Yalwa Campaign

Seeds of Resistance

Introduction

The campaign is the campaign for control of the province of Yalwa, a name which means "Desert" in Nexian. The land itself is a desert in that it gets less than 10 inches a year of precipitation, but is actually fairly well-grown with grass and trees and stuff. The main reason it's called "Desert" is because there isn't a lot of natural resources. Farming is tricky because of the lack of rainfall, the lack of springs, and the lack of rivers. While there are rivers, they are mostly minor (maybe some are major?), but none are enough to irrigate much of the area for farming. The crystal mines are nearly nonexistant, although the famed Mines of Yalwa are to be found in the region. As a region, it's not logistically interesting to Kand, except for the mines, but due to the nature of supplying their own forces in the area, Kand has historically kept a significant force only around the mines, leaving short-handed garrisons in a few other cities in the area. For the FNA, however, the region represents an excellent starting base with plenty of crystals to fuel a start-up rebellion. Food, however, will mostly have to come from elsewhere (second campaign: conquering farmland? ;) ).

This is not intended to be definitive; we'll need a real artist for that, but this map should give the general idea):

      \    ^                                    ^^^ ^^^^^^^  |
       |    ^                               * 4.4 Ultha^^^   |
       /   ^^                                     ^^^^^^^    /
      /    ^^^                        * 4.3        ^^^^   ^^/
     /      ^^                                     ^^^^^^^^/
    /      ^^^^  Renus                    ^^* 4.2 Enolia^^/
   /      ^ ^^^     * 2.5                 ^^^^      ^^^^^/
  |           ^^^^       * 3.1   * 3.2 Kand HQ^^^ ^^^^^^/
   \           ^^* 2.2                       ^*^4.1^^^^/
    \               * 2.3     * 2.1+3.3 Sarakhad^^^^^^/
     \                       * 1.6+2.4 Lula  ^^^^^^^ /
     |                                        ^^^^^  |
     |                * 1.5 Lake Yukarwa         ^^^ |
     |                    * 1.4 Sarot Plains    ^^^  |
     |                                           ^^  |
     |  ^     * 1.3 Mhran airfields              ^   |
     | ^^^^                                          |
     | ^^^^^^      * 1.2                             |
     | ^^^^^^^^       * 1.1 Rhintura                 |
     | ^^^^^^^                                       |

Act One

Uprising

Introduction of the campaign, FNA gets their first win and a physical command. Before this, they existed in secret. They don't even have uniforms. The outpost is fairly isolated and there's a lot of area to cross that's just plain empty, making supply lines run thin. But there's this "fertile corridor" that they can march up, but it's also the most heavily defended part of the region. The "fertile corridor" is a well-watered route from Rhintura to Ultha, through Lula. Kand placed their HQ on that route on the ruins of Neeno, a city they destroyed as an "example" of what happens when you don't mine like you're supposed to. (or something, that's a little mroe brutal than the goal of "No definitive bad guy in this game")

Swords and Plowshares

Controlling key areas to the northwest of Rhintura, the only farming district in the area, and also a barracks dump, the same barracks that provided the troops for the battle of Rhintura depicted in the Uprising.

Clipped Wings

While the main body of the FNA army moves towards the Sarot Plains, a small contingent is dispatched to knock out the Mhran airfields to prevent Kand from mobilizing their air units stationed in the southern part of the province.

Baptism of Fire

FNA moves across the Sarot Plains towards Lula, all the while harrassed by Kandelian airstrikes and other unpleasantries.

The Shores of Lake Yukarwa

To support operations in Lula, a force is sent to Lake Yukarwa to stop Kand from finishing a channel they are building. The channel would connect Lake Yukarwa with Lake Lula and enable Kand to move units and supplies quickly from Renus. Besides the strategic importance of stopping Kand from completing and possessing this channel, FNA wants the channel so that they can use it. Taking this channel is of immediate importance to the FNA in their operations in Lula and planned operations in the northern part of the province, and is of long-term importance for both continued operations and the economy in the newly liberated province.

Sixth map

The battle for Lula. The commander at Lula is a known incompetent. He's a standard paper-pusher that haunts armies everywhere. A cowardly bureaucrat, he'll only go into battle when he doesn't have to lead and when he outnumbers his enemy. Fearing for his command, he runs to Lula's twin city, Sarakhad, to command operations. Lula has a large garrison, recently (and unknown to FNA until the arrive at Lula) stationed in Lula to support the channel construction in the lake area. At the close of this map, FNA holds Lula, and Kand holds Sarakhad. FNA cannot advance past Sarakhad without losing their supply lines back to Rhintura and the farms taken in Plowshares, but FNA cannot take Sarakhad on its own. They are stalemated, and the campaign has become one of attrition.

Act Two

First map

FNA moves troops from the Lula to the west, with the goal of approaching Sarakhad from the Northwest in a coordinated two-prong attack. The western force gets ambushed, surrounded, and must fight to the last man, ala Anthill (in fact, Anthill could be adapted for this map). So they win the map, but don't have anybody left with which to run their flanking maneuver. The main force remains in Lula, unable to make their own attack without that flanking force.

Second map

To convert one of Kand's supply routes into a supply channel for FNA, FNA has sent some troops to the mountains to advance on Renus, moving through an area that looks a lot like SW Wyoming (nobody lives there except a few small towns supporting a shipping industry). At the foothills of the mountains, they discover Area 51, or Kand's equivalent of it. Both sides being surprised, FNA moves to take it. That's what this map is about. It's here that they first hear of a biological weapon that was engineered by Kandelian scientists to aid in the approaching power struggle in the Empire. The weapon itself is believed of such design that it won't harm Nexians, but is quite dangerous to Kandelians. Some barrels of this stuff are unaccounted for, although a newly liberated Nexian scientist claims to know where it is. This scientist makes a deposition where he says he's part of the Liberation Front of North Kerlo, and through him FNA and LFNK hook up. Part of the strikeforce is sent to escort the scientist back to Lula. (New unit acquired?)

Third map

FNA sends a contingent back from Area 51 to Rhintura that gets ambushed by unidentified participants. They must survive the attack, of course, but there is much mystery surrounding the unidentified attackers. Who are they? To whom is their allegiance? (LFNK, of course, working for Kand)

Fourth map

Kand launches a flanking attack to the east of Lula. FNA diverts a small portion of their troops to defend their flank. Yadayada, FNA must win, but not with enough troops to press further. The move itself confuses FNA leadership because it shows initiative and boldness, traits they know the commander at Sarakhad doesn't possess. It also comes dangerously close to succeeding.

Fifth map

FNA moves North to Renus, a small town which is used as the supply base for the secret research lab. This is the battle for Renus. There they learn about the General. They also find in Renus a population willing to lend their support quite readily to FNA and several Kandelian supply dumps. This force that left at company strength is able to grow to a respectable field army.

Act Three

First map

FNA forces at Renus learn that the General is in the area attempting to run an army to the channel from an earlier map. They take the opportunity to try to grab the General as well as prevent this force from reaching its goal. General escapes, and with his army weakened, runs to Kand HQ. While FNA doesn't accomplish their goal, they do manage to secure the area completely as well as put their new units into action.

The General

Using the forces that moved up from the mountains and were reinforced unexpectedly in Renus, the opportunistic commander decides to take the Kandelian HQ in the area. Intel from the General's staff (using techniques not quite Geneva sanctioned) corroborates the story of biological weapons that only kill Kandelians, and troops are dispatched following the guide. The intelligence is in the form of inventory sheets that show missing barrels and signed orders from the general to find them, but FNA moving in prevented the General from issuing the orders.

Third map

The Second Battle for Lula. In this battle, the incompetent commander in Sarakhad has learned the General was taken captive, and after being reinforced by what was left of the army at Kand HQ he figures he can take Lula easily. If he takes Lula easily, he will then be able to move to retake the Kand HQ and be a hero. FNA, on the other hand, has to destroy this army. After they destroy this army, they will control most of the province, and Kand will no longer have a field army in the province. FNA will then be able to advance on Ultha, which has a pretty good-sized garrison, but their force situated at the Kand HQ and their newly-acquired air force will be able to link up. While the FNA doesn't itself have enough forces to destroy the Sarakhad army, the FNA can hold their positions until the other units arrive, so the other units would logically be placed far from the map (or appear as reinforcements on the 10th turn or something like that). So it's Kand's forces making a last-ditch effort to take Lula, knowing that if they don't they'll get caught in a nasty pincer, but if they win they might be able to throw off the air strike and then retake their HQ and advance on Rhintura and crush the FNA.

Act Four

First map

The battle for the barrels of Kand-killer. The troops are betrayed by the LFNK contingent that accompanies them. Another Anthill-like scenario. Due to the betrayal, at the end of this map it is unknown where the barrels are, or even in what direction they may be found, but it is suspected that they are somewhere in the province of Yalwa, since the General was responsible for dealing with their disappearance. We will, of course, introduce the barrels of Kand-killer into a later part of the story, but this is it for this campaign. But I do intend for them to be real, and deployed against Kand. ;)

Second map

The Battle for the Enolian Air Fields. Just a fight for empty depots that happen to have airships in them. The air fields are discovered after rifling through the General's files, where orders are found to bury the air fields, due to the outdated nature of the technology and the fact that the area won't be well-reinforced.

Third map

On the march to Ultha, where Kand managed to coerce LFNK into trying to hold off FNA. So this is FNA's confrontation with LFNK over the betrayal, and should finish that subplot.

Fourth map

The Battle for Ultha itself.