Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*"I've got me a sweetheart and I love her, too*

*We want to make big plans but what can we do?*

*When a mushroom cloud has changed every rule*

*It's deepened our thinking at home and at school*

*Peace, peace, peace where did you go?"*

- *"A Mushroom Cloud" by Sammy Salvo.*
The Indo-Pacific Treaty Organization is a major faction in Blue Alert. Founded by the Kingdom of Thailand and later spreading to Malaysia and Cambodia, the IPTO is meant to protect South-east Asia from the threat of the Empire, the Epsilon Bloc, Green China, and the Communists. The group is a regional ally of the wider Alliance of Free States but is noted for being more fanatic in its fight against the green Chinese and more concerned with the security of its own member states than is is for the rest of the world, even its own Allies.

## At a Glance

 **Basic Look** | Modernized late-WWII designs with significant Cold War influences. Over sized and bulky vehicles.

## Background

### Seeds of Destruction

A single flap of a butterfly's wings can cause a hurricane halfway across the globe. A few shifts in the events of the 1800s, followed immediately by the Western power play played a role in the region's growth no one could have anticipated. Yet even as the Shogunate desperately clung to power, their neighbors got the message. Beware of the colonials. Countries hoping to retain their sovereignty had to act fast, to build up a sufficiently powerful military and political influence in the region to be able to resist the land-grabbing Westerners. Siam was no exception, already on edge after heavy British expansion into their region, King Chulalongkorn took drastic and immediate measures to alleviate the situation. The modernisation of Siam began in 1889, as King Chulalongkorn drafted a plan to fully industrialize Siam by 1900. However, his plans relied heavily on being able to obtain supplies and equipment from the West, which unfortunately, was not very cooperative in helping one of their potential conquests get away from them. The French in particular reacted negatively to the plans, and applied pressure on Siamese borders to force Siam to cede territory to them. With the British controlling Burma and also eyeing the rich fields of Thailand, support from them was deemed impossible.

As hope faded away, King Chulalongkorn was prepared to make a desperate political gamble and buy his country's freedom with land. However, before that plan came to fruition, the last call for help was answered by an unexpected source. Prussia, long a bystander on the Asian political chess match, made its first and decisive move. The ever growing power of her neighbors was beginning to worry Prussia, as they thrived on the income and resources generated by their colonies. Emperor Wilhelm II, long wishing to spread the German empire's influence and interests took advantage of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck's slipping influence and pushed through a movement to assist the Siamese. He hoped that having an ally in the far east would enable them to weaken their competitor's hold on the region, as well as potentially disrupt their supply lines if required. Despite Bismarck's protests that such a move would bring out increased tensions with the other nations and potentially lead to a war, the bill passed through parliament with an overwhelming majority and Siam joined the growing list of nations that were having German money poured into them to threaten British and Russian interests around the world.

November 5th 1889, the letter from Prussia arrived in King Chulalongkorn's office via the SMS Baden. The message was simple, yet would change the face of the region forever. The nation of Prussia would support Siam's industrialization efforts and supply them with the required equipment and technology for the Siamese in exchange for natural resources scarcely found in Prussia, Prussia will not be involved in the politics and everyday running of Siam, and only requested that Siam maintained friendly relations with them. Not wishing to look a gift horse in the mouth, Siam jumped on the opportunity, and the modernization efforts kicked into high gear.

Then, in 1893, the Franco-Siamese War begun as France sought to extract as many concessions from Siam as possible before they could build their might. The sneak attack started off well, France was able to make a rapid sweeping advance across Laos, where industrialization was minimal and troop concentrations were scarce. They did not expect, however, to run into a full fledged military force. Running headlong into modern Maxim machine guns, the French advance quickly ground to a halt halfway up Laos, and the 5 day land grab predicted by the French turned into a bloody and protracted war. Eventually, the French had to call for British back up to flank Laos from the North through Burma and through their combined efforts they were able to extract a concession from the Siamese to give up Laos to the French. The war however, took a massive toll on French forces in the region and forced the French to make concessions to the British. This would play an important role for events to come.

### Worldfire

When WWI began, Siam, already on rocky terms with France and Britain, joined in the Central Powers; many buoyed by German and Austrian investment in the years leading up to the first world war and took up arms against Entente Powers controlled territory in the region. Similar to the war in the West, the borders between Burma-Thailand and Malaysia-Thailand quickly descended into trench warfare. However, the French had no such luck, and were unable to get a foothold. Due to their reduced strength in the region, they lost battle after battle as Laos slipped further and further from their grasp. WWI saw the French influence in the region shatter, as they were beaten back time and time again by the superior and better equipped Thai force. With reinforcements tied up in the Western front, and British supply convoys being intercepted by Siamese frigates, the French found themselves in dire straits and American forces; who were drawn into the first world war by the treaty of Toronto; would need at least a year to begin arriving.

Then, on January 3rd 1915, the HMS Eclipse was sunk by Thai frigates Thongkaeo and Mannok during an escort mission to bring in vital supplies and reinforcements to French positions in Cambodia. This sinking caused the British to step up their naval campaign, and the Blockade of Bangkok was initiated. Expecting to have naval supremacy, the British went in with no less than 12 ships, including the battleship HMS Exmouth. The blockade was initially met with little resistance, and the British began setting up for a naval bombardment of Bangkok. However, two weeks into the campaign a Thai sloop slipped through the defensive perimeter under the cover of night. It intercepted the armoured cruiser Falmouth on the fringe of the British fleet, and the company of Thai soldiers boarded the Falmouth in an attempt for a hostile take over. The British were immediately alerted, and steamed to assist the stricken vessel. However, this left a massive blindspot, allowing the Thai to move numerous sloops into position behind the British fleet. The sloops sailed into the British navy at full steam, blowing up on contact with British vessels, causing massive damage and covering the ships with burning oil and tar. In that assault, the British had three ships severely damaged. In addition, the Falmouth was successfully captured by Thai forces, and its guns disabled the Exmouth's engines during the British retreat and forced its crew to scuttle it in fear of it being captured by the Thai. Overnight, the balance of naval power in the region changed, as the British were forced to return to their bases and lick their wounds.

Without the British navy to support, the French began losing ground at an alarming pace, something only stabilized by the surge of troops from the Americas as American and Brazilian forces began to arrive as per their treaty obligations with American troops in particular beginning to arrive at tremendous rates, troops arriving in the Philippines first before arriving in Malaysia and Indochina later. The Americans were not well equipped for warfare of this magnitude at first, but they were numerous and their industrial prowess let them furnish their troops with a preponderance of artillery that impressed upon the IPTO the value of big guns. (WIP)

## Unique Faction Mechanics

**Construction:** Building IPDI Structures (apart from the Extractor) involve laying down Foundations. These Foundations are cheap but take a while to build. Foundations can then be upgraded into any IPDI building you have unlocked. Similarly, defenses are built by laying down Hardpoints, then upgrading them into the desired turret.

**Weaponry Enhancement:** Many IPDI units can be upgraded with improved weaponry. These weapons are built from the Assembly Line, and then transported across the battlefield on unarmoured transports. Selecting these transports and right-clicking on the unit to upgrade will cause the transport to drive over and automatically begin the upgrade process. During the upgrade process, both the transport and the target unit are unable to move or attack. Destroying either unit will immediately stop the upgrade process. The time taken to upgrade a unit depends on the weapon. For instance, upgrading an Infantry squad with SCR-21s will take a few seconds. But upgrading a Striker with a 20cm gun might take a minute or more. Similarly, the speed and number of weapons carried onboard the transport varies with the weapon in question.

**Unbreakable Spirit:** IPDI units are extremely resilient to Morale Loss, and many common morale loss systems will have severely reduced effects (or even outright immunity) on IPDI units. In fact, an event that triggers an enormous Morale loss (in excess of 30 in under a second) in most other factions will result in a temporary Morale Boost (100% of the Morale loss), which decays rapidly over time (10% of the boost per second). However, IPDI units recover Morale very very slowly, and have zero Morale boosting units.

**Go to Ground:** IPDI units are easily suppressed, having a much lower threshold for suppression than most other factions. However, due to their training in such matters, they do not suffer penalties while suppressed (except of course, to movement) and will fire back with full effectiveness. In addition, they do not suffer Morale loss while suppressed. Do note, IPDI units can still be locked down, and they will suffer full penalties, including Morale loss when locked down.