Romania - War Effort Suggestions for the Fascist & Communist Paths

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You forgot that both italy and germany had a secret meeting with the iron guard. Since they asked for them not to intervene in their plot to kill armand calinescu.
 
True, Armand Calinescu was the PM of King Carol II's FRN. He was assasinated by the Iron Guard shortly after "Crack Down on Extremism" in retaliation.
Tbh tho, if the focus "crack down on extremism" is not taken, he should stay alive imho
 
Judging from this:
Update:

Historical context of the events:
-
In 1936 we have: Democracy with main parties PNL and PNT
- 36% votes PNL and 20% votes PNT in 1937
- In February 1938 Carol II changes the constitution and becomes dictator (with his own personal party - FRN)
- In Novemember 1938 basically "Crack Down on Extremism" happens and Codreanu is killed and replaced by Horia
- In 1940 Romania loses all 3 territories and the population hates the king.
- To save his image, King Carol II appoints a popular and well-respected general Ion Antonescu as Prime Minister
- Prime Minister Ion Antonescu tells the king that the only way to save the country from complete instability is to have himself abdicate in favor of his son.
- King Carol II transfers dictatorial powers to Ion Antonescu and not so forcefully abdicates (except forced by the circumstances)
- Ion Antonescu (now with full dicatorial powers) decides to make a new goverment.
- PNL and PNT refuses to take part in it, only the Iron Guard accepts.
- Ion Antonescu is forced to make a new government with the Iron Guard and whatever independent (non-aligned) he can scrap.
- Ion Antonescu gets into conflict with the Iron Guard (now led by Horia Sima after Codreanu's death) over a lot of issues including REDACTED
- Ion Antonescu gets guarantees from Adolf Hitler that he won't intervene (who wanted a stable Romania and prefered Ion Antonescu's pragmatism and military experience over the Iron Guard, who while ideologically closer weren't seen as reliable).
- Ion Antonescu slowly starts to replace Iron Guard ministers with his own men.
- The Iron Guard revolts.
- Ion Antonescu wins.
- Iron Guard seeks and receives asylum in Germany (Adolf Hitler wanted a safe card to keep Ion Antonescu in check, always have an alternative).
- Opperation Barbarossa begins.
Is impossible to make 100% historical accuracy with only the War Effort.

There are many thing to consider, not only Armand Calinescu, but:
- Ion Anontescu non-alinged.
- Ion Antonescu working with the Iron Guard actually led by Horia Sima until the Legionnary Rebellion in 1941.
- Ion Antonescu being non-aligned and his government essentially a military junta.

I don't think it's possible to do such a thing without a rework.

In the meantime, we should be very thankful that the devs took the time to update Romania.

They made an amazing contribution that should be appreciated.

Yes, there were some twists & turns, with the bug with Octavian Goga that makes him playable until the next patch and such, but just because the end result wasn't perfect it doesn't the devs didn't took and interest and didn't make an effort. An effort that is basically a free update and the Hoi4 team is small as far as I can tell. They have other things to worry about as well.

The same is true for other suggested suggestions, like a trait for Codreanu or general Mihail Lascar, we should remember that the devs have a limited amount of resources and time and they couldn't invest all of it in Romania. These things don't exist in a vaccum, it takes time and energy and resources.

The fact that they took an interest is telling. Thank you for doing all of it!

We should not judge it by the fact that the end result wasn't perfect, we should judge it by the fact that they did it, when they couldn't. So yeah, kudos to that.

Personally, I'm not that interested in a complete Romanian rework, I think the core of the Romanian focus tree is good enough as it is, with the small historical inaccuracies and such. Why complete overhaul rework something that is already 90% as it is?

Personally, I only hope that the devs will look in the future for other minor chances to the Romanian focus tree to perfect it and that's about it:
- Giving Codreanu his full name, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
- Giving a personal leader trait to Codreanu - Capitanul (the Captain) - maybe something with political power and stability.
- Giving a personal leader trait to Ion Antonescu - Conducator (the Leader) - maybe some attack or defense or reinforce rate or recruitable population
- Adding general Mihail Lascar (the man was badass, Inflexible Strategist only so he can get Unyielding Defender later)
- Removing Antonescu stops being Chief of Army and General when you take "Crack Down on Extremism"
- The Romanian focus "His Majesty's Loyal Government" not require "Align Hungary" anymore. (maybe require just you don't lose core territory before taking it; i.e. king is still popular)
- Octavian Goga's Romania should have another name & flag. Instead of standard Legionary Romania, Fascist Romania and default tricolor would do.

These minor things, and maybe all those things LeanLeaf mentioned with Demand West Banat & Romanian-Soviet Negociations for Recognition of Bessarabia & Restoration of the National Treasure, and it would seriously be a perfect focus tree in my opinion, with no exaggeration.
 
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Yes, fair point.

Alterantively, if the devs don't want to go the extra mile for a personal trait to Codreanu & Antonescu, I'd be happy if Codreanu would just have a common trait that is fitting for him like: Ideological Crusade, Smooth-Talking Charmer or Tenacious Negotiator. Something to make him feel more unique from the other 2 fascist leaders.

But yeah, The Captain & Conducator would be top notch.

If there would ever be a total overhaul, I made some suggestions in the dev diary topic, I'll copy-paste that information here where it's more fitting.

As I said inside the topic, these are total overhaul ideas, not war effort ideas.

This is a nice change brought to Romania, but it is a small one. Romania should recive a better alt-history path( I think that a Dacian empire could be introduced in the game by some decisions when you select the focus Balkan Dominance) and something to represent the power struggle between the Legion and Antonescu that would spark a civil war if not dealt with( and if you side with the Legion you would get an alt-history tree with reforming greater romania or something like that).
While I would love to see more content for Romania, as it stands right now I think the Nordics (Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland) and major South American (Argentina, Brasil, Venezuela, Peru) are better suited for a Country Pack.

But in the event that this happens in the far future, I have a few ideas for a major expansion of Romania:

1. Two other Communist Leader - Ana Pauker (Moscow Wing) & Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (Internal Wing).

Constantin Ion Parhon (the current and only leader of Communist Romania) was what Octavian Goga was for fascim. He was a communist that's for certain, but he was kind of forgettable when compared to the other two.

Ana Pauker of the "Moscow Wing/Muscovite Wing". She was "Stalin with a skirt" as her nickname implies. When Stalin "liberated" Romania, he proposed that Ana Pauker becomes the leader, rather than Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej. But ultimately the communists went with Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej because he was more popular in Romania. (he was basically "homemade communism" where as Ana Pakure was "Moscow imported communism", that's how they were seen in 1947)

When Romania became communist in 1947 she became the foreign minister. As the Foreign Minister, she signed, among other things, the act by which Romania ceded the Serpent Island to the Soviet Union in 1947.

She had an authoritarian style similar to Stalin. Ana Pauker is generally considered the puppet of Soviet communism in Romania, blindly applying the repressive techniques of the Stalinist type.

But, she would eventually try to become more independent, like Josip Broz Tito, much to the distain of fellow communist party members. She was casted from grace by one of the typical communist purges due to her "deviation to the right".

Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej of the "Internal Wing/Prison Wing". He is the one who actually became the communist leader of Romania in 1947.

Context: During the interwar communism was banned in Romania. The communists were split into 2 groups: the Moscow Wing, those who crossed the border to USSR and became representatives of "Romanian affairs" in Moscow. And the internal wing, those who maintained an underground communist organization (although very weak, at its peak it had 2.000 members) inside Romania.

In 1933 Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej was arrested but he was the leader of the prison faction in Romania. (party members who were incarcerated in Romania, a term distinguishing them from party members living in exile, mainly in the Soviet Union: the Muscovite faction).

2. Two democratic parties: PNL (already in the game; leader Gheorghe Tatarescu) and PNT (leader Iuliu Maniu - the in-game democratic reformer; and current leader of Transylvania TAG if the country is formed)

During the interwar, the PNL was always the main party in power and PNT always the main/biggest opposition. The only exception is in 1945 when (according to the non-fraudulent version of the election) the PNT won.

Small off-topic fun fact:
The date of the 1946 general election coincided with the 4th anniversary of Operation Uranus, the moment when Nazi Germany and Romania suffered a major defeat on the Eastern Front at the Battle of Stalingrad. According to his private notes, General Constantin Sănătescu, an adversary of the PCR and former prime minister of Romania after King Michael's coup, presumed that this had been done on purpose ("in order to mock us"). One year later a coup would force King Michael I to abdicate.

To put their policies simple:
PNT official policy: Agrarianism, National Culturalism, Monarchism, Social Conservatorism, Economic Liberalism, Regionalism, Anti-fascism, Anti-comunism, Pro-Europeanism, Balcanic Federalism. So they were conservatives but not hardline conservatives, arguably centrists.
PNL official policy: Industrialization, Social Liberalism, Monarchism, Economic Conservatorism, Nationalism, Anti-fascism, Anti-communism, Pro-Europeanism, Pro-West. So they looked to England and France while the PNT looked to the Balkans.

To put it more simply:
PNL (main in power party) -> Social Liberalism, Economic Conservatorism (industrialization, army founding and focus on external policies such as building alliances with Poland, Czechslovakia and France)
PNT (main opposition party) -> Social Conservatorism, Economic Liberalism (agrarianism, promoting the Romanian culture and focus on improving Balkan relations, so focus on the Balkan Pact with Yugoslavia, Greece and Turkey)

Interwar PNL Doctrine:
- The idea of private property as the foundation of the socio-economic status of the country. (so not commies)
- The idea of industrialization and military protection of Romania. (so militarization and industrialization was a big thing for them)
- The idea of prioritizing the interests of business-owners over the peasantry. (so capitalism at the cost of the peasantry)

Interwar PNT Doctrine:
- The idea of protecting the peasantry and denying that Romania has favorable conditions to become an industrial state. (so agrariansim)
- The idea that Romania is very different from developed countries, making the liberalist doctrine and the socialist doctrine unfit for it. (so anti-liberalism, anti-socialism)
- The development of the agricultural sector with diversification of products and support from the state. (so investment in the farmers)

So in total, before we move to point 3, that's 11 possible leaders for Romania:
Democratic: PNL (Gheorghe Tatarescu; starting one), PNT (Iuliu Maniu), Democratic Bloc (King Michael I)
Neutral: King Carol II (FRN), Armand Călinescu (FRN)
Communist: Constantin Ion Parhon (PCR), Ana Pauker (PCR), Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej (PCR)
Fascist: Ion Antonescu (Iron Guard), Corneliu Zelea Codreanu (Iron Guard), Octavian Goga (PNC)

3. Dacian Empire & "Greatest" Romania expansion to Balkan Dominance

I stole this idea from @Golemul2006 but want to expand on it. A lot of countries have formable alt-historical versions now. For Romania that would be the Dacian Empire.

The light orange is the greatest extent of the Kingdom of Dacia during King Burebista's reign.
The dark orange is the Kingdom of Dacia during King Decebalus' regin before being conquered by the Romans.
zs486bgnx9cv.jpg


And for "Greatest" Romania. In spite of the meme name, this is actually the more realistic one.

When it joined World War I in 1916, Romania had more territorial ambitions than what it got in 1920, namely: Alfold, Subcarpathian Rus (another name for Carpathia Ruthenia) and the rest of Banat.

Romania didn't acquire these territories during the Hungarian-Romanian war either because the Entente rejected giving Romania all that territory. The key difference was that most people in those territories Romania didn't get weren't Romanians.

Pre-WW1 and Interwar Romanian nationalists frequently talked about the natural borders of Romania being the Danube, Tisza and Dniester Rivers, so this would be the main geographical Greater Romania.

When the Treaty of Trianon was being discussed Romania claimed these territories and did occupy Western Crișana (another name for Alfold) following the Hungarian-Romanian War (hoping it would get it), but also did come into diplomatic conflict with the Yugoslavs and Czechoslovaks who claimed the other parts.

The Entente decided to not give Romania these three claimed regions due to their low Romanian population, displeasure that Romania ignored the Allies wishes and to ensure that Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia got more land to help them out against their neighbours.

Romania didn't made much of a fuss and let these lands go, since they already got a lot more land from everything else, with Romanian majority.

But in WWII, Romania wasn't happy when Hungary took the lands, they let Carpathia Ruthenia slide but when Yugoslavia was being invaded Romania threatened to attack Hungary if they marched into West Banat which caused the Germans to occupy it despite the Hungarians claiming it.

817432_4671860c2cb84761988d6af39cd562fb_mv2.jpeg


In essence, Romania got this:
QnIax9x.png


But claimed this: (Not all of Carpathia Ruthenia though, the 1919 claims map is more accurate)
nVLweGh.png


4. Better internal borders

I wonder if this was made for balance, but Romania has a relatively small number of empty building slots compared to its size. With a population of 19.000.000 and 295.000 km^2 size it has less empty building slots than Yugoslavia with 14.000.000 population and 255.000 km^2 size. (Romania also had slightly higher GDP than Yugoslavia). All these numbers are from 1936.

(In Hoi4 the population is 18,057,028 because I think the 1930 census is used, but in 1936 the population was estimated at 19,319,000; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_Romania).

So if you notice that the number of free industry slots increased per state in the picture below this is why.

My reasoning for these changes are as following:

a. North Transylvania - Szekelyland
According to the Romanian estimations in 1940 prior to the Second Vienna Award, about 1,300,000 people or 50% of the population was Romanian and about 962,000 people or 37% of the population was Hungarian.
According to the Hungarian estimations in 1940 shortly following the Second Vienna Award, about 1,150,000 people or 48% of the population was Romanian and about 910,000 people or 38% of the population was Hungarian.

One year later, after the arbitration, according to the Hungarian census, the population of Northern Transylvania had dissimilar ratios, it counted 53.5% Hungarians and 39.1% Romanians. This was mostly due to Romanians leaving for Romania and Hungarians moving to North Transylvania from pre-war Hungary and South Transylvania.

But the interesting thing is that in North Transylvania, the vast majority of the Hungarian population lived in Szekelyland, while the vast majority of the Romanian population lived in the region that remained under the name "North Transylvania".

So Szekelyland could realistically be a Hungarian core while "North Transylvania" couldn't.

b. Moldova got cores on North Bukovina, South Bessarabia & Transnistria

This is because the in-game Moldova is an accidental state (not trying to make an ad hominem or any personal attack, these are professor James Ker-Lindsay's words) because it was created as another SSR after USSR took Bessarabia in 1940.

Before that, the concept of "Moldova" as a separate state from Romania didn't exist.

Stalin gave North Bukovina and South Bessarabia to Ukraine. And only Bessarabia & Transnistria became Moldova. But a player might do something different.

Romanian core on Transnistria because it already has a Moldovan core and a Moldovan core doesn't make sense without a Romanian core since Moldovans are basically Romanians under a different state by Stalin's design.

There was a significant Romanian/Moldovan population in Transnistria in 1936. In fact, even the Romanian authorities were surprised that they found Romanians east of the Dniester river during Operation Barbarossa.

Here's a more in-depth video if you're interest in this particular region (with a high profile today because of the conflict):

c. One tile of Bessarabia was given to North Bukovina

So you can create the historical borders of Moldovan SSR. That portion was also given to Ukraine although not truly part of Bukovina

iwrlXXy.jpeg


5. Strange unions that actually could have happened

Romanian - Bulgarian unification & Romanian Hungarian unification

The union is mentioned at the end but not expanded upon:

In essence, the Bulgarians wanted to make King Carol I their king and enter into a personal union with Romania. But the Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire opposed this. And you don't want to upset your 3 largest neighbours at the same time. So the proposal failed. This of course happened in the 19th century but I see it as a base for an alt-history path.

Hungarian-Romanian unification was less official and also failed.

Hungarian counts Istvan Bethlen, Pal Teleki and Myklos Banfy personally proposed a union to the Romanian parliment in 1919 following the Transylvanian declaration of union with Romania. This was after Hungary lost World War 1, but before the Hungarian-Romanian War and before the Treaty of Trianon.

King Ferdinand would become King of both Romania and Hungary, the capital would be Bucharest but Romania and Hungary would only have mutual Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministry. Effectively, instead of Austria-Hungary the Hungarians proposed a Romania-Hungary.

The reason the Hungarian counts came with this proposal was to ensure the existence of Hungary as a state after World War I, since they were part of the losing powers and in Hungary only 51% of the total population was Hungarian, this didn't sit well with with USA President Woodrow Wilson's principle of self-determination. It was uncertain how much but it was clear that Hungary was going to lose big, a lot of land due to the high numbers of non-Hungarians in Hungary.

By becoming a junior partner in a Romanian-Hungarian union, Hungary hoped to gain Romania's support at the peace conference and by extension of some of the Entente, and mitigate the territorial losses they were going to suffer. The mitigation of territorial losses would also include Transylvania which could either belong to Romania or as a 3rd independent entity entity with its own parliment and King Ferdinand as king. There was also the hope that in the probable eventuality of the subsequent rupture of this alliance, the Hungarians could do so in such a way as to leave them with Transylvania.

However, nothing came of this proposal as Prime Minister Ionel Brătianu refused but there are sings that King Ferdinand I may have wanted the union.

And Iuliu Maniu (Transylvanian Romanian, leader of the National Party of Romanians in Transylvania before & during WW1, he would become leader of PNT after the union) was also strongly opposed, saying that:
"Such a union is absolutely unacceptable to us. It would mean the dictatorship of the Hungarians over us. If the Hungarians had come to bring Austria to its knees and impose its will on it, we can imagine what would happen to us, who have neither the institutions, nor the secular traditions, nor the state apparatus that Austria had. We, the people from Transylvania, know the Hungarians better than you and we know how to avoid them." - Iuliu Maniu,

This is even more unlikely to happen in WW2 than the Romanian-Bulgarian union, but it's an interesting alt-history scenario.

Small off-topic note: Funny how there were talks of union between Hungary and Romania in 1919 (even Miklós Horthy was in favor of it) but they started a war, the Hungarian-Romanian War, a few months later.

6. Historical Romania & Hungary influence decisions over Germany to give them North Transylvania & West Banat

Much like Uk & Germany can influence Netherlands. Have Romania & Hungary influence Germany to give them North Transylvania and West Banat instead.

In 1940, Northern Transylvania was given to Hungary. Soon after, King Carol II was forced to abdicate and was replaced by Ion Antonescu. Before the German invasion of Yugoslavia, Hitler asked Antonescu if he had any territorial claims in Yugoslavia. Antonescu replied that he has no territorial claims over Yugoslavia. But then, after the capitulation of Yugoslavia and Hungary being awared Vojvodina, Antonescu changed his mind and said that he demanded West Banat, which is also what Hungary claimed. Hungary claimed Vojvodina & West Banat in Yugoslavia. So Hitler gave West Banat to neither in order to avoid a war between Romania and Hungary.

The dispute for West Banat almost resulted in a war between Romania and Hungary hence why Hungarians only took the in-game state of Vodjvodina (West Banat was also part of Greater Hungary) and Germany administered West Banat with the rest of Serbia. During Operation Barbarossa, the Romanians were trying to prove themselves to the Germans in hopes of renegotiating the Second Vienna Award, this prompted Hungary to be equally competitive.

It would be interesting to have a German - Hungarian - Romanian decisions chain after Second Vienna Award where Hungary and Romania can compete with each other over warscore contribution and/or political power to influence the German player/AI to offer the regions of North Transylvania and West Banat to them instead of the other when the war ends, if the war with USSR ends in favor of the Axis.

This German - Hungarian - Romanian decisions chain for Northern Transylvania and West Banat could work militarily and diplomatically in equal measure, similar to England & Germany's influencing of Netherlands, but with warscore also playing a significant part. If either Hungary or Romania manage to distance themselves enough from the other, the German player/AI could call a second conference where they offer the disputed territories to the winner.

These are total overhaul ideas, nothing that can be made in a patch, but I reasoned it's a good idea to list them here as inspiration for the far future.
 
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Judging from this:

Is impossible to make 100% historical accuracy with only the War Effort.

There are many thing to consider, not only Armand Calinescu, but:
- Ion Anontescu non-alinged.
- Ion Antonescu working with the Iron Guard actually led by Horia Sima until the Legionnary Rebellion in 1941.
- Ion Antonescu being non-aligned and his government essentially a military junta.

I don't think it's possible to do such a thing without a rework.

In the meantime, we should be very thankful that the devs took the time to update Romania.

They made an amazing contribution that should be appreciated.

Yes, there were some twists & turns, with the bug with Octavian Goga that makes him playable until the next patch and such, but just because the end result wasn't perfect it doesn't the devs didn't took and interest and didn't make an effort. An effort that is basically a free update and the Hoi4 team is small as far as I can tell. They have other things to worry about as well.

The same is true for other suggested suggestions, like a trait for Codreanu or general Mihail Lascar, we should remember that the devs have a limited amount of resources and time and they couldn't invest all of it in Romania. These things don't exist in a vaccum, it takes time and energy and resources.

The fact that they took an interest is telling. Thank you for doing all of it!

We should not judge it by the fact that the end result wasn't perfect, we should judge it by the fact that they did it, when they couldn't. So yeah, kudos to that.

Personally, I'm not that interested in a complete Romanian rework, I think the core of the Romanian focus tree is good enough as it is, with the small historical inaccuracies and such. Why complete overhaul rework something that is already 90% as it is?

Personally, I only hope that the devs will look in the future for other minor chances to the Romanian focus tree to perfect it and that's about it:
- Giving Codreanu his full name, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
- Giving a personal leader trait to Codreanu - Capitanul (the Captain) - maybe something with political power and stability.
- Giving a personal leader trait to Ion Antonescu - Conducator (the Leader) - maybe some attack or defense or reinforce rate or recruitable population
- Adding general Mihail Lascar (the man was badass, Inflexible Strategist only so he can get Unyielding Defender later)
- Removing Antonescu stops being Chief of Army and General when you take "Crack Down on Extremism"
- The Romanian focus "His Majesty's Loyal Government" not require "Align Hungary" anymore. (maybe require just you don't lose core territory before taking it; i.e. king is still popular)
- Octavian Goga's Romania should have another name & flag. Instead of standard Legionary Romania, Fascist Romania and default tricolor would do.

These minor things, and maybe all those things LeanLeaf mentioned with Demand West Banat & Romanian-Soviet Negociations for Recognition of Bessarabia & Restoration of the National Treasure, and it would seriously be a perfect focus tree in my opinion, with no exaggeration.
Agreed but i would also love if there was a small mention to the Lancieri too tbh XP
 
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Nice suggestions, however i want to talk more about these points.
3. Dacian Empire & "Greatest" Romania expansion to Balkan Dominance

I stole this idea from @Golemul2006 but want to expand on it. A lot of countries have formable alt-historical versions now. For Romania that would be the Dacian Empire.

The light orange is the greatest extent of the Kingdom of Dacia during King Burebista's reign.
The dark orange is the Kingdom of Dacia during King Decebalus' regin before being conquered by the Romans.
zs486bgnx9cv.jpg


And for "Greatest" Romania. In spite of the meme name, this is actually the more realistic one.

When it joined World War I in 1916, Romania had more territorial ambitions than what it got in 1920, namely: Alfold, Subcarpathian Rus (another name for Carpathia Ruthenia) and the rest of Banat.

Romania didn't acquire these territories during the Hungarian-Romanian war either because the Entente rejected giving Romania all that territory. The key difference was that most people in those territories Romania didn't get weren't Romanians.

Pre-WW1 and Interwar Romanian nationalists frequently talked about the natural borders of Romania being the Danube, Tisza and Dniester Rivers, so this would be the main geographical Greater Romania.

When the Treaty of Trianon was being discussed Romania claimed these territories and did occupy Western Crișana (another name for Alfold) following the Hungarian-Romanian War (hoping it would get it), but also did come into diplomatic conflict with the Yugoslavs and Czechoslovaks who claimed the other parts.

The Entente decided to not give Romania these three claimed regions due to their low Romanian population, displeasure that Romania ignored the Allies wishes and to ensure that Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia got more land to help them out against their neighbours.

Romania didn't made much of a fuss and let these lands go, since they already got a lot more land from everything else, with Romanian majority.

But in WWII, Romania wasn't happy when Hungary took the lands, they let Carpathia Ruthenia slide but when Yugoslavia was being invaded Romania threatened to attack Hungary if they marched into West Banat which caused the Germans to occupy it despite the Hungarians claiming it.

817432_4671860c2cb84761988d6af39cd562fb_mv2.jpeg


In essence, Romania got this:
QnIax9x.png


But claimed this: (Not all of Carpathia Ruthenia though, the 1919 claims map is more accurate)
nVLweGh.png


5. Strange unions that actually could have happened

Romanian - Bulgarian unification & Romanian Hungarian unification

The union is mentioned at the end but not expanded upon:

In essence, the Bulgarians wanted to make King Carol I their king and enter into a personal union with Romania. But the Russian Empire, Ottoman Empire and Austrian Empire opposed this. And you don't want to upset your 3 largest neighbours at the same time. So the proposal failed. This of course happened in the 19th century but I see it as a base for an alt-history path.

Hungarian-Romanian unification was less official and also failed.

Hungarian counts Istvan Bethlen, Pal Teleki and Myklos Banfy personally proposed a union to the Romanian parliment in 1919 following the Transylvanian declaration of union with Romania. This was after Hungary lost World War 1, but before the Hungarian-Romanian War and before the Treaty of Trianon.

King Ferdinand would become King of both Romania and Hungary, the capital would be Bucharest but Romania and Hungary would only have mutual Finance, Foreign Affairs and Defense Ministry. Effectively, instead of Austria-Hungary the Hungarians proposed a Romania-Hungary.

The reason the Hungarian counts came with this proposal was to ensure the existence of Hungary as a state after World War I, since they were part of the losing powers and in Hungary only 51% of the total population was Hungarian, this didn't sit well with with USA President Woodrow Wilson's principle of self-determination. It was uncertain how much but it was clear that Hungary was going to lose big, a lot of land due to the high numbers of non-Hungarians in Hungary.

By becoming a junior partner in a Romanian-Hungarian union, Hungary hoped to gain Romania's support at the peace conference and by extension of some of the Entente, and mitigate the territorial losses they were going to suffer. The mitigation of territorial losses would also include Transylvania which could either belong to Romania or as a 3rd independent entity entity with its own parliment and King Ferdinand as king. There was also the hope that in the probable eventuality of the subsequent rupture of this alliance, the Hungarians could do so in such a way as to leave them with Transylvania.

However, nothing came of this proposal as Prime Minister Ionel Brătianu refused but there are sings that King Ferdinand I may have wanted the union.

And Iuliu Maniu (Transylvanian Romanian, leader of the National Party of Romanians in Transylvania before & during WW1, he would become leader of PNT after the union) was also strongly opposed, saying that:

This is even more unlikely to happen in WW2 than the Romanian-Bulgarian union, but it's an interesting alt-history scenario.

Small off-topic note: Funny how there were talks of union between Hungary and Romania in 1919 (even Miklós Horthy was in favor of it) but they started a war, the Hungarian-Romanian War, a few months later.
Love both proposals of a union, especially as it was happened within 300 years before WW2. Using Dacia as justification of a Romanian-Hungarian Union would be unnecessary for other ideologies, though, but it can provide a nice flavor to a Carolist monarchy path.
 
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Nice suggestions, however i want to talk more about these points.

Love both proposals of a union, especially as it was happened within 300 years before WW2. Using Dacia as justification of a Romanian-Hungarian Union would be unnecessary for other ideologies, though, but it can provide a nice flavor to a Carolist monarchy path.
I think it would make more sense:

Dacia -> Ultimate form of Balkan Domination

Greatest Romania (Alfold, Subcarpathian Rus which is another name for Carpathia Ruthenia and the rest of Banat) -> Could either work Monarchist Carol II or Fascist.
 
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Agreed but i would also love if there was a small mention to the Lancieri too tbh XP
Totally forgot about those. (sorry Goga)

Yes, there should be a Lance-bearers reference too.

Perhaps in the "National Christian Party" focus the national spirit could be called "Lance-bearers" and give you something like +1.00% recruitable population?
 
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Totally forgot about those. (sorry Goga)

Yes, there should be a Lance-bearers reference too.

Perhaps in the "National Christian Party" focus the national spirit could be called "Lance-bearers" and give you something like +1.00% recruitable population?
Yeah and also maybe a small boost in reinforce rate too ;)
(Like 2% or stuff like that, nothing major XP)
 
Yes, but I still think this is more important than giving it +1.000.000 population, even if I agree that using the 1930 numbers for 1936 is wrong.
- Give Codreanu his full name, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
- Give a personal leader trait to Codreanu - Capitanul (the Captain) - maybe something with political power and stability.
- Give a personal leader trait to Ion Antonescu - Conducator (the Leader) - maybe some attack or defense or reinforce rate or recruitable population
- Add general Mihail Lascar (the man was badass, Inflexible Strategist only so he can get Unyielding Defender later)
- Remove Antonescu stops being Chief of Army and General when you take "Crack Down on Extremism"
- The Romanian focus "His Majesty's Loyal Government" not require "Align Hungary" anymore. (maybe require just you don't lose core territory before taking it; i.e. king is still popular)
- Octavian Goga's Romania should have another name & flag. Instead of standard Legionary Romania, Fascist Romania and default tricolor would do.
- Octavian Goga should have a reference to his own paramilitary group "Lance-bearers" (who in spite of the name didn't bear lances) (Perhaps in the "National Christian Party" focus the national spirit could be called "Lance-bearers" and give you something like +1.00% recruitable population?)
Although it doesn't take much change to increase the population numbers in each region, so you have a point.
 
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Yes, but I still think this is more important than giving it +1.000.000 population, even if I agree that using the 1930 numbers for 1936 is wrong.

Although it doesn't take much change to increase the population numbers in each region, so you have a point.
What do you think of this:

The Captain:
+15% Political Power
+10% Stability
+50% Ideological Drift Defense

The Leader:
+5% Infantry Attack
+5% Infantry Defense
+10% Reinforce Rate
Recruitable Population Factor: 5%

(Corneliu Zelea Codreanu is clearly the internal politics one while Ion Antonescu is clearly the army one)

Mihail Lascar:
Skill: 4
Attack: 4
Defense: 5
Planning: 2
Logistics: 3
Trait: Inflexible Strategist

(So you can later get Unyielding Defender which "simulates" his ressistance at Stalingrad)

It's a waste of time to try to balance this better than the devs, this serves just as a general idea of what it could look like.
 
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Maybe there's a hope for this in the new Opperation Alpha?
- Give Codreanu his full name, Corneliu Zelea Codreanu.
- Give a personal leader trait to Codreanu - Capitanul (the Captain) - maybe something with political power and stability.
- Give a personal leader trait to Ion Antonescu - Conducator (the Leader) - maybe some attack or defense or reinforce rate or recruitable population
- Add general Mihail Lascar (the man was badass, Inflexible Strategist only so he can get Unyielding Defender later)
- Remove Antonescu stops being Chief of Army and General when you take "Crack Down on Extremism"
- The Romanian focus "His Majesty's Loyal Government" not require "Align Hungary" anymore. (maybe require just you don't lose core territory before taking it; i.e. king is still popular)
- Octavian Goga's Romania should have another name & flag. Instead of standard Legionary Romania, Fascist Romania and default tricolor would do.
- Octavian Goga should have a reference to his own paramilitary group "Lance-bearers" (who in spite of the name didn't bear lances) (Perhaps in the "National Christian Party" focus the national spirit could be called "Lance-bearers" and give you something like +1.00% recruitable population?)
I mean, yeah, it's kind of BS that Ion Antonescu gets removed as a general & minister when he becomes the leader of the Iron Guard. You can meme "I am the state" all you want, but as other pointed out, he actually made battleplans and let his armies into Bessarabia while being the leader of the country. So if anyone deserves "I am the state" it's him. Him and Trosky.

I see a lot of people made their guesses with fascist Romanian leader traits, let me make mine too if they ever get added:

Ion Antonescu's Conducator: (better army)
+ 10% army attack
+ 10% army defense (actually making your troops more effective in World War 2, a skilled general becoming president tends to have that effect)

Corneliu Zelea Codreanu's Capitanul: (better politics)
+ 10% political power
+ 10% stability (his fanaticism and charisma and such)

Octavian Goga's Lance-Bearers (since a lot of people suggested the Lance-Bearers need a reference, maybe they could be Goga's trait; more numbers)
+ 2.00% recruitable population
+ 50% Ideological Drift Defense

Any good player will know that Goga's bonus is going to be the weakest, but I remember as a noob all I could think of was increasing recruitable population. It would be fun for the noobs (it definetly was for me to get Mass Assault with USSR to get that +5.00% manpower) and has a lot of meme potential. Goga was a meme anyway.

I'm kind of feeling mixed on the recent update. I really don't want to be disgraceful, it's amazing that the devs fixed Romania's broken fascist leaders and now you have 3 leaders to pick from. But from there to adding general Mihail Lascar and a trait for Corneliu Codreanu would have felt much more completed.

I looked it up, it really was 19.300.000 population in Romania rather than 18.000.000 as in Hearts of Iron 4, is there any reason for that?
 
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