Hanoi Supreme: North Vietnam 1960 and beyond

[Tasunke]

We first drop in to this world in January of 1960 ... ( I noticed that North Vietnam was fairly strong for a 3rd world power when I played as America earlier, so I thought I would give this nation a try. Also, I noticed that it was almost a dozen turns played before South Vietnam even asked their American allies for support in the war, so my goal here is to pacify South Vietnam before USA gets involved).

Grorius Hanoi, Grorius Empire!! I do see the strength of Communism for my people, and more importantly for the Diplomatic ties it gives me to China and the Soviet Union. Ah ... the Soviet Union. Much Strong. Much Beautiful.

Still, us Asians are much better in Monarchy and Empire than we are in pesky Democracies, Dictatorships, or Politburo ... therefore I have founded the mighty empire of HANOI!!! We shall build an empire to stand the test of time ... and my bloodline shall rule in my stead for CENTURIES to come!!! Muahaha ... muahahahahaaaa!!!!!

*Ahem*, so anyways, our first order of business is to pacify the pesky South Vietnamese. My spies tell me that they are sending envoys to America, but thus far the great American Beast has been hesitating in entering the war ... Bresnev's ambassador tells us this is because while the USA may have a few Carriers in the region, they have no local access to "boots on the ground" and therefore it would take many months for them to properly mobilize for a war. My chief foreign advisor tells me we may have at most a year to pacify the region before the USA will pose any real threat, if they ever will. Therefore we must move fast.

Step 1, from my mighty Hanoi throne, I send out a massive blitz using Tank Destroyers and Mobile Artillery. I am able to requisition 2 air wings of Mig Jet fighters from Bereznev, at the low low price of 16,000,000 Danoi per month (I have renamed our currency from VND to Danoi, in honor of our financial minister, Grand Vizier Danangde.

By October 1961, merely 22 months after ascending to the Golden Throne of Hanoi, I have more than tripled my people's GDP, and our Research into new military tech has increased substantially as a result. This is partly because I have had my foreign ministers running on full steam for over a year and a half, burning the midnight oil to pass treaty after treaty, trade agreement after trade agreement. That I am running on positive Net Treasury while putting everything available into military spending shows how skillful I was at adapting our economy to this new, Global world. While we focus on Internationalism, we also have our military factories going at full steam. And that brings me to my second point. By now I have pacified South Vietnam, and went on to eat Laos, Cambodia, and most of Thailand. I hope to have the rest of Thailand taken by next Spring, but the hills might take longer than that to pacify ...

 

[Tasunke]

5 months later, March 1962. Thailand is all but fallen, their resistance crushed. I've been dealing with Partisans and Snipers, but nothing major. Kuala Lumpur fell more easily than I would have imagined, and I believe we have flushed out most of their Guerilla fighters. Lumpur was apparently something of a major base for that the Guerillas have been supplying from, and with that fallen, I doubt the people will resist for much longer. I am also expanding my Industrial base southward from my Crown jewel of Hanoi, and am attempting to extend a railroad network across my new burgeoning empire. I then began my invasion of Burma, and I am confident that by mid summer I will have the entire region pacified. I quickly fought my way past the Mandalay Bay region, and now I have my soldiers set on securing Mandalay itself, the de facto capital of the Burmese region. I will then focus all of my efforts of finding these rebel groups, reaching out to them, and with a combination of recruiting the good ones, buying off and exiling the ones I cannot trust, and imprisoning the squirrely ones ... I shall become King of an Empire more than triple its original size, with four times the GDP.

Only a year ago I was 18th in the world militarily, and now, after more than doubling the size of my army I have moved up to 16th. India, my next likely target, is still massively stronger than I am, but by the end of the year, I expect I will be ready ...

 

[Tasunke]

Presently our Empire is truly great, the strongest force in all of South East Asia ... even if we have not enough oil for even the skeletal resemblance of an Oceanic Fleet, and so unable to conquer Indonesia, which we would need to build a fleet ... and new planes. BUT! With the fall of India, we shall TRULY be borne into greatness. In preparation for the upcoming war I am inserting covert ops into various key locations within the nation. If nothing else, they will provide vital intelligence of enemy troop positions as I make my final plans to take the land of the Pajeet. I have officially renamed our nation from "North Vietnam" to "Grand Hanoi Empire". North Vietnam is an obsolete name, for a time before we were truly united. And now, united as a people, we superior Vietnamese shall become overlords to all of earth's citizens!!!

Bereznev pulled out of the Mig Deal. Perhaps he became jealous of Grorius Vietnamese successes in our South Asian wars. Because of this move, we are now officially stuck with 2 Mig Air Wings, and no ways to gain any more Aerial support for now. Tank Destroyers may be my most powerful unit currently, but I believe that I should build up on Anti-Tank Infantry before my invasion

 

[Tasunke]

Word travels to my glorious golden throne that Reporters from the far west, in America, seek to learn of the Glories of my empire. Therefore I shall prepare them the reports that prove that I am the superior ruler of Asia. My glorious empire has citizens extremely rich in both health and happiness. Through my rule the Glorious subcontinent of SouthEast Asia has almost doubled in Urban population, allowing the countryfolk to join the world in the glorious modern economy.

Glorious Hanoi is now 9th in global population. Granted, this does only count the Urban population, so it is very well possible that only India and China truly have larger total populations.

I have lifted all of South East Asia with my own rise to glory. In three short years, I have transformed this land from the Third World, into the First World. With the Railways completed, I now begin to build Movie Theatres and Casinos in the coastal towns and cities. Truly, my empire shall be a family friendly tourist destination for many generations to come!!

But my dear, American reporters ... let me tell you the sad tale of what these lands used to be like. Warn torn by Japanese ambitions of the previous generation, and exploited by capitalist French intentions for decades, this land was a crumbling and backwards Third World jungle.

And now reporters, let me show you the stunning results of our latest socio-economic trends, how the Grand Empire of Hanoi has been transformed into a Burdgeoning Modern economy, and a formidable modern military power.

As you can see, I have catapulted the Vietnamese into glorious golden greatness. The might of Hanoi shall make the entire world tremble in awe!

 

[Tasunke]

As you can see, I have led the Vietnamese into a Meteoric rise, and I have increased the resources of the crown by more than 1000 percent. However, two regional powers are still quite strong in relation to myself. That of India, and that of China. I will show some graphics which represent their relative strengths, both in Economic and Military terms. The successful blue is Indonesia and the struggling blue is Iran. Orange is India, Pink is China, and Red is myself.

As you can see, both China and India are rapidly modernizing their economies, and they already had quite MASSIVE economies as it was. Therefore, they will be powerful competitors indeed on the World Markets.

As should be obvious from the Power Graph, Chinese military is the regional supreme power. While India has drastically increased the size of its economy, China's growth curve is even more dramatic. Meanwhile, China's military power is off the charts compared to India, me, anyone really, other than USA and Soviets (most likely). This will mean that even if India DOES go down, China will still be in a league all her own.

Also, from graphs not shown (Food, MFG), China seems to have roughly twice India's Urban population, meanwhile India's Urban population is twice the population of even Grand Hanoi Empire. This means that, at least initially, even conquering India will leave China outnumbering us roughly 2:1, just counting productive members of society ... and they would still outnumber us 4:1 militarily. This is certainly an exciting time to be alive, and I must work hard for our people if we ever have a chance in hell for defending ourselves against potential Chinese aggression

Luckily however, I am on good terms with both the Chinese and the Soviets. It would appear that most east block nations simply love me for being deathly opposed to the nation of Western Germany ... luckily however, for now at least, everyone is more than pleased with my method of having Open Borders with both the Massive Soviet State and the United States of America. Until one or both of these superpowers makes a move that forces me to make a choice, I am more than happy to play both sides. That does not however prevent me from voting for Bereznev as General Secretary every time .... just in case he decides to change his mind on the whole "Oil and Migs" thing. If he never does change his mind though, that only paints himself as a valid target for military maneuvers in the distant future. ^_^

(Author's Note: You may have discovered that I am researching Helicopters after Mass Media. While Helicopters do require the Oil that I am sorely lacking in, it is on the way to Modern Infantry, which I think, in conjunction with the Javelin Missile rocket launchers I expropriated from the Americans, will be critical in future military endeavors. I am lucky enough to be able to use a new Hanoi version of Javelin Rocket Launchers, which have been reverse engineered from such weapons my glorious agents have purchased on the American Black Market. I may reverse my decision, and refocus on more economic reforms to further modernize our glorious Hanoi Economy, but I do realize that if I will ever become a true Superpower, I must wield the weapons of a true Superpower.)

 

[Tasunke]

Those Fools!! Decadent Westerners DARE to interpose their filthy international "laws" upon Glorious Hanoi Empire ... The UN has 'stopped' the war between us, right as I was about to deal the killing blow!

Nevertheless, never overlook the opportunity to turn a weakness into a strength, or a misfortune, into a stroke of luck. Perhaps I may use this time to strengthen my defensive screen, so that when the time finally DOES come to strike, I shall be more prepared to drive straight at the enemy's throat.

Still though, I am getting highly tempted to simply defy the next such pathetic UN "resolution". The first and last UN resolution half way worth a damn was forcing everyone into Communism ... but all of these 'Peace Treaties' and attempts at 'Democracy' are simply pure Western DECADENCE getting in the way of GLORIOUS Hanoi.

According to the Graphs, India and I are now 'equal' in military strength, but I haven't seen anything to indicate any such thing, my men have been wiping the floor with Indian corpses, and swimming in Indian blood. Thanks to National Training Camp and Blitzkrieg Training Camp, I get "free" commando + lv5 infantry units in Hanoi, so I will be building up quite the impressive Infantry screen indeed ... >

As for the rest of the cities, I believe increasing Economics and Espionage activities are good, but I also think that I should start shifting these cities to the War Economy as well, especially since the Indian theatre is much more of a 'Total War' scenario, and less of the precision planning and tactics that I have been doing up until this point. Or, in other words, because there is more land to cover (land war in Asia and all ...) I can no longer rely on a small elite force, but must instead accentuate this force with a large screen of weaker units, even cavalry units!

With any luck, I might even be able to build up my navy a bit as well ... and in the meantime, I will attempt to extend my rail network to cover these new holdings .... >

 

[Tasunke]

Spoiler :

Scraped up enough espionage to give you the stats of the world leaders ... by Demos I am 4th in population, which is surprising because I am at best 5th in food production. I suspect this has something to do with my empire being "tall" and, perhaps England, being extremely "Wide" with a large number of 1 pop islands, and smaller Colonial cities, in Africa and the like. Therefore, even if England is currently getting quite a bit more production out of its larger number of 'Active' citizens, I count as a larger Urban population because of the way population is calculated in game (separate from number of abstracted citizens) in the Demo screen.

A quick overview, supplemented by future knowledge from the year 1967. Soviet USSR and USA are clearly at the top, and roughly equivalent. USA has higher GNP and Soviets have larger military. This is probably due to higher unitcaps on Soviet Units, at least on the Military side, but USA has seen a massive rise in GNP that I can only attribute to the increase in value of available trade routes, mixed in with the World Trade Center, due to trade with (formerly) 3rd world nations like mine who have massively increased their initial starting population. I would be surprised if the +100% trade route yield from World Trade Center was not the cause of this significant bump in GNP. Other than that, both have GNP growth equivalent to a rise in population, workable tiles, and specialists.

Below these superpowers you have Britain, who still holds on to many vestiges of power from its far gone Imperialist days. It has a modernized economy, and a large navy, but I doubt it would survive a direct fight with China, who is almost a superpower except for its non-existent Navy and it's slight lagging behind in technology. China has always had the higher population, food production, and industrial potential, it is only behind in Britain because it will take some time to fully modernize. Since Britain is so spread out in it's colonies, it sits at 5th in population on the Demographics screen. (with China in 3rd place, and myself in 4th place).

I suspect below China you then have the other western countries, like Scandanavia, France, Italy, Australia, and Canada. These nations likely have relatively high GNPs and low overall population. Then you have nations like India and Grand Hanoi ... the large '3rd worlders'. India has access to Oil due to allies, and has a slight tech advantage on Hanoi, but it is somewhat lacking in Leadership which will lead to its ultimate fall.

Below that you have everyone else, of various sizes, but I haven't dived too deep into the weeds to tell much difference between them, except that Israel seems to have grown into a sizable GNP which departs from its population size. The larger and more modern nations appear to have largely stabilized in their economies, but I would not be surprised if USA and Soviets get a huge bump once they discover modern farming and modern industrial techniques. In the mean time, there does seem to be still a large room for growth in the non-industrialized region of the world.

The massive food surplus of Southern Asia will be a boon for a burgeoning Empire such as myself.

Spoiler :

 

[Tasunke]

SECOND INVASION OF INDIA BEGINS!!! 1967, era of Indian capitulation!!

The war goes quite well, much smoother than the first time, likely aided by my massive military buildup, my 5 brand new elite Marines divisions, and tactical support from my Plentiful Paratroopers.

We are currently diving deep into Southern India, where we will bring the Mighty Dravidians to heel .... with the weight of the Dravidians behind us, none can stop us!!

 

[Tasunke]

Journal Entry 1

After a favorable peace with India, I believe it is finally time to go after much greener pastures … much … oilier pastures … for now I believe the time shall soon be at hand for us to focus on updating our Army into a full spectrum of Modernity!

Well, India is still fighting over control of the jungles, switching to guerilla forces during this time of “peace.” I suppose taking on India will be the only proper move … once India is secure, then I may take my oil …

Journal Entry 2

As of 1970 I have become a leader in the world stage. With India fully in my grasp, superpowers have begun to take notice of my progress. It was also the first vote within which I voted for the USA instead of Soviet Russia as Secretary General. I have been constantly defending my open trade relations with the Americans, and I wish to improve my relations with the Superpower across the sea in order to ensure continued trade routes. Trade with the Americans has catapulted me into full superpower status, similar to the size of the American economy in the 1950s, at least in terms of commercial and scientific output.

I edged out Australia to become part of the big 5. Soviets and Americans have around 3000 prestige apiece, China edged out Britain, both of which have about 1800 prestige, while Australia and I have around 1400 prestige. My total urban population is also nearly 100 million, firmly placing myself in 4th place population wise, but still not enough to get into 3rd … I suspect that will not happen until I invade one of the big 3 … that is, USA, USSR, or China.


Journal Entry 3

An agent has nearly killed my son Dan Al Trun Pal!! This will not stand! An Agent had set up 3 M1-Garands and 5 Ak-47s in the 10th story of my beautiful 15 story Casino in Mandalay, Burma! Prince Don Al was attending a political rally at the nearby resort ‘The American’ a popular site often used for business deals with American entrepreneurs, generals, and tradesmen. Some of my intelligence agencies are beginning to suspect that China may have been behind this action, though I have had my secret police spread word through the populace that the man had acted alone … so that the damned Chinese might not suspect anything when I finally strike out for justice!

Spoiler :

Journal Entry 4

Seen here, my superb modern military has blitzed into Iraq, shortly after my conquest of Iran. After Iran fell, many of the surrounding countries decided to take advantage of the chaos to snip out pieces of the nation with various frivolous claims, and influence over local warlords. So Fine, it is part of the process, and I may never take full control of the region, but I can sure as hell try. As Iraq was one of the prime instigators of these warlords, I have decided to cut the head off the snake by taking Iraqi lands next. After this prime opening salvo, I doubt the Iraqis have much longer before they become yet another province of the Grand Hanoi Empire.