South Africa retains independence, Europe gets crazy

Day 854, 16:59 • Published in Australia Australia • by Aeros
SUMMARY

While Brazil was able to push Australia out of Kwazulu Natal once again, it came at the cost of losing Northern Cape to a resistance war at the hands of US mobile forces. Without further Brazilian efforts, an Australian counterattack is likely follow. In Europe, Hungary has launched an invasion of Croatia, and Finland has launched an invasion of Russia.


SOUTH AFRICA

In a great show of effort to shore up relations, US and Croatian forces fought an intense battle in Northern Cape today with the aim at freeing the territory from Brazilian control. The battle was made all the more important due to the upcoming Congressional elections. Had South Africa remained under total occupation, they would have lost their Congress and citizenship would have been an open free for all. Phoenix would have launched an all out press to get as many people as possible with South African citizenship in order to put the country under a permanent PTO. If successful, it would have handed 3 potential high titanium regions to Phoenix control. Fortunately, Brazil could not make this happen due to the attack on Australian held Kwazulu and the subsequent US push to free Northern Cape. An added bonus to the victory in the Northern Cape is that it walls off Brazils holdings in South Africa from Brazilian home territory, permitting Australia to advance without worrying about abutting Brazilian territory at the end of the Campaign.

Offensives have been bouncing back and forth for some time now, though with both Brazil and Argentina now bordering Australia, the stage is set to start to put the iron to them seriously. Before now, Australias attacks have been marked by a lack of resistance wars in the target provinces that have allowed Brazil or Argentina to retreat and then launching a massive attack with a different country then the target. Now Australia can attack both Brazil and Argentina at the same time, or at a time very close to the close of an initial battle. This will prevent further shenanigans similar to the constant back and forth in Kwazulu Natal. We can also expect the US to continue raising hell with resistance wars in Brazil and Argentina’s “fortress regions”, further forcing them to divert damage away. We all knew going in this would be a long fight, but Australia has time on its side. Brazil and Argentina have to beat back every single attempt. We are not constrained by such a requirement of persistent victory.


FINLAND

All is not well in the house of EDEN, and according to some discussions, this is very upsetting to one of its most dedicated members. Finland launched an invasion of Russia, activating 21 MPP’s in the process. The official Finnish reasoning as far as I can understand is that EDEN of late has forgotten its goal of pulling together for the good of its members. To that end, they have orchestrated a dire military situation for themselves in the hope that EDEN will rally to the defense of a member country. From a purely philosophical standpoint, this is an extraordinary act of courage and faith. From a military stand point, Finland is in serious trouble. Russia has decided to oblige the Finns quest for martyrdom in the name of the dream that is EDEN and have launched an invasion with the newly activated MPP’s. While this might very well be the fight EDEN needs to shock itself out of the current funk it seems to have found itself in, it could not have come at a worst time for Australia. Greece is one of Finlands MPP’s, but is also the critical ally Australia needs to drive Brazil from South Africa. This will also provide a humongous distraction for the USA, who has made clear they do not intend to let the Finns get thrown under the bus. A silver lining here is that Brazil is also one of Russia’s MPP’s, though it is unlikely the Brazilians will fight Finland in any meaningful way if they themselves are under attack. Even so, many eyes in EDEN will be on Finland to see how this plays out. The Finns may have engineered this crisis, but how EDEN chooses to react will be very telling in where the alliances priorities lie.


SLOVENIA

It is in Slovenia that the current crisis embroiling EDEN first started building. After the United States failed to meaningfully participate in a battle in Slovenia that basically defeated Croatia’s land bridge plan and put the Polish Empire at risk of Phoenix counterattack, the US was targeted by a massive spasm of rage from both Croatia and Poland. This joins previous spates of discontent at the Americans from Romania. The US president publicly apologized for the mistake, but then came Limpopo, which had Argentina narrowly avoid a US resistance war victory. This caused the US government to cry foul and dispense with any modicum of diplomacy. The general consensus was that EDEN has become a one way street, where the US is blamed for all its failings. In response, the Americans have threatened to leave the alliance. Slovenia is now getting ready to take advantage its newly activated MPP’s to try and liberate France and Germany from Poland. A potential buzz kill here for the Slovenians is the presence of Spain, though Poland will still be forced to cede large amounts of territory, including the High Wood regions of Rhone-Alps. Now more then ever, EDEN will have to stay together to maintain its grip on Western Europe, though how this will play out remains to be seen. Many in the US were less then thrilled with what happened to France. Even I wrote some articles that were fairly sympathetic to the French, though in the end the US assisted Spain and Poland in wiping out the country. It will be interesting to see how things will play out from this point on. The US could very well decide to smooth things over with EDEN (or vice versa). The alternative however is that this could become a flashpoint, and the Americans could use the plight of France as one of their grievances. Either way, Australia could be facing some tough decisions in the near future if this crisis continues to escalate.


FINAL ANALYSIS

Australia will continue its efforts to free South Africa, in conjunction with the USA. Unfortunately, the situation in Finland and the general chaos in the EDEN Alliance will probably render South Africa to the back burner for the vast majority of EDEN’s member nations. While this war is of vital interest to Australia’s security, it is largely an unimportant affair for most of our allies. The situation between the USA and the rest of EDEN will have to be watched very closely to see how things go.