Noble Progression Story Black Is The Season Of Treason

The Colonial Theatre
The first to make a move in the Colonial Theatre is the Sorenvik alliance, send a mercenary force to try and break through the Frisque blockade of Essalonia. Obviously, despite having been bought with Sorenvik gold, the Frisque blockade is far too large to smash through that simply, and the mercenary fleet is quickly cornered and completely blasted to pieces. That being said, the move was deemed a distraction, as the Frisque ships sent south to deal with the impending mercenary force left open a hole for the real invasion force to push through. Supported by a Sterke-Enn ship, a Viduggla ship, a Blackjaw ship, a Skarpsten ship and a Sorenvik ship, 36,000 Sorenvik troops are shipped through the hole along with 10,000 mercenaries hired by Sorenvik to support the landing. There would have been Viduggla soldiers as well, but the Count made a critical mistake in thinking that giving these Anglian Norrlanders autonomy would suddenly cause them to wholesale support a war in the colonies after having spent the last year as refugees. The Anglians refuse systematically to support Viduggla’s invasion plan, so Viduggla never sends any troops.

Despite the distraction having secured its objective, that was to land the Sorenvik army in time, Frisque ships arrived on the scene before the whole army was done, having cleaned up the defenceless mercenary fleet sooner than anticipated. The vanguard of 5 allied ships fought until the very last to hold the Frisque ships off their backs, and even the mercenaries turned to fight the Frisque fleet. With the sacrifice of all of these ships and the mercenaries, the entire Sorenvik army successfully landed without losing any soldiers, and marched their way to the Blackjaw colony capital. All ships committed to this battle and the mercenaries sent along perished in the fighting, where the Sorenvik troops would soon link up the Blackjaw forces and sally forth to attack the Brilonde and Rote troops.

The battle near the Blackjaw capital on Longshank hill was fought between 36,000 Sorenvik soldiers and 9,000 Blackjaw Dwarves on one side, and 13,000 Rote soldiers accompanied by 20,000 of Brilonde troops, thus outnumbering the Rote side by roughly 10,000 soldiers. The battle was large, one of the largest seen yet that wasn’t a full route (like the Harhold invasion of Norrland), and inflicted casualties on both sides, but it was very obvious that the Blackjaw side had the upper hand eventually forced the Rote and of Brilonde forces to retreat to their initial conquest positions on the Blackjaw border, creating breathing space for the Blackjaw capital and relieving some of the smaller forts, bringing some garrisons back under Blackjaw control.

Back home, the mercenary group that was essentially used as bait and sent into a suicide mission without being informed of such started raising hell in Sorenvik lands. Detachments of their forces eventually raided the Sorenvik treasury, taking what little Regals were left and effectively bankrupting House Sorenvik with no finances left. Similarly, 12,000 of Brilonde troops marched into Peirgarten lands, as well as 5,000 of Brilonde troops marching into Tyrannian colonies. With both these regions having minimal to no troops available, both regions were quickly fully occupied, with the last Peirgarten colonial forces decimated.

Results

• 1 Sorenvik ship sunk, 1 Skarpsten ship sunk, 1 Sterke-Enn ship sunk, 1 Viduggla ship sunk, 1 Blackjaw ship sunk
• 2 Frisque ships sunk
• Sorenvik treasury set to 0 after spending 2 tokens and losing 1
• Brilonde-Rote forces pushed back to the initial Blackjaw border
• 3,000 casualties for both Rote and Brilonde, 2,000 for both Blackjaw and Sorenvik
• Tyrannian and Peirgarten colonies fall under control of Brilonde
• 2,000 Peirgarten troops wiped out in the colonies
• The Court took note of Sorenvik’s plan, awarding a bit of prestige to their family as a result

The Veer-Vlissinghelm Theatre
The first move on the Veer-Vlissinghelm Theatre was for the Tyrannian fleet to face down the Delmotte coalition fleet. One one side, 2 Tyrannian vessels were reinforced by 4 Letoirneau vessels as well as a single van der Veer vessel, totalling their fleet to 7. On the Delmotte side, 2 Peirgarten, 2 Ravenstad, 3 Harhold and 2 Delmotte ships totaled 9 ships. The Tyrannian fleet, desperate to create an escape for their soldiers still stuck on the mainland, tried to fight this battle regardless of their numerical inferiority. As the battle began, from behind Tyrannian ships, 5 House Black warships arrived signalling reinforcements for Tyrannian. Emboldened now with the numerical superiority as well as the firepower of House Black on their side, the naval battle begun. As fire had commenced between the sides and the Black ships were just about to sail into the formation, the captains started signalling a wide range of confusing letters and signals. It took the Tyrannian side a few minutes (while fighting the Delmotte ships) to figure out it was an alphabet signal, and when translated said: “Get the fuck out of Dragenthal”.

The moment that realization came to dawn on them, the Black ships opened their broadsides and opened on the Tyrannian vessels, causing a pincer between two sides. The Tyrannian and van der Veer ships fought valiantly but all sunk, completely crushed between the two sides and outnumbered two to one. The Letoirneau side lost one ship, but 3 managed to escape to home port in Peirgarten lands, leaving the entire Anglian trait under control of the Delmotte coalition, though Black ships clearly were not properly aligned to them, as they sailed home to Narlas after the battle was won. With their fleet destroyed, none of the Tyrannian transports could leave Vlissinghelm, leaving their entire army stranded.

10,000 Ravenstad Knights assembled with 20,000 mercenaries paid for by house Harhold, added by another 5,000 troops from the Harhold garrison in the capital descended upon the Tyrannian soldiers pressed against the coastline. Furthermore, another 15,000 soldiers from the Kathar war front had arrived, Harhold calling back 15,000 troops of the 30,000 that had previously been sent to the war front by Sorenvik. With such an overwhelming army crushing down on the Tyrannians, their army was decimated, with half the army wiped out and the other half forced into labor camps for House Harhold. The mercenaries then demobilized, having fulfilled their contract.

On the Veer itself, 250 van der Veer troops went south to “Burn down Delmotte transports” but there were no ships so they just chilled on the coastline with a camp. 1,750 troops went north to defend Tyrannian lands, though no invasion ever arrived. 20,000 Letoirneau mercenaries were hired by House Letoirneau to defend the Veer, however no invading army ever arrived. As such, the mercenaries dug into the Tyrannian defences, and vowed to remain until an invasion would come, in which they would fight, but disband after those initial battles and then consider their contract fulfilled, since it specifically stipulated defending against an invasion which had yet to arrive.

Results

• 1 Letoirneau ship sunk, 2 Tyrannian ships sunk and 1 van der Veer ship sunk
• 4,000 Tyrannian troops wiped out, 4,000 forced into slave labor
• 20,000 Letoirneau troops reinforce the defense of the Veer

The Hadar Theatre
The Theatre in Hadar was stable and quiet, save for the Blackjaw Blast Mining Zone where the locals started an aggressive anti-occupation campaign. While the jungles were the home of the Allar, the Dwarves used a series of tunnels and access zones as well as quarries to move valuables into the jungles, “hidden” out in the open, or cleverly boobytrapped. With the explosives, a method of warfare that the Allar were not used to at all, Blackjaw insurgents managed to kill thousands of Yaotl’s soldiers while losing only gold and trinkets themselves as they triggered explosives whenever Allar went looking for their hideouts or resource stashes. Much like the Viduggla lands, it started to become clear rather quickly that the locals were wrecking the land so that Yaotl couldn’t extract value from it, even the civilian Ailor and Dwarves attempting to flee the land on merchant vessels as refugees back to Regalia.

Results

• Yaotl loses 3,000 troops as a result of insurgency

Other Colonial Actions
The following families colonize: Yaotl, supported by Frisque troops in Essalonia, von Drachenburg and Krupp in Old Ceardia, and von Rahm expanding their colony in Essalonia. Von Duerr attempted to mobilize more troops in the colony but was informed that his colony only had 2,000 soldiers in their garrison, thus leading to nothing.

Other Archipelago Actions
House Black demobilized its domestic army after securing the colony, while von Drachenburg gave 10,000 troops to the Kathar war, dedicating 2,000 to the colonial effort. Krupp demobilized the excess troops from the mobilization, and attempted to fund mining operations (but couldn’t because Marty said 2 weeks ago that there currently is no investment scheme that works). Norrvakt mobilized their troops, though offered no explanation or casus belli, so few troops were summoned. Finally. Viduggla acknowledged the Anglian Norrlanders’s autonomy. As mentioned before, Viduggla attempted to get 40,000 of them to help invade the colonies, but the Anglians simply refused, stating that waivering state rights in their face would not make them forget the hardships of the past year living as refugees and being hunted and pulled at by numerous families. The Anglian Norrlanders had essentially comfortably settled now and didn’t feel like leaving Norrland to fight a war in the colonies they didn’t care about, or be used and tossed around like a pawn for Nobles in their own wars that didn’t benefit them. Viduggla further also threatened complete destruction on the Harhold troops still operating as Brigands in Norrland, or amnesty for those that surrendered. The Harhold troops however, mistrustful of the Velheimers, eventually simply disappeared altogether into the Anglian Norrlander population. They did not continue their brigandry, so technically the purpose of the threat succeeded, but none really stepped forward to be shipped back to Vlissinghelm, they simply settled there, with some families from Vlissinghelm moving in after them.

Results

• Anglian Norrlanders recognized as a pseudo independent state under Viduggla called the Anglian Groonenland, the Harhold brigands merge into their population and cease their guerilla war on Viduggla
• Norrvakt mobilizes 4,000 troops
• 5,000 Black troops demobilized, 10,000 von Drachenburg troops to the Kathar war, 2,000 von Drachenburg troops to the colonies, 4,000 Krupp soldiers demobilized