Fate: Allies
A marvelous experience, Long Live the Republic.
Pieter Hendrickx, son of Dirk, grandson of Maarten
A marvelous experience, Long Live the Republic.
Pieter Hendrickx, son of Dirk, grandson of Maarten
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Fate of Belgium: Allies
Hello, friends! I am glad to be back in the political scene even if it is a bit late. You must excuse my absence, I was suffering from a common illness know as "AFK". But no matter! I will return in these troubled times to try and help steer Belgium to victory! Long live Belgium!
~Leon Verbeke
((Seriously sorry for being absent, I just got sort of busy and got overwhelmed by the business of the AAR. I hope the next IAAR, whatever it is, I can be a bit more active in.
))
Hello, friends! I am glad to be back in the political scene even if it is a bit late. You must excuse my absence, I was suffering from a common illness know as "AFK". But no matter! I will return in these troubled times to try and help steer Belgium to victory! Long live Belgium!
~Leon Verbeke
((Seriously sorry for being absent, I just got sort of busy and got overwhelmed by the business of the AAR. I hope the next IAAR, whatever it is, I can be a bit more active in.
))
((Tally. In a few minutes I'll post the world map, which may be of some interest to ya'all))
Allies: 14
Neutral: 6
Axis: 6
Comintern: 1
Allies: 14
Neutral: 6
Axis: 6
Comintern: 1
A single horseman, dressed in black, smoking.
Old dom Contravarius, grey face covered in scars and a worn-out black eyepatch over his right eye, looked towards the great city of Namur lying in front of him with a sentimental look on his face.
They were never going to let him rest. He had to always be there, like he had been there from the very beginning of mankind. They were never going to remember anything but his last deeds. Memory fades, it always does. They’ll forget him sooner than they’ll forgive him, but then, maybe ten, maybe a hundred years later, he is still going to be there to remind them.
He, the mastermind behind all of the important political moves any member of Contravarius dynasty had ever taken, he, the legendary revolutionary who had fought in almost every political conflict in the world since before even he could remember, he, who had robbed, betrayed, manipulated, tortured, killed, enslaved, defiled countless people. He was the only one who really understood: the End always justifies the means.
He was a myth, a monster, a scary story that the mothers told to their small children. He was an unstoppable idea concentrated in one single body, the immortal force of revolution, the undying flame.
He hadn’t fought for any nation, any one group of people, he hadn’t fought for justice or power, not for honour or glory, not even for revenge. He was determined to drag this piece of crap world through hell and more, just to finally bring humanity the future they deserve. He looked up, eyes shining brightly. Up there, there lies the destiny of mankind.
Eternity by the stars.
((For You, Belgium, Every Thought, Every Deed!
So, yes, this is probably my final post in this thread.
Thank you, Thunderhawk, for all these hours and days and weeks of entertainment and I hope to maybe participate in another of one your future interactive projects.
Also, thank you, viola, for recommending me this little Belgian adventure filled with waffles and strange old men making even stranger political decisions.
...And I guess there's this one last thing to do...))
The Fate of Belgium: Axis
-The whole Contravarius dynasty, tipping their paper hats
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Fate of Belgium: Allies
((Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a hell of a ride and even though I lacked the time to play in the end, I will always have a place in my heart for EoE, the game that took my IAAR virginity.
Thank you TH3 for being an awesome mod.
Thank you everyone for making this game such a wonderful ride. See you all in Italy!))
((Ladies and gentlemen, it has been a hell of a ride and even though I lacked the time to play in the end, I will always have a place in my heart for EoE, the game that took my IAAR virginity.
Thank you TH3 for being an awesome mod.
Thank you everyone for making this game such a wonderful ride. See you all in Italy!))
Fate of Belgium: Comitern
van't Boske, minutes before he leaves to protest on the streets
((thanks TH3, for running the first iAAR where I was active in.))
van't Boske, minutes before he leaves to protest on the streets
((thanks TH3, for running the first iAAR where I was active in.))
Fate of Belgium: Allies
Charles X Burke
((Thank you TH3 for managing to herd the cats towards a successful conclusion. You maintained a nice balance of player input and DM control throughout. There was always a frisson before each update to see how the plans unfolded (especially during the Great War).
Thank you also to the other participants for making this such an enjoyable experience. In particular, thanks to Syriana for his IC PM's between Thaddee and Frederic Burke - it was a beautiful friendship.))
Charles X Burke
((Thank you TH3 for managing to herd the cats towards a successful conclusion. You maintained a nice balance of player input and DM control throughout. There was always a frisson before each update to see how the plans unfolded (especially during the Great War).
Thank you also to the other participants for making this such an enjoyable experience. In particular, thanks to Syriana for his IC PM's between Thaddee and Frederic Burke - it was a beautiful friendship.))
((Im a sad panda i missed your AAR TH. I remember your Shadow of the Andes which was a hell of a ride and most exciting. Hope i get to catch your next interactive AAR where i can join from the start again ))
))
((Im a sad panda i missed your AAR TH. I remember your Shadow of the Andes which was a hell of a ride and most exciting. Hope i get to catch your next interactive AAR where i can join from the start again
((I'd advise you to keep a close eye on this thread for the next few weeks then, Pallen... Power to the People is coming
))
((Anyone who wants to join my Monarchist Society which is under development for PttP join #MS on Coldfront IRC))
((While I know you're all excited for PttP, please don't organize PttP parties and factions in this thread...))
((EDIT: Tally.))
Allies: 16
Neutral: 6
Axis: 7
Comintern: 2
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The Fate of Belgium, Part 1: Antebellum Europe
Germany had emerged as Europe's undisputed superpower in the aftermath of World War I - with Austria dismantled and France subdued, Germany was left without obvious rivals on the continent. The subsequent Heligoland Crisis and Anglo-German wars would deliver scathing rebukes to Great Britain and leave German power unchallenged in Europe. However, the longstanding socialist regime in Berlin often hesitated to exercise or even misapplied this newfound power, irritating the entrenched German military and political elite. Public sentiment turned against the socialists in Berlin in the aftermath of the Czech-Hungarian War, when Hungary's own ultranationalism compelled it to attack into Czechoslovakia with Soviet backing. Subsequent German defeats at the hands of the Soviets did for Germany what Java had done for Belgium, galvanizing the population and toppling the old government.
Hitler's rise to power and subsequent assassinations of opposition politicians effectively ended democracy in Germany. All power rested in the hands of the Nazi party, which pushed for a rapid and alarming military buildup in Germany. However, a lack of obvious allies forced Hitler to move more slowly than he would have liked. With the exception of those countries closely allied with or easily influenced by Germany - Denmark, Austria, and Czechoslovakia - no one in Europe seemed sympathetic to the Nazi goals of rapid, aggressive expansionism. The Soviets to the east, the French to the west, the Italians to the South, and the Belgians to the Northwest all seemed likely to quickly ally against a rogue superpower. The German armed forces, left relatively emaciated by years of socialist rule, would have to be regenerated before the Nazis could seek an armed confrontation with the rest of the continent.
Meanwhile, in Moscow, Stalin was thinking along similar lines. The armed confrontation between the two countries - however brief - had renewed Russo-German antagonism. Russia, badly bruised during World War I, continued to view Germany as the probable enemy, and had steadily allied itself with the international proletariat on the continent, particularly in the Balkans, to try to construct an alliance for a possible war against Germany. The Nazis were ideological enemies of the communists, and their rise to power in Germany alarmed the Soviet politburo. However, Moscow was reeling from a series of bloody Stalinist purges of the Russian General Staff, which had similarly left the Russian armed forces unprepared for world war. Russia had largely hidden how close it had come to disaster in Hungary.
The two powers would fight their next battles by proxy. In Spain, General Franco was battling to expel the communists from Madrid (who had themselves taken power after the collapse of the Carlists). Spain had been withering Empire for years, with all but a handful of its colonies breaking free from the Spanish yoke after years of ineffective and often distant government. Spain itself had been experiencing frequent revolutions since the start of the 20th century. The Civil War saw a massive influx of foreign fighters and arms to the Iberian peninsula despite a nominal treaty of non-interference from the world's Great Powers. Many of these fighters were Belgian, as both fascists (who viewed the Carlists as a friendly power) and socialists (who backed the communist government) funneled into Spain. The Loewen government (re-elected to power in '36) would take an official stance of neutrality in the war.
Franco would ultimately seize almost half of Spain before stiff resistance, regional rebellions, and local partisan attacks stalled his advance. His gains diminished after several more months, and by 1937, it seemed unlikely he would take control of Spain. However, his losses had not been the gains of the communists, as parochial militias and petty warlords began to carve out their own corners of the continent. Spain, which had been in state of off-and-on revolution for decades, had become a failed state. The conflict largely froze with the nationalist and socialist factions controlling only a few broken regions, with the vast bulk of the nation descending into chaos. The Spanish Civil War would continue for more than two decades until 1957, when the constitutional monarchy would be restored by Cold War-era foreign intervention. Until then, Spain remained in frozen upheaval, with its factional, competing governments propped up by the Nazis and the Soviets.
While Nazi Germany had failed to gain an ally in Spain during the Civil War, they had gained valuable experience in meddling in the affairs of other countries. This experience would serve them well as Hitler turned his attention closer to home. After staging several border incidents near the city of Tirol in 1937, Germany succeeded in precipitating a political crisis in Austria and forcing the rump state to cede the city to Germany. Hitler used the incident to engineer a greater loss of sovereignty in Austria and annex the entire nation later that year. He would use the same tactic to good effect in the German-speaking Sudenetland in 1938, allowing him to annex former Bohemia and create a Slovakian client state, and again in 1939 in Denmark. A disunited Europe essentially ignored Nazi expansionism as it had largely been confined to the German sphere. However, in late 1939, Hitler stepped outside the German traditional sphere of influence, pressing German claims on Memel and engineering fascist-backed coups in several Balkans countries (including Hungary) that had allied themselves with the Soviets.
Poland - which had allied itself with neither the Soviets nor the Germans - would become the flashpoint in the east. After a secret meetings in 1939, the Soviets and the Germans agreed to set aside their differences and planned the partition of Poland and the Baltic States between them. The so-called Molotov-Ribbentrop pact (when its details later became known) astonished the remainder of Europe, which had counted on Soviet-Nazi antagonism to keep both powers in check. Instead, the Nazis and Soviets began a joint invasion of Poland, splitting the country. The flagrant aggression by Germany and disrespect for Polish neutrality led the UK, France, and Italy (though all three powers were historically at odds with one another) to form a new anti-German bloc - the Allies - and declare war on Germany. So began World War II.
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Wait. I decided to start posting these a few a hours early. I hope no one minds.
