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Hey guys! Just thought I'd leave a cool new video of Halo Wars 2 here. This is what I work on professionally. (Good thing they've got other people to make the infantry models!)

To really understand the USSR's actions during the RA1 timeline we have to go back to the aftermath of WWI. The Russian Empire went through a civil war in 1917 that caused Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia to gain a brief independence. Armenia, Georgia, and Azerbaijan were also established as independent states until proclaimed as Soviet Republics in 1922 and eventually absorbed into the Soviet Union. RA1 timeline stuff: In the 1940s, Stalin took back the Baltic States, some parts of Finland, and the east end of Poland. Due to the fall of the Nazi Party, some eastern parts of Germany are given to Poland--though I'm not a history buff so I can't say exactly why. In the 1950s, Stalin invades China and Europe, starting the events of RA1 (after Grandenko conquers Asia). Now, as for the US-Japanese war. Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor had not much to do with Germany's actions. In September 1940, the U.S. placed an embargo on Japan by prohibiting exports of steel, scrap iron, and aviation fuel to Japan because of Japan's takeover of north French Indochina. Soon after Japan's occupation of southern Indochina, the U.S., the Netherlands, and Britain froze Japan's assets, preventing Japan from buying oil. Japan saw two options: get the oil embargo lifted on terms that would still allow them to take the territory they wanted (Southeast Asia--for more oil), or prepare for war. General Tojo Hideki set November 29 as the final day on which Japan would accept a settlement without war. In order for their war plans to work, Hideki decided that Japan would need to cripple the U.S. Pacific Fleet, hence Pearl Harbor. In looking at these history, we have to answer some questions: 1) Since the Soviet Union had taken over East Asia, would they have allowed Japan to have the oil they wanted? a) Perhaps, in exchange for their pledge to the Soviet Union. Though if the USSR had allowed Japan to get around the West's trade bans, how would the West have reacted? 2) Why did some of Germany go to Poland? 3) If Japan was allowed to take Southeast Asia for oil, why did they still attack Pearl Harbor?

Einstein, could you take care of the derailing responses from MPRA2 and FRAYDO? Thx. As far as your last response Jeod, that definitely was mentioned pretty early on in the the soviet RA1 campaign, but there may have been less official involvement from the USSR, like we saw in our timeline with Vietnam. Remember that pre-WWII, China was already on the brink of civil war with the Communists and the Nationalists at each other's throats. Japan's invasion postponed that, so what may have happened, considering the events is that a strategic deal may have been struck where the U.S. would keep it's S.E. Asian holdings in turn for working with the USSR to eliminate the threat that Japan had on them and the USSR's holdings. This would become an uneasy partnership because it would mean the US agreeing to letting specific countries (Laos, cambodia, vietnam, China maybe, NK) annex into the Eastern block as it existed into the RA-pre GWWII universe. Essentially, the US-USSR agreement would look like this: 1. The US, USSR, and China would all work together to repel the Japanese invasion of mainland asia. 2. The US would limit involvement into SE Asian politics postwar. 3. The USSR would not directly intervene during communist revolutions and only accept new members when they came willingly into the fold (Post-Sino-Japanese war China, AKA, Gradenko's biggest achievement). 4. The US would be allowed to keep it's holdings in the Pacific and SE Asia. 5. The US and USSR would not go into a direct conflict with each other for an established period of time. This war, due to the lack of nuclear weapons, would not have forced a Japanese surrender and would have likely ended up with a mainland invasion of Japan with the U.S. leading the charge (the Chinese would be too invested in rebuilding to send too many troops and the USSR would have wanted to prevent US involvement when they invaded Europe). This would explain the Arizona and Iwo Jima monuments existence later on in the RA timeline and would give more of a reason as to why the US wouldn't have intervened when the USSR invaded Western Europe. After the fall of the USSR during RA1, the US would break this truce after setting up Romanov as the Premier.

Yeah, if it all pans out count me in. I'll throw in $100.