Hello again, and welcome back to the Dark Ages!
This week, we have something different (once again) : Ivan Sorensen's excellent FiveCore Company Commander rules, played out on my new home sand table!
The game itself won't be in this post, however.
First, I should explain the setting a little bit. I find playing with existing countries, if you aren't trying to wargame out a specific event for more educational purposes, to be a somewhat exhausting process. Before I even play, I am wondering how to make the scenario plausible, and being stopped by real-world qualms about people, units, and history from having the liberty I want out of a game. I have therefore subscribed to the ImagiNations concept that I believe Charles Grant first popularized sometime in the 70s - Invent your own countries, to be as free of the shackles of reality as you like!
To make this task even easier, Ivan Sorensen, aforementioned author of one of the rulesets I intend to use in this setting, produced a nation generator that is an absolute pleasure to use.
From this train of thought are born the states of Bledore and Sablenoir. A colonial island nation that split in two following a coup d'etat, the nascent countries of Bledore and Sablenoir are not the best neighbours. Divided very roughly by the great river Sangchaud along most of their border (a natural barrier that dictated much of the fighting during the coup d'etat), they are kept apart only by a token multinational force from the United Nations, maintaining an uneasy ceasefire that is only now approaching its tenth birthday. Minor infractions of this peace are common, but all-out war has been kept at bay.
So far.
Terrain :
Here is an overall map of the island of Beauchamps. (click to zoon)
The major inhabited areas are the cities of Adeupond and Bledore. Neither state is inhabited by more than 1 000 000 inhabitants, though Bledore does have a greater population than its Eastern neighbour due to its urbanization.
The river Sangchaud runs from the North of the isle to the Sablenoir lake, and its impressive depth and width allow tankers and barges to reach Adeupond city itself, serving to extract the state's main valuable resource : Oil.
Offshore platforms and the wells in the land to the East of Sablenoir ensure that it will always have a steady source of income - as well as the attention of the great powers of the world.
Bledore, for its own part, thrives on industry, with industrial parks outside of the capital serving to process lumber and minerals mined from the Southern Mountains, as well as what materials are shipped over from the Isle du Neutre.
Both states have a strong agricultural base, though this is particularly pronounced for the primarily rural Sablenoir.
The border, along the Sangchaud and to the South, is heavily contested, with both sides laying claim to the entirety of the others' holdings.
History :
Originally, Beauchamps island was occupied by a state of the same name, ruled over by the Regius dynasty ever since they broke away from the state that had originally founded the colony. Beauchamps made little impact on the global scene, being rather too small to be noticeable, until the discovery of oil off its shores.
When oil was discovered on land as well, the great powers of the world began to show a pronounced interest in politics on the isle. More and more trade came from overseas, and it is rumoured that the isle was even eyed as a target of opportunity during the World Wars. War did not come to its shores, however, until over a century of peace was broken by a dispute over parentage.
The cadet house of Leoncourt was formed when a young Francois was brought to court by his mother in the early 70s. Claiming that the King was his father, she demanded he gain titles and privilege as would be due to the King's eldest. The King, however, had just received news of another son, this one by his wife, and could not afford to disgrace his name by placing a bastard above this boy. The noble title of Leoncourt and a few holdings outside of Bledore would be sufficient for this outsider offspring and his mother.
The mother was satisfied, but the son was not. Francois Leoncourt joined the Royal Marines as soon as he was able, and proved an extremely able officer, earning the respect of many of his peers within the Royal Armed Forces. In contrast, Joseph Regius, who took the throne from his own father at nearly the same age as Francois joined the Marines, was seen as paranoid and generally untrustworthy.
Looking at the political environment of the Cold War, Joseph saw threats everywhere, particularly among the diplomats from the Warsaw Pact and NATO states who visited regularly to negotiate oil deals. He began to tighten his grip on the population, and by the 90s had raised a new militia to his own name, largely from the working classes of the Sablenoir oil fields.
When Francois Leoncourt returned from a training exercise with NATO forces in Europe, Joseph began to truly see him as a threat. With training and contacts like he had, surely he was planning to claim the throne. In the middle of a winter night in the mid 90s, militiamen under the command of Colonel Alphonse Saint-Augustin, King Joseph's protege, attempted to enter Francois' Marine encampment to take him into custody.
A firefight with the Marines standing sentry ensued when they heard of the militia's goal - their loyalty to Leoncourt went deeper than that to their current King. Within two months, King Regius had been deposed, and Colonel Francois Leoncourt was King in his own right.
The United Nations stepped in quickly when it was heard that King Leoncourt had begun summary executions of suspected traitors - loyalists to the old regime who agitated for a guerilla campaign in the capital. Colonel Saint-Augustin, for his own part, promoted himself to Marechal, and took command of the entirety of loyalist Army troops along with the militia. They fought the forces of the coup in a series of ferocious skirmishes, scorching the earth all the way to the Sangchaud river.
By the time United Nations peacekeepers hit the ground, the fighting had been held up at the river for days. The river was declared the truce line, and Leoncourt's government was declared legitimate by most member states of the UN in order to avoid any further upheaval. Saint-Augustin, unwilling to let Leoncourt win outright, declared his own state centred on Adeupond, named for the oil sands that were home to him and many of his men and women.
The truce established by the United Nations is regularly broken by small parties of strongmen from Sablenoir, seeking to reestablish control over the territories they had lost on the West bank of the Sangchaud. Bledore, for its own part, has taken up a fully defensive posture. Leoncourt had not intended for a coup to occur, and any actions he took in the course of it were intended only to bring it to as quick an end as possible. Now, he wanted only peace for his home island - though he would be willing to fight for it if he had to.
Culture and economy :
The government of Bledore is a constitutional Monarchy, with the House of Members meeting regularly to regulate the King's power. The monarchy is largely viewed as illegitimate on the international scene given the coup and the condemnation of the United Nations for Leoncourt's actions during the fighting. However, Leoncourt himself is popular with most of the urban population, his methods having saved the city itself from being the site of any fighting, aside from a brief skirmish at the houses of government and Royal Palace.
Law enforcement and administration are strong in Bledore, with little to no corruption to speak of. However, with UN sanctions still in place after the war, the banks and industry struggle to remain relevant on the global stage.
Sablenoir, on the other hand, is its own sort of autocracy. Marechal Saint-Augustin rules the state with a velvet glove, keeping popular support and a general sense of legitimacy both domestically and internationally. A letter he produced during the war showed that he was King Francois' declared heir, and he has publicly offered to step down from the role of autocrat as soon as Beauchamps is reunited, to make the island a true republic.
Corruption is infrequent in Sablenoir as well, but occurs on occasion as the militias skim some off the top to maintain their equipment - whereas Bledore's industrial base can produce and maintain military gear and munitions, Sablenoir gets everything from overseas... or from Bledore, when they can prevent the others finding out.
The lack of an industrial base hurts in other ways as well. Basic foodstuffs are produced locally, and oil sales keep the treasury relatively stable, but all consumer goods are imported from overseas, keeping their prices at the consumer level relatively high. As such, the informal economy is a growing concern.
Military :
Both sides are avoiding conventional fighting - however, unconventional combat continues to this day. Small strike teams have been organized from both sides to disrupt the other politically and economically wherever possible. If they can collapse the other regime, great. If not, they must be kept weak for the inevitable day where conventional combat breaks out again.
Bledore's military doctrine could best be described as Cautious, with their troops well-trained to tend to the wounded, and to advance only where overwhelming force meets underwhelming defense. This contributed both to their limited casualties during the civil war and to their difficulty in crossing the Sangchaud.
Sablenoir, on the other hand, has trained its militias and remaining troops in Hit and Run tactics. Where they do not have parity of equipment with Bledore, particularly as far as crew-served weapons and vehicles go, they use cover, concealment, and judicious placement of their blows to keep the cautious Bledorians moving at Sablenoir's chosen pace.
That about sums up the information we have on Bledore and Sablenoir to date... Read the next post to see the latest record of border clashes occuring in the contested zone.
