official AH.com mod for Heart of Iron

[Marc Pasquin]

Kirk Kerman in flag thread IV suggested making an official AH.com mod for Heart of Iron. Although I assume it meant having members contributing alternate flags, it occurred to me that an AH.com mod could be instead one that try and fit in as many AH tropes (in the loosest sense) as possible. For example:

- being able to pick common AH countries like Deseret, the CSA and the Republic of Quebec. No matter how many would be included, it would be assumed that their existence is butterfly free to allow the rest of the world to proceed as normal.

- Extra factions. could be otherworldly ones like aliens or faeries or something earth-bound like the Technocracy

- Mirror universe incursion. would be a random event whereby individuals, units or event part of land from a mirror universe appears in our own. This means that 2 opposing side could have the same commanders though one would be evil and sporting a goatee obviously.

- Airships. 'nuff said.

Another possibility is in term of starting scenarios:

- Germany wins. the idea here is that no matter what, germany would win the war. Sealion would work, the wonder weapon would be created in time and used, etc.... The point then for the player (who could only pick a set list of countries) is simply for his country to end the war still independent with bonus points for some other goals like maintaining a few trading partners.

- Balkanized North America. An even worst depression leads to civil war in the US and a domino effects means the same in Canada and mexico. At the beginning of 1939, you thus have a few dozens countries with various allegiance or claims of neutrality in North America

Thoughts ?

 

[Tiro]

This actually sounds interesting; but would all these "Alternate History" features be fitted into a single Timeline or would the creators seek to create a small number of thoroughly-developed timelines based on popular Alternate History premises? (I tend to favour the latter approach, but suspect that the former holds Interest in its own right).

 

[Marc Pasquin]

The way I see it, by their very nature, games like this become AH pretty much as soon as the first turn is played as player and AI take althistorical decision. For that reason, you would need in my mind to heighten the level of AHness to make it interesting as an alternative to a game based on being historically accurate by having as many pre-1936 and ASB POD as possible. In that sense, being able to say "My dragonriders managed to beat the Confederate States' Peasants & Workers' Army during the shamballa campaign despite their use of martian technology" seems quite attractive to me.

That being said, some players would probably want different level of AHness so some form of control panel could be made part of the mod so that people can switch off certain aspect before starting a new game.

Although various thoroughly-developed timelines as you say could be made, I think it might work better as each being separate mods and would need to be based on POD that would have a large enough impact on the world as a whole. Having Ireland not stay neutral may be interesting if you want to play as Ireland or if you play as the UK but might have little to no impact if you play as Japan.

 

[Pischinovski]

Very interessting.

I think we should try to make one coherent scenario.

First of all we need a (rough) timeline. Here are my ideas:

POD somewhere between 1815 and 1848.

The USA never expand further west than the Louisiana Purchase. After an ATL civil war we end up with initialy two states: a free north (USA) and a slavocratic south (*CSA)

I envision a pan-American war in the late 1800s:
The USA are getting crazy reactionary, thinking that the civil war including the attempted abolution of slavery was a mistake. They blame every misfortune on blacks, jews and catholics. They team-up with the *CSA and Texan settlers in trying to carve up Mexico starting the Great American War.
Britain, France and Russia are getting involved, fearing for their influence in Mexico and the rest of the Americas.

The USA and *CSA are defeated after four years of war. The peace conference turns into an equivalent of OTL Berlin Conference + a bit of Vienna Conference. The European great powers divide the world into different spheres of interest.

Britain, France and Russia divide Mexico and Central America. Britain gains most of Oregon, in exchange Russia gains some land from *Canada. The California Free State is created; as a predominantly catholic nation it is a haven for many Irish, Italo and German Americans.
Texas is also established as an independent state in the sphere of influence of Britain. Between Mexico, California and *Oregon a buffer state is created (American Commonwealth?).
The remains of the Mexican Empire are part of the french sphere of influence.

A lot of tension is build up under the following decades ...

...
That are my ideas for North America right now

 

[Jim Smitty]

Having just brought HOI IV just take off the historical markers before you start your game you are going to get some odd shit happening. I only played for a few hours but I'm already in early 1940. Mainly because I selected the US to allow me get a feel for the game. But the so far the Spanish Civil War has only lasted a year with the Nationalist winning. China folded in 18 months to the Japanese. In Europe the Poles gave up Danzig but formed their own faction somehow. Then the Japanese invaded the Russian Far East and pushed the Soviets who were fighting a civil war fairly far back and forced Mongolia out of the war. Then the Nazis jumpped on the Soviets even through they had no land border with the Soviets with the Poles still there. Then the Italians joined the Axis before starting shit with the Greeks then got jumped on by the Allies. With the British taking Rome! Before the Nazis saved their ass from the fire and pushed the French out of the war, well in Europe anyways. Then somehow the Italians managed to take Cairo of all places after being pushed out of North Africa once already. And I'm just sitting in America wondering when the fuck will I get hit at this point and trying to unleash the massive US industry and manpower but being handicap by the Great Depression. Its been a weird fucking AH game.