ROM: Description, Focus Tree and National Ideas for Romania (Suggestion)

[Akfiz]

Hello, I would like to make a suggestion for adding Romania as a unique nation in The Great War mod. Romania had an interesting situation as the population was French-oriented while the King and the Royal family was German-oriented, which is why King Ferdiniand I got the nickname "the Loyal" when he decided to join the Entente.

Why did Romania join the Entente? The choices were:

• Entente for Transylvania, Bukovina and Banat.
• Central Powers for Bessarabia.
  Thanks to the communist revoltuion in 1917 and the Entente victory in 1918, Romania got all of them.
  It's worth pointing out that all mentioned regions had a Romanian majority and used to be part of Romanian principalities before being conquered by foreign powers. So Romania's claims were both based on the population and on historical right.

Description: Romania is somewhat of a rising star in the Balkans, from the 2 vassal states of the Ottoman Empire it secured union and independence in the last 50 years, but Romania's national dream of unity is not yet complete, in the west there are Transylvania, Bukovina and Banat, while in the east there is Bessarabia, regions with a romanian majority and historical significance. While the population and government looks to the west and France due to their cultural ties, the royal family looks to the east and Germany due to their german descent, sooner or later Romania will have to make its choice.

Romania had a defensive alliance with Austria-Hungary, Germany and Italy but since Austria-Hungary was the aggressor Romania wasn't under any obligation to intervene, however, this can be the source of an alternative history path.

*** Make a large part of the Carpathians impassable**. To reflect history and for gameplay purposes. The thing about the Carpathians is that there were only a few straits the army could use. The Kaiserreich mod implements this well.

National spirits:
Rising Star - In the past century Romania has known only victory, this greatly boosted the morale of the population and of the army.
War for Wholeness - Due to fighting for a territory actually inhabited by romanians and with huge historical significance there is a lot more war support, increases war support.
French Mission in Romania - Improve the troops.
Greater Romania - The great ideal has become a reality, something to hugely boost morale.

Focus Trees ideas:

• Participate in the 1st Balkan War
• Participate in the 2nd Balkan War (historical)
• The Great Debate - Whether Romania should do as the king says or as the government says, historically, due to this disagreement Romania decided to remain neutral in 1914.
• Look to the West - Focuses on getting Transylvania, Bukovina and Banat.
• Look to the East - Focuses on getting Bessarabia.
• Plan Z - Builds forts on the border with Bulgaria to attack in Transylvania.
• Plan
• An Uneasy Alliance - Tries to ameliorate relations with Russia.
• Half for Alliance - Romania gets Southern Transylvania and Bukovina in exchange for alliance with the Central Powers.
• Align with Germany - Romania joins the Central Powers (no territorial exchange)
• Align with France - Romania joins the Entente
• Cross the Pruth River! - Declares war on Russia
• Corss the Carpathian Mountains! - Declares war on Austria-Hungary
• French Mission in Romania - Adds General Henri Mathias Berthelot, add more infantry equipment and a national spirit, France should probably get an event to accept it.
• Transylvanian Volunteer Corps - Increases manpower or adds new 3 divisions in Iasi.
• Establish the Mountain Huntsmen - Unlocks the Mountain Infantry template or increases its research speed.
• Intervention in Bessarabia - Sends troops to Bessarabia (historically, after the communist revolution started, Bessarabia decalred independence but the Soviet Union wanted to reconquer it, so the Bessarabian government called in the Romanian troops to protect it, the defense was succesful as the communist attack was minor and then Bessarabia declared union with Romania)
• The Great Ideal - Gives national spirit Greater Romania if Transylvania, Bukovina, Banat and Bessarabia are under Romanian control.

"It is certain that so relatively small a state as Romania had never before been given a role so important, and, indeed, so decisive for the history of the world at so favorable a moment. Never before had two great Powers like Germany and Austria found themselves so much at the mercy of the military resources of a country which had scarcely one twentieth of the population of the two great states. Judging by the military situation, it was to be expected that Romania had only to advance where she wished to decide the world war in favor of those Powers which had been hurling themselves at us in vain for years. Thus everything seemed to depend on whether Romania was ready to make any sort of use of her momentary advantage." - Paul von Hindenburg

"Contemporary history is rarely just to failure. Only when the mists have cleared and the main issues have been decided can the belligerents afford to weigh each section of a campaign in a just scale. Romania's entry into the war had awakened baseless hopes among her Allies; her unsuccess - her inexplicable unsuccess, as it seemed to many - was followed by equally baseless criticism and complaint. The truth is, that when Brussilov and Sarrail had once failed to achieve their purpose, her chances of victory were gone. She had attempted a strategic problem which only a wild freak of fortune could have permitted her to solve. Her numbers from the start were too small, too indifferently trained, and too weakly supplied with guns. Nevertheless, once she stood with her back to the wall, this little people, inexpert in war, made a stalwart resistance. Let justice be done to the fortitude of the Romanian retreat. Her generals were quick to grasp the elements of danger, and by their defence of the central passes prevented the swift and utter disaster of which her enemies dreamed. After months of fighting, during which his armies lost heavily, Falkenhayn gained Wallachia and the capital; but the plunder was not a tithe of what he had hoped for. The Romanian expedition was, let it be remembered, a foraging expedition in part of its purpose, and the provender secured was small. The ten weeks of the retreat were marked by conspicuous instances of Romanian quality in the field, and the battles of Hermannstadt and the Striu valley, the defence of the Predeal, Torzburg, and Rotherthurm Passes, the first battle of Targul Jiu, and Presan's counter-stroke on the Argesh were achievements of which any army might be proud. And the staunch valor of the Roman legionaries still lived in the heroic band who, under Anastasiu, cut their way from Orsova to the Aluta." - John Buchan, 1922

"We had beaten the Romanian Army; to annihilate it had proved impossible. We had done all that was possible, but found ourselves obliged to leave forces in the Dobrudja and Wallachia which we had been able to use on the Eastern and Western fronts and in Macedonia before Romania came into the war. In spite of our victory over the Romanian Army, we were definitely weaker as regards the conduct of the war as a whole" - Erich Luddendorff

"Romanians! The war which for the last two years has been encircling our frontiers more and more closely has shaken the ancient foundations of Europe to their depths. It has brought the day which has been awaited for centuries by the national conscience, by the founders of the Romanian State, by those who united the principalities in the war of independence, by those responsible for the national renaissance. It is the day of the union of all branches of our nation. Today we are able to complete the task of our forefathers and to establish forever that which Michael the Great was only able to establish for a moment, namely, a Romanian union on both slopes of the Carpathians. For us the mountains and plains of Bukowina, where Stephen the Great has slept for centuries. In our moral energy and our valour lie the means of giving him back his birthright of a great and free Romania from the Tisza to the Black Sea, and to prosper in peace in accordance with our customs and our hopes and dreams. - King Ferdinand