Starting a Spectre Operations Blog. (now with pics!!!).

[Jockjay]

Hi Guys,

A few friends and I are looking to hit Spectre hard starting next year, and some of the inspirational stuff here (Maxx von Morton, Chargedog amongst others), have led me to want to blog about our games etc.

We are a narrative lot, we play themes and ideas rather than lists and tournaments, the sent me spiralling down a 2000 word fluff piece to justify 'why our guys are rolling dice at each other'.

Here is the spiel if anyone is interested, note, I am certainly no writer, have little idea about Russian naming conventions  and even less about politics. I hop nothing I write offends anyone, it is intended purely as background noise for our games.

But if anything is major wrong, than please tell me, I would like it to be at least passable

[Jockjay]

The Republic of Rostonova 2018:

Population: 3.9 mil

Religious disposition: 90% Christian, 10% Sunni Muslim / Tribal Muslim/ other.
 
Language: Russian with some tribal dialects.

Capital city: Rostnagrad – Pop 575,000

Second city: Kalinov- pop 230,000

The Republic of Rostonova, formed after WW2 is a small nation on Russia’s southern border. The north of the country is an expanse of rural planes and small villages, providing much of Rostonova’s agricultural output. Towards the south the terrain becomes more metropolitan, with larger towns and cities spread throughout. The south of the country shares a border with Turkey, the east with Georgia and the west is the Black Sea. Rostonova has an ample supply of oil and natural minerals, with most of the oil fields in the southern regions. Oil production was implemented with western help in the 1990s. On the 5th of September 2015, the people of Rostonova voted overwhelmingly to join the EU taking with them their oil fields and rich mineral mines. The northern districts of Rostonova are predominantly ethnic Russians, and most voted against incorporation to the EU, instead wishing to be reintegrated with Russia. Russian had always put political and financial strain on Rostonova, with many pro-Russia protests and disruption in the north. This was perceived as being instigated by Russia to destabilise the country and keep tensions between the ethnicities high.  With the vote results made public, many civilians and military units based in the north protested and accused the west of interfering with the votes and insinuated that the government was nothing more than a puppet regime, placed by western powers. Protests turned to violence, when a group of five teenage ‘pro-EU’ demonstrators were found brutally stabbed beaten to death in an alleyway during a heated protest in the northern second city of Kalinov. Within minutes of the news going public, rumours ran through the crowd that his crime was perpetrated by East Slavic, ethnic Russians. The first shots of the ongoing war in Rostnova were fired: South Slavic forces engaged a car they state, “was trying to ram their line”. The car was a northern Father and Mother trying to get their children out of the protest area. All occupants of the vehicle were killed.

What followed will long be known locally as “Black September”; the gathered crowds, both northern and southern turned on each other, the protest became a riot, the riot became a battle. Military units initially sent to cordon the area found themselves siding with their ethnicity rather than unifying to stop the violence. Soldiers fought their former comrades based on which town they came from and what ‘side’ they were on. Gunfire was initially sporadic, probably warning shots, but then opened into a full firefight. For a full 14 hours the battle raged throughout the streets of Kalinov. The military had split into two rival factions: whilst the ethnic Russians make up only a third of Rostonova’s populace, they made up close to 50% of the military. Casualties were high on both sides, but none as high as the civilians. By sunrise almost 740 Rostonovans were dead in Kalinov (mostly civilian), with an unknown number dead throughout the country as the violence was not contained to Kalinov.

The following afternoon, Premier Yuri Stantinov, a southern Slav, addressed the nation on live TV from Rostnagrod, begged for a cease to the fighting. During the filming, one of Stantinov’s guards drew his machine pistol and shouted, “For Russia!” before emptying his pistol into Stantinov live on air. The guard has been identified as Piotr Vushkec, an ethnic Russian, and was gunned down by the remaining guards, shortly after he pulled the trigger himself.

The assassination of Stantinov set in motion another day of intense fighting throughout the northern half of the country, with sporadic violence in the capital (the capital over 80% Southern Slav) the government announced the swearing into office of vice Premier Petrov Vasilev, and ethnic Russian. Vasilev’s first speech, again asked for cessation of hostilities throughout the country, to give government time to process the past two day’s events and bring peace back to the people.

The fighting did dissipate after the speech, but not completely; looting and targeted personal attacks were still rife. The military had settled into its two factions very quickly, locals dubbed the factions the North Rostonova Brigades (NRB) and the Rostonovan Southern Army (RSA). Multitudes of slanderous names existed for both sides, but politically the north had been represented by the media as the aggressors in Rostonova. The NRB compromised around 45% of the total of Rostonova’s military force in terms of numbers of soldiers. Prior to Black September, Rostonova had a standing army of 82,000, of which roughly 50,000 were conscripts and 32,000 were professional soldiers. Men in the north took military service very seriously, with familial and village honour based on numbers of men serving past conscription. This led to the NRB having an inordinate amount of the experienced/ professional soldiers under their command. Their southern counterparts were seen to be quite cosmopolitan in their approach to life, having more cities and better paid jobs than the rural north. The perception of the south, was that they completed minimum conscription service for the education grants awarded and never looked back to the military. The threat of a Russian attacks led to large portions of the military’s armoured assets being stationed in the north. This, coupled with the high number of professional soldiers would factor highly on events in the coming months.

Premier Petrov Vasilev secretly moved his main office from Rostnagrad to the second city Kalinov the following day. A relative peace had settled over the nation. Media from the time shows men of the NRB cheering and dancing in the streets, waving Russian flags and singing the Russian national anthem, as if a victory had been won. Over the next few days, the Premier released multiple videos to the public, asking for continued cease fire and a chance to bury the dead, three days of national mourning was declared. After three days, it was announced that the vote to join the EU would be recounted, minus the dead, whilst for the families of the dead this was seen to be outrageous, it was assumed that the overwhelming support for the EU would still win through. On September 12th, 2015, the recount was performed and throughout the country, people massed in the streets awaiting the good news. Premier Vasilev addressed the nation and announced that after the recount, the vote to join the EU had failed and that in its stead Rostonova would be reunifying with Russia.
Almost instantaneously people in Rostnagrad amassed at the houses of parliament in anger. The guards, also aggrieved that their democracy had obviously been trounced, did not bar the gates and let the people in. Hundreds of angry southerners stormed through parliament, looking for the Premier, who had already moved his entire administration to Kalinov. What the people found was the southern members of the cabinet, locked in rooms throughout the building. Vasilev had removed them from office, and replaced them with ethnic Russians and taken the seat of power to the second city.

The RSA mobilised rapidly into armoured vehicles and trucks and took the main road north towards Kalinov. After only 10 miles the convoy was attacked by northern forces, heavy armour and infantry launched missiles demolished the leading elements of the convoy, blocking the road. The NRB had formed up in good order and they proceeded to knock out RSA tanks and IFVs from the eastern flank, forcing a full-scale rout back to Rostnagrad. For unknown reasons the NRB forces did not pursue, and remained in advantageous positions to the north of Rostnagrad.  
The very same evening, Premier Vasilev announced that the RSA convoy was an attempt at a military coup by the south and branded the RSA and all who supported them as traitors. He laid out plans to unite the country, with help from Russia, but that the plan could not be actioned until all ‘southern rebels’ had disarmed and surrendered. A deadline of two days was given for all RSA military elements to disarm and travel to a town named Volkotov, on foot, twelve miles north west of Rostnagrod. Anyone still bearing arms beyond that day would be targeted as an insurgent and treated as such when the NRB pushed south to ‘establish peace’.

Over the following two days only a few hundred RSA handed themselves over, the rest determined to fight, come what may. The hundreds who walked the twelve miles to Volkotov, were escorted at range by NRB scout vehicles and infantry, but never interfered with. This poultry number incensed Vasilev, who declared a ‘War of Unification’ with the south and at the expiration of his deadline, the NRB forces that had set up position north of Rostnagrad, went on the attack.
The first battle of Rostnagrad lasted for a week. The two-day armistice, given by Premier Vasilev was used by RSA forces to turn the outskirts of Rostnagrad into a defensive line, roads were blocked and mined, trenches dug, and buildings fortified. As many civilians as possible were evacuated further south, but many chose to stay in their homes, many ex-conscripts took up arms against the north. This influx of men greatly bolstered the numbers of the RSA. The RSA took to wearing issue urban camouflage, as the north had remained in the issue rural temperate combat fatigues. There was not a large amount of this uniform, so most was shared, hardly any defenders of Rostnagrad had a full set of uniform. Just enough to set them apart from the NRB when the combat came.

The action began with a large tank column advancing down the main road. It is assumed this column was intended to push directly to the centre of the city and eliminate any HQ elements of the RSA. The view that those in the south made bad soldiers and would surrender at the first opportunity gave the NRB a level of overconfidence that would cost them dearly. Lead elements of the armoured column swept away some small groups of resistance, still moving at highs speed towards the houses of parliament. Once the column drove up the ramp of an overpass, the RSA ambush was triggered. Demolition charges, intended for building use, were wired along the underside of the overpass, which collapsed on detonation of the charges taking many armoured vehicles and soldiers with it. From elevated positions within buildings, RSA fighters poured RPG fire onto the top armour of tanks and fixed dismounted infantry with machine gun fire. The rear most tanks were disabled by RSA fighters throwing anti-tank grenades and Molotov cocktails on their upper decks. With the armoured column trapped it was a matter of time before the NRB commander ordered his men to surrender.

The battle did not go entirely the RSA’s way, whilst the spearhead column was engaged and destroyed, tanks and IFV’s formed in line and assaulted the northern most precincts of Rostnagrod. Mines stopped many vehicles, but were not always powerful enough to fully kill the soviet era T72s. With the front armour facing their enemy, they were all but impervious to most weaponry the RSA had. NRB armoured infantry dismounted and assaulted through the city, presumably to reach the stricken convoy and provide aid. But the RSA had trapped many of the buildings and even collapsed some onto NRB soldiers. This slowed the advance to a grind, with RSA soldiers reluctant to enter buildings and proceed.
What followed was 6 days of intense close combat, soldiers fighting building to building, sometimes hand to hand. The clogged/ mined roads prevented much more armour from entering from the north, and what small contingents of armour the RSA had, took advantage of the home turf. Lack of air force or any real artillery one both sides created a true man to man battlefield. Casualties were high on both sides, and civilian casualties were also in the hundreds. Lack of ammunition and loss of so much materiel forced the NRB to pull back and set up a defensive line outside of Kalinov. But the RSA did not celebrate, aware this was only the beginning.

The world had not ignored these events, Vladimir Putin promised any help he could give in the ‘restoration’ of Rostonova and mobilised Russian regulars to deploy to Kalitov to aid the NRB. Meanwhile many NATO nations deployed troops to Turkey, on Rostonova’s south east border, with promises to mentor RSA forces and provide physical military support if Russia takes any action in Rostonova.

And so, the stalemate has lasted 2 years. In the south a new leader, Andrei Danilov, has emerged from the ethnic southern Slavs, declaring himself Prime Minister of Rostonova. He has the following of the southern people and the west. The Kremlin backs Vasilev in the north. Sporadic hostilities happen frequently, with small towns changing hands repeatedly in the space of a week. Neither the Kremlin or NATO have officially entered Rostonova with soldiers or vehicles, but both have provided arms and training to the relevant factions. The media hyperbole slates Rostonova as the latest proxy war between east and west. The tension within the country is reaching breaking point, it would only take one spark to set the world on fire.

[commissarmoody]

That's a pretty interesting hook.

[Jockjay]

Many thanks, I appreciate you taking the time to trawl through that mate. Hopefully it is ambiguous enough that anyone who wants to join in in future can get/ bring any force they want and it will still sit in the narrative, well, maybe not any force....

[ChargeDog]

Like the sound of this setup, excited to see how the war unfolds.

Also the people of Bazistan are looking forward to when they can reopen their embassy in Rostnagrad.

[Jockjay]

More than welcome mate, my group just call your blog 'The charge' now... "you seen latest charge?" .

[gimzod]

The people of Ukuechana send their regards to our neighbors of the black sea and hope a swift end will come to the fighting.


Looks like a great start and i can't wait to see some pictures.

[Jockjay]

Horrendous pics, not much better painting, but I did some buildings, cheap and cheerful from Banksjohnedward on ebay. If you knew me, you would know how much I hate doing terrain, really hate. So this was a push. I blame all the gucci blogs out there showing great games and tables.







I recommend BJE ebay stuff. It is not pretty like sarissa or anything, and needs some work ( note: I lost the will to live poking the tiny squares out of the windows, they were not cut well and did more damage getting them out would have preferred empty windows) but these buildings and associated sheds cost me about £25 I think. So quantity over quality.  These will also go well with my Bolt action Chain of command stuffs.

[Jockjay]

Also: the gap on one building is my bad, not the maker's

[Jockjay]

Digital wizardry to knock up a Rosto flag.

[TheHoops82]

I’m one of the other members of the blog can’t wait to get cracking! For laughs, what are the National flags for Bazistan and Ukuechana? I’m considering converting a farm house in a UN embassy

[Maxx Von Morton]

WoW! That's a promising start!

I like the themed game too    far more than competitive ones... and I think S:O is perfect for this!

Really looking forward to see how it goes on 

[gimzod]

The flag of our noble land Ukuechana. The three colors for the three Christian tribes and the three swords for the pagan tribes who united to protect their land from the invading Ottomans.

[ChargeDog]

Flag for Bazistan is still not decided - going to work on it soon.

[commissarmoody]

Oh damn, I need to do a proper welcome.
the Grand Republic of Zubrowka also extends its hand of friendship to the Nation and People of Rostonova.
We have included a selection of made by Herr Mendl's finniest Courtesan au Chocolate for your eating pleasure.

"I just realized that I need to find a replacement for my old photo bucket account in order to post pictures"