I have done preliminary research on the prospects for an immediate attack on the Iroquois and find them quite good, in fact far better than I had anticipated. As the next Turn Chat begins with Fanatika holding the initiative (moving), we can take full advantage of the precious few turns available to us before the Iroquois start deploying modern infantry units in defense of their cities.
1) General deployment The unfortunate distribution of our military, which several of us have critiqued this past week, actually work in our favor if we turn our attention to the Iroquois. Only a fraction of our unit strength is committed to Babylonia, and these are, for the most part, veteran regiments with obsolete weapons.
2) We currently have a hundred infantry units spread across Fanatika, mostly in cities part of our rail network. A number of rifle-armed regiments are already in Babylon, and are adequately equipped for dealing with the remaining offensive power of the Babylonian military.
3) Only about 5 of our 34 cavalry units are more than two movements away from the Iroquois cities that need to be assaulted immediately to prevent their defenses being upgraded with infantry garrisons. Some 25 are available to be deployed for combat on the first two seasons of the campaign.
4) Almost all of our modern artillery has not been deployed to the Babylonian front and can be deployed by railroad to bombard vulnerable Iroquois cities on the second season of the war. The various batteries of older guns already in Babylon are fully adequate to press the offensive there until they can be reinforced or modernized.
5) There is a pressing need to upgrade our LOC (Line of Communications) net in Babylon and around the fringes of the Iroquois empire. Approximately 2 dozen Fanatikan worker battalions need to be released for this purpose by the Governors and approximately the same number of infantry regiments should be assigned to protect them. The threat posed to our workers by Babylonian and Iroquois forces is minimal, predictable, and should be easily warded.
6) Of the five outlying Iroquois cities most threatening to Fanatikan interests, four (Suo, Nagoya, Osaka, and Rostov) are within one tile of our rail network at some point. They can be contained on the first turn of our campaign by infantry, then assaulted by artillery, cavalry, and infantry on the second turn. All should fall without great loss to us. The fifth city, Minsk, can be isolated on the first turn of the campaign and assaulted by forces moving west from Osaka as soon as that city falls.
7) We can anticipate some offensive action from the Iroquois heartland territories in the open seasons of the war, but can divert most of it by breaching the Iroquois border in the opening season of the war at several points with powerful infantry corps. These penetrations should absorb or distract all of the Iroquois reserves and could be readily reinforced by strong reinforcements after our initial objectives are obtained.
8) The operations Ive described would require approximately 24 artillery, 24 cavalry, and 30 infantry in the opening operations of the campaigns and thus can easily be conducted by the forces available in the Fanatika homeland, without interfering with ongoing operations in Babylon.
I would appreciate any comments on this plan of action, particularly its diplomatic consequences and considerations.
Yrs.
[Langrave Feodor Ardent of Quellewasser
Deputy Minister for Military Affairs
Colonel General of the Fanatiker-Heer
Major General of Volunteers
Master Emeritas of the Guilds Textile