian Aggression, the War of the West is often painted as the last great conflict between Skisian and Midillic civilization. Unlike the various Coalition Wars in the past, this war saw the first consolidated attempt by the Dominion of New Skisia to launch offensive action and attack and annex Midillic territory.
Aside from being a geopolitical and cultural clash, it was also a clash of technology and doctrine that saw armoured infrantry, pikemen, arquebusiers, artillery and cavalry facing each other on the battlefield, and on the high seas galleons and carracks would be put to the test against radically new ironclads.
The Conflict
Prelude
Although the Coalition Wars between the Dominion and her Midillic neighbors had concluded a few centuries prior and peace between the two civilizations had finally been established. Their still remained a great animosity between the two peoples.
Those wars had been fought to stop the possibility of any Skisian expansion on the realms of Midil but ironically they ended up inadvertently triggering it, though many in the Dominion particularly the commoners were just happy to finally have peace, the prouder and more patriotic nobility grew increasingly angry seeing that centuries of Midillic aggression and the many Skisian lives it claimed had gone seemingly unpunished.
Eventually calls for revenge and retribution reached further up the hierarchy till even the royalty began sharing these notions, even the Dominion's ruler King Fykilstrija Waquj. The man himself was somewhat of a jingoist and loved to delve into old tales of Skisian glory and conquest and fell in love the idea of being a warrior-king who would not only safeguard the Skisian realm but also expand it.
With such lust for war from the nobility and the King himself it wasn't long until a minor naval provocation by the Marshi led to the Dominion declaring war on the Barony of the Westmarsh and it's vassal the Fortresi Dependency.
Due to tensions being high for the last few decades, there was already considerable military force and preparation present from both sides at the beginning of the conflict. Both the Dominion and the Westmarsh knew that the war would focus on the Fortresi Dependency which served as a powerful buffer zone for the Westmarsh.
Though Skisian armies were highly trained and outfitted with heavy weapons, armour and artillery. The complex fortress network of the Fortresi Dependency would undoubtedly stall any attack and lead to months possibly years of grueling fighting.
Thus a prominent commandant of the Dominion by the name of Hojud Heleorsc, put forth the controversial plan to bypass the Fortresi Dependency by having Skisian armies cross into the territory of the neutral Commonwealth of the Great Grasslands and then strike directly into the Westmarch.
A sizable Skisian force would be placed on the Fortresi border with the intention of both defending the Dominion from possible attack and launching minor skirmishes to divert attention away from bulk of the army which would be conducting the flanking maneuver through the Commonwealth.
The war get's it's name sake from being primarily fought on the western edges of the continent of Midil, fighting would begin on the Fortresi-Skisian border but would spill over to the north-western fringes of the Commonwealth and eventually reach the Westmarsh where most of the decisive battles were fought.
The war began as a small naval skirmish where Marshi slave-raider ships allegedly attacked a number of Skisian trading vessels that were guarded by a single ironclad. Though a minor battle it was the first significant clash between the typical naval vessels like galleons with the Skisian's revolutionary ironclads. All but one of the Marshi radier ships were destroyed and the last only managed to escape after firing several volleys of chain shot which crippled the main mast of the ironclad.
Though the trading vessels and the ironclad had come out relatively unscathed, this provocation would ultimately lead to a declaration of war and the deployment of Skisian armies.
Fighting on land would begin on the Fortresi-Skisian border where a series of minor skirmishes and bombardments took place, fearing that the Skisian's were preparing a major offensive the Fortresi and their Marshi overlords focused forces on the border and made preparations for a long campaign of attrition against their Skisian enemies.
Unbeknownst to the Fortresi and Marshi, the Skisian's had moved the bulk of their forces slightly east with the controversial intent of crossing through neutral Commonwealth territory. When they undertook this it shocked many in the realm of Midil as respecting a realms neutrality and territorial boundaries was seen as a law of honour that was not to be broken.
Minor skirmishes immediately broke out between local Commonwealth border-guards and Skisian forces as their armies advanced, the Commandant Hojud Heleorsc famously ordered huge swaths of grassland to be burned as the Skisian armies advanced to spread fear, panic and confusion.
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