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Hello!

First of all, I would like to say a huge thank you to the respected developers once again for this game, it gave me unforgettable emotions, the likes of which I have not experienced since Commander the Great War, but this game is much deeper in all respects.

However, there is one aspect that, in my opinion, still requires serious improvement. This is a scenario where the Russian Empire wins on the Eastern Front — first of all over Austria-Hungary. Current setup seems incredibly strange to create an independent Poland, which receives only a minor part of its lands, since the rest of Poland remains part of Russia. Moreover, this Poland gets Galicia, i.e. Western Ukraine — actually the main trophy that Russia claimed in Europe. There is no adequate redistribution of land in favor of Serbia as the future Yugoslavia, and moreover, Austria, which is becoming neutral, simply locks up a possible route of attack to the south of Germany by Italy or Serbia. To be honest, I do not remember whether Romania receives the lands due to it in Transylvania and Bucovina, but just in case I will raise this question as well. In general, the map of the Eastern Front in the event of the defeat of Austria-Hungary looks very strange. By and large, Czechoslovakia and Hungary should stand out from it, all the South Slavic lands should go to Serbia, while Galicia and Lesser Poland should go to Russia (perhaps with a decision saying yes or no to creation of a unified Polish state, which had been actually promised by Grand Prince Nicholas in 1914). If the player says yes, than an independent pro-Entente Poland should appear, covering the initial Kingdom of Poland area plus Lesser Poland from Austria and — if any are controlled — parts of German-controlled Greater Poland within its borders. I would also like to know if such scenario is implemented when Russia gets Greater Armenia, as well as the Bosphorus and Dardanelles Straits, after the victory over the Ottomans — I have not seen such a development of events in my campaigns, but I believe that it should also take place. In general, at the moment, Russia's victory on the Eastern Front looks depressingly unrealistic. Hopefully with the upcoming patches this will be fixed and the game will look even better!

Thank you for your attention and great work!

Well bump I guess because I don't really see any devs' response unfortunately

So, how it looks in my games when Austria-Hungary capitulates

Serbia gets nothing (no Yugoslavia for today) and becomes completely blocked to continue any offense against Germany (as well as Italy, but Italy at least gets some land)

Russia gets nothing as well, gets its troops deported from Galicia and has to face neutral Poland, Czechia, Hungary etc. What should it do to continue effectively against the Germans?

If you think such setup is realistic, historically plausible and — most importantly — suitable for gameplay, then just respond in such way please

I have been thinking about this, the idea behind the territorial changes in central Europe being to match the territorial changes that happened late in 1918, and to keep things simple too, i.e. having different country formations based on whether or not Russia remains in the war is rather complicated, and could also penalise the Entente more than it helps.

For instance, were Russia to receive the former Austro-Hungarian territory around Krakow, and then for Russia to withdraw from the war, then Germany would automatically receive these lands, strengthening their position vis a vis the current situation whereby in such an eventuality they would have to fight for this territory.

Additonally, automatically giving this territory to Russia deprives the Polish population of this area of having any agency in their future. It is unlikely, especially given the independence movements that the collapse of various Empires inspired, that they would have simply accepted being subjected to Russian rule without a fight. The current system allows this, because Russia can declare war on an independent Poland and attempt to subdue it, should it wish to.

The Yugoslav State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs is only formed if Serbia has surrendered. In which case, Serbian and Montenegrin territory as well as some parts of Austria-Hungary would be merged into this new state.

Serbia's continued survival in your game complicates things, and is the reason that this has not happened. Perhaps Serbia could receive some former Austro-Hungarian territory, that is technically possible, but the idea here is for the war to wind down in the Balkans, leaving just the fight against Germany and possibly Ottomans (even Bulgarians) as of revelance. So Serbia can still contribute to Entente victory in fighting one of these enemies.

If Russia is still in the war when the Ottomans sign an armistice or surrender, then they will gain territory in the Caucasus. The Dardanelles themselves do not change hands, unless the Ottoman Empire itself surrenders (not via an armistice) in which case whoever they surrender to will own the region, including the Dardanelles.

Thanks for your reply!

Well, that unfortunately means that there's no much fun in changing history and brining either Russia or Serbia to victory, but an honest answer is always good. I understand that it's quite tricky to cover all possible alt-history branching events. But I'd say it's not too difficult for a middle-skill player like me to keep both Russia and Serbia alive and make A-H capitulate by 1916.

I just hope that maybe this issue would be addressed in a more diverse way one day if you have enough time and motivation.

Regarding the historical discussion about Galicia/Lesser Poland: Grand Prince Nicholas, Russia's commander-in-chief, was proposing Poles of Austria and Germany a unified autonomous state after the victory, i.e. Russian part of Poland should get an autonomy (in game terms to get a status of Russia's minor, I guess) and then incorporate the Austrian or German lands into it. Ruthenian (Ukrainian) part of Galicia should be incorporated into Russia proper by such scenario, I guess it could be more than plausible.

But I completely get it that it's probably hard to code the events taking in account that Russia survives etc.

Regarding Serbia I guess it's still quite possible to give them all Yugoslav lands just like Italy gets its own, but that's just me, the simple check of both Austria surrendering and Serbia existing shouldn't be too difficult, from my point of view?

Khancotlette wrote: Mon Oct 23, 2023 8:42 pm Regarding Serbia I guess it's still quite possible to give them all Yugoslav lands just like Italy gets its own, but that's just me, the simple check of both Austria surrendering and Serbia existing shouldn't be too difficult, from my point of view?

Yes, I think that would work. I've made a note of it as something to consider for a future update.