Chapter 47: Conflagration (1718-20)
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Contemplation
With the latest war of expansion in Europe against Liège ended successfully in November 1717, Friesland took stock of what it might do next. Malacca had been prised away from its alliance with little Demak (in Eastern Java) and a short war of conquest there was being contemplated.
But so too was the impact on regional countries of the latest Frisian land grab, which stirred considerable resentment. Then there was the bigger strategic problem of the looming hostility of France and its presence in the south of the Low Countries.
It was in this context that Potestaat Fokke Galama paused a little, before embarking on a new war straight away. The first thought was to see if a big ally might be gained to balance France directly – one with a shared land border with France and complementary colonial holdings to counteract New Friesland’s isolation in North America, surrounded by powerful French colonies.
If the rivalry with Castile could be done away with and some other hostile relations (such as their alliance with France) could be dealt with, relations weren’t that bad and some diplomatic work could see things become far more positive. Unfortunately, Friesland’s rivalry was too recent to be relieved before 1733. Another option would have to be sought.
Another path, though at first perhaps improbable, was seeking détente with long term rival Portugal. Sure, the two countries hated each other at the moment, but Portugal had big problems of their own with French threats to their subject’s overseas territories. And the rivalry could be set aside right now by Friesland, while some the other big sticking point – Friesland’s rejection of the Treaty of Tordesillas – would gradually continue to dissipate over the years.
It may take many years, but perhaps something could be done diplomatically. So it was that Friesland ceased its rivalry with Portugal on 26 June 1717, replacing it with Persia who had already made Friesland a rival previously and had done the same to Portugal. Once that mission had returned, Friesland would act to remove its old trade embargo of Portugal, then start improving relations.
The war option with Demak was kept on hold for now as the aftermath of the Liègian War was assessed. Instead, 2nd Army shifted south to Kediri to conduct some unrest suppression instead. While in Europe, the same was done in recently conquered (er,
liberated) Loon and Lüttich (formerly Liège).
Frisian caution began to look prudent rather than timid when Austria worsened the local diplomatic environment with Friesland's German neighbours on 30 June with a demand that the ‘unlawfully occupied’ province of Loon be returned to the Holy Roman Empire.
The charm offensive with Portugal went on through July and to September 1718, with a noticeable improvement from the previous mutual hatred already. The other spare diplomat being used to once again ‘top up’ relations with Great Britain: just in case a future alliance was needed as a counterweight to the French threat.
Another opportunity to improve naval technology came in July, but with no ability to complete further research soon (due to Friesland’s already advanced technology) and a desire to keep inflation in check, a cautious approach was taken.
The same day, there was good news when the splendour of Frisian achievements in the Age of Revolutions allowed a new ability to be attained. Many useful abilities were available but, in the end, superior artillery range was chosen. Any future major European war was likely to be a grinding affair with mass casualties: the massing of Frisian artillery power over recent years would be exploited.
A desire to expand the army’s force limit further was being hindered by too few places to build new conscription centres. With a huge treasury stockpile it was decided to install dozens of new town halls all over the Republic, at home and in the colonies, where they did not already exist. Apart from the direct benefits, it should allow more buildings in some locations. A few other buildings were either started or had recently been commissioned: it was an unprecedented building boom.
Another 750 ducats was also spent on hastening the completion of the second stage of the Dutch Polders in Amsterdam. All this spending approached 6,000 ducats in total!
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Ignition
The short pause in Frisian military expansion was comprehensively justified when the Republic was called into Franconia’s war of aggression to conquer Weimar on 22 July 1718. This initiated what would prove to be a long war with the powerful regional player Bohemia, which brought its network of allies in to help – principal of which was Switzerland.
On paper, Franconia’s coalition – which included Bavaria, Cologne, Brunswick and Strassburg – looked considerably stronger in troop strength, especially in cavalry.
The first engagement began on the very day the war broke out, when Friesland’s Lübeck trade protection fleet encountered three Bohemian frigates in the Southern Baltic Sea. One enemy ship would be captured and the other two fled to the Bohemian port of Stetin.
That same day the Frisian Leger van (L.v.) Latgalia ceased drilling and began marching east to counter any threat from the smaller army of Saxe-Lauenburg, reorganising on the march.
All the recent expansion and defiance of the Emperor by Friesland sparked the formation of a military coalition on 30 July, led by the South East Asian country of Blambangan but soon joined by four European nations, the most significant of which was Austria itself.
Saxe-Lauenburg began a weak siege of Hamburg on the same day, as L.v. Latgalia made its progress across from the west through Meppen then Verden on 5 August, heading for neighbouring Stade, where they arrived on the 11th.
The Frisian army was only at about 1/3 readiness by then but this did not matter, as a large army from Cologne had arrived first and was in the process of throwing the enemy out of Hamburg already. That taken care of, L.v. Latgalia marched south to besiege Goslar instead, arriving outside its considerable fortifications on 25 August.
Back home, long-serving statesman Lubbert Bonga died in early September, replaced by the accomplished diplomat Popetet Barents, who would oversee Frisian engagement in the coming years, where ambassadors may wield as much influence as generals in the Great Game.
Escalation
After a busy few months for Friesland, the war slipped into a more routine phase until November 1718. The Potestaat had noticed Franconia had not actually sought to occupy the key target of the war yet. So L.v. Oversticht was released from its policing work in Loon on 3 November and a month later was encamped in Weimar, which had no fort and was fully occupied by 13 January 1719.
During November, Bavaria (34,000 men) had met and defeated a Bohemian army (23,854 men) at Ob def Enns, the largest battle of the war to date (the only other having been fought over Hamburg). The war seemed to be developing slowly for now as both sides positioned themselves.
The recent conquest of Loon had seen Friesland finally get a Cardinal in its control. This only lasted until December 1718 however, when spies from Brunswick (a supposed ally in the current war) white-anted him.
Just a few days later, Magdeburg was removed from the enemy alliance via a separate peace with war leader Franconia. Casualties for Friesland had so far only been light, coming from siege attrition.
The Lübeck trade fleet had another encounter battle that started on 21 December in the Skagerrak. They had sent seven vessels home for repairs after the last battle and now found themselves at a numerical disadvantage and up against Bohemian galleys this time. They also took an initial tactical advantage into the first few days of the battle. It would be 12 days before the Frisian fleet would be able to disengage.
Caught out somewhat, the main European battle fleet was sent out immediately from Zeeland to relieve their comrades – whose superior morale might help them hold out long enough to be saved.
As it happened, by 3 January the main fleet was approaching and the defending Lübeck fleet had managed to keep in the fight without losing any ships. The Bohemians ran as soon as the far more powerful main battle fleet approached from the west, with none sunk on either side.
By early January 1719, the bulk of the visible enemy forces had massed in the east. Two Frisian armies were conducting sieges (of Goslar and Weimar) while other major allied armies were spread from Cologne to Bohemia and north-eastern Austria.
That day, L.v. Neubrandenburg in Lüttich was also ready for action and it too was sent east so sit initially in a reserve position in Celle. And 16,000 men (excess infantry and cavalry) were detached from L.v. Latgalia’s siege of Goslar to minimise attrition and act as a response force.
Big news came on 8 January about an encounter battle in Jindrichuv Hrado in western Bohemia. Strasbourg had ambushed a smaller Saxon army but Bohemia turned the tables on the 13th when they reinforced, with another 37,000 men due to arrive four days later. By 20 January Strasbourg had broken, losing an estimated 5,300 men in the battle.
At sea, Vloot van Brügge established a blockade of Stetin in the South Baltic Sea on 20 January. Two days later, L.v. Oversticht had moved on from Weimar to besiege the major Bohemian fort at Fojsko, while the two reserve armies made their way towards them in support. L.v. Latgalia continued its long siege of Goslar.
The reserve armies were redirected south-east a week later when a Swiss army settled in to besiege allied Bavaria. The Strasbourgians were still fleeing west as they passed the Cologne’s army heading east towards Bohemia.
Then in mid-February, the Bavarian army found itself over-extended when it was attacked in Brno by a larger Bohemian army. The enemy kept reinforcing until by the end of the battle they had amassed almost 150,000 men!
Even with superior tactical handling as well, the Bavarians were still dealt a heavy blow by the time it was over. At least a third of the Bavarian army had been destroyed. The war was proving more difficult than had been anticipated, with Friesland still wary of becoming too heavily engaged in Franconia’s rather modest (for all the fighting) territorial ambitions against Bohemia.
As that battle was in progress, the Frisian march to Bavaria had scared off the Swiss army, so both forces headed back north to reinforce the defence: they were not at all tempted to venture into the maelstrom at Brno!
Revolution
A somewhat cryptic report was received from Herceg Novi in the Ottoman Empire on 21 February 1719, proclaiming the ‘Birth of the Revolution’. What this might mean for the heir-less Padishah Abdülaziz of the Ottomans, with their huge million-man army, or indeed the wider world or Friesland itself (which had been a republic for centuries now and had established a parliament) was unknown.
With plenty of spare military power available, harsh treatment was meted out at the end of March to deter rising Sundanese separatist unrest in Kediri. In April, three new soldier’s households and three conscription centres began construction in the African and FEI colonies.
Shu continued its reunification of China with the annexation of the remaining Yan state in June.
And back in Europe, the ‘spare’ L.v. Goslar was sent from its reserve position back west to deal with a small (4,900 man) Bohemian detachment that had managed to slip around to besiege Strassburg. By the time they arrived on 22 June, another couple of bohemian regiments had arrived. Though they had no artillery, L.v. Goslar was having no problems dealing with them.
But by the time they had wiped out the enemy force on 2 July, they had been stalled long enough to be ambushed by a new and far larger enemy force the same day! The 2nd Battle of Strassburg began as the first ended.
In the east, Rudohori was occupied on 27 June and on 2 July L.v. Neubrandenburg was sent back west to deal with this new threat.
Once more, it would be 12 days before Lubbert Stiensma would be able to extricate his men from the trap they found themselves in. However, they had the better terrain and managed to tactically outwit their enemy thoroughly before executing a skilful withdrawal on 15 July.
They had not only avoided destruction but managed to inflict around as many casualties as they had received against a far larger force, without the benefit of any artillery support.
The rising development of Oversticht saw it demand and be granted representation in the Landtag the very same day the 2nd Battle of Strassburg had begun, expanding the chamber to 12 seats.
Immolation
In was around mid-July 1719 (the report was skipped over as it was only a seemingly minor incident and I was absorbed with the Bohemian War) that the Ottomans launched a war to take over tiny Theodoro on the Crimean Peninsula. But Theodoro was backed by the Russian Empire and their allies Imereti, while the Ottomans called in Kazakh and Mahra.
There will be more on this war in the next few chapters but it was going to be massive. The first Russian province (in eastern Ukraine) would fall on 21 August 1719 and Theodoro in February 1720. But it was of course far bigger than that and would drag on for at least the next four years.
To give an idea of the scale involved, back in February 1719 (my last save game before this point), the Ottomans were the No.1 great power and Russia No.2 after Portugal. Russia had the smaller army but more reserves and would be largely fighting on home soil. The Ottomans had over a million men under arms. Both sides were technologically comparable.
By size the armies of the Ottomans and Russians were first and third in the world. Friesland came in at a respectable eighth. In terms of quality as measured by tradition, the Russians had the edge over Ottomans, while their morale was far better (6.25 v 3.92).
Again for comparison, the Frisian army was ranked second by tradition and had the best morale and professionalism of the three, though Russian and Ottoman discipline was far better.
After their retreat from Strassburg, the survivors of L.v. Goslar linked up with L.v. Neubrandenburg to set up a river defensive line to the east around Heidelberg. There, they joined together and were then split back into two into roughly equal and balanced forces of around 30 regiments each. They were faced by around 65,000 Bohemian-led troops encamped two provinces away in Strassburg.
The earlier appointment of Popetet Barents as foreign minister had proved a good one. With admin and diplomatic power still at the limits, his reputation was used to boost Frisian prestige and diplomatic power to the maximum in March 1720.
Consternation
As Frisian and Bavarian armies kept watch in western Germany, Friesland was completely blind-sided when almost 130,000 troops turned up in Brügge and Gent in late February 1720. It was decided they must have used military access through France via Austria and Switzerland to arrive there unobserved, as they had earlier in Strassburg. L.v.s Neubrandenburg and Goslar were sent around to keep check on this nasty surprise, but the whole European Frisian army would be needed to match such numbers and the others were still engaged in their sieges to the east.
And any front-on attack against such a large force would inevitably result in commensurately large casualties. It was truly and invidious position. On the other hand, both cities were heavily fortified and the enemy would soon surely be suffering heavy attrition.
Meanwhile, on 25 March there was capacity to raise another two artillery regiments back home, with the manpower reserve still hovering at around 32,000. The next phase of the war would see how Friesland responded to this outrageous incursion
[I’m reminded of past advice about how the code can target the human player in this way, even when they’re not the lead in such a war] and how the Franconian alliance took advantage of the diversion from the Bohemian homeland of so many troops.
And the world’s breath would be bated over how the great showdown between the two great Eurasian power would play out. Would the Ottoman hegemony grow even further? Or would General Winter help to even up the score for the Tsar?
