Battle of Dathomir (Neo -Galactic Civil War)

The Battle of Dathomir was fought in 156 ABY between the Mandalorian Empire and the Sith Empire of Darth Krayt.

Background
The two powers of the Sith and the Mandalorians had fought each other to a standstill in small skirmishes on Dathomir. The Mandalorians had invaded earlier that year, hoping for a quick victory. The Sith had stopped them at a line known as the 'Killing Grounds' early on that year, but since then, the two lines had hardly moved. A dramatic change of strategy was needed to break the deadlock. The soldiers of both sides had dug themselves into trenches along the lines and had so far made nothing more than small offenses which resulted in massive casualties and seemed futile. Persistent shelling from both sides had turned the Dathomir landscape into a muddy plain.

However, there was good news for both sides. For the Mandalorians, the news that a rebellion on Mandalore had beenc crushed boosted morale, as did the news that crack Mandalorian troops were now being sent to Dathomir. For the Sith, the news that Darth Krayt had sent hundreds of thousands of conscript troops to Dathomir raised spirits within the Sith ranks and made all te soldiers feel as though the battle was finally going to end after months of waiting. However, these fresh Sith troops needed to be trained before they could go into battle. or the time being, it seemed as though the Mandalorians might win the battle.

Plans
However, the Mandalorian commander, General Ordus, knew that he had to attack before the new Sith troops becmae operational. Ordus knew that this culd be Mandalore's final chance to win the battle. Even with the new wave of soldiers at his command, Ordus knew that he still didn't have the man power to launch a full scale offensive of the Sith line. So he decided to focus on one part of the line, the northernmost sector. If he could push the Sith defenders in the north away from the line, then the remaining forces would be vulnerable to a pincer attack and the battle, and maybe even the war, would be won. Ordus drew up a plan which he named 'Mandalore's Battle'. His troops would concentrate their attacks in a series of powerful punches. The first punch would drive a wedge between the northern and central sectors, where the Third and Second Sith armies met. If Ordus could divide them, he could capture the roads behind them and cut their supply line. He named his offensive 'Attack of Canderous', after Canderous Ordo. A massive force of unprecidented strength and quality began to be put together for the attack. The Mandalorian army was scoured for the toughest, fittest and most experienced soldiers. The weak and the old were transferred to the back lines. Only the very best of all were trained as Stormtroopers, who, despite the name, were far better soldiers o the Galactic Empire. These were specialist units of shock troops that would punch through the Sith lines.

It wasn't just fresh troops that Ordus was counting on. He intended to throw away the old rule book on how to fight a battle. The Mandalorian terenches were firmly set. Just five miles away, the Sith were also dug in, with their artillery further back. An infantry charge was usually preceeded by an indiscriminate artillery barrage, lasting days or weeks. The idea was to clear away a path for the advancing infantry. The problem was that these long bombardments gave the enemy plenty of warning that infantry attack was going to happen. This time, Ordus planned a barrage of just five hours but with more artillery than ever before.

For the first two hours, the Mandalorian artillery would fire on the Sith artillery with a mixture of explosives and poison gas. Then they would fire on the Sith infantry. The bombardment would keep the Sith hunkered down in their trench. Exactly five hours after the bombardment started, the Stormtroopers would begin their advance. Ordus hoped that this mass confusion and ferocious attack would cause the northern sector to fall apart in a single day.

In Ordus, the Mandalorians had a strong leader with a clear battle plan. In the Sith ranks, there was nobody in overall command. They were trusting to hologram orders from Darth Krayt himself. He ordered simply that the Sith fight as they always had.

Battle
On the morning of the attack day, the eerie quiet in the Sith trenches was broken by the sound of Mandalorian artillery. 2000 artillery cannons and 5000 mortar teams fired almost simultaneously along the northern sector of the Sith lines. As well as explosives, the Mandalorians were also firing off lethal gases, which hung in the air for hours, burning the eyes and throats of soldiers.

The Mandalorian barrage was devastating. Whole units were wiped out by the relentless firing. The Sith were being slaughtered. Then the Stormtroopers attacked. The Mandalorians were so well prepared that they had sewn maps of the Sith trenches into the Stormtroopers' sleeves.

All morning, the Stormtroopers forced their way through gaps in the Sith lines, which were already weakened by the artillery barrage. Armed with heavy repeaters, an assortment of grenades and flamethrowers, they surged forward. Whenever they met strong resistance, they skirted around it, towards weaker locations and towards the undefended artillery. The Stormtroopers left the job of getting rid of remaining resistance to the main infantry force coming up behind them. With huge gaps in the Sith lines, hundreds of thousands of Mandalorian infantry advanced casually behind the Stormtroopers. The Sith had lost control of the situation.

Whole Sith battlions had to retreat away from the lines. Others, suffering from the effects of gasing, coughed and staggered their way away from the Mandalorians. By midday, a third of all Sith troops in the northern sector were dead or had been captured. The Sith finally surrendered Dathomir two days later.