So far all pretty historical except what that thing with the Ma clique. Poor China.
This game has been oddly historical so far - usually my games are a bit more bizarro-wacky. At some point I had World War 2 start in January 1938 between Germany and the Allies of France, Britain, Italy and Yugoslavia. In that same game, USSR won and escalated the Far East border conflicts, leading to a full-scale Soviet invasion of Manchukuo, China and Korea, and eventually an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands itself, launched via Sakhalin into Hokkaido and then North Japan. Just to give a taste of what horrifying events can come to pass in HPP if you're unlucky.
Saithis,
Loving this AAR so far. As I've never played HPP (I'm waiting until they finish a stable FTM release), I'm curious to see how this differs from vanilla.
As for resources, is there any chance you can grab Indonesia from the Netherlands? Between that, Siam, and Indochina, you should be set.
- Tom
Thanks.
Unless I wait until post-war, there will be no easy method of me getting the Dutch East Indies on a permanent basis. What I can do that will effectively work just as well until a US/British D-Day (hopefully) saves the mainland is allow the Japanese to march into Indonesia first, then counter-attack so that I occupy the occupied territory. As the Netherlands will be a government in exile at this point, I believe this means that the territory will return to my direct control and that as an ally I won't take any revolt risk on it, meaning I get full exploitation. The problem is that's only temporary occupation, I have to return it as soon as we have enough VPs restored to liberate the Netherlands. Indochina and Siam are easier, I can just directly puppet/annex them as they'll be Japanese puppets by then, in all likelihood.
Chapter 1.5 - Slippery Slopes of War
-=[ Interlude: I have some unfortunate news, in two parts. The later the game has gotten, the more impossible it has gotten to continue playing this as a multiplayer game - HPP seems to get unstable in multiplayer and the longer it goes, the faster and faster my game suffers desynch. Although the New Zealand Army has been built up to a respectable standard, its navy and air force are still not worth mentioning and she still only has 10 IC, so it's not terrible. I will probably load her up one last time when the war starts to give her main army to myself as an expeditionary force - that way I can still maintain control of the ANZAC military.
What is more unfortunate to my plans is that the decision to bring Australia into the war against Germany also drags me into the Allies. I wanted to avoid sitting in the Allies so that I could enjoy freedom in the postwar environment and I don't actually recall how easy it is to get out of the Allies in HPP (I know it's near-impossible in vanilla). I reserve the right to plausible individual negotiation, since HOI3's engine doesn't permit individual diplomacy with another faction if you're in a faction yourself! It doesn't mean I'm going to chicken out of a war with Japan - I'd never abandon the Empire like that - but I would like to be able to deal with any strange situations as they come. ]=-
War, it seemed, was becoming a slippery slope in the 1930s. Mussolini's confidence had been bolstered by the conciliatory stance of the Western Allies - without warning, he struck out at one of the few minor states to remain unmolested by French and British guarantees - Albania. Laying antique claims to the city of Durazzo among other things, he sought to reforge the Roman Empire by force and issued his declaration of war upon the small country shortly after the signing of the Treaty of Munich. Britain and France remained silent to Zog's pleas for help, and two days later, the Italians sailed into harbour. Taskforce flagship Giulio Cesare fired only a single volley of its main cannons upon the city before the Albanian defenders surrendered unconditionally. The Italians had spread effortlessly into the Balkans, and with a foothold upon these shores, it would be difficult to keep them out if other prizes caught their eye.
In April 1939, the great battles of the Far East resumed as a huge clash erupted across the entire Manchurian-Soviet border. Japanese troops were launching a major offensive into Mongolia. Although the Soviet troops in this region outnumbered the Japanese forces arrayed against them, the Japanese had brought armour and heavy artillery with them, learning from the mistakes of their last conflict. The Mongolian troops were mainly light cavalry supported by a division of soviet infantry and some regiments of local armed militias. Japan on the contrary had brought three divisions of infantry and an armoured cavalry division fresh off the front lines from China - experienced and led by General Yasuoka Masaomi, a respected tank commander in the Imperial Japanese Army.
Australian intelligence soon reported the fall of Southern Sakhalin to Soviet forces, but there was little word on the success of the interior offensive. Australian intelligence in Japan was poor - several attempts had been made to insert agents, but they were often located and forced to escape the country or were outright killed. Australia was as surprised as anyone when they heard the news from the Soviets.
Japan had won in Mongolia and in Siberia itself, thrusting deep into the Soviet Puppet and resisting every counterattack. The Soviets were dismayed by their defeat, but Japan's gains were not as impressive as she had hoped. They had been unable to break the backbone of Mongolian resistance and the natives were more interested in joining the Soviets than becoming a Japanese puppet. Disappointed but realizing they could not beat the Soviet Union in a prolonged war, a peace treaty was called. Japan had failed to defeat the Soviets decisively, a failure that most hoped would not come back to haunt them.
This piece of good news was accompanied by more good news from Australia. Her factories were working harder and more productive than ever before, morale was at an all-time high and the economy was flourishing. She was rapidly turning into a success story for the free world, and economists across the world were hailing the way she had mostly left the Great Depression behind. Only Germany had made such an impressive economic recovery from that level of decline, and now Australia was burgeoning; in spite of this, however, she was still viewed as a second rate power. This was for good reason, according to the last census and accompanying projections, Australia currently had just under 7 million people - this was barely more than a tenth of Britain itself and less than Portugal, who had 7 and three-quarters. The population of the Islanders and Papua New Guinea were negligible and would not ail her troubles.
Australia's radicals both had it in their minds that Australia should attempt to bring New Zealand into a union. There were provisions in the Australian constitution as laid out in 1901 that would ease the union, and the only reason the union had not come to fruition before was fears of the repression of the New Zealand aboriginal population, in spite of Australian assurances that the Maori would be well-treated. With the approaching war and the difficulties ahead, Australian far-right and far-left both saw the oncoming war and its difficulties as a time of necessity. New discussions would be raised for the possibility of the annexation of New Zealand, if sufficient concessions could be made for her. The Seventh State would bring 1.75 million people into Australia and increase her industrial output by almost 16%. The New Zealanders were skeptical about this proposed union, and it was unsure if it would come to pass - diplomatic attempts were being made nonetheless.
-=[ Interlude: I have no immediate plans to force a diplomatic annexation of New Zealand through event/decision, as this is not actually in the regular HPP mod, but I do actually consider it a plausible possibility this early after the freedom of the two states, but a difficult one. It would require, in my mind, sufficiently low neutrality, very high relations with New Zealand, and the Open Society law to overcome New Zealand's fears of Maori repression. Possibly even enough threat against New Zealand for it to feel the union is necessary. I've considered it as an option for later in the game, if others think it isn't game-breaking or threatening. I consider the story important but I'm also interested in playing this fair and not cheating, so I won't take any action that would unfairly or unrealistically benefit me ]=-
News came in from Europe - without the protection of the Treaty of Munich, the Czechs were soon forced into more humiliation. The remaining territory of the Czechs were annexed into Germany under threat of war, under claims of the ancient Kingdom of Bohemia's membership in the First Reich. The eastern Slovakian states were partitioned into the Kingdom of Hungary. Hitler had promised to the German people's longest friends that their Kingdom would rise from the ashes and be restored to its ancient power. The Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye had been a far more brutal strike against Austria-Hungary than the Treaty of Versailles had been, and the world's oldest monarchy had been dismantled by force. The Hungarians were still angry towards the west for this strike, and when the Germans offered them a hand of friendship, they eagerly took it. The German Axis would now include Budapest in its list of capitals, and Hungary brought a fairly large and modern army to the front lines. The situation for the Allies would only continue to worsen.
The remaining territory of Czechoslovakia was partitioned between Germany and Hungary.
Although Hitler supposedly had only a minimum of interest in the Czech interior, it was an important strategic move for Germany. Prague was a major centre of industry and one of the oldest and most prestigious cities in Europe. Nazi morale had skyrocketed, and even more important than that, it meant that the Germans no longer had to occupy a long internal border against a potential enemy. The partition with Hungary was a great diplomatic success as the Germans now only required a minimum of armies in Bavaria to ensure security of her borders, and now the bulk of its forces were positioned near the borders of Poland. German eyes were turning to one of her last historic heartlands - the Danzig Corridor, an important part of Prussia which had been stolen from them in Versailles. Nazi ego would never be healed until this land was returned to Germany; war was inevitable as long as it remained with Poland.
Meanwhile in Australia, war preparations continued. The training of officers was further up-scaled and an emphasis on special forces and intensive training was introduced into the military. New forces would already be elite and ready for battle, but they would now take as much as four months of training before they were ready for combat.
News arrived from China that Yan'an had fallen to Japanese advances. The Japanese were advancing on every front and Mao was forced to pull back south before the city was encircled. Facing death or shame, he chose to rescue those survivors of the People's Liberation Army still under his command. Marching south, they crossed into Nationalist lines and sought refuge - Mao accepted the Kuomintang's terms, surrendering himself into voluntary house arrest, but permitting him to continue the fight alongside his men against Japan. In his words: "China needs unity more than it needs Mao. There will be more men to take up the banner of the global revolution after I am gone."
August 1939, more dramatic news struck Europe. The Yugoslavian Government had boldly declared alliance with Italy and Germany, fearing their inevitable invasion and prepared to make sacrifices for this goal. Central Europe was almost entirely under Hitler's shadow now, and there was nothing the Allies could do about it. This diplomatic move, however, was not all it had seemed to be...
Mass uprisings across Yugoslavia spark fears of civil war.
Just a week after the Yugoslavian Treaty, mass uprisings were reported in Croatia and Bosnia. Just days later, the government was couped by pro-democratic military leaders who refused to fall prey to becoming fascist puppets. Large quantities of Yugoslavian territory was once Austrian, Italian and Hungarian territory. It was believed (correctly) that if they remained in the alliance, the other, more dangerous powers would begin to eat away at their independence and demand their territory. Although the new government came under heavy threat by Italy and Germany as soon as it retreated from the war, both Britain and France had guaranteed its independence - the Central Powers had gained too much too quickly, and they refused to allow them any more concessions. Italy refused to go into war alone and Germany had more important and immediate plans. Yugoslavia was spared.
Just two weeks later, news ripped across Europe. In defiance of the Treaty of Munich and of guarantees of Polish independence, a missive was sent to Poland announcing the reoccupation of the Danzig Corridor and the return to pre-Versailles borders. Any resistance from the Polish military in what was now claimed to be German land would be seen as a sign of aggression against the Third Reich and responded to accordingly. Hitler's Army marched across the border just one hour after the announcement was made.
Cries for help were immediately sent to Britain and France and even the Soviet Union, and all eyes were on Poland as the Germans attacked Polish garrisons and defensive lines all across the country. The German flagship, KMS Bismarck, fired shells upon the city of Danzig as a German
seebattalione seized the harbour. Armoured spearheads thrust into Prussia and, just hours later, into the rest of Poland. Hitler declared in a bold speech that afternoon that "...now the Polish have refused our demands for peace, and resist our movements into German territory. We shall not allow this to pass - Germany shall have its land at any cost!" Poland had been given no time to respond to the demand even if they had been interested in accepted it, and the next morning, France and Britain declared war on the German Reich.
Europe was in flames. The war had begun.