PwV slowly turned more to althist, firstly for Interbellum paths and later for WWI. And Nikita, due to his lower level of English and his personality, just had troubles with taking in critique
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Althist paths are great and all, but when it comes to a mod like that, I'd honestly much rather have seen historical content focussed on and fleshed out first.
Wasn't really a fan of the colour portraits or HOI3 style flags either. Little bit of a vanilla purist in that regard.
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Oh thank god, finally my army is beginning to recover some semblance of organization and unity of purpose. It took only about... Losing most of the country. This is only the first recovery event, but it may indicate that I should soon be able to withdraw at least some UGA divisions from the Polish front and send them East without causing my defenses to collapse.
March 6th, What used to be the "United Baltic Duchy" overnight miraculously transformed into... "Western Russia". Pavel Bermondt-Avalov is the leader of that particular entity. Two Baltic Landeswehr divisions had chanced sides in the process and will now fight for independent Latvia, but other than that, the remaining units of the United Baltic Duchy are still there except that they are now ostensibly part of "Western Russia". Someone must think that this is a very clever way of concealing the continued presense of pro-German units in the Baltic.
Also... The Bolsheviks lost Petrograd /facepalm.
The Soviets and their Anarchist allies have launched an attack on Odessa, but worse than that, they are also moving in to encircle it from the north.
I would love to transfer some UGA divisions to the East about now but as you can see the UGA firefighters are still busy putting out fires on the the Western front. I should just rename that particular unit to "UGA Firefighter Corps"
Denikin launched a massive cleanup operation in Chechnya, attempting to flush out the remaining Soviet units from the region. He also concluded an alliance with Armenia, which in turn is at war with Azerbaijan.
March 11th - not only is Odessa about to be lost, but my garrison division there is about to be destroyed. I really didn't expect having to abandon Odessa so I left the garrison division there to guard. Turns out that was a mistake.
This is fine.
First meaningful victory against the Soviets, at Mozyr. The province is just too much of a tough nut to crack and the Soviet assault miserably fails.
Oh, hello there. And good luck with that, lol. Actually, no, no luck please. I don't need another red threat to my west.
Denikin overran most of Chechnya but the Reds simply escaped south where they joined up with the Islamist separatists still holding southern Daghestan. Denikin demanded that they hand over the Reds instead of sheltering them, but the separatists refused, so war was inevitable. It must be assumed that Denikin's ultimate aim here is to link up with his Armenian ally.
A new Cossack uprising erupted in the Upper Don centered around Vyoshenskaya / Pavlovsk area. Hopefully this will distract the Reds from my front at least a little bit.
The game is tempting me with the option to surrender to Poland. Never! Not to mention it is way too late for that at this point and I would be left with basically no territory if I took that option.
Trouble in paradise? Looks like the Bolshevik-Anarchist alliance broke apart, and Makhno is now on his own.
Treaty of Versailles takes effect. Poland is even larger now. Meanwhile, Lithuania is not doing too well. And I still haven't seen a single battle between the Poles and the Soviets so far, these guys don't seem too eager to fight each other do they..
Finally, a new infantry division for the Ukrainian People's Army, this will change everything! /jk
I have 5 IC left at this point so most of my production is going towards supplies and reinforcements, I have little to nothing left for building new divisions.
After the messy Red-Black breakup, the Soviet lines are starting to look a bit stretched thin.. I might be able to launch some kind of limited counter-attack soon.
May 3rd - Finally, i think that might be the first actual battle between Poland and the Soviets. That took them long enough. Lithuania is still struggling.
Meanwhile Denikin's "South Russia" has been steadily growing in size, especially after linking up with the Upper Don rebels. The Soviets better take note of that.
Good, more recovery! This means I should be able to take at least one or two more divisions off from the Polish front.
Alright, I've had enough patience, it's time to strike back.
The Glory and Freedom of Ukraine has not yet Died!
Upon us, fellow countrymen, the fate shall smile once more.
Our enemies will perish, like springtime melts the snow.
And so, my dear brothers, we shall be masters in our own home.
^Very appropriate lyrics come to think of it, given that winter just recently ended and ice and mud finally melted by early May.
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Are flags normally that dark in HOI3? For me the flags in PwV appeared really dim for some reason. Also I tried the 1918 campaign as the Soviets and the first thing i noticed is that nobody other than me seemed to be actually able to reinforce their units, so winning the war was a simple enough matter to simply bleed them dry a little bit in until their units have lost so much strength that they're unable to put up any fight whatsoever.
I wonder if it takes a certain kind of person to have enough patience and free time to individually create a mod. So many individual modders/creators seem notoriously thin-skinned and unable to come to terms with the fact that the internet is toxic at its core, always has been and always will be.
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Slowest reader and writer at the forums present.
This looks quite interesting, the scenario you put yourself in seems quite fun. I just started reading it but from what I got to see on later updates, you have really spiced up whatever mod you are using (or you got a personal mod quite fascinating to see!). Lately I had been thinking about modding TGC or PwV to create a Russian Warlord Era AAR (though modding on that scale is painful I'm sure haha).
Will stick around to see how this Ukraine develops, I hope you find a way to beat Russia and whoever tries to put down the Ukrainian spirit. Good luck on this!
This looks quite interesting, the scenario you put yourself in seems quite fun. I just started reading it but from what I got to see on later updates, you have really spiced up whatever mod you are using (or you got a personal mod quite fascinating to see!). Lately I had been thinking about modding TGC or PwV to create a Russian Warlord Era AAR (though modding on that scale is painful I'm sure haha).
Will stick around to see how this Ukraine develops,
I hope you find a way to beat Russia and whoever tries to put down the Ukrainian spirit. Good luck on this! - 1
What an interesting story and AAR! And how gruesomely hopeless, just like in real history. Subscribed!
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Haller's army appears to have finally arrived in Poland, so i'm not going to be able to draw quite as many divisions away from the Polish front as I hoped initially. However..... SOMETHING must have just happened.
The "Grigoriev & Terpylo uprising" happened in south-central Ukraine, giving both Makhno and myself a few extra militia units to play around with. Remember Grigoriev and Terpylo? They were some of the traitors who betrayed me early on and joined the advancing Bolshevik forces. The Bolsheviks, apparently, must not have heard of the expression "never trust a traitor". Well, now they get a taste of their own medicine.
By the way, Makhno was a bit wiser when dealing with Grigoriev. Supposedly, when Grigoriev showed up to Makhno's HQ to negotiate an alliance, Makhno shot him in the face. Then he somehow convinced the remnants of Grigoriev's army to join his cause anyway. Also the story has it that at one point Makhno invited Petliura to his HQ, to "negotiate an alliance" of course. Petliura considered the offer but wisely made an excuse and turned around mid-way. The Whites weren't quite as wise. At one point White general Wrangel sent a messenger to Makno in the hope of negotiating an alliance. Can you guess what happened to the messenger? He was shot in the face. The Bolsheviks were the only ones who were somehow capable of negotiating alliances with Makhno. I don't know how they did it, maybe they communicated solely by means of dropping leaflets.
So... Makhno and myself are no longer enemies but we aren't quite allies either. He still hates me and hates Ukraine, like he hates all forms of nationalism, but we can still tolerate each other for the time being as we clearly have plenty enough enemies already. To his credit, Makhno was perhaps the only leader in all of Ukraine at the time who was not an anti-Semite. Everyone else... Whew, let's just say it was not a good time to be a jew living in Ukraine. To coordinate our actions a little bit, I actually get to control his army.
But... Speaking of the art of betrayal, can you beat this guy?
One of Grigoriev's accomplices, this guy has no less than 6 successful betrayals on his record. A true pro, what can you say.
He was finally arrested and executed in 1929, as he was, very likely, planning his 7th betrayal.
As Talleyrand supposedly once said, "Treason is subject to time", meaning that one who betrays the right sides at the right times is not remembered as a traitor but as a hero.
Talleyrand would, of course, know all about that particular subject.
Back to the field of battle... In spite of the chaos going on in their rear, the Soviets make an attempt to attack Tarnopol which is defended by 1 UGA infantry and 2 UPA divisions - 1 infantry and 1 militia. After some fierce fighting, the Soviet attack is repelled.
I've taken back my first province from the Soviets, althought, to be fair, the Soviets didn't even try to fight for it. Meanwhile, I need to come up with a strategy for Makhno's insurgents. Trapped in central Ukraine, they may not survive very long, and even if they do, we won't be of much use to each other. We may do better if we actually join forces, which we should be able to do given that there are only a couple provinces separating our armies. With that in mind, I use Makhno's forces to attack Vinnitsa. I see that among Makhno's forces are some former Red Ukrainian divisions which defected to him, good for him. Not sure why they are so backward in terms of quality though, did they squander all of their weaponry when defecting?
While I can't do much to help Makhno's attack on Vinnistsa, I can use my elite Sich Riflemen unit to occupy Zhitomir instead.
While Makhno is successful at capturing Vinnitsa, in the east, Denikin's "South Russians" (I will simply call them "Russians" from now on) are relentless and pushing West with significant forces.
The first joint action of UPA (Ukrainian People's Army), UGA (Ukrainian Galician Army), and Makhno's RIAU (Revolutionary Insurrectionary Army of Ukraine) takes place at Zhitomir which comes under attack from three sides. What a colorful coalition, huh!
Zhitomir is captured by the UGA forces. This not only establishes a direct connection between my own territory and Makhno's, but also encircles the Red divisions in the Odessa region in the process. Things are looking up!
With the Red supply lines cut off, it should be be fairly trivial to destroy them.
Meanwhile somewhere far in the north..... It would appear that the Brits have had enough of fighting in Northern Russia and are beginning to evacuate. Without their help, Northern Russia is pretty doomed.
The Reds are now encircled in Kamenets-Podolsky region and out of supply, yet even a combined attack on them from 4 sides fails to achieve results.
The Russians are still pushing the RIAU pretty hard from the East. Not much I can do to stop them.
Another assault on the reds with more divisions committed to the fight, and it still goes nowhere. What the hell? I was hoping to take Kiev before the Russians get there, but my window of opportunity is closing fast. I think i see the problem though - I don't have any UGA divisions committed to this fight, only UPA and RIAU. Combined with a river crossing penalty plus a penalty for attacking an enemy who has no escape route, and that's the result I ended up getting.. But come on now, six months into the war and the Galician units are still the only ones actually capable of accomplishing anything? This distinction in quality will eventually go away and our units will one day become of equivalent value, but it takes time...
Still, i'm not doing all that bad all things considered. If you think I should be doing better, well... Consider the following: this is what Ukraine ACTUALLY looked like during this time period:
See that tiny cyan spot labeled UNR? That was Ukraine! See, everything is so much better if you look at it in comparison.
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Thanks guys, pleasantly surprised to see people still interested in simple DH AARs
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I had never realized quite how vicious Makhno was. I suppose that makes the Bolshevik betrayal in OTL all the better. I have to wonder if he somehow convinced himself anarchists could belong in the Soviet Union, where the White Russians were obviously not friends. Otherwise I'm not sure what he was thinking.
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Fun read so far and the timing is lovely.
Had to chuckle at your references to Makhno as I have been reading some of his writings recently, though I am not as much aware of the historical context of his actions. While your own in-game survival remains an open question, the AAR does act as a pretty decent quick history lesson of the Ukrainian experience.
Had to chuckle at your references to Makhno as I have been reading some of his writings recently, though I am not as much aware of the historical context of his actions. While your own in-game survival remains an open question, the AAR does act as a pretty decent quick history lesson of the Ukrainian experience.
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Oh no.. I completely forgot about this. So, what would consistently happen in most games where both WUPR and UPR are AI controlled is that the Poles would take Tarnopol first and leave most of the Galician army trapped to the south and then destroy it. I couldn't figure out an easy way to make sure that the Galicians withdraw safely so I ended up adding a river connection between Stanislawow and Kamenets-Podolsky as a temporary workaround, so that the troops can retreat from one province to the other. I have to say it's just kind of dumb the way Tarnopol province is shaped and positioned in the game. Anyway... The Reds just used this against me and showed up in Stanislawow when I was definitely not expecting them. Gah.
Oh and by the way, these militia units that defected to my side are... almost completely useless. In fact, i'm pretty sure they actually do more harm than good at this point because they consume supplies like a normal division but they add basically nothing to my defenses. Over time, within the next few months or so, they should become useful, but right now... Ugh. Oh and... Yeah, see that name, Tutyunnik? That's the same exact guy from the previous post who has 6 defections on his record. A very reliable commander.
Maybe the Reds splitting up their forces was actually a blessing, as this finally allowed me to overcome their stubborn defenses. Aside for splitting up their troops it also removed their "no retreat possible" defensive bonus.
By the way, if you are wondering why the Poles are not taking any action against that Nowy Sacz area, aka the Rusyn-Lemko Republic, it's because they have a non-aggression pact with Denikin and other White leaders.
Meanwhile, in case you thought poor Lithuania was not having enough problems with neighbors, the Poles attacked them again! Both Lithuania and myself are in a similar position vis-a-vis Poland. We both know that Polish appetites can be temporarily sated with territorial concessions, but this will last only until they inevitably get hungry again. Ultimately Poland dreams of the restoration of its pre-partition borders, which means subjugation of both Lithuania and Ukraine. Now the Lithuanians have to fight Poland, Soviet Russia, and the... "Western Russia", aka "Wer are 100% Russich soldaten, we fight for mutter russia!" - those guys.
Russian cavalry is galloping full speed towards Odessa, now temporarily occupied by the Makhnoists.
A brief look at Central Asia: Denikin took Ashkhabad from the Reds, but they continue to hold out in eastern Turkmenistan. In the Caucasus, no apparent change. Denikin made a couple of attempts to assault southern Daghestan, but quickly gave up due to very unfavorable terrain and tough resistance.
Oh christ, where did Poland get an air force from?!
The Russians are pushing Makhno's RIAU forces into my land. Welcome, "friends"... In exchange for keeping their army fed and supplied, and safe from destruction, I will require their help with my endeavors. Such as my attempt to take Korosten from the Reds in order to get my troops better positioned for an attack on Kiev. Largely due to unfavorable forest terrain as well as Soviet reinforcements, the attack failed.
Some kind of anti-Russian revolt broke out in Chechnya.
July 25th: Having finally cleaned up the remaining Reds from Galicia, I am redeploying my troops to get in position to strike on Kiev. But.. It looks like the Russians area already on it. I have a choice here, I could try to join their attack, but I'm afraid that if I do, I will just end up repeating the infamous Battle of Kiev (historically August 1919) which ended up in disaster for the Ukrainian army.
Long story short - attacked on both sides, the Reds were defeated and fled Kiev, at which point the Ukrainian and Russian units entered the city simultaneously from two sides. Initially an agreement was reached by the local commanders of both sides such that both Ukrainian and Russian flags would be hoisted side by side on top of the City Council building and a joint parade was to be held where both Russian and Ukrainian units would celebrate victory. The agreement fell apart almost immediately when another Ukrainian local commander took it upon himself to tear down the Russian flag from the building and stomp on it. That led to a chaotic exchange of gunfire and then a battle right in the middle of Kiev, as a result of which the Ukrainians lost both the city and some 3000 Ukrainians were disarmed and taken prisoner. Part of the reason for the disaster was the complete lack of understanding and coordination between the UGA and UPA from the very beginning - it was a UGA commander who made the agreement with the Russians, and it was a UPA commander who took it upon himself to tear it apart. Neither one appears to have consulted their actions with Petliura.
I'm going to try to do things differently. I'm not going to help the Russians by attacking the Reds and recklessly rushing in to Kiev, but rather I want the two sides to fight each other for the city while I position my forces such that they can retake it when both sides are sufficiently weak. For this, I have to take Korosten one way or another.
Well well, Korosten is finally mine, but looks like the initial Russian attack on Kiev failed as the Reds have brought in reinforcements and are desperately clinging on to the city. Meanwhile the Russians took Orel in the north and are continuing to steamroll RIAU in the south.
Russians launch their second attack on Kiev. The city is fairly well defended right now, so I won't join this battle until I'm sure that I can win it.
Having repelled the second attack on Kiev as well, between August 7th and August 19th the Reds withdrew some divisions from the city and sent them off to confront the Russians further north at Orel where they were getting dangerously close to Moscow. So 3 Soviet Ukrainian divisions were sent to cover that direction, but in turn this left Kiev exposed, and the Russians launched their third attack on the city. This time... This time, I think the time has come. It is on! Kiev will belong to me and me only!
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Just found this artist impression of him somewhere on the net:
In the time of warlords, he was definitely one of the most shrewd and prolific.
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The unit strength thing was just a AI thing that crept in and was never fixed, TBL also has that issue at times. As for the flags that seemed just to be his choice
Doing some modding myself now and yeah, being on the other side of the critique does make me say that it's quite the ability to be able to deal with it well. But it helps if the people you generally discuss things with are also people you just talk to in "off time" so to sayI wonder if it takes a certain kind of person to have enough patience and free time to individually create a mod. So many individual modders/creators seem notoriously thin-skinned and unable to come to terms with the fact that the internet is toxic at its core, always has been and always will be.
Well the situation seems to be generally improving tho that doesn't really say much. If the inital loss of land (with Ukraine re-entering the RCW in 1918) is so severe, how could you have ever hoped to convince the Don and Kuban Cossacks to join the Kievan government?
Reminds me of that one painting of the Zaporozhian (?) Cossack Host's response to the Ottoman SultanJust found this artist impression of him somewhere on the net:
In the time of warlords, he was definitely one of the most shrewd and prolific.
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I have 13 divisions total assaulting Kiev from two sides, including the RIAU and UGA units. Many of my troops are militia but militia should actually have a bonus for fighting in cities so it is not all bad. Even if the Russians get to Kiev first, I should be able to kick them out. Should be...
The Bolsheviks regiment in Kiev is easily overwhelmed and flees the city. Meanwhile the Russian cavalary led by Babiev continues to press RIAU units in the south, and it is at this point that I realize that RIAU actually does NOT have permission to retreat into UGA/WUPR territory. Apparently the Galicians really don't trust Makhno and don't want any Anarchists in their lands. That's a slight problem. I really don't want to withdraw any units from the Kiev front and risk not being able to take the city. But I also don't want to leave Galicia open.
Well, Bolsheviks recovered Orel, but they lost Kiev. And of course, the Russians somehow got there first. Well then, let them celebrate their victory... Today is their day.
Surprise, b*tches!
Led by Makhno's RIAU which is experienced in the art of guerilla warfare, the Ukrainian units quietly infiltrated the city overnight before the Russians could set up any defenses. In the early morning hours of August 29th a Russian patrol stumbled upon a RIAU squad which was smuggling weapons into the city and alerted General Erdely, but it was too late, the Russians were completely unprepared and found themselves nearly surrounded in the city center. The Russians fled from the center and tried to hold on to the city's left bank, dragging the battle on for another week, but after the main bulk of the UGA and UPA forces arrived and started surrounding the White armies from the south, and especially after the warlord colonel Terpylo helped UPA cross the Dnieper river near the village of Trypillya, which happens to be his home town and his main base of support, the Russian position in Kiev became hopeless and they withdrew. This victory was possible only thanks to the excellent coordination of all three armies - RIAU, UGA, and UPA, including its militia-warlord regiments.
By September 7th, the battle was over and Kiev was secured under Ukrainian control.
A bit over-excited by my success in Kiev, I immediately tried to solve the problem of Babiev's cavalry on my southern flank. But thanks to multiple negatvie factors, including the intervention of the Polish air force, the battle did not go in my favor. Really Poland??? You don't have anyone else you'd rather be harassing right now?
When the main bulk of the White Russian infantry and militia caught up and reinforced Babiev's cavalry spearhead, the assault had to be abandoned and the Ukrainian units returned to their initial positions.
Goddamnit someone please stop this guy. Babiev doesn't rest for a second, he is eager to exploit this breakthrough and now he is pushing further West into Galicia, forcing me to quickly have to pull troops away both from Kiev and from the Polish front in order to stop him by any means. Good think at least I've already secured Kiev so it will be difficult for the Russians to take it back.
Suddenly, I get a genius idea - Babiev is committing nearly all his forces for the push west into Galicia, but his right flank is clearly weak and he has basically no reserves. What I must do is use the bulk of my forces to strike south at Vinnitsa which is defended by 1 measly Russian regiment, and then immediately procede south to Mogilev-Podolsky and surround his entire army!
WHAT?!!!
Oh, hello? Or good bye, rather? Makhno, you son of a @#%@^... Evidently, Mr. Makhno was not very happy with his role of fighting my battles for me in exchange for food and protection. And he was really unhappy with the fact that while his forces were instrumental in capturing Kiev, he was completely excluded from any political role in the future of Ukraine. So, when the first opportunity presented itself, under his orders RIAU broke through the Russian lines and then pushed East all the way until they returned to their home base back in Zaporozhye. That must have been quite the journey. Oh, and while he's at it, he also somehow rekindled the alliance with his old pals, the Bolsheviks. So we are at war again. Great!
This event in the game is modeled on the Battle of Peregonovka, which indeed had the Anarchist army break through the Russian lines and strike east all the way to Mariupol. The event is timed and mostly inevitable from the point when the Red-Black alliance breaks apart. The trigger conditions are currently as follows:
trigger = {
NOT = { region = { region = "Ukraine" country = -3 data = 1 value = 25 } }
region = { region = "Ukraine" country = UTC data = 1 value = 30 }
event = { id = 2193730 days = 150 } #"End of Alliance with the Reds" + 150 days, around September 1919
control = { province = 630 data = UTC }
control = { province = 631 data = UTC }
war = { country = UTC }
}
So theoretically I could have simply counted 150 days from the point when Makhno goes to war with the Reds in order to calculate exactly how much time I have before it happens, but I forgot the exact number when I was playing plus I'd also need to remember the trigger offset which adds uncertainty.
The Russians bring reinforcements to Vinnitsa and the assault there completely fails, instead seeing that I'm weakened again they immediately also attack Proskurov, and Kiev, and the Polish air force keeps bombing me. Agh!!! Makhno, you ruined everything, I hope you rot in Anarchist hell!
The Galicians were certainly right not to trust him.
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Yeah it's definitely meant to evoke associations with that painting. And Makhno, while not a Cossack himself, is a native to Zaporozhye region, and in my view he and his ideology does well to represent the overall attitudes of the Sich.
Well things didn't exactly go as planned.
It's not supposed to be easy but it's possible, at least that part you quoted is. Since that game, I've been intrigued enough to start over and take a different route to see how the game turns out. I WAS able to draw both Crimea and Kuban into my orbit, I was even able to annex Crimea entirely, but i'm still barely hanging on to my life. Here's a screenshot from an alternative dimension:
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Surely he wouldn't carry out his 7th betrayal?!
I guess that's the beauty of a messy, messy civil war.
That's what I was rooting for you to do, but our brilliant plan was ruined!
I have to wonder why Makhno thought getting back with the Soviets was a good idea. Was he banking on them winning and rewarding him?
Looks like you had to give up Galicia and some of the west though. Did you play nice with Poland, or sacrifice the west to gain in the east?
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So I guess this clears up a whole lot. It's a choice between fighting Poland for Galicia or Denikin's White's for Crimea, the Kuban and Don, weakening one of the Soviets enemies in the process. At the moment it's just waiting if Poland proves to be another proper enemy for the Soviets to fight, and if the UGA is a better ally than the Cossack hostsWell things didn't exactly go as planned.
It's not supposed to be easy but it's possible, at least that part you quoted is. Since that game, I've been intrigued enough to start over and take a different route to see how the game turns out. I WAS able to draw both Crimea and Kuban into my orbit, I was even able to annex Crimea entirely, but i'm still barely hanging on to my life. Here's a screenshot from an alternative dimension:
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With RIAU's sudden departure, I am forced to abandon my expansionist plans and go back on the defensive. Luckily, my morale has improved enough by this point such that I should be able to hold the front even with inferior numbers.
This Russian attempt to recapture Kiev, for example, is successfully repelled.
And then this happens...
Without making peace, Poles and the Soviets agreed to freeze all fighting along their front line and will now concentrate all their efforts on other enemies. Mostly, me. And this is not just Poland, either. Same thing applies to Finland, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania.
Historically this happened around October 1919 and it was one of the biggest and decisive factors in allowing the Soviets to turn the tide especially against Denikin and emerge victorious in the war.
The reasons why this became possible are pretty complex. On one hand, the Soviets felt sufficiently threatened such that they decided they could no longer afford to fight for the pre-1914 borders or to "export the revolution" westward, and so they were prepared to recognize the independence of Finland, Poland, and the Baltic States as a necessary sacrifice in order to ensure victory in the civil war.
On the other hand, the secessionist states, having achieved de-facto Soviet acceptance of their main demands, were also not in the mood for advancing deeper into Russia proper. Unlike how the Bolshevik propaganda portrayed them, not only did they not have a clear stake in who wins the struggle for Moscow, but even more than that - most of them actually preferred a Red victory to a White one. Poland in particular - for a complex set of reasons Pilsudski considered dealing with Bolshevik Russia to be preferable to non-Bolshevik one, viewing the latter as a much greater long-term threat to Poland's independence. So even when he thought it was possible for the Polish troops to march on Moscow and occupy the city, he simply found it against Polish interests to do so. Denikin in his memoirs after the war accused Pilsudski of being one of the primary culprits in enabling a Bolshevik victory in Russia.
In game, there are a number of conditions that have to be met for the event to fire, but the main ones are these:
OR = {
region = { region = "Southern Russia" country = UTC data = 1 value = 40 }
region = { region = "Ukraine" country = UTC data = 1 value = 40 }
region = { region = "Russia" country = UER data = 1 value = 15 }
vp = { country = UER value = 120 }
vp = { country = UTC value = 70 }
}
In other words, whenever the Whites seem to be doing a little too well, if Poland is AI controlled, Pilsudski will order a ceasefire on the Western Front in order to allow the Reds to turn the tide. Player controlled Poland also has that option available but as a decision and the set of requirements is much smaller. As you can imagine, this makes it pretty difficult for the Whites to win the war overall. And here are the main trigger conditions for the ceasefire to end:
OR = {
NOT = {
region = { region = "Southern Russia" country = UTC data = 1 value = 10 }
region = { region = "Kaukasus" country = UTC data = 1 value = 14 } #No more than 3/24 = 12.5%
region = { region = "Ukraine" country = UTC data = 1 value = 20 } #includes crimea (12%)
region = { region = "Russia" country = UER data = 1 value = 1 }
region = { region = "Eastern Russia" country = UER data = 1 value = 1 }
region = { region = "Urals" country = UER data = 1 value = 50 }
region = { region = "Novosibirsk" country = UER data = 1 value = 100 }
}
event = { id = 2007501 days = 1260 } #May 1921
flag = ceasefireRus
}
So, once ceasefire is made, it will either break by around May 1921 (or rather 1260 days from the date of revolution, whenever that is) or whenever Whites are nearly beaten, whichever happens first. In other words, Poland will give the Reds more than enough time to crush their internal opponents, but their patience is not infinite and if the Soviets are taking too long, the ceasefire will eventually end regardless of how the RCW is going.
Where does this leave me? Well... I'm pretty much f*cked now. The best I can hope for is to try to weather the storm until the ceasefire breaks. Although even then, only Poland typically chooses to resume the war, while Finland and the Baltics sign peace treaties and exit the war entirely as their default option.
The very first thing that happens after I notice the ceasefire, is a combined Polish-Soviet assault on Mozyr. So not only they are in a ceasefire, they are actually working together now. How cute!
Luckily i'm not quite the only enemy for the Poles - they still want to finish off the "Western Russia" as well, though it won't take them very much time to accomplish this now that they've taken nearly all their troops off from the Soviet frontline.
I was forced to commit a serious force to Mozyr to repel this combined attack, at which point the Soviets attacked me in Korosten and the Russians at the same time attacked in Zhitomir.
I was able to hold Korosten but lost Zhitomir. The overall situation along the entire front is getting really dangerous, I simply do not have enough troops to cover its entire length and defend everywhere. Russians launch another attack on Kiev. Miraculously I am still able to hold it after bringing reinforcements, but just barely.
By November 1919, "Western Russia" appears to be as good as finished. Afterwards, I can expect all these troops to show up at my doorstep instead. Oh boy.
The option to surrender to Poland is still there as my "exit route" but there is absolutely nothing I would actually gain from it at this point. Furthermore, the UGA will immediately defect to Denikin if I do that.
Something's going on across the Black Sea, but there's so much happening around me that the southern shore of the Black Sea might as well be on another planet.
Western Russia is done.
Russians launch a major assault on Kiev, much better prepared than the last few, and another assault on Tarnopol. Simultanausly, the Poles launch a major attack on both Lutsk at Lviv that includes units that are coming in from the north. Given that both places are under attack at the same time, I'm unable to defend by shuffling troops back and forth between them like I used to. The situation is clearly untenable, I have to give ground somewhere.
Thus, Kiev is once again lost.
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Well seeing the Bolsheviks as one of the more likely victors of the war was probably his main motivation. Regardless of how likely they were to actually reward him in the way he would find acceptable, it is still better to be on the winning side of the war than the losing one, because the loser definitely wouldn't be able to reward him even if they wanted.
The option was probably also very popular with his troops, many of whom were either ex-Bolsheviks or Bolshevik sympathizers, and allowed him to also take many of the local pro-Bolshevik partisan cells under his wing and thus increase the side of his army. Makhno himself was an ex-Bolshevik in a sense, given that he used to officially command a unit of the Red Army. He had strong connections among the Reds and shared many overall goals with them and probably expected that these connections and shared goals could ultimately help him secure a better deal with the Reds than with anyone else. That's my guess.
A bit of both. I tried to make peace with Poland as soon as possible and it actually lasted longer than I expected, it lasted for about 2 years or so, giving me some breathing room to accomplish my main objectives. Ultimately of course Poland went to war with me again when I rejected the "Treaty of Warsaw" ultimatum, but since I was able to hold on to both Kiev and Odessa, at least the UGA still fights for me.
Funny you mention that right before Pilsudski makes a ceasefire with Lenin XD
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Let's start with some good news. I am pleased to announce that Czechoslovakia finally changed its flag to something that is less of an eyesore and doesn't look identical to the Polish flag.
Presumably, Poland and Czechoslovakia were competing in some kind of contest of patience to see who gives up first and changes their flag to something else. The contest was resolved in Poland's favor as Czechoslovaks finally gave up and changed their flag. That is unlike their other conflict, which was resolved mostly in Czechoslovakia's favor. But now, their flags are distinct and easy to tell apart. So that's the good news.
Now, the bad news..
Kiev is lost, possibly for good. My only possible hope for returning to the city is by taking advantage of Denikin's misfortunes internally and in the war against Soviet Russia in order to slowly inch my way back.
As of right now though, I have to keep retreating.
Some kind of hole has been formed in the Russian lines for unclear reasons. Could be that the Kuban Cossacks got tired of working for Denikin and went home, or maybe they were just moved to cover other fronts, i.e. maybe Denikin finally realized that he really needs to urgently do something about that Makhno threat right on his doorstep. Either way, i might as well try to use this to my advantage.
Yet another hole in the Russian defenses at Korosten. Hmm, don't mind if I do. Meanwhile I also make an attempt to recapture Proskurov.
Korosten is taken back. The Poles retaliate with an assault on Mozyr. Look who's defending Mozyr btw, good old captain Girgoriev. Historically he was already dead by this point, shot by you know who. Not even sure what he is doing as part of my army.
Proskurov is successfully recaptured and I'm going to try to continue moving forward and see if I can get away with taking back Kamenets-Podolsky as well. Perhaps things were not actually as bleak as I thought. Looking further east, I can kind of see why the Whites are suddenly struggling so much against me - apparently the Soviets started pressing them so hard on the Don front that they've actually lost Rostov, their capital.
Zhitomir was temporarily lost to a Russian counter-attack, but I have little difficulty gaining it back again.
The Russians try to fight me for Zhitomir again but something is clearly very wrong with their forces... Apparently, their supply lines have been cut by Makhno such that Russian units in Central Ukraine are now completely out of supply. Oh wow. In that case, perhaps I can even take back Kiev...
Never mind.
Nope, nope, and nope again. There go my hopes of returning to Kiev.
Most of Ukraine is, once again, Red and Black.
This concludes the "bad news" section of this update. More than Makhno's betrayal or anything else, that Polish-Soviet non-aggression pact (really let's just call it "let's divide up Ukraine among ourselves pact") has really been wrecking me.
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