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Steve wrote:

Thanas wrote:He demanded the complete and unconditional surrender of the Soviet Union. That was the only thing he wrote.

.....please bear with me Thanas, but I find that so incredulous I'm still having trouble believing it.



Somebody is getting a L.J. Gibbs-style Dope Slap to the head when I get the full details.

HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH

Oh man, I'm laughing very hard now.

Steve either you fix this, or you are guaranteed a WWI at this rate.

Hrm, Asteroids or Supervolcanoes, asteroids or supervolcanoes....

I vote manspiders. The entire Manchurian cabinet can 'fall in love with the manspiders'. It'll look like suicide!

loomer wrote:I vote manspiders. The entire Manchurian cabinet can 'fall in love with the manspiders'. It'll look like suicide!

Nah. I vote Shroom comes along and makes them all homosexuals.

I vote we let the war continue, if Beo will only accept an unconditional surrender, then very well, the Soviet Union will fight him to the bitter end.

As an aside, this is what I am working for regarding Soviet troop strength in the region:

Already at the front:
Siberian Military District - 3 ID, 10 reserve ID
Asian Military District - 2 ID, 1 ATB, 20 reserve ID
Far East Army- 23 ID, 1 special AR, 2 heavy AR, 4 ATB, 30 reserve ID

Everything else has to be brought in via train, 1 Division every 2 days. That means, as it is now D+60, 30 additional divisions.

Total Soviet strength (not counting casualties) therefore:
121 Infantry Divisions
5 ATB,
1 special AR,
2 heavy AR.

= ~1,850 million troops.

The Soviets took the following casualties:
- crushing of the salient and other battles that day: 120k prisoners + 165k casualties (including prisoners from other salient battles), total - 258k troops

I was unable to find a total figure for Soviet casualties incurred earlier on, but as the Manchu have so far only taken rather few, I am going to assume that a total of 40k men was lost so far. If this is incorrect, I would ask for help in establishing the correct number. I made a search for "casualties" and "Stas Bush" and it only came up with one post.

Thus, total Russian forces in theater:
1,55 million troops.

Quite a dire situation, Beowulf can bring atm twice as many forces against the Russians. Thus, I am going to do the following:

Strategic disposition of Manchu forces

1st. All forces assume defensive postures. The same measures as the soviets did in 1941 will be implemented, that means no more mass surrenders. In fact, from now on all soviet forces will continue to fight on.
2. I am abandoning the Southern salient, but I am leaving 50.000 men behind to slow down the Manchu advance. They will fight delaying actions.
3. The main bulk of the Southern Army will also form defensive postures.
4. The Amur will be the main defensive bulwark. Massive amounts of mines will be released throughout the river.
5. The Soviet airforce has arrived in force. A total of 240 combat aircraft will now be in theater, of whom I belive one third is lost by now. This leaves around 80 fighters and 80 bombers. The bombers will be held back until the Manchus try a crossing of the River, the fighters will be employed en masse to intercept Manchu attacks. Full attacks will wait until the aircrafts built before will enter combat status in Q3 1925.

The soviet army will be formed up according to those lines:
link

Holding a 2:1 advantage is an advantage for the Manchu forces, but they have to get over the River first (with the exception for the North). The soviets had about 15 days to prepare (60 days for the center) for an assault, that should be enough. If the Manchus break through, the soviet forces in combat will form hedgehogs. There will be no widespread encirclement, as soon as there is a threat of that, the forces will fall back. The main goal is to make the manchus bleed for every inch of ground. The preparations and the tactic (employing every delaying and defensive measure available), should make sure that the manchus take as much or higher casualties when attacking.

As an aside, when will this game hit 1926? Because I have got a huge storypost for the New Year.

Hmm.. don't Russians go by Fronts and not "Army Group South" etc.?

Will fix it in the story post, but I'll not redraw the picture as my crappy internet connection only has a very, very slow upload, meaning that it takes me over one minute to get even a small post like this uploaded.

MKSheppard wrote:

Steve wrote:Still presumes they get there in time for the battles, that their purpose remains unknown to any power that would not want to see Shepistan gain the Canal, and that the Colombians themselves accept it, because the idea of you pulling off an amphibious op with those distances involved makes me laugh.

There's no amphibious op involved. We sail into a random Gran Colombian atlantic port; and use the port's heavy cargo winches and cranes and other fun things to unload. We then use trains (MAGIC, I know); to move to our attacking positions in the Ithsmus of Panama.

By the time the troops arrive in Gran Columbia and have completed unloading, I'd have to say that the traffic bottleneck caused by Ryan feeding all his troops into Panama has eased up a bit, allowing me to slowly feed in units of my armies into Panama a bit at a time.

I expect them to be in position by like D+50 to D+90.

Okay so here goes this:

A) I again repeat you claimed your country to be so virulently anti-Communists that they would declare war on another nation simply because it was fighting a nation that was fighting a nation that was communist.
B) You would have no way to hide your troops being offloaded and rushed to support the socialist (not communist but close enough for these times) state of Gran Colombia

How in the hell do you not undergo a revolt in your parliament the moment this plan becomes known?


Also The entire Canal board is threatening action on D+14 if the combatants don't start negotiating so the war will likely have a ceasefire before D+21 and possibly even a permanent resolution by that point. Your troops would be arriving a month after fighting ended...yup that won't set off alarm bells everywhere.

Thanas wrote:As an aside, when will this game hit 1926? Because I have got a huge storypost for the New Year.

http://sdnworld.wikia.com/wiki/SDN_Worl ... _Time_Line

Next Saturday.

Um, Wilkens? I think term A was meant to be "so virulently anti-Communist that they would declare war on another nation simply because it was fighting a nation that was fighting Communists", if you're referring to Shep's threat about treating Mexican shipping as "Communist" shipping if it were to attack Portugal for opportunistically seizing Dutch Guyana.

Steve, question - at the current rate of investment, being 25 points, how long would it feasibly be until Afghanistan could field basic Tularemia-flea bombs? Two years? And would this be altered by importing Russian experts on said diseases (who would have minimal experience in biowarfare at this time, being as the 1926 decree that established bioweapon testing in Solovki is, you know, in the future)?

Steve wrote:Um, Wilkens? I think term A was meant to be "so virulently anti-Communist that they would declare war on another nation simply because it was fighting a nation that was fighting Communists", if you're referring to Shep's threat about treating Mexican shipping as "Communist" shipping if it were to attack Portugal for opportunistically seizing Dutch Guyana.

Yeah, edited to reflect.

Actually, I'm curious as to why Shepistan would even care about the trans-Isthmus canals in Central America. It's an Indian Ocean power. What trade does it have that needs the Canal? Anything on the east coast of North America would be via Suez; for Cisplatina and Chiletina, either Suez and then southward or simply south around the Cape of Good Hope. Maybe trade with western North America, Suez then Panama might be faster than going around the Capes and up the American Pacific coast. But is Shepistani trade to Mexico - the very nation it's threatening - California, and Cascadia that extensive and valuable to be worth the expense, the risk, and the political difficulty of aiding a Socialist country against a Conservative monarchy?

As an aside, how is Shep going to get his forces there without stopping for resupply and refuel along the way? That is quite the distance he is travelling there, distance that far outstrips the fuel capacity of the usual ship these days. Not to mention the horror if an engine breaks down. Or what happens when such an armada (which will be thousands of ships) gets into a storm...

Seriously, transporting one million troops in this day and age by ship alone should be pretty much impossible over such distances.

I'd have to concur there, also I think that the war will be over before they can deploy... not least because other powers are starting to get involved. I mean lets face it this conflict cannot stay confined for much longer.

Norseman wrote:I'd have to concur there, also I think that the war will be over before they can deploy... not least because other powers are starting to get involved. I mean lets face it this conflict cannot stay confined for much longer.

Shep seems to want to stage some kind of coup in Columbia, and there's always the option of invading anyway.

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: Shep seems to want to stage some kind of coup in Columbia, and there's always the option of invading anyway.

Here now. Do you really think that Shep would send almost a million troops with the express purpose of overthrowing the government of a country he's there to help?

(not that it matters to me, this helps my security position just fine).

Lonestar wrote:

Fingolfin_Noldor wrote: Shep seems to want to stage some kind of coup in Columbia, and there's always the option of invading anyway.

Here now. Do you really think that Shep would send almost a million troops with the express purpose of overthrowing the government of a country he's there to help?

(not that it matters to me, this helps my security position just fine).

I'm not sure. But it always pays to be sufficiently paranoid when it comes to Shep. In fact, one can never be paranoid and careful enough.

And more things about the German Empire are written, looks like someone forced Sänger's hand.

EDIT: Also, Sheps force is only half a million unless I fail at counting. Sorry about the previous estimate of 1 million, still, half a million should require about 6000 ships at the very least. A giant armada and it has to go all the way to South America before it can refuel....

CmdrWilkens wrote: Also The entire Canal board is threatening action on D+14 if the combatants don't start negotiating so the war will likely have a ceasefire before D+21 and possibly even a permanent resolution by that point. Your troops would be arriving a month after fighting ended...yup that won't set off alarm bells everywhere.

Entire canal board? I don't recall getting any invitation and if Byzantium and France are in the Canal, Cisplatina as an American power with a 4 economy would certainly be in the canal board as well.

And personally I hardly can see the war ending unless Mexico suddenly decided to pack up and go.

Steve wrote:Actually, I'm curious as to why Shepistan would even care about the trans-Isthmus canals in Central America. It's an Indian Ocean power. What trade does it have that needs the Canal?

Because it makes about as much fucking sense as a lot of this game. That's why.

And people keep failing to note that all of my posts on the political side seem to originate not from the Reichstag, Congress, or whatever; but ARMY HOUSE, SHEPISTAN

That alone should tell you where the real power in things lie in Shepistan -- while there are political parties and such; their power is quite limited; they're limited to sqawking and rubberstamping whatever von Shapp says.

Lascaris wrote:Entire canal board? I don't recall getting any invitation and if Byzantium and France are in the Canal, Cisplatina as an American power with a 4 economy would certainly be in the canal board as well.

You are not on the board. The members are: Columbia,Byzantium, Cascadia, United States, France, Tuscany, Germany. Ryan explicitly asked if anyone else was interested.

Shep, three liners = 48.000 troops? That is impossible. Only the Queen Mary ever managed to do that and that was over a shorter distance, with no heavy equipment and that ship displaces 30kt more than the liners you can theoretically build (55kt).

A far closer match would be the 42kt Aquitania, which carried 8000 troops max, iirc.