>I've been recently reading a book on the techniques of Guerilla
>warfare. It's been quite interesting, and I have to admit that every
>half page or so I was thinking of how to apply this to Sartarites
>struggling to free Prax and Sartar from the Lunars.
There are several problems with conventional guerilla tactics:
Thus guerillas who have the support of one group tend to become identified with that group. Thus if you, Che Sartar, have the support of the Malanni, you are very likely to get dobbed in to the lunars if you start ambushing lunar patrols in Balmyr territory. There is no unifying focus beyond the tribal groups - - the House of Sartar is gone.
2) The lunars aren't the Glorious Free West and have little in the way of news media to tell the Heartlands the atrocities committed. Even if the Heartlanders hear about it, they are not likely to give a fig for the Sartarites. Thus the lunars are unrestrained in the tactics they can use. The best way is to punish savagely those who collaborate with the rebels and reward those who co-operate with the Lunars (and there are always some). Thus the populace is gradually transformed into Lunarlovers. It is important to realize that this is a successful strategy. Tarsh was originally as anti-lunar as Sartar is now. Look at it now.
3) Prax is really a seperate issue as I'm not sure whether you are talking about the Praxian Tribes or the people in the Zola Fel river. The nomads aren't really concerned about the Lunars - they can raid them any time they want. What they hate is the Sable dominance in their holy land of Prax and thus their antilunar depradations are mostly against the Sables. Since the Tribes hate each other anyway, this makes little difference.
As for the farmers in the valley and the Pavisites, I think most of them prefer to have Lunars in the region. Otherwise there will be increased raiding by the nomads and the Uz, neither of which is much fun.
4) Lastly without an opposing army, the Lunars can weather any amount of guerrilla activity so long as the will to stay there is present and outright rebellions. I'll give an example: the Romans had a terrible time with Judea. The Prefect of Judea had to send for troops from Syria four times to suppress the bandits in the area. There were a couple of awful revolts (Josephus's "The Jewish War" is grim reading and he switched sides!). Finally the Romans expelled the Jews from Judea and resettled it with Greeks and Syrians etc. The resulting province stayed Roman long after Rome ceased to do so. Now the Lunars can do that with Sartar if they are really fed up. But they're nowhere near that level yet IMO.
>The main points seem to be that successful guerillas need to have the
>support of the locals. Even if only tacit support ('I don't
>necessarily agree with what you're doing, but I ain't gonna turn you
>in to the Lunars'). The rebels need to be able to hide amongst the
>locals so that they can't just be rounded up. If the lunars react by
>killing people who aren't rebels, or being harsh in their
>retributions, then they drive more people into supporting the rebels.
There was a debate not so long ago about precisely this type of guerilla action. A group of PCs killed a Lunar Patrol while based in some village. Some of the likely tactics of the lunars would be:
>Primarily the struggle is not to beat the regular forces as much as
>to make the cost of holding the land unbearable.
Which matters little to the Lunars as they hold the Cities and require friendly tribes to hold the land and bully around the weaker tribes.
>If the Lunars want to hold the land (and they appear to) then they
>need to spread their soldiers out to stop the rebels living off the
>land, which means that the soldiers in any one place are not an
>overwhelming army. If the rebels can travel around looking like
>normal locals, then they can amass themselves to locally outnumber
>the Lunars (Look there's a lunar patrol of 14 guys, all we need is
>twenty in one place, and we can take them) even if there is only 50
>rebels in the area, if they can get local superiority of forces they
>can have victory, then they all bugger off and pretend to be farmers
>again, (hiding any wounds with healing).
Looking like normal locals would require that the rebels be dressed in non-military garb - ie no armor, no shields and no swords. I doubt that they could expect take out 14 armoured hoplites!
>If the Lunars clump together
>in unassailable lumps of a couple of hundred troops, then the rebels
>just go where the lunars are not and do sabotage.
And what do they sabotage? There's no dynamite. Admittedly the rebels could take up the worship of Malia but I doubt the local poplace will be pleased.
>Threatening a caravan or two would mean that the Lunars need to send
>escorts with them, which increases the cost of the caravan (and uses
>up troops who could be elsewhere).
I think caravans already have their own guards. Biturian Varosh managed to hire guards while in prax despite being an Orlanthi. Furthermore the market for many of the caravans is the tribes and towns in Sartar (regardless of political views). I doubt that a Tribal King will be very pleased to hear that because caravans have been bushwacked in his area by 'rebels', no caravans are visiting him. I think he would even take action in hunting down the 'rebels' for they are really bandits.
>Have people in the towns where the troops are staying, if the troops
>go out on the beer, watch them, and if one steps out for a quick
>piss against a wall, slash their throat from behind and disappear.
>(You could probably get by with throwing an ax at his back and
>running - you don't need to kill them to make them scared) This stops
>the troops feeling safe in the town, and they stop fraternising
>with the locals, further alienating them from the locals.
But one violates Orlanthi customs of hospitality and bravery in doing so. And runs the risk of being condemned as a Secret Murderer and a Coward. Is this the future your PCs wish on Sartar?
>I'm slowly coming up with a plan to have the PC's take part in the
>liberation of Pavis, and Prax and (if they live that long) Sartar.
I'm not trying to discourage you from running a guerilla campaign. I'm just pointing out that the odds are stacked in favour of the Lunars.
End of The Glorantha Digest V5 #373
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