Chapter Summaries

Morin defused a standoff between hungry Saxon soldiers and their National Army and International Brigades allies, earning the respect of officers on all sides. As the soldiers faced discipline and the civilian received compensation, an urgent order summoned battalion-level officers to a meeting in the city.

• Morin learned that starving, under-officered soldiers from the Saxon 2nd Battalion had looted a civilian home, prompting National Army and International Brigades soldiers to confront them with rifles raised.
• Morin pushed into the standoff, disarmed the troublemakers, and rebuked them until they returned the stolen food and apologized.
• Morin apologized to the allies and residents in Aragonese, while Major Thomas and Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig promised discipline and affirmed the alliance.
• The 2nd Battalion took the soldiers away for punishment, and the homeowner accepted Saxon pfennigs as compensation.
• A mounted messenger delivered Brigadier General Paul's order for battalion-level officers, including Lieutenant Colonel Ludwig, to report to Command Headquarters for an urgent meeting.

Brigadier General Paul ordered the 16th Brigade to hold Seville despite heavy losses and the enemy’s growing strength. Morin joined a battalion briefing where Major Thomas warned that the reinforced enemy was expected to counterattack soon.

• Brigadier General Paul learned that the 16th Brigade had lost more than 37% of its personnel and that the Order of the Garter had increased its Armored Knights to eight.
• Brigadier General Paul rejected a retreat and ordered the brigade to hold Seville until the Armored Airships arrived.
• Morin led a post-battle review in which his soldiers discussed effective tactics and asked how to fight the heavily armored Britannian soldiers.
• A messenger summoned Morin to Battalion Headquarters for an emergency meeting.
• Major Thomas told the gathered officers that the enemy had regrouped, received reinforcements, and was expected to counterattack.

As the 1st Battalion prepared to defend Seville, its officers looked to Morin for guidance on urban combat. Morin proposed dispersing troops into buildings and connecting them through interior walls, leaving the battalion to prepare for a brutal defense.

• Major Thomas ordered the 1st Battalion to hold Seville, leaving officers unsure how to fight in a city.
• The officers, including Major Thomas, turned to Morin for tactical advice.
• Morin urged them to abandon traditional battle lines and disperse platoons and squads among key buildings to create mutually supporting positions.
• Morin proposed avoiding exposed streets by breaking through adjoining walls to move and supply troops inside the buildings.
• Morin warned the officers that urban combat would be brutal and that nowhere in the city would be safe.

Morin outlined a comprehensive urban defense plan to Major Thomas and the other officers, then worried that the Order of the Garter’s Armored Knights could overwhelm it. He sought Ludwig’s advice on whether direct-fire artillery could threaten the machines.

• Morin urged Major Thomas to disperse heavy machine guns, build street barricades, and move artillery into Seville for direct fire.
• Morin explained how field guns and howitzers could sweep streets and blast enemies out of buildings, convincing Major Thomas to report his plan to Brigade Headquarters and General Paul.
• The officers questioned Morin about urban fighting, and he patiently explained tactics while considering how to stop the enemy’s Armored Knights.
• Morin went to the Teutonic Order squad’s encampment and asked Ludwig whether 77mm Field Guns and 105mm Howitzers could damage Armored Knights at close range.

Morin searched for a way to counter the Order of the Garter's Armored Knights and devised a plan after seeing a metal funnel. Ludwig agreed to help, and returned from the artillery camp with shells, brass casings, and veteran artillerymen for Morin's secret weapons test.

• Ludwig explained that ordinary artillery and Molotov cocktails were largely ineffective against the Order of the Garter's modern Armored Knights.
• Morin noticed a metal funnel and asked Ludwig about the Knights' armor, learning its protection was equivalent to sixty to seventy millimeters of steel.
• Morin told Ludwig he could find a way to deal with the Armored Knights and requested shells, copper, artillerymen, and technical specialists.
• Ludwig agreed to support Morin and rushed to the artillery camp with squires to obtain the materials.
• Ludwig returned with more than a dozen 105-millimeter shells, two crates of spent brass casings, and three veteran artillerymen.

Morin recruited a chemistry professor and skilled workers from the International Brigades to help build a device for opening the Britannians’ White Iron Cans. As the makeshift workshop began producing its parts, Ludwig watched Morin bring soldiers and volunteers together, while the device remained unfinished.

• Morin found Andrei making Molotov cocktails and asked him to find a chemistry teacher and skilled metalworkers.
• Andrei introduced Morin to a professor from Silesia and several experienced workers, and Morin explained that he wanted to make a “Can Opener.”
• Morin brought the group to the Teutonic Order’s camp, where he showed them a drawing and directed them to turn borrowed shells and casings into the device.
• Artillerymen carefully removed Picric Acid from 105mm shells while the professor and workers melted brass casings and prepared copper cones.
• Morin explained the hollow-cone principle to the skeptical professor, who began calculating the design, as the different groups gradually learned to work together.

Morin spoke with Andrei and the International Brigades fighters about their ideals, their alliance with Saxony, and their support for Alfonso’s monarchy. When Morin asked about their homeland, Andrei and the professor reacted to the name Greater Russia Empire, and Morin’s information collection progress reached 20%.

• Morin shared food with the chemistry professor, skilled workers, and Andrei while they waited for the castings to cool.
• Andrei explained that the International Brigades had come to Aragon to oppose Britannia’s magitech monopoly and spread technological progress.
• Andrei said the fighters allied with Saxony because both sides opposed Britannia, though each pursued its own goals.
• Andrei and the professor argued that Alfonso’s promised reforms could advance their ideals step by step, while Morin worried that technological change could lead to economic crises and fascism.
• Morin asked about the Provisional Government of Silesia, and Andrei identified their homeland as the Greater Russia Empire.
• Morin’s information collection progress reached 20%, unlocking a new entry under Information.

Morin learned that Russia had fractured into a war-torn struggle among rival factions, then guided the workers in assembling a makeshift shaped-charge anti-armor weapon. Ludwig prepared to test it against armor, leaving the chapter just as he triggered it.

• Morin learned from Andrei that Russia had collapsed into warring factions, with Kolchak’s monarchists and Denikin’s forces backed by the Britannians, while the communists were led by Kerensky.
• Morin’s information-gathering progress reached 23%, and the System Map revealed more of Russia’s divided political landscape.
• Morin and the workers completed a shaped-charge anti-armor round using a hollow copper cone, shell explosives, and a mechanical fuze.
• Ludwig agreed that the Armored Knights would carry and detonate the weapon by hand, then prepared a damaged Garter knight armor plate as a test target.
• Ludwig aimed the weapon at the armor plate and triggered it.

Morin’s team successfully tested the shaped-charge armor-piercing shell, which punched through an Armored Knight’s armor. Morin called science “magic that belongs to everyone,” and the group rushed to produce more shells as enemy warning whistles sounded.

• Morin received a notification that the Shaped-Charge Armor-Piercing Shell technology had been unlocked and could be improved.
• Ludwig inspected the armor plate and found that the shell had pierced it with a small, clean hole.
• The workers, artillerymen, and intellectuals cheered, while Ludwig asked Morin what kind of magic had made the weapon possible.
• Morin explained that the weapon came from shared knowledge, skill, precision, experience, and courage, calling science a kind of magic anyone could master.
• Andrei praised Morin’s words, and the group began rapidly producing more shells.
• Warning whistles sounded across the city as the enemy prepared its next move.

Morin organized Seville’s defenses and prepared 3rd Platoon for the Royal Army and Britannian advance. As enemy troops entered the city and approached a barricade, hidden defenders opened fire.

• Morin left Andrei and Ludwig to make equipment and returned to his 3rd Platoon sector in Seville.
• Klaus told Morin that reinforcements had restored the platoon to full strength, with two extra infantry squads and an MG08 Heavy Machine Gun crew.
• Morin placed infantry in concealed positions, kept the new squads in reserve, and set up a 77mm Field Gun and a 105mm Howitzer to defend Sun Boulevard.
• The System Map showed enemy forces closing on Seville while the 52nd Cavalry Regiment continued prowling outside the city at 64% strength.
• Major John sent Royal Army troops into Seville ahead of the Britannians, and they found the streets deserted until they reached a barricade of obstacles and barbed wire.
• A hidden defender shot a Royal Army soldier at the barricade, and gunfire erupted throughout Seville.