War Reparations

[LordOfWar16]

I was wondering about this for quiet a while and saw in the World War Wednesday streams that there doesnt seem to be such an option. Sure, the game is mostly about total war and conquering enemy land, but sometimes you might not want to be greedy to get the world tension down again, which is possible as seen with the peace deal with the Soviet Union in World War Wednesday. If the axis wouldnt have taken much or even nothing the world tension would have dropped quiet significantly. Then again you might not want to walk away empty handed. Overall they probably bombed your industry and infrastructure quiet heaviely.

My idea was, since money isnt an currency in the game, to maybe say 5% or 10% of the enemies civilian factories being forced to work for you for a period of time. Overall, civilian factories are what is used to repair damaged factories, fortifications, infrastructure etc. I understand that the game concentrates on 12 years (1936-1948), with the option to keep playing afterwards, but i'd still think it could work out quiet well.

Sometimes you might not want to see the world burn and not want to be too greedy, without feeling like the enemy got away for free.

I would like to hear what you guys and gals think about it and maybe even what the devs think about it.

 

[agentgb]

Could be interesting, it's essentially adding the "trade consumer factory for materials aspect" to wargoals, but instead minus the materials, same theory could also be applied for a expanded timelines when national debt would need to be paid off from lend lease/sending IC during the war. I think it would fit extremely well into a post war setting, potentially fairly well during the ww2 setting if conquered nations are willing to honour that debt, and still may require a disarmament war goal added, perhaps some military presence to ensure they do so with military access, like how the allieds occupied the ruhr to ensure payments were being made. Depending on how the war was initiated, if it was justified, would also determine how much of a clamour there would be for not honouring to pay war reperations, with potentially an ideology swing to show discontent growing. Perhaps adding such a war goal in a unjust war should be more expensive PP wise if such a feature was introduced, for the sake of a cold war mod, it could be interesting for the post war phase.

I guess a slight problem though, since you cannot store materials, and only use factories to further build more military factories and equipment, since factories are treated like money, once you hit your factory cap within each provinces, war reperations will no longer be beneficial unless post war they introduced wages/upkeep for troops, or some form of economy/treasury to make the feature worthwhile longrun for a post war period, but if it is concentrated just in the ww2 setting, there no doubt you could potentially powerhouse and use reperations to expand your own consumer/military factories. Could also be used to help minors by offering them lend lease/sending IC with the reperations you have obtained, so that they could build up there own factories/military, and later down the line pay you off which could result in a tidy profit.

 

[ASPGolan]

It would be interesting if this would offer the mechanics needed to slip into a cold war kind of scenario. If you can impose reforms, people in power, political doctrines (as war reparations for the newly liberated countries, of course), you could then create scenarios using proxy wars and so forth. The potential of this could be awesome. Of course, you don't want the world to burn, you just bring freedom to the world (with a minor twist).

 

[Goodis]

Very good idea it sounds logical, or if not providing a workforce they could maybe pay you whatever output civilian factories have for X years or instantly X amount.

Off topic but, how is manpower treated? What happens if you happen to make a few bad decisions during a long winter war and you have 0 manpower with already a low population, is the war game over for your part?

 

[Aodhan_]

Would war reparations only be useful to the Allies? as the Axis would be the one starting the wars.

 

[agentgb]

Would war reparations only be useful to the Allies? as the Axis would be the one starting the wars.

hmmm idk, in viccy u could force war reparations on them even if you started the war, i think the same is true in EU4 too. Romans called it tribute i believe once they subdued them atleast anyway

 

[Aodhan_]

Romans called it tribute i believe once they subdued them atleast anyway

I like your thinking

 

[Ctanr]

hmm maybe something like 25% of all resources and factories for 10 years (which probably would be until the end of the game)

 

[Secret Master]

Would taking tribute of that kind be similar to making the country a puppet anyway?

 

[agentgb]

Would taking tribute of that kind be similar to making the country a puppet anyway?

yeah, was just a daft comment i'd probably should have left out, infact i think the romans actually made carthage pay huge reparations, so they aren't really one of the same thing.

 

[Secret Master]

yeah, was just a daft comment i'd probably should have left out, infact i think the romans actually made carthage pay huge reparations, so they aren't really one of the same thing.

In a more general sense, don't puppets in HOI generally give stuff to their overlords? It seems like a reparations mechanic would just be too similar to being a puppet.

 

[agentgb]

In a more general sense, don't puppets in HOI generally give stuff to their overlords? It seems like a reparations mechanic would just be too similar to being a puppet.

in hoi3 they did, not sure if the same is true in hoi4? not sure if GB gets any resources or production from it's common wealth? (if they count as puppets?) but i guess it is kinda the same thing if looking at it from a abstracted point of view? does pretty much do the same thing i guess.

I was kinda thinking more long term i suppose, since reparations wear off, while puppeting doesn't. Tbh, somthing that bothered me about hoi3 was the whole "allow a country to run up a debt" sorta thing, with no hope of seeing any of that debt returned, and kinda didn't matter i suppose, especially if playing the US.

 

[Secret Master]

I was kinda thinking more long term i suppose, since reparations wear off, while puppeting doesn't. Tbh, somthing that bothered me about hoi3 was the whole "allow a country to run up a debt" sorta thing, with no hope of seeing any of that debt returned, and kinda didn't matter i suppose, especially if playing the US.

I see this as a function of the short time of the game. It's not like the debts are going to be called in an paid off before the end of the game.

I've always wanted the debt option in HOI3 to be tied to victory conditions in some way. If the British are in debt up to their eyeballs to the Yanks, that's not the same kind of win as winning the war with no debt to the Yanks (as my English colleagues might way).

 

[TheCrimsonMajor]

Could be interesting to include reparations and reconstruction aid in an expansion that covers the early Cold War (like Doomsday and Armageddon) but given the scope of vanilla HoI4 I don't think it should be included.

 

[agentgb]

I see this as a function of the short time of the game. It's not like the debts are going to be called in an paid off before the end of the game.

I've always wanted the debt option in HOI3 to be tied to victory conditions in some way. If the British are in debt up to their eyeballs to the Yanks, that's not the same kind of win as winning the war with no debt to the Yanks (as my English colleagues might way).

oh my,

no your right, such a debt should be tied to victory, even in viccy 2 & eu4, your have little chance of seeing such a debt returned if they begin to suffer any turmoil of any kind.

Could be interesting to include reparations and reconstruction aid in an expansion that covers the early Cold War (like Doomsday and Armageddon) but given the scope of vanilla HoI4 I don't think it should be included.

i guess, could have been interesting in a cold war game, winning hearts and minds by rebuilding a post war europe with the marshall plan, while the soviets had the molotov plan, but i'm starting to have my reservations that hoi4 could truely simulate a cold war mod well enough, just to much going on in a cold war game.