It is December, 1922 and the American Empire has fallen.
Following the disastrous “Eleven Years War”, the British Empire took control over much of the Eastern Continent of North America, though devastated by the steep financial burden. The British were forced to levy significant taxes upon its American colonies, and pursued a hardline against colonial rabble rousers. Harsh collective punishment led to representatives from both the Thirteen Colonies and of British Canada, including Quebec, to meet in Philadelphia and declare independence. A brutal campaign followed, with a majority of the country rising in arms against Britain. Though the British were able to inflict major defeats upon the Americans, and even captured and hung a significant number of the representatives that had declared independence, the British were defeated by 1783.
Washington had been declared Dictator in Roman fashion, and had hoped to retire upon his victory, however the nation was in shambles. Many of the former colonies were threatening to go their separate ways and the Continental Congress, seeing the potential for a British reconquest of the divided states, demanded that Washington stay on as General and extended the enlistment of the American soldiers. However, by this time the soldiers had not been paid in over a year, and upon hearing that they would not be paid by Congress, the soldiers rioted and invaded Philadelphia. Urged on by Washington’s more charismatic supporters, and especially Alexander Hamilton, the Army declared George Washington to be the first Emperor and Autocrat of the Americas.
Washington had not at all desired this declaration, and had hoped to soon restore power to Congress, but a military campaign in Quebec demanded his immediate attention. He left affairs to his new Prime Minister Hamilton, who used titles of nobility to finance the Army and the national debt. Having Washington (theoretically) at the helm of the new nation satisfied many (aside from himself), and by the time he had died, a new American order had been established.
Hamilton’s reforms had started the path for power to mostly be centralized to the throne and its new capital at Washington, and Washington’s descendents would be the ones to continue on the American throne, with George Washington himself being elevated to a near Christ like figure. Though Civil Wars did occur in hopes of returning power to the realms and other such causes, with particularly devastating ones occurring in New England and later the Midwest, as well as the generational disturbance in Quebec, by the 1880’s America had lost its more democratic roots and had been transformed into a complete autocracy.
The American Empire grew substantially due to its conquests in Central and South America, establishing numerous puppet states. Supported by France and opposed by Britain, America was able to conquer Mexico and turned the remainder of Central America, along with Colombia and Venezuela into puppet states. It was not until the Americans fought a major war with the French ally of Spain that France at last abandoned their American alliance in its 99th year, just 30 days shy of the 100th year anniversary. For their part, the Americans had grown frustrated with the lack of strength of the French navy, as well as the concessions demanded by the French over issues in Central America and in Quebec. A reshuffling of alliances saw America firmly in alliance with Germany. The rise of Emperor Alexander II would see America made into a model of Prussia, as well as numerous German marriages for the royal family.
By 1917, tensions in Europe had reached their breaking point, and America eagerly joined its ally Germany in declaring war on the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal. The current Emperor, William I, decided he would command troops from the front itself, and joined his army on their march to Madrid. Though the success of the capture of Ireland and the Siege of Madrid caused enthusiasm at home, casualties began mounting, and rations were tightened. The industrial workers that had not been shipped off to war were near riot. This was made worse by inept rule by the advisors of the Emperor, and by 1920, American troops had been kicked off the European continent, Japanese troops had seized Hawaii, and British troops had arrived in Canada.
With the fall of Halifax, a full scale riot consumed Washington, and under intense pressure, William dissolved the monarchy. A new Provisional Republic, one that would share power with socialist Worker Councils, was declared, taking William, his wife, and daughters into custody for later trial. The Republic attempted to fight the British, and granted emancipation to the slaves in hopes of seeing Black volunteers to join their army, but the Japanese bombing of Los Angeles and the British shelling of Boston caused many to denounce the Provisional government. Newfoundland had been lost since early 1920, and following the sinking of the American fleet, the British were able to take Nova Scotia and French assistance saw the rise of Quebec. The Worker Councils, headed by a group called the Majorities, finally seized power in October 1921, seizing power in Washington, and the Provisionals fled West, first making camp at Albany before abandoning the entire East Coast for Chicago.
It is now December, 1922. After nearly a year of civil war, the Provisional Government has just fought the Majorities for Chicago in a devastating battle for both sides. The Provisionals have relocated to Milwaukee now, while the Majorities have been forced to rebuild their formerly massive army. The Anglo-French forces had been slowed due to local partisans and importance of other fronts, but the arrival of the German Expeditionary Force in Savannah has created a new headache for the Allied Command and for the Provisionals who still hold the Emperor’s daughters, the granddaughters of the German Emperor. Altogether, this has created an interesting power vacuum, with none of the factions strong enough to impose their will on the former Empire. Supporters of the Emperor are gathering, Nationalists are rising, and even liberals and leftists who disagree with the Provisionalists and the Majorities respectively are now seeing new hope for their causes. This war has only just begun...
--------
Playing the Game
The Majorities/<nuke>
Color: Red
Base of Operations: Washington D.C.
Funds: 15
Supplies: 75 (+33)
Support: 65%
Military:
53 Infantry Brigades, 8 Artillery Brigades
Leadership: F
Experience: F
Morale: A
Faction Name: Simply what your faction is to be called. Depending on what you are, it can be a variety of things! You can take on a stately name like “The Republic of California”, or a military unit name like the 51st Division, or a description like “The Minorities”
Color: As best as I can, I will give you a color you request on a first come, first serve basis.
Base of Operations: Your headquarters, so to speak. This can be a major city, or a town, or even a hideout. Just give me a name and state!
Supplies: Supplies are, to be simplistic, what your army needs to start and keep on fighting. Guns, ammo, food, bandages, everything your troops need! You will gain Supplies in proportion of how much support you have and how much territory you control. You will be guaranteed a small number of supplies each turn, based upon what season we are in. If they are not enough, you can conquer territory of other countries or you can take more supplies in the regions you control, though of course this will cost you some of your support. How much units cost in terms of supplies to recruit and to upkeep are detailed below in the army section. Some ideologies are more likely to receive supplies, and more of said supplies, and even within those ideologies there may be inner-ideology disputes.
Support: Namely, “How much do the people like you”. This is influenced by the political decisions that you make, the ideology that you chose, and a bit on your battlefield success even. The higher support you have, the more willing people are to give you supplies (which leads to more men fighting for you!), both as a per turn basis and as a bonus. If you are a good ruler, you can see long term benefits over an area, while if you’re a harsh ruler you will see short term benefits at the cost of long term prosperity. Support can potentially see towns and regions defecting from your region. Just remember, you're not just competing with other ideologies, but also with factions that share with your ideology. People are trying to see who is best to give their loyalty to, and even though a faction may share your convictions, they may end up taking half of your territory with words instead of bullets. You should be sure to brand your version of your ideology. I would recommend looking at the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks as examples of ideological splits and how you might be able to brand your factions.
Military: Probably the most important focus of this game is your military, taking control of lands from other factions to make yours the dominant one.
Infantry: 3 Supplies to Recruit, 1 Supply to maintain
Cavalry: 4 Supplies to Recruit, 2 Supply to maintain
Artillery: 5 Supplies to Recruit, 3 Supplies to maintain
Armor: 15 Supplies to Recruit, 5 Supplies to maintain
Aircraft: 10 Supplies to Recruit, 5 Supplies to maintain
Leadership: Graded from F- to A+, this is the skill of your junior officers and their grasp of tactics, leading men, and running their units. This will determine things such as how well your officers can create battle plans, and carry out advanced tactical measures. You may have a great flanking idea in your head, but if your guys on the ground have poor leadership, it’s going to be a head on assault. This stat is going to be affected by events, especially battle, as you either lose your best officers or they learn from their mistakes. This stat can also affect morale; good leadership can ensure the men remain in high spirits and not deserting, while poor leadership can lead to the exact opposite.
Experience: How trained and battle hardened your men are is reflected in this stat. Standard training can help Experience to an extent, but much of it is just going to be about becoming battle tested. A soldier with experience will be much less likely to make stupid mistakes, and can even execute orders on the retreat, such as covering fire. Inexperienced soldiers, even with high morale, will be much less disciplined and will attack and retreat haphazardly. Recruitment can hinder your troops experience though as a whole, as reflected by the idea of new reinforcements going to units decimated by battle. Experienced units will see morale lost at a slower pace, and can even fight effectively at low morale.
Morale: This is the measure of how “Spirited” your soldiers are, how excited they are to fight. Some factions do have an advantage in morale and keeping their troops excited for battle. Morale can have an effect on every stat in the game, and I would heavily recommend making decisions that facilitate a higher morale. Keep in mind, betrayal and desertion is VERY common, and a low morale may help facilitate said actions.
Other Aspects
Turn lengths are three months long to start with, divided into seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Intelligent leaders will try to plan their actions around these seasons.
Keep in mind that towns will have bands of militias and you will likely see resistance in the style of the Green Armies, especially when you first enter a town or region.
Victory is very player-defined. For a Foreign Interventionist Faction, Victory may be the eventual dominance of a faction that you have allied with and is pliable to your nation's interests, or perhaps an escape for your force from the American continent and back to your homeland. For a Nationalist faction, it may be the independence and recognition of your faction by the other powers. For a Reactionary faction, it may be the destruction of some Radical power and the Liberals eventually accepting the suzerainty of the Emperor. Or something else. Victory is really up to you, and its for you to decide what your objectives and goals are. This leads it being possible for multiple broader organisations to "win" the NES - this is working as directed.
In fact, the "victor" of the game will probably not be a single faction - it will probably be a broader coalition of powers on ideological or some other kind of lines, who end up dominant over most of the old American Empire, as well as any foreign Interventionists helping them and perhaps any nationalists who've managed to stay independent. This is also working as directed - its not like the Russian communists were a huge monolithic entity until later into the war when they had basically won already. Mind you, if the "victor" does end up being a single monolithic entity, that is completely fine.
Balance is key for land warfare - you can't just build up huge armies of infantry and expect to win, because you won't if you don't have artillery and mobile units. Air power is more of a bonus than a 100% necessary component of your military, but it still helps a fair bit.
Betrayal was pretty standard in the Russian Civil War, and without a wider voting body or lobbies in your factions (because you're in the middle of a Civil War, there's no time for elections! unless you really want to or are small enough/at peace) there aren't necessarily negative ingame consequences to betraying your supposed allies. There really isn't such a thing as an 'OOC betrayal' in this NESIOT - the Bolsheviks betrayal of the Anarchists OTL may have been 'Out of character', but it happened anyway.
At some point, when I feel the game has reached a conclusion (i.e. one faction becoming massively dominant and the other factions are either subsumed into the major faction or have signed a lasting peace), I will call an end to the Civil War and thus the NESIOT. I will probably then write up an Epilogue, detailing what happens to the characters and factions of the Civil War itself. Hopefully it will be suitably epic/tragic.
Following the disastrous “Eleven Years War”, the British Empire took control over much of the Eastern Continent of North America, though devastated by the steep financial burden. The British were forced to levy significant taxes upon its American colonies, and pursued a hardline against colonial rabble rousers. Harsh collective punishment led to representatives from both the Thirteen Colonies and of British Canada, including Quebec, to meet in Philadelphia and declare independence. A brutal campaign followed, with a majority of the country rising in arms against Britain. Though the British were able to inflict major defeats upon the Americans, and even captured and hung a significant number of the representatives that had declared independence, the British were defeated by 1783.
Washington had been declared Dictator in Roman fashion, and had hoped to retire upon his victory, however the nation was in shambles. Many of the former colonies were threatening to go their separate ways and the Continental Congress, seeing the potential for a British reconquest of the divided states, demanded that Washington stay on as General and extended the enlistment of the American soldiers. However, by this time the soldiers had not been paid in over a year, and upon hearing that they would not be paid by Congress, the soldiers rioted and invaded Philadelphia. Urged on by Washington’s more charismatic supporters, and especially Alexander Hamilton, the Army declared George Washington to be the first Emperor and Autocrat of the Americas.
Washington had not at all desired this declaration, and had hoped to soon restore power to Congress, but a military campaign in Quebec demanded his immediate attention. He left affairs to his new Prime Minister Hamilton, who used titles of nobility to finance the Army and the national debt. Having Washington (theoretically) at the helm of the new nation satisfied many (aside from himself), and by the time he had died, a new American order had been established.
Hamilton’s reforms had started the path for power to mostly be centralized to the throne and its new capital at Washington, and Washington’s descendents would be the ones to continue on the American throne, with George Washington himself being elevated to a near Christ like figure. Though Civil Wars did occur in hopes of returning power to the realms and other such causes, with particularly devastating ones occurring in New England and later the Midwest, as well as the generational disturbance in Quebec, by the 1880’s America had lost its more democratic roots and had been transformed into a complete autocracy.
The American Empire grew substantially due to its conquests in Central and South America, establishing numerous puppet states. Supported by France and opposed by Britain, America was able to conquer Mexico and turned the remainder of Central America, along with Colombia and Venezuela into puppet states. It was not until the Americans fought a major war with the French ally of Spain that France at last abandoned their American alliance in its 99th year, just 30 days shy of the 100th year anniversary. For their part, the Americans had grown frustrated with the lack of strength of the French navy, as well as the concessions demanded by the French over issues in Central America and in Quebec. A reshuffling of alliances saw America firmly in alliance with Germany. The rise of Emperor Alexander II would see America made into a model of Prussia, as well as numerous German marriages for the royal family.
By 1917, tensions in Europe had reached their breaking point, and America eagerly joined its ally Germany in declaring war on the United Kingdom, France, Spain and Portugal. The current Emperor, William I, decided he would command troops from the front itself, and joined his army on their march to Madrid. Though the success of the capture of Ireland and the Siege of Madrid caused enthusiasm at home, casualties began mounting, and rations were tightened. The industrial workers that had not been shipped off to war were near riot. This was made worse by inept rule by the advisors of the Emperor, and by 1920, American troops had been kicked off the European continent, Japanese troops had seized Hawaii, and British troops had arrived in Canada.
With the fall of Halifax, a full scale riot consumed Washington, and under intense pressure, William dissolved the monarchy. A new Provisional Republic, one that would share power with socialist Worker Councils, was declared, taking William, his wife, and daughters into custody for later trial. The Republic attempted to fight the British, and granted emancipation to the slaves in hopes of seeing Black volunteers to join their army, but the Japanese bombing of Los Angeles and the British shelling of Boston caused many to denounce the Provisional government. Newfoundland had been lost since early 1920, and following the sinking of the American fleet, the British were able to take Nova Scotia and French assistance saw the rise of Quebec. The Worker Councils, headed by a group called the Majorities, finally seized power in October 1921, seizing power in Washington, and the Provisionals fled West, first making camp at Albany before abandoning the entire East Coast for Chicago.
It is now December, 1922. After nearly a year of civil war, the Provisional Government has just fought the Majorities for Chicago in a devastating battle for both sides. The Provisionals have relocated to Milwaukee now, while the Majorities have been forced to rebuild their formerly massive army. The Anglo-French forces had been slowed due to local partisans and importance of other fronts, but the arrival of the German Expeditionary Force in Savannah has created a new headache for the Allied Command and for the Provisionals who still hold the Emperor’s daughters, the granddaughters of the German Emperor. Altogether, this has created an interesting power vacuum, with none of the factions strong enough to impose their will on the former Empire. Supporters of the Emperor are gathering, Nationalists are rising, and even liberals and leftists who disagree with the Provisionalists and the Majorities respectively are now seeing new hope for their causes. This war has only just begun...
--------
Playing the Game
The Majorities/<nuke>
Color: Red
Base of Operations: Washington D.C.
Funds: 15
Supplies: 75 (+33)
Support: 65%
Military:
53 Infantry Brigades, 8 Artillery Brigades
Leadership: F
Experience: F
Morale: A
Faction Name: Simply what your faction is to be called. Depending on what you are, it can be a variety of things! You can take on a stately name like “The Republic of California”, or a military unit name like the 51st Division, or a description like “The Minorities”
Color: As best as I can, I will give you a color you request on a first come, first serve basis.
Base of Operations: Your headquarters, so to speak. This can be a major city, or a town, or even a hideout. Just give me a name and state!
Supplies: Supplies are, to be simplistic, what your army needs to start and keep on fighting. Guns, ammo, food, bandages, everything your troops need! You will gain Supplies in proportion of how much support you have and how much territory you control. You will be guaranteed a small number of supplies each turn, based upon what season we are in. If they are not enough, you can conquer territory of other countries or you can take more supplies in the regions you control, though of course this will cost you some of your support. How much units cost in terms of supplies to recruit and to upkeep are detailed below in the army section. Some ideologies are more likely to receive supplies, and more of said supplies, and even within those ideologies there may be inner-ideology disputes.
Support: Namely, “How much do the people like you”. This is influenced by the political decisions that you make, the ideology that you chose, and a bit on your battlefield success even. The higher support you have, the more willing people are to give you supplies (which leads to more men fighting for you!), both as a per turn basis and as a bonus. If you are a good ruler, you can see long term benefits over an area, while if you’re a harsh ruler you will see short term benefits at the cost of long term prosperity. Support can potentially see towns and regions defecting from your region. Just remember, you're not just competing with other ideologies, but also with factions that share with your ideology. People are trying to see who is best to give their loyalty to, and even though a faction may share your convictions, they may end up taking half of your territory with words instead of bullets. You should be sure to brand your version of your ideology. I would recommend looking at the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks as examples of ideological splits and how you might be able to brand your factions.
Military: Probably the most important focus of this game is your military, taking control of lands from other factions to make yours the dominant one.
Infantry: 3 Supplies to Recruit, 1 Supply to maintain
Cavalry: 4 Supplies to Recruit, 2 Supply to maintain
Artillery: 5 Supplies to Recruit, 3 Supplies to maintain
Armor: 15 Supplies to Recruit, 5 Supplies to maintain
Aircraft: 10 Supplies to Recruit, 5 Supplies to maintain
Leadership: Graded from F- to A+, this is the skill of your junior officers and their grasp of tactics, leading men, and running their units. This will determine things such as how well your officers can create battle plans, and carry out advanced tactical measures. You may have a great flanking idea in your head, but if your guys on the ground have poor leadership, it’s going to be a head on assault. This stat is going to be affected by events, especially battle, as you either lose your best officers or they learn from their mistakes. This stat can also affect morale; good leadership can ensure the men remain in high spirits and not deserting, while poor leadership can lead to the exact opposite.
Experience: How trained and battle hardened your men are is reflected in this stat. Standard training can help Experience to an extent, but much of it is just going to be about becoming battle tested. A soldier with experience will be much less likely to make stupid mistakes, and can even execute orders on the retreat, such as covering fire. Inexperienced soldiers, even with high morale, will be much less disciplined and will attack and retreat haphazardly. Recruitment can hinder your troops experience though as a whole, as reflected by the idea of new reinforcements going to units decimated by battle. Experienced units will see morale lost at a slower pace, and can even fight effectively at low morale.
Morale: This is the measure of how “Spirited” your soldiers are, how excited they are to fight. Some factions do have an advantage in morale and keeping their troops excited for battle. Morale can have an effect on every stat in the game, and I would heavily recommend making decisions that facilitate a higher morale. Keep in mind, betrayal and desertion is VERY common, and a low morale may help facilitate said actions.
Other Aspects
Turn lengths are three months long to start with, divided into seasons: Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. Intelligent leaders will try to plan their actions around these seasons.
Keep in mind that towns will have bands of militias and you will likely see resistance in the style of the Green Armies, especially when you first enter a town or region.
Victory is very player-defined. For a Foreign Interventionist Faction, Victory may be the eventual dominance of a faction that you have allied with and is pliable to your nation's interests, or perhaps an escape for your force from the American continent and back to your homeland. For a Nationalist faction, it may be the independence and recognition of your faction by the other powers. For a Reactionary faction, it may be the destruction of some Radical power and the Liberals eventually accepting the suzerainty of the Emperor. Or something else. Victory is really up to you, and its for you to decide what your objectives and goals are. This leads it being possible for multiple broader organisations to "win" the NES - this is working as directed.
In fact, the "victor" of the game will probably not be a single faction - it will probably be a broader coalition of powers on ideological or some other kind of lines, who end up dominant over most of the old American Empire, as well as any foreign Interventionists helping them and perhaps any nationalists who've managed to stay independent. This is also working as directed - its not like the Russian communists were a huge monolithic entity until later into the war when they had basically won already. Mind you, if the "victor" does end up being a single monolithic entity, that is completely fine.
Balance is key for land warfare - you can't just build up huge armies of infantry and expect to win, because you won't if you don't have artillery and mobile units. Air power is more of a bonus than a 100% necessary component of your military, but it still helps a fair bit.
Betrayal was pretty standard in the Russian Civil War, and without a wider voting body or lobbies in your factions (because you're in the middle of a Civil War, there's no time for elections! unless you really want to or are small enough/at peace) there aren't necessarily negative ingame consequences to betraying your supposed allies. There really isn't such a thing as an 'OOC betrayal' in this NESIOT - the Bolsheviks betrayal of the Anarchists OTL may have been 'Out of character', but it happened anyway.
At some point, when I feel the game has reached a conclusion (i.e. one faction becoming massively dominant and the other factions are either subsumed into the major faction or have signed a lasting peace), I will call an end to the Civil War and thus the NESIOT. I will probably then write up an Epilogue, detailing what happens to the characters and factions of the Civil War itself. Hopefully it will be suitably epic/tragic.