Amber Zone - Secession Adventure Seed

Last Updated 2 April 2004.

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1999 #1363

Date: Tue, 5 Jan 1999 20:40:50 -0500
From: Walter Smith
Subject: Texan Secession

This Texan Secession/American soldiers firing on American citizens thread put me in mind of a civil war game I've played. No, not the civil war in 1860's US - the civil war in 14th century England. Avalon Hill's Kingmaker, a War of the Roses simulation.

In Kingmaker, you have various factions competing to be the power behind whichever claimant attains the throne. However, just to keep things interesting, the business of government goes on unabated while this little armed argument flares up all over England. Peasant revolts, raids by Scots highland clans, piracy, even an assault by the French on the English outpost of Calais. These events can pop up and pull away your most powerful lords at a moments notice.

"Damn! We're assaulting London, where in Hades is Lord Mowbray?"
"Sire, Mowbray and his knights were called away at the last minute to put down an uprising in Wales. His office as Marshal of England, you know. He'll be back in a fortnight or so."

These external (and internal) matters were just as, or even more important than the civil war that was going on - what matter which royal claimant won the throne if the French invaded (again) and took the whole country away from everyone?

How this relates to the Texans?

The Texans need to wait for (or engineer) some external, global crisis, one that will take up all the resources and attentions of the US Federal government. While the US is otherwise occupied, make a calm, reasoned withdrawal from the country. Do all possible during the confusion to legitimize the Republic of Texas as an independant country, and hope that the US is so desperate for international approval in the aftermath of the crisis that they'll be leery of bringing Texas back to the fold by overt means.

ObTrav: Would there be a client state willing to touch off a frontier war, hoping that the border readjustments afterwards (a la Fourth Frontier War) would change the situation enough to gain their freedom?

Or (better yet for adventure seeds), an extremist faction from this client state?

Walt Smith


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