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Your front line just keeps looking nicer! Also, what land doctrine are you using? As the UoB I usually switch to mobility for that sweet sweet GDE
 
I stuck with what they have by default (which is the same as vanilla UK I believe), mostly because I'm so focused on teching up nukes and such that I didn't think I'd have time to switch. That, and war came in early 1938, which was seriously long before I expected it, heh. I also hadn't expected to be having to play the role of major manpower provider either. It was indeed something I gave a lot of thought to, even more so when it came to naval doctrine. It seems to be working pretty well though. Every time I'm on the defensive I get a ton of delay special events, which really helps.
 
A very special double update coming soon, because I both can't logically divide what comes next, yet at the same time kind of have to... (if that makes any sense). Expect Chapter 9 right after this one.

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Chapter 8 - The Winter Campaign

November 28, 1943

Things are getting urgent, both here and at the front. The winter weather has slowed us, giving time for the Americans to start forming a more solid front ahead of our advance. We were a bit too late in coming to the relief of Chicago, and the rebels were unable to hold out. That being said, we did manage to accept a large number of their leaders, and even the common rank and file, as refugees through gaps near Gary and across Lake Michigan. Though militarily defeated, they are still hopeful, and likely a plan will already be drawn up on how to reconstitute the CSA by the time it is actually feasible to do so, ensuring a more smooth transition.

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In the mean time, as our forces are not positioned well to retake one of the world's major urban centers after this turn of events, the general advance will continue, into Indiana now. Our forces are well positioned for that, at least.

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Overall there is a great sense that time is running out for victory. Next campaign season the odds in America will likely be much more even, which is probably why the generals order advance throughout the winter. The American navy is getting more daring as well, striking Scapa Flow directly again earlier this week. Unlike many of my reports, which I must carefully scrounge through gossip, whenever I report on Scapa Flow I can say I see the event directly. It is a good ways away, but aircraft have been screaming overhead nonstop since the raid, a fact the tightest of security could never squash. I suppose we are lucky that the USN has not seen fit to strike our own facility here, which I hope is because our own secrecy is working. Some of the guards who were on leave by the shore reported back that they saw the flattops themselves steaming out in pursuit. The RN is likely rightfully embarrassed, and deadset on some form of vengeance.

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December 17, 1943

Our current strategy seems to be ineffective. We've made a few large gains, here and there, but the Americans now seem to be ready to meet our spearheads and push them back, every time. This never made the official news networks, but about ten days ago we'd actually managed to slip some forces down all the way into Tennessee, the heart of the American South! Partisan activity against our supply lines is increasing, daily, though, and even when direct force doesn't counter us, our divisions find themselves slowing or even retreating to protect the rear! Maybe some of this is lingering Union State sentiment, but I wouldn't know much about that.

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American leadership and troop quality continues to be poor at least, however. They really do have a tendency to draw too many toops for their counterattacks. Thus, as we saw in Detroit and elsewhere, they leave plenty of gaps for us to exploit. The withdrawal from Tennessee was coupled with a fast push down to North Carolina. Not only was this a particularly long advance when they left a gap, but their critical naval base at Norfolk fell too. The USN may be a thorn in our side, but whoever they organize to defend their bases was really asleep at the helm. Sadly their carriers bloodied our noses yet again down around Portsmouth, but when their fleet returns home, they'll have to look for another place to berth.

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The push West in Indiana has also been thwarted for the time being, after the occupation of the state capital was driven out. MacArthur continues to have personal command of the area. Before this was not a problem, but our momentum seems to well and truly be running out here, and difficulties supplying the troops through Ohio persist.

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January 7, 1944

We are attempt a risky strategy. In the face of stiffening American resolve, we need a big push to win. Under the logic that it's better to know now that we should start pulling back than later when we're under constant attack, the generals have decided to route as many of our divisions North as we can, leaving the Southern front and even some regions along the Ohio River very vulnerable. Originally I estimated that this in and of itself might doom us, if the Americans decided to push at our weakened sectors, and they sure are trying, but now I believe that even if we fail we'll likely be able to hold everything North of DC while pulling back to New England. It is still a very, very risky maneuver.

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Something helping us is a new drop in American morale. On the same day that La Plata restores democracy in South America, it officially dies in the US. Citing an unprecedented emergency, MacArthur has suspended elections indefinitely.

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In a way, he may be right, from his point of view. The following day our attack on Chicago commenced. Divisions are being thrown into the fray as they arrive. The defenders offer fierce resistance, all things considered. Civilians in Chicago keep their heads down, but there are reports of riots in a few other cities, notably St. Louis, a major transport hub that could be used for American reinforcements.

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All the defenders need to do is buy time, though. MacArthur knows the forces for our sudden attack had to come from somewhere, and he's pushing back in the South. Thankfully, our troops are very keen on maintaining order, pulling back slowly, but we lose ground either way. We've been pushed out of North Carolina, which was never officially confirmed as having been reached in the first place, and my best bet is that remaining troops are being ordered out of both Virginia and West Virginia. One of my associates has a friend who works logistics that believes he may well be the only man left stationed in Ohio, for as deserted as the remnants of that state have become.

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This is the crunch point. This next week or so will decide the fate of North America.
 
Chapter 9 - New Order in America

January 15, 1944

The first thing I heard on the radio this morning is that we have victory in America! Well, not true victory. Canada is still hanging on, but they will be crushed soon too. Apparently resistance in Chicago crumbled a week ago, but the news was actually holding that back until now. The city has been secured and MacArthur has offered up generous terms, which our government has accepted. I will elaborate more later, but today is a day of celebration, one I do not intend to miss!

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January 18, 1944

Sorry for the three day delay, but much has happened, and I've had the worst hangover of my life. I can only imagine what the celebration at the end of the war will feel like. Either way, I took my time, so that I may be accurate in this report.

The first term of the peace was that New England was formally recognized retroactively, as was our annexation of it from Canada. This included New York City, even though it had always been under US control. Furthermore, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin were seceded to us. The entire region was immediately declared the reborn Combined Syndicalists of America, under Jack Reed, who'd managed to flee not only the civil war, but the fall of France.

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Furthermore, a further four state governments voted on the issue of whether they should join the new, recognized nation. The first was West Virginia, where coal miners trade unions resurged with a vengeance after their treatment under MacArthur. The civil war and this recent war had taken quite a toll on the populace, and apparently our troops were the most courteous. Now, this is typically something I would suspect as propaganda, but all of our officials seem genuinely shocked at this turn of events. The newly reformed CSA is happy to welcome them on board though, of course.

Minnesota and Iowa followed suit quickly thereafter. Both states have had something of a progressive, union friendly flair, despite being outside the usual urban environments where that usually flourishes. Though not originally very CSA friendly, MacArthur's blatant canceling of elections seems to have pushed them into our camp admits heavy citizens outcry. Missouri was next to vote, and was actually the most likely to join the CSA under most predictions, but it was also a state with a heavy US military presence. The 'no' vote was something of a shock, and rumors persist of US Army personnel 'guarding' the state capital. There were further rumors that Oklahoma might have a vote, but the abrupt end of the succession trend in Missouri seems to have put a stop to that.

As a final note, Southern Texas, which still has a large Mexican population, and New Mexico were also seceded to Mexico as part of the deal.

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In a way, I am of the opinion that we did not defeat America, America defeated America. While the army may protest, this is actually a fairly fitting view in Marx's framework. MacArthur had finally gone too far, and the people lost faith in the American ideal. Granted, we were as good as over the Mississippi, but there was still a lot of work to be done. The American people had firmly had enough, though. There was a lot of talk about what was to become of the US, especially after the loss of so many states. In fact, using an almanac and a rough calculation, between present events and deaths from the war, the US as it stands now has only about 35% of it's 1934 population, 10 years ago. Still, while for a few days it looked as if the US might dissolve completely, MacArthur announced that he would peacefully step down and would install former Vice President Dewey to the office of the Presidency, under the original constitution. The old system would reign supreme, but the American system of government will be forever changed despite that. For now, the American people will go home, to what's left of it, and work on rebuilding. After all is said and done, even a bottom-rate European power like the bastardization of Belgium Germany keeps as a puppet has more industrial output than the remnant of the United States.

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Our work is never done, of course. The bulk of our forces are racing back to New Brunswick using whatever means they can, for redeployment back to the Isles. The secession of so much land has left us an excellent opportunity to race to Winnipeg, and hopefully end the Canadian resistance.

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There is a dark side to this turn of events, too. We've put full faith and confidence in Jack Reed, but as he approaches old age he is not a healthy man. So many of his loyal lieutenants have been lost in the past eight years as well. From what I hear about about developments in setting up the new CSA government, his administration seems to be taking on a Totalist bent. This is most troubling, and I have a hard time believing this would happen if Reed was in full control of his faculties. It flies in the face of the popular support we had for reestablishing the CSA, and is a travesty of unheard of proportions. This will likely be a problem in the future, though I still I hope I am merely misjudging the rapidfire news snippets coming from America.

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North America - January 1944
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About every two weeks he was sending me peace offers in game. I just trumped this one up, considering I now had about 25 divisions behind his lines with nothing between me and Denver, and also I was able to stabilize the Southern Front once it got back to places where the infrastructure was repaired. I've been ramping up my airforce, too, and giving them a test run netted me some US divisions just through bombing ;)

You also have to keep in mind, this is not strongman, saving the Union MacArthur. This is a MacArthur who's come to get a reputation as a nut job (and perhaps rightfully so), who hindered the defense as much as helped it. First there were the (never confirmed) rumors that he ordered DC abandoned, then the usurpation of the Presidency, then the further changes to the constitution, and a whole bunch of other things that made former CSA areas a lot more sympathetic to the UoB than the US.

Also, remember when I said the least likely outcome of the event chain happened? I did the math, and this outcome would only occur in 0.2% of cases (not 2%, 0.2%)
 
I love it when the really small chances come out in Kaiserriech. On my last playthrough I saw Transamur eat Siberia after freeing itself from Japan and become the Russian Republic. I have never seen that before.
 
Heh, indeed. I almost can't play Vanilla after all the choices KR offers.

Oh, and I suppose for reference, the most likely outcome was for the US to start disintegrating from within even after, which culminates in the US switching to U08 (I believe) and the Federated States of America. Furthermore, even if the referendums got triggered, only MN had a greater than 50% chance of actually doing it, and even then not by much! The chance for the US to survive and restore civilian government (IE full MacArthur surrender) was only 5% on the individual event where that happened.
 
National identity crisis is right; the Union is composed entirely of southern states and the plains, with a New Yorker as president with New York itself ruled by the iron fist of the CSA (which also owns all Yankee provs)
Maybe president George Wallace will restore American unity in the future :p
 
Indeed, and Bricker is from Ohio. Basically though I didn't want to deal with it too much, then, and have coded a standard 1944 election event, using candidates from the proper states. Technically Dewey is legally the President, though, even if his state is no longer part of the Union.
 
No problem. I'm really jumping to keep going on this, but I'm actually currently the most ill I have ever been in my life (some crazy food poisoning). I know it doesn't show, but the only thing I have enough strength to at the moment is write forum replies, so that's why it appears as if I'm bouncing off the walls ;)

As far as events go, not to brag or anything, but there's very little beyond my reach. If you ever read the KR credit popups at the start of a game, I'm actually on the third slide, because I did a lot of the original PSA events ;) I'm fairly sure that was so long ago that very little of my work actually remains now, though, as mine were more of a stopgap until someone could give them proper attention. If anything remains, it would be some of the PSA foreign policy event chain though.
 
I like the outcome of the US war. I find it more realistic that a full out anexation and releasing a CSA on the whole of the US, or releasing CSA in the original lands and balkanizing the rest. It feels more British in the KR world. Good job.
 
I can't believe I had forgotten to comment until now. This is basically the long, drawn-out Kaiserreich game we don't really see, given how things usually shudder to a halt for better or worse by 1941/42. The way the narrative has been shaping up even without your custom events - the Americans getting involved, the short-lived MacArthur regime dropping the ball and the "nut job" reputation, as you put it - has been really entertaining.

The Union of Britain is surprisingly strong here, given its usual performance in-game. Maybe that's just the AI's fault rather than the nation's base strength, but I know it's certainly easier to invade than the vanilla Isles.

I wonder how this is going to play out in the end... But for now, you have a Canada to crush, don't you? FETCH THE GUILLOTINE
 
I'm not quite sure, but I'd say perhaps that the KR AI is actually *better* than Vanilla, because I'm constantly surprised at how hard Germany has been trying to invade. In fact, a few times, they've been mere hours away from overpowering the garrison divisions before the RN shows up and breaks up the invasion fleet. Rest assured, the German navy is rather high on my list of nuclear targets :p
 
Perhaps a large German navy makes it more likely for them to try to sealion?
 
Once again an update on the updates. I'll try and get some updates out this coming week, and Spring Break is soon. Was going to do some this weekend, but my headphones broke. Not a vital part, thankfully, but I need a constant stream of music going to keep up my motivation, so I didn't get much done at all. After the most derptastic adventure with the Amazon Prime free trial, I now have working headphones again, and should be back to normal productivity.