Week 2, Month 1News:Brave Larenzan citizens in the west of the nation have taken their security into their own hands following the recent terrorist attack. Dubbing themselves the 'Larenzan Irregulars', this team of armed civilians have pledged to protect their homes and their neighbours from guerilla aggression in the region. Local
LAF forces are reportedly happy for the assistance from the loyal citizenry during their operations in the area, and the nation's leaders have publicly commended the initiative and bravery of the people living under them.
State of Larenza:LAF funds and materiel: High [4/5]
LAF Morale: Average [3/5]
LAF Alertness: Guarded [2/5]LAF International Relations- Military Alliance
- Friendly Intervention
- Military Training & Indirect Assistance
- Arms Trading
- Public Support Statement
- Neutrality ◄ Concordat
- Public Criticism ◄ Federation, ◄ Union
- Trade Sanctions
- Full Embargo & Covert Ops
- Hostile Intervention
- Invasion
Following last week's terrorist attack in the west, the
LAF have instigated a small-scale search-and-destroy mission on the outskirts of their patrol zones in the area. The humming rotors of the
LAF's airborne brigades can be heard for much of the week as they pay unfriendly visits to outlying villages.
[2] Fortunately for Larenzan Republic operatives in the area, these raids achieve nothing other than riling up the townspeople and disrupting local business. After an incident in which a civilian truck was disabled by gunship fire, severely injuring the driver, the entire operation is called off.
Rebel Activity:Go across the nearest border myself, with the intention of finding a buyer, along with one squad. If the journey proves too long for me return to Larenza within the week, send my men to find a contact and return.
Install the rest of the troops, armed, in the houses and fields of friendly villagers, on the shortest and most likely vehicle route between the two nearby villages. Ask a villager whom I trust (the elder, or preferably a close friend) to tell the LAF patrols that the rebel base is in the nearby village which I have not visited, claiming that that village is mostly friendly to the rebels.
If the LAF sends men in a vehicle to investigate, in numbers which my squad could reasonably take down, have them attack after blocking the road with a herd of cattle, when the LAF men are on the way back. The priority is to capture the vehicle. If possible, have my squad launch the ambush closer to the non-friendly village, to remove suspiscion from my supporters.
[1] You lead your squad to and fro around the Larenzan countryside, brushing perilously close to
LAF patrol teams and eventually getting hopelessly lost somewhere near the border with Farago. Or is it Bralisia? You can't tell. Either way, you get sent back the way you came after an
LAF border patrol squad stumbles upon you drawing a crude map in the dirt. You lose one soldier in the ensuing close-quarters firefight, and you and two others sustain light wounds in the retreat. It takes you the rest of the week to limp back home.
[5] Fortunately, the envoys you dispatched before leaving have much more luck. The local farmers are still quite happy to co-operate with your militia, and several houses along the main road between your favoured village and the other one temporarily become observation posts for your men. After assurance from the village elder that an 'anonymous tip' will find its way to the desk of the local
LAF garrison commander, your troops are set to stage their ambush.
[5] On the sixth morning of the week, your gang's patience pays off. Your sentries track a motorised squad of
LAF troopers making their way along the road, presumably on their way to shake down the village your friend pointed them towards. It's noon by the time they start returning. At a convergent point between three small shacks that your men are installed in, a brave farmer herds his cattle across the road, forcing the
LAF truck to stop. The driver's complaints are almost instantly drowned out by gunfire as your hidden soldiers launch their ambush, riddling the truck's cabin and awning with bullets. By the time their magazines are empty, nothing inside the truck is moving - and, miraculously, none of the cattle were hurt in the firefight. A brief inspection suggests that the vehicle is only superficially damaged, and by the time you find your way home after your ill-fated exodus, it sits parked in a small, dilapidated barn just outside your base.
I send a squad, half deserters, half farmers, to establish a presence as a millita force for the nearest village. I am sure that the LAF will not object to a couple civilians and former soldiers taking up arms to defend their homes against terrorists. Besides, we can use it as a recruiting tool. This movement will be hereby referred to as the Larenzan Irregulars.
The remaining half squad of farmers will hold down the fort and maybe do some logging while I and my half squad of fellow soldiers cross the border to bralisian turf. If we can make contact and start some trade of any sort, we can start making bigger moves.
[6] You figure that if you don't want your troops to immediately get arrested for this venture, it'll take some sort of agreement with the enemy - to that end, you pay a diplomatic visit to the
LAF garrison office in the regional capital. It takes some serious diplomatic gymnastics to convince the local
LAF battalion commander that your intentions are good in setting up the 'Larenzan Irregulars', but after the recent failure of
LAF search-and-destroy operations in the area, he's in a difficult position, and you manage to convince him that small bands of locals will serve as far better protection than heavy-handed
LAF sweeps. He reluctantly agrees not to question where you got your armaments from, but in return, he expects results. He stipulates, under no uncertain terms, that his forces expect full co-operation from your irregulars, and that failure to prove that your group is actually stopping terrorist activity in the area will result in your agreement being voided.
[4] It's a change of pace for your remaining troopers, most of whom were expecting a more exciting life when they joined your faction, but they soon work out how to bring some of the sawmill's rusty old machines back online. By the end of the week, you've got a tidy assortment of logs, planks and lumber ready to be sold off to local business and beyond - if only you had some gas for that truck, then you'd be able to shift it.
[5] Your clandestine border crossing goes far more smoothly than that of your northern rivals. In a quiet border town close to your crossing, you find exactly what you're looking for. An indepentent Bralisian businessman living in the village is eager for cheap lumber to supply his enterprise - he'll even transport it himself if it means getting it at the rate you're charging, which he claims is practically theft compared to inflated Bralisian prices. He makes it clear that he has all the necessary legal papers, and you entrust him with a location along the road near your headquarters where he'll be able to deal with your compatriots and pick up your product. The deal is signed, and you're expecting your first payment from your new business partner by the start of next week.
The majority of men will train in the complex. When they are soldiers and not fools, they will launch a skirmish against a bandit gang.
The soldier who got away with only a serious beating, who clearly was the smarter of the group, will infilitrate the place where the captive is being held. They will give the captive a pistol. If they break out of there, welcome them back into the fold. If they shoot themselves, praise their sacrifice. But do not allow them the chance to confess.
[2] Eager as your men are to become real guerillas, their aptitude lags far behind their enthusiasm. The week is punctuated by shouting, frustration and drill as you try to force your disparate gang to perform, but by the seventh day, it's clear that you're only wasting time and effort. Even if there were any independent gangs of miscreants that the
LAF hadn't cleaned up yet, your motley crew wouldn't be able to take them on safely.
[5] The only stand-out competent members of your gang prove to be the ones who failed you so early on. Using her knowledge of the local area, the guerilla who narrowly evaded capture last week manages to triangulate the location of the
LAF outpost where her comrade is being held. After a night of quiet observation, she ascertains that her compatriot is being kept in a disused shed next to the pre-fabricated
LAF barracks containing his sleeping captors. Approaching through a nearby patch of overgrown vegetation, she silently vaults the sandbag walls of the outpost and slips the revolver you entrusted her with under the shed's rotten old planks. After a tense couple of seconds, the prisoner boots the shed door open and skilfully dispatches the sole
LAF sentry keeping an eye on his cell. The duo make their escape as the small base erupts into panicked shouting, arriving back at the mine exhausted, but galvanised by their success.
Accept the Clawhammer's contract and send the Krangs to find another Mafia group that are willing to bribe the soldiers that come through Old Portios so they wont report to the LAF what goes on in Old Portios.
Expand the recruitment network to the nearest port city beside Old Portios, and begin working with traders at the ports to trade with the Eastern Union and send 1 of my men with the trader to negotiate with the Eastern Union.
[4] The Clawhammers claim to be the local arms smuggling experts, and the first few sets of rifles and magazines that pass into your soldiers' hands certainly add levity to the claim. Many of the guns are worn surplus models, veterans of
Concordat colonial wars and
Federation and
Union skirmishes alike, but they work as well as you need them to. Between your modest recruitment efforts and the assistance of the smugglers, you now have enough new men to fill half of a six-man squad. Your Krangs enjoy little success in finding contacts from other groups in the city, but they do learn that a local patrol commander - a Lieutenant Garcez - owes money to someone dangerous, and is looking for a quick bribe to settle his books. You figure that he'd happily overlook your operations in Old Portios in return for some funds. Those funds, however, would require liquidating much of your surplus weapon stock to obtain.
[6] You divert your newly-recruited troopers to basic training operations at your base, enabling you to relieve some of your more experienced men of their garrison duty. Tasked with expanding your operations, they manage to infiltrate the vital port city of Rossine, a trading hub with a highway link directly to
San Sarunal. Your single trading envoy, the most charismatic and learned of your soldiers, befriends a washed-up old trawler captain with a thick
Union accent and a desperate need for something to revitalise his failing freight business. Your operative's smooth talk and tall promises instantly woo the senior socialist sailor, and he excitedly tells you where he's docked and that he'll happily pay you for whatever you can give him, provided you can deliver it within the next two weeks - that's when he leaves for the
Union. You even get half of the cash up-front - this'll be enough to pay that crooked lieutenant, for sure. The only question remaining is... what exactly are you going to sell to the old man?
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Topic: Lords of Larenza (a guerilla warfare RTD) (Read 3243 times)