Out of the Great Abyss -- Ethiopia. World War One. HOI2:Darkest Hour AAR

[JasonPratt]

Part 19 -- Tomb

On April 16, 1915, a division of our militia freed Massawa. From there it could, if necessary, move north to Port Sudan, but following current orders it stayed to rest and reorganize.

On April 19, a corps of two militia divisions freed Asab, completing our liberation of our most recently stolen provinces. They people welcomed us warmly everywhere, and Minister Mikael held a feast for the poor in Addis Abeba in honor of the justice of this deed; then made plans to tour the reclaimed provinces as a whole. Reports from our troops expressed shock at just how poorly the Italians had left the land undeveloped, even by our standards! It wouldn't be useful for anyone soon, but it was ours again.

On the same day we learned that the British infantry division had in fact fooled our scouts, or possibly changed its plans, and retreated to Port Sudan. This did make sense as it would be easier to receive its reinforcements at the port. Undeterred, General Nessibu redirected the four divisions of his Begemder Liberating Army to begin campaigning immediately to take Port Sudan -- which we had been planning anyway -- and sent horses at a gallop to signal the detached division in Massawa to support the attack from there. The tired troops gamely struck out, knowing that if they didn't harry the British out of the port our attempt to block our border would be more difficult later.

Yimer, gathering up the intelligence report that morning, said that individual scouts and tribal traders to the south suggested the British cavalry down in Garissa had been heavily reinforced with British infantry and maybe even some French expeditionary forces! That could be terrible news, but then again the reports now indicated this army was marching westward over a river away from Ethiopia -- yet the apparent HQ had changed direction, too, and now was heading north! As he was making arrangements that morning for the celebration feast, Mikael received news from missionary traders to the west that the British cavalry division over there had changed its mind, perhaps, and now was moving into Ethiopia after all. "I wish that they had not been as wise at war as I," he joked with gallows humor, but kept preparing the feast. Lamentation fasts might come soon enough; and our hardy militia divisions were quickly moving into various support posts.

On April 21, another two Abyssinian militia divisions finished taking back the Hargeisa coast from Great Britain, and rested from their labors. The people there, as expected, still remembered their Ethiopian heritage and welcomed our troops with what poor feasts could be gathered together in such a wretched mountain area.

On April 23, our two small corps of coastal liberation divisions reclaimed Galkacyo. One corps rested and made ready in case Italy or its allies ever tried to invade the Horn through Gardo to the north -- we simply didn't have the strength to claim it again anytime soon -- while the other tired corps shifted south to finish the reclamation sweep in Mogadishu: with its larger port it was rather more of a danger than Gardo, and besides it would need less infrastructure development in order to bring it up to fruitful production one of these years or other. The corps wouldn't arrive at any rate until July, possibly later as it further tired from marching.

Iyasu sent a rider with a portable hand cranked radio to tell the corps as soon as possible that it had his permission to wait and rest until it reorganized better: Mogadishu couldn't help us immediately, and any troops that disembarked would be better met by rested militia of our own until we could claim it. Just to be clear, however, he renamed the small corps the Mogadishuan Coastal Guards -- and sent out word that in celebration of this great liberation all the military groups now resting on the coast would be honored as the guards of their new homes.

Our battle with the British to the north meanwhile, at Port Sudan, progressed though not as fast with fewer divisions helping out, those having been sent to the south to prepare to save our capital in case of threatened invasion. Dissent in the area hampered us both (though us more than the British), as did desert conditions (the British more than us). Almost as impressive was a significant amount of shore bombardment from ships somewhere! -- far enough out our attacking corps had not yet otherwise seen them. This was a new experience indeed for our troops! But with far superior numbers they kept the attack, already having removed several more of the enemy's limited artillery support, and (to our regret) several hundred horses caught up in the wars of men.

Early after midnight on April 27, the British General Plummer started a tactical withdrawal, reducing both our disorganization rates though his more than ours as he moved to a probable staging area for his retreat.

On April 28, 1915, the Senussi tribes accepted the request of the Ottoman Empire to launch a war against Britain in Egypt. Everyone in the Alliance naturally also then declared war on the Senussi; but the Senussi had not yet joined the Powers.

The immediate result was, strangely, a Senussi uprising taking Nayala, a territory far to their south beyond their encircling enemies, and beyond the original bounds of the Senussi shiekdom.



[Note: green areas controlled by Senussi; areas with red dots are historically their land, also marked by light pink in this case around them. Nayala is the green area to the south, past lands actually held, at least in principle, by France to the west and Britain to the east.]

This could be a potential problem for us in the future: likely enough, we would be at war with them eventually anyway, but when Yimer brought the report to Emperor Iyasu, he was told to trade no more military blueprints to those Muslim tribes.

"In fact," said Iyasu.... "Listen, Yimer, I have a command, and you aren't going to like it."

"Let you try your hand at making trade agreements again?" Yimer rolled his eyes.

"No. But Yimer... you aren't trying either."

"I am! -- they are just so..."

"Inferior to deal with. Or perhaps superior superficially."

"Yes!"

"That, Yimer, is quite the wrong attitude to have, as our foreign minister. That must change."

"I'm... I'm sorry, sir. I don't know what to say. I am who I am, I don't know whether or how much I can change. But I will try. I know our country needs it."

"Yes, Yimer. Our country needs someone who can get past our bad reputation right now and make those trade agreements. Otherwise we will wither and die on the vine by the end of the year. And that is not even slightly an exaggeration."

"... sir? ... am I..." Yimer swallowed. "Sir, I resign."

"I accept your resignation for the good of our nation, Yimer. But without you our nation will not survive. We wouldn't have survived: because of you we do have materials now for about three months. I know that you have been using your position as our new intelligence minister to search for fitting new researchers. Now you must show how strong your character is." Iyasu paused expectantly.

"... ....... yes, I see. I must search for a foreign minister who will save our nation. Who will do what I cannot do."

"Very well said, my friend." The Emperor stood, and mixed him a glass of 'morning toast', except with rather more 'evening' in it than usual. "I wouldn't require this of you, if these were times of peace. But they aren't." He handed Yimer the drink, and sighed and clapped his shoulder. "To our future, minister. And to your future as our intelligence minister."

Yimer swallowed the drink and wiped his eyes. "I already think I have several options, sir. Give me a month. The first of June or earlier. You will be proud of me, sir. I know it."

On May 2, 1915, our troops broke the will of the British soldiers again; we didn't know where General Plummer would try to retreat, but he was leaving Port Sudan.



And then on March 8, our weary 1st Abyssmal Assault Scouts marched into Khartoum. When they had left to expand our boundaries, they had barely mustered 1000 men. Now they numbered almost 7500.

The people welcomed them freely and rejoiced.

The precious factory system lay in ruins.

[Note: "tomb" isn't only a pun for Khartoum, but also a reference to my desire to play the game again as the Senussi, which I would call "Tombs of Timbuktu".]

I'll have a better photo tomorrow of what our troops accomplished during April...

[bob48]

Gripping stuff, Jason, and you're up to 4 on the windmill scale I see.

[undercovergeek]

Great read Jason

[JasonPratt]

Thanks, guys!

Gripping stuff, Jason, and you're up to 4 on the windmill scale I see.

Ohhhh, there are SO MANY MORE windmills on the way...

Tonight I saw the arrival of the first of the Indian Raj units. There is no way on God's green earth I'm going to survive this. I'm far from dead yet, but still, simple math: I'm using up manpower reinforcements a little faster than they are, and they have VASTLY MUCH MORE MANPOWER they can throw at me. The only question is whether they decide that something else ought to be asskicked more than me. I vote the Ottomans.  ;D

[Martok]

Wow.  Just wow, Jason.  I'm a little bit in awe right now... 

Tonight I saw the arrival of the first of the Indian Raj units. There is no way on God's green earth I'm going to survive this. I'm far from dead yet, but still, simple math: I'm using up manpower reinforcements a little faster than they are, and they have VASTLY MUCH MORE MANPOWER they can throw at me. The only question is whether they decide that something else ought to be asskicked more than me. I vote the Ottomans.  ;D

I was going to say, I'm really hoping the UK hates someone else more than you, else I'm concerned you're going to be toast! 

[JasonPratt]

One thing I'm curious about which I don't have much way of telling, is how this is affecting the Senussi campaign eastward across the Egyptian coastline, and Germany's campaign further south in Africa. In my parallel game (which I just caught up to finally, since fewer things happen at peace obviously ;) ), Britain has been kicking the Germans and the Senussi after a harsh start, and has made a good thrust at the Ottomans around Kuwait. They don't have the same troops available in the main game thanks to me, and so far those two are holding their gains.

Whether this will come back to help me eventually, who knows? If the Senussi change their progress vector a little south and avoid trying to take Alexandria or anywhere heavily garrisoned, they could severely impede British supplies to my north. Too bad they'll probably stop at just retaking their ancestral lands, which isn't all of Egypt (just the desert west of the Nile provinces).

Edited to add: ooo, finally I made it to page 2!  ;D

I should probably mention that there is significantly more actual butt-kicking (and, um, ethical erotic mysticism), and by proportion less in-tent strategizing (though some of that, too), in my novel {plug}{plug}...


As long as I'm plugging, allow me to plug Undercovergeek's amazing HOI3 campaign as Italy again -- totally free (unlike the pittance for my book {cough COUGH}) and here at Grogheads: http://grogheads.com/forums/index.php?topic=7248.0

[JasonPratt]

Part 20 -- The Monkey's Paw

"Useless!" shouted the Emperor. "Almost entirely useless! That is what I am! That is what I should have known: the factory would be useless! I know what you're going to say," he forestalled Minister Mikael, "and you're right. Ten percent of a factory is better than nothing. And over time, maybe months, we can get it up to full capacity again. Months we may not have," he heavily sighed. "But we must -- "

"Withdraw."

Iyasu snapped his head around to stare at Mikael in shock. "I take it back," he growled. "I should have known what you were going to say, but didn't."

"I don't mean surrender, sir. I agree, under normal circumstances we would keep the factory and Khartoum. However, we have over-reached, and that is making us weaker at a time when we cannot afford to be less than our possible best."

Habte and Yimer were looking at him thoughtfully; the Emperor calmed his temper and asked, "What did you see in your travels? -- because you were the one who advised, that we take as much as we can while we can."

"I also advised we withdraw if there was trouble, sir. You yourself agreed with me. The monkey's paw, remember?"

"You don't mean the British, then, to the south," Habte surmised.



[Note: everything south of the Vs not a color like pink or whatever == Ethiopia. "Belgians are made of absolute justice AND ARE NOT TO BE TRIFLED WITH!!" -- note from self in alternate future found on my pillow, scrawled in a shaky hand, one morning.]

"No, we ought to be in place to feasibly crush them if they advance, by the time they advance. But they are connected to the problem.

"Our infrastructure is weak, and isn't going to get any better anytime soon. The roads and lines of contact, sir, and also communication, help us move our troops around and keep them supplied. But we have spread our hand so far we're starting to lose the feeling and blood in our fingers. I know, that doesn't fit the monkey-trap image, but having grabbed so much, we will be stuck and unable to move if those British hunters to our south come looking. We just don't have the factories yet to push our troops so far, and we don't have the roads to push what we have so far."

"You mean for us to withdraw and abandon our people, then."

"Who are we abandoning to the north? Not Ethiopians. Who are we abandoning to the south? Somalians; our brothers, true, but not our immediate people. To our east? Also more Somalians."

"They welcomed us with open arms!"

"I know, sir: but what were they going to do? We had guns and treated them nicely and promised to help them. Of course they welcomed us! But if we get ourselves shot in the head because we cannot move our troops around, there will be no help for them from us."

"You aren't proposing we leave our Ethiopian coasts again?!" asked Yimer incredulously.

"Hopefully not. But we must be prepared to do it, yes."

"I cannot leave them to be invaded again by colonial powers, Mikael," the Emperor flatly stated.

"I'm not suggesting you do, sir."

"Wait! -- I think I see what he means." Habte walked to the wall and tapped the map of the Horn of Africa. "We pull back only one province away from the sea, in all directions, and watch the coast. Then if the enemy lands, we can hit them in concentration, from a shortened and improved supply. True, it would be better to meet them on the coast itself -- especially in those mountains -- but if our supplies and reinforcements are overly hampered..."

"What will we tell the people? That we are running away?"

"Tell them the truth," the Minister of Ministers advised.

"We have won our first and most important victory!" the Emperor of Ethiopia told his people, via the press and public announcements, following the advice of his head of state. The people cheered. The people who heard the generals reading this message in the liberated territories also cheered for a little while. "We have freed our people captured by the Romans years ago, on the coast! We have also pushed out colonial powers, without doing harm to anyone, in various other places around our land. We have come and we have seen what they did, and what they didn't do. We know your plights, and we are making plans.

"Now however the time has come to send our soldiers home for a while so they can be close to their families. The Europeans have already started to move against us in the south, and just as we have freed your homes we must be free to keep our own homes free. Once we have rested and grown in strength, like the tide of the sea we shall return, bearing gifts.

"The Europeans may come first, returning for a while. Never mind. Treat them well, give them respect and no reason for them to fear you. Remember what our Lord also taught, and also Paul the Apostle: be friendly to Rome. God will see the peace in your heart and reward you -- for peacemakers shall be called the sons of God!

"Pray for the sake of the kings who come to rule over you, if they come; and pray for us that we shall survive and grow and come again; and we shall remember you, too, in our prayers, and come once again when we can -- God willing, like the flood of the Nile bringing life to all who live in its embrace...

"WE SHALL COME AGAIN!!"

Then we marched away as quickly as possible.




[Plotnote: yes, in case anyone was puzzled toward the beginning, I meant to include something about what Mikael had seen while he was out on the victory tour. Then I got distracted  ::) :P I only just now realized I never even got around to writing that up. I know what it was, but it wasn't especially relevant in this context, so I'll make a note and bring it out later sometime more dramatically appropriate. Or not -- if I don't it won't matter, I promise. But I'm already making plans for various options for revealing it later under various circumstances: I'd rather change it into a meaningful plot hole if possible, to be resolved later, than for it to be a mere authorial glitch!]

[JasonPratt]

Behold! -- Undercovergeek begins a new Clausewitz Engine AAR, this time from Crusader King 2 with (at least) the Old Gods expansion. Late 9th century AD. The end of the Dark Ages. Still dark as hell: Franks Saxons vs Vikings.

[undercovergeek]

still at def-fan 4?

[JasonPratt]

.... yes. Yes I am. {mental note to myself, hereafter it shall be known as def-fan #}

After all, at the moment I'm only running away from a crippling fear of success.

Whether the British will let me run away is a whole other matter... ::)

(Or, since this is Ethiopia circa WW1 in a Clausewitz engine game, whether they'll let me slowwwwly drag myself away...)

[JasonPratt]

Part 21 -- From The Ends Of The Earth


Iyasu decided to keep the 1st Abyssinian Assault Scouts in Khartoum until they could reorganize and so move more effectively; and also the two small expeditionary corps in Galkacyo, but with plans to move them both later. The divisions in Djibouti and Hargeisa were ordered to pack up and move at once; the corps which had driven the British division out of Port Sudan, were told to stay where they were and rest from their labors.



[Note: red arrows move now; yellow arrows planned move a month from now when rested up again. Other current marches not shown. Also note, the British aren't actually "out of" Port Sudan yet, just marching away. If you are asking yourself why in the world they would keep on marching away if we aren't advancing, the computer shall also ask that question, soon, don't worry...]

On May 11, traders and individual scouts indicated a small number of British infantry divisions had appeared in Malaka and Omdurman. It wasn't clear which way or ways they were marching yet, but it didn't look in any case as though our lone assault scouts could expect to withdraw from Khartoum.



"If they start now," said Habte, "they might be able to get across the river and back into El Qadarif before the northern infantry cuts them off. Or before the enemy hits Khartoum."

"...I see a better opportunity perhaps," the Emperor mused. "They can stay in Khartoum, resting and continuing to receive our reinforcement, and then defend against assaults from positions of strength against tired enemies."

"You mean as bait," said Mikael.

"Yes. I understand and accept that, in principle, we would be better off withdrawing them from Khartoum. However, they might just run into Britain's attempt to cut off their supplies to the east. Then they would be fighting out in the open, on the move, and terribly tired. The enemy to the north can only attack from that direction, or from El Obeid from the west. If the northern group moves west, we will withdraw from Khartoum, back through El Qadarif. If the enemy cuts them off to the east, we will soon have troops in place who can hit the enemy from the rear in strength. The southern British group could be more worrisome, as they can approach the city over land. But it is too late for us to retreat -- or rather advance in a loop back into Ethiopia -- along that direction anyway."

The next day, our Sidamo Sefari militia arrived in the city of Addis Abeba, hailed as conquering heroes although they hadn't even moved beyond our borders from last year. Still they were only moderately tired and soon would be ready to fight to defend our city -- or to help relieve Khartoum, perhaps. Another two divisions arrived the day after that, completely exhausted; Major General Norwich was given command of the newly incorporated 2nd Defensive Abyss Corps.

On May 13, Habte reported that we really didn't have anything specially useful at the moment that could be researched extra quickly; but in lieu of that, he had written up some basic recon aircraft principles "...if we ever manage to get some recon aircraft," he sighed. "Still, I have been studying the older French monoplane, and I believe I could almost fly it soon. Not to fight in, but to see our enemies sooner. Those two infantry groups on either side of Khartoum shouldn't have popped out of nowhere like that."

"Let it be so," the Emperor also sighed. "I pray that we will survive to see you flying in the heavens, Habte."

On May 14, we received confirmation the northern British group was marching to El Qadarif, as expected. The Emperor relayed orders to General Nessiba to take a small corps across the Nile to his south and help set up a trap to welcome our guests.

The next day, another British division or two (or three, who could be sure?) appeared in Kassala. Their marching destination wasn't clear, but on the same day traders and individual scouts confirmed the divisions south of Khartoum were marching (and trotting) toward Addis Abeba.



"Well, that's about right," the Emperor said. "At this rate our nation has about three months to live. God help us." On the same day, Japan issued a list of 21 Demands to the Republic of China. We expected a similar list any day from Britain and her allies.

The following day, as the Republic of China chose to answer the Japanese demands diplomatically, we received word that the British headquarters, down past our southernmost borders, now appeared to be marching up into Arba Minch, possibly to link up with the thrusts into Asosa and Jimma. Our Emperor decided by now our militia needed relatively newer equipment more than reinforcements, while we still had some chance to send them out.

The British had stopped retreating out of Port Sudan as well, and even had received another division of something! Where would they be marching to? -- strategically valuable Asara, or our northern coastline recently freed from Italy? Our Djibouti Coastal Guard, currently withdrawing from the coast, was retasked to march up the coast instead to be in position to lend support.

By May 29, the answer seemed to be that those divisions, along with a newly disembarked militia, were marching west away from Ethiopia, as was another newly detected division far to our west: possibly for the purpose of fighting the Senussi uprising. That was certainly fine with us. On the other hand, we now thought the British marching into El Qadarif would number at least two divisions; and with our factories full trying to reoutfit our poor militia troops the people were starting to grumble -- also in fear of the coming war.

No one questioned Iyasu's wisdom now in trying to pull our soldiers back to make a defense against the British.

That evening, Yimer walked into the Emperor's office and said, "May I present you Petar Plamenac, foreign minister once of the kingdom of Montenegro?"

[Staggerwing]

Behold! -- Undercovergeek begins a new Clausewitz Engine AAR, this time from Crusader King 2 with (at least) the Old Gods expansion. Late 9th century AD. The end of the Dark Ages. Still dark as hell: Franks vs Vikings.

Actually, right now I think it's Saxons (and some Britons) against the Vikings.  ;)

(OTOH, the Danes are probably pretty busy meeting the Franks in what will become Normandy right about same time...)

[JasonPratt]

Well, the king in his AAR was describing a Viking pirate criminal as "scourge of the Franks", which would be weird if the king wasn't a Frank, but U'geek hasn't said directly which tribe the king is with and I don't recall my DA history enough to recognize the name Aella.

[Staggerwing]

He was king of Northumbria, along the northeast of England into Scotland. Bob and Geek might be vaguely familiar with the place...  :D

[bob48]

Yup. I live on the border of Northumberland, and I'm about 35 miles from the Scottish border. There are a lot of historical sites around here, going right back to Roman times.