Contact DoubleA though CFC. Like he's right there, I talked to him last week.
2: What were you using, the Wayback Machine? CFC's servers were lost in the EKNC conquest. In fact, now that I think about it, a whole lot of digital infrastructure got fried in that war... do we even still
have an Internet?? All countries except Majterre and the Bunker lose 30% wealth taxable due to the sudden regression of global communications.
TAKE THE 3RD AND 4TH EVANGELISTS COMPANIES ALONG WITH ME TO CONVERT THE PEOPLE OF THE PLATINUM HORDE.
13 (11): Infiltrating the Mongolian border, you corner a cavalry formation and ask if it has accepted the wonders of Minimalism into its life. Mongolian 20th Cavalry Regiment gains 10% sympathy to the Cult of Minimalism.
Pass a law, giving people the right to elect the senate. 100 seats available to be elected. three primary parties are created: on the left is the liberal party. on the center is the Conservative party. on the right is the Nationalist Party.
12 (15): It's not exactly a free vote since you're the one that formed the parties, but at the very least it should provide a second opinion to the court from people that know the situation on the ground. +1 Statecraft; three new parties in Istanbul: Liberal (34%), Conservative (33%), Nationalist (33%).
Do that weird thing I said to get people to pay me money out of adoration (and then sue anyone who doesn't).
14: Greatly appreciating your initiative to maintain a stable hydrology
so the GM doesn't have to hire a team of oceanographers to plot coastal erosion, all NPC states pay in tree fiddy for operational expenses. All player countries that have not paid their dues are billed $3.50 at 1% interest/turn.
Our action is to enact the above treaty and its policies with the Faxumite Empire
20 (17): For an establishing foreign policy, it seems you're only a few steps short of a joint state. Abolishing virtually all economic and political borders will certainly make integration easier—for better and worse. +3 diplomacy, -3
casus belli, +2 trade, -2 regulation and -3 ideological defence with Faxum; Faxum automatically receives 25% of scientific research; 25% chance major Faxumite economic events will spread to Majterre.
Move to peacefully disarm SPD forces in London - only fire if absolutely necessary.
10: Try as they might, local police simply cannot convince SPD loyalists to stand down. In fact, the report says it seems less out of obstinacy and more a collective zone-out, to the point Pearl considered simply walking up and taking the guns, but decided that might constitute "provocation".
Technocratic Republic of Rationalia
7: For a state priding itself on the supremacy of reason, observation, and peer review, the decision to erect the Ivory Tower in the heart of a reactionary battlefield would seem...
illogical. Baghdad is less a bastion of knowledge so much as a citadel against the dogmatists lurking beyond. Now, a lesser man might claim your "smug atheism" and contempt for history makes you little more than the nonviolent mirror-image of Daesh—but he's just jealous he was one-thousandth of a percent short of a passing score.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
Philology: No matter how much the MBA grads and their mentors push their propaganda, you know knowledge for its own sake is still a worthy pursuit. +10 Science/turn, and +20% interest on end-of-turn Science surplus.
Doctrine of Reason: Of course the world would be better off if everyone understood its foundational principles, but dismissing the opposition as 'idiots' isn't exactly conductive to lasting dialogue. +2 diplomacy with fellow technocracies, -1 diplomacy with everyone else; +1 diplomacy in scientific initiatives; +3 ideological defence.
Doctrine of Peace: There is no greater waste of human life than its reckless disposal for the sake of petty argument. You will of course protect the halls of knowledge if necessary, but armed force is your last recourse. -2
casus belli; military units lose -1 attack, double as police: +2 to law enforcement, civilian casualties reduced.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Neil DarthReus Tyson (Reus)
Supreme Brain
100% approval
+2 to astrophysics
+2 to science
14: Meanwhile, so far north everywhere else starts to look a lot like south, Custerfield has gone one step further and declared a doctrine of total neutrality. Exploiting Icelandic fraternalism and relative self-sufficiency, it has formed itself into a northern refuge against the tomfoolery of the continental powers. With America having plunged into fascism, you must look to your own for protection; but what you lack in numbers you make up for in firepower.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
True Neutral: With enemies you know where you stand, but with neutrals? Who knows? It
sickens me. An aggressively noncommittal foreign policy will shield you from overseas entanglements, but makes intervention that much harder. +5 defence v. foreign influence, -3 diplomacy, +4 to terminating existing agreements.
Refuge in Solitude: If you're not gonna play with anyone else you'd better make sure you've already got plenty of toys. +1 to domestic economy, +1 science, -3 foreign trade.
Northern Watch: While you can't afford much in manpower, you've splurged on the most cutting-edge equipment you can buy. Given the landscape there's also plenty of opportunity to hone physical fighting skills—if they send double the troops, just shoot twice. All military units gain +2 combat; infantry trained in Iceland gain +1 defence and +1 mobility in mountains, while infantry trained in Greenland gain +1 combat in polar regions, +1 v. extreme cold).
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Sniiperman456
Head of State
97% approval
Democratic People's Republic of Norrland-Sápmi
7: Sweden is in a bit of a state. In all the post-war chaos and confusion, Johanland was beset by conservative radicals since It Seemed the Trendy Thing To Do™. Political polarization ensued, culminating in the secession of the north half of the country under your mantra of traditional Scandinavian progressivism, bolstered by the Sámi communities that had legitimate fears that "Sweden for the Swedes" bode ill for their rights. Thus far the regime in Stockholm has deigned to leave you to your own... probably because it made sure to steal everything not nailed down beforehand.
NATIONAL OUTLOOK
Minority Report: Bring ye their tired, their huddled masses, yearning to breathe free. As an egalitarian safehouse, you're pretty much open to everyone... except the racists down south, of course. +4 refugee desirability, +1 diplomacy with Liberal/Socialist states, +1 diplomacy with (non-nationalist) ethnic communities, -3 diplomacy with South Sweden.
Your-Fault Divorce: Stockholm's abstention from contesting your secession seemed unexpectedly generous... Then you realized they’d gutted the northern economy beforehand. On the plus side, you're all the wiser for future shocks. -1 economic development, -1 military recruitment, +2 economic robustness; begin with mild national debt.
DRAMATIS PERSONÆ
Gustav Gustavsson (Gurra09)
President
90% approval
1.
Enact the treaty with Majterre as
discussed here.
2.
Diplomatically annex the region in red
14: Majterre's willingness to bend over backwards for you is highly
arousing amusing. Too bad there's not much on your end that isn't already deregulated... guess we know who's topping whom in
this relationship. +1 diplomacy, -3
casus belli, +1 trade, -2 regulation and -3 ideological defence with Majterre; Majterre automatically receives 25% of scientific research; 10% chance major Majterran economic events will spread to Faxum.
17: No-one knows exactly what methods were used, and the wise don't want to find out. The end result is most of Sudan has been absorbed into the Empire, including several major cities that survived the war intact. More importantly, you've recovered viable equipment stockpiles with which you now have something approaching an actual army. +$16,000 wealth taxable; acquire the Khartoum Convergence, Atbara, Port Sudan, and Wadi Halfa; mechanized units assembled in Khartoum and Port Sudan.
1 (5): While you were preparing to roll America, your
Draugr army... er, wasn't. In spite of all the rhetoric, there have actually been next-to-no war games in advance of the real attack, and the initial assault is a disorganized mess. All military units suffer -3 to attack in opening moves, and a -2 combat penalty for the next three turns as field commanders try to figure out what the hell they're supposed to be doing.
ROLL TO DODGE!
1 (1): En route to lead the assault on D.C., you're accosted by a Redcap battalion that deals 15 damage.
Have all military units defend the nation from Namibian invasion. This is a battle for the freedom of America and all American patriots are called to arms to defend the nation from the African invaders.
6: A nice jingoistic call to arms on the eve of a home war
should have been a no-brainer. Instead, you appear completely flat-footed against what several factions within the government kept warning you was inevitable. The public blames you for poor preparedness. You blame your Cabinet. It blames each other. Citizens fear a draft and begin contingency plans. Those at the front hold the line because they have to, but further from D.C. it's anyone's guess where loyalties lie. President Christos loses 5% approval; all cities west of Oklahoma lose 1 Stability; regular forces west of New Orleans lose 1 Loyalty.
Trust the pillars with your secrets, and gain their alliance as to use them as our chief diplomats...and other things, but later.
18 (20): "Symbols are the key to telepathy. The mind wraps its secrets in symbols; when we discover the symbols that shape our enemy's thought, we can penetrate the vault of his mind." You may not be Lady Dierdre (and she may not be a Pillar), but the principle remains the same... and you've just hired the best ciphers known to mortal minds. +4 espionage, but -5 spy defence should the pact ever be broken.
Hire General Maximilian Veers as Chief of staff of the Army.
12 (14): He's a little full of himself and has an obsession with robot camels, but there's no better strategist when you want to employ overwhelming force. Maximilian Veers hired as Chief of Staff: +2 attack to mechanized and armoured units.
Sell popcorn and little Namibia flags to onlookers.
17: Sure, the war may be off to a bad start, but you still bet on the popular team, and within hours you're in danger of running short. +$5 million to state coffers, while the international show of solidarity boosts Namibian morale +2 for the next eight turns.
(All players may purchase their own paper flag for $1.50 as a free action.)
invest in and expand the volksreich's economic capabilities by investing in the creation of more cooperatives.
8 (10): YO DAWG, I HEARD YOU LIKE CO-OPS. SO WE PUT A CO-OP IN YOUR CO-OP SO YOU CAN SYNDICALIZE WHILE YOU SYNDICALIZE! But yeah, unless the end goal is fractal business, no-one's quite sure where a new one would
fit.
News on the March
American Civil War: Round III
Everyone knew it was coming. No-one thought the overture would be so
lacklaustre. The initial attack on D.C. proved ineffective, while the Toronto offensive was stalled in its tracks with the Canadians now on the defensive, although a flanking force is expected to arrive by next turn. The Generalissima herself came under fire while en route to Washington, prompting a rescue by forces in Pittsburgh. So far the Namibians' most successful front has been at the Ohio–Indiana border, where Bluecapes have stunned a lone Redcap battalion.
America isn't doing much better. Political infighting combined with a critical lack of preparedness have thrown military command into disarray, with several units refusing marching orders altogether, and the rest stymied by profiteering toll roads. While Namibia holds numeric and technical superiority on the ground, its lone fighter squadron can't hope to take on the entire USAF at once... assuming it puts its boots on and clears the tarmac.
Rumours that President Antonopoulos went catatonic after his speech have been rigorously denied by the White House, with
mirror-universe Michael Moore Steve Bannon stating it is all part of a foolproof strategy to confound
the Democrats America's enemies, and to stay tuned if you want so much
whingeing winning, you'll get sick of it.
United States of America is now an NPC.
Sámi with Missile Ships
Scandinavian politics has been upended with the rise of regressivism in what we
thought was the most forward-thinking peninsula in Europe. Sweden is spit between a
Communist hard socialist North(land) and a
cryptofascist ancap archconservative South. After surviving the Cold War more or less untouched, have the Swedes unwittingly found themselves the fulcrum of a new global power play? Only if Berlin gets involved, says our editor.
South Sweden—Despite blatant racism and right-wing rhetoric, Stockholm allowed Norrland-Sápmi to secede, probably thinking it's the best way to confine the undesirables in a single place. Surrounded by socialists it's unlikely to find friends on the continent, but it retains the bulk of the professional army and shouldn't be trifled with.
Northern Sámi Federation—Following Kiruna's lead, neighbouring Sámi communities declared their own sovereignty and now control a unified state stretching across the Arctic Circle. No doubt President Gustavsson would have preferred they had joined
him, but it's better than nothing. To the envy of Byzieboos everywhere, the defection of northern Kola has netted the country control of a sizable portion of the Russian Northern Fleet, including the aircraft carrier
Kuznetsov, although most of the shipyards were sabotaged and the vessels are badly understaffed.
Faxumite Libertarians Demand Austerity
In the wake of the Internet Crash of five minutes ago, the libertarian wing in Faxum has begun campaigning for lower taxes and the usual Disaster Capitalism shock tactics to promote "balanced budgets" and "encourage entrepreneurship". The socialists don't know what they're whingeing about given there's barely a budget to balance, but since when has the Chicago School paid attention to the facts? Faxum loses 1 stability until it Acts in response.
Hoxha Cannot Into SBAES
A long-range missile test ended catastrophically for Albania-in-Exile when the rocket detonated shortly after takeoff, damaging Bunker Prime and scattering debris across the area, resulting in the deaths of 17 personnel and minor injuries to all above-ground units. Press releases have been suspended to confound the revisionists, but there is widespread speculation Hoxha was investigating means of landing an expedition on Madagascar that did not require manned aircraft or a functioning navy. Internationally-renowned pie enthusiast Hugh Neutron remarked that "The chances of anything coming from Antarctica are a million to one!"—for once, it seems fate didn't take.
Notes from the GM
So there you have it: our first taste of large-scale warfare. I actually managed all the calculations today—and once again, the most time was spent on the map. I can't say much about the process itself since so far I'm just winging it, but in the end it's the same basic procedure as everything in this game: I roll a die, adjust modifiers, and interpret the result. It's not quite the same as fights involving player characters, but I think it'll do the job of handling mass combat in an expedient fashion.
I applied rigorous GM fiat (read: quasi-educated guesswork) to the Volksreich's updated party stats. If Terra actually had a breakdown in mind, I'll look into tweaking it.
Update starts in a week or when all orders received, as usual. Given what we've seen so far, the
actual deadline is open to interpretation.
