Hertog Summer Study: Game A Turn 2 Results

Australia isn't happy.

"Indonesia, I am very concerned about your recent movements. You are getting too close to the PRC and your military moves are very aggressive."

I have zero designs on Australian or any other South East Asia nations land. I don't want to invade them, nor do I need to. None of my objectives have that.

"Australia, I'm simply defending myself..."

"Do you REALLY think the Chinese will let you keep those ballistic missiles on Fiery Cross?"

"Yes, I do."

Australia thinks this is coming to their shores.

We argue for a few minutes. Australia then brings Malaysia into the mix, who apparently is also concerned about my aggressiveness.

I fail to see what is so aggressive. I put down a small rebellion in Papua...I mean, seriously, these guys were terrorists. I wasn't going to let them just rebel forever. Papua is my territory. So by moving three Marine units to Papua, the rebellion just disappears.

Free West Papua? Heck no!

What stationing three Marine units in Papua does to the rebellion. Image from http://westpapuamedia.info

Plus, I don't consider the missiles very threatening. Malaysia has a bigger army and bigger budget than I do. Australia has a massive budget, an actual navy and air force, plus an army still slightly bigger than mine. Me, I'm a struggling nation, praying that I don't get crushed in the mix.

I fight back. "You know Australia, China gave me equipment. They gave me something to guarantee my own security, whereas all I have from you is words. You have forward deployed units in Malaysia, which could easily overwhelm me."

Sadly, what my one set of DF-15s might actually do to any of my neighbors

After some arguing, Australia agrees that in a show of friendship, they will allow me to purchase submarines. Perfect. My plan of playing the middle is working.

Unlike the actual Australian government, I can just outright buy these!

That problem smoothed over, I head to Beijing for some more talks. The basing of Chinese missiles alongside mine in Fiery Cross has drawn some heads.

"China, I am very happy to have missiles and aircraft. My neighbors are really concerned though. Could you pull back some of your forces from the South China Sea as a show of good will?"

After some negotiation, China agrees to pull back its missiles. I go in with them on a diplomatic announcement. Since part of my goal is to not have Chinese units based in the South China Sea, I need a friendly way to get there. This works in my favor.

In exchange, I give Chinese the right to base units at Natuna Besar at a port that they are building. I also pull my DF-15s to Natuna Besar to help quell Malaysian and Australian angst.

The Chinese would never build a port for diplomatic reasons in real life...oh wait. Image from http://www.lankaenews.com

Philippines is still wary of China. In fact, I've become a sort of defacto Chinese supporter, although Vietnam is pretty pro-China as well. USA still hasn't approached me, and Japan and Russia are on the sidelines. I don't bother talking to Taiwan, mainly because they can't produce any navy or air force units and I don't want to risk angering my prime money maker right now.

Behind the scenes, I find out that I can reverse engineer the DF-15s to get a missile weapons program. I spend the diplos and start my own weapons program.

Once the turn generates, I get the following:

Malaysia purchased a Surface Action Group from Russia, and Australia has moved in SSKs into the South China Sea region. Fairly aggressive move. My missile weapons program does pop up though, so now I can make my own weapons in the future.

As requested, missiles were pulled out by both me and China. Japan is rolling an amphibious group south. Not good, things are starting to heat up in the South.