Surprise! Another cover, and this time I'm jumping off the Southern wagon to visit the other staple of alternate history: the Reich worlds. That's because I'm a bit tired of working with 19th century maps and, thanks to the efforts of SRegan and others, Axis victory basemaps are easy to come by. I'm also going out of order and exploring Reich-2 first. That's because
@Prometheus_2300 already did Reich-1, and while I have my
own take on that, I'll post it later. I also want to go in order from least German-dominated to most. You think Dixie-4 has my therapist asking awkward questions? This set will eventually make it look tame.
This Reich-2 map is based on
Diamond's, and, like the Dixie-1 map, is one of the oldest maps on AH.com. I decided to change things up a bit from his version, to make it line up more with what seems realistic and what Steve Jackson Games says. Infinite Worlds provides quite a bit of detail, which makes my job easier, but it reveals a five-way Cold War with WWII great powers. Unfortunately, it's something that most people in the alternate history community have already seen countless times. But, such is working with Axis victories. The PoD is Lord Halifax becoming Prime Minister and negotiating a peace with Germany. Okay, I can buy that. But then he negotiates an alliance with Japan to break up the Axis? That's way out there. Points for creativity, I guess. Naturally, the alliance breaks down when the Japanese start supporting independence movements in India, and the British respond by running guns to China.
This is also the most
realistic of the Reich worlds. Yeah, it's gonna be a fun ride.
There isn't much else to say about Reich-2 here, as most of it has already been fleshed out by Steve Jackson Games, and most of my additions are in the annotations. I depict the British Commonwealth members as British allies, but also have India under direct British rule because SJG's description implies direct rule. I also have the Americans and British in an adversarial position towards one another, but I suspect they work together more often than they do against each other. Technology is rather advanced, with all sides having orbital nuclear missile platforms that have frozen the world in a "Kalter Krieg."
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