KMT War

So, basically, Kuvalla, Medina, and Ticondera each attacked the Grand Army at the same time. This was generally regarded as a Bad Idea.

• Comrade Caidin - Communist leader of Ticondera.
• King Kusader of Kuvalla.
• Ozzie XI, Medinan dictator.

Origins of the War

Caidin was the first communist leader in the Web to successfully take control of a nation-state; the pitiful conditions of Ticondera after the Great War allowed him to march to the capital with his band of guerillas and depose the Empress Camilison. Unlike later communists like Travin Rumanski he believed that GACA was a capitalist tool of oppression and that the revolution would sweep over it like a rising tide. He believed that Ticondera's vast resources would match those of GACA, especially since the Great Workingman's Revolution would sweep over the Web. He also believed he possessed working Ultima weapons. (Turned out, they didn't work so well.)

Kusader was horrified at the methods of Celiose Cole used during the Great War and the incredible casual brutality of the Grand Army. (Later critics of the Grand Army like Rudra Tairen would make similiar arguments). The enormous military power wielded by the GA, crushing all that opposed it, was synonomous with tyranny in Kusader's eyes. Although somewhat derided today, it should be realized that the GA's strategic bombing campaign had leveled most of Dragon, and 28 WR was the year Celiose issued the Superweapons Directive, stating that the GA's main aim of weapons development would be to create "...colossally powerful superweapons. These weapons will inspire terror enough to keep some would-be conquerors in line, no matter how limited utility they might seem." (A design philosophy clearly evident in the Executor).

Medina was a latecomer to the war, as the political events surrounding the war were well progressed by the time the Gate Dimension was discovered. However, as Guardia joined GACA, it became clear to Ozzie that he would oppose them. At his disposal he possessed advanced technologies unheard-of in the Web at that time.

The Grand Army had just fought the Great War and had not yet begun to demobilize; to people living in a post-budget cuts world, the numbers of troops employed by the GA in these operations were ridiculous. In the GA, multi-regiment formations are known as Armies, and the GA had ten of them and a significant number of free-floating reserve regiments after the Great War. Its total strength was equivelant to over 150 regiments; when one considers that GA regimental organization is twice the srength as that used by most national militaries, the GA had more men under arms for this war than all four Great Powers combined do today. Although space fleets did not exist, the Kriegsnavee controlled the seas and was a vital part of the campaign, and the Luftwaffe was so dreaded that the first target of Ticondera was Trianable. The vast majority of GA troops were battle-hardened veterans. The Transbaron campaign had honed GA skil in moving masses of men and material to a fine peak, skills which would now be fully employed against nations.

Intra-GACA politics in the time were not very interesting; in general, the late twenties saw something of a suppression of national politics as nations struggled to rebuild from the Great War. (This is part of why the Gate Three easily became dominant.)

The Kuvallan War

The current Kuvallan government believes the atrocities of this war have never been properly investigated or addressed. The Grand Army unleashed a strategic bombing campaign that dropped millions of tons of bombs on Kuvallan cities, literally bombing them back to the stone age. Unrestricted submarine warfare was unleashed against Kuvallan shipping. The Celpo arranged for Manta to unleash the chemical agent M-Doom against the Moogle people.

Such incredible destruction made ground invasion unecessary. Celiose and Kusader still had residual mutual respect for their service in the Great War, Celiose and Kusader agreed to make peace; a small nearby island was given the GA as a base. Although Kusader continued to be critical of Celiose and the Grand Army, he no longer challenged them with force of arms again.

The Medinan War

Ozzie fiendishly hacked into Guardia Proper's central power; he also marched on Chorras and Geno. However, inside Medina there was an incipient revolt, and the GA paradropped the Airborne Battlegroup to assist them.

Overall command of the GA-Guardian invasion was given to Sub-General Rimmel Coward, who commanded his own Seventh Army as well as the Fifth Army, supported by various Guardian forces. The combination of internal dissension and massive external firepower quickly caused Ozzie's regime to collapse, and the GA occupied the country. Characteristically, the GA had little idea what to do with a nation once they had occupied it.

The Ticonderan War

The Ticonderans launched the "KMT War" with an Ultima missile attack against Trianable. However, the missile failed to detonate, in a huge loss of face for Caidin.

Ticondera, however, sensing weakness in King Kaiten's regime in Winlan, launched an offensive in Winlan. They also hoped to gain support from the Scandian League, then in the throes of the Dawn Revolution that would bring the communists to power there. Sub-General Model Steinmetz, commanding the Sixth Army and the Tenth Army, repulsed the attack.

To the heavy task of invading Ticondera itself, reputed to be impossible, Celiose sent perhaps his best commander, Torstensson Lenart. Torstensson commanded the First Army, Second Army, and Eighth Army; later he was reinforced by the Ninth Army, which was originally slated to lead the ground operation in Kuvalla. Torstensson's tanks managed to decisively engage and destroy large contingents of the Iron Army, but Torstensson knew well that occupying the country and pacifying the guerillas would prove nigh-on impossible. Torstensson settled with deposing Caidin, and the call for a workingman's revolution to overthrow GACA was ended; the new leaders of communism in the Web were far more pragmatic.

Aftermath

Caidin committed suicide, and the subsequent GA occupation of Ticondera saw many atrocities committed by both GA soldiers and Ticonderan guerillas. Celiose prudently ended this quickly by transferring control of Ticondera to Dain Kordridge, the former mayor of North Viper and a high-ranking bureaucrat in Caidin's administration. Dain continued Caidin's socio-economic reforms but made Ticondera a member of GACA.

Ozzie was defeated. Mariscul Mervin, with the aid of Guardian advisors (not the least of which was Janville Dussert), reformed Medina into a democratic republic with the drafting of Medina's first constitution. Anti-GA sentiments would resurface in Medina later during Tyurin Cage's administration.

Kusader was humbled but allowed to retain his throne. Much of his military apparatus was destroyed by the GA. Still bearing animosity towards the GA, Kusader would later have Kuvalla join the Confederation, a multinational alliance founded by Tyurin Cage that was intended to be a rival to GACA.

The incredible ease with which the Grand Army won this contest of conventional arms was not lost on Roland and his faction of the OmniSent, who realized that subtlety would be required to take down the GA.

Some point to the KMT War as the beginning of the decline of GA tactical leadership, as in many situations the GA simply amassed such superiority and firepower that any actual skill was unecessary.

The most enduring legacy of the KMT War, however, was that nations would not openly fight wars with the Grand Army. Surely nations had in mind when, in the Age of Imperialism, they argued for keeping the GA out of international politics.