Katangan gendarmes and mercenaries, 1962.
TL;DR Summary
- 1962 - Height of the Cold War.
- A former French Colony, the Republic of Gwunfa, has been ripped in two by a civil war between ethnic groups. The Warsaw Pact supports Jacques Venda and his government, which is Dandu-majority.
- The breakaway Republic of Seva is attempting to create a new country, with white settler and mineral company support. It is headed by Dr. Pierre Okovu and is much smaller than the rest of Gwunfa, but lays claim to mineral rich territory in the Bokovu Highlands.
- There is a UN mission that has established a DMZ between Seva and the rest of Gwunfa but it is failing, particularly after Dandu guerrillas captured peacekeepers and the UN had to pay money to get them back. Support for the mission has dwindled, and the UN is preparing to leave its positions...which are conveniently located in the Bokovu highlands, where much of the wealth is.
- A war seems inevitable.
In Character Info
1962 - Gwunfa (fictional country, but same old story) was a French West African holding, known for its lush highland jungles and wildlife. As recently as the late 1950's, it was French-governed but, as the French began to pull out of Indochina and Africa, and fought a long, exhausting war in Algeria that ended in 1962, Gwunfa was prematurely given its autonomy and independence in short order. The only known resources at the time were agricultural, with largely coastal settlement by the colonial power and a very rugged frontier inhabited by native Africans along with a few commercial farming concerns that primarily grew coffee.
Gwunfa's post-colonial government would have perhaps succeeded if not for two things; the discovery of a huge deposit of uranium and rare earths that has the world powers suddenly sitting up and taking notice and a coup against the government as carried out by a certain Major Jacques Venda, a former NCO of the Colonial French Tirailleurs, influential commander in the post-Colonial Army and overnight convert to Marxism-Leninism; he used the same old rhetoric that painted the post-colonial government installed by the French as tools of the colonial power and communism as an ideology of national liberation. He managed to rally around his fellow Dandu to take power through sham elections and coercion. Down the coast, in Seva Province, Pierre Okodu, who has the white settlers and other money men of Bokavu behind him, is trying to quickly establish a breakaway state.
The UN quickly descended on Gwunfa and declared a cease fire and tried to set up a peacekeeping operation, but the Irish, Italian, Swedish, Brazilian and Filipino peacekeepers find themselves in hot water as the insurgency starts to heat up -- cross border raids that are ebbing away support in the home countries for a continued presence in Gwunfa.
Now, as the thunder starts to roll, the weapons and advisors are flying in from Cuba, from the Soviet Union and from the rest of the east bloc. In London, Marseilles, Brussels and Johannesburg, mercenaries are behind hired and arms dealers are getting their shipments in order and their boats ready.
Because UN or no UN, there is going to be a war.
Gwunfa's post-colonial government would have perhaps succeeded if not for two things; the discovery of a huge deposit of uranium and rare earths that has the world powers suddenly sitting up and taking notice and a coup against the government as carried out by a certain Major Jacques Venda, a former NCO of the Colonial French Tirailleurs, influential commander in the post-Colonial Army and overnight convert to Marxism-Leninism; he used the same old rhetoric that painted the post-colonial government installed by the French as tools of the colonial power and communism as an ideology of national liberation. He managed to rally around his fellow Dandu to take power through sham elections and coercion. Down the coast, in Seva Province, Pierre Okodu, who has the white settlers and other money men of Bokavu behind him, is trying to quickly establish a breakaway state.
The UN quickly descended on Gwunfa and declared a cease fire and tried to set up a peacekeeping operation, but the Irish, Italian, Swedish, Brazilian and Filipino peacekeepers find themselves in hot water as the insurgency starts to heat up -- cross border raids that are ebbing away support in the home countries for a continued presence in Gwunfa.
Now, as the thunder starts to roll, the weapons and advisors are flying in from Cuba, from the Soviet Union and from the rest of the east bloc. In London, Marseilles, Brussels and Johannesburg, mercenaries are behind hired and arms dealers are getting their shipments in order and their boats ready.
Because UN or no UN, there is going to be a war.
Out of Character Info
This RP will involve the PC's as mercenaries, intelligence agents posing as mercs (or mercs selling intelligence on the side,) reporters, or spies posing as reporters and so on, aid workers, missionaries, arms traffickers, engineers and UN observers, all potentially spies, or perhaps as other sorts (depends on what you suggest and we'll see if it fits in.)
Odds are, characters will be inducted into the 3rd Commando, which is a company-sized formation that has yet to shake out its organization. The quality of the mercenaries varies, but most of the recruits are colonials or otherwise know how to shoot. The current captain is Michel Langlais, a settler and those that sign up are promised citizenship in the Republic of Seva and will be handed a considerable paycheck in land, cash or company stock. Those with significant experience are able to negotiate themselves a better bonus attached to performance -- the mineral companies want the Republic of Seva and the mercs are their ace in the hole to secure it.
Back in these days, most nations had draftee national service, and the mercenaries were traditionally not too picky about letting people hook up. It's not like the modern era, with highly organized PMCs like Blackwater that recruit pretty exclusively from elite formations of the US Army. It's a much more informal sort of arrangement in a world where there are a lot more people who have gone to a boot camp before in their lives. In some colonial holdings, people just gave up the office job and took a jeep ride over to the nearest war and signed up, no questions asked.
Odds are, the characters will have ties to the powers that be back home. The US, in 1962, is not as heavily invested in Africa as other powers happen to be, but are a presence. There are also, of course, commercial concerns. Much of the purpose of this storyline will revolve around the personal lives of the characters and the things they learn in their time in the civil war. It is a bit of a character development exercise. The characters' actions will have consequences, potentially international consequences.
Odds are, characters will be inducted into the 3rd Commando, which is a company-sized formation that has yet to shake out its organization. The quality of the mercenaries varies, but most of the recruits are colonials or otherwise know how to shoot. The current captain is Michel Langlais, a settler and those that sign up are promised citizenship in the Republic of Seva and will be handed a considerable paycheck in land, cash or company stock. Those with significant experience are able to negotiate themselves a better bonus attached to performance -- the mineral companies want the Republic of Seva and the mercs are their ace in the hole to secure it.
Back in these days, most nations had draftee national service, and the mercenaries were traditionally not too picky about letting people hook up. It's not like the modern era, with highly organized PMCs like Blackwater that recruit pretty exclusively from elite formations of the US Army. It's a much more informal sort of arrangement in a world where there are a lot more people who have gone to a boot camp before in their lives. In some colonial holdings, people just gave up the office job and took a jeep ride over to the nearest war and signed up, no questions asked.
Odds are, the characters will have ties to the powers that be back home. The US, in 1962, is not as heavily invested in Africa as other powers happen to be, but are a presence. There are also, of course, commercial concerns. Much of the purpose of this storyline will revolve around the personal lives of the characters and the things they learn in their time in the civil war. It is a bit of a character development exercise. The characters' actions will have consequences, potentially international consequences.
