Maximilian learns the art of war
Authors note: this story starts after the second naggiar campaign, with Maximilian taking a different strategy to turn the tides of war. This was mainly done because I was personally annoyed with his later strategy/personality, he is supposedly ruthless and brilliant, but he never seems to properly account for the appearance of an enemy valkyria, or learns from his mistakes. Some Selvaria X Maximilian, and other cannon couples.
World Construction: a list of assumptions since information about the war is somewhat vague.
Gallium population + 1 million for a total population of 1,400,000 this was done so that the percent of people in the army is 5.6% instead of 20% which is higher than even North Korea's military ratio
Army: 80,000
Militia: 100,000
Royal guard (marines): 10,000
Imperial: 50,000
a number constructed by the military ranks the triumviri has, Selvaria Bles is a Brigadier general and should command 4,000-11,000 troops, Radi Jaegor and Berthold Gregor are Major Generals who should each command 10,000-20,000 troops.
Selvaria Bles: 10,000
Radi Jaegor and Berthold Gregor: 20,000 each
While the game usually implies that the imperial forces outnumber the Gallians, this can be achieved tactically without outnumbering the opponents strategically like the Germans did to the soviets. Also the superiority of the imperial forces in a quality aspect was also heavily implied which combined with the complete incompetence of the gallium high command, could easily lead to the easy early imperial victories.
Story changes
Artificial valkryia technology is not going to exist. The games last level, while fun, would completely destroy any sensibility afterwards, since the empire has the ability to make artificial lances, why not simply remake another valkof weapon…
Therefore, while the reason for invading Gallian is still to attain the valkof, the assumption will be that it is a human sized weapon possibly to be used by Selvaria. The Marmota will not be designed with the valkof's use in mind
The Marmota is going to be a naval battleship, think USS iowa class
On Maximilian: while his actions are vastly different from the game I am trying to keep his personality traits intact which are to me: emo technocrat, with a background in political knifing, whose main goal in life is world domination partly to assuage his own psyche and partly to fix it.
On Selvaria: I picture her as the ultimate soldier or perhaps the perfect samurai. Skilled commander, fearless, cares about the troops, leads from the front and loyal to the death. A horrendous waste about the last part, and ultimately in vain to boot since the gallium army was never a threat, Marmota could have crushed them like it crushed the royal guard.
Disclaimer: I do not own Valkryia Chronicles or Code Geass whose cast has been imported for members of the imperial family, therefore the Britannia family is now the East Europa Imperial alliance's ruling family.
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Sun Tzu: "Defense is for times of insufficiency, attack is for times of surplus."
Ch1 a change of plans
POV: Maximilian
Location: citadel at Ghirlandaio
Time: a day after the second battle of Naggier
Defeated. With the battle of Naggier over and Selvaria beaten, all of my triumviri and myself have been handed defeat, again and again. I have been humiliated, despite my advantages in troop quality, and technological prowess. Beaten by a militia--- bread makers, teachers, doctors, playing at war have defeated my imperial army.
With a long sigh, I now understand that I can no longer continue on the path of pitting strength against strength. My reign will not begin on a glorious note of conquest.
Still a return to my roots is only mostly bad, at the very least I can return to using singular pronouns when referring to myself, the only person who would have cared would be Gregor and he is dead now, a fate I most certainly do not wish to emulate.
I ease back in my chair and close my eyes trying to focus my mind on the ramifications of the report on the battle of Naggier. It is not easy, emotions swarm, fear, anger, shock, disbelief, and despair, battling each other for supremacy and taking up valuable and necessary brain power from task at hand. That task being what the hell I am supposed to do now?!
From the report Selvaria was flat out overpowered by the Gallian Valkyria, the imperial forces that tried to rescue her was mostly decimated, until the Gallian Valkyria fainted. The fact that there is a limit the Gallian Valkyria's power is kind of depressing in light of the fact that she managed to blunt the pincer of 10 thousand imperial troops that Selvaria had setup. The only reason that my army was not completely destroyed was the excellent fighting retreat that was again planned by Selvaria, and successful despite her being unconscious during the retreat. Still my army is frankly not large enough to absorb the casualties needed to exhaust the Gallian Valkyria and then defeat the reminder of the Gallian military.
A Gallian Valkyria, an enemy Valkyria… my emotions are still trying to get around that fact. Oh logically it makes sense, a bit too much sense, Gallia is the home of the house of Randgriz, the scion of the Valkyrur. If any country can summon a Valkyria to save them, it is Gallia. And of course the higher number of Valkyrur in the past means that the blood would run thicker and thus truer in a Gallian girl than an imperial woman, at least that's what a racial bigot like Gregor would promote. A pity he died so early on, I would have liked to have seen the look on his face as Selvaria turns Valkyria and proclaims my right to rule Europa. He'll likely have heart attack that a Valkyria, a goddess, would proclaim me, a bastard prince, to rule instead of those of purer blood in my family.
Valkyria… I think I have gotten too caught up in past glories and future ambitions involving them. Having Selvaria is not a guarantee of victory through divine mandate, or Valkyrur power. At least my old paranoia made me ensure Selvaria's Valkyria identity was only known to troops that are trustworthy. The last thing I need would be for an official imperial investigation into her and myself, ignoring the various black marks that would dreg up about me, my family would try to claim her for themselves, and I simply won't allow that. No one will take Selvaria from me.
Snapping myself from the guttural direction my thoughts had taken, I refocus on the task at hand. My original grand strategy had the following outline:
1.) Conquer Gallia using a well led imperial army speared by Valkyria might
2.) Get Cordelia to recognize Selvaria as kin and part of the Randgriz/Valkyria line
3.) Marry into the Randgriz/Valkyria line via Selvaria
4.) Demand the empire to recognize me as the legitimate and rightful ruler because of my Valkyria connections and the power of Valkof
5.) Conquer the Altantic Federation using Valkyria's with Valkof might
6.) Develop Alternate sources of energy and save Ragnite for medical purposes
I frown after counting the number of times I used the word Valkyria in that plan. There is a clear overreliance on that aspect, so with newfound information I start a revision.
What is the grand strategic objective? Gain the power and status afforded by the Valkyria.
What is required to fulfill it? Prolonged study of Valkyria sites, engagement with the house of Randgriz
How to accomplish it? Conventional conquest? No I have been trying that and failing.
What other methods can I use to gain control of a country? Economic undermining, cultural subversion, and political manipulation.
I pause and run one hand through my hair, considering all the information that my spies have gathered. The spying was another hold over from my old paranoid days, and another thing to be thankful for. My efforts were half hearted, being caught up in my becoming near divinity, but the results were surprisingly revealing nonetheless, something to be blamed on the fact that Gallia is falling apart from the weight of its bloated rulers.
Cordelia De Randgriz at the age of 16 is being controlled like a puppet by her Prime Minister Maurits von Borg. Her parents seemed to be the naïve caring type that really has no business running a secure nation let alone one in as dangerous a position has Gallia. I wonder if I am biased thanks to my imperial upbringing but 16 is a fine age to start ruling a country. Plus with her Valkyria blood, her physical abilities should be augmented significantly, making her that much harder to assassinate. From newsreels she seems utterly normal, even mechanical in her movements, which leads me to believe that her blood has not been activated yet, which ultimately means that she is not being shot at enough, I wonder if I will have to fix that…
I hypothesize what my other noticeable family members would do in her situation.
Schneizel: he would simply make Borg his puppet, and possibly deal with the nobility by having them complete for the "honor" of personally attending to him, while simultaneously eroding their real world power.
Lelouch: it's a toss up between being a puppet and complaining about the world not changing, while gambling and sleeping in school, or doing something utterly flamboyant to win the hearts and minds of the people and rule them completely.
Cornelia – Euphemia - Nunnally trinity: Cornelia would kill Borg in a duel, then play bad cop against Euphemia and Nunnally's good cop rulership.
Clovis: probably start mass purges which will tear the country apart in civil war as royalty and nobility clash.
What would have I done at age 16? What was I doing? I cringe as I realize I was hating the world much like Lelouch, however unlike him I lacked a social life and threw myself into studying hoping to achieve through technical superiority what Lelouch had in tactical supremacy. Like Clovis I have never won a chess game against Lelouch, though it heartens me that Lelouch has never won against Scheizel, just showing that there is always someone better. Though the question of wether Scheizel can defeat our father is something of a state secret.
Still in comparsion with Cordelia, I would have arranged an accident for Borg probably some form of mechanical failure, then appointed some easily impressible old fool with an ironclad reputation, like Gregor.
So for political manipulation, it may be easier to establish, or rather continue a puppet government with the same puppet but a different regent. I could keep Cordelia as a figurehead and simply replace Borg with myself. This would require less troops to maintain the peace while allowing me to change pro federation trade laws to pro imperial trade laws, and act as cover while research the technology of the Valkyria.
Cultural subversion is kind of impossible right now since Selvaria lost to a Gallian Valkyria, initially I planned for rumors of a Valkyria leading my forces to demoralize the enemy by claiming divine mandate via Valkyria Conquest. Ideally this would be a replay of the original Valkyria Conquest in the minds of the people, except instead of genocidal Darcsens we have apathetic nobility killing the people.
Economic undermining would be a decent strategy if Borg and his group were not so intent on pursuing it themselves. The Gallian Economy was doing well under Randgriz rule, but after Borg took over the nobility started a privatization scheme and quickly sold off assets and outsourced production until the current economy is little more than Ragnite mining and selling. Not a particularly bad situation if the empire managed to gain control of the assets, but unfortunately the Gallian dislike of the empire meant that the federation ended up with ownership, the federation's deeper pockets helped too.
I recall a conversation I had with Schneizel about the Gallian situation and the situation of many other federation republics. I argued for prevention via armed intervention, figuring a country with its economy intact was more useful than one whose economy has been transformed to serve a specific purpose. Schneizel argued that the people of those countries would be more grateful under imperial rule after they tasted the jackboot of worker flexibility projects. I suppose this is one debate we will have an answer for soon, since Schneizel is the leader of the south imperial forces that recently took those southern republics mentioned in Tarus news. He'll have to deal with republics that have been integrated with federation rule for a long time, while I have to deal with one in the process of being devoured.
So putting it all together, Gallia's economic collapse means that they will be relying on foreign sources to maintain the nobility's privileges, this will allow me to infiltrate Gallia by offering my sources to the Gallian nobility through a 3rd party contractor of course. Not as hard as it seems, Gallia already uses a dummy corporation that is wholly owned by Zabot Industries, my personal industrial conglomerate or Zaibatsu, for Gallia's economic health monitoring, or more accurately Gallia's nobility's rate of plunder. Which is how I know about the economic collapse, its ironic really that my war which should have accelerated the impact of the economic collapse actually postponed it has employment rates are high since everyone is in the military fighting my army.
Once my infiltration has penetrated thoroughly enough I will have the ability to sneak an entire armored division, 10,000 troops and 300 tanks, into Randgriz and capture Cordelia gi Randgriz, and with some luck decimate the nobility. If I don't catch all the nobles then there will be resistance movement with some federation backing. A minor nuisance if I can keep the common people happy with their figurehead ruler and jobs from my Zabot Industries.
All I need then is time, time to expand my networks in Gallia. My Citadel at Ghirlandaio is strong against a direct attack by the Gallian army, I will need to fortify it against an unconventional attack by the Gallian militia. I recall the Naggier report again, the army sent the militia ahead to clear the way with their bodies, to be expected given the leader is still Georg Von Damon. Damon's noble birth apparently means that despite his endless stream of failures he retains his position and status, in the empire he would been shot after Vasel Bridge fell into imperial hands for allowing the enemy to come so close to the capitol. So it seems most likely that to keep army casualties low and preserve the illusion of his own competence he will again send the militia against the citadel first. That means that I can wear out militia directly and deal with the army conventionally later. And the best way to do that would be to turning the area in front of the Citadel into a giant kill zone, with trenches, minefields, and constant artillery fire, would tire out the militia so they will be unable to do real damage to the Citadel.
Ahhh I smile to myself thinking, trench warfare, a variant of siege warfare, the ultimate in war by the numbers, in this I believe that I can outdo anyone else on Europa. Courage, maneuver, speed, and surprise all drowned out by the constant stream of artillery, the endless minefields, the enduring machine gun fire, or the eternal paranoia. The main importance is the layout of the fortifications, the position of the overlapping fields of fire, the number of artillery pieces aimed at an area, the density and composition of the minefields.
Then it hit me, mines, that's how I can deal with the Gallian Valkyria, I'll get a number of Marmota 1000kg projectiles, bury them in the ground, attach wires to the detonator and blast her into the sky she pasts over them. The Valkyrian shield may protect against any of man's arrows, but what about his bear traps?
I stand up and head down to my throne and strategic center, I have a lot of preparations to do before the Gallian military shows up on my doorstep.
History Quiz: what real world ruler actually used the strategy outlined by Schneizel? For those to0 lazy to scroll up, Schneizel supposedly would give the nobility the honor of attending to him while concurrently eroding the nobilities real power. The reward is pride and a self inflicted pat on the back. Please leave your answer in a review
If that wasn't blatant enough then:
Maximilian: "Heed my words and know victory. Loose your words, readers! Review the story!"
Also please indict whether you would prefer Isara to be alive or not, it will be some chapters before I get around to squad 7's point of view