BlondieBC
Banned
See Admiral Essen incident. Having Sweden join the Central Powers may hasten the collapse of Russia.
We had a thread on this one about a year ago. Of course it helps, but there are differing opinions to how much. The main difference is how aggressive are the Swedes early in the war. Russian defenses in parts of Finland and the Alan Islands were weak at the start of the war, so there is an opening for a hugely successful Swedish impact. Losing the Alan Islands has a huge impact on the Russian plans and makes them defend a lot of extra cost line, very early in the war. It likely means the Russians have to pull an army out of the attack on A-H, and likely saves them.
The majority opinion seem to be the Swedes would move slow enough, the Russians would send reinforcements to SW Finland and fortify the Alan Islands in time. Then we look at the Swedes probably bleeding off 3 or so corps from the Russian army. These troops come from troops sent to reinforce losses on the German or A-H fronts, so we still see a pretty heavy pounding of A-H compared to the others scenario. In this TL, the devil is in the details.
How much is Austria helped? How early?
Can Germany delay sending the extra corps east?
Will Russia go on a defensive war plan? This has profound changes to war, pro and con for both sides.
How does Sweden influence USA perception of Entente who also violated a neutral nation now?
Does Italy still enter war if Austria does better? Austria has be doing better by very late 1914.
I would say it generally gives the CP a win, but not assured.