Four Northern democracies are seemingly helpless against nearby predatory dictatorships. Despite their size, Finland, Norway, Denmark, and Sweden have a chance to avoid conquest through clever diplomacy or fierce resistance.
Wholesome Democratino NAFO superpower Finland was just defending itself pragmatically against the Red Orcs, bro. Just don't look into what they did in the Interwar Period to minorities and political dissidents, or their participation in Operation Barbarossa.
Then the soviets are cast in the most depraved manner. Anything is somehow purely sinister and evil, and a false communism. God the amount of times paradox insists on making an anti stalin path for fucking everything is absurd. Everything is either supercommunism wholesome 100 but if you align with stalin you're basically working with red hitler.
Thats the part I always have a problem with, all the non stalin paths end in trying to make an alliance to destroy the Soviet Union, and many times not having similar focuses for germany. Gramsci is somehow either an ally of the USSR or about to invade it, just like that. It makes no fucking sense. Its all based on being anti stalin is my point, not on any disagreements with anything else, just being anti stalin. The only good one is the Anarcho communist Ethiopia tree (which i gotta try sometime, although the game doesn't know what to do everytime I actually win the war with italy so everything gets fucked up). mods have even worse brainworms.
its funny how they also try to discourage the stalin path, giving mostly economic focuses for that one, while giving the revisionist ones a bunch of fun war focuses. Unintentionally saying that the Stalin path is the anti-war path.
I realized that and it was fucking hilarious. The presences of the other focuses prove stalin correct! Everything they do to make stalin seem wrong just made him completely right in the end. Although I would like a mod where it accurately simulates the sabotage and political subterfuge from the other parties, making the purge focuses more useful than 'calm down crazy stalin' focuses.
whoops I accidentally said a point you already did earlier, sorry for the redundancy. There is no ideology for communists, but fascists are whitewashed into basically apolitical nationalists. Fascists are the 'fun invading guys' and monarchies can just return out of the fucking blue and somehow be stable countries with no issue.
another thing, many instances where you align with stalin your country gets puppeted for no reason (like ethiopia and spain), or gets leaders that are 'stalins puppet' (finland) which give them a degree of control over you. Its super fucking dumb. No one can have any agency with stalin, its all stalin stalin stalin. Why can't I have my experimental big tent socialist country in bulgaria? What would stalin even hate about someone who aligned almost entirely with the soviets?
It also portrays the decision for the molotov ribbentrop as a two sided decision, with a rival focus tree allowing you to kill germany early with the assistance of the allies.
like of course if only the soviets had asked the allies for an anti-hitler pact OH WAIT HE DID
the only focus that makes sense ahistorically is giving aid to the CPC in the civil war. (speaking of which the CPC in this game is vastly underpowered, like they were the real world winners of the war yet somehow they're super small and weak with only one tile)
I hate hoi4
Also yeah your analysis of anti stalin or deviationist communism portrayal is better, exactly what I was trying to say. Thanks for putting it into words.
I would love mods, but most mods don't work for my fitgirl repack and the paradox launcher that comes with it. I really wanted to play TNO and thousand year reich in order to rebuild the soviet union and kill nazis. sad.