Tukhachevsky’s Empire of the Eagle

[dag231]

Tukhachevsky’s Empire of the Eagle​

This would be the spiritual successor to two previous AARs, The Empire of the Eagle (which was abandoned due to technical reasons) and The Rise and Fall of Generaloberst Heinz Guderian (which, sadly, is consigned to the wings of history because of lost disks, saves and notes).

The premise is to create a Romania that is aggressive, capable and a world shaker. This will result in a completely ahistorical game, but that’s the glory and fun of it all.

I will be using Mod34 (with all extras), with the following settings:

Armageddon 1.2 patch
Difficulty – Hard [considered playing on VH, but the 40% modifier is too crippling for a minor, imo - 20% is bad enough]
AI Aggressiveness – Aggressive [Furious is my usual preference, but results in too many unreasonable wars for a minor]
Democracy Can Start Wars – No (though I expect this wont be much of an impediment)
End Date – 1964
Full IC Take Over – Yes (never made any sense to only get a partial IC, other than to make it more difficult on Germany)
Tech Team Take Over – Yes​

Because of the forum ban on Nazi symbols, will switch the German flag to the one done by Lord Sander (picked up from the Victoria flag registry).

There are a few “slight” changes to the mod:

(1) Romania is a fascist state (see details on how this came to be in the Setting the Stage post) with the following slider moves:
Authoritarian +5
Political Right +4
Closed Society +1

(2) Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky (see background material on him in the Setting the stage post) will be added to Romania.
General Tukhachevsky - skill 4, offensive doctrine, panzer leader
Chief of Army Tukhachevsky (in cabinet from start) –Armored Spearhead
Chief of Staff Tukhachevsky (available 1936) – School of Manoeuvre
Tukhachevsky School of Deep Doctrine - skill 8, Combined Arms Focus, Small Units Tactics, Decentralized Execution, Mechanics, Artillery

(3) Partisan levels are reduced to a point between Mod34 and Vanilla – specifically a nationalism starting value of 20 (Mod34 is 20, vanilla is 15) and a monthly nationalism reduction of 0.05 (Mod34 is 0.002 and vanilla is 0.05). This is more for the benefit of the AI than anything else, as I will build garrison troops for coastal defenses regardless.

(4) When releasing a puppet, there will be no dissent penalty. It makes absolutely no sense to suffer dissent when creating a loyal puppet thousands of miles away. When/If a puppet is released, there will be strategic considerations made and, if necessary, the game file will be altered (as an example, if Germany were to conquer the Iberian peninsula, and then create Iberia, there is almost a 1000% chance that it would not willingly give over Gibraltor, and would insist on keeping the 3 mountain provinces as a safeguard against invasion into German held France).
​

The goal is to provide at least 1 gameplay and 1 written form update per week, usually on the weekend.

Comments and criticisms are always appreciated and encouraged, as per usual.


Chapter List

This AAR will break down into two distinct sections – a Gameplay section, where the workings of the game are detailed, and the Character Driven Story of the life and times of Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky. The character driven story sections will vary between 500 and 1500 words, depending on the time I have that day.

To easily tell the posts apart, look for the color of the title...

Setting the Stage

Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky​

Mistress Fortuna​

The Balkan Powderkeg
October 13 1934 to February 10 1935

The Vienna Conference​

Head Over Heels​

Carving Up Turkey and Other Assorted Minors
February 11 1935 to September 26 1935

The Italian Job
September 27 1935 to May 5 1939

To Be or Not to Be – That is the German Question
May 6 1939 to July 24 1940

Vive (l'Europe sans) la France
July 25 1940 to February 8 1942

 

[dag231]

Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky​

Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky (Russian: Михаи́л Никола́евич Тухаче́вский; Polish: Michał Tuchaczewski) (February 16 1893) was born on his family estate Alexandrovskoye, within the Smolest region controlled at the time by Poland. He graduated from the Aleksandrovskoye Military School in 1914, joining the Semyenovsky Guards Regiment and as a second lieutenant during World War I, Tukhachevsky was decorated for personal courage in the battles. After he was taken prisoner by the Germans in February 1915, he escaped four times from the camps, was captured again, and finally as an incorrigible escapee held in Ingolstadt fortress, where he met another incorrigible - the then captain Charles de Gaulle.

His fifth escape was successful, and he returned to Russia in October 1917. After the Russian Revolution, he joined the Bolshevik Party and after signing up as an officer in the Red Army he rapidly advanced in rank. During the Russian Civil War he was given responsibility for defending Moscow, and then the Bolshevik Defence Commissar, Leon Trotsky, gave Tukhachevsky command of the 5th Army in 1919, which he led in the campaign to capture Siberia from the White forces of Aleksandr Kolchak. He also helped defeat General Anton Denikin in the Crimea in 1920.

Both the Kronstadt rebellion and the Tambov peasant revolt were suppressed by forces under Tukhachevsky's command, and under a direct order from Tukhachevsky, state-of-the-art chemical weapons were employed against the rebelious civil population.

He then led the Bolshevik armies during the Polish-Soviet War in 1920, and was defeated by Józef Piłsudski outside Warsaw. It was during the Polish war that Tukhachevsky first came into conflict with Stalin. Each blamed the other for the Soviet failure to capture Warsaw, which brought Soviet defeat in the war. The animosity between him and Stalin continued into the 1930s.

Tukhachevsky served as chief of staff of the Red Army (1925–1928) and as Deputy Commissar for Defence. He attempted to transform the irregular revolutionary detachments of the Red Army into a well-drilled, professional military, and, in particular, he strongly advocated for an industrialized modernization of the Red Army, where the traditional reliance on cavalry would be replaced with a tank-based military. At this early point his ideas were rejected by Stalin as well as rival conservative forces in the Soviet military establishment, and he was removed from the Red Army staff and censured by Stalin for encouraging "Red militarism."

Following his banishment, he wrote several books on modern warfare and in 1931, after Stalin had accepted the need for an industrialized military, Tukhachevsky was given a leading role in reforming the army. He held advanced ideas on military strategy, particularly on the use of tanks and aircraft in combined operations, but his main theory, that of “deep operations” where combined arms formations strike deep behind enemy lines to destroy the enemy's rear and logistics, were strongly opposed by the military establishment.

In April 1933 Tukhachevsky visited Britain, France and Germany, comparing notes with other luminaries in the field of armored warfare such as Heinz Guderian, Basil Liddell, JFC Fuller, as well as his good friend Charles de Gaulle.

During this time, German agents, on the initiative of Heinrich Himmler, forged documents implicating him in a conspiracy with the German General Staff. The documents alleged that Tukhachevsky contacted several anti-Stalin Russian exiles in Berlin as well as Paris, and he was the chief overmind of a plot to assisinate the Russian leader. Himmler’s motive was to make Stalin even more suspicious of him and thus remove what he, as well as others, perceived to be a critical future threat. These documents were passed to President Edvard Beneš of Czechoslovakia, who passed them on in good faith to Stalin.

Before he could be arrested, tried and convicted of “leadership of an organized military-Trotskyist conspiracy” (the actual charges laid against him in absentia on May 22, 1935), he fled to Bucharest, which was the home of his aristocratic fiancé.

Once in Romania, he was quickly embraced by the pro-fascist government in charge. The National Romanian Party had slowly been moving towards the orbit of Germany since their bloodless coup of December 13, 1932, following the assassination of Carol II by pro-Stalinist forces. The goal of the Stalinists was to create a pliable puppet, but they over-reached and Ion Antonescu and his minions seized control and re-placed the young Michael I, who as a child ruled the country from July 20, 1927 to June 8, 1930 until he was deposed by the sudden return of his father (at the invitation of politicians dissatisfied with the Regency), back upon the throne.

The stated goal of the National Romanian Party was the establishment of a Greater Romania, one that took its place as the natural rulers of southern Europe.

All it needed was a military genius to make it happen.

[Note: much of the above was cribbed from Wiki, but its good to set the stage properly and all that]

 

[Khalep]

Very nice start, very original. It all seems quite realistic and well thought-out, nicely done. Can't wait for the next part.

 

[Myth]

Whoo, another dag AAR! I arrived late for Guderian and missed the other entirely, but this one I'll see through from the beginning

 

[darthkommandant]

As someone who read the Guderian AAR a short while back I will be watching this.

 

[unmerged(87183)]

Interesting.

Wouldn't the Fascist Romanians be wary of the Socialist Tukhachevsky though?

 

[unmerged(62281)]

Ah, an alternate history about Tukhaychevsky! I was hoping one with him as some sort of "Red Napoleon" for USSR, but this one could be also interesting... I will follow.

 

[Duritz]

**Subscribes**

In at the ground level for a change... good luck with this!

 

[ColossusCrusher]

Let's do this!

 

[HannibalBarca]

WOOHOO!

We can only hope this will be as good as Guderian.

 

[likk9922]

Hmm...interesting premise. I'll follow.

 

[Vann the Red]

You can run but you cannot hide. I have found this one as well. Great to have you back 'home', dag!

Vann

 

[dag231]

Note: As mentioned previously, this AAR breaks down into two distinct sections – a game play section, where the workings of the game are detailed, and the character driven story of the life and times of Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky. In the front page, the posts will be listed in their relevant sections.

Setting the Stage​

The goal will be to create a Greater Romania that stretches from the Alps to the Hellespont. This means that Austria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria and Greece all have to be eliminated. This should put me into conflict with Italy, Germany and the League of Nations, but later rather than sooner.

In terms of border problems, Russia is insularly navel gazing, so it shouldn’t be a concern until late 30s. While I am loathe to waste IC on forts, a few rounds on the two border provinces will be very useful, at least to keep Russia honest.

Poland is too preoccupied with the middle position of a pain sandwich to look south. I would be seriously, seriously stunned if they declared war on me anytime soon, given that any troop movement south could be matched with Russia moving west or Germany moving east.

The Czechs could be a problem, but their lack of technology, resources and anything resembling an army makes them a moot point. By the time they are thinking of being adventurous, I should have seasoned troops and leaders that can roll right over them.

For now, my southern flank is secure. Turkey, Greece and Yugoslavia are very friendly towards me. I plan to betray each one in turn, but for now its all smiles and pleasantries. Turkey would be a mid 40s project, depending on how the situation with the Russians develop.

The League of Nations – specifically France and Britain – will poke their nose into my affairs either when Bulgaria or Hungary gets DOWed, since the League is guaranteeing their independence and all. To be honest, neither worries me since neither can get to me given the amount of buffer nations that surround me. The only time they will reach nuisance status is when I decide to make a run for Yugoslavia and Greece.

Italy would be a problem if it weren’t, you know, Italy.

This leaves Germany. As a fellow fascist, will they intervene when Bulgaria or Hungary falls? Probably not. But what about Austria? Thankfully, the German armed forces are pitiful at this point in time, and 3-4 divisions of experienced troops sitting in the Alps should force a stalemate if they decide to put a little spring in their step.

Unless circumstances force me into a German war I really don’t want, I am going to do my best to suck up to Germany and get into an early alliance with them. The primary reason – hell, the only reason – is technology. Getting dozens of blueprints is worth the aggravation of listening to Wagner. At some point in the future when no wars are happening, it may be prudent to abandon Germany and watch and wait to see how things play out, but that is a thought for tomorrow (and, to be honest, is a bit gamey so if I get into a German alliance will most likely be there for life or until they start to lose badly).

In terms of production, I don’t plan on anything for a while. Initially, all my IC will go towards upgrades and replacements. The difficulty modifier is crippling, so because of it I will not be building an air force or a navy until well into the late 40s. Since I don’t plan on any African excursions or into the Middle East, I am not too concerned with the latter, and the former is a luxury I can not afford.

In terms of technology, I will be focusing primarily on industry, infantry, artillery and tanks. With no navy, no need to waste time there. Same with an air force, at least until the late 30s. Interceptors will be the most likely path for me to take, just to make sure my industry doesn’t get bombed back to the stone age.

Should be more then enough to get me through Bulgaria and Hungary​

So, the early going will see (hopefully) a quick conquest of Bulgaria followed by adventures in Hungary.

 

[dag231]

Khalep, Myth, darthkommandant, Maj. von Mauser, Masked Pickle, Duritz, ColossusCrusher, HannibalBarca, likk9922, Vann the Red - thanks for popping in and hopefully the AAR matches your expectations...

As to the question of "Wouldn't the Fascist Romanians be wary of the Socialist Tukhachevsky though?", this will be addressed in the musings of Tukhachevsky...

 

[HannibalBarca]

Italy would be a problem if it weren’t, you know, Italy.

So true.

 

[unmerged(87183)]

I don't see much fault with your plans.

Good luck!

 

[Crush3r]

Man, you'd be sooo lucky if when you dowed Hungary, Austria would dow you and a world war would ensue. That way you could conquer the whole world by 1954 (as almost happened in a Romania AAR if it hadn't been abandoned)

 

[dag231]

Man, you'd be sooo lucky if when you dowed Hungary, Austria would dow you and a world war would ensue. That way you could conquer the whole world by 1954 (as almost happened in a Romania AAR if it hadn't been abandoned)

I would say that this would be almost physically impossible(ish) on VH/F.

First off, the IC penalty of 40% is crippling.

Second, Romania has 20+ divisions in 1935, while France has 60+ and the Soviets have 200+.

For a WC to work as Romania, Germany would have to absolutely destroy the allies and Russia, and then when all their divisions are around Moscow, I would have to flip sides and make a mad rush to Berlin, take the industrial heartland, and then try to weather the storm.

Stranger things have happened though...

[edit - actually, since I wouldnt be able to leave the alliance in the middle of a war, that wouldnt happen. The only way I could attack Germany in that scenario is if I had a following out before the shooting started if I was allied.]

I am hoping that the League of Nations does not rush to the aid of Bulgaria or Hungary, but that Austria does DOW me in retaliation, with Italy and Germany sitting it out. That would be a perfect world. If Germany swings in on either side, then the allies would swing in, and that would just allow the Russians, who would be watching all this with amusement, to walk all over everyone later on.

Which would be a bad thing.

 

[unmerged(53911)]

Sorry to hear about the Guderian AAR. It was always a lot of fun to read the updates! I am looking forward to this AAR - good luck! Someone else asked about your Aztec AAR (for EUIII) - well, any chance of a resurrection?

edit - sorry, I looked further on in the Guderian AAR to find your reply regarding the Aztex AAR. Also,sad...

 

[Crush3r]

I would say that this would be almost physically impossible(ish) on VH/F.

First off, the IC penalty of 40% is crippling.

Second, Romania has 20+ divisions in 1935, while France has 60+ and the Soviets have 200+.

For a WC to work as Romania, Germany would have to absolutely destroy the allies and Russia, and then when all their divisions are around Moscow, I would have to flip sides and make a mad rush to Berlin, take the industrial heartland, and then try to weather the storm.

Stranger things have happened though...

[edit - actually, since I wouldnt be able to leave the alliance in the middle of a war, that wouldnt happen. The only way I could attack Germany in that scenario is if I had a following out before the shooting started if I was allied.]

I am hoping that the League of Nations does not rush to the aid of Bulgaria or Hungary, but that Austria does DOW me in retaliation, with Italy and Germany sitting it out. That would be a perfect world. If Germany swings in on either side, then the allies would swing in, and that would just allow the Russians, who would be watching all this with amusement, to walk all over everyone later on.

Which would be a bad thing.

What happened then was: Germany+Poland were at war with everyone, Soviets conquered them, Romania at war with Hungary, Austria, Italy and the Allies and anyone else in the Balkans that it later wants to, Romania conquers Austria, Hungary, Italy, sets up mountain border with France, betrays Turkey, the Middle Eastern countries, China, Japan, invades France, then America, then DoWs the Soviets by pocketing them in Asia and the Balkans, then it stops (dunno, crash, lack of interest, game speed, whatever). But I'd like to see what you can do.