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Hello! My name is Mordred Viking, though some of you may know me as Gareth. I am a Content Designer on Hearts of Iron IV, and I very much wanted to see this nation given more content in the game because they contributed so much, but are often so little known.
As such, I’d like to present the real story of the plucky underdog: Belgium.
Behold! The Belgian Focus Tree! Plus a weird blurry bit in the middle. I wonder what that could be?
I had a couple of goals starting out with the design of Belgium. Firstly, I wanted to give them a chance to actually hold out. Secondly, if this failed, I wanted them to be fun to play in exile. Thirdly, I wanted to showcase the close relationship between Belgium and Congo. As is always the case in these diaries, please bear in mind that all you are about to see is a work in progress.
Overview
Right! So with those goals in mind, let’s start taking a closer look at what all this actually means.
Paul van Zeeland is the Prime Minister at the start of the game.
You can see from his fancy top hat, that he is clearly a very trustworthy fellow!
At the start of the game, Belgium finds itself in an interesting position. The memory of the Great War is still very much in mind, their economy still recovering from its impact and the countryside still scarred by the many trenches meandering through the fields of Flanders. In order to avoid a second Great War, the Belgians embarked on a policy of neutrality, much like the Dutch and Swiss. They even canceled their alliances with Britain and France, something which took both those nations by surprise as they had fought to protect Belgium previously.
The Chasseur Ardennais give Belgium some unique fighting options in terrain other nations would find too rugged.
The political landscape wasn’t much better, corruption plagued the government of Prime Minister Paul van Zeeland, causing a furor which was whipped up by the fascists under Leon Degrelle who demanded an investigation- we’ll talk more about this later! Complicating all this, Belgium is of course a nation of twin cultures, the French speaking Wallons and the Dutch speaking Flemish. To reflect all this, they have the above starting National Spirits.
Which to tackle first? Security or corruption?
Despite increasingly hostile rhetoric from neighbouring Germany, the Belgian government historically refused to sanction further military spending needed to bring state forces and defenses up to scratch without the promise of a declaration of neutrality from the crown, so that they could avoid being drawn into what they saw as other people’s wars. Simultaneously, Fascist agitation against the widespread government corruption can cause the Democratic government to resign, triggering political manoeuvring which can ultimately lead to any of the ideologies rising to power.
Military and Industry
Following the declaration that Belgium is “Independent, Neutral and Loyal”, you gain access to the defensive branch
The so-called Defensive branch is about, well, defending. When hostilities seem inevitable, Belgium would be wise to invest some time and resources into these. The Redoubt of Antwerp line will see the rise of impressive fortifications, while Belgian Gates and the Iron Wall act as force multipliers and improve the effectiveness of these defenses. The latter part of the branch provides additional defensive options, including the radical decision to really tap into Belgium’s position as one of the Low Countries, and saturate their enemies with more than just bullets.
The Belgians boast a number of powerful MIOs, particularly small arms producer FN Herstal who partnered closely with Browning (and would later go on to buy them).
Belgium’s army was surprisingly potent, having been able to muster 600,000 troops before the German invasion, with decent officers and well developed industrial support providing high quality equipment particularly in terms of infantry equipment and artillery. I’ve also chosen to tap a little into their WW1 penchant with armored cars to give them that option, and they can eventually overcome the Scars of WW1 and turn those experiences into their strength.
On the other side, education was important to the Belgian military, and high level courses in a wide range of different subjects were offered through the Royal Military Academy. Historically, Belgian integration into the British SAS met with excellent results, particularly in France… where being able to speak French was a real advantage... Quelle surprise? This combined with the Chasseur Ardennais modifiers, means that the Belgian Special Forces can indeed bring something powerful and unique to the battlefield.
For such an industrial nation, the Belgian industrial branch is curiously small…
I wonder why? Could there be another facet to this?
Although the economic situation facing Belgium at the start is quite poor, the scaling potential is quite impressive, with numerous ways to quickly get new factories up and running, and then to make those as efficient as possible. Historically, Belgian industry was in an interesting position, with companies having a very progressive attitude towards their employees, including the introduction of a 40 hour work week and paid vacations.
The cornerstone of Belgian industrial might was Cockerill, a company that suffered through the First World War, and continued manufacturing machines and ships throughout the interwar period and into the Second World War. Historically, they survived the conflict, maintaining high levels of employment manufacturing pig iron and trains rather than weapons for the occupiers. This gets to the heart of Belgian production at the time, trains, which were the primary export in the run up to war.
The Belgians were real innovators in the air, unfortunately their aeronautical industry never really took off in time.
Despite a good showing in the First World War, the Belgian Air Force was woefully under developed at the onset of the Second World War. The majority of Belgian aircraft in 1940 were old foreign planes, and despite a very brave attempt, the Belgians recorded only one German aircraft downed.
However, they did have some good home-grown design talent, particularly Alfred Renard who was a pioneer in the development of all-metal aircraft, and Nicholas Florine, the father of twin-rotor helicopters. Who knows what they could have achieved had that domestic industry been allowed to flourish.
The Belgians had a huge and flourishing port in Antwerp, not to mention overseas colonial possessions, so surely they had a mighty navy to protect it all?
The Navy in 1936 was… well, there wasn’t one. Despite being granted ships from Germany in the Treaty of Versailles, the Belgians disbanded their entire fleet in 1927 as a cost saving measure. This means that you have to start from scratch in order to develop a fleet at all. This focus branch therefore is all about doing just that. Thankfully, the Belgians are not without resources and capacity, with Antwerp particularly being capable of quickly bringing naval production online.
This highlights another facet of the Belgian game we’ve not yet touched on, their excellent capacity for diplomacy. Through having the right people in Government and developing Antwerp, Belgium can enjoy a significant advantage when buying resources on the world market, spending fewer civilian factories for each trade.
The Port of Antwerp can really help your trade
Political Introduction
Behold! Politics!
Now that we’ve talked about the industrial and military facets important to any Belgian game, let’s talk about the political sphere, the Democratic resistance, Fascist rise or Communist tough-decisions. Finally, the Monarchy was a real power within Belgium and can be involved in all branches, although just what role they will play remains to be seen - and of particular concern to the people of Belgium is precisely where the King’s loyalties lie.
Step one. Stamp on van Zeeland’s hat.
As we mentioned earlier, rife corruption is the first political hurdle to be overcome. In order to begin tackling those horrible corruption modifiers, Paul van Zeeland’s government will have to resign. This will call an immediate election, with two outcomes. Historically, the Emile Vandervelde’s Labour Party won the most votes, but did not have enough to form a majority government. Therefore they allied with Zeeland’s Catholic Bloc to get the numbers needed, and the Government of National Unity was formed with our main man, and master survivor, Paul van Zeeland at its head.
The other option is for Vandervelde to form his own minority government. While this will cause some instability, it will lead towards a left wing- possibly Communist path. We’ll talk about that in a bit.
Going back to the first option, unfortunately Paul van Zeeland is himself a ticking time bomb, and his luck can hold out only so long. The Fascist Leon Degrelle intensifies the corruption investigations, and reveals that, shock horror, Paul van Zeeland himself is implicated! This leads in time to the fall of the Government of National Unity.
“Don’t make me choose!” - King Leopold III probably.
King Leopold III himself steps and mounts a royal intervention, declaring for either the democratic Paul-Émile Janson, or acknowledging Degrelle’s work tackling the corruption inherent in the system and swearing Degrelle in as the new Prime Minister.
Historical Branch
The Historical branch is short and sweet, and it was definitely not an intentional design decision to give more time to spend on certain other parts of the focus tree. Nope, definitely nothing so nefarious.
The Historical branch focuses on stabilizing Belgium following all the chaos that has dogged the democratic side.
The first step is implementing Henri de Man’s economic policies (historically, he was the Minister of the Economy), in the amazingly named “Plan de Man” which helps relieve some of the pressure from “Economic Downturn”. This in turn leads to the Economic Recovery, though it does require the Dyle Plan. What is the Dyle Plan you ask? Well, it was the result of Belgium’s declarations of neutrality and breaking of their alliances with Britain and France.
Despite this public neutrality, Belgium was under no illusions about Germany’s intentions and maintained secret back channel negotiations with the Allied nations. The Dyle Plan was a military strategy where Belgium would resist invasion to the Dyle River line, allowing French and British troops time to arrive and assist in the defense, much like in the First World War. In game-terms, this increases the likelihood that Allied forces will actually come and help Belgium, rather than leave them to their fate.
Unfortunately, the Economic Recovery was something of an illusion, and Janson didn’t survive as Prime Minister, this time being toppled by Paul-Henri Spaak who is quite possibly the most important Belgian politician ever.
Seriously, look this guy up, he was quite impressive. He was Prime Minister of Belgium several times, first President of the United Nations (and sponsored the entry of the Soviets Union into the UN, ensuring there was a platform for the two Cold War rivals to talk), President of the European Coal and Steel Community (forerunner to the European Union), and finally General Secretary of NATO.
This leadership was first tested with the Adriaan Martens Crisis, where a Flemish Nationalist, WW1 German Collaborator and Fascist was appointed to the Royal College of Surgeons. Historically, Spaak did not survive this crisis, leading to his resignation and the arrival of Hubert Pierlot to the office of Prime Minister, although here you have the option to pay the political price and keep Spaak around, allowing you to call the Council of Europe, and form the European Union. Pierlot was the historical wartime leader of Belgium during the Second World War, and fled with his Foreign Minister (Spaak), Economic Minister (Gutt) and Minister of Colonies (Vleeschauwer) to London and formed the Belgian Government in Exile.
Now it is possible to just… not capitulate, in which case Pierlot can reverse the Belgian Neutrality and join a faction. If however, the worst should happen and Germany (or whomever) does successfully invade…
The King Surrenders
Remember that I had a couple of goals starting out with the design of Belgium: I wanted them to be fun to play in exile - therefore there is a reason to keep playing if this happens!
I won’t spoil the circumstances around just how this happens! You’ll have to play it to find out.
(We’re still waiting for La Dame Blanche icon art!)
The worst has happened, and Belgium has capitulated. Some of that blame will, rightfully or wrongly, fall on the King’s shoulders. Just how he is treated by the government in exile will determine whether he falls by the wayside, or becomes a figure around whom to rally resistance.
The historical path was to declare the King unfit to reign, and centralize resistance efforts around the Government in Exile in London. This path is all about gaining support from allies, and using the resources in Congo to fight back and reclaim Belgium.
The Prisoner King is a very plausible alternative path, and the real Exiles agonized about how best to mount the resistance. In this scenario, the King plays on his status as a prisoner in his own nation, using his influence to solidify Belgian resistance and begin a monarchist resurgence.
Fascist Branches
The rising power of the Fascists in Belgium have a lot of options open to them.
(We’re still waiting for Strength and Brotherhood icon art!)
Once Degrelle has been invited to take power as Prime Minister, he will need to make a choice between which Fascist group to support and empower. Degrelle will remain in power regardless of your choice here, this is because I absolutely cannot imagine him giving up that position once he’s got it, plus it was the King making *him* the Prime Minister, not the Fascists. They are still a minority in the country. As such, the decision here is not an indication of which faction is in power, but rather whose ambitions Degrelle is supporting.
There were two major factions at the time (and a whole myriad of smaller ones), and each has a broad set of goals they want to achieve but it can loosely be considered as follows:
- The Rexists are the “Fascist Nationalist” path - Build up Belgium itself
- The VNV are the “Fascist Expansionist” path - Make a bigger Belgium
- The middle shared path - Things both sides can do
The Rexists believed mostly in a strong Belgium and worked with many different groups to this end. They were the primary collaborator with Germany during the war, so in this branch they are very Germany-aligned (early designs even had them become a puppet!), and have the most to gain from an alliance with Fascist Germany. The main thing blocking this tall approach is internal Fascist support, so Degrelle will need to work at consolidating his grip on power within Belgium.
The VNV (Vlaamsch Nationaal Verbond) were historically Flemish nationalists, and didn’t want much to do with the Walloons. However, I really didn’t want to add yet another civil war, nor did I want to break up an already small country (because a player’s first action would be just to unite it again). As such I thought they’d be most about embiggening Belgium, uniting with their Dutch speaking brethren to the north, and invoking the old ideas of Burgundy. If they’re feeling super bold, they can go after France proper in a bid to recreate the old Roman province of Belgica, including the ability to core a number of French states which comprised Belgica historically.
The shared focus tree allows Fascist Belgium to do a number of things, including a peaceful union with Luxembourg, abandoning neutrality early in order to join factions or attack other nations, plus it gives them a number of tools to consolidate power and enhance the power of the state.
The Constitutional Crisis Branch - Turtle Belgium
What If Belgium held out? This is the branch to find out!
So Degrelle has come to power, but Hubert Pierlot, fearing what this would mean for the democratic traditions of the country, invokes Parliament’s own protections, declaring the King temporarily unable to reign before the monarch can sign the royal assent locking Degrelle in. This renders the appointment void, and Pierlot calls for a snap election. This will lead to King Leopold’s abdication, and Charles, Count of Flanders’ appointment as Royal Regent (Leopold’s brother).
For those questioning the realism of this, something similar actually happened in Belgium in 1990. King Baudouin didn’t want to sign a bill into law for personal religious belief reasons, so had himself declared temporarily unfit to reign, meaning Parliament could bypass royal assent.
The election is then between the Liberals, led by Pierlot and the Socialists, led by… you guessed it, Spaak! This gives Belgium a choice to gain Allied protections or go for another option- the Soviets. Internally, they build build build, combining defenses in this branch with the defensive branch will lead to some truly massive fortifications.
Belgian Maginot
Better than Maginot
Mobile Maginot!
Socialist/Communist Belgium
Belgian Socialists had some interesting opinions on Spain and Congo.
Going down the other path after that initial election, choosing the Vandervelde Minority sets Belgium on the path of Socialism. At the time, there was very little actual support for Communism, with even the trade unions being quite weak. This was because, as mentioned earlier, many large companies were already very socially aware and progressive for their time. As such, in game Belgium will generally remain Democratic in this branch, though there are ways of going Communist further down.
Therefore this branch is less about radical shifts in policy, and more about their diplomatic outlook. Belgium has the potential to provide significant support for the Spanish Republicans (something that Vandervelde historically pushed hard for). Similarly, Socialist attitudes in Congo were quite paternalistic, providing a strange combination of imperialism with socialist values. Finally, Socialist Belgium can send peacekeeping forces (volunteers) without turning their back on neutrality.
Ultimately, lines in the sand must be drawn, and Socialist Belgium can turn to the Soviets (with “Raise the Red Flag” flipping them Communist for gameplay reasons), or form the European Union.
Advisors, Commanders and other Bits and Bobs
Belgium has a broad set of skills at their disposal
Belgium has a good number of advisors, with a wide range of different abilities. Of note are:
Paul Henri Spaak, who can increase the amount of raw materials per civilian factory in trade. Did I mention he was kinda cool?
Edgar Sengier, who realized the importance of Uranium to atomic research, and so shipped the Belgian Uranium supplies to America before Germany could take them. He was also critical in reopening Uranium mining in Congo. It was his foresight that basically made the Manhattan Project even feasible. He boosts the speed of Nuclear Special Projects.
Walthere Dewe, leader of the Belgian resistance in WW1. Anticipating the German invasion, he went back into hiding just before the outset of WW2 to rebuild his networks, and led the resistance AGAIN. In-game he [strike][REDACTED][/strike].
Dieudonné Saive, the principal designer at FN Herstal, and who collaborated closely with Browning. He increases factory output, research speed and MIO funds gain.
I know this was a weapon of the 1950s, but hear me out!
While we’re on the topic of Saive, there is one slightly controversial topic that I just know will come up, so let's address it. I’ve chosen to include the FN FAL as the final tier of Belgian Small Arms. So why is this weapon, widely adopted in the 1950s by NATO forces, in a WW2 game? I sincerely believe that had Belgium not capitulated, then between Saive’s exceptional weapon design capabilities, his very close collaboration with John Browning and access to the German Sturmgewehr 44 that Belgium would have developed their own assault rifle in the latter years of the war.
As it was, the first prototype of this weapon was delivered in 1947 and it went into regular service in 1953. Ideally I’d have included this as a 1943-44 weapon, but as this is the final weapon tech in our tree this is where it had to go. After all, isn’t half the fun of these games the “what-if” scenarios?
The Chasseurs Ardennais rocked the iconic green berets, although they were worn longer on the side.
Belgium was fortunate in generally having a competent officer class. While many of the generals here will not be available from the start, there is a good selection of skills available. Despite this, Belgium starts with no Field Marshals, and while a couple of the above would make good candidates in the interim, they can recruit the two below later.
Make the right choices and King Leopold III can also take the field!
Now, Belgium didn’t have a navy during WW2, and therefore I could find no admirals… but wait! The unknown designer before me who had added a couple of Belgians to vanilla had included an admiral. At first I thought he was just randomly generated, but no. Turns out he was the chap responsible for rebuilding Belgium’s entire fleet post-war, so he’s in!
If you get him a navy, he will lead it for you!
I know many of you will be curious about the Belgian units, well here we are!
Belgian Soldier (left), Chasseur Ardennais (right)
Music
Before I sign off, there was one last thing I wanted to cover, and that’s audio. We have a super talented team who handles this, but it was the one area of development that I had never really collaborated with.
Therefore when we were told that each country would have 2 new music tracks added, I had zero idea about how to approach this. We had a sit down with the audio directors and composers who we’d work with, and they laid out the process. We then needed to find several reference pieces to give the general “sound”, as well as include the emotions we wanted the tracks to evoke.
Belgian Wartime Track : Proud, Stubborn, Defensive
Belgian Peacetime Track : Trepidation, Uncertainty, Loss
This was the general premise I provided for the peacetime track
I’ve got to say they absolutely nailed those notes, and I am super, super excited for you to hear these tracks when you play Belgium in Götterdämmerung!
Final Notes
That’s all we have for you for Belgium!
I can’t wait to see you all give it a try when we release, and I eagerly await the stories from your playthroughs!
Next time…
See you on the 4th of November!
Make sure to check out the Expansion Pass Here:
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3152810/Hearts_of_Iron_IV_Expansion_Pass_1
