Battle of Eastcliff Bay

The Battle of Eastcliff Bay (Skanoric: Slaget vid Östklippenvik), was a naval battle that occurred during the Truespear Invasion of Quel'Anaris.

Following the invasion of Quel'Anaris by Tas'Vona Truespear, the Aurelian ambassador to the Kingdom of Varland, Sariridel Greatfold, requested that Varland send military support under the terms dictated by the articles of the League of Roses. As a response, King Karolus Vårtorn-Korppari authorised the deployment of the First Väktare Corps, which set sail via ships loaned from the Royal Varlandic Trading Company in mid-September, 628 K.C.

Kingdom of Varland
Aside from the various transport galleons commissioned from the KVH, the Varlandic detachment also included vessels from the Varlandic Navy, consisting of the 7th Cruiser Division and the battlecruiser HMAS Karolyna.

Truespear Enclaves
To intercept any reinforcements, Truespear's daughter, Lasdorel, dispatched a small fleet to patrol the waters off the port of Eastcliff, consisting of a single battleship and six frigates.

Contact
Following standard convoy procedure, the Varlandic cruisers adopted a pentagonal formation around the convoy, with the transports, flagship and carrier in the centre. They proceeded in this formation from their initial departure point at Rosholm, to the coast of the Eastern Kingdoms, where they were intercepted by Truespear's force.

Contact was made when the leading cruiser, HMAS Valtterii spotted the approaching Truespear vessels and, without warning, was soon fired upon and damaged by the lead battleship. As a result, the Valtteri signalled a warning to the rest of the fleet and the HMAS Karolyna ordered the transports to scatter, while the cruisers advanced to meet the threat.

Early Battle
In the early battle, the Truespear forcs split, with half the frigates and the battleship moving in toward the escorting Varlandic cruisers while the remaining frigates went after the transports. Meanwhile, the two leading Varlandic cruisers, Valtteri and Kalevi, moved to delay the attacking ships to buy time for the transports to scatter and the other escorts to arrive. At the same time, the remaining 3 cruisers and the Karolyna steamed to intercept the attackers, while the carrier Pelikaani began launching torpedo bombers to deal with the second set of frigates.

As they closed with each other, both sides traded volleys, with the Varlandic cruisers gaining the upper hand as their turret mounts allowed them to pour in more fire than could be returned by the other frigates, though neither side was able to disable the other.

Mid Battle
By the mid battle, the fight had been split into two primary conflicts. Firstly, the main force of the escorts had by now begun to engage with the Truespear vessels, while the second unit of frigates had reached the transports.

In the case of the first conflict, the Varlandic cruisers had taken on their standard battle formation, attempting to use torpedoes to drive the enemy into pockets and divide them up. This attempt had the desired effect, with one of the frigates being sunk by the torpedoes and the remainder being separated from the battleship, allowing the Karolyna to engage it while the five cruisers continued their assault on the remaining frigates.

Meanwhile, the battle between the transports and the second unit of the Truespear vessels was initially going far worse for the Varlanders, as the frigates managed to catch up to and sink a pair of transports. However, by this point the Pelikaani had launched both it's bomber wings, which managed to swoop down upon the isolated frigates and quickly sink two, forcing the third to retreat.

Late Battle
Finally, having driven away the frigates and protected the transports, the bomber wings were freed up to join the cruisers, swooping in from the skies and forcing the remaining frigates to give up the battle. This allowed the cruiser to focus their fire upon the battleship, but despite this it also managed to flee, though heavily damaged.

Results
Despite losing two transports to the enemy, the battle was considered a victory for Varland, as the convoy remained mostly unharmed and was able to offload it's troops at Eastcliff as planned. However, the escape of half the frigates and the battleship both denied the Varlander's the chance to deal a complete defeat to Truespear and allowed warning of their arrival to be carried back to their enemies.