Adam Buquoy

Adam Buquoy.png
Adam Buquoy
Character Profile
Born 11 August 2531
Died 20 Fedruary 2604
Affiliation Magistracy of Canopus
Rank Colonel

Adam Buquoy was the commander of a mercenary unit and a senior officer in the Magistracy Armed Forces.

History[edit]

Born to a family of refugees from the Capellan Confederation, Adam Buquoy was a second-generation citizen of the Magistracy of Canopus and grew up in some of the less savory parts of Delphi, the de facto capital of Canopus IV.[1]

As a young man Adam leapt at the opportunity to join the Magistracy Armed Forces as a means of escaping the poverty that had marked his life up to that point, and he would serve in the MAF for six years before striking out as a freelancer. Buquoy went on to build his own mercenary command, Buquoy's Bandits, and gained a great deal of experience as a consequence of fighting in numerous brush wars[1] in the Federated Suns, Free Worlds League and Lyran Commonwealth[2] until the efforts of the Terran Hegemony to play peacemaker effectively ended the mercenary trade. The founding of the Star League destroyed any hope of the market for mercenaries being ressurected because of the deluge of former House troops who found themselves demobilized and who then tried to take to the mercenary trade - or turned pirate.[1]

Adam decided to return to the Magistracy in the late 2560s, and discovered that he had arrived at a fortuitous moment; Magestrix Crystalla Centrella knew that a war between the Star League and the nations of the Periphery was likely and she was unwilling to cede control of her realm to First Lord Ian Cameron. Centrella had embarked on a crash program to increase the size of the MAF, and was in sore need of experienced officers to help command her rapidly-expanding armed forces.[1]

Happy to work for the Magestrix, Buquoy quickly demonstrated his skills at command and strategy and swiftly became an invaluable sounding board for the Magestrix,[1] who had training in small-unit warfare but not the talents or experience necessary to construct and coordinate the grand military strategy needed to defend the Magistracy.[3] Adam possessed valuable insights into the tactics used by the Star League Defense Force[1] as well as a knowledge of tactics that bordered on the encyclopedic and a keen eye for detail, and although he had never previously commanded a unit larger than a single regiment[2] he would both develop and execute the grand strategy needed to be able to defend the Magistracy.[1]

It was a combination of Adam's experience[1] and information he obtained from the Magistracy Intelligence Ministry[2] that allowed him to avoid a number of traps set for the MAF by Marion Marik, the commanding officer of SLDF Task Force Canopus, the Task Force responsible for conquering the magistracy; Adam was also able to turn the tables on the SLDF on several occasions, laying highly successful traps and forcing the SLDF to adjust their campaign strategy repeatedly.[1] Adam knew that the MAF lacked the force to take on the might of the Star League directly, and his tactics were based around making his units hard to track and pin down by deploying them as small units, only to then pull them together at predetermined points to launch devastating strikes before dispersing again; rather than attempting to match force with force, Adam wielded the MAF against the SLDF with the same skill a master surgeon would wield a scalpel.[2]

Confirmation that Marion intended to conduct the campaign in accordance with the Ares Conventions was a relief to Adam, as he was a firm believer in the idea of civilized warfare. This ensured that while the war might be bloody, it wouldn't be dirty; Adam also knew that in the long term, his only real option was to trade space for time, and built his strategy accordingly. For years, the MAF fought a highly-mobile defense under Adam's direction, shifting forces rapidly between planets[1] and launching numerous raids at SLDF supply lines and supply worlds - particularly worlds outside the borders of the Magistracy. One of Adam's greatest successes was a flurry of raids launched in January 2578; Adam deployed several regiments of mercenaries and MAF forces into Free Worlds League space, having identified a number of worlds key to the SLDF supply chain. Adam led the raids himself, landing his Bandits on the world of Meadowvale and attacking a large supply base there, holding off SLDF units for hours while other units struck at other sites on Meadowvale and on other worlds. Even though only a company of the Bandits made it off the field the other MAF and mercenary units left in good order, and the raid was hugely successful - it forced Marion Marik to change strategies and tied up significant numbers of SLDF ships and units in an effort to protect their supply lines. The daring and determination involved in launching such a successful operation outside the Magistracy in what the Star League considered to be safe areas demonstrated clearly the resolve of the MAF and boosted morale in the Magistracy.[4]

Adam knew that the war was lost when the bulk of the Canopian navy was destroyed in an SLDF ambush in the Thurrock system in 2583[5] but he continued to fight; he advised on the defense of Canopus IV in 2584, and after the conquest of the Magistracy's capital world he continued to fight an extensive guerrilla campaign that tied the SLDF into a further four years of combat before the war with the Magistracy could finally be declared to be over.[1] The last battle for the Magistracy was fought on the world of Kossandra's Memory in 2588, a military redoubt founded as a fallback and used as Adam's command post during the latter stages of the war; the only major MAF units still active at the time were Buquoy's Bandits and the Second Canopian Light Horse,[6] and both units fought fiercely against the overwhelming forces led against them by Marion Marik herself until Adam was finally forced to surrender, ending the war with a handshake.[7]

Adam was interned after his capture but released after a brief period, at which point he retired to the world of Krimari. Extremists within the Magistracy attempted to court Adam as a potential leader but he declined their requests, and remained in retirement on Krimari until February 2604, when he was assassinated by a deranged Canopian extremist just a few weeks after Rinalla Centrella was appointed Magestrix at the head of the newly-restored civil government.[1][8]

Notes[edit]

Rules[edit]

  • Adam gains a +2 bonus to Strategy Action Checks.[9]
  • Adam gains a +2 bonus to Tactics Action Checks.[9]
  • Adam gains a +2 bonus to his Initiative rolls.[9]
  • Any unit under Adam's command may either use the Off-Map Movement special ability to start with up to 25% of the force as Hidden Units.[9]
  • Any unit opposing a unit under Adam's command suffers the effects of the Communications Disruption ability.[9]

References[edit]

  1. 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 Historical: Reunification War, p. 58-59, "Adam Buquoy"
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Historical: Reunification War, p. 98-99, "Counterstrike (2578)"
  3. Historical: Reunification War, p. 57-58, "Crystalla Centrella"
  4. Historical: Reunification War, p. 99, "Meadowvale (January 2578)"
  5. Historical: Reunification War, p. 102, "Thurrock (July 2583)"
  6. Historical: Reunification War, p. 151, "Magistracy of Canopus Front (2583—2588)"
  7. Historical: Reunification War, p. 105, "Mopping Up (2584-2588)"
  8. Historical: Reunification War, p. 161, "Good Neighbors to the Magistracy"
  9. 9.0 9.1 9.2 9.3 9.4 Historical: Reunification War, p. 187, "Adam Buquoy"

Bibliography[edit]