The Grey Wolf (HOI 4 Romania)

[CmirDarthanna]

Watch as he somehow gets Vampires and Werewolves as available units.

 

[kwaliti]

Watch as he somehow gets Vampire and Werewolves as available units.

Click to shrink...

LoL and supersoldiers.

 

[Pef]

By the middle of 1937, as the third armored division moved in position at the Slovak border, I called a large peace conference in Vienna, inviting Benito and Adolf, as well as the Austrian and Czech leaders.

Soon to be called the Vienna Diktat by the entire world, I simply offered a map giving Germany a lot more land containing Germans, Italy some bits of Austrian land and Romania getting a Slovak puppet. Before the ink got dry, tanks were rolling into their new lands, while Cehia got a bit smaller. Austria was already gone.

I know Benito envied the 43 kilograms of medals hanging on my chest, so I made sure to bestow upon him a dozen high value decorations for his bravery.
Thus, I returned home a hero, waving a peace of paper in the air and screaming "Peace in our time!"

I mean, the world war had already begun, with Japan attacking China and so on, but hey. I had a piece of paper proving my words, am I right?

The secret clause in the Vienna treaty was the partion of Poland, should it ever happen. Romania was not greedy, as we only wanted the missing corner of Western Bukovina that still contained Romanians.
I didn't even ask for Stanislawow, or Lviv, like Adolf urged me to. I liked to be modest and so on.

Sadly, Adolf was not satisfied with the great paper he had signed, and decided to integrate Cehia into the German Reich soon after. What can I do?

I protested loudly over the radio, and denounced the man as lacking character to my wavering French allies. They kinda seemed to doubt me now, even though I assured them with fervor that Romania will not join the Pact of Steel. The French were even asked to come in and inspect how nicely the Slovaks were treated, which was indeed much nicer than any puppet state in the Romanian Empire.

Sure enough, De Gaulle arrived for inspection, although he seemed more interested in our Grey Wolves tanks and the rocket Wolves, and making surprised sounds at the small radios inside the tanks, now almost the same size with the French messenger pigeons.

As we drank some champagne in my castle, I assured the man that any willing Czechs that managed to reach the Empire would be put on trains and sent to France, and perhaps the same for the Polish if the Soviet Union attacked. His eyes became quite cold at my words.

"Your Majesty, do you have serious information about such an impending attack?" he asked a bit too glacial, although the champagne wasn't that cold.

"Well, I have some idea about what the communists are planning, for example Finland, the Baltics and Poland being on the Soviet menu in the near future. How soon though? At least a year I believe. You'd have to ask Stalin the exact dates." I offered with a careless shrug.

"And this is why you're building your own fort line in the East." De Gaulle concluded with a sad voice.

"The two maniacs in the middle of Europe are also planning to get more things, most likely the Low Countries and Africa, but they wouldn't say it out loud. Adolf did say something about exterminating all Jews, but I don't have any spy reports about gulags or gas chambers being built, for now. Hopefully the Jews will only be sent to the mines." I added for no reason at all.

De Gaulle didn't seem to like his champagne anymore, remembering I was actually transporting many Jews to the Holy Lands for some reason.

"Britain has actually approached us with an alliance offer. Will the Romanian Empire join us?" he asked instead, making it sound really official.

"You know, I didn't like the Great War for a good reason. The Russians could not be trusted and the Americans arrived much later. This time, we will wait for America and not get squashed between two fronts." I answered with a calm voice.

"If you have the chance to wait, you mean." he answered a bit rhetorical.

"Well, I do have a million Germans living in Romania, available to be crucified if the worst happens. Adolf assured me he wants to keep them alive." I said with a toast of champagne.

The man just grunted and bowed politely, before turning around and leaving at the brisk pace.
He will make a fine President one day.

As for my dear cousin, King George the VI , he was mostly a figure head in Britain. He also had trouble speaking, so he was kinda devoid of options in restoring Crown authority and such.

By the time our first jet fighter flew over my castle, Britain and France announced their alliance, and began pressuring the Low Countries to join as well.

I cared little about that drama, instead sending several alpine battalions to Finland to get trained in Arctic conditions, as well as propose and equip a Murmansk offensive when the Soviets attacked in Karelia. And if the training battalions were equipped with sufficient weaponry to arm several divisions, it was mostly because we expected severe attrition in the Arctic, right? 200 Ferdinands and 200 Wolves were sent to equip a Finish armor division able to take Murmansk in case of an invasion, as well as 200 anti-air trucks and 1000 normal trucks for infantry and supplies.

The Finish didn't have the manpower or the funds to construct a proper fort line in Karelia, but 200 of our 65mm guns would help them hold the Soviets in place.
A single 12 inch fort was established 10 kilometers inward, where a second line of defense was prepared for the inevitable fall of the Mannerheim Line. This line also received 100 Grey Wolves that slowed my fourth armor division getting ready, but that also meant the fourth division would train even more, on lighter tanks.
For two months of production, I could cause the Soviets a great deal of problems, especially if the Murmansk port at the Arctic Ocean actually fell.

The second line of defense would also get a radar bunker and a dozen steel towers for radio detection, with a pair of Archangels of the Legion making sure the radar would be blown up and never captured.

And so, by the time 1939 came around, my Romanian Empire had become a medium power in the world, if still below Italy in statistics.
The Italians did have 4 battleships, some 22 cruisers and over 70 subs, while my Navy wasn't even half, and far less trained. But then I wasn't Japan, eager to engage in a decisive naval battle.

Or rather, I did have carriers and suicide planes to act as cruise missiles with human pilots instead of guidance computers.
So perhaps a bit like Japan? The good parts, at least.

The small carriers could only hold 20 planes each, of which 2 were reconnaissance and 6 were fighters, leaving only 12 torpedo bombers to actually engage enemy ships.
For the carrier fighters we used another Soviet model, Polikarpov_I-16 which had a very short landing and didn't tilt forward when stopped by arresting wires. We called it the Seagull, since a pigeon would have been too on the nose.

Of course, the base machine was the normal Soviet crap that needed a lot of work to become any good, as it lacked a closed cockpit, an armored seat and any radio. Anyways, only 100 of these fighters needed to be produced, thus a Greek factory in Athens got the project. Land based fighters were mostly our nicer IAR 80, which had become the IAR 82 after several upgrades. Captured fighters from our puppets were mostly used for reconnaissance and training, while all the bombers were gathered in Constanta to be fitted for maritime operations. All 33 of them.

We would bypass most of the bomber development to go straight to jet bombers when the time was right, and the technology advanced enough.

More research, more production and more troop training continued til late August 1939, when a bunch of demented Polish border guards attacked Germany and started World War 2, in Europe. In Asia, the Chinese had lost like 3 or 5 million soldiers already, and probably even more civilians. It was hard to know, without the internet. Not that the Chinese wouldn't censor their internet anyways.

Anyways, it was war time, baby!

 

[CmirDarthanna]

Will china be communist in this timeline? Hopefully the nationalist government can properly discipline West Taiwan into becoming a respectable nation. Kek.

 

[Pef]

Will china be communist in this timeline? Hopefully the nationalist government can properly discipline West Taiwan into becoming a respectable nation. Kek.

Click to shrink...

I'm not decided yet on China, but it would be funny if Mao is exiled in Taiwan, right?

 

[Onion Ninja]

I assume Romania's civ count is higher than mils right now? Cuz of the speed that he built the forts and anti-air.

 

[Pef]

Despite Henri Coanda's outrage, a special jet plane that carried a 12 inch shell in the nose was being prepared for the most loyal Archangels of Michael's Legion.

Even if more expensive than a normal plane and sacrificing the pilot too, 100 such planes should secure our Navy dominance over the Black Sea, and thus allow for the Crimean War to succeed. Naturally, simply waiting behind the Dacian Wall was safer, but it wouldn't force the communists to desist.

The Crimean peninsula was a perfect target for invasion, since it could be easily defended at a choke point with a small number of troops.
My guess was that Stalin would be so outraged, that he would throw his troops at Crimea and the Dacian Wall with suicidal fury, thus massacring his best troops for nothing.

General Antonescu was chosen for the Crimean War, because he was both very competent and a Soviet hater. He also hated Jews, Gypsies, Hungarians, Bulgarians, the Archangel Legion and the Monarchy, but what can you do? Some people like to hate. Antonescu also personally asked me to lead the next great capture, since he was being overshadowed by Land Marshall Avramescu and his Constantinople capture.

The Greeks got the honor the receive their first Sea Admiral commanding the carrier force, since they did have a fleet for a long time, while the Germans in Romania got one of their own as the first Air Marshall overseeing the Dacian Wall airspace.

I was almost tempted to name Codreanu as the Security Marshall, but that wouldn't be wise nor safe. His Legion was great at keeping the population pacified, but they were also hated by mostly everyone. Luckily for them, once they died heroically the Archangels became national heroes, so it kinda worked out.

Once the Soviet Union invaded Poland too, a number of plans became active at once.
The Polish Landbridge was open for fleeing Polish citizens, carried by numerous waiting trucks and trains, while rapid motorized units moved to secure the Western Bukovina and our holy clay.

In Britain, the Cambridge ring was exposed and captured, with leaked info to the press, leading to immense outrage against the Soviets. While not quite at war, the relations froze between the two powers, leading to ambassadors being recalled and even Soviet ships and accounts getting impounded.
My Romanian Empire didn't even allow Soviet ambassadors anyways, considering them simply active spies. Which they were.

Several Polish reserve divisions decided to make a last stand in Lviv, causing over 40000 Soviet troops dead, once reports of Polish officers being gunned down after surrender got out. Also, the Soviet Union was not a signatory of the Geneva Convention, so any prisoners had the right to fear for their health and life.

After the Lviv pocket was brutally quashed by a million Soviet troops, they tried to enter Romanian soil and got promptly butchered by four armored divisions and twenty infantry divisions with aircover and plenty of artillery. Pleads for a cease-fire were called in the open, and eventually they found someone speaking Romanian to ask, as we ignored any Russian language messages on principle.

Hours later, our guns ran out of ready munitions and fell silent, while more Polish troops and civilians kept fleeing around or through the Soviet Red Army.
A group of 300 Soviet bombers was however already in flight to bomb the offending artillery, and thus was shot down by our anti-air, fighters and jet fighters.

A dozen new Aces were born that day, including one flying a jet plane.
More jet fighters were being built everyday, but the technology was quite advanced so we only gained some 30 per month.

Eventually, the Soviet troops drew back some 10 kilometers to step outside the range of the artillery, and then moved on as they had more of Poland to conquer.

I tapped the map on my desk, and the game menu opened to reveal what I obtained from this adventure. Two more counties, some 400000 civilians, a few factories and 4400 dead Soviets. Not bad, for one day of work.

All new Aces were ordered to transfer as trainers for new pilots, while 100 volunteer pilots were found, to depart for Finland and kill even more Soviet planes while protecting Helsinki and the innocent civilians. The Navy sent 5 submarines as well, manned by Romanian volunteers but marked with Finish flags, and to nobody's surprise the alpine battalions already training in Finland also requested to become volunteers. All of them. 5000 of the best snipers I could find.

In Octomber 1939, Stalin demanded Karelia by sending 500000 soldiers, 3000 tanks and 3000 airplanes as a gift card.
And thus, the Winter War began on the Arctic Circle, and the Finnish SeaLion division conquered Murmansk in 3 days. By the next week, the entire Kola Peninsula was cut off from the Soviets, as the White Sea was frozen and no Soviet ships could get close.

Through the Murmansk port, the Network began to send supplies and volunteers too, recruited from America and Europe from among the anti-communists factions and parties.
Adolf and Benito send their own volunteers and help via the Baltic Sea, and by December the Soviet offensive had stalled and bogged down in numerous pockets surrounded by Finish guerilla on skies.

Our snipers reached and then passed 30 kills each, although they could never hope to match the Finnish 'White Death' sniper with his 700 kills. Some people were just that good.

Then one by one, the 'motti' Soviet pockets were blown to bits by the SeaLion division, making to Soviets lose 2000 tanks in a single month, and over 200000 soldiers.
My investment paid off greatly, and to my surprise the Karelia line still held, although was battered into scrap.

Stalin shot a few hundred officers and sent even more troops into the grinder, while the world laughed. Well, the Poles didn't laugh very hard, but I guess they still smirked a little.

All was quiet on the Western Front, as if the Allies had forgotten they had declared war on Germany. Some fighters battling over France, but nothing else. It was a bit strange, but it had happened before in the other timeline. The French were getting ready to surrender, the British were making plans to evacuate the Monarchy into Canada, while the Low Countries quaked in their boots.

Actually no. That wasn't everything. I still had 53 destroyers being built in American shipyards, and the British wanted them all, since the U-boats were having lots of fun with the merchant shipping.

Taking a long look at the global map, I began to pick and choose nice islands all over the globe.

Nothing big or important, but nice places anyways. The Caribbean had the Trinidad and Tobago Islands for example, or Socotra in the Arabian Sea, and Cocos Island in the Indian Ocean, Saint Helena in the South Atlantic and lastly Ghizo_Island and Nendö_Island in the Pacific.

The British ambassador looked at my claims, eyes frowning. "Quite the dispersal you have here, your Majesty."

"Yes, I did mean to spread all over on purpose. Mostly to give my fleet sufficient range, you understand." I allowed in a noble manner.

"I am not sure Trinidad and Tobago are available for trade..." he mused a bit uncertain.

"Well, do go and ask America for some destroyers. I am sure they will ask far less than I did." I said with a careless shrug.

"We did already ask them. Your offer is far cheaper. We accept!" the man answered a bit in a hurry.

"And also, I want Suez Canal traverse for free, for 10 years. Once America joins the war, my ships will need to leave the Mediterranean too." I demanded in a shameless voice.

The ambassador grimaced in pain, and then nodded. "We all hope America joins the war soon."

"Right. Let me get a few secretaries and diplomats to write the document for us, and we can have some champagne and caviar in the meantime." I said and poked a few buttons on my desk.

A royal guard poked his head in. "The diplomats are here, my King. Should I let them in?"

I raised a glass for a toast. "Indeed. We have a treaty to sign."

 

[Morkail]

Thanks for the chapter, real interestied to see how this plays out post WW2. Or do you not plan to go that far?

 

[Pef]

Turns out, a million Czech and Polish immigrants made for an excellent emigration program to our new colonies. Adding various Ukrainians, Bulgarians and even Serbs made the whole thing look like a paid vacation, including lots of corrupt functionaries and state employees that now I could send away as a promotion.

Having exotic islands meant that amazing fruits and animals were being sent back by our merchant marine, although the Navy officers were less pleased. They were hoping for the 100 destroyer program to be delivered, but we would have to suffer with 80 destroyers, 35 subs and 11 cruisers instead, plus the 5 carriers. Some people could never be happy, even if buying a single of those islands at market price would have been far more expensive.

As for Trinidad, they also had amazing oil deposits, basically making the deal a 1000 to 1 investment. Even better, the islands were just near Venezuela, meaning that I could indeed corner 1/4 of the total oil on the planet with this move. Well, it would take more time and effort, but after the war was over.

Using my other side of the coin, I began making tentative pushes with Franco, not for an alliance like everyone else, but to give him some money for a Spanish strip of land in Africa.
The Spanish_Guinea wasn't very big or rich, but it was located quite well and included a few islands.

As expected, Franco refused to give up the larger African bit of land, and only sold me the useless islands, which was exactly what I wanted. More tropical islands! While Annobón wasn't a rich place, it would make for good tourist destination, as well as submarine base and an airport.
Sure 5 million dollars in 1939 were a pretty penny, but I also made that in one week simply selling oil.

Denmark refused to sell me Greenland though, but I did get Jan_Mayen near Iceland and Bouvet_Island south of South Africa from Norway, both for my support of Finland and for 200 Wolves which had proven extremely effective in the Winter War.

The French were not desperate yet, and they could produce both the 65mm guns and the Wolves, although they stopped doing that. I mean, build enough of those and they could eventually drain the Germans of vehicles, but whatever. History does try to correct itself, despite my efforts.

Benito was getting a bit aggressive too, now that Croatia was a proper mass grave. It seems he really wanted Albania for some reason, but I didn't want to share.
I did point him at Egypt though, since the British colony separated his lands in Libya and Ethiopia.

Then as 1940 came about, Adolf decided Denmark was proper German clay and took it, taking only a few hours. I mean, it was a bit early, but he also didn't have Slovakia, Hungary or Romania in the Axis. I guess Sweden was fucked now, because of me. Maybe they should have given Adolf the Nobel Prize for Peace like I asked them to, from Vienna.

Just as the Soviets began to push again into Finland, Germany struck at Norway and lost some 200 Panzer IIIs to my Wolves, like 10 times more than in the other timeline. Only a 1 to 1 ratio, but then Norway wasn't really a HOI 4 player, like say: Finland.
Soon after, the Skoda factories in Cehia began producing the Hetzer tank destroyer, but using an even larger 105 mm gun. And because the Skoda tanks were not crap, they could actually use 60 mm of armor on the front plate, making them about equal to the English Matilda and Valentine tanks.

In Finland, my 100 Grey Wolves were unleashed for the first time, crushing the Soviet advance In Karelia by destroying 600 and capturing some 300 tanks, before they ran out of ammo and had to return behind the fort line. I was quite pleased with my bad boys. A 9 to 1 ratio was nothing to laugh about, although the Germans could to do it too, sometimes.

A secondary Soviet thrust towards Murmansk was cut off by the SeaLions armored divisions and then destroyed in detail, as the Soviets ran out of fuel and then ammo and food. They could eat snow though, so it wasn't completely bad. Would have been much worse in a desert. Sand gets everywhere and it's coarse...

Anyways, my snipers reached around 50 kills and a few became Aces with 100 kills. The Aces were promptly recalled home, as their experience would be greatly needed to train more like them. And it also hurt me in my gamer heart if I lost an Ace.

Stalin shot a thousand more officers and then called for a white peace. Finland had done the impossible and beat the red giant, albeit with some Romanian cheating involved.

Meanwhile, our research institute in Craiova had managed to create a proper anti-air shell, meaning the proximity fuse worked.
Now, we only had to link the anti-air system to the radar, to establish altitude and speed for the incoming planes, and we could shoot accurately into the sky.

I hesitated for a minute, then decided to share the thing with America. They would discover it on their own, but they also gave me an intact Romania to work with, after World War 1.
The Romanian Empire always paid its debts.

Other stuff like nuclear energy and reactors was not on the table though. The American research system was still full with communists and sympathizers, and several of them inside the atomic program itself. I didn't want Papa Stalin to get nukes, not even after I had them first.

In April 1940, the Low Countries were attacked by the German Blitzkrieg, while the Baltic states were over-run by Soviet armies.

Benito managed to obtain the Balearic_Islands from Spain, something I rarely saw in my HOI 4 games, but possible even so.
France was even more fucked now, as its fleet was split in two by the Italian Navy, even though no war was declared yet.

As I expected, the British Expeditionary Force rushed towards Belgium to secure the border, followed by a rapid French armored brigade. They were both cut off by the German Panzers slicing through the Ardennes forest, who still managed to push through the Polish troops I sent to guard the route. What can I do?

The French or the British would not listen to me, America was sleeping, the Soviets were trying to kill me and China was dying by a million cuts.

The same day that Paris fell, the Soviet Ultimatum arrived, asking for Bukovina, Bassarabia and war reparations.

I considered my reply for a minute, then shrugged and sipped more champagne. Fuck you, Stalin! I will give you a bloody reply.
Raising the phone, I contacted General Antonescu and gave him the good news. He will probably die, along with 10000 soldiers from every member nation of the Empire, plus some Polish volunteers who actually begged to help stick it to the Soviets for their backstab.

The carrier fleet launched the torpedo bombers, the land-based bombers departed from their airfield as well, while 25 Archangels said their prayers as they prepared to sacrifice for God, King and Country.

An hour later, Sevastopol was struck by the largest airstrike in their history, sinking 3 cruisers and damaging their battleship Parizhskaya Kommuna , then losing 12 destroyers and 4 submarines. As the torpedo bombers ran away, the next wave arrived as each Archangel chose a target to take down or up into Heaven. The religious subtlety escaped me, but the Soviet battleship exploded in a ball of fire, followed by 3 more cruisers, 6 destroyers and 10 submarines.

Jet fighters flew over the Black Sea and destroyed the Crimean fighters that tried to chase our bombers, while the fleet arrived in range to start shelling the port from maximum range, guided by radar and observation planes. Destroyers moved in at speed to strike some 24 more Soviet submarines before they could escape towards Georgia, and massacred dozens of torpedo boats still in port.

The naval and aerial bombardment continued for 3 days, until the marine invasion force arrived and began to land. After securing the Perikop isthmus, and leaving the Polish to guard it, the Crimean front advanced inward and conquered the entire Crimea in a single week.

Hundreds of transport ships carried more ammo and artillery to reinforce the thin isthmus, while locally captured POWs were politely asked to start digging and cutting stone. A new Crimean Wall needed to be raised, while the population was being evacuated on the return trip. I mean Soviet Commissars, Party Secretaries and that sort never reached Constanta, since swimming 200 kilometers would have been a world record.

The fleet then passed in front of Odessa to give them a fiery salute from 21 guns, repeated 100 times, and then returned to Constantinople laden with glory.

I think Stalin received my own message loud and clear.

 

[ThedudeManBro]

The Romanian Focus tree is insane in this update. Crack was long abandoned for "The good shit" by Paradox, and I'm all for it.


Fucking weird they added that Decision branch in their secret "Karolius Rex" Romanian Path that was basically a dating Sim, but the new "Martyr" system is pretty neat, and it's used to it's full effect in Romania. (i chose the Harem route btw)

 

[CmirDarthanna]

Kek. Romania just showed the world that Death Troops/Warriors are still fashionable and effective even in the modern day.

 

[Pef]

The Soviets struck back like a mad and howling hurricane, throwing everything into a wide front assault.

Although the Dacian Wall had only reached level 9 in my game menu, it was more than enough considering the poor state of the Soviet Army in 1940. They had lost about 30% of their officer corps during Stalin's purges, and the Army Commissars walked behind the charging soldiers with a pistol in hand, ready to shoot anyone lagging behind.

Things weren't so good in Bukovina and Crimea, since they barely had the first level of forts, meaning a ditch and pillboxes, but this is why they had all the mobile artillery and air support possible. Bukovina also held half of the Romanian Army, with new units being recruited from all over the Empire to replace the loses.

Even so, the Soviets had 30000 tanks and some 10000 aircraft at their disposal, plus a constant wave of foot soldiers to throw at our positions. The anti-tank ditches filled with enough corpses that tanks could step over them, and our airforce did 5 sorties a day to stop the Soviet Airforce from taking our sky away.

Anti-air guns fired continuously, while the jet fighters kept our cities safe from high-altitude Soviet bombers. They couldn't have stopped a massive 3000 bomber raid, but then the Soviet air doctrine wasn't so advanced, nor did they have prepared airfields in sufficient numbers or size.

As for the tanks, the vast majority of the Soviet tanks in this time were T-26 and BT-5 or BT-7 light tanks, which should never assault fortified positions. The Dnister river crossing became bogged down with thousands of wrecks, while the troops concentrations were being shelled by our 305mm fort guns ranging 30 kms with heavy high-explosive shells.

The shell numbers were limited, thus each shell was ordered only by direct observation via spotting planes, but that also caused extreme devastation in the Soviet logistics, as a column of trucks or a supply train would simply evaporate from one battleship sized shell.

It took the Soviets about two weeks to calm down and start concentrating their troops at 35 kilometers away. The front grew quiet for a few days, allowing us to drag away useful stuff and recover guns and equipment from the fallen Soviets, while also burning bodies in huge piles.

Then, as the orders arrived for a renewed offensive, double-charge guns fired once more from our 12 inch forts, striking the command posts and the large vehicle parks even at 35 kms away. The Soviet offensive continued, but it had lost most of its momentum (plus officers and supplies) before it started.

A single Romanian cruiser with a small 4 destroyer escorts parked itself beside the Crimean isthmus and shelled the advancing troops with its 8 inch guns, and its 105mm dual-purpose secondaries, killing over 100000 Soviets before the ships ran out of munitions. It wasn't like they could miss troops concentrations walking in big piles, from a few kilometers away. Firing once every 3 seconds, with a single gun, it allowed a cruiser to maintain a constant rate of fire, as before the last gun fired, the first gun was already loaded and targeting a new pile of troops or tanks.
Even the T-34 or KV-1 tanks blew up in spectacular fireballs when hit with a 203 mm high-explosive shell.

As the cruiser turned away, another one departed from Constanta to take its place. The Soviet offensive stalled and splattered on the Crimean Wall, as more bunkers and pillboxes were being built by unwilling POWs.

I sat comfortably in my armchair, while my big blood-filled dick was getting itself sucked and slobbered over. Pretty much the best way to be an armchair general, raking up kills without raising a finger. I did a lot of hard work to achieve this, now I could simply enjoy it.

In France things got worse, as the Italians invaded from the South, taking Nice with a clever maritime invasion to bypass the fort line. The French fleet arrived from Toulon to bombard the invaders, then fought the Italian fleet, causing each of them to lose half their fleet in a single major battle. The Italians lost 2 battleships, the French lost 3.
This wasn't supposed to happen though. I remember the French sank their own fleet In Toulon without a fight. Oh well. Clearing the Italian Navy would be easier this way.

In the Alps, the Italian Army was butchered in the narrow passes, not even reaching Grenoble.

Over in the Channel, the BEF and several French division still held out, as the Germans lost 2000 Panzers to the Low Countries and the Aras counter-offensive. Right!
I did provide 600 Wolves and 600 65mm anti-air guns to the Low Countries. And since the older PZ 1 or 2 didn't have the firepower to take out a Wolf, while half of the Panzer 3 got lost in Norway, yeah. I kinda fucked Adolf over, with my help.

France still held, if barely. The next wave of German reinforcements coming from Norway, Poland and Cehia would be enough to force the French to surrender, especially the new Hetzers and the brand-new Panzer 4.
Even so, Brest was still a free city, and was busy evacuating soldiers and civilian administration to Britain, while the BEF began to withdraw in good order, including most of their supplies and tanks.

The Americans approved the Land-Lease even sooner, and weapons and planes poured into Britain in large numbers, as the British were still the richest country on Earth at this time.
Indian and South-African troops attacked the Italian-held Ethiopia in turn, with some French support from Djibouti. I gave the Italians a month at most before they lost the place.
India was a populous place, and they could send millions of soldiers to die for their overlord.

Although Romania was at war with the Soviet Union, oil and grain still arrived from the Soviets to help Adolf conquer Europe. Sadly, the trains had to pass through Poland, and Polish partisans always had explosives and guns to blow some trains up, and you couldn't prove it was me! Those were Soviet artillery shells and guns, right?

Months passed while the kill counter spun in my menu, reaching 2 million kills, while at the same time Crimea was getting emptier with each transport ship. If and when Stalin got Crimea back, there won't be anyone living there at all, nor a single building still standing. As the Romans said "Make it a desert and call it peace." as they salted the ground of Carthage.

Most of the Soviet immigrants moved on towards America or the new Romanian islands, some Soviet Jews chose Israel instead and some stayed in Romania to fight the Soviets. I guess being starved to death by your own government wasn't well received?

In Murmansk, 5 Romanian submarines were prowling the Arctic Sea and sinking Soviet transports, and the same in the Baltic, even sinking a Soviet cruiser, the Kirov as it got close to Helsinki.

My Archangels were training hard, since the Sevastopol strike showed than only 70% of them actually hit their target, making us miss 6 Soviet subs than now hounded the Romanian ships in the Black Sea. Thus, 60 Romanian destroyers patrolled the sea and escorted our convoys, with spotter planes flying around trying to locate the missing subs.

Then our Sea Admiral had a great idea, sending a small task force to strike Batumi in Georgia and catching 5 Soviet subs at anchor. There was still a lone sub left, being praised by the Pravda and the Soviet radio, but anyways. The Black Sea was ours now. Mostly.

 

[Karmic Acumen]

Other than the Romans salting the earth at Carthage being a myth, this chapter was good.

 

[CmirDarthanna]

Kek. I can imagine future historians scratching their heads how someone can be so successful despite having their brain deprived of so much blood from a constantly raging erection.

 

[Brian the dor]

Kek. I can imagine future historians scratching their heads how someone can be so successful despite having their brain deprived of so much blood from a constantly raging erection.

Click to shrink...

Scratching their heads…hmm?

 

[Leroidumonde]

No they really did salt the ground, this was probably a small area as after three wars the Carthaginians were less than 10,000 people living in a city surrounded by Roman Africa who had just been forced to give up all weapons shield and armour on pain of death. Then the Romans sent a new treaty wherein every Carthaginian agreed to move 15 miles inland so that Carthange could have its walls and buildings torn down. This was the point where the Carthaginians finally ended as they said no, we're all slaughtered to the last or enslaved, the buildings were torn down and the fields were salted, probably not heavily salted because salt was expensive. But on the other hand the Romans literally forced the army to take away the building stones and dump them off ships so they could not be reassembled because just pulling everything down was not enough. We are unsure however of how many stones were loaded on ships and thrown overboard how many were repurposed in Sicily or Roman Africa, how much fields were salted, how much was embezzled etc. But surviving letters, orders and Senate correspondence indicate some amount of all of this was done, it's just difficult to tell in what amounts after 1800 years.

 

[Karmic Acumen]

No they really did salt the ground, this was probably a small area as after three wars the Carthaginians were less than 10,000 people living in a city surrounded by Roman Africa who had just been forced to give up all weapons shield and armour on pain of death. Then the Romans sent a new treaty wherein every Carthaginian agreed to move 15 miles inland so that Carthange could have its walls and buildings torn down. This was the point where the Carthaginians finally ended as they said no, we're all slaughtered to the last or enslaved, the buildings were torn down and the fields were salted, probably not heavily salted because salt was expensive. But on the other hand the Romans literally forced the army to take away the building stones and dump them off ships so they could not be reassembled because just pulling everything down was not enough. We are unsure however of how many stones were loaded on ships and thrown overboard how many were repurposed in Sicily or Roman Africa, how much fields were salted, how much was embezzled etc. But surviving letters, orders and Senate correspondence indicate some amount of all of this was done, it's just difficult to tell in what amounts after 1800 years.

Click to shrink...

Actually no, they didn't. There is NO historical record about this, nor mentions of this figure of speech that doesn't postdate the event by a ludicrous period of time. Also, people tried salting their gardens in real life and it only changed the kind of weeds that grew, and they grew even faster than before. Also also, salt was super expensive to the point where it was used to pay the wages of the legionnaires. No way would Rome have wasted it for this. "Salary" comes from the latin word for "salt" because of this very reason.

Period sources ONLY say Carthage was razed to the ground. That's it.

Behold!

 

[pochez01]

Few months before 1941, now comes the fun part, in June the funny mustache man invade the soviets, so this being hoi4, soviets join the allies and soviets being in war with me drags the allies against me lol, hopefully his majesty can delay or politic his way to stop the joint US-Soviet front, and have 3 fronts, if Germany decides to do something.

Ty for the chapters

 

[Leroidumonde]

I think it was fall of empires podcast Carthage where I heard about the salting of the ground, but I am pretty sure it was one angry senator (ex-consul?) of three were sent to Africa to deal with Numidia, passed by Carthage on his way and saw that they were doing all right. Or in angry Roman senator words they lived lives as if they had won all the wars they had ever fought with Rome. The port was busy, the nobles rich, farmland fertile and the streets clean. He then spent the next 10-15ish years railing against Carthage because his dad died in the third (2nd oops) Punic war. Whenever the senate met he gave a speech, invited to parties he gave a speech, when it came time to decide where consuls would be sent, you guessed it he argued they be sent to destroy Carthage. I think he might of died 5ish years after carthage was finally razed and he died a poorer man (for a Roman 0.01%) having spent much of his time and money ensuring Carthage would never rise again because he hated them that much.

But yes from double checking it looks like salting the earth was not done pre BC and would only ever of been done symbolically or ritually like handing over earth and water and not by the Romans. But may simply be allegorical to show the completeness that was done such as salting of Carthage which probably never happened even symbolically.

 

[Karmic Acumen]

I think it was fall of empires podcast Carthage where I heard about the salting of the ground, but I am pretty sure it was one angry senator (ex-consul?) of three were sent to Africa to deal with Numidia, passed by Carthage on his way and saw that they were doing all right. Or in angry Roman senator words they lived lives as if they had won all the wars they had ever fought with Rome. The port was busy, the nobles rich, farmland fertile and the streets clean. He then spent the next 10-15ish years railing against Carthage because his dad died in the third (2nd oops) Punic war. Whenever the senate met he gave a speech, invited to parties he gave a speech, when it came time to decide where consuls would be sent, you guessed it he argued they be sent to destroy Carthage. I think he might of died 5ish years after carthage was finally razed and he died a poorer man (for a Roman 0.01%) having spent much of his time and money ensuring Carthage would never rise again because he hated them that much.

Click to shrink...

Ah, the Cartagina Delenda Est guy.

 

[Leroidumonde]

Ah, the Cartagina Delenda Est guy.
Possibly? Yes Cato the elder, who reading up on him was far more important than just that crazy guy who railed against the Carthaginians for more than a decade.

And also died poorer less because he spent his money destroying Carthage and more because he lived frugally got richer but never told anyone. Why is history always more complicated than can be so easily summed up.

 

[Brian the dor]

Wakey wakey, gonna need another chapter pef

 

[Pef]

Of all the islands my country has obtain in the past year, one was absurdly important for its location. Jan Mayen controlled the access into the Denmark Strait, especially after receiving a pair of radar stations and two airports, as well as 5 submarine pens. The construction itself had cost 100 million dollars and might have delayed the Dacian Wall itself being completed, due to a dozen 155mm and a pair of 12 inch guns being transported and emplaced into fortified concrete forts.

Even Adolf was interested in this formerly uninhabited island, as seaplanes and jet fighters now flew over the former uncontrolled region, and detecting any ship moving about.
Using this island, the Romanian Navy and Airforce was able to lock the Soviet Union away from the Atlantic Ocean, leaving only the distant ports in Asia, like Vladivostok to be use for foreign trade. This might sound great for the Soviet Union, unless one counted over 9000 kilometers of railway from Vladivostok to Moscow.
As any proper gamer knew, any number over 9000 was too big.

Same for the Soviet Airforce. Once a mighty power, once it dropped under 9000 planes it became easier and easier to manage, although the number of planes killed dropped from over 100 per day to less than half. Unless you made biplanes of paper and fabric, building planes was a timely affair, while training pilots took even longer.

It was pretty sure we had actually destroyed over 9000 Soviet tanks as well, since my game menu was rather accurate, even to the last decimal.

The furious assaults on the Dacian Wall had stopped, once the Soviets realized a bit too late than we were quite well prepared.

I was waiting for the Continuation War on Finland to restart, but it seemed not. Than again, using the captured, repaired and dismantled Soviet tanks from the Winter War, Finland had a bit over 1500 functional tanks now, even more than Germany at the moment. The Soviets had many more, but they weren't eager to lose them against an unimportant target like Finland. Not when the hated imperialists from Romania still held Crimea.

A large media campaign had begun in the West, arguing for the Western powers to declare Romania an enemy of peace, and then attack us. To counter this, 400 Angels of the Legion with no flying skills departed for their next missions. Finding and eliminating communists sympathizers, spies and even Soviet diplomats. They were asked to evade capture and kill as many communists as possible, even at the cost of their life. Bomb vests and explosive cars, sabotaged gas pipes and arson were the preferred methods, but sniper rifles could also be used against targets less easy to reach.

Details of the Romanov's massacre and even the Trotsky assassination in Mexico appeared in friendly newspapers, including eye witness accounts about how the Romanovs were tortured, burned alive, raped, and then eaten with garlic and washed with vodka. I think the garlic part was a bit much, but who knows, it might be true.

While the French surrender still happened, two months later than in the other timeline, the situation was far different. Free France was far stronger and organized now, and was based in the French Levant, with easy access to the Suez Canal and their holdings in Indochina and Madagascar.

Italy obtained the French South as their victory gain, including Nice, Toulon and Marseille, plus Corsica.

And next, since Yugoslavia and Greece were not in the Allies now, Adolf turned on Sweden and attacked them, likely to obtain the Swedish iron and control over the Baltic Sea.

Much of the Swedish Airforce and Navy fled to Finland and got interned for the duration of the war, while Swedish submarines and the merchant fleet joined the Allies, same as Poland.

I know Adolf saw the same thing I did. Taking Britain was not in the cards, not without 10 times the fleet and the transport capacity. U-boats might starve Britain into submission eventually. But in the meantime, the army needed a worthy target.

So, he looked at the Soviet Army, and found them wanting. Both the Finns and the Romanians had beaten the Red Army until they cried. Surely, the Germans could do even better.

Von Ribbentrop arrived at my castle with threats and carrots, promising us the sea and the glaciers.
I asked to see Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad in German hands first.

The German diplomat looked me straight in the eye, and promised them by Christmas.

"Pack your winter uniforms then, Herr Ribbentrop. I hear prognostics of something like -50 Celsius for this winter. Your Panzers will freeze solid on Christmas Day" I answered while sipping my champagne.

"We are also researching the jet fighter, King Carol. You won't be the only one with advanced planes for too long." the man warned me in a glacial voice.

I had already traded my Eagle fighter plans to America for 1 battleship and 3 fleet carriers, plus 10 cruisers and 50 destroyers, along with other rare tech like radar guided anti-air and centimeter-range radar, plus other miscellaneous research on magnetic torpedoes needing different settings for each latitude degree, since we had islands spread all over the globe to test that.

The technology trade with America was already producing results. For example, the new Sherman tank will have 65 mm of frontal armor now, instead of 55mm, which might be a single centimeter, but a life saving one. I kept the spall liners and the spaced armor still secret though, since the Soviets were spying on America with impunity.

As the year 1941 came around, and Germany was preparing for Barbarossa, things were heating up in the desert. Benito had tried to take Egypt by himself, and found a half a million Indians with British tanks in reserve.

The Mediterranean Sea was a ship grave, with dozens of Italian and British ships getting sunk by submarines and airplanes, submarines sunk by destroyers and troops swimming for the nearest shore. Adolf was obliged to help his ally keep face, and sent the Africa Korps and more subs and planes to contribute, which worked somewhat.

Malta became a hot spot and a pride issue, and got split in half, one island getting taken by German paratroopers while the other still resisted furiously, due to the old Knight fortress being fortified to hell and back.

On the first of April 1941, three things happened at once. Japan attacked the East Indies to get some oil for themselves, causing Britain and France to declare on them too.

The Soviet Union had mostly recovered and attacked both Crimea and Finland at the same time, using about 3000 tanks and planes for each target.

And Adolf launched Operation Barbarossa much earlier than normal, even using several HE 280 jet fighters, as well as thousands of Panzer 3s and 4s, and even more Hetzers and STUG tank destroyers.

The Crimean Wall had reached level 4 by now, and with furious defense from cruisers and artillery, and with my 'last stand' orders it held agaisnt the Soviets for 3 weeks, causing 500000 Soviets killed.

The Karelia Wall in Finland was only level 3, but lasted 4 weeks, because the Finns were badass. Also 500000 Soviets killed, half of them to my own 'volunteer' snipers.

The German Army used their favorite Blitzkrieg tactics and captured 4 million Soviet soldiers in 4 weeks, halving the Red Army while destroying 10000 tanks and 5000 planes with ease.

As the German Panzers rolled in front of the ruined Crimean Wall towards Rostov and Stalingrad, the battered defenders could only blink in disbelief. The got saved by the bell, especially the Polish volunteer regiments. Either the Germans or the Soviets would shoot them on sight, so they lay low and waited for the German tank columns to move away.

Marshall Averescu was left without a job in Bukovina, as the German armies, plus Italian, Dutch and Danish brigades occupied the former Soviet Poland.

I felt pity for the Land Marshall, but what can you do?

Instead, General Antonescu was given a new mission and song. Marching through Georgia.

 

[Anonymous Fapper]

Awww wonderful chapter Pef.

 

[kwaliti]

They are going for the caucasus region for all that juicy oils.

 

[Pef]

On the 1st of June 1941, while the Germans were fighting hard at the gates of Stalingrad, keeping most of the Soviet armor locked, 800 Ferdinand light tanks and 400 Grey Wolves debarked in Batumi and began advancing rapidly towards Baku, followed by 800 Wolves with rocket launchers and 10 motorized divisions.

While Romania still had 3200 Grey Wolves in reserve, plus 400 Ferdinands for the training, they were meant for something else.

Adolf was ecstatic at first, thinking we were coming to help strike Stalingrad from the South, but General Antonescu had a completely different agenda. Grab Baku and the oilfields, then the entire Caucasus. It took until late August for the first light tanks to see Baku, and by that time Leningrad was already surrounded, Stalingrad was still disputed and Moscow was still 200 kms away from the nearest German units.

On September first, Japan took Indochina from the French, causing America to begin partial mobilization, while sending to the Pacific half of the Atlantic Fleet.

On October 13th, the Japanese Kido Butai battlegroup, comprised of 6 carriers and their escorts attacked Hawaii, prompting America to enter the war on the Allied side.
The battleship Texas still sank, being on old training ship, but the carriers and most of the heavy ships got away intact, mostly due to radar warnings and radar-guided anti-air.

A dozen American jet fighters defending Hawaii became Aces in their first day of combat.

That same day, General Antonescu took Baku for ourselves, and turned the tank destroyers and the medium tanks North, while the light tanks and the motorized infantry continued their march through Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan.

Still the same day, snow began falling on Moscow, as the German troops began to surround the city.

Advanced recon units and Romanian jet bombers moved first, striking at the Siberian Railway in a dozen key places, like rail junctions and bridges, cutting off Soviet supplies towards Moscow.

On the 1st of November, most of the Romanian Expeditionary Force halted for winter, while the last troops from Crimea evacuated from the empty peninsula, leaving a single guard battalion to man the Crimean Wall.

In the North, Finnish troops began their skies maneuver, capturing half a million Soviets during the winter and reaching Arkhangelsk on the White Sea.
About 4000 Romanian snipers descended on Leningrad, and began sniping at the Soviets from the other side, while cutting off the meager supplies that still arrived on sledge over Lake Ladoga. Most of the snipers reached 100 kills over the winter, while the Soviets trapped in the city ate their leather shoes, and a few of their less liked comrades.

Moscow was somewhat better supplied, and the German perimeter wasn't that tight, but feeding millions of people with a few sledges or transport planes wasn't possible.

The American ambassador visited me in the Peles castle, and reminded me of the promise to join the Allies once America joined the war.
I smiled at him with a childish grin. "Words and words. America has not declared war on Germany. Plus, how many American divisions are present in Europe?" I asked while filling a pair of champagne glasses.

The ambassador took the glass and sipped it with a frown. "Our policy is Japan first at the moment. They dared to strike at American soil. Conquered Guam too."

"Of course. I would feel the same about Crimea. Not actually a state in the Empire, but useful as a base and such, just like Hawaii. But you're not here for that." I concluded with a sigh.

"Your ships will not be delivered, except that 1 cruiser and 5 destroyers that have already left. But to not be fair-weather friends, the Romanian Empire is also invited to our Manhattan Project beside the United Kingdom. I think you will find the work..." the man proposed with a sneaky smile.

I took out a file and handed it over. "The reports of the Soviet spies inside the Manhattan Project are quite interesting, I admit. At least 5, possibly 7 or 8 separate sources in different departments. If Stalin wasn't surrounded in Moscow right now, he might already been building an atomic weapon. And imagine what the Germans will do, once they read the Soviet archives..." I said with a kind voice.

The man paled as he read the file, including schematics for an atomic weapon made in crayon by myself. I might have gotten a dozen details wrong, but then I wasn't Einstein, was I?

"This is bad...so, so bad." the ambassador muttered as he sat down uninvited.

"Indeed. Germany first might be a more urgent matter. One of our new steam submarines will arrive next month in Miami with a kilogram of enriched uranium. And we don't use coal to make steam." I added with a grin, and sipped more champagne.

"I think I will need to be on that submarine myself. I cannot transmit anything about this file via radio." the ambassador whispered in a scared voice.

"Very wise. Unlike the Germans and their Enigma. Any code can be broken with proper science, after all. Even the Navajo language." I added for no reason.

The man slumped, and left with his shoulders hanging low, although his briefcase wasn't that heavy.

Over the winter, the German front advanced 31.4 meters in Stalingrad, while the new T-34s made right there in Stalingrad had to be fueled with priceless vodka instead of gas.
Baku was in my hands now, after all.

The first American jet fighters arrived in Britain via Land-lease for save London from constant air bombing, and were soon countered by German jet fighters.

Adolf was feeling a bit cheerful on Christmas Day, so he declared war on America by himself, making me and the entire world facepalm. Including his own Generals and Field Marshalls. Way to steal defeat from the jaws of victory, Adolf! With such a large German and Italian community in America, any war declaration would have been blocked in Congress for years.

But now, the Arsenal of Democracy was free to impose freedom in the proper American Way. With planes, guns and bombs I mean.

As 1942 came about, Japan reached the shores of Singapore, and found its carrier planes countered by hundreds of American, French and British planes, including a dozen jet fighters. Despite fierce naval bombardments and several naval landings, Singapore held, if barely.

I'm not sure how that happened, except the lack of merchant ships sending lots of stuff to the Soviet Union, and instead to Britain. Probably that. So my fault, in a way.

Then the Africa fall began, as the Vichy holdings in Northen Africa folded under American, British and Free French assault, while the push from Egypt crushed the Africa Korps and the Italian peasants.

I kept gathering troops and tanks for the next phase, reaching 4000 Grey Wolves and 1000 Wolves, plus 2000 planes held in reserve. 400 of these planes were Eagle 1 and 2s jet fighters, compared to 45 HE 280s for Germany and 87 Eagles 1s for America. My lead in jet fighters wouldn't last very long, as both industrial giants could outproduce my Empire by next year, but there wouldn't be a war next year.

Using my enriched uranium, the Americans completed the Trinity test already, proving to their government the power of an atomic bomb.
We already had 3 working bombs and a trio of Primordial Archangels training to die in atomic fire along with their targets. I just waited for the right time.

As the American landings in Sicily began, I was obliged to keep my word. Sorry Adolf, but you fail to deliver victory by Christmas.

Three atomic bombers flew towards their targets, their pilots convinced they will meet Archangel Michael on flaming wings. Maybe they did, who knows?

Anyways, Leningrad, Moscow and Stalingrad got the honor to become the only cities to receive the Word of God in person. As did the German armies entering the cities at the same time. Something about one stone and three rabbits.

I know. It took me 12 years to get the bomb, but because I started much sooner than the rest, and some idea about what to do or not to do, the costs were smaller, only 1 billion dollars instead of 2 billions for the Manhattan Project. And no, I didn't have hundreds more nukes ready to launch, but I could lie really well.

 

[Anonymous Fapper]

its okay its just eastern europe.

 

[Samael_Von_Hohenheim]

So does this mean the union would fracture into different warlord states since Stalin was the only thing holding the nation together?

 

[Pef]

So does this mean the union would fracture into different warlord states since Stalin was the only thing holding the nation together?

Click to shrink...

Yes but no.

Past the Urals, the Soviet Union is perfectly intact. And there it will stay, a large menacingly communist Asian nation, balanced by a smaller (mildly radioactive) Russian puppet of the Empire, plus several new puppets like Ukraine and Georgia. Finland gets much bigger too.

 

[anthony corcoran]

So does this mean the union would fracture into different warlord states since Stalin was the only thing holding the nation together?

Click to shrink...

Odds are thats what the second phase carol was planning. Its alot easier to conquer places if they are fighting each other and not expecting an armed fist to the rear.