The Messenger: America’s been quiet recently. I guess beating up Navarra really did keep them from spamming spies.
Duke of Awesome: Well, I said they had armies in France but I didn’t say how many. Turns out they’re just a minor distraction.
History_Buff: The thing about this is the narrative is leading to the possibility of a republic. The current king is just a puppet of the government so it’s theoretically possible for them to seize power at some point. Of course, a coup like that isn’t a guaranteed thing which is why I’m rolling a dice on it.
Attack, attack, and attack it is. It’s not quite as aggressive as I anticipated though as I didn’t really intend to be completely suicidal in my attacks and non-suicidal attacks are few and far between against a power like Austria...
Chapter Thirty Five: The Grinder
Across the Frisian Empire the word went out. They would not sit back and let the Austrians march all over their lands, but instead take the fight to them. It was believed that the Frisian armies were more than capable of taking the Austrians on in a straight fight, showing how far they had come since the wars where hiding behind their forts was the main tactic.
The Armies of Flanders and Koln moved to intercept the Austrians coming from France, while the remainder in Europe crossed the border into the Austrian Brandenburg. In the colonies, the local forces took advantage of the overextended Austrian colonial empire and began to move out as well.
However, for all the bluster the generals of Greater Friesland knew what they were doing and when a large Austrian army emerged from the deeper parts of their territory, they held back and waited for a better chance to strike.
With Austrian troops still have superior discipline and morale, clever positioning when attacking would be necessary for Frisian forces.
The rising Italian power of Siena attacked Friesland’s ally Urbino.
Not desiring an expensive war in Italy, Sibraht had no choice but to deny their request for aid.
The first Austrian forces entered Frisian territory freely as the generals continued to manoeuvre their soldiers. While normally the Austrians would be left to plunder and pillage already starved land to use their massive numbers against them, this time a different strategy was being used.
Frisian forces formed up and attacked the invaders, pushing them back after heavy casualties on their side. Their numbers of cavalry meant that they were very lacking in a solid front that they could present to the Frisians, which cost them the battle. They could not be pursued though, as further large Austrian armies were on the move.
In the west, the attempted invasion via France had been crushed and so the two armies stationed on the western border were transferred east to where the real fighting was taking place.
The Austrian army had an extremely large number of cavalry compared to infantry, possibly because the Emperor himself was an expert cavalryman. So another large contingent of horses were intercepted and this time completely destroyed as it attempted to flank the battle line in Altmark.
The lightly defended East Indies were proving an excellent place for the Frisian soldiers to test their mettle in jungle environments.
They fought against both Austrians and natives and managed to secure the island of Celebes for Friesland before returning to the ships to head for the Austrian islands in the Philippines. With no designs on the British-dominated island chain, these colonies would be put to the flame instead of taken.
Austrian troops continued to pour across the border, and Frisian troops continued to counterattack them wherever it was viable. The sheer number meant that storming through them was not an option, especially as the full force of the Austrian army had not yet appeared. It was a literal meat grinder as thousands of human lives on both sides were thrown away for the same pieces of land over and over again.
One ray of hope was the withdrawal of Austrian ally Genoa from the war. This freed up forces from Cleves which had been attacking the small city-state. Shortly afterwards, the Principality of Novgorod sued for peace as well, having been attacked by Friesland’s Latvian allies.
While Frisian generals did their best to outmanouevere their enemies and hit them where they were weak, the same couldn’t be said for the Austrians.
A large cavalry force lead by Emperor Albrecht V himself was actually withdrawing from the frontlines, giving Frisian forces a chance to move the battle slightly forwards.
While the cannon-equipped armies fought the tough fights, the Army of Flanders appeared to have a slightly easier job. They were to move into Thuringia to intercept smaller Austrian armies coming up to reinforce the frontlines.
It seemed to be going well, but the Austrians eventually caught up with them with a powerful enough force to destroy the Frisians outright. It was the first time in a long time that a European Frisian army had suffered a fate like that, but sacrifices have to be made in war. Replacements began to be drafted up far behind the front line almost as soon as the news of the defeat arrived.
By now, Austria was starting to suffer heavily and they began making overtures towards a ceasefire. Such messages were laughed out of the Frisian court by the Noble’s Council. Austria was the one that started the war, so it should see this showdown through to the end. Friesland wasn’t the only one they were fighting after all.
The minor nations of Cleves and Riga were doing the best they could against an army one hundred times their size. Their attacks in the north and south would prove a vital distraction to keep a portion of the Austrian army away from the front lines.
As the brutal stalemate continued in Europe, the colonial war was a different story. The Austrian lands in India were now under Frisian control and their Philippines colonies were nothing but rubble. The strategically placed island of Diego Garcia was next.
This island alone was seized because of its valuable location in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The rest of Austria’s Indian Ocean and Madagascan colonies weren’t as important and so would be torn apart.
The constant grinding warfare in Europe naturally leant itself to the assembling of a single massive army on the Austrian side, as any smaller armies were cut down by decisive Frisian counterattacks
With one army operating behind enemy lines to cut off any reinforcements, the rest converged on the seventy-thousand man army led by Albrecht V himself.
What followed was one of the bloodiest days in living memory. The problems with organisation that the other cavalry-heavy Austrian armies had suffered were mitigated by Albrecht’s brilliant skills at moulding masses of horsemen into coherent formations. They tore apart the Frisian armies like paper, and it was only Frisian General Sems’ use of cannon to halt the charges in their tracks that kept it from being a total defeat.
He ordered an organised retreat after the Frisian army had been reduced by a full third. Luckily, Albrecht’s forces had suffered just as badly and he withdrew to Austrian territory rather than pursue. More than sixty-thousand men had died, leaving the fields of Anhalt soaked with blood. And despite the magnitude of the devastation, it still wasn’t a decisive blow. The grinder continued its work.
More trouble with Frisian allies came about when Russia made another play for Riga. After much consideration and advice from his backers, Sibraht honoured the alliance to protect Friesland’s prestige even though no soldiers could be spared.
Amazingly, the Latvians and their allies in Polotsk were able to hold out long enough and inflict enough damage on the attacking Russians for Sibraht to organise a ceasefire. Subsequently the Russians gave up their designs on Livland and instead focused on attacking and vassalizing Novgorod, the last independent Russian state.
Constant indecisive battles continued in the grinder of northern Germany.
However, Austria was the one coming off worse overall. It seemed like victory could come, but the question was whether Friesland would run out of men before then.
Finally the Austrians gave when a portion of the Emperor’s cavalry army broke off and attempted to attack on its own. Without Albrecht’s leadership the horsemen were easy prey for General Sems’ cannons and the army was forced to completely surrender.
This army was the lynchpin of their front, and it collapsed almost immediately afterwards as the second large army on the frontlines was cornered and defeated in Austrian territory. Finally, the offensive could go into full swing.
Or at least that’s what was thought.
As Frisian troops moved into the Brandenburg region, they discovered that the Emperor was still around with his huge force and was returning once again. The last offensive had drained almost all of Friesland’s remaining manpower reserves, which at their peak had numbered over one hundred thousand. There was literally no chance of being able to continue the offensive, especially if another bloody battle with the Emperor had to be fought. On top of that, the stability of the country was suffering and the troops might be needed for pacification.
General Sems met the Emperor outside Berlin and read out Frisian demands. His people already crying for peace, the Emperor grudgingly accepted Friesland’s terms.
Austria ceded the westernmost portion of the Brandenburg region and their Indian territory, as well as ending the vassalization of the Duchy of Danzig and paying reparations. Finally, after two and a half years of brutal warfare, Frisian troops were able to return home and the devastated population could begin to recover and supply new warm bodies to the battlefield.
Overall, the war appeared to be little gain for such enormous losses. However this was a short-sighted view. While the battles in Europe hadn’t gone anywhere, the colonies had been a different story. Thanks to the actions of Frisian armies and fleets, the Austrians now owned no territory outside of Europe and Africa. They wouldn’t even be able to rebuild the destroyed colonies as their departure port in India had been seized and it would be decades before their facilities on the East African coast could reach that level. Milanese and British colonists were already moving on those lands to seize them before then. The Austrian colonial empire was over.
The war also proved a serious blow to their European empire, but not in the same way. The seemingly-random freeing of Danzig was a major political blow as it lost Austria its only supporter amongst electors. This meant that the Imperial crown was likely to go to either Burgundy or Thuringia in the next election, so Austria’s advantages as Emperor would soon be gone. Once that had happened...it would be time to strike.
To be continued...
I think it’s time for a nice relaxing colonial war to relieve the tension after that brutal throw-down. Obviously I want British California, but where else should Friesland aim?
Option A: Portuguese India/Java/whatever I can grab from Mexico. I now have the colonialism CB against them thanks to India so attacking them is once again an option.
Option B:Castillian South America. They’ve been doing a bit better recently, but these lands are still vulnerable and probably cheaper in infamy than most of what I can get from Portugal.
Option C:East Africa. Rich Pagans etc, but still a lack of missionaries to convert them.