- Counter-Intel -> Surveillance: Surveillance is essentially a combination of the old Counter-Intel and Secret Police institutions, the existence of an East Asian secret police force can be retconned into the lore with minimal changes.
- Education -> Experts: Experts has been used by East Asia before, Education Policy would be less appropriate as a replacement. F11 Universities can be justified an as Experts because they can be RPed as primarily research universities that pump out a small number of hyper educated experts rather than spreading those skills around society. More RP will be produced this turn to justify this.
- Yellow institutions will be transitioned to their closest possible equivalent.
No other free institution transitions will be taken advantage of as I can’t justify it RP-wise. Institution changes may be pursued as part of this turn’s orders, however.
Prime Minister Narayana thanks world leaders for their congratulations on his election and his predecessor Mr. Kharge for the peaceful transition of power after a free and fair election. The triumph of Indian democracy is not in our victories but with the grace we handle a popular defeat.
He also thanks the Union of States for their efforts to resolve the famine in Mali and hopes this heralds a new era of global cooperation.
Finally, he condemns the Ethiopian invasion of East Africa and promises a swift and decisive response. Zera Selassie, like his father before him, has condemned his family and his regime in the eyes of history. India will defend freedom across the world: freedom of conscience, freedom of expression, and freedom of property. India mobilizes to intervene.
National Geographic Landscape of Political Systems
National Geographic is a non-profit organization headquartered in the Union of States. Below is an excerpt from National Geographic's Atlas of hte World 9th Edition, titled "Landscape of Political Systems" published in 2010.
The history of Great Britain, in the modern day, begins with the end of the First World War. Britain’s goal, since Napoleon, had been to prevent the consolidation of the continent under a single power. In the early 19th century this was France, in the late 19th century, the enemy was Germany. But victory had come without reward: millions of young men were dead, Europe was dominated by a swathe of totalitarian regimes, and the wider empire began to fall apart. Britain’s conservative leadership was not capable of managing the tumultuous interwar period. It was almost an impossible task, between a militarizing United States, the spread of fascism, and the Soviet colossus, to chart a sane course, but that does not make their failure any less tragic. Labor unrest moved the government increasingly towards anticommunism, ultimately culminating in an unholy alliance between Edward VIII, married to an American socialite, and Osward Mosley, of the fascist Independent Labor Party, that firmly took control of British government in 1938 and brought the country into the Axis camp just in time for the Second World War.
Where the First World War was a pyrrhic victory, the Second World War simply a defeat mitigated only by a massive American intervention that effectively ended Britain as an independent power for half a century. Mosley was the scapegoat while Edward’s American ties kept him in power. Edward would preside over “Atlanticization”, a diplomatic model that would be emulated to some extent in Scandinavia and Iberia: Britain was hollowed out and used as a proxy by the United States in its global contest against the Soviet Union. The country lost an independent foreign policy and its political system was consolidated under the dominant “Royal Party” which grouped together conservative and crypto-fascist interests, allowing a limited range of expression in return for security and immense economic investment from the American Marshall Plan.
With that said, Atlanticization brought stability and prosperity and the 50s were a period of domestic success, albeit funded by immense American subsidies. To a population that had known nothing but turmoil and hardship since 1914 it was widely accepted and embraced. They turned a blind eye to the disappearance of political dissidents and labor activists, to the king’s scandalous personal life, and to the larger empire.
The United States controlled British colonial policy and strategically pursued continued colonization in critical areas: the Caribbean, where American influence was the strongest, key ports across the world such as Cyprus, in White Colonies such as South Africa and Australia which adopted their own apartheid systems, and in India, the jewel of the empire and what American planners identified as a keystone for control of Asia. The last two were tragedies that are still felt today: the Indian Civil War, and the dissolution of a united subcontinent, is elaborated on elsewhere, and the dictatorships in Azania and Australia persist in novel forms. It was largely American blood and treasure that propped up the imperial remnant at this point but that does not make Britain any less culpable.
The Countercultural Movement of the 1960s, partly artistic but soon turning political, was led by a generation that didn’t know the horrors of the early 20th century, only the prosperity but stifled political freedoms of “Atlanticist Britain”. A new wave of repression followed, squandering the good will Edward VIII had built up, and he died in 1972, little loved and little mourned by a population and history that see him as an American puppet. His successor, Elizabeth II, was nearly passed over for a male Windsor but by that point nearly anyone else acceptable in the line of succession had made it clear they would refuse the job as it would entail being a puppet for a clique of aristocrats and military leaders coordinating with the Americans. Only Elizabeth’s sense of duty had her take up the role where she carefully built up credibility within the system and with the population while she waited for her moment.
That moment came in 1980 when labor activist John Lennon was assassinated in broad daylight. Decades later inquiries would conclude that it was truthfully a lone gunman unaffiliated with the government, though the majority of the country then and now believes he was deliberately targeted. Dissidents had been murdered before but Lennon’s assassination came at the right time to light a powder keg of resentment and discontent that was beyond the ability of the secret police to control.
This was Elizabeth’s moment and she embraced it with the aid of other democratic activists like Antony Jay and Michael Palin. Where the political leadership of the 1930s was unable to preserve democracy in the balancing act between fascism and communism she was able to restore it and preside over free and fair elections in 1982, ushering in Britain’s first democratic government in fifty years. Called the “Little Revolution”, this ended up being the first crack in the American Empire as it demonstrated that Washington was no longer willing to foot the expense of Atlanticization to keep its client states tightly regulated. The conservative leadership of the past half century was thoroughly discredited and many fled abroad (investigations and attempts at extradition would follow with mixed success to reclaim all the stolen wealth).
That isn’t to say it was all roses: the collapse of both superpowers in the 90s saw rapid inflation as supply chains collapsed. Britain’s democratic politics were far from calm. They were a roiling mass of short-lived ministries and protests as the country navigated the Autumn of Nations, but they did navigate them successfully. Long overdue federalization saw the remaining colonies in the Caribbean and elsewhere granted autonomy, while the collapse of Canada saw the Maritimes join the newly reinvigorated Commonwealth for security (and a close affiliation with Quebec, which is a member in all but name with close political ties and a free trade agreement).
The new millennium brought with it the culmination of a century of struggle: Britain would never be truly secure as long as the European continent was under the control of a hostile power. The failures of the First and Second World War had doomed the British Empire and the Commonwealth's survival was dependent on a favorable resolution to the European quagmire. Britain pursued an aggressive security policy, blocking foreign aid to communist and ultranationalist groups both and securing a military alliance with a former colony in India, a rump republic of the larger Commonwealth Realm that had survived the Cold War, much like Britain, and emerged as a leading democracy, again much like Britain. British and Indian support for the underdog German Democratic Movement was instrumental in their victory, creating a new friendly democratic power at the heart of Europe.
As of 2010 Prime Minister Diane Abbott is riding high off her success, some of it earned, and moving forward with an ambitious agenda promoting human rights, civil liberties, and women’s freedom across the world*.
*She will actually spend the entirety of 2010 grappling with the scandal that she secretly sent her grandchildren to a private school.
Opinion - Suzuki’s secret shame: the sorry state of East Asia’s education system
Davis Guggenheim
East Asia’s constitution, much like our own, claims to uphold the human right of universal education. However, the revisionist regime of Chairman Suzuki Takayoshi has completely abandoned its commitment to universal education. While the F11 Universities are considered some of the best in the world, this high level quality education is barred to the overwhelming majority of East Asia.
Despite claiming to see education as a universal public good, Takayoshi Suzuki and his allies merely see it as a tool to pursue his revisionist agenda. In my research for my documentary, Waiting for Goku, I uncovered a deeply cynical internal report by the East Asian Education Department. The bureaucrats praised the success of East Asia’s education system, producing a handful of extremely well educated geniuses to work in STEM and neglecting everyone else.
Schools and classes in all grades are divided into two streams - “tertiary” and “accredited”. Tertiary schools and classes are extremely exclusive and require students to succeed in highly competitive exams. Accredited classes are notoriously underfunded and neglected, ensuring a subpar education for all but the least motivated students. Those in tertiary classes are put onto a pathway and are all but guaranteed a place in one of East Asia’s F11 universities and quite likely to have a scholarship. It is virtually unheard of for someone in an accredited class to make it to an F11 universities.
Classism and racism is baked deeply into this system. While outright bribery is rare and punished extremely harshly, rich parents have access to resources and connections that poor parents could only dream of. Is it any wonder that the best indicator of a student being in a tertiary class is wealth? Rich parents have money to pay tutors, time to pay attention to their children and the energy to advocate on their behalf. And despite the attempts to address this situation, wealth in East Asia is concentrated in the Japanese SSR as well as the majority of the tertiary schools and F11 universities.
East Asia’s success in the technological sphere is undeniable, but like the Japanese Empire before them their success is built by sacrificing the livelihoods of the working class. Chairman Suzuki’s education policy is emblematic of his diseased ideology, in his quest to save the working class from climate change he will subject them to the same humiliations imposed upon them by the bourgeois. The Union of States must protect the people of Turtle Island, and the world, from his uniquely vile form of reaction.
Organized out of Chennai, the INPC is an international organization that tracks the proliferation and production of nuclear weapons, working with government agencies and journalists to educate the public about the dangers and advocate for global disarmament. It classifies global arsenals into three categories: Extremely Dangerous, for states with hundreds of nuclear weapons and diverse delivery systems that it presents as "capable of ending global civilization with minimal checks and balances", Dangerous, where the nation possesses a significant nuclear arsenal capable of causing death and destruction in the millions, and Irresponsible, where a notable nuclear arsenal exists that poses a risk to the local region. Underneath these there is an array of states dubbed Responsible, where there is the means to develop nuclear arsenals but the restraint to avoid doing so.
The INPC's greatest success to date was the destruction of the former Soviet nuclear arsenal by the European Union, projected to "cut the global supply of nuclear weapons and their associated delivery systems by approximately one third". Disarmament and disposal is still ongoing through a joint European-INPC project, as hundreds of warheads take a long time to safely process, but these devices are effectively off the table for use.
The INPC has been at its highest global alert level due to the Turkestan War, warning that the ongoing conflict between a nuclear capable power with a peer capable of developing its own nuclear weapons provides "unprecedented avenues for the development, proliferation, and use of nuclear weapons". The INPC is issuing a fresh warning in 2010, as the number of nuclear states begins to grow despite early optimism from Europe's destruction of the former Soviet stockpiles. It highlights that the presence of nuclear weapons doesn't deter conflict, but provides a significant risk of escalation in any conflict by risking the civilian population. It calls on leading world powers to collaborate, condemning in particular the Austrian government's efforts which it has dubbed "nukes for rupes" when it assisted Arabia with its nuclear program.
SpoilerExisting Nuclear Arsenals :
Extremely Dangerous Nuclear Weapon States
Union of States
Babylon
Australia
Great Britain
Dangerous Nuclear Weapon States
Hindustan
California
Bengal*
Azania
Libya
Irresponsible Nuclear Weapon States
Arabia
Utah**
Texas
Austria***
*The status of Bengal's nuclear arsenal is unconfirmed, by the INPC's standards it would be Irresponsible based on limited available data.
**The INPC downgraded Utah from Dangerous to Irresponsible following the democratic victory. It weights "responsible government" in its evaluations, explaining the differences between California, Texas, and Utah.
***Austria's role in nuclear proliferation has earned it a place on this list despite the lack of a state nuclear arsenal.
Hi all! Today is the day for capability swaps to come in. Please post your capability swaps in-thread. If you're undecided about them feel free to message me. Thanks @NinjaCow64 for posting them already!
Education -> Education Policy
Education was split into experts and education policy.
Mass Culture -> The Press
The big Hindi-language Bollywood isn't really a thing in a country without many Hindi speakers, instead India has a free press and worldwide influence through Radio Free Eurasia.
Just converting everything to their new equivalent.
Mass Media -> The Press
Education -> Education Policy
Counter-intel -> Surveillance
Ground -> Conventional
Air -> Aerial
Warfare: Conventional, Aerial, Irregular (change from missles)
Espionage: Crime, Surveillance (changed from counter-intel)
Society: Police and courts (change from secret police), Mass culture (change from media)
Administration: Social policy, State Building, Diplomacy (changed from data collection)
Economy: Armaments (from arms)
Science: Social Science, Education
East Asia is pleased by recent efforts from the Union of States to decommission its nuclear arsenal. We hope that other states still maintaining nuclear stockpiles make the enlightened decision to abandon those hateful weapons.
--- INTERNAL MEMORANDUM ON BABYLONIAN NUCLEAR DOCTRINE ---
Ministry of War
The independent decommissioning of the Union of States nuclear program leaves Babylon as the only major global power capable of seriously waging nuclear war. As a consequence, our office has received a significant volume of memoranda encouraging a more aggressive exploitation of our nuclear dominance. To state the question plainly: When we can threaten a nuclear strike without fear of retaliation, and what limits our scope of action?
Honour, first and foremost. It is undignified to rely entirely on bombs while we hide behind walls. Second, provocation; we can only threaten a nuclear strike so often before other states re-activate their nuclear programs. Third, reputation; Babylon’s existence may be distasteful to the softer major powers, but the regime is not understood to be an existential risk outside of Eurasia. In our role as the nuclear hegemon, Babylon must be the enlightened despot – exercising its might to rule confidently, lightly, and predictably. To this end, the following principles ought to be maintained:
The Nuclear Umbrella – all territory directly held by Babylon or a client state (Persia, Libya, the Ottomans, Sudan) are inviolable. No foreign power may bombard, land armed forces on, or control armed forces within these territories without apocalyptic consequences. The principle is absolute defence, which any sovereign nation can respect and which ensures the continuity of our glorious regime.
A Heroic Alliance – friendly and respectable states, beginning with our client states but ultimately extending to all neo-traditional regimes, should be encouraged to adopt our nuclear technology. This will strengthen our position internationally. Their defensive advantages are obvious, and it is likely that their presence may prevent another ‘California fiasco’. While the soft powers have long decried nuclear proliferation, they frankly lack the nuclear strength to oppose us.
Offensive Restraint – Babylon should not use nuclear weapons for conquest. Truth cannot be denied; Marduk wills that land and treasure be bought by blood and heroism. Moreover, nuclear weapons will not be used in regular negotiations to extract more favourable terms. Nevertheless, there exist justifiable uses of credible nuclear threats during wartime when they may reduce the overall loss of life, outlined most specifically below.
Nuclear Disarmament - Any major power must accept the use nuclear threats to end war. Many terrorist states are willing to stomach enormous loss of life before accepting that they are defeated. There is thus a moral imperative to force such states to accept their defeat, to cease fighting, and to come to the bargaining table. Babylon must therefore exercise the threat of nuclear weapons against intractable states that have been defeated militarily so that it can force a ceasefire.
With adherence to such noble principles, Babylon shall shepherd the poor flock of soft powers through the post-Autumn chaos. As it was since the dawn of civilization; blessings of Marduk, and of Ishtar, and of Saddam upon the World!
I confirm Babylon's nuclear doctrine has been negotiated and approved as per the Nuclear Weapons rules. This empowers the GM to invoke the in-fiction fact of Babylon's nuclear weapons under the outlined situations (e.g. in defence of core strategic territory).
Babylon defeats Turkestan, creates new nation of Turan
Eurasia assembling an anti-Babylon alliance
Saboteurs disrupt infrastructure in Ukraine
Babylon considers the use of nuclear weapons to end the war
Eurasia forms an irregular army
New revolutions from above and below in Europe, Asia, and North America
Southern Republic abolishes gerrymandering and apartheid, holds free elections
Afghan civil war ends, Islamists create religious democracy
Rainbow revolution in Hungary deposes dictator Ferenc Kárpáti
Rainbow Republic transforms its demography, economy, and military
Union of States unilaterally denuclearizes
Union of States settles four million refugees in four years
National economic plan in Union of States calls for consumer goods investments
Argentine extractive industries grow at incredible pace
Argentine fracking industry comes online, methane emissions rise
East Asia and Argentina invest massively in Argentina’s lithium triangle
Nationalist wave calls for reunified greater China
Mormon Church expands to Europe
Financial crisis in Iberia, Indignatos protest in the streets
Hawaii’s Pacific Fleet reconstituted inside alliance with Argentina
Takeda Pharmaceutical announces vaccines for malaria and HIV/AIDS
Zika virus spreads to East Asian Polynesia
DEVELOPMENTS
Winds of Change (Special News): Several long sought institutional rearrangements among the Great Powers came together this year. The most striking of all was the unilateral nuclear disarmament of the Rainbow Republic - done without concessions, this garnered a positive response from other nations, who have begun to diplomatically recognize the country and allowed UoS embassies for the previously relatively unrecognized and isolated state. In Eurasia, the armed forces were reconstituted on an urgent timetable. As missile stockpiles have exhausted and the war continues to rage on their own soil, emergency irregular forces have been organized of patriotic civilians ready to fight in the forests and the mountains against further incursion by Babylon. Eurasia’s foreign ministry was also reinvigorated as survival in the war has clearly necessitated the acquisition of new international allies. Meanwhile other changes around the world have been subtler, often only noticeable by intelligence agencies. Observers note that Babylon has seemingly lost the ability to convince its own public of its legitimacy, while tax and central bank reforms will help them manage the deluge of cash they are earning from high global energy prices. East Asian security services received a big boost in the budget, while their F11 universities increasingly have become more conservative and focused on the interests of their professors rather than students. Radio Free Eurasia has become an incredibly valuable ally of the Indian government, whether they admit it or not. Finally, the most secretive change of all came in Argentina, where most Great Powers suspect defensive approaches to espionage have been tossed away from more aggressive ones going into the future. Changes:
one-time free capability changes have been done for all Great Powers
Moore’s Law (Special Front): Global disorder has plagued the semiconductor industry. Moore’s Law states that microchip density doubles every two years, and though this held true throughout the Cold War it suddenly collapsed after the Rainbow Revolution. Microchips have proven valuable addons to almost every industry, from consumer appliances to motor vehicles to of course the internet and information technology itself. Although improvements in computing have continued, they remain at a much slower pace than the Cold War era, presenting a tremendous business opportunity in the research and design of semiconductors. As well as the design of chips, there’s also their manufacturing that has remained diffusely spread out around the world in relatively unproductive factories. The proper industrialization of the semiconductor industry could provide both economic and geopolitical advantage to whichever country domiciled the microchip workshop of the world in their own country. Rules: this Special Front represents two Super Fronts, efforts to develop a semiconductor manufacturing hub and efforts to develop a semiconductor design hub; second place finishers will still receive some narrative benefit from their investments Rewards: a semiconductor manufacturing hub, a semiconductor design hub
Global Energy Crisis (Special Front): New Events:
Front Collapses (1 out of 1 Collapse Points)
The energy crisis continues to take a heavy toll on the family of nations, this year ensnaring Iberia in a political crisis over economic recession and inflation. After multiple years of high global energy prices, inflationary pressure has begun to mount in every other industry and economists at many central banks are terrified that this is already leading to entrenched inflation expectations. Although some efforts to diversify energy production have been underway, with significant production in Argentina coming online this year, these regional efforts will not restore low prices to the international market. Unless the global energy crisis is abated in a big way, long-term entrenched inflation may be impossible to avoid. Changes:
new Front: Indignados
rule note: on the sixth turn of this Front collapsing (three turns from now, 2014), a new inflation Front will emerge that will also collapse every turn and will require separate efforts to stop
SpoilerGlobal Energy Crisis :
Spoiler2010 :
Global Energy Crisis (Special Front): New Events:
Front Collapses (1 out of 1 Collapse Points)
The ongoing energy crisis has tipped another country over the edge. The frozen conflict in Equatorial Africa restarted this year, with intelligence suggesting the Suzukian insurgency perceive the regime’s position to be unsteady due to both a fuel shortage, as well as the sudden unavailability of ex-Soviet arms due to their being needed by Eurasia for fighting Babylon. Changes:
new Front: Equatorial War
Spoiler2009 :
Global Energy Crisis (Special Front): The price of energy skyrocketed this year to heights not seen in decades. Eurasian oil and gas production is down dramatically, as energy infrastructure across that country is under direct attack by invading Babylonian forces. As energy is an input in many industries, the price of energy has spiked and led to a general and sudden increase in the cost of goods across the board and everywhere in the world. This shock will trigger second-order economic crises as countries struggle with social unrest and financial instability. Rules: Every turn this Front remains unresolved the GM will select one NPC to suffer an economic or political crisis (i.e. this Front collapses every turn and is recurring). This Front resolves when the global energy and food crises are abated. The Front collapses on its first turn (2009, i.e. this turn). Rewards: none Changes:
new World Fact: the price of energy is the highest it has been in decades
new Front: Mali Famine
the India Stress “gridlock and backsliding” gains 1 Collapse Point
the East Asia Stress “degrowth policy” gains 1 Collapse Point
the Union of States Stress “capital flight and economic chill” gains 1 Collapse Point
the Argentina Stress “inequality and stagnant wages” gains 1 Collapse Point
the Europe Stress “nationalism” gains 1 Collapse Point
Indignados (Regional Latin Union Stress Front): The Latin Union has had a bad couple decades. The collapse of their American ally and their Soviet enemy both brought disaster to the peninsula through wrecked trade and aid ties as well as the collateral consequences of a war on the doorstep. To compensate, the technocratic government slashed taxes, cut services, and deregulated financial markets, a program of neoliberalism that has been unpopular, especially in the Basque and Catalan regions. Although this allowed the Latin Union to keep its debt low, speculative investments soared, especially in real estate. Somehow the party kept on going even as energy prices skyrocketed, but it was only a matter of time before the bubble popped - and in early 2011, the unravelling began. As mortgage-holders started defaulting in large numbers due to financial stress from inflation and energy costs, a Iberian financial system collapsed like a house of cards. Credit rating agencies had systematically misrated complex derivatives while banks and speculators had over-leveraged themselves on market bets. Every major Iberian financial institution found itself on the precipice of collapse - until the technocrats stepped in. While homeowners continue to default, the Latin Union has bailed out the banks. This is further exacerbated by the fact that Iberia does not recognize nonrecourse loans, leaving those who default with significant debt for property they had to give up at deflated prices. Although this has prevented a crisis on the scale of the Great Depression, it has not prevented a still enormous recession and major rise in unemployment. Furious protests have broken out, starting in Catalonia and the Basque Country but spreading even to Portugal and Spain, demanding criminal prosecution for financial elites and the end to neoliberal austerity and deregulation. Especially frightening to the regime was the apparently supportive attitude of regular Spaniards and Portuguese in response to typically unpopular terror attacks of the Basque separatists, who targeted a Banco Central office building, killing several company officers. The protesters, who have garnered the name Indignados, are of course demanding things the government not only won’t budge on, but doesn’t even comprehend - the technocrats, entirely out of touch, insist that it is the common people who will benefit the most from the bailouts and the continuation of scientifically and academically rigorous market solutions. Already plans for an illegal and informal referendum on independence are being threatened in Catalonia and the Basque Country, where local technocrats are flipping to the Indignatos and police are overwhelmed. The Latin Union may not be able to maintain order in these provinces in the future. Rules: Progress represents efforts to quell the protests whether by terror or reform; Regress represents efforts to boost the protest, whether towards separatism or democratic regime change. Rewards: the fate of Iberia
Novel Pandemics (Special Front): New Events:
Front Collapses (4 out of 4 Collapse Points), rolled on a table of diseases
In August of this year East Asian physicians in Polynesia reported an outbreak of a dengue fever-like disease. Researchers from F11 universities were able to detect Zika virus RNA among the infected by December, indicating that the Zika virus that is endemic to parts of Africa has now spread to the Pacific. Changes:
new Front: Zika
SpoilerNovel Pandemics :
Spoiler2003 :
Novel Pandemics (Special Front): New Events:
Front Collapses (4 out of 4 Collapse Points), rolled on a table of diseases
The local KMT government of southern China has informed the world that an outbreak of a novel strain of coronavirus has led to the infection of a few hundred people since November of this year. Not much is known about this new type of coronavirus. Changes:
new Front: Coronavirus
Spoiler2000 :
Novel Pandemics (Special Front): Vaccination campaigns, improved sanitation, and improved healthcare systems helped eliminate smallpox and mitigate numerous other diseases in the developed and developing world. Nonetheless, novel diseases emerge routinely, whether from isolated endemic diseases spread to the globalized world, or new diseases mutating and jumping from animals to humans. The threat of pandemics is ever-present, but only are they sufficiently dangerous to warrant global concern. Rules: is Front resolves by GM fiat when the entire player base has collectively developed medical technologies, systems of pandemic response and mass vaccination that the GM deems sufficient to end the curse of pandemics; time this Front escalates the GM will roll a 1d10 against a table of diseases; escalations will always be structured so that the turn the escalation is announced, players can react preemptively; the next turn, if the pandemic escalates out of control, that particular pandemic will take the place of the Novel Pandemics Front until resolved Rewards: none (avoiding bad things is the reward)
Zika (Regional Oceania Front): The outbreak this year of Zika in East Asian Polynesia has gone unnoticed by news organizations. Only a few hundred cases have been detected so far involving fever, rashes, conjunctivitis, and arthralgia, but no hospitalizations have been reported. Most medical professionals have either not learned of the outbreak, or have viewed it as likely an interesting but fundamentally tiny geographic expansion of the virus’ range. Zika is transmitted by mosquitoes and is thought to be a relatively low health priority, being minor though endemic in some parts of Africa, the continent where the disease was first discovered in the 1960s. East Asian officials have been more alarmed than the rest of the world, as tentative research findings suggest the Polynesian strains of Zika have several novel features unlike traditional Zika, including a high sexual transmissibility, and a potential relationship to microcephaly in newborns of pregnant women who catch the virus. Polynesia is a low population and marginal region, even within East Asia, making the impact of the virus at present small in the scheme of things. Moreover, westward spread of the virus is unlikely, as Indonesia already has a dominant strain of Zika that does not have the features of the novel strains found in Polynesia. However, some scientists have raised concerns that have reached political officialdom that Zika might use Polynesia as a launchpad to spread to South America where no competing strains exist and hundreds of thousands of people could be infected. The risk remains low, but not zero. At least for now, Zika has a new home in the southeast corner of East Asia. Rules: Progress represents efforts to prevent the spread of Zika outside of Polynesia; every time this Front collapses, the GM will roll 1d4 and on a 1 (25% chance) the Front will expand to South America. Rewards: none
Hungarian Militarism (Regional Hungary Front): New Events:
Eurasia wins the Front (6 out of 6 Front Points)
A workers’ revolution has swept the neo-traditional government of Hungary out of power this year. Sporadic labour unrest crescendoed into a nation-wide general strike that brought the entire Hungarian economy and government to a halt. This revolutionary act of the nation’s workers cracked divisions in the regime wide open, with soldiers and officers refusing orders and switching allegiances. The now former dictator, Ferenc Kárpáti, fled the country as he realized his position was untenable; his whereabouts are unknown though many suspect he has found refuge in Babylon. Delayed by two decades, the Autumn of Nations has finally arrived in Hungary. The leaders of the National Council of Trade Unions, a body that itself was only a few years ago completely under the thumb of the autocracy, made their way through the august capital buildings of Budapest and promised swift elections in the framework of a socialist democracy for a newly renamed Union of Danubia. Despite this decisive victory, nationalist tensions have only been papered over, with substantial parts of the public, the civil service, and the military still fundamentally neo-traditional in outlook when it comes to Hungary as a national unit, indivisible, whatever its minorities say. For now these groups have either quietly conceded to the revolution or simply see the revolution as consistent with their nationalist beliefs about Hungary’s place in the world. Celebrations were therefore ecstatic in Hungary proper, while the country’s minority regions have more mutedly acknowledged the revolution as a step in the right direction. Non-unionized Croatians, Romanians, and Slovaks served in key insurrectionary roles throughout the years leading up to 2011, including members of notable crime families as well as popular artists and poets. Their support guaranteed the revolution’s success by making clear the left’s rise would not dissolve Hungary. Croatia remains an especially sore spot, as its break for independence in 1991 was violently crushed by Ferenc Kárpáti. Although some prominent Croatians have voiced demands for a referendum on independence, the national mood there is a wait-and-see pragmatism - the Rainbow model has worked for now renamed Anatolia, where Kurds and Armenians came to rule Turks, perhaps it can work for Danubia, even if as of now all that has happened is a name change. In other announcements, the new leftist government has disavowed the oft repeated territorial demands of the previous dictatorship, substantially lowering tensions in eastern Europe, especially with respect to Eurasia, a neighbour engulfed in a cataclysmic war. Though it is believed Eurasia substantially interfered in Hungary, furnishing the labour movement with cash and guns, these ties were only ever instrumental - although Hungarian chauvinists remain entrenched throughout the government, the leftists have been quick to sever ties to and the influence of Eurasian gangsters and affiliated nationalists. Intrusions into the country by Eurasia will be substantially harder, while the return of neo-traditionalism is likely to be challenging in the near-term as the new red government navigates carefully between Hungarian nationalism and plurinational socialism. Changes:
country name change: Hungary becomes Danubia
defunct opposition: union workers and border minorities
defunct government: Magyar neo-traditionalist officers
new government: union workers and border minorities
new opposition: Magyar neo-traditionalist officers
new World Fact: Danubia foreswears territorial ambitions against the lands of St Stephen
SpoilerHungarian Militarism :
Spoiler2006 :
Hungarian Militarism (Regional Hungary Espionage Front): New Events:
Eurasia: rolled 13, hard success. +1 FP for
Having barely liberalized since the military takeover and Croatian campaign in 1991, Hungary’s economy remains one of the most unionized and least privatized in the world. The labour union movement has therefore become the single most powerful alternative institution to the neo-Magyar military junta. This year the Hungarian junta was unsettled by unusually aggressive demands in contract negotiations with the teachers union, the airport workers union, the teamsters union, and several other public sector unions that began in summer. In the weeks after rebuffing them, the Hungarian government began sounding the alarm at border incursions by “gangsters” from Zapadoslavia, and accusing Eurasia of secretly funnelling money and guns to the trade unions and stirring minority unrest in the borderlands. As negotiations broke down, the workers went on strike, sparking solidarity strikes or partial strike actions in dozens of unrelated sectors, scaring the government into accepting the workers’ demands to prevent a contagion. Energized, activists seized the stuffy, tame, and government-choreographed annual National Council of Trade Unions in autumn (itself a normally powerless holdover institution created by the communists to control the labour union movement). It is reported that representatives tricked state officials into exiting the assembly hall, whereupon officials were barricaded out and insurgent activists began delivering fiery speeches about democracy and social justice, and exercised sweeping legal powers technically still held by the congress, until police forced their way into the proceedings. Clashes broke out between police and delegates, as the police later claimed to have arrested gangsters affiliated with the Croatian, Romanian, and Slovakian mobs, who were defending the workers. This bout of labour unrest appears to be accelerating, with furth strike actions promised by various unions and public demands for government leaders to resign. Foreign correspondence, for their part, have found the Eurasian connection asserted by the Hungarian government hard to verify - foreign reporting suggests that whatever help the workers movement is getting is in no way influencing their politics, and anti-nationalist rhetoric, including anti-Eurasian rhetoric, is common. Changes:
new World Fact: Hungarian leftists are immune to Eurasian infiltration
Trajectory: Hungary’s neo-traditionalist government will collapse to a workers’ revolution and the labour union opposition will take over the government in several years time (2011). This new regime will harden Hungary against further foreign infiltration by gangsters and nationalists. Hungary’s aggressive revanchist claims against its neighbours will cease with the new administration.
Spoiler2000 :
Hungarian Militarism (Regional Hungary Espionage Front): In the state press of the Hungarian state, the lands of the Crown of St Stephen were wrongfully stripped from it in the aftermath of the Austro-Hungarian collapse, as well as the numerous border rectification treaties of the communist era. It is believed as well in the intelligence communities of most European countries that Hungarians are a major purchaser of illicit arms from dealers in Eurasia and Western Europe, which by themselves would put Hungary on a path to the military-buildup it would need to start a war, though slowly, and with which of its neighbours, it is unclear. Rules: Progress represents efforts to build-up Hungary for a war with one of its neighbours (which is up to the player that causes the Progress to succeed), Regress represents efforts to prevent a war and establish a more lasting commitment to peace between Hungary and its neighbours Rewards: war or stabilized peace with Hungary and its various claims, potentially also the alignment of Hungary’s military Power Centre Related Fronts: Merchants of Death
Hawaiian Allegiance (Regional Hawaii Front): New Events:
Argentina wins the Front (5 out of 5 Front Points)
The Pacific Fleet, including its two massive ex-American aircraft carriers, are back in action this year. Joint exercises between Argentina and Hawaii (as well as some Mexican filibusters) took place on the Hawaiian island chain demonstrating their successful military integration as part of a new military alliance. Though the deal didn’t come without its critics. The alliance continues to receive a lukewarm reception from the Hawaiian public, with grumbling about Argentine influence from younger members of the governing Republicans. As well, simmering tensions internal to Hawaii remains. The Greens and the Rainbow Coalition have gained some ground in the polls due to the unpopularity of allying with Argentina, an undemocratic technocracy, though these gains are not enough to crack the Republican political machine. In any event, Argentina now has one of the best military ports in the world and an enormous military asset in the Pacific Fleet and its experienced sailors and officers, though Argentina should be careful not to demand too much of them given the underlying fragility of their allegiance. Changes:
Argentina creates and controls the Pacific Fleet Power Centre (0.1 AP, 1.6 Warfare)
new World Fact: a somewhat fragile alliance allows Argentina to use Hawaii’s Pacific Fleet in offensive operations, though they will veto uses that are not in their interest
SpoilerHawaiian Allegiance :
Spoiler2007 :
Hawaiian Allegiance (Regional Hawaii Administration/Espionage Front): New Events:
Argentina: rolled 13, hard success. +1 FP for allying Hawaii
In a geopolitical surprise, leaked documents were published by an opposition newspaper this autumn evidencing “secret” talks between Argentina and Hawaii over a military alliance. The day the scoop was revealed, diplomats from both countries quickly held press briefings that acknowledged the two nations were engaged in “early talks” and that there was nothing “secret” about the matter: Hawaii’s governing Republicans have made it clear for years they are shopping for a Great Power that can guarantee Hawaiian independence from foreign threats. Embarrassingly, another leak occurred in December, showing draft provisions of a bilateral military alliance that would allow the Pacific Fleet to engage in offensive activities alongside Argentine forces, and included an Argentine pledge to defend Hawaii in the event of an attack against it by a foreign power. Responsibility for the leaks remains a mystery, though many Republican politicians have openly grumbled about deepening relations with an anti-democratic technocracy with a relatively weak military, while polling shows an unimpressed voter base with a take it or leave it attitude to a deal with Argentina. The local Greens and the Hawaiian Rainbow Coalition have both vociferously attacked signing away Hawaii to a bunch of neoliberal academic authoritarians. Despite all of this, the old guard Republicans, however thin a stratum they may be and however reluctantly, are backing the deal, though it may not even be formalized until next year, and after that, it will still take years of integration to get the Pacific Fleet fully operational and ready to work side-by-side Argentine forces. Changes:
Target Number increased from 4 to 5
World Fact: the Argentine-Hawaiian alliance is fragile, held together by a thin stratum of old Republican bigwigs*
Trajectory: Argentina and Hawaii will have fully integrated their respective militaries in a ratified and binding military alliance by 2011, giving control of the Pacific Fleet Power Centre to Argentina.
* Argentina’s +1 FP will become 0 FP per turn should any other Great Power with a resident ideological following (i.e. blue, pink, teal) succeed in either regime change or regime consolidation
Spoiler2000 :
Hawaiian Allegiance (Regional Hawaii Administration/Espionage Front): Remaining inside the Rainbow Republic was never an option for the business-friendly Republicans governing Hawaii back in 1991, but independence for a small, strategically located nation like theirs is untenable without a patron among the Great Powers. Hawaii boasts one of the former United States’ best military ports and still harbours two of its aircraft carriers alongside a notable fleet and its experienced sailors and officers who defected to Hawaii. Although Australia has made diplomatic overtures to Hawaii, the local Republican Party sees them as a last resort and are hoping for another Great Power to guarantee their independence against interference in their affairs from either East Asian and Rainbow Republic, who’s sympathisers fill the ranks of opposition movements. Rules: Progress represents swaying the Hawaiian regime into your sphere, Regress represents the advance of either Suzukian or Rainbow opposition groups, whichever rolls higher Rewards: access to Hawaii as a naval port and the restitution of a Power Centre out of the Pacific Fleet worth 1.6 Warfare and 0.1 AP
Wonder Drugs (Super Worldwide Front): New Events:
East Asia wins the Front (10 out of 10 Front Points)
Takeda Pharmaceutical has moved from strength to strength over a transformative decade of innovation, culminating this year with the dual announcements of vaccines for malaria and HIV/AIDs. This crowning achievement tops a pile of blockbuster drugs and innovative marketing techniques that have made Takeda the world’s most dynamic biotech firm. Takeda’s extensive list of drugs include anti-arthritics to painkillers to antidepressants to erectile dysfunction pills. These durable revenue sources have proven Takeda a ruthless competitor in the marketplace, earning ire from critics who point to increasing rates of opioid addiction, especially in Korea and Japan, and argue that both regions now suffer from marketing-driven overprescription. Critics also bitterly complain that manufacturers in China backed by Argentine investors regularly reverse-engineer and mass produce drug counterfeits, severely cutting into Takeda’s profits and thus undermining the company’s share value which could easily be higher and put Takeda in the top five most valuable companies on the planet. Some even suggest this may pose a national security threat, as Chinese drug makers willing to ignore East Asian laws might become benefactors of increasing rates of drug addiction for opioids in Korea and Japan, creating a new route in the global illicit drug trade. These issues, luckily for Takeda, have remained side stories to the main narrative of technological progress, especially this year’s vaccine advances for malaria and HIV/AIDs. Both vaccines were developed painstakingly over a decade of trials and development, and the final outcome is not cheap, making their commercial sale impractical except in wealthy countries where HIV/AIDs and malaria are not common. Therefore, although technically impressive, investors and market watchers don’t expect Takeda to do much with these drugs unless governments will write enormous cheques to fund production and delivery to poorer nations where these two maladies are endemic. Changes:
new Front: CRISPR & mRNA
the East Asia Stress Front “Degrowth Policy” loses 2 Collapse Points
new East Asian Power Centre: Takeda Pharmaceutical
the Argentine Power Centre “China Chem & Pharma Co” gains 0.1 AP
new World Fact: East Asia’s Takeda Pharmaceutical can produce vaccines for malaria and HIV/AIDs are expensive but safe and effective
SpoilerWonder Drugs :
Wonder Drugs (Super Worldwide Science Front): New Actions:
East Asia: rolled 13, hard success. +1 FP for pharmaceutical research
The East Asian economic miracle of the late 1980s and 1990s is often attributed to Takayoshi Suzuki’s National Champion system, a suite of market reforms that created several large and internationally competitive semi-private corporations. One of these National Champions is Takeda Pharmaceutical, which received an enormous investment from the government this year. The terms of the deal aren’t precisely known, but Takeda released information in its annual report promising an ambitious plan to establish itself as the world leader in pharmaceuticals. The report outlined several short-term drug projects with commercial potential, including an anti-arthritic injection exiting clinical trials, to new marketing techniques for painkillers and antidepressants, to an erectile dysfunction medicine whose research was bought with the help of New England immigrants attracted by East Asia’s scientific poaching policy. After satisfying investors, the report further went on to try to satisfy the government, declaring Takeda’s long-term intention to develop hitherto unheard-of vaccines for malaria and HIV/AIDS. The expanded vision of Takeda however was matched almost immediately a round of state and private investment in Takeda’s numerous rival firms in China, which have historically ignored East Asia’s patents and created their own counterfeit or reverse-engineered drugs, undercutting East Asia’s international pharmaceutical sales. Moreover, hardliners critical of the National Champion system are already accusing Takeda’s painkiller and antidepressant marketing as corrupting doctors, causing addiction, and driving society to medicate its problems rather than solve them naturally and socialistically. Changes:
new World Fact: opioid and antidepressant sales in East Asia, especially Japan and Korea, are increasingly every year
new World Fact: Chinese pharmaceutical companies are undercutting East Asian sales by ignoring patents and counterfeiting and duplicating East Asian drugs
Trajectory: East Asia will establish its pharmaceutical industry as the best in the world by the end of this decade (2011), creating an economic Power Centre in Japan centred around Takeda Pharmaceutical. East Asia will also create World Facts related to the first vaccines for malaria and HIV/AIDS.
CRISPR & mRNA (Super Worldwide Front): Tantalizing breakthroughs are rumoured to be on the horizon among scientists and government strategists in the pharmaceutical industry. Small-scale East Asian research has circulated among academics globally suggesting that potentially transformative biotechnologies may be now possible with sweeping capabilities for vaccine development, combating disease, and genetic engineering. One of these technologies is CRISPR, a family of DNA sequencers that scientists believe may include hitherto undiscovered but very precise and efficient gene cutters that would make genetic engineering cheap and greatly speed up research in the field. The other technology is messenger RNA, a type of molecule that can be made to interact with cells such that they produce new desired proteins. Such a tool, if properly funded, might allow for personalized cancer treatments and a new category of fast to develop and deploy vaccines for tackling rapidly evolving diseases like the flu. Although such speculations remain those of academics and scientists in labs across the world, it seems to them that the right backer could push the entire field forward in a big way. Rules: Progress and Regress represent competing efforts to situate one’s country at the apex of CRISPR & mRNA biotech knowledge; a second place finisher will likely still be recognized partially in World Facts. Rewards: breakthrough biotechnologies
The Great Game (Regional Afghanistan Front): New Events:
India wins the Front (4 out of 4 Front Points)
The decades-long Islamist insurgency in Afghanistan has finally been victorious. The rudderless technocratic regime of the late Daoud Khan fought ineffectually, losing Kabul and thus its last stronghold this year. The Islamists purged the technocrats from the government and the military - a decision that has unemployed many ideological enemies who may bide their time before launching a counter-insurrection of their own someday. The conflict’s most decisive player was India, who armed and supported the mujahideen conditionally on their moderation and endorsement of an theocratic republic. The Islamist leadership reluctantly acquiesced to this in 2008, but by 2010 they had been swept up in the global democratic awakening and ran genuinely democratic elections this year. The new religiously-guided parliament contains multiple parties, and though the insurrectionary leadership won a majority, urban professionals and liberals who passed the state’s religious litmus tests formed a vocal and tolerated opposition. The mujahideen fighters themselves, with deep experience in irregular warfare, have also moderated and even integrated into the pro-Indian global Islamic network based in Bengal. The main downside of India’s intervention was with Hindustan, where tensions have reached a boiling point. Should Hindustan's political crisis resolve in-favour of its hardliners, retaliation against India for upsetting the balance of power will likely follow. Changes:
new opposition: ex-officer and soldier technocrats
India controls new Power Centre: Mujahideen
SpoilerThe Great Game :
Spoiler2008 :
The Great Game (Regional Afghanistan Social Control/Espionage Front): New Events:
India: rolled 18, soft success. +1 FP for arming the Islamists
While the generals and the technocrats bicker about who is in-charge and what to do, the Afghan mujahideen advance across the country. Unlike past insurgencies however, this year the Islamist fighters have the backing of India, a mighty arms producer. According to leaked documents published by WikiFiles, the strange alliance took the better half of the year just to convince the mujahideen that India’s offers of military aid were sincere and not a front for counter-intelligence or a strange psyop. The decisive factor seems to have been Indian support for moderate Islamists in Bengal, who founded a new nation in the style of an Islamic Republic this year. The persuasion finally worked and sealed a deal with the mujahideen, who shifted propaganda in the latter half of the year from advocating for a theocracy to advocating for a theocratic republic (though with far more emphasis on theocracy than republic). After that, journalists in Afghanistan began reporting the widespread use of western kit among the mujahideen fighters, which analysts figured out were being shipped from India over the Arabian Sea and then overland through Persia - which implies the consent of Babylon in this arrangement. Journalists have also noticed urban professionals involved with the democracy protests last year joining the Islamists upon the capture of new cities, collaborating in the new governance - probably another component of the deal struck with India. The Islamist fighters are expected to slowly but surely seize every major town and city across Afghanistan in a matter of years. This bold move by India has alarmed Hindustan, which condemned Indian support for religious fanatics and for disturbing the fragile equilibrium of geopolitics between them. Hindustan was already incensed by Indian intervention in its former lands in Bengal, where at least there they were able to geopolitically squeeze as much out of the situation as India. Hindustan has demanded India cease supporting the Islamists and is threatening a long list of potential consequences, from invading Afghanistan to invading Bengal to arbitrary missile strikes to new nuclear tests to an alliance with nuclear-armed Babylon. Changes:
the Front “Indian Tensions” gains 0.25 Collapse Points
Trajectory: India will help the Afghan Islamists to take over Afghanistan by 2011, whereupon they will establish a theocratic republic and India will have control of them as a Power Centre.
Spoiler2007 :
The Great Game (Regional Afghanistan Social Control/Espionage Front): Daoud Khan is dead after nearly a lifetime as ruler of Afghanistan, leaving the country in a state of crisis. Although the constitution has technically empowered a committee of civilian economists, they lack legitimacy, and several alternatives are cropping up to displace the old order. A network of criminals and corrupt officials supposedly connected to Babylon have nearly conquered the state’s most vital revenue source, opium exports. Seemingly unkillable Islamist fighters in the countryside have already begun another insurgency to topple the government and establish a theocratic strongman state loosely modelled off of Eurasia. Turkestan’s dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, has oft spoken of his desire to right the wrongs of the Soviet Union in ceding the Tajiks to Afghanistan, while the communists of Hindustan may now see an opportunity to recover the Pashtun lands lost during the Indian civil war. Moreover, protests have erupted in Kabul and other cities that include both demands for elections, and demands for socialism, depending on the crowd. At the centre of all this chaos is the military, whose top brass could just as easily back the constitution, or break with it to co-opt some of its opponents and stabilize the country. Rules: Progress and Regress represents the top two rolling sides who attempt to consolidate a government Faction. Collapse Points will stop being generated on this Front so long as a net positive or negative number of Front Points are being generated. Collapse of this Front will trigger a pair of d6 rolls to determine which ideology takes power and whether neighbours invade. The first roll options will be (1, 2) tan government defeats oppositions, (2, 3) black rebels seize government, defeat other oppositions, (5) military backs blues, defeats oppositions, (6) military backs greys, defeats oppositions. The second roll will be (1, 2, 3) no invasions, (4) Hindustan invades, seizes ex-territories in OTL Pakistan, (5) Turkestan invades, seizes Tajikistan, (6) Hindustan and Turkestan both invade and seize their respective territories. These outcomes are of course subject to change if the underlying fiction changes in Afghanistan or among its neighbours. Rewards: fate of Afghanistan
Turkestan War (Regional Central Asia Front): New Events:
Babylon wins the Front (4 out of 4 Front Points)
Saddam declared victory in Turkestan this year, ending military operations in that theatre of the Eurasia-Babylon conflict. Although hardened Suzukian guerrillas persist in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and the Tarim Basin, Babylon has ignored them and moved forward with formally recognizing the state of Turan, to replace the old Turkestan. As their armed forces advanced throughout the war, Babylon handpicked eager defectors within the Turkestani bureaucracy itself to become warlord-bureaucrats of various regions, subservient in-name to a paramount Khagan but in-reality to Babylon directly. These warlord-bureaucrats are corrupt to the core, many having been in the civil service under communism and Suzukism; they are petty emperors in neo-feudal clothes who hold political survival as their only ideal. With the war against Eurasia still ongoing, Babylon has already made their demands clear: tribute shall be paid in men who will join the Babylonian army and fight Eurasia. Central Asia has, in four years time, been transformed from a centralized autocracy to a decentralized conscript farm which ironically claims a pan-national identity, Turanism, and is made up of numerous local strongmen - a mocking impression of Eurasia itself, but loyal to Babylon instead. The extent to which Turanians will be successfully integrated into the Babylonian armed forces is yet to be seen - Central Asia’s infrastructure and basic economic functioning are damaged from the war. Although this devastation originally included Baikonur, which was scuttled deliberately by the Eurasians when they had to retreat from the territory, Babylon prioritized the spaceport’s reconstruction. Ready for new launches, Babylon now directly administers Baikonur and has fully reorganized and funded its staff and facilities. The successful conquest of Turkestan has also impacted the wider war - the original reason Eurasia became involved was to defend Turkestan, a state that no longer exists and for which no realistic route to victory can be had for Eurasia. Now that Eurasia has completely lost in the field, many wonder what Babylon might do to force Eurasia to admit defeat. Changes:
new government: neo-traditional warlord-bureaucrats
new opposition: East Asia-trained Suzukian guerrillas
defunct World Fact: Turkestani armies are being trained in montane guerrilla warfare for an insurgency in Kyrgyzstan and the Tarim Basin
new World Fact: Suzukian guerrillas maintain their independence and continue an insurgency against Turan from Kyrgyzstan and the Tarim Basin
Babylon gains control of Baikonur
East Asia gains 1 XP for losing the Front
Eurasia gains 1 XP for losing the Front
SpoilerTurkestan War :
Spoiler2008 :
Turkestan War (Regional Central Asia Warfare Front): New Events:
Babylon: rolled 23.4, full success. +2 FP for invading Turkestan
Eurasia & East Asia: rolled 17, soft success. +1 FP for defending Turkestan
Babylon shocked the world again with a surprise invasion of Turkestan this spring. Babylon’s crackdown in Persia last year camouflaged a massive concentration of forces on the Turkestani border, allowing Babylon to strike faster than Turkestan or other Great Powers could have expected. Eurasia condemned the invasion and declared a mass mobilization in-defence of Turkestan, who gladly welcomed their new ally to the fight, but this would take precious weeks that Babylon used to march through Turkestan at breakneck speed. Eurasia sent what forces it could while mobilization kicked into gear, but Eurasia and Turkestan were forced to trade space for time. Babylonian strategy in the first few weeks centred on the Caspian Sea, which further alarmed Eurasia, as Babylonian forces were able to seize every major port along the coast and nearly reached the Eurasian border in a concerted ground offensive moving from south to north. Babylonian efforts to use the Caspian as a supply route were hampered by Eurasian missiles which damaged Babylon’s Caspian flotilla and forced them to rely more than anticipated on land logistics, stalling Babylon’s advance at the Caspian depression. The Turkestani army proved so miserable at fighting that many speculated the Turkestani state had pro-Babylon traitors in its midst, a paranoia that Turkestan’s dictator, Saparmurat Niyazov, acted on early in the war, purging thousands of government officials suspected of neo-traditionalist sympathy. Though the firings and arrests were substantial, the Turkestani rot is too deep to be resolved with a single purge, though it did at least stop one major plot from firing off. One of the many arrested groups of traitors were a clique of Kyrgyz bureaucrats and local leaders credibly accused of planning to declare independence in the midst of the war. The foiling of this plot, along with many of the other arrests of actual traitors, was in huge part thanks to the assistance of foreign intelligence that many suspect was provided by East Asia. Although East Asia has not participated militarily, they condemned the Babylonian invasion of a fellow Suzukian regime and there are plenty of reports that East Asian cadres of the Green International are inside Turkestan training new recruits for a much longer conflict based out of the more mountainous regions of Kyrgyzstan and the Tarim Basin, spreading Suzukian ideology to the rank-and-file at the same time. By the beginning of summer, Eurasian air forces were contesting the skies, missile strikes were hampering Babylonian logistics, and ground forces were reinforcing the thinly manned, under-trained, and badly armed Turkestani armies, finally solidifying a front line in the south. Shifting strategy into the summer and fall to focus on the wide front in the centre of Central Asia, Babylon continued to make gains, though slowly and at the cost of thousands of casualties, capturing all of Turkmenistan and touching the edges of Uzbekistan, as Eurasia continued to play for time. Although the conflict is far more contested than it would have been without Eurasia or East Asia’s involvement (many hypothesize Turkestan would have completely disintegrated without them), Babylonian forces are better equipped, more experienced, and are projected to slowly seize the country, even if it takes several years of fighting at the current pace to make it to the Himalayas and the country's far edges. Fears that the conflict might escalate into a massive war across multiple fronts have not subsided, though there was relief that the Black Sea was quiet, with what few Eurasian soldiers were in pro-Babylo Ottoman Bosporus having left voluntarily. Babylon did close that strait to the Eurasian military, though this has had little practical effect. Internationally the war has further soured Babylon’s reputation. Eurasia and East Asia put up travel advisories eliminating transnational travel. There were numerous condemnations from countries around the world, as well as further military spending commitments made by potential future targets of Babylon’s aggression, such as Transcaucasia, Yugoslavia, Ethiopia, and the Maghreb. More pressing to Babylon and Eurasia are their own publics’ reactions to the war. Whereas Bayblon could typically rely on decisive victories abroad to prove Saddam’s seemingly supernatural military prowess, complaints of corruption and resentment over Akkadian elitism are making the Turkestan War mildly unpopular even though Babylon is winning. Meanwhile in Eurasia things are far graver, since they joined the war in the midst of multiple ongoing domestic crises, from post-communist samizdats spreading anti-government propaganda to ongoing protests by minorities over neglect and discrimination. Failure in the Turkestan War for either Babylon or Eurasia will only exacerbate their domestic woes, though the downside and the upside is higher for Eurasia, where victory or defeat could either stave off domestic quandaries with some patriotic pride, or dramatically worsen them should thousands of Eurasians have died just to stall but not stop a Babylonian conquest. Changes:
defunct World Fact: military bases in the Bosporus and Dardanelles are open to both Babylonian and Eurasian armed forces
new World Fact: Babylon has closed the Bosporus to Eurasian military vessels
new World Fact: Turkestani armies are being trained in montane guerrilla warfare for an insurgency in Kyrgyzstan and the Tarim Basin
Trajectory: Babylon will slowly defeat enemy forces in Turkestan, coming to control the entire country’s non-mountainous regions by 2011, with an indefinite and long-term insurgency playing out in the mountains of Kyrgyzstan and the Tarim Basin as a World Fact. Babylon will at that point control the Baikonur Cosmodrome by force, or whatever is left of it, and its associated human capital.
Nuclear Option (Special Eurasia Front): Having lost Turkestan, Eurasia has been defeated in the main theatre of the war. Eurasia is also in a state of political turmoil with protest movements across the country calling for peace, economic turmoil with their oil and gas industry destroyed or under Babylonian control, and military turmoil with a quarter of their country occupied by Babylonian forces. Eurasia is losing the war, if it hasn’t already lost it - and many are wondering what Babylon is willing to do to finish the job without further loss of manpower. One option that has always technically existed but only now is becoming justifiable is the use of Babylon’s nuclear weapons. The only nuclear weapons use in history was at the close of the Second World War, when the United States dropped an atomic bomb in the Bay of Biscay as a demonstration, compelling the Soviets to negotiate a peace treaty. Analysts believe that serious discussions are being had at high levels as to potentially delivering one or more nuclear weapons in a similar fashion to close out the war with Eurasia. The options available are many, from a non-lethal demonstration in the Black Sea to a lethal demonstration on a Eurasian city, to tactical nuclear use as a way of devastating enemy formations in a conventional offensive operation, to full nuclear warfare obliterating Eurasia for generations. If Saddam chooses the nuclear option, there could be unpredictable grave downsides, as nuclear weapons use remains taboo. Precisely what Babylon demands from Eurasia before resorting to nuclear weapons will also dramatically shape public opinion across the world - if Saddam demands too much, or agrees to too extreme a nuclear option, his posture may appear to be nuclear blackmail that could kickstart nuclear programs all around the world. Then again, Babylon has clearly won the war, and the Eurasians may be seen as getting what they asked for. Saddam also has to consider his domestic situation - an insufficiently decisive victory won’t translate into domestic relief from stresses and conflict that threaten his own regime. How the peoples of the world reacts to an event for which there is only one precedent is impossible to know. Rules: Babylon may use nuclear weapons in the Eurasia-Babylon conflict. If Babylon wishes to do so, they must post in-thread before the final mobilization deadline that an AP is being committed to nuclear weapons use. This is similar to a mobilization announcement except that there are no positive modifiers conferred automatically for the in-thread post. Babylon may withdraw from actually using nuclear weapons in their orders even if they’ve committed the AP in-thread, but the AP will be lost. Also, the GM will need to be invited to and understand the negotiating positions of Eurasia and Babylon which will be considered in the adjudication of nuclear weapons use, should that come to pass. Any nuclear weapons use Front will have a Target Number of 1 (meaning that any success or failure will resolve the turn the action is ordered), though its challenge rating may be as low as minor and as high as super, based on GM judgement. A success may incur a new Stress on the targeted country, depending on the roll and nature of the orders and negotiating postures. A sufficiently lethal use of nuclear weapons on manpower may separately also trigger the Body Count Stress for the targeted country.
Gasland (Regional Argentina Front): New Events:
Argentina wins the Front (4 out of 4 Front Points)
Hydraulic fracturing came online across Argentina this year, lowering the price of energy for the country and bringing much needed employment to the country’s peripheral regions. Instead of making Argentina an energy superpower like Babylon, the Supreme Lodge established a state enterprise to extract, refine, and sell gas domestically specifically to bolster domestic energy needs at the same time as redistributing economic gains to less privileged peoples in Paraguay, Argentine Brazil, Bolivia, and Patagonia. To that effect, the program has worked, with academic studies suggesting huge popularity for the state enterprise and fracking program both in Buenos Aires and the hinterland. There has however been a downside. Back in 2008, the environmental effects of this new fracking technology were unknown - now they are known, and they’re bad. Argentine academics have shown evidence that fracking results in massive methane leaks. As methane has more warming potential in the short-run than carbon dioxide, for some fracking sites where the methane leaks are especially bad the short-term warming effect is worse than extracting and burning coal. Although environmentalists and Bolivian indigenous groups have mounted protests and pipeline blockades, they have simply been too small in number to move public opinion or the government, which both see a bright future for fracking in Argentina. Changes:
the Argentine Stress Front “Argentine Chauvinism” loses 4 Collapse Points
the Argentine Stress Front “Inequality & Stagnant Wages” loses 2 Collapse Points
new World Fact: Argentina has a thriving energy economy among its peripheral territories based on hydraulic fracturing
new World Fact: Argentina is releasing huge quantities of methane due to its domestic fracking industry
SpoilerGasland :
Spoiler2008 :
Gasland (Regional Argentina Economy Front): New Events:
Argentina: rolled 19.6, soft success. +1 FP for fracking
Innovations in horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing were eagerly leapt at in Argentina, a country whose periphery contains one of the world’s largest shale reserves. The Supreme Lodge created a new state enterprise for gas extraction in the country’s north this year that has bought the rights to shale reserves in Paraguay, Argentine Brazil, Bolivia, and Patagonia. The scope of the program has been deliberately limited by the government to exclude private actors and not exploit all of Argentina’s reserves, particularly those in Argentina proper. Instead of making Argentina an energy superpower in league with Eurasia and Babylon, deployment of fracking is instead aimed at creating jobs for lower education workers and especially in the country’s neglected periphery. At that, the project appears to be a success, with polling firms reporting strong positive attitudes toward development that will bring good paying work to underrepresented regions of the country. A domestic refining industry in Buenos Aires will also help benefit stagnant wages outside of the tech industry growing in the capital too, taking a significant step forward on two major national issues. There are some downsides to the project however. The first are the environmental consequences, which are unknown at this time for a new sort of drilling operation, aside from increasing carbon emissions due to the burning of natural gas of course. Environmental activists, especially among indigenous groups in Bolivia and Paraguay, are opposed to the project on the fear that it will lead to worsening climate change and local environmental damage. Once fracking is in full swing, we will know of its true environmental impact. Trajectory: Argentina will have a thriving energy economy among, primarily in its peripheral territories, by 2011.
A Nation of Refugees (Regional Union of States Front): New Events:
Union of States wins the Front (4 out of 4 Front Points)
Since launching the Rainbow Roads initiative in 2008, the Union of States has resettled four million refugees from regions as far afield as Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Afghanistan, Bengal, Turkestan, Equatorial Africa, Kongo, East Africa, Ethiopia, and Sudan. The incredible size of the refugee population has strained domestic services, from healthcare to education, while the economy remains lacklustre and thus the unemployment rate among refugees is high. In an effort to reduce the expense paid by the government, families were randomly told they would have to volunteer to adopt refugees, sparking backlash against the refugees and the government. Until the vast refugee population, which continues to grow albeit at a slower pace now, is used in some productive way, they will likely remain primarily a social and economic burden rather than a boon. Regardless, the government has declared the program a huge success, and at least in one regard it has been, with the establishment of a highly effective state organ in the Rainbow Roads bureau itself. Canny civil servants have navigated the pitfalls of facilitating refugee and dissident relocation, and can confidently leverage foreign bureaucracies, diplomatic immunity, informants, passenger aviation, and subterfuge generally to get people from one place to another whenever the UoS needs it to happen - even without the consent of the places involved. Changes:
Union of States creates and controls a new Power Centre: Rainbow Roads
new World Fact: UoS domestic services are burdened by an enormous refugee population who are too numerous for existing job opportunities
SpoilerA Nation of Refugees :
Spoiler2008 :
A Nation of Refugees (Regional Union of States Administration Front): New Events:
Union of States: rolled 14, hard success. +1 FP for refugee resettlement
The Rainbow Republic has declared itself a global safe haven for refugees, inviting an unlimited number of people fleeing from war-torn areas or political persecution to settle in America. The UoS government has accompanied their open borders policy with a transportation program called Rainbow Roads, which has setup offices in major cities around the world wherever they can to concentrate refugee applications and facilitate and even pay for transport to the UoS. Once refugees arrive, many are then allocated a family in the country who will “adopt” them to help integrate them into UoS society. Although a comprehensive package, the open borders and refugee resettlement system has already come under stress and backlash. The Union of States has limited international recognition and many of the war-torn countries the Union seeks to obtain refugees from refuse UoS embassies. Some canny dictators have let the UoS setup offices that are not embassies (and thus not protected by diplomatic immunity) and let the UoS collect dissidents and anti-government protestors there - only to subsequently raid the facility and imprison the applying refugees. The UoS civil service, however, is crafty as well, and despite these embarrassments, they forecast a million refugees to resettle in the coming year from places as far ranging as Mexico, Colombia, Peru, Brazil, Afghanistan, Bengal, Turkestan, Kongo, and Sudan. This leads to the second issue with the plan, which is the method of integration. The UoS correctly understood that its state capacity to absorb so many refugees would be insufficient, and thus chose to rely on private support. Although many people in the Rainbow Republic are accepting of refugees in-principle, few are willing to volunteer to take on the considerable burden of integrating them into society and providing for their needs. This has put the government in a tricky position that it decided to resolve through social coercion - reports have emerged of widespread pressure on random families to share the burden of adopting refugees. In one region, thousands of people participated in a lottery with a small prize, only to learn that to receive the prize they must take on a refugee family, and that although they could technically refuse the prize and the burden, that was not actually an option they would be allowed to take without social or career ramifications. Besides these short-term issues there will be also be integration challenges that come when any new wave of migrants lands in a new place - the newcomers will have to overcome language and cultural barriers, and they will be judged at a higher standard by locals. Although these will wash away after a generation, anti-refugee backlash is likely on its way with up to four million more people expected to resettle in the coming three years alone. Changes:
new World Fact: UoS is resettling millions of refugees from around the world
new World Fact: UoS citizens are bristling at social coercion compelling people to adopt refugees
Trajectory: The Union of States will have resettled four million refugees by 2011, establishing a Power Centre based on the Rainbow Roads system.
Coalition of the Willing (Regional Middle East Front): New Events:
Eurasia: rolled 14, hard success. +1 for rallying Babylon’s enemies
The Babylonian invasion of Eurasia in 2009 energized a flurry of diplomatic backchannels discussing an anti-Babylon alliance. Nothing came of it then, and in the years since, Babylon, despite its wounds, appears to be winning. It was in this environment of dismay and resignation that Eurasia stepped in, hoping to persuade some enemies of their enemy to open up a new theatre in the conflict. As the war remains in-flux, the precise coalition is loose and uncertain. Unfortunately for Eurasia, many potential partners are worse for wear than in 2008. Ethiopia, an ultranationalist kingdom that sees Eurasia as a friend, committed to a total war in East Africa just last year. If by some miracle Ethiopia wins their current conflict, it's certainly possible King Zera will attack Sudan at Eurasia’s request. Greece, a country that would have eagerly leapt at Eurasia’s call to arms just two years ago is now engulfed in a political crisis that may see its ultranationalists ousted. Nevertheless, rumours in the intelligence communities abound that even if the Greek government falls, parts of the military may unilaterally launch attacks on the Babylonian puppet Ottoman state regardless. And if Greece remains under the control of either the king or the generals, it would most likely agree to join the fight. The socialist governments of Yugoslavia and Anatolia by contrast have no ideological affinity for Eurasia and their joining the war is therefore totally contingent on whether Eurasia tips the balance of might in their favour against Babylon while they prepare for the possibility of joining the conflict. Danubia, unexpectedly enough, has voiced some positive notes towards Eurasia as opposed to Babylon even as their government has just come into existence; their new Rainbow rulers may see support of Eurasia against the ideological monopole of neo-traditionalism as a useful way to put the neo-traditional officers inside their own country in a bind - though Danubian help would be largely irrelevant in the scheme of things, given their geographic distance and negligible navy. In Transcaucasia things are more mysterious; some credibility was won by Eurasia’s stalwart if ultimately unsuccessful defence of an ex-communist turned Suzukian state similar to Transcaucasia in many ways. Moreover, as Babylon wraps around the Caspian, analysts suspect Transcaucasia may view themselves as an inevitable next target of Babylon and joining the war as a calculated risk in a game that only ever ends with spilling Babylonian blood, either now, with Eurasia on one side, or later, without them. Finally, there’s the now nuclear-armed hermit kingdom of Arabia, which would probably be a liability if they tried to attack Babylon - but whose leaders have perhaps the deepest hatred inside them for Saddam. If Eurasia wished Arabia to join the fight, they would likely do so. Which countries are willing to fight Babylon remains uncertain, but all are at least now readying up to do so in a few years time. Changes:
this Front’s Target Number is lowered to 3
rules: When this Front resolves a new Front will be created for the new belligerents attacking Babylon. Which countries join is highly dependent on the state of the war and of Babylon and Eurasia when the Front resolves. The above passage describes the conditions for different countries joining the conflict on Eurasia’s side. The worst case scenario for Eurasia is just Transcaucasia and a rogue Greek unit engage in fighting, with some minor support from Danubia. The worst case scenario for Babylon is Greece, Yugoslavia, Anatolia, Transcaucasia, Arabia, and Ethiopia join in a simultaneous attack. GM judgement will be used when the Front resolves to determine the countries that join based on the context. If Eurasia and Babylon make peace or Eurasia collapses, the GM is likely to have no countries attack Babylon and resolve the Front in a different way (though Greece may attack Babylon of its own accord due to its own Metapolitefsi Front).
Trajectory: By 2014 some combination of countries will join on Eurasia’s side against Babylon.
SpoilerCoalition of the Willing :
Spoiler2009 :
Coalition of the Willing (Regional Middle East Espionage/Administration Front): A chorus of nations across the world have condemned the Babylonian invasion of Eurasia, flipping fence-sitters into open outrage at the vast and unprecedented escalation. In the halls of power around the world, but most especially in those nations that remain independent in Babylon’s periphery, there are feverish talks about an anti-Babylon alliance or even a joint military action to stop Babylon’s seemingly endless warmongering. Yugoslavia, Anatolia, Greece, Ethiopia, Maghreb, all now realize that they could be next on Saddam’s hit-list, while other nations far and wide have also started talking about a “coalition of the willing” to forcefully intervene against Babylon if Saddam refuses to make peace with Eurasia and Turkestan. The range of possibilities is wide, from such talk fizzling out as it often does in the face of new Babylonian wars, to the formation of a regional defensive alliance, or to the beginning of a Third World War. Rules: Progress represents efforts to create a coalition of the willing among nations in Babylon’s periphery, or even wider should players desire; Regress represents efforts to calm fears or exacerbate tensions between nations in Babylon’s periphery and therefore prevent the formation of an anti-Babylon alliance. Rewards: an anti-Babylon alliance, or the fizzling out of alliance-talk among nations surrounding Babylon
Somalia War (Regional East Africa Front): New Events:
India: rolled 15.6, hard success. +1 FP for military intervention
Once again, India has mobilized against an Ethiopian invasion of East Africa. The Indian air force was first to reach the frontlines in Ogaden, taking total control of the skies. This allowed India to immobilize Ethiopia’s best forces lest they be interdicted by Indian jets. Basing out of British Socotra, the Indian navy alongside the British Royal Navy set up a blockade of Eritrea, followed by an amphibious landing that despite unexpected casualties was able to secure much of the Eritrean coast. Unlike the last war with Ethiopia, this time India aims to permanently eliminate the Ethiopian monarchy. To that end, India has publicly backed the left-wing opposition for regime change, handing over every inch of territory they acquire to the leftist farmers and miners to administer. This makes for a powerful combination, as Indian forces are freed up to speedily acquire territory, though reports are already emerging that the leftists are less democratic than at first glance they may have appeared and may not be any more humane when in-charge than the despotic Ethiopian monarchy. In any case, it will still take multiple years in most analysts' estimation to completely defeat King Zera’s forces and thus fully secure regime change for the opposition, as the mountains of Ethiopia are still a treacherous path to fight through. King Zera has shifted to a war of attrition and is attempting to mobilize even more soldiers to use irregular warfare against the Indians travelling south from Eritrea. The higher than expected casualties have been a political issue domestically in India, where the war, being larger in scope than the last time in the 1990s, is proportionately less popular. This is also partially driven by the unique complexities involved this time as opposed to last. For one, there’s the role of al-Qaeda, who have declared India to be their new preferred target for terrorist activity. Though no terror attacks have yet occurred in India itself, new plots are believed to be likely in the future. There is also the complication of the Somali separatists. East Africa, already under tremendous stress from the war as well as al-Qaeda, has been unwilling to concede the only thing the separatists want - recognition of a Somali state. India has been notably mute on this point, supplying little support for the East Africans in that sideshow of the conflict in what is assumed to be a disagreement over whether to grant concessions to the rebels. In the short-run, this means the rebels will continue to holdout - in the long-run, when Ethiopia is vanquished and therefore East Africa’s forces are freed up, it means a bloody crackdown that will leave Somali resentment intact for another generation. Changes:
new World Fact: al-Qaeda sees India as enemy #1 and future terror attacks will be directed at them
Trajectory: By 2014 India will successfully install the minority farmers and miners (pink) as government of Ethiopia, however they will devolve into a ruthless dictatorship (but one that without territorial ambitions). The Somali separatists will be killed in a painful slog by East African forces who will entrench Somali resentment for a generation.
SpoilerSomalia War :
Somalia War (Regional East Africa Front): The previous King of Ethiopia, Amha Selassie, in the 1990s attempted to conquer the parts of Somalia his kingdom did not hold, and had it been a one-on-one match with East Africa, he likely would have succeeded. Instead, India intervened, devastating his military and handing him a humiliating treaty to sign that ceded Ethiopian Somalia to East Africa. Amha abdicated to King Zera Selassie in 1995, and the new king has painstakingly rebuilt the nation’s military through what bargain imports he could obtain over fifteen years, all in pursuit of a highly telegraphed plan to invade yet again. Unanticipated by analysts and diplomats however was the degree of chaos that another Ethiopian invasion would trigger in East Africa and especially Somalia. The Somalia region has always been a sore spot for the federation. Half of Somalia’s lands were taken from Ethiopia and have never been properly integrated, allowing Islamist terror groups to recruit there, particularly the Islamic Courts Union and al-Qaeda. The region is the poorest in the federation, still suffering from the economic damage of the previous war, and Somalis are discriminated against by East Africans from the more populous and politically dominant regions of Kenya and Tanzania. These factors have resulted in a chaotic breakdown of order in Somalia with the Ethiopian invasion early this year. Although the Ethiopian advances across the border suffered heavy casualties, their intrusion opened Pandora’s box. To defend against an Ethiopian offensive through Ogaden in an ill-considered b-line to Mogadishu, East African forces concentrated in Ogaden and south-central Somalia. Disgruntled actors seized the moment, on a variety of pretexts, from grievances that Mogadishu and its Kenyan and Tanzanian elites were being prioritized over them, to general longstanding issues over religion, discrimination, and poverty. The skeleton crews well behind the lines at the tip of the Horn of Africa fell first. Although public protests were small, the Islamic Courts Union would quickly join them, armed and with demands to hand over power from the elected representatives to the unelected terror group. The whole northeastern tip of Somalia rapidly fell to these ragtag terrorists who, in their newfound position as a de facto state, are promising to create an independent theocratic republic of Somalia in the style of Bengal. To the northwest, suddenly cutoff from primary transport routes running along the coast, an East African army general from Kenya was ousted by his Somali subordinates in a pseudo-coup who have separately declared their desire for a free and independent republic of Somalia. With the advance stalled in Ogaden, Ethiopia spread out attacks along the entirety of the border, including against northern Kenya. East Africa has continued to make routes to Mogadishu and the entire Kenyan border a high-priority, while publicly condemning the breakaway groups and demanding they surrender unconditionally - something that is clearly off the table, with both groups insisting on Somali independence. In the meantime, al-Qaeda has stepped into the vacuum, carrying out car bombings, knife attacks, and hotel attacks inside Mogadishu and other urban areas. Ethiopia, being isolated from the international community and international markets, has had fewer domestic troubles, though it is impossible to know whether Eritrean separatists might take this war as an opportunity for their own secessionary endeavours, should a foreign backer be available. Despite years of preparation, this year of fighting has shown that Ethiopia was never ready to take on East Africa by itself, and the chaotic rebellions in Somalia it has inadvertently created will only help Ethiopia militarily secure a slice of the deserts it once held before. Changes:
new World Fact: Somali army officers and Islamists are demanding East Africa grant independence to either a democratic or theocratic republican Somalia (respectively) and control significant parts of the region
Trajectory: The Ethiopia-East African conflict in Somalia will grind out for years (2013) until a de facto line of control is established stretching through Ogaden. Ethiopia will suffer a Stress in the form of a World Fact from manpower and prestige hits due to the war, while two microstates will persist in north and northeast Somalia that will serve as a Stress for East Africa.
Ukraine’s Resistance (Regional Eurasia Front): New Events:
Babylon: rolled 12.2, hard success. +1 FP for sabotage and nationalism
Every year the war gets closer to Eurasia’s heartland. At first it was far away, in Turkestan, but then it came for the Urals and the Caspian. This year it has come one step closer with a wave of sabotage and terrorism striking infrastructure across Ukraine. As Eurasia suffers from a total breakdown of censorship and state narrative control, the everyday citizen has just as good a guess as to who’s behind it as any: Babylon’s infamous Mushussu have somehow smuggled themselves into western Eurasia and are recruiting willing accomplices to coordinate sabotage and soften up the country for another offensive. In this the Mushussu have found no shortage of problems, according to intelligence analysts. Eurasia’s munitions depots are famously well-monitored, while many locals see Babylon as the greater of two evils, as evidenced by last year’s effort to ally with Tartars and Bashkirs that ended in complete failure and caused military losses. Intelligence analysts believe that Eurasia has apprehended or killed dozens of Babylonian secret agents, a high toll for such an elite branch, and that the sabotage efforts are requiring the complete attention of Babylon’s intelligence community, disabling them from doing anything else. In Poland, it is even thought that a captured and interrogated agent divulged damaging information on how Babylon conducts espionage, allowing the Polish strongman to totally insulate his fiefdom from infiltration and sabotage. Babylon’s subterfuge in Poland have also alienated a powerful persona who has always been suspected of harbouring desires for independence. Now any attempts to cultivate him as an asset for Babylon are going to be much harder. Despite the obstacles and setbacks, there was one bright spot for Babylon. While it seems Babylon couldn’t meaningfully recruit Russians, Poles, and Small Numbered Peoples like the Cossacks, Ukrainian nationalists have unexpectedly joined in concerningly large numbers, organizing primarily through a network of saboteurs and separatists called the Ukrainian Underground State. Sabotage operations across Ukraine have therefore been relatively successful, including a notable munitions depot operation that destroyed hundreds of millions of rupees worth of ammo. This softening of defences and behind-the-lines ally will help make a future attack against Ukraine easier, and will further destabilize Eurasia. Changes:
rules: Babylon will be unable to roll on Espionage so long as it is involved in this Front, as it consumes all intelligence resources to handle
new World Fact: separatist saboteurs known as the Ukrainian Underground State are damaging infrastructure and softening up defences in Ukraine
new World Fact: the Polish strongman sees Babylon as an enemy
the Eurasia Stress Front “Secessionists & Nationalism” gains 1 Collapse Point
Trajectory: By 2014, Ukraine will be militarily softened to potential Babylonian invasion, and Eurasia’s Secessionists & Nationalism Stress will gain more Collapse Points.
Greater China (Regional China Front): New Events:
Argentina: rolled 13.2, hard success. +1 FP for Chinese reunification
The northern neo-Mongols have long kept tensions high inside China, a functionally disunited country. While the east is a technocratic stronghold and the south has taken an Argentine-influenced turn, the north remains stubborn in its pretensions to the mandate from heaven, presuming they will one day unify China by force. Things have started to change however, as the Chinese people increasingly see reunification under the Argentine model as a serious possibility. Nationalist agitation began merely on the internet, but picked up pace this year when social clubs, protest groups, and political committees started forming and carrying out demonstrations inside neo-Mongol lands in support of reunification, pitching themselves as Yuan revivalists in hopes they wouldn’t be crushed by their rulers. Being themselves committed to reunification and a revivalist nationalism, demonstrations were not stopped by the northern warlords, who only too late realized that an Argentine-originating influence campaign was underway to pressure them into acquiescing to a reunified technocratic China. Similar agitation arose in the south and east, taking on a life of its own, perhaps contrary to Argentine expectations. Uncontrollable nationalism has been unleashed, with activists demanding technocratic unification, but also territorial aggrandizement for a greater China. Some maps of this “greater China” circulated online include Manchuria, east Turkestan, and Taiwan, while almost all include Tibet. It seems that any reunification project will lack legitimacy unless Tibet at the very least (if not Manchuria or Taiwan) is included in the new nation. Though some squabbling has been reported among the generals in the north, their attitude has shifted to opportunism - they have begun embracing the people’s rhetoric, dropping Mongol motifs for those of the Yuan to signal support for the unification protestors. Their hope, it seems, is to join a reunified China as the military branch, securing for themselves a powerful position within any new regime, even if they are technically supposed to take orders from a technocratic state. Trajectory: By 2014 the Mongol revivalists and Mandarin general staff will accept reunification of China underneath a technocratic state, but will remain a powerful grey Faction within that state. Moreover, reunification efforts will be hampered unless Tibet is included in the project.
Lithium Triangle (Super Argentina Front): New Events:
Argentina & East Asia: rolled 20.4, full success. +2 FP for lithium mining
The East Asian Green Valley has set about building the last leg of its global supply chain in the lithium and copper-rich regions of Argentina. The “Lithium Triangle” contains by far the largest reserve of both copper and lithium and its exploitation would make Argentina a commodities superpower. The two governments negotiated a bilateral trade deal this year that guarantees the flow of copper and lithium from Argentina to East Asia, while both countries provide capital and expertise in building hundreds of mines across the provinces of Bolivia and Chile. East Asian businesspeople have also begun making long-term connections inside Argentina that will hopefully provide influence that will mean its exports are secured indefinitely from political interference. To facilitate the growth scheme, the Argentine government has created the Occidental Mining Consortium, a business group which directly benefits from the international agreement. All parties to the deal have started building with gusto and expect the project to finish ahead of schedule, with popular support from local Chileans and Bolivians, and East Asia’s environmental credentials blessing the program’s reputation. Changes:
the East Asian Stress “Degrowth Policy” loses 1 Collapse Point
the Argentine Stress “Argentine Chauvinism” loses 1 Collapse Point
Trajectory: By 2014, Argentina will acquire a mining Power Centre and World Facts asserting Argentina’s domination of copper and lithium markets. East Asia will obtain World Facts representing entrenched lithium and copper access of enormous magnitude and will have met the Electrostates Special Front criteria to begin decarbonizing economies. Both countries will ease relevant Stresses.
Shortage Economy (Union of States Short-Term Stress Front): New Events:
Union of States: rolled 17.2, soft success. +1 FP for consumer goods production
In another ironic vindication of the pre-Rainbow propaganda warning against Soviet communism, the Rainbow Republic has resorted to blunt central planning to fix its economic woes. Starting a multi-year economic plan, nationalized industry under state management has set forth quotas for production in numerous areas, from primary goods like lumber and energy to consumer goods like cars and processed foods. To achieve this, the government has curtailed trade even further with export controls, while finding itself yet again reliant on social coercion to compel workers to work harder for the same wages. To boost morale and also resolve an old Marxist point about alienation, the Union has also mandated product origin information on all consumer goods, especially foods, encouraging pride with “Made in the Union” stickers that also spell out where things were made with considerable specificity. The nature of this production program is diffuse, with no concentrated effort in any particular industry, while the program’s apparent assumption is that new production targets can be accomplished through sheer willpower. This has been an uphill battle compared to either market reforms, opening up international trade, or focusing efforts on a single industry - but nonetheless, through sheer will, the Union is rebuilding an autarkic industrial base in basic goods, from motor vehicles to processed foods to small-scale oil and gas expansions. While the underlying malaise remains, the symptoms of the Union’s weak economy should disappear within a few years, leaving the country more self-reliant than ever. Trajectory: By 2014 the Union of States will have resolved the Shortage Economy Stress and have World Facts reflecting the achievement of autarky in consumer and primary goods, and the low quality of new industry.
SpoilerShortage Economy :
Spoiler2009 :
Shortage Economy (Union of States Short-Term Stress) New Events:
Long-Term Stress “capital flight and economic chill” Collapses (8 out of 8 Collapse Points)
For a lot of people, living under the Rainbow Republic is better than the old USA. Segregation and apartheid are over, LGBT rights and reproductive rights are protected, and economic redistribution have lifted people out of poverty. But these achievements came at a deep economic cost. The Union’s neighbours put up trade restrictions, capital fled, social attitudes towards private enterprise soured, and supply chains were wrecked. Price controls worked for a time but the Union can no longer hide the underlying scarcity of basic goods throughout its stagnant economy. Although there’s plenty of food to feed people, the great diversity of brands and flavours and restaurants that once flourished is gone. There are few car imports and the old American automotive supply chain between Mexico, Canada, and the United States is long dead, leaving the country’s automotive stock shabby and forcing people to take inefficiently built and managed transit to work. As with most things, heating is free, but it’s scarce; this winter looks to be especially bad with what few fuel imports the Union manages to obtain to go up dramatically in price due to the Eurasia-Babylon War, forcing people to sleep cold at night. The Union exists in a shortage economy, ironically not too dissimilar to the propaganda that the old USA told about the Soviet Union - though there are no bread lines, there is a palpable malaise that, if not dealt with, may evolve into unrest.
Latter-Day Democracy (Regional Utah Front): New Events:
Europe: rolled 16, soft success. +1 FP for church infiltration
The dauntless reformers who won last year’s elections despite all the obstacles the Mormon Church put in their way have set their sights on an even bigger prize: the leadership of the church itself. Although there are liberal allies within the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the organization is fundamentally conservative by its nature. Mormon doctrine dictates that only one man on earth may receive the word of god for all of humanity, and that is the Prophet, formally the President of the Mormon Church, who is, by tradition, always the most senior Mormon apostle among a council of fifteen. The apostles and the Prophet serve lifetime terms, which makes any effort at reform or leadership change either a long-haul or a matter of persuading the existing leaders of new ideas. To solve this puzzle, Utah’s newly elected reform-minded President, Mitt Romney, invited European Union consultants to help him craft a suite of policies that would help him wield influence over the LDS Church. Besides having the Europeans conduct election watching to help separate church and state, the Europeans were asked to involve themselves in an investigation into criminal abuses and corruption by top-ranking Mormon priests, granting it an aura of credibility and respect. The investigation’s report has not been made public and appears like it never will be, forcing reporters to speculate that it must contain terrible dirt on Mormon leaders. This theory was vindicated later in the year as the LDS Church abruptly shifted rhetoric, with promises that Utah’s new dawn was a time for the church to refocus on the outside world, and by implication, exit the domestic political scene. This victory has set Romney and his European consultants on a path to ultimately take over the church, blackmailing the existing leadership into preferred policies while they live, while reformers slowly fill the ranks of the apostles as they die. One unintended side effect of this however was an unusual emphasis by the LDS Church leaders to “refocus on the outside world” specifically in the European Union itself. Thousands of missionaries have been ordered to go to Europe to convert, and though the mission has only just begun, Europeans appear to be highly receptive. Decades of state atheism and religious persecution and church leadership co-opting under the Soviet Union created such an atmosphere of nihilism and cynicism to religion that the enthusiastic, sincere, and energetic Mormon preachers have found an enormous untapped market for their ideological wares. It seems that as Europe changes Utah, Utah will change Europe too. Changes:
new World Fact: the Mormon Church is sending missionaries to the European Union where it is finding a ripe audience for their religion
Trajectory: Europe will control the LDS Church Power Centre by 2014, and will create World Facts representing Mormonism’s spread to Europe and democratic safeguards in Utah that make the country less liable to slip back into authoritarian theocracy.
Whistling Dixie (Regional Southern Republic Front): New Events:
India: rolled 26, spectacular success. +3 FP for liberal democratization
The South has changed. Dixiecrats thought that independence would allow them to exact their racist political vision of a white ethnostate ruled by them forever - but the course of history proved otherwise. The republic’s far-right lost the Caribbean in 2005, then the Presidency in 2008, then their ideological leadership in the blue wave of 2010 - and this year, the far-right lost everything. The country’s moderate nationalist president agreed not to seek a second term and in a grand political awakening, agreed with state legislatures to a constitutional convention that ended gerrymandering and apartheid policies and ran the most democratic elections ever held in the south. A moderate liberal and South African War veteran who went to outer space on a NASA mission in the 1980s, Bill Nelson, won the Presidency as an independent, while a mix of moderate liberals and conservatives in the style of the Texan political scene now predominate in Congress. Pushing along this democratization process all the while in the background was India, whose diplomats, election observers, lawyers, and civil servants could be found in legislatures and party conferences across the Southern Republic. Ultranationalist politicians were surprisingly deflated in their resistance to this political revolution from above, many retiring from public life to join corporate boards in aerospace and defence companies often partially owned by Indian nationals or the Indian government. Meanwhile, even the left-wing fringe of unions and mutual aid groups supported the constitutional convention and formed a legal political party that obtained a small number of seats in the elections. With buy-in across the political spectrum, the new Southern democracy appears more stable than ever, looking outward to the world, as well as skyward to the stars - literally, in the case of NASA, which President Bill Nelson has promised to reinvigorate with the assistance of India, whose engineers and scientists have been invited to join the organization. Changes:
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
