The Eastern Vikings, Part 3 - Baltic Mega-Campaign

[DensleyBlair]

The Great War sparked by an Olympic fencing match? Love it! Sport and politics is an under-utilised trope in Vicky AARs,
I think. Particularly when Vicky actually makes a thing of the Olympics (and football sometimes too). Looking forward to the coming storm.

 

[RedTemplar]

So it begins. And what a perfect way to weaken these foes.

It's gonna be big. Shaping up to be fought on at least three different continents at this point.

 

[Nikolai]

And claims to new states conquered from - say - Germany. Is cheap too. 3.6 BB per state.

 

[Michaelangelo]

Ah, at last, a formidable group rearing its head and causing a crisis. If Estonia can win this, both Andalusia and Germany will be greatly weakened by the loss of France. It's also good to see a feasible reason for a world war, since a nation as large as France wanting to obtain its freedom is no minor issue.

I also can't help but notice how much Estonia's economy took off. #1 great power is no easy feat to achieve.

 

[RedTemplar]

Ah, at last, a formidable group rearing its head and causing a crisis. If Estonia can win this, both Andalusia and Germany will be greatly weakened by the loss of France. It's also good to see a feasible reason for a world war, since a nation as large as France wanting to obtain its freedom is no minor issue.

I also can't help but notice how much Estonia's economy took off. #1 great power is no easy feat to achieve.

I can't take any legitimate credit for that haha... At some point after the liberals had tanked the economy really hard, it just kind of started to work. Next thing I know I'm raking in tons of cash, have factories everywhere, and I'm the #1 GP.

And claims to new states conquered from - say - Germany. Is cheap too. 3.6 BB per state.

I will definitely look to take some land, but I'm also looking at ideas on how to chop up their countries into smaller states... But on the flipside, I'm also looking at ways that Estonia and the other allies could be broken up, as well. We're gonna go full Versailles on this one, no matter who wins.

 

[Michaelangelo]

I can't take any legitimate credit for that haha... At some point after the liberals had tanked the economy really hard, it just kind of started to work. Next thing I know I'm raking in tons of cash, have factories everywhere, and I'm the #1 GP.

That's the double-edged sword that is laissez-faire for you. Get it too earlier and it tanks your economy, but get it after your industry has been built up and your economy will take off. I keep acting like I know what I'm talking about but I don't think anyone truly understands the mystery that is Victoria 2's economic system.

 

[stnylan]

The lamps are going out....

 

[Telcharinogrod]

I find it ironic that France is this universe's Poland...

 

[Capage]

Looks good, but I also feel that Estonia and its satellite states could defeat Andalusia, Germany and Celtic Empire on their own. So, the support of the States either makes the winner clear or there will be more shenanigans.

 

[RedTemplar]

Looks good, but I also feel that Estonia and its satellite states could defeat Andalusia, Germany and Celtic Empire on their own. So, the support of the States either makes the winner clear or there will be more shenanigans.

Thanks to alliances, there are more nations in play than just those. However, in terms of population and standing army size, Estonia's faction does look like it has a significant advantage on paper. But I might be surprised, I might do something dumb because I don't know how to V2 very well, or I might be underestimating the alliance of monarchs. But for the first time in this leg of the game, Estonia is going to have to fight a multi-front war, so we'll see how that goes.

 

[Telcharinogrod]

If the Celts are anything like the vanilla British, you're fine .

How's the relative naval strengths, actually? And how's everyone's tech, as far as you know?

 

[RedTemplar]

If the Celts are anything like the vanilla British, you're fine .

How's the relative naval strengths, actually? And how's everyone's tech, as far as you know?

The Celts have actually been very aggressive in mainland Europe during the first few months of playing the Great War. Actually, in some ways even more aggressive than the Germans!

As far as naval power goes, Estonia's democratic faction has the edge in numbers -- combined total of 477 ships, with most of t hem belonging to Arabia, Vijayanagar, and Italy. My fleet is pretty lackluster, with 54 ships and only 2 modern ones. The monarchies, by comparison, have 237 total ships, with basically all of them belonging to the Celts and Andalusia. Germany has a navy consisting of a whopping 2 whole boats.... Wilhelm would be disappointed.

Numbers advantage goes for our faction, too -- we have 6 nations (8 if you include Estonia's satellite republics), with a total of 1,443 active army brigades. The monarchists have 5 nations with 907 standing brigades.

Tech, from doing a couple of quick tag swaps to look at progress, seems fairly even. Most of the majors are still working toward the bolt-action rifle tech for infantry, and a small handful have done the infiltration tech to have the potential to discover tanks.

When it comes down to it, the monarchies have smaller forces, but they're largely tightly compacted together in one area. My faction has the bigger army, higher population, and bigger industrial base, but we're spread out over a wider area.

 

[CaptainAlvious]

Just caught up quickly on this AAR and many interesting events have happened since I've been gone indeed. Its nice to see Estonia and its democracy doing well so far, but Germany continues to be a nuisance see. Oh well, this World War will be the opportunity to finally crush the German menace once and for and see democracy triumph over monarchism once and for all, plus we'll be seeing France liberated as well. A righteous war if I ever saw one that totally won't end in the deaths of millions.

I just hope China doesn't get involved in this one through, they've got a scary military, and I fear the Ming dynasty would lean towards the Germans and the other monarchies too.

 

[Telcharinogrod]

When it comes down to it, the monarchies have smaller forces, but they're largely tightly compacted together in one area. My faction has the bigger army, higher population, and bigger industrial base, but we're spread out over a wider area.

That sounds manageable, at least if you're war leader and won't get sold down the river by Italy after a blitzkrieg or something along those lines.

 

[RedTemplar]

October 1901 - December 1901 AD

Declarations and Alliances - The Great War Erupts
After many long years of being ruled by Holland, Germany, and Andalusia, the French people had grown weary of foreign kings and had begun to fiercely desire a free French nation for the first time in almost two centuries. When that rising nationalism became the center of attention at the 1900 Olympic Games thanks to the scandalous, flag-waving celebration of ethnic French fencers Albert Ayat and Henri Laurant, the movement entered the world stage as tensions grew in French-populated parts of Germany and Andalusia. Presidents Aleksander Klavan and Swift Deer of Estonia and the United States both secured the support of their governments for the establishment of a French nation, promising to defend their right against any attempts at repression by their ruling monarchs.

The summer of 1901 saw Klavan and Swift Deer attempted to reach a settlement with Kaiser Albrecht and King Felipe, but the two sides repeatedly failed to come to any sort of an understanding. The western monarchs refused to give up any of their control over French lands even in exchange for monetary compensation, and they likewise refused the creation of a new Kingdom of Aquitaine, which would be subjected to the authority of its neighbors while maintaining a degree of sovereignty. By the fall, it had become clear that negotiations were proving fruitless. Albrecht and Felipe were not going to give any ground, and Estonia and the United States had no further offers to make, save the final resort: war.

On October 29 of 1901, Presidents Klavan and Swift Deer proclaimed a joint declaration of war against the German Empire and Andalusia. The declaration cited the refusal of the two nations to accommodate the rightful demands of the French people for national sovereignty as the primary casus belli and stated that the two nations would use military force to liberate the French from their oppressors in the name of liberty. Officially, the declaration created a state of war between Estonia and the United States on one side, and Germany and Andalusia on the other. But thanks to the many alliances established between the major powers of Europe, what was originally a four-party conflict over French sovereignty quickly grew into an all-out war.

In response to the declaration of war, Albrecht reached out to Emperor Deaglan I of the Celtic Empire. After his mother's refusal to support Germany in capturing Sachsen, Deaglan had sworn a firm oath to come to Albrecht's aid if he were ever attacked, and the Celtic Emperor held to his oath by committing his country's full support to the war. Albrecht also secured the aid of two additional allies: Shahanshah Anushiruvan III of Persia, and Sapa Inka Yupanqui VI of the Inca Empire, the latter of which was eager to challenge the United States for dominance in the western hemisphere.

Estonia likewise had its own allies to call to the war, and when Albrecht's swarmed to his defense, President Klavan turned to his. Vittorio Ruggiero of Italy and Jibrail al Ayad of Arabia held to their alliances, meaning that the traditional triple alliance of Estonia, Italy, and Arabia would continue to fight alongside one another -- albeit this time with all three nations as democratic states. Estonia also had the support of its satellite Guelder Republic and Jutland Republic, and of the Elbe Republic -- which had risen to such stature that it was briefly counted among the Great Powers and had negotiated its full sovereignty from Estonia. Finally, Estonia was joined by the Republic of Finland to the north, and the radical anarcho-liberal dictatorship of Vijayanagar, which had formed a late alliance with Estonia in an effort to check the expansion of Persia.

By the time all of the alliances were accounted for, the budding Great War had brought 13 different nations into a war that would be fought in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. On one side stood the Democratic Entente, an alignment of the major democratic states of the world pushing for the expansion of democratic government abroad; on the other, the royal powers of the Monarchist Compact representing an alliance of kings and emperors intent on supporting one another in maintaining and strengthening their rule. In terms of economy and manpower, the advantage was firmly with the Entente; their combined standing armies boasted 4.3 million men, compared to the 2.7 million active soldiers of the Compact at the time. Similarly, the democratic nations had significantly higher combined production capabilities than their monarchist counterparts. The monarchs, however, held the advantage of having their three strongest principle members -- Germany, Andalusia, and the Celtic Empire -- bordering one another in western Europe and providing the ability to closely concentrate their strength while the Entente nations were much more spread out.

But with over 7 million men across both sides of the conflict marching to war, Europe was about to see war and bloodshed of historic proportions.

The Great War's Opening Maneuvers
It was Estonia and the United States whose declaration began the Great War, but the first offensives would come quickly from the members of the Monarchist Compact.

Kaiser Albrecht was quick to mobilize his northern armies, sending a massive invasion force storming across the border into the Guelder Republic. The border had been heavily fortified by the Guelder Republic's army, but even with the assistance of strongpoints and entrenched positions, the nation's army would be no match for the wave of German troops pouring into their territory. At the encouragement of Estonian President Klavan, all of the Republic's troops abandoned the German border and retreated to the east, where they would wait to meet up with reinforcements from Estonia before attempting to stabilize their homeland.

As the Guelder troops began their retreat, the Estonian and Celtic navies began to clash in the waters off the coast. Estonia had a single large fleet of warships, but the majority were outdated, largely wooden ships. An old ironclad and monitor, two newer-model cruisers, and the lone battleship ERS Harka were the only vessels of modern make in the navy, making Estonia's sea force large but severely lacking. In the opening weeks of the war, that aging navy came into conflict with the much more modern fleet of the Celtic Empire, which boasted 20 battleships in addition to a large fleet of supporting vessels -- the largest and most technologically advanced navy on the planet at the time.

Estonia initially gained the advantage thanks to facing only a small portion of the Celtic fleet. The first sea battles of the war ended in victory for Estonia, as the fleet attempted to navigate to the Strait of Gibraltar and join up with the Italian fleet to help secure the Mediterranean against Compact naval forces there.

The strategic withdrawal from the Guelder Republic led to the Germans laying a number of sieges largely unopposed, but it allowed for Estonian General Olev Hurt to begin marching his reinforcements westward to join with the Guelder army to begin a coordinated retaliation against the Germans. Under General Hurt's direction, the joint Estonian-Guelder forces focused their reprisal at the far eastern end of the country, where they dealt a swift and overwhelming defeat to German troops attempting to capture the southern and eastern portions of the Republic. While troops from the Elbe Republic were engaged in an offensive across the southern border with Germany, General Hurt waged a campaign to drive the Germans out of the eastern Guelder Republic and create a safe base of operations from which to begin to repel the large assault on the west. As a result of this concentrated offensive, the eastern portion of the country was safely under Entente control by the end of 1901. The front with Germany, while far from being decided, was moving in a positive direction for the Entente.

Other areas were not looking as strong for Estonia, however. Estonian troops had focused heavily on guarding the Estonian-German border, as this had traditionally been the location of much of the heaviest fighting in previous wars; this meant that the eastern border with Persia had typically been watched only by a small group of irregulars, primarily rural militia and reserve troops.

Taking advantage of this, the Persians invaded swiftly at the start of the war and sent most of the army's standing troops into eastern Estonia. Faced with an overwhelming offensive, the Estonian irregulars watching the border fell back, allowing Anushiruvan's men to begin occupying territory without any proper field battles. President Klavan knew that the Estonian army was not large enough to fight off great waves of Persians while still mounting an effective campaign against Germany, so he determined that the professional standing army would be focused entirely to the west. As soldiers were conscripted from among the population and pressed into service as the country mobilized, those newly-raised divisions would be sent in overwhelming numbers to push the Persians back and reoccupy their homelands. The Persian Army was thus allowed several months to run rampant along the border, capturing multiple towns and raiding the countryside as they slowly pressed inward.

For Persia, however, this strategy had a critical shortcoming. The commitment of such a great number of soldiers to an almost entirely undefended border meant that Persian troops were able to make substantial progress into Estonia, but it also meant that the southern border was very lightly defended. As a result, Arabia and Vijayanagar were able to launch a wide-ranging attack on southern Persia, with Vijayanagar in particular sending a large strike to the north to begin occupying Persian territory along their border with minimal opposition. Arabia, while still forced to pay attention to three major fronts, nevertheless committed substantial amounts of its own military might to the area, forcing Persia to gain in one direction while losing in the other.

Overseas, the Great War began with the army of the Inca taking the initiative in striking north at the United States to begin the great battle of the two Native American powers. In November, Inca units were able to defeat the United States twice in central Mexico, allowing their troops to push toward the north and approach the Texan border. Most of the United States army had been held in the north along the coastline and near the border with China's American colonies, so responding to a threat from the south took a considerable amount of time. As civilians mobilized in the American heartland, the army pushed south to meet the Inca invaders, and the winter of 1901 would see the two forces clashing all across northern Mexico in a series of field battles that were often short and indecisive, more like large-scale skirmishes than proper all-out battles.

By the time that the new year arrived, each side of the Great War had made its first thrusts. Only the first few significant battles had been fought, though, and there would be much more loss of life to come as the belligerent powers of the war finished fully mobilizing their populations and economies for war, and battles for specific territories became vicious, all-or-nothing struggles instead of careful, probing strikes. The world had not yet seen the full brutality the Great War had to offer, but the opening blows had now been struck.

 

[stnylan]

It seems like Persia may - once Estonian mobilization is done - find itself squeezed in a not terribly pleasant fashion. I would wager they are by far the weakest strategically of the Monarchist powers.

 

[RedTemplar]

It seems like Persia may - once Estonian mobilization is done - find itself squeezed in a not terribly pleasant fashion. I would wager they are by far the weakest strategically of the Monarchist powers.

I think so, as well -- they are the Monarchists' equivalent of Italy for me. I think Italy will probably be the first nation to really fall because it usually is, but Persia will find itself stuck between my reserves, Arabia, and Vijayanagar, which over time shouldn't end well. Occupying them will take a good while though, since they have a pretty expansive territory.

 

[Nikolai]

Germany is, as always the main threat, with Persia being on clay feet.

 

[RedTemplar]

Germany is, as always the main threat, with Persia being on clay feet.

Germany is definitely the most dangerous, but the Celtic Empire is proving to be a surprisingly major threat, as well. And with all of our nations tied up fighting in Europe, they enjoy relative safety sitting back in the isles.

 

[CaptainAlvious]

Seems like China will be the token neutral Great Power in this world that won't get involved for their own reasons, but could probably turn the scales around for one faction easily by itself due to military strength, kinda like OTL USA. I'm glad there not getting involved now, but I fear the day they decide to change their minds and join the Compact.

I find it interesting that the Entente and Compact are very ideologically distinct from each other, I feel like this as much of a ideological war between Democracy and Monarchism so far as WW2 in OTL was a war between Democracy and Communism together vs Fascism.