Grand Campaigns

The Grand Campaigns, also known as the Great War, was a originating in Artemia and Kesh that lasted from 1915 to 1925. The war involved most of the world's major powers and is considered to be one of the clearest cases of in world history.

The Grand Campaigns are considered to have begun on 15 April 1915 with the Teutonic invasion of the ethnically Teutonic department of Husseren-Wesserling in eastern Vallis. Initially, from 1915 to 1919 the war only included Vallis fighting Teutonia, Austrasia, and Mero-Curgovina mostly on its own. However, an allied faction headed by Tiperyn and including Brigantica, Koryeo, Agrana y Griegro, Westar and the Vojiskiy Empire would join the war on the side of Vallis to counter the growing territorial gains of Teutonia. This drew Kodeshia into the war as it had a defensive alliance with the Teutonic Empire and used this a pretext to retake its lost territory from Tiperyn. It was joined by its ally Beifang who together fought against Artemian imperialism on the continent.

However, this allied faction would split in 1920 as republican rebellions would rise in Vallis and the Celt-dominant regions of Tiprain. Around the same time, the Caliphate that encompassed what is now Nasiria, Qurac and Asharistan declared war on Tiperyn which occupied several port cities on the northern coast of the Nasir Desert. Brigantica allied itself with the republican groups in Artemia and the Caliphate in an effort to counter Tipslansk imperialism in the eastern hemisphere, becoming the de facto leader of this new faction.

Legantus joined this faction, supporting the republican rebels in Vallis and fearful of Teutonic posturing against Legantus due to its substantial Germanic population. Colareaux would aid the republican rebels, in an effort to support regime change in Vallis, experiencing fighting during their march to meet up with republican rebels and Legantian forces. Additionally, Guurdalai would join this faction come into direct conflict with Kodeshia opening up the second biggest front of the war.

The world would see several concurrent civil wars, some of which would draw major powers out of the conflict. These included the Celt insurrection in Tiperyn from 1920-1926, civil war in the Vojiskiy Empire beginning in 1922, republican rebellions in Vallis beginning in 1920, the collapse of the Caliphate in 1925, the Teutonic communist revolution of 1924 and the collapse of imperial rule in Kodeshia and eventual civil war in 1927.

The conflict would have mixed results for each faction. Teutonia would fall to communist revolutionaries, lose territory to Legantus and Agrana y Griegro along with breakaway of its former colonly Alvakalia into an independent state. Colareaux would establish itself as a Western superpower, but would see civil war after isolationist policies were put in place after the war. The Vallis monarch was exiled as a republican government took power and the Brigantic-supported Celt insurrection established the Republic of Tiprain off of Tiperyn's southwestern coast. However, the majority of Keshan countries within the Brigantica- and Caliphate-led faction would collapse or suffer violent regime change either before the war's end or during the inter-war period. Meanwhile, there were no territorial changes in Avalonia as the new world did not experience any major land battles.

Burgeoning republicanism
Movements advocating for, and democracy had begun to garner popular appeal throughout the 19th and early 20th century - especially in Artemia. Republican forms of government had been adopted by Brigantica in Avalonia after it broke free from Tiperyn and Vallisian colonial rule in the early 18th century. Later, the Republic of Legantus was formed in 1843, challenging the regional influence of the Vallisian monarch and influencing the rise of revolutionary republican movements in Vallis. Vallis had been a significant threat for the entirety of the Republic's existence, and the prospect of turning what was considered the greatest threat to its national defense into an ally was an attractive one. Secret supply routes through Legantus's northern provinces to the areas that the Republican rebels operated in - ironically through several of the old battlefields of the Never-War - and moved unimpeded, providing a surplus of basic supplies to the rebels. Concurrently, Legantus actively, but also covertly, supported liberal elements in Veikaia to keep it from supporting the Crown Alliance during the Grand Campaigns.

Arms race
As imperial ambitions and political movements that were considered radical escalated, Artemian powers entered a multiple front arms race. Although this encompassed developments in both land and air technology, the primary front was naval. Concerns within the Teutonic and Mero-Curgov governments regarding the naval supremacy of Tiperyn in Tethys and the Eurybian lead to evolutions in shipbuilding that culminated in the launch of the Mero-Curgov battleship ReSS Juganauda in 1908. The arrival of Juganauda, meaning "unstoppable force", heralded a new era of battleships and made obsolete the previous generation which became known as "pre-Juggernauts". The advent of the all-big-gun battleship marked a turning point for the Teutonic faction in arms development and constituted the greatest change in naval warfare until the 1959 development of the.

Initial Teutonic offensive (1915-1919)
With the  of reclaiming ethnically Teutonic communities in eastern Vallis, Teutonic forces crossed the Vallisian border in force on 15 April 1915. Teutonia immediately gained ground, capturing most of the target province of Husseren-Wesserling by May of that year. Legantus watched these initial thrusts with extreme concern. The Legantian military was structured similarly to its Vallisian counterparts, and that structure was proving inadequate in the face of modern technological advancement. Its equipment was also out of date, a significant portion of it having been in service during the previous war. A large-scale rearmament effort was therefore decided upon, with the military replacing or supplementing almost every piece of equipment in its inventory at a rapid pace. Across the channel, Empress Fedde of Tiperyn proclaimed that Tiperyn would maintain a policy of armed neutrality unless its territory was threatened. Although Tiperyn viewed Teutonic aggression as a threat to regional stability, it did not view the capture of Husseren-Wesserling as a direct threat to Tiperyn interests. However, the Holy Realm had declared that the Hillich Channel separating Tiperyn and Vallis would remain open to all no matter the flag the ships carried. In late February 1916, the Tiperyn Home Fleet set sail with the mission of patrolling the channel and protecting major sea lanes. This was the first deployment of TNV Humongous - a battleship converted into an early aircraft carrier in 1913 - as well as the first case of a military deployment in defense of Vallisian shipping in Tiperyn's history.

Crown Alliance intervention (1919)
As Teutonic forces advanced further north during their campaigns from 1918 to 1919, concern was building among the international community and interventionist movements on behalf of the Vallisians had begun to gain widespread appeal. By 1919, the aggressive expansion of the Teutonia had exceeded their claims on the ethnolinguistically Teutonic provinces of Vallis and threatened the Vallisian capital of Ornans. Although a colonial rival in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Holy Tiperyn Realm had favored the Vallisian monarchy, believing it to be a relatively stable power in the region to balance the Germanic and Slavic empires of Artemia and prevent the rise of popular democratic movements. Further, the Teutonic advance north had could threaten Tiperyn's southwestern shores should Vallisian forces be pushed into the sea. Since the start of the conflict, Tiperyn, as well as most of regional powers had remained neutral in the conflict. However, on 2 February 1919, Tiperyn Minister of Diplomacy Brent Garrick convened a meeting including representatives from Tiperyn's allies; namely Koryeo, Agrana y Griegro and the Vojiskiy Empire. The powers agreed that Teutonic aggression could not be tolerated, and it was in the best interest of all for the status quo of Artemia to be maintained. These four states would form the core of the Crown Alliance - the predecessor to the modern North-South Concordant.

Tiperyn troops of the 11th Tipslan Cavalry Regiment and 9th Idlerein Rifleer Regiment would first arrive in Vallis on 10 April 1919, travelling by rail towards the front at what would later be known as the Sarsoux Salient. Meanwhile, Agranian forces had engaged Teutonic forces along the mountainous Agranian-Teutonic border. The alliance had planned for Agrana y Griegro to draw forces away from Teutonia's offensive in Vallis by harassing Teutonic forces in mountainous terrain and pushing east with the intention of cutting of Teutonia's access to the Eurybian Sea. Two Tiperyn mountaineer regiments were deployed to Agrana y Griegro in May 1919 to aid in this task. In the western hemisphere, Koryeo, leveraging its large industrial capacity and relative isolation from the conflict, had increased its production of war materiel. In partnership with the Tiperyn Realm Armada, in May 1919, Koryeo begun large shipments of arms, artillery and other military equipment to Tiperyn and Vallis.

On the other side of the spectrum, the potential of burgeoning republican movements in Vallis attracted the interest of the democratic Legantus and Brigantica. The Vallisian monarchy was a rival of the Legantian republic, having warred only two decades prior. Republican movements had been gaining strength and influence during the early years of Vallis' conflict with Teutonia, fueled by civil dissatisfaction with the monarch and the state of war. Legantus would not enter the war on the behalf of the monarchy, but had been covertly supplying republican rebels with arms and other aid in the early days of the war. Brigantica, who was a staunch ally of Legantus, saw an easier opening by intervening on behalf of the monarchy to stem the tide of the Teutonic advance, covertly support rebel factions and gain an immediate foothold on Vallisian soil for further operations. Initially, Brigantica's deployment of troops to Vallis was coordinated with both the Tiperyn and Vallisian governments. However, Brigantic forces never fought alongside Tiperyn forces and were mostly focused in areas with significant republican rebel influence.

Legantian offensives
Legantian entry into the war was sudden. The Republic's initial moves, operations code-named Geror and Urd, were launched almost concurrently with declarations of war. Operation Geror, utilizing General Reynaud Wolter's Fourth Army and aimed at cutting off Teutonic forces deployed against the Vallisian republicans, quickly found itself bogged down after advancing only 8 kilometers. Republican force buildup had not gone unnoticed on the northern front and General xxxx xxxx had deployed his forces accordingly. On the southern front, General Walther Giehl's Operation Urd saw significantly greater success. General xxxxxx xxxx, in charge of the southern border defenses, had not detected any force buildups and had seen his forces repeatedly cannibalized for reinforcements for Army Group South facing Agrana y Griegro. The front collapsed almost immediately. While the Fourth Army found itself bogged down in trench warfare well away from its objectives, Giehl's Second found itself facing almost no resistance and limited in advance only by its movement speed. It was able to take its primary objective, the important transportation hub of xxx, by the second day. With his primary objective secure, the General sought and received permission to continue with offensive operations. His new objective was Teutonenland's southern coast, and the port of xxx. The Eurybian fleet docked there, having not sortied since the beginning of the war, remained a significant threat to Republican supply lines and operations in Kesh. In addition, it would provide a new port from which to base naval forces in the Eurybian sea and opened the possibility of deploying Legantian forces to help swing the initiative on that front back to the Republican alliance.

In the Baleric Sea and Iapetus Ocean, the Legantian Fleet opened the war in a relatively strong position. The fleet was battle-tested coming off of the previous war with Vallis, and unlike the Army had not remained idle in the intervening years. The three-ship Stärke class, despite the nameship's unimpressive performance during its initial encounter with the TNV Regnant, remained some of the most advanced battleships in service at the time. In addition, barely a month before the declaration of war, the Legantian government had commissioned two fleet carriers converted from the hulls of Säbel-class battlecruisers. These two ships, the nameship RLK Säbel and her sister the RLK Estoc, were designed as a direct response to the earlier TNV Humongous and were the first aircraft carriers to feature a. The fleet was ordered to avoid the sort of large-scale engagement that had demolished the Vallisian fleet during the Never-War. Legantian naval planners, worried that such an engagement would turn out decisively in favor of Tiperyn, instead mandated what they called the "Tausend geschnitten" strategy. The fleet would jump on smaller formations, avoiding larger fleets while attacking both trade and occasionally raiding Crown Alliance ports. The Legantian navy would "be the mosquito, until it could be the Lion."

Colareaux in the Grand Campaigns
Expectations of Colareaux to join the war effort were put to rest after President Edgar Benoit (1912-1920) openly criticized the war for "senseless violence against an irrelevant enemy", thus angering the Colareaux people for his disregard of the situation. In 1920, the allied faction supporting Vallis split between Replublican groups and Vallis supporters. That same year, the election of Jean Bourgeois, a Republican, came with the promise of sending support to the Republican rebels in Vallis, and the support of "a regime change of our father nation". In December of 1921, President Jean Bourgeois sent three fleets of naval warships, led by Commandant Jamés Bernard, and the 12th rifle division of the Mobile Infantry (later known as Infantry Divisions), led by General Audric DuBois, to the western coast of Vallis, anchoring only 300 miles away from any hostile territory. In February of 1922, Colareaux forces began advancing east to meet up with rebel forces, bombarding the beachhead before sending in Infantry to push on. Resistance from Vallisian forces only increased the farther east they advanced, with DuBois urging his men to push on with haste. By the time they reached Legantian forces DuBois' forces were largely depleted (numbers unknown, but is believed to have lost over 90% of his men). Requests by the Colareaux Government to pull away from the battlefront were unanswered for the longest until General DuBois sent a note to President Bourgeois simply saying, "Nowhere else to go, fighting is our only way out". General DuBois' forces were engaged in intense trench warfare in the North by that time, with Commandant Bernard moving his ships to the northern coast of Vallis in an attempt to support the Infantry with long range artillery. In the spring of 1923, with little ground gained, General DuBois orders the remainder of his forces, with the request of bombardment from the Naval Forces, to advance towards capture of a key Vallisian artillery post. Commandant Bernard requested for a flare to signal a victory or defeat (two for victory, one for imminent defeat), the battle only lasted three hours before one red flare was seen, President Bourgeois later refers to this as DuBois' Division. Bernard then ordered his fleets to turn home, steaming west towards Port Versa of Colareaux. In January of 1924, President Bourgeois sends another three fleets of warships, again commanded by Bernard, with the 34th Rifle Division, led by General Boudreaux, and four platoons of private contractors from Entreprise. Their task was simply to hold Tiperyn forces from taking the Northwestern coast of Vallis, doing so until the war's end in 1925. The end of the war was only recognized by President Bourgeois when a Republican regime was established in Vallis, and continued giving support until 1936, when President Suarez enacted on isolationist policies.

Artemian stalemate (1921-1923)
From the autumn of 1921 to the summer of 1923, there was little movement on the Artemian Front. With Crown Alliance and republican forces now fully engaged and Teutonic forces pushed out of Vallis' regions, the belligerents had begun to fortify their frontline positions. This was the beginning of the Grand Campaigns' period, also known as the two year stalemate. Barbed wire, mines, air power and fortified machine gun nests prevented movement across, while artillery fire from both sides continuously harassed the others' trench line. This was a change in pace from the highly mobile early-war period and instigated the development of.

The southern front was likewise deadlocked. In 1921, Agranian, Tiperyn and Vojiskiy forces were engaged in heavy fighting against Teutonic forces in the mountainous regions on the Agranian-Teutonic border. The frontline had moved little since the entrance of the Crown Alliance into the conflict, although both sides made marginal gains and suffered marginal losses periodically. However, in 1922, Agranian generals had increased the tempo of advances east towards Austrasia. As Legantian republican forces advanced south through Teutonia towards the Eurybian Sea, the Agranian military had made it a prime objective to deny the republican alliance access to the Eurybian Sea and gain as much territory from Teutonia and Austrasia as possible before the end of the conflict.

Communist revolution in Teutonia (1924-1925)
With the goal of bringing a hasty end to the conflict in Artemia so forces could be redirected to the urgent and bloody conflict brewing in Kesh, the Crown Alliance had begun covertly supporting communist revolutionary and militant groups in Teutonia beginning in 1922. Although today considered a subversive and threatening ideology by the North-South Concordant in modern times, in the early 20th century, communism was a niche ideology that the Crown Alliance did not see as a significant threat. In a later declassified communique sent from the Tiperyn Ministry of Diplomacy to the commander of Crown Alliance forces on the northern Artemian Front, it was alluded to that the Tiperyn government did not expect the communist revolt to be successful even with Crown Alliance support. Rather, the ultimate goal was to draw Teutonic forces away from the front land towards the homeland so Tiperyn forces could redirect their attention to the growing republican threat in Vallis and Legantus. With the ultimate objective of maintaining the status quo still being at the forefront of Tiperyn's war goals, it was hoped that the remainder of Vallis could be recaptured from Teutonia and the republicans and that a Teutonia weakened by civil strife would sue for peace. With these objectives complete, the Crown Alliance could then focus its energy towards its war against the Caliphate in northern Kesh where the imperialist ambitions of Tiperyn and Agrana y Griegro were more pronounced.

The Kesh Front (1919-1925)
Artemian Imperialism had spread through the continent with the traditional region powers suffering military defeats and territorial losses to the technologically advanced and industrialised nations from Artemia. As a response to these threats saw the mass industrialization and modernization of Beifang, Sindhustan and Kodeshia, allowing the rulers of these countries to strengthen their hold over the state through encouraging emerging feelings of national identity, the opposite was true in the Caliphate. Over the course of the first decade of the 20th century, successive political crises coupled with the central government's failure to respond to socioeconomic changes relating to industrialization and the rise of nationalism led to a series of separatist revolts across the country. With much of the country in open revolt, the Caliph lost control over the Caliphate as foreign powers such as Tiperyn started to fund these revolts in the hopes of fracturing the country.

In 1914, Beifang and Kodeshia signed a mutual defence and economic cooperation treaty in which they declared that they would help one another conquer territories lost to imperial powers and resist foreign domination. Beifang aimed to push back against Artemia imperialism having seen what happened to Alvakalia as it fell into the sphere of the Teutonic Empire. Kodeshia aimed to conquer the Yuhai (Jade Sea) Islands, which had been lost to Tiperyn in 1655 and had been developed into major regional commercial centres. This alliance, combined with the collapse of the Caliphate and the ever-present threat of Tipslansk territorial control over its former domains set the stage for Kesh's role in the Grand Campaigns.

During the beginning of the Grand Campaigns, Tiperyn formally declared war on the Caliphate, conquering various port cities on the periphery of the Nasiri Desert. While it was able to conquer the coast with relative ease, the Shia revolts that it had funded during the previous decade coalesced into a national movement that aimed to create a religious Persian state in the mountainous interior of Nasiria, locked into a deadly stalemate with Tiperyn in its remote mountain valleys. Kodeshia had gained strong economic connections with the Teutonic Empire through its military and railway projects. Kodeshia made a formal alliance with the Teutonic Empire signed on 12 August 1917. The alliance treaty expected that Kodeshia would become involved in the conflict in a short amount of time.

Initial combined offensive by Kodeshia and Beifang (1919-1921)
Kodeshia had gained strong economic connections with the Teutonic Empire through a number of industrialisation programs mainly military, shipping and railway projects. Kodeshia made a formal alliance with the Teutonic Empire signed on 12 January 1919. Kodeshia which until now had been officially neutral but had been closely watching the conflict since 1915 and with the overwhelming victory of the Teutonic forces in the field and with Tiperyn joining the conflict Kodeshian official saw the chance to retake their colonial territories. Kodeshia officially declared war on Tiperyn and its allies in support of the Teutonic Empire. Fearing Tiperyn's advance into their northern frontiers, Sindhustan also declared war on Tiperyn. Sindhustan conquered Bandar Sonasindhu after a series of military victories while Kodeshian forces seized the chance to retake its lose territories perceiving weakens of Tiperyn colonial forces. Within hours of declaring war the newly developed Weidalu (Great Continential) Fleet was formed from the Northern and Southern fleets. The forces quickly sailed towards the Yuhai (Jade Sea) Islands. Under command of Admiral Shen Hanzhi numerically superior Kodeshian forces quickly surrounded and laid siege to the islands. While the smaller islands were taken virtually without resistance, the main island only fell after a three-month siege with regular naval bombardments. Tipryn colonial forces only torpedo boat was able to slip past the blockade and managed to sink a light cruiser before being spotted and sunk. continued to resist until they were overwhelmed by landing army forces. Following the success of the operation, there were widespread celebrations across the nation and Admiral Shen Hanzhi became a national folk hero.

This drew Guurdalai into the war, which had allied with Tiperyn which opened a new front against Kodeshia. Emperor Zhaozu of Liang Dynasty had to quickly begin mobilising his armies. Beifang quickly came to the side of Kodeshia and mobilised its forces, sending expeditionary forces to aid its allies in West Artemia and Kodeshia, as well as invading Guurdalai's northern border. This new eastern front was the second largest of the war and quickly forced the Kodeshian command to adopt a strategic defence. Initially Kodeshian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Army Yuan Guozhang proposed a daring pincer movement against the large Guurdalai salient hoping to swiftly cut off and encircle the bulk of Guurdalai forces before they could reinforce their positions. Then push towards capturing Guurdalai's capital Sükhbaatar and force a peace settlement. The attack would begin with a diversionary attack by the 6th and 7th while the main force consisting of 2nd, 3rd and 5th Armies from the northeast would capture the enemy forces off guard. Meanwhile, the 1st, 9th and Armies would advance from the south-east and capture the main object of the Guurdalai oil fields then link up the 2nd, 3rd and 5th armies completing the encirclement. While the initial stages of the attack were a success taking the Guurdalai forces by surprise the northern advance achieved only modest gains of around 10 kilometres. By now the heavy casualties and exhaust combined with risk becoming overstretched meant the forces had to stop and regroup.

Trench warfare begins
They began making entrenchments and reinforcing their position. The southern attack failed to puncture Guurdalai defences and quickly became bogged down by heavy enemy artillery and machine-gun fire. While the first day objectives of the oil fields were captured it came at a heavy cost in casualties. By now the realities of modern warfare were exposing the outdated ideas of cavalry forces and riflemen in the face of entrenched machine gun positions. The initial idea of a lighting strike towards the capital in the hopes of quick conflict were now beginning to disappear as both sides began to experience the stagnation and stalemate of their positions due to poor weather and entrenched positions.

Opening the North Western Front (1921-1923)
As the monsoon weather set in all offensive operations became impossible as the ground became so muddy by 1921 the newly opened Eastern front had quickly become like the Artemian stalemate. It necessitated a focus on technological development with Aerial and tank warfare becoming important. Although some action was still felt in the north reaches of the eastern front as Beifang forces engaged Guurdalai positions. By this time it was becoming clear that the situation in Teutonic Empire was becoming dire and Beifang and Kodeshia secretly engaged in efforts to support independence movements of the colonial forces in Alvakalia in the hopes of keeping it engaged with the forces of the Caliphate. Kodeshian Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Army Yuan Guozhang proposed new operation the north capturing sections of Asharistan to relieve pressure on forces in Alvakalia. The new offensive operation was quickly approved and by late 1921 some forces were being diverted from the now static eastern front toward the new northern front operation.

However, this new campaign was to take place in the harsh mountainous terrain of the north and most troops were poorly equipped to fight in such conditions and artillery was difficult to transport along such territory. Nonetheless, the operation was set in motion and quickly proved disastrous with heavy losses. Despite a numerical advantage the Kodeshian troops were forced to advance exposed toward heavily entrenched mountain machine gun nest and again strong artillery barrages. Quickly the northern front became another deadlock with the limited advanced by Kodeshian forces being reinforced and heavily entrenched. By 1921 Teutonia had lost access to the Eurybian following Agranian and Legantian advances calling into question the purpose of the northern front. In spite of this Field Marshal and Chief of the General Staff of the Army, Yuan Guozhang insisted on a renewed offensives believing the enemy lines to be near the point of breaking. Limited offensive on the eastern and northern front continued through 1922.

Battles for Taishan salient
Failures to hold the line by General Xu Jianhua led to the costly losses and Kodeshia lines retreating nearly 12 kilometres in the northeastern front creating the Taishan salient. The area became a highly contested zone with major shelling and counter-attacks destroying most of the city. The Second Battle of Taishan has the distinction of being the first battle fought with tanks on the eastern front. After heavy losses, Kodeshian forces were able to recapture the city with the help of Beifang expeditionary units and the Alvak Ostkorps unit.

Tang Offensive (1923-1924)
But By 1923 new plans for a major eastern front offensive were proposed by General Tang Xueliang it would become to be known as the Tang Offensive. The operation was to be carried out in the south-east with combined forces the major usage of new armoured scout cars and tanks. Support from the new Imperial Air Corp and from the sea by ships from the Beifu Fleet. The Imperial Air Corp provided local air superiority and scouted out enemy positions allowing the offensive to open with a massive, accurate but brief artillery barrage against Guurdalai lines, with the key factor of this effective bombardment being its brevity and accuracy.

This was in contrast to the usual, protracted barrages at the time that gave the defenders time to bring up reserves and evacuate forward trenches while damaging the battlefield so badly that it was hard for attackers to advance. The initial attack was successful, and the Guurdalai lines were broken, enabling two of Tang's three armies to advance on a wide front. The advanced was support by creeping barrage by artillery and naval forces. The new Imperial Tank Corps and scout cars provided the initial spearhead drawing enemy fire to allow infantry advance. The success of the breakthrough was helped in large part by Tang's innovation to attack weak points along the Guurdalai lines to effect a breakthrough, which the main Kodeshian army could then exploit. The operation was marked by a considerable improvement in the quality of Kodeshian tactics.

The offensive was a serious defeat for the Guurdalai forces, which was forced out of its first position by the Kodeshian 5th Army. The first day on the offensive was, in terms of casualties, also the worst day in the history of the Kodeshian army, which suffered over 100,000 casualties. The Tang offensive commanded by Tang himself went very well, but the overall campaign, for which Tang's part was only supposed to be a distraction, because of General Xu's failures, became tremendously costly for the Imperial army, and after the offensive, its forces were seriously depleted and the public will for the war was at an all-time low. Unrest from the soldiers and public and heavy resentment towards the new Emperor Jingzu of Liang taking over from his recently departed father the well-loved Emperor Zhaozu of Liang, this in combination with foreign support for rebels and the chaos and sporadic communist uprisings in Alvakalia spilling over into north Kodeshia leading to revolts against the emperor over dissatisfaction with the war effort and rationing.

Lorenz-Kruger Offensives (1922-1924)
Although Alvaland (by 1920, renamed to Alvakalia) joined the war in late 1919, the supposed defence of the border was poorly held. The Battle on the Border that occurred on the day of the declaration of war was an absolute victory for the Caliphate and caused a series of events that led to Alvak troops falling back as far as Lubach in Provinz Victoria in 1921. Encirclements occurred at Desingen and Neukarlshelm in what is now Provinz Notios, and a salient at West-Oase as well. With the Battle of Sternberg Station finally turning around the already poor situation for the Alvaks for once, giving troops time to rest and regroup after battle and retreat and battle again, plans were put into motion.

The Kruger Offensive consisted of a breakout near Desingen to both relieve trapped forces in the town and cut off Caliphate troops, which had advanced far into coastal Alvakalia. Heavily outnumbered but with modernized weaponry, the offensive went into action in mid-1921. With Caliphate besiegers outgunned by bolt-action rifles against their single-shot rifles, they fled northwards (a poor decision, as a significant amount of the now-encircled Caliphate forces lay there) and Desingen was freed. In the ensuing conflict, forces trapped in Desingen pushed downwards to link up with a smaller encirclement in the town of Idara. The two linked up with little opposition as most of the besieging forces moved northward to defend against the main force outside Desingen.

Up north, once the news of victory had reached the command centre at Alvastadt, Generalfeldmarschall Kruger ordered a massive push southwards to crush the encirclement. The 1. Division and 2. Division, stationed on the northern line, advanced, coming into contact with Caliphate forces at the Battle of Laza; the speed and surprise of which the Alvak troops had caused the Caliphate troops to be overrun. By the start of 1922, the pocket in northern Alvakalia that contained around 20,000 Caliphate soldiers had been starved off or surrendered.

-Lorenz Offensive pushes into Asharistan with losses

-eventually forced out by Tipslan forces

-peace treaty signed by late 1924 between AVK, TPY, ASHR

-more troops relegated to Ostkorps, command structure reorganized

Revolts and Reforms (1924-1925)
As the war went on, Kodeshia grew wary with Alvakalia over its unilateral actions in the former Caliphate and its new leaderships. The rift between Alvakalia and Kodeshia led to the Worker's Party of Alvakalia and Alvakische Rotfront funding and supporting communist and military revolts in Northern Kodeshia. However, a failed attempt to break free from Alvakalia themselves forced revolters in North Kodeshia to forgo outside help through Alvakalia. Tiperyn supported these revolts as well, supplying weapons and artillery to militias on both sides. Following the costly Tang Offensive, along with the loss of its ally Teutonia to revolution and having to contend with the revolts along with general discontent from the conflict pushed Kodeshian resources to their limits. But military support from its key ally Beifang allowed Kodeshia to brutally crush the revolts and reestablish its control but to do so it organised a long ceasefire with Guurdalai to free up units to quell the revolts.

Kodeshian Constitution
After a long, protracted, and deadly campaign, Kodeshia and forces from Beifang defeated the militias and put an end to military and civil disputes but at a heavy cost to Emperor Jingzu of Liang's personal image and respect for the government. The poor handling drew widespread discontent and condemnation of the monarchies handling of the situation. In response to the public discontent and revolts a series of reformist mass movements forced the Emperor to sign the first Kodeshian Constitution, creating a constitutional monarchy ending thousands of years of absolute monarchy. This allowing the public to voice its concerns via a democratic parliament. The new government, instantly became deadlocked between faction groups much to the frustration of the Emperor. By this stage Kodeshia sought to end the hostilities and with its ally Beifang they reached an armistice with Guurdalai was put in place while terms of peace could be conducted, a separate peace with Tiperyn was conducted which was agreed to keep its captured territories for reparations for losses to its empire. The chaos and collapses of Guurdalai left a proper peace treaty unclear as Khaan committed ritual suicide for failing to live up to his "unholy" pact and the remains of the government agreed to the demands by Kodeshia and Beifang involving massive indemnity and secession of many border regions. This created massive resentment within Guurdalai and it also created issues for Kodeshia and to a lesser degree Beifang in administering massive new territorial zones. However, the issues trying to assert control of the new government in Kodeshia led to a constitutional crisis, and civil war in 1927 between the many new factions against the Imperial rule which flee to Beifang. The civil war would last until 1930 when the military factions seized power and began purging its enemies. Meanwhile, the delays and ambiguity over control of border territories and discovery of vast oil fields in Alvakalia, far past Kodeshia's borders, were left unresolved and would lead to simmering issues of national borders that would eventually spark future conflict in the Great Kesh War.

Aftermath
The Grand Campaigns is often regarded as the transformational event that defined modern geopolitics and its primary actors. Through the Grand Campaigns rose the communist Teutonenland, while the once mighty Vallisian monarchy fell to republican militants. Meanwhile, what would eventually become the pro-democratic League of Free Nations and autocratic North-South Concordant found their beginnings during the conflict. The spiritual successor to the Crown Alliance was the North-South Defense Consortium - a trade bloc that focused on the trade and standardization of arms and war material. Its members, initially comprising of Tiperyn, Koryeo and Agrana y Griegro, would fight together in the late 1940s and 1950s during the Great Kesh War. This loose alliance and trade bloc would eventually be formalized in 1960 as the North-South Concordant and is now one of the world's most influential. Likewise, the League of Free Nations was founded shortly after the end of the Grand Campaigns with the signing of the Ornans Pact at the Artemia Reconstruction Conference. Brigantica, Vallis and Legantus were the alliance's founding members. Today, the League of Free Nations is centered on worldwide economic and social development and the preservation of human rights. The League and the Concordant remain rivals, with the former seeing the latter as a threat to world peace and human rights and the latter seeing the former as subversive towards their member states' governments.