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Serbia faces an uphill battle in the struggles for her Empire’s survival. Serbia stretches from the core home regions, through the area that once was Yugoslavia, through Italy to eastern France and down into the Middle East occupying Israel and parts of Saudi Arabia.

[img]http://www.olstars.com/images/flags/Big/rs.gif - serbian flag[/img]

This Empire has suffered recent setbacks due to the Polish-Russian War, notably the loss of her 10/10 resource bonuses. What does this mean for both Serbia and her allies in TWO? We shall examine this today, including potential strategies that Serbia could undertake to limit the impact as well as to re-secure her dominance over these nations.



The Core
The Serbian Core is the old regions of Yugoslavia where she rules over the original territories of Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Albania. These regions link to her resources in Italy, such as saltpetre and rubber in France. With the capital in the centre of her original regions, it remains necessary for resource production that Serbia controls a route to Italy and through to her Rubber at the end of her far flung empire.



The key region that has been lost is, therefore, this one here: Federation of BiH belonging to Bosnia and Herzegovina. This cuts Belgrade from the Italian colonies and therefore her French regions.



In order to restore control, Serbia merely needs to take back this region and will have access to her lost resources. The process for this recapture can begin now that Serbia has regained the initiative against Bosnia. Victories today against Albania in Italy and Bosnia in the Balkans have allowed Serbia to begin regaining control over her empire.

On the other side, Croatia has already seized 3 regions from Serbia that were once their European Core. Perhaps this indicates a return of Croatia, hence India can regain more regions that belong to them, or, much more likely, this is a temporary advantage for Croatia against their age-old rival.

Without losing control in Italy, something that has not yet occurred and with the last ditch attempt by Albania is now unlikely to occur, as long as Serbia can regain the single region linking Italy to Belgrade they will restore resource supremacy despite constant Resistance War attempts launched by France in Aquitaine.



The TWO Question
Without a doubt, the key reason for this reversal in Serbia’s current fortune has been the chance seized upon by EDEN and other nations when Poland launched their invasion of Russia. The real question will be if strained relations between the two powers will occur, especially on the Serbian end, due to the struggle currently ensuing in Eastern Europe.

This issue is highlighted in Poland’s recent defeat in Leningrad. Unable to rely on Serbian help it seems the Polish steamroller has stalled, of course, the question of for how long will be answered in the next few campaigns.

Of course, Poland’s invasion has merely opened the door for Serbia’s existing enemies to take advantage of the long term problems inherent in her empire. The recent conflicts, though, are not going to cause a decline of TWO in the long run. Even if Russia wins the war, all this will do is chalk up the stalling of Poland for the time being while they focus on wiping all those nations that rebelled against them and mopping up rebels with Serbia. Likewise, Serbia is not alone in her conflict, Slovenia has NE’d and successfully invaded Croatia.



Possible Solutions to future problems in Serbia
Serbia’s biggest issue has to be the easy way that their bonuses were cut due to the fact they face at least 7 Resistance Wars, possibly 8, at any one time. These are: Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, Italy, France, Israel and Saudi Arabia.

Faced with this array of opposition it is no surprise that Serbia has faced considerable successful attacks upon her. How can Serbia avoid this in the future to make governance more manageable? I would argue that Serbia should leave the Middle East to Bulgaria and Macedonia to govern, including Israel controlling only her European colonies. With the removal of 2 sources of pressure, albeit both minor in the scheme of things, her damage can be focused on key fights, such as against Croatia or key resource regions.

Through Serbia’s alliances with both Slovenia and Hungary, Serbia has an advantage of friendly neighbours who can step in and assist with troublesome foes, as shown with Slovenia’s invasion of Croatia at this stage of the game. Serbia, likewise, could leave Albania as an occupied region granting custodianship of these regions to Macedonia, the only issue being Macedonia’s tendency to be wiped in Europe by Greece periodically in their eternal war.

My final suggestion would be the removal of Serbia’s capital to an Italian region where Serbia can better control the military resources available to Serbia should the line be cut. In Italy and France, Serbia has access to 3 military bonuses while Belgrade only allows access to 2 if the line is cut, as it has been in this instance.



My next article will be on the USA and their relations with CoT.

Thank you for reading
Bohemond4
Editor-in-Chief
The Daily Knight