The TPP mod story for Darkest Hour game

Disclaimer: If you're on Darkest Hour Paradoxplaza forum and wish to not know yet what TPP mod stands for and what it includes, you're advised to not read this thread.


Yet another Nazi Antartica story. Yea, I just felt that too few of those were on list of most recent threads..:p Anywho, I'm making a mod for a game Darkest Hour, which began from the question "how to make cold war interesting (in DH setup)?". So, this all would be easier to understand if you have knowledge of Paradox Interactive game Hearts of iron 2 or any of the related ones to it.

Please understand, this is for game, so "realism" is as high as the game allows and as high as is possible without completely losing hope of victory for the player. My answer to the question about making cold war interesting started from the joke about Nazis in Antartica.

For such a base to have meaningfull impact it should have the following allies or co-belligerants:
- Greater Argentina (Uruguay, Paraguay and Eastern Bolivia being occupied and incorporated into it);
- South Africa (in which Mauritz rebellion was at least partially succesfull and thus, more independent minded and radical South African government exists already during World War 1.). It should be slightely expanded with German Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, and maybe some other regions with at least few percents of white population.
- Aggresive India with Chandra Bose which incorporates former British India states into independent India.
- Indonesia. The "new Axis" involve into fight against Netherlands, thus getting Indonesia on their side.
- Arab Federation that in 1945 includes only Egypt, but from 1946 onwards conquers other Arab regions from British Empire.
- Balkan federation of Yugoslavia, Albania and Bulgaria, formed in 1946, plus, with puppet state - communist Greece. No direct ally with Nazi Base 211 in Antartica is possible, since Balkan federation works only if its communist. Still, such a federation might cause trouble and upset Soviet Union, so, "cobelligerent" of Nazi Antartica.
- Federation of Central America is succesfully formed in 1921 and survives in this time line, mostly because Mexican revolution "spilt over" into these small states and caused some political and military problems, thus, Central American states have some more incentive to work together. This turns into military alliance when Mexico, to reasure its supremacy in the region of Central America, involves more itself in Spanish civil war then it did historically, thus, showing military muscules to the small states. In response Federation of Central America goes from loose economic confederacy into military alliance (in game terms - a united state). Not a direct ally but does provide volunteers to and military access.

By posting mod story here I really am not posting to hear how impossible and useless a base in Antartica would be. I know its on border with fantasy ;). Instead, I really could use input on - how to make it work (preferable - in DH game terms), and what paths should be explored more or would arise in these circumstances and should be included in the mod? Its quite possible that I have missed some aspects that should be taken into consideration or that could be included in the mod. So thank you for your input!

The short version of this only-slightely realistic story:
- Alpen festung in 1945 exists, resistance against Allies and Soviets continues in Norway, Courland and Alpenfestung - but all are conquered before August, so really, no big influence on greater things.
- Up to 100'000 germans are located in southern part of Argentina in secret cities (similar to OTL secret cities in Soviet Union & Russia), and small part of those 100'000 are located in the main Base 211 and several secondary bases. Construction of small cities under ice itself has been proven as doable in OTL by the project Project Iceworm. All in all, on 8th of May 1945, when the mod starts, German Base 211 in Antartica has ~100 subs, 10 understrength divisions, flying saucer division (yea, I know thats cheesy, but without some hope of small local air supremacy this scenario is too silly to consider and giving Germans normal air divisions would be illogical).
- The only meaningful existance of Base 211 post-1945 is to try to actually conquer or occupy something, to eventually get free Germany. The German plan in this story is to attack demobilized USA from Mexican gulf. Afterwards..well, eventual goal is to get Germany (haven't yet formed strong idea how could Germans do that even with control over North America).
- Germans post-Der Untergang in Argentina and Antartica financially survive because of the relocated Nazi gold, stolen Jewish money. Thus, in-game this state will have huge amount of money, though nearly 0 manpower and small industrial capacity. Manpower will be available via several events that will provide volunteers from India, Argentina, Arab federation and South Africa.
- India in 1946-1947 is aggresive. Conquers former British India, then Tibet and involves into Chinese civil war against Communist. Afterwards, occupies Afganistan and when Allies-Soviet war breaks out, it invades into Central Asia, and if succesful, sets up united Central Asian state.
- Colonial powers UK, France and Netherlands are involved in nearly constant warfare on seperate wars (NOT a global war) in in 1946-1950 in Africa against South Africa and Arab Federation, and in Indonesia against local partisans and India. USA does not get itself involved in those, since these are wars of liberation (though, SA, AF and India are incorporating part of the independent lands into their countries).
- And the biggest fantasy - At some point when USA is demobilized the most (1948-1949) German ~10-15 divisions make a landing on the coast of gulf of Mexico, blitzkriegs through to all directions, sets up some kind of independent country of south states and probably Pacific States of America, and directly occupies the rest plus Canada.


Please do note, story (including text quality) is very unfinished, inconsistancies and inaccuracies might be a few.

And the longer version of this same story:
The original purpose of the Base in Antartica was to be a secret reserve Base for Kriegsmarine, safe from spies and bombers and of course, to serve Hitlers dream of granduers. It also served as a testing grounds for winter gear for ground army, though unfortunately, after resources were invested in studying warfare and equipment in the heavy winter conditions, Hitler refused to listen to the results presented to him in June 1941, not long before Barbarossa, on the grounds that conclusions of such research would have to be taken into consideration only if Germany would be forced to fight Soviet Union in winter time, which was not to be the case with Barbarossa - a victory was to be gained before winter. When winter of 1941 arrived, Wermacht had gathered enough expertise on its own, without the need to rely on research done in Base 211.

Another long-term plan was to use Base 211 as ground for locking supply route Britain-India, after Suez would have fallen to Italians. Unfortunatelly, conflict between Donitz and Raeder concerning overall naval strategy delayed development of the Base 211 as a large submarine base to the point that revealing its existance would do more harm to submarine warfare than good. But Kriegsmarine had no big trouble convincing megalomaniac Hitler that such a currently wasteful and useless base would still be useful as a strongpoint for future domination of south seas and the Magelan strait, in case Panama canal would come to be destroyed or unusable for some reason.. And slowly another role for Base 211 emerged as the last hope to make its existance useful. Already in 1940 Rommel had suggested that a pre-emptive strike on a pre-mobilized USA would require only small number of divisions - minor part of divisions that were idle after fall of France. For these few divisions to succeed, attack should be a complete surprise, thus, buildup of forces had to be
done in the place outside Germany itself and far from scouts and spies. By Rommels plan attack on USA was to be done in 1943, with paradrops and amphibious assault from Gulf of Mexico on the unprotected American beach and with a heavy support from intercontinental bombers. Also, the Plan relied on the defeat of British navy before the actual invasion of USA, and a surprise attack by the Japanese in concert with German attack or
shortly after it. Unfortunatelly, attack would require logistic capabilities that neither Luftwaffe or Kriegsmarine possesed at that point, however Rommel was convinced that in reality war with USA would start
not in 1942, but probably in 1945, and thus, there would be enough time for technology to develop and enough time to produce the necessary arms. Attack on Pearl Harbor put a nearly complete stop to the plan - Germany was not ready for attack on USA at that point, plus, USA got mobilized in a years time. The Base became an even more isolated Kriegsmarine "pet-project", called "the Leper colony" ("Leprakolonie") or "Frozen junkyard" ("Gefrorene Schrottplatz") by the few SS higher-ups who despised Kriegsmarine and who knew of the existance of the Base. Himmler was envious that if the war would come to last stance, it was Kriegsmarine and not his SS that would have control of this. After 1941, because of the failure of Barbarossa, allocated resources dwindeled. Long before 1945 milk cows no longer brought everyday equipment, only stuff that Base could not gain from Argentina. Donitz still maintained that if Goerings Luftwaffe could have its own "personal pet" ground army and so could Himmler with his Waffen SS, then Kriegsmarine was as entitled to its
only meaningful ground forces, even if they were far away from all battlefields, just as was Luftwaffe to its many land divisions. Hitler was more overjoiced with the rivalry between these three to consider that
for nearly no gain, Base itself was in fact a financial disaster, something that Albert Speer reminded to Hitler more then once. Nevertheless Hitler considered that attack on USA would happen - sooner or later, and
thus, a Base 211 would in some way be usefull - be it 5 or 10 years in the future and as long as all locations in Atlantic and near to North America were under Allied watch, Base 211 would have to do. Thus,
Rommels plan continued to be operational, and though postponed many times, resources and forces that were already in Base 211 were kept ready. From the beginning of 1945 the command of Base 211 did whatever it could to delay the relocation of forces in Base 211 back to Germany, understanding, that war was lost, and whatever hope there might be for free Germany was for Hitler to lose, and when USA would be again
de-mobilized, attack it with the last few desperate divisions it had and then use it as a barganing chip for free and independent Germany. On the contrary - attempts to relocate ever more experimental projects
increased exponensialy, as Germany lost air war over Germany itself from 1943 onwards and had less and less chance to hide the top-secret research. In this Kriegsmarine managed to get limited cooperation from
Wermacht and Luftwaffe.

The post-Downfall Rommel plan supposed that hundreds of millions of USA citizens used as hostiges should do the trick since meaningfull longer-term occupation would require at least several houndred thousand Germans for administrative and security duties, while the total population of German military in Argentina and the Base 211 in 1945 did not exceed 100'000. Of these overwhelming majority in fact lived in several bases and secret cities in Argentina, rather then in Base 211 itself. Even the Base 211 itself wasn't one base. Base 211 was located on Antartic peninsula, but it had several sub-bases located deep into peninsula mountains, and several more were scatared deeper into Antartica, including New Swabia. Still, long-term occupation of any hostile country was considered to be out of question. If holding whole population of USA and probably Canada as hostiges would not be enough, then usage of dirty nuclear bombs on several of their cities was considered to be a necessary evil. If the suecide attack on USA would bring success, Rommel new that the Base 211 and newly liberated Germany would have no resources to deal with USSR - if Allies would at all comply and release free Germany, it might be occupied by USSR in few days or weeks time. The only hope was that by the time Germans invaded USA, Soviet army would have been mostly defeated in war against Allies, if and when such a war would come. That would however mean that even if majority of USA army would be in Europe, it still would be mobilized and at war, thus, it would react far sooner - supposedly within 2 weeks time - then if attack would come during peace post-demobilization. Thus, there was great chance that occupation of USA would be for more then just a few weeks, especially in the worst case scenario if Red army would crush Allied armies and occupy France and threaten Britain..

The two only local political groups with which Germans might find common grounds in occupied USA and thus get some much needed help in control of occupied territory would possibly be White Supremacists in the Southern states and the Movement of Technocrats, which though weakened, still existed and which, without Racism and German
supremacy, otherwise were on similar ideological ground with Nazi ideology. The only hope that Rommel could give to the people under his command was that if USA mainland would be under their control, their technical superiority over Soviet Union would last at least for the following 15 years and maybe, just maybe, there would be some hope with new weapons of mass destruction. Base 211 had nothing to lose. And everything to win.

A significant part of the whole existance of Base 211 was that it far, far more depended on Argentina and German resources within Argetina, rather then supply routes from Germany - which still were significant,
thanks to the 10 U-boat "milk cows" exclusivelly used to constantly transfer resources and equipment from Germany to the Base, transporting up to 400 tonnes per trip. Also, since Base 211 nearly didn't need quick
operational orders, then whole communication with Germany was done via written orders. In addition, each trip brought 40-50 new personal. Of base personal less than 10% were rotated back to other locations closer
to home. Partly that was a concious decision to reduce the chance of detection by enemy. Additional supply route was airships Zeppelin and Zeppelin 2, which until 1940 in total made only 9 supply journeys from
Germany to Antartica, and after their official "decommision" in 1940 they were relocated fully to Base 211 and operated exclusivelly between Base 211 and south Argentina, without detection from Allies, transporting
from 10-60 tonnes of equipment on each trip. Expansion of airship fleet was very much desired by Base 211 command, but until a steady supply of Helium (even though accidents with Hydrogen were very rare, still
Helium was absolutely safe in comparison to Hydrogen) could be gained from the only meaningfull source - southern states of USA - no new airships could be build, and the ones already in use were in serious
shortage of Helium. Soon after relocation to Base 211, a convinient "fire" in Zeppelin fascility in Frankfurt destroyed the evidence of the relocation. Since Base 211 also housed some of the most secret German military projects, Argentina was excited to provide whatever support needed for its opperation, as long as it could participate in some of the projects and have guarantees of frequent injections of German investments in its economy. In time that ment that command of Base 211 grew more and more independent in its thinking. A process significantely influenced by the fact that nearly no SS or Waffen SS people were located in the Base or in Argentina, thus, many of the ideological institutions were present only tokenly. An evidence of independent initiative of Base 211 was most in relation to territories gained from Argentina for usage as supply and secondary bases - in 1943 Base started talks of gaining land in unpopulated areas of southern Argentina and German diplomats joined the talks only when principal agreement was de facto concluded. Hitler was furious for such significant independence in initiative and yet glad since it signaled that Argentina would not follow the rute of Liberia which kicked Germans out, even though they were significant part in their economy. Also since the lease of land in Argentina coincided with battle of
Stalingrad, he decided to deal with the situation later, which in the end ment only some reshuffling of leading commanders. A significant turn unforseen by Hitler or the SS happened as a result of events at the
end of 1944. Only about 200 out of 5000 arrested people were killed in the result of the failed assassination of Hitler. Hitler listened to his advisers who said that - here we have a military German base with little civilian population, far from Germany, nearly a perfect prison, yet, not a prison. Some of those who will not have death sentences, should be sent to this "Leper colony". Thus, up to a thousand of the arrested ones were sent to Base 211, which resulted in an even more independent thinking people in the Base. Also, many of the deported ones took significant financial means with them, and though they were not allowed to visit Argentina themselves, they were allowed to invest in it. That had also a positive effect on the few selected German companies that had set up minor mining and industrial efforts on the Antartic peninsula. Towards the
end of the war the Base 211, knowing that Luftwaffe will either soon cease to exist or will be otherwise incapable of giving the critically needed support for the Rommels plan, rebuild both airships to work as
operational airstrips in air. To compensate the guaranteed outnumbering by American planes, the ultra-modern and barely off from experimental status Haunebu planes were to be the main aircraft to be used on the
airship carriers.

There is some more stuff - I've thought that there should be two paths for the player of the Base 211 - one is having Erwin Rommel as Head of State, thus beginning Technocratic path, which in political ideology is less right then Fascist. With it there would be events for investing money in different states, and getting some profit plus free industrial capacity. All in all, buildup in this path could take years. However, what would happen after occupation of USA I haven't fully thought out yet.

And another path of events for players would be - if the SS personal makes a coup in the Base 211, thus starting event path for "Hitler was too soft, we have to be more radical than he". Which at its core would somewhat resemble ideas from Draka empire, Dominion book series (haven't read the books myself). Thus, in this path player would get core provinces on all the world (everybody but the Aryans and the rich are made slaves of the state), however, manpower and IC percentage would be significantely reduced. Player would be put on immediate war with the Allies and Communists and a coup would at once annex Argentina into the new Base 211 SS state. The only way to survive for the player in this scenario of never-ending war would be constant non-stop expansion, which should be even harder then the "main path" of quietly preparing for occupation of USA.

P.S. In case you're wandering, TPP stands for The Phoenix Base.
P.P.S. Forgot to include - Plan Rubber is initiated and USA attacks northen Brazil. However, after several unsuccesfull attacks (because of bad terrain) an agreement about access to bases is reached. Still, that keeps Brazil out of Allies and it significantely weakens Vargas dictatorship by undermining his popularity. While Plan Rubber was in the process, Argentina occupied Uruguay. Paraguay was already occupied during Chaco war. Later, after WW2, maybe during attempted German invasion of USA mainland, at some point Argentina invades Brazil, frees Rio Grande and makes Brazil its puppet.
 
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