Kaiserreich's premise is RIDICULOUS. People don't get how fucking impossible it'd be for Germany to pull through in WW1 in a longer war. THERE WAS NO FUCKIN FOOD. THERE WAS A PLAGUE. They've actually scaled back the timeline, now the end was in 1919 but i swear it used to be in 1920.
also the US did not enter WW1 over submarine warfare. it's completely wrong to suggest they wouldn't have entered if the Germans stopped hitting their ships
but whatever, we accept the premise is wrong. lets pick at the setting:
Ottomans still existing : :haram:
Divided italy: :haram:
Divided Argentina: :haram:
French royalists in Africa :haram: :france-cool: :haram:
German Africa: :haram:
spanish civil war : :haram:
so much of the worldbuilding revolves around giving regions a war to do, something to unify, without regard for how it'll mesh with the World War that the game is about.
Kaiserreichs portrayal of ideology also BLOWS
"What if the :lmayo: did Gommunism instead of perfidious slavs:waluigi-stalin: ", wouldn't it be good and amazing and dEmOCraTiC????? have you heard of sydicalism bro? nah bro, this Gommunism isnt Authoritarian bro, thats why real life communism failed, too Authoritarian
I subscribe to the view that the Devs are predominantly/originally Radlibs which is why Syndicalism is so lauded and MLs are put into the same camp as Nazbols.
i can go on but this post feels extremely online already, fight you in the comments
In fairness, the lead dev behind the mod said he wanted to focus on a more interesting world scenario than a plausible one, so I don't mind the inherent silliness in the starting scenario. The biggest problem, admittedly, is the disconnected "world" war but I think the setting shines in spite of that. Plus, I don't care how silly the Second ACW and the Qing Empire still surviving are, since breaking the chains as the CSA and LKMT is just :chefs-kiss:
MLs are put into the same camp as Nazbols
Yeah, that tends to happen with "Totalism". Some Totalist leaders are based, like Bose and Padmore, but otherwise it's a dumb meme ideology. It was originally only supposed to be a reflection of the fact that Syndicalists like Sorel historically flirted with Fascist ideology, but later it just became a big tent of le Authoritarianism. At the very least, Marxists and "Marxist-Leninists" (or whatever their equivalent is in this TL) are getting better representation through "Radical Socialists" in the upcoming update (like in the Commune of France).
Have you heard of Krasnacht? It's a WIP sequel to KR featuring the beginning of the Internationale-Savinkovist Russia Cold War. It's written by actual Marxists and Socialists (with some SocDems) who do away with the "Totalist" nonsense so I recommend checking it out.
Krasnacht
i dont think it has one yet, here is the subr*ddit if you want to read about the lore
Just a warning but a lot of the lore (like the "most current" map of Europe, for example) is out-of-date due to some creative changes.
mid-2022 if we're lucky :deeper-sadness:
You can hop on the discord, in the meantime. A new teaser is coming pretty soon, too.
ty ty I'm looking for a hoi4 mod to grab my attention but TNO is too much like a book, TWR always turns out jank for me, and I've played a bunch of kaiserreich :/ I tried Red World but it looks like Bernie is the only fleshed out path in the entire mod lol
Of course! There's another upcoming mod, Spartakus, which is also being written by communists. You can probably guess what the premise is, based on the name.
Also, Equestria at War, a fucking MLP mod, is somehow less lib about Socialist ideology than most other mods, so I'd check that out.
MLs are put into the same camp as Nazbols
This is the biggest thing for me. Totalism is like a caricature of confused liberal notions of "authoritarianism".
Although admittedly I do still enjoy playing it. It might not make any sense, but the world is detailed and fun to play around in. And the CSA is cringe in a lot of ways but in others ways a real wish-fulfillment fantasy.
i like their china content. it goes way deeper than vanilla, even if they had to wrap it around kaiserreich weirdness
they are gonna add Zhou Enlai as a leader of the left KMT, i hope they keep him as a communist
He's part of the "Radical Socialist" Faction of the KMT, so yeah. What's weird is how Soong is labelled as a "SocDem" since she was far more radical than Wang Jingwei, but I guess it's because they have to work with HOI4's party system.
you totally should, its easily the most plausible and well researched content in the mod. i heard a person who specialized in japanese manchuria did the writing for Fengtien
but they make Zapata a syndicalist and that doesnt make sense when he was an agrarian socialist, i like that the socialist republic of chile survived
i thought that pancho villa was the radsoc? well if they changed it then thats good
https://kaiserreich.fandom.com/wiki/Emiliano_Zapata
Says so here, unless they changed it within the last year or so in the other direction (last time I played) and it hasn't been reflected in the wiki.
They’re both RadSoc. One is the leader at game start while the other is a potential successor.
I have played a LOT of Kaiserreich, started a new game yesterday. I love it but I have to say I am very glad to see this being discussed here. The "no that wasnt real communism" thing and the Syndicalism fantasy are frustrating. It really does feel to easy for the UoB and Commune to exist so intact despite Germany winning and somehow maintaining AH and the Ottomans.
There is a lot of libshit in there, stuff like the Peru left path doing the "Incan socialism" thing which it correctly calls out as a simplification, but portrays as the "evil communists trick the naïve populace. I go out of my way to almost always play totalist, even if the ideology is a fucking meme. The lack of socialist paths in Asia, and the complete lack in the ME aside from Persia is really saddening.
the idea that Austria Hungary and the fucking Ottomans could limp through a war that long, and then another DECADE AND A HALF afterwards without imploding is wild. like I know there's a thing about the revolts in the Austrian empire, but there's no fucking way Austria could have kept that shit together let alone reassert their authority and recentralise like a decade after that like you can in KR so fucking easily. the Arabs and Iranians do rise up and fight the Ottomans, but like again the Ottomans were literally called the fucking sick man of Europe, they were a declining empire that the French and British were able to incite rebellion against very easily. they would have shattered, even if the CP won.
the whole thing with the bull moose party is dumb, I absolutely agree, but what I find even more wild is that a post war Germany then invaded and fought the Bolsheviks after fighting France. like what the fuck. why did German soldiers not mutiny after being sent to another meat grinder in Russia they had just fucking finished in like several years before. Germany should be a battered mess in 1936, with a lost generation and a limping economy because of it, not the preeminent power in Europe.
I have put probably thousands of hours into Kaiserreich, but I absolutely agree that for a mod that takes itself so seriesly on setting and plausable world building, it's central premise is flawed, as are so many of the civil wars which exist to create content and branching paths. America in the depression did come pretty close to a civil war more than once honestly, but the idea the federal government, west coast libs, and southern democrat reactionaries would not all be on the same side against communists is just so contrived it's laughable, same in Iberia with the Spanish monarchist factions fighting one another than against the CNT.
as based as the union of Britain is, it's actually wild how many members of the aristocracy and upper class those fuckers seem to have kept around in their politicians and general staff like holy shit no wonder there's a coup path there. it's also just so implausible Britain would fall to syndicalist revolution rather than ultra nationalism honestly, we're talking about the British empire at it's height loosing a long fought war here. in France, this makes sense if hyperbolic, in Britain it just makes you go like what?
I have so many more things I could rant about with KR lmao, don't fucking get me started on totalism equating Marxism with actual fascists
THE FUKIN SPANISH CIVIL WAR SHOULDNT EXIST
a) we've got a damn American civil war +/- several more, its extraordonarily unnecessary, nevermind outdone by vanillas version since espionage
b) the changes to the timeline had to change Spain's politics. yall really expect Spain'd be trottin along like it was with Commies next door?
the actual spanish civil war was deeply informed by events in the Rif War, could/did that even happen in KR?
c) tbh the splittin of factions is a believable part if theres not a Franco figure(idr if francos in kaiserreich) to kick them all---Carlists fought several wars over flavors of conservatism theyd be willin to be splitters
nothing about the rif war is ever mentioned, also Franco is a lib in KR which is VERY FUNNY. you can get him as like a conservative iirc? but yeah lmao we've seen how deeply anti communist countries get when revolutions happen, the CNT would have been executed the second they started to organise with the Commune of France right next door. Carlism was and still is a real thing in Northern Spain that has launched civil wars before, but with the CoF RIGHT THERE the reactionaries would likely go "hey guys, this is probably not the best idea to weaken ourselves while the syndies could come fuck our shit up at any time? especially as we have this huge syndicalist movement taking up an equal 3rd of our nation"
i need to stop thinking about this cause i keep finding problems
tldr no fucking way the primo de rivera coup is gonna happen, no way franco is gonna be a top dog, no way the CNT is as organized & prominent, no way the spanish are a neutral power with many ideologies to fight each other in a civil war
liberals tolerate a neighboring monarchist regime. frog communist revolutionaries couldnt help themselves to fucking with spain and the Germans'd be damn fools to not be propping up the reactionaries (long before the KR game start date)
so much of Kaiserreich underestimates anti communist mentalities in liberals and treats them as these like principled people who hate 'authoritarians' , and that reactionaries wouldn't form a united front against communism with liberals and one another. this is why Austria/Netherlands/Switzerland/Spain staying out of the 2WC makes literally no sense when it happens, they know France would come for them next, the entire ACW could never have so many groups as they're all racist white coloniser reactionary trash who agree on everything including hating the reds and Canada would immediately help the feds as they themselves already lost to one revolution. and so on and so on that just treats reactionaries as idiots who can't see their own downfall coming.
also like, black monday causes like 5 civil wars within a year or so. the great depression obviously did lead to regime change and a lot of violence, but that was due to preexisting conditions and took years even within the depression to kick in. in KR it's like black monday happens and 2 weeks later everybody has decided they're a syndicalist now with a huge armed movement behind that
hey the ACW could have at least three factions, if the mexicans get involved
imo itd either be two factions--Feds v. socialists
or an extremely unreasonable multitude ala syria or china--assuming the Feds completely implode, you get States and army remnants, plus socialists and fractured reactionary groups.. i think one of the KR submods has a really complicated ACW like this
as my username might suggest, couping the leftist Britain to bring back the old order is not exactly something I've done in KR recently or ever, I just knew it used to be a path at least. but it still stands they have people like Mosley who was a literal knight ffs and became a tory MP right after the war
You have convinced me, I will never play HoI4 again because of this.
spoiler
totally because of this and not because I'm really bad at it
i think ill re-pirate hoi4 when the next update with trains and supply lines comes out
ARMORED TRAIN SIMULATOR 2021
