Brazilian Exploratory Force Q&A

Brazilian Exploratory Force Q&A

Q: Why the Brazilian Exploratory Force?

A: There were 3 British forces already in the campaign.

Q: How do you explain the British uniforms?

A: Second-hand donations. The Portuguese ordered uniforms from the British factories, asking for grey-blue cloth. They received British Army khaki. So these unwanted uniforms were gifted to the Brazilian Army of the First Republic.

Q: Why are the Brazilians in Far East Asia?

A: It's a secret.

Honestly, there is a backstory that the campaign umpire is aware of, but the official cover story is that we're seeking civilians to volunteer to immigrate to Brazil. Because you do send an army to do that, right!

FYI: Historically, so to not use slave labour in Brazil, Chinese workers were smuggled out of China, then later Chinese were encouraged to immigrate to Brazil to work on commercial plantations. We're talking thousands of Chinese Brazilians, but not tens of thousands by the time of this campaign. At least this is what Wikipedia says...

Q: How good are the Brazilian Exploratory Force?

A: Trained to modern fighting techniques (WW1-era) by a French military mission to Brazil, the average volunteer of the BEF is a well-trained soldier lacking combat experience, and suffering poor morale due to being so far away from home. [Setting The East Ablaze rules: we've rated them as C3, M4.]

Q: Why was the Exploratory Force renamed the Expeditionary Force?

A: The initial military presence in theatre was only of battalion strength. Elements of this formation fought at Vladivostok and helped secure the port. Before the IJN blockade of Vladivostok, the rest of the Brazilian force was able to land and, due to its size, was renamed as an Expeditionary Force. (Or the answer could be that I forgot the name & made some posters saying "Expeditionary Force", you decide which you believe.)

Q: Can you read and write Portuguese? (or Brazilian Portuguese)

A: I struggle with the one language I do speak. No chance of me being bilingual. Any Portuguese used on this blog is what an online AI or translate tool has provided me (so it is probably wrong in someway.)