Also known as the Second Imesse-Colo War.
The Conflict
Prelude
Starting as early as 207, the Duke of Hekmo began a policy of continuous raids and attacks all along the Colian border shared with the Duchy of Hekmo. Local strongmen with holdings along the Colian frontier were encouraged to make forays into towns, farms, and villages. There are three large briaries located along this frontier, and those briars were attacking Colian homes and villages as many as 10 times a year. Colian lords were retaliating in kind, and every season saw dozens of deaths related to the violence.
Every year that this went on, the Duke was becoming more and more convinced that his forces along the border were simply far superior to anything the Colians had. Raids as far as 100 miles into Colo were not only routinely successful, but often went almost unopposed. As the years passed, he became sure that the policy of near constant raids had seasoned his vassal’s forces to a point of near elite status.
In the meantime, by 210, the rest of the north and especially the duchy of Hekmo were experiencing serious economic downturns. Costs were on the rise, supplies were harder and harder to find, and luxury items were simply unavailable unless one was willing to travel long distances. This coupled with a particularly difficult winter and spring in 211/212 drove Hekmo to begin to pressure High King Max II to allow him to invade Colo with the purpose of expanding the Kingdom north.
By the beginning of spring in 213, Hekmo had convinced the High King of the vulnerability of Colo and the ease with which Imesse could conquer it. Hekmo and his allies, consisting of the Baronies of Cyell, Wessridge, Wessfall, Wennick and Mull. Turl managed to muster a force of just over 20,000 men, 3,000 of which were cavalry. This force was poorly trained, poorly equipped, and poorly led. Motivation was based on nothing more than the promise of the opportunity to pillage and loot as much of Colo as possible.
Hekmo placed himself in overall command, and immediately divided his force into three separate armies. Each of these three armies was centered on one of the northern marcher fortresses: Noldur, Normar and Norfort.
Turl’s son was given command of the largest force centered on Noldur, and that force was tasked with driving as far north as it could go. Numbering 6,000 men and 1,500 cavalry, they drove as far as 50 miles into Colo, pushing the local populace ahead of them as they burned, pillaged and raped ever town, village and farm they encountered. After a month of this, and only a few miles west of Nyalshold, one of the largest settlements in Colo, they were met with a force of Colian defenders numbering significantly less than Hekmo’s forces.
On a bright and sunny spring day, Hekmo’s son was about to commit his troops to the first pitched battle of the campaign knowing he outnumbered his foes by more than 2,000 men. Within minutes of the battle commencing, things started to go terribly wrong for Hekmo. Colian cavalry and light infantry units, intimately familiar with the local terrain and conditions, outflanked the Imessian soldiers at every opportunity. Losses mounted, ground began to be lost, and by the early afternoon, entire regiments were being routed and overrun by the Colians. Over the course of the next day, the young Hekmo had lost 1,500 foot and nearly all his horse to the Colians and the remainder of his army was running for its life back to the border.
After the initial invasion of Colo, the war dragged on for another two years, with Hekmo repeatedly trying to invade and conquer as much territory as possible in the shortest amount of time. Every season this failed utterly, with no measurable gains for Hekmo at all. The cost in blood and treasure mounted with every passing attempt at winning. Thousands of young men, many of them young nobles that might have otherwise gone on to be great leaders, were left for dead on the fields and in the woods of Colo. Severe economic hardship followed, as did the growing resentment of the leadership by both the soldiers and the population in general.
Relations with Colo are still strained, trade is very one-sided, and there is a large and measurable gap between the generations that planned and initiated the war and those that fought and survived it. The Kingdom has yet to fully recover from the cost in lives and gold that this war cost it.
Historical Significance
Hekmo was removed as a commander of the armies, but he somehow managed to deflect or avoid much of the blame for the war, even though it was at his urging that the war was begun. Other leaders and nobles of the Kingdom did answer for their failings, some with their lives.
