Does Kaiserreich live up to all it's hype? (2024)

El_Rey_1029913 said:

I have wanted to play Kaiserreich, but have never really gotten around to it. Is it good? is it really complicated? how do i start?
thank you : )

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In my opinion, yes. It has much more content and it's more polished. Since I started playing it, vanilla feels like a beta version.

It's not complicated, since it's basically the same gameplay as vanilla but improved. It gives less liberty to players during early game because it wants to add a more story-focused experience to the war gameplay of vanilla. After WW2 starts, you can do pretty much whatever you want.

Kaiserreich creates an interesting world, pushes the vanilla mechanics to their maximum while keeping the same spirit and it solves much of the problems vanilla has.

One of the best countries to start is Russia: you have lots of wars to start, many territories to annex and you can get any of the 10 different ideologies.

Áurum said:

In my opinion, yes. It has much more content and it's more polished. Since I started playing it, vanilla feels like a beta version.

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I feel like this isn't particularly unique to KR alone. That is a trait that any of the big/'good' mods will have, like old world blues and equestria at war.

El_Rey_1029913 said:

I have wanted to play Kaiserreich, but have never really gotten around to it. Is it good? is it really complicated? how do i start?
thank you : )

Click to expand...

Kaiserreich is certainly worth playing, tho I wouldn't recommend playing it for HoI4. Prime example of this is Russia, where Savinkov was introduced to replace Wrangel as the NatPop option and now he's just in charge from the start, with Kerensky removed and replaced with Kolchak who's just a Hindenburg standing. Boring parallels in my opinion. (If you want my true take on this, the peaceful return of the Soviets was always the NSDAP stand-in in Russia) Or how the development is just awfully unfocused, focus trees for countries that don't even exist at start whilst Germany hasn't been touched in years and Hungary just lays ignored. Or how for whatever reason the SACW seems to be all consuming in the whole image of the mod. Or how Germany is at the same time the all moving force in the world and utterly incompetent and unable to project power anywhere. I'd say, get Darkest Hour, get Kaiserreich 1.7 and play what is in my opinion the best version of Kaiserreich that has existed up to this date. Go have some fun with the many different paths for Russia, play Germany and establish your hegemony once and for all, play Japan and go wild in Asia or pick one of the more minor countries.

Personally I think its overrated. I played a few games, the Weltkrieg is far less interesting than vanilla WW2 (and ends usually much quicker and is not very balanced), a lot of the focus trees ain't even fun., somehow they made playing Germany really boring(and most majors are similarly boring because too much focus was given to minors instead of making majors fun). Some things feel too scripted, and you aren't given enough freedom imo.

I think its overrated but don't get me wrong its still a decent mod, and it has a LOT of content if you like the content that is there. Its a nice mod to play but I think it falls short of mods like Millennium Dawn and even Old World Blues.

No spoilers but the real war is WW3, if it happens. It's a pretty good mod, you can control what happens on the world through decisions if you don't like the uncertainty of civil wars. The american civil war is a big part of the mod, it is a slog.

Foreign relations-wise KR is far superior to vanilla, everywhere has things happening and you can probably orchestrate a full on balanced world war. Flavor-wise it's also far superior. Germany is indeed too weak.

AppoX said:

Personally I think its overrated. I played a few games, the Weltkrieg is far less interesting than vanilla WW2 (and ends usually much quicker and is not very balanced), a lot of the focus trees ain't even fun., somehow they made playing Germany really boring(and most majors are similarly boring because too much focus was given to minors instead of making majors fun). Some things feel too scripted, and you aren't given enough freedom imo.

I think its overrated but don't get me wrong its still a decent mod, and it has a LOT of content if you like the content that is there. Its a nice mod to play but I think it falls short of mods like Millennium Dawn and even Old World Blues.

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I've never understood the "KR doesn't give freedom". I've played 1000 hours at KR and I have felt limited in my choices only once, when I needed to leave my faction as Arabia, and I could change a game rule to solve it.

Can you explain which freedom you miss from vanilla in KR? Being able to justify war goals as NatPop or totalist countries since the start? That possibly disrupts all the story and pace of the game. Vanilla shouldn't have that either. The whole "buildup towards WW2" breaks instantly if Germany can invade Poland with no consequences in 1936.

On the other hand, when I play vanilla I miss the freedom of being able to justify war goals against anyone and to release puppets when I play as a democratic country, something KR does feature.

I don't find the fantasy scenario nearly as interesting as our own timeline so I never really got into it.

I also don't get why people load up a WWII game just to play mods that have nothing to do with it

coffeelingfine said:

I also don't get why people load up a WWII game just to play mods that have nothing to do with it

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Because of the mechanics and systems that can be explored in much more interesting ways through mods? I'm generally pretty anti-mod myself, but total conversions/overhauls like these are definitely something I'd find difficult to argue against. They are practically entirely new games, designed experiences we might not otherwise have access to.

henriqueb1 said:

The american civil war is a big part of the mod, it is a slog.

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if it's the AI, maybe, but if that's the case then who cares?

henriqueb1 said:

Germany is indeed too weak.

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Germany is quite OP in the hands of a player. depression gone in '37 and then you can easily have a bigger economy than the UK and UOB combined. Focus them down so you get a peace conference, let your puppets and some spamfantry handle the Ostwall, do a collab or two on Russia and you'll be home before Christmas.

and even in the hands of an AI, Kaiserdevs have all but explicitly stated that Germany/Entente win around 50% of the time, 3I and Moscow the other 50%.

pro.gamer.69 said:

if it's the AI, maybe, but if that's the case then who cares?

Germany is quite OP in the hands of a player. depression gone in '37 and then you can easily have a bigger economy than the UK and UOB combined. Focus them down so you get a peace conference, let your puppets and some spamfantry handle the Ostwall, do a collab or two on Russia and you'll be home before Christmas.

and even in the hands of an AI, Kaiserdevs have all but explicitly stated that Germany/Entente win around 50% of the time, 3I and Moscow the other 50%.

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I have seen Germany win, for sure. For some reason they don't feel like the global hegemon they should be and playing as the communards it is surprisingly easy to crush them. Haven't played as them yet so.

I dont know what you mean about the ACW, you cant rush them VPs.

henriqueb1 said:

I have seen Germany win, for sure. For some reason they don't feel like the global hegemon they should be and playing as the communards it is surprisingly easy to crush them. Haven't played as them yet so.

I dont know what you mean about the ACW, you cant rush them VPs.

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No, you can rush those VPs. After all, people have beat it in 36', and yeah it is a 50-50 Mabey closer to a 60-40 in favor of Germany.

Torque89 said:

No, you can rush those VPs. After all, people have beat it in 36', and yeah it is a 50-50 Mabey closer to a 60-40 in favor of Germany.

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With the new supply system? I've tried it in the 4-faction war a few times and I can't kick them all out fast, and the journey west is though. Maybe with fewer factions or as the republicans but still the lack of supply seems though to overcome.

henriqueb1 said:

With the new supply system? I've tried it in the 4-faction war a few times and I can't kick them all out fast, and the journey west is though. Maybe with fewer factions or as the republicans but still the lack of supply seems though to overcome.

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Not with the 4-faction the 2-faction however.

henriqueb1 said:

With the new supply system? I've tried it in the 4-faction war a few times and I can't kick them all out fast, and the journey west is though. Maybe with fewer factions or as the republicans but still the lack of supply seems though to overcome.

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you can easily do it in the 2-way as either side. 3-way you can do it as any side, but you have to (partially) hold the West if you're the USA. 4-way you can do it as the AUS or CSA, but to do it as the PSA or USA the US either needs to give up the West or hold it, respectfully

It's alright, TBH it suffers from a severe lack of factories for all the majors. This limits a lot of the fun as your military is going to be quite barebones and it makes the naval side nonexistent really. It can also get pretty slow espically if Africa explodes.

All that being said it's still a fun mode to play time from time.