Hooves of Glory - A Bolivia AAR
South America doesn't get a lot of love these days. The last thing they got was the Patagonia rework in 2020, and since then nothing major has been added. Which is a shame. But what is there can still be fun. So I decided to take up the boots of one of the countries that constantly got the short end of the stick, lost wars, territories, and even their sea access: Bolivia. We're gonna lead that poor country back to glory.
The military focus tree allows two paths, a new way that gives bonuses to artillery, and an old way that instead gives a bonus to cavalry. Both aren't excellent options, but since I normaly rather go with artillery, I'll try cavalry this time. Cavalry is generally not a great choice, unless you're Mongolia and get ridiculous bonuses. But we'll see if we can make it work.
We don't fiddle much with the game rules, just enough to make sure everyone stays out of South America, and South America stays out of the world's affairs.
Humble Beginnings
Okay, but did they have to be THAT humble?
We start wird 5 meager infantry divisions at 60% strength, a breathtaking 34 men in reserve, and exactly one military factory. Not to mention a whopping two research slots. That's not gonna get us far. First of all we want cavalry, so we change the templates of the divisions we have. Then we prioritize the army in the focus tree until we have another factory and a steady stream of army xp, then we'll focus on the economy. We'll fight Black Monday by handing out tax breaks, which gives us some factories, at the expense of the agrarian reform. That's okay. We need quicker manpower generation anyway.
Marshall Beccera declares himself president for life, only to be deposed by a NatPop coup. That gives us access to the 'Ideological Loyalty' spirit of the army. 500 manpower per week doesn't sound too much, but currently the only two countries that have more than that as natural monthly growth are the US and Russia. Plus the political tree will give us even more manpower and military factories.
Now we gotta prepare to take the Chaco back. Somewhere in late '37 the war on the Southern Cone will kick off. When the time comes we have 8 cavalry divisions ready. 6 battalions, 2 heavy weapon teams, and a maintenance company, to support our still nascent military industry by a bit of plundering. Not great, not terrible. For doctrines, we'll go with Mobile Warfare, Mounted Infantry and Field Engineering. The latter of which we won't keep forever, but we'll soon have more xp than we know what to do with, so we're gonna switch later.
They say cavalry is outdated. And by all accounts it should be. And yet...
Also started building a railroad to the border that will connect our supply hub in Santa Cruz to the one in Fuerta Olimpo.
The Second Chaco War
As per usual, Paraguay fails to build a good defense in the north. Unsurpisingly, my cavalry is quick to just move around the paraguayan troops, advance, and encircle, with few battles needed. My troops take Fuerta Olimpo, and a few days later the train connection is established, and we can continue with a much better supply situation. Not long after Asuncion falls, and we get to annex all of Paraguay. They will become my first puppet.
So far the cavalry has worked well, but this was just the early game and against notoriously overwhelmed Paraguay. We'll see if that holds. Though by now we got the 'Knights of the Chaco' spirit, which gives them a little boost.
Give me back my beach, you bastards!
Next on: those damn beach hogs in Chile. Peru won't be a factor here, despite having the option. Not only do they never seem to take the option to join the war, for some reason they're still fighting Ecuador. Ecuador still holds almost all of their territory, and hasn't even lost the Galapagos islands. That little military dictatorship of theirs seems to uncharacteristically got its shit together. Oh well. At least we won't have to compete with them for Arica.
So on we go, smash through their lines and... hit the first road block. Two of their divisions get cut off and pocketed in Arica, but refuse to falter. They're not getting supplies for months, but for some reason they do not seem to care about that. In retrospect I should have just built three infantry divisions geared for resilience, and left them there, instead of wasting my cavalry trying to close that pocket.
The advance in the south works a bit better. We take Antofagasta and push south, but it's a drag, and I'm not sure where the problem lies. The terrain isn't ideal, but with our numbers we should be able to push harder.
When the war ends, we can just get our coastline back. And I mean just. A few conquest points less and we wouldn't.
Episode CXVIII: A new return of the last of the Confederation which hopefully strikes back!
So, let's see what our western neighbours are doing. ... They're still entangled in the war against Ecuador. What the hell, Peru? I send a volunteer division to Ecuador, only to find out Peru doesn't even got their whole frontline covered. Did the ai just not care about manpower? Oh well. I help the Ecuadorians out a bit, but then advance too far and give them a white peace. Should have let the war go on until I was ready for the forced unification, but that would turn out to only be a minor mistake.
As for us, we're gonna have to wait until August 1940 or 70% world tension to attack Peru, so we're gonna use that time to build our industry and strengthen our military. Our current cavalry template gets expanded by 3 battalions, another heavy weapons squad, an engineer and an artillery company.
My little Pony - 150mm artillery is magic. By which I mean it works like a fireball.
We now have enough xp for an Operations doctrine. I'm still not 100% sure whether 'All Infantry, Mot&Mech' includes cavalry, but probably not. Therefore I go with Infiltration. A night attack bonus is always welcome.
When it's time and we unleash the troops, it gets less grindy than I thought. For some reason Peru still hasn't discovered that manpower is crucial to maintaining a functioning army. Their biggest clump of troops is sitting in Arica. We pocket them on land, then take Arequipa to cut their supply and possible retreat. And unlike some people *angrily eyes Chile* they actually know how to behave when their supply is cut off, and begin to deteriorate. Not long after, Peru falls. We can restore the Confederation!
Once that is accomplished, Ecuador is next on the list. They fall pretty quickly. Not sure how they could stand against Peru for so long. I guess you don'tneed to step up when everyone else just takes a step down.
Las Malvinas can stay Argentina's, but Jujuy is fucking mine!
It is may 14^(th) 1945. The Confederation army stands ready. 48 Divsions of the finest cavalry in South America stand ready to overrun Argentina and their puppets in Chile. Actually, Chile will be mostly left alone, they still haven't done anything against that ghastly terrain, and I'd rather not get a repeat of my performance in the War of the Southern Cone. So I built two defensive corps of 8 infantry each. One to wall off against Chile, one to help protect Paraguay.
Meanwhile I've invested some research into armored and airplane technology. My cavalry divisions have been expanded with a battalion of mechanised artillery and a bit of anti tank power. Also I changed my artillery doctrine to make use of that fact. And started pumping out fighter planes.
Thanks to Peruvian oil we can slightly dip our toes into mechanized warfare.
The war begins with every advantage I could muster, including the beginnings of air cover and decyphered encryption. My troops gallop on, and quickly pocket the enemy near Salta and the Brazilian border. The latter pocket is taken over by my infantry corps in Paraguay, so my cavalry is free to advance further. With the other one I get fucked by the imperfections of the simulation. While they are cut off from their own territory, and a mountain range stops them from retreating to Chile, that mountain range only exists to block troop movements, but not the flow of supplies. So they are technically caught in a pocket, but are still getting supplies. Takes a lot of back and forth to finally cut them off, but once that's accomplished, I can snuff out more than a third of their army.
Time to bring Argentina into the fold.
At that point that war is basically won. My cavalry advances further south, Buenos Aires falls, soon after that they capitulate. Chile surrenders without me ever having set a foo- uhm, hoof on their territory.
I captured a total of around 1,700 medium tanks. 1,700. And they lost against horses. What the fuck?
So they both end up puppeted, and Paraguay gains a bit of territory. The same territory they tried for, back when I intervened to take back the Chaco. Uh... looks a bit weird without the Northern Chaco. They should get that looked at.
The last enemy
I have to give my hapless puppets some time to rebuild their armies. Also the war has been quite draining on my own mechart reserves. I keep my 48 division cavalry army. They will advance over the eastern planes. Only thing that changed is they got modern SPArt now.
This isn't even... oh wait, actually that IS my final form.
The two defensive corps are merged into a single corps made up of 16 jungle infantry divisions. They will attack in the west, near Porto Velho, and take the Amazon.
Two big infantry divisions with combat width 40 will guard the short border at Inquitos.
The final push
March 6^(th) 1948. The invasion of Brazil begins. Both the two cavalry armies and the jungle army are supported by 200 fighters and 100 cas planes each. They smash into the enemy, shove him back, and they never really manage to stop me again. The only thing that comes close is geography: the northern half of Brazil is just extremely scarce on logistics hubs, so my supply lines get strained and I have to fight my way up the coast.
I did have a screenshot for this, but I saved over it. End result: almost 800k losses on their side, less than 60k on mine. Frankly, for invading a country with cavalry in 1948, it went surprisingly well.
I also captured 1,500 medium tanks. Again, while fighting on horseback. What the actual fuck?
The dust settles
And now we have a much more pleasing South America. The Peru-Bolivian Federation reigns supreme. Paraguay is puppeted, Ecuador is puppeted, Argentina is puppeted, Chile is puppeted, Brazil is puppeted and broken apart, Uruguay is... still free, but probably shitting itself in terror. I could mop up the syndies in Colombia and Venezuela, but their pals lost in North America and Europe, so at this point that wouldn't be much of a challenge.
And there we have it: Bolivian glory (and beachfront access) rebuilt, all our former enemies lying broken and humbled at our feet. And I managed to do all of that with fucking cavalry. In 1948.
Still not over that.
