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Russian Empire develops brand new super heavy tank: Mammoth Tank
Ok yeah. . .I'm okay when it comes to bending the Rule of Realism but to totally break it? Nooooo.
don't be so proud of this realistic terror you enforced, the ability to destroy an army is insignificant next to the power of imagination!
it's ok for a computer coordinated cannonfire on a seacruiser, but not on a landcruiser? because the only major obstacles in producing mega tanks is recoil of giant cannon (here it has to be coordinated simultaneus fire of both cannons, or the recoil will be swirling whole turret around) and time to produce a number significant enough for a battlefield. Russia definitely has a spare factory and already has advanced gunfire control... This kind of tank is a game changer.
ok end of this offtoppic, you have my response for your kind of realism.
it's ok for a computer coordinated cannonfire on a seacruiser, but not on a landcruiser? because the only major obstacles in producing mega tanks is recoil of giant cannon (here it has to be coordinated simultaneus fire of both cannons, or the recoil will be swirling whole turret around) and time to produce a number significant enough for a battlefield. Russia definitely has a spare factory and already has advanced gunfire control... This kind of tank is a game changer.
ok end of this offtoppic, you have my response for your kind of realism.
Ahhh, I feel somewhat saddened at the death of the navy of Finland
I had hoped it would stay in port and save this token of Finish pride from this untimely demise so that it may fight at a later date against Finland's true enemies in the North West.
Is it possible that one of those fine Finnish ships would be recovered? It would make a fine gesture towards reunion, reconstruction and good will between the Imperial Crown and the Finnish People.
Maybe the Ylijumala could be spared this naval purge?
I had hoped it would stay in port and save this token of Finish pride from this untimely demise so that it may fight at a later date against Finland's true enemies in the North West.Is it possible that one of those fine Finnish ships would be recovered? It would make a fine gesture towards reunion, reconstruction and good will between the Imperial Crown and the Finnish People.
Maybe the Ylijumala could be spared this naval purge?
And therein lies the issue. You can't really alienate Otto, after the Japanese he's probably been the most receptive to positive relations with Russia (and the Japanese alliance is very arteficial) nor can you endorse the ideas of speratism and nationalism. At the same time however, you don't want to alienate populations that would look to Russia as their protectors...
It was actually more a case of writing fluidity over realism. In the future, i'm sticking to realism.
"One and Indivisible: 2040?"
I'll stick to bending and avoid even that where i can.
Super heavy tanks are a bad idea for a number of reasons. Generally though, it's the fact that their strategic, operational and tactical mobility all suck. If you're going to tear up roads, destroy bridges, guzzle fuel and then break down before you crawl into the fight at a couple of kilometers an hour, you're better off just building more mediums and heavies! There will be no P. 1000 in this playthrough!
Ahhh, I feel somewhat saddened at the death of the navy of Finland
Is it possible that one of those fine Finnish ships would be recovered? It would make a fine gesture towards reunion, reconstruction and good will between the Imperial Crown and the Finnish People.
Maybe the Ylijumala could be spared this naval purge?
I hoped they'd stay in port as well but the AI decided it didn't like my shore bombardment operation (against the Swedes!). I don't consider the Finnish people or military to really be my enemy here, I've avoided any combat with Finnish armies and am trying to win the campaign by fighting through the Scandinavians to the Finnish VPs.
Given this is a costal engagement we're talking relatively shallow water. As such salvage of ships either surrendering, beaching or even sinking is not entirely out of the question. Rebuilding would take effort though. On the other hand, the Russians will probably want to build something in Finland's new navy yards, if only to support the economy that the war will have gutted. If they can't rebuild an existing hull, they may just lay down a new one.
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you are right, i can't read a thing, but what i got is just it's notes from day to day
2040? i expect tanks to be reaching 120km/h and ion barrels oh wait, aww you thought about mammoths from cnc3? so cute but yeah, by then there will be tech to make them more mobile
but original mammoths "were" built in Russia in 1950, weren't as giant as p1000 but certainly not far bigger or harder to construct than Die Maus. But yeah, the only use of heavy tanks is indeed concentrated on defence or bunker-fortifications busting. I could see them smashing a panzer spearhead blitz as nothing from those tanks could hurt them, or when fortifications are too much, mammoths are the way to waltz over them. They would be a great distraction as well, Mammoths and infantry encroatching from a side, while the real spearhead breaks the other.
"If you're going to tear up roads, destroy bridges, guzzle fuel and then break down before you crawl into the fight at a couple of kilometers an hour" Not that many roads in Russia, or on a nomans fields decimated by thousands of artilerry barrels to no effect. break down, russian engines had something german had not, simplicity which gave them higher endurance also, you can fuel them with vodka!
anyway, when you can't break a fortification or trenches you start to bombard the terrain which becomes mud, not so speed friendly surface for tanks either.
Also, to destroy a mammoth, you would have to use: v1, kamikaze, bomber with a bunker-busting bombs, even less mobile or defensible heavy artillery, the only way to effectively put down a mammoth would be to starve him, whcih would be impossible considering all regular forces, that would have died in rushing forts or in desperate defence are still around.
So i see them not as an epic and romantic super uber spearhead, but a fortress buster or mobile defense post which could be a salvation for regular force which would have to swarm and swallow up the enemy.
edit: and i think that in kr you could use them more often considering trench warfare still a viable strategy around. a big battlefield, a mammoth crawls upon defenders, they start to panic as they can't match the mammoth and the infantry supporting it, they concentrate all effort on it. meanwhile the mediums and heavies go around spearhead the canibalized defences
2040? i expect tanks to be reaching 120km/h and ion barrels
oh wait, aww you thought about mammoths from cnc3? so cute but yeah, by then there will be tech to make them more mobilebut original mammoths "were" built in Russia in 1950, weren't as giant as p1000 but certainly not far bigger or harder to construct than Die Maus. But yeah, the only use of heavy tanks is indeed concentrated on defence or bunker-fortifications busting. I could see them smashing a panzer spearhead blitz as nothing from those tanks could hurt them, or when fortifications are too much, mammoths are the way to waltz over them. They would be a great distraction as well, Mammoths and infantry encroatching from a side, while the real spearhead breaks the other.
"If you're going to tear up roads, destroy bridges, guzzle fuel and then break down before you crawl into the fight at a couple of kilometers an hour" Not that many roads in Russia, or on a nomans fields decimated by thousands of artilerry barrels to no effect. break down, russian engines had something german had not, simplicity which gave them higher endurance
also, you can fuel them with vodka! anyway, when you can't break a fortification or trenches you start to bombard the terrain which becomes mud, not so speed friendly surface for tanks either.
Also, to destroy a mammoth, you would have to use: v1, kamikaze, bomber with a bunker-busting bombs, even less mobile or defensible heavy artillery, the only way to effectively put down a mammoth would be to starve him, whcih would be impossible considering all regular forces, that would have died in rushing forts or in desperate defence are still around.
So i see them not as an epic and romantic super uber spearhead, but a fortress buster or mobile defense post which could be a salvation for regular force which would have to swarm and swallow up the enemy.
edit: and i think that in kr you could use them more often considering trench warfare still a viable strategy around. a big battlefield, a mammoth crawls upon defenders, they start to panic as they can't match the mammoth and the infantry supporting it, they concentrate all effort on it. meanwhile the mediums and heavies go around spearhead the canibalized defences
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Just conduct high altitude carpet bombing. That ought to solve your "mega-tank" problem. If it fails, lather, rinse, repeat.
Chapter 86: Clearing the North.
Taken from "Talvisota" by Alexander Hawke said:The Baltic sea was awash with a storm of shells as the Battle of the Baltic swung decisively in the favour of the Russians. Practically blind to the location of their enemies, struggling to engage targets through obscuring smoke and the dark of night, the Finnish fleet blundered around as the Russian battleships and battlecruiser honed in on their targets. Heavy and light cruisers also moved to bring their their guns to bear and fresh waves of torpedoes were launched from ever shorter distances.
Sevastopol's gunners proved to be the stars of the fleet. Twelve inch shells found the Finnish flagship and older battleship. Neither went down without a fight. At close range, the Russian shells came in on relatively flat trajectories, slamming straight into the thicker belt armour of the German designs. They shook the ship and caused casualties and even jammed two of the twin turrets, but the WWI era weapons proved inadequate to the task of tackling the more modern Ylijumala. The Finnish fifteen inch guns lashed out in response, but with the ship all but impossible to steer and their foe being so illusive, they mostly found empty space and the cold Baltic sea. Chaos and disorder reigned, and the Finnish fleet lost all cohesion.
With no ship undamaged, and many burning, the Finns struck their colours and prepared to scuttle and abandon their ships.
News of the victory was quickly signalled to Saint Petersburg. The navy could report a near total victory. For the loss of one destroyer, they had sunk two heavy cruisers, two battleships, one battlecruiser and five old destroyers. The military was ecstatic, but the orders and priorities from the Palace were different. The Palace required the navy to move in and rescue as many Finnish sailors as possible from the freezing waters. Thousands of Fins, shivering and often wounded were lifted out of the water by the same ships that had, not so long before, sent them jumping into the ocean.
It mirrored the soft approach the Russian's had struggled to take to the invasion as a whole. To the Emperor, Finland was not Russia's enemy but rather a wayward constituent state Russian units on land had taken great care to avoid intense combat against the few remaining pockets of Finnish military resistance that had survived the Swedish advance. When confronted with hostility, the Russian forces of course responded with overwhelming force, but a genuine effort was being made to present the Russian presence as a liberation and return to the natural order of things.
On land, the Russian advance moved like clockwork. Zhukov's armour punched through the strung out Swedish lines in the South East and raced to cut off the Swedish divisions besieging Helsinki. The first troops into the Finnish capital were a mixture of Russian troops and Finnish soldiers, the latter flown forward. Many freed prisoners of war who agreed to assist in pacifying the capital under their own, often fervently anti-lapua officers. Mannerheim himself became a figurehead for the Finns who chose to co-operate with the Russians rather than, they said, continue to see their country destroyed by waging an insane war against Syndicalists and Russians alike. The move gave the Russian move further legitimacy amongst the Finnish population in exchange for considerable promises being made to facilitate the freedom and and quality of life of the Finnish people as the conflict wound down. The exact scope of those promises would only become apparent after the conflict.
News of the battle in the Baltic was delayed in reaching Helsinki until after the city had been liberated by Russo-Finnish forces. The news would be the final nail in the coffin of any sense of loyalty to the Lapua ideal. For the people of Southern Finland, Mannerheim's deal with the devil meant an end to the Swedish shelling, an end to the long lines of refugees flooding south and the start of regular shipments of humanitarian aid. By contrast, the Lapua backed naval operation seemed pointlessly costly. The Finnish ships had attacked first, greatly outnumbered and suffered a pointless defeat against an enemy that the Finns regarded with less overall hostility than the Syndicalists. Mothers grieved over the pointless losses and the spark went out of the nascent resistance to Russian rule. The Finns might not be happy about what was to come, but in the near term, they weren't ready to fight to the death.
As such, as March came to an end and April approached, Russia finally took full control of the lost Duchy. It had taken the Syndicalists more than a month to grind their way into Finnish territory. It had taken the Russian army a week to gain control.
The Russian campaign didn't stop at the Finnish border though. Russian engineers, motorised and attached to the tank columns and mobile units, worked to bring the Finnish rail net online to support an escalation of forces available for the push into Sweden. For the most part however, they would not be needed. Supported by a ferocious logistics effort, Zhukov pushed his tanks hard and turned north, cutting through the devestated North West of Finland. The Syndicalists were not prepared for the sheer pace of the attack, combined with the disruptive effect of Russian bombing efforts. As a result, they waited for too late to order a general retreat from Finland and found themselves caught between the Russian mobile group and the onslaught of Siberian infantry divisions pushing the entire front from Lake Ladoga to Murmansk. Northern Finland became one great pocket where Sydicalist forces, demoralised, subjected to air attacks, freezing and without supplies, were broken and either forced to surrender or obliterated by the Russian onslaught.
Zhukov's force faced little resistance as it advanced into Swedish territory. There were howls of outrage and derision from the Internationale as it became clear that Russia was entirely serious about pushing its offensive into Syndicalist territory. Privately, the French were not overly concerned, their attention focused on Germany in Western Europe, but felt the need to take advantage of the political points on offer. The British were more concerned, Mosley talking up the possibility of British involvement in the theatre in order to conceal the truth.
In truth, Scandinavia was rolling over far too quickly in the face of the Russians to be in a position to receive game changing help. The greatest challenges for the Russians were primarily logistical as they struggled with the harsh winter wracked terrain in Sweden and Norway.
The Imperial Navy, minus a few ships that had been damaged in the confrontation with Finland, sailed North to face the navies of the Syndicalist block, forced to sally out from Ports that were now under threat from air power flying from Finnish bases. In a series of short engagements, the Russians located, engaged and destroyed the weak Scandinavian fleets and secured absolute naval supremacy.
The Sevastopol's gunners expanded their prestige as the ship, under its acting Captain, scored kill after kill.
Honorable mentions went to a squadron of Russia's older destroyers. Despite not yet being equipped with the extra torpedo launchers planned for all of the fleet's escorts, With the oceans clear, the small Russian merchant marine was able to make its contribution by running supplies to the armoured column now driving South through Sweden.
There were blocks of determined resistance. A lone Swedish division fought to hold up twenty eight Russian divisions at Vilhelmina, hoping to hold open the lines of retreat for overrun forces further North. Their defence was determined, but ultimately far from viable
Perhaps even more desperate was the resistance of the few Syndicalist militia units that had been pulled together to fight the defensive action. These battles were inevitably short, the arrival of armour often deciding battles quickly as units found themselves encircled, surprised or cut off.
Ultimately though, it would be for nought. The combined Swedish/Danish/Norwegian armies had clearly been deployed too far forward and committted too heavily to the invasion of Finland. Leading the way ahead of the field armies, Russian tanks rolled through key cities and broke the back of organised resistance in Scandinavia. Sweden would fall on the 16th of April, 1939.
Norway, hidden behind additional difficult terrain (and with Russia not capable of launching an amphibious operation on a sufficient scale) would take an additional seven days to pacify.
That left only Denmark, fresh from a revolution, bereft of organised military forces which had been lost almost in their entirety in Finland and Sweden. When the Russian paratroopers, thus far held back from the campaign, were committed to the rapid seizure of Denmark, it was almost without organised opposition. Scandinavia was now under Russian control after a campaign that showed the potential of small, mobile forces backed by air forces and the mass of Russian infantry divisions.
The question now, was what on Earth Vladimir, flush from a genuinely impressive military victory, would do with it.
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If the syndicalists & Germany aren't in open war yet, I'd be looking at an alliance with the devil if I were Germany. Or at least an alternate timeline detente, sort of a defensive Molotov-Ribbentrop. Russia is as much an ancient bogeyman as syndicalism is a modern one, and the arms of the bear are so very obviously getting in position to squeeze tight. I mean Scandinavia is one thing: a very threatening thing. But Denmark. Alarm bells!
By the way, very cool naval records. Thank you very much!
By the way, very cool naval records. Thank you very much!
Question: the quote says "Taken from [the book] Talvisota". I understand Talvisota is a fictional book but what does the word itself mean/stand for.?
I don't normally root for the far left, but in this case they'll make a far more difficult opponent than Germany, at least if they win against the German Empire.
It's for the story, of course.
It's for the story, of course.
Nothing like a good roflstomping campaign to improve morale!
I look forward to see how the Tzar proceeds
I look forward to see how the Tzar proceeds
>>The question now, was what on Earth Vladimir, flush from a genuinely impressive military victory, would do with it.<<
Finland is reincorporated into the Empire as a separate Kingdom with defense managed by Russia.
Norway/Sweden have a referendum to either be independent neutral republics or friends of the empire with trade access and guaranteed defense by the Empire.
Finland is reincorporated into the Empire as a separate Kingdom with defense managed by Russia.
Norway/Sweden have a referendum to either be independent neutral republics or friends of the empire with trade access and guaranteed defense by the Empire.
You have megatank problems?
Many are the solutions:
detrack it and it becomes a vunerable bunker,
shell it to strip it of it's infantry protection and than set it's engines on fire,
ISU-152's 152mm cannon the beast killer,
even couple of howitzer or AP rounds to it should concuss the crew inside and make them stop firing.
As to the burning question of the jour, Vladimir probably should be sending feelers to the Germans as to what are they prepared to accept. He really doesn't want them allienated, and ocuppying Scandinavia is nt a problem he wants to face alone. Finns might accept theri new Russian overlords, but Swedes are hardly going to accept being a Russian puppet.
Many are the solutions:
detrack it and it becomes a vunerable bunker,
shell it to strip it of it's infantry protection and than set it's engines on fire,
ISU-152's 152mm cannon the beast killer,
even couple of howitzer or AP rounds to it should concuss the crew inside and make them stop firing.
As to the burning question of the jour, Vladimir probably should be sending feelers to the Germans as to what are they prepared to accept. He really doesn't want them allienated, and ocuppying Scandinavia is nt a problem he wants to face alone. Finns might accept theri new Russian overlords, but Swedes are hardly going to accept being a Russian puppet.
Indeed,Russian armies in Denmark would be the proverbial dagger at Germany's throat. There is going to be an attempt at a Russo-German agreement with regards to Scandinavia, Austria is available to serve in the capacity of mediator if necessary. The Germans would want to minimize Russian control in Scandinavia, preserve their interests and yet make sure the door is not open to a Syndicalist resurgence.
It's the Finnish name for the Winter War. Obviously it's gone considerably differently in this timeline, referring to a defense against the Syndicalists, followed by Russian intervention rather than a war against a Soviet invasion.
I can understand that. Certainly the AI and events have been favouring the reds far more than the Germans this game. The Germans have just been timid and just let China slip away and Northern Italy fall.
A good warm up exercise all round, complete with a few good encirclement and reasonable Russian casualty figures. It wasn't quite as short as the Manchurian airborne campaign, but it was hardly taxing in the way Ukraine was years ago.
For Vladimir, that's one more item ticked off the list.
Republics? REPUBLICS?! Why would Vladimir endorse such an obviously failed form of Government over good, legitimate, solid royal rule?
Such a move would cut at the very heart of the intellectual underpinnings of Vladimir's new style of regime. If you're not going to be ruled by Russia, then you damn well better be ruled by someone with a crown!I just can't see Denmark or Sweden accepting annexation into Russia. Hell, more importantly, I can't see Russia being able to justify it to Germany or Austria. Annexation would be to overextend here. As you suggest then, the question will be what kind of agreement can be reached with the Germans and local leaders.
Kalmar Union anyone?
Not an insane idea at all, although the devil would be in the detail.
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Nice double post there.
Backseat gamer in me says annex Finland and cut loose Scandinavia (can you even release a union country?). Sell the Germans Jutland or something if you need it for the RP.
Backseat gamer in me says annex Finland and cut loose Scandinavia (can you even release a union country?). Sell the Germans Jutland or something if you need it for the RP.
Wait, wait, what is Japanese infantry doing in Sweden?
Don't pay attention to the japanese ninja squadron in Stockholm and do carry on....
As for Scandinavia, stick to the Nationalism of the populations and reinstate the three monarchs, under a carefull Russian watch.. You can even make Denmark neutral to appease the Germans
Wait, wait, what is Japanese infantry doing in Sweden?
It's because of pure gameplay reasons. (Gameplay) Japan was called in when Russia declared war so the AI apparently sent some troops. (Narration) Just consider that detachment the observers which Vladimir mentioned he'd allow when he said he wasn't activating their Alliance.