Dying New Galasia

[Aerandariel]

12 DOSA, 1584
Battle of Rhine, Fourth Day
General Belisarius's Command

The fourth day of battle at Rhine began fast and furious. The Regime defenders at Rhine knew they had to throw the Imperial attackers off-balance, and so opened a barrage of artillery fire designed to soften up the Angirisian lines for a massive frontal assault. General Belisarius ordered the bulk of his infantry to hunker down while sending two divisions of his Armored Cavalry Corps to engage the artillery units in front of the Imperial line. The Regime had used some of the outlying terrain to their advantage, depositing a large portion of their artillery brigades on hills guarding by a regiment or two of infantry. Belisarius couldn't afford to risk many planes, so he tasked Cavalry Commander Polaris Ursilis with clearing out the artillery units.

For four hours, the Angirisian tanks and Galasian batteries traded fire, each doing little damage to one another. At one point, the tanks got out of the range of the batteries, and so the Galasians began shelling the fortified Angirisian positions at Belisarius's center line. Finally, at around 10 in the morning, Belisarius dispatched three regiments to begin taking out the artillery positions via a ground attack. Despite the risk, Belisarius had to eliminate the artillery barrages to clear the open ground so that either a) he could use planes or b) fight the Regime army on open ground.

The first Angirisian troops attacked a hill, what Galasians called Moor's Hill, overlooking the Imperial left flank. There, the Regime forces began firing down on the Angirisians from the summit of the hill. Several Angirisians were cut down, but the majority of them evaded fire. The Angirisians would return fire, and killed at least six or seven Regime troops. The two forces met near the summit of Moor's Hill and a bloody fistfight broke out. Fists, rifle butts, knifes and pistols were engaged, and dozens of troops on either side were put down. In the midst of the fight, two Angirisian soldiers got around the Regime line and set charges at the artillery batteries, exploding and disabling them. This lapse infuriated the Galasians, who responded with a furious charge at the Angirisians. However, the Imperials used the Galasians' own momentum against them, outflanking them and drove the Galasians down the side of the hill. The Angirisians claimed Moor's Hill after a bloody struggle, and there were three more engagements just like it on three other hills. The Angirisians claimed two more positions, but the Galasians held one, a critical position in which the artillery fire from there could still rain down on the Angirisian troops advancing towards the city. Belisarius knew it was trouble, but couldn't risk any more regiments.

After a short break in the fighting around mid-day, it erupted again at 1:45 in the afternoon. The meat of the battle had begun. 40,000 Regime infantrymen began advancing, with at least 73,000 Angirisians preparing to meet them in the middle. Despite outnumbering the Galasians nearly two to one, the Angirisians had difficulty moving into position, enabling the Galasians to go on offense. Two divisions slammed into Belisarius' left and center flanks with the goal of getting behind the Angirisians and attack from the rear. This attack was complicated with two artillery positions having been lost in the morning and those positions now being used to reinforce the Angirisian infantry. Despite the advantage, the Angirisians lost 2,200 men in the first forty-five minutes of the ground battle. The Galasians lost only 900 men, but they were not able to secure their gains.

The Angirisians counter-attacked at 3:00 pm. Belisarius reinforced his damaged left flank and ordered them to drill right into the heart of the Galasian left. He then pushed his artillery commanders to begin firing down, in hopes of softening the Regime lines before they made contact with Imperial soldiers. It somewhat worked. The Angirisian artillery fire did little to soften the Regime forces up, but it did slow them down to a crawl. This allowed the Angirisians to charge into the Galasian line and drive them almost two miles backward, virtually erasing all the gains the Galasians had just made almost an hour prior. The Galasians panicked, held their ground, counterattacked, then fell back again closer to the city of Rhine. At that point Belisarius had ordered a massive frontal assault, utilizing nearly the full force of his army. 110,000 troops slammed into 52,000 Regime soldiers head-on, forcing all Galasian positions to retreat into the city. That assault cost the Angirisians another 3,500 men while the Galasians lost 5,000. By evening, the Galasian army was now holed up in the downtown district of Rhine, while the Angirisians essentially held the northern and eastern districts of the city. Galasian civilians who were still in the city either fought back against the Angirisians or fled. Those who fled were allowed to go to safety in eastern Drazen or they fled southward toward Alsace. Those who fought back were captured and detained, their arms confiscated.

The Angirisians had won day four, but they did not take the city. It would either take a protracted siege or an all-out attack to break the Galasians. Belisarius knew even if he won, it would be a Pyrrhic victory if the city was heavily damaged. If the Angirisians had any hope of occupying Drazen post-war, they needed to keep the cities intact as much as possible.

12 DOSA, 1584
Angirisian-Galasian Border
Emperor Tyrael's Command

With combat exploding in the North, Emperor Tyrael's army of now 75,000 moved inexorably closer toward the border between southwestern Aranoch and eastern Drazen. That area of the country was largely rural, but Tyrael was informed in advance that at least 25,000 Regime troops, spread across three small armies, stood in his way of linking up with Belisarius. Tyrael's army spent much of the 10th and the early part of the 11th moving to the border.

Once at the border, gunfire erupted. A Galasian scout unit, made up of maybe only a couple hundred men, tried an ambush on an advance unit of Tyrael's army. 30 Angirisians were gunned down before they even knew what was happening, taking Tyrael completely by surprise. The Emperor ordered the unit captured. Quickly, 1,000 Angirisian troops surrounded the Regime's 220 men and forced the unit's surrender. The commander of the unit divulged intelligence which confirmed Tyrael's own information: three Regime units were in eastern Drazen, but they had been reinforcing those positions for the last two days. Their numbers were now easily 50,000 combined between the three armies and those numbers would be growing. The Emperor knew he had a problem brewing. He made two orders: 1) his army needed to move faster across the border and eliminate the three armies before they became too strong and 2) call in 20,000 additional troops to join his army. The second order bewildered Imperial command, considering Tyrael had a very well equipped and very strong army already. But the Emperor did not want to take any chances. Even if there was a 1% chance of failure, Tyrael explained, then the Empire had to take it as an absolute certainty.

With the first of many obstacles to come cleared, Tyrael moved over the Angirisian border into Drazen by late evening on 11th, and set up camp there.