As I was playing through my Hungary AAR, I started realizing that Kaiserreich has a whole lot of potentially interesting countries to play through -- the alternate history is very well developed, and there’s a lot of room for player choice built into the scenario.
While the American Civil War seems like a lot of fun, and I’m also fairly intrigued by Japan and even Russia, the nation that stood out the most to me was the Italian Federation, and its potential to build up a Catholic alliance including strong-ish nations like Austria, Spain, and who knows who else. So I decided that, for my next AAR, I’d change my pace up dramatically and head to the IF.
I say that it’s a change of pace for me because my first two AARs (one of which ended very quickly thanks to those damn French Syndicalists) were written in a fairly brief, history book format that just covered the main events of the game. In the case of this AAR, I want to take a much slower pace, taking the time to add plenty of flavor and narrative and to try to capture the feel of an authoritarian Papal State.
Before I start on a series of posts detailing the actual story and character elements of the AAR, I’ll give a quick primer on some of the modifications I made to the game:
Increased IC / Resources
I gave the Italian Federation a total starting IC of 73. Not enough to break the game and make me an instant superpower, but enough to ensure that I can keep up, since by default the Italian Federation doesn’t have the IC to do a whole lot. I also increased teh country’s resources, to help cover the increased IC. I still left a defecit in some areas, though, so I’ll still be forced to trade for some necessary resources.
Made extra IC / Resources Off-Map
Rather than just mod the provinces of the Italian Federation to give more IC and resources, I made all the extra stuff off-map. I did this mainly in the event of a major SNAFU like my last AAR, where the Syndicalists run rampant and just steamroll everyone in their way. If things go majorly sour in Europe, I’ll find a way to take some lower-valued province in Africa or somewhere remote, and the free off-map IC and resources will let me build a few militia units to try to simulate a “Pope in exile” sort of scenario, with the military regiments and extra resources representing outside aid coming to the Pope’s assistance from faithful Catholics
Focused on the army and navy, sacrificed the air force
At the start of the game, the Italian Federation has two units of 5 Mountain divisions guarding the border with France. Aside from that, all they have is a pair of HQs, the Swiss Guard, and one garrison unit, leaving the border with Sicily wide open. The navy is expanded to include newer-model ships and even a single super-heavy (I liked the idea of there being one huge freaking battleship acting as a sort of Papal Flagship), though the airforce only consists of two low-tech bomber wings.
There are a few other tweaks, particularly in terms of starting tech, but I’ll explain those later as they come up.
Renamed Models
For air units, I went into the files for a normal HOI2 installation and transferred the model names over to KR. For naval units, I went through each type of unit (save for carriers and light carriers, which I won’t be using) and gave each ship class a new name that sounded suitably Catholic/militant. Heck, I would have modded in the Vatican Flag instead of the Italian Flag, but I’m not that good.
Game Options
As far as the game options go, I upped the AI Aggressiveness a notch, so maybe that’ll spice up the challenge a little. As with my previous two AARs, full IC takeover is off, but tech team takeover is on -- I just enjoy making other people’s teams manufacture new weapons for their oppressors
So with that said, the first couple updates will be little anecdotes, narrative bits, or historical pieces on some of the changes I've made to the alt history of the Italian Federation, the status of the armed forces, and the direction Pius XI is headed... Should be a decidedly different feel than my first two, and hopefully a lot more fun!
While the American Civil War seems like a lot of fun, and I’m also fairly intrigued by Japan and even Russia, the nation that stood out the most to me was the Italian Federation, and its potential to build up a Catholic alliance including strong-ish nations like Austria, Spain, and who knows who else. So I decided that, for my next AAR, I’d change my pace up dramatically and head to the IF.
I say that it’s a change of pace for me because my first two AARs (one of which ended very quickly thanks to those damn French Syndicalists) were written in a fairly brief, history book format that just covered the main events of the game. In the case of this AAR, I want to take a much slower pace, taking the time to add plenty of flavor and narrative and to try to capture the feel of an authoritarian Papal State.
Before I start on a series of posts detailing the actual story and character elements of the AAR, I’ll give a quick primer on some of the modifications I made to the game:
Increased IC / Resources
I gave the Italian Federation a total starting IC of 73. Not enough to break the game and make me an instant superpower, but enough to ensure that I can keep up, since by default the Italian Federation doesn’t have the IC to do a whole lot. I also increased teh country’s resources, to help cover the increased IC. I still left a defecit in some areas, though, so I’ll still be forced to trade for some necessary resources.
Made extra IC / Resources Off-Map
Rather than just mod the provinces of the Italian Federation to give more IC and resources, I made all the extra stuff off-map. I did this mainly in the event of a major SNAFU like my last AAR, where the Syndicalists run rampant and just steamroll everyone in their way. If things go majorly sour in Europe, I’ll find a way to take some lower-valued province in Africa or somewhere remote, and the free off-map IC and resources will let me build a few militia units to try to simulate a “Pope in exile” sort of scenario, with the military regiments and extra resources representing outside aid coming to the Pope’s assistance from faithful Catholics
Focused on the army and navy, sacrificed the air force
At the start of the game, the Italian Federation has two units of 5 Mountain divisions guarding the border with France. Aside from that, all they have is a pair of HQs, the Swiss Guard, and one garrison unit, leaving the border with Sicily wide open. The navy is expanded to include newer-model ships and even a single super-heavy (I liked the idea of there being one huge freaking battleship acting as a sort of Papal Flagship), though the airforce only consists of two low-tech bomber wings.
There are a few other tweaks, particularly in terms of starting tech, but I’ll explain those later as they come up.
Renamed Models
For air units, I went into the files for a normal HOI2 installation and transferred the model names over to KR. For naval units, I went through each type of unit (save for carriers and light carriers, which I won’t be using) and gave each ship class a new name that sounded suitably Catholic/militant. Heck, I would have modded in the Vatican Flag instead of the Italian Flag, but I’m not that good.
Game Options
As far as the game options go, I upped the AI Aggressiveness a notch, so maybe that’ll spice up the challenge a little. As with my previous two AARs, full IC takeover is off, but tech team takeover is on -- I just enjoy making other people’s teams manufacture new weapons for their oppressors
So with that said, the first couple updates will be little anecdotes, narrative bits, or historical pieces on some of the changes I've made to the alt history of the Italian Federation, the status of the armed forces, and the direction Pius XI is headed... Should be a decidedly different feel than my first two, and hopefully a lot more fun!