Also the administrative thread
Based Shynkian graphic pls appreciate
Based Shynkian graphic pls appreciate
Hello, welcome, and please sit down. Just kidding, you’re probably already sitting down while staring at the screen...In any case!
You’ve arrived at the signup thread for Ultramar: The Angolan War of Independence. This game, GM’d by me. The game will take place in Angola, during the time of its revolt against Portugal. We will be starting on March 27th, 1962, just after the first convulsion of the revolt has been violently put down and the day that Holden Roberto’s UPA merged with the Angolan Democratic Party to form the FNLA. These historical developments, as well as others will be posted below in a short history of Angola between Portuguese colonisation and 1962.
The focus of the game will be military. It will be centred on the Portuguese army, which has not fought a war for the better part of half a century, conducting a counter-insurgency war which it is ill-equipped in a country 13.5 times the size of the metropole. The Angolan rebels, however, have to evict a determined colonial power which has been established for nearly 400 years in this patchwork of peoples and tribes. More importantly, they have to ensure they’re the top dog by the end of it. There is much fun to be had on either side, and it can go either way. Historically the MPLA stood victorious, but for all we know the FNLA, UNITA, another rebel group, or even the Portuguese can end up winning.
In any case, during this phase of warfare there will be heroes, who will take their gravitas into the nation-running phase afterwards.
Dutchbag, why is the post-war phase relevant to your war game?
After the conclusion of Ultramar, I will run a second game. It will be a character-driven internal politics game as has been seen many times before, but it will be held in the Angola that is born out of this game. Subsequently, the biggest, baddest guerilleros have to turn into the biggest, baddest politicians. And that is much, MUCH easier to do when all opposition has been pre-emptively taken care of. So especially to the guerillas I’ll say: think ahead in whatever you’ll be doing, since there is an Angola after the war.
With the settings and game plan out of the way, over to the basic mechanics and rules.
First of all, everybody makes a character. This is much less important for the Portuguese military than for the rebels, but with laws and personal fame you have to do so anyway.
Portugal
Portuguese. These bastards have a government, and that government is played. The player for the Portuguese government will be called the Governor-General, but will also occupy other positions in food chain when needed, chiefly ast he Overseas Ministry, and the military commander of Angola as a whole. He’s got a pretty important job in managing the counter-insurgency efforts beyond “Shoot the bastards”.
In capacity as military commander of Angola, the Governor-General also cooperates with the army forces in the hinterland. He is to tell them what to do, and if they decide to do that it’s business as usual. However, if they deviate from his plans they will receive maluses, such as less supplies and air support, as well as bad rep - unless they pull something big out of the elephant grass, in which case they may walk away with bragging rights and a medal.
However, shooting the bastards can’t happen if you can’t find said bastards, and that is where PIDE comes in. The Chief of PIDE, the secret police, in Angola is in control of PIDE and special recon forces, such as the Flechas. By using those recon forces and taking people into the building people go into a lot but don’t seem to come out of very often, his job is to infiltrate guerilla organisations and supply intel to the army.
The army, the FMU (Forças Militares Ultramarinos/Overseas Military Forces), is directly responsible for shooting the bastards and establishing military control over the Angolan hinterland. They have two types of bases to do this from: the military base, and the FOB.
The military bases are permanent installations of the FMU and heavily defended. They can be major encampments, air bases, and other strategically significant installations that the FMU use. However, it should be noted that they host a large amount of troops and firepower, and an assault on them is often suicidal.
The FOB, the Forward Operating Base, is a non-permanent installation that naturally has a smaller garrison, fewer artillery, fewer helicopters, and a shorter siege lifespan. Its purpose is to have a stepping stone for military operations in peripheral territories that otherwise would be unreachable and ripe recruiting grounds for rebels.They are, however, still well-defended and full of supplies.
Together, these characters are responsible for withstanding the winds of change and keep Portugal united, or maintain colonial rule. Depending on which side you are.
Rebels of all flavours
Fighting for the independence of Angola are rebel movements. At the start of the game, they are the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the National Front for the Liberation of Angola (FNLA). However, it is entirely possible for the players to found, merge, and split movements, provided they have the proper IC foundations. The collection of these fronts have a common goal, the independence of Angola, but that doesn’t mean they like eachother, or have to work together. They can do that, but they can also throw eachother under the bus if they so desire. These movements have political heads, which are of course playable, but most rebel players will assume the role of a rebel commander.
The political heads of a movement (Think Agostinho Neto, Holden Roberto, Jonas Savimbi, etc.) are the face of their movements. They’re supposed to settle internal disputes to keep them cohesive. He has to run the territories he controls (to a degree). He has to lobby abroad for supports and weapons. He has to ensure the loyalty of the warlords. In short, he basically needs to make sure his guys fight the Portuguese, and not eachother in a camp in Zambia or Zaïre. The root is bitter, but the fruit of victory is sweet for him.
Out in the Angolan bush, there are the warlords. Commanding their units of different qualities and quantities, these guys enforce what the head of the movement says, fight the Portuguese and rival movements (if it gets to that). The nature of their work also allow warlords to conduct operations independently for a long time, even against the wishes of the political leadership, or split off from their existing movement and form a new one.
The guerillas have three types of bases. The Movement HQ, the encampment, and the supply base.
The HQ of a movement is the political nerve centre of a movement. Its location is abroad, probably in Zaire or Zambia, and it is where the heavyweights of a movement base their operations from. The hardware and supplies are distributed from here, communications come from here, and the reserve of a movement is located here. It is the heart of the movement, and if destroyed/taken over it will almost certainly spell the death of the movement.
The encampment is the centre of operations for a warlord. In here he recruits fighters for his movement and receives shipments of weapons and supplies from the HQ. The large amount of activity around it naturally makes it a honeypot for intelligence and its eradication is bound to clear a region of that movement’s presence for a while.
Finally, the supply base is a (collection of) small, stockpile(s) of food, weapons, and other supplies to sustain the activities of a rebel group in a given area. They can be detected and destroyed which will result in the activity in that area dying down, but will not incur a great loss of either manpower, goods, or intel for a movement.
This may be edited later, and a history will be added to the post below. But for now, time to get to the brass tax!
PROVISIONAL RULES AND INFORMATION
1. The IRC channel is #Ultramar
2. Adhere to the forum rules at all times.
3. Don't be a minge. Punishments on a case-by-case basis.
4. No metagaming. This will result in expulsion from the game.
5. No ASB. Go far and wide, try many things; I'm a lax GM. But if I see you trying to form the Islamic State of Angola and the Katanga, I'm blacklisting you for future purposes.
6. THERE IS NO RULE SIX
7. Orders will likely be rolled upon through standard deviation, 5/2.5
SIGNUPS
So the scenario or mechanics up here have caught your interest and you want to join. I’m flattered (maybe even aroused), so follow the instructions below.
Before you make your characters, you need to apply to be either Portuguese, FNLA, or MPLA. Your application must list these factions in order of preference, like some of you may know from World in Revolution. If you wish to have a political role/be PIDE, please indicate this in your application.
That’d be all for now!
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