I'm not sure if there is a thread like this already but I thought I'd post it anyway just for a one-stop shop for any newbies out there who might not know a lot about history, how to run a RP resistance, or how to occupy another nation effectively and realistically. If you have been here before and are looking for a particular Section, I suggest using the Ctrl+F keys to find it as I do not know how to "link" to specific parts of my post yet.
For the Occupiers:
To maintain peace and order in your new territory several things are important in making sure the people are on your side. If the majority of your people in your homeland do not like you then you already have a problem, if the people in your newly acquired territories don't like you, you have a very big problem.
Befriend the Populace, Keep them happy:
If you truly hope to annex the nation, you must show the people that you are better than their current government. This ensures that they will not resist you, and they will ostracize the people who do resist you or at least try and convince them to be on your side. If there is a famine, try passing out some food, if there is drought, see if you can spare some water. Make sure that food, drink, and products are still being delivered, just make sure they are being inspected before delivery or they are coming from your nation.
Make sure your troops behave themselves:
Nothing is more fuel for anger and a resistance movement than rogue troops raping people, stealing and robbing from people and businesses, looting and whatnot, this all is just fuel for any kind of resistance that may crop up. Hitler did something similar in Paris and the British Channel Islands. He established strict and swift justice for troops that committed crimes against the people of the occupied territories. He ordered only his most disciplined troops to be stationed in the two locations to make sure that they would set and example for what the rest of the occupation looked like. The mistake Hitler made that caused resistance to crop up was, well, being Hitler, forcing people into concentration camps, taking out minorities, putting strict curfews and whatnot. Do not do this as it will incite resistance. Make sure your troops act properly, make sure they separate from the men and women of the conquered nation as sex is a tool that is used by resistance forces to get soldiers to do their bidding. Make sure if your soldiers want something that they pay for it. If your troops do commit a crime, hold a public trial with a jury half occupation force, half population of the occupying territory, and one widely regarded neutral person, if possible.
Enact a friendly curfew:
Doing so will allow you to minimize night operations of resistance forces, it will decrease crime but be wary, it severely limits the freedoms of your civilians and is widely viewed as oppressive. Make sure that the punishment for breaking curfew is not too severe, like perhaps spending the rest of the night in detention or a stern warning for the first violation. Perhaps a softer hand for children and the elderly.
Befriend the Local Authorities:
You are in an alien land with an alien language, an alien people, and alien laws. The local authorities know the locale like the back of their hand and they will help you keep the peace so that you do not divert troops from the front line. They will offer a median between you and populace and will maintain order.
Maintain Control of the Situation:
For all that is said in the previous four points, one thing can be said before all others, you must maintain order and maintain in control of the situation. Make no mistake, no matter how you act, no matter what you promise the people you are occupying, they will not like you and given the opportunity they would happily kick you out and let in their former government. Do not let the people dictate to you, you must dictate to the people.
Keep as many local officials in office as is necessary:
The title is self-explanatory, but to go more in depth; allow the occupied to feel as if they have some say still, allow them to express their frustrations and passions in political candidates. It will keep them tempered and prevent them from uniting against you.
To keep schools running or not?:
Allow education to continue to take place if you have the manpower. If kids stop going to school, they will stop focusing on Math homework or teenage drama and they will instead focus on listening to the nationalist radio, or god forbid, thinking about the situation they are in for hours on end and allowing hate to grow inside them. If you choose to keep schools running, make sure you have troops (without visible weapons) to patrol the schools, especially the classrooms. Ignore the math and science wing for the most part as that is not where a resistance will spring up, the most dangerous classrooms will be computer labs, English Classes, Art Classes, and History Classes. Be sure to have troops in the premises of these areas at all times. Through a computer, a student can access their government's propaganda. Through a class on literature, students can find symbolic or historical literature glorifying resistances or can express their feelings through writing. History Classes are equally as dangerous as learning about their nation's history will lead to a sense of pride and patriotism, and history shows that resistances often help win wars. Art Classes are also extremely dangerous, if students are allowed to express their views in art, it can be a powerful tool. If all of a sudden overnight a gigantic mural appears depicting a soldier of your nation bayoneting a woman on the floor holding a baby in her arms, it will cause a stir. If you have the manpower to monitor schools, then do so, if you can't keep them closed or employ professors sympathetic to your cause.
Make as little of a disturbance as possible:
This goes hand in hand with all the other points except point #1. Try not to remind the populace of the occupation, this will often stir feelings of anger, sadness, regret, hopelessness, fear, and other negative emotions. Putting up gigantic posters upon every corner of every street is a good way to get them vandalized and a good way to grow people's resentment.
Block websites, Movies, TV stations, and claim radios:
All of the above would mean nothing if someone at home could look outside their window, count the amount of troops in town, contact their government and relay information. It does not take guns or bombs for a resistance to make an impact, information can be as deadly as a weapon as any. Make sure that nationalist websites obtained from collaborators, Televised News stations, and certain Movies that are in theaters or expected Movies are blocked. It is not a good idea to have a message like "This website has been blocked by the occupation" make sure the message says something like "This website was deemed unsafe for use by various anti-virus websites, it has been blocked for your safety" for blocking television stations, simple static will do. Now you may ask "why block movies?" well nationalist war films are likely to come with the war, and can you imagine if a movie like "Red Dawn" comes out and your occupied citizens see it?
Keep your troops as far away from people as possible:
While you want your troops to look like liberators and nice people and whatnot, it is not a good idea to have them mingle in large numbers with large numbers of the populace. A bar fight is not good PR. Soldiers have emotions, and if a pretty girl comes their way and she starts charming your troop commander, that is a recipe for leaking information, assassination, ect.
Be cautious of Collaborators:
So congrats, you have finally gotten people to like you enough that they want to collaborate however, do not suddenly give them top rank status and start giving them special luxuries. Collaborators may be working for their former government, they are merely pretending to like you so they can relay information or plant a bomb in your commander's office. Make sure they are protected as well, if collaborators start dying, that's not good PR either.
Fear the Martyr:
Always fear making Martyrs. Martyrs are one of the most dangerous things that can exist and pose the largest threat. They are someone all your occupiers can relate to, they inspire confidence, courage, and valor without even being present. Whatever you do, do not make a martyr unless absolutely necessary.
For resistances:
You've been unfortunate enough to be occupied, you love your country, so now it is time to raise hell and help your government defeat the invaders.
Make sure you can trust your new recruits:
Don't just take anyone who appears on your doorstep, make sure you set up a buddy system, no one goes anywhere without another person. Make sure to send them on low risk ops with minimal downsides in case of failure to be sure that they can be trusted, and by trusted I don't just mean to prove that they are loyal to you and your government but to be sure you can trust them to kill when it is required.
Sanitation:
I know it's not the most glorious part of being a freedom fighter, but what good is your resistance if the enemy can smell you from base camp? or you all get infected by a disease and die? Sanitation is important, make sure you don't just have a "dump hole" where you put trash and waste as it will be discovered, be sporadic, and misleading. Try putting all trash far away from your camp as practically as possible, and scatter it so that way the enemy won't find your stash and send forces to hide and wait until one of you gets there to drop off some trash.
Do not take on the enemy head on:
This is what your military is doing, you cannot do this as you are most likely untrained and do not have the weapons or ammunition to do so. You can help your nation fight the enemy in other ways than direct military confrontation. If you try and take them head on, you are in the middle of enemy territory surrounded by the enemy and you will die.
Befriend the Populace: Be sure to be friendly to the populace, do not kill civilians, do not commit crimes against civilians. You must convince them that they need liberating and you are their liberators. You must convince them that the enemy will decimate them if they do not assist you.
Kill Collaborators, Protect Friends:
Collaborators are very dangerous, they are local, they have local friends and connections and they can pose a very large danger. Make it clear that anyone who collaborates will be killed and shown no mercy while those who assist you, if found out, will be rescued and smuggled out. While it is impossible to save all friends of the resistance, try and save as many as possible without risking the entire operation. It is good PR and may convince others to help or outright join your cause.
Avoid attachments:
and I’m not talking about the email kind. There is nothing worse than a wife being held hostage by the enemy and one of your fellow rebels risking the entire operation to save his wife.
Keep contact minimal:
This depends on the kind of resistance you are running, passive information passing resistances require that you keep contact between members to a minimum or not at all. If one of your rebels are captured, he will not tell the enemy who his or her fellow rebels are because he doesn’t know their names. If you are running a military resistance, Code names are a good solution. Code names mean nothing to the enemy and that way if one of the men is captured, the enemy cannot hold anyone else’s family hostage.
Create Chaos: If the occupying force’s job is to maintain order, yours must be the exact opposite. You must make the occupying force look incompetent, and you must create fear, panic, and confusion.
Do no harm to innocents:
Probably the worst thing you can do other than get yourselves killed is harming innocents. If the populace know that you will attack them as readily as you will an enemy soldier then you can kiss your good relations with the people good-bye. As a resistance you must acknowledge that your only source of recruitment is the people. Making an enemy out of them will lead to little recruitment, little supplies, and little disguise. Instead of being able to shift through crowds and rely on people helping you, they will instead scream “terrorist!” and you will be doomed.
Raid supply lines:
This is one of the best things you can do for your country. Raiding supply lines will cause the enemy troops to lose morale, it may cause delays in movements on the front lines, and it will give raise the morale of your resistance by giving you fresh food, water, clothing, ammunition, and weaponry. Be wary however, as constant raids on one place, or raids with a pattern will eventually be found out and you may lose a great deal of men on one raid as patrols accompanying supply lines will be increased. Do not get sloppy and make sure your raids are not only sporadic and unpredictable but devastating. Whatever you cannot carry, you must burn.
Learn how to fight effectively: You do not strap a gun to a militiaman’s back and tell him to start killing and raiding, no, you must train him in the arts of deception, tactics, strategy, how to shoot, how to kill, how to use a gun, and at least one specialty.
Operate in small groups: you are not an army, you should not behave like one. Operate in small groups or cellsand make sure that the only person who knows where the other cells are is the commander of each specific group. This way you can be sure that if the enemy wipes out one camp, it will lull them into a false sense of security and make them unprepared for the time when the other cells attack.
Operate cells effectively: Make sure you have at least five to six men per cell. Make sure that you have a Commander, someone two people who are good at bombs, one corpsman, and two gunmen at least. This way if your bombman gets killed, you have another to take control. Make sure that all in the group have rudimentary first-aid training leaving the more advanced stuff to the corpsman. Establishing yourself in small groups will allow you to move more easily and be less detectable.
Spread when possible:
If you have a very large number of fighters in one area and are worried about possibly being too large to the point where you think you will be detected soon, or where there are just simply too many men and too many cells; spread. Send a few men to the next town over where you are not recognized, where you can pretend to be an ordinary citizen and spread the word of the resistance. Set up a cell there and begin carrying out minor ops.
Organization is always a good thing:
Though there are advantages to keeping cells as individual free bodies, there are many disadvantages. It is always good to have a clear Code-named chain of command. For example, “Flying Eagle” is top leader, “Flying Hawk” is second in command, “Jumping Squirrel” is code for cell commander, “Beaver” is code for footman. Flying Eagle will coordinate operations, no one will know the name of the person above or below them, this ensures that if someone is captured, no one will spill the beans. Flying Eagle should be someone who is not on the run. Flying Eagle should be a civilian such as a pastor or minister or librarian. Someone who is not put into direct danger or a direct line of fire. Organization will allow you to coordinate attacks effectively, make sure there is no overlapping, and if the government starts pushing the occupying force out, Flying Eagle can send a message to all cells to turn out as partisans and take the town so when government troops arrive, it is ready to be handed over.
“Overconfidence will be your downfall”:
Getting overconfident is a good way to get squashed. Just because one operation succeeds, just because one-thousand operations succeed doesn’t mean that you will succeed next time. It only takes one bad operation to squash the resistance.
Killing Commanders:
Killing commanders or officers draws the attention of the occupying force. It can cause a lot of anger and can cause the occupying force to come down hard. Be sure you are prepared for the consequences of killing a commanding officer.
Got someone attractive? Use them:
This is war, and in war, there are no rules (except for Godmodding of course). It may seem wrong, but if you can get the Commanding Officer to fall for one of your troops, let him or her do so. This will allow the Commanding Officer to be easily manipulated.
Small, Lightning Strike Night Ops:
Killing a few men here, a few men there, all in the darkness of the night will cause terror and fear in the hearts of your enemy. It’s kinda like Assassin’s Creed. If all of a sudden the guy standing next to you falls over dead, it would definitely lower morale and cause fear. This is how Batman operates and this is how your resistance should operate. Only conduct large scale ops when something very large is at stake. For example, if you see that there is an air field near you, and there is a mass build-up of planes at the airfield, you can assume that an air-superiority attack is being waged. Taking this airfield out will do a major blow to your enemy and may get the attention of your government.
Get the attention of your government:
Getting the attention of your government is crucial, if your government can supply supplies, weapons, ammunition, ect. Similar to how the British aided French resistance, even sending some professionally trained troops your way, will be a significant advance for your cause and it will raise morale.
Make your enemy lose the will to fight:
As Jed from Red Dawn said “To these people, this is just some strange land, away from home, they want to be home, but instead they are here. Here is where our home is, and we will fight for it to the last breath.” Or something along those lines, but the point stands. You do not need to kill your enemy or wipe them out, that is the goal of the occupier; not you, you merely need to make them lose the will to fight. If every where they go, they feel fear, panic, confusion, they will tire extremely quickly and their morale will plummet, men who refuse to fight are no different than dead men.
Summary
Now that was a lot wasn’t it? I’m sorry but after being on NS for so long and seeing a lot of NS wars, I just mainly hear about stuff in a third person international point of view. Frontlines, large numbers, ect. I have almost never seen people use resistances as weapons in RP and that is why I created this thread because when I do see people using resistances as weapons, it is often in an unrealistic way. I have also seen occupations go extremely wrong, occupiers sometimes commit atrocities and think no one will oppose them and they completely forget about resistances. I hope that typing all this will add a new layer of depth to NS warfare and get on the more gritty side of war.
This is to be regarded as an "open source" kinda deal. I would appreciate no one posting in this thread, but if you have improvements or if you notice errors or you think I'm just plain wrong on something, I'd really appreciate if you shot me a telegram with your suggestions, concerns, critiques ect. I value your input.
