Home Army Faction

**Dev. Status** | Conceptual

*It's been a long*

*A long time coming*

*But I know a change is gonna come*

*Oh yes it will*

- *A Change is Gonna Come*, Sam Cooke
The Home Army Faction is a reworked minor faction created by Flyboy254. Freedom fighters in rebellion against the subjugation of their countries under the Soviets' Warsaw Pact, the HAF specialize in fluid cavalry attacks and ambushes on the enemy, but without strong units to fight a pitched battle.

## At a Glance

 **Motives** | Patriotism, Independence, Freedom, Allied Assistance

## Background

### The Uprising

Like it or not, Eastern Europe has always existed between the rock of the "superior" nations of Western Europe, and the "hard place" of Russia. While possessing many great nations of their own, the fact is that every state that rose out of Eastern Europe with a chance to succeed wound up getting knocked down by their enemies. With the rise of the Soviet Union, the hard place became their own countries. Post-WWII, the Soviets "assisted" in setting up new communist regimes for the peoples under their sphere of influence. Propped up by Moscow and the might of the Union the newly-minted Warsaw Pact of states, from Estonia in the North to Romania in the South, acted as new buffer states against Allied "aggression".

In actuality, many of these states were already leftist-leaning before the Soviets fully took power. Hungary, for example, had experimented with communism in the 1920s, though outside pressures and economic realities forced them to realign. Other nations, like Poland and Czechoslovakia, shifted uncomfortably into this new mold due to the fact that the people had little say in the matter. Many nationalists in these nations had hoped that, during World War II, the Allied Nations would be able to assist them in freeing their lands.

Unfortunately, the people of Eastern Europe were sidelined as the Allied Nations solidified. In what was seen as a sign of progress, the Allies allowed the governments-in-exile of these nations to become member-states of the AN parliament, to ensure their voices were heard among all nations. While this was a vital step, many of these governments-in-exile continued to lobby for political liberation.

World War III gave them another chance, and many thousands of Eastern Europeans fought on all fronts, even pushing back into their own homelands. There were high hopes that once the war was over, the liberation of their homes would come. The Empire crushed these hopes into powder, and again the war ended with little change in the lines on the maps. The expatriate communities were incensed, and angrily protested the action of leaving the Soviets with their "allies".

Weak excuses by the Allied parliament claiming that there were bigger issues at play did little to make the exiles feel a part of the decisions in parliament. At this point, many soldiers and civilians within the occupied territories decided that they needed to organize, to keep hope alive until the Allies might actually do something again. Resistance movements came together to decide leadership issues. Word was spread across as many borders as possible, and alliances were forged.

The name was obvious; during WWII, the Polish had a large resistance in the form of what was called the "Home Army", a corps of professional soldiers, civilian fighters, and defectors from the Polish People's Army. In the closing stages of the war, the Home Army started a massive revolution against the Soviet forces occupying Warsaw in the hopes that Allied forces would be able to relieve the siege. Instead, the Allies were held up in the West, and the Home Army was crushed by one thing no one expected; starvation.

While their uprising failed, the new Home Army Faction considers their idea one worth repeating, one united in driving the Soviets out of Eastern Europe, and proving to the Allies that their inaction was unjustified. Standing proud against the Soviets and forced to accept the underwhelming support of the Allied Nations, the HAF fights for the day that their homes can be freed.

### Cavalry Warfare

As recently as WWII, cavalry had a role to play in war. Since early vehicles weren't suited to battlefield conditions horsemen and their steeds were the most reliable means of moving about the field to gather information on enemy positions, make flank attacks, or simply charge the enemy from where they least expect it. WWIII might have been a temporary break, but in recent months cavalry have made a comeback. From the mountains of Afghanistan to the jungles of South America to the outback of Australia, cavalry is coming back.

More mobile than traditional infantry and faster than any tank, cavalry units are traditionally deployed to the flanks of an army. Securing these vulnerable positions from enemy attack, they also act as a rapid response force; in old wars, when the command was to hold the line, it meant hold the line for units like dragoons to fill a gap. Though bigger and bigger tanks and faster, more agile aircraft have changed war, no one expected horses to make a comeback.

The truth is that the Home Army Faction are using horses out of desperation, but have become skilled at using them. Out on open plains and in forests, the horses function just as well as any tank, require no special fuel, and a cavalry unit requires a few vets or farmers, compared to the hordes of mechanics needed for a single Soviet armored company. In battle, these dangerous horsemen support their brother and sister fighters, hitting the enemy where they least expect it before melting back into nothing, forcing the enemy to divert even more resources away from the fighting in the streets.

## Te jeszcze nie odpadła

*"The Allies did not fail the Eastern European people. The world is a dangerous place, and they are possibly the only group capable of keeping it from falling to the great dangers of godless communism and rampant consumerism. But they have become questionable in how well they keep their promises. Today, I read in the newspapers that another mass execution of rebels was made today, outside of Krakow. The city I am archbishop of. Is this acceptable now? To see brave men and women slaughtered so that they might see freedom again come to their homeland? The Allies ponder why we are angry. I ponder how they have missed it."*

- Cardinal Karol Józef Wojtyła, writing for a Krakow resistance newsletter

### Reinforcements

**Wojtek Division**

These reinforcements can be called in during minor faction deathmatch. the Wojtek Division are comprised of the vehicles the Home Army have left to fight with, just as fast but also somewhat more resilient than cavalry. They also are the refuge of HAF's most powerful fighters; **real** bear cavalry.

### Behind the Scenes

* The Faction as a whole is inspired by the numerous failed anti-Soviet resistance movements that were formed in Eastern European countries under the Warsaw Pact. Many of the units here were lifted from the lost minor faction of the "People's Front of Poland", an Eastern European resistance movement resembling the HAF, albeit focusing on the Poles only instead of most of the states in the Warsaw Pact.