The Greater Central America Co-Prosperity Sphere: An Expansionist Cuba AAR (Vanilla | Ironman)

[Qwaszx54321]

The Greater Central America Co-Prosperity Sphere: An Expansionist Cuba AAR (Vanilla | Ironman)

Links to parts:

Preparations:
Part I: Setting the Stage (Jan. 1936 to Nov. 1937) [You are here]
Part II: Gearing up (Nov. 1937 to Dec. 1939)
Part III: Firing up the Forges of War (Jan. 1940 to May 1941)
Part IV: Final Preparations (May 1941 to June 1942)

War!
Part V: Alea Iacta Est (June 1942 to Jan. 1943)
Part VI: Unfettered Expansionism (Jan. 1943 to Jan. 1944)
Part VII: Awakening the Mexican Giant (Jan. 1944 to Feb. 1945)
Part VIII: The Mexican Campaign Continues + Updates (Feb. 1945 to Mar. 1945)
Part IX: Mopping Up and the Southern Strike (Mar. 1945 to Dec. 1945)

The Southern Strike
Part X: The Colombian Campaign (Dec. 1945 to Mar. 1946)

== Part I: Setting the Stage (Jan. 1936 to Nov. 1937) ==

Cuba is an oft-overlooked island with a population of just under four million located in the Caribbean, just off the coast of Central America. Inspired by the stunning success of Japan – a fellow island nation – in the decades since the 1868 regime change, Cuba will seek to carve out its place in Central America, or perish in the attempt.

Cuba will seek to expand its territories in the following order:

1. Take the island of Hispaniola to the east, currently under control of the democratic Haiti and the totalitarian Dominican Republic. This move in particular will be presented to audiences both domestic and international not as expansionism, but rather as revanchism by emphasizing historical ties when possible and fabricating them when necessary. Together with the main island, they will represent the new "Home Islands" of Cuba and stand side-by-side.

2. Take territory in Central America, currently under control of various warlords and local strongmen. This will be presented as a necessary police action to bring stability and modern infrastructure to a people beset by chaos.

3. Establish client states in the north and south. We cannot be expected to administer the whole of Central America from the Home Islands, and so will establish client states to the north and south of our main holdings. States that join our Co-Prosperity Sphere will be handsomely rewarded in land and development

There are but a few minor issues – the first is the aforementioned population of just under four million people. Even with extensive recruitment efforts, we cannot expect to mobilize much more than roughly one in six – or 15% – of the Cuban population, giving us a total manpower pool of 600,000 men at arms. Given the exigencies of war and the need to replenish our divisions, we cannot expect to have more than 35 or so front-line combat divisions. One of our adversaries on this long road to glory is Mexico, a state capable of mobilizing almost as soldiers as we have people – we will need to keep a close eye on our available manpower and take every measure necessary to preserve it. The second is the industrial might and all-seeing eye of the United States, located a few hundred miles to our north. Although they may be willing to overlook minor border disputes, wanton expansionism may result in the full force of the United States Navy and all its battleships being rammed straight up our ass. With neither a navy or air force to speak of, Cuba cannot hope to win even against a minor US intervention force. We will need to find some other way to prevent US interference.

= Starting Situation =

The situation in 1936 is grim given those lofty goals – the Cuban Army, which intends to eventually march on Mexico City, comprises two under-equipped binary divisions – one infantry and one cavalry – of four thousand men apiece, a far cry from anything resembling a modern army. The Cuban Navy and Air Force do not exist.

The Cuban industry is also rather pathetic, consisting of a single military factory and a smattering of civilian factories.
Nonetheless, these civilian factories are set to work immediately, building roads throughout the island and improving infrastructure to the maximum possible level. The purpose of this will become clear later.

Politically, Cuba is also poorly-suited for expansionism – the government is a fragile democracy, and elections will not be held until 1940, far too late when time is of the utmost essence. We will need to find alternate means of convincing the Cuban people of a different ideology, and do so as expediently as possible. We embark immediately on a political effort, but political power will continue to be an extremely precious commodity that we will scarcely be able to waste.

= Swinging the Pendulum =

The first months of 1936 pass rather uneventfully – we find the political power to install a demagogue into the cabinet as a political advisor, starting the arduous shift to a new style of government. We set to researching basic machine tools and other fundamental elements of industry and train additional divisions – still of the primitive binary format.

Because our government is Democratic instead of non-aligned, we find ourselves unable to pursue a Collectivist Ethos and are forced to put our ambitions on hold as we instead aggressively pursue industrial policies, first building up military production lines to provide our gallant troops with uniform weaponry, not matter how basic (and how basic they are! We are still producing weapons designed during the War to End All Wars – sufficient to fight the wars of yesteryear perhaps, but hopelessly outdated for any modern war).

After we hire a Silent Workhorse to get through the immense bureaucracy of running a modern state, we expend any political power we have to spare on first opening up public discourse and then aggressively expanding civil support for authoritarianism and discrediting the current ruling administration as weak and incompetent. This requires an immense expenditure of political power that we can barely afford. This is further exacerbated by the effects of our own policies – our efforts to expedite the swing in public opinion leads to extraordinarily low stability, which further weakens our ability to put together a decent political campaign. Although we could push for improved worker conditions to restore some faith in our institutions, we prefer that such improvements be made under a fascist administration so we get the credit we deserve.

As part of an effort to hasten the militarization of Cuban society, we use some of the experience that we gained from conducting peacetime drills to establish a civil defense reservist system. These battalion-sized units will be established locally – in the wake of the Great Depression, people are eager to earn a little extra money and so we have no issue raising twenty-six such divisions, mobilizing an additional 26,000 men.

At present we hardly have the guns to arm them, but they are not expected to see direct combat just yet and so this is not necessarily a problem.
We also hit a big break in early 1937 – domestic Assault Divisions form organically, further increasing support for our cause. This pushes the timetable of our regime change forward by several months, a major boon for the Cuban people! You can also see that our industrial policies have paid off, providing us with many more factories than ever before, but that our stability has taken a massive hit – at 9% stability not only is industrial output greatly curtailed, the lack of organization means that political power is at an even greater premium than before.

And thus is revealed the reasoning for extensive infrastructural upgrades – by Mid 1937 we put a pause on political campaigns in order to accumulate precious political power. The use of our civilian factories – which we expect to sit largely idle in the future due to a lack of public space on which to place additional industry – will eventually allow us to bypass the two Infrastructure Efforts, saving us 140 political power points that we will instead be able to shift to hiring advisors, taking key decisions, and changing the laws of the land. This will be crucial as by May, domestic stability has fallen to a miserable 3%.

There has also been some grumbling within the armed forces about the military procurement contract – the government has signed on to pay for the production of more than 30,000 units of 1918-pattern basic infantry weapons, enough to furnish 300,000 men. Surely they don't expect the entire Cuban Army to charge into harm's way using Great War vintage firearms?
The government, for its part, has reassured the soldiers that technological improvements are on their way and that they will provided with modern equipment as soon as they become available.

With war in East Asia raging – and Cubans in full support of their fellow island nation – the government begins to plunder the nation's military academies, scouring them for the most qualified and accomplished leaders to fill slots in the upper ranks. Brigadier Generals Eugenio Pimentel – a cavalry officer – and Fidel Trujillo – a defense-oriented officer – are identified as promising candidates to lead the new Cuban Army.

= The Changing Winds =
November 4th 1937 – henceforth Referendum Day: the strenuous efforts of the last two years come to fruition as support for the fascist party reaches levels just high enough for a referendum to be demanded, and peaceful transition of power is enacted. Elections are suspended in this time of great national exigency.

The new government rushes to send volunteer divisions – the I Corps under Brigadier General Fidel and the II Corps under Brig. Gen. Pimentel – to assist the Japanese and Nationalist Spanish, respectively.

In addition, money is funneled from government coffers to support fellow ideologues in the United States, under the expectation that fellow fascists will decline to intervene against as we begin to expand to the Caribbean.

Thus Cuba takes its first major stride to glory.


= GAME NOTES =
1. This AAR will be entirely Ironman-compatible. If things go poorly, this will go from an expansionist attempt to a frantic defense of Festung Cuba. No cheats, no console commands.
2. This game is in Vanilla. By Vanilla I don't mean just "no mods", I mean no DLC at all, because I'm a cheap fuck. The game is fully updated and patched to No Step Back meaning I will be dealing with the supply-depot-and-railroad supply system, but game mechanics like the navy designer from Man the Guns, the detailed espionage system from La Resistance and the tank designer from NSB will be absent. This doesn't appear to put me at an undue advantage though – the AI appears to have access to Spirits of Command from the new Officer Corps system, which means they seem to gain buffs to which I do not have access.
3. Given the above constraints, I hope you'll forgive some level of gamey-ness – building 26 two-width divisions isn't exactly in the spirit of the 30-division volunteer requirement, but there's no way I'd be able to do so otherwise and I desperately need the leader and army exp to have a fighting chance. I say it's not cheating, but rather clever use of game mechanics.

 

[RustyHunter]

Wow, this looks like an excellent challenge! I haven't played vanilla HOI4, so forgive me if any of these are bad questions.

Does the United States have guarantees on most of South and Central America? That was done in HOI3 to simulate the Monroe Doctrine. If so, what's your plan to get around it?

I'm assuming Cuba has a generic focus tree. What are the general branches of it?

This AAR will be entirely Ironman-compatible. If things go poorly, this will go from an expansionist attempt to a frantic defense of Festung Cuba. No cheats, no console commands.

A desperate defense can be just as interesting as glorious conquest, and facing America alone would certainly be unique!

Given the above constraints, I hope you'll forgive some level of gamey-ness – building 26 two-width divisions isn't exactly in the spirit of the 30-division volunteer requirement, but there's no way I'd be able to do so otherwise and I desperately need the leader and army exp to have a fighting chance. I say it's not cheating, but rather clever use of game mechanics.

I don't mind it at all. I agree that you'll need every bit of XP to survive, so I think it's totally reasonable.

Overall, this is an excellent beginning, and I look forward to your glorious conquests!

 

[Crossl3ones]

Cuba is a very unique starting point and it's ability to launch into South America and Caribbean will be quite interesting. Consider me on board you cigar smoking son of a gun.

 

[Qwaszx54321]

Does the United States have guarantees on most of South and Central America? That was done in HOI3 to simulate the Monroe Doctrine. If so, what's your plan to get around it?

I'm assuming Cuba has a generic focus tree. What are the general branches of it?

Overall, this is an excellent beginning, and I look forward to your glorious conquests!

Thanks man! They did carry that mechanic over from HoI3 (which I actually have more hours in) but they tweaked it a bit. Before, any war of any scale between the guaranteed nations got the US involved. Now, countries that are mutually guaranteed can fight each other – so I could declare war on Haiti right now – without incurring the wrath of the USN until the US takes the "Reaffirm Monroe Doctrine" focus. I'll be attempting to stop the US from taking that focus through a number of methods.

You're right – Cuba has the generic focus tree. The political branch lets you strengthen a specific party depending on the sub-branch, but if you start out as Democratic as I did, you're locked out of the "Collectivist" (ie Fascist and Communist) sub-branches until you swing or go non-aligned. The Fascist sub-branch gives you access to an additional 7% manpower (which in my case is around 280,000 men) while the Communist sub-branch gives you a bunch of political power. I'll be taking the former.

The industrial branch, which I've made full use of, gives you a handful of civs and mils. There's also a branch for each kind of armed forces, which gives you some dockyards, some air bases, and research bonuses for army doctrines. We'll also be using some of those to give our boys a fighting chance.

 

[RustyHunter]

Before, any war of any scale between the guaranteed nations got the US involved. Now, countries that are mutually guaranteed can fight each other – so I could declare war on Haiti right now – without incurring the wrath of the USN until the US takes the "Reaffirm Monroe Doctrine" focus. I'll be attempting to stop the US from taking that focus through a number of methods.

I like the sound of that better since lots of wars did happen without the US getting involved. I'll be curious to see how you stop them taking the Reaffirm Monroe Doctrine Focus.

Thanks for your answers, I'm looking forward to the next parts, especially since I don't know much about HOI4 myself.

 

[Qwaszx54321]

== Part II: Gearing Up (Nov. 1937 to Dec. 1939) ==

= The Progress of the Volunteer Corps =

We do not expect to be ready to launch our conquests for another few years – it will take that long to train our divisions and get everything in place to prevent undue foreign interventionism. Instead, we will be closely watching world affairs and getting our troops some much-needed experience. At present our divisions are rather pathetic – not even on par with standard Chinese divisions – and comprise a mere 4,000 men in two brigades of two battalions each. We will need to innovate to bring them up to fighting-fit.

We almost immediately find ourselves in intense combat in both Northern China and Southern Iberia, the expeditionary force in Spain being comprised of 4,000 cavalrymen.

We have a strict defense-only policy when it comes to our volunteer divisions – they are instructed avoid attacking into foreign territory, as there is hardly a point in spilling Cuban blood for the territorial advances of other countries, even if they happen to be fellow travelers. This of course creates a rather perverse incentive structure: the worse our allies do, the more they will be on the defensive, and the more action (and exp) our units will see. This hopefully will not lead to complete ruin – our troops will not take too much logistical support. Within a few months our volunteer troops – along with the Militarism national focus – have given us enough experience to expand our standard infantry division from a binary, four-battalion template to a modern triangular, nine-battalion division. The cavalry divisions will see a similar update. Brigadier General Fidel is now in charge of 18,000 men in China.

We follow up by ramping up production of support equipment to give our troops a better fighting chance by affording them a greater level of support. We will be adding artillery and engineers to the mix to improve their survivability.

= Investments Pay Dividends =

You may recall that before, we went ahead and put our civilian factories to use building up the infrastructure on Cuba island. This, as promised, let us skip the two infrastructure foci (because they require you to control a state that can still take infrastructure) and essentially let us skip 140 days' worth of 1 political power per day (in effect, 140 political power). This is not an issue on the civilian factory side because we hardly have anything to build – we don't have enough building slots on Cuba to make anything useful, and we have no need for extra airfields at this moment. What is notable about this is that it then gives us access to the Extra Research Slot focus, letting us increase our number of research slots from two to three – something we will need dearly to keep our forces modern and usable.

We are also able to domestically Improve Worker Conditions – we had the option to do this before, but we wanted the improved conditions to be attributable to the new regime and not the old, decadent administration. This costs us rather dearly on political power, but we need to improve stability in order to prevent strikes or draft-dodging, as well as to improve the factory and dockyard output domestically.

We also pursue a strong Naval Effort and grab the bonuses from the submarine effort in order to establish a capable naval fleet. The submarine fleet, dubbed the Low Seas Fleet, will provide the backbone of the new and reformed Cuban Navy. We will need naval superiority (or preferably supremacy) in order to expand our reach to the rest of the Caribbean and Central America.

In addition, we use 150 political power to shift our economy into a Free Trade scheme – while this rather unorthodox, we need to squeeze every single bit of IC out our factories and dockyards, as well as to improve our research speed. We have plenty of chromium (and no real warships on which to spend them) and would be more than happy to get rid of them in exchange for more civilian factories. We are also able to shift into Partial Mobilization to free up some more civilian factories.

We swing those civilian factories to building up an additional naval base on the Island of Cuba. This seems excessive considering that we already have a port in Havana as well as another at Guantanamo. However, this third port will actually be instrumental later on.

= Never Leave your Flanks to the Spanish =

By 1939 the wars in Iberia and China have been raging for years – within a few months our divisions had gained significant experience from the fierce combat taking place between the Nationalists and the Republicans. The Republicans mount a tenacious offensive but are unable to advance against the treacherous mountain terrain on which we had chosen to fortify our position

Then, the Chinese conduct a stunning and ingenious offensive into Japanese territory. Our Japanese allies – aided by our courageous troops – conduct a gallant defense, but are unable to prevent the Chinese from breaking the line to Mengukuo. This presents a major problem as it puts us at risk of being encircle in a salient. In order to do this, we perform a fighting retreat deeper into Mengukuo before strategically redeploy into Manchukuo to give us time to regroup and mount another defense on the riverline. You can see that our divisions, by now comprising just over 10,000 men (nine infantry battalions and one line artillery regiment, supported by a reconnaissance company and an additional support artillery detachment), have gained significant experience.

However, it is at this moment that disaster strikes – while I was tunnel-vision'd in Northern China, the Nationalists on our flanks in Southern Iberia collapse, and get us fucking encircled. The AI apparently can't defend a front line for shit, and we – along with a division of German volunteers – find ourselves surrounded on a mountain province. Everyone knows the age-old adage of "don't leave your flanks to the Romanians", but one ought also to take care and not leave the flanks to the Spanish, either. The cavalry divisions make a valiant breakout effort by pushing north in conjunction with Spanish forces, but are unable to break the perimeter.

With the divisions unable to find a way out and the Republicans hitting us from all sides, we have no choice but to disband the divisions and regain some scraps of manpower. This is a real crock of shit, because each of those divisions comprises 10,000 men, meaning that we're losing 16,000 men since the AI wasn't able to maintain a decent defensive line at the same time that the Chinese were pushing to the north. Given that manpower will be the restriction on our expansion, this is a major blow at this juncture. We lost more men to this one blunder than we did to two years of fierce combat against well-prepared and motivated combatants. What a fucking disaster.

= Continuing the Build-Up =
Brigadier General Pimentel was court-martialed for this major strategic error, but was found not guilty on the basis that he was just following orders from Havana to defend the mountain fortress at all costs. He will be re-instated in command of the newly re-formed 1st and 2nd Cavalry Divisions.

As of December 31st our production lines appear as follows. We have 12,000 basic infantry equipment in surplus – enough to arm 120,000 men – but these armaments are not necessarily destined for Cuban hands. We will need these for a different operation still crucial to the success of our next moves. They say that night is darkest just before the dawn, we hope that the loss of those 16,000 brave men will be avenged tenfold in the success of our future conquests.

 

[RustyHunter]

Within a few months our volunteer troops – along with the Militarism national focus – have given us enough experience to expand our standard infantry division from a binary, four-battalion template to a modern triangular, nine-battalion division.

We will be adding artillery and engineers to the mix to improve their survivability.

It looks like your army is coming along nicely!

This, as promised, let us skip the two infrastructure foci (because they require you to control a state that can still take infrastructure) and essentially let us skip 140 days' worth of 1 political power per day (in effect, 140 political power).

increase our number of research slots from two to three

Some nice work on the focus tree as well!

The submarine fleet, dubbed the Low Seas Fleet, will provide the backbone of the new and reformed Cuban Navy. We will need naval superiority (or preferably supremacy) in order to expand our reach to the rest of the Caribbean and Central America.

Are submarines able to generate naval superiority for naval invasions? If so, I'm assuming convoy raiding is just a special mission they're very good at?

In addition, we use 150 political power to shift our economy into a Free Trade scheme – while this rather unorthodox, we need to squeeze every single bit of IC out our factories and dockyards, as well as to improve our research speed.

That seems reasonable to me. It looks like the penalty is giving enemies more intelligence, but you don't have much to hide anyways.

In order to do this, we perform a fighting retreat deeper into Mengukuo before strategically redeploy into Manchukuo to give us time to regroup and mount another defense on the riverline.

Do the Japanese normally struggle in China, or have you had especially bad luck in this game?

Everyone knows the age-old adage of "don't leave your flanks to the Romanians", but one ought also to take care and not leave the flanks to the Spanish, either.

As of December 31st our production lines appear as follows. We have 12,000 basic infantry equipment in surplus – enough to arm 120,000 men – but these armaments are not necessarily destined for Cuban hands.

I'll be curious to see what your next step is since things are looking pretty good so far, excluding the men lost in Spain.

 

[Fool Esquire]

This is a very interesting idea! You've been doing well at getting the most out of a tiny country's resources... the unfortunate encirclement notwithstanding. That was the Spaniards' fault, anyways - gotta start practicing blaming failures on others, like true fascists.

It's kind of funny that the fascist Cuba flag is literally just the real flag except with a red rectangle instead of a red triangle and an eight-pointed star instead of a five-pointed one.

Good luck with Cuba's future endeavors!

 

[Qwaszx54321]

== Part III: Firing the up the Forges of War (Jan. 1940 to May 1941) ==

= Improving the Land Forces =

By the dawn of 1940, the Japanese forces in the north of China have been pushed back by intrepid attacks by the Nationalist Chinese. The I Corps (now comprising two divisions each of 10,000 men) under command of Lieutenant General Fidel continues to mount a valiant defense along the river-line in conjunction with the present Japanese forces. Our Japanese allies along with their puppet-states continue to attempt to hold the line, but their defenses are of little match for the massed Chinese forces.

At home, we seek to make good use of the experience gained by our I Corps (and the recently decimated II Corps). To this end, we sink some political power into getting ourselves a Doctrine Effort in order to get our 50% discount. We will be pursing a Superior Firepower doctrine in order to improve the firepower of our divisions while keeping our manpower requirements relatively manageable.

In addition, we make an attempt to research and then construct a small number of indigenously developed aircraft – this is necessary because we aren't able to buy production licenses (again, because I don't have the DLC for it because I'm a cheap fuck). Instead, we use just enough research resources to develop a 1936-standard airframe, and commit a single military factory in order to produce them. This will give us a pivotal advantage against our Hispaniolan neighbours – these fighters will be completely garbage in an objective sense, but they'll be better than the Haitian Air Force, because the Haitians don't have an air force.

We also work to increase the survivability of our land forces – the addition of a division-level field hospital company brings our fielded manpower for each infantry division to 10,800 men, and allows us to retain some manpower that would otherwise be lost. Considering the catastrophic loss of 16,000 men in Spain, this change will hopefully allow us to mitigate some of the difficulties that might arise from the Spanish Debacle.

Furthermore, the newly re-formed II Corps, comprising two cavalry divisions of the same kind that were destroyed in the Spanish mountains is placed under command of the experienced Lt. Gen. Pimental are first placed into a training regime to make them well-drilled enough to survive the rage of war, and are thereafter sent right back into the Spanish meatgrinder. They will be under strict orders to maintain a defensive stance and we will keep a close eye on our Axis fellow travelers in order to prevent their incompetence from causing such losses again.

= Spooling up the Industry =

When in the course of human events it becomes necessary to endure some deprivations, all of our citizens must be called upon to work in the factories and give up some of the luxuries of peacetime. On the same course of action, we shift our conscription law into Limited Conscription to free up some manpower.

Finally, we use some of army experience to put together a new Marine Corps – three divisions each consisting of two brigades of four battalions each, supported by attached artillery and recon elements. These will spearhead our expansion into rest of the Caribbean. Due to the current size of our armed forces, we are able only to raise three such divisions, but they will still prove instrumental in our amphibious assaults. In addition, we install Fidel Castro (Special Forces Attack +15%, Sp. Forces Def. +15%) and Angel Gonzalez (amphibious invasion speed +10%) in our chief of staff to further leverage these new divisions.

= Lighting the Powderkeg =

May 15th, 1941 – a date which will live in infamy. The Philippines were suddenly and deliberately attacked by combined Naval and Air forces of the Empire of Japan. This is the opportunity for which we have been waiting for more than five years, biding our time. The Philippines are a puppet state of our neighbors to the north, and the Japanese attack on the Philippines draws the US into war. At first glance this hardly appears to benefit us, but it actually does significantly. Until now the US has maintained around 90% internal stability – this means that even with major support, we were unable to stage a coup and civil war. This is no longer the case – being at war introduced a precipitous drop in stability, and gives us the opening that we need. Incidentally, this is why we have been stockpiling hundreds of thousands of obsolete infantry equipment – the Free American Empire will need all the guns it can get, and to spark the coup will require upwards of 300,000 rifles. Rifles that we will barely be able to provide, considering the needs of our own forces. However, this was a necessity – there was no way we were going to defeat the US in open combat – the only thing strong enough to defeat it is itself.

D-Day is June 19th, 1942 – once the Caribbean policeman is consumed by internal division we will be able to run wild through the Central American Continent. We will have to act quickly for this to work, but our resolve has never been stronger.

With 70 airframes already produced, we cancel the production line and establish the First Fighter wing of the new Cuban Air Force. 50 pilots (with 20 in reserve) will begin flight training immediately.

After so many years of preparations our plan lurches to life. The fate of our nation hangs in the balance.

Are submarines able to generate naval superiority for naval invasions? If so, I'm assuming convoy raiding is just a special mission they're very good at?

Do the Japanese normally struggle in China, or have you had especially bad luck in this game?

Yeah, submarines are no match for actual decent surface combatants but the nations of Hispaniola don't have a navy, so our submarines will be sufficient to wrest control of the seas. We have eight submarines so far, and we'll be backing them up with a handful of basic (1922-model) destroyers.

I think the Japanese AI just has a lot of trouble with the NSB logistics – they always seem to lose ground in the North but capture fairly large swathes of land in the Central and Southern regions of China, but I haven't seen the AI capitulate China by itself yet.

This is a very interesting idea! You've been doing well at getting the most out of a tiny country's resources... the unfortunate encirclement notwithstanding. That was the Spaniards' fault, anyways - gotta start practicing blaming failures on others, like true fascists.

You said it man – all the setbacks are someone else's fault but all of the successes have been almost entirely attributable to our contribution.

 

[RustyHunter]

Instead, we use just enough research resources to develop a 1936-standard airframe, and commit a single military factory in order to produce them. This will give us a pivotal advantage against our Hispaniolan neighbours – these fighters will be completely garbage in an objective sense, but they'll be better than the Haitian Air Force, because the Haitians don't have an air force.

That seems like a very good idea. Is there any chance the Axis will send you outdated/captured equipment as the game goes on?

we install Fidel Castro (Special Forces Attack +15%, Sp. Forces Def. +15%)

That's an interesting character, although maybe he pulled a Mussolini and decided fascism is cooler than socialism.

I think the Japanese AI just has a lot of trouble with the NSB logistics – they always seem to lose ground in the North but capture fairly large swathes of land in the Central and Southern regions of China, but I haven't seen the AI capitulate China by itself yet.

That makes sense. It seems decently balanced since the Japanese shouldn't be able to beat China in every game, although they should make more progress in the north before they get bogged down, more due to supplies and the length of the front than anything else.

 

[Fool Esquire]

Alea iacta est! It is a very bold strategy to hope the Americans will be distracted enough not to crush you. But when you're stuck in the gaze of the "New World policeman", boldness is necessary to rise to greatness. Are you counting on the fascist Americans actually winning, or just planning to do all of your conquering during the civil war?

I hope all of your preparation pays off!

 

[Qwaszx54321]

== Part IV: Final Preparations (May 1941 to June 1942) ==

= Getting the Army Ready =
At present – in addition to the major infantry equipment deficit – the next major hurdle we face is our lack of manpower. With little more than a hundred thousand men (which may seem like a lot but which only amounts to ten or so divisions – maybe six if we reasonably consider wartime losses) available, we have to take every available measure to free up men to fight in Central America. We disband all but a vestigial remnant of the Civil Defense Corps to make available some measure of manpower.

You can see here the beginnings of our Marine Corps – we expect this to be instrumental to our early conquests considering that we exist on an island and we need to take over other islands in order to expand outwards. At present it consists of three 16-width binary marine divisions supported by two standard 21-width infantry divisions. We hope to expand this later to include more support and – if possible – more marines.

In addition we sink some research into developing an indigenous destroyer model. This is – once again from an objective standpoint – a rather pathetic design considering that the rest of the world developed such a design in 1922, but it will be sufficient to wrest control of the seas in the Caribbean due to the utter lack of surface combatants amongst the non-existent navies of our neighbors. We will also be able to use these to defend our convoy routes, should it come to such an exigency.

We also manage to get some rather modern artillery on the production lines – we don't expect our entire army to have these when war breaks out, but it will provide some measure of assurance for our most elite units.

We expend some of our hard-earned stability to yoink some trains from our civilian rail companies. We will desperately need these to supply our valiant front-line troops later in the conflict, and we are currently able to withstand the not-insignificant stability debuff.

= Global Affairs =
Considering our relative weakness compared to the rest of the developed world we have a stringent need to keep a close eye on the goings-on of the global community at large. The United States joins the Allied Powers in mid-1942, lending their strength to the fight against Fascism in both the Pacific and Europe. This also means at any war that we get into that draws in the US will also involve the forges of democracy worldwide. This gives us even more reason to remain extremely cautious.

Speaking of global affairs, the Nationalists finally capitulate the Republicans over in Spain. As the Republicans had long joined the Communist International (and the Nationalists the Axis) this does not lead to a meaningful peace conference, but it at least frees up our II Corps to assist our allies elsewhere. We will be sending them to the Eastern Front to supply some measure of defense against the stalwart Soviet divisions. This is surprisingly not a punishment, but rather intended to be an opportunity to learn from a clash of civilizations.

On January 15th 1942, we take over our domestic publications and begin to spread totally true but perhaps slightly exaggerated news about the indignities faced by the Cuban minority in Hispaniola. We declare the Haitian and Dominican regimes to be illegitimate rebel groups that suppress the true potential of their people, and we stress that whereas we no doubt seek a peaceful resolution to this unenviable state of affairs, that we are prepared to turn to arms if absolutely necessary. Anyone who declines to enthusiastically support the new line espoused by the government is of course promptly arrest for unpatriotic and subversive activities. We can do this because we're fascist lmao.

You can see here our plan for our "police action" within our rightful clay of Hispaniola. The First Army, comprising twelve standard 21-width infantry divisions, will split into a pair of six-division pairs of corps and engage in a pinning action inspired by the great Zulu Empire. The "horns of the bull", comprising the III to VI Corps will give our central force, comprising the Marine Corps (the "head of the bull") the opportunity to strike directly into the heart of the rebel government. We hope to accomplish this even before our volunteer forces make it back from the far flung theaters in which they've cut their teeth. To this end we recall Lt. Gen. Trujillo, and place him in command of the First Army (promoting him to a full General to better suit his new position). You can see also why we sunk some civilian IC into constructing that third port despite our abundance of ports – since we need to strike at three provinces to meaningfully paralyze the Haitian Army, we needed three ports from which to send our forces.

To this end an innovation in Landing Craft will be necessary; this new research allows us to co-ordinate the landings of upwards of 40 divisions on foreign-controlled soil. Considering that we don't plan to have 40 divisions in total at any point, we expect this to prove to be more than enough for our needs.

We also make a nominal attempt to improve domestic stability by improving worker conditions.

= Lighting the Caribbean Powderkeg =
In May of 1942 we finally gain the long-awaited casus belli against our neighbors to the East. We have earmarked for this campaign the following:
1. The First Army, comprising the III to VI Corps (as the I Corps is away in China and the II Corps is committed against the Russians), each comprising three standard triangular infantry divisions (each brigade comprising three battalions) supported by a field artillery regiment and support elements for a total of 10,800 men. We have four such corps, totaling 12 divisions for just under 130,000 men.
2. The Marine Corps, comprising three binary Marine divisions of 9,000 men each, plus three support infantry divisions of the same 10,800 men each. This totals just under 60,000 men.

With these two elements combined, the Cuban Army will commit 189,000 men to Operation Opal (the invasion of Haiti) split into 18 divisions. In addition, the Cuban Navy will provide an advance guard of eight submarines and one destroyer to protect our vulnerable convoys, and the Cuban Air Force will commit its entirety of fifty fighter aircraft to provide what air cover it can to our intrepid infantry. Our intelligence suggests that the Haitians will respond with upwards of 120,000 men in up to 20 divisions.

This represents the bulk of our fielded manpower – although we expect to have 12% of our 4 million souls available to fight (for a total of around 480,000 men) we will need some of this number as reserves to fill the gaps left by our fallen heroes. We ramp up recruitment from the previous Limited Conscription to Extensive Conscription to this end.

On June 19, 1942, the fuse is lit; we commit 340,000 men worth of infantry equipment to a rebellion in the United States, concentrated in Florida (to cut off the Caribbean for as long as possible). Immediately the fascist faction of the civil war joins the Axis powers, fully drawing the United States into the war in Europe. This – we pray – will give us the cover we need to bring Central America under our control.

As of June 19th the Free American Empire controls most of the South and Mid-West United States. We hope they will prevail, or least distract their Democratic counterparts for long enough.

On June 22nd 1942, three days in the Second American Civil War, we issue a formal declaration of war against the (illegitimate) government of Haiti. Our journey to glory as begun in earnest, and the die has been cast.

That seems like a very good idea. Is there any chance the Axis will send you outdated/captured equipment as the game goes on?

That makes sense. It seems decently balanced since the Japanese shouldn't be able to beat China in every game, although they should make more progress in the north before they get bogged down, more due to supplies and the length of the front than anything else.

It's unlikely that the Axis will send us equipment considering that they're barely holding their own in a two-front European war, but we may see some volunteer forces later on if they manage to take out either the Russians (possible) or the Allies (unlikely).

I do think its unrealistic for AI Japan to roll over China by 1940, but them failing to take Beijing and getting pushed back to Harbin I think might be going a tad too far. It usually takes them until 1940 just to take Nanking.

Alea iacta est! It is a very bold strategy to hope the Americans will be distracted enough not to crush you. But when you're stuck in the gaze of the "New World policeman", boldness is necessary to rise to greatness. Are you counting on the fascist Americans actually winning, or just planning to do all of your conquering during the civil war?

Unbelievable. As you may have guessed from the last line of this post, I had actually intended to make Alea Iacta Est the title of the next post. I suppose what they say about great minds is correct. I think I may have gone a bit too early with influencing the US fascist faction frankly – by the time the coup had kicked off they had somewhere around 47% popularity, which is usually more than enough to eventually win the civil war. Even if they don't win it'll take the Union quite a while to put down the rebellion, such that I expect to not see much interference at all from the awake-and-angry giant.

 

[Fool Esquire]

Unbelievable. As you may have guessed from the last line of this post, I had actually intended to make Alea Iacta Est the title of the next post. I suppose what they say about great minds is correct.

Hahahahaha! That phrase is a pretty well-known historical reference, so maybe not a huge coincidence.

I've never actually tried inciting a civil war in the USA, so I can't make a guess about the FAE's chances. It was also a good idea to make sure they spawned in the southeast, so even if the Union wants to fight you, the Empire is in the way.

 

[Qwaszx54321]

Hahahahaha! That phrase is a pretty well-known historical reference, so maybe not a huge coincidence.

Hahaha yeah I meant it more in the sense of "of all the gin joints.." Could've just been a reference to crossing the Rubicon, or a generic statement about a point of no return, or some other reference like haiti delenda est, or tora tora tora or something about kicking down the door and the whole rotten structure coming down, but it was specifically alea iacta est.

 

[RustyHunter]

It looks like the invasion plans are very good, but a lot is riding on the fascist rebels. I'm rooting for the Cubans to run wild and build up an empire though!

 

[Qwaszx54321]

== Part V: Alea Iacta Est ==

= Operation Opal: The Invasion of Haiti =

At 0500 hours on the 21st of June 1942, the Cuban Embassy in Haiti issues a formal declaration of war after disposing of all sensitive documents and destroying all records of diplomatic ciphers. At the same time, convoys carrying the 189,000 Cuban troops slated for the invasion of Western Hispaniola set out from three different ports, supported by the brave men of our fledgling navy.

Simultaneously, the fifty-fighter-strong First Air Wing of the Cuban Air Force is given orders to scramble and maintain air superiority over the islands of Cuba and Hispaniola. They are flying airframes that were modern six years ago, an eternity in the fast-moving battlefield of the 1940s. They would stand no chance in the crucibles of the Eastern Front or the Battle of Britain, but they are certainly more than a match for the Haitian fighters, because the Haitians don't have any fighters. As a side note you can see that our domestic stability has crashed due to the exigencies of wartime.

You can see that our highly trained volunteer forces, who have cut their teeth in the grueling battlefields of the Iberian Peninsula and Northern China, are on their way back. We expect to welcome them back as heroes in two weeks, and hope that they will come back to a victorious nation. If our amphibious landings continue for more than two weeks. our chances of successfully breaking the Haitian defenses fall rather preciptiously.

Four days later, the "horns" of the bull make first contact with the Haitian defenders on either side of their capital. Our 12 infantry divisions, under the command of the experienced Lt. Gen. Trujillo mount a valiant attack of unmatched ferocity, but are met with a stalwart defense from the tenacious Haitian infantry. Although the initial battle appears to be in our favor, the horns themselves can only yield tactical victories – their role is to "pin" the Haitian forces on either side of the capital to prevent them from reinforcing their victory point when the "head" of the bull – comprising our crack marine corps – collides into it.

Two days later, the Marine division – held in reserve until we could confirm that the "horns" had made contact, are deployed into the center. As expected the dug-in Haitians at Port-au-Prince put up a terrific defense, and the battle in the center appears to be developing not necessarily to Cuba's advantage..

Eventually, however, the tide of the battle turns. Although the Haitians put up a gallant and respectable fight, the day is ours. Trujillo's First Army was indispensable for its role on the flanks – without it the Haitians would have been able to constantly cycle in fresh divisions from either side, stalling out the Marine Corps and defeating our army in detail.

The Haitian Campaign was short but bloody: amphibious assaults are precarious even with the best of preparations, and frankly we're lucky that the Haitians simply ran out of organization before we did: our losses exceeded theirs by a factor of nearly four-to-one.

On the bright side, in addition to making a step towards uniting Greater Cuba, we also find ourselves flush with modern equipment: the Haitians have enough modern small arms to outfit upwards of 200,000 men, and these arms are diverted immediately to our front-line forces. As it turns out, they were fighting with much more up-to-date weaponry

= Operation Jade: the Invasion of the Dominican Republic =

We barely have time to lick our wounds, however: almost immediately the First Army is pivoted to a defensive stance along the border separating the two halves of Hispaniola, and the two hardened divisions forming the First Corps are diverted to shore up defenses in the north. We will be issuing a declaration of war against the Dominicans almost immediately, and we will need to ready to fight a much more heavily militarized adversary. We prepare the Marine Corps to carry out a decapitation strike against its capital, which we expect to also be heavily defended.

1. The First Army, comprising the I and III to VI Corps (as the II Corps is the cavalry corps) each comprising two or three standard triangular infantry divisions (each brigade comprising three battalions) supported by a field artillery regiment and support elements for a total of 10,800 men. We have a total of five corps, or 14 divisions for just over 150,000 men.
2. The Marine Corps, comprising three binary Marine divisions of 9,000 men each, plus three support infantry divisions of the same 10,800 men each. This totals just under 60,000 men. This force will act mostly as a reserve force and will be committed only if we see the opportunity for a decisive blow against the capital.

The present order of battle of the Cuban Army is as such:
[First Army Group]
1. First Army
-> I Corps (AKA the Shock Corps)
==> 1st Infantry Division (three infantry brigades plus one artillery regiment and support companies)
==> 2nd Infantry Division
-> III Corps
==> 6th Inf. Div.
==> 7th Inf. Div.
==> 8th Inf. Div.
-> IV Corps
==> 9th Inf. Div.
==> 10th Inf. Div.
==> 11th Inf. Div.
-> V Corps
==> 12th Inf. Div
==> 13th Inf. Div.
==> 14th Inf. Div.
-> VI Corps
==> 15th Inf. Div.
==> 16th Inf. Div.
==> 17th Inf. Div.

2. Marine Corps
-> VII Corps
==> 1st Marine Division (two infantry brigades plus support companies)
==> 2nd Marine Div.
==> 3rd Marine Div.
-> VIII Corps
==> 3rd Inf. Div.
==> 4th Inf. Div.
==> 5th Inf. Div.


This means we have 210,000 men in total (of which 150,000 will be initially invested) against a highly militarized regime with upwards of 24 front-line divisions.

As we finish justifying our war goal against the Dominicans, we immediately shift our focus to preparing for Operation Lapis, the first of our invasions of the Central American mainland, revolving around establishing a foothold in Honduras

As soon as the declaration of war against the DR is sent via our embassy in Santo Domingo, all hell breaks loose on the Hispaniolan front. Although the south holds steady in the face of assaults by indefatigable Dominican infantry, the north is in a much more tenuous situation, even in spite of assistance from our air force (now moved to the airfield in Port-au-Prince) and the deployment of the experienced First Corps to hold the line.

Less than a week since the outbreak of war and the true cost of battle is becoming apparent: more than two thousand Cuban infantrymen have fallen in the short week, and an additional ten thousand Dominicans have been cut down by Cuban bullets and artillery shells. We must keep a very careful eye on our manpower reserves and consider liquidating the remainder of the Civil Defense Militia to free up additional men for the front.

On that note, our Ministry of Propaganda is never one to let a good opportunity go to waste: we start disparaging the DR in our domestic newspapers to churn up support and prep our populace to accept even more austere living conditions for the time being.

After an additional week of intense combat, our efforts appear to bear fruit: we are beginning to bleed the DR dry and their combat potential is steadily falling as a result. Whereas we were very much on the back foot (especially in the north) the massive losses appears to have reduced the combat readiness of their frontline forces. Soon we may have the opportunity to make a big push along the southern coast and unite Greater Cuba.

And how white have we bled them: by the end of the first month of the war the DR has suffered a staggering 40,000 men KIA or MIA. This would represent nearly 25% losses for our deployed manpower, and considering their much smaller population likely represents a much larger proportion of their their available manpower. Neither have our losses been easy to bear: 5,000 men lost with no ground gained to show for it. This is ten times the number of losses suffered in the successful Haitian Campaign.

With Dominican attacks faltering in the East, we spool up our forces and conduct a daring decapitation strike against the capital and a simultaneous push along the south coast. Although the dauntless Dominicans put up a stiff defense, the strike appears to gain ground.

The first rule of war is that all warfare is based fundamentally on deception. The second rule of war is that no plan survives contact with the enemy (or more concisely, "everyone has a plan 'til they punched in the mouth"). Whereas the III and IV Corps gain a fiercely contested foothold on Dominican territory, the Marine Corps is unable to complete its decapitation strike and is forced to return to Guantanamo to recover.

By September – with the war having raged for two months and with no end in sight – the losses are monumental. Over 130,000 men have died in a conflict between nations with a combined population of just five million. The Dominicans have had it especially bad, having sustained 114,000 losses out an initial 170,000 men deployed – this means that some units have likely been wholly replaced, perhaps even twice over. We have not come out great either – 16,000 men represents more than 15% of our available manpower reserve for a single province gained. We need to bring this war to a swift conclusion as wars of attrition are unacceptable for the way our armed forces are poised.

In October, the opportunity presents itself and elements of the I, III, and IV Corps launches an audacious frontal assault against the defenders of Santo Domingo. Although the shattered Dominican forces demonstrate a truly heroic defense, the teenagers and old men that now populate their front lines are of little match for our battle-hardened veterans. As one might say, "boys – too many boys".

By the time Santo Domingo falls the former DR has lost nearly 160,000 young men – we will have to partake in extensive stewardship to bring the region to prosperity. In other news, the herculean effort to finally unite the Cuban Archipelago has cost us 18,500 lives, of which 18,000 were lost taking back Eastern Hispaniola.

Our victory against the rebels of Hispaniola does however leave us no longer wanting for equipment: we have enough guns to outfit over half a million men, most of which has been reclaimed (or pilfered, same thing really) from the armories of Eastern Cuba.

This allows us to raise eight additional divisions to fill the ranks of the Second Field Army, centered around a robust cavalry force. Given that this represents over 80,000 men out of our current manpower pool of 120,000 we may see some of these units dissolved to bolster frontline units later in the campaign.

= Domestic Housekeeping =

Having seen the devastating power of armored units in the Iberian War and the European Eastern front, our very own Cuban Bureau of Ordinance (or CuBuOrd) has devised a domestic tank from the ground up, slated to begin immediate fabrication at the factories freed up by our newly gained reserves of infantry equipment. Our top engineers promise that it will be nearly as powerful as the feared Bob Semple tank and political leaders have assigned many factories across the Cuban Peninsula to its construction.

Furthermore, at the insistence of the Ministries of the Interior and Truth (after a re-branding of the Ministry of Propaganda to better reflect its role) we move toward improving the conditions in the newly united Eastern Cuba. At least the trains will run on time.

This turns out to be a good move as the people of Cuba are not quite as happy as we initially expected at their liberation. The Ministry of Truth promises that these are the actions of very small vocal minorities in the regions, despite the fact that nearly a quarter of Western Hispaniola appears to be in open rebellion.. We change the form of governance from Civilian Oversight and assign a military governor to oversee the efforts against the aforementioned tiny but vocal interest groups and provocateurs.

In addition, we raise a number of Crackdown divisions to help combat these minuscule groups of loyalists (who of course we had anticipated from the start). These divisions will later be bolstered by support companies of trained military police.

Finally, we prepare our conquest of the rest of Central America (soon to be Greater Cuba). We will first strike West, establishing our border with Mexico (the "China of the Caribbean") before turning East and consolidating the remainder of the rebel governments in the mainland.

= Operation Onyx: the Invasion of Honduras =

As 1942 draws to its end, we finally have enough domestic support to gain a foothold on the Central American continent. With the US still busy with domestic in-fighting (and having drawn the attention of the Western European powers) we expect to still have some time to run wild right under its nose.

Our forces comprise:
1. The 150,000 men of the First Army in 14 divisions, who will spearhead the landborne invasion.
2. The 60,000 men of the Marine Corps in six divisions, who will lead the amphibious assault
3. The Second Army under Lt. Gen. Pimental, comprising two Cavalry Divisions of just under 10,000 men each plus four support divisions of 10,800 men, totaling another 62,000 men.

We have 272,000 men-at-arms prepared to sweep Central America.

Near the end of the year the full force of the Cuban Army – comprising the First Army, Second Army, and Marine Corps – fall on the northern coast of Honduras where they are met with spirited resistance from the Honduran army. Our fighters do their best to cover the amphibious assault as both the port and the adjacent areas are placed under immense pressure.

By the end of January, the valiant defenders of the coast fall back, yielding the full initiative to us and allowing us to penetrate into the Honduran capital.

And thus as 1943 dawns the territorial extend of Cuba is much greater than it was only a year ago. In just over half a year we have more than doubled our territory and resident population, and have gained an all-important foothold on the American Continent. Nearly eight million people are now under the jurisdiction of the "Tokio of the Caribbean"

Not only that, but we are poised to expand our reach further into the Americas. Although our manpower reserves have dwindled to a mere 50,000 men, it appears that our expansion is unstoppable...

 

[generalis Julius Caesar]

A glorious victory, for the great and honourable nation of Cuba!

 

[Qwaszx54321]

== Part VI: Unfettered Expansionism ==

= Improvements to the Army =

Due to the immense manpower costs required to blaze a path through Central America, we take the required steps to further increase our conscription law to Extensive Conscription – this means that 17% of our 4,000,000 core manpower – representing around 680,000 men – will eventually be available for the armed forces. We will need almost every man, considering that the manpower budget for the eventual invasion of Mexico sits at around 200,000 men.

We also need to lay the groundwork for the future Operation Topaz, the takeover of Southern Cuban Central America.

In the meantime, we set up for the first Eastward strike to take Guatemala and commit the 14 divisions of the First Army under Lt. Gen. Trujillo. We expect that this war will be over almost immediately, given that we only need to conduct a land-based assault, and the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Cuban Army compared to Guatemala's four or five divisions.

The declaration of war is delivered in the early hours of the 13th of February 1943, and the First Air Wing of the Cuban air force is immediately ordered to make their way into the air and ensure that our troops on the ground will enjoy the safety of being under the air superiority of friendly forces. This will both let the troops fight better and allow for slightly faster movement speed (not that either will be particularly necessary – but keeping casualties low is always preferred).

Within two weeks the war is as good as won – as predicted the Guatemalan Army, valiant as they were, is little match for the immense First Field Army and is not able to put up much more than token resistance. We swiftly secure the Northern territories Guatemala before using the crack I Corps on a frontal assault on their capital. Within the month of February the country is under our – somewhat tenuous – grasp.

Staying true to our word, we attempt to improve the lives of our new subjects (or rather, citizens). Since the countries in which we quelled rebellions have already improved much of the infrastructure within their borders, we instead link up the major urban centers of our new clay with state of the art railroads! Ain't it grand being Cuban? We also establish what we will be calling "Festung Guatemala", a line of fortifications facing the Mexican superpower to the North. In the event of the inevitable war, we will need every bit of defensive works to prevent the collapse of the front lines.

We also add the first of our armored fighting vehicles to the Cavalry divisions – these indigenously built and designed tanks represent the cutting edge of Great War technology, but should be more than enough to repel the firepower of the local warlords in the region. They will spearhead the southbound strike with their overwhelming firepower and impenetrable armor.

We also finally develop decent military police companies to give our Crackdown divisions some sorely needed oomph and swiftly deploy them to our garrisons in regions of high internal resistance or instability (which is to say nearly all of them).

A quick note about global affairs: our support for the Free American Empire appears to have been a major boon, and the coup has now spread. What started as a revolution in the south around Florida has encompassed virtually all of the South and the Midwest, with the final vestiges and holdouts of the old regime centered around Cascadia and New England, apparently including the old capital of Washington. The capital of the new state by the way is Tampa, Florida.

= Sweeping South =

On July 1st 1943 Operation Cinnabar commences, with the 1st and 2nd Cavalry divisions striking hard and fast into the southern territories. The Nicaraguan infantry ended up being somewhat better equipped than we initially thought, and they prove able to pierce the armor of the forty-odd tanks committed to the action in a reconnaissance role. This presents somewhat of a problem, as it appears that modern small arms might be able to endanger our crucial tank crews. The attack itself is nonetheless a massive success, and the combat debut of the Cuban panzer is jubilantly reported all around the nation.

The conquest of Nicaragua is quick and nearly effortless, with the country capitulating in less than a fortnight. This lets us set up very early for Operation Topaz, which involves the nearly simultaneous attacks on Costa Rica and Panama (the Panama Canal notwithstanding). Contrary to what we did with the rest of Central America, we will establish a friendly client state in Costa Rica to administer the territories to the south of our lands. For their early accession they will gain the land currently held by Panama. To get the Panamanians to capitulate will require an amphibious attack straight into the capital. Thankfully, intelligence suggests that their army is position for a defensive action on land and not against a naval invasion. You can see also the newly buffed Second Army under Gen. Pimental.

The hodge-podge nature of our armaments is clear from the weapons with which our heroic troops are going to expected to march across the landmass – a mixture of pilfered foreign weapons that are nonetheless more advanced than anything that we are able to produce domestically. We will eventually start churning out more advanced weaponry (including new rifles with an intermediate cartridge, select fire capability, and a pistol grip) but for now we will have to do with foreign-made submachine guns (we say foreign, but really they're Cuban considering they were made in rightful Cuban clay).

= Establishing Client States =

The blitz down through Costa Rica will provide us with a southern buffer state, and is conducted by the newly complete Second Army, comprising two armor-enhanced cavalry divisions and ten support infantry divisions for a total of approximately 130,000 men. This will remain relatively trivial as all we have to do break their limited army of a handful of men.

The first half of Operation Topaz is nonetheless bloody, with a total of 13,000 casualties of which one thousand are Cuban. From the ashes of Costa Rica we create Costa Potente, a loyal and totally independent and legitimate state that will maintain control over its core territory and give us some much-needed manpower should we require it. We of course bolster its firepower by providing some convoys and some of their own (not so useful) arms to both keep our own stockpiles from being too gummed up and to give their army some backbone.

Is it in this interim that we go ahead and start justifying our war against the main obstacle to our conquest, Mexico. We want at least the Yucatan Peninsula – which faces the Caribbean – as our own. They have a Prince of Terror in their cabinet, which unfortunately reduces the efficacy of our "subversive activities" and extends the length of time required for a successful justification of war. No matter – we will simply use it as a means by which to extend our preparations!

We also continue to strengthen Festung Guatemala by adding radar detection stations along the coast, hopefully improving the efficacy our air force against the much-vaunted Mexican fighters. We expect them to contest the air superiority in the region and will therefore require as many radar stations and stationary ground-to-air AA batteries as possible to counter this imminent threat.

We begin to further reinforce our cavalry divisions, turning them from soft-skinned infantry formations to hardened armor divisions with the addition of armored brigades to the mix. They will continue to use our fearsome victory tanks and will eventually expand to contain an armored spearhead brigade, two infantry brigades, and a field artillery attachment. They can move at a blisteringly high speed of 6 kilometers per hour, far outstripping any local infantry divisions.

You can see in our campaign planning for the second part of Operation Topaz that these divisions have been fully equipped with a mixture of infantry equipment, as a well as a full load-out of 204 shining new tanks.

In other news, with local resistance and partisan activity on the fall, we are able to reduce our military prescence in a number of our contested territories – any territories that maintain as much self-governance as is reasonable, especially in the form of having a local police force instead of a contingent of our front-line troops.

On Christmas Eve 1943, the unthinkable happens – the stalwart United Kingdom, having fought if necessary for years and if necessary alone, is not able to call on the New World for assistance and capitulates. This is not ideal for us as we had hoped to snag the territory of Jamaica for ourselves, but were not willing to push the other nations in the Central American region into the arms of the Allies. However this presents a major victory for our cause worldwide, and is a cause for celebration.

Almost the next day we declare war on Panama, calling into the war our Costa Rican allies. We see the combat debut our new and improved armored divisions which are inexplicably unable to resist the small arms fire of the local resistors, who put up a gallant and respectable defense. Nonetheless the day is ours between our overwhelming offense and the efforts of our small but effective air force.

In the resultant treaty we reward our Costa Rican allies for their loyalty and transfer the bulk of Panamanian territory to their jurisdiction, counting on them suppress resistance and maintain a tight grip over our entryway into South America. The greater Central America Co-Prosperity sphere grows greater and more prosperous.

As Anno Domini 1944 dawns, the extent of our alliance has grown significantly: we now control vast swathes of Central America and have more than tripled the territory under our direct control. Our main target is now the state of Mexico to our north, which will require the mobilization of every man, woman, and child in Greater Cuba to overcome. We don't expect this rotting structure to come crashing down upon us kicking down the door but fate is on our side and we are on the precipice of victory.

 

[NarcomancerPL]

Can Cuba take the decision to unite Central America?

 

[Qwaszx54321]

Can Cuba take the decision to unite Central America?

Oh WOW I didn't even know that Central America was a formable nation. And no, sadly as Cuba doesn't start on the mainland it is not able to take that decision, which is a real shame because doing so would add something like 8,000,000 core manpower.