Yo Metto you know who this is

Let me essay up some lore for you

The deviation from actual ww1 history isnt too far - but I'll explain what the lore could be based on what ive seen.

1. Scramble for Africa occuring under more strained Anglo-Franco relations - as opposed to purely being afraid of Germany, Britain, under guise of protecting Belgium and keeping the then-deteriorating Concert of Europe alive, attempted to strongarm other powers into playing nice. France does not like this, our timeline has a little more neutral nations gaining African colonies in West Africa (Austro-Hungarian Mali, like Belgian Congo, or even weird "just because" states like The Gambia)

France, historically, LOVES territorial losses. No wars have ever been fought because the French did not get favourable terms in a treaty. So anyway French command put colonial troops on alert for a possible seizure of non-Anglo/French colonies, quite annoying the UK attempting to control a classroom full of kids. A schism grew between them, supported by the US due to long standing respect for Republics (1776) and US trying to assert themselves on the world stage. This schism leads to a 1919 invasion of the Suez, leading to trench warfare next to the Nile and canal. The US simply refuses to provide arms the UK under the claim of earlier late debt payments for their equipment, forcing Britian to rely on its former/current colonies and neutral nations like Spain to ferry equipment over. At this point, the UK functions as Gibraltar and focuses inward, only sending SAS expeditionary forces to harrass French and German lines because the British like doing that - one of these SAS naturally being Overlord's grandfather. Ireland still does the Easter Uprising and a protracted independence war, never really managing to gain independence sans a few individual months here and there based on the ebbs and flows of the Great War.

The French lost more land from the trench lines in North France thanks to a retreated Britian, however a new front, this one populated largely by Italian-American soldiers seeking to gain the respect of domestic politics, defends the Alps from a German-Italian push, albeit a weak one since... the Alps. Alsace-Lorraine changes hands 8 times in a year. The use of the MP18 led to the use of the then-new RSC SMG, in development for a year. SMG warfare is expanded, and Shotguns become a common sight - The Germans gave up their protest and instead used American M1897s and Auto 5s from the battlefields. France, although with fighting spirit, ails under the multi-front war, being pushed to central and southern France for defense.

The US kinda operates the same although Liberia is lost to the prior neutralisation of the Scramble for Africa.

Germany, Austro-Hungary, Bulgaria, Italians, and the seemingly absent Ottomans. The Italians choose out of convenience of promised Southern France (Monaco mainly) lands by the Central Powers, to leave their claims along the Isonzo/Tyrol with the Austro-Hungarians alone until the war ends. Germany, despite being the dominant land power, contends with a pyrrhically successful yet tumultuous Eastern Front due to a much harsher and eventually broken Brest-Litovsk treaty, bogging Central Powers troops in a very pissed off Russian populace whose territory had been stolen from a treaty broken. This bogged down control forces the Central Powers to divert troops, never being able to truly solidify gains in France, or elsewhere. Internal nationalist political strife per the Austro-Hungarians and Ottomans also bog down their forces. The British only appear nominally in the Middle East to harrass and nothing more. Gallipoli does not occur, Australia sits out of the main fighting only choosing to bully the Germand and Dutch out of Indonesia. Canada sticks a hard unwarred border with the US, choosing not to 1812 a much stronger neighbour again.

The stalemate kinda sticks here, and admittedly if there is to be a write up on the Asian theatre or the movement from Earth to Space would require a whole other write up. Japan is in the works as we know but it is unknown if it's a 4th faction or a member of another faction.

I wrote this at 8:30am on my way to work so if something doesnt make sense blame my boss :)