Amnian-Baldurian War

“For the lady’s honor! Fire as your guns bear!” - LCDR Strucker Eldihos, BGS Ravenwing gunnery officer (c. 1480 DR)

Overview

The Amnian-Baldurian war started in 1480 DR when an Amnian Trade Prince displayed appalling manners at an official State gala in Baldur's Gate. Though honor was satisfied in the moment, the social status of the now-deceased Prince demanded Amnian retaliation.
Since the end of the Spellplague, no major political entity had fought a full-scale war, so both belligerents had to build up their forces and discover how such a conflict would be fought in the post-Spellplague Era. To date, the war has been largely one of maneuver, move and counter-move. Soon, however, large field armies will be possible, and both polities are rapidly constructing ships to fight in a line of battle.
So far, the neighboring city-states have managed to avoid being roped into defensive alliances and treaties. However, diplomacy is as treacherous as any battlefield, and only time will tell what secret deals and betrayals lie in store for the Sword Coast.

[Image by Dimitris Vetsikas from Pixabay]

The Conflict

Prelude

Even before the war officially started, the shores of the Sword Coast had been vacated by the pirates that usually lurked. Also, legitimate merchant traffic was not considered a military target, yet, by either side; trade being the lifeblood of both nations, it was tacitly understood that only military targets were fair game.

Conditions

Reasons for War

Though the war was initially one of honor, the Amnian practice of slavery has always been abhorrent to the Baldurians.  So, when Amn decided to raise slave-soldier regiments and send them north, the Baldurian reasons for war expanded.
Now, the Baldurians are fighting to break their former trade partner and restore freedom to all peoples to their south.  The Amnian nobility, realizing that they "poked a sleeping bear," are now fighting for their lives.
As the war escalates, freedom-loving elements in Amn as well as the more democratically-minded are banding together to create internal strife for the nobles.  Baldurian intelligence agents have been quick to support these nascent efforts at rebellion by smuggling arms and material aid into the Empire.

Historical Significance

In Literature

It started the way these things always start: with a misunderstanding. At a regional social function, hosted by the City Council and held in the Baldurian University’s sprawling parks and halls, the elite of seven cities had gathered for a mutual celebration of goodwill and good profits. During the culminating event, a tremendous masquerade ball, an Amnian guest happened upon, perchance, a young Baldurian lady possessing of considerable assets.
When he chose to take her costumery, which was fighting a valiant effort to keep the lady’s modesty intact, as an invitation to dalliance avec consentment implicite, she rightly protested the sudden clammy hand that she discovered rummaging amongst her cleavage.
A drink in the face led to words between the foppish noble and the lady’s husband. Formal blows were exchanged, and an appointment set for an hour later. The Amnian noble nominated the General of the Imperial Amnian Army as his second. The lady brought her husband.
The duel was fought with Luskan dueling pistols, and after ten paces, the foppish noble lay dead. The lady handed her expended pistol to her husband, riffled open her dainty fan, and strode back to the party.
Honor had been satisfied on all counts. Except one: the foppish Amnian noble had been the Prince of the Royal House of Nashivaar, one of the ruling families of the Amnian Council of Five. The Amnian delegation had only just heard of the incident and were trying to intercede before the Line of Succession was disturbed. Alas, when they finally rushed upon the scene, all that was left to do was summon the embalmers: the killing shot had entered the Prince’s skull and scrambled his brain.
The Amnians were furious, naturally. The lady was indifferent to their protestations. “Look at how a man behaves with the women in his life and you will know if he is a gentleman or a scoundrel!” was all she would say before dropping the matter. (This quote is real, and attributed to Avijeet Das, a poet and writer from New Delhi, India)
The damage was done. The Amnians packed up and sailed for home. The other cities’ delegations made regretful noises and departed with haste, fearing to be seen allying with one side or the other, especially accidentally. The only attempt at intervention came from the ambassador of Calimshan, who tried to explain away the whole incident as a silly misunderstanding. Thoradin Shattershield gave the official Baldurian response, rumbling out, “Arseholes are never misunderstood, just swiped when they get shitty.”
The Amn Navy started sailing farther north than usual, and the Baldurian ships would shadow them closely. Baldurian patrols south of the River Chonthar started reporting more Amnian military “training maneuvers” in the region of The Coast Way, between the Cloak Wood and The Wood of Sharp Teeth.
Only two hundred eighty air miles separated the two cities of Baldur’s Gate and Athkatla. Towns and cities, from Waterdeep in the north and Calimport to the south, received delegations from both sides of the dispute. Many of them politely hosted these efforts, then sent them home with rose petals and empty hands. Some signed papers in the dark, playing the odds. However, when the Baldurian Council received a package from Queen Alusair Obarskyr of Cormyr containing a white rose, a lady’s glove and nothing else, they knew that they had friends in this fight. But, there would be a fight.
The first shot was as ultimately inevitable as it was individually preventable. With so many ships in close proximity, it was only a matter of time before a captain slipped up by losing either temper or nerve.
The BGS Ravenwing was sailing west of Candlekeep on routine maneuvers. Thousands of tons of warships now prowled the coastlines, and the local pirates had fled west across the open sea; consequently, “routine maneuvers” meant “tickling the arse-hairs of those Amnian pricks,” as Commander Shattershield put it for the Council briefings. So, when the captain of the AMS Typhoon felt sufficiently tickled, and ordered the Ravenwing to lower sail and prepare for customs inspection, the Ravenwing responded by mustering the gun crews on deck to present their “broadsides” to the Amnians’ spyglasses. The sails stayed up while the Ravenwing sought the weather gauge, anticipating what effect eighty naked butts reflecting the sun’s glare back at the Typhoon’s officers might have.
Predictably, the Typhoon shot a single cannonball to land just astern of the Ravenwing. Also predictably, The Ravenwing, newly re-fitted for war, sent a twenty-gun salute from her port broadside into the Typhoon’s superstructure and quarterdeck.
With her mainmast hit and her foremast down, the Amnian ship had been crippled in the first exchange. Surprised and unprepared, the Typhoon turned with the wind to run. But, there is no running in naval combat. Just winning or dying.
Having already taken tactical control by seizing the weather gauge early, the Ravenwing, faster and more maneuverable, rode the wind across the Typhoon’s bow. With a flourish, the gunnery officer waved his hat and fired the starboard broadside into the other ship, blasting the bow to smithereens and raking the deck nearly clean of sailors. Temporarily out of control, the Typhoon ran with her sails and drifted with wind and current.
As the Typhoon passed north, the Ravenwing tacked port and let her by, sending a savage volley from her port guns into the hull, just below the gunports and across her waterline. With her own starboard broadside now out of action and steadily taking on water, the Typhoon tried to tack away from her enemy and buy time to bring her port guns to bear.
This was the classic tactical error the Ravenwing’s captain was waiting for. He flipped his ship into the wind, losing some speed but bringing the reloaded starboard guns back to the fight. The gunnery officer’s voice rang out above the bedlam with a jubilant and exulting cry, “For the lady’s honor! Fire as your guns bear!”
Twenty double-shotted cannons fired point-blank through the Typhoon’s stern. Timbers splintered, munitions exploded, and debris scythed through soft flesh from the fantail to the bowsprit. An hour later, a prize crew transferred from victor to vanquished, and the Typhoon’s first officer relinquished his dead captain’s sword to a mere Baldurian Lieutenant.
War had come to the Sword Coast.
-from The Book of Morrigan, "For The Lady's Honor"

Conflict Type

War

Conflict Result

This war is currently active, with no decisive outcome predictable.

Belligerents

Baldur's Gate

Amn Empire

Strength

The Flaming Fists serve as the army for the City. At the outset of war, the Fists could only boast of a few regiments, with much of their actual warfighting strength deployed abroad in the Free Companies. As the war progresses, this state has been notably improved as more citizens volunteer to fight and more outside units are employed.

The Amn Empire tended towards a more distributed military structure, unlike the Baldurian's centralized command.  Thus, at the outbreak of hostilities, only the Amnian Navy could boast good organization.  Land forces were comprised of smaller, fast-striking units with little magical support.  As the war progressed, the Amnians attempted to raise large units of slave-soldiers.

Casualties

Baldurian units are well-trained, well-equipped, and have copious magical support (unlike their Amnian counterparts).  Favoring a style that rewards initiative and independence, Baldurian forces have done well in the initial fighting, despite being outnumbered many times over.
Moreover, the Amnian preference for slave-soldier regiments provides the Baldurians with many new recruits, as the slaves would much rather surrender and be freed, then turn their wrath upon their former masters.

The slave-soldier regiments, predictably, did not fare well against the less numerous but well-trained and well-equipped Baldurian strikers.  Nevertheless, they are cheap to produce and incur little emotional pain when units are decimated in battle.

Objectives

Create a strategic encirclement of the Amnians, including a seaborne blockade.

Create a strategic encirclement of the Baldurians, including a seaborne blockade.