Strategic Arms Quest 3/2: Armor Edition

With the decision made to move in support of Holn (and implicitly leaving Schabler out to dry) you got to work making things happen with your current staff.

Logistically, in your field, the name of the game was heavy weapons. You could fly in machine guns and some ammunition, and more importantly could shake loose some propper gunboats from the workshops at the Volta and Lake Malawi. The resultant boats weren't what you were looking for, but with a pair of slightly dated Mg.08 and three trench mortars you weren't complaining. They'd free up cargo capacity to keep Holn in beans and bullets.

van Dromos was busy, meanwhile, expanding the facilities at the Herzstein airfield. Drafting local Askari who weren't in a position to fight directly, he soon had four runways and a decent maintenance shop and fuel dump up and running. With it came dividends in recon, specifically the fact that you could track the enemy's river traffic and move to inform Holn and his men. His reports back indicated many successful ambushes and encirclements, as well as that he was considering an advance to secure the headwaters of the Okovango Delta and consolidate his frontage. Your own intel from van Dromos indicated this was merely a formality, however, and that the Askari under Holn's train had already begun operations there.

Chiku, interestingly enough, had integrated herself into the Askari surrounding the full-to-bursting depot companies of the Sumpfratten and Bradenbarne, and had to all intents and purposes begun work on developing a fresh, unitary supplied, and entirely local regiment. What was more surprising than the fact she was trying, however, was that she was succeeding. Using dirt-cheap Volta equipment (since they were producing well over demand after the Second and Third Volta had both been nearly annihilated in the opening moves of the war) she'd gotten everything together that wasn't a commanding officer, machine guns, or heavy artillery- and Holn had the distinct pleasure of admitting to you she'd asked for whatever he could spare from captured stock.

Meanwhile, back in Dars-el-Salaam with you and the kids was Folger. Things weren't looking optimal for him- there needed to be some serious changes in the war situation until his CO was comfortable committing their tanks, and you'd made sure to speak with the man so that he understood that you weren't comfortable with it and would back him up on it- a good thing too, because Schabler was screaming for them. Enemy contact up in the North was intensifying, and the efforts you'd accomplished weren't enough to get the North Force up into the highlands proper where they could weather the constant stream of raiding parties better.

Speaking of your family, Anne-Marie had settled in well, and both Oskar and Klaus had both started picking up the local language(s). The schools were good enough that you didn't mind, but it would be nice to know the boys weren't running around all day in the heat and coming back home covered in sunburns and dirt. Oh well, they were boys- even if they did stand to stick out in their crowd of friends.

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You've been in Dars-el-Salaam for about a month now, and it's time to expand your staff.

PLAN VOTE

Staff Additions (Choose two)

[] Abir Achebe: An ex-Askari and grumpy old veteran in general, Abir claims to still have enough friends to influence how the literally thousands of irregulars under your colors fight. After seeing him stand up the bar one night, you believe him.
[] Karl Hausser: An ex-Gerbsjager with the rifle to prove it, Hausser claims to be able to train more of his old profession if you'll give him guns, money, and time.
[] Fedwebel Jans Kokobriki: A member of the Bradenbarne depot companies on medical leave, Kokobriki is interested in the Zambezi gunboat squadrons you've put together, and wants to make them "better". You're not sure how, but any firepower he can add would be appreciated.
[] Mirin Santiago: A foreign war reporter from Tlaexi, this bold woman claims to know where hundreds of old Tlaexan army caches are in the jungle, waiting to be unearthed- as well as foreign support against the Savage Afrikanners.

Focus Vote (What you yourself do. Choose One)

[] Get Chiku's regiment off the ground- fresh troops with the insane morale that the Afrikanners have would be invaluable.
[] Get Schabler off his ass by ramming a paperwork shaped stick up it until he decides to advance faster than a slow roll out of bed.
[] Keep Folger in the back until you're certain you can get him into a theatre that won't destroy his tanks entire.

Also, someone roll me a d20, first come first served.

After recruiting Kokobriki and Hausser into your General Staff, both of them got to work on their specific special operations groups. It took about two months for anything to shake out there or on the war in general, so you spent it about as productively as you could, by keeping 1/1 Elbing back in the rear with the gear and making sure you would have another kid. With Anne-Marie pregnant again (with fervent hopes it wasn't more twins) you found it very expediant to put in the extra hours at the office, keeping things moving where they should.

In the process, you learned that things were looking like they were about to go to shit if things weren't done. The North Force campaign had stonewalled with Schabler hitting the end of the mountains and trying to choke his troops into a field march column of all the damn things, and the resultant near-mutinies were causing issues. The four involved regiments and brigade needed foraging space and clear lines of fire for their security areas, and what news your air recon was getting back from Goma was that, yet again, Schabler's men were saying one thing and doing all the others. Getting anything useful out of the man was going to be impossible.

The South Front, meanwhile, had been moving pretty steadily up and out into it's old military district. Chiku's regiment, the self-styled Fifth Volta, had marched off and acquired it's artillery train and heavy weapons from the Askari independants that were surrounding the force. The Colonial Minister was rather incessed that an entire regiment had been formed sans Irromic support, but you had bigger issues than an entire regiment composed of black men (and theoretically women according to hearsay) going off to the front where they were needed. Lord, did Holn need the support- his units were getting beaten ragged, but the only meaningful losses were in equipment. Most of his wounded and missing in action came back eventually, but in the interrim his regular forces were absorbing Askari and loosing them in fairly large numbers to get picked up via the field hospital companies. Those poor doctors were up for medals to the man- Holn had more MIA and WIA then Schabler had men at this point, even if four-fifths of them weren't actually formal colonial soldiers.

When the disaster did strike, it was almost lackluster in it's proportions. Schabler, by dint of necessity, made his ad-hoc division up as a broad front with wide security zones, and as he was advancing into the Kongo regions got absolutely hammered for it. Field reports indicated a large light infantry force advanced under the cover of night in the highgrass prairies, who then absolutely savaged the central regiment (Bamberg's Fourth) in a near-perfect pincer maneuver. What moved things from military blunder into absurdist comedy, however, was when the neighboring regiments (Tangiyaka's Second and Volta's First) proceed to take the notional size of the security zone into account, set their machine guns to parabolic fire, and started sweeping the security zones… right into the 2/4 and 3/4 Bamberg battalions, respectively, who'd gotten about forty meters overextended on each side due to the 1/4 Bamberg extending during the day's march. Believing themselves to be under attack by enemy fire support or armored vehicles, both Bamberg battalions called on central fire support for close range fire support… which was then also dialed in on the now thoroughly ruined security zones full of Irromic troopers.

At the end of the night, the Fourth Bamberg Regiment was looking like it might need to become Fourth Bamberg Anglamted Regiment, with a full half the main body of the force nearly destroyed. Your main regret, however, was that Schabler seemed convinced that the enemy had both significant armored car assets, heavy artillery, and Balhk-trained paratroopers despite the last flight over the area had been a week ago.

In positive news, however, Holn had managed to return to his old stomping grounds and most of the old telegraph lines hadn't been taken out, so you now had same-day communications with Holn. Huzzah! More importantly, both the North and South Forces had fought their way up into good territory with competent supplies, so everything back at home could finally get parceled up to the front- and you were in charge of that. For some reason, they all trusted you. You'd never know why.

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Each unit has to be assigned to North or South force. Inidcate this by voting by plan with two blocks like so. Note that 6th Tangiyakan and 4th Nyassand are divided up into battalions in case you guys want to get really granular with who gets what; they can also be respectively assigned as [] 6th Tangiyakan and as [] 4th Nyassaland if you all so choose.

[] NAME PLAN
-[] NORTH
--[] Dese guys
--[] Dose guys
-[] SOUTH
--[] Dem guys
--[] Dere guys

Forces

[] 6th Marienburg Anglamated Regiment
[] 3rd Passau Artillery Regiment
[] 6/1 Tangiyaka Battallion
[] 6/2 Tangiyaka Battallion
[] 6/3 Tangiyaka Battallion
[] 6/4 (Headquarters) Tangiyaka Battalion
[] "Karisimbi" Tangiyakan Gerbersjaegers Company
[] "Pike" Nyassand Gunboat Flotilla
[] 4/1 Nyassand Battalion
[] 4/2 Nyassand Battalion
[] 4/3 Nyassand Battalion
[] 4/4 (Headquarters) Battalion
[] 1/1 Elbing Battalion