Second Escar-Varunan War

Escar-Varunan War
	Part of Endwars
	; Clockwise from top left: Yamataian troops during the Battle of Yenokaji, Chiseian mortar crew resting during the Battle of Chūkan Island, Chiseian Gwaiyū captured by Yamatai following the Siege of Masuka, Arshavati machine gun team in the Nanyōkuni Campaign, the Yamataian carrier Yūkaku hit by Chanhanese aircraft in the Battle of the Sea of Yashima, the signing of the Treaty of Hai Fuong
Date	1937 - 1945
Location	Escar, Varunan Ocean, Crosswind Sea
Result	Allied and Arshavati victory Liberation of the New Territories; Control of Wodao and Huangwan returns to Chanha; Allied occupation of Hinomoto; Chisei takes control of Kita Imoshima; Partition of Kuiju and Nanyōkuni; Beginning of the Escaric Divide;
Belligerents
Commanders and leaders
Strength
Casualties and losses

The Second Escar-Varunan War, also known as the Second Escaric War, was the theatre of the Endwars that was fought in Escar, the Varunan Ocean and the Crosswind Sea. It was fought over a vast area that included most regions of Escar, parts of Antar, and western Osova.

Following the First Escar-Varunan War in 1923, parts of Chisei had been occupied by Imperialist Yamatai. Yamatai also occupied the Chanhanese islands of Huangwan and Wodao since the First Shao-Yamataian War in 1868. By the 1930s, the Chiseian leadership conspired to retake the Yamatai-occupied regions through military force in a large-scale plan known as the Operation Hiyari. Following the 1935 Escaric economic crisis in Yamatai, the plan was set for an early 1937 invasion of the Yamataian occupied regions, in conjunction with a simultaneous attack on Yamatai's colonial possessions in the Crosswind Sea to divide the Yamataian forces. The plans for Operation Hiyari were discovered by the Yamataians in mid-1936, but little was done to prepare for it due to complacency.

Following some delays that pushed the operation date back, Chiseian forces invaded the Yamataian New Territories on 7 July 1937 with the Battle of Ryokawa, simultaneously commencing an attack on Yamataian Kita Imoshima in the Crosswind. Throughout 1937, Chisei made steady progress in the New Territories, pushing the Yamataian forces into coastal pockets and a perimeter surrounding Wanshu. In late 1937, Yamatai and Kuiju formed the Niihama Pact with the agreement that Kuiju would aid Yamatai in attacking Chisei in return for Yamatai aiding Kuiju in a war against Arshavat. Kuiju invaded Chisei from the east in February 1938, forcing Chisei to split their forces between two fronts. Yamatai then launched Operation Ōka, a general counterattack into Chisei including multiple amphibious invasions on the Chiseian northern coast. Kuiju suddenly invaded Arshavat in 1939 together with Yamatai, which invaded northwards from Yamataian Nanyōkuni, with the Pact nations rapidly pushing deep into Arshavati territory.

By 1940, Yamataian forces in Chisei had been overextended, though were able to push through Chiseian lines and briefly assault Eito. Concerned with the outcome of a Chiseian defeat, and observing the weakened Yamataian rear position, in April 1940 neutral Chanha allied itself with Chisei and joined the war. Shenxian forces pushing into Yamataian-held Chisei from the south ouflanked the Yamataian forces, forcing them to retreat from central Chisei. At the same time, Chanha invaded and reclaimed the Yamatai-occupied islands off its coast. Now having to contend with the navy of Chanha, by 1941 the Yamatai Imperial Navy had lost the naval supremacy it held since 1938, making it difficult for Yamatai to reinforce the Crosswind and Arshavati theatres. Throughout 1941, the Pact forces were pushed back on all fronts, with Arshavat reclaiming most of its territory by the end of the year, and Yamatai losing control of Kita Imoshima in February 1942. Kuiju began losing its two-front war, being pushed out of Chisei by mid-1942.

In Chisei, Yamataian forces were pushed to the north-western portion of Chisei by mid-1942 after the Third Battle of Wanshu, while in the Crosswind region Arshavat began invading Yamataian Nanyōkuni at around the same time. Following the loss in the Battle of Amagishi in April 1943, as well as the sudden Invasion of Daifujima by Yeongseon, which joined the Allies in mid 1943, Yamatai was forced to retreat from the mainland, and subsequently the Escaric Allies launched an invasion of Hinomoto. Lengthy and extremely difficult fighting began on Hinomoto, with Yamataian forces losing control over much of the island by early 1944, reduced to a pocket in the south-west and the Yuzu peninsula. The sudden death of Yamataian leader Tsukiyama Tomoko resulted in turmoil at the highest levels of the Yamataian government, ultimately resulting in one faction achieving the Empress Kiyono's approval to sign a ceasefire with the Allies. On 15 July 1944, the Oyashima Armistice was signed on the Yamataian battleship Oyashima, which had secretly been sent to Wanshu under a white flag, ending the fighting between Yamatai and the Escaric Allies. However, Kuiju was not a party to this secret treaty between Yamatai and the Escaric Allies, and Yamatai still remained at war with Arshavat on the Songese front.

Fighting continued in 1944 in Yamataian Nanyōkuni and in central Escar. By mid-1944 in central Escar Kuijuan territory had been invaded by Arshavat, which began to push westwards at a steady pace. while Chisei began to invade Kuiju from the west in Operation Soraoka, which had not been a party to the ceasefire. In the interest of containing Arshavati expansion and the spread of communism, the Escaric Allies and Yamatai cooperated to attempt to push Arshavat back in Nanyōkuni. As open war between Arschavat and the Escaric Allies threatened to break out as the Chiseian and Arshavati frontlines gradually moved closer to each other, and on 17 January 1945 the Treaty of Haiphong was signed between both parties, enacting a ceasefire and partitioning both Kuiju and Nanyōkuni between Arshavati and Allied-controlled areas. The Treaty of Haiphong is considered the end of the Second Escar-Varunan War, though the official state of war between Yamatai and the Allies was only concluded with the Treaty of Eito in 1949. Yamatai and Arshavat never signed an official peace treaty.

Following the war, the region experienced a major upheaval. The direct devastation of Chisei, and the overbearing wartime strain on Yamatai and total loss of its overseas territories, left both nations in poor states. In the coming decades, Chisei's colonial empire would quickly fall apart to revolutions and independence movements, while Yamatai's former colonies and Allied-occupied Hinomoto were rapidly granted independence by the Allies in a bid to build a larger anti-communist sphere opposing Arshavat, though Nanyōkuni would quickly succumb to full communist takeover in the 1950s. The rivalry between the Western Escaric states and Arshavat and the communist sphere would intensify over the coming century into the Escaric Divide. With the drastic shift in the balance of power and the deaths of millions, huge societal and political changes occured throughout Escar. Over 30 million people were killed in the Second Escar-Varunan War, a large portion of which were civilians, due to combat actions or wartime effects such as famine.

Chronology

The start of the Second Escar-Varunan War is generally held to be 7 July 1937, beginning with the Battle of Ryokawa where open warfare between Chisei and Yamatai commenced. However, some consider the war to be a continuation of the First Escar-Varunan War, which itself began in 1918.

The exact end date for the war is more controversial, with three main schools of thought. It is most widely accepted that the war ended with the Treaty of Haiphong on 17 January 1945, when all Yamataian forces stopped fighting in any theatre, and conflict in Escar ceased entirely. However, certain groups including Yamataian scholars and the Yamataian government consider the end of the war to be the Oyashima Armistice on 15 June 1944, with the subsequent conflict against Arshavat known as the Nanyōkuni post-war crisis. Some also consider the true end of the war to be the peace treaty between Yamatai and the Escaric Allies, as well as Arshavat, signed at the Treaty of Eito in 1949.

Background

Kayakoism and Imperialist Yamatai

Yamatai transformed from a theocracy to a partial democracy with the Bamboo Revolution in 1802, with the ousting of the Kamamori Shrine from Yamataian governmental affairs and the installation of the Empress as a true absolute ruler. Beginning with the Sakura Revolution in 1860, under Empress Kayako Yamatai began adopting a fascist, ultranationalist ideology known as Kayakoism. The indoctrination of the state in Kayakoism was highly successful, and involved mass propaganda, education system reforms, and even the creation of a government-approved sect of Michi, the Imperial Shrine. Kayakoism espoused that the Yamataian nation was culturally and morally superior to others by virtue of their difficult rise to power, due to the lack of natural resources on the Yashiman archipelago. Racialist undertones carried Pan-Yashiman ideas necessitating the unification of Yamatai and Chisei as well as the domination of all of Escar, in order to combat a great external threat. This threat varied between Arshavat, Ordans, or communism in general, though following the 1935 Pact-Hyspania Friendship Agreement anti-Ordanism was toned down.

As the nation transitioned further into a totalitarian absolute monarchy through the close of the 19th century, Kayako's successor Hinata allowed a succession of military leaders to be elected to Prime Minister. With the nation coming under the control of militarists and the military-industrial complex, a heavy focus on the military resulted in skyrocketing military spending and the development and adoption of various new tools of war. By the start of the war in 1937, Yamatai had the largest standing army in Escar, and the second largest naval fleet in terms of gross tonnage. Conscription was used as both a method of increasing military manpower as well as indoctrinating youths and colonial subjects.

By the start of the war, Yamatai had strong colonial holdings in the Crosswind region, Nanyōkuni and Kita-Imoshima. Nanyōkuni and Kita-Imoshima provided Yamatai with resources to fuel its war machine, with valuable supply lines of oil, rubber and metals enabling Yamatai to develop its military to a great extent.

First Escar-Varunan War

The First-Escar Varunan War, fought between Chisei and Yamatai from 1918 to 1923, caused major upheavals in the regional order. Since the mid-19th century, Chisei and Yamatai had been competing for colonies in Valeya. Itself rooted in a chain of events that stretched to the mid-1800s, the First Escar-Varunan War was a result of the failure of Chisei to keep Yamataian expansionism and imperial power in check through soft means. Spiralling out of the proxy war between both colonial empires in the Anglian Wars, the conflict ultimately resulted in the loss of all Valeyan colonies for both nations, forcing them to focus on their Crosswind Sea colonies. Most critically, Yamatai managed to invade the Chiseian mainland in conjunction with collaborationists, also managing to carry out several decisive victories against the numerically and technologically superior Chiseian military. Succesfully concealing a poor strategic situation with a series of sudden decisive strikes, the Yamataian military was able to convince the Chiseian government at the time to surrender, forming an occupation zone.

Resented by the Chiseian government and most of the public, the Yamataian New Territories came under attack by terrorist and resistance groups, and clashes between border troops happened frequently. The most high-profile incident before the war occurred in 1936, when a Chiseian tank battalion attacked and defeated Yamataian border guards before withdrawing. A secret plan to invade the occupied region was created by the Chiseian military, though unbeknownst to Chiseian high command Yamataian spies had actually managed to obtain critical information regarding the plan.

Conciliar Government

Civilian government of Chisei toppled in 1924 (New Year Rebellion), replaced by the 'Council of Elders', a military junta dominated by the Navy
Promotion of revanchism and military build up
Colonial Military Districts, shipbuilding in Imoshima
Internal conflicts and purges

1935 Escaric economic crisis

Yamatai's victory in the First Escar-Varunan War led to the perception that Yamatai would be the new great Escaric power of the 20th century, fuelling investment and spending. The Yamataian government funded vast public projects in the home islands and in their colonies, while also handing out loans to allied nations such as Kuiju, Hunggwok and Ahrenrok. Rampant military spending due to an unchecked military-industrial complex resulted in the defence budget of Yamatai reaching astronomical heights of over 25% in 1934. As Yamatai's home islands received a surge of income, the property market also climbed dramatically. Mass speculation resulted in major overvaluation of Yamataian property, and in 1933 the Suiyobi Imperial Palace in Heian was reportedly worth over 852 trillion En (value adjusted for inflation as of 2019).

By 1935, investment in Yamatai and government spending had reached immense heights, with the government also continuously printing money to fund public works. A brief shock occurred in January 1935 when the stock of Nishi-Niihama Steel, a major steel producer that had been supplying steel for the new national Niikarasuji high-speed rail lines, gradually rose before crashing, resulting in a brief market panic that was only alleviated due to the intervention of Sangyo Chuo Bank. However, it became clear by July that the government-led economic expansion was unsustainable, and that the vast loans extended the regional allies were probably never returning.

By mid-July, the Niihama Stock Exchange was reporting a general market decline. On 28th July, 1935, a date which would become popularly known as Kuro-Nichiyobi, several thousand investors swarmed the Niihama Stock Exchange and attempted to get rid of their stocks. The vast amount of sell orders and the rapid spread of panic throughout the economic community resulted in a massive market crash in that day. Telephone lines and telegraphs were clogged and were unable to cope. This information vacuum only led to more fear and panic, and on the 30th of July the Imperial Army was deployed to the city to restore order, a move that only served to spread even more terror across the regional and global economic institutions. Over the next months, the Yamataian economic bubble burst devastatingly, ruining hundreds of businesses and banks.

The rise of militarism

At the same time, the mass military spending on both sides resulted in a situation where post-crash Escar would inevitably have gone to war.

Chiseian preparations

Operation Hiyari had been under development for some time, with a secret mobilisation within Chisei.

In mid-1936, Yamatai attained information about Operation Hiyari following the Nakanogō Incident. Yamataian strategists developed a major defensive build-up and counterattack operations against this Chiseian attack, though the general mood in Heian was that the Chiseians were unable to mount such a bold attack against superior Yamataian troops and equipment. The Yamataian forces in Chisei under Field Marshal Maeda Yumeno were readied for a winter offensive in January 1937, as per the captured Chiseian plans.

However, when the Chiseian attack was delayed to mid-1937, the Yamataian leadership erroneously believed that Chisei had backed down from the confrontation. Complacency in the upper levels of the Yamataian military government led them to ignore concerns raised by General Inaba Youji and Lieutenant-General Yamagishi Kageaki, who predicted that Chiseian forces were simply delayed, and that a major attack was still incoming. Critically, in May 1937 the Governor-General of Chisei, Field Marshal Kishimoto Ichirō, issued orders to several units of the Imperial Army of Chisei to return to public construction work on the under-construction Tafune Bridging project. This heavily weakened the Yamataian military's ability to defend the territory.

Course of the War

Chiseian offensive

On 7 June 1938, Chisei launched Operation Hiyari, a complex multi-theatre attack across the Yamataian Empire, with the aim of unbalancing Yamatai enough to reclaim the New Territories. The Battle of Ryokawa was the first battle of the war, with a surprise attack beginning roughly fifteen minutes after an official declaration of war was wired to the Yamataian government at exactly 3 AM. Simultaneously, Chisei launched an attack on the crucial Yamataian naval base at Shinjuhama in Yamataian Kita Imoshima, followed by a strategic bombing campaign over Kita Imoshima.

Due to the complacency in the Yamataian military leadership in Chisei, the Yamataian response was slow and Chiseian forces advanced deep into the occupied territories within the first weeks of the war. However, tenacious resistance by Yamataian forces slowed the offensive in Chisei to a crawl by mid-July. Despite gaining momentum, the Yamataian forces were still being pushed back, particularly in the area around Wanshu. On July 15th, the 6th Army under Lieutenant-General Yamagishi Kageaki launched a counteroffensive to the north-west, seizing control of Amagishi and the surrounding areas despite losing the area around Oarai as Chiseian forces battled to the coast.

In Kita Imoshima, Chiseian troops and naval forces from the Minami Imoshima and Penemosir colonies carried out an amphibious invasion of the Yamataian colony. The Yamataian Army forces in Kita Imoshima under the overall command of Field Marshal Kurosaki Tadashi were much better prepared for an invasion attempt than those in the New Territories, and Chiseian troops suffered heavy casualties. A fierce aerial battle for air superiority over the whole region ensued. Though a substantial part of the Yamatai Imperial Navy's Crosswind Sea Fleet had been heavily damaged and sunk in the attack at Shinjuhama, over half of the Crosswind Sea Fleet was stationed in Nanyōkuni.

Yamatai's overall naval commander in the Crosswind region, Fleet Admiral Kayano Riai, attempted to cut off the Chiseian landings on Kita Imoshima in a hasty counterattack, dispatching the battleship Warusawa, the heavy cruiser Hirose, and escorting destroyers from Nha Trang in Nanyōkuni. However, this force was sunk en-route by Chiseian land-based bombers flying out of Masuka.

A new series of alliance talks between Yamatai and the Kingdom of Kuiju began in secret from July 18th, as the Chiseian forces continued to make steady advances in Kita Imoshima and slow progress on the mainland. Finally, on the 1st of August 1938, shortly after the Royal Army entered the outskirts of Kaniba, only a few kilometers from Wanshu, the Niihama Pact was formed between Yamatai and Kuiju. Kuiju pledged to assist Yamatai by launching an invasion of Chisei, while Yamatai promised to assist Kuiju in a future invasion of Arshavat by attacking Arshavat from the south-east. Shojin, surrounded by Yamatai and itself facing the threat of invasion, broke its traditional neutrality and agreed to join the Pact on the 23rd, becoming a Yamataian client state and a major naval and air base for the Imperial Navy.

Pact counterattack

Chiseian evacuation from West Kitahashi following Operation Oka.

The First Battle of Wanshu began on the 10th of August 1938, accompanied by a specially authorised bombing campaign that severely damaged much of the city's port facilities. The Chiseian 3rd Army approached the city from the north, while the 6th Army moved in from the direction of Tsujimura. Despite a significant local force disadvantage for the Yamataian defenders, the Chiseian assault quickly began to lose steam. Poor weather conditions grounded most of the aircraft set aside to support the capture of the city after the 4th day of the battle, and a local counterattack by Major-General Arai Toshiyuki's 14th Army prevented the Chiseians from enveloping the city to the south as planned. By the 26th, the Chiseian assault on Wanshu had been decisively defeated, and only 4 days later, the Kuijuan Royal Army invaded Chisei from the east. Swiftly capturing Shindo and Aoyama, as well as the Saramosiri island of Kuye, the Kuijuan attack took Chisei entirely by surprise and has recently come to be seen by historians as one of the most decisive events of the war. Within days of the invasion, the Royal Army moved from the offensive to the defensive.

What followed was a large scale Pact counteroffensive across the mainland theatre. The 3rd Army, thrown off balance by the disaster in Wanshu, was encircled by determined counterattacks from fast-moving Yamataian armoured troops, and quickly surrendered, yielding some 60,000 prisoners. The 6th army meanwhile conducted a disorderly fighting retreat across the Shirakawa-Gyōsho border, ultimately being driven down to the Kanayachi.

Operation Oka, a massive Yamataian naval invasion of Chiseian Kitahashi, began in September, with landings at Takemura, Hakui, Akamachi and Katsuura between the 2nd and 8th. It was the largest naval invasion in history up to that point, though it would later be outdone by the Allied invasion of Hinomoto further into the war. The Battle of Kitahashi began as the Royal Navy attempted to disrupt the landings, but it was ultimately a defeat for the Chiseian admiralty, and the Yamataian marines successfully opened up a new front in Chisei's north. The 9th Route Army in western Kitahashi quickly found itself stranded between the beachheads to the north and Yamataian-occupied Amagishi to the south. By the end of the month, the Chiseian naval focus shifted from blockading the beachhead to mass evacuation, and the Navy succeeded in evacuating over 310,000 troops from the Kitahashi pocket against fierce Imperial opposition. Nevertheless, over 60,000 were taken prisoner, along with almost all of their resources and equipment.

In November 1938, Yamatai finally invaded and occupied the Masukan islands, securing the safe passage of its naval forces through the Crosswind and ending the Siege of Masuka. With its flank secured, the Imperial Navy moved to swiftly reinforce the front at Kita Imoshima in April, successfully preventing the fall of Rukmi, then under assault from the Royal Navy and the Gwaiyūgun. The battle for the colonies began to intensify, with neither the Royal Air Force nor the Empire fully securing the skies, and both making full use of their large colonial armies.

By late November, a new frontline had been drawn along the Shirakawan Great Lakes, as the scattered forces of the Royal Army regrouped and consolidated their defensive positions on the Yenokaji Line, a prewar line of heavy fortifications. Yamataian mobile forces found themselves increasingly bogged down by the swampy, heavily forested terrain of the lakelands, and the rugged mountains of Yazunai Province. In the north, the southward advances of the Yamataian marines were stopped at Kitaichi, as the hastily deployed landing forces lost their initial advantages of surprise and momentum. The Kuijuan advance in Uraan continued largely unimpeded, until the Kingdom's forces finally met with a new Chiseian defensive line on February 4th, consisting of hardened troops from the Yamataian front, at the Battle of Khuurdan Gol. The battle was a rout for Kuiju, and almost immediately after the Royal Army launched a counterattack, pushing the front up the valley to Ulaanarslan. The Kuijuan positions to the north however held firm, with an attempted landing of the Royal Marine Corps on Kuye successfully repelled and the ports of Toride, Shingu and Sougen falling to Kuiju in rapid succession.

The mainland front remained largely stagnant for several months, as both sides recovered from heavy casualties in the opening months of the war and winter set in. The Chiseians began to reinforce the Yenokaji line with additional fortifications, while the Imperial Army reorganized its forces and attempted several probing offensives across the front.

In April the Imperial Army adopted a new strategy, focusing its forces on the major strongpoints of the Chiseian defensive line at Yenokaji and Kanayachi. Though heavily fortified and mountainous, Yenokaji and the surrounding region were the heart of the railway system that maintained the Royal Army's supply lines along the lakeland front.

Expansion of the war

On May 11th, the battles of Yenokaji and the Kanayachi began in earnest as the Imperial Army Group Center (commanded by General Kishitani Shūgo) launched a general offensive, known as Operation Baika, to break the Yenokaji line, with Army Group South participating in the offensive against Kanayachi and Army Group North performing a simultaneous push along the northern coast. Over 71% of Imperial Army forces on the mainland were concentrated in central Shirakawa, along over 12,000 tanks and an array of conventional and siege artillery, such as the Imperial Army ReHo-44 Orochi railway gun. Mustard, chlorine and phosgene gas were used to saturate Chiseian defensive positions, the first use of poison gas in the war thus far. The use of airpower was extremely decisive - 82% of mainland air forces were assigned to support the offensive, and Yamataian dive and fighter bombers proved more capable than the heavy tank corps or siege artillery at breaking fortified positions and Chiseian armoured counter-pushes.

Despite this, Chiseian resistance held firm for over two months. A Royal Army counteroffensive at Shusugawara threatened to break the siege on Yenokaji entirely, as it targetted Army Group Center's weak northern flank, but the seizure of Sagashiru by Army Group North in early June forced the Royal Army to give up the push. Casualties were immense on both sides; over 490,000 for Yamatai and 570,000 for Chisei, making Yenokaji the bloodiest battle in human history. Kanayachi finally fell on June 23rd, with Army Group South achieving breakthroughs both east and west of Lake Amaba, while the 6th Army of Army Group Center broke through in northern Yazunai province, cutting off the main rail line between Enokaji and the northern lakelands. Faced with encirclement, the Chiseian 3rd Route Army was forced to cede the lakes, and retreated into Kumagahara. On July 8th, the Imperial Army finally advanced across the front up to Kumagahara, and completely encircled Yenokaji, with Army Group South now on the doorstep of Eito. Under heavy bombardment, the Chiseian 3rd and 7th Armies in the Yenokaji attempted a breakout, and despite the efforts of the Yamataians, succeeded, reaching the Oshirakawa river on July 14th and joining the hastily organised new defensive line around the capital.

Now suddenly at risk of losing its capital, the Chiseian government began to evacuate several of its key ministries and personnel north, to Kunayachi. However, the Grand Queen herself and the Council of Elders remained, under the order of Gima Maho herself, as she believed the complete retreat of the government would result in a general collapse and rout of the entire Royal Army. Nonetheless, plans were drawn up to evacuate the government to Saramosir. On July 17th, the Council issued the Eito Edicts, calling upon the entire citizenry of Chisei to resist the Yamataian assault. The 5 million residents of Eito were conscripted into emergency labour battalions to prepare defensive positions, with over 600,000 also hastily armed to serve as militia, and all remaining city doctors and nurses taken into army medical service.

Overstretched and facing a crisis of supply and manpower, the Imperial Army paused its advance at the Oshirakawa, and focused on consolidating its gains and supporting Army Group North. While the Yamataians waited for reserves and supply, the Chiseians rapidly assembled their defensive lines. Crucially, Royal Army intelligence was able to discover evidence of Kuijuan preparations for an invasion of Arshavat, and as a consequence several armies consisting of over 150,000 men were secretly withdrawn from Uraan to reinforce Eito. In the north, the Royal Army executed an organised retreat to the Minohama Line, freeing up another 50,000 troops. By August, over a million Chiseian personnel had been assembled in the capital region.

On August 13th 1939, Kuiju and Yamatai invaded Arshavat, which was at that time embroiled in the Endwar against Zusea and the Imperial Coalition. The Kuijuan forces attacked from the border, with the greatest concentration of forces along the coastal plain, while Yamatai invaded northwards from Yamataian Nanyōkuni. The primary targets of the surprise offensive were the Arshavati Tsahar and Erkin Republics, with the ultimate goal of ending the campaign on the ???-??? line, from the Ajam to the Mirzani mountains, by late 1940. Jirhalang's objectives were to destroy Arshavat as a military power, exterminate Escaric collectivism, recover Kuijuan territory lost in the Arshavati Civil War, prevent the destruction of Zusea by Arshavat and its allies, and guarantee access to the strategic resources needed to defeat Chisei. In particular, the Kuijuan decision to invade was greatly motivated by rapidly declining reserves of oil and steel. Yamatai contributed a minority (24%) of troops to the Eastern Front in 1939, and the primary Yamataian objectives were securing its colonial frontiers and maintaining Kuiju's participation in the Niihama Pact. With the lack of airbases and other infrastructure in Nanyōkuni at the time, Yamataian forces in the region had only minor offensive capability.

Nonetheless, with over 70% of Arshavati forces deployed in the far east, the Kuijuan armoured forces made rapid advances into Arshavati Tsaharia in the first months of the war, inflicting immense losses in both personnel and materiel, while the Yamataians directly threatened the Arshavati industrial heartland, which had up to then been largely untouched by the war with Zusea. These advances would eventually cease in late October, as the north Escaric winter began to take hold and major offensive operations became impossible.

Pact offensive stalls

1940 - 1942

Chanha joins the war, Arshavat halts the Pact invasion
Chanha reclaims those islands
It is still a very hard fight on Chisei due to Yam having a fuckton of troops

Pact on the retreat

1942 - 1943

Yamatai pushed to north-west Chisei
Nanyōkuni invaded
Yamatai kicked out of Sarethan
Daifujima unsuccessfully invaded by Yeongseon (late '43)

Pact collapse and Allied ceasefire with Yamatai

1943 - 1944

Yamatai pushed off mainland completely
Hinomoto invaded
Imoshima lost completely
Masuka lost to Allies
Nanyōkuni half-occupied by Arshavat
Oyashima Armistice

Defeat of Kuiju

1944 - 1945

Chisei invades Kuiju proper in Operation Soraoka
Early in '45, Kuiju's capital fell.
Arshavat captures Thudo in Masuka.
Treaty of Haiphong partitioned Nanyōkuni and Kuiju between allied and Arshavati control.

Aftermath

Casualties

Allied

Arshavat

Niihama Pact