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Crossfires, a French AAR for HoI2 Doomsday

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"The world stood i awe, when in 1942, the German Reich revealed the existence of its first Nuclear submarines, based on a secret, underwater facility under the polar icecap, run by a nameless man known only as 'Commander'. This operation, codenamed 'Cobra', to picturize the sudden deadly strike, the Nuclear Submarines were meant to achieve, featured not only Nuclear technology but also advances studies in several other fields of science, including such things as psychology (Advanced Indoctrination to remove such concepts as fear and morale from the German Soldiers), surgery (Removing the soldier's ability to feel pain), medicine (introducing new 'fast-healing' drugs) and mind-control studies. All in all probably the most advanced and until then most secret researchfacilty, slash, military base in the world."
- How the Germans won the war, by Gerhard I. Jones.

:D
 
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I once read a book by W Harbison in which an American super-genius created UFOs working for the Nazis and set up a secret base in Antarctica from which he dictated terms to world governments. Far-fetched, but the science wasn't too over-the-top; no little green men.

AF, couple questions: First, have you wondered about doing a cultural update? Such as, pulp-fiction in America during the Crossfires ATL — is Doc Savage fighting mad scientists or is he keeping US safe from Japanese war-mongers? What about Superman and Captain America? Or what's Marlene Dietrich doing in Berlin in Crossfires 1939? What about Leni Riefenstahl and Fritz Lang, Picasso and Hedy Lamarr?

Second, have you thought about doing an update on India? I'm an Indian and I can tell you that much was going on India at the time. I think you'll enjoy writing Subhas Chandra Bose, who raised an army to fight the British with German and Japanese help. He's not as well known as Gandhi outside India, but he was one of the greatest freedom fighters of this country, at par with George Washington and Garibaldi, IMO.
 
Palmyrene said:
Great update, Atlantic Friend. I really don't envy Leutnant Premke's assignment!

Cabin fever in Fugloy... Premke's men have Fugled indeed! And yet, it may be the most vital mission of them all.

What naval preparations has France made at this point for the coming conflict?
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None as such, actually.

France's naval imperatives are, in descending orders of priorities :

- to protect the ports and coastline of Metropolitan France
- to protect the ports and coastline of its overseas possessions
- to maintain regular shipping between Metropolitan France and its colonies
- to protect its merchant navy
- to protect neutral merchant navies moving goods to and from France.

Needless to say, given the size of France's colonial empire, the Marine Nationale will be hard pressed to do fulfill these requirements alone, particularly since Japan is now a clear threat to Indochina, France's main source of rubber, and possibly to New Caledonia, France's main source of platinum.

On the plus side, France's Spanish alliance means the MN can use Spanish facilities in the Canarias, El Rif, Spanish Morocco and the Rio Muni - a marginal advantage as France already has bases in these areas (and which are presently directly managed by France), but I'll need every little edge I can get.
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kaushikkarforma said:
AF, couple questions: First, have you wondered about doing a cultural update?

So far I hadn't, but now that I read your comment I'm thinking about it!it sounds like fun indeed, I wonder how far I could twist superheroes, and 1930s movies.

Such as, pulp-fiction in America during the Crossfires ATL — is Doc Savage fighting mad scientists or is he keeping US safe from Japanese war-mongers?
Click to expand...

Doc Savage is probably doing both, and Amazing Stories might start publishing more "adult" sci-fi stories set in the darkening political background.

What about Superman and Captain America?
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Superman is probably evolving from battling gangsters to battling more political adversaries - Communist Latin American officers come to mind, with Brazil still a Soviet Republic.

As for Captain America, I think he's still a vague concept in Jack Kirby's mind - America's brief military operation against Chile didn't require creating a patriotic icon with superpowers.

Or what's Marlene Dietrich doing in Berlin in Crossfires 1939? What about Leni Riefenstahl and Fritz Lang, Picasso and Hedy Lamarr?
Click to expand...

Marlene Dietrich, Hollywood for sure, and Fritz Lang might still be in France, possibly motivated by the political turmoil gripping the country upon his arrival in 1934... Again, that does sound like fun! Thanks for the idea!

Second, have you thought about doing an update on India? I'm an Indian and I can tell you that much was going on India at the time. I think you'll enjoy writing Subhas Chandra Bose, who raised an army to fight the British with German and Japanese help. He's not as well known as Gandhi outside India, but he was one of the greatest freedom fighters of this country, at par with George Washington and Garibaldi, IMO.
Click to expand...

I do think about India, but I have trouble finding something truly original - it's just the angle that's missing. If I start writing now, I fear it's all going to sound like "Gandhi bad, Churchill good" or "Churchill bad, Gandhi good". Nehru, Gandhi, Bose and Jinnah certainly deserve better.

Chandra Bose and the INA are on my mind, though - ever since I started playing ADG's "World in Flames" I had a soft spot for the little 3-2 army counter that the Japanese player could deploy if he held Delhi.
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You're welcome, AF. :D

Just in case I wasn't making myself clear, I'm not suggesting Doc Savage or Cap turning up in the Crossfires reality. Instead, I was suggesting things like Lester Dent being pressurized by Street & Smith to make Doc Savage darker, along the veins of Popular Publications' The Spider; and cameos by Hugo Gernsback, John Campbell, Isaac Asimov, and others. We haven't had cameos by literary types in Crossfires since Malroux and Orwell.
 
DLR won't probably join the US-UK alliance, but would try to influence them to contain/intimidate other threats so the French can concentrate their forces on specific hot spots IMO. Vote for De La Rocque.
 
pescifan said:
Is de la Rocque, considering re-joining the UK alliance for RN support, or perhaps tapping on the USN for help?
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Naturally, game-wise, joining the British-led alliance is not an option, as that would mean abandoning my present Spanish, Luxemburger, Italian and Austrian allies.

Story-wise, a rekindled UK-French alliance could arise from the two nations' natural convergence of interests. Both look at Germanyno-one in France can even imagine a situation where France and Britain would find themselves directly at odds, the worst-case scenario being either an Anglo-Italian conflict forcing France to take sides, or a Franco-German conflict that Britain would sit out of).

France is wooing America of course, as even with its puny army (this is still 1939), the US industrial and manpower potential is a powerful deterrent to have. And the USN is nothing to sneeze at, particularly if faced with a two-ocean war. But it's way too early for America to join in the fray - so far France and Britain have (re)gained America's sympathy and support, but neither Landon nor Roosevelt (should he win in 1940) stand ready to go to war over another German quarrel.
 
Atlantic Friend said:
.... - so far France and Britain have (re)gained America's sympathy and support, but neither Landon nor Roosevelt (should he win in 1940) stand ready to go to war over another German quarrel.
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Sounds like that leaves the SU, which de la Rocque despises, and has virtually no navy...Not to mention Uncle Joe is probably still fed up that you knocked up his buddy boy back in Espagne. Too bad the French can't just befriend Ribbentrop and Germany, and pit them against the Soviet Union, with Souma and Renault tanks steamrolling on their backs and taking the Rhineland countryside. :D
 
Doge Robert said:
...All in all probably the most advanced and until then most secret researchfacilty, slash, military base in the world."
- How the Germans won the war, by Gerhard I. Jones.
Click to expand...




- Offices of OKH-West, general Marcks speaking

- Good evening, I'm Wilhem Grau and I work for the SS Office for Applied Science, and if you have a few minutes I'd like to present you our newest product, National-Socialist penguins.



​

- Was? Nazi penguins? Damn SS telemarketers! Couldn't you do something useful for a change?

- But they're a really good deal! Hello? Hello?
 
How dare they call General Marcks on "The Longest Day"! :D


And since he is wearing his hat, I am guessing he has just received the news.
 
Atlantic Friend said:
- Offices of OKH-West, general Marcks speaking

- Good evening, I'm Wilhem Grau and I work for the SS Office for Applied Science, and if you have a few minutes I'd like to present you our newest product, National-Socialist penguins.



​

- Was? Nazi penguins? Damn SS telemarketers! Couldn't you do something useful for a change?

- But they're a really good deal! Hello? Hello?
Click to expand...

Hey, there won't be any SS telemarketers. They'll just outsource telemarketing to India. :D
 
Hmm, so you have collected some humor. How about updating your Luxembourg AAR too.
 
Atlantic Friend said:
France's naval imperatives are, in descending orders of priorities :

- to protect the ports and coastline of Metropolitan France
- to protect the ports and coastline of its overseas possessions
- to maintain regular shipping between Metropolitan France and its colonies
- to protect its merchant navy
- to protect neutral merchant navies moving goods to and from France.
Click to expand...

You forgot something, to hunt and destroy hostile naval units. :D

btw, I've drawn up a beefed up version of the Strasbourg with an extra turret aft plus slightly better protection (named Lyon, and for my own AU France), and her main missions are to hunt down enemy cruisers (up to BC levels) or to incapacipate (and perhaps destroy) enemy BBs. I claim that she's even generally more powerful than the Hood, would you like to take a look at her?

Atlantic Friend said:
Needless to say, given the size of France's colonial empire, the Marine Nationale will be hard pressed to do fulfill these requirements alone, particularly since Japan is now a clear threat to Indochina, France's main source of rubber, and possibly to New Caledonia, France's main source of platinum.
Click to expand...

Given the current size of the MN, that is. Hopefully you've some grand naval building plan. ;)

Atlantic Friend said:
On the plus side, France's Spanish alliance means the MN can use Spanish facilities in the Canarias, El Rif, Spanish Morocco and the Rio Muni - a marginal advantage as France already has bases in these areas (and which are presently directly managed by France), but I'll need every little edge I can get.
Click to expand...

To be honest, I think that the advantage is not marginal, it's negligible. :p
 
I have to admit, I'm afraid I don't understand why Britain is so passive.
 
Ah, updates! I've been away from this too long...

I see the Kreigsmarine is anticipating a war in the west, whatever the politicos are saying - or is it just trying to justify its own existence? Not much call for a Z-plan if the target is Poland or Russia...

Atlantic Friend said:
I'm still pondering what to do with Portugal itself. Salazar's sympathies would probably go with Germany, but there's also a traditional friendship with the UK, a traditional link to France as an emigration destination, and Portugal would be vulnerable to a Spanish offensive if it openly sided with Germany in times of war.
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Historically, Portugal was pro-allied neutral, to the point of allowing the Allies basing rights in the Azores. I can't see anything in your timeline that would change that - Germany is weaker, the French army is right on their doorstep, and Angola and Mozambique are just as vulnerable to the British.

The only thing that might push Portugal towards Germany is the perceived threat from a pro-French democratic Spain - but if they want a big brother, pushing the traditional alliance with Britain looks a better bet. I suppose if Salazar regarded a Franco-German war that did not involve Britain as inevitable and a German victory as probable, he might chose to cut a deal before the Wehrmacht arrived on his border, but that's a lot of ifs. Of course, he isn't committed to anything until he lets the Germans use those fuel caches - if their prospects don't look good, he can always shop the Kreigsmarine to the Royal Navy and get credit for it with the British.
 
Vote De La Rocque! The Germans will pay for their insolence!
 
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