Video Game / Red Flood

What if no one actually won World War One?

Red Flood is a mod for Hearts of Iron IV set in an alternate timeline where nobody won World War I.

The Point of Divergence is that Russia achieves a more favorable outcome in the Russo-Japanese War, which butterflys into a longer and deadlier World War I that ends in a stalemate.

In the aftermath of the stalemated World War, political chaos and extremism spreads like wildfire across the world. A successful Spartacist Revolution turns Germany into a Communist state, France is overtaken by the radical ideology of Futurism led by avant-garde art movements, and Russia became a right-wing dictatorship under Alexander Kolchak.

The mod begins in 1936 in a world overtaken by madness and chaos, and focuses on the build-up to what may be an even deadlier Second World War, in what may truly be the Darkest Timeline.

The mod's community can be found on Reddit and on Discord.

Compare with Führerreich: Legacy of the Great War, another Hearts of Iron IV mod that also originated from a Double-Blind What-If Alternate History book in Kaiserreich.

---

This Game Mod provides examples of:

• Adaptational Heroism: Zig-Zagged. The original Red Flood event in Kaiserreich depicted Alexander Kolchak as an ultranationalist (which is not quite accurate to the real-life Kolchak, who was essentially an apolitical and authoritarian military man). In the mod proper however Kolchak is classified as Polyarchy, which is usually the classification given to moderate or ideologically neutral dictatorships.
• Allohistorical Allusion:
  • Like China, Russia turned to warlordism with many various military cliques arising during the Russian Civil War.
  • Two Germanies, one in the west, one in the east. Only this time, it's West Germany that's communist. Although the Eastern German state only consists of East Prussia while the territory of the real life GDR is in the Communist West.
  • America has a Hippo War, like the Australian Emu War.
  • Westralia (Western Australia split from Australia) is based on an actual OTL secessionist movement which even resulted in a secession referendum in 1933 (it led nowhere). Westralia's flag in Red Flood is identical to the one proposed in the context of OTL's secession movement. It also has an emu problem.
  • The Futurist regime in France was established after the FNAG stormed the Élysée Palace (The official residence of the President of France) in 1934. OTL In 1934 an attempt was made by several far-right leagues to storm the Bourbon Palace (The seat of the French Legislature). In Red Flood, however the Futurist Coup was far better organized and succeeded in toppling the Republic.
  • HMS Hood's crew mutinies after Sykes's government cuts down on military spending. However, whereas the Invergordon Mutiny in our timeline spread throughout other ships, it seems in Red Flood's timeline, the sailors are much more willing to listen to reason in this timeline.
  • The Japanese Communist revolution starts on-board IJN Mikasa. In OTL, the similarly-aged Aurora mutinied against the Russian Empire, which was one of the incidents leading up to the start of the 1917 Russian Revolution.
  • When the Japanese Civil War breaks out, the Indochinese Revolution becomes a two-front war for the occupying Japanese forces against the Indochinese, who declare separate governments in the North and South. Once they've been kicked out, both the governments declare civil war against one another just like they once did in our timeline, though a decade early.
• Alternate History: There are six primary differences between Red Flood and OTL:
  1. The Russo-Japanese War wasn't as much of a Curb-Stomp Battle of the Russians as IRL, and thus Zheltorossiya exists and Japan's ambitions in East Asia are overall less successful than in OTL.
  2. Due to Stolypin's survival and his much more drastic reforms, Russian Empire was able to outlive Germany and win World War One, but the physically weak Alexei II's death and Stolypin's assasination plunged the country into a civil war between Republicans and Monarchists, while Poland, Caucasus and Turkestan rebelled. In the end, the former were exiled to Georgia and Russian Manchuria, while the latter invited Kolchak to stabilize a badly weakened country that lost their authority over most of its subjects, and subject to a warlord era similar to China's in our world.
  3. The First World War was three times as brutal and lasted several more years than OTL, in part because France made a separate peace deal with Germany relatively early on in the conflict, and because the United States remained neutral.
  4. In the aftermath of the Great War, the Spartacist Revolt in Germany succeeded and kickstarted many socialist revolutions in Central and Northern Europe. Meanwhile France collapsed into anarchy and went through periods of unstable anti-socialist Fourth Republic and a monarchy restoration attempt before succumbing to a rising Futurist movement.
  5. Various colonial powers were crippled by the War, resulting in many of their overseas holdings collapsing into countless statelets.
  6. The catalyst for World War One wasn't the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, but the Balkan Wars.
• The Alliance: The mod starts with the existing alliances of the Rotfront(made up of the socialist countries of Germany, Hungary, and Denmark), the Commonwealth of Nations (consisting of the United Kingdom and all of her colonies, most prominently Canada and Australia), and the League Solar (an alliance of Accelerationist nations made up of Avant-Garde France and Fiume). On a regional level, the Intermarium is a Polish-led alliance of Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltics set up as a bulwark against Russian aggression.
• Art Deco: Red Flood's custom GUI is in the art deco style. Many focus tree icons are also taken from art deco posters.
• Artifact Title: The original Red Flood text from Kaiserreich that the mod is loosely based on only mentioned that Germany became communist and Kolchak took over Russia. Both of these elements are still in the game, but the rest of the world is original to the mod, and the more unique elements like the Accelerationists have taken over the spotlight from Communist Germany and Kolchak's Russia as the main star of the show.
• Balkanize Me:
  • Russia, the British Raj, Romania and China, and to lesser extent Germany and the Congo all get broken up.
  • Belgium no longer exists. Its successor state is an independent Wallonia (which can be annexed by France); Flanders is part of the Netherlands.
  • Australia has been split in two countries (both are still British puppets).
  • The United States can potentially collapse if President James Cox is assassinated and he is succeeded by Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. President Flynn's attempts to implement her Popular Socialist vision alienates her from large chunks of American Society, who ultimately secede en masse and plunge the country into warlordism.
• Big Bad:
  • For Marxists and capitalists, Avant-Garde France is the ultimate villain for the whole mod since their entire foreign policy is ultimately based around the bloody conquest of Europe and that they're dedicated to spreading their revolutionary ideology of Futurism around the world.
  • For capitalists, the German Socialist Räterepublik is the homeland of all things communist and the ultimate threat to their way of life.
  • For nations formerly subjugated by the Russian Empire, it is Kolchak's or Drozdovsky's Russian Empire, as there is no route for Russia other than continuous authoritarianism and oppression of non-Russians.
• Blue-and-Orange Morality: Futurists often downright pride themselves on reinventing morality and accelerating it into unrecognizable forms.
• Civil War: Along the ongoing conflict between Indian warlords, Spain, Brazil, Japan, and even the United States are also likely to have civil wars.
• Commie Nazis: The National Vanguardists are prone to being this. The German ones are being led by Ernst Reventlow. Japan can have this too under Shūmei Ōkawa, who as per Real Life, is anti capitalist, but Pan-Asian as well, with it being up for grabs whether his Asian anti-imperialism is valid or a thinly-veiled excuse for Japanese expansionism.
• Cult: Cult of Kali and the Theosophic cult in India.
• Dark Horse Victory: Chinese warlord Yan Xishan, IRL known for his provincial isolationism, managed to beat out all of his warlord rivals and take over the Beijing Government.
  • Harbin unifying Russia. playable if Zheltorossiya collapses.
• A Day in the Limelight: Similar to Kaiserreich, the dominant ideologies of the mod, like Futurism or Council Communism, are ones that were mere footnotes in our timeline.
• Different World, Different Movies: France produces post-apocalyptic movies and "Baguette Westerns" to rival the "Socialist Sauerkraut Westerns" of Germany. An adaptation of some fusion of The Shape of Things to Come and Brave New World was bankrolled by US technocrats and became a megaproduction.
• Enemy Mine: Marcus Garvey's attempt to move oppressed African-Americans to Liberia is more successful than in our timeline thanks to cooperation with the KKK and similar groups willing to help in raise money just to get rid of blacks. Can go into Go-Karting with Bowser territory when the Liberians outright emulate the Klan when dealing with native tribes.
• Emperor Scientist: Several examples such as Howard Scott in the United States and Albert Einstein in Israel.
• Establishing Character Moment: The first event of Avant-Garde France describe Artaud's celebration of 1936's new year's eve in Marseille: a very alcohol-fuelled masquerade ball accompanied by the destruction of several priceless Renaissance-era works of art (notably, Artaud ejaculating on Jan van Eyck's Annunciation, then shooting it with a rifle loaded with incendiary rounds as a symbolic act for the destruction of the old order). It lasts for a week and ends causing heavy damage to the city. The only option to close the event is "Le Patron seemed to have fun", and it has a positive consequence in gameplay (+3% stability).^note The event may also arguably count as an Establishing Character Moment for the whole world, showing how screwed everyone became: it mentions a few foreign journalists gave a positive coverage of the events, while the rest of the world remained indifferent.
• Evil Colonialist: Quite a few such as the Firestone Company trying to turn Liberia into a corporate fiefdom, General Gulidov who can establish what basically amounts to a Russian Rhodesia in the Kazakh Steppes, and Winston Churchill who is hellbent on reasserting British Rule over the Indian Subcontinent, even at the expense of Indians themselves .
• Excrement Statement: The first event of France has Antonin Artaud ejaculate over The Annunciation of Rogier van der Weyden during the New Year's Celebration in Marseilles before shooting the painting with a rifle. Avant-Garde France has nothing but contempt for classical art.
• Gratuitous French: There are French words and sentences everywhere in Avant-Garde France, notably in the national focus tree: the first focus is named "l'Etat Artistique" ("the artistic state"). Artaud's official title is "le Patron" ("the Boss"). Paris has been renamed "Le Soleil" ("The Sun"). There's also the "Escadron d'Le Futur" troops ("Squadron of the Future").^note This one is incorrect (it should be "Escadron du Futur"), though it may be intentional, given Avant-Garde France is basically "what if a state based on Avant-Garde was a major power?"
• Hordes from the East: In Mongolia, the remnants of the Anhui Clique can use Mongolia as a launchpad for a bid to restore the Yuan Dynasty to power in China while Sternberg's "Imperial Authority" has some weird pan-monarchist ideals.
• In Spite of a Nail:
  • Germany and Japan can potentially become allies, albeit as communist countries.
  • According to an event, not only was The Hobbit still written in this timeline, but it was also published on the same day.
• Irony: In Kaiserreich (Red Flood's parent mod), Kerensky is the leader of Russia proper and Kolchak is ruling a competing government in the Russian Far East. In Red Flood, however, their roles are reversed.
• Japan Takes Over the World: Downplayed, but it's possible for Japanese-influenced factions to emerge in both Brazil and Italy.
• The Klan: The Klan is in a state of civil war, as one half wishes to side with Marcus Garvey and his black separatists in an attempt to relocate all African-Americans to Liberia.
• Let No Crisis Go to Waste: France has a focus which allows to take advantage from the Spanish Civil War to annex and occupy Catalonia while Spain is busy elsewhere.
• Machine Worship: Many futurists outright worship machinery.
• Mad Artist: Antonin Artaud, le Patron, is the leader of Avant-Garde France. After a successful artistic career and witnessing the destruction of France the War, he becomes the leader of the Front National de L'Avant-garde.
• Monumental Damage: A large part of Paris' monuments were destroyed or heavily damaged; first due to fighting between radical paramilitaries and then intentionally by the Futurist regime.
• A Nazi by Any Other Name: Zigzagged with Accelerationism generally. The developers have gone out of their way to clarify that thinking of Accelerationism as just the setting's equivalent of Nazism is a trap, and that Accelerationists, whether right or left, are better thought of as representing revolutionary ideologies and attempts to discard old thinking gone wild, pushing ahead to live in the future regardless of the human or moral cost. Additionally, while Accelerationism is a pretty broad ideology and there are definitely some pretty chauvinistic or supremacist strains of it, bigotry and hateful discrimination are much more closely and universally associated with Reactionarism than with Accelerationism. But with all of that said, Accelerationism is still, at the end of the day, a revolutionary, generally nationalist, generally militaristic ideology that wants to forge a new future for the world through war, blood, and conquest... and even if they're trying to hearken to the symbol's spiritual roots, its proponents sure do love plastering swastikas on their flags.
• Point of Divergence: The POD is that during the Battle of Tsushima, the Russian battleship Knyaz Suvorov was hit and turned starboard, as in the OTL. However, seeing this, Tōgō Heihachirō has concluded that the Russian fleet is retreating (Suvorov was the flagship) and ordered a turn to port to cut off their presumable path. This was an error that gave the Russian fleet an opportunity to actually withdraw, making the Battle of Tsushima much less disastrous. The Japanese fleet then blockaded Vladivostok, and Nicholas II ordered a simultaneous deblockade of Vladivostok and an assault near Siping. This meant the Russo-Japanese War was a pyrrhic victory, rather than an embarrassing defeat, for the Russian side, and eventually led to the "no clear winner" board state after WW1.
• Public Domain Soundtrack: Prior to version 0.2, the main menu's theme was a sped-up version of Giuseppe Verdi's "Dies Irae".
• Red Baron: Oswald Mosley serves as one for Britain in the backstory as "Black Lightning". Unlike our timeline's counterpart he dies during the war.
• Red Scare: Just like in our timeline, communism is seen as a threat by all of the capitalist world.
• Richard Nixon, the Used Car Salesman:
  • Hermann Göring is an animal rights activist and eco-terrorist feuding with chicken farmer named Heinrich Himmler, who he accuses of animal cruelty.
  • Antonin Artaud, a French avant-garde artist best known for creating the experimental theater form known as the Theatre of Cruelty, is the leader of Avant-Garde France, and serves as the leader of the FNAG that rules it.
  • Winston Churchill is one of the many warlords in India.
  • Ayn Rand (under her real name of Alisa Rosenbaum) is the liberal leader of Zheltorossiya.
  • Peter Fleming (adventurer, author and brother of Ian Fleming) is the leader of the mercenaries that work for the Amazonian Scientific Territory after the fall of Brazil into warlordism.
  • Puyi, the last Emperor of China, is a famous movie director in Britain.
• Sociopathic Soldier: The Belgian army remnants in the Congo range between this, Just Following Orders and Omnicidal Maniac.
• Title Drop: The quote accompanying the "A Sea of Blood" super event, which heralds the beginning of World War II.
  "Therefore the red flood arose, and sprang down unto our door; therefore it will rise and spread further and further, drowning everything along the way." - Ignas Šeinius
• World Gone Mad: After the end of the first world war, the whole world is suffering a modernity crisis and is beyond recognisable from the old order.
• Undignified Death: Huey Long, a prominent politician in Louisiana and one of the main US characters in Kaiserreich, is killed by a hippo. No, really.

---