Fourth Succession War

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Lasting from 3028 to 3030, the Fourth Succession War was the largest offensive since the Second Succession War, over a hundred years prior. The war gave the Lyran Commonwealth and Federated Suns a common border so that they could eventually have one contiguous nation, the Federated Commonwealth.

Pre-war

Planning for War

The planning for the Fourth War came after Federated Suns First Prince Hanse Davion signed the Federated Commonwealth Alliance document with the Lyran Commonwealth Archon, Katrina Steiner, in 3022. Secretly included in the document was a provision that called for the marriage of Hanse and Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner, which would (eventually) result in the union of those two realms in the person of Hanse and Melissa's eldest child. In order to join their realms together, they needed to create a common border. This could only be done through the conquest of intervening planets.

Hanse Davion also had a score to settle. In 3025, Chancellor Maximilian Liao had attempted to replace Prince Davion with a body-double. This double certainly would have delivered the Federated Suns into the Capellan Confederation's hands, but the plot was discovered and foiled by Hanse's best friend and closest adviser, Ardan Sortek.

Hanse began by staging military exercises close to the Capellan Confederation border on a yearly basis starting in 3026. The so-called "Galahad tournaments" not only gave his troops exercise, but it got the Capellans used to large troop movements near their border.

Hanse had also instituted an elaborate spy game. The son of Quintus Allard, the director of the Federated Suns civilian spy agency (the Ministry of Information, Intelligence, and Operations or MIIO for short), Justin Allard, was publicly ridiculed and exiled. After Justin Allard publicly embraced his Capellan heritage, started calling himself Justin Xiang (his mother's maiden name), and won the Solaris VII championship, Chancellor Liao welcomed him into his intelligence agency. Unbeknownst to all but Justin, Hanse, and Quintus, Justin Xiang Allard was actually a double agent working for his father. In addition, another deep cover agent, Alex Mallory, had also infiltrated the Maskirovka (the Capellan spy agency). By the time the war started, these two men were the #2 and #3 men in the Maskirovka.

Hanse was also aware of a traitor in his midst. His half-stepbrother, Duke Michael Hasek-Davion, nursed a bitter grudge against Hanse because he wanted to be Prince (for a more detailed analysis, see this article) and had been covertly passing information to Maximillian Liao. Hanse was able to use Duke Michael to feed false troop information to the Capellans, who were left woefully out of position for the assault.

Prince Davion had also signed an independent truce with Candace Liao, heir to the Chancellorship and Duchess of the St. Ives Commonality (roughly one-fifth of the Capellan Confederation).

On the Lyran side, Archon Katrina made contacts amongst the Rasalhaguian resistance. The conquered people of Rasalhague had maintained an organized resistance for centuries, even though the majority of it had been stopped by the mid-24th century. The Lyrans used this resistance in exchange for the promise of freedom.

In response to the F-C alliance, the leaders of the other three Successor States, the Capellan Confederation, Free Worlds League, and Draconis Combine came together under a loose alliance known as the Kapteyn Accords. This alliance, which was overseen by ComStar, lacked the uniting features of the FedCom alliance. Indeed, negotiations were almost derailed when Janos Marik and Maximilian Liao were informed that the other party would be involved. The Accords were signed, but did not overcome long years of distrust.

Uniting Two Families

Perhaps the most important social event until that time occurred on Terra. On 20 August 3028, six months after her eighteenth birthday, Hanse Davion married Melissa Steiner. The leader of every Successor State was there, including their aides, heirs, and other VIPs. At the wedding reception, Hanse Davion uttered one of the most quoted lines in Inner Sphere history, "My dear... I give you the Capellan Confederation." To the leaders of the Inner Sphere, it seemed like this touched off the 4th War, but, in fact, troops had already invaded the day before.

Federated Suns

The Capellan Front => Operation Rat (Fedsun offensive)

The most damage during the war was done to the Capellan Confederation. Davion's stated goal was to ensure that the Capellan Confederation was no longer a threat by depriving it of its heavy industry. Under the cover of war games, the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns (AFFS) used sheer numbers to overwhelm the Capellan Confederation Armed Forces (CCAF).

The AFFS exploited a strategic weakness in CCAF structure. The Capellans lightly garrisoned border worlds and relied on a strategic reserve to intervene quickly to achieve local superiority. The Capellan Confederation Armed Forces were outnumbered by nearly four to one by the AFFS, however. Their strategy was well-suited to dealing with the constant raiding of the Third Succession War, but left the Capellans unable to respond when multiple planets were hit at the same time as Hanse Davion brought the entirety of his army to bear. Coupled with overwhelming force and an infiltrated command structure, the Capellans were overrun.

Chancellor Liao also had to deal with a high-ranking traitor. Pavel Ridzik, Maximilian's chief military adviser decided to seize power for himself. The Tikonov native returned to his homeworld and announced that he was forming his own nation, the Tikonov Free Republic. The Republic signed an independent alliance with House Davion and attacked the Free Worlds League. In retribution, Chancellor Liao had Ridzik assassinated. Ardan Sortek, who had been in the Republic as an adviser, took temporary control of the Republic. After the end of the war, the Tikonov Free Republic voted to join the Federated Suns in 3031.

The truce that Hanse Davion had struck with Candace Liao paid off. Amid a romance with Candace, Justin Xiang Allard outed himself as a FedSuns agent to her and returned to FedSuns space with her. She brought the St. Ives Commonality with her and formed her own independent nation, the St. Ives Compact. This decision left her younger sister Romano as the heir-apparent to the Celestial Throne.

Operation: Rat

Operation Ambush + Rispote

ComStar

ComStar also took an interest in the course of the war. The supposedly neutral power desired smaller, more fragmented nation that would be easier to manipulate, but the 4th War seemed to promise a mighty Federated Commonwealth. ComStar decided to slow the AFFS' progress by imposing a communications interdiction. They faked an AFFS attack on the HPG on Sarna and used the "incident" as the excuse they needed. Unbeknownst to ComStar, Hanse Davion had changed the units he used to assault Sarna at the last minute, alerting him to ComStar's duplicity. Despite that, Hanse could not afford to openly challenge ComStar, so he made no public statement about it. The interdiction effectively stopped all interplanetary communication within the Federated Suns, as well as any communication in or out. Hanse still had another trick up his sleeve. The New Avalon Institute of Science had recently duplicated the ability to send communications between worlds with their fax machines, but they were much slower than what ComStar could manage. These so-called "black boxes" were pressed into service, but Hanse found it increasingly difficult to coordinate his military.

ComStar showed their perfidy once more towards the end of the war. In order to set back the technological progress of the Successor States, ComStar executed a raid on the New Avalon Institute of Science. They disguised themselves as the Death Commandos, the elite commandos of the Capellan Confederation and personal bodyguards of Chancellor Liao. During the battle, Prince Hanse Davion took to the field himself in his BattleMaster. The attack did only superficial damage to the university, but did great damage to ComStar in Hanse Davion's eyes. His spies in the Capellan Confederation later reported to him that the Death Commandos were on the planet Kathil during the time of the raid, so there was no way they could have pulled it off. Coupled with the knowledge of the supposed HPG destruction on Sarna, Hanse came to the only logical conclusion.

The Combine Front

In order to find the forces for his massive assault on the Capellan Confederation, Hanse Davion had to strip away large quantities of troops from the border with the Draconis Combine. Far from leaving himself open to attack, Hanse contracted the mercenary unit Wolf's Dragoons to defend his border. Jaime Wolf, the commander of the Dragoons, and Coordinator Takashi Kurita held a deep personal dislike of each other, so Jaime was able to goad Coordinator Kurita into throwing everything he could spare at his Dragoons.

By the end of the war, Wolf's Dragoons had been reduced from over five regiments to one reinforced regiment. In gratitude, Hanse Davion granted Jaime Wolf and his Dragoons the conquered planet of Outreach in perpetuity.

Wolfs Dragoons

Combine Front

Lyran Commonwealth

The Combine Front (Operation Gotterdammerung)

Goals:

• to challenge as many mech regiments as possible
• to cover the rear of the Fedsun => DCMS to busy for a two front wars

Operation Götterdammerung

Operation Holdur

DCMS conterattacks

Follow Up Invasion

The Lyrans had many things going for them. They had the Rasalhague rebels fomenting insurrection and providing them with intelligence. They had Takashi Kurita's distraction with Wolf's Dragoons. They used these advantages to push the Draconis Combine back along a very broad front. They took a number of traditionally Rasalhagian worlds from the Combine, though their successes did not match what the Federated Suns managed to achieve against the Capellans.

Lyran military doctrine was significantly different than that of the Armed Forces of the Federated Suns. Whereas the AFFS executed several different "waves," effectively leapfrogging each other, the Lyrans used their wall of assault 'Mechs and pushed into the Draconis Combine on a very broad front. This was not a tactic that had served the Lyrans well in the past, but circumstances conspired to make it a feasible strategy for the 4th War.

The Lyran offensive was stalled when the Combine struck back and scored a couple of worlds that put them within one jump of Skye, a regional capital. Unwilling to continue pressing forward, but unable to reclaim their lost worlds, the Lyran assault ground to a halt.

The League Front

While content to watch the other four Successor States "knock each other dizzy," Captain-General Janos Marik was convinced by his allies to launch some attack to ease pressure on them. Thus Operation Dagger was born. Not a broad offensive, the operation called for a series of raids and heavy probes. The 5th Regulan Hussars and 25th Marik Militia hit Wyatt, defended by the 11th Lyran Guards and 17th Arcturan Guards. Both Lyran regiments withdrew after the attack began. Smithson's Chinese Bandits hit Milton, and the 30th Marik Militia hit Phecda. On Poulsbo the 6th Orloff Grenadiers forced the 1st Knights of St. Cameron off planet. Timbiqui and Launam were also taken. Operation Dagger bogged down upon Janos Marik recieving word that Andurien forces, claiming terrorists attacks by Capellans, began assaults on Capellan worlds.

Free Worlds League

Hitherto relatively unscathed in the conflict, the Free Worlds League was surprised to find itself the target of an invasion by the newly created Tikonov Free Republic. Five Republican mech regiments supported by 44 conventional regiments invaded the worlds of Talitha, Van Diemen IV, Procyon, and Wasat. On Procyon the 2nd Sirian Lancers, outnumbered two-to-one, held on until their commander was killed and then was forced to quit the planet. On Wasat the 15th Marik Militia fought until their commander was captured, and the unit was allowed to ransom their officers and withdraw. On Talitha and Van Diemen IV only militia remained, and these were taken by the Free Tikonov forces quickly.

The Tikonov offense stunned the League leadership, who had been in trade negotiations with Pavel Ridzik's government right up until the attack. The Lyran leadership took advantage of the lull, launched an assault on Callison with Lyran officers commanding the mercenary Hsien Hotheads. Catching the Marik Guard half in transports, the Hotheads dealt the unit a number of startling defeats and reversals. Eventually the Lyran commander offered to let the Marik Guard retreat in exchange for Callison and spare parts, which the Guard, unable to resist, accepted.

At the same time, the LCAF had begun massive communications traffic and JumpShip movement to lead the FWLM into believing a new offensive had begun. Janos Marik, with trouble on all fronts, ordered a strategic withdrawl from eight worlds: Marcus, Zosma, Denebola, Castor, Devil's Rock, Oliver, Alula Australis, and Graham IV. At the same time the captured Lyran worlds of Milton, Phecda, Wyatt, Poulsbo, Timbiqui, and Launam were withdrawn from. What Janos Marik did not know was that the Lyran movements at the time were a bluff, and Pavel Ridzik's recent death had meant an end to the Tikonov invasion.

Operation: Dagger

Goals

• to probe the LCAF defense readiness
• secure planets when possible

Planet:Wyatt

Attackers:5th Regulan Hussars + 25th Marik Militia

Defender:11th Lyran Guards

Outcome:The fight was fierce but the Guards retreat after deliver some damage during space battle.

Planet:Milton

Attackers:Smithson's Chinese Bandits

Defender:conventional forces

Outcome:Captured by the FWLM

Planet:Phecda

Attackers:30th Marik Militia

Defender:conventional forces

Outcome:Captured by the FWLM

Planet:Poulsbo

Attackers:6th Orloff Grenadiers

Defender:Knights of St. Cameron, 1st regiment

Outcome:The green merc unit surrender after a short series of skirmishes with the experienced Marik unit.

Timbiqui and Launam was also secured

Tikonov Free Republic operations

Lord Ridzik enjoyed the prestige to get handle as a noble ruler of an independent state. With the support of the newly formed FCAF he began to reorganize his forces and to assault FWL world near Terra.

1st Republican

=>36 mechs of the former 1st Ariana Fusiliers

=>1st Battalion Lothar's Fusiliers

=>2nd Battalion Lothar's Fusiliers

2nd Republican

=>Stapelton's Ironhand (1st Battalion)

=>Trimaldi's Secutors (2nd Battalion)

=>Kerrs Intruder's (3rd Battalion)

3rd Republican

=>Justine's Grenadiers (1st Battalion)

=>Justine's Grenadiers (2nd Battalion)

=>4th Conferderation Reserve Cavalry (2nd Battalion)

4th Republican

Planet:Talitha

Attackers:4th Republican

Defender:militia

Outcome:The 3 mech battalion and the 3 supporting conventional regiments have no difficults to defeat the defending militia.

Planet:Van Diemen IV

Attackers:5th Republican

Defender:conventional forces

Outcome:The green mechwarrior make short work with the defending 4 frontline tank units.

Planet:Procyone

Attackers:1st Republican + 2nd Republican

Defender:2nd Sirian Lancers

Outcome:The defending FWL unit give its best to defend the important bridges, but were wiped out through a flanking manuveur of the 2nd Republican. The Unit aboned the planet after repeated defeats.

Planet:Wasat

Attackers:3rd Republican

Defender:15th Marik Militia

Outcome:Both forces were equal in numbers. The coordination between the defending unit were bad. This weakness were the change for the invading 3rd Republican to secure the planet for Lord Ridzik.

Pavel Radzik was assasinated by a women during the night at sleep. Ardan Sortek get the controll over the Republic

Lyran Offensive

Planet:Callison

Attackers:Hsien Hotheads

Defender:Marik Guard

Outcome:The Marik Guards were in the preparation to leave the planet and were surprised by the invading mercenaries. The hotheads deliver more damage than they take. The CO of the Guards surrender and leave the planets to the LCAF.

Aftermath

The Federated Suns conquered roughly a third of the Capellan Confederation, while two commonalities seceded from the realm. While the Tikonov Free Republic joined the Federated Suns, the St. Ives Compact continued to remain politically independent, though dependent on AFFS military aid to avoid being conquered by the Capellan Confederation. The conquered worlds were incorporated into the Federated Commonwealth as the Sarna March.

Maximilian Liao went stark-raving mad. His younger daughter, Romano Liao, ran the nation until his suicide. With her military shattered, and much of her nation's industry under foreign control, Romano struggled to ensure the Capellan Confederation's survival. It would be decades before the Capellan Confederation would be a threat once more.

ComStar and the Federated Suns negotiated a settlement to restore communications to the Suns that included stationing ComGuard troops within FedSuns space to protect their HPGs from further attack. Secretly, ComStar's intelligence agency, ROM, and MIIO fought a shadow war for years.

When the Lyrans failed to retake every Rasalhague world, they declared that they could not give the Rasalhagians their independence. Not content with that, the Rasalhagians grumbled until ComStar negotiated a settlement with the Draconis Combine that allowed for Rasalhagian independence. Shamed by the Draconis Combine's willingness to grant the Rasalhagians independence, the Lyran Commonwealth had no choice but to cede their conquered worlds to the new Free Rasalhague Republic.

Bibliography

• 20 Year Update