Kalterkrieg: Shadow of the Weltkrieg is a Hearts of Iron IV Game Mod and a sequel to Kaiserreich: Legacy of the Weltkrieg set during the ensuing cold war.
The guns have finally fallen silent following the end of the Second Weltkrieg in 1948, and the revolutionary tides of syndicalism have been stemmed both in Europe and North America by the victorious Entente and Reichspakt. However, the two powers that once fought together to stop syndicalism have not forgotten their old enmity for each other from the first Weltkrieg, and have divided themselves along ideological lines and back their words with nuclear weapons, leading to a new kind of war, a Cold War.
The Entente, led by the United Kingdom, the Dominion of Canada and South France have taken moves to protect the spirit of democracy and shine its beacon across the world, while the German Empire and its puppets in the Reichspakt continue spread their imperial influence wherever it can and establish autocratic states. In the former United States, the American Union State begins to falter despite its victory over both Douglas MacArthur's junta and the Syndicates as the new nations that now surround it begin to exert their influence, and it becomes clearer by the day that America shall once again become a battleground.
Whatever the coming years will bring, it's clear that it shall be shaped by the ensuing conflict between maintaining the so-called "German Century" and the global spread of democratic ideals.
Compare another popular to Kaiserreich: Krasnacht: Twilight of the Gods, which depicts a Cold War between the Internationale (now called INFOR) and the Moscow Accord (now named SARPAC).
This Game Mod provides examples of:
- Allohistorical Allusion: The Second Weltkrieg ended much the same as World War II did in real life:
- The war was put to a decisive end when the second most powerful country of the losing side (the Union of Britain versus the Empire of Japan) unconditionally surrendered after a nuclear bomb was dropped on one of their cities (Portsmouth versus Nagasaki).
- The country leading the losing side (the Commune of France versus the German Reich) was divided in two after their defeat, each half controlled by one of the factions making up the winning side (Reichspakt-controlled North France and Entente-controlled South France versus Western Allies-controlled West Germany and Soviet-controlled East Germany), and members of their ethnic group were expelled from some of their lost territories (Alsace-Lorraine versus anywhere east of the Oder-Neisse line).
- After the war ends, relations between the factions making up the winning side worsen, leading to a Cold War. The losing side's ideology (syndicalism versus fascism) becomes largely discredited, persisting in only a few countries.
- Alternate History: Beyond being an unofficial sequel to Kaiserreich where Germany won the first world war, Kalterkrieg is an alternate history to the OTL Cold War between NATO and the Warsaw Pact.
- Balkanize Me:
- France is divided between the Accord-aligned French Republic in the South and the German occupation (which becomes a Reichspakt-aligned monarchy a year after game start) in the North.
- The United Baltic Duchy was dissolved into three states: Estonia, Latvia and Kurland.
- China is divided between the Fengtian Government and the Federalists and their aligned warlords.
- Divided States of America: The American Union State is the winner of the Second American Civil War, but controls a smaller territory than the old United States once did, as it and the Pacific States of America signed a truce to defeat the Combined Syndicates, allowing each other's existence to continue for the time being. New England and the Great Lakes also exist under Canadian rule as puppet governments, and Canada has annexed Alaska.
- The Empire: The German Empire has remained the largest superpower on the planest since the end of the first Weltkrieg, and that hasn't changed much since. Their autocratic and conservative nature has put them at odds with the more liberal Entente, who are their greatest geopolitical rivals.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: Upon the start of the Third American Civil War, the Pacific States, New England and the Great Lakes will leave the Accord to form the separate American Reclamation Alliance. This is done to avoid the Accord immediately joining the war against the American Union State.
- Nuclear Option: The Second Weltkrieg ended after the German Empire dropped a nuclear bomb on Portsmouth, forcing the Union of Britain to capitulate.
- Proxy War: The Third American Civil War is a proxy conflict between the Accord-aligned American Reclamation Alliance and the Reichspakt-aligned American Union State. Canada can directly intervene if the ARA is heavily losing.
- Second American Civil War: The Second American Civil War ended shortly before game start with the relative victory of the American Union State over MacArthur's Federalists and the Combined Syndicates of America, while New England, the Great Lakes and the Pacific States remain out of their control. This situation might lead to a Third American Civil War but it is neither inevitable nor likely in the 1950s.
- Space Cold War: The main focus of the mod is a Cold War between the Accord (formerly Entente) and the Reichspakt after a hard-fought victory over the Third Internationale in the Second Weltkrieg, though unlike the real Cold War, the ideological difference between the two sides is fairly small, and the scenario more resembles the pre-WWI inter-imperialist conflicts with more advanced technology.
- Suffrage and Political Liberation: One of the issues the American successor states will have to face is the rise of the Civil Rights Movement.
- Title Drop: Sir Mackenzie King, Prime Minister of Canada, does this in what is subsequently called the 'Kalterkrieg Speech'.Sir Mackenzie King: We are entering a new age in modern warfare, and shall we win against the Kaiserreich in this Kalterkrieg!
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What Could Have Been: Italy was originally divided between four states: the Accord-aligned Kingdom of Sardinia, the Republic of Italy, the Papal States, and the Kingdom of Two Sicilies. This was changed in favor of a single Accord-aligned Kingdom of Italy under Umberto II of Savoy.
