Romania - a chance to shine

[Ilici Man]

This will be my first AAR and it is only the 3rd time I start a game (haven’t actually played the previous two for too long either) so please be gentle guys even though I’m very new on this forum.

I will be playing Romania, my home country and, as the title shows I’m going to try to turn it into a world super power and aim at total world domination. I will also use this opportunity to learn more about the game itself.

Since I’m a beginner at this I’ve put everything on very easy and took out enhanced spotting and range. I also chose to play a game without nukes. Global volatility none since I want to conquer as many countries as possible in their best condition and I’ve chosen for the military units to be disbanded when a country falls.

Also as a rule of mine I will not buy any foreign units and only trade technologies to increase my budget and only when the situation grows desperate. I will try to only use domestically researched and built units.

[Ilici Man]

The background:

The first people to live here in recorded history were the Dacians. Though considered by ancient historians to be brave and good fighters, they were conquered by the Romans in two bloody wars ending in 106 a.d. The occupation lasted until the Aurelian withdrawal south of the Danube in 254 a.d. The now romanized Dacians were left to fend for themselves against the barbarian hoards coming from the north. Tribes that left the biggest mark on the people living here were the Cumanic and Hun tribes. The first helped form the first helped finish the formation of the Romanian people and formed the first Romanian kingdoms , while the second occupied the present day Hungary and expanded eastward conquering a number of those newly formed kingdoms.

By the 14th century the Romanians are spread into 3 main areas and will remain like this till the second half of the 19th century. In the South is Wallahia (the name comes from the Slavic name for wolf), in the north-west Moldavia and in the north-east Transilvania.

The three regions have had a tumultuous history to say the least. Having to fend for themselves against the looming danger of being conquered by the great powers forming all around they had to rely on shifting alliances, great leaders, courage and a shitload of luck to maintain their relative independence. In the south there was first the Byzantine Empire and then, till the 19th century, the mighty Ottoman Empire. In the north Moldova had to fight first Poland-Lithuania and then Russia. Transilvania was in the worst situation. They were conquered by the Hungarians shortly after the first kingdoms formed and were under foreign for most of their history until the end of the WWI. Their only brief spell of independence was when the Ottomans conquered Hungary and advanced on Vienna but that lasted only a couple of years and found themselves occupied by Austria when the Ottomans were beaten back.

Map of the Romanian kingdoms:



The Romanian unification was finally realized in the 19th and 20th centuries. First, in 1859 Wallahia united with Moldova when the European powers decided to create a buffer zone between the Russian an Ottoman Empires, and finally in 1918, at the end of WWI, with the collapse of Austro-Hungary and Russia, Transilvania, Basarabia (current day Rep of Moldova) and other smaller regions joined Romania to form what is called Grand Romania.

Map of "Grand Romania" at the start of WWII:



(highlighted you can see the territories taken by the Ribbentrop-Molotv pact. the western ones (in Transilvania) were regained at the end of the war. the others were not)

In WWII tides turned again against our country. In 1940, following the Ribbentrop-Molotov pact, Basarabia was given back to Russia and Hungary took about half of Transilvania. The war followed and Romania was found at the losing end when the fighting stopped. We were given back the territory taken by Hungary but the Russians kept what they took. Not only that but communism was forced on our country. 50 years of red power followed during which the last remnants of civic duty and of true patriotism were removed. They were replaced with corruption, stupidity and a sort of repressed bitterness against the western world and a fake kind of patriotism (the phrase “the western powers could build their castles and palaces because we were keeping the ottomans away” is a favourite”).

I plan to see if there really can be more to this nation then meets the eye.

[Ilici Man]

The present situation:

Romania has a population of about 22 mil, a starting balance of about 3800 M and a GDP/C of 8100. It starts with a tech level of 86 and a pretty decent set of units compared to the countries around us. We are blessed with a lot of resources that we’ll be able to depend on when we’ll start our conquests. Countries around the world generally like us and we’re not being seen as much of a treat.

Romania and neighbors at the start of the game:

[Ilici Man]

Plan:

I intend to build up the economy and army for at least few years before I start my expansion. I also will use the time to advance my technology level as much as possible. I also will try to put together a list of allies as long as possible. I will need them both to secure my borders and to have trade partners when the **** hits the fan.

a) Allies – To select my allies I first need to set at least some general objectives. For the first stage I will just try to expand my borders. I want to arrange the reunification with our brothers in Moldova and then take revenge on Hungary and occupy as much of former Yugoslavia as possible.

After some pretty nice diplomatic action I have managed to set up relations with key nations around the world and even though some world powers like Germany, Italy and the USA didn’t want to hear of it, I don’t think they will be much of a problem.

I managed to secure my north flank with an alliance with Ukraine and the south with alliances with Bulgaria and Greece. Also I made a barrier against Germany and Italy by making alliances with the Czech Republic, Austria and Slovenia.

Beside these I made a lot of other alliances, the most important ones being with Russia, China, France, England, Spain, Iran and India. If not for military help, I will definitely need them for trades.

Allies around us:



As you can see, I can pretty much chose who and when I fight. With the alliances I’ve set up, I think I can keep unexpected attacks to a minimum, at least for the first stages.

b) Economic build-up - I plan to take advantage of the huge number of resources on our territory and exploit them to the max. I plan to make my money from exports as soon as possible. Basically, the only resource we don’t own is Uranium but we don’t really need it atm.

So I start building up. First the electric power capacity with Hydro power plants as much as possible and then I try to build up my industrial and consumer goods production to meet the demand.

I also lower taxes and increase social spending to stimulate economic growth. GDP/C grows pretty fast but of course that brings a skyrocketing inflation and our investments quickly deplete our small budget. Fortunately we have allies very willing to help and donate money to sustain our emerging economy. I take advantage of that and keep building up our industry.

In a couple of years we have surplus in every branch of the industry except electric power (which will be solved in the following year) and uranium (which, for the time being, we have to import). GDP/C quickly reaches 30k (amazing in only 2 years) but inflation also gets to 30% and unemployment to about 1.4%. I try to solve the last problem by arranging “free flow of labor force” treaties with our neighbors and the inflation also starts dropping slowly when we start slowing down our economical expansion.

The best thing is that we are making a lot of money from trades. We are selling water to the Middle East, oil and other resources to Western Europe and goods to Africa and South America.

Time to sit back and just wait for the dollars to pile up.

c) Military build-up – I am also using this time to pile up some military units in order to quickly achieve our objectives. My main units are the TR-85M1 Bizonul (a kind of romanian buffalo) tank, some old BTR-60 inf units inherited from Russia after the fall of the Iron Courtain (we don’t have the possibility to produce them though) and the J-22 Orao 2 fighter/bomber.







I have increased my building and research capacity and have started developing some new designs, with inf, helicopter and artillery units as my first concern. I already have quite a nice force set up but I want this to work like clockwork.

[Ilici Man]

The bear awakens – Operation Reunion

Two years have passed since I took office. The economy is growing, inflation is at 24% with a drop of 6% in the last year, we are exporting everything we can and we have a nice, strong military force. It is almost time to start expanding.

Our first target is Moldova. For both sentimental and tactical reasons. The neighboring country was once part of Romania and, even though during the Russian occupation the demographic situation has changed drastically with a lot of Romanians sent to Siberian labor camps and Russians sent to colonize the region, the majority of the population still considers themselves Romanian.

After the fall of the USSR, the Romanian government has made a few attempts to improve relations and the hope of a reunification appeared in the hearts of many on both sides of the border. Unfortunately, the communists still governing the country brutally refused any attempts to bring the two countries closer together. Their fear of Russia (who still kept a sizeable force in the separatist region of Transnistria) made and such attempt futile from the start.

I am going to use this country as a catalyst. The Romanian population will welcome the reintegration of Moldova, even though it won’t be made peacefully. I will present it as a liberation of our brothers from the oppression of the communists. I also expect that the local population will mostly welcome our troops with open arms (it has happened before ) and thus we’ll reduce the resistance to a minimum.

In terms of gains I see the 4,5 million ppl inhabitants as a solution to our low unemployment problems, and I hope that victory here will start our nation’s appetite for new expansions beyond our borders. I also hope that this operation will cause other countries to declare war on us (Serbia seems the most likely candidate to pounce at this opportunity) and thus save us the need to be the aggressors. The small oil and metal ore deposits and the final icing on this cake.

Military operation:

The plan is simple. While keeping enough units on the western borders with Hungary and Serbia, we will amass a force strong enough to defeat the enemy as quickly as possible with as little losses as possible. Artillery and air force involvements will be kept at a minimum. Moldova only has a small army and I want to avoid civilian casualties at all costs. We are going there as liberators, not conquerors and we need the local population to be on our side.

The attack will be pretty straight forward. The units in the center will drive straight for the capitol of Chisinau will the units on the north and south flanks will slowly advance and as many cities they can without engaging the enemy. Their only important city is their capitol. When it falls, the rest of the country will follow.

Operation will commence on the 1st of January.

[Ilici Man]

A little bit of info about the status of Romania at the start of our expansion. After 3 years, our GDP/C is 34302 $, we have a population of over 23 mil (a 1 min increase) and an approval rating of about 50%. 368 units (283 land), 67 of which will be used in this operation. As last minute good news, China offered a huge amount of money to our war fund. About 80 bill. I think they want us to start trouble.
00:05, 1st January 2023 – the operation commences. The troops set off to a great start. Enemy units are caught totally unprepared and we are well received by locals. The border town of Ungheni is the first to fall after just a few minutes and no fighting. The towns of Falesti, Cantemir and Cahul are also taken over in the first hours of fighting. Then the first engagements with enemy forces start. The fist we encounter are two units of engineers. One in the far north and one in the far south. Our spies also inform us that a few infantry units left Chisinau and moving to cut off our central advance force.

06:00, 1st January 2023 – the northern infantry unit retreated in bad condition. The one in the south was destroyed. Some heavy fighting in the middle with enemy infantry units from Tiraspol joining the fight but we are pushing them back towards Chisinau.

09:00, 1st January 2023 – we have stopped short of Balti in the north and Comrat in the south. Garrisons have deployed here and I don’t want useless civilian deaths. In the center we have encircled one enemy inf unit and are almost at the edge of Chisinau.

23:50, 1st January 2023 – After the first day of fighting have almost surrounded Chisinau. 7 Enemy units were destroyed with the loss of almost 10000 men while we lost under 1500 and no units. Moldova also finally deployed their two tank units. One was quickly destroyed. The other is soon to follow. There is a heavy defense force in Chisinau and a military installation to the north.

05:00, 2nd January 2023 – My first units enter the military complex in the north of Chisinau. They still have to mop up some artillery units but that should not take long. The enemy is fighting desperately to keep Chisinau from being encircled and throw many units into defending the road leading East to the Ukraine in a futile hope that they could convince them to join the fight. It won’t be long now.

Chisinau’s last stand:


16:00, 2nd January 2023 – Chisinau is surrounded. The military complex is in our hands. Victory is near.
02:00 3rd January 2023 – Chisinau has fallen. The communist leadership tried to reestablish a command center in Tiraspol but they were arrested and taken into custody by forces loyal to us. We now control Moldova and the dreams of reforming “Grand Romania” have been partially fulfilled. We now await international reaction.

[Ilici Man]

Aftermath:
The operation was a complete success. We destroyed about 38 units and killed about 50k troops while we lost under 3k troops and no units. Civilian losses were minimal. About 2k died in the fighting over Chisinau and another 3-4k died in the military complex north of the capital. Our swift and decisive action caught the enemy completely off guard and we had already taken about 1/3 of the country before they reacted.
With a population of almost 28mil our labor shortage problems will probably end and although the poor inhabitants of Moldova have taken down our GDP/C to 31600, it will slowly increase back over time.
The takeover also caused some international reaction. UN support dropped (but only slightly) and pro-Russian countries in Eastern Europe are thinking about taking action against us (Serbia and Belarus are the most determined).
On the military side, the fighting proved that the BTR-60 is totally inadequate for modern combat. Even with numerical superiority and against a poorly armed enemy, they took pretty heavy damage and about 3 units are in dire need of repairs. We have a number of newer BTR-94 but not nearly enough to wage a war. I have already produced a few more modern inf units, with the TAB-79 and MLI-84M performing best in the fighting around the enemy capital. I am reluctant to begin a large scale replacement of my inf units since the situation might escalate but that is something that I will really have to take under consideration.

[Ragu]

Looking forward to this continuing. As for military upgrades, keep pumping out the Newer BTR's, and when you have enough, swap a few stacks out until you have moderised your defensive lines. Then think about more expansion.

[Ilici Man]

And that is more or less what i plan to do. Right now I'm rearranging the economy a bit. The treasury is slowly but steadily depleting. I have invested a little bit more in production of timber, water and electricity and I'm still counting for exports to keep our balance in the green. In preparation of a probable war with Serbia, i have built an additional two bridges over the Danube.

[Gonzar]

Very nice historical introduction. Nice AAR too, i hope you continue. This must be the first AAR of the gold edition.

Some advice to improve income and reduce dependency of exports (though maybe you already do it): reduce your tax to encourage domestic consumption and thus getting more daily income. Asuming you have enough production, if you reduce taxes of, for example, unemployment, pension or property by 1 or 2% (i reduce it mostly to 1 to 1.5% each) the increased income per population causes an increase domestic consumption, that means more domestic sales, higher daily income.
If you haven't done it yet, just try it in your game. Reduce one of those to say 1%, at first it will show you lower income through the tax reduction, but as soon as it changes to another day you will see the income increase. Another good tax to reduce is the sales tax, if everything goes well i reduce it slowly to the 6,5-7,5%. You will make your money through the domestic sales price and not through taxes, this is the capitalistic way and it works quite good and almost inmediately asuming you produce enough, of course. Also as a side effect, people will love you for decreasing taxes.

[tkobo]

Nice aar, and great work and explanation on securing your borders outside the intended conflict area with alliances (the ring).
It will go along way in stopping those regions (the ring) from coming after you,if you maintain them.

Couple words of caution....Germany and a few countries outside your ring of allies, will probably also make the ring its allies,and some of them just might come after you thru that ring.In the latest testing update,which is pretty much the gold version,ive seen an increase in regions crossing an allied regions lands to strike at a foe.

So dont count on the ring fully to protect your borders...

[Hundane]

In the latest testing update,which is pretty much the gold version,ive seen an increase in regions crossing an allied regions lands to strike at a foe.

Ditto. I have seen Poland going thru Denmark, Sweden and Finland to attack Russia as well as going thru Ukraine to attack them.

Like this AAR because you added the historical flavor and used the older unit designs in your attack. Adds a sense of realism along with the "hmmm, we need better equipment."

[GIJoe597]

I would also like to chime in. I enjoyed reading this and look forward to more.

One recommendation, if I may. When I first started playing I would post the raw screen shot also. I have a 24" screen so was normal to me.
What I learned was some people have a smaller screen and dislike when they are reading an AAR and get a scroll bar, forcing them to move the screen to read the text. It appears the pictures are 22". You may wish to modify them down so someone on a 19" would not have an issue.

[Ilici Man]

Very nice historical introduction. Nice AAR too, i hope you continue. This must be the first AAR of the gold edition.

Some advice to improve income and reduce dependency of exports (though maybe you already do it): reduce your tax to encourage domestic consumption and thus getting more daily income. Asuming you have enough production, if you reduce taxes of, for example, unemployment, pension or property by 1 or 2% (i reduce it mostly to 1 to 1.5% each) the increased income per population causes an increase domestic consumption, that means more domestic sales, higher daily income.
If you haven't done it yet, just try it in your game. Reduce one of those to say 1%, at first it will show you lower income through the tax reduction, but as soon as it changes to another day you will see the income increase. Another good tax to reduce is the sales tax, if everything goes well i reduce it slowly to the 6,5-7,5%. You will make your money through the domestic sales price and not through taxes, this is the capitalistic way and it works quite good and almost inmediately asuming you produce enough, of course. Also as a side effect, people will love you for decreasing taxes.

I've done that. All my taxes except low, high income and corporate tax are at about 1,5%.

Nice aar, and great work and explanation on securing your borders outside the intended conflict area with alliances (the ring).
It will go along way in stopping those regions (the ring) from coming after you,if you maintain them.

Couple words of caution....Germany and a few countries outside your ring of allies, will probably also make the ring its allies,and some of them just might come after you thru that ring.In the latest testing update,which is pretty much the gold version,ive seen an increase in regions crossing an allied regions lands to strike at a foe.

So dont count on the ring fully to protect your borders...

Well, by the time we reach that ring i think we'll have the necessary military strength to hold out against Germany or Italy.

[Ilici Man]

I would also like to chime in. I enjoyed reading this and look forward to more.

One recommendation, if I may. When I first started playing I would post the raw screen shot also. I have a 24" screen so was normal to me.
What I learned was some people have a smaller screen and dislike when they are reading an AAR and get a scroll bar, forcing them to move the screen to read the text. It appears the pictures are 22". You may wish to modify them down so someone on a 19" would not have an issue.

true. I'll take care of that in the future.