The Great Crusade

[danielshannon]

This is a continuation of an old HOI2 aar in Arsenal of Democracy. I don't have any sort of save game converter, so I just had to code a lot of events. If you'd like to know a little about the history of this game, please read the first part of The Great Crusade.

The quick synopsis of the concept is as follows. The game began with the reunification of a "balkanized" USA, which had to conquer the Americas, and is now at war with a Soviet Union that dominates the globe. After several years of war, the US has liberated most of Europe as well as vast chunks of Asia. Yet the Soviets still hold out in Russia, Africa, and China.

[danielshannon]

Zhdanov's Baptism by Fire.

The death of Stalin and much of the State Defense committee forced Andrei Zhdanov to do much of the work of directing the war and running the Red Army himself; to a greater extent than was true of the high command of any other powers. Zhdanov would dominate the Soviet Union's war effort for the remainder of the conflict. Giraud and his generals coexisted in a constant state of tension. Churchill imposed his will by argument, which prevailed less and less as Slim and Montgomery gained prestige on the battlefield. Truman deferred to the judgment of Cannon, King, and Marshall. Rommel largely presided over rather than directed his chiefs of staff. Zhdanov, however, dictated. All information flowed to him, whether he was to be found during the day or night, whether in the his improvised headquarters on a platform of the Moscow underground railroad, at his country dacha, or at the Stavka Headquarters in Gorky; from him all orders flowed back. He held a situation conference four times a day, hearing reports first at noon, then at four in the afternoon followed by an additional conference at eight in the evening, and finally dictating orders directly to officers of the General Staff between Midnight and three or four in the morning.

The Soviet Politburo in 1947.

Zhdanov established his dominance over the military and the party almost immediately. He installed an old ally, Alexey Kuznetsov, as head of the NKVD and quickly staffed the Politburo with reliable toadies from his days running the Leningrad party machine. Several Generals who were prestigious enough to contest his reign wound up in Lubyanka prison or worse. Old party bosses from the hinterlands met a similar fate, opening the doors for a new generation of brutal apparatchiks. Men like Mao Zedong and Moses Mabhida were elevated to prominent positions of power over the bones of their predecessors. These young party bosses knew that their continued existence was contingent upon their ability to harness their region's assets in service of the war effort. Their demonic efforts paid off quickly. Few villages in Siberia, China, or Africa would be spared in this massive conscription drive.

American intelligence analysts were stunned by the meteoric growth of the Red Army.

These efforts would see an increase in the size of the Soviet army from around six million to almost twenty million fighting men. This was naturally very disruptive economically and, coupled with forced requisitioning of grain, lead to immense suffering amongst the civilian population of the USSR. However, it was a massive enough force to halt the American advance. Over the summer of 1947 the Soviet army forced the Americans out of the Caucasus, the Crimea, and Central Asia.

The Americans were kicked out of Russian Central Asia in 1947.

Zhdanov's greatest accomplishment in 1947 was Operation Rozhestvensky, the invasion of Japan. While a significant portion of the Soviet Fleet was bottled up in the Black Sea, the White Sea Fleet and the Pacific Fleet were still formidable. The two fleets had little hope against the Americans while divided and there was no hope for the White Sea Fleet to repeat Admiral Rozhestvensky's epic journey. Zhdanov insisted that the White Sea Fleet try to cross the Arctic Ocean during the summer months. The fleet, accompanied by an armada of ice cutters, sailed forth from Arkhangelsk in May of 1947 and reached the Port of Magadan in August of the year. This was an arduous task even in the Summertime, but the ever illusive “Invincible Admiral” Yumashev was able to pull it off with “acceptable” casualties. Thus combined, the Pacific and White fleets were able to decimate the small Japanese and American fleets defending Japan. An American carrier task force that attempted to assist was driven back by ground based aircraft, but it was able to distract the Soviet forces long enough for the Emperor and his cabinet to flee to the Philippines. The Japanese, now stripped of their defenses, were subjugated by the Soviet Union once again.

[trekaddict]

When on earth did the Reds build these units? I mean you had them on the run!

[Deus Eversor]

from somewhere those people came from, i do not think there was any grain depletion, only problems with supply, anyway, those hyperstacks should win it all O.O win hiperstack! win!

but yeah how did you get asia without africa...

[danielshannon]

Operation ISIS

The idea for Operation Isis sprang up during a summit meeting between General cannon and Marshal Rommel. Both leaders realized that the loss of Japan and Central Asia was devastating to allied civilian morale. A major victory was needed to resurrect the prospect of defeating Zhdanov. Cannon wanted to focus on China, partially because of sympathies towards the China lobby, but also to deny Zhdanov access to Chinese manpower. Rommel, who had just successfully evacuated the remnants of the first German army from Kazakhstan, wasn't eager to fight another winter campaign in mountainous country and suggested a foray into Egypt instead.

Operation Isis begins with the destruction of the road and rail network in Port Said. This took 16 American bomber Squadrons a single day to accomplish.

The Egyptian operation, dubbed Isis, was appealing for several reasons. The foremost was that it would neutralize the Soviet threat to the middle east. For several months, allied and Soviet armies had been shelling one another from across the Suez Canal. Originally, this was a nuisance, and all previous Soviet attempts to storm into Palestine had been repulsed. Unfortunately, the African party bosses had made good their promises to Moscow and brought substantial reserves into Egypt. The OSS believed that there were now 80 to 90 Soviet divisions in Egypt.

Soviet infantry backed by armored cars valiantly defended the coast, but to no avail.

The Operation opened with an amphibious landing at Alexandria. The marines were backed up by off shore bombardments two groups of 16 CAS flying round the clock interdiction missions. The marines dislodged three divisions of infantry from the beaches with minimal losses. Once a beachhead was established, America's enormous navy was used to quickly reenforce it with British, German, and American troops.

Troops assembled in Suez are quickly ferried over to reenforce Alexandria.

Once ashore, the German contingent, lead by Rommel personally, breaks out towards Luxor. Careful use of Close Air Support breaks the organization of the defenders. The CAS then start a series of ground attacks which decimated about 5 or 6 Soviet divisions. Strategic bombers reduce the infrastructure in neighboring provinces to keep the Soviets from escaping the encirclement.

Everything goes perfectly at Luxor, resulting in an easy allied victory.

When Luxor is secured, Rommel presses on into Cairo, liberating the city on the 11th of November. This was followed up by an attack on Port Said. By the end of November about 79 Soviet divisions were trapped in the Nile Delta region. When the actual attack opened up on the 29th of November, the Soviet forces surrendered almost immediately.

Rommel gets a little hasty at Cairo and throws in more men than are necessary, but it is still a relatively bloodless victory.

The campaign showed that the allies could still destroy Soviet divisions without resorting to using America's nuclear arsenal. Careful coordination of American air and naval superiority, backed by local superiority in armor, won the day. The Germans were already studying the possibility of repeating this trick in European Russia. Yet the conquerors were faced with a more immediate dilemma. Do they press on down the cape to Cairo rail network? Or do they use America's unmatched navy to liberate Japan and threaten Soviet China?

79 Red Army divisions are trapped in the Delta and quickly destroyed by the allies.



Here are the casualties since I picked up the game in AOD. The Soviets lost 869 Thousand men in Operation Isis. Unfortunately, we can only speculate on the numbers of soldiers lost in the HOI2 portion of the aar.

[danielshannon]

When on earth did the Reds build these units? I mean you had them on the run!

Well the actual story was that they were at peace and happily building divisions since 1936 with Chinese manpower while I ran events to get the map similar to how it was in my HOI2 game. By the way, they dowed and annexed Japan while I wasn't looking, so I wound up just running with it and letting them start with Japan.

from somewhere those people came from, i do not think there was any grain depletion, only problems with supply, anyway, those hyperstacks should win it all O.O win hiperstack! win!

but yeah how did you get asia without africa...

You can see all the details in the HOI2 part of the aar.

I'm hoping that Isis will be a useful experience for defeating additional Hyperstacks.

[frigidmagi]

We need to take back Japan and cripple the damn red navy! We also certainly need to attack to keep the Soviets from simply burying us under a tide of men.

If we can defend them, I recommend releasing Indonesia and India. That should give us some nice chunky manpower to work with.

[danielshannon]

We need to take back Japan and cripple the damn red navy! We also certainly need to attack to keep the Soviets from simply burying us under a tide of men.

If we can defend them, I recommend releasing Indonesia and India. That should give us some nice chunky manpower to work with.

Agreed, the noble Japanese must be saved! I'll also work to drive the Soviet navy out of the Pacific for good.

We will release Indonesia and India soon.

[frigidmagi]

Make sure we can defend India before you do bro. It looks bad if we liberate a nation only for it to be overrun you know?

[danielshannon]

Make sure we can defend India before you do bro. It looks bad if we liberate a nation only for it to be overrun you know?

It'll hold. I was building some fortifications in the north anyway. Plus we have a lot of Brazilians and assorted other peoples who will help hold the line.

[Ciryandor]

Remember to take out infra when you can in their heartlands to ruin their industrial efficiency and resource production

[danielshannon]

I've been having some technical difficulties since installing the latest version of the cold war tech tree mod. I get a CTD at the end of the current month without fail.

I'm trying to figure out a fix for this problem. I just wanted to let you all know.

[danielshannon]

I couldn't figure out a fix for the problem, so I just started a new game and coded some events to get get the borders right. I'll keep playing with this version of AOD and the cold war tech tree, so we won't have anymore of these issues. I just played till March of 1948. Expect an update on Sunday.

Remember to take out infra when you can in their heartlands to ruin their industrial efficiency and resource production

I'm on it.
I started this new game as an mp game to make sure that the USSR build some infrastructure in high ic/resource areas. I also gave them oodles of extra resources in Ukraine, the Caucuses, and Siberia.

I'll follow this one too, just a sidenote : would you ever mind posting this scenario/events.

The original scenario is included in Mod new nations for HOI2/Arma. I don't have a scenario for AOD I just coded events to get the situation similar to where I left off in my HOI2 game.

[danielshannon]

OPERATION HANNIBAL

The destruction of the Soviet Egyptian Front, impressive as it may have been, did little to alter the overall balance of power. Zhdanov's energy, ruthlessness, and genius for organization helped the USSR recover from the loss of Europe and Stalin. The regime was able to raise an unbelievable 300 additional divisions between October of 1947 and January of 1948. While technologically backward, the Soviet Union had an industrial base comparable to the United States and seemingly inexhaustible reserves of manpower. If the United States was to have any hope of vanquishing the Soviet state, they would have to cut Zhdanov off from Chinese manpower.

Truman, frustrated by the apparent stalemate, wanted to bring American nuclear weapons to bear against China. However, several members of his cabinet felt that a softer line should be taken towards China. This so-called “China Lobby” believed that a friendly China would be necessary for maintaining the peace in the postwar world. They saw China as an oppressed nation that could be integrated into the allied war effort as the Europeans had been. The President, ever conscious of the coming elections, declared that the Army would have until the end of summer to kick the reds out of China.

Winter weather would delay the Chinese campaign until sometime in 1948. In the meantime the Americans wanted to strike somewhere. Africa seemed like the best choice to the allied Chiefs of Staff. Egypt was cleared of Soviet troops in early December of 1947, but significant Soviet forces remained in Libya and Sudan. If these forces could be encircled and destroyed, then the allies would be able to liberate the rest of the continent with minimal forces.

The liberation of Libya and Sudan, christened “Operation Hannibal” by General Patton, began with an attack on Libya on Christmas eve. While the Soviet Libyan front rushed to defend the border with Egypt, Patton's army landed behind their lines in Tobruk. Several Soviet divisions had managed to escape the trap, however, which necessitated the amphibious landing at Benghazi. That beachhead was quickly reenforced by the Germans, who rapidly cut the Libya front off from retreat. By mid January some 30 divisions had been destroyed in Libya and the allies had little trouble liberating the entire Mediterranean cost.

While Patton was liberating Egypt, an Anglo-Canadian-German force drove into Sudan. The allies made use of another amphibious landing to encircle eight divisions in northern Sudan. Five more divisions were destroyed by air strikes or overrun by German panzers.

Once Sudan was secure, Rommel was able to make great time racing down the Cape to Cairo highway built by the Soviets. Soviet resistance in Africa essentially evaporated. The only roadblock was the terrain and various Fordist partisan groups which fought Allies and Soviets alike. American Marines were able to secure most of the African coastline with unprecedented alacrity, but the iconic image of the campaign was Rommel's triumphant entry into Pretoria, where the German army was greeted with jubilation by the Afrikaner population.

[trekaddict]

As we discussed, I'd be able to see a Federation of South Africa with lots of internal autonomy for Boers and blacks, and with the British Monarch as Head of State.

[Kaiser_Mobius]

Glad to see the great crusade finally going again. Although I was not so sure about the decision to convert to AOD, it looks like it has not hurt your ability to continue the AAR.

Nice to see the swift liberation of the African continent. I am assuming you will not be giving Africa back to its old colonial masters, but rather creating new independent states there?

[danielshannon]

As we discussed, I'd be able to see a Federation of South Africa with lots of internal autonomy for Boers and blacks, and with the British Monarch as Head of State.

I don't know what to do with South Africa. I'll keep your desires in mind.

Glad to see the great crusade finally going again. Although I was not so sure about the decision to convert to AOD, it looks like it has not hurt your ability to continue the AAR.

Nice to see the swift liberation of the African continent. I am assuming you will not be giving Africa back to its old colonial masters, but rather creating new independent states there?

Yeah. There will be independent states. I'm willing to entertain any new country ideas that anyone has, btw.

[frigidmagi]

I would suggest just for starters merging modern day Ethiopia, Somalia and Eritrea into a single state (for simplicity let's just call it Ethiopia). Now that I think of it.... It may be a good idea to give Egypt northern Sudan and pass southern Sudan over to Ethiopia. There's a cultural dividing line there that I don't think a decade or two or Soviet rule would have erased (northern Sudan is very Arabic, while southern Sudan tends to be vastly more African).

Central Africa is gonna be tricky, if you divide it up along colonial lines, you'll get what we got. Constant low level tribal warfare and ethnic bloodbaths. I'm willing to bet that the Soviets frankly haven't had much of an impact in regards to erasing these differences since they would be propping a tiny communist elite over a mass of people at in the 1920s didn't have uniform access to elementary school. Perhaps a loose confederation would be best (that or give every damn group a homeland which would be messy as hell).

Northern Africa is alot easier, Algeria, Libya and Morocco should exist as normal. The biggest problem will be competition between Berber and Arabized peoples, which shouldn't get to violent, they share to many commonalities.

I would vote, since it was Americans who did the alot of the pushing and pulling that our traditional African "friend" of Liberia get expanded, say the Ivory Coast, Serria Leone and Guinea merged under it's government (That reminds me... Liberia was once upon a time an island of English speakers in a French sea, I wonder if a layer of Russian has been added on top due to the occupation?)

Also it may be best to merge Uganda with Kenya but I don't know enough about the cultures there to give a strong opinion. They were both English colonies and haven't had massive violence. In fact in our timeline until recently Kenya was considered an island of calm in Africa.

Hope that helps.

[Kaiser_Mobius]

Frigidmagi has a lot of very good points there.

As well as implementing those ideas, here are a couple more.

Congo: A big, Congolese republic should be created, merging both the former French & Belgian Congo's into one larger state.

South Africa: This one will be very interesting. I would suggest creating a republic of South Africa rather than reviving the old British Dominion. This new republic should not only give the black majority a lot of power, but also ensure the Afrikaner's a large amount of say in how the country is run, to prevent them from feeling left out, something that could result in serious racial tensions.

In terms of territory, I would advocate for South Africa getting Botswana, Namibia, and Zimbabwe/Rhodesia (whatever it would be called at this point in this time line). These area's IIRC should not be heavily populated, so its not like huge numbers of people would be alienated by becoming part of a very strong South Africa.

Actually, here is another Idea for Rhodesia and the area around it. Perhaps you could create something like the RL federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland that existed between 1953-1963. It could be a pretty strong state, especially if you attached Mozambique to it.

Rhodesia & Nyasaland

I guess that's kinda it for now. Some other things you could do is release an independent Nigeria and Angola.

[gianlucad]

OMFG!!! that amount of troops would restart my computer 12 times!!!!