|
i could certainly see the france of this timeline start massive communal child-rearing institutions &c, effectively abolishing the nuclear family to free up precious labour also importing people from the former colonies at a much earlier date than they did IRL
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 16:06
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:00 |
|
|
V. Illych L. posted:i could certainly see the france of this timeline start massive communal child-rearing institutions &c, effectively abolishing the nuclear family to free up precious labour I forgot to add the screenshot where America is shipping Liberty ships full of babies to France.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 16:38
|
|
|
In a post-capitalist world the anxiety of reaching for constant economic growth will disappear and the French will learn to live within their means with a smaller population and less industrial output. They feel very smug when they are able to more easily avert climate change.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 18:37
|
|
|
I missed a few updates, and so having finally caught up, I hope poor Joe gets his museum off the ground. I get way too invested in flavor text.
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 20:27
|
|
|
WhiskeyWhiskers posted:In a post-capitalist world the anxiety of reaching for constant economic growth will disappear and the French will learn to live within their means with a smaller population and less industrial output. GDP per capita is negatively correlated with birth rate, so they'd probably get down to business 
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 21:25
|
|
|
It would be funny if the real issue the British have is that the lion's share of their manpower is tied up in the RN and RAF, leaving the dregs for the Army. Plus everyone who would have fled elsewhere when the Revolution came, and whose children would have made up the most recent conscription classes. I'm sure the in-game reason is AI stupidity, but from a narrative standpoint it can be justified.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 19, 2016 22:22
|
|
|
The Sandman posted:I'm sure the in-game reason is AI stupidity, but from a narrative standpoint it can be justified. This could be the tagline for this entire LP to be honest. http://imgur.com/gallery/gUm3i Posting because I think people will be interested in these (if I had any artistic ability I'd make one of the Syndicate Guards marching down the National Mall) and that apparently Kaiserreich for HoI4 is inbound. I was going to do a third mini LP in DH after Act Three but now I'm wondering if I should buy Hearts of Iron 4 and show off the new version instead. Of course at the dreadful rate I'm posting updates (I'm going to try hard for this weekend, I swear), the mini LP probably wouldn't be for a while because Act Three is big. If people are interested in seeing how this plays out in an engine that isn't ancient, I'll get the game and do that.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 04:55
|
|
|
Chief Savage Man posted:This could be the tagline for this entire LP to be honest. You should, it's good.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 05:00
|
|
|
WhiskeyWhiskers posted:You should, it's good. I've been holding off for not having the free time more than anything else to be honest but that's what everybody tells me.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 05:02
|
|
|
KR mod for HOI4 is very far from having the functionality or detail of DH, they're still working on focus trees for majors for instance. Release might be a while yet, I think. E: oh, for the mini lp. I'm an idiot. Yes, do it. It's a good game.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 06:19
|
|
|
Yeah, HoI 4 is lots of fun. My first game in it was some of the most fun I've had in a Paradox game in a long, long time.
|
|
#
?
Aug 5, 2016 07:58
|
|
|
Just caught up with reading this from the beginning, great stuff. Makes me think I need to buy HOI IV. I've spent hundreds of hours in CK II and EU IV but never picked up a HOI game. Loving the varied narratives of the updates, pretty fully realized world you've got going on here, Chief Savage Man.
|
|
#
?
Aug 9, 2016 23:18
|
|
|
Chapter Twenty One: Mission Accomplished (Middle East: August-October 1943) Newsreel produced by Los Angeles Bureau of Filmmakers using footage provided by the American Red Army. Released to public September 4, 1943.  RED ARMY RACES THROUGH TRANSJORDAN  Trucks with smiling and confident soldiers hanging on drive down a desert road. It’s only been a few weeks since over three hundred thousand Turks surrendered in the Sinai, and now the whole of the Ottoman colonies in the Middle East are ripe for liberation!  Twin engine bombers fly over a coastal city and drop bombs. A few Turks escaped the brilliant amphibious assault carried out by our soldiers a month ago, but our fliers won’t let them go that easily.   A column of surrendered Ottoman soldiers walk down a street with Quebecois soldiers standing guard. These ones here tried to make it back north, but before they even knew what was happening their escape route was cut off by the rapid advance of General Law, which made it easy for the boys from Quebec to take them out of the equation.  Columns of soldiers, including a few tanks, probably Canadian, move down the road. Half a million North American and Egyptian soldiers follow in Law’s footsteps, or tread marks we ought to say, ready to bring liberty to lands occupied by the Turks for centuries. General Law is already hundreds of miles further inland, with Baghdad in his sights.   A map appears showing a large arrow sweeping from Jerusalem all the way to Baghdad. Much smaller symbols with the Ottoman star and crescent represent the opposing forces. There’s still a few Turks to deal with, but the Sultan hasn’t a prayer now!  It’s smooth sailing all the way to the Bosphorus from here on out! ------------------------------------------------ From an editorial in the October 24, 1956 edition of the Chicago Proletarian. An Appeal for Calm and Clear Memory There has been a great deal of panic and discontent across America over the last few months, and much of it is understandable. 1956 has been a poor year for the syndicalist mainstream, at least in terms of prestige and image. The twentieth Revolution Day, approaching in just a few weeks, looks like it will be a much more muted affair than the tenth was, when a triumphant America celebrated total victory over the Prague Pact. The many buildings and monuments dedicated that year are just now showing signs of age, the shine and luster of the many plaques and statues bearing the date November 11, 1946 somewhat dulled. The last ten years of Franco-American dominance, nicknamed the Biarchy by Delegate Rustin in a recent Chamber speech, have been kind to the general welfare of the Syndintern. The data does not lie: the Marshall Plan has been a resounding success, erasing the scars of revolution and war in North America and Europe, and upgrading and expanding colonial-era infrastructure in Africa and syndicalist Asia. The condition of the average human in the free world is improving dramatically as you read this. Lost in all of the pessimist news recently was the announcement of campaigns to eradicate polio and smallpox by 1960. Much of the discussion chooses to focus on all the nations that will likely refuse to allow Syndintern health personnel in their borders, thus making eradication “impossible in the current political climate”, according to a quite pessimistic statement put out by the eternally dour Delegate Foster. Such are the kinds of perspectives one finds in this current atmosphere. Despite the unprecedented pace of progress, America is beset by a sense that we are losing ground in a political sense, that the achievements of other non-socialist states signal that we are no longer as great as we were during the triumphal times of 1946. Combine this contrast with the constant controversy over almost every foreign situation the so-called Biarchy has involved itself in since then, and it is easy to understand where the malaise comes from. Nobody is obligated to feel positively about the current state of affairs, indeed we all have a right to think the way we want. However, there is a troubling trend where recent events are being blamed on the decisions and actions of the Syndintern during the war in such a way where it should have been obvious to the decision makers that things would go wrong. This is simply wrong and irrational. Consider Iraq, for instance, one of the nations Comrade Makhno referred to as a “people’s march” on the periphery of the free world, a group that also includes the Bhartiya Commune and Bolivia. Iraq has been beset by problems lately, so much so that they advised the International Council of Sport that an alternate may be required for the 1960 Spartakiade, currently scheduled to take place in Baghdad. So bad does the situation seem that the Iraqi Trade Union Congress doesn’t seem confident it can keep an event in its capital safe four years from now. This is not a country that sees itself going through a temporary crisis, but rather one that sees itself up against a long term threat. There are many reasons why Iraq is in the situation it is now, many of them can be attributed to America. It is a complex discussion, and one with the time and willingness to learn can avail themselves of many fine positions on the matter at the international newspaper section of their local library. What we shall concern ourselves with are the overly simplistic and oft repeated claims that all of Iraq’s problems would be avoided if America had only done one thing differently, usually something similar to what the aspiring historian wishes to be done now.  Some would have you believe that the invasion of Iraq was a rushed and chaotic mess, to be blamed on glory whoring commanders eager to see their names in the headlines of this and other newspapers back home.  In fact, there’s nothing about the operation that would distinguish it from any other of the “clean-up” operations of the war. The goal of the operation was to chase down and eliminate the threat posed by what was left of the Ottoman Army, just like the goal of Operation Rocky was to eliminate the threat posed by the Italian Army, so on and so forth.  A delegate who will remain unnamed in this editorial, as naming them would serve to advance their seemingly bottomless need for attention, made the ludicrous statement during a hearing last week that being involved in the invasion of Iraq should disqualify Oliver Law from being Supreme Commander. This condition would also disqualify George Marshall.  The decisions made in Iraq were meant to hasten the end of the Middle Eastern Front, plain and simple. Considerations about the post war position of the Muslim Brotherhood or Turkestan were far behind the most pressing issue on every Syndintern planner’s mind: saving the Commune from German breakthrough. The forces rampaging across the Middle East were needed to assault the core of the Prague Pact from every direction.    The American Red Army, including this paper’s endorsee for Supreme Commander, worked towards that end admirably, utilizing their superior mobility to put away the obsolete and broken down Ottoman forces.   Once that was done, they moved on to put away the Hashemite forces to the south, an enemy made in the course of the strategic masterstroke that sealed the Mediterranean, and the Prague Pact with it. This is another aspect of the war that modern commentators love to blame the ills of the Middle East on. Not many of them have much of an alternative in mind other than making an opposed landing from over a thousand miles away. There are many other examples of this kind of hindsight being presented as obvious. It is disrespectful not only to the men and women who made those decisions but also the people across the world who need the Biarchy to provide solutions, rather than wallow in self doubt.  This is not to say that there are no valid criticisms of wartime conduct. The total suppression of the Arab nationalist establishment in Cairo turned a potential partner into an enemy, and the ignorant behavior of American commanders operating in the vicinity of Moslem holy sites provides justification to this day for the Turkic claim that the Central Asian theocracy is the only world power that has the right to govern Moslems.   There was fighting for Arabia, of course, but none of it was interesting and I don’t know where the right screenshots are if I even took them. Some Hashemites got in the way, they were thrown out, America wins. Nevertheless, the assignment of blame should be left to the historians, not our delegates. Historians, particularly of war, understand better than anybody that innocent people are caught up in the progression of events larger than them. In what was the largest war of all time, innocent countries were caught up in events larger than them. A leader in wartime operates in a different ethical environment than one in peacetime, particularly if that war goes beyond the imperial ambitions of states into a clash of intractably opposed ways of economic and societal organization. Anybody who does not recognize that is either being ignorant or disingenuous. Somebody ought to remind some of our delegates that they are not congressmen. Be wary of these political creatures that honor their predecessors one day and then denigrate them the next in order to promote themselves. As a worker and citizen, it is your responsibility to always know who your delegate is and what they are up to. If your delegate is one of these despicable climbers, then consider speaking with your coworkers and organizing a recall vote. If your delegate is willing to spit on distinguished comrades like Comrade Law or Comrade Marshall to get ahead, then they are more than willing to spit on you if it behooves them. If syndicalism in America is to operate for the benefit of the workers as it has so far, then these politicians must be expelled from the Chamber and replaced with servants of the people.
|
|
#
?
Aug 10, 2016 07:04
|
|
|
Gravity Cant Apple posted:Just caught up with reading this from the beginning, great stuff. Makes me think I need to buy HOI IV. I've spent hundreds of hours in CK II and EU IV but never picked up a HOI game. Loving the varied narratives of the updates, pretty fully realized world you've got going on here, Chief Savage Man. Glad you like it. I've been hesitant to recommend Darkest Hour because it's so dated and people not used to that generation of Paradox games may not get into it. Hearts of Iron IV brings that series up to date it seems so I'm excited to get into it.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2016 20:33
|
|
|
The existence of sorts of unthinking 'Socialist Fundamentalists' in this timeline of America have me thinking, what sorts of zany things happen in this timeline to mirror our own? I'm imagining that the 2016 election in the CSA results in Kanye West being nominated for the position as a sort of crypto-Totalist after decades of political malaise, resulting in a far more right-wing faction taking the position of Head of the Central Committee (ie, Bernie Sanders with literally no different political stances). On a more serious note, I do like how the progression of this LP has shown more interesting shades of grey.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2016 20:58
|
|
|
I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Question though: what is there even left to do?
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2016 23:03
|
|
|
NewMars posted:I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Question though: what is there even left to do? Spreading class consciousness to the stars.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2016 23:41
|
|
|
NewMars posted:I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Question though: what is there even left to do? Finish off the Prague Pact, then the Entente- we can't end this LP with Hawaii in capitalist hands!
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2016 23:54
|
|
|
I wonder if the CSA would prefer taking Hawaii back as a strategic base in the Pacific or just installing a friendly government. Honestly I could see them going either way depending on who's in charge.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 00:00
|
|
|
NewMars posted:I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Question though: what is there even left to do? Germany and the Entente still exist.
|
|
#
?
Aug 11, 2016 23:59
|
|
|
Grizzwold posted:I wonder if the CSA would prefer taking Hawaii back as a strategic base in the Pacific or just installing a friendly government. Honestly I could see them going either way depending on who's in charge. They can do both. It worked for Cuba.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 08:55
|
|
|
NewMars posted:I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Question though: what is there even left to do? Fortress Australia.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 09:28
|
|
|
Frogfingers posted:Fortress Australia. I dunno, that sounds pretty Risky.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 09:40
|
|
|
Frogfingers posted:
Shortened for redundancy.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 09:46
|
|
|
I actually hope that the Entente signs a peace and remains in power indefinitely in Australia as a kind of Taiwan/ROC situation, an island of internationally unrecognized liberal democratic exiles, still planning and bickering and blaming each other and waiting for the inevitable day when they will ride out again to restore the Empire and finally return everything to Normal.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 16:14
|
|
|
NewMars posted:I've been enjoying it quite a lot so far. Question though: what is there even left to do?  Kellsterik posted:I actually hope that the Entente signs a peace and remains in power indefinitely in Australia as a kind of Taiwan/ROC situation, an island of internationally unrecognized liberal democratic exiles, still planning and bickering and blaming each other and waiting for the inevitable day when they will ride out again to restore the Empire and finally return everything to Normal. Sir, you underestimate my righteous bloodthirst.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 16:49
|
|
|
The kerbonaut union would throw a loving poo poo-fit over safety standards.
|
|
#
?
Aug 12, 2016 17:51
|
|
|
Chapter Twenty Two: Stille Nacht (Austria: July 1, 1943 – February 23, 1944) The last hour of Rodrigo’s work day was his opportunity to reorganize and regroup, he read his letters and filed documents he had dealt with. Most delegates left this kind of work to assistants, but Rodrigo felt that the process helped him make sense of all the Chamber chaos. More importantly it allowed him to go home with a relatively clear mind. And so he went through his in tray. It was mostly letters from his constituents and reports about the productivity of the union, everyday things. The out of the ordinary things this day were a newspaper clipping: “Former Dakota Growers Syndicate national delegate Leonard Grassley was convicted of profiteering, racketeering, and voter fraud today at civil court in Bismarck. The membership of DGS voted last Thursday to recall and eject Mr. Grassley, 73. Mr. Grassley has been one of the most vocal opponents of the administration’s plan to create a path to American citizenship for Canadian refugees, a key reason why refugees cannot get out of the camps which Mr. Grassley has decried as a blight on his native North Dakota and other border states. A ten-month investigation by the Bismarck Tribune revealed that Mr. Grassley and other conspirators within the Syndicate engaged in a scheme to divert grain from DGS production into the black markets that have thrived in the camps while American aid efforts remain stymied by various obstacles. Mr. Grassley, according to the prosecutor, aimed to stop the aid and citizenship proposals not because of his expressed nationalist views but because they would have put an end to his source of illicit income. A spokesman for DGS denied claims that the syndicate was irreparably corrupt. “What city folk need to understand about rural syndicates is that we aren’t all living close together like they are in Chicago or New York, so we wouldn’t necessarily notice that Grassley was accumulating so much wealth. This isn’t like the Hoffas where everybody in town can see the excess and ignores it. He has no neighbors who could tell he was living so well off of the suffering…” continued on page B4 A wise man had told Rodrigo on his first day in Chicago that having rivals was a dead end, and that a delegate’s only job was to do what was best for the people who sent them there. But Rodrigo couldn’t help but consider Grassley a rival. It seemed as though Leonard’s poo poo eating grin was always present when Rodrigo ran into difficulty. Rodrigo, born in Mexico, was an Internationalist. Leonard was a Nationalist, and a particularly nasty one at that. Leonard’s sly comments about Rodrigo’s birthplace got under his skin, and so Rodrigo took pleasure in his demise. The DGS considered itself to be a syndicate of forthright and honest people, far removed from the shady business that occasionally went down in the urban industries. The farmers of the Dakotas would take this personally, and Grassley would never be able to show his face in either state again. The next item in his in box would melt all that schadenfreude right away. It was from his son. “Pop, Rafaela has an assignment for Sunday school about Christmas. I did all the religious stuff myself because I know how you feel about it but I did tell her about the Austria story. If you could answer these questions for her, she would really appreciate it. Can’t wait to see you down here next month, Pop. Pedro” Stapled to the letter was one page of a workbook titled “My Favorite Christmas”. “What year was your favorite Christmas?” 1943. “Where were you?”  Klagenfurt, Austria. “Who was with you?”  Some of the names came to Rodrigo quickly, others he couldn’t remember. He had a picture somewhere of the event, but couldn’t remember which shelf in his office it was on. He set his pen down and got up to find it. It was behind his plaque for serving 15 years in the Chamber. The names were listed at the bottom, but the faces brought back immediate memories. Rodrigo George Gustavo Joanna Klaus The young dark haired man with a scar across his cheek on the left was most familiar. It was him, of course. The scar had healed enough that he was once again handsome, though with a more rugged look than before, thanks to the wear of battle and a shortage of razors. There were a few pictures around in between the time of Rocky and this picture that showed him looking quite grotesque. Thankfully, the march from Venice to the Alps had not brought any further near death experiences.  With his arm around Rodrigo was an older man with a grizzled look. The easiest thing to notice on his uniform was the Texas Ranger badge pinned to his chest. That was George. Rodrigo couldn’t remember exactly when he first met George, but it was around the time that the cross-national personnel transfers started. The Mexican army had a shortage of anti-tank capability, and with more and more German tanks showing up, the Americans sent over guys like George who knew how to operate anti-tank weaponry.  George and Rodrigo hadn’t gotten along at first. Rodrigo’s English was the best in his unit and so he did most of the talking to George, who stubbornly refused to speak Spanish, at least beyond a few patronizing and purposefully misconjugated phrases. Rodrigo attempted to identify with him by telling him that he had planned on moving to Texas during the Mexican occupation, which was a big mistake. George hadn’t been a part of the actual Texas Rangers prior to the civil war, but joined up with one of the many paramilitary and guerilla outfits that popped up after the Mexican Army invaded Texas. Many of the ad hoc Rangers units were nothing more than white supremacist groups engaging in reprisals against Mexican civilians, though many others were legitimate liberation fighters. The latter group had proved vital during the syndicalist reconquest of Texas. Which half George had been in was unclear, and Rodrigo didn’t particularly want to know. They found a way to work together, which they needed to, because the German tanks were not going to repel themselves.  That had changed by October. After months of battle, what would end up being the final push towards Klagenfurt started in earnest. Rodrigo and George had become friendlier with every German truck and tank they took out together.  By the time Klagenfurt fell, George had gotten rid of the chip on his shoulder about Mexicans, and Rodrigo had to admit he was an intelligent and resourceful guy. George was even trying to convince him to move to Texas and work on the oil rigs with him.  Rodrigo used to sit and listen when George would weave plans for the future, usually depending on whatever was around at the time. When they were in the mountains, he was going to move to Austria and open a ski resort. When the bombers flew overhead, he was going to learn to be a pilot.  The short and stocky man next to George clapping his hands was Gustavo. He was even older than George, well into his fifties. The Italians had drafted just about every man in the country trying to match the deployable strength of the departed Federation. Gustavo was good natured and spoke barely any English. He would have arrived in Klagenfurt a few weeks before George and Rodrigo did.  Klagenfurt had become the nexus of what would become a unified front stretching from the North Sea to the Adriatic. Armies from north and south were staging around Klagenfurt in preparation for maneuvers to the east, towards Vienna. Gustavo was among them.  Next to Gustavo was a young blond haired woman, who exuded a photogenic vitality that would belong with the many posters of female soldiers that were popular with young women these days. She had all the ingredients: a confident smile, a beret cocked slightly to one side, her hair tied back in a ponytail, and her head held high as if ready to battle the entire world. None of the press photographers had seen her apparently, because otherwise she would have been on dormitory walls like the rest of the feminist icons of the war. That was Joanna. Seeing her face brought back many memories. The most recent of those memories was at the big Internationalist rally in New Jersey last year. His good friend Tony Leone was railing against the Nationalists’ recent habit of smearing foreign born delegates, like Rodrigo. “They’re going on and on about decency? Rodrigo here, he fought for our revolution, he drat near died for our revolution, he came to this country and has served the oilmen of Texas loyally for eighteen years. He’s so goddamn decent, he’s only ever slept with one broad!” The crude remark elicited a roar of laughter and approval from the crowd of Teamsters at Mara Field. Rodrigo knew that Leone was playing to his crowd, but was embarrassed nonetheless. People assumed it was because he was private and prude, but really it was because, to his shame, what Leone said wasn’t true. Joanna and Rodrigo met on Christmas Eve on a narrow street in Klagenfurt. Joanna was hanging up signs that read: Frohe Weihnachten Joyeux Noël Merry Christmas Feliz Navidad Buon Natale The French, with the approval and cooperation of General Rose, were organizing a Christmas celebration for the soldiers and a handful of the locals who were putting together a new local government after the collapse of German authority. Rodrigo accompanied Joanna on the remainder of her rounds, as she was the first French soldier he met who had fought in France, Flanders and Germany proper. She was a sniper for the Communal Army, and so they traded war stories, of Italy and Flanders. After over a year of war, she was happy to have a task that didn’t involve shooting people in the head. It was going to be a long march into Eastern Europe, and everybody needed a moment of joy before their units set off in the coming weeks. Joanna, like Rodrigo, was an atheist, but she felt that Christmas was as good an occasion as any other, particularly in the midst of war. Towards the end of her rounds, they met the fifth and final subject of the Christmas photo: Klaus, a local socialist, who had spent months feeding information to Syndintern command and was now finally able to openly declare his support for the revolution. He was involved in the nascent city government and was eager to impress his “liberators”. The trilingual dance between the three of them was somewhat torturous but Rodrigo was able to garner that the city’s elite didn’t believe the Syndintern would ever make it past the mountains. When the Rocky landings threw the Federation into crisis, the city panicked that they would be captured within weeks and nearly everyone with the means fled to Vienna. Klaus didn’t want any looting, but knew a few choice spots where a few luxury items could be “procured” for the evening’s festivities. The party started around six thirty at the Landhaus. Joanna coaxed Rodrigo into dancing with her. Men with video cameras arrived not long after, probably to record the celebration for distribution as propaganda. The Germans had taken to telling their citizens that the syndicalists were going to burn their churches and rape all the nuns and other such lurid things, so footage of Austrians and Syndintern soldiers celebrating Christmas together would be helpful. Nonetheless, it made Rodrigo uneasy. “Joanna, I have to tell you, I’ve a girl waiting at home for me.” “And I have a husband on a destroyer in the North Sea. What’s the difference?” “Still, I’d rather not have her see me on a newsreel.” Joanna sighed and dragged him away from the cameras by his hand. “Where are we going?” “To find something good.” The pair left the Landhaus out to the neighboring park, where a giant group of soldiers were watching two men, who appeared to be a Frenchman and an American, have an impromptu wrestling match. Joanna barely stopped to register it and instead dragged Rodrigo into a nondescript building across the street. She produced a key, apparently from Klaus, that unlocked the building. When the door opened, Rodrigo’s jaw dropped at the opulent decoration. “What is this place?” “Klaus says the bourgeoisie of the province would come here to drink fine wines and gently caress prostitutes after conducting their business in the city. It’s bound to have something worthwhile.” They made their way down to the wine cellar, which appeared empty, but Joanna seemed to know where to look. There was a false panel, and behind it was an array of bottles, bearing the markings of various wine-making syndicates in France and southern Italy. “Naughty, naughty bourgeoisie. They would never let any embargo get in between them and the very best wines.” She chose a bottle marked with the name of some village in Burgundy from the cabinet, popped the cork, and poured two glasses of the best wine Rodrigo has ever had. Perhaps the sheer quality is what enticed him to make the regrettable decision that followed. And to make it again. And again. And once more in the morning. Rodrigo, in the present, mind you, shook his head. Rafaela’s catechist certainly did not need to know about that part of the story. All he needed to do was write who was there on Christmas Day. George, an American Gustavo, an Italian Joanna, from France Klaus, an Austrian The next question, what were you most grateful for on that day? He was half tempted to write penicillin, but took a moment to compose a more appropriate response: A moment of respite and joy from an otherwise terrible and taxing war, as well as the opportunity to meet good people from all over the world. Easy enough. Next question: Why was that Christmas so special to you?  That was a harder question to answer. Rodrigo had to imagine that most of the other children’s parents and grandparents would write about how wonderful it was to see their children growing up or to be loved by their own parents. The Austrian Christmas was spent with strangers, essentially, ships passing in the night. It had been a coincidence that Christmas fell when all of their units were regrouping in Klagenfurt. Within ten days, all of the units were gone, and of the people he spent that Christmas with, George was the only one he would ever see again. That picture he had was really just a coincidental thing. George was trying to find Rodrigo in order to warn him that his commanding officer was ready to kill him; Rodrigo and Joanna emerged from their den of sin; Gustavo had heard the rumors of what Rodrigo was up to and thought it’d be funny to applaud him when he emerged; and Klaus wanted to know if Joanna had found the smuggled wine stores. Somebody happened to take a picture when the five of them converged in front of the Christmas tree in the park. That moment, captured in a photograph, seemed as though it had been the whole day in a way, just like that night and day, captured in Rodrigo’s memory, seemed so much larger than any other day of Rodrigo’s service, except perhaps when he almost died.  Joanna went back to her unit’s camp to the north of the city. Rodrigo had done some research on her during a Chamber trip to France. Her unit struck out to the north in the direction of Linz and Bohemia. She ended up with a few commendations and even qualified for the French shooting team at the ’52 Spartakiade, though she didn’t medal.  George and Rodrigo continued on a path towards Vienna and Hungary, by way of Graz. The action was far less intense than it had been in Italy, as French armor overtook the OAS infantry and thus a lot of the responsibility for the fighting.  Gustavo would have stayed in Klagenfurt, probably. The Italian army had the responsibility of keeping together a nation that had doubled in size and absorbed its mortal enemy, not to mention occupying Slovenia and parts of Austria. The OAS divisions moved on without the Italians. Rodrigo never learned his last name so it was impossible to learn what happened to him. He was probably dead by now, hopefully of old age.  Christmas had been a bright spot. Before Christmas was intense battle across a static front. After Christmas, the front was finally moving, but the weather was nasty and cold, and snowfall made Rodrigo and George’s job miserable.  The people in those photo were just five of well over a million who fought in Austria. Their experiences and sins and sacrifices were a minuscule part of a front that was just one part of a broader conflict. In that enormous context, it was difficult to feel as though one mattered as an individual.   The little things that kept people going, like a coming Christmas holiday or the possibility of seeing one of the great cities of Europe in person, turned out to come true or not, depending on the vagaries of war. The decisions of people Rodrigo didn’t know with a healthy dose of pure chance meant he would never actually see Vienna like he hoped he would.  However, Austria had given him, in the midst of dehumanization and brutality, one night in which he really felt like a man. Not in a simplistically sexual way, but more in the sense that he got an opportunity to revel with friends, to engage in a dalliance with a beautiful woman, to experience luxuries and delights not many people could, the little thrills and frustrations that make up the spice of a normal person’s life. In the midst of a year that would challenge every aspect of his humanity, there was one day when he was able to feel like a regular person. That is why that Christmas was so special to him. Now he just needed to figure out how to fit that answer onto the three lines provided by the worksheet.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2016 06:13
|
|
|
On a side note, I like to collect pins, and like ones that remind me of times and things I've done in my life. To commemorate this LP which has been going on for almost two years, I bought a few pins which I'm told are genuine/vintage. I also bought a nice book.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2016 06:18
|
|
|
God I love this LP.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2016 07:24
|
|
|
Drone posted:God I love this LP.
|
|
#
?
Sep 1, 2016 17:15
|
|
|
Drone posted:God I love this LP. It's so good.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 16:28
|
|
|
Agreed; at this point I'm just skimming over the game screenshots in favour of the text that accompanies it 
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 17:07
|
|
|
It's genuinely one of the best.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 18:11
|
|
|
Is it just the Ottomans and the Germans left in their alliance?
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 18:43
|
|
|
paragon1 posted:Is it just the Ottomans and the Germans left in their alliance? And Sweden, Norway, Poland, Bohemia, White Ruthenia (Belarus), Hungary and Ukraine. Of these, Hungary and Ukraine are the most serious. By the way, I am putting together a WordPress site for various things and I am going to be cross posting this LP to that website because there's been people in this thread and elsewhere who'd like to see it off of SA. I'd normally tell them to buck up and get an account but some of those people are quite old and not tech savvy. I'll still post everything here of course. Once I am done uploading everything there, I'll post the link.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 19:18
|
|
|
Chief Savage Man posted:And Sweden, Norway, Poland, Bohemia, White Ruthenia (Belarus), Hungary and Ukraine. Of these, Hungary and Ukraine are the most serious. Have you considered compiling the text and screenshots into a book and self-publishing it through Lulu.com? Hosting it off of SA is great but I'd definitely pay to have an offline option, normally I wouldn't say that about any LP but this one is amazingly good.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 19:41
|
|
|
RZApublican posted:Have you considered compiling the text and screenshots into a book and self-publishing it through Lulu.com? Hosting it off of SA is great but I'd definitely pay to have an offline option, normally I wouldn't say that about any LP but this one is amazingly good. I appreciate that, I did have an idea that I would try and format it using different fonts so that everything looked like what it's supposed to be, like newspapers looking like newspapers, letters looking like letters, so on, then making a .pdf out of it or something. Of course, I don't know where I'd find the time but maybe that's something to do when I'm done.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 20:44
|
|
|
I forgot, what's the current status of Russia right now? They're not Soviet are they?
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 20:45
|
|
|
|
| # ? Apr 25, 2024 07:00 |
|
|
Kellsterik posted:I forgot, what's the current status of Russia right now? They're not Soviet are they? They're a democracy and I believe the conservatives are in charge. The Soviets lost the Civil War after a peace was reached between the Whites and Siberia. They're sitting around doing nothing, basically.
|
|
#
?
Sep 2, 2016 21:34
|
|