Gaiaterra: Elysea's Conflict/The Embry Civil War

A Flood of Violence
By 1954 V.C., things had been going poorly for the Union, who were on the verge of defeat. Just as the Commonwealth seemed poised on the tip of victory, however, another power stepped into the fray. That power was the Voshkod, already a long-time supporter of the in Embry, and being the founder of the Union without the islander's knowledge. Now, it intervened directly, under the pretext of liberating the archipelagos from the Commonwealth.

With the Aquilans also busy dealing with a Voshkod invasion of their own, only the Commonwealth forces stood in the way of the massive Voshkod Army when they launched the mammoth Anchorage Strategic Offensive Operation. Voshkod forces streamed across the seas in huge numbers, in a massive pincer movement that aimed to encircle and destroy the Commonwealth forces in Anchorage, sweeping in from east and west and overwhelming any Commonwealth presence in a brutal and swift campaign lasting a few weeks against poorly led and poorly equipped forces. In short order, Anchorage was under Voshkod control, and a valuable breathing space had been bought for the Union forces.

The Voshkods were far from done. Simultaneously, the rest of the Voshkod forces swept across the rest of the archipelagos, engaging Commonwealth forces in battle where Kimball's army of illiterate peasants was comprehensively defeated in lopsided engagements, and securing large swathes of territory. The besieged Eagle Commonwealth were beaten back by the combined Voshkod and Ursan Union forces, many of its divisions destroyed or forced to surrender. The tide had been turned against them, with the Voshkod forces securing territory for the Union, who themselves increasingly grew in strength, even as the Commonwealth struggled with the onslaught of the Voshkod forces.

Relief for the Commonwealth finally came in (insert date). On the orders of (insert general), the Voshkod forces withdrew across the border in order to reinforce the beleaguered Voshkod forces in the Aquilan theatre, leaving the Red and Blue Embry forces to fight it out amongst themselves. The Commonwealth had managed somehow managed to hold off the combined Union and Voshkod onslaught, primarily due to the difficulty of advancing in a nation with such poor infrastructure but such large territory; which did more to slow down the Union advance than the Commonwealth ever did, but at considerable cost. The Voshkods had given time for the Union to consolidate their gains, and now the balance of power had shifted.

The Eagle Soars
With the Voshkod withdrawal, the two sides were now left to fight between themselves, though both the Commonwealth and Union forces received substantial aid from the Aquila and the Voshkod, respectively. Using the five years during which the Voshkod was in Embry, the Union were able to build up their strength even as that of the Commonwealth was torn down. While the Voshkods had withdrawn, they had left the Union with substantial quantities of military equipment, in addition to large swathes of territory. The war seemed to have shifted in favor of the Union.

However, in spite of the fact that they were disadvantaged in terms of military hardware, numbers and territory, the Commonwealth had a trump card of their own. Four years of war with the Voshkod Union had brutalized their forces, true, but it had also honed their tactics and skills and left those who had survived the stronger for it (though little could be done to improve Kimball's "tactical brilliance"); the Commonwealth that the Union now faced were experienced and grizzled soldiers, ready and willing to fight in brutal guerilla warfare against their opponent; the corruption, inefficiency and internal conflict that had previously plagued the Commonwealth save for at the very highest level had been weeded out over those four years; the Eagle Commonwealth forces were much weaker, but at the same time much stronger. As soon as their own war had come to an end, the Aquilans also provided aid, in the form of large amounts of surplus military equipment and generous loans, to help the Commonwealth get back on its feet as soon as possible, since they didn't want to lose their only foothold on the island.

Rise of the People
With the aim of crushing the weakened Commonwealth once and for all, (insert general) launched a massive offensive against Commonwealth territory in (insert darte). Initial gains by the Union forces were rapidly made, as the forces of the Union overran the islands and captured several towns before meeting major resistance from the Commonwealth.

The Union forces were in for a rude shock, however, when they attempted to capture several Commonwealth-controlled cities. Attempted assaults by Union forces to take the cities were forced back repeatedly by the Commonwealth, heavily relying on guerilla tactics, mining areas the enemy was expected to be passing through, setting up traps and ambushes to funnel Union troops into selected kill zones, placing ambushes in strategic points and making use of other tactics.

By the end of (insert date), the Union Chinese had suffered major setbacks in trying to take the Commonwealth-controlled cities. Despite their advantages in numbers and equipment, the tactics and experience of the Commonwealth forces allowed them to decimate Union forces larger than them. Though the Union succeeded in capturing several cities, the victories were largely pyrrhic, with an immense price in blood paid for victory. Moreover, thousands of experienced Union soldiers were sacrificed in the offensive, something which forced the Union to turn increasingly to using uneducated, untrained conscripts, who were far less capable than the hardened soldiers they replaced.

War of Attrition
By January 1957, the Commonwealth had rebuilt its strength sufficiently to force the Union back and begin to go on the offensive. Commonwealth forces would first send in small squads to weaken the Union or Minuteman and cause chaos; once the Union or Minuteman forces had been sufficiently weakened and in disarray from the attacks, the Commonwealth would then push forward, forcing back the confused Union forces before digging in to secure their territorial gains.

Battle-hardened Commonwealth forces clashed with masses of ill-trained Union conscripts and elite Minuteman soldiers, resulting in staggering casualties for all three sides. However, while the Commonwealth had been able to take back several portions of territory captured by the Union, the Union still had an advantage in territory and numbers. When the Commonwealth attempted to launch several major offensives, Commonwealth divisions would find themselves cut off and surrounded by the numerically superior Union and crushed, not the least helped by Aaron Kimball's continued interference in the operations of his generals; constantly demanding that encircled forces fight to the death rather than retreat and consolidate. The most devastating of these defeats was the 6-month Siege of Hoover, in which the Commonwealth’s New 6th Army, after managing to take Hoover, found itself cut off and encircled by Union forces, finally forced to surrender after nearly 300,000 civilian deaths. Facing such devastating setbacks and the loss of thousands of experienced troops, the Commonwealth grew increasingly reluctant to hold territory, turning more and more to planting explosives on their territory and letting their foes capture them, leading to scorched earth that bloodies the Union.