[FIN] Scandinavian War - A Brief Summary of What Happened

Day 686, 15:19 Published in Finland Finland by avec
Scandinavian War - A Brief Summary of What Happened

On 686th Day of the New World, last of the Russian occupied Norwegian regions was liberated by joint effort of EDEN and US forces. This marked the end for the war in Scandinavia, which had began a week ago, but had roots dating back months, some might say years. Due to constant region swapping, un-orthodox warfare and fighting tactics, the war in Scandinavia was a total mystery to some - who fights whom, who are friends and who are foes, why did countries do what they did? In this article I try my best to explain the war and its motives from the beginning.



History: Early Days of WW3

During the early days of WW3 in July, Norway attempted to block Russia by attacking it via Nord-Norge. Norway did it in order to try halt joint Russia-France invasion of North America, but the attempt ultimately failed as Russia was able to easily get out of the block and launch counter-offensive in Norway the next day. This began an enduring occupation of Nord-Norge by Finland, Sweden and sometimes Russia, as Nord-Norge is the only region that connects Russia with the rest of Norway's regions. As Norway triggered all 9 MPPs Russia had at the moment, Norway was constantly under threat of invasion by all major PEACE countries through Russia. Russia attempted to attack Norway several times via Nord-Norge, but every time it was blocked by either Finland or Sweden, which also blocked its advance in the USA, so it every time had to retreat from Nord-Norge and pursue its goal of conquering United States (note: every time Russia tried the exact same tactic of attacking Nord-Norge, and every time it lost the same way). This cat-mouse play continued until late September, when Norway came out of its shell again.


Finland-Norway region swaps: Part I

On Sunday, 670th Day of the New World, several battles between USA, Canada, Colombia, Iran and Russia culminated in an event that gave USA a chance to regain initiative through several tactical maneuvers. One of them required blocking Russia, a feat allied forces had tried to achieve for weeks, and what tacticians had sought for days. Finally, after exhausting all other options, Norway was asked to block Russia once again. Nord-Norge was still under Swedish protection, and blocking Russia from this end required continuous attempt, so the plan required co-operation from all Scandinavian countries.



On Sunday, the plan to block Russia was put into action. Presidents of all three countries - Norway, Sweden and Finland gathered and commenced a series of swaps. First Finland attacked Nord-Norge, Sweden, and Sweden retreated. Then Norway attacked Nord-Norge, Finland, and Finland retreated, which gave Norway a border with Russia (note: Sweden and Norway didn't have a war open, which required Sweden to give the region first to Finland, as Finland and Norway had an open war). Then, Norway attacked Northern Russia, Russia. This put Russia under block and allowed USA this time to regain initiative in North America. Lapland, Finland was also retreated to Norway - an original region of Finland, which caused confusion in several people as per why this was done.

The next day, Colombia was somewhat back in action ready to initiate blocking, as was the guest star France, which had attacked USA out of a sudden alone, triggering all US MPPs against itself. Russia had retreated Northern Russia to Norway, which gave Norway a border with Indonesia. As Russia and Indonesia had MPP, attacking Russia further from NR would have triggered a war between Norway and Indonesia, which then would have backfired badly for Norway, another region without a border with Indonesia had to be found. This meant giving Eastern Finland to Norway, and at the same time taking NR from Norway and giving it to Finland, so Norway lost its border with Indonesia, and gave it another Russian region to attack, namely either Leningrad-Oblast or Moscow. Via series of attacks and swaps to change regions and initiatives between Finland and Norway, Norway then got hold of Eastern Finland, from where it attacked Leningrad-Oblast. Russia did not retreat this region, which put a clock ticking for Norway to lose its border with Russia within 24 hours or face counter-attack. The objective however, to block Russia was achieved. USA gained initiative against Russia, Colombia and France, and within a few days all three countries were driven off from North America.


Retribution and Finland-Norway region swaps: Part II


After Russia lost its last region on North American continent, it yelled for revenge. Tiny little country next to it, a country which had occupied Russia for a year, had snatched victory from Russia. This made Russians, or at least their leaders, mad. Failing to conquer United States, Russia now turned to revenge Norway, and at the same time achieve victory against at least some country, and Norway fulfilled all requirements. EDEN country, next to two other mortal enemies of Russia with over ten times smaller population, seemed easy to conquer. As we all saw, this was far from truth.

After attacking Leningrad-Oblast, Norway retreated from Finnish regions, giving Eastern Finland, Lapland and Nord-Norge back to Finland, which meant Russia had to go through Finland to get to Norway. Finland gave Nord-Norge to Sweden to further complicate issues, but Russia did not see what it was getting into. It planned a massive strike against Sweden, attacking Nord-Norge one day, ten minutes before day change and sinking the wall deep into underground before the day changed. Russia failed to realise, this was not ordinary war they were fighting. Sweden retreated Nord-Norge, and Norway attacked it instantly after. This put Russia in a block and gave Finland and Sweden time to prepare. After 24 hours, when the battle for Nord-Norge between Norway and Russia ended, Finland attacked the region, putting Russia again in a block. Again, after 24 hours, Sweden attacked Nord-Norge, etc. At this point, everyone saw what was going on in here. Russia was kept under permanent block in Nord-Norge, preventing it from attacking deeper into Norway. The plan at this point was to keep Russia blocked this way, until one day, a joint operation from EDEN mobile forces was meant to push Russia out of Nord-Norge. This, however, Finland, Sweden and Norway never had a chance to do.

During one swap, when a battle between Russia and Sweden was about to end, and less than 24 hours had expired from a battle between Finland and Russia, Norway's president failed to show up. This meant, there was no one to continue blocking Russia, as it was Norway's turn this time. Russia saw its chance and instantly attacked two other Norwegian regions, Trondelag and Svalbard & Jan Mayen. It conquered both with ease with its 9 triggered MPPs. At this point, Norway was at the brink of annihilation, which sharpened everyone's attention on EDEN's end. Before the battle for Trondelag ended, Finland and Sweden launched a massive counter-attack against Russia by attacking Trondelag and Nord-Norge, putting Russia once again under blockade, but this time, also under serious attack. Before, neither Finland nor Sweden had put any effort in fighting Russia, but this time, both deployed their militaries, and scored a victory in both battles. This was largely thanks to US and EDEN, who deployed their troops to assist their long-time allies.



Instantly swapping regions again, Finland took possession of Trondelag, and launched an attack on other Norwegian regions, conquering them one-by-one by Norway retreating each battle. The plan at this point was to erase Norway from the map - by doing that, all of Norway's open wars and triggered MPPs would disappear, giving Norway a fresh start and freeing it from Russian threat. This plan was not as simple to execute as it seems however. Norway would have been erased a lot earlier if Norway's congress had agreed to it, but nationalists as they are, they refused to erase Norway if there was a slightest chance to survive without it. At this point though even they realised that this was the only option, and they gave way for Finland to execute this plan. One and a half year ago, Norway had conquered Finland during its height. Now, Finland conquered Norway. So the tables turn, but this time, Finland helped Norway.

The last region to launch an attack on, Sorlandet, could not be retreated however, so it required an immense push from Finland. Norway had 4 MPPs, one of them with USA, so Finland faced massive resistance at first minutes of the battle from five different countries. To relieve this, USA attacked Saskatchewan, Hungary, to give their citizens another battle to fight in. Other countries issued orders not to fight in Norway, and with help of mobile forces, Finland managed to conquer the last Norwegian region on 679th Day of the New World. At the same time Sweden launched an attack on Russian-occupied Svalbard & Jan Mayen to keep Russia blocked further. When the block ended, Russia first attacked Nord-Norge, Sweden (Finland had swapped Nord-Norge with Sweden earlier to give Sweden a chance to attack S&JM). After this, another plan kicked in.

Third phase: Returning Norway back on the map


Deleting Norway wasn't enough to protect Norway, as Russia could even after this continue its campaign just by attacking Finland instead of Norway, the only difference being missing triggered MPPs. So, to prevent this, a Resistance War was started in Trondelag, a bottleneck region separating Nord-Norge and Norway's mainland. After this, Sweden retreated Nord-Norge which Russia had attacked. Russia, in extacy, attacked Trondelag, thinking it could now continue its campaign and conquer Norway. How wrong they were. Putting a resistance war in Trondelag meant that Russia's attack there was meaningless. By freeing Trondelag in the RW, giving the region to Norway, Russia's attack there would be canceled. As Russia could not attack anywhere else from Nord-Norge other than Sweden's or Finland's original regions, thereon triggering their MPPs, Russia was in effect boxed in.

The only way Russia could win this, was to keep Trondelag in Finnish possession, and this meant fighting green in Finland. Dozens of soldiers from all major PEACE countries flew to Finland, tanking the wall up at first. Hundreds of gold was spent on this futile mission, trying to win a RW with few fighters against an entire country's population. If Finland was like the UK, that might have worked. Finland, however, was organised. Its military was prepared, and it had trustworthy friends, who sent their mobile forces to counter PEACE tanks. The battle for Trondelag was easily won, and Russia's campaign in Scandinavia was effectively ended.

After Trondelag battle, Finland and Sweden both launched a simultaneous attack on Nord-Norge, Russia. Not knowing which country would make the push to conquer the region actually, Russia would have had to emphasise on both battles fully to maintain that prosperous region known as Nord-Norge. Its military power is however weak, and it cannot yet handle both Finland and Sweden alone, yet alone EDEN mobile forces with them. Finland was the one to conquer Nord-Norge, and 24 hours later, Svalbard & Jan Mayen was conquered too - this time launching there an attack first from Finland, then giving Nord-Norge to Sweden, from where Sweden attacked S&JM, and to finish it off, a resistance war was started in S&JM, dividing Russia's damage in three different battles. 24 hours later, the last of the Norwegian regions was liberated, and the war in Scandinavia ended.

What Made the War so Unusual?

The war in Scandinavia was followed world-wide. As battles in North America ended, most countries had no battles to fight in, and constant battles in Scandinavia draw war tourists to all counties on both sides. Russia, and PEACE had some strange alibi for attacking Norway, something about liberating Norway from itself and protecting it from its ”friends”. To further mix events, the UK attacked Norway and Sweden shortly after. This was however nothing but an annoyance, as the UK has no military power to overcome MPPs nor win a fight against Sweden.

What was curious about this war, was the amount of region swaps done. Region swapping in tactical sense has been done before, it was used in Indonesia-Romania war, and also to some extent in USA-Russia war, but not in the same scale as in Scandinavia. Historically, Scandinavian countries were arguably the ones to introduce region swapping and its benefits to the world, or at least to their allies. Scandinavian peninsula is a fortress (or rather, was), as Finland, Sweden and Norway have open wars even though they are close friends. Attacking one of them means attacking all of them, and an attack from one-side is bound to fail because the other two countries can rush into help and block the attacker as long it is necessary.

Deleting Norway was also an unusual move, at least to an ordinary citizen - conquering a country is surely a feat of an enemy, not a friend? No, deleting Norway was the best thing that could be done to Norway at that point - face occupation by Russia and its allies, be left maybe one region, bordered by a hostile country with 9 triggered MPPs, or be conquered by its closest friend, and later be freed voluntarily. The choice was easy, even though Norway lost its two Q3 hospitals and one Q5 hospital. Russia tried to claim victory because of this, they seemed to value a few hospitals over region ownership and triggered MPPs, which is absurd to everyone with half a brain.

What also made the war unusual, was the success Finland and Sweden had against Russia. Russia has almost ten times bigger population than Finland and Sweden, and their treasury and income much bigger too. What people tend to forget, is that sheer gold or numbers don't always win a fight. Finland and Sweden are old countries, and their population is experienced. What they lack in numbers, they win ten-fold in strength and skill. Russia, in comparison, is filled with low-strength players who do little damage, but it simply adds up because there's so many of them. They cannot be described as a military power alone, and in 1vs1 fight they would lose to any other country with roughly the same population. This contributed largely to their defeat in Scandinavia, as fighting both Finland's and Sweden's populations, and at the same time combatting allied mobile forces adds up to Russia's damage output. Of this I'd like to thank USA and all EDEN countries for sending help, without it victory had been either extremely hard or straightforward impossible.

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I hope this article was helpful to people wondering what happened out there. I left out a lot of small details, like started Resistance Wars by Russia in an desperate attempt to gain initiative, and the tactics UK employed when it tried to attack Norway and block Sweden while at it, but they're not anyhow essential. I'll be continuing making articles like this, either explaining events to the best of my ability, or making tutorials on different aspects of the game. If you like it, please subscribe and vote! Oh, and before I forget:


Cheers!


Avec, former President of eFinland