Central Calendar August 5, 1639
Esthirant Naval Base, Esthirant, Empire of Parpaldia
Supplies and ammunition are being carried into the great black warships of the Imperial Navy. Many people had come to see the proud and grand Imperial Navy gear up for the war against Altaras. It's ironclad warships may not be a match against anything from the First and Second Civilization Areas, but it was generally believed that there was nobody outside those two areas that could fight the Imperial Navy.
The Imperial Navy warships left the base at 1100 hours. The fleet has, in total, 32 ships, not counting the transport ships, all armored. The fleet consisted of 9 ironclad battleships, 8 armored frigates, 9 armored screw corvettes, 2 carriers and 4 supply ships.
Onboard the ironclad battleship Glory, rear admiral Armos studied the invasion plans. They were to land at the coast Southeast and Southwest of Le Brias, where they would move out and surround the city itself. His shis would provide coastal artillery to the troops as well as launching aircraft to gain air superiority. It is a shame that aircraft tech in Parpaldia couldn't provide close-air support, but since half of the wyvern lords bred for the Navy died out in the Wyvern plague of 1635, aircraft had been preferred simply due to immunity to mass dying out caused by disease, even if maintaining them is a pain in the ass.
The ships under rear admiral Armos would be split into three divisions, each having roughly three ironclads. Carriers would be placed in the third division, which would be detached from the main fleet itself due to carriers being useless in a gun duel.
Armos had been in the navy for over 20 years. He knows full-well the capabilities of his fleet. He isn't too afraid of the Altaras Royal Navy.
As the ships reached open seas, the magic steam engines shut off and sails were raised. It wasn't because of fuel, water is heated up by yellow magic gems, and those could last quite a while. It was instead the issue of fresh water. Putting sea water into steam engines tends to create rust or salt deposits, both harmful to the engine. And since their marine evaporators aren't advanced enough, it's best they save water.
The Imperial Navy, the dagger of the great Empire of Parpaldia, now has its tip pointed at the Kingdom of Altaras.
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Le Brias, Kingdom of Altaras
Civilians started fleeing the city of Le Brias en-masse. If the Parpaldians land, there's no telling what kind of atrocities the Parpaldians would commit.
King Taara XIV doesn't blame any of them. Looking out to the long line of people leaving, carrying a little bit of their belongings with them. He does regret declaring war now. However, there is no turning back now. Even if he reached out to Parpaldia and offered surrender, the Parpaldian troops would have still entered the city and commited atrocities.
There's nothing they could do but fight this. All he could hope is that the Royal Navy could do some damage to the Parpaldian fleet.
It was at this moment that Princess Lumies approached him.
"'You wanted to see me?'" she asked.
"Yes, all the arrangements are in place. You must flee this kingdom immediately," the king ordered. He did not like ordering his own child like this, but he must.
"'Flee? Why must I?'"
"The Empire of Parpaldia has declared war on us...I have doubts that we could win,"
"'But that would mean abandoning the people! For me to abandon the people and escape, tha-'"
"The people won't be completely abandoned. I will stay back with the people. If you stay back, the entire royal family would be killed if we lose. Lumies, the only thing left here if they land is death. Please, just run," king Taara XIV said.
"But..."
"I am a failure of a king, allowing only my own family to leave... But, as a parent, I simply want my daughter to be safe. Lumiess. I beg you, do as I say," king Taara XIV.
Lumies could no longer argue with her father.
"Your vessel, disguised as a merchant ship, will leave the capital before the war starts. Of course, your most loyal attendants will be following you. You will ride the southern currents and go to Rodenius. If the opportunity arises, seek asylum in the new United States. Whatever happens, keep your identity hidden. If we lose, do not drag others into this war. Even if the newly formes United States seems strong, they are newly formed. It might be a death sentence for them."
"...Yes, father."
That night, Princess Lumiess boarded what looked like a merchant ship in what looked like civilian clothing and left Le Brias.
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Le Brias Naval Base, Le Brias, Kingdom of Altaras
Admiral Bordo inspected his fleet one last time before he set sail. The king didn't fully realise this, but the Altaras Royal Navy stood absolutely no chance against the Imperial Navy. That much is clear.
His fleet consisted of antiquated warships sold of by the Parpaldian Navy. While they are powerful enough to wipe out any other barbarian navy, they were very obsolete compared to the newest warships of the Imperial Navy.
Under his command is 22 ships: 4 armored battleships(wooden hull with iron armor slapped onto it), 3 armored frigates, 1 ship of the line, 5 screw frigates, 1 screw corvette, 2 screw gunboats and 6 paddle wheel gunboats.
Admiral Bordo knew that based on the Imperial Navy's arrogance, there was a high likelyhood that they would send just slightly more ships to defeat his ships. They do enjoy a tech edge after all.
He sighed. All he could do is wait until a wyvern spots the Parpaldian fleet. Only then can he set sail to intercept.
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Central Calendar August 7, 1639
Air above Parpaldian fleet, northwest of Le Brias
Rilog and his squadron flew over the ships of the first division. Even being above the ships, the Imperial Navy looked majestic.
Rilog still remembered the day when the steam aircraft was introduced. Most pilots had just lost their wyvern lords to the great wyvern plague of 1629 and weren't so keen to swap to a mechanical monstrosity of an aircraft, especially not one as hard to maintain as the Bloodforge BF-01. Being ugly and having a stacked wing and a rearward facing propellor, the canvas and wood construction of the aircraft didn't exactly reassure him.
That was until he was trained to fly one. Despite being slower than a wyvern lord, it had some advantages over it. If the machine worked, it was an absolute joy to fly. They weren't proud creatures like the wyvern lords and were easier to control for a beginner. Likewise, their extremely short landing distance(due to reversable thrust), made it suitable for carriers.
It wasn't as if these aircraft had no downsides either. The biggest downside is one faced by all mechanical machinery: breakdowns. Indeed, they had to haul along technicians and spare parts simply to make sure they don't lose too many aircraft due to breakdowns. The second being the lack of close-air-support capability. These aircraft couldn't carry much bombs, and even if they could, it wasn't as powerful as a wyvern lord's fireball blast.
However, these aircraft were good for air-to-air combat. The miniaturized gattling gun could easily pierce a wyver lord's skin, killing it. Earlier versions require hand cranking it manually, making them unwieldy. However, adding a spring, they were able to wind up the thing pre-flight, and when firing, one simply needs to push the firing button to release the spring, allowing it to crank it. Releasing the button would block the spring-driven crank, stopping it from firing. Likewise, due to the stacked wings, these aircraft are highly maneuverable, sometimes capable of getting the upperhand on even wyvern lords if flown correctly.
All his flashbacks and thoughts about wyvern lord vs aircraft were cut out when he noticed an unknown flying object not too far from them. His air wing moves in to intercept it. As he closed the distance, he knew that it was a wyvern, most likely from the Kingdom of Altaras due to their proximity to the coast.
The wyvern rider seemed to hesitate a little before attempting to turn away to escape. However, by doing so, the wyvern lost too much speed and was a perfect target for the aircraft.
Rilog has the wyvern in his sights. Holding down the trigger, he waited for a bit(there was a delay) before the small, nose mounted gatling spewed bullets at roughly 150 rpm, nailing the wyvern, which tumbled down into the seas.
If the wyvern rider had a magic comms device, it is highly likely that they know where the Parpaldian fleet is. The air wing radio'd it in before heading back to the carriers. Their fresh water supply is starting to run low.
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Onboard the Le Brias, Altaras Fleet, not too far off the Altaras coast
Admiral Bordos knew the task ahead of him was essentially impossible. However, he must inflict some damage to the Parpaldian fleet, or else they would be able to bombard the coast without issues.
Admiral Bordos had organised his fleet into two columns, both in line-ahead formation. Instead of laying along side the Parpaldians and engaging them broadside to broadside, a fight that he was sure to lose, he would instead go in perpendicular to the Parpaldian Fleet, allowing the "T" to be crossed to rake the enemy ships on both sides.
He is well aware that to do so, his fleet will first be raked with fire. Which is why instead of letting the lighter ships go in first, Bordo had ordered ships like the Le Brias to the fore front to tank shells so the wooden ships could at least get close. If possible, boarding actions would be used, but Bordo doubts that could happen.
Not too long later, enemy ships appeared on the horizon. It was a convoy. It seems to have less ships than Bordo's fleet and is also in line-ahead formation. This is our chance, Bordo thought. He signaled the fleet to go full steam ahead, finally activating the antiquated magic steam engine that their ships had.
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Watching through the binoculars, rear-admiral Armos watched as the enemy ships approached his fleet. He is glad that he told the 3rd division, which had all the carriers, to temporarily detach from the fleet. They would at least be safe from getting blown up by gunfire.
More pressing matters is the enemy fleet approaching his fleet. By the look of things, the enemy comander wants his fleet to "cross the T". Armos cursed, he knew he should have ordered the fleet into line-abrest formation instead of line-ahead, but it was too late to do so now.
"Signal the Invincible to maneuver hard to starboard and the others to fall in behind it. We will try to engage the enemy fleet in broadside," Armos ordered.
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Noting that the enemy fleet had attempted to maneuver to engage in broadside, Armos ordered his ships to overheat their boilers, giving their ships more speed for a short duration of time in an attempt to push through in between the enemy's ships before the his unarmored wooden ships become exposed.
He was counting on the Parpaldian ships being too heavy to fully maneuver in time.
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Admiral Armos realized that his ships were far too bulky to maneuver in time, ordered all ships to open fire to rake the enemy ships. Using the theoretical range of his guns, maybe he can score a lucky shot against the enemy ships.
At a distance of just under 1 kilometer, the Parpaldian ships opened fire.
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"GET DOWN!" Admiral Bordos ordered those in his ship as he saw the flashes from the enemy ships' broadside cannon. While the chance of them hitting much at this range is low, he wouldn't count on it.
Splashes occured all around his ships. While the enemy guns had much longer range than this. Their accuracy is not very high this far out.
The ships sailed on, full steam ahead. There's no turning back now.
Another shot rang out a while later, scoring some hits. But this time they were merely explosive shot, so they shattered on the wrought iron armor plates of his ships.
It was the third broadside that was the most powerful. The Parpaldians had most likely switched to Armor piercing shot, which easily penetrated the old wrought iron armor plate design of the Altaras ironclads.
The shot penetrated, creating a mix of iron and wood splinters. Screams came out from below decks as crewmen were hit by these splinters and were severely wounded. His armor plates had instead inflicted more casualties. However...they have managed to close the range.
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Admiral Armos watched as the Altaras ships broke up formation and started to cross in between the ships of his fleet. At point blank range, the Altaras starting blasting.
Instead of uniform shots, the top deck of the enemy ship fired canister shots while the lower fired armor piercing. Taking advantage of the lack of tall structures on deck besides the funnel and masts, smaller projectiles flew across the deck, injuring or killing any man that did not take cover. Likewise, the Armor-Piercing shot fired at point blank range was able to pierce the not so thick armor of the Parpaldian ironclads, causing shrapnel to fly everywhere, killing and maiming people below decks.
Due to the lack of bow chasers or stern guns, there was no way to return fire until the Altaras ships pulled away to engage in a broadside battle. The line of battle was quickly disintegrating.
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Onboard the ship-of-the-line Taara, Captain Persano was grinning madly at the situation. Finally, the antiquated 68-pounder carronade. Had a use. Firing at the decks of the enemy ironclad, the mass of tiny projectiles inflicting heavy casualties as they perforated the Parpaldian crew, most dying before they could even wince.
However, as the batrle descended into chaos, Persano knew that his wooden ship-of-the-line is essentially useless in this battle, especially in a broadside duel with any of the Parpaldian ships.
Persano's luck would change as in the chaos of battle, a Parpaldian Ironclad trying to broadside the armored frigate Palestro revealed its side to him.
"ALL HANDS PREPARE FOR RAMMING SPEED!" yelled Persano at the top of his lungs.
The crew threw in everything they've got. The boiler was heated past what was already considered to be suicidal, sails were all unfurled, even the old Tears of the Wind God, a device used to manipulate air flow, was used to speed up the ship as much as possible.
At the last second, the Parpaldians seemed to notice what was coming, but it was too late, the Taara rammed into the side of the Parpaldian ironclad at full speed, embedding its bow inside the enemy's hull, causing a lot of flooding. Unfortunately, the Taara was stuck, and the enemy deck gatlings were starting to mow down his crew.
Boiler fires started due to the sheer insane overheating that was done. Fires spread across the ship. Persano did not order his crew to put it out, but rather to abandon ship. He watched as his crewmen jumped overboard.
A large magazine explosion occured, turning the Taara into nothing but matchsticks and firewood. The explosion tore a large chunk of the Ironclad apart. Very few from either ship survived, Persano was not one of them.
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Admiral Armos watched as the Unsinkable sank after a wooden ship-of-the-line rammed it and exploded. Ignoring the irony, he knew his career was screwed.
Then he saw a paddle wheel gunboat approaching his ship. This one could fire forward as it had a bow chaser.
As the gunboat charged in, guns blazing, he ordered an entire broadside to be fired on it.
Less than a second after firing, the gunboat exploded, presumably killing all the crew onboard.
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The chaos was real. Admiral Bordo could barely even make out the enemy ship through the sheer smoke left behind by so many cannons firing.
His ship was had lost its main mast, while it isn't a problem for being in battle, it would be terrible if he needed to sail for long distances, something that isn't likely to happen.
Out of the smoke emerged a large black warship, it fired a full broadside on the heavily damaged Le Brias.
Below deck, everything was chaos. The armor, even parts that weren't too damaged, were ripped apart by the Parpaldian heavy batteries, the latest armor-piercing shot turning the iron into sharpnel, killing most of the men aboard. Below the waterline, the Le Brias was struck thrice, causing heavy flooding.
The biggest downside of having a tumblehome hull bit the Altaras in their arses. It was well known in Parpaldia that tumblehome hulls have stability issues especially when there's flooding.
The Le Brias listed heavily to port and rolled over, many had jumped into the sea beforehand, but still many hands were lost.
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It took three hours before the last of the Altaras ship slipped beneath the waterline. Instead of disdain or even pride, Armos felt an odd kind of respect for their barbarian enemies. They had fought bravely, despite being inferior in tech.
Even though some of the Parpaldian ships were heavily damaged, they sailed on, straight to Altaras. They still have a naval landing to conduct.