The Fereldan Orlesian War
The Battle of Amaranthine
The mood of the Orlesian court after the attack on Val Royeaux foul, many of the nobles had lost hundreds of sovereigns; and the Empress's nephew was dead. Celene attempted to push for moderation in the court, but the war was rapidly showing just how powerless the Empress was in the face of her nobility…
Three weeks of pressure from the Orlesian court ultimately made Celene give in, she ordered the Orlesian Navy to sack the city of Amaranthine…
Unfortunately for the Orlesians their Navy was already scattered across the Amaranthine Ocean trying to catch Fereldan commerce raiders. Gathering the full force of their ships took the Orlesians six weeks through courier ships and port authorities. During this time four couriers were lost, three have never been accounted for, but the fourth was captured by a Fereldan galley off the coast of Jader. While there was no direct evidence of where the Orlesians would attack there were only a small number of options, and only Amaranthine was close enough to be in danger of an attack. The Fereldan fleet, largely back in harbor, was able to begin moving to defend the city in less than half the time the Orlesians required…
Two hundred thirteen Orlesian ships gathered in Val Chevin, commanded by Grand Duke Pierre de Tours, veteran of the Nevarran Wars, and multiple battles against pirates operating off the coast of the Free Marches. Tours was easily the most seasoned and qualified naval commander in Orlais, perhaps in the entire world, and so was a natural choice for command. He was also undoubtedly the wrong man for the job. De Tours had a very strict line of thinking about naval warfare, demanding that he close with the enemy to board with grappling hooks, or use crossbows to capture enemy ships intact, relying on his sailors and marines to defeat the enemy. Against the small pirate ships, or the Nevarran war cogs and galleys these tactics had been spectacularly successful, the lighter ships no match for Orlais's heavier vessels.
However, against the thirty gun frigates, or the smaller war galleys that Fereldan used they were hopelessly outdated. The Fereldan fleet had almost completely abandoned the idea of boarding the enemy ship, largely because the use of their shipboard cannons almost always caused too much damage to bother capturing a ship intact…
The largest Fereldan ships sat far higher in the water than their Orlesian counterparts, any sailor who wished to board had to climb aboard first, under the attack of the more heavily armed Fereldan defenders. Additionally, the Fereldan ships were virtually invulnerable to arrow fire, with the main weapons being below decks…
The greatest naval battle to that time took place on the 7th of Matrinalis. The two hundred seven Orlesian ships that had survived the trip from Val Chevin arrived slightly off the coast of Amaranthine, and found fourteen Fereldan ships waiting for them. Tours immediately ordered his ships forward to close with the Fereldan ships and either seize or destroy them. To his surprise the Fereldans answered by tacking sails or extending oars and moving against the Orlesians. In minutes the two navies met, and as Tours's ships began to throw grappling hooks at the taller Fereldan vessels the cannons fired. At point blank range the Orlesian ships were smashed by the Fereldan broadsides, and as the Fereldan ships moved past the Orlesians they left twenty vessels in ruins behind them.
The Fereldan ships turned to make another pass at the slower Orlesian ships, fired another broadside as they passed again…
This pattern continued six times as Tours tried to bring his ships to bear against the Fereldans. Unknown to him, however the Fereldans had driven his ships into the waiting guns of the eleven Fereldan ships that had remained behind their fellows…
Their forces now caught in a crossfire against faster ships the Orlesians were left to be destroyed or to surrender. Tours was killed as his ship was hit by six cannonballs in rapid succession…
In total the Orlesians lost one hundred ninety ships destroyed, seventeen surrendered. They had also lost nearly ten thousand experienced sailors and merchant captains. In exchange Fereldan suffered twelve casualties, four of whom were from a cannon malfunction. If not for the land battle that would follow this would have been the most devastating defeat in Orlesian military history.
Orlais would never again contest control of the seas against Fereldan, and the blockade would only grow tighter as more of the southern coast was lost. By the end of the year nearly ninety percent of pre-war oceanic trade was gone. The Orlesian economy began to collapse as the blockade went on, and riots soon began in major cities. Soldiers quickly put down the revolts, but the unrest would only build as time went on, with tragic results…
To guest12: Look at it from the Orlesian perspective. The defenders were unprepared, most of them drunk or just awoken. They barely had chance to fight back. Additionally, there is a lot of elitism here as well. The ships destroyed were largely commanded by commoners or lower level nobles, since after all land combat is far more honorable (and common) than naval warfare. Therefore surely a properly led (that is to say a higher level noble in command) which is prepared should be capable of annihilating the miniscule Fereldan fleet.
This isn't even an entirely wrong belief, as there are a large number of ways Orlais could have won. For instance sacrificing ships to trap the Fereldans in place, which would allow the Orlesian ships to ram the Fereldan fleet. There would have been heavy casualties amongst the Orlesians, but they could have taken the losses. Also, if the courier ship hadn't been intercepted they would have been facing a quarter of what was actually waiting for them, as the main body of the fleet (including all the frigates) were based in Jader before the battle).
And that's the main point of the section. Orlais isn't stupid, they aren't incompetent, they are overconfident because of the number of centuries the Empire has been dominant. This is worsened by the sheer amount of power Celene simply can't exercise. She has effectively lost control of her court. Orlais needs a master on the level of Augustus Caesar, unfortunately Celene is merely competent, but not the ruler the country really needs to bring the Chevaliers back in line.