-
We have updated our Community Code of Conduct. Please read through the new rules for the forum that are an integral part of Paradox Interactive’s User Agreement.
The Angeloi crumbling isn't a surprise. What is surprising though is the Chinese Empire involving themselves in South Eimerica. That's just weird.
Retake of Rome(though,still brief) is not weird?'Mericans landing in Riga and paradropin' at Kaunas is not weird?Italian,Ruthenian and other cores are not weird?And yes,China isn't sucking at naval invasions
Well with the Chinese in South America, I expect some trouble holding on to the colonies there.
As for the Angeloi, it seems you're reaching the point where you're rushing to reclaim as much land as possible, otherwise the Soviets might get it and cause trouble in the future. Don't want those equalists holding onto land belonging to the Reich!
As for the Angeloi, it seems you're reaching the point where you're rushing to reclaim as much land as possible, otherwise the Soviets might get it and cause trouble in the future. Don't want those equalists holding onto land belonging to the Reich!
I think this is the only time I've seen that the AI doesn't suck at naval invasions. Aside from the random naval invasions throughout the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean.Retake of Rome(though,still brief) is not weird?'Mericans landing in Riga and paradropin' at Kaunas is not weird?Italian,Ruthenian and other cores are not weird?And yes,China isn't sucking at naval invasions
Yeah, we wouldn't want those godless equalists to take rightful Reich territory, do we?
After war commies will get out of Reich's land...or it'll be a nuclear war!
xaxaxaxa I trick you
That wasn't me, that was the Angeloi AI screwing up.
Eh, they haven't taken that much land at this point. Still enough time to crush the Angeloi first.
Are Angeloi tagmatas going to surrender in Eastern Europe,or commies will screw them up only at the end of the year?xaxaxaxa I trick you
That wasn't me, that was the Angeloi AI screwing up.
Eh, they haven't taken that much land at this point. Still enough time to crush the Angeloi first.
Chapter 379: Not Yet Lost
Krakow, Provincia Polonia - 5 May 1944
In early May, a private plane touched down at Krakow's airport in the early morning. Inside, the pilot issued an announcement saying that it was now appropriate to take off the seat belts. One of the two passengers on the plane roused herself from her sleep and got to her feet, straightening out her nondescript shirt and pants and fixing her hair. Anne Frank, or "Valkyrie" as she was known as here, quickly made her way to the door and stepped out of the plane, getting into a car waiting nearby. The other passenger, the Resistance fighter Gustav from the Vienna branch, The car sped off towards downtown without another word being said.
"Dzien dobry," said the driver, Jan.
"Dzien dobry," Anne responded, thanking Tobias for forcing her to take Polish lessons (despite Polish being almost extinct). Apparently the Resistance favored the use of Polish over German as the Angeloi were less likely to have Polish translators on hand.
They drove in silence for another ten minutes before Jan tried speaking again.
"So, Valkyrie," said Jan, "Have you heard the news?"
"What news?" said Anne.
"About Dacia," said Jan, "They've pushed the loyalists back to the Danube."
"I suppose they don't have any troops there, do they?" said Anne.
"No, probably not," said Jan, "But that was two days ago. Just a few hours ago, the Angeloi were spotted just outside Vienna. They were easily repelled, but they remain in the countryside."
"They better not lose Vienna again," grumbled Gustav, "They've been late enough."
They didn't talk again for the rest of the trip. Anne really didn't feel like talking.
After another fifteen minutes, the car pulled up at a small house on the outskirts of Krakow. On the surface, this house looked just like any other house in Poland. But when Anne and Jan stepped through the door, they found a dozen Resistance operatives working inside on various tasks, mostly monitoring Angeloi and Soviet communications and marking troop locations on a map.
One of the resisters approached them. "Dzien dobry, Valkyrie, and Gustav of Vienna," he said, "My name is Casimir. Welcome to the Krakow Resistance."
"I'm honored to be here," said Anne, smiling.
"Let's get to business, then," said Casimir, walking over to a map of Poland, "We don't have much time. The Red Army has reached the pre-war border. At the current rate, we expect them to be here towards the middle of June."
"You said you had a mission from the Athanatoi?" said Casimir. "One of utmost importance?"
"Yeah," said Anne, taking out a letter from her jacket, "It's about Project Mjolnir."
"Kurwa," muttered Jan, "You're not saying..."
"Yes," said Gustav, "They've relocated Project Mjolnir here for some reason. We have to find it and secure it before the Soviets arrive."
"Do you know where the facility is?" said Casimir.
"No," said Anne, "The Athanatoi don't know. They want us to find it and extract the weapon as soon as possible. In the event that extraction is impossible, we are to notify Bomber Command of the facility's location and have them destroy it."
Casimir nodded. He shouted some orders in Polish to the other resisters.
"Don't worry," he said, "We'll find Project Mjolnir before the Soviets get here."
Constantinople - 30 May 1944
May was a very somber month in Constantinople, especially given that this May's passing meant that the war had entered its fifth year. At the beginning of the month, there were special memorials held in the Augustaeon Square, where a bell was rung five times to symbolize the five years since the start of the war. Following that, there was a moment of silence for the millions of men who had died fighting in the war. Otto had given many speeches over the radio in the next few weeks, but Johan von Neumann didn't listen to any of them. He was too busy with his research to pay attention to the ceremonies.
Several reports lay on his desk. One was from the Athanatoi, demanding to know why Oppenheimer was so bent on talking about "the final problem" with him. Another was from Einstein, who was giving a lecture in Tel Aviv on the theory of relativity. The one he was reading was a report from Spitz and Fermi, announcing a successful self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction at the Karacakoy reactor and requesting a larger facility, preferably one in Smyrna.
At that moment, the door to his office opened, and in walked his latest assistant, Dr. Julius Rosenberg.
"Ah, Doctor Rosenberg," said Neumann, "I take it from the rather brisk pace that you've evidently been successful at reverse engineering Project Mjolnir from Bischoff's blueprints?"
"Yes, sir," said Rosenberg, "We've improved on the efficiency of the weapon design and removed the flaws Bischoff inserted. A working prototype should be ready by August."
"August is too late," said Neumann, "It doesn't take a genius of deductive reasoning to know that Warsaw fell two days ago, Krakow was surrounded yesterday, and the Vinlanders and Meskwaki broke out of Lithuania, encircling millions of Angeloi in Livonia. As of two hours ago, there is no eastern front."
"Sir, what does that have to do with our project?" said Rosenberg.
"It means that we have to hurry up and finish the weapon before the Soviets advance any further," said Neumann, slightly annoyed, "By the time August rolls around, they'll be in Frankfurt!"
"My apologies, sir," said Rosenberg, "I'm new here and--"
"Yes, you've told me and Turing that too many times over the last year," snapped Neumann, "Now go help Spitz out. I heard he's having a little difficulty with the firing mechanism. Electrical engineering is your specialty, is it?"
Rosenberg hurried out of the room without answering the question.
That man is quite nervous, thought Neumann, Yes, he's relatively new, and it's only his first year on the job, but there's just something about his nervousness...
He looked out his window and saw a white stag staring back at him for one second before bolting away.
"Bloody wildlife," he muttered, "How do they even get here?"
Krakow - 12 June, morning
Things didn't exactly go according to plan. None of them had expected the Soviets to advance this far so quickly, let alone encircle Krakow and trap all of them here. The Angeloi desperately tried to hold out against the overwhelming Red Army offensive, but Anne knew it was only a matter of time before the Soviets took Krakow. Already she could hear the artillery booming and the guns firing in the distance, and in the skies she saw Angeloi planes rush towards the east, though they never came back.
Casimir sighed and downed another bottle of vodka. "This is a disaster," he muttered.
"Kurwa," muttered Jan again, "I'd rather be in Tawantinsuyu."
"It's not all lost yet," said Anne, "Isn't that a saying of you Poles? The Reich is not yet lost?"
"Yes, but that hardly applies to our situation!" said Casimir. "None of my operatives could find Project Mjolnir! It's probably been seized by the Soviets by now..."
"On the contrary," said Gustav, producing a small map from his pocket, "I've been asking around, and I've found a location that might just be Project Mjolnir. Everything checks out, but I haven't been able to confirm if the weapons are in the facility."
"It's our best bet," said Anne.
"Perhaps it's not all lost yet," said Jan, "I'm up for the challenge."
"It's worth a shot," said Casimir, "I'll mobilize as much of the Resistance as I can. Meet me outside in an hour."
An hour later, an impressive convoy of cars and trucks of all sizes departed from the house, heading straight for downtown.
Project Mjolnir facility, downtown Krakow
Julius Oppenheimer paced across the floor of his facility, fuming under his breath as his assistants quivered where they stood.
"This..." he muttered. "This...IS RIDICULOUS! How could you neglect to inform me that the Red Army had surrounded Krakow until they were literally right outside?!"
"Sir, with all due respect, there must have been a spy in our ranks--" said one assistant.
"Why don't you catch him and purge him?!" shouted Oppenheimer. "At least give me time to destroy the weapons! I need several days to disassemble four bombs!"
"Sir, we can always defect to the loyalists and hope the Soviets respect that request--" said another assistant.
"Defect?" spat Oppenheimer. "Are you mad?! The Soviets don't care about defections and asylum claims! They'll take Project Mjolnir and kill us all!"
"Not if we kill you first," said Anne, storming into the room, gun pointed at Oppenheimer.
Gustav, Jan, Casimir, and two dozen Resistance fighters followed her, quickly surrounding the scientists. The Angeloi guards in the room attempted to draw their weapons, but Anne shot them all before any of them could fire.
"If you don't want to die, surrender now," she demanded.
Oppenheimer raised his hands over his head. "You're going to need me alive," he said, "You need me to solve the final problem."
"What final problem?" said Casimir.
"You don't know how to handle a weapon this powerful," said Oppenheimer, "One wrong move, and this entire city will be swept off the face of the planet."
"Is that a threat?" said Jan.
"Consider it a warning," said Oppenheimer.
Anne wasn't convinced. "Gustav," she said, "The weapons should be in one of the labs down the hall. Go check on them."
Gustav left the room at once, accompanied by two Resistance fighters.
"Why are you doing this?" said Oppenheimer.
"I'm doing what is right," said Anne, "Maniacs like you shouldn't have this much power."
"Have you even stopped to consider the consequences?" said Oppenheimer. "The Red Army has this city surrounded. Even if you were to take Project Mjolnir from me, you wouldn't be able to get out of Krakow."
"I've been through worse," said Anne, "I can manage."
The door opened behind her, and she heard Gustav's footsteps.
"Speaking of which, Gustav has returned to tell me that your--" she began before a shot rang out.
Casimir cried out and collapsed, dead. Jan spun around and pointed his gun, but Gustav shot him in the head. Several Red Army soldiers marched in behind him and rounded up Oppenheimer and the scientists.
"Gustav, what is the meaning of this?" Anne demanded.
Gustav aimed his gun at Anne's head, but he didn't fire. "You should have known better than to trust a socialist," he said, "All of you."
"Traitor!" shouted Oppenheimer. "Coward! Red scum!"
Gustav, without flinching, simply shot him in the head.
"You idiot!" said a scientist. "The weapons are incomplete! You'll never figure out how to activate them without him!"
"Sakharov expected this," said Gustav, "We have accounted for that possibility. Your lives, though, are expendable."
He shouted in Russian to the soldiers, who drew their pistols and shot all of the scientists in the head.
"I'm sorry it had to come to this," said Gustav, "But the workers' revolution comes first."
"You traitor," spat Anne, "You should just kill me now, if that's what you want. No need to monologue."
"My orders are not to kill you," said Gustav, "General Zhukov has granted you safe passage to loyalist controlled territory. You have my word you will not be attacked while leaving this city. You have twenty-four hours to leave Angeloi and Soviet airspace. If you are not in loyalist territory by then, or if you try to return to Angeloi territory, we will find out and destroy you."
Anne heard the sound of tires screeching outside and looked out the window, seeing four Red Army trucks speeding away.
"And what of Project Mjolnir?" asked Anne.
"That no longer concerns you," said Gustav, "You have my word we will not target any loyalist city. Now go! Your time is running out."
Without another thought, Anne turned to the door and ran. She rushed to the nearest working car, got in, and drove off. She drove straight to the airport, not bothering to stop and rest. She was relieved when she found her airplane intact and the runway safe to use. Anne quickly notified her pilot, and within another hour she was in the air, heading for Constantinople. True to Gustav's word, no Soviet planes tried to intercept her, though a few Angeloi planes tried to, only to be shot down by nearby Soviet fighters.
When she touched down in Constantinople, she found that an Athanatoi detail was waiting for her on the tarmac. They escorted her to Athanatoi headquarters in the Great Palace, where General von Moltke and Oskar von Hindenburg debriefed her. She informed them that the mission had failed, and that the Soviets were in possession of Project Mjolnir. Despite this bad news, she remained confident that the Soviets didn't know how to complete the weapons and thus could not use them. Moltke, shaking his head, responded that just a couple hours ago, somebody raided Neumann's office, stealing thousands of pages of information regarding Development of Substitute Materials and burning the rest. Simultaneously, somebody attacked Development of Substitute Materials' laboratories, severely damaging the nuclear reactors and stealing or destroying the prototype weapons components. The Athanatoi suspected that the NKVD was behind the attack, but the perpetrators had disappeared. Coincidentally, assistant researcher and electrical engineer Julius Rosenberg had disappeared, presumably abducted by the NKVD.
Anne, though, had had enough of the mission. She asked about her sister. Was she safe? Hindenburg replied that Rita Frank was still in Frankfurt, and while she might be a target for an Angeloi reprisal, an extraction would be costly and inefficient. He advised her to wait for the legions, which were close by, to liberate the city. In the meantime, the Athanatoi provided her with modest accomodations in Constantinople.
The next week agonizingly slowly passed by. When she woke up the next morning, she found that Krakow had finally fallen, and the Soviet flag had been raised over the tallest cathedral in the city. Already reports of merciless executions of Angeloi soldiers and Resistance fighters had surfaced, with the Soviets not even bothering to cover them up.
Two days later, the loyalist garrison in Bucharest, cut off from Constantinople and encircled by the enemy, surrendered to the Angeloi. The surviving loyalists were executed. But with the Soviets closing in and pushing westwards from the Black Sea coast, it was only a matter of time before they reached Bucharest.
Over the next four days, even more cities in the east fell to the Soviets as the Red Army relentlessly advanced towards Berlin, reaching the Oder by the 19th and encircling Konigsberg. The loyalists, meanwhile, barely moved at all, as the bulk of Angeloi resistance was against them. Anne listened with horror as every hour Mussolini listed the names of the latest cities to fall to the equalists. Is this what she had fought for? Bringing down the Angeloi, only to see the Soviets take everything? Only to see the Soviets conquer Reich territory? And why weren't the loyalists working harder? Why did they let this happen? Why did they let the Soviets get Project Mjolnir?
Anne Frank had a feeling this was only going to get much worse.
Surprise Soviet Anschluss!
P.S.:Really,how you will deal with Soviets,who de facto occupied their allies' land?
With Hoi3, what's the equivalent of peace conferences? Will the occupied territory be returned or do they maintain control?
I am technically not the Soviets' ally. That's all I can say.Surprise Soviet Anschluss!
P.S.:Really,how you will deal with Soviets,who de facto occupied their allies' land?
There are no peace conferences. Occupied territory is just annexed, unless you add a make puppet and/or install democracy/communism war goal, in which case occupied territory is returned and they become a puppet or faction member. The Soviets have not add any war goals.
Pretty much called that the Soviets would capture as much land as possible unless you got there first. I have a feeling they will be disinclined to hand the land back after the Angeloi are defeated.
I find it somewhat amusing how long Tawantinsuyu dominated South America, and then the Chinese just show up and they fall right over.
I find it somewhat amusing how long Tawantinsuyu dominated South America, and then the Chinese just show up and they fall right over.
Basically.
*cough* NWO *cough*Pretty much called that the Soviets would capture as much land as possible unless you got there first. I have a feeling they will be disinclined to hand the land back after the Angeloi are defeated.
I find it somewhat amusing how long Tawantinsuyu dominated South America, and then the Chinese just show up and they fall right over.
Maybe it's because all of their troops were busy fighting the Reich and the UPM in the east and north, and the AI never bothered to station any troops in their heartland. Typical AI.
Chapter 380: Unprecedented
"I have no words. Imagine what it is like to see the lifeless bodies of your children before you, to see those you love ripped from your lives. This does not come close to describing how I feel when I read reports on Roman themes and their populations falling to the godless equalists. This is unthinkable. This has never happened before in our empire's history. And I am completely helpless, because I do not know what to do. Nothing like this has happened before."
-Megas Domestikos Erich Ludendorff
The Red Army continued to rampage across the eastern Reich. Everywhere they went, the Angeloi were in full retreat. With their supply lines and infrastructure destroyed after week after week of loyalist bombings, they reached their breaking point. And so the formidable tagmata of the Imperium, the armies that swept across Eurasia and came dangerously close to crushing the loyalists in 1941 and China in 1943 were no more. Angeloi soldiers tore off their distinctive armbands and shed their uniforms, throwing down their guns and running away like cowards, only to be shot in the back by both their officers and the attacking Soviets. It was only in the major cities did the Angeloi put up any meaningful resistance, but even then that only bought them some time. Konigsberg, Bucharest, Talinn, Riga, Danzig, Warsaw, Krakow, Breslau...all fell in quick succession, their defenders massacred to the last man. What remained of each city was a charred ruin, everything that could provide shelter for the other side bombed flat by Soviet and Angeloi artillery and bombers. In the end, the Angeloi were forced to retreat, and the great cities of the east fell under the domination of the equalists.
If the Angeloi soldiers had been routed so badly that they were literally running away now, the citizens that found themselves under Soviet occupation suffered even more, and not just from the harsh occupation imposed by Zhukov's forces. Aside from a brief Lithuanian occupation over East Prussia during the Maximist Wars that was quickly forgotten, the Reich and its people had never been occupied in any way by a foreign power since the thirteenth century and the Mexica invasion. To even envision large swathes of Reich territory and millions of citizens occupied by a foreign military, let alone territory so close to Berlin itself, was unthinkable. And yet it was happening right now. The Soviet Commune, a dangerous and ideologically volatile country, was now in full control over Provincia Polonia, East Prussia, Dacia, Taurica, Northern Caucasia, and eastern Carpathia. Millions of citizens lived under Soviet occupation. Not only did they physically suffer from repeated urban warfare with Angeloi holdouts, Angeloi artillery assaults, and Soviet reprisals, but they also psychologically suffered. The Angeloi were supposed to be protecting them and crushing the equalists, not running away and leaving them to suffer. The very fact that the Soviets had taken over their cities broke their will to resist and shattered their beliefs about Roman exceptionalism. The Reich had abandoned them. The Reich had failed to protect them. The Reich was cowardly and weak. While there were some scattered pockets of resistance, those were quickly dealt with, and many citizens instead actually came out and thanked the Soviets for helping oust the Angeloi. Ironically, it was the trade unions and the socialists who resisted the most, as they disagreed with the Soviets' heavy-handed tactics and supported the loyalist cause.
In both Berlin and Constantinople, there was panic, especially in the former after the loyalists took Frankfurt with minimal casualties and Soviet troops were spotted right outside Berlin (ironically having taken the other Frankfurt, Frankfurt an der Oder, in the process). Angelos ordered every single tagmata in the region to drop what they were doing and come to the defense of the capital. With his troops in disarray, only a few tagmata answered the call. It was only the intervention of exiled Ethiopian, Indian, and CSA troops that drove the Red Army back in the end, buying Angelos enough time to evacuate most of his government to the west.
However, the defense of Berlin came at a cost. While the Angeloi had concentrated most of their troops in defending Berlin and the surrounding area, they had fatally weakened the rest of the front, and as a result the Red Army flooded into Bohemia, taking Prague on the 1st of July. Prague's capture seriously alarmed both governments to the rising threat in Kiev. The Red Army was in Germania, and there was nothing stopping them from marching north to attack Berlin again. Otto could not let them take his capital, but in his heart he knew that the capital was lost. There was no way that the loyalists could cover the distance from Frankfurt to Berlin in under a week.
And there were other pressing matters to address first. The Imperium General Staff had become quite desperate for a victory in the face of total annihilation by the equalists. Angelos gave the green light for one last great offensive to take place...against the loyalists. From Frisia to Carpathia, thousands of disorganized and demoralized Angeloi troops, many of them without ammunition, fuel, or supplies, were ordered to charge the loyalist lines and break them. The offensive was a complete failure, as always, but the other Axis powers' exiled troops proved more effective than the Angeloi themselves. In a surprise attack on Vienna, eight thousand Danish troops, attacking from the ground, the Danube, and the air, routed the overextended and disorganized thirty thousand strong garrison of Vienna and raise the Angeloi insignia over the Fourth Rome.
Ludendorff, although he had known the Austrian legions to be the weakest link in the entire front, had not expected the Norse to pull off such a risky and suicidal offensive. The other legions in the area were barely organized enough to defend their locations against an Angeloi assault. While the fall of the city itself would not save the Angeloi or turn the tide of the war at this point, it nevertheless forced Ludendorff to withdraw several legions from western and southern Germania to deal with the problem, delaying the final loyalist offensive for several days. And reinforcements would take weeks to arrive at the current rate. As a result, there were only two forces capable of overthrowing the second Angeloi occupation and "freeing" Vienna. The first was the demobilized Resistance, which having begun the transition back to peacetime was in no shape to fight the Angeloi. But there was no other alternative.
Because the second was the Red Army, which is in a perfect position to take Vienna.
---
A short update, but we're clearly nearing the end of the war, and I want to begin tying up loose ends and wrapping up character arcs.
Could Berlin be the equivalent to the real Berlin after WWII, being divided between a communist east and a democratic (or, in the case of the AAR, monarchist) west?