Play as · WW1 1914 · L1 · German colony

German Kamerun - August 1, 1914

German Kamerun begins the war as an enlarged but poorly integrated colony. The 1911 Morocco-Congo agreement added Neukamerun, a broad arc of land transferred by France after the Agadir Crisis, giving Berlin a claim toward the Congo and Ubangi while stretching the frontier beyond the administration’s means. Douala is the commercial and communications centre; plantations and trading firms export cocoa, rubber, palm products and timber. Railways run inland from the coast but stop well short of joining the northern grasslands, Lake Chad approaches and new eastern districts into one defensible system. German officials rule through a small European cadre, African police and soldiers, chiefs, missions and company networks. Duala leaders have challenged land expropriation around the port, and the execution of Rudolf Duala Manga Bell will expose how readily the government calls lawful opposition treason. Your position is not a settled colonial state awaiting invasion. It is an overextended claim whose transport, labour and political relationships may fail before its garrisons do. Audit the agreements by which chiefs supply food and carriers; intelligence obtained through coercion will become less reliable as enemy columns approach.

Starting position

Governor Karl Ebermaier and military commander Carl Zimmermann can field several thousand Schutztruppe and police, mostly African askari led by German officers, against enemies approaching from every land border and the Atlantic. Britain can move from Nigeria toward Garoua, Mora and the coast. France can attack from Chad, Ubangi-Shari and Gabon, including across districts ceded only three years earlier. Belgian Congo forces threaten the southeast, while Allied ships can isolate Douala and interrupt imported ammunition, medicine and machinery. Terrain offers time rather than safety: rainforest, rains, rivers and disease slow attackers, but they also consume your porters and separate your detachments. Protect wireless stations, river crossings and food depots; do not disperse equal strength along an impossible perimeter. Northern strongpoints can delay large forces, yet a coast-first defence risks losing the harbour connecting the colony to Germany. Requisitioning carriers without pay may move one column and cause the next district to hide food, guides and canoes. Every operational plan needs a labour, medical and political plan beside it, with named officers responsible for receipts and treatment.

What turns the campaign

The Allied campaign will be a sequence of converging offensives rather than one decisive battle. Douala is likely to fall early under naval pressure, forcing the administration inland to Yaoundé and breaking the export economy. In the north, Garoua and Mora can hold out, but relief competes with defence of the central railway and Sanaga crossings. French columns know the old AEF approaches but must also cross Neukamerun territory where boundaries changed faster than administration. Use that uncertainty for intelligence and negotiation, not collective punishment. Communities may assist whichever army pays, protects farms and limits seizure; they do not owe Germany enthusiasm for a treaty signed in Europe. Keep account of food and carrier contracts, rotate exhausted askari, and evacuate wounded before malaria turns garrisons into hospitals. Diplomatically, neutral Spanish Guinea offers the only plausible sanctuary if the colony collapses. Preserve a disciplined route toward Río Muni rather than assuming Spain will tolerate armed operations. Decide whether to spend the force defending symbols everywhere or trade space for time while keeping a coherent army and civilian population. A scorched retreat would deny supplies briefly while ensuring every refugee reaches the border hostile.

Signature challenge