A lot of Kaiserreich's storylines have become shockingly good. For example:
--Trying to save America as Floyd Olson, only to be betrayed by his cowardly advisors, is a Hell of a tragedy. All the American successors are interesting TBH; events make it clear that while the good paths, like democratic USA and PSA, and demsoc CSA, are good guys making a better country, it's still a challenge; and if you play some asshole like Moseley or MacArthur or goddamn Pelley, it is made as clear as possible without breaking Paradox's semi-official "no genocide simulation" policy that these are nightmare states run by monsters. Furthermore, all the pre-war Presidencies are a lot of fun. Reed tries to save his country but fails due to lack of FDR's charisma and broad base; Huey gets high on his own ego, distracting from his genuine desire to help, and blows up his own country because he can't control his arrogance; Garner can go down a "do nothing" path which will literally get him couped on the grounds that his refusal to do anything is betraying the country; Landon can try to help salvage the situation but the player can easily figure out from the details presented that his plan is much too little, and far, far too late; Olson can come within minutes of saving America, etc.. The new mechanics make it a bit more interesting of a war, too.
--Socialist South Africa. You can have a democratic socialist multiracial paradise in South Africa by late 1936. But it's still South Africa, so you're underindustrialized and you're never going to be a major contributor to anything unless you're in the 3I and get into a fight with ol' Hermann von Douchenozzle, abolishing the passport system means that everybody moves to Jo'burg at once so you have to spend literally YEARS unfucking the townships, and basically the good path is pretty hard. But boy, the end reward? It feels really goddamn good. It takes years of work and political haggling and pain and sweat and tears, but by 1940 South Africa can be a thriving little country with liberty and justice for all.
--Most of the Chinese unifiers are just fantastic stories. Chen Jiongming and Chen Mingshu in Liangguang, Soong's L-KMT, tons of fun. If you can stomach playing a dirtbag--there's always ol' 86-Dollar Zhang Zhongchang, whose heart's desire is to be the biggest and most despicable drug-smuggling perverted sack of dog shit on the entire planet. There's something oddly humorous and cathartic of playing this guy who is a sack of dog shit, knows he's a sack of dog shit, is OK with being a sack of dog shit, and just wants to be the biggest and filthiest sack of dog shit on the planet.
Of course the rat bastard's kind of ignoring the possibility of Kodoha Faction Japan coming through with the Three Alls taken up to 11, but then again he's already in deep with the Japanese anyway.
--South America is a lot of fun and variety, especially Brazil and the Southern Cone. Socialist Argentina is a huge challenge but a lot of fun if you win, with a good balance between nice paths, asshole paths, and "these guys need to lay off the goddamn drugs" paths.
--Central America and Cuba also have a lot of variety, the former has some super engaging gameplay too while the latter is more about the journey of forming a new regime.
--Free Indochina is fantastic. You really get a feeling of building a country from the ground up.
