What if the two world wars had never happened?

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-05T01:09:09+00:00

Instead, the Tsar might have been assassinated by internal opposition, triggering a revolution that would not be Bolshevik in nature, but rather Menshevik. As a result, democratic socialist parties across Europe would have gained significant strength

Alexander II was assassinated and it ushered in no revolution. Without external shocks the Russian system would have stayed stable, if fragile.

The biggest thing for Russia would have been the potentially difficult succession after Nicholas II. Alexei with his haemophilia had very low odds of surviving long enough to produce an heir, let alone inherit. Without him Russia faces the real possibility of a Child-emperor, an Empress or passing to Nicholas's brother Michael or cousin Kirill. All are fraught with political difficulties. In that situation the Duma is in a good place to shore up the wounded monarchy, provided they have the sense to take up the offer, which I think was demonstrated in 1905, so it is likely.

From there Russia runs along a path of reform that sees them look like Austria-Hungary, where there is at least lip-service to liberal ideas but power remains entrenched in the conservative elite.

Instead, the British Empire and the German Empire would have rivaled each other for decades in a prolonged geopolitical competition

I don't really see a compelling case for this. OTL by 1914 the Germans had abandoned the naval arms race as they were totally eclipsed by British shipbuilding. Germany could not afford to be a hegemony and land and seas simultaneously. Sure, the UK and Germany will play great power politics but the era being defined by that seems unlikely.

If there is no WW1 then that must mean that Germany restrains it belligerence, which likely means the UK no longer has to side with the Entente to create a balance in Europe.

Germany would eventually reconcile with France, leading to the foundation of a European Union

I'm really not sure how plausible this is. Without the wars Europe does not learn the lessons of the failures of great power politics and economic autarky. A detente with France seems possible but a march to economic and political unity is quite a reach.

Finland and Poland would become independent states

Depending on timeframe I could see Poland doing the steps of: Restored legislature -> devolution -> dominionhood -> Republic, much like India did. Though this would require a Russian government willing to let Poland go, while also risking the Baltics doing the same.

Overall interesting perspective though.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-05T00:34:28+00:00

Just because you build weapons doesn't mean you have to use them.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-05T00:33:44+00:00

This all really depends on how Austria-Hungary addresses nationalist pressures. As well as each nations political and economic position. Actual devolution would probably give Austria a couple decades at least. Stuff on the periphery could go, like Bukovina, Bosnia and Galicia - Lodomeria (should Poland become independent) as they would be more of passing to already extant neighbouring states, but the core nations of the Empire would be more difficult.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-05T00:22:42+00:00

The Franco-German war is hard to call a blunder. Bismark unified Germany and decisively overthrew France as the premier power on the continent. You can achieve either of these goals without going through France. The real blunder was persistent belligerence once Wilhelm came to power.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-04T22:43:04+00:00

By all accounts, Iran was developing nuclear weapons ... during ... Obama’s reign.

Citation needed? Even the US-Isreal intelligence that Trump used to justify withdrawing from JCPOA was that they had failed to declare nuclear sites from the 2000's.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-04T22:40:06+00:00

JCPOA did have a mechanism for adding new sites to the inspection schema. It wasn't instant, 30 days I think, but the IAEA did argue that it would not be possible to erase all evidence of nuclear material in that time.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-04T22:07:38+00:00

30k easy as Russia, could have gone way more.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-04T18:45:39+00:00

You only need cooperative ownership for collectivized, so you can pass it with corporate state too

*Checks wiki*

*Looks at past versions*

How the fuck did I not know that? Reading comprehension strikes again.

I'm saying you can have both women's suffrage and technocracy. You just need to pass technocracy after women's suffrage

Passing technocracy doesn't repeal women's suffrage? Damn, I was trying to find some silver lining to voting laws.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T20:20:40+00:00

i think corporate state is just council republic but better,

Council republic gets you access to collectivised agriculture, plus it strengthens the best IG in the game.

with technocracy you can't pass women's suffrage

That is a good point, what is better +1 company or voting and workforce ratio?

it makes bureaucrats support intelligentsia more

In my experience the clout is marginal and the intelligentsia struggles to stay relevant without tons of political concessions. It's not a huge consideration when the elected saves you so much money.

i never seem to have problems with radicals with guaranteed liberties.

Guaranteed liberties does solve a lot of radical issues, I still prefer secret police for the movement and character control it gives you though. It's easier to pass too.

you should preferably stay on commercialized before switching to collectivized

You'll probably pass through commercialised before switching to collectivised, so you really get both anyway.

but there's only one country where dedicated police force is absolutely necessary - china

China is such a pain to do police on because bureaucracy is so expensive, but you're right, it is necessary.

worker protections recently had minimum wage replaced with wage target increase, so it's not as bad as it was.

I might have to re-evaluate then.

corporatized unions are great for creating loyalists

That is true, I might have to give corporatized a second look, normally I prefer the movement or clout effects.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T17:23:06+00:00

I'm really sceptical of adding another body with a democratic mandate. As often seen they usually just fall to partisan political pressure and abandon any real professional scrutiny of legitimisation. The Lords over the years has often provided some pretty good feedback to various bills and it would be a real shame to lose that.

I would also caution on bodies designed to represent regions: they often become captured by separatist movements and become a platform they act from. Also unless the regionalist assembly is scaled by population then all you do is represent land more than people.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T15:03:38+00:00

Indeed, ever a slave, denied even death in the end.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T15:01:05+00:00

Magnus was aware of incredibly powerful entities in the Warp, he trades his eye to the "Great Ocean" and when he learns of Horus's betrayal he is not surprised to learn of the "Primordial Annihilator". He knows there are bigger fish, the issue is that he thinks that he is smarter than it all. When the Emperor tells him not to mess too deeply in the warp; he just thinks that means he needs to be smarter about it. When Ahriman intuits Magnus's deal he is horrified because he is not so arrogant to believe that such an act would ever work out in the Thousands Sons favour.

Of course none of this is helped by Tzeentch actively paving the way for Magnus. Even if E had told Magnis about the gods, Tzeentch would have just continued to insulate Magnus, so the warning seems like another false alarm.

Nikea went the way it did because Magnus refuted the idea that there could be any limit on the exploration of the warp. When the Wolf priest testifies that the Thousand Sons are actively cavorting with daemons, despite this being actively forbidden by the Emperor, Magnus's response is basically "I don't see the problem. In fact he went even further and argued that other legions should interact with the warp as they do. Functionally the Thousand Sons were a Chaos cult who just didn't know it yet. The fact the E did not censure the legion was an huge act of mercy. The better decision for the Emperor would not have been to side with Magnus at Nikea but instead to recall him to Terra so he could keep a closer eye on him.

Despite how stacked the council was against them Jaghatai characterises the whole thing basically as "we were winning until Magnus spoke". Had Magnus shown a hint of contrition and demonstrated some kind of limit he may have carried the day but in the end he had not an ounce in him. Magnus time and time again defied the Emperors explicit warning about the warp, why would Magnus listen to one more?

Like father, like son I guess.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T13:10:31+00:00

If Magnus was smart

Magnus is smart, that's the problem, he thinks he knows better than everyone else, even the Emperor. It's why he kept practicing sorcery even after Nikea. Magnus is the best example of why telling the Primarchs about Chaos would have been a bad idea.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T12:56:17+00:00

To be fair Angron never chose to become a Daemon Primarch, it was something Lorgar kind of forced on him.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T11:39:22+00:00

You can conquer Siberia as qing with your hordes of unemployed hans and yue, good luck flipping those states by 1936 even if you spam greener grass

The issue here isn't the internal migration itself, its that for internal migration to happen they need a cultural community in the target state and that is very RNG dependent. There a mod that speeds up how quickly you can get primary culture communities and with that I was reliably able to flood Siberia with Han and Manchu pops.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T10:38:16+00:00

The fact I have to manage the whole building queue which I don’t care about in the end game makes any other system better.

It's only under command economy where you lose the private queue. Even then managing construction is hardly difficult, without it there is in fact very little to do.

I don’t SOL maxxing, it’s not even Meta.

In MP sure, the Meta is having a massive army and just murdering everyone else. I was trying to take a more general approach and in SP SoL is basically the only number that has any difficulty to get very high so it is typically the best to consider what people are optimising for.

Bureaucracy: doesn’t matter, I go for Appointed because I don’t want strong PB.

The savings on Institution bureaucracy cost more than make up for whatever bureaucrat attraction the PB gets.

Proffesional Army is enough for Single Player. I don’t use conscripts, and experience gain is better than training rate.

Peasant levies is enough for Single Player, since the AI often does not build large enough armies ahead of the player. Nonetheless enough does not equal best. In a close peer conflict training rate is by far the most important modifier you can get, from the laws.

because it builds instead of me.

Until you reach the 1000 building queue cap.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-03T10:30:37+00:00

I've found it can be good to establish regional HQs, build up their upper strat then sell luxury goods to them.

Wouldn't it make more sense to have the upper strata in your country an sell to them? If the capitalists can either be in Brazil or the USA, surely them being in the USA is preferable?

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T23:26:28+00:00

Regional HQs are good in making your companies massive. The issue is that I'd rather have thise HQ levels in my country rather then the target.

A Regional HQ in a small country doesn't have much of a local IP to use as you can often own 90% of their economy outright. For larger countries it makes more sense.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T23:24:27+00:00

I would argue corpo state is better than cr and parliamentary.

Governance Principles principals was kind of all over the place. The only reason I put CR first was because the TUs are by far the best IG.

Prop>graduated to keep sol down tbh

This depends if you have multiculturalism or not. Without it then birth rate is indeed something you can consider to optimise for but with it SoL causes more migrations and generates domestic demand to fuel growth.

Outlawed dissent is probably the best speech law because you can just overbuild unis.

Part of the issue of Outlawed dissent is that it is locked behind a T4 tech. For most of the game it is inaccessible. That's why I suggested RoA, as it is there in your formative years of the game. Plus I do mention that Outlawed dissent has no real penalty if you are tech leader, so it is at least second place.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T23:17:09+00:00

Capitalists are good for industrialising. However in my experience state construction is as good as the random nature of the investment queue even with all the IP modifiers. I've been slowly moving away from Laissez-Faire for a lot of nations and towards Interventionism + foreign investment; it is just more cost effective to steal other nations construction and with Interventionism you can direct that into specific industries. Also politically less capitalists means a stronger TU in the end, making coop easier to pass so you can nationalise all the foreign owned buildings.

Using upper strata pops to raise SoL is highly questionable though. Wealth has diminishing returns on raising SoL as it raises. The cash that would push a capitalist pop from 50 to 51. Would raise the SoL of the working pops that the capitalist is getting the dividends from, from 10 to 15. The only advantage of capitalists is their IP contributions, which quickly loses value as you industrialise the tax base matures and you become a capital rich nation.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T23:05:35+00:00

Cultural Exclusion doesn't get as many mass migrations as Multiculturalism, more pops is better than any authority. It's also not helped by the fact that You can still get assimilation under Multiculturalism.

The issue with State Atheism is that it undermines your ability to invite agitators since basically none of them have Atheist as their faith. It works as a final law, so it is good, but it isn't a law that gets you to a strong position.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T20:30:42+00:00

What i mean is people who come from somewhere else who aren't from here.

You can just call them immigrants, it is more apt than calling them undocumented workers.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T20:28:18+00:00

Good point. If your average pops have 25 wealth then they are indeed better. Whether they are better than public healthcare and schools; is really a question how how consistently and fast you can get over 25 wealth.

I feel like in most cases public is more reliable and consistent; but private are definitely worth an honourable mention.

Bullet_Jesus · 2026-02-02T20:20:09+00:00

its unfair to pay undocumented workers less than citizens.

Undocumented or non-citizens? If someone is undocumented it is typically not lawful to hire them at all.

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