After the defeat of the Spanish, the celts settled down once again to enjoy peace for a little while. More railways and factories were built, and the army continued to expand.
Meanwhile the Iroquai nation was in the grip of anarchy, the democratic government there had fallen during the course of the war with the other nations of their subcontinent (the Germans and the North Americans), and new militaristic forces were seeking to gain power in Salamanca.
The new leader Hiawatha emerged from a balcony on the great tower of the Iroquai National Fascist headquarters. Most of The city's population were in the great square below, being mesmerised by the all the tribal symbols, flags and chants happening all around them.
Their leader raised up his arms, paused, and then spoke in a great booming voice:
"A new power is rising! its victory is at hand! This night, the land will be stained with the blood of America! We march to Washington! We will leave no enemy alive! To WAR!!!!!" The crowd cheered, stirred up into a bloodlust, enthusiastic to see their country fight and win again. A Celtic spy was in the crowd, watching the spectacle. "Hiawatha is a propaganda punk, but I think he is serious about trying to conquer the whole continent" he reported back to home.
Meanwhile, other disturbing reports were reaching the new celtic capitol building. The iroquai were forcing 'resettlement', or more accurately, death, on the ethnic german population of their new empire, and even on minorities of their own population. Disturbing photographs were smuggled out of the iroquai empire, showing concentration camps and piles of dead bodies. Much of the german nation was being eradicated, and the survivors were being assimilated into the iroquai empire. The populations of many Amercian cities might soon face the same fate. In war the iroquai were advancing on all fronts, new york and all of the old aztec lands had already fallen.
What to do? Spain had been a weak, underdeveloped nation compared to the Americans, the French or the new empire of the Iroquai, yet it had taken the full effort of celtic nation before spain was conquered. Fighting overseas had proved difficult. But, spain had now provided the celts with a strategic foothold, from which it would be possible to advance. And of course, a fairly substantial celtic force was already in the area, poised on the weak flank of the iroquai. Perhaps the celts could help limit the irqoquai expansion. Or maybe even find a way to liberate germany, before the original population was wiped out. But the iroquai fascism was producing an enormous army. If if the celts could equal them in overall numbers, the celts still had to keep enough forces to defend the home continent.
The celtonian communist peoples' council was divided. Comrade Brennus, the new leader of the communist party, rallied the celtic leaders for action. "Do we just abandon the other half of the world to its fate? "This fascism cannot be tolerated in the world.... Germany must be saved from fascist aggression!" Eventually, all were agreed. Action was needed, even if it would leave the celts pushed off the other continent for good. Even if the army would be completely shredded and the homeland istelf invaded, something had to be done, to be attempted. It was the nature of the celtic people. It was time to try to achieve the dream of enforcing peace and goodwill throughout the entire world, no matter the cost.
The call to arms was sent out once again, and all available forces in spain gathered south of Santiago, near the iroquai border. An ultimatum was sent to the iroquai fascist leaders. Our demand was that they surrender all of their captured american and german territory, a bold statement of celtic intentions.
Unsurprisingly, Hiawatha refused. In fact, the iroquai now saw themselves as the supreme military power in the world, with the resources of mexico, germany and much of america now under their control. They disregarded any threat to their plans from the celts, beleiving they would not dare attack.
And so, the celts were left with one option:
There was no real plan or strategy, other than trying to defeat iroquai forces at all costs. Liberating german lands at this point seemed impossible, but it was hoped in future an opportunity would come. For now the celtic command hoped to at least distract irouqai attention from america, giving them the change to retake their lost territory.
The first priority was to try take the initiative, on the front where celtic occupied spain bordered the iroquai lands. If was felt that a quick strike might be succesful in capturing iroquai land, before they had a chance to respond.
"All things belong to the brave" had once been a celtic saying. The forces from spain marched into iroquai lands, where unknown numbers of fanatical fascist troops waited for them. It was not long before iroquai and celtic warriors clashed for the first time. The first move of the war was an attack was made on the nearest iroquai occupied city to the south. Hopes that these recently-captured lands were not too well defended were proved true. The city fell to the celtic attack, with few losses incurred. Was victory against this great foe possible? The celtic forces moved on...
The landscape as strange and unnerving, unlike anything in the home lands. In the north there was a great 'volcano' known as 'mount thunder', and in the south, the unforgiving jungles of mexico where the aztecs had once lived. Advancing with the celtic troops were also military scientists and botanists, who took time to study the land.
There was a pause in the fighting, and a sense of foreboding, as it was known the iroquai would soon respond to the surprise celtic attack.
(Cavalry skirmish in the mountains)
Salamanca, the iroquai capitol, was not that far from the front line. With the celtic command growing in confidence, it was seen as a possible objective, but it would undoubtedly be very heavily defended. However, not long after the celtic attack, the iroquai countered with large numbers of cavalry and riflemen. Despite the best efforts at moving in new forces from home, it was now clear that there was not enough force to advance further, indeed there might not be enough forces to stop the iroquai forcing the celtic force all the way into spain.
Riflemen, now used by both sides, had shown their effectiveness against cavalry in mountain terrain. A defensive posture was adopted for now, but the celts struggled to hold onto several strategic mountain positions, which the iroquai continually attacked. Fighting was hard, and there had already been many casualties. At any moment, it was feared the iroquai would unleash a major attack out of the mountains.
In the celtic leadership, the overall planning for the war was confused. Many commanders wanted to concentrate on this single front, as this offered the best chance for inflicting losses on the iroquai empire, however it offered little hope of liberating germany. An invasion across the western ocean into germany was dreamed, but the lesson of previous invasions had been learned - It would take army attacking in force to establish a second front in germany, and while such a force as begin assembled, the other first front would have to hold against the iroquai onslaught with only minimal reinforcements.
Meanwhile, at sea, it was suspected that the iroquai had mobilised a fairly large navy, with many frigate-class ships. Since the outbreak of war, naval combat had so far been confined to a few small battles between patrolling ships. No major sea battles took place until a small fleet of iroquai frigates was spotted escorting a galleon to the island of Alaska.
Several times over the next few years, the iroquai would make trips from their coastal bases on the alaskan sea and try to conquer the island. The celtic ironclads managed to sink several frigates, and damaged more by long range fire, forcing them back to port for repairs. However, several ironclads were also damaged or sunk. But the ironclad ship design once again proved its worth. They were able to balance out the greater numbers of iroquai ships with greater performance in battle, and much greater survivability.
The iroquai used their frigates in concentrated formations, which proved almost unstoppable. The celts had more ships overall, but were spread out all over the oceans, while the iroquai focused on a single region. The massed iroquai frigates were able to escort a few invasion divisions to alaska several times, which came close to breaching the defences of the city of buffalo there (which was at one point defended by one decimated riflemen divison). But together with the naval gunfire of the ironclads, reinforcements from the other side of the island were able to repeatedly beat off the invaders. Had the iroquais attacked with more strength, the island of alska would have fallen, changing the state of the naval war.
(Celtic intelligence monitors foreign naval power)
Back home, all was not well, as the byzantines were once again at war with the hittites, and were advancing into their territory. As feared, the celts could not spare any resources from the iroquai war to deal with the new situation. Celtic command kept a close eye on the Byzantine navy as it surrounded and bombarded hittite coastal
cities.
(figthing for a mountain pass)
Back on the other continent, for several long months the war raged on in the mountains and jungles of the current front, while it was decided what course to take. Despite constant attrition, Celtic forces were gradually building up in strength, but so were the iroquai. The celts made the most of the mountain terrain, and there were several heroic last stands by dug-in celtic riflemen divisions, which took out many iroquai units. The celts own cavalry would move in to finish off damaged enemy units and attack any targets of opportunity.
The celtic army was holding on, just. Further gains were out the quesiton at this point. Conditions for the troops were terrible, in the high inaccessible mountains or in the dense jungles. But the will to fight remained strong.
Up north, the iroquai/American front seemed more or less stable, with no more iroquai gains there for now. Perhaps the celts had managed to divert enough iroquai forces away from that front? Nonetheless, an american city near Washington was reduced to ruins and completely destroyed, a sign of the scale of the fighting that was
still going on.
The situation wasnt going anywhere, at least not in the direction the celts wanted. All of celtonia was put on full war mobilisation, and thousands of new weapons and warriors left the homeland each year to fight overseas, but this was only enough to hold the line. The current war situation could go on for many years, during which the americans would inevitably suffer more losses and the german populations would be completely assimilated into the iroquai empire.
Meanwhile unrest was starting again on the home continent. Time was of the essence, each passing month weakened the celtic position on both continents. Something needed to be done to regain the imitative, that hope of progress that had been seen only at the outbreak of war.
The celtic leadership now decided that an ally was needed if the war was going to be won. The fateful decision was taken to try to persuade the French to join the conflict. The french had been a relatively peaceful nation, quietly living in the snowy south of their continent for many centuries. Only recently they had expanded at the expense of the arrogant vikings. The situation was complicated, as the french and the americans were not on good terms at all. But the French had a powerful army, and seemed willing to see iroquai power reduced.
The only previous alliance in celtic history had been with byzanitum (during the time of the incan empire), and the alliance had eventually made the two civlisations bitter enemies. Would such a thing happen again with the French? Nonetheless, the priority now was defeating the fascist iroquai forces. With french help, the celts would soon feel confident enough to gamble with a major attack
.