What If?

Exploring the "what if" possibilities of World War II can be an extremely entertaining passtime. Games/Simulations like "Hearts of Iron" can be fascinating tools for exploring these possibilities. Unfortunately there are a lot of "what if" possibilties that can't easily be modeled in Hearts of Iron and many of them would quickly become boring or silly if implemented in a game.

Basically every action would have a reaction or ripple effects. Thus it is absurd to model a possible action without modeling all the effects it would have.

Thus game designers (Paradox) and "modders" (me) must make certain choices, using our own experience, knowledge and opinion, in order to keep a simulation like HoI 2 fun and interesting.

What if Germany had shifted to a military economy in 1936 or 1938 or perhaps 1939? Germany didn't shift to a war economy until 1942/43 and certainly had more military potential than in history. But to do so would certainly have decreased popular support of Adolf Hitler.

What if the USA had geared up for war or maintained a military budget on par with European powers? Again, this would have widespread impact on the peacetime economy of the United States.

What if Stalin hadn't conducted the purges and disrupted the Soviet military (and military economy)? Dealing with insane leaders and how they maintain power is a difficult guessing game.

The Starfire Historical Mod assumes that a player doesn't have full control of popular opinion and thus is limited much like the historical leaders were and thus the economic model of the Starfire Historical Mod is tuned to recreate the economic conditions of historical World War II. This leaves the players free to explore strategic decisions and military strategy within a historic context.