The New Order: Last Days of Europe - An Axis Victory Cold War Mod for HoIIV
- Thread starter Lonely Knightess
- Start date
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Don't want to reveal anything atm, they'll get a diary in the coming month or two most likely. Basics are they foster the British Government in Exile, but do not claim to be, and are considered an almost 51st state since they are tied so close to the US.
Dev Diary VI: The Cossacks Part I
Welcome back to another development diary for the New Order: Last Days of Europe! I’m mop, and I’m developing Ukraine. Today we’re going to talk about a land in the east, a land ravaged by war, where the spirit of the horseback rider still lives. Welcome to the Reichskommissariat Ukraine!
The Reichskommissariat Ukraine is a German colony encompassing the territory of the land of Ukraine- the fertile breadbasket and an important piece in the German Lebensraum plan. When the Wehrmacht first marched into Ukraine, they did not introduce themselves as conquerors but rather liberators of the Ukrainian people from the Soviet order. The main function of the Reichskommissariat is grain- Ukraine is, after all, the breadbasket of Europe.
Every year, millions of metric tonnes of grain are exported back to the Fatherland while thousands of Germans head east to settle in Ukraine every month.
During the war, a section of the Nazi party, the Arbeitsbereich Osten der NSDAP (AOdNSDAP) was put in charge of the country. The Reichskommissar was Erich Koch- a particularly brutal leader with many enemies vying for his position. Although he is a staunch Germanizer, germanization operations in the Reichskommissariat have ended with the crash of 50’ and most Ukrainians were freed from slavery- the conditions that the natives live under are absolutely horrible, however, and they are still being used for slave labour in every way but name.
There are two major organizations that native Ukrainians are members of; the OUN-M, known as the Melnykites, ran by Andriy Melnyk, and the OUN-B, known as the Banderites ran by Stepan Bandera. At one point, they were both the same organization, the OUN, which collaborated with the Nazis. However, there was a schism in the party and it split into two. Over time, the Banderites became incredibly anti-Nazi. When they were banned within Ukraine, they radicalized and rebased underground, violently sabotaging German administrators in an act of guerilla war- their army is called the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
The other faction are the Melnykites. Any Ukranian that is of any importance is a Melnykite. The Ukrainian general, the town mayor, they are all Melnykites. They are collaborationists who are almost a branch of the AOdNSDAP. Everyone in the Ukrainian volunteer police force, the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, is a Melnykite too.
Further to the east lies the land of the Cossacks. During World War II, one of the larger Ukrainian volunteer divisions was a cavalry volunteer division consisting of Don Cossacks. After the war, they were allowed to settle in the far eastern border of the country, completely autonomous and out of the control of the AOdNSDAP. They rule the land by horseback, ravaging the poor native villages who have escaped Koch’s treachery only to fall under another.
Reichskommissariat Ukraine in 1962
Erich Koch still rules as Reichskommissar in 1962, but his time may be running out.
The Banderites have become desperate and rumors have sprouted of Ukraine nationalist sympathies within the AOdNSDAP. The future of Ukraine will be decided when the Dnieper runs red.
When this assassination attempt on Koch occurs, Koch can either survive the attack or, well, die. If he dies during the attack, Ukraine will need new leadership and you’ll need to clean up the country of both OUNs and the Cossacks. This will give you three leader choices-
The first of these leader choices is Alfred Frauenfeld, a Nazi official who governs the southern region of Ukraine with the title of “governor of Crimea”. This title is a farce- Crimea is directly annexed into the Reich and ruled by its military. If Frauenfeld becomes the new Reichskommissar, he will have a chance to take the peninsula from the Germans and directly rule from it. He’ll also have a chance to make a deal with the OUN-M, rather than outlaw it outright.
You’ll also see in the focus tree above the option to put spies in the OUN-B, attack the Donbass, etc.- all three leader choices can take these focuses.
The second of these leader choices is SS leader Hans-Adolf Prützmann. Prützmann is twice as ruthless as Koch. He will have a chance to restart the German operation of Germanization, leading his men to displace the Ukrainian natives to make way for a new German Ukraine. He will rule as a dictator, and if Germany is broken, attempt to capture the Polish Generalgouvernement to increase the amount of poverty-stricken pseudo-slaves in his nation and thus increasing slave-labour.
The third of these leader choices is Nazi politician Theodor Oberländer. Oberländer was a strong supporter of the Reich during the war, but as of recently he has become very disgruntled with the Nazi ideology and has been thinking about preposterous radical ideas such as “liberalism”. If he becomes the Reichskommissar, he will no doubt use his powers to liberalize the Reichskommissariat and grant more freedoms to the population- maybe even turning the country over to the Ukrainians.
Welcome back to another development diary for the New Order: Last Days of Europe! I’m mop, and I’m developing Ukraine. Today we’re going to talk about a land in the east, a land ravaged by war, where the spirit of the horseback rider still lives. Welcome to the Reichskommissariat Ukraine!
The Reichskommissariat Ukraine is a German colony encompassing the territory of the land of Ukraine- the fertile breadbasket and an important piece in the German Lebensraum plan. When the Wehrmacht first marched into Ukraine, they did not introduce themselves as conquerors but rather liberators of the Ukrainian people from the Soviet order. The main function of the Reichskommissariat is grain- Ukraine is, after all, the breadbasket of Europe.
Every year, millions of metric tonnes of grain are exported back to the Fatherland while thousands of Germans head east to settle in Ukraine every month.
During the war, a section of the Nazi party, the Arbeitsbereich Osten der NSDAP (AOdNSDAP) was put in charge of the country. The Reichskommissar was Erich Koch- a particularly brutal leader with many enemies vying for his position. Although he is a staunch Germanizer, germanization operations in the Reichskommissariat have ended with the crash of 50’ and most Ukrainians were freed from slavery- the conditions that the natives live under are absolutely horrible, however, and they are still being used for slave labour in every way but name.
There are two major organizations that native Ukrainians are members of; the OUN-M, known as the Melnykites, ran by Andriy Melnyk, and the OUN-B, known as the Banderites ran by Stepan Bandera. At one point, they were both the same organization, the OUN, which collaborated with the Nazis. However, there was a schism in the party and it split into two. Over time, the Banderites became incredibly anti-Nazi. When they were banned within Ukraine, they radicalized and rebased underground, violently sabotaging German administrators in an act of guerilla war- their army is called the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.
The other faction are the Melnykites. Any Ukranian that is of any importance is a Melnykite. The Ukrainian general, the town mayor, they are all Melnykites. They are collaborationists who are almost a branch of the AOdNSDAP. Everyone in the Ukrainian volunteer police force, the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, is a Melnykite too.
Further to the east lies the land of the Cossacks. During World War II, one of the larger Ukrainian volunteer divisions was a cavalry volunteer division consisting of Don Cossacks. After the war, they were allowed to settle in the far eastern border of the country, completely autonomous and out of the control of the AOdNSDAP. They rule the land by horseback, ravaging the poor native villages who have escaped Koch’s treachery only to fall under another.
Reichskommissariat Ukraine in 1962
Erich Koch still rules as Reichskommissar in 1962, but his time may be running out.
The Banderites have become desperate and rumors have sprouted of Ukraine nationalist sympathies within the AOdNSDAP. The future of Ukraine will be decided when the Dnieper runs red.
When this assassination attempt on Koch occurs, Koch can either survive the attack or, well, die. If he dies during the attack, Ukraine will need new leadership and you’ll need to clean up the country of both OUNs and the Cossacks. This will give you three leader choices-
The first of these leader choices is Alfred Frauenfeld, a Nazi official who governs the southern region of Ukraine with the title of “governor of Crimea”. This title is a farce- Crimea is directly annexed into the Reich and ruled by its military. If Frauenfeld becomes the new Reichskommissar, he will have a chance to take the peninsula from the Germans and directly rule from it. He’ll also have a chance to make a deal with the OUN-M, rather than outlaw it outright.
You’ll also see in the focus tree above the option to put spies in the OUN-B, attack the Donbass, etc.- all three leader choices can take these focuses.
The second of these leader choices is SS leader Hans-Adolf Prützmann. Prützmann is twice as ruthless as Koch. He will have a chance to restart the German operation of Germanization, leading his men to displace the Ukrainian natives to make way for a new German Ukraine. He will rule as a dictator, and if Germany is broken, attempt to capture the Polish Generalgouvernement to increase the amount of poverty-stricken pseudo-slaves in his nation and thus increasing slave-labour.
The third of these leader choices is Nazi politician Theodor Oberländer. Oberländer was a strong supporter of the Reich during the war, but as of recently he has become very disgruntled with the Nazi ideology and has been thinking about preposterous radical ideas such as “liberalism”. If he becomes the Reichskommissar, he will no doubt use his powers to liberalize the Reichskommissariat and grant more freedoms to the population- maybe even turning the country over to the Ukrainians.
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Dev Diary VI: The Cossacks Part II
There is also a fourth option for the new leader of Ukraine, and that is Alfred Rosenberg. Alfred Rosenberg is a high-ranked Nazi party official who deals with the Reich’s foreign affairs comfortably from Germania. He is a strong believer of unorthodox racial theory, believing that the Slavs are Aryans and must be treated as such. Over the years, he has complained time and time again asking for the replacement of Koch with a less brutal leader only to be ignored. With the Reich falling apart, he may need to take matters into his own hands. He will gain the reins if he is invited by Oberländer, or he could attempt a coup if the treatment of natives get too terrible. He will make moves to reverse Nazi influence in the region, instead attempting to build a free eastern Slavic-German state and even liberating Nazi colonies.
Now, of course, Koch can attempt to escape the attack- if he does, he will start to go… a little insane. Due to the nature of the attack, he will start purging party members that are not the most extreme loyalists and redevelop the AOdNSDAP under an ideology very similar to the Ultranational Socialist ideology. He will have two major diplomatic options that will define his reign- one is to stay loyal under a broken Germany to Heydrich, who is ideologically similar to him, as a loyal servant or faithful partner of the Reich. The other option is to begin diplomatic communications with Himmler in Burgundy and attempt to build his own Lebensraum in his own personal empire.
Lastly, we’ll talk about the partisanial groups in Ukraine. There are three of these groups. The first one are the Cossacks that still remain in the far east. The Cossack Circle is led by their old World War II commander, Ivan Kononov. For many years, the Cossacks have generally stayed within their own territory and raided villages within their autonomous zone, but recently they have begun to look outwards and started to raid German towns.
This forms a new issue for the Reichskommissariat. A decision must be made- shall we compromise with the Cossacks or shall we attack them? Take too long to make a decision, and they will make one for you. Of course, attacking these horseback warriors will be a challenge within itself- they are well trained and some of the greatest cavalry fighters in the world! We’ll look at them closer later.
Even after beating the Cossacks and taking back the Donbass, they will still be a nuance and fight as a guerilla army. To stop them, you must start Decossackization and repopulate the area with Germans.
And lastly, there is the OUN-B- it has been getting stronger and stronger every day and, for the first time in 20 years, may be able to execute a full uprising! We’ll look at this Ukrainian rebellion and free Ukraine later.
Now we’ll look at the military tree of Ukraine. The military tree is fairly simple, it is about deciding whether the garrison of Ukraine will be one of offensiveness or defensiveness, eventually evolving it into a fully fledged army.
The next tree is the navy tree. The navy tree is all about deciding what Ukraine’s stance of control in the Black Sea will be- to protect Ukrainian commerce, or to attack our enemies’ commerce.
In 1962, Ukraine starts with a very small air force, so they’ll need to import aircrafts from Germany and expand their airfields- that is what they can do with their air force tree.
NOTE: The three trees above are all WIP and will be edited as new techs are created.
Finally, we have the industrial tree, which is all about increasing the industrial capacity of the Ukrainian state and improving their farms, too.
Conclusion:
That’s all for Ukraine, but we’ll be returning to look at the Cossacks and Free Ukraine in the future! Next week we’ll be taking a short trip back west and talking more about Europe in the New Order!
Panzer's Notes:
Well that was a few hours late! But we're finishing this one at 3 AM instead of the usual rush to 5, so I guess we're improving! kill me
Can't wait to see you next week for the first Dev Update! It will be a bit shorter than these, but I have some neat stuff I want to show off to everyone! We'll be looking at a general overview of Europe and how, exactly, it got to this point, since we get a lot of questions about that.
Can't wait to see you there!
And as always, find us at our Discord, on Reddit, ModDB, and the Paradox Forums!
There is also a fourth option for the new leader of Ukraine, and that is Alfred Rosenberg. Alfred Rosenberg is a high-ranked Nazi party official who deals with the Reich’s foreign affairs comfortably from Germania. He is a strong believer of unorthodox racial theory, believing that the Slavs are Aryans and must be treated as such. Over the years, he has complained time and time again asking for the replacement of Koch with a less brutal leader only to be ignored. With the Reich falling apart, he may need to take matters into his own hands. He will gain the reins if he is invited by Oberländer, or he could attempt a coup if the treatment of natives get too terrible. He will make moves to reverse Nazi influence in the region, instead attempting to build a free eastern Slavic-German state and even liberating Nazi colonies.
Now, of course, Koch can attempt to escape the attack- if he does, he will start to go… a little insane. Due to the nature of the attack, he will start purging party members that are not the most extreme loyalists and redevelop the AOdNSDAP under an ideology very similar to the Ultranational Socialist ideology. He will have two major diplomatic options that will define his reign- one is to stay loyal under a broken Germany to Heydrich, who is ideologically similar to him, as a loyal servant or faithful partner of the Reich. The other option is to begin diplomatic communications with Himmler in Burgundy and attempt to build his own Lebensraum in his own personal empire.
Lastly, we’ll talk about the partisanial groups in Ukraine. There are three of these groups. The first one are the Cossacks that still remain in the far east. The Cossack Circle is led by their old World War II commander, Ivan Kononov. For many years, the Cossacks have generally stayed within their own territory and raided villages within their autonomous zone, but recently they have begun to look outwards and started to raid German towns.
This forms a new issue for the Reichskommissariat. A decision must be made- shall we compromise with the Cossacks or shall we attack them? Take too long to make a decision, and they will make one for you. Of course, attacking these horseback warriors will be a challenge within itself- they are well trained and some of the greatest cavalry fighters in the world! We’ll look at them closer later.
Even after beating the Cossacks and taking back the Donbass, they will still be a nuance and fight as a guerilla army. To stop them, you must start Decossackization and repopulate the area with Germans.
And lastly, there is the OUN-B- it has been getting stronger and stronger every day and, for the first time in 20 years, may be able to execute a full uprising! We’ll look at this Ukrainian rebellion and free Ukraine later.
Now we’ll look at the military tree of Ukraine. The military tree is fairly simple, it is about deciding whether the garrison of Ukraine will be one of offensiveness or defensiveness, eventually evolving it into a fully fledged army.
The next tree is the navy tree. The navy tree is all about deciding what Ukraine’s stance of control in the Black Sea will be- to protect Ukrainian commerce, or to attack our enemies’ commerce.
In 1962, Ukraine starts with a very small air force, so they’ll need to import aircrafts from Germany and expand their airfields- that is what they can do with their air force tree.
NOTE: The three trees above are all WIP and will be edited as new techs are created.
Finally, we have the industrial tree, which is all about increasing the industrial capacity of the Ukrainian state and improving their farms, too.
Conclusion:
That’s all for Ukraine, but we’ll be returning to look at the Cossacks and Free Ukraine in the future! Next week we’ll be taking a short trip back west and talking more about Europe in the New Order!
Panzer's Notes:
Well that was a few hours late! But we're finishing this one at 3 AM instead of the usual rush to 5, so I guess we're improving! kill me
Can't wait to see you next week for the first Dev Update! It will be a bit shorter than these, but I have some neat stuff I want to show off to everyone! We'll be looking at a general overview of Europe and how, exactly, it got to this point, since we get a lot of questions about that.
Can't wait to see you there!
And as always, find us at our Discord, on Reddit, ModDB, and the Paradox Forums!
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Something seems to have gone wrong with the three images below the 1962 Reichskommissariat. I also have to admit that the image of Rosenberg's tree is too small for me to be able to reasonably read.
This said, interesting possibilities with Ukraine...
This said, interesting possibilities with Ukraine...
Well that was a fucking rodeo but I believe it's all fixed, apologies for the difficulty there.
I love how this mod is basically about the collapse of the Nazi Empire, more or less. A breath of fresh air compared to all the ridiculously overpowered super Germany's one sees in the "what if Hitler won" mods currently on the HoIV steam workshop.
One thing though, it seems that you've chosen a reichskriegsflagge with a native Polish Fascist symbol as the flag of the General Government. This would definitely never happen for two reasons, firstly because the raison d'être of the General Government was the destruction of Poland as a nation so they'd hardly be likely to adopt Polish national symbolism of any kind (even Fascist), and secondly because Frank actually designed a flag for the General Government that looked like this (even if his proposal was never accepted OTL).
Of course, maybe there are changes to the General Government in this time line, but I still think they wouldn't use the symbol of the Polish Falangists because they were part of the resistance against Germany.
One thing though, it seems that you've chosen a reichskriegsflagge with a native Polish Fascist symbol as the flag of the General Government. This would definitely never happen for two reasons, firstly because the raison d'être of the General Government was the destruction of Poland as a nation so they'd hardly be likely to adopt Polish national symbolism of any kind (even Fascist), and secondly because Frank actually designed a flag for the General Government that looked like this (even if his proposal was never accepted OTL).
Of course, maybe there are changes to the General Government in this time line, but I still think they wouldn't use the symbol of the Polish Falangists because they were part of the resistance against Germany.
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I love how this mod is basically about the collapse of the Nazi Empire, more or less. A breath of fresh air compared to all the ridiculously overpowered super Germany's one sees in the "what if Hitler won" mods currently on the HoIV steam workshop.
One thing though, it seems that you've chosen a reichskriegsflagge with a native Polish Fascist symbol as the flag of the General Government. This would definitely never happen for two reasons, firstly because the raison d'être of the General Government was the destruction of Poland as a nation so they'd hardly be likely to adopt Polish national symbolism of any kind (even Fascist), and secondly because Frank actually designed a flag for the General Government that looked like this (even if his proposal was never accepted OTL).
Of course, maybe there are changes to the General Government in this time line, but I still think they wouldn't use the symbol of the Polish Falangists because they were part of the resistance against Germany.
You're right, thank you, which is a shame because I actually digged the flag.
Might do that up to match the theme of the others, throw an iron cross in the corner and make it red, but I will deff look into using that. Thank you!
Thank you! We're mostly KR members or former KR members, so we're bringing over that level of detail and trying to make this the next big thing. It will be released on Steam when it's finished, were avoiding the tendencies of other big mods to release half baked and quickly be abandoned.
I wonder how France will look like and if its focus tree will give it a chance to recover.
I'm just here to give an endorsement of this mod, as the guy doing various events, including the three seen in this dev diary!
Development Update I: Fate of Nations
Welcome to the first Dev Update for The New Order: Last Days of Europe! This one is light on images and will be more focused on going over the lore of the game, as we’re taking some time to prepare for our upcoming diary: Götterdämmerung where we will be covering Germany in exhaustive, exhaustive detail. It will be by far the largest diary yet, and we may have to delay another week in order to finish it up–we’ll see next week! Nobody should be disappointed when it inevitably drops.
I also wanted to invite you all to our fun little TV Tropes page, here. Feel free to add anything you’ve read about in the diaries!
So, without further ado, I present to you, the map of Europe:
Europe:
(direct link in case that does not work)
Europe in 1962 is very different than the Europe of previous decades, with Germany having reigned triumphant, the world has changed very much for the worse.
But how did it get here? Let’s begin with a brief history lesson.
1920s:
The power struggle in the Soviet Union was brutal, nearly bringing the nation to civil war, yet again. However, through the ashes, one contender survived to take power. After defeating Stalin, Bukharin took control, and quickly began a series of free market reforms. These reforms, however, failed and the Soviet economy stagnated and slid into the black, with Russia unable to properly industrialize or form a proper military. The military and politburo remained rebellious, and strong action was never taken, and the Union remained stagnant and on the verge of collapse.
1930s:
With the Soviet Union in shambles, the decades ahead looked dark for Communism. In the United States, isolationism reigned supreme and never truly lost its hold on the nation. By the outset of World War II, Joseph Kennedy had become president and his anti-war stance greatly slowed the mobilization of the US military, with the US remaining far more neutral than IOTL. In Europe, Germany steamrolled over France and Poland and the Reich saw no need for a pact with the Soviet Union.
Europe stood very little chance against the German colossus and, soon, German tanks were massing on the Soviet border.
In Africa, the situation was just as bad as the Allies faced a string of disastrous defeats that saw the British Army swiftly evacuated from Africa. Claude Auchinleck was blamed for much of it and was to be reassigned to India. When it became more and more clear that England would stand alone however, he was instead called back home, to prepare the final defense of the Isles. The Royal Navy was soon after trapped in the Mediterranean as Fallschirmjäger and Italian Marines captured Gibraltar, leaving England defenceless.
1940s:
The German invasion came swiftly, and the Soviet Union soon fell back on all fronts. The invasion barely lasted a year and, soon, the Soviet armies had been pushed over the Urals and into obscurity. The Soviet government briefly declared the struggle would never end, before Bukharin and his advisors were arrested after a successful coup and promptly disappeared from the annals of history. Soon after, the situation worsened with Russia falling into civil war and German bombers continually destroying any industry or population centers within the area, quickly turning Siberia into a post-apocalyptic wasteland of bandits, scavengers and mercenaries.
Japan, at the same time, struck at Pearl Harbor. The US was ill prepared for the war, and while the navy was called and the factories soon began churning out materials, the US faced defeat across the Pacific with the military abandoning its bases and holding the line in Australia and New Zealand. Operation Downfall, the proposed last stand defense of Australasia, had undergone preparation in order to hopefully bleed the Japanese dry.
In Europe, American soldiers landed in England to try and reinforce their British allies, but the American soldiers came too late. A German sponsored rebellion in Ireland confused defences greatly and the IRA soon captured several ports which brought German soldiers racing over the channel. What few ships remained to guard the Isles and the RAF bravely defended but did so in vain as German soldiers were swarming over Ireland, and with the defenders reeling to attempt to hold the line, more poured over the southern coast.
The invasion of England ended as the remainder of the British army was forced into Scotland, and Claude Auchinleck surrendered along with his army outside of Carlisle, effectively ending resistance in England.
By 1943, England had fallen, with Scotland, Ireland and Wales soon after declaring independence.
America slowly fell back on all of its fronts, facing complete loss in Europe and Asia. The last hopes fell into holding Australia and finishing its secret Manhattan Project. To the American’s surprise, however, the Germans had built the bomb first. The Japanese allowed a German plane to fly off one of their carriers in the Pacific, straight towards the flag which the Americans had rallied around: Pearl Harbor.
On July 4th, 1944, an atomic bomb fell on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The blast shook the already demoralized Americans to their core. By July 9th, the peace accords were signed, the Pacific was handed away to Japan, along with treaty ports on the Pacific coast, and America was forced to swear neutrality in Europe for the next hundred years.
At first, Germany seemed triumphant. It quickly set upon enacting its many plans, beginning the construction of Germania, the Gibraltar Dam, and other mega projects. The rest of the Axis was forced to bow to the whims of Hitler as he and his Reich turned Europe into a stomping ground for their pet projects. The one project Germany desperately needed work on however, was its economy. Having never been much more than a shoddy house built on unstable foundations, and under the weight of its many projects and its greatly over extended yet ever expanding military, it came crashing down.
The 50’s Crash killed the German economy, and with it, the European one. The Reich soon found itself effectively bankrupt. The Balkan nations, Hungary especially, did not fare any better. The Axis, Italy itself already feeling the strain from the newly completed Gibraltar Dam, spiraled out of control alongside Germany. The alliance soon after disbanded, Mussolini’s last real action as dictator being the welcoming of thousands of ‘undesirables’ from the Reich into Italy as a final insult to Hitler, along with declaring the First Italian Empire.
1950s:
The German economy was dead, the Axis gone, and Europe reeling. Japan survived, thanks to its economic isolation from Germany, and focused inward, expanding and reinforcing its newfound empire. Germany however was on the verge of a civil war. The banks were privatized in an attempt to right some of its economic woes, and its brutal campaign against the people’s of Europe halted.
Heinrich Himmler and the SS saw this as weakness. The German dream was dying, and Germany seemed to be sliding back into where it was 30 years ago. Fascism, as he knew it, had failed. The killing blow? It had not gone far enough. Creating a new ideology, Ultranational-Socialism, as it came to be called, he and the SS increasingly radicalized and threw themselves deeper into their occultist fantasies.
As the SS armed itself to take the Reichstag by force, a solution was presented. Himmler’s dream of a Burgundian state would be realized, and he and the SS would rule it. The SS would be divided into the German and Burgundian SS, and would remain separate politically, though Burgundy would remain de jure a member of the Reich. The hope was to keep Himmler from German politics, and allow him to entertain his fantasies alone. Himmler accepted.
There was a brief period where it seemed that conflict had been averted, but Reinhard Heydrich’s faction in the German SS soon took control of the organization. Little more than a puppet of Himmler, Germany suddenly found itself in the exact same position. For now, the SS seemed subdued, but there was little doubt that German stability now hung on the whims of Himmler, now ruling from Ost-Paris, the city divided sharply between Burgundy and a furious, and still German reliant, France.
In the Balkans, Hungary was facing near-anarchy as its economic lifeline was soon cut. The Romanians, still lusting over Transylvania, and with the militant Iron Guard and Antonescu ruling, struck a deal with the Reich. Germany would sponsor Romanian and Slovakian intervention in Hungary if Romania ceded Dobrudzja and gave economic assistance to the Reich, the Germans hoping that by sacrificing Hungary, they could satisfy Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania and keep them as allies.
Hungary stood little chance, and Romania was once again whole. The Iron Guard still hungrily stared at the rest of the Balkans, however, and soon after betrayed its alliance with Germany. Romanian troops quickly swarmed into Serbian Banat, seizing the region from the German puppet state. Bulgaria allied itself closer to Germany, fearing further Romanian adventures.
Romania, however, soon saw conflict of its own. While it had expanded greatly, it now faced a guerilla battle against the remains of the Hungarians in Transylvania and the Serbs in Banat, and its economy slowly turned southwards. With the Iron Guard failing to meet this crisis, King Michael I launched a coup along with his supporters, and soon retook control of the Romanian government.
In Russia, as Germany was forced to scale back its bombing campaign and occupation due to the cost, the partisans in Muskowien faced massive success. The A-A Line was abandoned, the Germans falling back and hoping they’d fare better holding on a smaller front. Several Russian states soon began to expand, one of which, the West Russian Revolutionary Front, soon owned most of the border of Muskowien and began launching raids deeper into Germany. Muskowien along with its German garrison soon went to war, and although they were victorious and shattered West Russia, isolating it into Arkhangelsk, the Germans bled heavily for the action, and the eastern garrison never truly recovered.
Germany found a way to right the economy. The massive amount of those it considered to be degenerate were put to use, and turned into slaves. The entire economy became built around them, they would repair wartorn Europe, build German infrastructure, act as worker, servant and soldier where needed. After several years and this slave caste being expanded further and further, the German economy soon stabilized, though remained on life support. The slaves are rebellious, however, and many in Germany fear the day of an organized revolt.
In the United States, meanwhile, politics had greatly changed. The Democrat party was disgraced for the failures of WW2, and collapsed. In its place rose the NPP, the National Progressive Party, a coalition of socialists, liberals and even nationalists. Taking over the old Democrat infrastructure, the NPP represented everything from the American communists to Strasserist-like national-socialists, and soon began challenging the Republicans in national elections. Those Democrats who did not follow these views soon merged with the Republican party, forming the Republican-Democrat party.
1960s:
As the 1960s began, Richard Nixon of the R-D’s was elected to the presidency. However, American politics has been changing. Revanchism is growing, Americans demanding the return of the ports of Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, also annexed to Japan after WW2. While Americans are united in this dream, the R-D party has increasingly urged caution, hoping to slowly block Japan and Germany out of the world stage by influencing neutral nations.
Leading the Organization of Free Nations, an alliance of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, and Iceland, the United States has slowly began returning to the world stage, trying to find new allies abroad to give it a step against Germany, and, more importantly, Japan, while slowly beginning to rebuild its military. The NPP however demands more urgent action, and has declared that if in power, military expansion and the return of rightful American land will be at the foremost of its goals.
The NPP, while mostly left, has become increasingly influenced by the remains of the German American Bund and a large influx of funding from Germany and Burgundy, steepening the right-left divide in the party, and earning it the nickname, ‘The Radical Party’. While the NPP has not been able to reach enough appeal to challenge the R-D hegemony, the Civil Rights movement has begun in full swing, and many expect it to possibly end up changing the status quo, one way, or the other.
Japan, for its part, has also recognized America’s return to politics and has seen weakness in Germany, and has begun attempting to expand its influence as well. As the US, Germany and Japan have all developed their own nuclear arsenals, the Japanese have moved its navy to station several launchers on Hawaii, which the US Navy has already raced to respond to, beginning the Hawaiian Missile Crisis.
In Germany, while the economy has struggled forward, the nation has fallen behind. The military is in shambles, the slaves increasingly restless, and a generation of Germans has grown up relying entirely on this caste, never having had to work or serve in the military. Influenced by a black market of American music and Italian cinema, as well as large amounts of imported literature banned by the state, they have taken to the streets to vent their frustration against the regime. By 1962, the nation has been locked in almost 6 months of constant protests and riots.
As 1962 begins, Germany soon announced the first good news for the nation seemingly in decades. Its space race with America and Japan, at least according to German authorities, has come to an end. German Raumsonauts have landed on the moon. Despite this, Japan and America both have claimed the space race is not yet over, and have pushed the boundaries, claiming they will achieve things such as the first space station, Lunar colony, and satellite around Mars.
As the celebrations at this victory began in Germania, however, and Germany seemed to face a brief lull in its woes, an assassin struck at Hitler. While the Führer has survived, it seems that the Reich may be facing its greatest challenge yet.
Will Europe survive the aftermath?
Conclusion:
I hope you all enjoyed the lore dump and hopefully it helped with answering any questions you may have had! I glossed over a lot of things, places and events, of course, but that’s because I want to save plenty of things for us to show off in dev diaries to come!
Also if the map seems inaccurate in places, it’s because I basically hand drew most of it, so any glaring errors in geography most likely won’t be replicated in game, they simply stem from my struggles when making this. Regardless, I hope you liked it! I may revisit it someday, or make maps for elsewhere, as while I’ve made plenty of maps before, those are normally fantasy ones, and I learnt a lot on this one.
Thanks for reading! And remember, you can find us at our Discord, on Reddit, ModDB, and the Paradox Forums!
See you either later this month or in January for our largest diary yet!
Welcome to the first Dev Update for The New Order: Last Days of Europe! This one is light on images and will be more focused on going over the lore of the game, as we’re taking some time to prepare for our upcoming diary: Götterdämmerung where we will be covering Germany in exhaustive, exhaustive detail. It will be by far the largest diary yet, and we may have to delay another week in order to finish it up–we’ll see next week! Nobody should be disappointed when it inevitably drops.
I also wanted to invite you all to our fun little TV Tropes page, here. Feel free to add anything you’ve read about in the diaries!
So, without further ado, I present to you, the map of Europe:
Europe:
(direct link in case that does not work)
Europe in 1962 is very different than the Europe of previous decades, with Germany having reigned triumphant, the world has changed very much for the worse.
But how did it get here? Let’s begin with a brief history lesson.
1920s:
The power struggle in the Soviet Union was brutal, nearly bringing the nation to civil war, yet again. However, through the ashes, one contender survived to take power. After defeating Stalin, Bukharin took control, and quickly began a series of free market reforms. These reforms, however, failed and the Soviet economy stagnated and slid into the black, with Russia unable to properly industrialize or form a proper military. The military and politburo remained rebellious, and strong action was never taken, and the Union remained stagnant and on the verge of collapse.
1930s:
With the Soviet Union in shambles, the decades ahead looked dark for Communism. In the United States, isolationism reigned supreme and never truly lost its hold on the nation. By the outset of World War II, Joseph Kennedy had become president and his anti-war stance greatly slowed the mobilization of the US military, with the US remaining far more neutral than IOTL. In Europe, Germany steamrolled over France and Poland and the Reich saw no need for a pact with the Soviet Union.
Europe stood very little chance against the German colossus and, soon, German tanks were massing on the Soviet border.
In Africa, the situation was just as bad as the Allies faced a string of disastrous defeats that saw the British Army swiftly evacuated from Africa. Claude Auchinleck was blamed for much of it and was to be reassigned to India. When it became more and more clear that England would stand alone however, he was instead called back home, to prepare the final defense of the Isles. The Royal Navy was soon after trapped in the Mediterranean as Fallschirmjäger and Italian Marines captured Gibraltar, leaving England defenceless.
1940s:
The German invasion came swiftly, and the Soviet Union soon fell back on all fronts. The invasion barely lasted a year and, soon, the Soviet armies had been pushed over the Urals and into obscurity. The Soviet government briefly declared the struggle would never end, before Bukharin and his advisors were arrested after a successful coup and promptly disappeared from the annals of history. Soon after, the situation worsened with Russia falling into civil war and German bombers continually destroying any industry or population centers within the area, quickly turning Siberia into a post-apocalyptic wasteland of bandits, scavengers and mercenaries.
Japan, at the same time, struck at Pearl Harbor. The US was ill prepared for the war, and while the navy was called and the factories soon began churning out materials, the US faced defeat across the Pacific with the military abandoning its bases and holding the line in Australia and New Zealand. Operation Downfall, the proposed last stand defense of Australasia, had undergone preparation in order to hopefully bleed the Japanese dry.
In Europe, American soldiers landed in England to try and reinforce their British allies, but the American soldiers came too late. A German sponsored rebellion in Ireland confused defences greatly and the IRA soon captured several ports which brought German soldiers racing over the channel. What few ships remained to guard the Isles and the RAF bravely defended but did so in vain as German soldiers were swarming over Ireland, and with the defenders reeling to attempt to hold the line, more poured over the southern coast.
The invasion of England ended as the remainder of the British army was forced into Scotland, and Claude Auchinleck surrendered along with his army outside of Carlisle, effectively ending resistance in England.
By 1943, England had fallen, with Scotland, Ireland and Wales soon after declaring independence.
America slowly fell back on all of its fronts, facing complete loss in Europe and Asia. The last hopes fell into holding Australia and finishing its secret Manhattan Project. To the American’s surprise, however, the Germans had built the bomb first. The Japanese allowed a German plane to fly off one of their carriers in the Pacific, straight towards the flag which the Americans had rallied around: Pearl Harbor.
On July 4th, 1944, an atomic bomb fell on Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. The blast shook the already demoralized Americans to their core. By July 9th, the peace accords were signed, the Pacific was handed away to Japan, along with treaty ports on the Pacific coast, and America was forced to swear neutrality in Europe for the next hundred years.
At first, Germany seemed triumphant. It quickly set upon enacting its many plans, beginning the construction of Germania, the Gibraltar Dam, and other mega projects. The rest of the Axis was forced to bow to the whims of Hitler as he and his Reich turned Europe into a stomping ground for their pet projects. The one project Germany desperately needed work on however, was its economy. Having never been much more than a shoddy house built on unstable foundations, and under the weight of its many projects and its greatly over extended yet ever expanding military, it came crashing down.
The 50’s Crash killed the German economy, and with it, the European one. The Reich soon found itself effectively bankrupt. The Balkan nations, Hungary especially, did not fare any better. The Axis, Italy itself already feeling the strain from the newly completed Gibraltar Dam, spiraled out of control alongside Germany. The alliance soon after disbanded, Mussolini’s last real action as dictator being the welcoming of thousands of ‘undesirables’ from the Reich into Italy as a final insult to Hitler, along with declaring the First Italian Empire.
1950s:
The German economy was dead, the Axis gone, and Europe reeling. Japan survived, thanks to its economic isolation from Germany, and focused inward, expanding and reinforcing its newfound empire. Germany however was on the verge of a civil war. The banks were privatized in an attempt to right some of its economic woes, and its brutal campaign against the people’s of Europe halted.
Heinrich Himmler and the SS saw this as weakness. The German dream was dying, and Germany seemed to be sliding back into where it was 30 years ago. Fascism, as he knew it, had failed. The killing blow? It had not gone far enough. Creating a new ideology, Ultranational-Socialism, as it came to be called, he and the SS increasingly radicalized and threw themselves deeper into their occultist fantasies.
As the SS armed itself to take the Reichstag by force, a solution was presented. Himmler’s dream of a Burgundian state would be realized, and he and the SS would rule it. The SS would be divided into the German and Burgundian SS, and would remain separate politically, though Burgundy would remain de jure a member of the Reich. The hope was to keep Himmler from German politics, and allow him to entertain his fantasies alone. Himmler accepted.
There was a brief period where it seemed that conflict had been averted, but Reinhard Heydrich’s faction in the German SS soon took control of the organization. Little more than a puppet of Himmler, Germany suddenly found itself in the exact same position. For now, the SS seemed subdued, but there was little doubt that German stability now hung on the whims of Himmler, now ruling from Ost-Paris, the city divided sharply between Burgundy and a furious, and still German reliant, France.
In the Balkans, Hungary was facing near-anarchy as its economic lifeline was soon cut. The Romanians, still lusting over Transylvania, and with the militant Iron Guard and Antonescu ruling, struck a deal with the Reich. Germany would sponsor Romanian and Slovakian intervention in Hungary if Romania ceded Dobrudzja and gave economic assistance to the Reich, the Germans hoping that by sacrificing Hungary, they could satisfy Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania and keep them as allies.
Hungary stood little chance, and Romania was once again whole. The Iron Guard still hungrily stared at the rest of the Balkans, however, and soon after betrayed its alliance with Germany. Romanian troops quickly swarmed into Serbian Banat, seizing the region from the German puppet state. Bulgaria allied itself closer to Germany, fearing further Romanian adventures.
Romania, however, soon saw conflict of its own. While it had expanded greatly, it now faced a guerilla battle against the remains of the Hungarians in Transylvania and the Serbs in Banat, and its economy slowly turned southwards. With the Iron Guard failing to meet this crisis, King Michael I launched a coup along with his supporters, and soon retook control of the Romanian government.
In Russia, as Germany was forced to scale back its bombing campaign and occupation due to the cost, the partisans in Muskowien faced massive success. The A-A Line was abandoned, the Germans falling back and hoping they’d fare better holding on a smaller front. Several Russian states soon began to expand, one of which, the West Russian Revolutionary Front, soon owned most of the border of Muskowien and began launching raids deeper into Germany. Muskowien along with its German garrison soon went to war, and although they were victorious and shattered West Russia, isolating it into Arkhangelsk, the Germans bled heavily for the action, and the eastern garrison never truly recovered.
Germany found a way to right the economy. The massive amount of those it considered to be degenerate were put to use, and turned into slaves. The entire economy became built around them, they would repair wartorn Europe, build German infrastructure, act as worker, servant and soldier where needed. After several years and this slave caste being expanded further and further, the German economy soon stabilized, though remained on life support. The slaves are rebellious, however, and many in Germany fear the day of an organized revolt.
In the United States, meanwhile, politics had greatly changed. The Democrat party was disgraced for the failures of WW2, and collapsed. In its place rose the NPP, the National Progressive Party, a coalition of socialists, liberals and even nationalists. Taking over the old Democrat infrastructure, the NPP represented everything from the American communists to Strasserist-like national-socialists, and soon began challenging the Republicans in national elections. Those Democrats who did not follow these views soon merged with the Republican party, forming the Republican-Democrat party.
1960s:
As the 1960s began, Richard Nixon of the R-D’s was elected to the presidency. However, American politics has been changing. Revanchism is growing, Americans demanding the return of the ports of Los Angeles and San Francisco, as well as Hawaii and the Aleutian Islands, also annexed to Japan after WW2. While Americans are united in this dream, the R-D party has increasingly urged caution, hoping to slowly block Japan and Germany out of the world stage by influencing neutral nations.
Leading the Organization of Free Nations, an alliance of the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Greenland, and Iceland, the United States has slowly began returning to the world stage, trying to find new allies abroad to give it a step against Germany, and, more importantly, Japan, while slowly beginning to rebuild its military. The NPP however demands more urgent action, and has declared that if in power, military expansion and the return of rightful American land will be at the foremost of its goals.
The NPP, while mostly left, has become increasingly influenced by the remains of the German American Bund and a large influx of funding from Germany and Burgundy, steepening the right-left divide in the party, and earning it the nickname, ‘The Radical Party’. While the NPP has not been able to reach enough appeal to challenge the R-D hegemony, the Civil Rights movement has begun in full swing, and many expect it to possibly end up changing the status quo, one way, or the other.
Japan, for its part, has also recognized America’s return to politics and has seen weakness in Germany, and has begun attempting to expand its influence as well. As the US, Germany and Japan have all developed their own nuclear arsenals, the Japanese have moved its navy to station several launchers on Hawaii, which the US Navy has already raced to respond to, beginning the Hawaiian Missile Crisis.
In Germany, while the economy has struggled forward, the nation has fallen behind. The military is in shambles, the slaves increasingly restless, and a generation of Germans has grown up relying entirely on this caste, never having had to work or serve in the military. Influenced by a black market of American music and Italian cinema, as well as large amounts of imported literature banned by the state, they have taken to the streets to vent their frustration against the regime. By 1962, the nation has been locked in almost 6 months of constant protests and riots.
As 1962 begins, Germany soon announced the first good news for the nation seemingly in decades. Its space race with America and Japan, at least according to German authorities, has come to an end. German Raumsonauts have landed on the moon. Despite this, Japan and America both have claimed the space race is not yet over, and have pushed the boundaries, claiming they will achieve things such as the first space station, Lunar colony, and satellite around Mars.
As the celebrations at this victory began in Germania, however, and Germany seemed to face a brief lull in its woes, an assassin struck at Hitler. While the Führer has survived, it seems that the Reich may be facing its greatest challenge yet.
Will Europe survive the aftermath?
Conclusion:
I hope you all enjoyed the lore dump and hopefully it helped with answering any questions you may have had! I glossed over a lot of things, places and events, of course, but that’s because I want to save plenty of things for us to show off in dev diaries to come!
Also if the map seems inaccurate in places, it’s because I basically hand drew most of it, so any glaring errors in geography most likely won’t be replicated in game, they simply stem from my struggles when making this. Regardless, I hope you liked it! I may revisit it someday, or make maps for elsewhere, as while I’ve made plenty of maps before, those are normally fantasy ones, and I learnt a lot on this one.
Thanks for reading! And remember, you can find us at our Discord, on Reddit, ModDB, and the Paradox Forums!
See you either later this month or in January for our largest diary yet!
I am somewhat given to suspect that Japan's grasp over their empire isn't quite as strong and solid as it might seem... but that is for a later dev diary.
TNO will be on Steam, ModDB, and wherever else we find that we can post it.
Hopefully you'll like the French trees when they come out!
Second quarter 2018, most likely.
Thank you!
We'll just have to see
Dev Diary VII: Götterdämmerung - Part I - (Part I)
Welcome back to possibly our largest dev diary yet for The New Order: Last Days of Europe. This diary, fittingly titled Götterdämmerung after the last of Richard Wagner’s cycle of four dramas, ending with the destruction of the Gods, will go over the German Reich and its situation in 1962 and its descent into madness.
Germany in 1962 has become an unmanageable hell for the Reichstag. In the aftermath of the 50’s Crash, the economy remains absolutely frozen. The German does not work anymore, despite meager attempts by the government to encourage a return to the factories and the army, as the massive slave caste has taken up the mantle of running almost the entirety of German industry. A pyrrhic victory against the resurgent West Russian Revolutionary Front led to the frontier being pushed back west, and the German military withdrawing from many of its eastern posts.
Now, defense of the colonies is mostly left to native SS divisions, but that has not stopped the Heer from receiving more and more funding, the bubble growing further as money seems to be printed just to enter the military and promptly disappear. Despite spending possibly the most on its military out of any nation, even with the weakest economy of the world superpowers, the German military is increasingly outdated, inefficient and rebellious, and like the industry of Germany, has grown increasingly reliant on foreign SS divisions to carry the heavy weight.
If these were not enough issues, the youth of Germany have been in open revolt for months. With the black market out of control and the economy increasingly reliant on it, the youth have become inspired to battle the regime in the streets, demanding an end to the slave system, an end to political repression, the abandonment of the frontiers, and so much more. Despite having been grown on the spoils of these systems, it seems a generation of Germans would now rather see their own safety net burned out from under them.
And even without the youth rebelling, the greatest threat to Germany dwells within. With the German SS under Heydrich acting as little more than a front for Himmler’s own ambitions, the SS has become increasingly rebellious. Secret arms caches have been built up around the country, and the SS has increasingly segregated itself from the rest of the military, keeping to its own bases and plotting unknown plots.
The SS itself is increasingly divided as well, with the drafted SS enlistees from the colonies more and more removed from their command in the west, many of the power players in the Reich have been attempting to court their commanders to their side to give them an edge. Often, they work as little more than mercenaries for the highest bidder, using these regiments as tools in the byzantine political game that is the Reich.
And what a game it is. German politics are hardly stable, but the government has managed to corral its thousands of issues somewhat until 1962, during the celebrations of the German moon landing, where a series of events shook Germania to its core:
The Führer has no heir, and the attack against him has shown this more fully than any event before. If Hitler is to die, there is nobody to replace him, and even while he lives, the dogs nip at each other, vying for whatever power they can grab.
In the Reich, four have announced their bid to the candidacy.
Speer, leading a coalition of liberals, moderates, and dissenters against the regime, has become the face of the growing student protests. Crowds around the nation chant his name, ‘Speer jetzt!’ has been a rallying cry, as more and more put their faith into Speer as the one who will finally bring positive reform and change to the Reich.
However, Speer may have popular support in the youth, but elsewhere he is left wanting. The past generations and those who rule in the Reichstag in the military have firmly refused to allow Speer anywhere near power, and claim that the Führer’s favoritism to him is nothing besides foul manipulation on his part. While he has gathered a small scion of support in the military and the government, it is too little for many to consider him having a strong chance at winning.
The choice lies with the Führer however, and little can truly claim to have knowledge of what Hitler plans on doing at any one moment.
The next choice, and most obvious for most, is Bormann. A strict conservative, Bormann has appealed to the masses by claiming there is no real threat to Germany at all. The military is stronger than ever, the Reich spans from west to east, and the faults in the economy are nothing besides the foul manipulations of the many enemies to the Reich, from the Americans and Japanese to the untermensch and the bankers.
Bormann has the widest base of support in the Reich. Most Germans simply want stability, and Bormann, the great negotiator, claims to have the means to give them this. Further support can be found across the Reich, as Bormann has won over the majority of the Reichskommissars and the various puppet masters of Europe.
Not only has Bormann won the politicians, but the military has drifted towards him as well. While split very closely between him and Göring, the military nonetheless has taken to his call for even further military spending and claims that the armed forces of the Reich are already almighty have resonated with the soldiery.
While Bormann seems to have the best shot at winning the Reich, that does not make him a good candidate. Many have pointed out that Bormann seems to have no economic plans, and his diplomatic ideas seem to mostly involve unending bluster and forcing arguably stronger powers in the Cold War to bend to Germany’s wims as they did once before.
However, a lack of any good policy or sanity in the administration has never stopped Germans before, and many who don’t even agree with Bormann have sided with him out of pure survivalism.
Of course, he and Speer are not the only ones vying for power, Göring has also announced his bid and has split most of his support with Germany. While Bormann claims the military needs little if any reform and bold posturing against the world will show others Germany’s might, Göring has taken it a step further.
Bold military adventures and the return of what made Germany great: war! Göring has promised all that the world will see the iron fist of the Wehrmacht once more if they do not dare bend to the will of the Reichstag. Has has already specifically called out the neutral nations of Europe, who have not been forced under the Reich’s will: Switzerland, Sweden, the Balkans, all of these tumors in the heart of Europe must be purged for the greater will of the Reich.
The Reichskommissars, increasingly rebellious and distant? Bombing campaigns will show them they shouldn’t dare to threaten their betters. America and Japan, ever growing stars threatening the glory of Germany? An army matched by no others will show them that they should fear the great Reich.
The ailing economy? Simple, Germany once found its power in war, and it would be simple to do so yet again, what worked once can simply work again. And the students and rioters in the streets? A bullet proves to be the most efficient negotiator that the government has ever employed.
Many have pointed out that an unending state of war across the world may not exactly be the greatest idea for a world seemingly on the verge of nuclear war, and that blowing the military bubble up further may quite possibly pull the plug on Germany’s economy, but why would anyone listen to such nonsense when they could simply sing a marching hymn and remember the glory days of the Reich?
Göring’s support is as widespread as Bormann’s. While Bormann has captured those idealists who like to believe Germany is just as great as ever, Göring has captured the extremists of this ideal, and the military especially. A soldier spoils for nothing more than a good fight, and Göring has promised that more so than anyone else.
And finally, there is the dark horse in this competition.
Reinhard Heydrich.
The Hangman. The Butcher of Prague. The Young Evil God of Death, and more relevantly, Himmler’s Evil Genius. While he came close to death in the 40’s after an unsuccessful attempt on his life by Czech partisans, he has used the attack as a learning experience, and increased his brutality ten fold. So feared and reviled that even the rest of the Nazi party seems to fear him, few expected Heydrich, openly known for being a puppet to Himmler and widely hated, to ever reach such heights.
But with guile, politicking, and a string of mysterious deaths, Heydrich was able to usurp control of the entirety of the German wing of the SS. Slowly, he has gathered more and more power around himself, creating a cabal of the furthest right and utterly extremist that the Reich has to offer. Like the others, he has placed his bid for candidacy as well, obviously on the behest of Himmler, like most of his actions.
While he has no real support, even less than Speer, the SS is beholden to him. While most of the German military has degraded, the SS has continued its strict training regime in preparation for whatever Himmler and Heydrich have planned. In addition, the foreign SS units which the Reichskommissars have grown reliant on are equally split, their commanders equally having pledged loyalty to Göring, Bormann and Heydrich.
Heydrich does not run on policy, he does not run on sense, he runs because he has been ordered to do so. Few expect him to have any real bid to the candidacy, but perhaps it won’t be political minds that decide the fate of Germany…
No matter who is chosen as the next leader of the Reich, the line has been drawn. The candidates openly despise each other, deriding one another at every turn, and the decision will only further radicalize the opposition, no matter who is chosen.
The wheels turn in Germany, and the situation only seems to be getting worse,
And worse
And worse
Some of these situations will be managed with the upcoming variable system in Cornflakes, allowing things like the militarization of the SS, the unrest of the students and the organization of the slaves to be monitored and spiral out of control:
But all of these things are simply too much for the fragile German government to manage. The only thing keeping the nation alive for now seems to be the mutual respect of the Führer, and as long as Hitler is alive, Germany may just remain alive. On a knife’s edge, but alive.
Of course, this is not meant to be. And Germany is going down.
Welcome back to possibly our largest dev diary yet for The New Order: Last Days of Europe. This diary, fittingly titled Götterdämmerung after the last of Richard Wagner’s cycle of four dramas, ending with the destruction of the Gods, will go over the German Reich and its situation in 1962 and its descent into madness.
Germany in 1962 has become an unmanageable hell for the Reichstag. In the aftermath of the 50’s Crash, the economy remains absolutely frozen. The German does not work anymore, despite meager attempts by the government to encourage a return to the factories and the army, as the massive slave caste has taken up the mantle of running almost the entirety of German industry. A pyrrhic victory against the resurgent West Russian Revolutionary Front led to the frontier being pushed back west, and the German military withdrawing from many of its eastern posts.
Now, defense of the colonies is mostly left to native SS divisions, but that has not stopped the Heer from receiving more and more funding, the bubble growing further as money seems to be printed just to enter the military and promptly disappear. Despite spending possibly the most on its military out of any nation, even with the weakest economy of the world superpowers, the German military is increasingly outdated, inefficient and rebellious, and like the industry of Germany, has grown increasingly reliant on foreign SS divisions to carry the heavy weight.
If these were not enough issues, the youth of Germany have been in open revolt for months. With the black market out of control and the economy increasingly reliant on it, the youth have become inspired to battle the regime in the streets, demanding an end to the slave system, an end to political repression, the abandonment of the frontiers, and so much more. Despite having been grown on the spoils of these systems, it seems a generation of Germans would now rather see their own safety net burned out from under them.
And even without the youth rebelling, the greatest threat to Germany dwells within. With the German SS under Heydrich acting as little more than a front for Himmler’s own ambitions, the SS has become increasingly rebellious. Secret arms caches have been built up around the country, and the SS has increasingly segregated itself from the rest of the military, keeping to its own bases and plotting unknown plots.
The SS itself is increasingly divided as well, with the drafted SS enlistees from the colonies more and more removed from their command in the west, many of the power players in the Reich have been attempting to court their commanders to their side to give them an edge. Often, they work as little more than mercenaries for the highest bidder, using these regiments as tools in the byzantine political game that is the Reich.
And what a game it is. German politics are hardly stable, but the government has managed to corral its thousands of issues somewhat until 1962, during the celebrations of the German moon landing, where a series of events shook Germania to its core:
The Führer has no heir, and the attack against him has shown this more fully than any event before. If Hitler is to die, there is nobody to replace him, and even while he lives, the dogs nip at each other, vying for whatever power they can grab.
In the Reich, four have announced their bid to the candidacy.
Speer, leading a coalition of liberals, moderates, and dissenters against the regime, has become the face of the growing student protests. Crowds around the nation chant his name, ‘Speer jetzt!’ has been a rallying cry, as more and more put their faith into Speer as the one who will finally bring positive reform and change to the Reich.
However, Speer may have popular support in the youth, but elsewhere he is left wanting. The past generations and those who rule in the Reichstag in the military have firmly refused to allow Speer anywhere near power, and claim that the Führer’s favoritism to him is nothing besides foul manipulation on his part. While he has gathered a small scion of support in the military and the government, it is too little for many to consider him having a strong chance at winning.
The choice lies with the Führer however, and little can truly claim to have knowledge of what Hitler plans on doing at any one moment.
The next choice, and most obvious for most, is Bormann. A strict conservative, Bormann has appealed to the masses by claiming there is no real threat to Germany at all. The military is stronger than ever, the Reich spans from west to east, and the faults in the economy are nothing besides the foul manipulations of the many enemies to the Reich, from the Americans and Japanese to the untermensch and the bankers.
Bormann has the widest base of support in the Reich. Most Germans simply want stability, and Bormann, the great negotiator, claims to have the means to give them this. Further support can be found across the Reich, as Bormann has won over the majority of the Reichskommissars and the various puppet masters of Europe.
Not only has Bormann won the politicians, but the military has drifted towards him as well. While split very closely between him and Göring, the military nonetheless has taken to his call for even further military spending and claims that the armed forces of the Reich are already almighty have resonated with the soldiery.
While Bormann seems to have the best shot at winning the Reich, that does not make him a good candidate. Many have pointed out that Bormann seems to have no economic plans, and his diplomatic ideas seem to mostly involve unending bluster and forcing arguably stronger powers in the Cold War to bend to Germany’s wims as they did once before.
However, a lack of any good policy or sanity in the administration has never stopped Germans before, and many who don’t even agree with Bormann have sided with him out of pure survivalism.
Of course, he and Speer are not the only ones vying for power, Göring has also announced his bid and has split most of his support with Germany. While Bormann claims the military needs little if any reform and bold posturing against the world will show others Germany’s might, Göring has taken it a step further.
Bold military adventures and the return of what made Germany great: war! Göring has promised all that the world will see the iron fist of the Wehrmacht once more if they do not dare bend to the will of the Reichstag. Has has already specifically called out the neutral nations of Europe, who have not been forced under the Reich’s will: Switzerland, Sweden, the Balkans, all of these tumors in the heart of Europe must be purged for the greater will of the Reich.
The Reichskommissars, increasingly rebellious and distant? Bombing campaigns will show them they shouldn’t dare to threaten their betters. America and Japan, ever growing stars threatening the glory of Germany? An army matched by no others will show them that they should fear the great Reich.
The ailing economy? Simple, Germany once found its power in war, and it would be simple to do so yet again, what worked once can simply work again. And the students and rioters in the streets? A bullet proves to be the most efficient negotiator that the government has ever employed.
Many have pointed out that an unending state of war across the world may not exactly be the greatest idea for a world seemingly on the verge of nuclear war, and that blowing the military bubble up further may quite possibly pull the plug on Germany’s economy, but why would anyone listen to such nonsense when they could simply sing a marching hymn and remember the glory days of the Reich?
Göring’s support is as widespread as Bormann’s. While Bormann has captured those idealists who like to believe Germany is just as great as ever, Göring has captured the extremists of this ideal, and the military especially. A soldier spoils for nothing more than a good fight, and Göring has promised that more so than anyone else.
And finally, there is the dark horse in this competition.
Reinhard Heydrich.
The Hangman. The Butcher of Prague. The Young Evil God of Death, and more relevantly, Himmler’s Evil Genius. While he came close to death in the 40’s after an unsuccessful attempt on his life by Czech partisans, he has used the attack as a learning experience, and increased his brutality ten fold. So feared and reviled that even the rest of the Nazi party seems to fear him, few expected Heydrich, openly known for being a puppet to Himmler and widely hated, to ever reach such heights.
But with guile, politicking, and a string of mysterious deaths, Heydrich was able to usurp control of the entirety of the German wing of the SS. Slowly, he has gathered more and more power around himself, creating a cabal of the furthest right and utterly extremist that the Reich has to offer. Like the others, he has placed his bid for candidacy as well, obviously on the behest of Himmler, like most of his actions.
While he has no real support, even less than Speer, the SS is beholden to him. While most of the German military has degraded, the SS has continued its strict training regime in preparation for whatever Himmler and Heydrich have planned. In addition, the foreign SS units which the Reichskommissars have grown reliant on are equally split, their commanders equally having pledged loyalty to Göring, Bormann and Heydrich.
Heydrich does not run on policy, he does not run on sense, he runs because he has been ordered to do so. Few expect him to have any real bid to the candidacy, but perhaps it won’t be political minds that decide the fate of Germany…
No matter who is chosen as the next leader of the Reich, the line has been drawn. The candidates openly despise each other, deriding one another at every turn, and the decision will only further radicalize the opposition, no matter who is chosen.
The wheels turn in Germany, and the situation only seems to be getting worse,
And worse
And worse
Some of these situations will be managed with the upcoming variable system in Cornflakes, allowing things like the militarization of the SS, the unrest of the students and the organization of the slaves to be monitored and spiral out of control:
But all of these things are simply too much for the fragile German government to manage. The only thing keeping the nation alive for now seems to be the mutual respect of the Führer, and as long as Hitler is alive, Germany may just remain alive. On a knife’s edge, but alive.
Of course, this is not meant to be. And Germany is going down.
Dev Diary VII: Götterdämmerung - Part I - (Part II)
The nation has descended in a death spiral, there is fighting in the streets, gunshots are starting to echo across the country. It seems that Germany may have finally gone over the tipping point.
There will be no negotiation. There will be no understanding. There will be no peace. This is war, only one man can lead the Reich, no matter what the Führer wished, and all others and their treasonous supporters must die for the good of the Reich.
The lines are drawn as the various pretenders to the throne of Europe’s largest empire all rush to their largest bases of support. Each side represents a unique threat to the others, whether it’s Bormann and his massive support in the military, Göring and his fellow supporters in the military as well as control of the Luftwaffe, Heydrich and his elite SS divisions and endless funding from Burgundy, or Speer and his wide breadth of support across the entire Reich.
The German Civil War is a brutal affair. There is little mercy in the hearts of the contenders, and each side has enlisted the entirety of their possible supporters to their cause. Men, women, and even the children must fight in this final battle.
The Reichskommissars are equally split, many professing loyalty to the various sides, mainly Bormann, or declaring neutrality. With the fall of central authority, many others have used this as their chance to finally break free of the Reich, or to settle old scores with each other and Germany proper.
Support across the world has come funneling in as well, and not just from Burgundy. The United States, Japan, and numerous other countries have a role to play in the future of Germany. The favorite of most of the international community is Speer, who is seen as the best chance for the Reich to avoid a nuclear war, but some support has also found its way going to Bormann, hoping his administration will kill the Reich more readily than any war.
While the four contenders begin their quest to burn Germany in their name, the Reichstag is in chaos. Those who support one side or another, the majority of the politicians, have rushed off to join their masters. The police and local garrisons in Germania have managed to lockdown the city and its surrounding suburbs, despite skirmishes, and have declared martial law, already digging in and preparing to keep the capital safe at any cost.
The widespread chaos across the nation has inspired those few in the military still neutral to mobilize. They have rallied behind two figures, conservatives Hans Spiedel and his former commander, Erwin Rommel, who have taken control of the garrison in Germania and brought their men to the city, declaring much of central Germany a neutral zone.
From Germania, they have taken whatever control remains of Germany outside of the homeland. The bases in Crimea, the neutral Reichskommissars, and the various embassies across the world.
At the beginning of the war, Spiedel and his men start neutral to the rest of the pretenders and in control of Germania, but as the war goes on and one side begins taking power, their area of control can slowly recede until it is only Germania proper. If one side becomes dominant, or if any become desperate enough, they can try attacking Spiedel’s forces and taking control of Germania, despite the possibilities of destroying the city. If one side chooses to do this, the others may panic and jump on Spiedel and his men in order to ensure Germania remains out of the others hands.
If nobody goes to war against Spiedel and defeats their opponents, Spiedel will choose whether to lay down his arms and welcome the victory or continue resisting this new authority, depending on the contender, but normally weighted towards the former.
There is too much to go into the entirety of the Civil War here, it can quite possibly be its own diary. But let’s look past the Civil War, and go over the trees for two of the possible leaders of Germany. Speer, and Bormann.
Speer’s Reich:
Speer had every obstacle in front of him, whether it be the hatred coming from the establishment of the Reichstag or his rebellion beginning his biggest rival with Heydrich, but against the odds he has prevailed. Speer’s enemies are dead or imprisoned or fled abroad, and besides a few of the most zealous holdouts and Reichskommissars, all have recognized the authority of the new Führer in the Reichstag.
Speer’s enemies are still legion, however, and the problems ailing Germany have not gone away with an apocalyptic war. However, in power, he has radical plans on how to save Germany from her woes. The government must go left, it must throw off its outdated trappings, it must reform its military and it must cut off the chaff.
First, Speer must begin reorganizing the nation to recover from the fallout of the war. While Bormann and Göring have similar sized trees, this is only half of Speer’s recovery effort that he must undertake (more on that later). For now, he must restore order to the anarchy that has enveloped Germany, begin purifying the military of his opponents, and begin bringing stability to the nation.
Speer can not risk mass purges of his rivals, simply too much of Germany was opposed to him in the war to do so. In order for his administration to survive, it will have to treat with many who stood against it. This means that Speer’s path is fraught with danger, too rapid reform will bring resistance, and one can only imagine what would happen if he infuriates his colleagues enough to bring unrest back to Germany.
Once this is done, Speer begins his tree proper. Starting with the military.
Speer has possibly the smallest military tree of the four players, matching his ideas of a smaller, more focused Wehrmacht.
First, he must reform the branch most against him, the Heer. The Heer’s commanders are still openly rebellious against their new master, refusing to be led by a more pacifistic leader who openly speaks of cutting the massive military budget the Reich has built up over the years. Further purges will be necessary, and much of the tree is focused around building up a new and more loyal officer corps.
In addition, Speer can unify the multitude of bodyguard units into a more elite and well prepared force, instead of a smattering of mercenaries constantly squabbling for favor, and use this to begin establishing a new era of the German Special Forces, able to carefully and quickly execute the will of the government as needed.
The military can also either focus on mechanization or embracing the new era represented by the helicopter. The panzer fleet of Germany is already far too massive for its own good, proving to be more of a money sink than almost any other part of the armed forces, and in an era where Germany must move away from its focus on reliving the great, grand battles of the last war, has no place.
The nation has descended in a death spiral, there is fighting in the streets, gunshots are starting to echo across the country. It seems that Germany may have finally gone over the tipping point.
There will be no negotiation. There will be no understanding. There will be no peace. This is war, only one man can lead the Reich, no matter what the Führer wished, and all others and their treasonous supporters must die for the good of the Reich.
The lines are drawn as the various pretenders to the throne of Europe’s largest empire all rush to their largest bases of support. Each side represents a unique threat to the others, whether it’s Bormann and his massive support in the military, Göring and his fellow supporters in the military as well as control of the Luftwaffe, Heydrich and his elite SS divisions and endless funding from Burgundy, or Speer and his wide breadth of support across the entire Reich.
The German Civil War is a brutal affair. There is little mercy in the hearts of the contenders, and each side has enlisted the entirety of their possible supporters to their cause. Men, women, and even the children must fight in this final battle.
The Reichskommissars are equally split, many professing loyalty to the various sides, mainly Bormann, or declaring neutrality. With the fall of central authority, many others have used this as their chance to finally break free of the Reich, or to settle old scores with each other and Germany proper.
Support across the world has come funneling in as well, and not just from Burgundy. The United States, Japan, and numerous other countries have a role to play in the future of Germany. The favorite of most of the international community is Speer, who is seen as the best chance for the Reich to avoid a nuclear war, but some support has also found its way going to Bormann, hoping his administration will kill the Reich more readily than any war.
While the four contenders begin their quest to burn Germany in their name, the Reichstag is in chaos. Those who support one side or another, the majority of the politicians, have rushed off to join their masters. The police and local garrisons in Germania have managed to lockdown the city and its surrounding suburbs, despite skirmishes, and have declared martial law, already digging in and preparing to keep the capital safe at any cost.
The widespread chaos across the nation has inspired those few in the military still neutral to mobilize. They have rallied behind two figures, conservatives Hans Spiedel and his former commander, Erwin Rommel, who have taken control of the garrison in Germania and brought their men to the city, declaring much of central Germany a neutral zone.
From Germania, they have taken whatever control remains of Germany outside of the homeland. The bases in Crimea, the neutral Reichskommissars, and the various embassies across the world.
At the beginning of the war, Spiedel and his men start neutral to the rest of the pretenders and in control of Germania, but as the war goes on and one side begins taking power, their area of control can slowly recede until it is only Germania proper. If one side becomes dominant, or if any become desperate enough, they can try attacking Spiedel’s forces and taking control of Germania, despite the possibilities of destroying the city. If one side chooses to do this, the others may panic and jump on Spiedel and his men in order to ensure Germania remains out of the others hands.
If nobody goes to war against Spiedel and defeats their opponents, Spiedel will choose whether to lay down his arms and welcome the victory or continue resisting this new authority, depending on the contender, but normally weighted towards the former.
There is too much to go into the entirety of the Civil War here, it can quite possibly be its own diary. But let’s look past the Civil War, and go over the trees for two of the possible leaders of Germany. Speer, and Bormann.
Speer’s Reich:
Speer had every obstacle in front of him, whether it be the hatred coming from the establishment of the Reichstag or his rebellion beginning his biggest rival with Heydrich, but against the odds he has prevailed. Speer’s enemies are dead or imprisoned or fled abroad, and besides a few of the most zealous holdouts and Reichskommissars, all have recognized the authority of the new Führer in the Reichstag.
Speer’s enemies are still legion, however, and the problems ailing Germany have not gone away with an apocalyptic war. However, in power, he has radical plans on how to save Germany from her woes. The government must go left, it must throw off its outdated trappings, it must reform its military and it must cut off the chaff.
First, Speer must begin reorganizing the nation to recover from the fallout of the war. While Bormann and Göring have similar sized trees, this is only half of Speer’s recovery effort that he must undertake (more on that later). For now, he must restore order to the anarchy that has enveloped Germany, begin purifying the military of his opponents, and begin bringing stability to the nation.
Speer can not risk mass purges of his rivals, simply too much of Germany was opposed to him in the war to do so. In order for his administration to survive, it will have to treat with many who stood against it. This means that Speer’s path is fraught with danger, too rapid reform will bring resistance, and one can only imagine what would happen if he infuriates his colleagues enough to bring unrest back to Germany.
Once this is done, Speer begins his tree proper. Starting with the military.
Speer has possibly the smallest military tree of the four players, matching his ideas of a smaller, more focused Wehrmacht.
First, he must reform the branch most against him, the Heer. The Heer’s commanders are still openly rebellious against their new master, refusing to be led by a more pacifistic leader who openly speaks of cutting the massive military budget the Reich has built up over the years. Further purges will be necessary, and much of the tree is focused around building up a new and more loyal officer corps.
In addition, Speer can unify the multitude of bodyguard units into a more elite and well prepared force, instead of a smattering of mercenaries constantly squabbling for favor, and use this to begin establishing a new era of the German Special Forces, able to carefully and quickly execute the will of the government as needed.
The military can also either focus on mechanization or embracing the new era represented by the helicopter. The panzer fleet of Germany is already far too massive for its own good, proving to be more of a money sink than almost any other part of the armed forces, and in an era where Germany must move away from its focus on reliving the great, grand battles of the last war, has no place.
Dev Diary VII: Götterdämmerung - Part I - (Part III)
Speer also needs to redevelop the Kriegsmarine. The branch was the friendliest towards him during the war, though still primarily controlled by his rivals, and he can use these connections to try and quickly rebuild the Admiralty with more like minded individuals.
There are two main decisions to be made. Either scrapping the greatly outdated fleet or attempting to retrofit and redevelop it. The first option is the cheapest and can make it much easier for the Kriegsmarine to begin moving forward.
However, this would be controversial, not only among the Kriegsmarine and the conservatives but with the people. Throwing away the fleet would be a demoralizing blow to the people, in an era where Germany desperately needs victories and symbols to rally behind.
Still, no matter what is chosen, the navy needs a new focus. Whether scrapped or modernized, the navy must move away from its obsession with growing its fleet of battleships past imaginable levels. Like much of the German military, they have little place in the modern world and serve as nothing but a money trap. Instead, Speer can focus on either a modern carrier fleet to help Germany project its power overseas, or a submarine fleet to ensure more direct safety of European waters.
The airforce has the greatest amount of variety. With a sharp ending of the Wunderwaffe programs, the funding of the Luftwaffe can be relocated to more pressing matters: focusing and developing its airfleet towards a more singular purpose and goal. The decision has to be made, will the Luftwaffe focus on interceptors and protecting the skies of Germany and the soldiers below? Improving the helicopter fleet and using it to multiply the effectiveness of the infantry? Or bombers, and begin an era of smarter, more focused bombing campaigns, with minimal collateral damage and a rapid destruction of those who threaten Germany.
Finally, the airforce will need to be focused on its new direction. The pilots will need to be retrained, the fleet rebuilt, and focus returned towards using the Luftwaffe’s budget for rebuilding the airfleet instead of squandering it on pet projects and the inane dreams of the Reichstag.
Next, we will look at Speer’s political options, and how he will reshape the Reich.
Before he can do this, however, he needs to finish answering the immediate problems facing the Reich. The students have not left the streets, despite their favored leader having taken control, they still have demands to be heard, and with the students having organized and armed themselves, they are a more pressing matter than ever. Thankfully, with Speer, they are more manageable, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to assure them that change is coming.
The banks are also an ever present issue. Having taken control of the Reich’s economy years before and grown just as corrupt as the government they worked for, a decision must be made to either negotiate with the banks and fully privatize them, hoping to control them with laws and bureaucracy, or to break the banks and arrest the bankers, and reform the Reichsbank as a stable arm of the government.
With this done, it is time for Speer to begin dragging the Reich back into the light.
Speer has a long road ahead of him to end the caste system and reform the German political system. He’ll be fighting the Reichstag every step on the way to push through his reforms, and if he has not yet gone through his industrial tree, can possibly cause the Reich’s economy to finally spiral out of control, its final lifeline cut.
Assuming Speer can successfully navigate the minefield that is trying to end the Reich’s obsession with racial superiority, however, he has the best chance of a strong solution to the caste system. By ending the divide and uplifting the slaves, he can redefine what it is to be the National-Socialist male. Instead of based on race, the strength of a person will be decided on his loyalty, his dedication, and his work to improve his nation.
He must also decide on the political future of the Reich. Speer can either be an Authoritarian Democrat, wishing for a democratic system to decide the Reich’s dictator and his subordinates, or an Italian style Fascist, working towards a less byzantine and inhumane system, where the Führer acts as a benevolent dictator, with the force of law preventing him from the worst of excesses.
Both paths are fraught with danger, though Germans will of course be much more open to the second option. Each path also gives him a decision on what exactly to do with Germany’s sphere across Europe. Speer may either choose to, as a Fascist, reform the Reichskommissariats to follow the new laws of Germany and follow its new laws and reforms towards benevolent rule, or can try to break the German tin-pot-dictators and their military regimes entirely, and try to restore Europe to some semblance of sense.
The first option will lead to the Reichskommissars reforming and following the party line or refusing and bringing them in conflict with the Reich, if Speer decides to pursue them instead of letting them isolate. The second is much more extreme, and will lead to Speer attempting to break German domination of Europe in favor of local regimes taking control back, giving control of the east back to the Collaborators who serve under the Reichskommissars and attempting to redraw Europe’s borders once again, under the Unity-Pakt. Of course, if Speer has managed to avoid conflict until this point, this would most likely come as the final straw to most, and one can only imagine the natives might not be so happy to continue working under the Reich once given power.
Also up to reform is Germany’s industry and science sectors. The nation was already crumbling before the civil war, and dropping tons of bombs on it and starting gunfights on every corner seems to have made the issue even worse.
Speer is, if nothing else, however, an architect.
Speer envisions great things for Germany’s new infrastructure and industry plan. Starting with two things: rebuilding the U-Bahn and reforming the nation’s limited conscription plan to include Germans again, but also a civil service aimed at dragging Germans back into the nation’s economy.
With the U-Bahn completed, commerce can once again begin flowing throughout Germany, and with the roads expanded and redesigned for modern vehicles, can begin moving more industry than ever before.
With a proper civil service being built up, slowly introducing Germans back into the workforce, the nation can finally achieve the skilled labour force necessary to complete Speer’s ambitious projects. The slaves are hard but unreliable workers and and can not be be trusted with the proper rebuilding of the nation, they so vehemently despise.
This is however only the beginning. Germania and the nation at large must be rebuilt, almost from the ground up, and massive amounts of workers and capital will be needed for this. In addition, millions of refugees and victims of the civil war now roam the nation and will need proper assistance and strong guidance if there is any hope of stabilizing the nation before it slides back into anarchy.
Eventually, the tree more or less splits. Germany will need to further ensure Germans enter the workforce by enticing them to work with an official welfare program, actual safety standards in the factories, building up a service sector, and ending the gender gaps preventing the nation from properly utilizing more than half of its population, with thousands upon thousands of dead men due to the conflict.
The projects to revitalise Germany will also continue, with further efforts to clean up the destruction from the war, followed by further expansion of the German infrastructure. The grand plans to build roads across Europe under a single standard will finally be completed, civilian air travel will be encouraged and subsidized, and the Reichskommissariats will be raised to this new standard.
Ultimately, it must be decided how Speer will tackle the colossal monuments and pet projects he has inherited, like the Volkshalle. Either these massive and slowly crumbling monuments must be abandoned, using the resources on far more pressing projects, or maintained, focusing on the symbolism and grandeur these express to show the German population that Germany has not been defeated and as an indication of the bright future that awaits Germany.
Speer will also focus on reforming German science. By uniting the various science teams of the Unity-Pakt and finally ending the blacklists and restrictions put on the scientific community, especially ending the idea of Deutsch Physik and other nonsense that almost cost Germany its victory in the war by nearly killing its nuclear program, German scientists can finally begin bringing Germany back to the 20th century and beyond.
He can also look further, to the final frontiers, and begin taking the lessons from the moon landing to try and apply them to new missions. Speer has a more involved focus tree for space leading to a limited ending compared to his counterparts, a reflection on more realistic expectations and a desire to see actual scientific progress instead of useless nationalistic chest beating. His final focuses in this tree end with Germany either building its own space station around Earth, or, if it cooperates with the international community as we’ll see in a bit, building an International Space Station to further unite the world’s scientific community and foster positive relations around the world.
And now, onto the largest portion of Speer’s tree. Diplomacy.
The tree has two distinct branches, focusing on the international community or looking inward and trying to reform the Unity-Pakt and the Reichskommissariats into a more stable, capable, organization. In comparison to our reality, the two trees focus on trying to create the UN or the EU, with the prior fitting in with an Auth Dem Speer and the latter matching more with a Fascist Speer, though they are not locked by ideology.
First, we shall look at the international focus.
The KN (Koalition der Nationen) tree is shorter because it won’t see its full effect at game start, which we’ll get to later.
The path to build this unheard of organization is a longer one than simply beginning to build up the Pakt, as it will take serious diplomatic efforts to even get the project off the ground. Germany will need to completely change how foreign nations see it, from a repressive regime to a kinder, benevolent one. This, will of course be easier if Speer has already reformed Germany and freed its slaves.
Speer also needs to redevelop the Kriegsmarine. The branch was the friendliest towards him during the war, though still primarily controlled by his rivals, and he can use these connections to try and quickly rebuild the Admiralty with more like minded individuals.
There are two main decisions to be made. Either scrapping the greatly outdated fleet or attempting to retrofit and redevelop it. The first option is the cheapest and can make it much easier for the Kriegsmarine to begin moving forward.
However, this would be controversial, not only among the Kriegsmarine and the conservatives but with the people. Throwing away the fleet would be a demoralizing blow to the people, in an era where Germany desperately needs victories and symbols to rally behind.
Still, no matter what is chosen, the navy needs a new focus. Whether scrapped or modernized, the navy must move away from its obsession with growing its fleet of battleships past imaginable levels. Like much of the German military, they have little place in the modern world and serve as nothing but a money trap. Instead, Speer can focus on either a modern carrier fleet to help Germany project its power overseas, or a submarine fleet to ensure more direct safety of European waters.
The airforce has the greatest amount of variety. With a sharp ending of the Wunderwaffe programs, the funding of the Luftwaffe can be relocated to more pressing matters: focusing and developing its airfleet towards a more singular purpose and goal. The decision has to be made, will the Luftwaffe focus on interceptors and protecting the skies of Germany and the soldiers below? Improving the helicopter fleet and using it to multiply the effectiveness of the infantry? Or bombers, and begin an era of smarter, more focused bombing campaigns, with minimal collateral damage and a rapid destruction of those who threaten Germany.
Finally, the airforce will need to be focused on its new direction. The pilots will need to be retrained, the fleet rebuilt, and focus returned towards using the Luftwaffe’s budget for rebuilding the airfleet instead of squandering it on pet projects and the inane dreams of the Reichstag.
Next, we will look at Speer’s political options, and how he will reshape the Reich.
Before he can do this, however, he needs to finish answering the immediate problems facing the Reich. The students have not left the streets, despite their favored leader having taken control, they still have demands to be heard, and with the students having organized and armed themselves, they are a more pressing matter than ever. Thankfully, with Speer, they are more manageable, and it shouldn’t be too difficult to assure them that change is coming.
The banks are also an ever present issue. Having taken control of the Reich’s economy years before and grown just as corrupt as the government they worked for, a decision must be made to either negotiate with the banks and fully privatize them, hoping to control them with laws and bureaucracy, or to break the banks and arrest the bankers, and reform the Reichsbank as a stable arm of the government.
With this done, it is time for Speer to begin dragging the Reich back into the light.
Speer has a long road ahead of him to end the caste system and reform the German political system. He’ll be fighting the Reichstag every step on the way to push through his reforms, and if he has not yet gone through his industrial tree, can possibly cause the Reich’s economy to finally spiral out of control, its final lifeline cut.
Assuming Speer can successfully navigate the minefield that is trying to end the Reich’s obsession with racial superiority, however, he has the best chance of a strong solution to the caste system. By ending the divide and uplifting the slaves, he can redefine what it is to be the National-Socialist male. Instead of based on race, the strength of a person will be decided on his loyalty, his dedication, and his work to improve his nation.
He must also decide on the political future of the Reich. Speer can either be an Authoritarian Democrat, wishing for a democratic system to decide the Reich’s dictator and his subordinates, or an Italian style Fascist, working towards a less byzantine and inhumane system, where the Führer acts as a benevolent dictator, with the force of law preventing him from the worst of excesses.
Both paths are fraught with danger, though Germans will of course be much more open to the second option. Each path also gives him a decision on what exactly to do with Germany’s sphere across Europe. Speer may either choose to, as a Fascist, reform the Reichskommissariats to follow the new laws of Germany and follow its new laws and reforms towards benevolent rule, or can try to break the German tin-pot-dictators and their military regimes entirely, and try to restore Europe to some semblance of sense.
The first option will lead to the Reichskommissars reforming and following the party line or refusing and bringing them in conflict with the Reich, if Speer decides to pursue them instead of letting them isolate. The second is much more extreme, and will lead to Speer attempting to break German domination of Europe in favor of local regimes taking control back, giving control of the east back to the Collaborators who serve under the Reichskommissars and attempting to redraw Europe’s borders once again, under the Unity-Pakt. Of course, if Speer has managed to avoid conflict until this point, this would most likely come as the final straw to most, and one can only imagine the natives might not be so happy to continue working under the Reich once given power.
Also up to reform is Germany’s industry and science sectors. The nation was already crumbling before the civil war, and dropping tons of bombs on it and starting gunfights on every corner seems to have made the issue even worse.
Speer is, if nothing else, however, an architect.
Speer envisions great things for Germany’s new infrastructure and industry plan. Starting with two things: rebuilding the U-Bahn and reforming the nation’s limited conscription plan to include Germans again, but also a civil service aimed at dragging Germans back into the nation’s economy.
With the U-Bahn completed, commerce can once again begin flowing throughout Germany, and with the roads expanded and redesigned for modern vehicles, can begin moving more industry than ever before.
With a proper civil service being built up, slowly introducing Germans back into the workforce, the nation can finally achieve the skilled labour force necessary to complete Speer’s ambitious projects. The slaves are hard but unreliable workers and and can not be be trusted with the proper rebuilding of the nation, they so vehemently despise.
This is however only the beginning. Germania and the nation at large must be rebuilt, almost from the ground up, and massive amounts of workers and capital will be needed for this. In addition, millions of refugees and victims of the civil war now roam the nation and will need proper assistance and strong guidance if there is any hope of stabilizing the nation before it slides back into anarchy.
Eventually, the tree more or less splits. Germany will need to further ensure Germans enter the workforce by enticing them to work with an official welfare program, actual safety standards in the factories, building up a service sector, and ending the gender gaps preventing the nation from properly utilizing more than half of its population, with thousands upon thousands of dead men due to the conflict.
The projects to revitalise Germany will also continue, with further efforts to clean up the destruction from the war, followed by further expansion of the German infrastructure. The grand plans to build roads across Europe under a single standard will finally be completed, civilian air travel will be encouraged and subsidized, and the Reichskommissariats will be raised to this new standard.
Ultimately, it must be decided how Speer will tackle the colossal monuments and pet projects he has inherited, like the Volkshalle. Either these massive and slowly crumbling monuments must be abandoned, using the resources on far more pressing projects, or maintained, focusing on the symbolism and grandeur these express to show the German population that Germany has not been defeated and as an indication of the bright future that awaits Germany.
Speer will also focus on reforming German science. By uniting the various science teams of the Unity-Pakt and finally ending the blacklists and restrictions put on the scientific community, especially ending the idea of Deutsch Physik and other nonsense that almost cost Germany its victory in the war by nearly killing its nuclear program, German scientists can finally begin bringing Germany back to the 20th century and beyond.
He can also look further, to the final frontiers, and begin taking the lessons from the moon landing to try and apply them to new missions. Speer has a more involved focus tree for space leading to a limited ending compared to his counterparts, a reflection on more realistic expectations and a desire to see actual scientific progress instead of useless nationalistic chest beating. His final focuses in this tree end with Germany either building its own space station around Earth, or, if it cooperates with the international community as we’ll see in a bit, building an International Space Station to further unite the world’s scientific community and foster positive relations around the world.
And now, onto the largest portion of Speer’s tree. Diplomacy.
The tree has two distinct branches, focusing on the international community or looking inward and trying to reform the Unity-Pakt and the Reichskommissariats into a more stable, capable, organization. In comparison to our reality, the two trees focus on trying to create the UN or the EU, with the prior fitting in with an Auth Dem Speer and the latter matching more with a Fascist Speer, though they are not locked by ideology.
First, we shall look at the international focus.
The KN (Koalition der Nationen) tree is shorter because it won’t see its full effect at game start, which we’ll get to later.
The path to build this unheard of organization is a longer one than simply beginning to build up the Pakt, as it will take serious diplomatic efforts to even get the project off the ground. Germany will need to completely change how foreign nations see it, from a repressive regime to a kinder, benevolent one. This, will of course be easier if Speer has already reformed Germany and freed its slaves.
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