Calinthian Military

The Calinthian Armed Forces was the former military of the Kingdom of Calinthia under the leadership of the Royal Constatine family.

History
The history of the Calinthian military dates back to 1521 AD, when King Joraine I decreed the creation of the Kingdom of Calinthia. The Calinithian military participated in many wars dating from 1521 AD up until its dissolution in 1861. In 1861, the creation of the Republic of Calinthia saw the reformation of the military. While the societal militarism that had become prevalent in the 1700s was still intact, many policies were passed to "de-radicalize" and to reduce loyalty to the crown within the military. Such laws like the Blood of the Republic Law of 1891 were passed to achieve this. These laws and policies saw many military career soldiers and officers pushed out of the military by force, regardless of military experience. This is now believed by modern Calinthian scholars to have greatly reduced the fighting capabilities of the Calinthian Military during the Great War. After having lost upwards of 1 million soldiers in the Great War, many Republican reformations were undertaken. Several-hundred military officers that were pushed out of the military were inducted back into positions of power, regardless of the Blood of the Republic Law of 1891. This created a situation in which Loyalist military officers were in charge of Republican soldiers.

Over the next two decades, riots, protests, and military demonstrations would see the Republican military deployed around Calinthia. The most famous of these incidents is the Christmas Civil War of 1931. While only lasting a single week, this conflict saw Republican military units assaulting positions of the Loyalist 138th Calinthian Guard Division in the city of Milanopolis on the 21st of December. The result of the battle was 6,264 Republican soldiers killed, and 4,069 Loyalist soldiers killed, as well as the surrender of the 138th Calinthian Guard Division. This sparked public outrage at the Republican guard for having gone straight to violence against Loyalists, and refusing to negotiate. It wasn't until 1936 that the Republican military would face a much larger split in forces when Republican General Juna Ricola would take half of the military and a majority of the Navy and join the Loyalist cause. For two years the Calinthian Civil War would rage, resulting in the dissolution of the Republic of Calinthia, and it's military. For six years the Calinthian Civil War would rage.

Furthering the issues of the Republic was the Communist uprisings on the Western territories of Calinthia by mainly Gothic Calinthians. At first the Communist Calinthians and Loyalist Calinthians would openly fight one another in many minor skirmishes in the North. However, by late 1937 the Communist Calinthians under General Secretary of the Communist Party Siegmund Goering would ally themselves with the Loyalists against the Republican Guard Forces. With Communist forces in the West and Loyalists in the East, the Republican Guard quickly found themselves on the back-foot. By early 1940, Republican Guard Forces prepared a hastily built defense around Aurelia and struggled to maintain their supply lines from the port of Napolis. Constant air attacks by the superior Loyalist air force rendered many of the railroads inoperable. In addition, the mechanized Loyalist assaults using a tactic called "Schwerpunkt" penetrated deep into Republican Guard lines, cutting supply lines. The tactic was an adaptation of the Urcean "lightning war" tactic developed by Benno de Caryale. It was adapted and implemented by the Calinthian Armed Forces unnder the command of General Friedrich von Guder, a graduate of the Urcean Imperial War College and student of de Caryale's tactics.

The Calinthian Civil War resulted in the dissolution of the Republic of Calinthia and it's military in 1942. Following the collapse of the Republic of Calinthia, Gothic Calinthians formalized their new state through the creation of the Soviet State of Calinthia (SSC). The Monarchic Loyalists had declared their statehood much earlier during the war in 1938 with the coronation of King Rudolph Constatine II. With the Loyalists now once more in control of the military, the Loyalist government set about large military reformations. Any Republican sentiment in the military was outlawed, and any still loyal to the Republican government were exiled or imprisoned. This included Republican General Licoa Miduci who was exiled to Ardmore in 1941 after being imprisoned since 1938. Radical indoctrination programs were also implemented in the military and even education system. These programs would teach the value of Catholicism, as well as strength of Absolute Monarchy. Pictures of the Constatine monarch Randolph III were commonplace going forward in both military and education installations following his coronation in 1946. In addition, military hardware and technology were improved upon post Second Great War. A new uniform known as the M-41 Kit was handed out to represent the renewed loyalty to the Constatine family. The M-41 Kit also known as the Montuoso-41 Kit was the first step in standardizing Loyalist military forces.

Tactics & Strategy
Beginning with the Military Initiative 1941 Calinthian ground tactics consisted of large mechanized and armored assaults. This tactic is also known as "Schwerpunkt" and was adapted by Friedrich von Guder from Urcean Military thought. It relies on overwhelming armored force concentrated on as small of a section of the battlefield as possible. The Calinthian Armed Forces used the tactics to great effect both in the Calinthian Civil War against the Republican Guard and in the War of Hearts against the Loyalist forces. The main implementations of the reformations of 1944 was complete reliance on mechanized and armored warfare doctrines with supporting combined arms such as air or artillery formations in support. Calinthian general Hubert von Markansen was the first to formalize the concept of Blitz und Schrecken, literally "Lightning and Terror". This tactic relied on overwhelming first strike capability to completely render the opponents military and civilian infrastructure destroyed or at the very least temporarily suppressed. This is then followed by a mechanized and armored ground attack using the concepts of Schwerpunkt. Through these methods, von Markansen theorized that the enemy would have limited time if any to react to an attack. He further theorized that not only would the destruction of military infrastructure compromise the reactivity of the enemy military, but the complete destruction of civilian infrastructure on a massive scale would cause panic among the civilian populace. This would create riots, distrust of the local government, and would heavily reduce the amount of Calinthian fighting force needed to fight the enemy.

Equipment
All numbers are approximate and as per the Calinthian Armed Forces' own statistics prior to 1961