A King for All Seasons

[Andreios II]

Ahah! Now this is interesting! A counter-factual counter-factual scenario!

It's also nice that, in a world so thoroughly dystopic as Kaiserreich, there'll be one more bright spot

Good luck restoring Peace, Unity, and Empire

Long live the United Kingdom! Long live the Entente! Long live the Empire!

[FlyingDutchie]

A kaiserreich-scenario without a useless Entente, interesting . But how did the Brits end up with Ulster? I guess that Marshall Collins would rather die than give a part of Ireland up.

Hope this new AAR wont keep you from writing your AAR about the Inglorious Basterds blowing up Paris.

[OutsiderSubtype]

This'll be interesting. Maybe you can make some cool custom events - Syndicalist sabotage and assassinations, Ireland trying to reclaim Ulster, that sort of thing. You should also give yourself a big load of dissent.

[Zauberfloete]

Ah yes let start the insurrection against the rightists! The legacy of the Union must be in civil disobedience and armed struggle against the new opressors! And fear not ye opressed people of Albion for France will always stand beside its brothers in arms against Capital and Authoritarianism!

Long live our Internationel struggle!

Note: Just setting the mood! And aye there should be some diehard Syndies plotting against the new rulers.

[El Pip]

And fear not ye opressed people of Albion for France will always stand beside its brothers.

Well that's just killed the resistance movement dead.

The phrase "Don't worry you can rely on the French" only just ranks behind "We're from the government and We're here to help" as words to dishearten and terrify the listener.

[gaiasabre11]

Well that's just killed the resistance movement dead.

The phrase "Don't worry you can rely on the French" only just ranks behind "We're from the government and We're here to help" as words to dishearten and terrify the listener.

Ohh, well, France has no friends, only interests. Those who rely on others entirely are only fools, don't you agree?

[trekaddict]

Ohh, well, France has no friends, only interests. Those who rely on others entirely are only fools, don't you agree?

We've seen where that attitude took you one fine spring sixty-nine years ago.

[Zauberfloete]

Well that's just killed the resistance movement dead.

The phrase "Don't worry you can rely on the French" only just ranks behind "We're from the government and We're here to help" as words to dishearten and terrify the listener.

Ah, but you see this is not the France of OTL 1940! With such a defeat in WWI which just rivals Versailles OTL France had a massive overhaul of its offensive strategy which rely on armored spearheads so new the Blitzkrieg is a French invention! Also France has the world largest and about triple the amount of armoured division than germany has! The overhaul of military rethinking was also helped that now the Old Guard under Petain fled to Algier when the revolution hit the streets.

And another matter also - with the failure of the Communist revolution many of its participants fled to France, the most famous in being Nestor Makhno! Who nevertheless contributed some intresting concepts on armed struggle! And this could manifest itself if the Anarchist are elected in the general election!

So the sons of Marianne are not the helpless defenders commanded by overaged men, but now they are driven by revange and the utter committment for World revolution!

[gaiasabre11]

We've seen where that attitude took you one fine spring sixty-nine years ago.

Yet nevertheless, France secured herself a great power status in the post-war period. I'd say that the one I quoted his words from is the driver behind that.

[El Pip]

Ah, but you see this is not the France of OTL 1940

Doesn't matter when the France is, if you rely on France in any way at any point you are risking miserable failures no matter how strong France is or what alliance commitments you think you have. (Off the top of my head the 'Auld Alliance' and their mucking around in Ireland, though there are countless more I'm sure)

As our resident French troll has pointed out 'France has no friends' and that's not just because he's rude, arrogant and comes from a country with decidedly poor drains. It's also because you should be able to rely on friends and France is the very definition of unreliability.

[gaiasabre11]

Doesn't matter when the France is, if you rely on France in any way at any point you are risking miserable failures no matter how strong France is or what alliance commitments you think you have. (Off the top of my head the 'Auld Alliance' and their mucking around in Ireland, though there are countless more I'm sure)

As our resident French troll has pointed out 'France has no friends' and that's not just because he's rude, arrogant and comes from a country with decidedly poor drains. It's also because you should be able to rely on friends and France is the very definition of unreliability.

El Pip, I'm warning you, keep your personal attacks to yourself or either PM me. You don't want me to report to a mod for making outright attacks to another one's character right?

[El Pip]

El Pip, I'm warning you, keep your personal attacks to yourself or either PM me. You don't want me to report to a mod for making outright attacks to another one's character right?

And yes, I do like to annoy people for my own entertainment.

*Sing the "You're A Hypocrite" song*

[gaiasabre11]

*Sing the "You're A Hypocrite" song*

I like you when you're funny, not rude.

[El Pip]

I like you when you're funny, not rude.

At last! Something we agree on; I feel much the same about you.

[gaiasabre11]

At last! Something we agree on; I feel much the same about you.

My gift for possible friendship between the two of us. Kurt, you're welcome to take some too. No, you don't need your gas mask.

[Kurt_Steiner]

I've modified the map of the first post, as I've moved to the new version of the KR mod, lassies and gents.


trekaddict

Le Jones Indeed. Life is quite good, from time to time.

El Pip: And you, indeed, are a quite appreciative and clever reader, with a very good taste. The Frikipedia shall become a regular feature, I hope.

Zauberfloete: The Union of Britain lives, indeed. In exile. In France (a suitable punish... erm... place to rest in pace). Country, by the way that, in due time, will also be freed.

TRP: Where I've seen that before?

Russia watches with interest: Russia is too busy killing its prime minister and tryin to decide whether having a tzar or what... And the real Frikipedia is... is... is, it just is. Like the Uncyclopedia, but different.

Milites Yes.



Thank you.

gaiasabre: I'll think about that when the Union Jack flies over the Tour Eiffel.

trekaddict (2) : Then welcome to the free world.

Milites: For that reason, you see, I've taken a full set of Holy Hand Grenades of Antioch. To make sure that the pond-ordered kingdom survives.

TemplarComander: Thanks a lot!

Zauberfloete: It's a plague, you see.

TemplarComander: Don't worry about gaisabre's blasphemies. He's French. Gene's thing, methinks

Andreios II: Just a conterfactual scenario was too easy

FlyingDutchie: My mistake. It has been corrected. Marshall Collins and I were havingtea and, while he was arguing about Northern Ireland in a friendly tone and waving his gun at me, I thought: this chap is right. He'd rather die than give a part of Ireland up. I'll make him die later on...

About the Basterd's adventures in Paris... They're over. I wanted to blow up Notre Dame and I got it. So, it's over.

For now, perhaps... who knows...

OutsiderSubtype: Good ideas. Let's see what the new version of the KR mod has in store, plus any suggestions from the readers, which will be heartly welcomed.

Zauberfloete: Well, I thought that the rebels would love the joke of being defeated by another rebelion. The Defender of Order becoming just a pack of insurrect scum...

El Pip (2): Kill them? Too easy.

Zauberfloete (2): Erm... yes... that is something I need to correct...

gaiasabre11: Don't worry, France will soon get rid of the troubles of being a great power.


I don't think I've never answered so many posts after just the first installement of one of my AARs... And let's keep it civil, gents or I'll send Peti after your bones...

By the way. I'm considering creating a Privy Council to advice me in some topics about the British Empire, politics and minor events. Any volunteer?

Damn... this post of replies is almost as long as any installement of mine!

[Kurt_Steiner]

Part One: England.

2. Shadows of an Empire

But I saw Love go lonely down the years,
And when I drank, the wine was salt with tears
(May Wedderburn Cannan (1893–1973),
from her poem
Paris, 11 November, 1918)

After recovering the Home Islands, the Empire was at shambles. Some of the former colonies and dominions had just proclaimed their independence, while some other had been engulfed by the victorious German Reich. Only Canada, South Africa, Delhi and the Australasian and the Caribbean Confederations still remained loyal to the Crown, albeit in a quite diferent status. Just a shadow remained of what once was the the glorious British Empire.

Britain found herself struggling to survive, to overcome the damage caused by the years of Syndicalist dictatorship in England while, at the same time, having to face the threat of the vindictive Commune of France, where most of the British Syndicalists were gathering in their forced exile. The rising militarism and aggressive attitudes of France did not pass unnoticed, but, quite oddily, the victorious German Reich seemed asleep in their glory and apparent power. The old kaiser, Wilhelm II, had made plainly clear how much he enjoyed that Britain had rejected the "ungodly faith" and boasted that the Nordic race that both Britons and Germans represented, soon would rule the world together. And, after that, the old Warlord had returned to his iddle silence. Perhaps the unexpected death of his son and heir in a car crash (in 1932) had stolen him part of his vitality.

The Kaiser, with his grandson and heir, Crown Prince Wilhelm of Prussia

Britons were decided to return to the old "bussiness as usual" as soon as possible. Under the rule of the old and fragile George V, hopes were placed on his son, Edward, Prince of Wales, the "Prince of the People". Due to the economical crisis and all the world still to be done, the king was dead set against any grand celebration of his return to England, but was very moved by the great masses that gathered to celebrate his return. "I cannot understand it, after all I am only a very ordinary sort of fellow", said the deeply moved king, overcomed by the situation.

The world was tired and sceptical after four years of war and a couple of decades of international revolutionary turmoil. Peace had been absent for too long. In this, Britain was no different to the rest of the world. A solution was needed, something powerful to break the chains of the crisis. It was to be found in an informal meeting of the German and British Crown Princes. And, as all the great events that changed the face of the world, it went unnoticed by the whole world.

- I've been here before. - I answered when the second-in-command told me the name of the place. I had been there before, indeed; I knew all about it.

All of the sudden, it was as though the quiet voice that had been bawling in my ears for years beyond number, had become suddenly mute. An immense silence followed, but gradually, as my senses came back from a forgotten past, there came a multitude of sweet and natural and long unremembered sounds: for the name of the place, that was so familiar to me, had such ancient power, that, at its mere sound, the phantoms of those haunted me in those years of exile and pain began to take flight.

There I stood bemused. It was a still morning and the smoke from the cookhouse rose straight to the leaden sky. A cart-track, once metalled, now rutted and churned to mud, followed the contour of the hillside and dipped out of sight below while all the zoo-noises of the battalion came to life with the beginning a new day. Beyond and about us, more familiar still, lay an exquisite man-made landscape. It was a sequestered place, enclosed and embraced in a single, winding valley. From where I stood the house was hidden by a green spur, but I knew well how and where it lay, couched among the lime trees like a hind in the bracken.

Then I walked to the house. The commanding officer, surronded by the rest of the staff of the batallion like a modern mother hen, wasn't in the best of mood.

-The worst place we've struck yet - said the colonel -, no facilities, no amenities, and Brigade sitting right on top of us. Brigade expects us to clean up the house for them... Ryder, you will find a party of fifty and report to the Quartering Comandant at the house at 1045 hours; he'll show you what we're taking over.

-Very good, sir - I replied.

-The Syndies do seem to have been very enterprising. They used the valley for an assault course and a mortar range, and as well as for recce training areas. Anyone happens to know this district?

I said nothing.

-That's all then, get cracking.

We were in the space before the main doors, where I had my half-company fallen-in, waiting for orders. We'd only requisitioned the ground floor and half a dozen bedrooms. Everything else upstairs was still private property. My fellow officers were amazed at the furniture gathered there. “You never saw such stuff, Ryder –they said-, priceless some of it”.

There was plenty of room, of course. After the revolution, the Syndies had been making a beast of themselves here. Then came the Quartering Commandant, an old, retired, re-appointed lieutenant-colonel from some miles away. We were outside, looking at the fountain.

-An awful lot of transports comes in and out, you see - he was telling to me, and I was hardly listen, as my mind was wandering again in the lost tracks of the past-. Look where one careless devil went smack through the box-hedge and carried away all that balustrade; did it with a three-ton lorry, too; you'd think he had a tank at least. That fountain is rather a tender spot with our landlady; the Reds used to lark about in it on guest nights and it was looking a bit the worse for wear, so I wired it in and turned the water off. Looks a bit untidy now; all the drivers throw their cigarette-ends and the remains of the sandwiches there, and you can't get to it to clean it up, since I put the wire round it. Florid great thing, isn't it?...

Finally I gathered my strenght and went inside the building, to meet the old ghosts the past, with the Quartering Commandant following my trail.

-This eyesore is what they used as the mess; that's why I didn't cover it up; not that it would matter much if it did get damaged; always reminds me of one of the costlier knocking-shops, you know, "Maison Japonaise"... and this was the ante-room...

-Yes, sir, I know. I've been here before.

The words seemed to ring back to me enriched from the vaults of my dungeon.

-Oh well, then you know all about it.

(taken from
The Sacred and Profane Memories
of Capt. Charles Ryder,
by Captain (ret.) Charles Ryder, MC).

[trekaddict]

Well, as always I am rooting for an Anglo-German Alliance. Our Army and their Fleet can rule the world.

[MarshalThorpe]

Best of wishes to you and I hope that the reds get smacked around before you throw the final blow.

[Andreios II]

Hmm I can see the benefits of an alliance with Germany. In a world with so few 'good guys' the philosophy of 'An enemy of my enemy is my friend' comes to mind ^^