Alpinia
commented
3 years ago You will be pleased to know that this is actively being worked on by the reworks of France, Britain and Germany, and quite a few of the above ideas were raised as possibilities. It's still too early to say whether all of them will be implemented, however.
Right now the Second Weltkrieg starts when France randomly makes an ultimatum on Alsace-Lorraine in 1939 that Germany reasonably laughs at and then it's war. It's sudden, pretty blunt, and almost an anticlimatic way to start the greatest conflict humankind has had so far.
The buildup to the war in the mod has always seemed to me like it wanted to mirror OTL's Germany gradual escalation in Europe that eventually led to the famous "Danzig or War" event that featured in HoI2 and HoI3, with Alsace-Lorraine taking the place of Danzig. This is a pretty cool idea in my mind as it switches the expected historical roles of France and Germany and fits a revanchist France intent on regaining its territory backed by its new Syndicalist ideology (even though the mixing of internationalist Socialism and nationalism is a little contradictory, but guess what, it happened all the times historically, so that fits too). My issue is that this diplomatic escalation between France and Germany could be depicted better through the game events and narrative, and I also feel that what the game is missing is something to mirror OTL's Munich and a big diplomatic kerfuffle that clearly anticipates the eruption of war in Europe between France and Germany, and would make that famous Alsace-Lorraine ultimatum less random and more tied with a recent history of diplomatic tensions in Western Europe.
If Black Monday, the FAUD and France's more aggressive stance against Germany in 1936 are an equivalent to the remilitarization of the Rhineland, and the Romandy Crisis is a more serious development that could mirror the Anschluss, then there's something missing between the Romandy Crisis and the final Alsace-Lorraine ultimatum that would see France pushing its muscles diplomatically and militarily against Germany's allies and Germany having to choose between appeasing and delaying the war to better prepare at the cost of losing ground in Europe or face the Internationale right there and right now even if the war would be unpopular and Black Monday hasn't been fully dealt with yet.
I think that in Darkest Hour there was an event about the UoB flexing its naval might in the North Sea potentially leading to Ireland joining Germany's alliance or backing down into neutrality, but I'm not sure if that would be a good enough tension point for the war in Europe, so maybe the best suggestion for such a crisis is Belgium/Flanders-Wallonia? Maybe the crisis could be about the Commune considering the Walloons as Frenchmen under German domination, leading to local Syndicalists agitating against the local governments and calls for a plebiscite to join France (like Germany with the Sudetes basically), leading to Germany and France directly butting heads and Germany having to potentially allow the French to take over areas near the German borders if they're not ready for war? And should Germany give in then the emboldened Communards will have a reason to come back a year later to demand Alsace-Lorraine outright, expecting the Germans to give up again.
That's just my suggestion, but anything to make the abrupt Alsace-Lorraine ultimatum less abrupt and coming out of nowhere would be good in my opinion.