The New Order--Gameplay Thread

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Refer to the other thread for information/instructions on how to conduct your turn.

FIRST HALF OF 1933:



The Great Depression continues across the world, and two new great powers have just had changes of leadership. In America, President Roosevelt pledges for a "New Deal" to revitalize the U.S. economy, while in Germany, Adolf Hitler has been appointed Chancellor, mixing elements of Italian Fascism with an embracing of scientific racism and the belief in an "Aryan" master race. Meanwhile, the Soviet Union and China continue their efforts at modernization and Japan has been condemned by the League of Nations for its seizure of Manchuria last year. Britain and France, the two established great powers, have stepped up their new-found cooperation in their hostility towards the Soviet Union and their wariness towards the German and Italian dictatorships.

To Franklin D. Roosevelt:

You have ascended to office in one of the largest landslides in American history, but have to bear the greatest burden of any president since Abraham Lincoln—unemployment is at 25% and large segments of the population are homeless, hungry, or both. You ran on a platform that included repealing Prohibition (all but certain to go through by the end of the year), but the most important priority is to fight a radical war on unemployment and bring financial security to homeowners and workers. To make an early mark and ensure your political capital is not wasted, your advisers recommend you push through your most important reforms within the first one hundred days of your administration. What do you spend that time achieving?

Intended to raise revenue and protect American manufacturing, the Smoot-Hawley Tariff passed under the previous administration only worsened the international economic crisis. The Democrats, historically the party of low tariffs, ran on a significant lowering, which the international community will most likely welcome when Congress passes it and you sign it. However, with economic cooperation between nations on the decline, it seems unlikely that many other governments will lower their tariffs in response.

Historically, the United States has seen fit to intervene in the affairs of smaller Latin American countries to protect business interests; U.S. forces currently occupy and exert influence over Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In your inaugural address, you implied a change to a “good neighbor policy” of non-intervention in internal affairs of Latin American states. How will you deliver on this?

To Ramsay MacDonald:

For the most part, as Prime Minister and member of the National Labor alliance within the Tory-dominated government, you have delegated domestic affairs to the Conservatives while handling foreign affairs yourself. You are not liked by either side, and most expect you will step down as Prime Minister before the next election and allow Stanley Baldwin to succeed you. An opportunity to redeem yourself with the electorate, however, may be coming soon as London is set to host an international economic conference in June to fight the global depression and promote international economic cooperation in an age of rising nationalism around the world. What will you push for in London?

Britain was never fully on board with the Treaty of Versailles—in fact, without British moderation it would have been even harsher. The new German chancellor, Adolf Hitler, is already bringing Germany from covertly violating the treaty to overtly violating it as he quickly consolidates his own power. What should Britain’s policy be towards the new German government—and if Britain decides to oppose German rearmament, how far will she go to stop it?

To Edouard Daladier:

France is in the grips of the Great Depression and decisive action must be taken if your premiership is to last the year. Though you are Prime Minister under a leftist coalition dominated by socialist parties, your Radical Party is more economically liberal and often finds more to agree on with right-wing parties in the National Assembly. How will your government fight depression while maintaining your existing coalition?

The new government in Germany, which openly declares its intent to rearm and to retake the land lost by Germany in the Treaty of Versailles (and quite possibly more than that), understandably has the people of France worried. Germany’s military is still quite weak and France has the strongest land army in Europe; if there were any support for it whatsoever, you could march to Berlin and depose Hitler with only a little difficulty. However, the overwhelming consensus from the public and from most political parties is to avoid war and continue the construction of the Maginot Line as a defensive measure; given how destructive the last war was, there is little joy over the prospect of another. What will your foreign policy approach be towards Germany?

To Adolf Hitler:

Almost immediately after the Reichstag Fire, President von Hindenburg signed a decree granting emergency powers to the government. However, with this incident and with the arrest of three Bulgarian communist operatives in Germany, it is clear that you have the political capital to consolidate your power and push the Communist Party (and possibly the Social Democrats as well) out of the Reichstag entirely, allowing the NSDAP and its reactionary allies to dominate on their own and enact your own political agenda.

Your two most immediate goals, however, are economic recovery and military rearmament. A large military buildup may provide a temporary boost of economic growth through providing manufacturing jobs but is likely to provoke even more ire from the rest of Europe. You have also pledged to continue and expand the past public works projects of previous German governments. One of the projects with the most potential is a highway network that would cover and connect all of Germany, which its advocates call the Autobahn. Will you embrace it?

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

To Benito Mussolini:

Adolf Hitler, the new German chancellor, is an admirer of your Fascist philosophy. However, there are notable differences between Italian Fascism and “National Socialism”—namely that Hitler’s ideology also professes a racial hierarchy in which Nordic people are a master race while Jews and Slavs, among others, are subhuman and represent a grave threat to the German people. Germany could be a potential ally against both the Soviet Union and the Western democracies, but Italian Jews, most of whom are loyal fascists, are rightfully wary of National Socialism. How will you approach Berlin?

On a lighter note, Italy is set to host the second World Cup next year. As the host nation and one with a growing interest in association football, is expected to perform well, if not win the title outright (the reigning champion, Uruguay, has refused to attend). How much pressure will you put on the Italian national team to succeed?

To Joseph Stalin:

Fascism, which Lenin considered to be a decayed state of capitalism and far more dangerous than a traditional capitalist state, has taken hold of Germany, as German communists already face persecution and as the top Comintern operative in Europe, the Bulgarian Georgi Dimitrov, has been arrested. Some of your advisers propose a policy of pragmatic cooperation with the liberal democracies of Europe (especially France) in a united anti-fascist front, while the more ideologically rigid would consider this a sellout and oppose any cooperation with capitalist states.

Meanwhile, your policy of rapid development and transition from an agrarian to an industrial state continues to modernize the Soviet Union, but arguably at the cost of sacrificing state spending on social welfare programs. However, reversing this economic policy would likely render the Soviet Union both economically and militarily weaker. However, the agricultural sector is still massively important to the Soviet economy, and along with industrialization must come the maximization of agricultural efficiency. Some have proposed the seizure of the remaining privately-held farms and turning them into agricultural collectives, though it is far from certain that farmers would be willing to cooperate with collectivization and it is uncertain whether it would actually increase output.

To Hirohito:

As of last year, civilian control of the military is officially over (though it had been formally over when the military seized Manchuria without government approval), and the militarists who are growing in influence in Japan allegedly have plans for further growth of the empire, including more of China, the European colonies in Southeast Asia, and parts of Siberia.

Japan has faced international condemnation for the seizure of Manchuria and the establishment of a puppet government there by the League of Nations, which voted overwhelmingly to declare the Mukden incident a case of military aggression by Japan. Some of your advisers have proposed leaving the League in response—will you do this?

To Chiang Kai-shek:

Though Mao’s communist revolt in the rural south continues, you have for the most part unified China as the warlord states begin to slide into your control (but still exert some control over much of western China). Through your period of military dictatorship, you have pledged to begin developing China through developing communication and transportation infrastructure and establishing schools and cultural institutions, as well as finally crushing the Chinese Soviet Republic. Their support runs deep in many areas—how do you propose to defeat them?

Once your ally, you have begun to butt heads with the Soviet Union, chiefly over its support for Mao’s forces but also for the current revolt in Xinjiang, which is engulfed in a three-way war between forces loyal to you, warlords with limited communist support, and limited Islamist forces. However, you are on the quick road to winning this conflict outright.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

Every response is now in except for Dereich's, and he's notified me that he'll be in soon. I will begin writing up the next turn.

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I've been sidetracked by a bunch of other stuff. The next turn should begin tomorrow night.