Liberty, a world at war

Hi all,


Well, after several months of plugging away I'm mostly done with my marine company.  As it stands I have two marine rifle platoons with three supporting tanks completed and one final rifle platoon in the painting hopper.  I'll do that third platoon, but it will probably be the start of another company.  I also want to add more tanks to the collection and maybe some of Rebel Minis sci-fi humvees to give my troops more mobility out side of the M577s. 


And yes, before anyone asks, I'm going to reset my table and take pictures of what I have painted up in the very near future... probably this weekend at the earliest. 


That leads me to this post: what am I really going to do with this bunch?  They need to have a world to fight on with a set of foes to to meet on the battlefield.  So far, they have only been up against  bugs and "faceless" rebels!  Who are these rebels and why are they taking shots at my marines???  And what's the deal with the bugs anyway???  That's where my new background, planet Liberty, kicks in.


So what's Liberty?


It's the biggest break between me and the usual aliens/super hunter background that exists for the Aliens Colonial Marines.  For me, Liberty is a more toward a 'conventional' war gaming world . So here's the premise I have for my campaign world,  Liberty.


Liberty  was established by a joint American/French expedition.  The world itself is very Earth like and requires no terraforming for people to live on.  Conditions wise, Liberty is very much like the Earth during the Carboniferous period of perhistory.  This means that the world is rather warm and covered with shallow seas and vast jungles.  It has a much higher oxygen content that allows for larger species of bugs (see where I'm going here?).  This makes Liberty very interesting to biochemical companies who want to research the life on Liberty and find products for the markets back on Earth.  However the United Americas and the French Union got there first and placed Liberty under their colonial control.  


In time the UA and the FU established two major colonies under their flags.  Both interstellar nations established fairly large colonies under their own control and only allowed certain corporations to come to Liberty to conduct research.  This really ticked off several multinationals who wanted a piece of the action and lead to them supporting various colonial independence movements.   The French colony was the first to rebel and the rebels established the independent Republic of Liberty.  In the years that followed, the republic began to export (with off world support) its rebellion to the UA's Liberty Territory.


The rebellion in Liberty Territory started as strikes against the territorial government to protest unfair taxes and laws and calls for unification with the Republic of Liberty from extremists.  It became a full fledged rebellion after the independence plebiscite where  some 70% of the voting population chose to remain within the United Americas as an independent state rather than unification with the Republic of Liberty.   As the months past the rebellion began to grow and grow with the Republic of Liberty fanning the flames by providing the rebels with arms and training and even volunteers. 


In response, the United Americas have dispatched a USCM Marine Assault Unit to assist the Liberty National Guard, State Troopers, and State Defense Forces in putting down the rebellion and to restore order in the war-torn state.  The rebels of Liberty are an odd mix of French and American local/part-time irregulars, some full-time, "main force",  style guerrilla units, regular troops from the Republic of Liberty,  mercenary companies hired by off world corporations who seek to gain trading and biological research rights on Liberty, as the United Americas have refused them these rights, and later still, by regular troops from the French Union's Foreign Legion.. 


To stir the pot a little the French Union has decided that the United Americas were responsible for the Liberty Revolution and have, bizarrely (well, not really, the Republic of Liberty has signed a secret treaty that give the French Union trading and other rights to Liberty), sided with colonists in revolting against the United Americas.  The French Union has sent a battle squadron to protect Liberty airspace and even Foreign Legion advisors to support the rebel/Republic of Liberty ground troops.   


This gives me an interesting mix of troops to play with!  On the United Americas side I have the USCMC, Liberty State National Guard, and Liberty State Troopers and Defense Forces troops.  I might get around to have the US Army intervene later.  On the rebel side I'll have French Union troops (mainly Foreign Legion), corporate mercs, Liberty Republican Regulars, and Liberty Irregulars.


Figure wise I have a lot of these troops on hand.  Each of these factions will be a project in of of itself!  More troops and vehicles to collect and paint... lots to do... and games to play.


I'll fill you in as I gather the forces and complete them.


Semper Fi, Carry on!