Hell, I'm headcanoning that Yaroslav is fighting with the Reds, because they may be Republicans but Makarov killed his entire family.
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I suppose it depends how much of a popular front the International can muster. If they can get the liberal anti-fascists on side, they'll have all sorts of anti-Makarov types with them. But with the liberal democrats very much their own force within the war, the PF would be a hard sell in the abstract…
(Not that I disagree with your head canon, btw. I think it's great.)
1941-1942 – Long Live the Revolution
1941-1942 – Long Live the Revolution
When the Germans arrived on the Western Front in large numbers in the late summer of 1941 they found their French allies in a state of total collapse. Halting the Allied charge into the heart of Europe in the Alps and along the Seine, they looked to address the problems that had led to the failure to resist the Allied invasion. Unable to rely upon their French allies, the VSVR’s army seized direct control over the remains of the French state and her collapsing army in an effort to restore a semblance of order to the frontline. This marked the effective dissolution of the International as a joint Franco-German partnership, henceforth the revolution would be a Teutonic affair. Their authority cemented, the VSVR military leadership planned a bold mechanised offensive to sweep the American back. This attack exploded into life in late September 1941 – panzer tanks leading the way in ranging attacks that pushed all the way to Bordeaux and Marseilles, dividing the Allies armies into many small pockets scattered across France’s shores and forcing them into a series of chaotic evacuations.
The Americans were able to gain some respite in the winter months when they fended off a number of German attempts to force the Pyrennes in November and December. Yet when they did finally push over the mountains in January, the Allied position in Iberia soon became untenable – the Germans racing across Andalucia as the Allies scrambled to rescue what forces they could from the European continent before it was too late. By February all that was left of the Allied landings were a few enclaves in Portugal – where local partisans and American commandos held firm even as after the large majority of the Allied army had fled. In just a few months the International had completely reversed all of the Allied continental gains of 1941.
Globally, this was a period of unrelenting successes for the International. In Africa, a series of major anti-colonial revolts originating in the Great Lakes, Rift Valley and Horn of Africa broke out beginning in mid-1941 that quickly escalated to threaten European power throughout the East African region. Receiving aid from India and the International, these rebels were well armed and caused terror in Alexandria after Ethiopian troops invaded Sudan, threatening Egypt itself.
A continent away in South America, socialists seized power in Brazil in a coup in November 1941 and cast themselves into the war by proclaiming their loyalty to the International – opening hostilities with the Allies. As South America’s leading power, Brazil’s entry into the war held back many states that might otherwise have joined the Allies in sympathy with the Americans, fearing a direct confrontation close to home. The Brazilians would also make the South Atlantic a more dangerous place for the Allies, with their fleet praying on vessels sailing through the area. With losses mounting from their botched campaigns in Europe, the Allies lacked the resources to do little more than campaign this new threat.
In Asia, the arrival of India into the war had a sizeable impact on the balance of power. In South East Asia, the Indians reached an accord with the Japanese that divided the Papal colonies in the region between them – along a line of control in central Burma. To the west, the Indian army overwhelmed Papal defences in the Indus Valley in the summer of 1941, where they were greeted as liberators. They found the advance into the Pashtun lands beyond the Khyber Pass far more challenging, were tough terrain, suspicious natives, the lack of the element of surprise and better organised Papal resistance slowed their advance to a crawl. A full year into their participation in the conflict, Kabul and Herat remained in Papal control – ironically their last strongholds east of Arabia. The battle with the Russians told a similar story. After routing the Russians and Uighurs from Kashmir in the opening months of the war, progress stalled. The Russians already had a vast garrison in Central Asia, where it had been deployed to ward over the rebellious Tatars and Mongols, and these were rushed to the front. In the impossibly tough conditions of the Hindu Kush, these troops locked the Indians in a slow war of attrition among the highest peaks of the world. Further north, the Indians notably looked to stir disquiet among the large Hindu populations of Central Asia and the Steppe. Most of Central Asia’s cities had large populations of Hindu Persians and ethnic Indians, while the Mongols were numerous throughout the region – all were generally hostile to the Russian regime, none more so than those Mongols who had been expelled from their homes in Muscovy during the 1920s Felaket, and proved easy recruiting grounds Indian agents seeking to organise rebel bands.
In the Balkans, period between the summer of 1941 and the spring of 1942 was crucial. Having suffered tremendous losses in the first half of 1941, the Eurasian League sought to dig in around two goals – holding on to Constantinople, and preserving a fortified line across the upland terrain of northern Greece. Around both key objectives a mixture of Greek, Serbian and Russian troops were heavily dug in and were able to halt the advancing socialists in their tracks. What followed was a slow effort to break the will of the defends through the rest of 1941 through massive aerial and artillery bombardment and constant probing attacks. The International breakthrough would not arrive until February 1942 when German mountaineers pierced through Greek lines the western coastline and advanced rapidly southwards. In danger of being cut off and under concerted pressure, the Eurasians withdrew from their defensive line and the key city of Thessalonica towards Attica. While they succeeded in saving Athens from falling, most of Greece had been lost.
The siege of Constantinople was a more protracted process. With Eurasian forces heavy concentrated in the city and able to keep it in good supply through their control of the waterways in the Bosporus, it was a formidable prospect. After a series of unsuccessful attempts to storm the great city in the summer months, the International set in for a lengthy siege. They focussed their energies in using their air power to disrupt the city’s supply over the Bosporus – pushing the 100,000 defenders, and millions of civilian residents, towards desperation. This tactic began to make its impact felt over the winter months, when hunger started to set in as the Eurasians struggled to keep sufficient resources flowing across the water. After months under siege, the Serbs and Russians carried out an impressively orderly withdrawal in March 1942, abandoning Constantinople to the revolution but keeping their army intact.
It the far north, while Scandinavia had appeared to be at the brink of surrender in mid-1941 after a long retreat from Finland and the far north, their situation improved markedly in the second half of the year. Conducting an orderly withdrawal from Norway, they inflicted a number of defeats on the Russians in Skane – securing their control over the southern tip of Sweden despite constant Russian attacks through to the summer months of 1942. Crucially, while the Russians had been gradually drawing troops from the area to bolster their armies on other fronts, Scandinavia’s continued resistance kept a large army tied down in the region.
On the most important of all fronts, the Germans carried forward their momentum from the first half of the year on the Eastern Front, albeit at a slower pace. In July and August they pushed the Russians out of Lithuania and Courland – only being halted by the Daugava River. Their gains in other sectors were more modest. In Ruthenia, the Russians fought back fiercely, attempting a series of counterattacks and fighting for every bald of grass. These battles kept the reds away from the immediate vicinity of Kiev, but failed to protect Minsk, which fell in November. In the south, the International’s armies made gradual gains, capturing the last Russian holding on the Carpathians and advancing through Moldavia to secure the key Black Sea port of Odessa.
The capture of Minsk in November marked the last major socialist victory of the year. As the ground froze for winter, major offensive operations were suspended, even as probing attacks continued throughout the cold months. One notable success through the winter came at Smolensk, which was captured in February after a portion of the Russian front in Ruthenia lost ground amid mutinies by Tatar soldiers.
During this time the International had been preparing for a major summer offensive that, it was hoped, would strike a decisive blow against the Russians. Across the open fields of southern Ukraine, the German panzer armies pierced Russian lines and raced as far east an Mariupol. In the north, the socialists advanced on a broad front eastward from North Ruthenia, pushing significantly beyond the Dnieper. Crucially, the placed a choke hold around the city of Kiev – the Russian capital isolated as the last major Russian bastion west of the Dnieper river. These advances had come at huge cost in terms of life and material, stretching supply lines and the strength of the German army to its limit. But, with the gates of Kiev in sight, a tangible chance of victory was in hand.
With the encirclement of Kiev now a likelihood, and its capture a strong possibility many elements of the Russian government were seeking to evacuate themselves from the capital in chaotic fashion. When Makarov himself was called upon to leave the city he furiously dismissed the suggestion, enigmatically remarking “I shall go out with a dagger between my teeth, a bomb in my hand and infinite scorn in my heart”. The Vozhd would go down with his ship. In Kiev, beset by the hellfire of an entire continent and under assault from a seemingly invincible army, an almost apocalyptic atmosphere took hold. The regime mobolised every able bodied soul who could hold a rifle, old men and boys alike, to man the lines while Radical propaganda blared out across the city exhorting the Russians to battle on to the last and the great dictator himself was seen parading the street in an effort to rally his people for the fight.
In October the Germans crossed the Dnieper to the south east of Kiev and linked up with their comrades to the north of the Russian capital at Chernigov. Kiev was now cut off entirely from the rest of the Republic. The fate of the world would rest of the outcome of the battle to come.
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The moment of decision has come! .
Makarov has tied his fate to that of Kiev. If the city holds his prestige will grow immensely in stature, if it falls, well, a bullet in a bunker might be the kindest way out ...
I hope there are a few more twists and turns to come!
This coming battle in Kiev will surely be the decider. The reds might seem invincible, but they've stretched themselves thin with all their recent gains and by sending troops west to deal with the Allies. This was is not yet lost for Russia if we can only hold on in Kiev.
That was the issue with them. I thought France and Andalucia would keep some troops in their own territories, (the French in particular had a big army and didn't seem to send many divisions to the eastern front) - but they left themselves wide open under the VSVR came to bail them out. The second front really did shockingly little to help us out, barely being a speed bump in the International advance in the east.
Kashmir proved impossible to hold (in game I massively underestimated the Indians - thinking about a dozen division could hold them when in reality it took 30-40 to hold the line).
Glad you read the whole thing and still wanted to keep going!
You called it right that Kiev is going to be out Stalingrad here - a huge battle for a key city that will tip this war one way or another. Added bonus of the Vozhd staying in the city to share its fate!
The fear of the consequences of a socialist victory for the Jewish religion and Russian nation would be really visceral here, you can imagine the mobolising effect that would have on the ethnic Russian portion of society.
I have plans for old Yaroslav - all of which shall be revealed in time.
.Makarov has tied his fate to that of Kiev. If the city holds his prestige will grow immensely in stature, if it falls, well, a bullet in a bunker might be the kindest way out ...
I hope there are a few more twists and turns to come!
Holy crap, I feel so fool for believing Russo-Poland would have her victory in Stalin-Warsaw haha, crap. I really thought that would be the inflexion point in the war, but it seems Marakov did everything in his reach to destroy the quality of the army. And with the army entirely purged I believe there's not a coup coming any time soon...
Dang, it seems this will be truly Russo-Poland's greatest defeat in her history, similar to the First Polish Crusade...
This coming battle in Kiev will surely be the decider. The reds might seem invincible, but they've stretched themselves thin with all their recent gains and by sending troops west to deal with the Allies. This was is not yet lost for Russia if we can only hold on in Kiev.
That was the issue with them. I thought France and Andalucia would keep some troops in their own territories, (the French in particular had a big army and didn't seem to send many divisions to the eastern front) - but they left themselves wide open under the VSVR came to bail them out. The second front really did shockingly little to help us out, barely being a speed bump in the International advance in the east.
Kashmir proved impossible to hold (in game I massively underestimated the Indians - thinking about a dozen division could hold them when in reality it took 30-40 to hold the line).
Glad you read the whole thing and still wanted to keep going!
You called it right that Kiev is going to be out Stalingrad here - a huge battle for a key city that will tip this war one way or another. Added bonus of the Vozhd staying in the city to share its fate!
The fear of the consequences of a socialist victory for the Jewish religion and Russian nation would be really visceral here, you can imagine the mobolising effect that would have on the ethnic Russian portion of society.
I have plans for old Yaroslav - all of which shall be revealed in time
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I knew the fruits of victory were falling in Allied mouths too quickly (oh, irony, sweet irony).
Things look bleak indeed for the world. Maybe we'll see the Radical Republic and VSVR bleed each other out at Kiev, and summarily collapse as the Allies renew their attempts on the continent. Although, I must admit, hoping for that to happen is mostly just a sign of how desperately dire things are.
Things look bleak indeed for the world. Maybe we'll see the Radical Republic and VSVR bleed each other out at Kiev, and summarily collapse as the Allies renew their attempts on the continent. Although, I must admit, hoping for that to happen is mostly just a sign of how desperately dire things are.
Oh my lord, how long has this war been going on for? Soon enough this will have been fought for ten years, with no end in sight. Europe will be utterly devastated from this.
A battle of titanic proportions is on the way as the Fourth Russian State locks horns with the Internationale over the city of Kiev. Makarov's tenure in office was controversial that's for sure but I gotta begrudgingly give the man credit for choosing to go down fighting. The outcome shall indeed make or break the nation.
Just leaving this here since it's somehow fitting
One Last Battle. One Last Fight.
Just leaving this here since it's somehow fitting
One Last Battle. One Last Fight.
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Whoa, now the Allies are beginning to feel the heat. And India is also proving a significant factor in Asia.
I just read the last 2 episodes (excellent updates!), and I already realized during the last episode that you're no longer playing Poland, but VSVR Good twist there!
It really seems the workers of the world will, totally, unite
The only missing thing is a huge Tatar uprising in Central Asia and Siberia, but maybe after decades of struggle they're just depleted now.
Good twist there! It really seems the workers of the world will, totally, unite
The only missing thing is a huge Tatar uprising in Central Asia and Siberia, but maybe after decades of struggle they're just depleted now.
Wait, where are you getting that? VSVR land is under fog of war in all the screenshots.I just read the last 2 episodes (excellent updates!), and I already realized during the last episode that you're no longer playing Poland, but VSVR
It really seems the workers of the world will, totally, unite
The only missing thing is a huge Tatar uprising in Central Asia and Siberia, but maybe after decades of struggle they're just depleted now.
Wasn't expecting the Allies to be beaten back so fast in the West. Not to say they're down and out by any means, of course, but at this point the war really does seem the International's to lose. How bloody are things going to get at Kiev, that is very much the question…
Great stuff Tommy!
Great stuff Tommy!
Now then, this might be the last we see of Makarov. If he survived this, against all odds, he's in for some real legendary status!
Let's hope this is the end of Markarov, good riddance to bad rubbish. The international seems unstoppable.
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I'm on the edge of my seat. If Makarov somehow comes out of this, I don't know what I'll do. Maybe cry.
I want to believe that Makarov and Russo-Polish forces will be capable of turning the tide but, their position is quite fragile at this point.
Either they lose the East to India, by sending reinforcements against the VSVR or they accept the peace which by this point will be very tough.
Wondering what will happen in next update.
Either they lose the East to India, by sending reinforcements against the VSVR or they accept the peace which by this point will be very tough.
Wondering what will happen in next update.
I'm not getting this from a specific place, I just felt that way from the steamrolling of VSVR. Didn't pay attention to FoW in the screenshots but they could've been taken by tagging since the objective of the AAR is Russia?
Crush the Fascists!
Do we know anything about Red Germany internally? I don’t know what communism born in advanced western industrial states might look like. Depending on how reasonable/unreasonable they are in TTL, if I’m Germany I might cut a deal with the Americans. How much is Córdoba really worth now that America cares? Is it worth the whole revolution? And what does America really care about France once the motherland is free? I don’t see why this has to be a total war; the total war is to the east, and both Germany and America aren’t fools they have to know killing each other is ultimately helping Makarov most. Fortifying the Pyrenees is easy and Germany has SO much more historical and present reason to fear Russia more than Spain.
Do we know anything about Red Germany internally? I don’t know what communism born in advanced western industrial states might look like. Depending on how reasonable/unreasonable they are in TTL, if I’m Germany I might cut a deal with the Americans. How much is Córdoba really worth now that America cares? Is it worth the whole revolution? And what does America really care about France once the motherland is free? I don’t see why this has to be a total war; the total war is to the east, and both Germany and America aren’t fools they have to know killing each other is ultimately helping Makarov most. Fortifying the Pyrenees is easy and Germany has SO much more historical and present reason to fear Russia more than Spain.
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1942-1943 – Twilight of the Gods
1942-1943 – Twilight of the Gods
Following the completion of their encirclement of Kiev in mid-October 1942, the Germans embarked on their effort to take the Russian capital and purge the evil of the Radical regime once and for all. The city was beset by attackers from all sides, the Reds painstakingly fighting battles for every street, factory and housing block while the weapons of warfare reduced what was once one of the world’s proudest cities to rubble. Makarov himself, having vowed to stay put to the bitter end, alternated between an underground bunker in the heart of the city – where the pounding of the German artillery was still audible – and trips to the surface to rally the Russian fighting man to resist. As the noose slowly tightened in the capital, the socialists steadily closing in on the city centre, just a short drive to the east an equally significant battle was raging as the Russian army sought to break the encirclement and relieve the city at Nizhin.
The winter of 1942 was another dark one, with both armies suffering the effects of extreme cold and shortage thousands were dying every day in the fight for Kiev. With food stocks extremely low, starvation hit the Russian forces in the capital and the civilians unfortunate enough not to have been evacuated. Further disheartening news would arrive in December as Crusader Anatolia capitulated following the loss of Athens to the International alongside some 60,000 Russian soldiers. Despite this, in Kiev the flicker of resistance held out, the Russians stubbornly refusing to give in and surrender their capital to the invaders. Then, deliverance. On January 23rd Russian armoured units punched through the German lines east of Kiev and the next day reinforcements and supplies began to pour into the capital. Worn out by the long fight, the socialists soon began to withdraw from Kiev in total disarray. Taking on an uncharacteristically evangelising tone, Makarov celebrated “God has granted us salvation. Soon the entire world shall shake”.
Defeat in Kiev was more damaging to the cause of the International than can easily be quantified. Through their offensives of 1942 that had brought them to the brink of victory, the socialists had stretched their supply lines and military to the very limit. Their army was beaten, exhausted and severely depleted from the fighting. After enduring millions further casualties in these attacks, the total dead from the VSVR alone since the outbreak of war in 1933 had surpassed 10,000,000 – an extraordinary number. In the skies, the balance of power had clearly shifted over the course of 1942. With the Western Allies growing ever stronger with the backing of American industry, a growing portion of the International’s air forces had been drawn away from the Eastern Front – allowing the socialists’ control of the skies to slip away by the end of the year. Henceforth, the Russians would be in a position to use their aircraft in offensive bombing campaigns in significant numbers for the first time in the war.
While attentions had been focussed on the Battle of Kiev, the wider Russian military had taken the opportunity over the winter months to regroup, gather their strength and begin planning. Taking note from the tactics and technology of the International over the past years of fighting, the Russians had equipped themselves for a great counterattack in February. Operation Bloodhound, named after the Medieval hero Illiya the Bloodhound who had saved Polish civilisation from European conquest, was to be the largest military operation in the nation’s history. Combined arms attacks were to be launched across every sector of the front with four key objectives – cutting off the German forces east of the Dnieper in southern Ukraine, insuring Kiev’s security, reclaiming the Smolensk region and establishing a beachhead south of the Daugava near Riga.
The Russians shocked even their own planners with the scale of their successes over the ensuing months. In the south, a dozen divisions were cut off along the shores of the Sea of Azov, a further ten found themselves encircled north east of Smolensk and another half dozen at Mogilev south of the city – all within the first week of the attack. Russian tanks then drove with lightening speed across Northern Ruthenia to liberate Minks and even push into Lithuania – isolating 100,000s of thousands of International troops along the Daugava River who had been unable to reposition themselves to compensate for the speed of the Russians’ movement. In March these Russian tanks pushed through Lithuania to reach the boundaries of Prussia and cut off the last rout of escape for the socialist troops on the Daugava through Courland. In the south, the Russian capitalised on the disarray in their enemies lines to drive the Germans back from central Ukraine towards Galicia and Moldavia.
All told, by the time the pockets of International troops caught between enemy lines had been closed in mid-April around three quarters of a million men had been captured, and the back of the revolution broken. In just a couple of months the Russians had wiped out all of the International’s gains of the previous year and inflicted losses that would be impossible to replace after so many years of warfare.
In Western Europe, after the defeat of the Skots and Americans on the Western Front in 1942, fighting had never entirely ceased. Instead, groups of Andalucian partisans back by American commandos, funds and aerial support had engaged their socialists occupiers in a guerilla war. With the battles in Eastern Europe demanding every available resource, Iberia was left with a badly overstretched garrison that struggled to maintain order across the region. Losing ground to the Muslim partisans, the Reds responded with harsh reprisals against communities believed to be in league with the rebels and took a militant stance against the mosques that were seen as the ideological foundations of the movement. This brutality only acted to embolden the partisans and win new recruits to their cause. As events turned against the International in the east, the partisans began to capture major cities – including Valencia, Seville, Porto and La Coruna.
The International’s desperate situation grew fatal at the end of April 1943 when the Americans launched a large invasion of the Low Countries – opening up a third front in continental Europe and pouring hundreds of thousands into the fight to destroy the revolution once and for all.
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Those 1941 Allied landings really were a paper tiger. A year and a half on and the International really are in all sorts of trouble. These latest Allied landings really are on a D-Day sort of scale in terms of numbers, while they already have a enclaves all over Spain, while the Reds are in chaos in Eastern Europe. Coming towards the end game (in Europe at least) now.
The Allies (minus America) have been at it for ten years now, while we've been involved for three. You can almost imagine two world wars rolled into one here. And all the social and economic dislocation to go along with it.
One wonders just how big an impact it had seeing the Vozhd stay in the thick of the fight with his men. Both in game and in the story we came very close to losing Kiev before the encirclement was broken - that would have left my entire southern front horrifically exposed, while with the capital and leader gone we would be in a state of disarray. Holding on really did make all the difference.
We shall return to see what is going on in Asia in the next update (I just wanted to stay focussed on the European drama in this one). Plenty is happening on that side of the world as well!
I just read the last 2 episodes (excellent updates!), and I already realized during the last episode that you're no longer playing Poland, but VSVR
It really seems the workers of the world will, totally, unite
The only missing thing is a huge Tatar uprising in Central Asia and Siberia, but maybe after decades of struggle they're just depleted now.
Yeah, as HIMD noted, I was still playing Russia throughout. The AI just had a really exceptional 1942 and drove us close to breaking. In the end they overstretched themselves (you can even see in one of the screenshots how they left who provinces unguarded in southern Ukraine - just asking to get encricled) and tired their armies out with constant attacks in 1942 and they were wide open for some big encriclements that changed everything. It helped a lot that I was able to use my air force to support me having previously had all my bombers basically grounded.
The Allies certainly weren't broken by their failed first landings - and now they're back. It's looking exceedingly bleak for the International now, but its an open question just how much fight they have left in them and how Europe will be split going forward.
Undoubtedly, staying in Kiev when it all seemed lost will give the Vozhd genuine folk hero status. He might have been looking shaky in 1942, but now his prestige has never been greater.
He'd made it out again, and really these months will go down in his personal legend as his finest hour in the past four decades of political life. But there is still plenty of war left to fight!
Apologies!
I want to believe that Makarov and Russo-Polish forces will be capable of turning the tide but, their position is quite fragile at this point.
Either they lose the East to India, by sending reinforcements against the VSVR or they accept the peace which by this point will be very tough.
Wondering what will happen in next update.
And turn it around they did! The VSVR position was much more fragile that it appeared during their advances in 1942 and they were critically weakened by that defeat at Kiev while I was able to get my tanks lined up perfectly. Before this offensive I had basically used my tanks as shuttlers - moving quickly along the Front to reinforce areas I was at risk of losing. It was very satisfying to open up for a good old fashioned Blitzkrieg
. They probably would have been better off with a steadier advance focussed on a more selective area. We haven't heard much from inside the International domestically, aside from notes of the ongoing social revolution. With a decade of total warfare though, we can rest assured it will be a fairly totalitarian situation with an all powerful state leading the whole of society in a collective war effort for existential survival. Given recent events, perhaps becoming more radical still in the desperate fight for survival.
The foolish thing from the International's perspective is that it is likely that if they had never invaded Andalucia the balance of forces in American domestic politics would probably have remained with the isolationists - they always needed that emotional pull to bring them in. But once they were committed to the fight, it is hard to back down. Now the biggest concern for the Allies will be what sort of Europe will follow the Red decade. One in which democracy has a chance, or will a whole new era of totalitarianism take hold?
Well, that could have gone better. Still, I've always thought the best outcome of this war would be for both Russia and the International to be defeated, and I guess we're halfway there. Hopefully America and/or India will be able to finish the job.
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