Freedom's Darkest Hour, a Customized USA Modern Day Scenario AAR

[Kaiser_Mobius]

Hello everybody! Kaiser_Mobius here, and welcome to another little AAR project of mine. I recently had the urge to put together another AAR scenario and after alot of time and work I think I am ready to begin what I hope will be another successful and entertaining story to share with all of you.

This time, I will be playing as the United States of America, in a customized 2015 AAR Scenario I have put together using the latest (I think) version of the Modern Day Scenario mod for Hearts of Iron: Darkest Hour. Some of you will probably be familiar with a previous AAR I did over a few years ago as the United States in the KaiserReich mod for Hearts of Iron 2, Armageddon. Based on the feedback from that one it seemed pretty successful, and I hope I can replicate such success in this one as well.

Part of the appeal to that previous American AAR was the level of challenge I tried to implement, as playing as the United States, even on very high levels of difficulty, can strongly be seen as playing the game on "easy mode". However, I believe I may have set up a rather challenging scenario that I hope will provide alot of hours of fun reading for many of you, and test my own skills as a player of this wonderful computer game franchise. In this effort I have taken alot of inspiration from not only real life events, but also many of my favourite movies, video games, and other things, to create what I hope will be an interesting semi-realistic but also entertaining AAR.

Anyways, enough with my babbling, its time to get on with the settings and the prologue!

Game: Hearts of Iron Darkest Hour version 1.03, Modern Day Scenario mod
Country: United States of America
Difficulty: Normal (with the option of later raising it to hard)
AI: Aggressive
Full IC take over: On
Democracy can Start War: On
Other notes: alot of changes to different countries, some new/converted sprites, some unit tweaks to build times and IC costs, and other things as they are revealed.
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Denver, Colorado, March 6th, 2015

President Harling stood outside the Colorado State House. It had felt like an eternity before he could finally step outside for a minute and enjoy a cigarette he had been craving all day. It was a bad habit, and he had promised his wife he was going to quit years ago, but considering the stress of his new, and unexpected job, he told himself he deserved at least to have one in this moment of peace.

Denver was very beautiful at this time, it was late evening, and the lights were still on all over the city. "Not for much longer though" he thought to himself, the mandatory blackout was due to come into force pretty soon, in an attempt to keep the enemy's aircraft from spotting any major targets should they try to launch another major night raid like the one that hit the city several days ago. US Air Force fighters could be heard overhead, the dull roar of their engines now a permanent sound over the skies of not only Denver but over most of the parts of the country still under the Federal Government's control.

There were other military assets present outside as well. Although the President liked to think he was alone, the large detail of US Marines and Secret Service Agents that were always close by reminded him that being alone would not come for a very long time. Some of those same people had served his predecessor, before the attack on Washington, when the war that had been raging for some time overseas, had finally reached this country's shores. There were other things too, like the Colorado National Guard soldiers that manned checkpoints in the city streets, the US Army soldiers with their Stinger missiles and machine guns that were dotted around the state house, the special forces snipers that sat on its rooftop, always on watch in case some enemy commando team managed to reach the building or something. It seemed so absurd only a few short years ago that something like that could even be possible, yet now it seemed like anything could happen.

While lost in thought, and taking another drag from his cigarette, he heard a voice. "Mr President?" It was one of his secretaries, with an update for him. "Yes, go ahead?" he responded politely. "Mr. President, Generals Sheppard and Granger are ready for you to meet with them now, the military attache's from Canada, Mexico, and Colombia have also arrived. Oh, and before I forget, the ambassador from the Dominican Republic has formally requested asylum for himself and his family, given that it appears his government may soon surrender to the Cubans." The President nodded, "Thank you Susan, please ask the Secretary of State if she can fast track his request." "Yes Mr. President", she responded, before walking back into the State House.

"Another ambassador about to become a permanent resident" the President thought to himself. How many ambassadors was that now? 20? 25? He couldn't remember. As he finished his cigarette and headed back inside for tonights war briefing, all the President could do was worry. The war wasn't going well, and there more than likely will be others that will join the Dominican Republic's ambassador in the future. The President just hoped that he wouldn't have to run alongside them to New Zealand on a submarine in the near future. President Harling was the 45th President of the United States, he just hoped that he wouldn't also be the last one. If things on the battlefield didn't start improving soon, the whole country could be finished....

 

[500Artichoke]

Thus begins America's... "Great Patriot War," huh?

... Wait a minute, does Russia own Norway? All of it?

 

[osaka_amd]

Oh boy... Red Dawn, ISIS, Europe in flames and Russian/Comchi working together.... I hope things looks good.

 

[Socdemparty]

Are the invasion forces a mod thing, or did you create them yourself?

 

[NikephorosSonar]

Why are the Baltics and Lithuania part of Russia but not Novorossiya or Ukraine?

 

[Eric8344]

Oh boy, oh boy a Kaiser_Mobius AAR !

"Pacific Invasion Force" is Reactionary?

 

[Migthy]

Wow! This is so epic, even in the beginning! Definetely subbed! I wish you good luck and I'm sure that I will enjoy that.
The only questions I have is why Russia didn't take Ukraine, but the Baltics?
And how did Romania lose Transylvania, while taking back Basserabia. In a Russian controlled Europe Basserabia would surely be Russian.

 

[Darne]

New AAR written by Kaiser_Mobius? Yay!
Interesting political map? Yay!
World covered in flames? Yay!
Polish-Hungarian border? Yay!
Lepper as Polish head of state? Oh God... so, New Zealand is still unoccupied? Good, I hope escaping wouldn't be as hard as I think...

 

[der Kriegsherr]

*Gets massive, yardwork bag of popcorn*

Loved your Japan MDS AAR, can't wait to see how this one turns out.
But if the Poles get a third of my beloved Ukraine, once they enter the war, surely the Germans can get some sort of....compensation once Warsaw falls if you get my meaning?

 

[Tommy Vercetti]

Nice AAR, I like the concept. President Harling, is that an intentional Ace Combat 5 reference, if so that is real cool.

 

[Kaiser_Mobius]

@500Artichoke: Yes, small population plus lots of oil reserves = Norway under direct Russian occupation. And as you will see in a future prologue update, oil becomes very important in this world.

@Socdemparty: I created them myself using already present tags for California and a left-wing American rebel country that in the files was using the tag U80. I changed their ministers, but have kept their tech teams, and before I actually start playing the campaign, I am going to give both states brand new generals and other military leaders.

@NikephorosSonar: Largely for flavour reasons. I like how Russia looks with these borders (a secure land link to Kaliningrad), I also really wanted to put Novorossiya into the game, with ministers and leaders based heavily on RL personalities.

@Migthy: Romania's borders are like that for reasons I will explain in a future prologue update.

@Tommy Vercetti: Indeed it is! If you liked that, then I think you are gonna love some of the other Ace Combat easter egg's I will be adding later.

@everybody: Thanks for your comments! I was initially going to hold off for a while on posting this next update until the forum switches over or something, but instead I will post this one now.

The Long Road to World War: Part 1
After the end of the Cold War and the highly positive years of the 1990's, the United States was on top of the world. The economy was doing well, the world was more peaceful than it had been for years, and it looked like good times would last far into the future. This fantasy was proven extremely wrong on September 11th, 2001. On that day, terrorists under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden attacked the United States, flying hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. A 4th airliner headed for Washington DC meanwhile had crashed in Pennsylvania, killing all on board but sparing whatever target its hijackers had chosen from destruction. In the aftermath, President George W Bush declared the beginning of a War on Terror, and retaliated against Bin Laden's organization, known as Al-Qaeda, by invading Afghanistan. However, as significant as the beginning of the War on Terror was, only a few months later, it was overshadowed by events that would mark the beginning of the world's slide into chaos.

New Delhi, India, December 13th, 2001. A car, driven by a team of gunmen, breached the gates of India's parliament, the Sansad Bhavan, using fake identification. Armed with assault rifles, grenades, and suicide vests, they jumped out of their car and stormed the building once they reached one of the main entrances. While 2 of the gunmen held off local security forces in a violent gunbattle, 3 others arrived in the main chamber of the Lok Sabha, India's lower house of parliament. Having managed to launch their attack over an hour ahead of schedule, they found the parliament full of India's politicians and legislators, and opened fire...

A bloodbath ensued. Before the gunmen were killed by the buildings security detail and New Delhi police, dozens of India's politicians were dead, with many others wounded. Several high ranking government officials were among the casualties, a blow that struck right at the heart of the country. After the dust had settled and the attackers were identified, India immediately blamed its nuclear armed rival, Pakistan, which it accused of sponsoring the attack. Pakistan declared it had no involvement in the attack, but the more the country denied, the guiltier it looked in the eyes of Indian leaders, citizens, and military commanders, who cried out for vengeance. A massive military mobilization ensued, with India sending as much as 500,000 troops to its northern border with Pakistan, mostly deployed in the area near the disputed region of Kashmir. Pakistan responded with its own mobilization, putting 300,000 troops on combat alert with other formations to follow. The world now faced the prospect of two large nuclear armed states going to war.

The standoff lasted into May of 2002, with both sides ready and willing to battle it out in a final showdown. The situation hung on a razors edge, with diplomats from the US, Russia, and Europe all trying very hard to defuse the situation and get both sides to draw down their forces. Their efforts may have worked, if it had not been for one final event that pushed both sides over the edge. In the town of Kaluchak, part of Indian administrated Kashmir, a terrorist attack killed and wounded dozens of people, mostly tourists and family members of Indian army soldiers serving in Kashmir. The Indian Army was outraged, and India's government decided it would not tolerate such attacks any longer. On May 16th, 2002, India's government declared war on Pakistan, and what would be known as the final Indo-Pakistani war would begin.

Indian forces crossed into Pakistani territory in both Kashmir and Punjab, waves of tanks and infantry hammering Pakistani lines. Pakistan's army fought tooth and nail for every inch of territory, inflicting huge casualties to many Indian Army armoured and mechanized divisions. Furthermore, Pakistani troops launched their own counter-attack further south, moving into Rajasthan and Gujarat with their own armoured blitzkrieg, taking about 100km of ground before being blunted by a large Indian army mechanized counterattack. Meanwhile, both sides battled in the skies for air superiority, while at the same time the Pakistani and Indian navies fought several large battles in the Arabian Sea, resulting in about a dozen Indian surface ships being sunk and nearly the entire Pakistani submarine fleet being destroyed.

The Indo-Pakistan War, May 2002. Red: Indian Offensives. Black: Pakistani Offensives.

Although the Pakistani's fought better than anticipated, India's advantages in strategic depth, manpower, and numbers of heavy weapons like tanks and airplanes began to come to bear on the battlefield. Pakistani defenses began to buckle before India's onslaught, and Indian troops began to move deep into Pakistani territory. With calls from the international community for India to stop its offensive falling on deaf ears, Pakistani leaders, hiding in a military command bunker in Rawalpindi, decide to use their only remaining asset left that can change the situation....

With only minutes of warning, Pakistani nuclear missiles begin bombarding targets all over northern and central India, as well as hammering large formations of Indian army ground troops on the battlefield. In response, India launches its own nuclear weapons, pounding major cities, industrial centers, and military forces all over Pakistan. In minutes, both sides are utterly devastated. Much of India is laid waste, as well as nearly all of Pakistan. Few are spared from the suffering. Southern India survives due only to Pakistan's long range missiles being fired at targets in Eastern India (like Calcutta), while Pakistan's last major city, Karachi, is spared due only to pure luck: the Indian nuclear warhead targeted at the city was defective, its missile instead embedding right into the middle of the city's main square, a landmark that still sits in the city today. After the exchange, tens of millions of people lie dead, many more are wounded, and refugees are fleeing for their lives in all directions. To make matters worse, radiation from the blasts is carried into Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh, causing further devastation. Hundreds of thousands of people risk their lives crossing the Himalayan mountains to get into China, which is protected by most of the fallout due to the mountains. Others flee into Southern India, Iran, Sri Lanka, Burma, and elsewhere, creating an enormous humanitarian catastrophe.

A rare photograph of a road outside New Delhi, India, just moments after a Pakistani nuclear warhead impacted the city.

Target locations of each side's nuclear weapons, most blasts being concentrated in Pakistan and all over northern and central India, with the furthest targets being cities like Patna, Mumbai, and Calcutta.

With millions of casualties, a humanitarian and ecological catastrophe, and the leaders of both India and Pakistan wiped out, the international community stepped in. The United Nations Security Council passed a resolution putting the devastated area under the administration of a special UN governmental authority. Known as UNRMSA (United Nations Reconstruction Mission in South Asia), the mission was charged with providing security, cleaning irradiated areas, providing humanitarian aid, prosecuting war criminals and those charged with crimes against humanity, and fostering reconciliation between the people of what was left of both formerly warring states. Peacekeeping forces were provided for this mission from all around the world, although since the outbreak of World War 3 UNRMSA has been forced to do more with less troops as many states withdrew their contingents.

The heads of the UNRMSA mission by March, 2015. Former UN General Secretary Kofi Annan is the mission's current leader, with many other prominent figures in other positions, such as human rights lawyer Navi Pillay who coordinates international communications. Figures from Ghana, South Africa, and Ireland also have high ranking positions, as well as commanders from the remnants of the Indian and Pakistani armies who are chief of staff and head of the missions aerial patrol force. The Red Cross is in charge of coordinating economic reconstruction and distributing humanitarian aid, while INTERPOL leads internal security, with one of their main tasks being the apprehension of the ringleaders of smuggling networks and any surviving persons responsible for the use of nuclear weapons.

The mutual destruction of both India and Pakistan during the war in 2002 was a devastating conflict that shocked the entire planet. However, nobody could grasp the full range of repercussions this conflict had for events in the Middle East that would take place only several years later...

 

[trekfan]

Well that... could have gone better...

 

[Migthy]

Epic.

 

[Asalto]

Good start, I especially liked detailed introduction into Indo-Pakistani conflict that ended with nuclear exchange, the reasons for start of such massive conflict were well argumented so things still look very plausible even for the case of breach of (fortunately) strong limitations for such developments. I also really liked how you implemented invasion forces in North America and described President's security in Denver, plus map of Europe is done in very creative way. It would be boring to simply restore Russian Empire from 1914 and reward some of its puppets, but this way more realistic divide and conquer strategy can be recognized from that situation. Nice start surely promises great further developments, so good luck and may the updates be rich and delivered in speedy way (to manifest the eternal wish of demanding AAR readers).

 

[Razgriz 2K9]

Came for the alt history MDS, subscribed for the Ace Combat, stayed for Indo-Pak War IV.

 

[Mkoll13]

No wonder they called it the final India-Pakistan war... I am going to hazard a guess that overpopulation stopped being one of people's top concerns for the future after that, being replaced with rains of nuclear hellfire.

 

[Aetherius]

Maghreb and Middle-East seems to be behemot's playground ... Is that blue a giant Iran ?
By the way ... A new AAR by Kaiser_Mobius ! Wouhou ! Make France win.
Starting by an subcontinental nuclear war is great .

 

[Mr. Santiago]

Oh boy, this is superb!
Subscribed!

 

[Dofon]

Love the scenario, and as always with Kaiser Mobius' AAR's, it reads excellently.
Will be following!
P.S: Nice Ace Combat Ref. For the glory of Osea!
P.P.S: So, Bangladesh, Nepal, and Bhutan were absorbed into UNRMSA because of the massive fallout moving over those regions? JW since they weren't hit.
P.P.P.S: Guess China won't have any more issues involving Kashmir...

 

[Kaiser_Mobius]

@trekfan: Understatement of the century!

@Asalto: Thanks, I will try to keep these updates coming at a steady pace!

@Mkoll13: Sort of, I would imagine that many countries will find themselves the new homes of many millions of people seeking refuge from this armageddon.

@Dofon: If you liked that AC reference, then I think you may love some of the other little things I have yet to reveal! And yes, Nepal, Bhutan, and Bangladesh were not directly hit but the combination of fallout, mass waves of refugees, and other things related to the 4th Indo-Pakistani War resulted in them being brought under UNRMSA's mandate, because of their governments collapsing under such immense strain.

@everyone: Thanks for the comments! I had been holding off a while from posting this next update since I have been waiting for this forum changeover to take place, but I felt like posting it now. I have heard that many posts past a certain time are going to be automatically deleted or something but if that happens I will simply repost this one and any others that may not come along with the forum change. I am keeping backups of them in case of that scenario. Anyways, on to the new update!

Rural Road, Somewhere in Balochistan Province, Pakistan, June 3rd, 2002

"Just a few more kilometers to go now", thought Colonel Syed, Pakistani Army, as his small convoy of vehicles moved through the countryside. After several days of moving carefully through Balochistan their destination was finally within reach.

Colonel Syed wondered how he would be received once he reached the destination. Would he be regarded as a deserter? A traitor to his home country, and thus sent into the waiting arms of the provisional government's courts? Maybe his new home would regard him as a hero for what he was bringing with him? Only time is going to tell. Colonel Syed was nervous, always keeping an eye on the skies, wondering if some American spy satellite was watching his every move. So far, no sign of anything suspicious, not like he would see anything coming. He figured if the Americans were going to drop one of those fancy super accurate bombs on his convoy they would have done it by now. Given what was happening elsewhere in Pakistan he figured maybe they had their hands full.

The entire world sure had its hands full now. The war was at least over though. The Mayor of Karachi and the Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh had declared a permanent armistice, effectively ending the conflict for their respective nations since both countries central governments had vanished under nuclear fire. Now they had the unenviable task of taking care of the mess that had followed in the war's wake. And what a mess it was. Colonel Syed had been listening to the radio throughout this trip into exile, the British based BBC had been talking about a death toll in Pakistan of around 20-40 million people, with a number triple or quadruple that amount on the Indian side, numbers that were still climbing. It was an astonishing and mind numbing figure, the single greatest mass casualty event in all human history, more people had died within minutes than had died in the entire Second World War. The enormous loss of life was kicking the international community into action. Hundreds of aid ships were apparently arriving in the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal, waiting to offload precious humanitarian cargo like food, water, shelter, heavy equipment, and most importantly, medication for radiation poisoning. Hundreds of airplanes were landing in whatever airports were left that were large enough, carrying with them even more aid. Despite all of this help though, the numbers of dead were projected to keep rising.

At least he and his men were not one of those numbers. He was lucky he had been based down here in Balochistan with his unit when the order to fire had come through. Technical issues had prevented him from being able to carry out those orders, but at least that saved his position from being discovered by Indian early warning radars. Not being near any major targets also helped, and thus him and his whole battalion had survived the last Indo-Pakistani War with their lives.

Not that it mattered much anyway. They had survived but their country, their homes, their families were gone. Colonel Syed's own family was most likely still in Lahore when India's atomic bombs had hit the city, a thought that still saddened him deeply. He would never get to see his beloved family again, but at least he found solace in what he was doing now. He couldn't save his family, but at least he could save his soldiers, and the cargo he was carrying in this convoy would be their passport to safety.

"Sir" said the colonel's driver, "the border is coming into view....look at all those people...", he said in awe. "Just keep moving nice and steadily, they will get out of the way, I am sure none of these people wants to get run down by a giant truck having made it this far", the Colonel replied assuredly. Under the mass of people, it must have been at least in the thousands, was a flag, the flag of what would hopefully become their new home.

Just as the Colonel had predicted, people began moving off of the road, allowing his convoy to keep moving. There were hundreds of faces, people carrying whatever they could take with them, trying to make it to one of the refugee camps that were being set up just over the border. Colonel Syed felt much safer now, he figured if someone was going to drop a bomb on his convoy to keep him from doing what he was about to do, they wouldn't dare do it on a convoy surrounded by civilians. "The home stretch" he thought to himself, when the convoy finally moved past the abandoned Pakistani border posts and towards the Iranian ones. The border was heavily militarized now, hedgehogs, barbed wire, and what appeared to be at least a few hundred Iranian soldiers now accompanying their regular border police. Colonel Syed ordered the convoy to halt as they finally reached the checkpoint. A large number of refugees now surged forward, hoping to get through the gate, anticipating that it would open for the convoy of trucks. Warning shots from the Iranian border guards quickly forced them back. As the guards moved to secure the convoy, a man in what appeared to be an Iranian Army officers uniform approached. Colonel Syed exited his truck, both men saluting each other as they met.

"My name is Lieutenant Hijazi, Iranian Army, and who might you be?" he inquired. "Colonel Syed, 26th Strategic Battallion, Pakistani Army" he responded, "I am here to seek asylum for myself and my men." The lieutenant began to shake his head. "I am sorry, but my orders are not to take in any more refugees until instructed to do so by my superiors. The camps are over maximum capacity and supplies are starting to run low and-". The Colonel interrupted him, "I think your superiors are going to want to let us cross. Come, let me show you our passports", he said while motioning for the Lieutenant to follow him. Walking to the back of one of the several large cargo trucks in the convoy, the Colonel opened the back and showed the Lieutenant the precious cargo he had been carrying with him during this trip. The Lieutenant suddenly had a very stunned look on his face. "Whats the matter, never seen a nuclear warhead before?" Colonel Syed asked somewhat jokingly.

"I-I-I need to clear this with m-my superiors!" the very stunned Iranian Lieutenant managed to say. "Thank you young man", the Colonel responded, "and may I suggest that you not tell your commanders exactly what these are over the phone? It would be smart for us all." Lieutenant Hijazi nodded quickly in agreement. As he ran back to the border post to inform his commanders of what was happening, Colonel Syed was confident that he had succeeded. A few hours later, as the convoy moved through the checkpoints with an Iranian military escort, he wondered if the Ayatollah's would give him and his soldiers some nice apartments in Tehran to live in?
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Well, that update ended up being alot more narrative than I am used to doing! Don't worry, I promise to add some actual game play in the next one!