Hanseatic Crusade

Hanseatic Crusade
Part of Dark Age Era
Start Date 3 January 3140 End Date March 3141 Result Hanseatic League conquered by Escorpión Imperio; Scorpion Empire formed afterwards
Factions
Escorpión Imperio	Hanseatic League
Commanders and leaders
Khan Magon Scott	Council of Merchants Captain-Marshal Rudolf Schmidt
Forces involved
Imperio Militar del Escorpión	Hanseatic Defense Force

The Hanseatic Crusade was a war of conquest launched by the Escorpión Imperio against the Hanseatic League after years of growing tension between the two Deep Periphery powers. In a hard-fought campaign lasting from January to October 3140, the warriors of Clan Goliath Scorpion defeated the Hanseatic Defense Force and then proceeded to secure the entire League by around March 3141. With the last of the League worlds conquered, Khan Magon Scott proclaimed the unification of the Hanseatic League and the Escorpión Imperio into a new power: the Scorpion Empire.

Background

The sixty years prior to the Crusade was a period of reform for both the Hanseatic League and the Escorpión Imperio. Fearing aggression first from the Clan Homeworlds and later each other, the two nations increased the size of their armed forces and the quality of their military industry and technology. In addition, the Imperio undertook the colonization of new worlds situated ever-closer to the League, prompting an attack on one colony by the Hansa in 3112. The eventual rout of the Hanseatic force prompted massive reforms in that nation's military, ensuring that by 3140 the expanded Hanseatic Defense Force was a well-trained and well-led military capable of matching any Periphery power.

During this same period Clan Goliath Scorpion also increased the size and power of its touman, upgrading the Imperio's technology level and expanding its military ranks with increased sibko sizes and native freeborn intakes. The latter, amongst other measures, helped ease the tensions which had plagued the Scorpions' rule over Nueva Castile and enabled their Khans to direct the nation's efforts outwards. Constant raiding became the norm between the Imperio and its neighbor.

The simmering hostility between the Hanseatic League and Escorpión Imperio reached boiling point in 3139. When a Seeker band from the Imperio was caught on Bergen and slain, Khan Magon Scott decided that the time had come to launch an all-out invasion of the League. Putting the motion before his Clan's Council, he received a unanimous vote from both warriors and newly-appointed representatives from the civilian castes—this would be the Imperio's war, not merely Clan Goliath Scorpion's.

The Hanseatic Crusade

Khan Scott's invasion plan revolved around annihilating the HDF, a feat his warriors would accomplish by bringing overwhelming force to bear upon the scattered Hansa garrisons. Each Scorpion Galaxy—minus one Cluster left behind for defense—would attack a single world and destroy all Hanseatic forces there before proceeding to its next target.

Wave One

On 3 January 3140, Alpha, Hellion and Tau Galaxies struck Wismar, Stettin and Novgorod. Split between these three worlds, RDF 9 and CDF 3 were beaten in less than two weeks.

To the surprise of the Goliath Scorpions, the HDF with its plentiful JumpShips was able to react more swiftly than expected. In addition to reinforcing the next expected targets and the capital world of Bremen, the units of RDF 3 and CDF 2 counterattacked the newest Imperio colony worlds of Hallelujah, Glory, and Graystone, with the latter two suffering severe damage from the marauding Hansa.

Wave Two

See Also: Battle of Köningsberg (3140)

The fast redeployment of HDF troops to Köningsberg, Bruges and Kampen ensured that the three leading Scorpion Galaxies would each be facing a full RDF when they attacked on January 28th. On all three worlds the invaders were met with fierce resistance and suffered heavy losses. While the fighting on Köningsberg ended in a glorious victory for Alpha Galaxy and Khan Scott, the battles for Bruges and Kampen both resulted in infrastructure or environmental damage that led to enormous civilian loss of life before those worlds were subdued.

Wave Three

While the Scorpion Galaxies on the coreward front switched to a defensive stance, the Imperio's other three Galaxies moved through the enemy's spinward border to hit targets deeper within the League. Mu and Seeker Galaxies easily overwhelmed the militia and corporate security forces on Tomalov and Lübeck, thought CDF 2's counterattack in the former system led to a costly space battle ending in CDF 2's destruction.

Omega Galaxy, on the other hand, managed to secure Braunschweig and destroy RDF 6 but was itself wrecked in the process with barely a Trinary left to hold the planet. Adding to the League's woes, the Scorpions also captured the Lüneburg Vehicle Corporation facilities, depriving the League of one of its three main military manufacturing sites.

When news of these attacks reached Bremen, Captain-Marshal Schmidt led RDF 1 and CDF 1 against Seeker Galaxy on Lübeck. In short order the Scorpions were routed and driven off-world, moving to Bruges to rendezvous with Hellion Galaxy. Emboldened by this victory, Schmidt tasked RDF 5 with another attack, this time at Köningsberg. After a month-long battle, however, Khan Scott and Alpha Galaxy ended up crushing their opponents.

Wave 3's final action was another victory for the League, when RDF 4 assaulted a newly-arrived garrison cluster on Tomalov and soon reclaimed that world.

Wave Four

The Scorpions began Wave 4 on May 9th, with Mu Galaxy hitting Dortmund where RDF 3 effected a stalemate before being ordered to redeploy to Bremen. Left in possession of Dortmund, Mu Galaxy became bogged down clearing traps and mines and missed the subsequent battle for Bremen.

Defended solely by local militia and mercenaries, Dorpat, Riga, and Kalmar fell swiftly to Tau, Alpha, and Seeker Galaxies. Falsterbo posed a lengthier challenge for Hellion Galaxy, as they needed two months to finish off the mercenaries mounting guerrilla attacks from the wilderness, but it too was taken.

Wave Five

The final wave of the Hanseatic Crusade involved the climactic battle for Bremen. RDFs 1, 3, and 4 and CDF 1 had been assembled to defend their capital when the Scorpion invasion armada jumped into the system on July 9th. Taking no chances, Khan Scott not only brought with him four existing Galaxies (Alpha, Hellion, Tau, and Seeker) but also culled warriors from his Provisional Garrison Clusters to form an ad hoc unit of older warriors dubbed "Grunt Galaxy." This force would provide reserves for the front-line Galaxies.

CDF 1 threw itself at the Clan DropShip fleet as it approached Bremen, the Hansa pilots and marines managing to disable two DropShips and damage 'Mechs aboard a third before being wiped out. Both landing zones were then fiercely contested. Alpha, Seeker and their attached Clusters from Grunt Galaxy were attacked by RDFs 1 and 3 under Schmidt's personal command, but the fighting here bogged down into a stalemate. On the other hand, Tau and Hellion Galaxies swiftly destroyed RDF 4, forcing RDF 3 to break off and leave RDF 1 alone against its opponents.

While the HDF soldiers managed to keep Khan Scott's main force from advancing into the capital, a strike force of Elementals were able to bypass the defenders and capture the Council of Merchants on October 12. The Council refused to surrender, instead triggering explosives planted along the city's tunnels. This act of mass suicide also slew much of RDF 3 and Tau Galaxy's warriors, as well as numerous civilians. While Schmidt, acting as the last surviving national authority, ordered his troops to surrender, RDF 3's remnants sold their lives in berserker attacks on Hellion Galaxy and Tau's survivors, who reciprocated their sentiments. Following this, however, Bremen was swiftly pacified and acknowledged its new overlord.

Aftermath

The conquest of Bremen marked the effective downfall of the Hanseatic League, but resistance continued on many of the remaining League worlds (most notably Antwerp) as the Scorpions moved to secure them. All in all, the Scorpion touman had to fight for an additional six months before the last holdouts on Thorn surrendered. With victory finally achieved, Khan Magon Scott announced in March 3141 that the Hanseatic League and the Escorpión Imperio would be united into a new state: the Scorpion Empire. In a twist of irony, the Council of Merchants' dreams of having the territories of the Castilians and Umayyads under Hansa rule would come true after their demise. But instead of being under the rule of the Council of Merchants, it would be governed by the first ZarKhan (who was a freeborn warrior of Hanseatic descent) with the approval of the Khan and Clan Council.

Bibliography

• Operational Turning Points: Hanseatic Crusade