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If I recall, several battles on the Eastern Front saw more deaths than the total American deaths in WW2, yet I do not think I learned anything about the Eastern Front in school. Pretty sad.
I didn't learn much either aside from the Battle of Stalingrad. I think it's both a combination of the whole front being morally gray (Nazis vs Soviets) and the historical records being locked away in the Soviet archives until after the fall of the Iron Curtain. But it is true the Soviets lost more men than the Americans in the war. America got off pretty easily compared to the rest of the world.
Completely agree with that, and it is a shame.
Yeah, most of the time when they talk about places outside the Western world, it's either Japan or a Western colony. Japan mostly because of its industrialization and interactions with the Western powers (World War II particularly) and the Western colonies as part of their overlords' history.
 
Chapter 3 - Jan 1938: Japan Versus the World

In Spring of 1937, Prime Minister Graham Gough dismissed his advisers from his office. The war in China was not yet over, and True China was determined to hold on. Despite the US's desire for the Anglo Alliance to remain neutral, Gough would have none of it. He agreed to send expeditionary forces to aid Wu China, 5 divisions in fact. Regardless of politics, he knew it would be disastrous for Japan to rule China, and having a strong ally in Asia would help greatly. He also knew it would be tough to get an alliance secured, since they were part of the Stali Pact. He would have to settle for a Japanese defeat, then work on a British-Chinese alliance later.

Just before the Wu united China, American intelligence discovered that the British went behind their backs to aid the Stali Pact. President Jacobweller assumed it was to quicken the civil war and end the bloodshed there, but even after True China's fall, British troops remained in service to Imperial China.

Today, in 1938, Jacobweller prepares for the upcoming election. Campaigning takes up much of his time, and his competition is fierce. The Republican candidate, a man called Alexander Dunaden, points out his lack of action in the crisis in Asia, or indeed anywhere in the world. He has allowed fascists to take control in Lotharingia and China to be united under imperialists rather than republicans, all with no resistance from the US. What was he supposed to do, Jacobweller thinks, start a Great War? He led troops in the war in South America, and that alone was enough to turn him into a pacifist. He would not be the one to bring about the second Great War.

As 1938 begins, many great powers have begun playing a part in the conflict. Hungary and Arabia send volunteer troops to Japan and Korea to fight, and Carinthia provides equipment. Lotharingia, now ruled by the Fascist Party, does not throw support to either side. And in mid January, the Fascist Party undergoes a change. Many people in leadership are replaced, bringing the Volksreich into power. The party is headed by Auguste van Meenen, who promises the people of Lotharingia a dedication to justice so fierce, that he would die before letting his country down. He says he will throw down their enemies and obliterate all who seek to keep their country from their ultimate destiny. What he fails to do is specify who these enemies are and what exactly Lotharingia's destiny is. A maniac now rules the most powerful nation in the world.

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The Jin capital of Fenzhou finally falls in February of 1938. The rest of the Jin are pushed out of their homelands and into Korea, and the waves of Russian soldiers are now making slow progress in pushing the enemy back.

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Hungary declares war on the minuscule nation of Serbia in late February. It is a wonder that Serbia still exists, seeing as they have been surrounded by the gargantuan Hungary for so long. Very little help arrives for Serbia, it seems the war in Asia and the growing tyranny out of Lotharingia has overshadowed this small war.

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Auguste van Meenen arranges a conference on March 30th. Invited are King Knezich of Hungary, Sultan Uthman of Arabia, Prime Minister Gratz of Carinthia, and President Potocki of the Polish Republic. Meenen proposes a pact between the five nations, a replacement to the Blue Alliance he currently leads. It will be a Covenant of steel. Sultan Uthman and PM Gratz are convinced quickly, agreeing to such an arrangement, but King Knezich and President Potocki are not so easily swayed. For now, Hungary and Poland will remain neutral, but Arabia has joined Carinthia and Lotharingia. The Blue Alliance is dismantled and, in its place, the Covenant of Steel is born.

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Not too long ago Japan and Korea were about to be pushed off the continent altogether. Come April, the East Asia Conference begins pushing back the Russians and Chinese. The Chinese, wearied from the civil war, show weakness, and they are pushed out of Korea. The Russians fair slightly better, but they too are pushed back somewhat.

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Summer begins, but the problems in Europe never end. Meenen of the Volksreich sends an ultimatum to King Hamelin of Picardy. Give Lotharingia the small state of Vlaanderen or he will invade. The Vlaanderen, he says, was once a state of Lotharingia, and the German minority is greatly abused by their Picardian oppressors. The historians will have to be consulted to determine whether Vlaanderen was ever a state of Lotharingia.

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No nations are willing to defend Picardy. With little choice in the face of such an enemy, Hamelin accepts the demand. Perhaps this will sate Meenen's thirst for conquest.

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In July, the Covenant of Steel draws in the Dutch Rijk, a small Fascist nation along the coast of the North Sea. It does not bring with it much firepower, but its few factories will be well used by the Volksreich in any future wars.

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The election takes place on July 1st, 1938. Alexander Dunaden of the Republican Party is declared the winner by a small margin. Dunaden is a much harder man than Jacobweller, and he promises a tougher stand against the enemies of America. As Dunaden is sworn in, Amos retires to his family home in Texas, shaking his head and thoroughly relieved he is too old for the draft.

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The Hungarian-Serbian war ends later that month, and Hungary annexes Serbia's small eastern state.

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President Dunaden's first act as president is promoting General Michael Saqquara to General of the Army. This is the first time in many years since there has been a five star general, and there has never been one while the nation was at peace.

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His second is to authorize American troops in Asia. Without a declaration of war, two armies of 4 divisions each are readied to be sent against Japan.

General TheButterflyComposer leads the 1st Expeditionary Forces in China, while General BPM leads the 2nd in Russia. It is time to take these Fascists down.

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And so America marches to war. Let's crush fascism!

Also, I'd like to point something out.
I liked the intent you were going for with this, but it was pretty hard to see the added text in this photo with that font and color. It was a little easier in the next picture, but still a little jarring. It would be nice if you could change the color a little to make it more readable. Otherwise great job with the descriptions!
 
Can I just point out the fact that the Facist alliance in Europe is named the Covenat? We are going to need some Spartan II’s for this one.:D
Not just the Covenant, the Covenant of Steel. We're going to need much more than Spartans to fight a faction with such a cool name.:eek:
 
Not just the Covenant, the Covenant of Steel. We're going to need much more than Spartans to fight a faction with such a cool name.:eek:
The bad guys always get the cool stuff like badass uniforms, orchestral marches (especially in movies), weapons and tanks and now even names for their stuff! Yeah, if we count the cool stuff Lorthina/Not-Nazi Germany gets then Master Chief would have a lot of work cut out for him fighting this Covenant.:eek:
 
I get the feeling Volksreich and the Covenant of Steel are going to be this history's stand-ins for Germany and the Axis in the inevitable WWII. President Dunaden may get to test his metal yet...
 
I get the feeling Volksreich and the Covenant of Steel are going to be this history's stand-ins for Germany and the Axis in the inevitable WWII. President Dunaden may get to test his metal yet...
I mean, the Covenant of Steel is based on the OTL Pact of Steel...
 
General TheButterflyComposer leads the 1st Expeditionary Forces in China, while General BPM leads the 2nd in Russia. It is time to take these Fascists down.

Yeah! To Asia we go! Time to earn me a ticket tl the white house (either for medals or a nomination)!

It seems germany stand in has arrived, although hilariously, HOI4 continues the trend I've noted before and had Hungary tell them to go away when they tried to ally them. What with the asian theatre winding down (supposedly. I mean we have ti invade japan which is bloody hard, and who knows what russia and the wu will do after but...) the axis stand ins have an even harder time of it than their otl counterparts. Europe is much less divided and far stronger than otl.

And the US is intervening? Yeah...fasicsm might be gone sooner rather than later. Unless someone else important falls to it relativly quickly.
 
Wait a minute, we can be characters in this AAR? I never knew that!

(This sort of gets near iAAR territory, and iAARs are strictly regulated, so I think it's best to talk with a mod about this to be safe.)
 
Wait a minute, we can be characters in this AAR? I never knew that!

(This sort of gets near iAAR territory, and iAARs are strictly regulated, so I think it's best to talk with a mod about this to be safe.)
Yeah, granted we would have to get the author’s permission to be characters here in maybe a few interludes but that could work.:)
 
Yeah, granted we would have to get the author’s permission to be characters here in maybe a few interludes but that could work.:)
In that case, I'd like to bring Wilhelm the angel into this AAR.;)
 
Well I doubt they'll let me bring Kelebek or Galahad in so TBC, commanding general is fine.
 
He already has permission. If you go back to the earlier components of the mega-campaign you will find that all the important characters are using forum names.
 
He already has permission. If you go back to the earlier components of the mega-campaign you will find that all the important characters are using forum names.
Oh, okay then.

I've also had second thoughts about using my character. Maybe I could have a Zenphoenix character instead like everybody else?
 
Merry Christmas, everyone! I’m away from my computer so I can’t do any updates for a little while. I will reply to everyone’s comments when I have some free time. Have a happy New Years!
 
I didn't learn much either aside from the Battle of Stalingrad. I think it's both a combination of the whole front being morally gray (Nazis vs Soviets) and the historical records being locked away in the Soviet archives until after the fall of the Iron Curtain. But it is true the Soviets lost more men than the Americans in the war. America got off pretty easily compared to the rest of the world.

Yeah, most of the time when they talk about places outside the Western world, it's either Japan or a Western colony. Japan mostly because of its industrialization and interactions with the Western powers (World War II particularly) and the Western colonies as part of their overlords' history.
Then you’ve got my school. We didn’t learn much about the wars or any of the battles in them. We learn about a bit of the causes of WWI - basically the assassination and some about the secret treaties and imperialism but not much about the balkan powderkeg. We cover life in the trenches and the somme and then straight to the Treaty of Versaille. We learn about the interim between the wars and the causes of WWII (this time in more detail, but only about Germany, we don’t learn anything about Italy and Japan) and then we stop. We don’t cover any of the battles which is a shame and we don’t cover anything about Japan and the other theatres
 
Then you’ve got my school. We didn’t learn much about the wars or any of the battles in them. We learn about a bit of the causes of WWI - basically the assassination and some about the secret treaties and imperialism but not much about the balkan powderkeg. We cover life in the trenches and the somme and then straight to the Treaty of Versaille. We learn about the interim between the wars and the causes of WWII (this time in more detail, but only about Germany, we don’t learn anything about Italy and Japan) and then we stop. We don’t cover any of the battles which is a shame and we don’t cover anything about Japan and the other theatres
That's basically my school. I didn't know anything about WWI until about seventh grade, and that was because I read Scott Westerfield's Leviathan (young adult alternate history trilogy about the Central Powers using mechas to fight the Entente's genetically engineered monsters which incidentally got me into alternate history). I didn't learn about WWI in a class until high school. Even then the causes were just reduced to "Balkans are a powder keg, don't question it, then a guy got shot." We focused a lot on trenches and the military technology (but not on specific battles) and then jumped straight to Versailles, Hitler, Nazis, and World War II. We did a little about the Great Depression, mostly in the context of the Dust Bowl, Roosevelt and the New Deal (but mostly Roosevelt), and a little Lend-Lease (or I might be confusing that with my college courses). For World War II, we focused on Germany and Japan (and not much about Italy other than mentioning Mussolini). After a brief discussion on the causes, which focused on Hitler and the Nazis and a little on Chamberlain and appeasement, we jumped straight to the invasion of Poland, then to Pearl Harbor/Stalingrad, and then to D-Day and the rest of the war. At least for Japan we learned about Midway and some of the Pacific campaign before going to Okinawa, Iwo Jima, and the atomic bombs (no mention of China or the Southeast Asia campaigns). We also sped through the Nuremberg trials a lot. We stop around the founding of the UN. At least we did get some focus on the home front and the Manhattan Project (though most of the stuff I learned on Manhattan Project came from my physics class, of all places). The only other time I learned about the home front was a college course I took on Britain in World War I, and that only focused on the British home front. It was a shame we glossed over so much. There was a lot of nuance in both wars and the interbellum that would've helped us understand the wars and their consequences much better.

Sorry for the wall of text, I just needed to vent after realizing how little my middle and high schools covered in history.