Monday, October 18, 2010

Taking Sides -
Defining the Conflict in Alcovia

Designing a conflict for the purposes of wargaming can be challenging, especially when it is not drawn from an actual historical event. For Alcovia I wanted there to be more than two sides. This may make for a particularly muddy conflict, but it works well for gaming.

Of course the major factions needn't be the only forces played in games set against the backdrop of the Alcovian Civil War. There is also room for smaller factions or private interests as well as intervention from outside nations, which has become an all too familiar theme in modern conflicts.

Listed below are the major players I have envisioned for the conflict including a bit of background and motivation for each of them -

National Alcovian Army (NAA)
Loyal to hereditary monarchy that has ruled in Alcovia for centuries, the forces of the National Alcovian Army will include both regular army units as well as elite units special to the ruling family. These Lifeguard units will have the best equipment with regular army using the standard equipment of the national armed forces. These forces will be fighting for the preservation of the Alcovian way of life, as they see it. Of course, this means a life under the monarchy which, despite being a benevolent monarchy, is a monarchy none the less.

Alcovian People's Army (APA)
The main aggressors in the Alcovian civil war are renegade factions of the NAA who, under the leadership of General Kusatya, have declared themselves an army for the interest of bringing Alcovia under the governance of its people. They will be fighting with equipment standard to the NAA as well as assets drawn from reserve (some out of date) sources.

Alcovian Liberation Front (ALF)
The ALF is an army of militias and rebellious cells of militarized civilians that have taken up arms in support of the APA. Though often found supporting APA actions unofficially, the APA has an official stance of keeping civilians out of the conflict despite their doing nothing to admonish or discourage the actions of the ALF. ALF forces often perform raids on NAA and other nationalist assets. Though not the norm, some ALF cells have resorted to terror tactics.

So, there we have the basic outlay of the conflict. Three factions that form two sides of the conflict. I'll get into more of the background and causes of the civil war and discuss a bit about Alcovia as a country in later posts.

Take care,

-Eli

7 comments:

ScannableGoose said...

Eli
I'm paying close attention to how this comes together.
I've always wanted to run something like this, and numerous failed attempts later I still haven't been able to achieve something I'm happy with.
Already this has given me many ideas.
Keep up the great work!

Dangerous Brian said...

What rules systems will you be using in this campaign?

Eli Arndt said...

Thanks for tuning in gents. I must admit that this project is still in the planning stages. I don't even have miniatures yet :)

I am glad the first real post has been useful.

Dangerous Brian, I will likely use a number of systems depending on the type of game I want to play.

ColKillgore said...

I have some questions.
Was Alcovia a incorporated into the Soviet Union or just a client state?

Either choice could end up causing an intervention from a former soviet state or two, both wanting more influence in the governing of the country.

If they intervene then maybe an offer of support from a western client to counter their advances.

What about Natural resources?

Nothing like a big corporation to hire a serurity contractor to protect their infrastructure.

Just some ideas I think might add to the mix.

wanting for the next post

Eli Arndt said...

Kilgore,

Alcovia managed to keep itself from being absorbed into the Soviet Union, but did maintain its long-standing relations with Russian which go back a few centuries.

I had established in my earlier work with Alcovia that they possessed Oil, Coal and Agriculture as resources. they also have a long-standing partnership with another imagi-nation of mine named (after myself) Elistonia which has access to industrial metals.

I would definitely love to have private interests and other nations get involved.

-Eli

Game Master Rob Adams said...

This is very interesting Eli and I am going to watch this as well going forward. I think it is very cool that you used ALF!

Eli Arndt said...

APA are also my oldest daughter's initial :)