The New Order: Last Days of Europe is an ambitious mod for Hearts of Iron IV presenting a unique alternate history Cold War between Germany, Japan and the USA, starting in 1962. Will you save the world or help destroy it?

Post news Report RSS Dev Diary VI: The Cossacks

In which we discuss the situation in Europe's bread basket, and how it's about to get flipped right upside down. Will no one rid us of these meddlesome Cossacks?

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Dev Diary VI: The Cossacks

Welcome back to another development diary for the New Order: Last Days of Europe! I’m mop, and I’m developing Ukraine. Today we’re going to talk about a land in the east, a land ravaged by war, where the spirit of the horseback rider still lives. Welcome to the Reichskommissariat Ukraine!

The Reichskommissariat Ukraine is a German colony encompassing the territory of the land of Ukraine- the fertile breadbasket and an important piece in the German Lebensraum plan. When the Wehrmacht first marched into Ukraine, they did not introduce themselves as conquerors but rather liberators of the Ukrainian people from the Soviet order. The main function of the Reichskommissariat is grain- Ukraine is, after all, the breadbasket of Europe.


Every year, millions of metric tonnes of grain are exported back to the Fatherland while thousands of Germans head east to settle in Ukraine every month.


During the war, a section of the Nazi party, the Arbeitsbereich Osten der NSDAP (AOdNSDAP) was put in charge of the country. The Reichskommissar was Erich Koch- a particularly brutal leader with many enemies vying for his position. Although he is a staunch Germanizer, germanization operations in the Reichskommissariat have ended with the crash of 50’ and most Ukrainians were freed from slavery- the conditions that the natives live under are absolutely horrible, however, and they are still being used for slave labour in every way but name.


There are two major organizations that native Ukrainians are members of; the OUN-M, known as the Melnykites, ran by Andriy Melnyk, and the OUN-B, known as the Banderites ran by Stepan Bandera. At one point, they were both the same organization, the OUN, which collaborated with the Nazis. However, there was a schism in the party and it split into two. Over time, the Banderites became incredibly anti-Nazi. When they were banned within Ukraine, they radicalized and rebased underground, violently sabotaging German administrators in an act of guerilla war- their army is called the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.


The other faction are the Melnykites. Any Ukranian that is of any importance is a Melnykite. The Ukrainian general, the town mayor, they are all Melnykites. They are collaborationists who are almost a branch of the AOdNSDAP. Everyone in the Ukrainian volunteer police force, the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, is a Melnykite too.


Further to the east lies the land of the Cossacks. During World War II, one of the larger Ukrainian volunteer divisions was a cavalry volunteer division consisting of Don Cossacks. After the war, they were allowed to settle in the far eastern border of the country, completely autonomous and out of the control of the AOdNSDAP. They rule the land by horseback, ravaging the poor native villages who have escaped Koch’s treachery only to fall under another.


Reichskommissariat Ukraine in 1962

Erich Koch still rules as Reichskommissar in 1962, but his time may be running out.





The Banderites have become desperate and rumors have sprouted of Ukraine nationalist sympathies within the AOdNSDAP. The future of Ukraine will be decided when the Dnieper runs red.


When this assassination attempt on Koch occurs, Koch can either survive the attack or, well, die. If he dies during the attack, Ukraine will need new leadership and you’ll need to clean up the country of both OUNs and the Cossacks. This will give you three leader choices-


The first of these leader choices is Alfred Frauenfeld, a Nazi official who governs the southern region of Ukraine with the title of “governor of Crimea”. This title is a farce- Crimea is directly annexed into the Reich and ruled by its military. If Frauenfeld becomes the new Reichskommissar, he will have a chance to take the peninsula from the Germans and directly rule from it. He’ll also have a chance to make a deal with the OUN-M, rather than outlaw it outright.



You’ll also see in the focus tree above the option to put spies in the OUN-B, attack the Donbass, etc.- all three leader choices can take these focuses.


The second of these leader choices is SS leader Hans-Adolf Prützmann. Prützmann is twice as ruthless as Koch. He will have a chance to restart the German operation of Germanization, leading his men to displace the Ukrainian natives to make way for a new German Ukraine. He will rule as a dictator, and if Germany is broken, attempt to capture the Polish Generalgouvernement to increase the amount of poverty-stricken pseudo-slaves in his nation and thus increasing slave-labour.




The third of these leader choices is Nazi politician Theodor Oberländer. Oberländer was a strong supporter of the Reich during the war, but as of recently he has become very disgruntled with the Nazi ideology and has been thinking about preposterous radical ideas such as “liberalism”. If he becomes the Reichskommissar, he will no doubt use his powers to liberalize the Reichskommissariat and grant more freedoms to the population- maybe even turning the country over to the Ukrainians.


There is also a fourth option for the new leader of Ukraine, and that is Alfred Rosenberg. Alfred Rosenberg is a high-ranked Nazi party official who deals with the Reich’s foreign affairs comfortably from Germania. He is a strong believer of unorthodox racial theory, believing that the Slavs are Aryans and must be treated as such. Over the years, he has complained time and time again asking for the replacement of Koch with a less brutal leader only to be ignored. With the Reich falling apart, he may need to take matters into his own hands. He will gain the reins if he is invited by Oberländer, or he could attempt a coup if the treatment of natives get too terrible. He will make moves to reverse Nazi influence in the region, instead attempting to build a free eastern Slavic-German state and even liberating Nazi colonies.



Now, of course, Koch can attempt to escape the attack- if he does, he will start to go… a little insane. Due to the nature of the attack, he will start purging party members that are not the most extreme loyalists and redevelop the AOdNSDAP under an ideology very similar to the Ultranational Socialist ideology. He will have two major diplomatic options that will define his reign- one is to stay loyal under a broken Germany to Heydrich, who is ideologically similar to him, as a loyal servant or faithful partner of the Reich. The other option is to begin diplomatic communications with Himmler in Burgundy and attempt to build his own Lebensraum in his own personal empire.


Lastly, we’ll talk about the partisanial groups in Ukraine. There are three of these groups. The first one are the Cossacks that still remain in the far east. The Cossack Circle is led by their old World War II commander, Ivan Kononov. For many years, the Cossacks have generally stayed within their own territory and raided villages within their autonomous zone, but recently they have begun to look outwards and started to raid German towns.


This forms a new issue for the Reichskommissariat. A decision must be made- shall we compromise with the Cossacks or shall we attack them? Take too long to make a decision, and they will make one for you. Of course, attacking these horseback warriors will be a challenge within itself- they are well trained and some of the greatest cavalry fighters in the world! We’ll look at them closer later.


Even after beating the Cossacks and taking back the Donbass, they will still be a nuance and fight as a guerilla army. To stop them, you must start Decossackization and repopulate the area with Germans.


And lastly, there is the OUN-B- it has been getting stronger and stronger every day and, for the first time in 20 years, may be able to execute a full uprising! We’ll look at this Ukrainian rebellion and free Ukraine later.


Now we’ll look at the military tree of Ukraine. The military tree is fairly simple, it is about deciding whether the garrison of Ukraine will be one of offensiveness or defensiveness, eventually evolving it into a fully fledged army.



The next tree is the navy tree. The navy tree is all about deciding what Ukraine’s stance of control in the Black Sea will be- to protect Ukrainian commerce, or to attack our enemies’ commerce.



In 1962, Ukraine starts with a very small air force, so they’ll need to import aircrafts from Germany and expand their airfields- that is what they can do with their air force tree.


NOTE: The three trees above are all WIP and will be edited as new techs are created.

Finally, we have the industrial tree, which is all about increasing the industrial capacity of the Ukrainian state and improving their farms, too.



Conclusion:

That’s all for Ukraine, but we’ll be returning to look at the Cossacks and Free Ukraine in the future! Next week we’ll be taking a short trip back west and talking more about Europe in the New Order!

Panzer's Notes:

Well that was a few hours late! But we're finishing this one at 3 AM instead of the usual rush to 5, so I guess we're improving! [SUP]kill me[/SUP]

Can't wait to see you next week for the first Dev Update! It will be a bit shorter than these, but I have some neat stuff I want to show off to everyone! We'll be looking at a general overview of Europe and how, exactly, it got to this point, since we get a lot of questions about that.

Can't wait to see you there!

And as always, find us at our Discord, on Reddit, the Paradox Forums, and Alternatehistory.com!

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