1E

E

QA Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide Copyright © Spartan Games 2013

GRAND COALITION BATTLEPLANS

Federated States of America Hawai’i and the Solomon Islands

The Federated States of America’s Joint Chiefs of Staff had been composing detailed plans for expansion into the Pacific since virtually the end of the Civil War and the formal establishment of their new nation.

Although the original plans of Operation Cyclone had been very grand in scope, involving a sustained offensive large enough to directly threaten the Japanese home islands in the space of only a year, events had forced the recasting of the Pacific battleplans into something smaller and more manageable.

The Caribbean affair, including the mysterious attack on the Guantanamo Bay defences in Cuba by forces widely assumed to have originated from the Covenant of Antarctica, had also added a new set of objectives to American aims in the Pacific.

The Joint Chiefs of Staff, supported by the ambitious new Vice President, Craig Cunningham III, settled on three main objectives:

1) Operation Cyclone itself, the primary objective: to assault, clear of enemy forces and occupy the Hawaiian Islands in the mid-Pacific, in order to deny their use to the Empire of the Blazing Sun and its allies, and in the long-term to employ them as a staging point for further operations against Blazing Sun territory.

2) Operation Ranger: to establish a strong and lasting military presence in the East Indies. This would be in order to threaten the Blazing Sun supply lines to their South Atlantic territories, and to offer real military aid to the Britannian garrisons in New Zealand and Royal Australia.

3) Operation High Jump: to inflict a substantial retributive strike against the Covenant of Antarctica, to demonstrate to mysterious nation that meddling in American military affairs would not be tolerated.

OPERATION CYCLONE

Cyclone itself was the primary operation, with two powerful task groups, Northern and Central, allocated to the capture and occupation of Hawai’i. Although the FSA commanders, particularly Admiral Hunter, hoped to achieve tactical surprise, they knew the enemy was guaranteed to be on their guard.

Rather than attacking directly by sea, the FSA commanders planned to begin their assault with successive waves of naval and land-based aircraft before moving seaborne forces into the combat area. By launching wave after wave of aircraft alternately from the two task groups, they hoped to diffuse the enemy response and leave them guessing as to where the attacks originated from.

The initial strikes would be made by conventional aeroplanes. Massed wings of dive bombers and torpedo-planes, escorted by fighters from the naval and aerial carriers would suppress the enemy aerial defences and attack any enemy aircraft-carriers as a matter of priority.

Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide

PART 3THE CAMPAIGN BATTLEPLANS

PACIFIC CYCLONE

Vice-President Craig Cunningham

2E

E

QA Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide Copyright © Spartan Games 2013

Once the islands’ air defences had been broken, follow-up strikes would be made by wings of heavy bombers and aerial robots of the special recon groups. The bombers would be tasked with attacking the remaining enemy shipping before it could get clear of the harbour, while the John Henries and Freedom squadrons would take on any enemy heavy aerial units to ensure that the bomb groups could carry out their work unmolested.

Only after the islands had been comprehensively hammered from the skies would the naval fleets, with their complements of battleships and other heavy gun-armed vessels, escorted by the slow but long-ranged airships, move into the islands for the main attack.

Under the guns of the battleships, American land forces would assault the islands of Maui and Hawai’i itself - known informally as the Big Island - with the intention of establishing strong bridgeheads. Federal Marines and rocketeer troops would assist the conventional ground forces by launching co-ordinated air landings in support, much as the Blazing Sun forces themselves had done on a smaller scale in their assault on the Caribbean.

However, because the enemy would be on their guard, Air-General Garvey insisted that the assault from the air should occur as a follow-up to the amphibious attacks, rather than vice versa, as he feared that the air-landing troops would be cut to pieces by surviving defences if they went in first against a prepared opponent.

This caused some disquiet with General Mayes, who feared that any enemy mobile artillery which escaped destruction by the various bombardments would exact a heavy toll upon her forces as they made their own attacks.

However, Hunter, confident in his fleet’s ability to suppress the bulk of major enemy resistance as the armoured forces landed, backed Garvey. Besides, he argued that when confronted by a major amphibious assault, any remaining enemy mobile artillery would find its options for repositioning very limited, thus ‘fixing’ it in place for interdiction by airborne troops.

Garvey also hoped that the aerial troops would be able to overrun and capture enemy air-stations while their aircraft were engaged with the Air Force’s own planes, denying them the chance to land and re-arm effectively.

OPERATION RANGER

The second major arm of the American offensive was Operation Ranger, the high command’s battleplan for the South Pacific theatre. The purpose of Ranger was twofold. On the one hand, it would allow American forces to make a meaningful link-up with their Britannian allies in Royal Australia and New Zealand. This had been President Adams’ intention from the beginning of the planning process for the Pacific.

However, since the Imperial Bond offensive into the Caribbean, the Ranger plans had gained a new significance. Many of the Blazing Sun’s supply lines to their distant Kanawa province in South America depended upon their control of the many tiny South Pacific island chains, which they used as staging posts.

The plan for Ranger was to have American forces drive a hard wedge into the enemy supply routes by establishing a powerful base of naval and aerial operations in this region, allowing them to threaten key enemy bases and asset in the region.

The ultimate target objectives for Ranger were the Solomon Islands chain, just over 1000 miles north-west of New Zealand. Capturing and occupying them would allow FSA forces to exert pressure on the Blazing Sun territories from the east, to compliment Britannian efforts in the west, as well as cutting off a major communication artery between the Empire and South America.

Ranger was not scheduled to commence until Cyclone was already well underway, to ensure that the enemy’s attention was fully on Hawai’i. The Ranger forces would travel in utmost secrecy across the vast expanse of the Pacific, and base themselves in friendly territory in New Zealand.

Once the operation had been given the green light, the initial attacks, concentrated on the islands of Guadalcanal, San Cristobal and Malaita, would be carried out in much the same way as those planned for Hawai’i. Large waves of conventional aeroplanes, launched from sea and air would lead the assault, followed by heavy bomber wings. Since the latter would be flying from bases in New Zealand, their turnaround time was expected to be much faster.

Since parts of all the target islands remained in the hands of friendly forces, it was hoped that infantry and armoured units could begin landing directly they arrive. However, provisional plans were drawn up for amphibious offensives should they prove necessary.

Once initial lodgements had been secured, engineers would be moved in to construct new bases, especially aerial facilities for resupply. It was the American intention to establish a powerful and permanent presence in the region, thus opening a new Anglo-American front against the Empire of the Blazing Sun.

OPERATION HIGH JUMP

The final American battle plan was not so much a pre-ordained objective as a provisional plan for a strike on a target of opportunity. The long-term aim of Ranger in particular was to allow American forces to pose a threat to not only the Blazing Sun, but also the Covenant of Antarctica.

Plans for a retributive strike against the Covenant were a relatively recent addition to the FSA’s strategic objectives. Although the country, like just about every other major power in the world, had suffered from various examples of ‘interference’ over the past few years that many sought to lay at the Covenant’s door, previous measures had been focused on increased security and other defensive measures.

However, the attack on Guantanamo Bay during the Blazing Sun offensive had changed matters entirely for the Americans. Although circumstantial, much evidence indicated that the first strikes from outside the island’s boundaries against the American defences and garrisons there had not been the work of the Imperial Bond, but the Covenant. As far as Adams and his military commanders were concerned, the arrogant Antarcticans had crossed a crucial line, with an outright attack on sovereign FSA territory.

3E

E

QA Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide Copyright © Spartan Games 2013

The commanders of the Ranger forces would therefore have an additional task, should conditions prove favourable – namely, to mount a punitive strike on a Covenant target.

Although an actual attack on Antarctica itself would be futile, the Joint Chiefs of Staff had learned of another potential target from information passed to the American secret service agencies from their Britannian counterparts in New Zealand; a new island that seemed to have recently appeared in the Pacific, several hundred miles south of Fiji.

Although only limited recon had been carried out by friendly assets, it appeared that forces most likely of Covenant origin had already established themselves there. The Britannian authorities in Royal Australia were concerned about a new Covenant base so close to a troubled area. Consequently, the American commanders of Ranger received the permission of the Britannian command in Christchurch, New Zealand, that they would be permitted to employ Royal Australian forces on any ‘venture’ against the Covenant.

Ranger’s supply allocation therefore included some cold-weather gear for both soldiers and war machines, in preparation for such an operation, although given the position of the island, and the time of year, it was anticipated, not unreasonably, that weather conditions would be relatively clement.

Winterised equipment did not therefore form a substantial part of the equipment for the High Jump forces, beyond some very rudimentary requirements. The American high command did not envision a long stay for the Ranger contingent allocated to this operation.

Also, since the fleet would have to carry the vast bulk of its equipment, ammunition and other supplies for at least two months of independent operations, space aboard the valuable transports was a premium. These issues would have major ramifications once battle was joined in earnest.

Unlike the two major battle plans, the objectives and means for ‘High Jump’, as this plan was dubbed, would be placed very much in the hands of the commanders of Ranger forces.

The main focus was to be very much a retributive strike - combined forces would descend upon the island and comprehensively wreck Antarctican assets positioned there. Doing so would fulfil the objectives of both the Americans and their allies.

THE RUSSIAN POSITION IN THE FAR EAST

Unlike the Americans, the Russian forces in the Far East, including the formidable Far East Fleet of the White Navy, were tasked with maintaining a largely defensive posture. Although possessing strong forces, particularly in the naval sphere, the various arms of the Russian military stationed in this far-flung quarter of the Tsar’s empire had an immense area of responsibility, stretching from the Manchurian border with China to the vast hinterlands of the Alaska Oblast.

However, matters for the White Army, Navy and Air Army commanders were complicated by the strong contingent of Oprichnik officers of the Tsar’s security police set to watch over them. The Far East command had not yet shaken off its reputation in the Russian Coalition military as the ‘graveyard of ambitions’, and consequently, the power and influence of Oprichnina agents

here was far greater than in the west. The consequences of this political interference would have grave consequences for the Russian commanders at key points during the campaign.

SILVER SCYTHE

It was largely down to this outside influence that the Russian commanders in the region were required to formulate an offensive plan, though it was against their better judgement. Left with little choice, for to refuse the Oprichnina was effectively to refuse the Tsar, White Navy Admiral Semyonovich had convened with White Air Army General Blomqvist to create an offensive plan directed at the Blazing Sun-occupied Midway Islands.

Their plan, dubbed ‘Silver Scythe’, envisioned utilising a portion of the Alaska garrison, freed up by the removal of the American threat, to mount a concentrated all-arms strike on the tiny atoll. Russian skyships and submersibles had engaged in a substantial amount of long-range surveillance of Midway throughout 1871, and the commanders were confident of their ability to inflict enough damage on the atoll to appease their suspicious ‘advisors’ of the Tsar’s political police.

Godunov’s White Army forces were devoted wholly to Russian territorial security, and no attempt was to be made to try and occupy the atoll. The Russian land units were not equipped for amphibious assault, and General Godunov himself was not in favour of any offensive operation against the Blazing Sun, for fear of potential retaliation against his own forces. However, also bound by the Oprichnina as he was, he, like his compatriots, had no choice but to accept the situation and prepare for the inevitable consequences.

4E

E

QA Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide Copyright © Spartan Games 2013

IMPERIAL BOND BATTLEPLANS

Empire of the Blazing Sun Operation Copper Rain

Although intent on holding their defensive perimeter in the central and north Pacific while channelling forces to their South American province, the High Generals of the Blazing Sun were not content to remain completely passive.

The end of the Northern War and the consequent strengthening of the Grand Coalition made the prospect of Russian-American co-operation a serious threat to the Blazing Sun’s Japanese heartlands. Also, like President Adams with the Britannians, the Empress herself wished to offer indirect aid to her Prussian allies who were being hard-pressed by the Russians in the west. This would also return the favour of Prussian involvement in the Caribbean.

High General Takeda of the Shield therefore proposed a limited offensive to the north, focused on pushing the Blazing Sun’s defensive boundary in this region outwards from Japan itself. This operation, named ‘Copper Rain’, would have two objectives:

1) The conquest and occupation of the southern Kuril Islands and the island of Sakhalin. This would broaden the defensive ‘belt’ around the northern end of the Japanese home islands, as well as endanger communication links between Russia proper and the Oblast of Alaska.

2) To assault the fortress of Vladivostok from both the sea and overland from Manchuria in concert with Chinese forces, with the intention of cutting it off from support. This was in order to neutralise a substantial proportion of the Russian Far East Fleet, as well as reduce the pressure on the Prussians by creating an eastern threat to the Russian Coalition that the Tsar could not risk ignoring.

Takeda hoped that by launching the assault on the Kurils and Sakhalin first, the Blazing Sun ‘Yamato’ Division would draw out a substantial portion of the Russian naval forces in the region out from their defensive perimeters, so that they could be engaged and destroyed piecemeal.

Once this effort was underway, Blazing Sun and Chinese land forces and naval forces would launch a triple-pronged all-arms assault from Manchuria and northern Korea.

Takeda ideally wanted to take the key Russian Coalition fortress, but even if this proved unfeasible, he hoped to bring it under a state of close siege, thus creating a fracture in the Nikolai Line and running sore which would compel the Tsar to transfer more of his forces to the Far East, thus allowing the Prussians further breathing space.

High General Uematsu of the Sword pressed for an attack on Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, the other large Russian mainland sea fortress in the Far East, in order to sever Russian-Alaskan, and potentially Russian-American, communications more completely.

Takeda refused, stating that such a plan would be over-ambitious, especially with the Empire’s continued obligation to supply its south Atlantic-Caribbean forces until such time as Kanawa could be developed into a stronger resource base. He also did not want to risk over-extending Uematsu’s own Sword Army 4th Division.

As well as this, Takeda was well aware of the importance, and potential vulnerability of Hawai’i and Midway, the garrisons of which were composed of his own 6th Division forces. General Kojima concurred with the Shield commander’s wish to keep the northern offensive limited; a strategic reserve would be vital with which to retaliate as and when the Americans attacked. As later events would show, this precaution was a wise one

Covenant of Antarctica Operation Crystal Redoubt

The Covenant had been keeping a close watch on events in the Pacific, both physically through their extensive network of roving scouts, and covertly by means of spies employed by Lady Drakenburg’s Wraith and Spectre divisions.

It was with grim conviction that War Master Schneider and his recently-appointed assistant chief of naval operations in the Pacific, High Custodian-Commander Nikolai Bolimow reported their belief to Lord Sturgeon that, in spite of the efforts of 2nd War Fleet earlier in the year, the American offensive across the Pacific had only been temporarily rather than indefinitely delayed.

Although the knowledge that the FSA’s prime target would be Hawai’i had been effectively confirmed in Covenant circles for some time, Schneider and Bolimow both ruled out the idea of an intervention. As far as they were concerned, hit-and-run raids in the style of Cuba would be ineffective against so heavily protected a target, while trying to operate a larger taskforce in the area would simply be inviting attack from both sides for no gain.

Furthermore, while the Covenant had gone to great lengths to conceal the existence of Hooke’s Reach from the outside world, knowledge of the new island, together with the multitude of treasures it was rumoured to contain, had inevitably leaked out.

Worse, the threatening American messages to the Covenant’s embassy in Free Australia were more than just posturing. Drakenburg’s America-based agents had learned of the FSA’s plans for a punitive strike on Antarctica in retaliation for the Cuba incident - it seemed that the blow was in all likelihood due to fall upon Hooke’s Reach.

For this reason, Scheider had activated Operation Crystal Redoubt, the reinforcing of the Hooke’s Reach garrison by the forces of 5th War Fleet, codenamed ‘Cogent Paradigm’, supplementing the light units of 11th Vigilance Fleet, the coast defence force that had until this time been solely responsible for the island’s security.

Apart from the prospect of outside attack, the Hooke’s Reach colony had reported a number of disturbing incidents, some of them involving the loss of equipment and personnel. The island’s interior was still being charted, and it was proving to be a confusing and quite frightening process.

5E

E

QA Dystopian Wars Campaign Guide Copyright © Spartan Games 2013

5th War Fleet under its veteran commander-in-chief, Castellan-Commander Martin Van Diemen, and with its extensive experience of translocation and O-Space exposure, was thought to be the best of the Covenant’s first-line forces to assign this Crystal Redoubt mission, well-equipped to defend the Covenant’s interests against threats.

Van Diemen’s task in Crystal Redoubt was a relatively simple one - to secure Hooke’s Reach against any and all invaders. Already, the Covenant’s scientists and researchers on the strange island were uncovering evidence that it harboured bizarre devices and properties beyond the ordinary. It was up to ‘Cogent Paradigm’ to prevent those more incautious from gaining access to them

OPERATION MISTWEAVER

However, 5th War Fleet was not just destined to serve as the garrison of a remote outpost, no matter how important it was. Schneider and Bolimow’s second assignment for Van Diemen and his sub-commanders was one that the Antarctican commander-in-chief dubbed “a mission of aggressive fact-finding and information-retrieval” of considerable importance.

Although their military forces had not taken direct part in the great Northern European offensives that had raged in Belgium and the British Isles in the first part of 1871, Lord Sturgeon and his coterie had been kept well-informed of events by more of Lady Drakenburg’s agents operating in the regional military commands, especially those of Britannia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

However, these agents had garnered a substantial amount of information on the doings of Markov and his Circle, particularly with regards to the strange new Generator equipment in use with the Russian military, which some of the spies had personally witnessed in action – equipment that Lord Leonidas was sure had been derived from plans stolen by Markov upon his defection.

Sturgeon therefore authorised a series of raids upon Russian targets, in order to gain as much in the way of plans and, if possible, working examples of Markovite Generator technology. In particular they sought the strange ‘Mimic Engine’ that Drakenburg’s intelligence operatives indicated was frequently installed on large Russian Coalition naval craft.

Schneider and Bolimov recommended that these raids be focussed on the Russian Far East fleet. In addition to a much lower risk of detection or outside interference than would be the case with operation in the Baltic or Black Sea, Covenant intelligence indicated that the Far East fleet had recently undergone substantial modernisation measures, increasing the chances of choice targets in the region.

It would be left to Van Diemen’s staff to draw up plans to for how such a raid would be accomplished. However, the locations recommended by Covenant intelligence were Korsakov and Sakhalin Island and Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky.

The choice of these two locations was not coincidental. ‘Tempura’, Lady Drakenburg’s intelligence source within the command structure of the Blazing Sun military, was privy to some details of Operation Copper Rain - specifically, the choice of targets. The Covenant commanders were confident that the planned Blazing Sun offensive would draw the bulk of Russian attention towards their key base of Vladivostok, leaving other ports more vulnerable to assault.

‘Cogent Paradigm’s’ forces were to be delivered to the area of operations by means of O-Space translocation. Since the successful raid on Cuba by forces of 2nd War Fleet ‘Fulcrum Key’, Covenant specialists had conducted many more experiments with long-range teleportation, with the Callimachus Orbs acting as nodal points for the projection of forces by the great ‘Static’ dilation generators buried beneath Antarctica itself. 5th War Fleet’s forces had been instrumental in these tests, and a ‘Static’ network had been installed near Hooke’s Reach itself.

One essential aspect of Mistweaver was that it would be based on the use of two translocation nodes, since the prospective targets were likely to be formidable, and a back-up rally point was deemed essential should a serious mishap befall the raiders. As events were to show, this was to be a very wise precaution.

Lady Drakenberg