Democracy's Torch (Sky plays Darkest Hour)

[Skywalker_T-65]

Because a bored Sky is a Sky who goes looking for things to entertain himself.

Joking aside, most anyone who reads this knows me from my fanfics. Likely my KC fanfics. But before I got into that- indeed before I came here -I got a fairly decent staple of LP....well, AARs, on the Paradox Forums. Because as a historian I like Paradox games. And as such, I made quite a few of them. I haven't done one in some time, mostly because of the aforementioned fanfics.

But hey, why not.



So!

What game did I choose here? Not Hearts of Iron IV, as I don't have that. Not Hearts of Iron III, as I don't like how railroaded it is. And since most of my historic writing is set in World War Two I wanted to stick with that time period. So I went instead with Darkest Hour. For those who are not familiar with this game, it is what I like to call 'the biggest sanctioned mod I've ever seen'. Strictly speaking, that is what DH is, after all. The game is at the base level Hearts of Iron II, heavily modded after Paradox released their old Europa Engine to the public- Clausewitz is what they currently use -and basically said 'go wild my children'.

Hearts of Iron II got two games made, both officially endorsed and released by Paradox. Arsenal of Democracy is the other one, though I don't have it. I'm not much a fan of the system in it or the fact- from what little I've seen from AARs -the devs didn't update the map.

Darkest Hour, built on HoI II or not, is basically a new game. New map, new events, new systems, new everything basically. But what I really like about this game, compared to III? The modability. III's mods, such as Black Ice or HPP (Historical Plausibility Project) trend towards messing with the game's balance and detail work. There's little in the third iteration of Grand Strategy Hitler Simulation to really give you alternate history. In fact, the game is pretty set up to punish trying to go alternate history. It's very difficult to mod in new paths compared to DH and the game is railroaded in its vanilla state something fierce.

And herein is why I like Darkest Hour. Alternate history, of which Kaiserreich is probably the most famous and has been adapted to Hitler Sim IV. The mod I'm using right now?

Well, to explain that:



I need to explain the title of the game. Darkest Hour.

This is because the game's scenarios, in a break from the traditional '36/'39/masochistic late-war' start dates, gives you a selection of the 'darkest hours' in human history. An inbuilt World War 1 scenario for example. The traditional '36 and '39 starts, along with the late-war ones. Which I say to not try Germany in 1945 unless you are particularly masochistic.

Or a god at Hearts of Iron, you know, one of the two.

As anyone familiar with Hitler Sim IV- probably thorough K's LP -should recognize, the flags above are each nation you can play as. If you don't want to play a stock nation, you can click on a flag and sub it out with anyone around on Earth at the time. Darkest Hour has a few more options than IV in this regard, and as it does not rely on National Spirits for flavor...you can do more with the smaller nations. Just don't expect a lot of custom events for Albania

But. The important start for this little experiment, is the Day of Decision scenario. 1933, the year that Germany was firmly set on the Nazi path. More specifically...the May elections of 1933. The last free elections in Weimar Germany, as Hitler would pass his Enabling Act- thereby restricting anything but a Nazi victory -and render any further elections moot.

In the basic game, this scenario is given two options. Nazi Germany and Communist Germany. There is little real reason to pick the latter in the base game, as there are next to no events. Note in the upper right corner of the screenshots? Com Germany.

The mod I am using- creatively named 'Communist Germany Mod' -increases the events. There are quite a lot added actually, but that isn't what we're doing here. There's a third option added, that the title should probably make clear. It's not as well fleshed-out being as it was added into this mod from another one and the dev doesn't much care to add to it. I have added and am continuing to add my own events though.

In this regard...let's get to the actual game.

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

Second post ho!

Now, this post will be the Mechanics Post. Because Darkest Hour is pretty much nothing like Hitler Sim- yes, I'm using this as much as possible -III and IV in a lot of ways. Pretty important ways, as we'll get into.

First though:



The Glorious Reich.

Come on, in a mod called Communist Germany did you think I'd play anyone else? Anyway, Weimar Germany. The Deutsches Reich, to be completely technical and formal because HISTORY.

One of the first things that should be apparent to those who have either played HS IV or watched Lord K fumble around in playing it, is that DH is an older game. The map is less detailed and the UI is more primitive. Now think how bad Arsenal of Democracy, which uses the HoI II map, is. And be thankful I like Darkest Hour. Joking aside though, a couple things are important here to note.

Left-side of Screen: This is your most important part of the base UI. It has everything you need to know about most things at a glance.

The top part of the box is divided in several different modes. The first one- the one we're on right now -shows provinces. Every single one you own- which is a lot, since this is before the game was divided into States -is listed normally, unless you select something. Like Berlin here, whereupon you get the details of said province, plus whatever units may be chilling out there.

Also, the big star with a number? Victory points. DH operates on a system of VPs. Each nation controls a certain amount of them, the bigger the city, the bigger the point total for it. Taking VPs pushes a nation towards surrendering, but if you want to LEBENSRAUM them- annex them -you need to control each and every one. Unless....

Second box: Decisions. Darkest Hour, as an older Paradox game, relies a lot on events and decisions to make it work. I like this because it allows for the alternate history modding. You can make a lot of things through events and decisions. Such as peace treaties that allow you to annex a nation without controlling all the VPs- which is very useful for stuff like the Frozen Wastes of Siberia or Random Pacific Island Number 420. It also allows for one to pick and choose alliances or routes of expansion. Event chains are very common in Darkest Hour modding...

But more on that later.

Third, Fourth, and Fifth boxes are your military units. As the image should probably show you have, in order: Army, Air Force, Navy. Click those, and the big UI box switches to a listing of all the units you have of that specific type and where they are emplaced.

Currently unused Sixth and Seventh boxes are battles and units waiting to be deployed from the construction queue respectively.

Since that's a lot of text to read through:



The top of the UI. Each of the sub-boxes we'll go over in detail with their own screenshots- other than the self-explanatory statistics

For now, however, I'll explain what each of the icons here means.

First and foremost and starting on the left, we have the resources. Energy, representing coal, is first. This is what you need to actually run your country. Energy is used to run your factories and produce your weapons of war. Germany is abundant in coal normally, but we are running a bit of a deficit because France currently controls the coal-rich Saarland. Yay for Versailles! Vive la France!

The second icon is Metal. More accurately steel, but overarching for other metals as well because it's an older game so stuff like aluminum and such isn't counted apart from it. This is also used to supply factories as a nation cannot build tanks if that nation does not have metal. As a major power like Germany, you don't run a large risk of running out of this material as it is used the least. However for more minor powers, you do want to keep an eye on your metal stockpiles and expenditures. Running out of metal slows down your industrial production something fierce.

Third is Rare Materials. Stuff like rubber and other items that you don't find as easily and that Japan really wants plz gib Netherlands and China.

You need these for more expensive projects like battleships or heavy tanks.

Fourth is Oil. Unlike in Hitler Sim III, you don't have oil and fuel split apart- in other words, there is no crude and refined fuel here. You just have oil. This is used to supply anything that uses fuel in your military. The Navy, the Air Force, and armored/motorized forces on land. As Germany you run a real risk of running out of this if you get careless with Blitzkrieging everyone in sight. Can't run an army without fuel.

Fifth and Sixth are Supplies and Money respectively. The former is everything that is not fuel but is used to supply your military. New guns, bullets, artillery pieces, artillery shells, artillery carriages, horses to pull the artillery...

You get the point.

Money, by contrast, is used to supply your intelligence agencies, tech teams, and diplomatic actions. More on that later.

In the next segment, we have Manpower, Nukes, Dissent, and Transport Capacity (TC).

The first is every man you have available to give a rifle and a pat on the back as you send him to die a pointless death. What makes Darkest Hour unique among Paradox games in this regard is that...well, you've probably noticed the number there? Why would Germany of all nations only have 30k men able to pick up a gun?

That's because Darkest Hour has a Mobilization System. You have successive levels of mobilization, each increasing your immediate manpower and your manpower growth over time. These also have impacts on your industrial efficiency as you pull men off their jobs and into the army. This will become important later on. For now...what is important to remember is that Germany has the weakest of these laws and very little available troops to start with.

Nukes are self-explanatory.

Dissent is a function of how upset your population is with what you're doing. If they are really unhappy with the government, it rises. If they like you it will go down. A very high dissent cripples your industry and leaves you open to revolts.

TC is a representation of roads and infrastructure. As the Capacity indicates, it is showing how well your controlled territory can support the troops inside it and their supply needs. If you go conquering everything it goes down as you start taking more and more ruined roads and partisan rich territory.

Finally...we have IC. Industrial Capacity. I will cover this...at the end of this next segment.

Intelligence:



This screen represents your intelligence operations. Much simpler than in HoI III, you don't have spies to manage. As I mentioned above, you use your money on your intelligence. This covers both intelligence operations- such as coups -and your intelligence level in general. If you have enough money to increase your funding, you thereby increase the effectiveness of your intelligence agencies. Though technology also has an impact here. This influences both your foreign agencies and your domestic agencies. The higher the funding...

The better they are at their jobs.

You can also decrease it if you are playing a more minor nation that can't afford the cost of running the agencies and needs to downsize. That would be the 'daily cost' listed above. How much money it costs to maintain your current level. It also is more and more expensive with each successive level to increase the level.

Technology:

Lots of screenshots ahead, fair warning



Technology in Darkest Hour. Hm...how to describe this.

As should be pretty clear, it's not like III or IV. At all. If I had to compare this to any Paradox game in their current stock, I would say it's most like Stellaris of all things. You have your technologies, that represent a big tech instead of a bunch of little modules like in III. There are also very much more things to research than in IV, both in unit models and in the supporting techs.

This screenshot demonstrates the technologies. Each sub-tab is different and has different techs to research. But you have, generally, a model and you research that model to get your new tech.

To do that:



(Note Einstein there )

You have Tech Teams. Each of these have unique things they are set to be good at researching. Note the little icons both in the thing being researched- in this case, 1936-level Infantry -and underneath the team's name and skill level. Those are the modules of each tech and you need to have a team that knows them to get the best results. You can stick Guderian on developing Bismarck, but he'll be slower than a dedicated team. That make sense? Each tech has modules and each team has matching skills to develop that tech.

Tech teams cost money and IC however. The more skilled the team, the more expensive to maintain. And the amount of teams you can use are limited by your IC. To have a full tech-team stock, you need around 100 base IC. The lower your IC, the fewer teams you can support. And not every nation, not even every major, will have tech teams that fit everything. You have to pick and choose the teams that work best with what you have. Even as Germany.



One tech I considered important enough to devote a screenshot to are the Doctrines. These are very, very important to warfare. You can have the most advanced units in the world but it won't matter if your doctrines are utter garbage. Note the one selected here. See all those bonuses you get from just the first doctrine in the carrier tree? The more advanced your doctrines the better your units will perform. If you have the best doctrines, you can make even obsolete units perform much better than more advanced ones.

By contrast, if you don't keep your doctrines up-to-date, your units will suffer against equivalent enemies.



These are both our starting techs, and an example of the sub-modules. In Darkest Hour, everything is researched as one overarching tech. In Hitler Sim III, you would have to research each and every one of those as it's own tech. Makes things much more complex and involved...and not in a good way, in my mind. DH is much simpler and is better for it, in my humble opinion.

(No, Pringles does not have ship-to-ship missiles. Just pointing that out now )

Economy:



Much as with everything else, the economy in Darkest Hour is much simplified compared to the way it is in later games. In this case, from what little I know of HoI IV, you don't have to worry about civilian or military factories. About setting up production lines or needing to devote certain factories to building certain things for the military. You have your IC and you use it for literally everything.

Most of the sliders there are self-explanatory. For what is not self-explanatory, we have the Consumer Goods tab. This slider is important here for several reasons. The higher your IC devoted to Consumer Goods, the more dissent reduction you get. This is very important in a situation where, like now, we have raging dissent. Lowering that quickly is very important because as mentioned before, dissent drastically limits the IC. Furthermore, the CS slider impacts how much money you make. The more IC...the more money.

Now, sliders aside, I tend to just let the game do trading automatically. It's better at this than HoI III ever was.

Construction?

Right now, we have the German ships that were historically under construction in this time period. Each of these is going to be finished on the historic date as well. But again, very very simple here. You pick a unit model and select it for construction. It has an IC cost, but otherwise, there is nothing special about these units beyond if they need rare materials or not.

For example:



Our current infantry model. It costs 3.3 IC and 13 manpower to construct one division. Which is how they are divided up in Darkest Hour. Each 'run' listed there is one division. If you go for serial runs, you have the units constructed in a serial order...one unit is constructed, another immediately starts up. Parallel runs have you constructing two units at the same time. Or more, depending on how many you want to construct.

Serial runs still cost more manpower for each unit, but they don't cost more IC to construct. You can have as many as you please going at once, but it will cost the same IC as just one.

Parallel runs cost the IC of each unit.

A common thing is to have several parallel runs going at the same time, while also running serial. You can mix and match if you want.

Attachments are the 'brigades' in the newer games. You can put artillery with your units, or cavalry, or armored cars, or any brand of tank...so on and so forth. I personally trend towards engineers and cavalry- at least at first. Because each brigade has advantages and disadvantages. Artillery slows your units down while giving more firepower. Since I like moving fast...

Tanks eat fuel very badly. Until you have good models, it isn't worth it.

So on and so forth.

Diplomacy will be in the next post.

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

Germany, once the proud Goliath at the heart of Europe, found itself at a crossroads. Crippled by the Depression that had swept the world and by the harsh terms levied upon her by the Allied Powers at the end of the Great War. The German people had seethed with resentment and anger for many years now. Oh the temporary golden age of the Republic had papered over the issues. Germany had for a little while, fueled by American loans, looked like she may climb out of the pit the victorious powers had left the nation in.

That was a forgotten dream.

The Great Depression, as it was becoming known, had ruined Germany. American banks called in their loans, desperate to stave off the collapse that seemed all too imminent. Germany could not pay these loans nor the reparations heaped on her at Versailles. Without American money flowing into the banks and pockets of German citizens, the nation began to suffer. Unemployment rose. German money became barely worth the paper it was printed on with hyperinflation rapidly becoming a problem.

Into this gap rose the National Socialist German Workers' Party. More commonly known as 'Nazis', membership in this party soared under the charismatic leadership of Adolf Hitler.

From a fringe party to the largest single party in German politics. With Hitler as the Chancellor of the Republic, it seemed all too likely that the Nazi party would become the leader in a coalition government with the similarly extreme- if to a lesser extent -DNVP (German National People's Party). Hitler's populist rhetoric did not necessarily mesh with the monarchistic conservationism of the DNVP. But in opposition to the Socialist and Communist parties, they worked together.

And in the emergency elections of March 1933 it seemed all too likely this would continue.

The Weimar Coalition- that is, the Social Democratic SPD, the centrist/Catholic Zentrum, and the dramatically weakened German Democratic Party (DDP) -was weak. The efforts of the Nazi party to tap into the discontent in Germany had been all too effective in stripping them of voters and support.

The KPD, Germany's communist party, was persecuted and blamed for the Reichstag fire. Perhaps realizing the potential destruction that could occur, the Coalition rallied and struck down the proposed Reichstag Fire Decree...but this did not help as much as it could. There was remarkably little the Communists, even without the repression Hitler may have wanted, could hope to accomplish outside their loyal constituency even with such a charismatic leader as Ernst Thälmann.

All of this seemed to indicate a victory for the Nazi party.



It was not to be.

Hitler, master of intimidation and tapping into the discontent of the German populace, made one fatal error. He did not control the Brownshirts and other more reactionary members of the Nazi party. The tacit approval from the majority of the German people that they received to destroy Communist property and break up Communist gatherings had been useful. However, perhaps in a desire for revenge for the striking down of the Fire Decree and perhaps out of a genuine belief that any who did not support the Nazis were tacitly supporting an end to the Reich...

The Brownshirts moved from communists to the Social Democrats. SPD businesses and homes were looted and burned. Party gatherings where broken up with many injuries on both sides. The socialists, completely uninvolved in any way with the Fire, were treated as if they had done it. Even those who may have voted for the Nazis found themselves under the boot of the Brownshirts.

Furthermore, when Zentrum and BVP (Bavarian People's Party) papers criticized this, they were targeted as well. Even on a governmental level, the Nazi party closing down any newspaper that criticized them. Even those of the DNVP, allies of the Party.

This is arguably the greatest error Adolf Hitler ever committed. Germans who may have supported the Nazis saw their friends and neighbors being brutalized and having their homes and businesses destroyed. Even those who were far from communist or anarchist. Average citizens, who merely had the crime of not being a supporter of the NSDAP. Germans that may have wavered between the Nazi party and those opposed to them found only one choice.

A choice emphasized by the efforts of Otto Wels, the leader of the SPD. His efforts to campaign with the support of the Zentrum and BVP against the Nazi repression swayed many Germans. Even if without the tacit approval of Thälmann, many Communists moved to support the SPD, realizing that if the Socialists came to power, it would be far better than for the Nazis to do the same. And that there was next to no chance of the KPD doing the same.

Just as well then, that the DNVP- several high-ranking officials enraged by Brownshirt actions against their party -threw their own support behind the Coalition. Reluctantly, wishing they had any other choice...but still taking the initiative away from Hitler.

It remained a bitterly contested election of course. Nazi efforts to intimidate voters remained. Many votes may have been thrown out. Almost certainly Hitler approved of the actions to keep the votes of those who didn't support him out.

However...



Germany chose. And in an event shocking to those within and without, she chose the Coalition. The Nazi Party retained their dominate presence in the Reichstag, easily remaining the second largest of the parties in the Parliament. But, through a mixture of creative campaigning by Wels and defections from the KPD, the Social Democrats pushed through an increase of their own. By a slim majority of no more than a dozen seats, they surpassed the Nazi party for the first time in years.

There was not a majority, of course. The SPD required a coalition with the BVP and Zentrum to govern. The DNVP, despite the efforts to keep the Nazi Party from winning, remained with them in opposition to the majority.

But the important note to be made in this election would be how it impacted the future of Germany. The Nazi Party had been rejected. Adolf Hitler, in a fit of rage, would be removed by President Hindenburg and replaced by Otto Wels of the SPD as Chancellor of Germany. At the time, it may have looked like the Nazi Party may have won the next election. However...

The funny thing about history, is that sometimes the inevitable result is not so inevitable after all.

1933 Election Results:

NSDAP: 202 seats

SPD: 215 seats

Zentrum: 72 seats

DNVP: 61 seats

KPD: 32 seats

BVP: 22 seats

Other Parties: 43 seats

---

Yes, I am aware this is impossible.

However, the idea bit me and would not let go. I blame that Germany quest.

Joking aside, this is the 'third option' in the mod. Democratic Germany. It would never have happened anymore than Communist Germany would have. For many, many reasons. However, I want to run with it. See how Germany without the Nazis in power would develop. How the world would develop, without Hitler killing a decent chunk of (the European part of) it. I love alt!history like this.

It should be noted though that I do not do LP's in the sense of how K does it. Or how most people do it.

I do this in the AAR style that is popular on the Paradox forums. Very historical, very not gameplay. If there needs to be gameplay stuff, I will post it in a post after the actual update. However, the above? And narrative bits? That is how I will update. It's how I've done all my AARs and I'm not about to change that. Even if it makes this less popular than the shenanigans that others get up to.

It's just how I write.

In a slight effort to help keep interest though (and if this okay) I'm thinking of making this an interactive AAR like on the PDox forums as well. You, the readers, are the Reichstag. When we get my custom events or other big things crop up? You vote on it and decide how we move forward. That could even include full on RP (not in the sense of making this an RP. It's still an LP after all) in making a 'character' you play as and that I write into the story.

That's why I'm saying 'if this is okay'. I'm not entirely familiar with the limits of how LPs go on here. Or there even is a limit on how interactive one can be.

Either way, you are the Reichstag. Character or no.

If you do have a character and if that is allowed, then pick a party. Just know that the Nazis and Communists are never going to win an election because that renders 'Democratic' Germany a non-starter. So you basically have the ones listed above discounting the NSDAP or KPD.

The mod allows for three leading governments in the democratic side.

DNVP: Monarchist, conservative, military focused.

SPD: Socialist, public works, diplomacy.

Zentrum: Catholic, centrist, more on them when I'm not about to fall asleep


And there we go. Is this a waste of my time? Well, we'll see how many people are interested in my style of LP/AAR here.

 

[Always Late]

What game did I choose here? Not Hearts of Iron IV, as I don't have that. Not Hearts of Iron III, as I don't like how railroaded it is. And since most of my historic writing is set in World War Two I wanted to stick with that time period. So I went instead with Darkest Hour. For those who are not familiar with this game, it is what I like to call 'the biggest sanctioned mod I've ever seen'. Strictly speaking, that is what DH is, after all. The game is at the base level Hearts of Iron II, heavily modded after Paradox released their old Europa Engine to the public- Clausewitz is what they currently use -and basically said 'go wild my children'.

Click to shrink...

Oooooh.

Darkest Hour, built on HoI II or not, is basically a new game. New map, new events, new systems, new everything basically. But what I really like about this game, compared to III? The modability. III's mods, such as Black Ice or HPP (Historical Plausibility Project) trend towards messing with the game's balance and detail work. There's little in the third iteration of Grand Strategy Hitler Simulation to really give you alternate history. In fact, the game is pretty set up to punish trying to go alternate history. It's very difficult to mod in new paths compared to DH and the game is railroaded in its vanilla state something fierce.

And herein is why I like Darkest Hour. Alternate history, of which Kaiserreich is probably the most famous and has been adapted to Hitler Sim IV. The mod I'm using right now?

Click to shrink...

Alt-history, sure.

This is because the game's scenarios, in a break from the traditional '36/'39/masochistic late-war' start dates, gives you a selection of the 'darkest hours' in human history. An inbuilt World War 1 scenario for example. The traditional '36 and '39 starts, along with the late-war ones. Which I say to not try Germany in 1945 unless you are particularly masochistic.

Click to shrink...

1. WWI? Interesting.
2. Here's a fun ideaL Take a bunch of SV'ers, slap them into Germany 1945, see who lasts the longest! Fun is to be taken in context of Dwarf Fortress

But. The important start for this little experiment, is the Day of Decision scenario. 1933, the year that Germany was firmly set on the Nazi path. More specifically...the May elections of 1933. The last free elections in Weimar Germany, as Hitler would pass his Enabling Act- thereby restricting anything but a Nazi victory -and render any further elections moot.

In the basic game, this scenario is given two options. Nazi Germany and Communist Germany. There is little real reason to pick the latter in the base game, as there are next to no events. Note in the upper right corner of the screenshots? Com Germany.

Click to shrink...

1. OK, so this is where the mods come in.
2. So should I start translating Soviet revolution slogans into German?

The mod I am using- creatively named 'Communist Germany Mod' -increases the events. There are quite a lot added actually, but that isn't what we're doing here. There's a third option added, that the title should probably make clear. It's not as well fleshed-out being as it was added into this mod from another one and the dev doesn't much care to add to it. I have added and am continuing to add my own events though.

Click to shrink...

So you're running someone else's mod which you're already kitbashing into making a Democratic Germany. That certainly increases the... narrative cohesion, shall we say.

Hitler Sim- yes, I'm using this as much as possible -III and IV

Click to shrink...

Because nobody wants to play Britain or the US. Conventional and Vanilla is boring.

Germany is abundant in coal normally, but we are running a bit of a deficit because France currently controls the coal-rich Saarland. Yay for Versailles! Vive la France!

Click to shrink...

The manipulative bourgeoisie and the proles who have forgotten their revolutionary roots have deprived the working man and woman of their basic right to heat and power to line their own pockets! Decry their claims of Imperialistic power as the sham it is! Wir sind das volk!

As Germany you run a real risk of running out of this if you get careless with Blitzkrieging everyone in sight.

Click to shrink...

And also forget to actually end your wars before you run out of reserves.

The first is every man you have available to give a rifle and a pat on the back as you send him to die a pointless death. What makes Darkest Hour unique among Paradox games in this regard is that...well, you've probably noticed the number there? Why would Germany of all nations only have 30k men able to pick up a gun?

That's because Darkest Hour has a Mobilization System. You have successive levels of mobilization, each increasing your immediate manpower and your manpower growth over time. These also have impacts on your industrial efficiency as you pull men off their jobs and into the army. This will become important later on. For now...what is important to remember is that Germany has the weakest of these laws and very little available troops to start with.

Click to shrink...

1. population mobilization? Ooooh, I like that! *adds to World War Quest Mechanics ideas*
2. Well, it impacts you until you start acting like a proper socialist and let women take their place in the workforce. Then you can send all the men to die for Germany!

Dissent is a function of how upset your population is with what you're doing. If they are really unhappy with the government, it rises. If they like you it will go down. A very high dissent cripples your industry and leaves you open to revolts.

Click to shrink...

Communists: We know all about that.

TC is a representation of roads and infrastructure. As the Capacity indicates, it is showing how well your controlled territory can support the troops inside it and their supply needs. If you go conquering everything it goes down as you start taking more and more ruined roads and partisan rich territory.

Click to shrink...

So what can one do to improve a territory's Capacity?
Well, clearly better roads and counter-insurgency, but in the context of the game.

As should be pretty clear, it's not like III or IV. At all. If I had to compare this to any Paradox game in their current stock, I would say it's most like Stellaris of all things. You have your technologies, that represent a big tech instead of a bunch of little modules like in III. There are also very much more things to research than in IV, both in unit models and in the supporting techs.

This screenshot demonstrates the technologies. Each sub-tab is different and has different techs to research. But you have, generally, a model and you research that model to get your new tech.

Click to shrink...

1. Holy shit, you can make Infantry from the Franco-Prussian War? That's hilarious!
2. That would make things simpler...

(Note Einstein there )

Click to shrink...

Let's see how long he maintains his revolutionary spirit.

You have Tech Teams. Each of these have unique things they are set to be good at researching. Note the little icons both in the thing being researched- in this case, 1936-level Infantry -and underneath the team's name and skill level. Those are the modules of each tech and you need to have a team that knows them to get the best results. You can stick Guderian on developing Bismarck, but he'll be slower than a dedicated team. That make sense? Each tech has modules and each team has matching skills to develop that tech.

Tech teams cost money and IC however. The more skilled the team, the more expensive to maintain. And the amount of teams you can use are limited by your IC. To have a full tech-team stock, you need around 100 base IC. The lower your IC, the fewer teams you can support. And not every nation, not even every major, will have tech teams that fit everything. You have to pick and choose the teams that work best with what you have. Even as Germany.

Click to shrink...

1. Guderian: "Design a battleship? OK, I can do that."rofl:
2. I'm starting to see that 'limited design teams' thing. Everything must be researched with the same pool of designers, so sometimes there will be times you have to make the tank doctrine guy design a battleship.

One tech I considered important enough to devote a screenshot to are the Doctrines. These are very, very important to warfare. You can have the most advanced units in the world but it won't matter if your doctrines are utter garbage.

Click to shrink...

*looks at 1941 USSR*
Oh yeah.

(No, Pringles does not have ship-to-ship missiles. Just pointing that out now )

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Darn, I don't get to comedically mistake that gun for a missile.

Most of the sliders there are self-explanatory. For what is not self-explanatory, we have the Consumer Goods tab. This slider is important here for several reasons. The higher your IC devoted to Consumer Goods, the more dissent reduction you get. This is very important in a situation where, like now, we have raging dissent. Lowering that quickly is very important because as mentioned before, dissent drastically limits the IC.

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But leaving your economy on peacetime, keeping the CG-allocation high, during war can bite you in the ass. Isn't that right IRL Germany?

Attachments are the 'brigades' in the newer games. You can put artillery with your units, or cavalry, or armored cars, or any brand of tank...so on and so forth. I personally trend towards engineers and cavalry- at least at first. Because each brigade has advantages and disadvantages. Artillery slows your units down while giving more firepower. Since I like moving fast...

Tanks eat fuel very badly. Until you have good models, it isn't worth it.

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1. *insert Sonic joke here*
2. *insert Blitzkrieg joke here*
3. Can't get a prince without kissing a bunch of frogs, can't marry the prince unless you know he's rich, eh?

Germany, once the proud Goliath at the heart of Europe, found itself at a crossroads. Crippled by the Depression that had swept the world and by the harsh terms levied upon her by the Allied Powers at the end of the Great War.

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And shooting its own economy in the foot in a full-on 'But when the taxman comes to the door
Lord, the house looks like a rummage sale, yes' scenario in the hopes of lessening the reparations. But hey, who gives a crap about the common working family whose employment and life savings you just obliterated?

Hitler, master of intimidation and tapping into the discontent of the German populace, made one fatal error. He did not control the Brownshirts and other more reactionary members of the Nazi party. The tacit approval from the majority of the German people that they received to destroy Communist property and break up Communist gatherings had been useful. However, perhaps in a desire for revenge for the striking down of the Fire Decree and perhaps out of a genuine belief that any who did not support the Nazis were tacitly supporting an end to the Reich...

The Brownshirts moved from communists to the Social Democrats. SPD businesses and homes were looted and burned. Party gatherings where broken up with many injuries on both sides. The socialists, completely uninvolved in any way with the Fire, were treated as if they had done it. Even those who may have voted for the Nazis found themselves under the boot of the Brownshirts.

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So the Krystalnacht gang went after people's first and second choices of political parties, rather than the people few were willing to stick their necks out for. The lack of police/military response to what's basically domestic terrorism is rather telling.

A choice emphasized by the efforts of Otto Wels, the leader of the SPD. His efforts to campaign with the support of the Zentrum and BVP against the Nazi repression swayed many Germans. Even if without the tacit approval of Thälmann, many Communists moved to support the SPD, realizing that if the Socialists came to power, it would be far better than for the Nazis to do the same. And that there was next to no chance of the KPD doing the same.

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1. And if listening to Republicans for the past eight years has taught me anything, it's that Socialism and Communism are completely identical!
2. Compromise now, subvert the middle-ground, then proclaim the Revolution. *thumbs up* Good plan fellow Communists.

However, the idea bit me and would not let go. I blame that Germany quest.

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What Germany quest?

Joking aside, this is the 'third option' in the mod. Democratic Germany. It would never have happened anymore than Communist Germany would have. For many, many reasons. However, I want to run with it. See how Germany without the Nazis in power would develop. How the world would develop, without Hitler killing a decent chunk of (the European part of) it. I love alt!history like this.

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Democratic germany holding the ground against Stalin's completed military reform steamroller.
This'll go really well, really bad, but both'll be very bloody.

I do this in the AAR style that is popular on the Paradox forums. Very historical, very not gameplay. If there needs to be gameplay stuff, I will post it in a post after the actual update. However, the above? And narrative bits? That is how I will update. It's how I've done all my AARs and I'm not about to change that. Even if it makes this less popular than the shenanigans that others get up to.

It's just how I write.

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1. Mind linking some of those AARs?
2. That has its own appeal. Panicking and flailing is always good for a laugh, but this means I make less of an idiot of myself by not knowing jack shit about the game. So I am OK with this.

In a slight effort to help keep interest though (and if this okay) I'm thinking of making this an interactive AAR like on the PDox forums as well. You, the readers, are the Reichstag. When we get my custom events or other big things crop up? You vote on it and decide how we move forward. That could even include full on RP (not in the sense of making this an RP. It's still an LP after all) in making a 'character' you play as and that I write into the story.

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1. So a mix of a PBP and a quest. This should be interesting.
2. ... you're opening the floodgates for people to submit their characters?
3. Are you happy with getting a Reichstag that looks like 70% of the members fell out of an anime, or do you have some criteria for 'this is too stupid'?

That's why I'm saying 'if this is okay'. I'm not entirely familiar with the limits of how LPs go on here. Or there even is a limit on how interactive one can be.

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I would say you provide the limits. How anime can we go, what sort of details would help people make 'historically accurate' characters, what obligation/requirements do the character creators have,

If you do have a character and if that is allowed, then pick a party. Just know that the Nazis and Communists are never going to win an election because that renders 'Democratic' Germany a non-starter. So you basically have the ones listed above discounting the NSDAP or KPD.

The mod allows for three leading governments in the democratic side.

DNVP: Monarchist, conservative, military focused.

SPD: Socialist, public works, diplomacy.

Zentrum: Catholic, centrist, more on them when I'm not about to fall asleep

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Well, I think I have someone or three who might fit, but I'd like to hear those requirements/limits/submission process first.
That way I minimize your to my shit taste in anime.

And there we go. Is this a waste of my time? Well, we'll see how many people are interested in my style of LP/AAR here.

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You've got me. Whether or not that's a good thing is up to you.

 

[De3ta]

*grabs popcorn*

 

[Sir_Braazmiir]

And there we go. Is this a waste of my time? Well, we'll see how many people are interested in my style of LP/AAR here.

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What's an AAR? This reads kind of like the Rule The Waves LP posted here on SV as well as on SB titled "Press On, Cascadia Fair". I forgot who was playing it, but it reads like a third-person story instead of a traditional Let's Play.

 

[Always Late]

What's an AAR? This reads kind of like the Rule The Waves LP posted here on SV as well as on SB titled "Press On, Cascadia Fair". I forgot who was playing it, but it reads like a third-person story instead of a traditional Let's Play.

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After-Action Report. Basically, after every military engagement you have to write a report to your boss analyzing what happened, who fucked up, who carried the team, and what was learned that day.

 

[Sir_Braazmiir]

After-Action Report. Basically, after every military engagement you have to write a report to your boss analyzing what happened, who fucked up, who carried the team, and what was learned that day.

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Thanks for the reminder. I was a little confused about it, especially considering all the acronyms in the modern vernacular.

 

[Burning Baron]

LET'S FUCKIN DO THIS!

thorough K's LP

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Ayyyyyy.

Hitler Sim

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What you don't seem to realize is, there is a Hitler Dating Sim, and these games are as close as you can get to being Literally Hitler.

(No, Pringles does not have ship-to-ship missiles. Just pointing that out now )

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DAMMIT!

NSDAP: 202 seats

SPD: 215 seats

Zentrum: 72 seats

DNVP: 61 seats

KPD: 32 seats

BVP: 22 seats

Other Parties: 43 seats

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You are now literally the DDR

You, the readers, are the Reichstag.

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I VANT TO BE MINISTER OF PARK TREES!

FORGOT TO MENTION: Following this SO hard.

 

[Sir_Braazmiir]

What you don't seem to realize is, there is a Hitler Dating Sim, and these games are as close as you can get to being Literally Hitler.

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Really? Is this statement true?
If it is...

 

[Burning Baron]

Really? Is this statement true?
If it is...

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Except, her name is Hitora

 

[Always Late]

Really? Is this statement true?
If it is...

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It's a wired thing... for an already wierd thing.
There are multiple such games, at varying levels of 'quality'. And then there are bunches of anime-ized Hitler artwork which is frequently attributed to such dating sims.

Except, her name is Hitora

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That is one of the tamer versions.

 

[Interested Party]

Let's just say that there's some weird stuff on the Internet and leave it there, yeah? I worry for our levels of pre-game SAN loss if we focus too hard on the WWII-dictator-dating-sim market.

Also, we're the Reichstag, huh? Innnteresting... Seesawing hard on wether I want to play a member of the DNVP or the SPD.

 

[Sir_Braazmiir]

What's the difference between parties?

 

[Burning Baron]

What's the difference between parties?

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German National People's Party - Wikipedia, or the DNVP
Social Democratic Party of Germany - Wikipedia, or SPD.

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

So you're running someone else's mod which you're already kitbashing into making a Democratic Germany. That certainly increases the... narrative cohesion, shall we say.

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Well, like I said the Dem!Germany option is already inbuilt into the mod. It just doesn't have as many events to go around as the Com!Germany option. Less-so kitbashing, more so fleshing out an existing option.

Well, clearly better roads and counter-insurgency, but in the context of the game.

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As infrastructure in territory is repaired from the damage of taking it, the TC naturally goes up. Furthermore, there are techs you can research to increase it as well. In your home territory you can build up your infrastructure

AUTOBAHNS FOR EVERYONE

and increase it that way too.

1. Holy shit, you can make Infantry from the Franco-Prussian War? That's hilarious!

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If I particularly wanted to see how hilariously hard such a challenge would be, yeah. You have to abandon the techs though because you can only build the most modern unit with Infantry. Ships you can build a couple levels back before a unit becomes 'obsolete' in the game's mind.

1. And if listening to Republicans for the past eight years has taught me anything, it's that Socialism and Communism are completely identical!
2. Compromise now, subvert the middle-ground, then proclaim the Revolution. *thumbs up* Good plan fellow Communists.

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1. Hey, I know the difference

But yeah, some rather questionable compromises are needed to make the scenario sorta-work.

2. *scheming Communists intensify*

What Germany quest?

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This Germany quest.

1. Mind linking some of those AARs?

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Completed Sweden game.

Not complete Kaiserreich game.

Will put limits on characters at the bottom of this post. First...

What's an AAR? This reads kind of like the Rule The Waves LP posted here on SV as well as on SB titled "Press On, Cascadia Fair". I forgot who was playing it, but it reads like a third-person story instead of a traditional Let's Play.

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What Always Late said, but in this specific context it is something from (though I doubt it originated there) the Paradox forums for a specific type of LP.

Traditional Let's Plays are all about the gameplay. Like K's stuff.

AARs are more about the story. They can be very heavily gameplay tilted, sure, but they're still more about the story than just putting up screenshots and saying 'this is what happened'.

You are now literally the DDR

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No I'm not, that's Communist Germany

>.>

<.<

I VANT TO BE MINISTER OF PARK TREES!

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We aren't Nazi Germany thank-you-very-much.

What's the difference between parties?

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As per what was linked...

And my own post:

DNVP: Monarchist, conservative, military focused.

SPD: Socialist, public works, diplomacy.

Zentrum: Catholic, centrist, more on them when I'm not about to fall asleep

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Basically, Nazi-lite with a want to BRING BACK THE KAISER.

Socialists.

And Catholic centrists. In a mostly Protestant country.

This is in gameplay terms, mind you.




Right, since I was passing out last night (yay posting at six in the morning) and didn't get characters down- and since I haven't been told I can't do that:

Characters:

Must be a member of one of the political parties. Nazis are off-limits for fairly obvious reasons.

Should be at least somewhat plausible. Being Herr Hans von Rommel the Third, GLORIOUS DNVP MEMBER WHO WANTS TO BE KAISER, is probably going a bit far

Joking aside, I'm not going to say you can't be shenanigans happy with your character. That would take out half the fun of allowing pseudo-RP in the first place. But don't go completely hog-wild either. They should be something that at least somewhat fits as a member of the Reichstag, even if a bit...unique.

In other words, you can go part-anime but you can't go FULL ANIME.

If I have to make actual guidelines:

Name:
Party:
Age:
Appearance:

Not saying you have to fill out everything here or anything. But re-purposing one of my old RP character sheet forms works well enough I think. It gives a guideline for people to work with if they want. I emphasize that this is a guideline however. I'm not going to say you have to put something like this together.

The main restrictions I'm going to make here are simple.

Spoiler: Character Restrictions

A. Don't go hilariously wild. I would like to keep things semi-plausible.
B. Tempting as it may be to do otherwise, your character has to be male. 1930s Germany remember.
C. Characters should fit as a supporter of their party. Making someone who is liberal in the DNVP is going to raise more than a few eyebrows.
D. For historic plausibility, characters should generally have some of these details:
1. Male
2. Thirties or older.
3. VERY GERMAN
4. Fit the party affiliation. Socialist, Monarchist, Centrist, so on and so forth.
5. Be able to work as a politician.
E. I'm going to be fairly lenient on what I consider 'excessive' in the terms of 'too wacky'. It's more fun if things are a bit wacky after all.
F. This said...a character will not be allowed that breaks the rules.

Consider these what one should look at when making a character. It's been quite some time since I've had to put together something like this, so on some level I'll look at the actual submissions (feel free to put them in thread, or if you really want to you can PM me) and judge them from there. But as per point 'E' in the above, I'm not going to say we can't have wacky fun with this.

I'll still write historical fiction of course, and try to keep it somewhat logical.

But for our Reichstag meetings, having fun with it is...well, fun.


EDITED as women could apparently be in the Reichstag. The More You Know.

 

[Burning Baron]

No I'm not, that's Communist Germany

>.>

<.<

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No, no. The DDR, or Deutsche Demokrat Republik, was a democracy in name only. They were a Communist Puppet State.

As for the characters, how many will you be taking?

 

[Icywinter]

KLAUS HAMBURGER
Age: YES
Affiliation: Duke Nukem
Appearance: MANLY

Alfred Erdhart Miller
Age: 37
Affiliation: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD)
Appearance: A lean, tall man with short dark brown hair and greyish-blue eyes. He wears wire-rimmed glasses, and usually has a stern expression on his face.

 

[Skywalker_T-65]

As for the characters, how many will you be taking?

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Preferably one per reader. Remembering this is not an RP or quest, but my attempt at creating an interactive AAR/LP.

The character is who you vote as, when I put votes up from in-game events and such.

 

[Burning Baron]

Well, all right then. Here goes.
Name: Klein Müller
Age: 48
Affiliation: Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands (SPD)
Appearance: Me, that is, brow hair, brown eyes. Wear glasses. Likes his fedora. Beginnings of a beard. Graying from age.

 

[Sir_Braazmiir]

Name: Wilhelm Shultz
Age: 30
Affiliation: DNVP
Appearance: Blond hair, blue eyes, wears his late father's Admiralty uniform.

 

[Burning Baron]

I hope we all don't go SPD. I only picked it because it was close to my own political views.

 

[Always Late]

I hope we all don't go SPD. I only picked it because it was close to my own political views.

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For my part, sorry. Can't exactly put a New Woman of Weinmar in the conservative, royalist party.

 

[Burning Baron]

KLAUS HAMBURGER
Age: YES
Affiliation: Duke Nukem
Appearance: MANLY

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The politician no one wants.

 

[Star_Trekker]

Name: Maximilian Weber
Age: 41
Party: DNVP
Appearance: medium height, brown hair, blue eyes. Doesn't speak as much as his colleagues, due to him wanting to make sure he knows what and how he's going to speak.
Bio: Comes from a military family from near Potsdam, but unlike most of his family joined the navy. After a brief stint on SMS Kaiser Karl der Grosse, he was reassigned to SMS Moltke soon after its completion, and served aboard throughout the Great War. He was one of the skeleton crew who helped scuttle her in Scapa Flow. Due to his family history, and service and experiences during the war, he's a committed monarchist, distrustful of socialists, and a strong naval supporter.