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Hello all! This here be my first post to AH.com. I'm designing a variant on the game Diplomacy (there must be plenty of Diplomacy fans out there, perhaps even some fellow variant designers...) set in a world in which the Central Powers won WWI. If you're just interested in the game stuff and don't care about all my historical pontificating, I’ve another post requesting game-designing advice; please check it out!

How did the Central Powers win WWI? As a fan of Niall Ferguson, I'm setting my PoD back pretty far: Kaiser Friedrich III's cancer is diagnosed early, and is successfully operated. Thus, Germany is led by a more liberal and rational leader, as opposed to the impetuous Wilhelm II. Friedrich follows Bismarck's advice and echews overseas colonial adventurism, and prevents German diplomatic isolation. This puts them in particularly good stead with the British Empire.

He and his future army chief(s) of staff also values Moltke the Elder's assessment that in the event of a two-front war, Germany is at a serious geographic disadvantage and cannot defend its borders as they are. Instead, it would be best to retreat to the Rhine in the West and hold it against France, while advancing into Poland in the East, and there maintain a defensive line against Russia. Germany could then just ride it out, as Moltke understood military technology of the day favored defense rather than offense.

Regardless of Germany's generally less belicose nature under Friedrich, France and Russia still have it out for Germany following the Franco-Prussian and the Russo-Turkish Wars. Thus, war breaks out anyways due to Balkan tensions, primarily triggered by Austrian expansionism and Russian mobilization against both Austria and Germany on the pretext of defending Slavic interests. However, rather than storming through Belgium, Germany takes up their position along the Rhine, claiming they are just fighting a defensive war against Franco-Russian aggression.

In light of all this, Britain declares neutrality. Italy, having nothing to fear from the British Navy along its immense coast, honors its Triple Alliance obligations and joins the Central Powers. France starts smashing its head to no avail against German positions on the Rhine. The Germans take Poland and, finding Russian resistance much weaker than anticipated, keeps driving East (just like the OTL).

With fewer resources being chewed up on the Western Front, Germany throws its bulk against Russia. After a few years of hard but fruitful fighting, the Central Powers defeat Russia and conclude a Brest-Litovsk-esque treaty. This treaty is less harsh than the actual BL Treaty, as Germany has won the war faster and is less desperate for glory. Also, as the Russians at the negotiating table aren’t Bolsheviks anticipating a sweeping revolution in the West, they’d be less willing to give up so much. Finland, the Baltics, Poland, and western Ukraine (including Kiev and Sevastopol/Crimea) are shaved off the Russian Empire. Mitteleuropa is secured for Germany, while the Austrians achieve dominance over the Balkans (minus Greater Bulgaria).

Now wheeling on France, Germany redeploys its forces in the West. It blasts through the demoralized and unassisted French armies on the Rhine, and starts heading for Paris. At this point, the British Napoleon-o-phobia kicks in, and they threaten to intervene if French sovereignty and territorial integrity is not respected. Largely sated with their gains in the east, and not wanting to pick a fight with the fresh-as-a-daisy Brits, the Germans content themselves with taking Luxembourg and the German-speaking parts of Belgium. Of course, the Germans are none too happy with the English.

In the Treaty of London, Eastern Europe is reorganized into a number of nominally sovereign and independent kingdoms and principalities, all under German aristocratic families, and German gains in the west are recognised. At the Berlin Congress, however, the reality becomes clear: eastern Europe is bound to Germany in a customs union, Mitteleuropa, and is diplomatically subservient to Germany. Thanks to Friedrich's more liberal bent, the really ugly plans for expulsions and German resettlement remain the fantasy of the ultranationalist fringe. However, the same end is basically accomplished: German mastery of the East.

Over the next few decades, Austria-Hungary disolves under its own weight. Austria becomes a part of the German Empire proper, while Hungary and the empire's other successor states are eventually drawn into Mitteleuropa, sort of like the EU. Often, this is accomplished diplomatically. However, in the frequent fits of chaos and civil war that ravage the Balkans following such an implosion, there are many opportunities for Mitteleuropan ‘peace-keepers’ to intervene and forceably drag weak and divided nations into the fold.

All this Mitteleuropan expansion makes Great Britain very suspicious, fearing Mitteleuropa may soon be approaching Superpower status in an age of Great Powers. Of course, Russia is just spoiling for a chance to reclaim its lost position and revenge itself against Germany. Tensions are high, and war could break out at any time, given the right provocation...

In the Far East, the lack of British involvement in WWI means the Japanese have no pretext from the Anglo-Japanese Alliance to enter either. So what would they do? Following the Russo-Japanese War, antagonism towards Russia was high; would they ally with the Germans and enter anyways against Russian holdings in the Far East? How would this affect future Sino-Japanese relations? Would there be no war in 1937? No Manchukuo in 1932? Or would the Japanese have already conquered Manchukuo during WWI, arguing it was a Russian imperial fief in all but name? So much to consider.

I think it’s pretty safe to say without British involvement, the US would have stayed out as well.

So in my boardgame, the Great Powers are the British Empire, the USA, Mitteleuropa, Russia, and Japan (possibly combined with China in some sort of Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere alliance, because in my heart I don’t think the Japanese Empire alone could rank with the others, and it’s a boardgame so they all need to be roughly balanced). What say you, AHers? Plausable or nay?
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