Tunis Delenda Est

[Tanzhang (譚張)]

Why didn't you just use an "establish protectorate" war goal and take all of Egypt? Or can you no longer do that in 1.2? (I assume you have researched Nationalism and Imperialism if you're colonising large swathes of land in Africa).

Also, is the Congo still part of Italy or is it now independent?

[Melrick]

Wow, that's a fantastic industry you've got cooking there. And number 2! Interesting to see what happens with Italy.

[FireBlaze]

Why didn't you just use an "establish protectorate" war goal and take all of Egypt? Or can you no longer do that in 1.2? (I assume you have researched Nationalism and Imperialism if you're colonising large swathes of land in Africa).

Also, is the Congo still part of Italy or is it now independent?

I think its because Egypt still had too many regions to outright annex. He can do it when his truce runs out, though.

[Selzro]

Yes, Egypt had 5 regions (6 with the liberation of Assyut to them) and the establish protectorate option is only available if they have 4 or less, in 1.2. Egypt now has 3 regions left, one of which is threatened by Italy, unless I intervene and start the Last Punic War. I could have left it with more, but I'm not sure if I'll be able to declare war again after the truce is up (the US may sphere it again, and it would be impossible to get 100% warscore in that case), so I took the ones I needed for a contiguous empire.

The Congo is now independent, following a communist revolution, and within my sphere (i forgot to mention it in the AAR and I don't remember exactly when that happened, but it's been many years). I briefly contemplated conquering it but it would give far too much infamy, and I was saving up for Egypt and the Ottoman Empire. I have also sphered Madagascar, Transvaal, Ethiopia, Catalonia, Cyprus and Greece.

Thanks Melrick, the way Tunis' industry boom started early and never slowed down was a shock to me. I would have been happy to finish the game as a secondary power, like Albania, but Tunisian workers decided differently.

[Selzro]

Chapter XV – Hubris

The authorization for a War on Italy was given by the end of the day. Before the next day was up, the Ottoman Empire declared war on Cyprus, presenting another uncomfortable dilemma to the new sultan. Tunis would have to intervene as a matter of policy, protecting a country within its sphere, but a white peace would leave it with a truce with the Ottomans which would likely not expire before 1935. Regardless, Cyprus was under Tunisian protection, so protected it had to be. The downside to those long contemplations was that Greece, having responded to Cyprus’ call first, became alliance leader and stayed that way even after Tunis entered the war. Meanwhile, the world shook with a grand war between the two largest military powers on the planet, the UK and China. These would not be peaceful times…



Tunisian forces were divided into 4 sectors, Egypt, Syria, Greece and defence of the realm. Operations against the Italians in Egypt exposed Tunisian troops to an enemy that also used chemical weapons. As a result, gas defence methods were promptly invented, to negate that threat.



By summer, the Italians had been defeated in Egypt and their navy was annihilated, with the exception of a single cowering ship. Tunisian ships had put Italy under a partial blockade and the latter had no choice but to drop its claims in Egypt, thus bringing the last Punic War to a swift conclusion.



Only five days later, Portugal took Italy’s place declaring war on Egypt… Tunis once again decided to intervene, but not until the Portuguese stepped foot on Egypt.

In Syria-Lebanon, the Tunisian armies were up against large concentrations of Ottoman troops, but in September they managed to defeat and capture the bulk of the Ottoman army there, in the Battle of Askaleh.



The Portuguese marched a small army up from Tanzania towards Egypt (they had military access through Tunisian territory), but then inexplicably turned around when they were almost there and headed back south. A second army landed by ship in Sidi Barrani in November, and that was when Tunis chose to intervene.



War against the Ottoman Empire with Greece as a leader presented some annoying difficulties, namely that the Greek government, on a power high from having the Tunisian army do all the work for it, kept adding wargoals. In January 1930, after much consideration, the Tunisian government decided that since this was turning into a total war against the Ottoman Empire, Tunis had better get something out of it too. The nation’s infamy was high [~18] but the government pinned its hopes on the UK having its hands full with China.



By then Libya was occupied, the Ottoman armies had been pushed out of Greece and allied forces were advancing in Thessaly and Anatolia.


By May, progress had been made on all fronts but, disturbingly, the UK had outdone Tunis in China.



During that month, the last Portuguese armies actively fighting in east Africa were pushed back to Zanzibar, and it looked like that war was approaching its end swiftly.



Sure enough, before the month was over, Portugal called it quits.

Following that, Egypt was placed in Tunis’ sphere of influence, in the hope that that would dissuade any other invasions in the near future.

In the Ottoman Empire, allied forces (that is, 6 Tunisian corps-sized formations and a single Greek brigade) continued their operations into Albania, Macedonia and Iraq. Greece, having already claimed all its core territories as goals by then, added Albania. The sultan’s cabinet in Tunis was worried. The Greek king’s eye was twitching maniacally every time he talked about the war, and there was a fear that this war would never end, or would be ended by outside forces deciding to put an end to this hubris.



In January 1931, an intervention was staged in Athens. Ahmad II, along with his foreign minister and his minister of defence paid a visit at the palace and made it very clear that they wanted this war to end promptly, otherwise Tunis would walk out with the Libyan Coast and Athens would be left on its own against a very angry Ottoman Empire. To its record, Athens had already received a peace offer that gave it everything it wanted except for the Libyan Coast to Tunis and wasn’t accepting it.



A counteroffer was sent to the Ottomans, demanding the Libyan Coast instead of Albania, and it was deemed certain that they would accept. The Tunisian official delegation left Athens with much pomp and returned to Tunis.



No one could tell exactly what or how happened, but the Ottomans ended up ceding everything plus Albania! Many heads were scratched, but Ahmad was just glad to get that war over with. Tunis had become universally hated for its aggressive actions, and some years of peace would be necessary before it became accepted again as a nation to be trusted. In Athens and all over Greece there was much celebrating. Never had a country lucked out more during a war…

For the next few months, Tunisians concentrated on getting their lives back to normal. Since normality implied a measure of scorn and superiority towards foreigners, Indore with its lack of women’s suffrage bore the brunt of Tunisian ridicule.



Later in February, Japan had the Meiji Restoration. More late-comers to the civilized club. They’d probably not even know what ‘suffrage’ means, thought the average Tunisian.



Then, in June, after it seemed like the world had forgotten about Tunis’ bad behaviour, the UK’s declaration came like thunder from a clear sky.


Nations that would stand by Tunis are on the left, nations that refused are on the right.

Hubris is always punished by the gods. Or, in this case, a superpower with over 1500 ships and close to 6,000 brigades in its standing army…

[Plank of Wood]

At least Madagascar is on your side.

[Selzro]

Yeah, who needs the Russian Empire when there's Madagascar leveling the field against the UK?

Also, by this point I've fought against every significant or even semi-significant European nation with a coastline except Belgium. I don't count Denmark because it got repeatedly gulped up by Austria.

[FireBlaze]

On the bright side, you can now go crazy annexing whatever you want, because it doesn't get any worse than this.

Besides, you only have to survive five years of British madness.

[Melrick]

lol Oh good lord, this may get real messy! I don't know how on earth you're going to be able to stand up against them, but I hope you can! btw, don't dismiss Sokoto's help. I'll bet they have some awfully pointy sticks that could come in handy! lol

[Tanzhang (譚張)]

At least Madagascar is on your side.

Don't forget mighty Sokoto!

Besides, you only have to survive five years of British madness.

Yes, five long years... whatever you do, make sure you defend the newly-acquired libyan coast to the last man!

[aldriq]

Hubris is a great Greek word a bit unfair though, that here the guilty party are the Greeks, yet the brunt of the gods' punishment is on Tunis... Maybe the Brits will accept Albania as payment?

[Selzro]

Chapter XVI – Carthage Defiant

Despite the vastness of the British Empire, there were few direct borders between it and Tunis, although once the latter’s allies were taken into account there were more.



In the Mediterranean, the only British base was Malta. With Suez under Tunisian control, if the Straits of Gibraltar could be patrolled by the bulk of the Tunisian navy, things could be manageable.



The British territories in Arabia bordered Tunisia in Djibouti, which could be defended effectively if the British didn’t land troops behind it.



Niger was expected to be the premier battleground, at least unless hordes of enemy troops invaded by sea, and so some armies had been stationed there as a precaution even before the war broke out. Sokoto, just to the south, would likely be invaded as well, but by the time war was declared Tunis hadn’t yet made arrangements for its defence.



In the south of the continent, there was no land border between Tunis and the UK; but the same could not be said of Transvaal, which could not be reached by Tunisian troops because Portugal hadn’t taken kindly to its recent defeat and wouldn’t grant military access.


The first theatre of war, the Mediterranean, proved surprisingly easy. The Royal Navy may have had over 1500 ships, but only few of them appeared there and they were all antiquated – commerce raiders at best. By October they had been swept away and Tunisian cruisers guarded the entrance to the Med.



Meanwhile, the nation mobilized its reserves in early August, after the early panic had subsided – 404 brigades’ worth of able-bodied men, while theoreticians scrambled to come up with new solutions to the problems presented by such a modern war.



The first allied attack on British ground took place in September – a brave but doomed expedition from Madagascar. Tunis saluted those crazy souls.



A month later, the 7th Poeni Corps ‘Algiers’ scored the first major victory on land, bringing joy to all patriotic Tunisians.



Things were going much worse in Sokoto, where a belated Tunisian expedition failed to relieve the country, which signed a white peace after half a year of resistance. The Tunisian forces retreated to the east while the British moved back north. The two sectors would meet again in Niger.



In November, the Poeni Sacred Band invaded Malta, under the protection of the Tunisian Navy. The occupation of that island would constitute the first land gain against the British Empire, which was about to kick Transvaal out of the war like it did Sokoto. With the Mediterranean pacified, Sokoto’s borders closed to the British, and Djibouti secure, Niger became the only continuously ‘hot’ theatre of war, with the battles of Alrit, Agades and Bilma taking the form of ceaseless trench warfare, which Tunis struggled to find ways to exploit.



In March 1932 a breakthrough was made. Tunisian forces found a way across the trenches of Bilma and on to Zinder. From there, more troops were directed west, in an attempt to cut off the British lines of retreat.



By the end of the month, fresh British troops appeared on the scene and intercepted the Tunisian elements, creating a fourth battle.



Those maneuvers aside, the war in Niger was one of attrition, with armies rotating in and out of all four major battles, all the while the central African climate taking its bloody toll on them. Then, in June, the first of the battles was won.



The loss of 245,000 men was a great blow to Britain, which could not easily justify such sacrifices to its people. However, that outcome only made its soldiers fight more fiercely in the other battles. The British troops were better organized than the Tunisian ones, who also suffered from a low rate of reinforcements. But continuous battle had left the British armies without proper command while the Tunisians had a home advantage. In November, tank experiments led to the development of Tunis’ first armours. Four armoured brigades were immediately ordered.

In November, the second great battle, that of Bilma, was won. The British lost over 300,000 men, and for the first time appeared at a disadvantage, having lost the war prestige they had gained by defeating Transvaal and Sokoto early in the war.



Meanwhile, a British attack on Suez through the Red Sea was dealt with by the Levantine armies, kept there in reserve for just such a predicament. The British army retreated to Dumyat where it was surrounded.



In the technological front, steel breech-loaded artillery was quickly followed by indirect artillery fire, after which the Tunisian War Office asked for the development of ways of increasing the rate of reinforcements.

At the end of 1932, the Socialist Faction was placed in power, since the Red Threat was once again rearing its ugly head in Tunis, and the sultan hoped that some sort of compromise could be reached on pension reform. Unfortunately, only 45% of the upper house was prepared to take such a step. With 6 million reds ready to revolt, that might well be the last mistake the upper house would make.

By January 1933, the Tunisian army in and around Niger was hundreds of thousands of men strong, and was making land gains against the British.



Faced with that predicament, the UK accepted Tunis’ offer of a white peace and the Great Nigerien War ended on 9 January 1933.



There was much jubilation in Tunisia and Ahmad II, assured of his great nation’s safety, took that opportunity to proclaim himself caliph of the new Carthaginian Empire. Festivities in the capital lasted for over a month, before, during and after his coronation in the renovated city of Carthage (a renovation based more on romantic nationalism than on historical accuracy, as some foreign archaeologists would maintain, surely out of jealousy).

The Carthaginian Empire was indisputably the great power of Africa. So it came as a puzzling surprise when Spain declared war on Egypt, claiming the infamous Sidi Barrani region, in March.



The Empire didn’t allow the Spanish to come anywhere near Egypt. Troops from Valencia poured into Spain, with the aim of bringing the conflict to a quick end. But less than a month into those operations, the social contract finally snapped. The appointment of the Socialist Faction in December was too little too late for the Communists and in April the last Great Communist Revolution began.



Tunisian forces were outnumbered in most regions, but they had a lot of experience to draw on, from the previous two communist uprisings. By September, the last of the rebels had been neutralized and operations could resume against Spain. The first armoured brigades were developed during the Great Nigerien War but were too late to see action in that conflict. In the Spanish War, the first four brigades formed the skeleton of a new corps, the 11th Armoured Corps ‘Baal’, and were tested in the sands of Arabia.



The sandy conditions did not prove quite optimal for the engine parts of the tanks, while the scorching sun turned them into cooking pots for their crews. This led to some considerable attrition, but when pitted against enemy forces they proved satisfactorily devastating.

In February 1934 Spain accepted a white peace and by November of that same year the Carthaginian Empire’s infamy had dropped to civilized levels. It seemed like at least a couple more years of peace were in store, since no country in its right mind would pick a fight in Africa after the UK failed marginally and Spain failed completely. Over 2,000 years later, the Carthaginians still underestimated Roman stubbornness…



The Italian declaration of war was met with an instant naval blockade of Italy. This time, the Tunisian government decided that simply waiting for the Italians to get frustrated and ask for a white peace wasn’t enough – an invasion of Sicily was in order. In September 1935, Operation Husky was initiated with the Poeni Sacred Band and the 11th Armoured Corps landing in Sicily. They were soon joined by two more infantry corps, the 4th ‘Hannibal’ and 9th ‘Libya’.



In mid-December, the Italian armies in Sicily surrendered and Carthaginian troops moved on to Reggio di Calabria.



The Carthaginian corps would march on north to Naples, Rome, past Rome, until the Italian will for war was broken. Although there were those in the Carthaginian Senate, an extremist but vocal lot, who called for a final solution to the Italian threat, and to that posed by the rest of Europe, by setting an example. No more would Rome plan and plot against Carthage and its allies in Africa. Its armies would be defeated, one by one on the way north and then…

Roma Delenda Est.




The Carthaginian Empire and the rest of the world in 1936:

[Novea]

Onward to HOI3 ! Rome Delanda Est! This is truly epic - almost on par with a Ruyuku WC in EU3!

[badger_ken]

wow, that war against the UK must have been quite the handful to wage!
Congrats again on what you've managed to achieve with Tunis - really spectacular!

[GulMacet]

Awesomely awesome! I merely have one question: If you were to play Tunis again, based on your experiences here, what would you do different? Focus to colonize more of Africa in less time? Conquer the uncivs in Indochina? Take your own bite out of China, like the UK did? Or Japan, perhaps?

[Tanzhang (譚張)]

Good work on getting a white peace with Britain. A besieged Rome would have made a perfect end to the AAR, too bad the game had to end in 1936...

[FireBlaze]

Onward to HOI3 ! Rome Delanda Est! This is truly epic - almost on par with a Ruyuku WC in EU3!

Agreed.

Though I'm a bit disappointed you didn't get Sicily in the peace deal with Italy. That would have been a fitting end to the AAR, finally obchieving Carthrage's war goal, two thousand years later.

[Selzro]

Onward to HOI3 ! Rome Delanda Est! This is truly epic - almost on par with a Ruyuku WC in EU3!

Thank you! I don't own HoI3 yet (I still use HoI2), but this might be an interesting experiment some day...

wow, that war against the UK must have been quite the handful to wage!
Congrats again on what you've managed to achieve with Tunis - really spectacular!

Thanks! The war against the UK was much easier than I expected. I was mentally prepared to face landings of hundreds of thousands of soldiers on all my coasts but my Indian Ocean coastline wasn't even blockaded! Once the Med was secured and Sokoto and Transvaal made peace, it was just Niger. The Brits had more org and possibly other land techs, but the limited size of the front and some lucky maneuvering behind their lines made victory possible.

Awesomely awesome! I merely have one question: If you were to play Tunis again, based on your experiences here, what would you do different? Focus to colonize more of Africa in less time? Conquer the uncivs in Indochina? Take your own bite out of China, like the UK did? Or Japan, perhaps?

Hm... For the first 20 years I wouldn't do anything different - surviving was hard enough. After that, expansion was costly, as an unciv, but I think getting Crete worked out well in the long term. After I became civilized I was too weak to go after China or Japan - even campaigning against Brunei placed a strain on my already overburdened economy. Also, defending such lands would have been difficult. When I became a GP I released Brunei as a dominion because it bordered the Dutch colonies, and I had no way of defending it... One thing I regret is not taking Sicily while Italy was disunited and Two Sicilies was in no one's sphere. But I think I made up for that in Spain, taking advantage of revolutions.

Good work on getting a white peace with Britain. A besieged Rome would have made a perfect end to the AAR, too bad the game had to end in 1936...

Yes, I would have preferred a more solid ending as well but at least I got to invade Sicily...

Agreed.

Though I'm a bit disappointed you didn't get Sicily in the peace deal with Italy. That would have been a fitting end to the AAR, finally obchieving Carthrage's war goal, two thousand years later.

That would have been something - I'd have done that in that last year even if it meant going over the infamy limit - I already had a truce with the UK. But there simply wasn't enough time to get Italy to agree to a white peace, let alone ceding Sicily...

[Melrick]

Wow, fantastic job in finishing not only as number 2, but giving the UK a kicking as well! That's always good to see. lol Very well done indeed.

[WelshDude]

Well done! Can't wait for then next 'rags to riches' AAR.