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'Axis of Andes' review

SO CLOSE to Peruvian victory, yet Peru had no idea it just needed an hour longer, and now you can see Colombia inevitably entering because if Ecuador falls all the loans default.

What sticks out in most of this is that there's really no good reason for anyone to fight and there's time after time where they could/should stop, but.
 
So when it opened with Bolivia saying "no way are we getting into this shit", I knew they'd get into this shit but wasn't expecting
that hoax telegram to trick Bolivia into hating the Axis OR THAT IT'S REAL, and then everything is just - and this is a running theme with this duology - a black comedy of errors where someone does a dumb thing and someone else doesn't think their actions through and then they trip over each other, and then you get Bolivia's revolution ending up in the Axis sphere because they think they have no other option at this point and the US is against them anyway, which is the ONE THING the US DIDN'T want to happen.
 
And just as Ecuador is about to get a peace deal with Peru, Markholtz launches an unauthorised attack over personal animus. Oooof. This sure keeps happening!

Noting a recurring theme in several countries of the Indians being recruited, Indians being forcibly drafted, Indian veterans seething, a lot of displaced and disgruntled Indians, that the Indians wish all these random governments would leave them alone. This seems something that's going to blow up in someone's face soon.
 
....okay, I knew more of the OTL Axis would show up, but I was not expecting
Japan to "lease" the Galapagos islands for "big fishing boats". Oh dear.
 
Now, as we hear about Markholtz's big attack and
that the Ecuadorians are steadily withdrawing & scorching earth which he hasn't worked out yet
, the big swing Gary mentioned happened: after the narratives being officers, politicians, spies etc, we're now getting them from the POV of the average volunteer soldier.
 
Noting a recurring theme in several countries of the Indians being recruited, Indians being forcibly drafted, Indian veterans seething, a lot of displaced and disgruntled Indians, that the Indians wish all these random governments would leave them alone. This seems something that's going to blow up in someone's face soon.

Markholtz's army has been ripped apart and the army he now has is "almost entirely Quecha, with de facto field promotions... as high as Captain and Major." Hmmmm.

Simultaneously, General Blandon - doing really well and decimating Peruvian control in the Selva - is arming natives, marrying natives, adopting a native, having officers marry into natives, "an evolving native insurgency.. with comparable weapons and training, tactical and strategic leadership". HMMM.

Mass refugee movement into Brazil and also Blandon's militias are in Brazil and an entire Brazilian expedition vanishes. HMMMM.

And all points for one chapter just being Pearl Harbor!!! in huge font.
 
Oh bloody hell, I wasn't expecting the immediate fallout of Pearl Harbor being that Bonifaz orders
"declare war on Japan but do it courteously".

I was expecting a shellshocked Ibbara to simply say "doom", or something like that anyway.
 
Bolivia going from accident to the place half the continent thinks is the key bit is amazing; so too is
lend-lease simultaneously reviving Peru while also stoking up more problems with the natives.

Have spotted a gaff though, as Markholtz
goes from being in an Ecuadorian prison in early December to a general back at the front being tacitly punished by Lima. Even if he got let out, going right back to his old position after a) failing b) acting without orders again is a leap
 
"The Blandon arc is getting very Heart of Darkness," I thought, and then we get the Brazilian expedition's full run-in and the POV from Pablo From Manus and JESUS.
"Pablo sees scars along his [Blandon's] chest... he realizes that they are carved in the shape of medals." There's a grim image.
 
Brazil fumbles into war and now here we go, now it's explicit,
the ignored natives are getting fed up of this shit and going "why is this happening", "this marxist dude in the nearby town says some stuff about that"...

EDIT: And we go back to Pablo reading a novel "By someone named Conrad". Nicely done
 
And now America
openly supports Peru's plan to rewrite the map (NOM NOM NOM), even advising it, which you just know will go worng cos there's 50% of the book left.

And yep, the Peru junta "leaks like a sieve" so the Chileans knew exactly what was coming, when, and where. Ooops. And then the advantage of 'modern' US tanks and planes gets blown, and Bolivia gets twatted again for no real long-term gain.

And now Penaranda reaches out to both opponents at long last, though not at the same time. Bet you wish you'd tried this earlier, eh?

Also like the detail that Chile has female support brigades and combat brigades to make up numbers.
 
"known as Captain Jaguar" yeeeeeeeees

The growth of Indian (and Mestizo) prominence and armed power continues without anyone seeming to be aware except for Brazil. Quite like the running theme of "Indians and Mestizos are dominating the sergeant and officer class because everyone else died." And I note Captain Jaguar's the one winning it.

And now disgruntled and scapegoated General Gamarra takes over, with the Americans and Chileans going "hooray!" so something bad's about to happen.

"Time to yank the commissions of those Indians and throw them in brigs, this will go well," said Gamarra. OH DEAR
 
AND THEN ARGENTINA JUST ANCHLUSSED PARAGUAY. That I did not expect. And neither did the President of Paraguay. (Love Ramirez's amused response that nobody's going to notice or care, and what's Paraguay even going to be able to do?)
 
Peru no longer exists, there's possibility of relief and peace, so of course half of the Latin American governments are going "SEE WHAT WE CAN GRAB, IT WON'T CAUSE WAR".

Love the line that the Incans saying "it's all fine guv" means you have to ignore all the severed heads outside Lima
 
Alba's meeting with Yanqui and QuizQuiz is amazing, this rollercoaster of uncertainty about what the Incans genuinely think and want and what, if anything, Ecuador can actually do (or if Alba's not literally going to get shanked there and then). You definitely get the impression Alba should've suggested Ecuador might take the Special Province deal
 
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