The Balkan Powderkeg
October 13 1934 to February 10 1935
October 14, 1934 – declaration of war on Bulgaria (see character section for rationale). Not really expecting too many difficulties, as they only have a handful of troops and its mostly just an exercise in patience and terrain.
As expected, Bulgaria was not that hard to swallow up, falling on December 13. The toughest thing was terrain, of course, as they had maybe 6 divisions in the whole country to slaughter. Nobody came to Bulgaria’s aid, which is not that surprising.
After the formal surrender, it was a matter of hiking all the troops up to the Hungarian border. Now that the boys were bloodied and leaders with some seasoning under their belts, a quick and easy campaign against the Hungarians was expected.
With a fair amount of the initial upgrades and replacements out of the way, and dissent within reason, a run of INF + art can be contemplated. Will be very painful to upgrade them later, but the need for warm bodies outweighs future considerations.
On December 29th, Poland guarantees our independence. A nice little gesture and knowing that the Polish Army has my back makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. They join Italy and the League of Nations who are protecting me from… not really sure. The Soviets?
December 30 – the Romanian, Greek, Turkish, Yugoslavian agreement. Very nice to have this in my pocket and ensures that I can leave those borders reasonably undefended for the next little while.
February 5th, 1935 – UK and France guarantee our independence. They also have guaranteed the independence of Hungary.
February 10th – declaration of war on Hungary (see character section for rationale)
Now the fun starts.
Code:
Note: UK or France in a DOW action automatically assumes all Allies
February 11, 1935 : Romania declared war upon Hungary.
February 12, 1935 : Austria declared war upon Romania.
February 13, 1935 : Turkey declared war upon Austria.
February 13, 1935 : Greece declared war upon Austria.
February 14, 1935 : France declared war upon Turkey.
February 14, 1935 : Germany declared war upon Greece.
February 14, 1935 : Hungary declared war upon Greece.
February 14, 1935 : Yugoslavia declared war upon United Kingdom.
February 16, 1935 : Turkey declared war upon Germany.
February 16, 1935 : Poland declared war upon Austria.
February 16, 1935 : Yugoslavia declared war upon Germany.
February 17, 1935 : United Kingdom declared war upon Hungary.
February 17, 1935 : Austria declared war upon United Kingdom.
February 18, 1935 : Greece declared war upon United Kingdom.
February 18, 1935 : Hungary declared war upon Turkey.
February 22, 1935 : Yugoslavia declared war upon Hungary.
February 23, 1935 : Italy declared war upon Yugoslavia.
February 23, 1935 : Hungary declared war upon Poland.
February 24, 1935 : Germany declared war upon Hungary.
March 8, 1935 : Austria declared war upon Yugoslavia.
April 15, 1935 : Italy declared war upon Turkey.
April 16, 1935 : Italy declared war upon Austria.
April 18, 1935 : Germany declared war upon Italy.
In a nutshell, the Yugoslavian/Romanian/Turkish/Greek declaration bit the three minors in the ass, as all three of them get to face the Allies, and only Greece is spared the ferocious might of Italy. Romania is spared because it only declared war on Hungary, and the Allies didnt think that was a good enough reason to go to war. Austrian sovereignty, however, is a different story.
Being at war with Hungary and Austria is extremely manageable, and I dont expect a lot of interference from Yugoslavia in Hungary, given that Italy and the Allies will be pressing them, or Italy in terms of Austria, as the Alps are a lot harder to conquer than the Yugoslavian coast. My only concern would be getting my piece of the Balkan pie before Yugoslavia/Greece/Turkey is swallowed by France/Italy/UK.
Note: In the original posting, Germany declared war on the Allies, which I called "the most asinine thing I have ever seen", given that Germany had 13 divisions staggered up against an enemy with 130 or more. I played it out, and Belgium conquered Berlin by mid 1935. Obviously, that would have broken the game completely, and is completely illogical - no way in hell that Germany would have declared war. I replayed the scenario from the February 10th point, doing the exact same thing that I did and came up with almost an identical set of DOWs, minus the German insanity (and the subsequent DOW by the Allies on Romania which cascaded into an Italian DOW on the Allies and Italy following close behind Germany in being destroyed). Rather than scrap the AAR in mid 1935 (as without Germany or Italy there is no WWII), I decided to use the set of DOWs that leaves Germany intact.
