Spyr
02-12-2006, 00:56
This is a thread for out-of-character discussion relating to the Red East (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=499917) RP from A Modern World (AMW).
-------------------------------
Starting off, I've been trying to assemble a timeline for events in Red East, as it would help both place the thread in the greater context of WWIII, and be useful for Strainist strategy (which is highly dependent on speed and temporal considerations). I've tried to include a few odds & ends (telegrams, a news post on the off-site forum, the evolution of things within the Strainist Party) as well as things everyone has done, distances between locations and the like.
Timeline of the War in Indonesia
June 1st
-People’s Congress of the Strainist Party, with approval of the Central Committee, votes to begin operations against Mohammed Kalla’s regime ‘at the earliest opportunity’. Records are sealed, though there is concern as Strainist access-to-information law will see the text of the vote revealed within thirty days.
June 2nd
-Beijing and Mumbai are informed of Strainist intention to remove Mohammed Kalla and liberate Indonesia, starting within a ‘one month timeframe’, as are the CPRD, Armandian Combine, and Soviet Commonwealth. Of these, only the Combine raises objections, causing Sithin concerns over current close relations.
All are asked for discretion so as to avoid providing Kalla or ‘imperialist elements’ opportunity to prepare.
June 3rd
-Battleship Lyong-ti launches on a propaganda tour of the Great Revolutionary Sea, before steaming south. Its declared intent is to conduct similar parade exercises in Sujava.
June 8th
-Strainist submarines begin leaving their pens in larger-than-usual numbers.
June 9th
-Battleship Lyong-ti arrives at Belitung, before commencing a propaganda tour through the Java Sea.
June 10th
-Aware that Franco-Spanish and Aussie-Walmington fleets are approaching for a ‘decisive battle’, the decision is made to deploy immediately rather than awaiting Combine cooperation and resolution of the Russian question, which it had been hoped would be dealt with before the end of June (SRA naval doctrine has moved away from its IJN roots, but it retains a tendency to look upon major engagements as ‘decisive battles’, whose outcome will determine the final victor in a conflict).
June 12th
-Strainist Revolutionary Army launches Operation Garuda, an invasion of the Islamic Republic of Indonesia via the People’s Republic of Sujava.
-Hindustani paratroopers land four kilometers south of Galela (Halmahera) [2:55AM].
-Strainist marines are landed via submarine, ten kilometers north of Balikpapan (Borneo) [3:15AM].
-SRA observation aircraft take off over Java and Sumatra [4:45AM].
-SRA aircraft begin to muster over Java in larger and larger numbers. These formations are detected by Jindalee OTHR in Australasia.
-SRA launches widespread aerial bombardment of military targets in Makassar (Sulawesi), Kendawangan, Balikpapan (Borneo), Galela (Halmahera), and Aceh. [5:55AM].
-SRA artillery in Sujava commences saturation bombardment of Acehnese defensive positions [5:55AM].
-Hindustani marines launch an amphibious assault on Ambon (Ambon) [5:55AM], quickly driving back Indonesian troops stationed there but allowing those troops to evacuate the island rather than pursuing and eliminating them.
-SRA marines launch an attack on the rearward subhurbs of Balikpapan (Borneo) [5:56AM], taking the city by surprise. Airborne troops secure off-shore oil derricks, and Indonesian troops are slow to identify the inland attack as the main thrust rather than a feint in preparation for a larger naval landing. Fighting in the air over the city is intense, with Indonesian pilots accounting for themselves quite well despite inferior equipment, managing to all-but eliminate the SRA’s light tanks as well as sink a grain transport converted for helicopter carrier duty. Indonesian reinforcements are delayed inland by Strainist air strikes, though SRA incompetence allows fresh troops to secure the city’s airport against incoming reinforcements.
-Hindustani paratroopers launch an assault on Galela (Halmahera), capturing the sailors and ships stationed there [5:56AM]. Fighting quickly becomes more heated as troops from local sultanates launch a counter-attack against the town, forcing the landing of additional troops by sea from Tanimbar. Prisoners are released to Indonesian lines when holding them requires more manpower than can be safely spared.
-SRA forces launch an amphibious landing at Kendawangan (Borneo) [6:00AM], their large numbers overwhelming surprised defenders and securing a port for the arrival of additional troops via Belitung. SRA forces begin to fan out, engaging Indonesian counterattacks and continuing the fighting well into the night, against columns of Indonesian reinforcements.
-SRA mechanized column pushes from Sidikalang (Sumatra) towards Tapaktuan (Aceh) [6:10AM]. Encountering stiffer-than-expected resistance, artillery strikes are called in using three ballistic rockets mounting fuel-air warheads. Tapaktuan is reduced to rubble and opposition to the Strainist advance ceases. Three large pressure wave explosions are detected by Australasian Jindalee OTHR.
-SRA mechanized column pushes from Binjai (Sumatra) towards Langsa (Aceh) [6:10AM]. Surprised Indonesian defenders scatter and fall back towards more defensible positions.
-SRA mechanized column pushes from Kabanjahe (Sumatra) towards Kutacane (Aceh) [6:10AM]. They encounter Indonesia’s Badr Regiment, engaging in a fierce tank battle in cramped conditions. The Badr Regiment is devastated by the end of the battle, but the opposition is bloodied as well and more importantly delayed in its advance.
-SRA airborne troops land on Aceh’s peripheral islands, facing minimal resistance [6:10AM].
-Under cover of the battleship Lyong-ti and the cruiser Blake, SRA forces launch an amphibious landing at Makassar (Sulawesi) while Hindustani troops land six kilometers to the south [6:15AM]. Fighting is heavy, but the strength of naval bombardment carries the day for the invading forces, reducing the fort of Ujung Pandang to rubble and driving out the defenders by noon, after which additional forces are ferried into the port and civil relief efforts begin.
-SRA PSYOP aircraft begin overriding Indonesian radio and television transmissions with their own broadcasts [6:15AM].
-Domestic media within Spyr and Sujava are informed that Strainist operations have begun against Indonesia [6:30AM]
-Foreign media and diplomats in Sujava are informed that Strainist operations have begun against Indonesia [7:30AM].
- Battleship Lyong-ti crosses the Makassar strait, and commences shelling of defensive positions in the city of Banjarmasin [4:30PM].
-Strainist troops land via ground-effect vehicle at Tarakan (Kalimantan), and begin fighting to secure the town and nearby airfield, in an attempt to relieve pressure on operations further south [5:00PM]
-Australasian PM Andrew Strathairn condemns Strainist operations against Indonesia [6:00PM]. Quinntonia quickly backs the Australasian position, as does Roycelandia, which begins to move naval forces to bolster Raleigh’s defenses while the Free Colony’s ships are tied up in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres. Walmington declines to join the condemnations.
-Strainist commandos and officials of the Iunctan Church are landed in northern Sulawesi, making contact with the civil population there and planning operations against Indonesian forces garrisoned in the region [8:00PM].
June 13th
-Sithin publishes sealed documents from its various committees, detailing rationale for the attack on Indonesia.
-Sithin and Jakarta react to Western condemnation of their operations by accusing the USQ and other Western powers of racism against the peoples of Asia.
-SRA columns in Aceh, halted just short of the Indonesian M-T-L line, commence re-supply and preparation for an assault as heavy aerial and artillery bombardment begins [3:00AM]. Bombardment continues throughout the day, until ground assaults are launched just after sunset [6:45PM].
-SRA troops launch an amphibious assault 12 kilometres south of Singkawang [5:55AM], advancing quickly to secure the city while Indonesian troops lay booby traps and fall back into the surrounding hills.
-SRA columns push out from Makassar, one towards Polewali one towards Palopo. The eastern column encounters trouble from Indonesian troops moving to flank them through mountainous terrain, an advance which continues despite Strainist air attacks meant to delay it.
June 14th
- [OOC: Where we are now, roughly]
Other events
-Japanese government condemns Sujavan invasion of Indonesia. [OOC: Probably morning of the 13th or 14th?]
-Australasia begins covert delivery of supplies to the Sultan of Aceh.
[OOC: I’m assuming the Aussie secret service fellows would have bought transport ships locally and ferried in the weapons by air from depots, rather than sailing all the way from Australasia or other crisis zones where an aid groups presence would be justified? So probably at least a day to assemble (the 13th) and a good half-day of sailing (the 14th) from a Thai port to Banda Aceh, putting them in the city by late into the 14th of June? Or later if things weren’t so rushed].
- Sino-Australasian relations take a turn for the worse due to disputes over the war in Indonesia. Raleigh begins purchasing long-range air-to-air missiles from Port Royal, and Beijing responds by selling BVRAAMs (once bound for Australasia) to Jakarta. The first shipment of such missiles leaves for Sujava 5 days later.
[OOC: Not sure how quickly this happened in comparison with combat operations, but it seems it ought to have taken a bit longer than two days ^_^. Perhaps things degraded over the week, and respective BVRAAM contracts were switched around the 18th or 19th of June, putting the first Chinese missiles in Sujava by the 25th?]
-Roycelandian ships arrive to reinforce Australasian defences around the Torres Strait.
[OOC: Assuming they prepare overnight after Strathairn asks for help, and sail at high speed out of Vanuatu, these ships would probably arrive in position on the 15th? If it’s a larger force, needing more prep time, perhaps the 16th or 17th?]
-Russian fleet begins moving southward towards the South China Sea.
[OOC: This one is a bit confusing, due to sheer distances involved… if the Russians had a task-force already loaded for long term deployment and moving at top speed through the Strait of Japan, they might reach the South China Sea by the 16th of June… avoiding the Strait (and potential threat of Lyongese guns/ photoreconnaissance/ etc) would add distance going around the other side of Japan, putting them there on the 17th plus the days it took to prepare and delays due to fuel conservation measures, considering the supply line back to Russia from Southeast Asia is expensive at best and indefensible at worst].
-------------------------------
Starting off, I've been trying to assemble a timeline for events in Red East, as it would help both place the thread in the greater context of WWIII, and be useful for Strainist strategy (which is highly dependent on speed and temporal considerations). I've tried to include a few odds & ends (telegrams, a news post on the off-site forum, the evolution of things within the Strainist Party) as well as things everyone has done, distances between locations and the like.
Timeline of the War in Indonesia
June 1st
-People’s Congress of the Strainist Party, with approval of the Central Committee, votes to begin operations against Mohammed Kalla’s regime ‘at the earliest opportunity’. Records are sealed, though there is concern as Strainist access-to-information law will see the text of the vote revealed within thirty days.
June 2nd
-Beijing and Mumbai are informed of Strainist intention to remove Mohammed Kalla and liberate Indonesia, starting within a ‘one month timeframe’, as are the CPRD, Armandian Combine, and Soviet Commonwealth. Of these, only the Combine raises objections, causing Sithin concerns over current close relations.
All are asked for discretion so as to avoid providing Kalla or ‘imperialist elements’ opportunity to prepare.
June 3rd
-Battleship Lyong-ti launches on a propaganda tour of the Great Revolutionary Sea, before steaming south. Its declared intent is to conduct similar parade exercises in Sujava.
June 8th
-Strainist submarines begin leaving their pens in larger-than-usual numbers.
June 9th
-Battleship Lyong-ti arrives at Belitung, before commencing a propaganda tour through the Java Sea.
June 10th
-Aware that Franco-Spanish and Aussie-Walmington fleets are approaching for a ‘decisive battle’, the decision is made to deploy immediately rather than awaiting Combine cooperation and resolution of the Russian question, which it had been hoped would be dealt with before the end of June (SRA naval doctrine has moved away from its IJN roots, but it retains a tendency to look upon major engagements as ‘decisive battles’, whose outcome will determine the final victor in a conflict).
June 12th
-Strainist Revolutionary Army launches Operation Garuda, an invasion of the Islamic Republic of Indonesia via the People’s Republic of Sujava.
-Hindustani paratroopers land four kilometers south of Galela (Halmahera) [2:55AM].
-Strainist marines are landed via submarine, ten kilometers north of Balikpapan (Borneo) [3:15AM].
-SRA observation aircraft take off over Java and Sumatra [4:45AM].
-SRA aircraft begin to muster over Java in larger and larger numbers. These formations are detected by Jindalee OTHR in Australasia.
-SRA launches widespread aerial bombardment of military targets in Makassar (Sulawesi), Kendawangan, Balikpapan (Borneo), Galela (Halmahera), and Aceh. [5:55AM].
-SRA artillery in Sujava commences saturation bombardment of Acehnese defensive positions [5:55AM].
-Hindustani marines launch an amphibious assault on Ambon (Ambon) [5:55AM], quickly driving back Indonesian troops stationed there but allowing those troops to evacuate the island rather than pursuing and eliminating them.
-SRA marines launch an attack on the rearward subhurbs of Balikpapan (Borneo) [5:56AM], taking the city by surprise. Airborne troops secure off-shore oil derricks, and Indonesian troops are slow to identify the inland attack as the main thrust rather than a feint in preparation for a larger naval landing. Fighting in the air over the city is intense, with Indonesian pilots accounting for themselves quite well despite inferior equipment, managing to all-but eliminate the SRA’s light tanks as well as sink a grain transport converted for helicopter carrier duty. Indonesian reinforcements are delayed inland by Strainist air strikes, though SRA incompetence allows fresh troops to secure the city’s airport against incoming reinforcements.
-Hindustani paratroopers launch an assault on Galela (Halmahera), capturing the sailors and ships stationed there [5:56AM]. Fighting quickly becomes more heated as troops from local sultanates launch a counter-attack against the town, forcing the landing of additional troops by sea from Tanimbar. Prisoners are released to Indonesian lines when holding them requires more manpower than can be safely spared.
-SRA forces launch an amphibious landing at Kendawangan (Borneo) [6:00AM], their large numbers overwhelming surprised defenders and securing a port for the arrival of additional troops via Belitung. SRA forces begin to fan out, engaging Indonesian counterattacks and continuing the fighting well into the night, against columns of Indonesian reinforcements.
-SRA mechanized column pushes from Sidikalang (Sumatra) towards Tapaktuan (Aceh) [6:10AM]. Encountering stiffer-than-expected resistance, artillery strikes are called in using three ballistic rockets mounting fuel-air warheads. Tapaktuan is reduced to rubble and opposition to the Strainist advance ceases. Three large pressure wave explosions are detected by Australasian Jindalee OTHR.
-SRA mechanized column pushes from Binjai (Sumatra) towards Langsa (Aceh) [6:10AM]. Surprised Indonesian defenders scatter and fall back towards more defensible positions.
-SRA mechanized column pushes from Kabanjahe (Sumatra) towards Kutacane (Aceh) [6:10AM]. They encounter Indonesia’s Badr Regiment, engaging in a fierce tank battle in cramped conditions. The Badr Regiment is devastated by the end of the battle, but the opposition is bloodied as well and more importantly delayed in its advance.
-SRA airborne troops land on Aceh’s peripheral islands, facing minimal resistance [6:10AM].
-Under cover of the battleship Lyong-ti and the cruiser Blake, SRA forces launch an amphibious landing at Makassar (Sulawesi) while Hindustani troops land six kilometers to the south [6:15AM]. Fighting is heavy, but the strength of naval bombardment carries the day for the invading forces, reducing the fort of Ujung Pandang to rubble and driving out the defenders by noon, after which additional forces are ferried into the port and civil relief efforts begin.
-SRA PSYOP aircraft begin overriding Indonesian radio and television transmissions with their own broadcasts [6:15AM].
-Domestic media within Spyr and Sujava are informed that Strainist operations have begun against Indonesia [6:30AM]
-Foreign media and diplomats in Sujava are informed that Strainist operations have begun against Indonesia [7:30AM].
- Battleship Lyong-ti crosses the Makassar strait, and commences shelling of defensive positions in the city of Banjarmasin [4:30PM].
-Strainist troops land via ground-effect vehicle at Tarakan (Kalimantan), and begin fighting to secure the town and nearby airfield, in an attempt to relieve pressure on operations further south [5:00PM]
-Australasian PM Andrew Strathairn condemns Strainist operations against Indonesia [6:00PM]. Quinntonia quickly backs the Australasian position, as does Roycelandia, which begins to move naval forces to bolster Raleigh’s defenses while the Free Colony’s ships are tied up in the Atlantic and Mediterranean theatres. Walmington declines to join the condemnations.
-Strainist commandos and officials of the Iunctan Church are landed in northern Sulawesi, making contact with the civil population there and planning operations against Indonesian forces garrisoned in the region [8:00PM].
June 13th
-Sithin publishes sealed documents from its various committees, detailing rationale for the attack on Indonesia.
-Sithin and Jakarta react to Western condemnation of their operations by accusing the USQ and other Western powers of racism against the peoples of Asia.
-SRA columns in Aceh, halted just short of the Indonesian M-T-L line, commence re-supply and preparation for an assault as heavy aerial and artillery bombardment begins [3:00AM]. Bombardment continues throughout the day, until ground assaults are launched just after sunset [6:45PM].
-SRA troops launch an amphibious assault 12 kilometres south of Singkawang [5:55AM], advancing quickly to secure the city while Indonesian troops lay booby traps and fall back into the surrounding hills.
-SRA columns push out from Makassar, one towards Polewali one towards Palopo. The eastern column encounters trouble from Indonesian troops moving to flank them through mountainous terrain, an advance which continues despite Strainist air attacks meant to delay it.
June 14th
- [OOC: Where we are now, roughly]
Other events
-Japanese government condemns Sujavan invasion of Indonesia. [OOC: Probably morning of the 13th or 14th?]
-Australasia begins covert delivery of supplies to the Sultan of Aceh.
[OOC: I’m assuming the Aussie secret service fellows would have bought transport ships locally and ferried in the weapons by air from depots, rather than sailing all the way from Australasia or other crisis zones where an aid groups presence would be justified? So probably at least a day to assemble (the 13th) and a good half-day of sailing (the 14th) from a Thai port to Banda Aceh, putting them in the city by late into the 14th of June? Or later if things weren’t so rushed].
- Sino-Australasian relations take a turn for the worse due to disputes over the war in Indonesia. Raleigh begins purchasing long-range air-to-air missiles from Port Royal, and Beijing responds by selling BVRAAMs (once bound for Australasia) to Jakarta. The first shipment of such missiles leaves for Sujava 5 days later.
[OOC: Not sure how quickly this happened in comparison with combat operations, but it seems it ought to have taken a bit longer than two days ^_^. Perhaps things degraded over the week, and respective BVRAAM contracts were switched around the 18th or 19th of June, putting the first Chinese missiles in Sujava by the 25th?]
-Roycelandian ships arrive to reinforce Australasian defences around the Torres Strait.
[OOC: Assuming they prepare overnight after Strathairn asks for help, and sail at high speed out of Vanuatu, these ships would probably arrive in position on the 15th? If it’s a larger force, needing more prep time, perhaps the 16th or 17th?]
-Russian fleet begins moving southward towards the South China Sea.
[OOC: This one is a bit confusing, due to sheer distances involved… if the Russians had a task-force already loaded for long term deployment and moving at top speed through the Strait of Japan, they might reach the South China Sea by the 16th of June… avoiding the Strait (and potential threat of Lyongese guns/ photoreconnaissance/ etc) would add distance going around the other side of Japan, putting them there on the 17th plus the days it took to prepare and delays due to fuel conservation measures, considering the supply line back to Russia from Southeast Asia is expensive at best and indefensible at worst].