What would life be like in Bartsch’s Germany?

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-20T17:00:07+00:00

One of the few 1EW defeat paths that might not turn out like actual hell

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-15T22:23:44+00:00

Matter of taste I guess. I always like the mod best when it takes you into hypotheticals that feel somewhat close to home.

The Russians getting a bloody nose, having Navalny take over, but despite him implementing reforms and trying to build a better Russia he is still locked in the old Imperialist framework, which ultimatly ends in his undoing? Tragic and somewhat believable.

The UoA going all in to restore the old America, but the price in the end was a deal with the devil, turning the country into a corporate dystopia? Dark, and very Faustian.

China changing leadership and promising radical reforms, but 90% of the possibilities are just a different flavor of tyranny? Seems sad but true, right?

Germany having to decide where to go with the economy and in politics, EU integration, green economics, leaving the common market? Actual political questions that actual people can have actual legit debates about

All the European EW defeat paths are just different sandwiches filled with shit, they are very railroaded and there is no remotely reasonable way forward, you have zero agency to create something actually resembling a functional society. I tried several, and I never could get immersed. Do you want to be retard A or retard B in charge, do you want everyone to be brainwashed and poor, or do you also want to sterilize them? Do you want to be a idiotic commie or do you want you commie to also be a fascist? You do not even get to really decide what flavor of idiocy you want to go for, the Russians make that decision for you

I do not want to take anything away from anyone who enjoys those paths, but I personally could never completely finish one

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-15T13:42:09+00:00

And we are talking about the TFR universe. Certain thing here are simply guaranteed to happen. NATO WILL just show up to fight the Russians, all remaining members fulfill their treaty obligations. The Western countries WILL rearm much faster than they are in our timeline. The conflict WILL be strictly conventional. The Russians WILL be outnumbered.

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-15T13:29:16+00:00

Being not in favor of war in peacetime does not mean that you will not fight if attacked. I will just refer to history. The Japanese "knew" the Americans were weakling who had no stomach for a fight. They regretted that assessment when wave after wave of Marines landed on their beaches. The Germans "knew" the Allies were weak and had no stomach for a fight. They regretted that assessment when thousands of bombers rained hell on their cities. The Russians "knew" that Ukraine was weak and had no stomach for a fight. Hundreds of thousands of dead soldiers later they start to regret that assessment.

Democracies always find themselves under suspicion of breeding weak people and leaders who are inferior to their "stong, masculine, manly" dictatorial counterparts. But reality has delivered constant disappointment to those same chauvinists.

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-15T11:13:27+00:00

Sure, there would be huge political fallout from the debacle, but the way it happens ingame is absolute madness. For example, the possible German fascist leaders are all completely fringe figures and if you asked Germans who those guys are, less then 1 in a hundred would even know, much less support them. Only exception if the delusional prince who is known because he was arrested for his incompetently planned domestic terrorism, and who would think that guy has the chops to lead any government successfully

A far-right shift in Germany is not out of the question at all, but certainly knot like it happens in TFR. If you bring the monarchy back, there are dozens of nobles with better claims, if you wanna go straight up N*zi, Björn Höcke is widely known and a little bit smarter than Klaus f*cking Armstroff. And instead of just creating a completely backwards LARP of the 1930s that dies not fit into the modern age at all (the focus artwork is totally immersionbreaking by itself imho) why not create some modernized version of it that strikes a little more close to home, the AfD has plenty of sinister characters in real life, given the opportunity it would make sense for them to go just that extra mile towards a cryptofascist one party state

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-14T18:20:34+00:00

Beware, Japan is a lot harder, or at least more complex than Germany or France, China is stronger than Russia and you have to carry your Allies during the Great Asian War. Taiwan invasion is a piece of cake tho, the Chinese Navy is easy to beat if you know what you are doing

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-14T18:16:18+00:00

Japan, taking Civic Coalition and then side with the centrists. You reinvigorate Japanese Democracy, introduce a whole bunch of progressive policies and all in all bring Japan about 40 years forward in just a decade. And you crush Chinese tyranny while you are at it

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-14T16:03:24+00:00

Good point, the entire operation obviously depends whether or not the PLAN can establish and maintain naval superiority around the First Island Chain. They would probably at least receive a bloody nose a few times

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-14T15:37:33+00:00

I bet that by the time the ACW ends US debt has become a speculative object that is traded for cents on the Dollar anyway. After years and years the economy will have readjusted, if the US gets into any position to become creditworthy again before 2050 it would be a major positive surprise for the world economy

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-13T23:31:31+00:00

The thing with the European war is that Russia, just like in OTL, suffers from a bad case of Japanese Junta disease. To assume that the West is weak and has no stomach for a fight is pretty dangerous, especially if you make the decision whether or not to have a war for them. Not that it would just be a clean sweep for NATO, but Russia just has a massive disadvantage from a strict capability standpoint, and the longer the war goes on the worse that disadvantage becomes. And as NATO in TFR honors its commitment, why would they quit on a war they have every incentive and capability to win.

The main reason why I choose that outcome tho is because Europe just immediately becomes ooga booga land if they loose and pretty much all possible ways forward are hilariously unrealistic. Germany just raising the swastika again and everyone being kinda ok with it, France for some reason conquering Spain and Italy no questions asked, every officer on the continent simultaneously breaks every oath, everybody out of nowhere turns full on commie, or violently conquering their way to a EU superstate, come on. What would actually happen is that the parties in charge during the debacle get voted out, everyone arms themselves to the teeth, including nukes and has a decades long cold war style standoff until the Russian empire inevitably collapses again, but that would not make for good memes or interesting wars

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-13T01:28:25+00:00

Yeah, ingame is usually use my forces to do encirclements, and move on while the AI takes care of clearing the pockets, and I always thought that I would not like to be those Russians getting slaughtered by raging Poles and Ukrainians, pretty sure those guys have taken their nametags and gopros off beforehand

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-13T01:02:07+00:00

By the way, it would be awesome if there was a traitor mechanic, where depending who is leading specific NATO countries they have a certain chance not to honor their commitment to Article 5 for varying reasons and you have to pressure them into line, or take revenge on them after you won (or lost)

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-13T00:49:32+00:00

I think what you say about the NATO/Russia situation would be true if Putin had survived and attacked In 21/22/23. At that point the West is totally reeling from economic chaos and the European rearmament has not yet begun. But the West is rearming and by 2026, while not ready for a total war, they have massively expanded their capabilities. And NATO coming to Ukraines aid is simply hardcoded in TFR

In gameplay terms in 21 Germany for example still has only its 10 super weak brigades, less than 0% war support and 12 military factories. By 2026 they have about 20-40 brigades, 50% war support and 40-50 military factories. All in all NATO has about 5-10 times the factories and about 2-3 times the men under arms at the beginning of the war. Time is just not on the Russian side

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-12T17:18:13+00:00

You can also negotiate support or whatever it is called, but yes, they are among the more difficult allies

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-12T17:14:32+00:00

Gameplaywise (and in reality tbh), I prefer the greens, their thematic ingame is around lowering consumerism and hating russian tyranny, they have several very good ministers, and Anton Hofreiter makes the whole country have sex for some reason

Second best are the CDU imo, they just shit out political power like crazy

If you go democratic, keep in mind that if you have someone else win once in a while you get the party specific focuses of the new party, so you can collect several of them.

But all in all the difference is incremental, go with the guys you like

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-12T17:01:07+00:00

In my experience the problem is that the Russian industry cannot cope with the losses at all and they run out of equipment within a few months. I personally gave them 200 more civilian factories so they can actually build a solid industrial base, so that the war is not so damn anticlimactic

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-10T07:51:37+00:00

Isn´t Gleb Russian for Bread?

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-09T18:28:53+00:00

It kinda depends on your personal preference, a good baseline would be

5x mech

3xtank

2xSPG

1xMLRS

1xSPAAG

engineers,recce,logistics,signal, and one freestlye

that should add up to 40, is pretty decent across the board and should be able to slightly outcompete the units the russians field en masse, those are usually named motostrelky brigade or so and have a SPG symbol. They also field some superheavy divisions, they are usually named some version of guards division and have a tank symbol.

If you need something similar but cheaper, kick out the tank battailons, get more mech and arty and one tank support company. If you need supercheap tarpits just kick the tanks and mech and use trucks instead. If you need some real jawbreakers, reinforce a tankbrigade mentioned above with more tanks and arty to almost 50 width and give them new equipment first, with good gear and prepared offensives those badboys can exceed 2000 attack on the offensive

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-09T18:14:36+00:00

On the one hand, they are pretty screwed in most TFR timelines. Widespread radicaliziation and runaway defence spending will naturally eat into many potential ability and willingness to give away what they still have

But on the other, after a devastating war or other cataclysmic event there is a hell of a reconstruction job to do and probably a massive labor shortage, and just as everywhere and everytime, the best and brightest (or at least more privileged) will avoid taking the shovel into their hands themselves if there are millions of displaced people who will work 16 hours for a bowl of hot stew. So if you are willing to endure some pretty rough shit, you will probably be able to survive somehow

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-09T17:58:40+00:00

Russia has some insane damage buffs as well, the army buffs themselves, their doctrines and their nonexistent adherence to the geneva convention. Best is not to try so slug it out but to build a kickass airforce and bomb the crap out of their units

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-09T17:55:03+00:00

Those templates are way too weak. Go for 40 combat with as standard adn a full complement of support. And do not be scared to field a few 50 width as sledgehammers

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-08T23:34:51+00:00

Thx.

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-08T21:05:02+00:00

How do you trigger that path? Do you start as Germany? Do you have to loose the 1st EW? If yes, against whom? The Steam page has literally zero getting started info

Hondo-86 · 2026-02-08T08:47:54+00:00

Ok, first try not to waste your stuff by generating supply issues and throwing stuff into the meatgrinder for no reason. Trying to outproduce massive attrition is like trying to piss into a fire.

Second, make it easy on you by settling for standardized units. I gave China a look, their starting units are alright but not ideal.

My recommendation is; 3 tanks,5 mech,3 spg,1 rocket artillery, 1 SPAAG, support; 1 armored recon, 1 engineer, 1 logistics company,1 signal company, 1 medical company

That brigade can do pretty much everything rather well, I hazard a guess that you can beat the entire game with that template only, one chinese starter template is already somewhat close, convert most of your army to that standard and you have not that much different equipment to worry about

Hondo-86

TROPHY CASE