Kaiserreich (mod)

Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg is an alternate history mod for the grand strategy video game Hearts of Iron IV (2016). It is set in a fictionalized version of World War II, where the Central Powers won World War I. The setting of the mod is drastically different from the politics and borders present during the real World War II, with several nations impacted by civil wars and revolutions and the definitions of communism and fascism being altered.

Similarly to the base Hearts of Iron IV game, the player takes control of a nation during World War II and guides it through the conflict starting in 1936, with no major gameplay differences between the mod and the base game beyond the addition of content. The mod has been met with a positive response from critics, viewing its setting as surpassing that of the base game and allowing for more possibilities. Since release, the developers have created short films and merchandise based on the mod, with the former depicting events showcased in the mod's lore.

Gameplay
Kaiserreich is an alternate history mod for the video game Hearts of Iron IV (2016), a grand strategy game where the player takes control of a chosen nation during World War II, and manages all aspects of it throughout the war, with the goal of being on the winning side of the conflict. These aspects include the nations politics, industry, and diplomatic relations. Players can also pursue alternate history paths, known as "National Focuses." While Kaiserreich makes no major changes to the core gameplay, it changes the games main setting, and adds new content to accommodate for it.

Setting
Kaiserreich is set in an alternate history timeline where the Central Powers won World War I by 1919, with the mod's start date being 1936. The Central Powers victory leads to numerous changes from the real world's political landscape, with every country and region being impacted and having altered history. The mod begins on the onset of a fictional version of World War II, altered by the mods lore as well as player action. The game's story and outcomes typically change between playthroughs, often having minor to major differences.

In the mod, the German Empire serves as the leading power of Europe, operating a number of client states in the eastern part of the continent, a large African colony named "Mittelafrika", and numerous colonies in Southeast Asia, all of which are united under a single alliance. Meanwhile, the other major Central Power, Austria-Hungary, manages to survive outside of Germany's sphere of influence and undergoes a consolidation into one government. After being defeated in the war, revolutions overthrow the governments of Great Britain, France, and Italy, adopting syndicalism as their ideology and forming an alliance known as the Third Internationale, with the former governments being exiled and continuing the Entente. Additionally, several nations experience internal unrest after the war, with the United States, Spain, and Argentina falling into civil wars, and independence movements beginning in several colonies and client states.

In addition to the alternations of borders and diplomacy, Kaiserreich features alternations from the real world's political ideologies, featuring custom ideologies that combine many ideals from several nations into one, and not having the traditional concept of ideologies like communism and fascism. An example of these new ideologies is "Totalism", an ideology structured like Stalinism that attracts figures that would have been otherwise considered fascist, as well as the aforementioned replacement of traditional communism with syndicalism, which starts in the West instead of in the East.

Release and promotion
A version of Kaiserreich has existed for several games in the Hearts of Iron series since 2011, starting with a version made for Hearts of Iron II (2005). The version for Hearts of Iron IV, developed by the K4 Team, was released on 24 September 2018. Since its release, the developers have made merchandise for the mod and short films that depict parts of the mods lore.

Reception
Kaiserreich has been received positively by critics, with many viewing its lore as surpassing the original game's setting. Timothy Borsilli of Wargamer wrote that Kaiserreich was a "rich, well-researched, and lovingly crafted world" that retained realism and fidelity and was designed for "maximum entertainment value." He believed that the base game was generally predictable, with player choice not having any major impact on the final result of the conflict due to being grounded to World War II, while Kaiserreich was a mod that "attacks" that problem.

Luke Plunkett of Kotaku shared similar thoughts, believing that while Hearts of Iron IV had limited variation in outcomes, Kaiserreich was a mod that opened an "infinite number of sliding doors moments every time you move," believing that every possible player choice was accounted for in order to increase immersion. He stated that Kaiserreich was one of his favorite video game mods, and that it was much more than what is generally viewed as a mod. PCGamesN Joe Robinson echoed similar thoughts to Plunkett and Borsilli, writing that the mod was like a "well-written, perfectly paced war movie, with a slick setup, a rising arc of tension, and an explosive, climactic finale."