SDN World 3 Commentary Thread I

[K. A. Pital]

That is not good. The Soviet Union shall not tolerate an assault on a socialist nation. Remember that my forces are fully mobilized.

The Slava as an envoy ship shall arrive at the Dutch and allow them to form a reserve "government in exile" to be evacuated to the Soviet Union in case things go badly.

Germany can expect crappy relations with the USSR, possibly even war.

[Ryan Thunder]

Detailed maps of South America

There's information in there that gives me cause to want to modify my army ORBAT. Folks might want to give it a look.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Ok, I admit being lost... but where did this conflict start? Who's in charge of the Dutch anyway?

[Lonestar]

Ok, I admit being lost... but where did this conflict start? Who's in charge of the Dutch anyway?

Karmic is in charge. It's just a landgrab on behalf of the French and Germany.

And now, possibly myself as well.

*eyes Dutch holdings in the IO*

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Hmm.. I need to check with Shady about his response. He watches Germany with weariness.

[Steve]

Baerne, you need to get with me on the strength and style of your operations to come so I and the other mods can roll for your success. Thanas has already had his.

Karmic, due to my conflict of interest as a German military associate and, logically, a potential belligerent against you, I recuse myself from direct mod judgements of this coming war. Please direct all requests for rulings and such concerns to RogueIce and TimothyC. They will also handle your action rolls for any operations you attempt.

[Steve]

Hmm.. I need to check with Shady about his response. He watches Germany with weariness.

I believe you meant "Wariness"?

[Ma Deuce]

*eyes Dutch holdings in the IO*

Unfortunately, I don't see any real way for me to capitalize on Karmic's apparent impending doom, otherwise I'd be considering a small landgrab as well. However, the only territories any any close proximity are Kenya and West Somaililand (which the Frenchies in Djibouti will no doubt seize as soon as the war begins), neither of which I have the means to conquer given my that my most of my army is organized into "fortress divisions", and what conventional troops I have are their mobile support, aside from a single division of Marines.

[Thanas]

Hmm.. I need to check with Shady about his response. He watches Germany with weariness.

Shady's nation and mine have signed a non-aggression treaty pregame and Germany honours her treaties. And in case he does not intend to, we agreed on a simultaneous demobilization of the frontier making any attack both ways very difficult. Shady need not worry. Also, I have got about 800.000 men on that border plus the forces of my Italian allies.

For that matter, neither do you for a) germany will gladly sign a non-aggression treaty with you and b) Germany has no way to get to you anyway.

[Lonestar]

Unfortunately, I don't see any real way for me to capitalize on Karmic's apparent impending doom, otherwise I'd be considering a small landgrab as well. However, the only territories any any close proximity are Kenya and West Somaililand (which the Frenchies in Djibouti will no doubt seize as soon as the war begins), neither of which I have the means to conquer given my that my most of my army is organized into "fortress divisions", and what conventional troops I have are their mobile support, aside from a single division of Marines.

We'll see. The Goddamns can bring a lot more to bear quicker than the French at West Somaililand, and you know what they say about the Law and Possession...

(I suppose I should send a diplomatic note to the Frenchies as well)

[Lascaris]

Semi-Autonomous Overseas Province of Spanish Uruguay
CDCU
Early Morning

Word had just come in from Central Command back in the homeland; the Overseas Province was to set Readiness Condition Orange-Full. The Northern Defensive Line was to be set at a Stage Three Alert; all seven Reserve Fortress Brigades and three whole Reserve Armies, the 123rd, the 128th and the 135th, were to be called to alert and prepped for rapid activation while the 13th, 14th and 17th Infantry Divisions of the Fifth Army were to be moved up to reinforce the Primary and Secondary Northern Lines.

Now not to be a spoilsport but what is the population of Uruguay? I mean Spain overall has a population of 50 million out of which it can mobilize about 3.5 million men. The 50 million figure is about twice what Spain, Uruguay and Costa Rica had in reality. Hence Uruguay has... a population of 3 million? Meaning the ability to mobilize about 210,000 men? That is 42 brigades or about a single army. Here you mention 3 reserve armies. Checking somewhat belatedly your OOB there appear 122 reserve brigades in Uruguay or about 610,000 men in addition to 37 active army brigades for a total of 795,000 men. Disregarding for the moment the active army since it could get stationed from the mainland 610.000 reservists means a population of Uruguay of about 11 million...

[Thanas]

Sorry, I messed up in communications. Steve posts about his president's reaction should have included a letter by Sänger. The fault is entirely my own.

Anyway, until Steve edits it in, I'll post it here:
Spoiler

Stephen,

my dear friend. I am sorry to foist upon you the terrible choice I myself had to make not long ago. As I am sure you are aware of, the German Empire and the French Republic recently signed a treaty.

I am convinced that had President Dupont and I not signed that treaty, there would have been a war that would have destroyed both Germany and France. The times have changed when either of us could safely go to war without risking invasion - and especially for Germany that situation has changed with the Austro-Hungarian collapse. We now have to defend our borders both in the east, the south, the north and the west. We all know how strong the lure of conquest is for nations and I do not expect others to be more altruistic than Bismarck was when he forged the German Nation.

I am therefore convinced that any Anglo-French alliance or any alliance with France would have spelt certain doom for Germany. Thanks to the penchant of our Kaiser, may God keep him safe, for the Navy the German Army is no longer the invincible giant it once was. We allowed other nations to get far too powerful without checking their progress. We did nothing to prevent the formation of a Nordic Union. We did nothing to help Austria until she collapsed. We did nothing to prevent France from getting powerful enough to challenge us.

The problem is that the French knew this and that there was no way to get French Agreement if I did not promise them something. That promise, which will hunt my soul for the rest of my days, was the settlement of the Alsace-Lorraine question and a recovery of Dutch territories. These details were not made public, but were part of a secret addendum to the treaty.

In a way, President Dupont and I both found ourselves prisoner of our internal politics. We both had to give a lot to the nationalistic elements and the military in order to prevent a war, especially when we gave up certain portions of Alsace-Lorraine. But we had to make those concessions, for a war between France and Germany would have killed millions of people for no gain. I am not proud of what I did - dividing a nation as if it were cheese - but I am sure that had I not done so, Germany would have suffered immense loss and might even have ceased to exist.

I am not sure how I, as a historian, would characterize my thought process. I am not sure if I would regard them as nothing but flimsy excuses and if I would not see myself as the powerless puppet of a military junta and the Kaiser, a puppet that could find no other way but to accede to their wishes. But that would not do justice to my own power. I am nobody's puppet and I am certainly not controlled by the military. The responsibility is mine and mine alone. I could have resigned, but I did not due to the fear of what would happen to Germany if I did.

I have witnessed firsthand the devestation a war can cause. I lost many dear friends at the Vienna Massacre, including the live of a girl I had planned to propose to in the future. Maybe I shall tell you about her in the future. If I had ultimate power, I would erect a giant wall around Germany so that none of her children would ever have to face the harsh world outside. But I do not. For the sake of future German generations, I have to do what I am going to do in a weak. I pray to the almighty God that there be will be a peaceful solution to this war, but I fear there is not.

I realize that this will cost you several months of hard work. I would like to say that Cascadia has no obligation to join Germany in her actions and that neither I nor the Kaiser expect you to join in our endeavour. Should Germany prove victorious, she will however sign all disputed territories over to you. I cannot ask you to sacrifice the lives of your countrymen for my plans.

At the end of this week I shall make an ultimatum to the Dutch. Should they refuse to accept our demands, the German Empire and the French Republic will invade the Union of the Low counties.

As for my political future, I am not sure if I have any. The nationalists will try to hang me without a resounding success in the Union business. The Kaiser is ready to drop me at a moment's notice for Hindenburg or another lackey that cannot check him as often as I do. And the socialists will try to kill me as soon as I announce the ultimatum.

May God have mercy on my soul.

Johannes

[Minister of Pigeonry]

Now not to be a spoilsport but what is the population of Uruguay? I mean Spain overall has a population of 50 million out of which it can mobilize about 3.5 million men. The 50 million figure is about twice what Spain, Uruguay and Costa Rica had in reality. Hence Uruguay has... a population of 3 million? Meaning the ability to mobilize about 210,000 men? That is 42 brigades or about a single army. Here you mention 3 reserve armies. Checking somewhat belatedly your OOB there appear 122 reserve brigades in Uruguay or about 610,000 men in addition to 37 active army brigades for a total of 795,000 men. Disregarding for the moment the active army since it could get stationed from the mainland 610.000 reservists means a population of Uruguay of about 11 million...

First off, my standard Army consists of 28 Brigades, thus, 3 Armies = 84 Brigades. 96 if you count the Railway Division and Fortress reserves there as well. I'm really not sure where you got the 42 brigade figure but you're still correct to a point.

I never determined it after upping my population figures. You're quite right, though, I just carried the same 2 to 1 ratio over from the active forces where Spain has two active armies and Uruguay one. So, figuring I had about 17 Armies to split up, I gave five to Uruguay and ten to the homeland. Never did consider how that should relate to the populations, though. As for the 50mill figure, I assumed it was the overall figure for the Empire in total, not just Spain.

As it is, with 11mil in Uruguay and 2mil in Costa Rica/Elsewhere that leaves Spain with just slightly less than double its historical 1925 population of roughly 20mil. I'm lucky to have gotten my figures as right as they are, math is really a bane of mine so I never figured the ratio of Pop to Reserves in an area, rather foolish, I suppose. Either way, I'll leave the matter to the Mods, if they'd like it changed I'll just grab three or four of the reserve armies and put them back home.

[Steve]

I thought that was the reply to my first letter?

[Thanas]

I thought that was the reply to my first letter?

Yeah, like I said, I messed up. This was supposed to be the letter Spee handed to you (which is why It has the words about presenting the ultimatum in it).

[Steve]

Ah. Well, I made it such.

[Lascaris]

Navy:

7 Aoba class Heavy Cruisers (7100t), 49.7 IBP's. Complete Janaury 1926.

And to continue on the spoilsport path. Raj the 7100t figure for the Aobas was pure fantasy. The actual figure was 8300t (Conways 1922-46 page 188) Not that this affect you much beyond changing the number of ships from 7 to 6...

[Agent Sorchus]

We'll see. The Goddamns can bring a lot more to bear quicker than the French at West Somaililand, and you know what they say about the Law and Possession...

(I suppose I should send a diplomatic note to the Frenchies as well)

And Sudan is still closer than the Goddams are anyway...

[Norseman]

I *will* be taking steps in a proper post, but I'm too tired to write one right now. Please don't get up to any shenanigans on mainland America before I do. Also Karmic Knight out to be able to react to what is going on right now.

[Agent Sorchus]

I *will* be taking steps in a proper post, but I'm too tired to write one right now. Please don't get up to any shenanigans on mainland America before I do. Also Karmic Knight out ought to be able to react to what is going on right now.

tis ought, but yes Karmic Knight should be able to respond, unfortunately the Ultimatum is to harsh for there to be anything but war.

[Lonestar]

And Sudan is still closer than the Goddams are anyway...

We do not fear you Mahdists and the other Mohammedans in Egypt.

[Siege]

A shoe upon your head, you filthy heathen infidel!

[Agent Sorchus]

Addendum to story post: four regiments of Cavalry from the Nineth Corps are going into Uganda. Not a heavy commitment but to be a forward guard versus any potential action.

[Steve]

Also Karmic Knight out to be able to react to what is going on right now.

Yes, but at the same time he shouldn't be allowed to stall for time and leave the game hung up. And he did visit SDN earlier today, he's had time to at least post "I'm rejecting the ultimatum" or "I see what's happening, will post tonight", etc.

[Czechmate]

Well, we seem to be careening into this timeline's first Great War. What fun!