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Make that a quadruple front (borders with Germany, China, Scandinavia, and Turkey); quintuple if Persia's door gets kicked in.Unleash the dogs of war !
Russians will face a double front for once
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Interesting way to kick things off. So what forces do the Russians have at your northern border?
Unfortunately the Ottoman army has gone full Sick Man of Europe, so they won't be much help against Russia.
Sure they'll be a help, by getting eaten. Then you stab the bear in the back while it's distracted.
Unleash the dogs of war !
Russians will face a double front for once
The Siberian Front actually didn't see much combat in the war, I didn't even take any screenshots. Neither I nor Russia invested much effort in the region; the fundamental problem with invading Russia from the east is that the only province with any real population density east of Perm is Tomsk, and supply limits are horrendously low in all of eastern Russia. Not to mention that troop movements through Siberia take forever (it doesn't help that AI Russia almost never builds railroads there).
Thanks! I hope it lives up to your expectations! ^^
I guess that's one way of looking at it. =P
Thanks!
BTW, speaking of hiatuses: advanced warning, I'm planning to go on hiatus again after the First World War concludes.
Part 10: The Great War, year 1893
The Great War was so known because never before had such a broad array of nations clashed; while most of the Americas remained neutral, virtually the entire rest of the world was involved. The two sides were as follows:
The Lhasa Coalition: The Chinese Empire, the German Empire, the Second Kalmar Union of Scandinavia, the Empire of Benin, the Zambezia Confederation, the Empire of India, the Ottoman Empire, the Grand State of Java, Somalia, Sumatra, Burma, Panjab, Afghanistan, Sumatra, New Guinea, Abu Dhabi, Johore, Fiji, Siam, Egypt, and many others.
The Allied Powers: The Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Italy, the Shahdom of Persia, Krakow, Montenegro, and Serbia.
Nations around the world rapidly mobilized their forces and prepared for one of the most massive wars in history; China was one of the few that did not, believing their regular armies more than sufficient.
On paper, the League had a clear advantage in numbers of soldiers, industry, land, resources, and technology, but the Allies had no intention of surrendering without a fight. And so the League did its best to prepare a strategy that would crush the Allies.
The general strategy was to be as follows:
1. The (Chinese) Ever Victorious Navy would secure control of the Mediterranean Sea and Persia's coastline, putting both Italy and Persia under a blockade. China would then secure bases on Italy's islands, before launching an invasion of the Italian mainland.
2. Scandinavia and Germany would invade Russia and take Moscow.
3. The Ottoman Empire would crush Montenegro and Serbia, then Afghanistan and the Ottomans together could crush Persia between them.
The Ever Victorious Navy moved swiftly against Italy. The battle was an easy victory, crushing the bulk of the Italian navy and securing Qing hegemony over the Mediterranean Sea.
Meanwhile, the economic hardships caused by loss of trade with Italy, Russia, and Persia forced Qing industrialists to find new ways to improve efficiency, reducing reliance on imported raw materials.
Krakow was the first of the Allies to capitulate, surrendering before even the first month of the war was over; German forces had effortlessly overrun the country, and forced a humiliating treaty demanding war reparations and disarmament.
Meanwhile, German armies began a blitzkrieg through western Russia, targeting Russia's Baltic lands first in an effort to link up with that Scandinavian allies before advancing on the heart of Russia.
The Italians attempted to take advantage of this distraction with an advance into southern Germany overland through the Alps, and Germany urgently called for China to execute attacks on Italy so the Italians would be forced to turn their focus southward lest the Italians reach German industry's Ruhr heartlands.
The Ottoman Empire, meanwhile, had succeeded in single-handedly forcing Montenegro out of the war, also subject to harsh reparations and disarmament provisions, to the surprise of the many foreign observers who had up to this point had been quite convinced the Ottoman military would have trouble so much as changing a light bulb. But even the woefully poorly led and managed Ottoman army could win with the immense numerical advantage they brought to the war.
And Italy, meanwhile, was quite thoroughly blockaded, with the Ever Victorious Army busy securing a foothold in undefended Sicily. The Italians had been quite unprepared, still unused to the new reality of total Chinese naval domination, and a permanent Qing military base in nearby Suez. Panic swept the streets of Sicilian cities, and even in Rome itself, as the Italians realized just how hopeless the war might be. But in a heroic speech to his people, the King of Italy assured the nation that Italy would never be destroyed, and the Italian army would repulse any landing on the mainland.
The Persian navy, too, was swiftly annihilated.
However, a few ships had escaped the Qing attack, and made a courageous attempt to raid Chinese transports off the coast of India. With the closest Chinese naval forces all the way in Persia, it nearly worked - but League forces arrived to save the day, and the Persian raiders were forced to fall back. They made a failed attempt to return to port in Hormuz, having no other ports to resupply in, and the Persian fleet was now truly wiped out.
And in a shocking victory, the Ottoman Empire actually succeeded in fulfilling its promise to crush Serbia, and for the first time in decades actually gained territory instead of losing it. The Ottoman dictator milked the victory for all it was worth as propaganda, proclaiming that the era of Ottoman decline was at an end.
Unfortunately the Persians were inclined to disagree with this belief, and marched unopposed against Basra. The Qing high command had little faith in the Ottomans' ability to repulse the offensive, and so the Chinese diverted reinforcements en route to Italy to halt the Persian offensive in its tracks.
The Persians put up a good fight, but it was for naught; they were badly outnumbered and lacked artillery support. Those who survived were forced to fall back into Persia in disarray.
Learning from the defenses of the Persians, China continued to improve its capabilities.
In southern Germany, Italy was forced to cancel planned reinforcements by the Chinese invasion of Sicily, preparing instead for the defense of Italy allowing a lightning counterattack by the German Empire that left the Italian forces shattered.
With almost all of Finland and the whole of the Baltics fallen to League forces, and hopes for an Italian invasion of Germany or a Persian invasion of the Ottoman Empire rapidly proving to have failed, the Russian Empire sued for peace. Finland would be restored to Scandinavia, they promised, and Italy offered to forfeit some of its African colonies. In addition, both Italy and Russia would disarm and pay reparations for the war, and Russia would formally apologize for its mistreatment of the Finnish people.
The peace offer was ignored. The League was winning wholeheartedly - there was no longer any reason to settle for such meager terms. The Germans felt committed to occupying Moscow as a matter of principal; after the thousands of Germans who had died along the Eastern Front, they believed nothing short of total victory was acceptable. The Chinese, meanwhile, sought to establish new tributaries along the periphery of Europe. They also hoped to secure Tomsk, the largest Russian city in Siberia.
And so the war dragged on.
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Just read this through; like it a lot. That consciousness, though. I can't see you getting many reforms passed by the end of the game at this rate.
Part 11: The Great War, year 1894
As Chinese garrisons settled in to occupy Sicily, with only one fort still holding out, the Chinese set about exploiting ethnic differences. While in recent times the fervor of Pan-Nationalism had allowed Italy to unify itself, there remained serious ethnic tensions between Northern and Southern Italians simmering beneath the surface. The Qing sought to exploit these tensions, and made an active effort to recruit Sicilians into a collaborationist occupational government. The efforts were going well, and China soon made the decision that Sicily should be seized by China and turned into a new tributary state.
Meanwhile in Russia, St. Petersburg itself, the Russian capital, had fallen - the Russian government was, however, able to evacuate to Moscow.
The Russians had hoped to exploit the Russian winter to beat back the Germans, but with Scandinavia in the war, that proved impossible - the Scandinavians were just as adept at winter combat as the Russians, and the German government was smart enough to listen to their advice. Thus, while many German soldiers still froze to death or were cut off from supplies in the harshness of Russia's horrific winter, the losses never reached crisis proportions as they had when Napoleon invaded Russia.
Sardinia, too, was invaded by the Qing. The Italians mounted a heroic running defense throughout the island, but it was ultimately all for naught. Sardinia and Sicily were now both secure, and even as the new Chinese overlords were setting up collaborationist governments, they began preparations for an invasion of the Italian mainland, as had been promised to Germany.
Meanwhile, the Sultanate of Johore was formally admitted to the League of Universal Prosperity.
China had meanwhile decided to setup collaborationist governments in Russia as well, with the agreement of the German Empire.
Finally, the moment of truth - with the bulk of the Italian army distracted by a sudden Scandinavian-German offensive from the north, the Chinese opened a second front against the south of Italy.
The Italians fought well, indeed ensuring more Chinese died and were wounded than Italians. But the Italians simply lacked the numbers to take advantage of this success, and fell back in hopes they could link up with reinforcements.
The battles gave valuable combat experience to China's generals, allowing them to make still further innovations in Chinese military doctrine.
And with summer finally having arrived, the German offensive had turned into a full-scale blitzkrieg that rapidly conquered all the way to the very heart of Russia's Empire. China, meanwhile, launched an offensive in the East against Tomsk, the largest Russian city in Siberia, dooming any hopes for the Russians that they might be able to regroup in the Russian Far East. Russia, at least, had effectively lost the war.
Persia, meanwhile, had shocked the world by still holding out despite the combined military efforts of the German Empire, the Ottomans, Afghanistan, and China, though several border regions were finally coming under occupation.
So impressed was the League by Persia's heroic efforts, it was agreed by most of the League (except the Ottoman Empire, who demanded Tabriz) that Persia's territory should be left intact after the war.
Meanwhile, the greatest battle of the entire Italian front of the war began, as the Italians threw everything they had at the Chinese forces in Potenza. A colossal battle of over 240,000 soldiers, the Italian government realized that the entire war hinged on victory in the battle - with Russia overrun and the German army gearing up for a cross-Caucusus mountains blitzkreig of Persia, Italy was the last hope. If they could not win this last desperate offensive to liberate their homeland from the Chinese Empire, the war would be truly lost, utterly and completely.
Meanwhile, back in China, the psychological sciences continued to advance.
With Moscow fallen, the Russian government had largely fled into exile in Persia before the Germans could finish overrunning the Caucasus Mountains, and from there sent yet another pace offer. The Chinese were willing to consider the offer, but the Ottoman demand for Persian Tabriz sabotaged the negotiations - the Persians forced the Russians to refuse any such demands.
Still, the war was undoubtedly won. Unless the Italians could win a miraculous victory at Potenza, there was no hope; and even if the Italians did win, the best they could hope for at this point was a less unpleasant surrender, rather than a victory.
Unfortunately, they were losing, badly. The Chinese were content to see the battle through to its end, and crush the Italian army totally, but the Italians knew if that happened they would lose the last of their bargaining power.
And so, when China presented a revised peace offer, one that dropped the demand for Tabriz in exchange for further concessions to China, including the island of Sardinia and some territory in Ukraine, the Russians, Italians, and Persians all eagerly agreed to a ceasefire along those lines.
The delegations met in Istanbul to negotiate the final peace terms.
The terms of the treaty, the Istanbul Treaty of 1894, were as thus:
1. The islands of Sicily and Sardina were ceded in perpetuity to China as a caretaker, with China promising to establish self-government on the islands after a reasonable amount of time.
2. Russia agreed to cede lands to China for the creation of small ethnic homelands for the Ukranian, Armenian, Georgian, and Azerbaijani peoples, which would be managed by China as a caretaker government, then granted self-governance after a reasonable amount of time.
3. Scandinavia acquired ownership of Northern Finland.
4. All signatories to the peace treaty formally recognized the Ottoman annexation of Serbia.
5. All the defeated parties were required to accept guilt for the war, apologizing for the horrific oppression of the Finish people that had "forced" a League intervention and the resulting loss of life. As such, Italy, Persia, Russia, Krakow, and Montenegro all agreed to pay war reparations along a five-year term, as well as agreeing to stringent disarmament requirements.
6. The city of Tomsk and surrounding territories in Russian Siberia were annexed into the Chinese Empire.
The German delegation surprised the Allies in demanding virtually nothing other than disarmament and reparations, despite them having carried the greatest weight in the long and attrition-heavy invasion of Russia; China was also surprised that Scandinavia did not demand all of Finland, rather than just North Finland. Chinese intelligence uncovered some evidence suggesting that Germany and Scandinavia had made secret agreements with France and Austria-Hungary, promising to limit their war goals in exchange for France and Austria-Hungary remaining neutral in the war. And many commentators criticized the treaty, claiming it did not resolve anything in the long term - another Great War seemed almost inevitable to them. But regardless, the treaty was signed and ratified by all participants.
In the end, the peace terms were surprisingly lenient in many ways, except for Serbia, at least for a war referred to as the "Great War." Russia and Italy remained largely intact, indeed still recognized as Great Powers, and Persia lost nothing except war reparations. The reason for this was ultimately quite simple - while the Allies had suffered heretofore unimaginable losses of life in the Great War, seen their lands occupied and ravaged by invading armies, etc., the League had won such an overwhelming victory, with relatively small loss of life, that they harbored surprisingly little ill will towards the Allies.
While it was certainly a Great War in terms of the number of nations involved and the loss of life, to ordinary Chinese people especially, the war had barely effected them - life had gone on largely as normal.
And so the first Great War came to an end.
(and going on hiatus again, hopefully back in two weeks!)
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You'd be surprised. Endgame culture techs drastically increase consciousness growth. ^^
Speaking of which, are you planning on implementing any reforms?
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I would very much like to see you integrate Sun Yat-Sen into your narrative somehow. Though, of course, in reality the butterfly effect would mean he wouldn't have been born.
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Just read up on this aar again, having missed out for a while due to RL. Still a grand read.
As many as I can. ^^
I'll try!
Glad you enjoy! ^^
World Map in 1891, before the first Great War:
World map in 1901, after the first Great War (slight spoiler warning since this is several years after where the AAR is right now, but the world map hasn't changed much in that time):
As you can see, it's a relatively small part of Siberia, but it's the most heavily populated portion of Russian Siberia east of Perm. ^^ And thus pretty much the most valuable, especially since it comes with coal RGOs (which China's fast-growing industry needs plenty of).
I also took chunks of Ukraine, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan so I could release them as puppets. (which I'll roleplay in the next update)
You can also see post-Scamble Africa, and the rest of the world map if you're curious about anything.
Just read up on this aar again, having missed out for a while due to RL. Still a grand read.
Thanks!! ^^
Thanks!