Official Weekly Submission

1. Call a war council. Summon war leaders from all our tribes, to hold a meeting. Agenda: confirm loyalty to the Great Khan; confirm numbers of available warriors; assign fighters to hit neighbouring unaligned tribes around our territory.

2. Dispatch trade caravans to NRF and China. Caravan to include traders and goods, but also spies in amongst the traders. 4 spies per caravan. Each caravan to include homing birds to carry info back swiftly.

(Ok, making this bit up on the fly, as I'm I'll and we didn't get this far quite...but loosely based on our discussions:)
3. Begin assimilation of surrounding tribes. Swift attacks by parties of Khanate fighters, followed by the 'opportunity' to join the Great Khanate. Details depend on outcome of war council, but intention is to have raiding parties of 3 squads attack small settlements then join forces to approach tribal leaders. Show of force to bully them into joining!

Actions for week 2:
1. Send covert scouts disguised as small trade caravan into nearest Minerva settlements for trading (and info gathering). They are told to be very discreet and not to mention the Khanate by name (be vague about their origins).

2. Gaining tribes. The bulk of the army is to approach the main settlement of each of the unaligned tribes and stand back as we attempt to add them to our cause. For each tribe, this will be a join or be taken proposition.
We will try diplomacy first (but with the not-so-subtle hint of the army backing up the delegates!), by highlighting the MANY benefits of joining the allied tribes of the Great Khanate, and their share of the land/riches/slaves etc after our inevitable victory against all who would stand in our way! (There is no need to mention WHO we wish to defeat at this point...let's not start ugly rumours abroad, huh?) oh, and maybe mention what happened to the last tribe that refused! Mwahahaha!
If the tribe wants to join us (or just wants to survive and joins us to do that), then we will ask for their tribute of fighters to join us immediately and they will be assigned across a number of squads to be trained up (ie not stationed together)....and we move the army along to the next target.
If the tribe declines our generous offer, we flatten them and their tents, take their herds as our own and enslave the survivors as serfs to be stationed separately around the Khanate!....and we move the army along to the next target!

Tactics for flattening of settlements, IF needed (because who would be so foolish as to turn down such a wonderful opportunity as to join in the Great Khanate?):
Sailbuggies and mounted fighters to sweep in fast, firing bows and rifles as needed. Target the leadership of the tribe and the leader's home, with an aim to break morale without killing off too many potential workers. Pull down any remaining structures (they won't need them when we've shipped them all off, and our loyal workers can build better ones when they take over the land.)

3. Leave a small scout unit behind at on the lands of each tribe taken, with means to send Intel (carrier birds), so that they can scout out our expanding borders for foreign trouble (and mop up trouble with any tribesmen that might have been absent and object to their tribe joining the Khanate).

this will take a while to approach each tribe separately, but we feel it is more likely to succeed than splitting the army into smaller groups. Many men and horses do look rather intimidating, after all!

Ok I said id take over this weeks submission so here it is.
Submission for week three.

The convoy to china and Russian goes on as planned. The spy convoy does aswel.

We count the livestock,trade goods and any weaponry differing from the norm(anything like a mortar/artillery/ something that we assume is not near infinite) we got from each tribe(something we would like to know every time we gain such a thing)

The warriors that decided to fight us and survived will be given the offer to join our army for the freedom of their wives and children(We will put a hard cap of 150 of the 200 to be sent this way(i suspect no more than 75-100 to be direct relatives due to the amount killed but best to put a hard cap on these things)) and to be resettled with them at the end of our reunification with adequate slaves and livestock.(this isn't a trick btw its a very old tactic and it works as long as you don't break your word) The two tribes that joined us will be given the lands of the one that did not and 80% of the remaining slaves(assuming they use them if not they are given to either to tribe that does) and any livestock captured with the stipulation that 60 of their men join the army each. The other 20% of livestock and slaves with be given to the military commanders(10%) and solders who showed exceptional bravery or skill(lets make them happy and give the solders something to aspire to).

That should make both our troops happy and give the new acquisitions something to look forward to.

Our next move is to send scout balloons back along our supply lines as well as along our border to these factions who seem to oppose us with bamboo poles hollowed out with rocket flares if they see the enemy in numbers more threatening then our forces left at home can deal with gathering(they can see quite far so we should be able to move a response) they send off a flare in the direction of the forces if the flare is too far away from the main force for us to see it a balloon that can will also use the flare in the direction of the balloon who sent the first this will continue to relay until it reaches the main army where it will be processed(for next week). Local forces will be reinforced with forces further inside the khanate with orders to prepare a defence and lay down caltrops(ill post about these in the weapons topic just in case) in all passages between the border/supply line and the enemy gathering. If the enemy spends no time staging their forces and attacks(staging is required for a large force) then the local forces should either destroy or delay the enemy force if destruction of either side happens news should be sent to the main force as soon as possible.

The main force however will advance with scouts with balloons scouting the general area and groups of 6-8 scouts going in after to look for traps/chose the best way for the army to advance. The army will stop before either a large force, a settlement. Upon seeing either the main force will stop and make defences by setting caltrops to the side and behind the camp about 40-50 meters outside camp. Setting of caltrops will be done under the cover of night on the first night of camp and scout balloons will remain under constant rotation looking for troop movements and at night campfires and torches. If there is sufficient wood around(if we are in or near a Forrest at time of setting camp) then campfires will be build around our perimeter at night at 75 meters from our perimeter with a 10-20 percent overlap of light(the fire will scare animals both wild and those not trained for war and allow us to see any movement in that area).

In the khanate the khan(or his regent if we went with the army) will announce our first victory of many to the tribes with stories depicting our solders bravery and skill being of an almost superhuman level. A General has sent men to seek out those of quick wit and those in the art of subterfuge in both the slaves/serfs and tribesmen for the sapper corps he offers increased standing(and citizenship if they do not already have it) as well as great rewards if they will serve in the corps. Anyone recruited this way will be sent to the generals camp where they will be tested for their skills, bravery and loyalty. any of those that they lack will either be trained into them or they will be sent back to their previous duty's if they lack two of three of those.

I am very sorry admin i know my writing isnt that easy writing isnt my strong suit and i have a tendacy to ramble.

Edit: fair warning. The Russians might be a bit jumpy on the approaching caravan. So...be prepared and include as part of your plans what you will do if they try attacking you.

The Russians do a big tactical thing and surround you and stuff, but when you aren't hostile, you are able to open up trade negotiations with them (message rat and Amberlight and me).

Your trade group with the Chinese (don't forget to message them for your trade talks) is meeting with them. You manage to overhear the following when their minister steps out of the room to take a call:

You hear that they have men holed up outside of warehouse of minerva goods that appears to be abandoned, right on the northern edge of the tien shan mountains.

Your war preps and scouting go well. You see that they are mostly surviving on stores, and on a couple of streams coming down from the mountain.

Your artillery barrage is going well. They try to sneak out and attack your artillery, but your cavalry swoop in and surprise them, killing a dozen. 2 of your men are injured fairly seriously (out of commission for a couple weeks).

From the looks of things, they are not doing too well with all the shelling.

Your shelling and intimidation is very successful. They again try to sneak out and attack you, but your men are in place and repel them/take them all out without any injuries. By the 3rd messenger (after 12 hours shelling), they are willing to accept your terms completely.

It was 5 tribes worth of people. 2000 people total. 500 soldier aged men, the rest women, children and elderly.

I'll assume that you split them up and etc as you've talked about before.

I believe that there are still ongoing negotiations between you and the Chinese and Russian factions, so make sure you talk to them and plan things.