Kaiserreich (mod): Difference between revisions

Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg is an alternate history mod for the grand strategy video game Hearts of Iron IV (2016).

Kaiserreich is an alternate history mod for the video game Hearts of Iron IV (2016),^[1] a grand strategy game where the player takes controls of a chosen nation during World War II, and manages all aspects of it throughout the war, with the goal to be on the winning side of the conflict. These aspects include the nations politics, industry, and diplomatic relations.^[2] Players can also pursue alternate history paths, known as "National Focuses."^[1] While Kaiserreich makes no major changes to the core gameplay,^[3] it changes the games main setting, and adds new content to accommodate for it.^[4]

Kaiserreich is set in an alternate history timeline where the Central Powers won World War I by 1917,^[1] with the mods start date being 1936.^[3] The Central Powers victory leads to numerous changes from the real world's political landscape, with every country and region being impacted and having altered history.^[1][3] The mod begins on the onset of a fictional version of World War II, altered by the mods lore as well as player action. Games are generally generally different from the one another, often having minor to major differences.^[3]

In the mod, the German Empire serves as the leading power of Europe, operating a number of client states in the eastern part of the continent, a large African colony named "Mittelafrika", and numerous colonies in Southeast Asia, all of which are united under a single alliance.^[1] Meanwhile, the other major Central Power, Austria-Hungary, manages to survive outside of Germany's sphere of influence and undergoes a consolidation into one government.^[1] After being defeated in the war, revolutions overthrow the governments of Great Britain, France, and Italy, adopting syndicalism as their ideology and forming an alliance known as the Third Internationale, with the former governments being exiled and continuing the Entente.^[1] Additionally, several nations experience internal unrest after the war, with the United States, Spain, and Argentina falling into civil wars, and independence movements beginning in several colonies and client states.^[3]

In addition to the alternations of borders and diplomacy, Kaiserreich features alternations from the real world's political ideologies, featuring custom ideologies that combine many ideals from several nations into one, and not having the traditional concept of ideologies like communist and fascism. An example of these new ideologies is "Totalism", an ideology structured like Stalinism that attracts figures that would have been otherwise considered fascist,^[3] as well as the aforementioned replacement of traditional communism with syndicalism, which starts in the West instead of in the East.^[3]

The setting of Kaiserreich was viewed positively by critics, viewing it as surpassing the original games setting. Timothy Borsilli of Wargamer wrote that Kaiserreich was a "rich, well-researched, and lovingly crafted world" that was retained realism and fidelity, and one that was designed for "maximum entertainment value." He believed that the base game was generally predictable, with player choice not having any major impact on the final result of the conflict due to being grounded to World War II, while Kaiserreich was a mod that "attacks" that problem.^[1] Luke Plunkett of Kotaku shared similar thoughts, believing that while Hearts of Iron IV had limited variation in outcomes, Kaiserreich was a mod that opened an

Due to the mods success, Paradox Interactive added a feature to Hearts of Iron IV that allows players to restore Kaiser Wilhelm II to power in Germany and exile Nazis, modeled after Kaiserreich. Borsilli stated that, while the feature was "admirably done and fun in its own right, [it failed] to capture the magic of the mod’s universe."^[1]

https://kotaku.com/kaiserreich-the-mod-that-changes-the-world-1838426694 https://www.wargamer.com/hearts-of-iron-4/mod-kaiserreich https://www.pcgamesn.com/hearts-of-iron-iv/kaiserreich-mod

https://www.pcgamesn.com/hearts-of-iron-iv/mods-best https://www.gamerevolution.com/guides/416555-best-hearts-of-iron-4-mods-2018