[Beta] Clash of Nations 1.5 - Records from the Blue Star Coalition

Day 15

Early on this day, Ukraine formally declared open war on the forces of the Northern United States. This declaration was followed shortly after with the destruction of an American armored column as they gave chase to outnumbered Egyptian troops in the Sahara Desert, only to be met by a waiting Ukrainian Panzer Division.

In North Africa and Southern Europe, the Western Alliance's first offensive has ground to a halt, and the combined forces of Ukraine and Egypt drive steadily across the sands into Tunisia and Algeria; Egyptian troops are expected to arrive in Tunis by the end of the day. The Egyptians can expect naval artillery support from the Ukrainian 19th Flotilla, which recently served alongside several of Ukraine's top-of-the-line U-boats in the final battle that secured the Eastern Mediterranean for the Coalition.

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Meanwhile, Sweden continues to buckle under the North American advance, though the Americans' progress has been slowed significantly by the arrival of fresh Russian tanks and Ukrainian support units, as well as the combined Coalition air forces.

Ukrainian troops out of Yugoslavia are gearing up for an offensive into Southern France, with the intent of linking up in Northern Italy with the 2nd Panzer Division to drive on Turin, Nice, and Marseille. It is the goal of Ukraine's military command to cripple Spain's ability to field naval forces once and for all, at which time victory for the land forces will be all but assured.

It is the hope of the Coalition to secure Madrid within three days, at which time Spanish resistance in the rest of Europe will falter and disintegrate under a renewed offensive - which will by such time include the soldiers of Turkey, the Eastern Coalition's newest member state.

Day 15b - Commander's Journal

It is this commander's hypothesis that the Western Alliance burned out the bulk of its military strength in their first drive across Europe, and is scrambling to repair military infrastructure in its captured territories in order to replenish their lost strength.

By comparison, the Eastern Coalition's reactionary position has become strategically advantageous, as we have fought back the opposition's vanguard while taking measure of their force compositions and tactics. Being that it is the East that was first on the defensive, we are able to more quickly and readily adapt to the West's maneuvers, and to compose and deploy reactionary forces in a much shorter time thanks to fighting close to home.

In conclusion, once Europe is even partially recaptured, the East's individual and collective economies will far outstrip those of the Americans; and between the economic disparity and the East's decisive numerical and tactical advantage at sea, a final conclusive invasion of the North American continent is guaranteed to secure victory.

Day 16

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The tide of the war is now well and truly in the Eastern Coalition's favor. Recent third-party statistics have revealed the true depth of the losses sustained by the Western Alliance in their initial invasion; yesterday's hypothesis has been proven, as the sum-total of the Coalition's forces now outnumbers those of the Alliance by over 3:1.

In addition, the Coalition's fleets in the south have succeeded in attaining total naval supremacy in the Mediterranean; Ukraine's U-boats have been particularly crucial in stopping the flow of American reinforcements to the North African front.

Ukrainian and Egyptian forces continue to crawl along the Mediterranean coast of Algiers under the watchful support of cruiser AA umbrellas and battleship guns; and Russian battleships have been working diligently to suppress the West's captured centers of industry on the coasts of France, Spain, and Morocco.

The Russian Army meanwhile continues to sweep across mainland Europe under Swedish and Ukrainian air coverage. This advance has slowed to a crawl upon reaching the Austrian Alps; however, Ukrainian commando and artillery units have been dispatched to aid in securing paths forward into Switzerland and Alsace-Lorraine.

Finally, in the north, the Russian and Swedish navies have for all intents and purposes achieved parity, if not superiority, over North American naval forces; and Russian gunboats are now able to actively strike out against the Northern U.S. forces occupying the United Kingdom.

Victory for the East is no longer a mere possibility; it is now, in fact, an inevitability.

Closing - Day 20

I didn't write anything for Day 17-20; nor did I remember to take screencaps, sadly. I will say that the final days of the war (Day 16-1 were a tour-de-force on the parts of the entire Blue Star (Eastern) Coalition.

By the close of Day 16, Egyptian and Russian battleships had shelled American and Spanish-occupied cities in Algeria into dust, preventing any localized reinforcement, and Ukrainian U-boats and a Battleship Flotilla had taken control of the Strait of Gibraltar, and sank an unprecedented tonnage of shipping from the Southern United States over the course of the next two days.

By the close of Day 17, Ukrainian and Egyptian forces had crossed the Eastern Sahara and isolated the remaining Algerian territories, and Turkish troops and Ukrainian armor had made landfall in Eastern Spain. Russia's Battleships and Cruisers had reached the Strait and been reinforced by a Carrier Group, and the remaining occupied cities in Morocco were reduced to rubble in short after. Russia and Sweden had also wiped out American manufacturing capabilities in the British Isles, and the fall of American England was merely a matter of time and resources.

Spanish-occupied France fell ignominiously to Russia and Ukraine over the course of Day 16 and 17, and Madrid fell in the afternoon of Day 18 to Ukrainian troops. In all, Ukraine seized Southwestern France, as well as 95% of the Iberian Peninsula, with the only exceptions being Turkish-occupied Barcelona and Valencia. By this time, the Western Alliance had been complete shut out of the Mediterranean.

By the close of Day 18, high-mobility Ukrainian and Egyptian troops had swept across Morocco and the Western Sahara, and were only briefly inconvenienced by inland American holdouts which were quickly stomped out. Intelligence revealed at this time that the Americans had lost their taste for battle across the Atlantic, and were focusing their diminished resources on preparing for an invasion which would never come.

Day 19 in Ukraine was tense, as Turkey grew increasingly discontent with their meager holdings. Some saber-rattling was necessary to prevent an outbreak of unnecessary last-minute hostilities, though at the beginning of Day 20, the combined fleets, air forces, and Eastern Armored Corps of Russia, Ukraine, and Egypt were more than prepared to put the Turks down at a moment's notice.

Final Notes

I would like to state that this was one of the most enjoyable CoW rounds that I've partaken of to date, a sentiment which my comrades in Sweden and Russia shared whole-heartedly.

The latter half of the game came down to pure coalition-on-coalition warfare; early losses were had in Central Europe, mainly by Sweden and Russia; but in the end, the sheer distance that the Americans had to cover, both to conquer and to supply and reinforce their armies, made it so that the casualties inflicted by the Eastern nations were nigh-irreplaceable, particularly when my submarines and mobile forces came into play.

Spain and the Americans put up a heck of a good fight, I will grant; but ultimately, they bit off more than they could chew far too quickly, and we made them pay for it in shorter order, while was the point out which the momentum of the war swung irrecoverably in our favor.

In coalition warfare, communication is vital to an effective Combined Arms strategy. Sweden's focus on Strategic Bombing air support was punishing to the ill-prepared American advance in the long-term, while Russia's heavy armor and my own Ukrainian high-mobility units played an effective anvil-and-hammer, respectively, that served the coalition well in holding our frontlines and then wiping out pockets of resistance in detail.

I would also like to extend my kudos and gratitude to Egypt, the all-but-official fourth member of our coalition, who was indispensable in occupying South USA and Spain in the Med, and then kicking them out of Africa in short order. We couldn't have done it without you, bud.

'Till Next We Fight Again,

Cipher36

[Former] President of Ukraine

Legendary. Absolutely legendary.