Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg

Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg is a popular Hearts of Iron II Game Mod that is set in an alternate timeline where the Central Powers win World War I. Currently in 1.4 beta for the main game and 1.3 beta for Darkest Hour, Kaiserreich takes many of the same nations in a different direction, while introducing dozens of new nations, ministers and leaders.

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Tropes used in Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg include:

• Adolf Hitler: Died as a soldier in World War I in this timeline. His memoirs during the war have been collected among others, and released as a book called Mein Kampf. It even gets made into an epic war movie.
• AI Roulette: The A.I's decisions when it comes to events can be... strange at times.
• Allohistorical Allusion: Many. The Berlin Stock Crisis at the start of the mod is just one example.
  • Lefi Riefenstahl ends up directing a movie about Adolf Hitler's heroism and valor combined with a message about Germany superiority.
• Alternate History: The basis of the mod, as said above, is a timeline where Germany won World War I.
• Alternate History Wank: Subverted by the victorious German Empire after WWI. Despite winning, it lost great amounts of men still, was unable to prevent hostile revolutions from breaking out in France and Britain, and has a very unstable colonial empire at the start of the game combined with a huge stock market crash.
  • Given this is Hearts of Iron though, it is possible to do this with some nations if you're a good enough player.
• Ambiguously Evil: Khan Sternberg, at least how he views himself.

"My name is surrounded with such hate and fear that no one can judge what is the truth and what is false, what is history and what is myth."

• American Civil War: A new one is a big event in the game. Between the Federal Government (Which may or may not be lead by a military coup headed by General MacArthur), the American Union State lead by Huey Long, Jack Reed's Combined Syndicates of America trying to wrest control of all America, there's the Pacific States of America that want to secede, and Hawaii.
• Aristocrats Are Evil: The Synicalist International view on royals. Can be averted depending on in-game choices.
• Back from the Dead: Some generals that died before WWI are put in as leaders for certain nations just to fill up the generals ranks.
• Badass in Charge: Some Heads of State are battlefield leaders, and are quite effective. Baron Sternberg is the most obvious example.
• Balkanize Me: As is in the Vanilla Game, China is divided into several factions, though there are two less. This is also the case with Russia (1 major, 2 minors and 11 peripheral states), India (3 states), Italy (2) and Austria-Hungary (6 states, all but Austria proper semi-autonomous territories).
  • Balkanization is a major goal in most of the major war events in the game. A Brazilian victory in the Platinean War can divide La Plata into Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay. The U.S.A depending on the results of the Second American Civil War can have New England and the Pacific States secede. Also possible with whoever wins in the inevitable Germany/France war; Germany possibly dividing into Bavaria, the Rhenish Republic, the North German Federation, and Prussia if the Synditern wins. And France divided into Normandy, Brittany, Occitania, and central France itself if Germany is victorious.
• Butt Monkey: Liberia, if it sides with National France. Gets thrown into chaos by the U.S Civil War, and if it decides to become a puppet of National France, then National France gets thrown into chaos. One of the options Liberia can choose from this is even called "Why does this always happen to us?"
• Cheese-Eating Surrender Monkeys: The war between Germany/Mitteleuropa and France/Sydicalist International is one of the major build-up points of the game. In the current version, if both sides are under AI control, it usually ends with Germany completely crushing France with ease, because the French AI is extremely poor at managing its tiny manpower reserves and rapidly runs out of soldiers.
• Chinese With Chopper Support: In Qing and Republican flavors.
• Commie Land: What Totalists seek to create.
• Christianity Is Catholic: Averted. Despite being an RTS that doesn't have religion in mind, events give a lot of flavor on denominational religions.
• Divided States of America: Unlike in the Vanilla game, this happens via event, courtesy of the Second American Civil War.
• The Empire: The Syndicalist International views both German-led Mitteleuropa and the Entente as this. Whether they really do is up to player-interpretation.
• The Emperor: In numerous flavors. Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany is the obvious example.
• Evil Pays Better: Averted, surprising since it's a war game. Options to be lenient to your enemies are usually just as beneficial as punishing ones, and events like granting women the right to vote, and if you're Russia, not forcing the populace to be Russified are much better than the totalitarian ones. Can be seen as Pragmatic Villainy though.
• Enemy Civil War: Can apply to numerous nations depending on who you play as.
• Evil Counterpart: Iron Guard Romania to Monarchist Romania, if you know anything about what the Iron Guard did in Real Life...
• The Evil Prince: Prince Sigismund of White Ruthenia is explicitly this.
• Four-Star Badass: The Second American Civil War features several Real Life examples of this trope - Douglas MacArthur, Omar Bradley, Dwight Eisenhower, and George S Patton just to name a few, all fighting against each other.
  • They can even occasionally end up fighting themselves due to a bug that sometimes causes multiple factions to receive the same general.
• Gauls With Grenades: Qualifies for both Commune of France and National France. Subverted somewhat with German-puppeted France.
• Gratuitous Foreign Language: Many of the events have words or descriptions in the languages of their respective nations. Not all are grammatically correct.
• Heel Face Turn: Japan can turn from a exploitative, colonial power into a bastion of freedom in Asia with (relative) ease...
• The Horde: Mongolia is this under Khan Sternberg.
• Indians With Iglas: In Delhi, Princely Federation and Bhartiya Commune varieties.
• In Spite of a Nail: Averted. Despite certain possible situations like Mussolini coming to power in Italy, the circumstances and factors revolving around them are so different that the situation itself is incredibly different than regular history.
  • Happens in regards to the deaths of historical figures. Despite their lives changing dramatically as a result of the alternate history, Mustafa Kemal, Kaiser Wilhelm and others all die at or around the same time as in the original timeline.
• Josef Stalin: Is Commissar of Security for the Georgian Socialist Republic, an inverse of his relationship with Beria in the original timeline. Known by his Georgian name in-universe.
• La Résistance: In Alsace and Wallonia once war between Germany and France breaks out. Can really help the Commune if they exploit it well.
• Luck-Based Mission: Some of the nations can count as this. All the nations that can profit off of the Austria-Hungary war for example, if the war chooses to fire or not.
• Magikarp Power: Out of all three main alliances the Entente starts off the weakest. All of its starting members face the possibility of being overthrown or leaving the alliance, and most of its potential members (like the US or Russians) are more likely to end up joining one of the other factions. However with the right events it's possible to end up with a democratic US, Russia, Republican China, unified India, and have all the former British Dominions rejoin/stay and end up with truly unstoppable force.
  • Also counts for certain nations. For example, Shangqing, the smallest of the starting Chinese states, can potentially unify all of China under a new imperial dynasty if played right.
• Names to Run Away From Really Fast: Baron Roman von Ungern-Sternberg, the appropriately named Mad Baron of Mongolia.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: According to the background material Hitler died during World War I and the Nazi party itself never comes into existence. However an alternate version called the Alldeutsche Verband lead by Ernst Röhm exists and shares pretty much the same beliefs. And can per event, be elected to power.
  • It's safe to say all National Populist nations are basically this.
  • Totalists are this for Communists.
• New Roman Legions: Italian Federation and Socialist Republic of Italy.
• One Nation Under Copyright: Allgemeine Ostasiatische Gesellschaft, Germany's colony in southern China. The Syndicalist point of view is that all capitalist countries are this.
  • Legally speaking, the AOG isn't a German colony. That doesn't really weaken the point though, since what it is is a German corporation that effectively governs half of the de jure Qing Empire.
• One Federation Limit: Averted. The Italian Federation, the Anarchist Federation of Iberia, and the Princely Federation all exist.
• Pet the Dog: It's possible to be extremely lenient to defeated enemies if the player so chooses - playing as the victorious White Russians, for example, one of the choices given fairly early on provides the option to formally recognize the local Soviet councils and essentially integrate the defeated Reds peacefully into the government.
• Putting on the Reich: The Integralists in Brazil, as in Real Life. Wrangel's Russian Ultranationalists can also count.
  • Cardinal Innitzer led Italy is this, and potentially the American Union State if Fritz Kuhn's coup succeeds.
• Rape, Pillage and Burn: What Mongolia can do to its enemies.
• Red Baron: The Baron himself is the head of the Deutsche Luftstreitkräfte (The German Air Force) here.
• Red October: A third Russian Revolution can happen, if the current regime becomes too oppressive. This can cause Russia itself to be massively fractured, as Siberia declares independence, and numerous border states can seize territories from the weakened Russia at this time.
• Red Scare: The Syndicalist Internationale is this, and should the Combined Syndicates win the Second American Civil War, it could become this in particular.
• Rightful King Returns: Numerous examples. Serbia and Russia for example, can both have their monarchs return by event.
  • National France can restore the monarchy of France as well, in Bourbon or Bonaparte flavors.
  • The whole point of playing as Canada is to do this for Edward VIII.
  • This happened to Pu Yi in the backstory, with the help of German arms. The Shanqing can do this for Zhu Rongji, a distant descendant of the Ming dinasty (the previous, and last non-barbarian rulers of China). Both can unify the entirety of China.
• Shown Their Work: The mod has a ton of nods to real history, along with being based on an incredibly plausible Alternate History.
• Shout-Out: Many. Just for example, Poland's text for the end of the Olympics is 'Poland cannot into Olympics,' a play on a popular Paradox forum meme.
  • One of the ministers for the Fengtian Republic is named Liu Han.
  • One of the Canadian Generals is named Melchett.
• Spanish Civil War: This alternate timeline scenario features a Melee a Trois between the Kingdom of Spain, Carlist Spain and the CNT-FAI.
• The Spanish Inquisition: If the Carlists win the Spanish Civil War, this can be reborn. It's used to hunt down CNT-FAI agents, and can spread to Portugal as well.
• Ungern-Sternberg: Leader of Mongolia in this timeline. Can potentially be crowned Ghenghis Khan II upon conquering the Ma Clique.
• We Have Reserves: The Syndicalists in the Second American Civil War have this as their primary advantage - the other factions get better generals and usually have better-trained and equipped troops, but at the end of the day there just aren't very many of them, while every Syndicalist soldier killed has three more lined up to take his place on the battle line.
• World War Two: While it is still feature Germany vs. France and Britain, this time Germany is less Fascist and France and Britain more Communist.
• Vestigial Empire: Numerous examples exist in the game. One is the remains of the collapsed British empire which has been reduced to a government in exile operating out of Canada with a very loose alliance with only a few of its former dominions/colonies. However given the nature of the game it's fully possible to subvert the situation.
  • One of the major goals when playing as Russia is to subvert this.
• Victory by Endurance: If the Syndicalists end up winning the Second American Civil War, this is usually how they do it - their territory includes a substantial majority of America's population, industry, and infrastructure, so they can produce more supplies than the other factions involved in the war, muster more troops to fight, and replace losses faster. All they really have to do is fortify and wait while their enemies gradually bleed themselves dry.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: Almost more than actual Hearts of Iron. Want to reenserf the peasantry under a new Russian Empire? Create a fully dictatorial Totalist regime in America? Execute protesters and those who oppose your reign? Make the civil wars of our timeline even worse? Not allow women to vote? Then come and play Kaiserreich!
• The Von Trope Family: Seeing as Imperial Germany is still alive, Von names are much more in use. Notable example include Roman Von Ungern-Sternbeg.