I wished I had time to write something more, but I just had to… comment on the new Pilipinas focus tree and thought y’all might wanna read about it.

As a HOI4 LARPer, I don’t really care about the game balance but, when I looked at the focus tree, I saw that there are essentially four options: Historial ‘Democratic’ Pro-US Path (You can go Pro-Japan to be independent faster but you have to apparently balance it with the US, still the dem path), Fascist (Makapili) Path, which IMO is kinda weak and has to be this sort of weird alignment to hispanic culture (especially since they didn’t put the Filipino Falange, yes, these guys exist.), the ‘monarchist’ path by getting a certain… Emilio Aguinaldo, who is a known controversial figure infamous for ordering the execution of the Bonifacio brothers (some figures of the radical Philippine independence movement represented by the Magdiwang faction). He leads this weird Spanish-nostalgic path in the game, where you can get a monarch in charge of the Philippines again. Because of his… ‘symathies’: (From Wikipedia, in the Independence Section)

In 1958, when asked by the Filipino journalist Guillermo Gómez Rivera if he regretted anything in his life, Emilio Aguinaldo stated:[95]

“Yes. I am regretful in large part for having risen up against Spain and, that is why, when the funerals were held in Manila of King Alfonso of Spain, I appeared at the cathedral for the surprise of the Spaniards. And they asked me why I had come to the funeral of the King of Spain against whom I rose up in rebellion… And, I told them that he is still my King because under Spain we were always Spanish subjects, or citizens, but now, under the United States, we are only a consumer market for their exports, if not pariahs, because they never made us citizens of any state of the United States… And the Spaniards made way for me and treated me as their brother on that significant day…”

— President Emilio Aguinaldo, Interview to Aguinaldo and his wife., December 16th, 1958. Cavite, Philippines.

Then, lastly the based communist path either by Crisanto Evangelista of the PKP, or Pedro Abad Santos and Luis Taruc of the Hukbalahap. Which I have nothing else to say other than this is supposedly a naval warfare dominant path because they (the paradox devs) thought that:

When the Philippines has managed to slip from the capitalist grasp, options open up- though this is one spot where fun and gameplay trumps history (a little). The communist movement in the Philippines was mostly a peasant one (similar to Communist China) rather than one of the workers, and while they did tend to have support from the fishermen, they were not the primary driver. In this version of Philippine Communism however, it is the fishermen who take the lead because I thought it a really interesting option to play as a naval communist nation, the nearest to which currently being Communist Norway.

Which… ugh, It’s… fine, I guess. It’s a sandbox historical simulation, I don’t know much about pre-Independence communist movement in the Philippines to challenge this (which I’m trying to change btw) but yeah, it’s the usual paradox historical bending to fit the gamified simulation.

Besides that, I’m not too sure of my opinions on the DLC (though… ahem ahem, it’s too expensive to buy and so 🏴‍☠️ that). It has new game balance I think? And that Communist China path that I would like to play too so… I’ll just see what happens because it releases somewhere this month (don’t remember, haha).

What do y’all think?