Overview:
Hail Britannia is a richly detailed text-based game set in an alternate history timeline where the Central Powers emerged victorious in the Great War, leading to significant geopolitical shifts worldwide. Players assume the role of a Canadian soldier who has to navigate through intricate storylines, engage in strategic combat, and interact with a diverse array of characters. The game features dynamic conversations and news events that shape the unfolding narrative, reflecting the political, social, and economic turmoil of this alternate 20th-century world.
Gameplay Mechanics:
Dynamic Dialogue Trees: Players can engage in branching conversations with NPCs, gaining information, and influencing relationships.
Turn-Based Battles: Combat is strategic and turn-based, requiring players to make tactical decisions to defeat enemies.
Class Choice: There are 3 combat classes: Foot Soldier, Combat Medic, and Tank Driver.
World Events: The game's world unfolds through news events that reflect the changing political and social climates.
Backstory:
The timeline of Hail Britannia diverges from our own in 1917 when the Kaiser chose not to resume unrestricted submarine warfare or send the Zimmerman telegram. Without American intervention, the French military struggled to hold back the Germans and eventually collapsed under a German offensive, leading to their capitulation. With France surrendering, the Central Powers offered peace to the Entente, bringing an end to the Great War on November 11, 1919.
Following a brutal war with no tangible gains, both France and the United Kingdom succumbed to communist rebellions. The French Commune and the Union of Britain were established, while the exiled governments fled to North Africa and Canada, respectively. As Britain fell, territories such as Gibraltar, Cyprus, and Malta were seized by other nations. New Zealand joined Australia, the British Raj split into the loyalist Raj and the independent Indian State, and South Africa voted to leave the Empire. The Caribbean colonies of Britain and France were annexed by Canada.
In the unstable and violent decades since the Great War, the Soviet Union was proclaimed by Lenin in 1921 after defeating the White Army. However, former Russian territories like the Baltic Union, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, and Poland fell under German occupation. China fractured into several regions, including the Republic of China, Soviet Mongolia, the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo, and Tibet. Italy's post-war economic collapse fueled political extremism, leading to Benito Mussolini's rise and the establishment of a fascist dictatorship.
In the Americas, Calvin Coolidge's presidency saw the 1925 crash of the New York Stock Exchange and the onset of the Great Depression, which primarily affected the Americas as the global economy now centered around the Berlin Stock Exchange. With war debts unpaid, the US economy declined for 19 years. Economic uncertainty led to the rise of communist and fascist regimes in Central and South America, leaving Canada, Costa Rica, and the US as the last bastions of democracy in the region. However, even the US remains fragile, with the Steel Belt witnessing a significant shift towards communism and fascist southerners aiming to recreate the Confederacy.
