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When King Alejandro III and Crown Prince Teodore died in a shipwreck in 1550, Félipe ascended to the throne. He quickly gathered like-minded supporters from the nobility and upper-classes, including prominent generals from the Royal Corric Armed Legions. These individuals and their power bases would form the backbone of Félipe I’s fight against Réal. The king spent seven years training troops, funding military research, and acquiring a number of blackpowder weapons that were new to Andora at the time.
On 12 March 1557, Félipe I invaded the Réoran province of Marsabale with an army of almost 14,000 troops. This set off the Thirty Years’ Bloodshed, also known as the Conquista. UtilizingThe theuse newly-formedof Kings’firearms Ownand Royalcannons Arquebusiers,allowed the Arranzic armyforces wasto ablefurther toconquer overrunCamplata theand garrisonL'vontre ofprovinces Marsabalebefore andmeeting defeatlocal themnobles in battle. While the field.kings' Thisforces leftwon, theit provinceproved -costly consistingand atslowed progress. This stall allowed the timerest of anRéal estimatedto 150,000prepare peoplefor -war, atand the completeConquista mercychanged offrom Félipea I,swift whoprofessional promptlyconquest orderedto thea citygeneral sacked,war farmsof andsieges, estates plunderedraids, and thepitched plunder sent back to Avantanabattles.
Félipe I earned his nickname, ‘the Bloody,’ from his treatment of the captured garrison troops. All of them had their hands removed and tongues cut out, to ‘never raise a hand against Casilló again nor speak ill of her name.’ They were then roped together and forced to march further into Réoran territory. Methods such as these were common by Arranzic forces during the Conquista, and had the three-fold effect of depriving Réal of fighting manpower, forcing them to spend resources taking care of the crippled soldiers, and delivering a harsh morale blow to any Réoran citizens that saw them.
Casilló was able to further conquer the neighboring Camplata and L’vontre provinces over the course of seven months before the armies of Réal were able to respond. The plunder gained from the conquest of Camplata was critically important to the Arranzic war effort; the Cathedral of Santa Verónica and the Camplata silver mines provided an estimated 200,000 Regnes in funding (approximately $400 million dollars today.) The amount of coin meant Félipe I stayed longer than intended in the area to consolidate his gains, allowing the armies of Duke Francesco de Palda and Count Javíer de Voco to catch him.
The Battle of Silver Fields was the first proper ordered battle between comparative armies during the Conquista, with 12,000 troops from Casillo and 15,000 from Réal. Though numbers, terrain familiarity, and positioning favored the Réorans, their morale was severely damaged by the blackpowder cannons and arquebusiers Félipe I had brought. The king had trained up a professional army for 7 years to get used to the weapons, while the mostly-conscripted troop of the Réoran nobles had never experienced such.
Though they sustained heavy losses while maneuvering, the Arranzic army eventually routed their enemies. The Duke and Count lost 3,000 men, with 8,000 captured, while King Félipe I lost 6,000 men, most to projectiles. While tactically a victory for Félipe I, the battle forced a strategic stalemate as he no longer possessed the forces to continue his swift attacks. This began the second period of the Conquista, which lasted from 1558 to 1575 CE.
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