Trinacria Caput Mundi (Kingdom of Two Sicilies AAR)

[Bande Nere]

TY Alwyn, foreign allies might be useful, but they tend to have sticky hands... I will touch that subject in the next installment, for the moment the Republic stands alone!

Retribution. Part 2

Order of Battle, Battle of Roma, 1803

The renegade captain had not lied. The Fortress dominating Rome was scarcely defended, and though some Papal soldiers had left the fortress and attempted to engage the artillery, they had been immediately intercepted by Cacciatori and Red Shirts and had not lasted long.

Destruction of the fortress, Battle of Roma, 1803

After barely an hour of shelling, the fortress, and subsequently Roma, was under Republican control.

The Pope had left the Vatican once war had been declared, and by the time the Eternal City had fallen, he was already halfway to Liguria.As promised by Vavasso, the garrison in Roma had been quickly reinforced by reserve regiments and units of banditi and carabinieri. And Vavasso himself.

Foscolo, meanwhile, pushed through Lazio, Toscana and Umbria and a few months later had crossed the border into Spanish held Lombardia. The Spanish garrison of Milano was not particularly strong, as most of the Spanish army was needed in the Americas and it was assumed that the small Italian nations surrounding them would never risk endangering their alliances with the Spanish crown.

Unfortunately for them, the Sicilian Republic was now at war with Spain.

In the south, Sardinian admiral Vito Biasutti had been able to blockade Siracusa for a few months, only to be surrounded by the entire SRN fleet. He had 3 fourth ranks and a number of smaller vessels, some of which in less than favorable shape. The fleet he now faced had 4 gargantuan third rates, 2 fourth rates, and 2 smaller fifth rates.

Order of Battle, Battle of Siracusa, 1803

As the Sardinian sailors scrambled to their posts, admiral Biasutti was unable to give precise orders, his attention drown by the enemy fleet ominously splitting in 2 squadrons, the squadron leading the charge composed exclusively of the third rates, while the other was formed by the smaller ships. While the Sardinians were unable to form a line of battle, the two squadrons encircled them from both sides and started firing their cannons.

The Sardinian watched in dismay as 3 ships quickly surrendered to the enemy, and then his ship and remaining 5 others were blown to pieces by the cannons of the Sicilian third rates. He did not survive.

SRN admiral Giacomo Cristofori had lost a single fifth rate in the encounter.

In the Orient, all contact was lost with the fleet guarding the trading port in Borneo. While the nature of this disappearance was not immediately apparent, there was a strong suspicion that an enemy fleet might have intercepted and destroyed them.
If this mysterious enemy could be able to reach and blockade Bengal, the loss of revenue would be fatal at this moment in the war.

Luckily President Ottavio Cuda had been able to secure a number of new trading rights, and at this point Sicilian goods were being traded in the Countries of the Marathas, the Netherlands, Gran Colombia, Russia, Sweden, Quebec, France, the United States and throughout the Ottoman Empire.

The shrewd monopoly of 4 out of 5 trading posts in south eastern Africa had ensured that Ivory wouldn’t suffer a devaluation, and together with Bengal, was one of the main sources of income for the Republic.

The Sicilian Monopoly over Ivory

In 1804 Milano is under siege by the Sicilians and by 1805 is finally captured with little loss.

Since the fall of Roma, only a few raiders had crossed into Sicilian controlled territory to wreak havoc in Toscana, but the combined armies of the enemy have yet to move.

Genoese raiders

Shortly after capturing Milano, and as plans were being made for Genova, news of the sudden death of Vavasso, hero of the Berber War, reached Foscolo. He himself died just a few days later in his sleep, the cause of these sudden and apparently natural deaths unclear.

Other bad news would come from Gibraltar. Admiral Cristofori had tried to cross the strait with a number of merchant ships in an attempt to reopen the spice trade in Borneo, but 2 Spanish ships and the cannons from the nearby naval dockyards had blown to pieces 5 of its ships and had forced him to turn back to the ports of Algeria for repairs.

Battle of the Strait, 1805

In 1806 general Greco, who had since taken command of the Army, led the siege of Genova, but was forced to break it and quickly return to Milano as the Papal Army garrisoned in Liguria had crossed into Lombardia and was now in the process of capturing Milano for themselves.

Order of Battle, Battle of Milano, 1806

Luckily the siege would fail with the Papists leaving 3000 men on the ground, but the Republican Army had now lost more than 600 men of the regiments, and as they returned to Genova its 3000+ defenders launched a brutal assault with the help of whatever was left from the routed Papal army, almost wiping out the Sicilians. After hours of furious fighting they were finally able to rout the enemy back into their fortress, having killed most of them. But of the 2600 strong army that had taken Roma, only 500 now survived. Even the Sicilian general was killed when a desperate charge by the Genoese own general’s bodyguard had been able to catch him by surprise. Enraged by the loss of Greco, his bodyguard was able to avenge him swiftly, but the losses had been terrible. The earth burst with the blood of 5000 men from all sides, all lost in a single day.

Last charge of the Red Shirts

Domenico Garibaldi and his men, though decimated, had fought valiantly against regiments upon regiments, and had finally been able to rout them by engaging in brutal hand to hand. He was wounded and had to be sent back to Roma to recover, were his family was waiting for him.

Survivors of the Battle of Genova, 1806

The Genoese sued for peace immediately after the battle, even offering 18000 fiorini, probably their whole treasury. Sensing they would accept almost anything at that point, Ottavio Cuda shrewdly counteroffered requesting complete military access in the region, all the technological advances the Genoese had acquired to date, and those 18000 fiorini.

A treaty signed on the blood of many

The draconian counteroffer was heavily criticized, but eventually accepted. War seemed to be over for Genova, but at terrible cost. They had lost the Army, most of the Navy, and their treasury was completely broke.

This was to be the last treaty signed by President Ottavio Cuda, as new elections that same year would remove him and his cabinet for a new one.



A few notes:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

As you might imagine, the battles of Milan and Genoa were a complete mess and those are the only screens I was able to take, since I forgot to save the replay. Hopefully I will keep this in mind for my next AARs.
The battle of Trafalgar was a very unfortunate autoresolve and I couldn't come up with a better explanation for it...
I will eventually remember to disable the flags in battle, and the graphics will also improve from the current one. Promise!

[Kilo11]

I'm about halfway caught up now, and I'm having fun with it. I think some things could be cleaned up here and there, and some aspects of the storytelling could be improved, but the basics are solid, and the little details and tightening of things will come naturally the more you write! At any rate, seeing a new story unfold is awesome! And I've never played ETW (but always been interested), so this is super fun to join in on!

[Bande Nere]

Hey Kilo11! Thanks, its still somewhat of a work in progress, hope to get better as the story continues!

And you should definitely try Empire(modded), I suspect you would enjoy the Warpath campaign!

[Alwyn]

After decisive victories on land and sea, it sounds like the Battle of Genova was a bruising encounter for the Sicilian army.

It looks like the peace treaty with Genoa will provide a huge benefit to Sicily - in particular, to get so much technology. I wonder if Ottavio Cuda's draconian counter-offer will lead to resentment, and a risk of another war.

[Kilo11]

Yay. Now I'm all caught up, and I'm enjoying the story. It'll be cool to see how things develop further! Especially with this larger war in Europe seeming to be looming more with each update. While reading, I did notice two little things.

First, I am not sure if it is a problem on my end, but for some reason I can't see any of the pictures in the final installment. For the other updates, I can see them all, but for some reason not in the last one above. Second, in your writing you often switch from past tense to present tense. You can use either one, and each way of doing things provides its own benefits and tools, as well as its own limitations and (potential) pitfalls. However, you should make sure to stick to one. It's an easy mistake to make, and one I did relentlessly when I first started writing, especially because I would leave the writing and come back to it later, having forgotten what tense I was using. My suggestion would just be to pick one now, and only ever use that one (to spare yourself having to figure out the other stylistic things of the other tense).

Aside from those minor things though, this is fun! I can't wait to see more, and to have spread some rep so you can some more (well-deserved) points from me!

[Bande Nere]

Hey Alwyn & Kilo11!

Well I will not say more about the campaign as the next installment should be posted before the week's end, but that peace treaty will anger people, with consequences.

Ok, so pictures... Before the last 2 installments I was using 2 different hosting sites, until I realized TWC can actually host pictures so in the last 2(or 3, can't remember) installments I've been using TWC directly. Since the last update was loaded with photos it might have been too much data or something, has anyone else had that issue apart from Kilo11(Asking Alwyn and my other billion viewers)? Maybe try refreshing the page?

Yes unfortunately my syntax and tenses are an absolute mess, I do in fact go adding and fixing while they are still unpublished so that might be part of the issue. I'll have to fix that somehow, when and if my braincells will start cooperating

Can't wait for Alwyn's latest Skaven update and I'm really enjoying Kilo's masterpiece, Written in Sand. Last time I was reading it I finally looked at the time and it was 2AM

As always thanks to both of you for the kind words and the attention, I do appreciate them!

[Kilo11]

Ok, so pictures... Before the last 2 installments I was using 2 different hosting sites, until I realized TWC can actually host pictures so in the last 2(or 3, can't remember) installments I've been using TWC directly. Since the last update was loaded with photos it might have been too much data or something, has anyone else had that issue apart from Kilo11(Asking Alwyn and my other billion viewers)? Maybe try refreshing the page?

The problem is indeed persistent for me, and consistent across browsers and devices. It would be interesting though to hear if others are also not seeing the images.

Yes unfortunately my syntax and tenses are an absolute mess, I do in fact go adding and fixing while they are still unpublished so that might be part of the issue. I'll have to fix that somehow, when and if my braincells will start cooperating

I can totally understand that. I think the best fix is just to consciously choose a particular tense and approach, and for just a couple updates, really keep that choice in mind. Cause I did the same thing when I was starting writing (doing whatever felt best each time I picked up the pencil, leading to wildly inconsistent presentations). For me, just knowing there was that issue and me having it in mind made it go away almost entirely.

I'm really enjoying Kilo's masterpiece, Written in Sand. Last time I was reading it I finally looked at the time and it was 2AM

As always thanks to both of you for the kind words and the attention, I do appreciate them!

Thanks for that! And I tell you, if you keep plugging away on your AAR, it will get better and better! I don't think there is a single writer here whose work doesn't visibly improve over the course of an AAR. And you can usually see little jumps as the writer gets to grips with some element of storytelling and then begins weaving it through all the new stuff. So yeah, I am super excited to keep up with this, and see you develop further as well!