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HoI4 Dev Diary - Poland Focus Tree Rework Part 2/2

Hello folks and welcome back to the Poland dev-diary extravaganza! This week, I am going to continue covering the changes coming to Poland in 1.11 Barbarossa and the unannounced DLC.Today we’ll be covering the DLC content.
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So, I’m going to start here with something a bunch of you predicted last week; you can indeed play as the Peasants’ Strike! A Poland with ambitions to restore democracy or embrace the communist revolution must first build an organized peasant militia from the rabble of disorganized farmers!
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No matter how many or few states join you in the strike, the rebellious state will be in a delicate balancing act between democrats and socialists. Your first step towards revolution is to sway the Front Morges to take up the peasant’s cause, the Morges being an alliance of political parties supported by a select few Polish generals including Sikorski.
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Each focus you do in this initial block will add 5 support to either communism or democracy, with a total of 50% or more being needed for one to assert dominance over the other and take control of the government.
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Similar to the Spanish Civil War, the Peasants’ Strike will be on a tight schedule, taking up to a year before the revolution happens. Poland will at first be able to add agricultural states to the strike, but by expanding the strike to factory workers, Poland will also be able to bring states from Poland’s industrial heartland into the revolution.
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Along with contesting for popular support, gaining military support will be vital for the movement. Using decisions, certain field marshals and generals will be swayed to your cause and gain the “Peasant Sympathiser” trait, ensuring that they will join your side when the war begins.
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Poland will begin with socialist politician Stanisław Mikołajczyk as country leader, but those who wish to see the return of Wincenty Witos will be able to bring him back to leadership via event.
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Once the civil war is won, Poland will be in a vulnerable state. Recuperating manpower and resources after a civil war will place Poland in a precarious position, so some concessions and outreach for foreign assistance may be needed.
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A communist Poland will have two options: they may be bold and elect an anti-Stalinist candidate as Chairman, or they may elect the Soviet-aligned Władysław Gomułka. However, aligning with the Soviets will come at the cost of ceding Eastern Poland, but will unlock a few focuses for dealing with the USSR.

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With democracy, Poland may take advantage of the Front Morges’ ambitions for closer relations with the French and create the Morges Pact, a sort-of Poland-led Little Entente. Going down this route will allow Poland access to the Between the Seas branch we talked about last week.

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Anti-Soviet communists will be able to denounce both Capitalism and Fascism, diplomatically isolating this people’s republic, but allowing for new expansion options and military bonuses against the empires of this world. In doing so, they will gain a powerful attack and defence bonus against major powers.
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Both democrats and anti-Soviet communists will also be able to declare the destruction of fascism a greater cause than the spread of socialism and align themselves with the British Empire. Doing so will allow Poland to renew her interests in colonialism and attempt to purchase colonies from Allied powers. By officially recognising the Maritime and Colonial League, Poland can purchase Madagascar, Palestine, and more. If any of your purchases are successful, Poland will have somewhere to build their forces in exile, should the front back home fail.

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No matter which option you pick, either conquering or building alliances with the Baltic States will allow you to create a new kind of Commonwealth: the Commonwealth of Socialist Republics.

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Moving on to the next branch, we have the Regency Council: Poland’s attempt to “restore” the monarchy. The Act of the Fifth of November was the promise of the Central Powers to release a Kingdom of Poland from the occupied territories of the Russian Empire, but the Regency Council of the newly formed Kingdom of Poland failed to crown a King before Józef Piłsudski declared the Second Polish Republic.

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With the Regency Council assembled, Poland will be able to choose from one of three claimants, each with their own complete political path. There were countless claimants and candidates for the Polish throne so it was impossible for me to make content for them all, so we have: The Hohenzollern, The Commonwealth Claimant, and the Cossack-King to choose from!

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The Commonwealth Claimant is perhaps the most obvious: Poland’s preferred candidate for King was Friedrich Christian. Christian was preferred due to Poland’s long connection with the houses of Saxony, and with a claimant so supported by the Poles, you are able to claim the throne of Lithuania without the need for warfare.

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Through decisions, Poland can trend monarchist sentiment up in Lithuania, and when it reaches high enough, they may either enter a civil war or peacefully take over the government. When either case has happened, Poland can annex the Lithuanian Kingdom and begin integrating the industries of their two nations and preparing for war with the Soviets and Germans: restoring the old borders of the Commonwealth and then some!

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Poland and Romania enjoyed close relations at the start of HoI’s timeframe, and with the throne of Poland empty, Poland may throw herself into the complex mess of Romanian politics by electing a Romanian King.

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With King Michael on the throne of Poland, the Kingdoms will be able to unite under the right circumstances. Either by Polish interference or by Romania completing “King Michael’s Coup”, Romania and Poland will be united, bringing their armies together and becoming a powerful wall between the Axis and the Comintern.

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This Intermarium nation may seek Balkan Domination and a restoration of Poland-Hungary, or (as with the Commonwealth) it may seek to maintain its alignment with the Allies.

Finally, we have the most unlikely candidate for the throne: Pavel Bermondt-Avalov.
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A warlord, a cossack, and a Georgian Prince, Pavel led an interesting life of conquest and warfare. In the interwar period, Pavel and his Bermontian host invaded Lithuania and Latvia for reasons historians are still unsure of, but his ambition for Baltic domination makes him the ideal candidate for militarizing the Polish state into action and dominating the Baltics and Czechoslovakia.
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When done conquering the Baltics, Pavel will be able to either turn his militarized Polish Kingdom against the Germans and asser Poland’s claims in Silesia and Pomerania or, as a National Socialist, Pavel may wish to seek alignment with the Germans, which brings us on to the fascist branch.
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Poland was home to a multitude of fascist and nationalist movements: the most notable of which are the Endecja (or National Democracy) and the Falanga. The Sanation historically made dealings with both of these groups, and as such, if you want either Endecja or Falanga to take control, you must collaborate with the Sanation until you are able to supplant them.

When either Endecja or Falanga have taken over the government, they will have a choice to either stand firm with Polish nationalism or make concessions to the Germans and attempt to seek an alliance.
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Aligning with the Germans will not place you on equal grounds, and it is not as easy as it once was. Germany will refuse to ally with Poland unless Danzig and Poznan are surrendered and Poland becomes a German subject. Unlike Czechoslovakia though, the Poles will be able to break their shackles and tear the Reich apart from within.

With either Pavel, Piasecki, or Dmowski in control, Poland will be presented with a ladder of focuses enabling them to either gain powerful bonuses from the Germans or plot with the Underground State to overthrow their current masters.
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Going for independence will allow Poland to switch sides and stab Germany in the back, whereas remaining loyal will enable Poland to gain some cores in the USSR in a sort-of reverse Yalta Conference.
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However, a Falanga or Endecja that does not bow to the Germans will be able to lean into the Polish Catholic identity and form the Falangist International: a faction devoted to the perseverance of Falangist ideals.
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Once the Spanish Civil War is done with, if either the Carlists, Nationalists, or Falangists come out on top, Poland will be able to bring them into their own faction and from there, they will be able to expand that faction to other nations where Falangism was present such as: Mexico, the Netherlands, and much of Latin America.

They will have access to decisions to boost fascism in those nations, and with a certain percentage achieved, those nations will be invited to join the Falangist International. These focuses invite multiple nations at once, so the faction can grow very large very quickly.
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Similar to the Sanation path, the Polish fascists must choose between allying with Lithuania or attempting to reclaim the legacy of the Commonwealth, but choose wisely. Without allying Lithuania, this Poland will be unable to progress down the Between the Seas path, severely limiting their faction’s ability to expand.

That’s about it for the political paths, so I’ll wrap this one up by talking about a feature we haven’t touched in quite some time: Governments in Exile.
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Unlike France and the Netherlands, Poland does not by default have a vast colonial empire to which they may retreat when things fall apart back home, so Poland will be entirely reliant on the support and goodwill of their allies and the network of resistance fighters in the Polish Underground State.
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In exile, the Polish government went through a number of Prime Ministers and Presidents before landing on something the Allies were satisfied with. If Poland is following a historical route and is exiled in a Democratic nation like Britain or France, they will demand the resignation of the Sanation leaders, and from there, Poland may pick from one of three new leaders, each with a unique personality enabling them to gain manpower while in exile.

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On top of that, they will gain access to Irena Anders as a political adviser, granting more legitimacy, stability, and exiled manpower.

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In the exile focus tree, Poland can gain a number of offmap factories and dockyards, and bonuses to their ace generation and an increase in special forces cap. Poland will never muster a major army while exiled, but with these bonuses, Poland will still be able to keep fighting on with a small but specialised force.

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Owners of La Resistance will gain access to a slew of agency bonuses including an increase to their spy capacity, free agency upgrades via focus, and the new Warsaw Uprising operation.

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Completing the operation will trigger the Warsaw Uprising sooner than the game mechanics usually allow. With 50% resistance or higher in Polish states, the uprising can be started, but time this well as you can only complete this operation once. A well-timed uprising can shatter the German army and leave them short on supply as they attempt Operation Barbarossa.

Poland was also vital to assisting in decrypting the enigma machine, so they also gain access to the Mastermind Codebreaker advisor: Marian Rejewski.

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The old Cyclometer and Bombe focuses have been moved into the espionage branch, but I noted that without any territory left, a bonus to atomic research was fairly useless to Poland. So, when the Atomic Research focus is done, Poland gains an offmap nuclear reactor that will give roughly one nuke per year... Try not to think too hard about it.

There were a lot of interesting alternate-history scenarios for Poland to explore and new possibilities came up during my research and implementation. Though I didn’t represent everything in game (such as the proposed Japan-Polish alliance), Poland is a treasure-trove of alternate history scenarios if only you can find a way to survive.

That’s all for this week, and that wraps up the two week Poland extravaganza!
 
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I agree. Gomułka, who insisted on cooperation of socialists was conflicted with Bierut whose main goal was to bring Red Army to Poland. Eventually Gomułka was arrested in 1951.
Though in HoI4 timeline, "alignment with Soviets" was indeed an intention of Gomułka.
Exactly, that's why I went with Koszutska for the anti-Soviet option. She was openly opposed to Stalinism during HoI's timeframe, being arrested for it in 37.
Where did these flags come from for the Communist Commonwealth? Or the People's Union (not sure on name)?
That would be the Black Madonna. There were pictures from the time of the Peasant's Strike of demonstrators holding banners depicting the Black Madonna. She's a bit of an icon in Poland.
I also don't get it how Poland would become a puppet when allying Germany. Cession of Danzig is no brainer but puppet is too much. Hungary wasn't a puppet despite being allied. Germany only puppeted them when they tried to change sides.
This is more to do with Germany than Poland tbh. Germany had no intention of stopping at Danzig, and despite the efforts of many Polish politicians, generals, and diplomats to pursue friendly relations with Germany, war was inevitable. A Poland that sides with Germany must do so at a cost, or you can of course try to fight them.
 
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I honestly hope that the trailer and the soundtrack of this dlc is epic as in BftB, that mechanic that the generals can be aligned before a civil war is implemented in the rest of the countries in the near future
PD. we want a Habsburg
 
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really good icos for stalinist path ;)
WIP
Will there be any ethnicity representation per region in HoI4?
Because Poland was ethnically so diverse and each region has had different opinion toward Germans which can create different level of collaboration with Germans.
No please, but i do crave something about the Ukrainians. Maybe on the Soviet-related contents? Yeah i know, it should've talked about here, but the UKRs are both SOV and POL problems.....
Nope they are all still wrong, worse yet some people portraits are made using 20 year old photos as reference and are just outragously wrong. Further more the "Generals" from this dev diary as expected after the last dev diary blunders are just wrong.
Well since this is only the third week of the DevDiaries, the upcoming fixes that are usually present in "Bag of Tricks" DDs is still far. Hope the BoT Diaries addresed that.

Doubtful. I think it's just for prettier borders.
Prekmurje soon?

What is with the compability with other focus
Podcat has said in the Supply DevDiary that they would do some minor rework on the focus trees for 1.11, so i hope the compatibility issue between the Focus Trees would be addressed then.

My hope at this point is that they don't fuck up Soviet Union contents to this magnitude.

But I can already see the returning of the Czech legionnaries couping Stalin to install Kerensky or that kinds of stuffs happening.
Then why for some reason Poland can have a communist commonwealth, Polish-Romanian Union, a crazy Russian nazi as a king and all the other stuff? They are simply memes and have no basis in history whatsoever.
PS No Friederich Christian wasn't the preferred candidate of the regency council at all

I would do a bigger analysis or even a medium one like the last time but simply put there is pretty much nothing in this dev diary that isn't wrong in one way or another. And PDX actually wants us to pay for this.....

Communist PLC is already too much for me, but i hope a certain Dutch developer would be grounded in reality enough to not insert absurd memes on the Soviet Reworked Focus Tree.

Very cool! Since you are adding the fictional ability for a fascist Polish state to rise up, any chance of adding the historical King Michael Coup for Romania?
King Michael's Coup is already present in the Romanian reworked focus tree for 1.10
 
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Guess I don't need to express anymore how disgusted I am by some parts of the tree from the perspective of an actually knowledgeable person. The Polish guys on our team are pretty astonished by some leader and political alignment choices, to say the least.

That being said, some parts of the Polish exile tree look nice and finally show a tiny bit of love to the lovers of actual historical plays. Neat.
 
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I do enjoy some "meme" alt-history but this focus tree seems... outlandish. Polish communists buying colonies of the Brits? A union between Romania and Poland? And what is that Kossack dude all about? Perhaps things have gone a bit too far. I mean, i've just played a Big Bulgarian Empire game, and enjoyed it a lot, but Poland man... idk many things here seem out of place.
Madagascar has sense, there was supposed king of Madagascar who was Polish called Maurycy Beniowski in XVIII century and the buyout of the colony from French was also considered.
Palastine the only reason why I can accept it is because of Jews. There were many Jews in Poland and thats why or maybe because of Polish Catholicism idk.
Rest is weird and definitely out of place. Romanov candidate would be more suiting than random cossack prince or Romanian king...
 
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Poland has gone from being a complete clownshow to a circus in a period of a week and it's honestly impressive.
Poland will begin with socialist politician Stanisław Mikołajczyk as country leader
What. How can you say that Mikołajczyk, the Socially-Conservative, Christian-Democrat, who praised Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and formed one of the biggest Anti-Communist parties in Poland that ran in its legislative elections in 1947, a socialist? He was many things but he profoundly was genuinely not.
A communist Poland will have two options: they may be bold and elect an anti-Stalinist candidate as Chairman, or they may elect the Soviet-aligned Władysław Gomułka. However, aligning with the Soviets will come at the cost of ceding Eastern Poland, but will unlock a few focuses for dealing with the USSR.
Gomułka is 31 at the beginning of 1936. Also, which Anti-Stalinists? By the 30's all the self-avowed 'Anti-Stalinists' were purged already and were replaced by loyal party-functionaries. Also, for someone who is Soviet-Aligned, Gomułka was also the one to write in his pieces about how he disdained Stalinist Communism and Collectivization, in fact, he got caught up in the same purges which are the supposed Anti-Stalinists mentioned here.

Anti-Soviet communists will be able to denounce both Capitalism and Fascism, diplomatically isolating this people’s republic, but allowing for new expansion options and military bonuses against the empires of this world. In doing so, they will gain a powerful attack and defence bonus against major powers.
That is very interesting once again, which Anti-Soviet communists? The biggest Communist Party in Poland, the KPP, adhered to the policies established by the Cominterm and was not in anyway Anti-Soviet.
No matter which option you pick, either conquering or building alliances with the Baltic States will allow you to create a new kind of Commonwealth: the Commonwealth of Socialist Republics.
They did not care about unifying with the Baltics.
Poland and Romania enjoyed close relations at the start of HoI’s timeframe, and with the throne of Poland empty, Poland may throw herself into the complex mess of Romanian politics by electing a Romanian King.
The Kingdom of Poland-Hungary last existed in the 15th Century. I don't understand how you can put this and just think that's fine, but no, this was not gonna happen and the Hohenzollern's in Romania also did not care to the extent of putting a monarch into Poland, and had far more pressing internal matters than thinking about what to do in Poland, a Republican Country, a very explicitly Republican country.

Finally, we have the most unlikely candidate for the throne: Pavel Bermondt-Avalov.

A warlord, a cossack, and a Georgian Prince, Pavel led an interesting life of conquest and warfare. In the interwar period, Pavel and his Bermontian host invaded Lithuania and Latvia for reasons historians are still unsure of, but his ambition for Baltic domination makes him the ideal candidate for militarizing the Polish state into action and dominating the Baltics and Czechoslovakia.

A. Unlikely is one way of putting it.
B. Wh- We do know for why he wanted to invade Lithuania and Latvia, he literally lead an Anti-Bolshevik brigade whose entire point was establishing a government that could stand against the RSFSR (as at that point the U.S.S.R did not exist) and establish a Russian government that was not Left-Wing. He was an avowed Nazi, that isn't hard to miss.
When done conquering the Baltics, Pavel will be able to either turn his militarized Polish Kingdom against the Germans and assert Poland’s claims in Silesia and Pomerania or, as a National Socialist, Pavel may wish to seek alignment with the Germans, which brings us on to the fascist branch.
Avalov was a literal Nazi who sympathized with the German Reich and their policies, I really don't think he'd stand against a party he believed was the Bulwark against 'Judeo-Bolshevism'.


Honestly there is just so much nonsensical, completely bewildering features in this rework, that makes it feel less like a rework and more like a slapdash attempt to make funny "alternate-history" that will make Paradox more money without putting in intense amounts of research. All of that I mentioned in my above replies is not only just incredibly dumb, it's also incredibly distasteful. Once again, neither do the Belorussians and Ukrainians get legitimate representation, and the ones that do are Cossacks, which are not even an ethnicity. If this is what a Poland rework looks like, then by god I am utterly horrified of what the U.S.S.R will look like. I said in my first post that this was the worst representation of Polish Interwar History, and I will admit that I was wrong because it doesn't even attempt at recreating the very real history of said country. This is not even just disappointing, this is just depressing.
 
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Why Cossack King in Poland is Bermondt-Avalov, who had nothing to do with Poland, and not Aleksandr Salnikov, who led Independent Don Cossacks Brigade during Polish-Bolshevik war or Vadim Yakovlev who led Independent Cossack Brigade?

Also, why there is Wettin king and Hohenzollern king, and no Habsburg king? Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria had the greatest support among polish monarchists and was designed by central powers for king of Poland after possibly winning the war.

Also, Józef Piłsudski, who crowned himself as king, would make more sense than the Romanian king on the Polish throne, and after Piłsudski's death, his nephew, Sukezo Piłsudski, who previously lived in Japan, could become king. In this way, you can make a tree for a kingdom associated with Japan.
Here is site about his father: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronisław_Piłsudski
 
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What team
Guess I don't need to express anymore how disgusted I am by some parts of the tree from the perspective of an actually knowledgeable person. The Polish guys on our team are pretty astonished by some leader and political alignment choices, to say the least.

That being said, some parts of the Polish exile tree look nice and finally show a tiny bit of love to the lovers of actual historical plays. Neat.
What team?
 
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obligatory comment in hopes that the devs will read saying that giving your allies a bonus to nuclear stuff (bulgaria style) would be a much better solution than giving poland an offmap nuclear reactor
 
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Well, I have a few things to point out about all of this, the first one being :
I disagree with the bonuses towards defence and attack against other countries, as I previously said, I think it takes the strategy part of the game away and turns it into a bonus grinding against other majors, even though it has been part of focus trees for a while I don't think anything above 10% attack and defence is actually good as it is just straight up cheating to get insane numbers against the AI by taking a focus.
I also see that the Baltics are getting changed a little bit, with you saying Lithuania can regain some provinces without wars, with them having more in game interactions with Poland and even new borders, that makes me think they have a chance of getting focus trees in which case I beg you not to give them any for now, there are several more important countries to be added and I don't think a tree for the Baltics would be any fun, realistic or even close to be anything other than OP if you actually want to play them and do something rather than sitting and developing until 1945 like some countries already do.
The Nuclear Reactor thing is too op for Poland, I think it could be better if the UK or the US got the bonuses instead and in exchange Poland got a boost towards something else, maybe Legitimacy? Or even allow the Nuclear Reactor to be transferred to you after the occupation ends, but IRL that never did happen as the soviets put their own government there first.
Will we have anything related to the General Government, the Polish Soviet Republic ruled by pro Stalinists after they occupied the country or the Soviet invasion of 1939 at all?
Also, make it so that Poland actually stages the Warsaw Uprising, it would add a good flavor to the game.
Last but not least, I hope the ''destroy the Reich from the inside'' branch isn't as silly as it DEFINITELY looks, because I don't even know how a Polish puppet would overthrow and destroy the stable regime that Germany was at the time just by taking some decisions, that's it.
I'm fairly satisfied with the rest, and although I love alt history ( even the meme ones like anarchist Spain ) and I do think you did an amazing job covering Poland, I also don't want it to bee full clown car and completely memey, please.
 
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Why Cossack King in Poland is Bermondt-Avalov, who had nothing to do with Poland, and not Aleksandr Salnikov, who led Independent Don Cossacks Brigade during Polish-Bolshevik war or Vadim Yakovlev who led Independent Cossack Brigade?

Also, why there is Wettin king and Hohenzollern king, and no Habsburg king? Archduke Charles Stephen of Austria had the greatest support among polish monarchists and was designed by central powers for king of Poland after possibly winning the war.

Also, Józef Piłsudski, who crowned himself as king, would make more sense than the Romanian king on the Polish throne, and after Piłsudski's death, his nephew, Sukezo Piłsudski, who previously lived in Japan, could become king. In this way, you can make a tree for a kingdom associated with Japan.
Here is site about his father: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bronisław_Piłsudski
Well, Stephen was dead by 1936. But i do say his son would be a good claimiant.
 
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What team

What team?
ULTRA Historical Mod. We have two members who are Polish and very well versed in the historical situation of their country.
 
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