ZimbabweSaltCo
commented
3 years ago Has been passed onto the relevant people and will be discussed at a later date.
Closed KRWW closed 3 years ago
ZimbabweSaltCo
commented
3 years ago Has been passed onto the relevant people and will be discussed at a later date.
This proposal was made on reddit by someone other than me two years ago. It's a broad brush pointer of what gameplay could be with some corresponding lore improvements.
A giant, centrally-organized Mittelafrika is pretty unwieldly and literally slows the game down when it implodes; although sending volunteers to fight in various African civil wars is a jolly time. I also think that a lot of the nations that become free really don't have a lot of personality outside of Sudwestafrika, Dahomey and the Congo.
The German colonies between the 1880s and 1907 were terrible. Hermann Goering's father, Heinrich Ernst Goering, was fairly incompetent and both directly and indirectly caused a lot of the disaster that happened in Sudwestafrika. In Ostafrika, there wasadventurer Hermann Wissmann, who while was an excellent military man well-regarded by his soldiers, made for a horrific administrator and the very image of heavy-handed oppression. So yeah, in all, bad situation. Then the Herero Genocides happen and the German people were furious; even Wilhelm II was pissed off because the colonies were giving Berlin a middle finger and blew off inquiries into Herero incursions into settler lands. The civilian government was nearly toppled in the ensuing "Hottentot Election" but at the last moment, the Reichstag and Wilhelm II got together to create a newer, better Reichskolonialamt, with the newly-minted Secretary of State of the Imperial Colonial Office answerable directly to both the Chancellor and the Emperor.
This they did very well and by late 1907 the adventurers, incompetents and sadists were driven out and replaced by guys like Bernhard Dernberg, who was the Reformgruppe before they were the Reformgruppe. Dernberg, appointed by the Chancellor and approved by Wilhelm II, proceeded to plug in the Golden Aux Cord of Reform and made the German colonies a much better place to live for the natives; much to the consternation of the German settlers and businesses there who liked their indentured labor and heavy-handed treatment of the natives just fine. The reforms continued despite their whining, and up to the end of OTL Weltkrieg, the colonies were even better administered than the British and the French. By 1914 Dar es Salaam made Nairobi look like a shantytown by comparison and a major railway project had been completed under the new administration in 7 years that took the previous roughneck adventurers over 20 years to figure out.
Given the Reformgruppe were already pretty cemented in power by Berlin and by a figure no less than the Emperor should Mittelffrica be reworked if a major focus line has already been completed nearly 3 decades prior?
Well, there are a lot of things you can do, and short of making a half dozen new nations from the get-go, factions and a vastly reworked focus tree would be a great way to make Mittelafrika engaging from the start. One of the biggest things is that under the Reichskolonialamt, there's no way Hermann Goering would be considered the leader of the state, especially since his father's inept rule in Sudwestafrika left everyone with a bad taste in their mouths and tens of thousands of dead Herero in his wake; least of all Wilhelm II, who decreed the reforms in the first place after the "Hottentot Election in 1907". Now, we're not going to do away with Goering, in fact, he's going to play a central, more active role in the coming conflict. During the reform era of 1907-1918, most people were happy and content with Dernberg, Albrecht von Rechenberg, Heinrich Schnee, and Wilhelm Solf's reforms and able administration, especially the natives, who finally started getting some just and fair-minded rule. Everyone, that is, except wealthy German businessmen and settlers, who loved the bad old days in which they used the natives as slaves, terrorized everyone else, and looked up to figures like the infamous Lothar von Trotha as a necessary and harsh measure against native rebellion. Who better to represent them as a faction than the swaggering, domineering war hero of Hermann Goering, who reminds them of the "better days" of crass exploitation?
At game start, Heinrich Schnee should be viceroy of Mittelafrica. In 1936 he was still at a decent age enough to be head of the colonies, and it could be reworked that the Reichskolonialamt relocated to Dar es Salaam sometime in the 1920's in order to have its civil service closer to the colonies to monitor the progress and initiate further reforms.
What follows are descriptions of factions to be played around with (triggered more or less by the same system the Estonians and Latvians are with the Baltic Duchy, but with more gusto).
-British exiles and residents: they're still mad about 1921 for one thing, and see it as a black mark upon their pride that they have to answer to the German tax collector and administrator. The fact that the Union of Britain exists and their empire is shattered just makes it worse. Most of the time, they cooperate only out of necessity, but lately, the British settlers are getting more antagonistic. Their sense of honor mostly keeps them in line, but with neighboring French settlers beginning to consider revolt to throw off the German yoke, many are considering throwing in their lot and money behind the cause. All they need is a spark and a distracted Germany...
-French exiles and residents: if the British are feeling bad about living under German rule, the French settlers are absolutely beside themselves with purple-faced fury. The cream of the French colonial crop, these former subjects of the French Empire are openly antagonistic against German authorities. French-only bars, restaurants and cafes are common in the former French colonies, and perhaps wanting to avoid stirring up a hornets nest during peacetime, the German authorities are all to happy to leave them alone save for occasional patrols in which they're sometimes pelted with rocks and often mocked. There are rumors of wealthier French settlers stockpiling weapons in local establishments and safehouses, and with the vast expanse of land between civilization to keep stockpiles safely away from prying eyes, some are beginning to contact National France officials and officers for supplies, weapons and ammunition. Like the British exiles, the French feel it's only a matter of time before they muster the elan that conquered a continent to overthrow the German yoke, and they may try to drag the British and loyal African tribes into the mix...
-Various African tribes: while the reforms carried out have greatly improved relations with the Empire's African subjects, with many serving loyally and effectively during the Weltkrieg, there are more than a few tribes who simply refuse to go along with the "white man's designs". Namely, the Herero and Namaqua, who have never forgotten or forgiven the German for nearly erasing them from existence. The Maasai and Mittelafrika have had a tenuous relationship at best; despite the reforms of the colonial government, the pastoral and warrior Maasai are desperate to retain their ways of life in an Africa that is slowly getting smaller and more urban. Other tribes are simply just too loyal to their former British and French rulers, and are rumored to be working with their compatriots in various intrigues...
-German settlers: the most dangerous and ominous of all the potential rebel factions within Mittelafrika. Most of these "settlers" regard themselves as the old colonial stock. The tamers. The conquerors. The victorious and virtuous men and women who claimed a continent for a Kaiser and an Empire that wound up sticking them a new one in 1907. And they're still really, really pissed off about it. These are Germans who, along with their families, have lived in Africa since the 1880's and regard the land (and the natives) as their conquest and birthright. The new German immigration to Mittleafrika since the war's end they despise as a bunch of middle class loafers who supported the ouster of the old colonial regime. Lately, the continuing reforms coming from Dar es Salaam are really making life difficult for them, as they understand it. Rumors of various equality acts in the works coming from the capitol are driving these wealthy would-be aristocrats to a state of potential revolt, and the more fanatical among them have a solution: claim Sudwestafrika for themselves, finish Lothar von Trotha's work of expelling the rest of the Herero, and they have just the man in mind to lead them: the son of the disgraced Heinrich Ernst Goering, a certain, swaggering and belligerent war hero, who is said to be residing at his estate in Veldenstein in Bavaria...one Hermann Goering, who has expressed interest in going to Sudwestafrika to "resume his father's work", even if he has to sneak out of the country to do it. And should Goering make it to Sudwestafrika and win their independence from Mittelafrika's mad reforming experiments, he and the settlers have plans that go beyond establishing true colonial rule...
Potential new independent nations to get out of this, with focus trees: Ostafrika, Sudwestafrika, Maasailand, former British and French colonies that have the option to rejoin their empires as puppets or remain free with mandated entry into the Entente in return for the previous aid rendered to fuel their rebellions, which makes sense given the influence of the exiles in their respective areas.