Forums of the Megaverse®

Disclaimer: this has been created for the RPG, and is my own creation. any attempt to derail the discussion of this creation with arguments over 'canon' or to advocate your personal interpretation of the setting over that of others will be reported as trolling.

This is something i worked up for an upcoming campaign of mine. My players will be operating from within this political entity for a fair amount of time, in one fashion or another. My campaign is set in 2019, and this is written from the perspective of that timeframe. This is effectively a 'per-deployment briefing' for their characters.



Confederation of African States

The zentreadi bombardment hit west Africa hard, leaving most of the region in ruins. In the aftermath of the war the surviving communities became gathering places for the survivors of the surrounding lands, and over the first three years these communities came together under the protection of the surviving military forces to create the Confederacy of African States. Despite this grandiose title however the Confederacy is rather limited in scope, controlling the sub-Saharan regions of what was Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, Togo, and Ghana.

Geography-
The region straddles two climate zones, with dry savanna to the north and humid tropical forest to the south. the Zentreadi bombardment was heaviest along the coastal areas, obliterating the heavily populated cities. In the years after the bombardment the wild grasslands and forests have begun to spread to cover the blasted remnants and ruins. in both climates agriculture fares well. the Confederacy is also a major source of raw material needed for the reconstruction, specifically Oil, Metal Ores, and Rare Earths.

Politics -
The Confederacy's member regions are each semi-autonomous states, each selecting representatives that meet in New Benin city. the head of this council is the president, elected by popular vote. The only fully Confederacy wide entity is the military, which does not receive any say in the running of the country, but which does have a very powerful influence due to the regions recent history.
Nigeria was in the middle of a civil war during the 1st robotech war, and a sizeable chunk of its armed forces were spared due to being in the field when the bombardment occurred. the military leadership that survived was quick to exploit their position as the strongest organized forces in the region, securing intact communities and resources, while fighting against the warlords and bandits that inevitably arose from the collapse of society. This military Junta was corrupt, ruthless, heavy handed, and committed a number of acts classified as war crimes. This Junta rebuffed the initial contacts by the UEG, an act that greatly angered many in the regions under their control, as those offers had been of food and supplies to help rebuild. They would be deposed by more moderate military leaders in 2014, which invited the newly reformed UEG to assist in rebuilding the region. This new Junta, while more moderate in views, was still heavy handed and corrupt. Coups occurring in 2015 and 2016 placed new military leaders in power, but did little to change the overall management of the region. the Coup of 2017 changed that, the organizing general using his power to have a constitution drafted and open elections held, creating the current democratic entity.
Within the confederacy however there are still many issues to be overcome. Corruption and racism is still rampant, social and economic inequalities are widespread, and there exists a regional divide between the population, as the traditionalist and isolationist populations of the heavily Muslim northern areas have only a tenuous connection to the larger Confederacy.

Military -
the Confederacy has a rather large military for a post-bombardment state. making use of obsolete equipment, much of it now manufactured locally based on designs from before the global war, they rely heavily on large quantities of conventional troops to secure their borders. To augment their aging hardware, the Confederacy has made every attempt to purchase newer hardware from the UEG, most of which have been blocked. Their current military numbers roughly 1 million, predominantly draftees in the army. military leadership is questionable in both capability and efficacy. The CAS military has roughly four times more officers than a force its size requires for command and control, with sinecures and nepotism still widespread.
Current military hardware is as follows;

Army: - The army is the Strongest of the CAS forces, with the bulk of the manpower. Composed primarily of inexperienced infantry and obsolete armored vehicles, its fighting ability against a modern opponent is questionable. The army is divided into eight commands, each assigned to one of the CAS's administrative regions. (Cameroon, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and the Nigerian districts), although the heavier equipment is concentrated more in the 4 Nigerian districts. Efforts have been underway to transition to locally produced equipment, built at several industrial sites around the CAS. Due to UEG supplied industrial support, mass production of ammunition and small arms is underway, along with small batch production of armored vehicles. The CAS's current showpiece units are the CDRC-1 Unicorn powered armor suits recently obtained from the Armies of the Southern Cross. intended as a first step in modernizing the CAS military, these mecha have proven difficult for the CAS to maintain and operate.

Standard Assault Rifle: OBJ-006 (AK-47 copy)
Standard battle Rifle: NR1 (FN-FAL copy)
Standard light machine gun: FN MAG (local made), RPK-47 (local made)
Standard Anti-armor weapon: RPG-7 (locally produced), M40 Recoil-less Rifle
Artillery Weapons:
OTO Melara Mod 56 105mm Pack howitzer
D-30 122mm Howitzer
D-74 122mm Field Gun
L16 81mm Mortar (locally produced)
Combat Vehicles:
Vickers MBT MK.III - (56)
FV101 Scorpion Recon Vehicle - (105)
Saurer 4K 4FA APC - (228.)
Mowag Piranha - (87)
Otokar Cobra Armored Jeep - (37)
ERC-90 Armored Car - (78.)
Panhard AML - (130)
Fox Scout Car - (40)
Panhard VBL Scout Car - (72)
APR-40/BM-21 Grad MLRS - (52)
CDRC-1 Unicorn Powered Armor - (53 [of 72 purchased]) (equipped with M-35 Kodiak Assault Rifle)
Air Defense:
Zu-23-2 23mm Towed AA gun


Airforce: - That the CAS air force exists at all is a small miracle, as many of these aircraft were in mothballs when the 1st robotech war ended, and only escaped destruction by a narrow margin. the CAS Air force is small, but capable, skilled in performing Close Air Support operations and aerial Reconnaissance. Many of their aircraft are hanger queens, reliant on UEG maintenance support to remain operating due to their age and limited supply of parts. While not considered by the UEG as capable of facing an opponent possessing robotechnology based weaponry, the CAS Air force is one of the more capable local air powers of the African continent. the CAS continues to expand its air force, most recently obtaining an order of militarized C-2000 'Snoop' Helicopters to replace its aging and under strength force of Mi-24 Hinds. The CAS has efforts underway to obtain more advanced aircraft, including veritech fighters, but have met with opposition from within the UEG.
MiG-21 - (23)
SU-22 - (2)
Alpha-Jet - (21)
L-39ZA Albatross - (18)
SEPECAT Jaguar - (10)
C-130 Hercules - (2)
C-2000 'Snoop' Light Attack Helicopters- (80) (Attack Model)

Navy - The CAS navy is little more than an after thought, and poorly funded. with no deep water craft surviving the end of the 1st robotech war, the navy has been rebuilt from scratch. Focused primarily on coastal defense and patrolling the many waterways of the Niger delta, its primary directive is to police trade and fight piracy. operating two dozen 'patrol vessels' (Fishing trawlers refit with one Zu-23-2 AA gun and several Light machine gun mountings) and three score 'Boghammers' (motorboats fitted Light machineguns), they are easily overlooked and can provide little opposition to an attacker with modern weaponry.

Interesting idea. Any plans for other areas?

to the north is the Bakri Caliphate

beyond that i'm leaving things open.. the Congo of course will be a hotbed of renegade zentreadi activity. (one element of the old RPG's setting i liked, the idea of zents in the jungles.. good place for them to be able to hide.)

i may bring in my Baltic states stuff from my website.. if so they're working the Sudan/ethiopia area, but with a lot fewer resources.

One item that may be of interest is making under barrel grenade launchers for the rifles fairly common.
Besides the variety of explosives for cheap light anti-armor or other roles (HEAT, SLAP, HESH, Etc.) I would suspect that tear gas may be of serious interest to the military.
The thinking here is that
1) As Zentradi suits and gear loose environmental seals they would become vulnerable to tear gas which is just as effective on a 50' Zentradi as a 5' one.
2) that Zentradi are uniquely unlikely to be improvising gasmasks, effecting repairs and otherwise making the gas useless
3) It is something you can use freely even in cities... at worst you just tear gassed your own people... so what they'll get over it unlike if you shoot them with bullets or rockets.

I'm wary of under barrel systems in this case because they require extra training and put a lot of of power in the hands of an infantryman that more often than not is a draftee. Something the higher ups in the military of the CAS would be wary of.

But hand thrown grenade versions of CS gas and smoke would be doable, as would separate grenade launcher systems like an m79 'bloopgun' or those six shot revolver type systems swat units use. A single shot system like the M79 would probably be likely, a break action single barrel would be easy to build locally.

No Frankenmechs?

To me frankenmechs before the invid arrived were the purview of non-UEG powers. Why bother with building mecha from salvage if you have UEG troops stationed in your country with fully functional mecha? Or can purchase certain types legally fresh from the factories?

In this case, the Unicorn PA, already over 6 years old and the weakest of its type. The CAS deploys it like the RK-92 Savage armslaves of full metal panic, as a light armored combat unit to support both tanks and infantry. Thus the use of the .50bmg assault rifle with them, to give them more combat power.

glitterboy2098 wrote:I'm wary of under barrel systems in this case because they require extra training and put a lot of of power in the hands of an infantryman that more often than not is a draftee. Something the higher ups in the military of the CAS would be wary of.

But hand thrown grenade versions of CS gas and smoke would be doable, as would separate grenade launcher systems like an m79 'bloopgun' or those six shot revolver type systems swat units use. A single shot system like the M79 would probably be likely, a break action single barrel would be easy to build locally.

What if you had TWO underbarrel systems?
One 40mm system that you can keep secure but use for when you do need the firepower...
and one in something like 39mm or 35mm. If the only rounds in that caliber are tear gas, illumination, bean bag, beehive, and buckshot its not going to do much more than add versatility.

The training is an issue though, it is a full W.P... although so are the separate ones.

The nice thing about the UB systems is that it is possible to have them dismounted and remounted easily. Meaning that you can remove them and lock them separately, only issuing them out when you want that additional firepower.


I DO think masks and gas grenades will be fairly common, at least for NCOs and Officers. (possibly even being a sort of 'badge of office' like sabers once were)

glitterboy2098 wrote:To me frankenmechs before the invid arrived were the purview of non-UEG powers. Why bother with building mecha from salvage if you have UEG troops stationed in your country with fully functional mecha? Or can purchase certain types legally fresh from the factories?

I would also suspect that the UEG would be... down on Frankenmech. I am pretty sure that they insist on the right to recover all salvage, and all the UEG territories comply... since that is the way you get on their good side and get rewarded with mecha of your own.

At least officially.
The peripheral states might have black ops programs to cobble together some mecha 'just in case' that may include Frankenmech...
...but I would suspect they are far more likely to be found by bandits, rebels, criminals, or malcontents (who have gotten engineers working for them)

I hadn't given thought to 37mm systems, but I suppose those might be viable. It just seems likely a military would prefer to have lethal options as well as nonlethal.

glitterboy2098 wrote:I hadn't given thought to 37mm systems, but I suppose those might be viable. It just seems likely a military would prefer to have lethal options as well as nonlethal.

Do BOTH.
You issue the troops 37mm for regular use...
...but if you need to upgrade them for dealing with tanks or mecha or something then the command can break out the 40mm ones. You remove the 37mm off your rifle, and replace it with the 40mm one and now you can launch the HEAT grenades that your getting issued...

Good exploration of post-Rain nation-building and the (re)formation of those nations without constant access to Robotechnology assets.

"Because you ain't warrior-class until you've faced full-sized armed Zentraedi with nothing to your gear but an assault rifle, some claymores, and a roll of wire."

taalismn wrote::bandit: Good exploration of post-Rain nation-building and the (re)formation of those nations without constant access to Robotechnology assets.

"Because you ain't warrior-class until you've faced full-sized armed Zentraedi with nothing to your gear but an assault rifle, some claymores, and a roll of wire."

(Budget cutbacks this year claymores optional )

taalismn wrote::bandit: Good exploration of post-Rain nation-building and the (re)formation of those nations without constant access to Robotechnology assets.

it is my opinion that most of the nations after the 1st war, pro and anti UEG alike, should be more like this one. very 'third world'.

it is always tempting to give the nations, especially the non-UEG nations, mecha and advanced weaponry, since that is what the game offers as opponents for the players. but given the widespread destruction of not just local infrastructure but the entire global industrial network, the various nations that form from the ashes shouldn't really be able to easily support the advanced hardware like mecha or even items like the F-203 jets. those require complex electronic and mechanical systems that few outside places would be able to produce without major bootstrapping problems. and not all the world is alike, even before the war.. those nations that were already lacking in industry, lagging behind in the ability to build and maintain technology, would face even harder hurdles reaching the point of being able to support things like mecha.. even frankenmecha.

and guess which areas generally survived with less damage? those 'third world' areas. The New Generation Sourcebook is currently our best source for info on who did and did not suffer badly at the hands of the zentraedi in the 1st war.. mostly by various bits prefacing the status of regions under the invid. looking at sub-africa for example (pg70), it says that while africa got hit harder than south america, the bombardments focused on population centers along the costs and the south. Liberia, The ivory coast, and Ghana were 'obliterated', while of the interior only nigeria was hard hit. that famine, plagues, and radiation clouds caused a lot of death even in less hard hit areas. that only around 10% of the pre-war population survived.

thus why in the CAS, the old coastal cities are gone.. i've even extended this a bit to include Abuja in the inland portion of nigeria, since it is fairly urbanized, even if not as bad as Lagos or the port harcourt area. all gone. i would presume the same is true of south america as well.

the population of nigeria and the other nations i assigned to the CAS were about 230 million, by 2010 numbers. since they're the areas worst hit, i'm being mean and assuming that the CAS's population is about 5% that.. and a good chunk of that including refugee's from elsewhere. still, 11.9 million is a respectable number of people.

Training on M203s is not all that difficult...get a few days on a range with paint rounds and any schmo can learn it.