Guerilla Warfare

[Comrade Pedro]

Maybe that foreign rebels weren't locals, but there's got to be some kind of veteran to guide and to teach the others the best spots...either the rebels themselves explore to find these spots.

The idea of guerrillas as a suport of an army is not correct, i guess, because most guerrillas act on their own to complete their full objectives.....

 

[Che Guava]

....The idea of guerrillas as a suport of an army is not correct, i guess, because most guerrillas act on their own to complete their full objectives.....

I agree. I think maybe a more realistic model would be to simply fund guerillas in other countries. For a hefty price, you could set up a foco in another country, which would consist of a collection of 'barbarian' guerilla units that would cause havoc in the countryside and maybe even take a city or two. Nobody would know who funded the insurgents, but a spy action might reveal where they got thier cash and munitions from, leading to an international incident....

 

[Comrade Pedro]

Yes, that's a great idea!!! Maybe a civ can borrow some weapons to this partie in exchange for future resources, for example.....

 

[dh_epic]

I think this would be a great idea. I think I would tie this to other ideas of minor civilizations. (Feel free to ask me to explain, if you haven't seen it kicking around.)

If a nation has undergone some kind of seperatist movement, then you could fund the new nation and help them get on their feet, through your intelligence agency.

And if the seperatist movement were just blossoming, you could use your espionage to help rock the boat. So when they finally seperate, you may even end up with a puppet regime. It would look like a minor civilization to other people, but it would actually be YOU.

 

[Che Guava]

@Pedro/dh_epic

Thanks y'all! I think the successful implementation of guerilla warfare in this kind of model would link to many other suggestions in this forum, definitely including minor civs (I'll list these below) I could see three main types of movements: nationalist/ethnic (where a minority in the empire wants to form an independent state/nation), religious (where a religious minority/majority rises up against an opposing/aethistic gov't), and political (where a group wants to topple the gov't in power in favour of another, more progressive/reactionnary, form). In order to have this work, though we'd need a few changes:

1. better intelligence agency: your IA should be able to tell you about movements of disenfranchised people in other civs, where thier bases of power are (where they have the most support) and thier likelyhood of success (based on thier total popular support, military capabilities of thier adversary, etc). Your IA could list three amounts you could donate to the cause (each representing a number of guerilla units/focos you could support), depending on your level of commitment to the cause.

2. Ethnicity This has been discussed in a couple forums, but here's my take on it: each citizen in your empire (1 point on your city) has a three-part identity: Nationality (what empire they belong to, i.e all people in german cities are german nationals), Ethnicity (what cultural group they belong to, i.e. the german populace in a city could be divided into germans, poles and hungarians), and Faith (what religion they belong to, i.e. blah blah blah...). A minority of any type could feel repressed by backwards policies of the government, become disgruntled, and provide fertile group for an armed insurrection. How the movement will react to you (if they decide to seek your support, or what price they demand) will depend on how well you mirror thier culture, faith, or political ideals (see below)

3. National Moods/desires Again, this has benn brought up in a number of threads under many names. Basically, besides the presence/absence of luxuries, troops and temples, your people should get upset when you lose a battle, sacrifice the lives of your citizens for a city improvement (and not just the people in the city!), or remain in an outdated system of gevernment. All of these situations should cause discontent in the populace at large, leading to insurgeants gaining more power. For instance, if you are still an absolute monarch when most of your neibours have switched to republics, republican movements may spring up to pressure the goverment to get with the times.

Once you have funded a guerilla movement in another empire, several things can happen.

-If the guerilla movement picks up force (wins a few battles, takes a city) city slightly sympathetic to the cause might become more so, causing civil disorder or even destroying improvements and attacking troops. Once things reach a fevered pithc, they may defect to the revolutionary movement

-If the guerilla movement falters, they might come back to you for more money, or a proposition to join them in thier war. Here cities under guerilla control may flip bac to the government in power. If the movement loses its last city while its influence is in decline, it will cease to exist all together

-If the movement reaches its objective (liberate the region it set out to, takes the capital, etc) it can be treated like a minor civ (think eritea/ethiopia), or if there are enough cities under its control, a full blown empire (think red china) that would be at your whim and mercy...at least for awhile...

-If the mother nation performs a counter-espionage missiona nd discovers that you are funding the insurrection, you may find yourself at war....

questions/suggestions/comments?