War Junkey's: Maintaining the Habit
Our great
sitzkreig in Finland was about to come to a very strange end. On April 19, 1939 we recevied this event.
Normally we would have just settled for what we asked for, as that would puppet Finland. (That was our war goal). BUT the Turkish threat level was agonizingly close to where we needed it to be.
I learned that staring at this angrily did not, in fact, make it go any faster.
So I made a cunning decision, if we pick conquer, we will need to do exactly that. It will take some time to do so and in that time the Turkish threat should be good to go. After we conquer Finland, we will just release them as a puppet and get some sweet lettering in the north.
My genius plan worked out pretty well. It took a few weeks to beat up Finland and take their sovereignty.
And was able to declare war on Turkey without missing a beat.
Oh you are going to look real good in Cyrillic...
This was when things got weird and my cunning plan turned upside down. Shortly after our war with Turkey began, on May 13th, Finland surrender to
all of our demands. That's rather nice of them. Wait just a minute. I sense a disturbance in the force.
The fusion of shark and gorilla are used here to demonstrate not only the sheer awesomeness of the
puppetconquer but also the metaphysical unlikelihood of such an event.
As it turns out I both puppeted Finland and conquered it. As you can see their army remains, yet their country does not. I got a 6 IC boost and some more leadership along with extra resources I can also deploy units and buildings in Finland. But at the same time Finland exists as a political entity. I can still contact them and When I look at my list of countries to release as puppets they are not there, even though my diplomatic pages SAYS they are my puppet.
You have entered the twilight zone, where up is down, puppets are conquered and communism is considered good.
Evidence of Finland's Statehood is baffling and amusing as I occupy their entire state.
Anyways it is probably my fault for attacking Finland before the Winter War event stuff actually happened and then demanding they both be puppeted and conquered. I assumed the game would overwrite my initial demands. If anyone knows how to fix this by editing the save, could you let me know how? I may give it a shot.
Operation Turkish Delight:
Now the the Finnish madness is explained but not understood, we can move to more comforting and realistic issues. Like beating the stuffing out of Turkey.
Our operation is mostly hope based.
The units involved were part of the Caucus corps that was built specifically for Turkish Delight. There were a number of mountain divisions, a light tank divison, 2 motor infantry divisions (the poor mans mechanized as they have some light tanks mixed in) some weak unupgraded infantry divisions, one weird cavalry division and at least 3 of my formidable "regular" divisions.
The attack begins on May 5th
To say the Turks were unprepared is an understatement. They tried to retreat from their border as fast as the rough terrain would allow, but in a few days we had inadvertently destroyed the majority of their army. Just by marching into provinces before the Turks could get out. Only a few HQs remained from their entire border force, whoops. Even if I puppet them they will be basically crippled for the rest of the game.
I almost feel sorry for them... also that generals name is Turkes!?!?!? This battle is now a metaphor for the entire war, you're welcome.
After a week of fighting we break through in the north.
And also in the south.
Note that the Turks do have some decent divisions, but my surprise attack and their pitiful mobilization levels are making this war far easier than it really should be. I guess the LUA files don't cover politics.
Central Turkey is nice and flat so I am trying to get all my mobile divisions onto that ground as soon as possible so they can rush past the remains of the Turkish army.
June 4th, some Turkish elements are being annoying, Ankara is still decently defended. We have to wait for the better infantry divisions to march up and assault the city. Once again I realize how difficult the war would be if the Turks had been fully prepared.
After another month of furious fighting around the capital we begin the mop up. We also lost a motor infantry division in the south when it ran into a Turkish division, lost the one-on-one fight and decided to retreat sideways into Turkish territory.
Dat Cyrillic.
Turkey joins the Comintern on July 12th, but all is not well. Now there is nobody left with a threat high enough to attack, we are at peace.
The bittersweet victory.
Right after the war ends Soviet high command starts sweating and shaking. Stalin spends hours staring at Japan on a map while stealing glances at Germany. Molotov just starts screaming from the Kremlin's roof about aliens from Mars preparing to attack. When the army is demobilized it finally sobers up and it falls into a deep existential depression. The armament minister Lazar Kagonovich breaks down in tears when he sees the new industrial figures, he takes a leave of absence.
The horror, the horror. Actual IC count will fall to 335 after the laws fully switch.
When scientist report to high command that they have made a breakthrough in a new and powerful weapon field they are asked if it can lower neutrality. When they say it does not further research is canceled.
What good is a super weapon when you have nobody to use it on? Sigh.
Hurried plans are written out on sweat stained napkins and vodka bottle labels. They include filling Tibet full of spies, declaring war on the moon, and constructing a giant "Quantum neutrality teleporter" to transfer neutrality to another dimension. None of these are any good, and the Soviet Union will spend the summer in agonizing peace. Is there anything that could save them in this horrible year of Nineteen Thirty Nine?