Kolno

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Kolno is a city and location in the Polania Republic.

Under siege by foreign invaders, it is the setting for the last two levels of "The Price of Freedom" campaign.

History

Unlike many areas of Polania, which have yet to see major industrial development and infrastructure, Kolno is a very large and modernized city. Its roads are paved, its buildings largely made of brick and stone, access to electricity and gas are everywhere, and it contains many technological advents such as factories and railway stations.

During the Great War, Kolno seems to have escaped much of the destruction despite its close proximity to the Polania/Rusviet border. After escaping from his captivity by the Saxonian military, engineer Heinrich Steinmetz escaped to Kolno to live in peace. Here, he would set up a workshop which included a large barn, in which he worked on new airship designs including one that could inflate/deflate itself for ease of storage.

Post War

After the end of the Great War, as part of the international treaty Polania had to cede to an armed occupation by Rusviet Tsardom forces. A large swath of its northeastern territory was put under occupation, including Kolno. With no protection from the Polanian military and few supplies, the citizens began to starve and capitulate. Rusviet colonel Lev Aleksey Zubov billeted many of his forces here as well.

The Battle of Kolno

Anna Kos, however, aimed to do something about this with her uncle Lech and the Polanian Resistance forces. Capturing a war train full of supplies, they managed to break through the Rusviet blockade and made it into the city. However, Anna discovered her uncle's plan was not just to deliver food, but to offload weapons to the civilians and start an armed uprising. The civilians stood no chance of winning, but Lech believed that the massacre of Kolno would galvanize the Polania population to unite and drive out the Rusviets. Vicious door-to-door fighting began shortly after, with Rusviets gunning down any civilians in sight regardless of if they were armed or not.

Fortunately, Steinmetz found Anna and offered his workshop as shelter to fleeing civilians. Anna took any troops loyal to her to find and evacuated anyone they could find, protecting them at all cost and bringing them to the workshop where Steinmetz unveiled his large airship that could be used to escape the city. However, heavy gun emplacements kept the ship grounded, forcing Anna to assault the guns. Before she could silence the last one, she and Lech were captured by Zubov, who upon learning that Steinmetz was aboard the craft ordered the guns to cease firing as he aimed to capture the engineer alive.

Unfortunately for Lech and Anna, the uprising played right into the plans of Fenris, a shadowy international cabal aiming to push the great nations of Europa to war with each other again. Polania had violated the treaty, provoking Rusviet to lead a full invasion. Lech was then executed but Anna was rescued by Michal Sikorski's cavalry, and together they dismantled Zubov's remaining forces in Kolno although failing to capture the colonel himself. The city was liberated, and Anna spent some time helping the city get back in order before once again pursuing Zubov along with Michal.

Trivia

Kolno is a city in northeastern Poland, which during World War II was occupied first by the Soviets and later by the Nazis until liberated and ceded back to Poland by the Soviets in 1945.
Kolno is where you gain command of your first and only PZM-24 "Tur" heavy mech of the campaign.

Lore

General

Factions

The Factory

World of 1920+
Airship