Operation Lobizon (Beta 2.1) - for #Valour mod for Men of War: Assault Squad 2

About the mod:

Operation Lobizon is a multiplayer only sub-mod for the renowned mod #Valour. It takes a semi-historical approach to the different armies of the major nations of South America at the time, respecting their historical equipments and uniforms as much as possible.

The main goal of Lobizon is to represent South America, usually forgotten in the history of ww2, yet crucial for it's development. People tends to forget that besides the threats of the war in Europe and the Atlantic, the Allied powers did too constantly harrased our sovereignties for their own interests. And beyond all that, there were also countries with their own ambitions.

However, as an Argentinian myself, I also took the chance to use this mod to be a reminder of the golden age of this nation, when Argentina was a very different country from the decadent one of today. I hope this serves to show the public the splendor, strenght and elegance of this country, but also without forgetting its shortcomings and difficulties. During those years, it was not only the Germans that scared the Allied forces, the Argentinians too with their Germanophile politics too, kept the western democracies worried for a while, even well after the end of the war.

What is Operation Lobizon?:

This story is based on real events that occurred between 1942 and 1943, when the Americans began a series of diplomatic hostilities against Argentina while it defended its sovereignty and neutralism.

In an alternate timeline not unlike our own, the American nations met at the 1942 Pan-American Conference in Rio de Janeiro, to agree to their cooperation with the Allied war effort and to sever all diplomatic ties with Axis forces. Shortly after the end of the conference sessions, 19 American nations had severed their relations with the Axis or had declared war on it. Chile did so later and Brazil not only broke relations but also declared war on the Axis. However, the government of Buenos Aires was not satisfied and reaffirmed the defense of its neutrality.

The American Secretary of State, Cordel Hull, judged the result with disgust and proclaimed that "The signed declaration did not achieve the purpose we aspired to, Argentina has decided to continue its diplomatic relations and has become a focus of Axis activities. In the future we would come to pay dearly for this failure in Rio".

Only Argentina remained neutral, and not only had it not decided to break its ties with the totalitarian powers, but it maintained friendly relations with them. Without a change in Argentina's international policy, the pressure from the north was not going to relent, and it increased with the passing of the days. As a means of putting pressure on the Argentine government, the support for armaments and equipment for Brazil and Uruguay was advertised and it was hoped that, being aware of the inferiority of their armaments, the officers of the army and navy would put pressure to cut relations with the Axis powers.

However, on the contrary, the officers of the Argentine armed forces saw in the government a dangerous fragility that threatened their all-important neutrality. On June 4, 1943, 8,000 soldiers loyal to the GOU (United Officers' Group), stormed the Government House in Buenos Aires and deposed President Castillo to establish a de facto regime headed by General Edelmiro Farrell.

Washington would receive the news believing that it was a pro-Nazi coup, which led to the United States immediately freezing the Argentine reserves in its banks and also canceling all permits to export steel, wood and chemical products to Argentina, prohibiting the entry of their ships to Argentine ports. For the United States, Argentina was a potential growing threat as it was interfiring in what was supposed to be their orbit, and was the only thing standing between them and the total domination of the Western Hemisphere by the State Department. Simultaneously, the US Navy ordered the transfer of powerful units of the Atlantic Fleet to the mouth of the River Plate, under the command of Admiral Jones Ingram.

Under the pretext of Argentine expansionism and eliminating the "Axis threat to the Americas", Brazil was offered to accompany an invasion against Argentina, in exchange for the annexation of the eastern portions of the country under US recognition. The idea was that the Brazilian army would penetrate Argentine territory and, in turn, US planes and pilots – dressed in the symbols of the Brazilian armed forces – would bomb Buenos Aires.

The Army High Command was no stranger to those rumors, and they were well aware of everything that was taking place between Brazil and the US. Contacts were established with the German embassy in Buenos Aires to thus respond to the growing aggressions. Argentina was in search of new material to rearm its deficient armed forces, but the problem consisted of solving the way to come to the aid of Argentina by Germany. If Argentina became a belligerent state, there would be no way to ship weapons by sea. The truth is that Argentina was alone and could only supply itself from its nascent national industry, which had begun to function with its import substitution model in the 1930s.

Faced with such a threat, Argentina could not remain static. Buenos Aires feared for its fate, which seemed to have been left in the clutches of its enemies. War seemed to be the only solution left, and though entering a conflict of this magnitude alone worried its commanders, there was no other escape. The High Command of the Argentine Army already had a devised plan. It consisted of a major land, air and sea offensive in the style of the German Blitzkrieg, the objective was to secure Uruguay to control the Río de la Plata, and conduct a series of strategic bombardments in southern Brazil from the occupied territories and the Argentine Litoral. It was codenamed "Operación Lobizón", also known as the "Argentine Operation Barbarossa", and its D-Day was on November 1943. That day, the greatest conflict the Americas have ever seen just begun.

What you need to know:

If this is your first time playing #Valour or a sub-mod, you NEED to have #Valour installed and activated along with this mod, other wise it WON'T work. So download and install #Valour first, and then this mod please.

You might encounter some problems with this mod, specially if you try to play anything but Assault Zones. The mod is functional and fully playable, but NOT YET finished. So please, play only on Assault Zones.

Current factions:

• Argentina
• Brazil
• Chile
• Uruguay

Upcoming factions:

• Some might come.

Things to do:

• Add new weapon models (very important)
• Add new vehicles models (very important)
• Skins for vehicles (most of them don't have for now)
• New unit icons, new squad icons and portraits (they have, but will make better ones)
• Voices for Uruguay
• Improve some balancing

Known bugs/issues:

• Not compatible with Unforgotten or any 3rd mod (for now)
• "Oh, this weapon/tank shouldn't look like this" - Well, that's because such weapon or vehicle model doesn't exist, and I know no modder/modeller that could help me make one. If you'd like to help, please message me!

Important:

Credits:

• Andros - Skins, voices, coding
• David - Ideas, help, skins
• Zapatiel from Heroes del Atlantico - Maps (Coming soon)
• Desca's Strategy - For making Lobizon more known!
• Mandingo - Human models
• Great War Realism - Models
• Interwar 1918-1939 - Models
• Spanish Civil War - Models

Special thanks:

• Kalash ismaelassassin - Chilean army info
• Ruggarts (from Heroes del Atlantico)

Operation Lobizon official links:

Steam Workshop page

YouTube channel