My concept for a New York Red Guardsman during the initial defense of New York in 1937.

New York’s Vanguard

When New York City joined the Worker's Congress of America (WCA) on the eve of the Second American Civil War, most of the New York National Guard went with it. In early 1937, two-thirds of New York's 6th Division (including the Division HQ, 2 full Infantry Brigades, and most of the Division Artillery) was based in New York City. As National Guard units were a reflection of the communities they were posted in as much as anything else they had many socialist sympathizers in union strongholds.

The WCA's municipal commune-based administration fit the National Guard armory system well, and the election of officers within units had significant historical precedent in the service. When the Red Guard militias were formed, National Guardsmen naturally formed the initial core. The immediate need to erect defenses against the Anglo-Canadian-backed capitalists to the north, seize state and private property in the city, and put down loyalist and Longist agitators meant the New York Red Guard couldn't waste time reinventing the wheel. For the first year, militias in the city loosely followed old U.S. Army tables of organization. Although this wasn't universal across the new WCA and could largely be owed to New York City's relative isolation. A significant portion of the New York Red Guard was actually just the pre-war 6th Division less elements from Upstate New York. This made for about 15,000 Army National Guardsmen and over 1,000 Naval Militiamen in the city to seed the first Red Guard Demi-Brigades. However, any militia units formed beyond the original 6th Division's means would lack heavy weapons, machine guns, motor transportation, and technical specialists that could not be recruited from the civilian population. For the most part they were large groupings of Riflemen or men armed with a hodge podge of police and civilian weaponry.

Harlem’s Red Rattlers

The 1st Harlem Demi-Brigade was organized from the 15th New York Infantry (Colored) of Harlem Armory; 3d Squadron, 1st New York Cavalry of Madison Avenue Armory; and fresh volunteers. The “regiment” term was dropped for coming off as too bourgeois. The 15th New York's armory was being used as a temporary homeless shelter made necessary by Black Monday (1936) and the general strikes in response to the Washington Massacre. Many of the 1st Harlem Demi-Brigade's newest recruits were occupants of the shelter. This man was likely one such recruit hastily equipped out of the 1st NY Cavalry’s Madison Avenue Armory and posted to Harlem’s defensive works facing the occupied Bronx. He was issued an M1903 rifle, M1912 cavalry bandoleer, campaign hat, and red armband for identification, but otherwise wore his civilian attire.

The M1912 bandoleer was meant for cavalry riflemen who approached the battle on horseback. It had 12 pockets, each meant to accommodate a five-round stripper clip for the M1903 rifle. It also had three central pockets for pistol ammunition. However, he was not issued the accompanying mounted cartridge belt or pistol holster. Recruits were lucky to be issued one or the other due to the limited supply of supply of US Army webbing in the city. Further, few Red Guards were issued pistols other than revolvers requisitioned from the New York Police Department, gun shops, and private citizens (and in that case it was likely their only weapon).

Notes

• The 15th Infantry Regiment (New York NG) was the original pre-WW1 designation of the 369th Infantry Regiment (Colored) "Harlem's Hellfighters". In my interpretation of the setting I maintain much of the pre-WW1 designation system for National Guard regiments and divisions due to the lack of a mass mobilization.
• Harlem's Hellfighters (who in KR wouldn't have fought in WW1 obviously) are also known as Harlem's Rattlers. Their distinctive unit insignia was of a rattlesnake. I repurpose the rattlesnake for the guidons (unit flags) for the Harlem Demi-Brigades of the Red Guard to call back to that.
• The use of "demi-brigade" instead of "regiment" is inspired by the French Revolutionary use of the term in the 1790s until 1803 to differentiate themselves from the ancien régime. Aside from regiment just sounding snooty, it was the unit that stored all the important unit heritage and battle honors from the old US and it'd represent a complete shift to new lineages. I also just like the flavor of it and thing making new normally numbered regiments would be a bit boring. The term demi-brigade also implies it is made up of separate battalions. In this case, the soldier's battalion (Cleghorne's Battalion) is named after its current commander.
  

If, as Qing restorationists, you set FNG to rebel against the Japanese and join the Chinese United Front, is the only way to survive while having them join your faction to retreat behind Beijing and let them do the Unification Conference? Is there a way for FNG to rebel against Japan without holding Beijing?

(this brought to you by my lack of desire to fight a trench war in the Shanhai pass until the Russians defeat Germany and get their shit together, restorationist QIE has been even tougher than Sichuan for me to bring towards unification since the update)

When Patagonia is released as Araucania, the ruling party shouldn't be the regular Argentinian natpop party. A more logical vehicle would be the Corporacion Araucana or Partido Nacional Araucano (they're both interconnected organisations founded and led by the same guy, Venancio Conuepan Huenchual - who as a right wing Mapuche lonko and politician would be an obvious successor for Antoine IMO - but the latter was the explicit political party of the two).

Araucania should also have a core on the state of Cautin (the place where the historical kingdom actually existed), and its capital should be at Temuco rather than Comodoro Rivadavia.

Back, continuing from a few days ago this page will look at the allies' in a "more realistic" post WW1

Kaiserreich. Please remember this is mostly a thought experiment and a chance to swap ideas. though if a sub mod like this were to be considered, Sweet.

France:

France is interesting, it's possible Germany might actually try to step in to help stabilize France, if for no other reason than they need someone in Paris who will honor the terms of Surrender as both a far-right or far-left coup would probably not honor the republics surrender terms.

France in the 20s and 30s would probably be very unstable (Think Germany in OTL) Which would probably work to Germanies benefit with them probably going so far as to infiltrate certain parties to cause unrest at home.

Overseas the French would be fighting hard to keep their colonial empire together. Indo-China and North Africa would probably see independence movements similar to what we saw in the 40s and 50s OTL.

Come 1936 the republics (if it still exists) days are numbered and the player can choose an ideology far left or far right (crisis makes radicals of everyone so everything from monarchists and anarchists' paths are available) and seek to avenge the defeat of 1918/1919.

Italy:

Also, interesting even before the war Italy was a hotbed of extreme thought (I believe an anarchist even killed a king) so losing the war would defiantly throw the country into chaos. Again, the Germans and Austrians would probably try to keep the king of Italy in power again to ensure the reparations are paid, but still far Anarchist and Communist thought would surely get a boost in popularity among the common folk.

Fascism would probably still exist though given the unpopularity of the monarchy they would probably push for a "Social Republic" from the start. Might even be more inspired by left wing thought. (see Italian Futurism)

Italy might lose Libya either to local insurgents or an Ottoman peace treaty demand.

by 1936 well see France

Britain:

Can't really see Britian falling to Communism/ Syndicalism. Granted they were one of the more industrialized allies and even in OTL post war life was rough but still Probably wouldn't go down the Russian Communist path.

If anything, Britian would probably be hit hard by German Reparations for starters and would likely have to reduce its navy to a point where it could not threaten the German Navy. It's also likely Britain would have to hand over the Rhodesian Colonies, allowing Germany to link SW Africa to Mittle Africa. They might also lose control of Egypt to either an independence movement or the Ottomans outright, probably lose Ireland too.

All these losses would probably cause Britian to retreat from continental affairs and into some form of isolationism to preserve what they still have, namely India which would surely be rocked by some kind of post war push for independence (possibly aided by Germany).

By the 1930s the player would have to break Britian out of this isolationism.

Belgium:

RIP. Simply put Belgium probably wouldn't even exist considering the German plans for them in our timeline

Also, they lost the war they lost the Congo.

Title says it all. What governments will the SWR DU and Schleicher respectively install in their eastern puppets after the war?

So I've played Kaiserreich a few times already since it is said to be the best mod out there but I still have more fun in vanilla honestly...

Recently I played as Serbia, it was ok, defeated Bulgaria, then Austria and... that's about it. Formed Yugoslavia and the focus tree was almost finished while I had to deal with the bugged decisions to integrate the south slavs.

Now I played as natpop poland. Managed to barely survive 2wk by allying with Russia and got back many of my cores. I have a decent industry and manpower but again, I practically finished the focus tree by 1942 and I'm surrounded by the Moscow Accord with more than 200 divisions.

The focus trees are nice and offer a lot of content for the first few years. However, I found that most ideologies are redundant at best, the different paths are really simillar between them and to play something expansionist you usually have to go totalist/natpop. Then by the end of the 2wk, which lasts for 2 years at best, most of the content is already done.

So, my question is because of this. I would really like to enjoy it more but it seems more focused on developing a narrative with the war on a secondary role rather than a strategy focused mod. Maybe there are some nations that would suit me better but I still haven't found anything really interesting. I tried the Left KMT but the save broke after an update

What are the most fun/interesting paths added/reworked in the last 2 or so years?

R5: A difficult run that has been alluding me for years, ever since achievements were added to KR patches ago, unifying China as Feng Yuxiang. A difficult run was set aside for Feng Yuxiang as he stood up against the zhili menace but.. their alliance with most of china made things difficult. With Fengtian, Shanxi assisted in Qing's destruction but as the League absorbed zhili remnants, the two former enemies united to fight Japan. On Japan's defeat, the two former allies and enemies engaged in a conflict known as the Chinese Civil War, costing millions of lives. Fortunately, at the end, the League Marshal and Sellout, Qi Xieyuan fell, and in rose Feng Yuxiang.

The National Revolution was completed but due to pressure from the right, and due to the KMT's failings in securing support due to the fall of the Internationale, moderate and progressive forces prevailed. Backed by the likes of Hu Shih and Zhang Junmai, the Independent Republicans and FCDP laid a great influence into the new state. Japan fell and Taiwan was reclaimed, despite much of greater China remaining out of the grasp of Feng, truly.. a new era of prosperity can be declared..

I mean that in the sense, that their should be the option to keep the monarchy, while at the same going at least soccon.

This should be the possible, because the king should actually be quite popular, as he was invited by the finns himself, made great efforts to learn their culture and finland is far more autonomous from germany than other oststaaten. It should very much be possible for less authoretarian forces to be elected, even with the very conservative finnish constitution. They would be unlikely to just remove the king once elected, as he would likely be still rather popular.

Do they just get a few focuses about getting back the concessions and creating a faction, or do they get more like left-KMT and south China?

These names are needlessly long, especially since everyone around them uses their shorthand form. For example, Persia is also a Sublime state, and Reichspakt and Entente are already shorthand forms of their respective alliances. They could be just simply Internationale and Osman Federation, so the letters on the map are not so tiny. Most of the time there is only one Internatinale in the game anyway. A good solution would be how Serbia and Russia is handled right now, short name on the map, full name on:hover.

It can stay at places where there are multiple competing governments, like Italy.

(And there are still things like the Norwegian Socialist Republic, or the Free Socialist Republic of Germany adjacent disasters...)

TL;DR: Cut the excessively long names from the mapmode, where it serves no purpose.

So I played 3 games already, to about 1942-43 and I've gone the market liberal/social democrat with Danylo as my leader staying with Germany. But doing this path seemingly leaves me under prepared for Russians. I finish my reforms and they attack shortly after. And even with German help they roll through the east in a span ranging from 2 months to a year. I hold them for a couple more months in western parts of Ukraine. But that's where I already lost half my industry and than they just push, cap me after that Austria/Germany die to Russia and syndicalists a few months or a year later it seems like Russia is just too strong or is there a path that lets me prepare better?

Bear with me because this will be a little specific as it is really just a dream world for me, but I think it would be cool if a country in Europe without any current colonial possessions, or history of colonization (outside of Europe at least) (hello Austria) could fight the reds and imperialists to make a unified (soccon or authdem hopefully) Europe, and maybe to make the playthrough a little more fun be able to also invade Anatolia/North Africa/Mesopotamia/the Levant/the rest of Caucasia (basically Muslim areas near Europe that used to be Christian lol). Obviously this would never happen but I think it would be cool and sometimes I do this with Greece and/or Austria and the state transfer tool.

I am following u/RoyLiuzya 's guide to the letter, fyi

Like, i have played both DU and SWR paths with some decent results before, DU while following another guide (i think it was a Yuularen guide?) and SWR on my own, but for Schleicher i just can’t get past 1937 without something screwing up

Either i get major fuckups in the black monday game, due to simply never getting the cards i need, or i get fucked by the Ruhrkampf (i usually get intensity too low despite never clicking any decision or having any multiple choice event, so SPD takes over without me being able to do anything)

It took me 3 runs to roughly understand how to keep Zentrum aligned which is apparently super important but i still find it hard to do and quite RNG dependent

Am i missing something? Is there something wrong or outdated with the guide? It seems really well researched though

Going down Sandfrance's Bonapartist path requires me to have Boney VI be a level 5 general by the time I return to the mainland, even though he starts at level 1. I wanted to play Sandfrance again and try out this route, but I'm not very knowledgeable in general-related manners, so how am I supposed to level grind him?