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Morrow
Oct 31, 2010

habeasdorkus posted:

Wait, if we're already at 1936, what happened to all of the post-WW1 decisions? Aren't we all now members of the Central Committee bearing suspicious resemblances to former members of the Majlis?

*elects a communist dictator*

"Hey what happened to voting?"

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Randarkman
Jul 18, 2011


A country that can't think of anything better to put on its flag than its borders deserves nothing but death.

Morrow posted:

*elects a communist dictator*

"Hey what happened to voting?"

Some central committee thing with lots of intrigue but where everything is ultimately passed unanimously to the sound of thunderous applause would fit quite well.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

habeasdorkus posted:

Wait, if we're already at 1936, what happened to all of the post-WW1 decisions? Aren't we all now members of the Central Committee bearing suspicious resemblances to former members of the Majlis?

Power is completely in the hands of Maz Mazin right now, but it won't stay that way forever, and we'll have our own politburo (I'll probably just call it the shura though) consisting entirely of members of the Communist Faction. That said, there's nothing really to vote on since the Great War started, so I just haven't mentioned it yet. Unless something drastic happens in the last decade of Vic2, the next voting session will likely be in HoI.

QuoProQuid
Jan 12, 2012

Tr*ckin' and F*ckin' all the way to tha
T O P

Hashim posted:

Unless something drastic happens in the last decade of Vic2, the next voting session will likely be in HoI.

you underestimate this country’s capacity for self-sabotage

habeasdorkus
Nov 3, 2013

Royalty is a continuous shitposting motion.

Hashim posted:

Power is completely in the hands of Maz Mazin right now, but it won't stay that way forever, and we'll have our own politburo (I'll probably just call it the shura though) consisting entirely of members of the Communist Faction.

Woo! I call being Bukharin!

MaxieSatan
Oct 19, 2017

critical support for anarchists
I want to be Trotsky so I can get murdered with an ice axe

RabidWeasel
Aug 4, 2007

Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!
Obligitary comment for everyone to watch The Death of Stalin, simultaneously one of the funniest and most brutally realistic movies I've ever seen

habeasdorkus
Nov 3, 2013

Royalty is a continuous shitposting motion.
Death of Stalin was one of my favorite movies of the year. I deeply hope we get to do the Death of Maz Mazin.

GSD
May 10, 2014

by Nyc_Tattoo
What's life like in the Balkan Federation?

Dance Officer
May 4, 2017

It would be awesome if we could dance!
Probably pretty bad?

ThatBasqueGuy
Feb 14, 2013

someone introduce jojo to lazyb


Dance Officer posted:

Probably pretty bad?

Well the permanent rolling hellwars finally stopped once Serbia became fully ascendant, and they dodged 90% of the recent hellwar on top of being a direct democracy, so I can't imagine it's that bad other than being relatively poor.

Tricky Dick Nixon
Jul 26, 2010

by Nyc_Tattoo
yes, a "direct ""democracy"""

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


As opposed to such prosperous capitalist paradises in the Al-Andalus universe such as:

Mr_Autoshades
Dec 5, 2016

Crazycryodude posted:

As opposed to such prosperous capitalist paradises in the Al-Andalus universe such as:

New England might actually be quite nice all things considered.

RabidWeasel
Aug 4, 2007

Cultures thrive on their myths and legends...and snuggles!
I basically imagine them to be like IRL Yugoslavia except the two opposing power blocks that both hate you are just as bad as each other

QuoProQuid
Jan 12, 2012

Tr*ckin' and F*ckin' all the way to tha
T O P

Mr_Autoshades posted:

New England might actually be quite nice all things considered.

The Berber Union probably looks pretty good too

Cerebral Bore
Apr 21, 2010


Fun Shoe

Mr_Autoshades posted:

New England might actually be quite nice all things considered.

They're basically Manifest Destinying their way to the Pacific coast, except there are a lot more nonwhite people on the way than there were IRL. So if their approach to that particular conundrum is anywhere close to that of the historical US, we're looking at another total horrorshow.

habeasdorkus
Nov 3, 2013

Royalty is a continuous shitposting motion.
On the plus side, I don't think they ever went hard into chattel slavery.

Pakled
Aug 6, 2011

WE ARE SMART

Cerebral Bore posted:

They're basically Manifest Destinying their way to the Pacific coast, except there are a lot more nonwhite people on the way than there were IRL. So if their approach to that particular conundrum is anywhere close to that of the historical US, we're looking at another total horrorshow.

I dunno if manifest destiny is what they're after, they declined to take any territory in the last war when they certainly could have carved a big chunk out of northern Ibriz.

Dance Officer
May 4, 2017

It would be awesome if we could dance!
The only good reason to grab any part of the US that isn't the coastal regions is the resources you can exploit.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

Crazycryodude posted:

As opposed to such prosperous capitalist paradises in the Al-Andalus universe such as:

There's New England and Berber Union, but the only properly capitalist power in the old world would be Russia, since they've been dominated by liberal parties for decades now (ever since they suffered that liberal revolution way back when). I kinda imagine them as our version of the UK, without the splendid isolation and with the imperialism amped up to eleven.

Their main agenda in HoI will probably be to establish democracies and constitutional monarchies across the rest of Europe, under the guiding hand of Smolensk of course, unifying the continent under their version of Continental System, free from the absolutist interference from across the mediterranean.

oystertoadfish
Jun 17, 2003

rio or some other beautiful gharbian location and, like, Sochi or whatever nice places the Russians control really seem like the places to be. Russia is the major power that had the least evil evolution I think

also if there's one good thing we did it was choosing the one time we hosed Morocco up to be when the future of the slave trade was in the balance.

obviously slavery continued after said event irl so it'll be a mixed bag, but all our other bags are full of garrotted heads

e: I forgot that would be a positive for this thread so our bags are also full of stunted children who died from malnutrition

Crazycryodude
Aug 15, 2015

Lets get our X tons of Duranium back!

....Is that still a valid thing to jingoistically blow out of proportion?


But were they capitalist children?

ThatBasqueGuy
Feb 14, 2013

someone introduce jojo to lazyb


Crazycryodude posted:

But were they capitalist children?

They were hoarding grain from our brave boys in red defending the country against fascists/monarchists/liberals/monarcholiberfashies

Ikasuhito
Sep 29, 2013

Haram as Fuck.

ThatBasqueGuy posted:

They were hoarding grain from our brave boys in red defending the country against fascists/monarchists/liberals/monarcholiberfashies/anarchists/socialists/regional nationalists/communists with a imperceptibly different ideology from us/communists who were led by someone dear leader didn't personally like/the Czechoslovak Legion...

Grammarchist
Jan 28, 2013

You know I kinda lost sight of this in the midst of the orgy of global bloodletting, but what's the state of social reform in the Iberian Union now?

Super Jay Mann
Nov 6, 2008

Grammarchist posted:

You know I kinda lost sight of this in the midst of the orgy of global bloodletting, but what's the state of social reform in the Iberian Union now?

"So the bad news: Your family is being tried for sedition, your entire town has been razed to the ground in a sea of blood for using the wrong shade of red in their flag during the state-sanctioned flag salute, and you're probably going to be arrested in the near future on trumped up charges to keep the illusion of our prosperous revolution alive, where you will likely be sentenced to death.

The good news: We have passed social reforms aimed at stopping employers from using tactics like threatening to castrate employees who don't complete 110-hour work weeks."

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

Grammarchist posted:

You know I kinda lost sight of this in the midst of the orgy of global bloodletting, but what's the state of social reform in the Iberian Union now?

It'll be in the next update, but I've been quickly passing reforms ever since the communists took power (the one good thing to come out of the high militancy and constant rebellions), so they're pretty advanced by now. Political reforms, not so much.

Morrow
Oct 31, 2010
I think we have sufficient evidence that voting is bad for Iberia.

habeasdorkus
Nov 3, 2013

Royalty is a continuous shitposting motion.

Super Jay Mann posted:

"The good news: We have passed social reforms aimed at stopping employers from Thanks to the glories of Communism and collectivization, using tactics like threatening to castrate employees who don't complete 110-hour work weeks had been banned outside of the Gulag."

FTFY.

Morrow posted:

I think we have sufficient evidence that voting is bad for Iberia.

You sound like a fascist, comrade. The only problem was that the wrong people were voting.

Tiger Crazy
Sep 25, 2006

If you couldn't find any weirdness, maybe we'll just have to make some!

Morrow posted:

I think we have sufficient evidence that voting is bad for Iberia.

Comrade, Welcome to the list. Enjoy your stay.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!
Chapter 24 - An Armistice for Ten Years - 1923 to 1936


In the waning days of the summer of 1923, six years of unrelenting warfare finally came to an end, with the victorious powers of France, Russia and Morocco declaring the immediate cessation of hostilities in the neutral city of Prague. There would be no negotiations or discussions regarding the terms of peace, however. This was a hard-won victory, and the defeated nations would have no voice in the treaty.

Amongst the many clauses and provisions nestled into the Peace of Prague was the economic capitulation and disarmament of all the defeated nations — Germany, Celtica, Ibriz, Benin, Armenia, Arabia and Iberia. After all the devastation wrought by the Great War, the victors were determined to permanently cripple their longtime enemies.



From the very beginning, however, the Iberians began flouting the terms forced upon them. Supreme Leader Maz Mazin knew that the government in Paris would be itching for another war before long, one that would finally settle the rivalry between France and Iberia, especially now that fascists had seized power.

So under the pretext of quashing the ongoing rebellions and riots, Maz Mazin retained the services of some 50,000 veteran soldiers, the well-trained and highly-experienced core of the Red Army.



This defiance was tolerated for the time being, but the same couldn’t be said elsewhere in Europe, even amongst the victorious powers.

Both Morocco and Russia were tackling nationwide riots and demonstrations, but it was the Republic of Provence who suffered the most. Despite being on the winning side of the war, Provence left to fracture and disintegrate after five years of foreign occupation, with Occitan patriots seizing independence in the west and Italian separatists rising up in the east.



And that wouldn’t be the end of their troubles, because a string of uprisings and revolutions would rock the country over the next few years, mimicking the wave of socialist and liberal discontent that swept across the width of the world in the mid-1920s, especially amongst the defeated and humiliated nations of the Great War, left seething after the harsh terms of Prague.






These newly-revolutionary states were looking towards the two communist behemoths of the continent — the Iberia Union and the Balkan Federation — for support and leadership. Iberia had gained prestige and standing on the world stage after their hard-fought stalemate in the Great War, but the Balkan Federation boasted a much larger and more modern military, one that was even beginning to worry their Russian neighbours to the north.

Thus, determined to become the leading beacon of socialism, Supreme Leader Maz Mazin secretly ordered a military buildup in the dying days of the 1920s, with production focused on the design and manufacture of armour and airplanes.



In addition to that, the Supreme Leader began planning for the rearmament and expansion of the Red Navy, which had suffered a string of devastating losses during the war. There would be some investment into battleships, but the high command would prioritise the rapid construction of commerce raiders and submarines in years to come — another covert violation of the Peace of Prague.



Of course, there was another reason for this ambitious rearmament of the military — the persistent threat that lingered to the north, France. Even before the ink had dried on the peace treaties, some 80,000 Frenchmen were stationed on the border along the Pyrenees, to ensure that they remained demilitarised and vulnerable.



And with their rival to the south neutralised for the moment, the French could turn their attentions further afield, towards greater ambitions…

The fascists were led by one Jacques Vernier, a commander in the French Army who was radicalised during the bitter fighting, quickly rose through the ranks of the fascist party, spearheaded their seizure of power, cracked down on civil liberties, executed political enemies, and ultimately declared himself the dictator of the new regime — he was l'Commandant, and his word became law.

And on new year’s day of 1930, almost seven years after marching on Paris, Jacques Vernier made a momentous announcement, with the dictator formally declaring the revival of the “Frankish Realm” — thus severing any remaining ties to the monarchy of France, and harking back to the days when the Franks had reigned supreme over all Europe.



This was a promise to the French people and a challenge to everyone else, so it isn’t surprising that this declaration was met with immediate uproar from many neighbouring countries, but the outpouring of furore only spurred Vernier into further action, with the dictator delivering a series of speeches in which he vowed to support the advance of the fascist movement at any cost.

And this “Pact of Paris” would become the foundation of his foreign policy, with a series of coups and takeovers erupting across the continent over the next few years.






Inevitably, however, it wasn’t much longer before the French — or Franks, as they insisted on being called — were butting heads with the other Great Powers.

The Almoravid Sultanate of Morocco had emerged as a victor of the Great War, but paralleling their pyrrhic victory in the Tirruni Wars a century earlier, it had come at the cost of bankruptcy, widespread devastation and rising populism. Nonetheless, Sultan Ajjedig was forced to confront the upstart Franks when they began meddling in Arabia, precipitating a diplomatic crisis between the two allies.



The fascists of Francia, however, were only too willing to sever their relations with Morocco — an empire that was firmly on the decline.



With the Franks refusing to even meet with Moroccan diplomats, tensions began escalating and bubbling into angry outbursts, seething retorts and vengeful promises. As a war scare swept across Europe and North Africa, Sultan Ajjedig declared his intention to counter the radical movement by any means possible, stabilising failing monarchies and restoring toppled dynasties to their thrones — this was the League of Monarchies.



As far as the other Great Powers were concerned, however, this league was simply a futile attempt to stay relevant on the world stage. And with the victors and defeated nations still recovering from the Great War, Morocco’s initiative was met with little enthusiasm, for the moment at least.

In the new world, on the other hand, New England was enjoying a golden age of economic prosperity and cultural advancements, one of the few nations to prosper after their victory in the Great War. And with Morocco’s prestige and military prowess on the decline, the Richmond parliament began eyeing their possessions in the Caribbean, eventually declaring war on their former allies.



And they wouldn’t be fighting alone, with the Berber Union finally ending their century-long policy of isolation and dispatching a fleet of battleships to secure the waters of the Caribbean, allying with New England in return for territorial promises.



Suddenly faced with the overbearing might of the Gharbian powerhouses, the Almoravid Sultan turned to the only ally left to him — Russia.

Emperor Alexandrovich immediately refused his call to arms, however. The Russians were determined to oppose the advance of Fascist Francia in Europe, and had no interest in being dragged into a globe-spanning conflict over Morocco’s scattered colonies.



Back in Iberia, meanwhile, the years that followed the Peace of Prague finally allowed the communists to secure their revolution, with Maz Mazin gradually rooting out and crushing the last of the liberal, monarchist and fascist resistance to his rule.



And with that, he could begin implementing the policies he’d been forced to put off for so long, starting with state-sanctioned atheism and educational overhauls, and quickly progressing from there to social reforms, centralised economic planning and the pursuit of autarky.




With the crises of the past two decades finally coming to an end, however, revolutionary leaders and politicians began criticising Mazin’s autocratic rule, calling for the realisation of socialist ideals through worker’s councils and democratic elections.

The Supreme Leader refused to surrender his hard-won powers, but he did grant the Communist Faction — now formally styled as the Socialist Shura of the Union — greater powers, charging the executive committee with the drafting of laws and policy, with the caveat that they had to be ultimately ratified by him.



The Shura immediately began the implementation of their first ten-year plan, a nationwide drive to revive the industries and infrastructure of Iberia, largely left devastated by the Civil War and Great War that had been raging across the peninsula since the 1910s.



At the same time, the Shura began a series of long-promised social reforms, investing heavily into education reform and healthcare packages in particular, quickly followed by the establishment of minimum wage and limits on daily workhours. Maz Mazin immediately shot down any attempts at political reform, of course, with the Supreme Leader gradually cementing his ironclad hold on power.



On the world stage, meanwhile, international sports tournaments and athletics competitions were becoming another theatre in the ideological wars raging between monarchism and liberalism, communism and fascism.

Eager to promote the illusion of internal unity and ideological superiority, Maz Mazin approved the entry of the Iberian Union into the 8th Olympic Games and 1924 World Cup, staged in Paris and Medina al-Gharb respectively.




And the olympic team dispatched to Paris performed admirably, bringing back the third-highest haul in gold medals after Francia and Berber Union, only for the football team to suffer a series of miserable losses at the world cup.




With their impressive performance in the Olympics still fresh, the Iberian bid to host the 10th Olympic Games stormed to victory, with the capital of Qadis chosen as the host city.



These were all mere distractions, however, whilst Maz Mazin directed his undivided attentions and resources to his rapidly-growing military. By the dying days of 1934, the Red Army had rapidly expanded to number almost 150,000 standing soldiers, with a strong core of armour and air support, whilst the Red Navy was transformed into an armada of commerce raiders and submarines, reinforced by a few battleships and ironclads.

Impressive, for just ten years, and the rearmament policy wouldn’t be slowing down anytime soon.




This ambitious build-up couldn’t be concealed forever, however, and Iberian rearmament quickly became an open secret amongst the Great Powers. Jacques Vernier didn’t make any public statements, but he did order the deployment of an additional 130,000 troops to the border, sparking another war scare in the streets of the capital and assemblies of the Shura.



Across the Atlantic, meanwhile, the war in the Caribbean was quickly coming to an end. The fleets of New England and Berber Union had decisively crushed the Almoravid Navy in the early months of the war, allowing the allied nations to occupy New France and Taghzir within the year.



And just like that, after less than a year of fighting, Almoravid Morocco was forced to sue for peace. The triumvirate of viziers ruling the Berber Union were keen to prolong the war, but the prime minister of New England immediately agreed to a separate peace with Morocco, demanding the cessation of Taghzir as a puppet republic to Richmond.



This backhanded diplomacy and blatant powergrab enraged the politicians and public alike in the Berber Union, but they weren’t willing to continue the struggle against Morocco alone, forcing them to ratify the peace treaty and end the war with nothing.

Needless to say, formal relations between Berber Union and New England were immediately severed, but Richmond had already shifted their attentions elsewhere — towards the west, where an Islamic revolution had overthrown their puppet government in North Ibriz, quickly followed by a communist coup d’état in South Ibriz, with both governments adopting a hostile stance against one another and New England.



War was on the horizon in Gharbia, it would seem, and the same could be said for the other defeated powers of the Great War. Across the width of the world, a military dictatorship was established in Armenia whilst fascists seized power in Arabia, with both focusing their hatred and ambitions on the neighbouring Vali Emirate.



And between the two ends of the earth, the last of the vanquished nations of the Great War had not exactly enjoyed an era of peace and tranquility in the decade that followed the Peace of Prague. In fact, Germany had become a ravaged wasteland of general strikes, popular uprisings, military rebellions, radical revolutions and political coups.






This was a decade-long game of musical chairs, one that saw power seized by fascists, wrenched by republicans, snatched by socialists and plucked by reactionaries. By the first mornings of 1936, it had become clear that this turmoil and unrest could only be decided through violence. It would be mere months before Germany erupted into a three-way civil war, a desperate struggle for power between liberals, communists and fascists.

And the rest of the Great Powers wouldn’t sit idly by, not when the fate of the world was on the line.



The Peace of Prague was never meant to end hostilities, and it would prove to be little more than a respite for the warring empires, a lull in the devastating hostilities, a brief interlude in the Great War. It was an armistice for ten years, and soon enough, the world would be engulfed by war once more.





World map:

Ikasuhito
Sep 29, 2013

Haram as Fuck.


My favorite part of this is easily the Latin Empire sneaking it's way into 16th place.

Talas
Aug 27, 2005

How's the Balkan Federation doing?

V. Illych L.
Apr 11, 2008

ASK ME ABOUT LUMBER

how the devil is germany in third place

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

Talas posted:

How's the Balkan Federation doing?

Really strong military, but prestige and industry is poo poo.

Dance Officer
May 4, 2017

It would be awesome if we could dance!
This game has an interesting way of portraying communism in the early twentieth century. I mean, worker's rights, safety regulations, schooling, and social subsidies, or even not starving their own people to keep up exports, are all things the Russian and Chinese governments cared little for.

hashashash
Nov 2, 2016

Cure for cancer discovered!
Court physicians hate him!

V. Illych L. posted:

how the devil is germany in third place

Their industries weren't really affected by the Great War, since they were only briefly occupied, so I'm guessing that's whats keeping them up there. Their army is also massive, but that won't count for much in HoI, since they're gonna be plunged into civil war very early on.

Gantolandon
Aug 19, 2012

V. Illych L. posted:

how the devil is germany in third place

Revolts in V2 are not terribly threatening to the general score (unless separatist). You lose a bit of Prestige, but there is a minimum value you can't go below. The soldiers killed by revolutionaries you usually re-recruit in the span of months. Bankrupt factories may be a bit of a problem, but most regimes spawned in revolutions are either Planned Economy or State Capitalist, so they can just reopen them and shower them with subsidies.

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Tiger Crazy
Sep 25, 2006

If you couldn't find any weirdness, maybe we'll just have to make some!
So is Morocco the sick man of Europe in this timeline.

Also who would be the ones create and spread spread football?

Anyway we can get involved in the German civil war?

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