BMN/FasterThanRaito's Hoi4/Paradox inspired maps

[FasterThanRaito]

Continued from CSA game #86

After the Destruction of the Confederate States in 1880, the United States re-integrated the South, freeing the slaves. America was a war-hardened power ready engage in brutal imperialism to fuel its ravenous industrial economy with foreign resources and markets. The former African colonies of the CSA came under official American control, and soon America was expanding to Pacific Islands, declared war on Spain, and built the Panama Canal.

America also joined the German-French super-alliance to take down the British from the #1 spot. This was a resounding success, and Canada was integrated as new states in the union.

America settled mostly into digesting its new conquests while playing the influence game in Latin America to control markets there. However, in Europe the diplomatic situation remained turbulent.

The Franco-German alliance broke down, resulting in a power vacuum that lead to no less than 5 additional world wars, in which various European powers rose and fell in quick succession. Colonies shuffled around, and revolutions stirred. The chaos continued until 1930.

The USA, having been cornered by the Germans, lost most overseas colonial territory, but remained the world's largest economy.
Spain, France, and Netherlands were finished as world powers. Italy was on its last legs, while Portugal and Scandinavia were on the rise thanks to their partnership with Germany.

Russia remained isolated and weak, succumbing to a fascist revolution to restore its lost glory.

However, moving into the 1930's the short peaceful decade was but the deep breath before the final plunge.

The various countries of Europe, after witnessing the horrors of war and political extremism, managed to stabilize themselves with conservative democratic systems, notably lead by Germany's constitutional monarchy. However, the British remained the odd one out, having remained Communist. This friction lead to the beginning of World War 7.

The Italians adopted a Radical government, as so were invaded by German their Democracy-enforcing coalition. The action in Africa gave the British the excuse to intervene on the side of Italy. British entry in the war prompted the Russian and Turkish alliance to join the side of Germany against the British, since the Russians had been in low-intensity war with China, a British ally.

The USA was fermenting coups in the various latin american countries that did not reform their governments enough, finally the USA resorted to invading the British Caribbean, and expanding the war to Brazil and Mexico to make the whole of South America their puppets.

Since the USA was now at war with the entire Commonwealth, The United States figured it could also integrate Australia and New Zealand. From Hawaii, the USA prepared its armies of elite marine landing forces. With a shiny new state-of-the-art navy, they swept across the Pacific, seizing island after island in a lightning war, quickly overwhelming all defenses.

The American navy, not only technically advanced in its ship design, but now more numerous than all the navies in Europe on both sides combined, put the British to blockade, liberating Ireland, and ending the war.

 

[FasterThanRaito]

I have made 100 posts, which included 106 games/countries.

6 were non Hoi4 games
9 started as vic2 and got converted to hoi4,
of which 1 post was the first part, later finished in a second post
4 posts were double games, where I counted two countries at the same time
1 post had 5 consecutive play-throughs
80 were single country games

Hoi4 has 4 major ideology groups, with others that are added as part of mods.

The 100 Hoi4 games are shown here distributed by frequency of country played by ideology group.

Modded countries that have no vanilla hoi4 national equivalent were grouped into "Other".

The most frequently played country was Russia, followed by France. Germany and United States tied for 3rd/4th, with Spain and China in 5th and 6th respectively.

As far as patterns go, I notice that it is much more likely to choose a democratic path if one plays a larger power, while smaller countries with less power/flavor are slightly more likely to go with either communist or fascist paths, possibly since militarist ideologies make expansion easier.
The main outlier to these patterns is France, which heavily favors communism

 

[qazse]

I have a new idea.

There's this recent mod called "Red Banners" which overhauls Yemen with a huge focus tree (250+ focuses), a multitude of events, decisions and characters, and four pathways to choose from.

Do you think you could do a run of Yemen with this mod, choose the Islamist (fascist) path, and conquer all of Europe under the red banner?

 

[FasterThanRaito]

Played a large Galaxy with plenty of planets and primitives. Each Galactic State is composed purely of their founder species population. The Core, despite its huge population, is 100% the original species.

In this case, the dominant species was an aquatic species with high adaptability and fast reproduction, to spread to as many worlds as quickly as possible. By employing advanced terraforming technology, many otherwise uninhabitable planets were converted to oceanic worlds, sometimes even with crudely employed apocalyptic flooding from the the terrifying Colossus Superweapon. For the first two centuries, the Ocean-based Empire was pacifist and xenophobic, completely forgoing diplomacy and interaction to concentrate on their inward society and peaceful expansion by procreation. But once the Galactic community formed, the Empire leveraged its massive economic and military power into instantly become sole custodian of all Galactic life, eventually subjecting all states to an international union which took the name of "The Galactic Empire".

The inward social focus was abandoned for an authoritarian and militaristic outlook in order to guide the rest of the Galaxy with in iron fist, with plans to purge all inferior life forms to appropriate their planets for settlement by the multitudes of the founder species population.

However, late-game lag was too terrible to allow for these plans to be implemented...

 

[GloomyTremere]

TWR as Zhukov (Kosygin faction)

 

[FasterThanRaito]

IT LIVES

I have been patiently waiting for the new expansion to come out, and now that it is, I cam enjoying throwing myself back into this after months away. It's been so long ever my username is different!

I'm sorry to all the people requesting kaiserreich or TNO, but I am focusing on vanilla scenario right now. I was okay trying a few of the more complicated overhaul mods, but I don't think that's the direction I will be going in for the time being. If a particular scenario/challenge strikes my fancy I may be open to it, still.


Anyway, on with the story:

After embarrassing military failures in Ethiopia, Italy extricated itself from the war in disgrace and put the blame on Mussolini and his mismanagement. He was overthrown in a violent coup which descended into a civil war.
The socialist party at first held the upper hand, and Italy briefly became a communist state, but once the civil disturbance was over, democratic elections were held and the Italian socialists transitioned to west-leaning liberal hybrid that was not on-board with the Soviets.

The Soviets themselves disposed of Stalin, preferring to focus East on China and Japan instead of Europe.

They must have felt confident due to the disappearance of fascist movements and their replacement with monarchists. Germany and Austria-Hungary revived their imperial status, while France returned to Bourbon rule, the UK gave power to the king as well.

In Spain, the Republicans won with Italian aid, though Portugal and Navarre became client kingdoms of France, which had intervened on the side of the Carlists, who managed to avoid open war with the central Spanish government and thus through Italian-French diplomacy stayed independent.

The world war started when Britain invaded Ireland, sparking war with the free dominions and Italy, but the war went global when Germany and Austria-Hungary invaded Poland and Czechia, which drew France in on the side of their Eastern European allies.

Germany, experience success on the Eastern Front, pushed onwards and invaded the Soviet Union. Due to having focused on China, the Soviets were unprepared to repel the invasion and were pushed back deep into their territory, at the gates of Stalingrad.
France was also on the ropes, with joint British and German invasion on the gates of Paris.
Italy sent in its best tank divisions, along with the gathered armies of exiled Dutch and Belgian militaries, and managed to push the Germans back. Then, the invaded the soft underbelly of the Axis by invading Austria-Hungary. From there, they pushed North, invading Germany and seizing Berlin.

The Allies did not have the naval resources to destroy the Royal Navy for an invasion of Britain, but eventually, the French and Italians were able to bait out the Royal Navy to battle in the Atlantic, which cost the Italians almost all of their heavy ships, but enough destroyers and submarines were left to ferry an army over the channel, and with the lightning capture of London, the war was over in Europe.

Back in Asia, Japan was just finish its own civil war, which ended soon after the Chinese re-captured Manchukuo.

 

[FasterThanRaito]

Finland readied itself for the coming storm by arming itself to the teeth. At first, the border guard was directed to the eastern border with the Soviet Union. But with the Soviet civil war resulting in Trotsky taking charge, creating the opportunity for a peaceful diplomatic solution to potential territorial disputes. With the east secured, Finland turned towards its goal of unifying the Nordic countries. Finland guaranteed the independence of many countries that might be target by German aggression.

The Kaiser's first victim was Poland, which was quickly divided between Molotov and Ribbentrop.
The British Empire joined the war in China by allying with the Nationalists against the rogue Manchurians who rebelled from Japan. Together, the British, Germans, and Chinese took the war against the rest of the world, invading democratic and communist countries across Europe and Asia.

The German-British invasion of the Soviet union was gaining ground, and Moscow was in danger.
In order to pre-empt a Soviet collapse, which would have resulted in a direct invasion of Finland, Finnish armies resolved to go into the Soviet Union as friendly liberators to stop the common enemy.

After fending off many large British amphibious assaults, Finnish armored cavalry began a great envelopment maneuver to cut off many German divisions in Estonia. After that, another envelopment recaptured Moscow. Finally, a charge straight down Smolensk to Konigsberg cut off a huge pocket at Courland. With German armies spread out across Europe, they did not respond quickly enough as Finnish and Soviet units punched through Poland into the German heartland.

Scandinavian countries joined the Allies, jumping on the victory bandwagon now that the immediate border threat had been dealt with.

Eventually, the Americans blockaded the British into submission, and with the Chinese capitulation to the Japanese-American offensive, the British agreed to unconditional surrender and were occupied by the US.

 

[James the AH Fan]

Finland readied itself for the coming storm by arming itself to the teeth. At first, the border guard was directed to the eastern border with the Soviet Union. But with the Soviet civil war resulting in Trotsky taking charge, creating the opportunity for a peaceful diplomatic solution to potential territorial disputes. With the east secured, Finland turned towards its goal of unifying the Nordic countries. Finland guaranteed the independence of many countries that might be target by German aggression.

The Kaiser's first victim was Poland, which was quickly divided between Molotov and Ribbentrop.
The British Empire joined the war in China by allying with the Nationalists against the rogue Manchurians who rebelled from Japan. Together, the British, Germans, and Chinese took the war against the rest of the world, invading democratic and communist countries across Europe and Asia.

The German-British invasion of the Soviet union was gaining ground, and Moscow was in danger.
In order to pre-empt a Soviet collapse, which would have resulted in a direct invasion of Finland, Finnish armies resolved to go into the Soviet Union as friendly liberators to stop the common enemy.

After fending off many large British amphibious assaults, Finnish armored cavalry began a great envelopment maneuver to cut off many German divisions in Estonia. After that, another envelopment recaptured Moscow. Finally, a charge straight down Smolensk to Konigsberg cut off a huge pocket at Courland. With German armies spread out across Europe, they did not respond quickly enough as Finnish and Soviet units punched through Poland into the German heartland.

Scandinavian countries joined the Allies, jumping on the victory bandwagon now that the immediate border threat had been dealt with.

Eventually, the Americans blockaded the British into submission, and with the Chinese capitulation to the Japanese-American offensive, the British agreed to unconditional surrender and were occupied by the US.

View attachment 781074

What's going on in Iberia? Anarchist regime or something?

 

[qazse]

Hey @FasterThanRaito, could you try The New Order as Taboritsky’s Komi?

 

[FasterThanRaito]

What's going on in Iberia? Anarchist regime or something?

Yes, though don't you think anarchy would be the opposite of "regime"? LOL

Hey @FasterThanRaito, could you try The New Order as Taboritsky’s Komi?

I've already done Komi once, and I don't think I will return to yet another splintered USSR microstate any time soon. Sorry but I've already done that three times now and won't do it again unless it's a Mongolia-centric one, since I haven't done a Genghis restoration scenario/achievement yet.

Now, Australia time!

Britain was thrown into chaos over the scandal that was the royal marriage. Parts of the empire took the opportunity to make themselves independent by claiming the king to be illegitimate and unfit to rule the realms.
However, some dominions stayed loyal to the king. Australia never abandoned the commonwealth and stayed true to England. India at first seemed like it was on the path of independence, but disagreements over partition lead to a vicious civil war between India and Pakistan. Then after that, India saw a communist rebellion take some of the countryside. The colonial governors didn't care enough about Pakistan, but communist revolution was too much and so India was quietly re-admitted to the British Empire as a military ally.

With Australia loyal and India back in the fold by its own choice, Britain went about re-uniting the Empire and wider Anglosphere. Ireland was invaded and conquered, and then a diplomatic incident lead to Britain prematurely declaring war on the USA before Canada and South Africa could be secured.

This caused trouble as the American fleet sailed to the Atlantic where it destroyed much of the British fleet, forcing it to hide in port while England was blockaded. However, the action in the Atlantic allowed the Australians to run wild in the Pacific. Guam was captured easily by marines, and then the Philippines surrendered after their ports were captured, stranding the American soldiers there.

Eventually Hawaii and New Zealand were conquered by Australia, with these two territories being directly integrated into the Federation and given civilian government, unlike the other Asian and African territories that were to be conquered and colonized.

India and Imperial forces subjugated all of India's neighbors. This was complicated by the fact that France and its European Entente had joined the democratic USA-aligned powers. France was already at war the resurgent German Empire, though the Germans made the mistake of declaring war on Soviets at the same time as they were betrayed by Austria-Hungary, which resisted giving up Austrian and Czech territories to German Anschluss and instead joined with France.

The Soviets did not have an easy time pushing the Germans back, as they were helping China defeat the Manchukuo army which was orphaned due to a Civil War in Japan. The Democratic government in Japan won, but then ended up at conflict with the Soviets over the fate of Korea. The Dutch east indies defected to Japan and cut off their supply of oil to the rest of the world.

Anyway, Australian Marines invaded French Vietnam and South Africa, claiming large swaths of colonial territory for the Empire. Eventually, a new source of oil had to be secured, so Australia and India cooperated in the invasion of the middle east, with Australian mechanized infantry having the honor of restoring the Suez canal from French occupation.

Despite these stunning victories on the peripheral theatres, England was in a tight spot, with American raids and blockade destroying England's ability to continue the fight. Something drastic had to be done. The Germans were also being squeezed from fighting on both west and east fronts, and it looked like neither power would last long.
Australia began its daring plan by landing an entire marine army on the coast of California. This move took the Americans completely by surprise, and the few garrisons there were easily disabled by a powerful network of spies that Australia had carefully grown since the start of the war.

Having captured the infrastructure of the American west intact, Australia could support an entire field army on the American mainland, and swiftly drove across the Great Plains to the Mississippi River, where the main defense line halted the Australian invasion.

At this point, the Bulgaria and Finland have capitulated to the communists, and much of western Germany was in the hands of the French. Scotland was in open rebellion with American and French aid, with battles raging in North England due to uncontested American control of the channel.

However, having assembled modern infantry fighting vehicles for the entire army, Australia was able to break through the defense lines and captured the rest of the USA. But not fast enough to save Germany, which finally broke and surrendered.

Japan also surrendered, with its government being replaced by a fascist coup that collaborated with the Soviets to help them end the war faster.

The war is technically still not over, as although the British and Communists managed to remain neutral towards each other, the French are still at war with the British, and have the naval power to keep up the blockade indefinitely, however thanks to Australian advances in Nuclear technology, there is a new card on the table with which to negotiate a cessation of hostilities.

In order to prevent the invasion of French territory, France agreed to release Tunisia and Morocco as neutral buffer states, though Morocco quickly became a pro-Iberian socialist republic.

 

[qazse]

How about Kaiserreich as Afghanistan?

 

[FasterThanRaito]

For extra difficulty, I started with a fully decolonized/balkanized world

Traumatized by the First World War, France had retreated behind the safety of the Maginot, languishing in the decadence afforded to it by its liberal government.
However, with the resurgence of Germany, a society of French patriots had realized that the time had come to face the problems of the world head-on.

The first step would be to do away with democracy in order to create the militarized government necessary for the re-unification of France and final defeat of the German threat.
An interesting opportunity presented itself when Hitler was suddenly assassinated from within by a conspiracy to restore the Weimar era democracy.
Although the Nazis were the "enemy" the the fascists had used to justify taking power, they were now a convenient ally to crush the nascent German restoration state from two fronts, while Germany's armies were distracted fighting each other in Saxony and Brandenburg.

French armies poured into the Rhineland in a breakthrough maneuver facilitated by the precious few mechanized divisions. However, the Hungarians re-united Austria-Hungary and joined the Germans against the Nazis. This diplomatic disaster allowed the Germans and Austro-Hungarians to halt the French advance just long enough to crush the remnant of the Nazis holding their last stand around Berlin.

Now, a quick word about game mechanics. Due to the reduced size of France, we technically are not a great power, and since only Nazi Germany is the faction leader, when they capitulate no other great powers remain in the war, meaning the entire faction automatically surrenders and a peace-conference is initiated... Normally this would be Game Over, but it looks like fate has something else in store for us.

Still, no matter how you slice it, the situation... does not look good.

Our entire army's manpower has been marched off to POW camps, most of our industry and all of our natural resources are no longer accessible due to war reparations, Germany has taken back Alsace and also demilitarized Lorraine and Champagne. Our entire navy is confiscated and a new puppet government is installed with non-aligned ideology.

At first I was pretty frustrated, but after some thought decided that this was a unique opportunity to crawl our way back on top from the lowest of the low.

Step one is the put the fascists back in power. That is relatively simple. Step two is to increase our autonomy until we are not longer a subject state of Germany. That will take some patience, but with the correct decisions and government policies that will be achieved. In the meantime we re-industrialize and pump out as many rifles as possible to re-create a field army. We don't need a lot, just enough to intimidate Belgium into surrendering Wallonia to us. This diplomatic path is available to us now that we are allied with Germany and can cooperate on divvying up spheres of influence in the Low Countries.

With Belgium in our pocket and autonomy high enough that we can declare our own wars again, finally some excellent luck comes our way. First, Germany declares war on Poland for Danzig. This is great because being at war means our justify wargoal time is significantly reduced. Second, Switzerland's government has taken a fascist turn and has asked us to be their overlord! The give us two armies of tiny militia divisions I would normally consider worthless, but now that they are half our total division numbers and helped us fill out a complete field army, that is good enough for my purposes.

We declare war on Occitania to re-unify France. Heavily outnumbering the Southerners thanks to the extra Swiss divisions, we blitz through the country. Not only has our factory count skyrocketed, we captured plenty of equipment and even half of Pre-division France's navy! We repeat the same for Brittany, then Navarre-Vasconia. With that, all our cores are recovered except for Algeria, which we will get to later.

Then, still benefiting from wargoal justify time bonuses and also having England too distracted to guarantee neutral countries, We invade Aragon, then Piedmont, Corsica, Papal States, Netherlands, and the rest of Italy. Having captured a significant navy along the way, we finally can invade Algeria and complete the colonial investment projects that will bring long-term benefit to our new empire.

However, there is a snag. The Communists and Manchurians in Asia have defeated China and have turned their gaze to Europe.

The Spanish republic declares war on us to recover the eastern half of Iberia, bringing the rest of the Communists into war with us. We do not want to call Germany as an ally into this war, because if we are not in a war together, I can backstab them and defeat them easily when they still believe us to be allies.

So we defeat Spain, and since we have no other borders with communist countries we don't have to worry about the Soviets and can focus on getting ready to invade Germany. At this point, I have assembled enough vehicles to motorize most of my regular army, as well as put together a tank army, with the reserve field army being populated by the swiss which I will use as auxiliaries on the Austrian front. We will trick Austria-Hungary into declaring war on Germany so that they will work for us during our betrayal of Germany until we can turn around and crush them too as revenge for how they screwed everything up in the first place. How are we going to accomplish all this? Well Germany has guaranteed a country, Turkey to be exact. The only snag is that Turkey is also guaranteed by England, but since the England just had a communist revolution they might join the soviets in war against us sooner rather than later anyway.

So, I prepare the war justification and once it is complete I kick Germany from the faction and instantly declare war on Turkey. Due to the diplomatic promise, Germany must instantly join the war against me. And since the Austrians joined the war against Turkey without realizing that Germany would be the enemy, they had agreed, and now my army has a very long border from which to sweep over all German territory.

Everything goes swiftly at first, but eventually we outrun our supply lines. The rest of the world is embargoing us so we also have to oil to use for fuel for tanks and trucks. With the initial reserves gone, Germany is able to recall their divisions and form a defensive line across the country. There is parity in the air, and they have already lost control over much of their industry so victory is only a matter of time.

However, France is running out of time. All its armies are fully committed to the invasion of Germany with zero strategic reserve, and thus at that moment, British divisions begin disembarking on Normandy beaches... It is a race against time and the supply issues render the tanks dead weight while the infantry grind forward with renewed urgency. Holes appear in the front lines and a single motorized divisions manages to punch its way into Berlin, but the British have finished landing their army in Northern France and are spreading out capturing much of the French countryside, Paris is days away from capture to the British!

The Swiss come in clutch as a fresh army they raised is ready for service as comes diving in the save France at the last moment. Although they are just militia, having the home field advantage on the receiving end of amphibious invasion means the few brave rifles are enough the halt the British right outside Paris.

With the British attack halted, the Germans surrender. France can now take its fleet, which had been lying it wait for this moment, to strike out and contest the channel just long enough to land some divisions for an amphibious counter-attack that will capture London and put an end to the war. The French navy is intercepted and most heavy ships are lost in a crushing engagement, but their sacrifice pays as it buys just enough time for a handful of tanks to make it ashore and secure the port at dover. The road to London is open. At this moment, the British fascists seize their opportunity. Having long been frustrated by the collapse of the colonial empire, the British fascists take the landing of French troops as their signal to begin their rebellion.

Thanks to this, France does not need to fight its way up Britain and instead can sue for peace so that the British and French can finally go back to their homes.

Peace is bought with the Soviets by turning over eastern Poland, and selling out the Baltics, which had been attempting to resist the Soviet integration there.

Switzerland is rewarded for its great service by being granted the alpine territories that formerly belonged to Austria.

Also, India and Turkey take on French puppet governments due to their participation in the war on the allied side, despite not having been directly invaded. Looks like this exploit also go turned around in our favor this round!

The Manchurians fought the Soviets over China but lost, and the Japanese secured their communism with another Civil War thanks to Soviet intervention.

France can now spend its time reforming its global empire with a free hand.... just staying away from anglophone, democratic, or socialist countries so as not to provoke intervention from the USA or Soviets.

 

[xmoose]

Sorry but I've already done that three times now and won't do it again unless it's a Mongolia-centric one, since I haven't done a Genghis restoration scenario/achievement yet.

What about Mongolia then? (ideally Kaiserreich... Ungern-Sternberg!)

 

[FasterThanRaito]

After the fall of Germany to the barbaric despotism of the fascist regime, the German people yearned to re-establish a democratic society. Various groups who were dissatisfied with the Nazis collaborated with non-nazi elements in the military, resulting in a civil war to depose Hitler.

The war was swift and successful, however due to the fragmented nature of the anti-nazi coalition, and the lack of qualified government ministers, many former nazis who repented were pardoned and invited back into service.

Then, the great disappointment. Contrary to the wishes of the people, the "temporary" military government invited the Kaiser back to take over a reformed German Empire. The military argued that to protect Germany, a strong military was more important than democracy, and the Kaiser's men had the expertise to start a large naval expansion project to create a navy to rival that of the British/French alliance, a navy that the democratic factions could never hope to assemble.

Along with the navy, the military government established a substantial air force and paratrooper arm. The idea was that while the navy might not be ready to go toe-to-toe with the British fleet by 1940, the paratroopers would come in handy for the invasions of Western Europe.

However, the great mistake of the military was the rapid expansion of the army using shortly-trained conscripts. This resulted in a military populated by people very close to the general public. And the general public was veering far-left in their distaste of the right-wing authoritarians that constantly blocked the path to freedom. Instead, the Social Democrats promised that a socialist revolution would restore democracy. While popular dissent fermented, Germany reclaimed Austria, and Demanded the Sudetenland from the Czechs. But the Czechs refused, and Germany decided to invade.

This brought Germany into war with Yugoslavia and Romania, and after a swift war, most of the Balkans was subjugated to Germany. Italy had joined the war to protect their interests in Yugoslavia, but the Italians too were defeated in short order.

While the military government was distracted with the war, the civilian government was infiltrated by communist elements and eventually with secret government support the Social Democrats demanded an emergency election, one which the communists would win. In a bloodless coup, the government swept away the Kaiser and monarchists, establishing the German Democratic Republic.

However, thanks to the success of the military, revolutionaries in Germany dreamed of uniting all of Europe. The Soviet Union was already on the forefront of expanding socialism by allying with Ethiopia, Kurdistan, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Chinese communists. In Iberia, the Spanish revolution was successful but they remained neutral without joining the Soviet alliance. Portugal remained stuck in a civil war between the monarchists and fascists.

Germany made its move, quickly overrunning the benelux countries. Britain had elected a socialist government that had decolonized the Empire, but they remained in their alliance with France to contain Germany and the Soviets and were against a unified Europe, so war was inevitable.

As German tank divisions with overwhelming air support smashed through northern France, the entire German airforce charged out in force to fight over the skies of Britain.

While British aircraft were lighter and more agile, they lacked the firepower and raw engine power of the larger German hunter aircraft that tore through the air defenses. After thousands of aircraft were shot down, the German air force was left dominating the skies, and then the skies over south east England were filled with troop transport planes. In a single day, a quarter million German soldiers jumped across the channel by air, surrounding London and capturing essential docks. They brought with them light hand-drawn artillery and used it to lay London to siege, taking control from the lightly armed police forces who were not prepared for full scale invasion.

The German fleet engaged the British fleet in the channel and while outnumbered and outgunned, the German ships absorbed the damage, allowing transport ships to sneak past, delivering thousands of tanks to the invasion force. There would be no ammunition resupply, and the fuel would be rationed, but there was just enough for the tanks to speed across England, crushing the army bases before they could coalesce a defense force.

With all Britain occupied, the British surrendered and the war was over.

Britain and France were abolished as countries. Germany was also abolished as a country and instead they were joined as the new Union of European Communes.

Europe intervened in two more wars, the Polish monarchy's intervention against fascist rebels in the Baltic, and the Portuguese civil war.

China was left divided between East and West. The west, being the local warlords supported by the Soviets, and East being the Manchu-Japanese empire that claimed the crown of China as well as the true successor of Japan when the main islands fell to communism.

America has remained neutral, only rousing from the depression to force Mexico to abandon its failed invasion of Central America. However, the USA quietly supports the post-European states in Africa and Asia, now dominated by the French African Union which "protects" them from communist overthrow.

 

[PobreCesar]

Step one is the put the fascists back in power.

A sentence I would be much more disturbed to read in any other context

 

[FasterThanRaito]

Manchuria starts as a fascist colony of the Empire of Japan. It has a monarch from the defunct Qing dynasty whose ambition is to re-establish his lost empire with the help of the Japanese army. However, the Japanese army has instead used their foot in the door to leverage greater control over the territory on behalf of their home country's colonization efforts. At first, things look dire for Manchuria as an independent country when more Japanese colonists arrive, spearheaded by a collection of the most ultranationalist Japanese army officers.
Fortunately this was a ruse by the Japanese civil authority to rid themselves of their political opponents to launch their coup. The socialist revolutionaries quickly take control of the pro-democracy provisional government and overthrow the military regime. Japan descends into a civil war that would last for years.
Amidst this chaos, the Japanese authorities in Manchuria appropriate control over the Japanese territories and colonized that were not subject to communist takeover. Notably, Korea, Taiwan and Okinawa defect to Manchuria.
Domestically, the closer ties to Japan are somewhat unpopular as the Chinese minority wishes for a revival of China, not to be a puppet of foreigners. That the would-be emperor betrays the ideals of the "5 races" equality policy in favor of Manchu preferential treatment only makes things worse. A popular uprising deposes the monarchy and installs a revolutionary regime.
The new regime still appropriates the institutional know-how of that the Manchus left behind, particularly in cavalry warfare. Manchuria builds up an army of cavalry-mobile modern infantry, circumventing the need for heavy industrial investment in vehicles to quickly amass a liberation army to contend with the KMT for leadership over China.
Due to a diplomatic pact, the Maoist faction will not join a war against the KMT, but the various warlords send delegates to Manchuria to bend the knee.
The invasion is swift, and Nationalist China is quickly forced to capitulate. Most of china is decentralized, however Manchuria sets about gradually integrating the provinces and warlords back into centralized government authority.
The People's Republic of China is proclaimed. However, the Maoist faction resists integration. With the blessing of the Soviet Union, China invades the Shanxi hideouts, and also asserts sovereignty over the Tibetan, Mongol, and Tuvan provinces.
When the Soviet Union is invaded by Germany, China honors the alliance and comes to the defense of the West. Together, Germany is occupied and has its government reformed. The Anglo-Americans were temporary allies, due to being co-belligerents against the Central Powers, but with the capitulation of Italy, the capitalist powers are no longer interested in maintain good relations with the communist countries.
Romania's fascist government, after having helped defeat the monarchists, betrays the soviets and is punished by having their occupation of Hungary revoked, and instead are directly integrated into the Soviet system in Europe.

France decides to bring the revolution to the low countries while the Soviets incorporate Poland.

Now that the borders are secure in Europe, the Soviet Union begins its policy of decentralization, creating a loose superstate where locally autonomous nations participate in a communist system together. China opts for a centralized system governing their sphere of East Asia.
However, border conflicts with India change the situation. At first, China shows restraint over the territorial dispute, wary that open conflict with India would lead to Anglo-American intervention and thus WW3.
However, the British finally achieve a breakthrough in their domestic politics, and with the clouds of war gone, the pacifist socialists make large electoral gains, resulting in the abolishment of the British monarchy and official end of the Empire. Diplomatically isolated, India is now a ripe target. Chinese agents make contacts with the local Indian resistance, who had been organizing their own communist revolution for years but were suppressed by the British Raj. Now that the Raj is on its way out, the communists have their chance to rise.
When they do, China supports the rebels with a direct military intervention.
Chine secures its territories in Kashmir, and Assam, as well as mediating peace between Pakistan, Bengal, and India.

The USA responds to this ripple in global geopolitics by formalizing the Pacific Alliance with Australia, to protect the various Asian countries from further communist encroachment. The battlegrounds of the future will be in the Middle East, which as not yet been fully aligned with either socialism, liberalism, or Iraq's new militant Arabism...

 

[FasterThanRaito]

My first campaign of Victoria 3, to learn the game.
I chose a small advanced country, figuring it would be simple to reach economic prosperity.

Switzerland starts with a population of 2.1 million in 1836, and my goal was to reach 4 million by 1936, which is about 10% more than Switzerland's historical population at the time. I figured that the increased population growth would be proof of a healthy population.

My method of managing the economy was pretty simple: when my tax income is large enough to pay for building construction, I look at the auto-generated game suggestions to see which buildings are projected to see the most increase in profit.

The result was very little investing in raw resources, instead I ended up with the largest and most productive clothing and furniture factories of the world. The Swiss specialized in luxury goods for export. So what about the raw materials? Simple, by joining the French economic market I could import all my input goods duty-free and then sell the luxury finished goods to the much larger and very rich French population which had plenty of demand for my finished goods.

In order to transition Switzerland into a worker's paradise, I used communist alliance of Trade Unions and Intelligentsia to build up social programs, education, and healthcare. Eventually the communist reforms became so deep that Switzerland transitioned into an Anarchist democracy with a Command Economy where all industries were owned through worker co-ops.

Since our standard of living was the highest in the world, with generous social programs, everyone in the world wanted to migrate to Switzerland, even Americans!

By 1900, our population was 3.6 million, well on track to reach our 4 million goal by 1930.

However, in 1902, the crisis hit us.

France, despite being the world's largest economic power, was not as stable as believed by the outside world. They maintained a monarchy and deeply unequal society, which lead to friction and division. Due to lack of reforms, popular dissent lead to mass turmoil and rebelliousness.

First, Alsace tried to break away, possibly to join Germany. However, France was able to crush the rebellion. Then, the southern half of the country started a civil war to break off as the secessionist state of Occitania. At the same time, the northern half of France broke into two quarters, with rival pretender monarchs fighting over the throne.

Since France had lost 3/4ths of its home territory in an instant, supply of goods plummeted and demand for products also dropped. The resulting economic crash's ripple effects were worst felt in Switzerland, which had accidentally built up a highly specialized economy that thanks to French dependence, had no need for diversification and thus no ability to survive independently.

While Command Economy is powerful since it allows economic profits to be used by the government directly into re-investing into more industrial expansion, when those factories fall into deficit, the entire government is dragged down by the subsidy costs. In order to attempt to balance the budget and prepare for an economic recovery, the government shut down the factories dependent on missing foreign inputs, but this resulted in the gutting of the economy. Unemployment skyrocketed to nearly 1/3rd of the entire population, and since the government could not repeal the social welfare laws, the country became stuck in a trap of debt due to lack of production, and could not increase production due to the debt.

Since Switzerland produced no food of its own, with the economic shock and collapse of trade, mass starvation began. In order to escape the situation, more than half of the Swiss population fled in a massive exodus. The population fell from its peak of 3.7 million to 1.6 million by 1920.

There were two revolutions, first an unsuccessful attempt by the religious and military to get rid of democracy and put in place a dictatorship that would implement the austerity measures needed to balance the government budget and get the country back on track. However, the upper classes had long since disappeared due to the abolishment of private property, so the movement had little popular support. Instead, the Trade Unions collapsed and reformed under a new social-democrat banner and reformed the government from an anarchist state to a republic. They implemented limited austerity, but without sacrificing civic rights of free speech and women's right like the religious and military wanted.

Through the 1920's, there was limited improvement and by 1930, the Depression was over and recovery had begun.
In 1936, the population of Switzerland is 2.1 million, exactly the same number as it was in 1836! However, the Swiss as a nation have grown much. They are the most free people in the world, and while it will take a long time before the economy reaches the heights of its former glory, the Swiss are equipped with the lessons of the past and a responsible government to lead them into the future with hope.

The main lesson being: welfare is a trap. It's better to just not have unemployment aid or minimum wage even when you're communist. Paradox please fix.

Here's the map. Some notable developments about the wider world:
Britain spent most of the game as the #2 power behind France until France's spectacular implosion. Now they are #1. Their settler dominions include not just Canada, Australia, South Africa, but also Argentina and Yezo, which are dominated by anglophone demographics such as Anglo-canadians and Australians as well as English and Scottish.
The one major setback for the British was that the East India Company went rogue and now rules an independent Indian Empire as a corporate military dictatorship. The Indians remain oppressed in their own country as the EIC still uses primarily Englishmen as their leaders.

The USA lost badly to the CSA and America has remained divided ever since.

Germany got dismantled by Scandinavia and Russia, while Austria fell apart by itself. Everyone left the Ottomans alone, so they are fine in their corner.

That leaves Italy as the current #2 European power, which is now Switzerland's main ally.

Also, Russian Congo!

 

[FasterThanRaito]

Texas the lucky!

Texan independence started in 1836 when outnumbered rebels suddenly and unexpectedly captured the dictator of Mexico, who ransomed himself in exchange for a truce with Texas.

Texas managed to join the British customs union, and with the discovery of oil and gold, a large rush of migrants went to Texas to find new riches. Texas used this fast-growing population to quickly fill new factories, whose profits allowed the construction of even more factories. The employment opportunities and wealth drew even more migrants, and Texas quickly grew by millions as British people left the Isles for America.

By the end of the 1880's, Texas has 10 million people and had run out of British people to suck out of Britain, so they invested in the army and broke off, creating their own empire. The used the army to subjugate Mexico, and then used Mexico to march down South America, accumulating more puppets. These countries would remain nominally independent, but would contribute to the economy of Texas. Also, their people would have free movement into Texas, further expanding the population through migration.

The USA was a rising competing power, so with the Northern attempt at secession over the abolition of slavery, Texas took the opportunity to invade and weaken the USA by breaking off Louisiana-Mississippi and Montana-Dakota as independent countries, while annexing Oklahoma.

Having taken over Hawaii and the Caribbean, Texas now had enough coastline to build a powerful navy that could rival the British. Eventually, Canada made an attempt at independence against the British. Texas helped Canada, but then betrayed Canada and broke it up into subservient territories of Oregon, Quebec, Ontario, and Yukon.

At this point, European Powers want to intervene against Texas, and Texas punishes them by liberating their overseas territories. This starts Texas's Asian empire as it takes Indonesia from the Dutch.

With the rise of heavy industries in Texas, the need for advanced fuels is starting to be felt. Oil production in texas is not sufficient, so explorers are sent around the world to find new sources. Apparently, in Arabia there are untapped sources of oil, so Texas assembles its navy and army and invades various middle-eastern countries. Most larger countries get puppet governments such as Egypt and Persia, while smaller regions that need direct control over oil production get annexed as colonies such as in the Arab gulf.

In order to expand immigration even further and break European intervention against the Texan empire, Texas invades Britain and liberates Ireland, Scotland, and Wales as "independent".

Texas's strong universal democracy is also a social success, and eventually Texas transitions from a liberal republic to a full council republic with government guaranteeing workers protections and women's rights.

Texas Communism runs well on a wealthy economy, and the wealth of the economy is supported on the network of subservient states around the world. Apparently these conquests are not popular with the rest of the world which has condemned Texas as a warmonger. But diplomatic isolation doesn't mean much when three and and a half continents belong to Texas!

Now that Scandinavia has finally had their own successful communist revolution, perhaps they will rethink their foreign policy now that they are surrounded by hostile traditionalist powers.

India remains an independent corporate state, and China continues its self-genocidal christianization program in isolation.

 

[GloomyTremere]

How about Red Flood as Goebbels?

 

[Whiteshore]

KR as Liberal Egypt. Make game rules provide for Savinkovist Russia, Velvet Glove America, Manchu Restoration Qing, NatPop Japan, and Totalist 3I as well.