Here is a look at at the redone Portugal's:

sVkYSDo.png


It has been promised for a while, but a Progress Report covering the two Portugal's should be ready soon.
 
Fifty governments in 21 years???

That's gotta be some sort of record.
If you thought that sounded crazy, here is a little bit of info on the subject from OTL:

"In this 16-year period, there were seven parliaments, eight Presidents of the Republic, 45 governments, 39 heads of government (one Provisional Government and 38 Prime Ministers), two presidencies of a government that did not take office, a constitutional junta, a revolutionary junta and a government invested in the totality of the executive power."

The constitutional junta refers to the military government that lasted a single day from May 14-15 1915, the revolutionary junta refers to the junta led by Sidónio Pais in December 1917 that would precede his dictatorship, and "government invested in the totality of the executive power" refers to the Sacred Union, a.k.a. the period in 1916-1917 where political parties were forcefully merged because of the war and the Prime Ministers, António José de Almeida and later Afonso Costa, held both the power of a prime minister and president in practice. That government was overthrown by Pais. The First Portuguese Republic was a wild time.
 
If you thought that sounded crazy, here is a little bit of info on the subject from OTL:

"In this 16-year period, there were seven parliaments, eight Presidents of the Republic, 45 governments, 39 heads of government (one Provisional Government and 38 Prime Ministers), two presidencies of a government that did not take office, a constitutional junta, a revolutionary junta and a government invested in the totality of the executive power."

The constitutional junta refers to the military government that lasted a single day from May 14-15 1915, the revolutionary junta refers to the junta led by Sidónio Pais in December 1917 that would precede his dictatorship, and "government invested in the totality of the executive power" refers to the Sacred Union, a.k.a. the period in 1916-1917 where political parties were forcefully merged because of the war and the Prime Ministers, António José de Almeida and later Afonso Costa, held both the power of a prime minister and president in practice. That government was overthrown by Pais. The First Portuguese Republic was a wild time.
How the fuck did this mess survive long enough to be taken over by a fascist regime???
 
How the fuck did this mess survive long enough to be taken over by a fascist regime???

I think the governments collapsed too quickly to fall. You know like if you're constantly adding blocks to a jenga tower even as the others shift?

Too unstable to collapse fully since that would require them to agree on something?

I dunno.
 
How the fuck did this mess survive long enough to be taken over by a fascist regime???
By a little bit of proto-fascism, of course, under Sidonio Pais. The fascists had plenty of problems too. The original leader of the coup that established the Ditadura Nacional, Manuel Gomes da Costa, was forcefully replaced because he refused to support a long-term dictatorship. That resulted in a major revolt in February 1927 led by Adalberto Gastão de Sousa Dias, though that failed. There was also some other minor attempts, and then a well planned but poorly coordinated series of uprisings in 1931 in Lisbon and Madeira. There is even a term for it: the "Reviralhismo". Eventually with the transformation of the Ditadura Nacional into the Estado Novo, Salazar got smart and created the PIDE with the help of the Gestapo, which put an end to most of the open resistance to the regime. Though that famously didn't stop Humberto Delgado from scaring the shit out of Salazar with his presidential run in 1958, which led to Delgado's death at the hands of the PIDE. Anyway, the 1931 Madeira and Lisbon uprisings were part of the inspiration for the lore around the Rose Revolution in Spartakus.
 
Here is something a little different on the political system of the Free Socialist Republic of Germany, which hasn't been publicly explained until now:

germanpolsystem.png


(the following is from the page on the FSRD on our lore wiki)

"Germany functions as a federal socialist republic organized under the principles of soviet or council democracy, known in German as the Rätesystem (council system). This system begins at the lowest level, starting with Gemeinden (municipalities), whose adult population elects a Gemeinderat (municipal council). Some places, typically large cities and towns, are divided into Gemeindebezirke (municipal districts), which function electorally the same as Gemeinden but have the intended purpose of containing populations more comparable to the rural Gemeinden. These elections are held directly through secret ballots with universal suffrage for citizens 18 years and older (16 and 17 year old workers may still vote for their workplace council), and are heavily influenced by the local workers, peasants and soldiers councils, which are also closely involved with the Gemeinderat post-election. Larger regional and national agglomerations of these workers councils also influence decision making at the higher levels, and most members of all levels of the councils are a member of these workers councils.

The Gemeinderäte in turn elect a Kreisrat (county council) for their respective Kreis (county). The size of each Gemeinden varies, but there are usually thousands of delegates that participate in the election of a Kreisrat. The Kreisräte in turn elect a Bezirksrat (district council) for their respective Bezirk (district). This is one of the largest processes, where often tens of thousands of delegates in total from each Kreisrat participate. The Bezirksräte in turn elect a Länderrat (state council) for their respective Land (state), as well as delegates to the Congress of Workers' and Soldiers' Councils, and to the Congress of Ministers, while both jointly exercise control over the legislative power. The electoral process lasts a total of 7 days, always beginning on a Sunday and ending the following Saturday. All representatives within this system at all levels can be removed through a recall vote at any time from either the council that elected them or the population that elected them in the case of the Gemeinderäte. Movements for recall votes are generally organized by the workers councils. In other words, representatives operate under an imperative mandate where they are bound by the will of those who elected them. As a result, the composition of the councils can change before national elections are held every three years.

Legally, there is no head of state or head of government, with both positions being filled by a collective head of state known as the People's Council which leads the Congress of Ministers. In practice, however, the Chairperson of the council functions as head of state, while the Deputy Chairperson functions as head of government. Other members of the council play an influential advisory role, and also have voting powers in the congress. The current Chairperson is revolutionary leader Rosa Luxemburg, while the current Deputy Chairperson is socialist politician Social Democratic Party of Germany (SPD).

There are three main legal political organizations: the communist Communist Party of Germany (KPD), the socialist United Social Democratic Party of Germany (VSPD), and the anarchist Free Worker's Union of Germany (FAUD). Some smaller non-left wing organizations are permitted, and their members often run as independent candidates in council elections. Major opposition parties are banned, ostensibly because they operate in and support the hostile capitalist countries of Baden-Württemberg and the Rhenish Republic."

This system is heavily involved in the gameplay of the FSRD in a number of ways, with the following event as an example:

QMR3EY5.png
 
So it's basically a theoretically democratic but de facto authoritarian regime where local elections are rigged by government paras and that makes it easy for the government to run things as a de facto one-party state?
 
I have a question: what's the balancing of the eventual Second World War supposed to be like? If Germany and the USSR often ally, and if Italy, the UK, and France all face severe domestic trouble, I can't see how most games wouldn't be a Communist stomp.
 
I have a question: what's the balancing of the eventual Second World War supposed to be like? If Germany and the USSR often ally, and if Italy, the UK, and France all face severe domestic trouble, I can't see how most games wouldn't be a Communist stomp.
Anti-communist USA could be an option to balance.
 
An alliance of the United States, British, and Japanese Empires would be a formidable foe to the communist bloc in Europe.
Main problem IMO is that British India would implode into Red-backed revolution in like 10 seconds flat, and the USSR + Germany can run a truly terrifying war machine that Japan has no hope of seriously facing.

USA + Japan + Britain would be capable of beating Germany + USSR + occupied France and Benelux, though the landings would take a while. Figure, Germany + Russia can beat France + Italy and clean up southeastern and central Europe, but with the industrial juggernaut of the USA, things get harder.
 
So it's basically a theoretically democratic but de facto authoritarian regime where local elections are rigged by government paras and that makes it easy for the government to run things as a de facto one-party state?
In the USA, you have a real chance to become a politician only with the support of one of the ruling parties (of which there are only two). Are all the elections rigged (I don’t mean the cases of Trump and George W. Bush)?
 
I have a question: what's the balancing of the eventual Second World War supposed to be like? If Germany and the USSR often ally, and if Italy, the UK, and France all face severe domestic trouble, I can't see how most games wouldn't be a Communist stomp.
Main problem IMO is that British India would implode into Red-backed revolution in like 10 seconds flat, and the USSR + Germany can run a truly terrifying war machine that Japan has no hope of seriously facing.

USA + Japan + Britain would be capable of beating Germany + USSR + occupied France and Benelux, though the landings would take a while. Figure, Germany + Russia can beat France + Italy and clean up southeastern and central Europe, but with the industrial juggernaut of the USA, things get harder.
There are a few things that need to be considered in this equation.

Firstly, Germany is still recovering from its civil war, and the same can be said for the Soviet Union perhaps on an even greater scale. This means they won't be ready to focus properly on preparing for war for at least a few years after the start.

Secondly, the Soviet Union has undergone basically none of the "industrialization at all costs" policies without Stalin in power, leaving Germany as the sole developed industrial power within the military bloc of the Comintern. While Germany has helped them in industrialization efforts by exporting machinery, the USSR is still quite behind OTL in this area.

Thirdly, both the Soviet Union and Germany will be facing active military fronts across most if not all of their borders. In the case of Germany, Bavaria and Red Austria, by default they will have to cover literally every non-Comintern border they have. In the case of the Soviet Union, it will be facing active fronts in the far-east, which could be much more dangerous if Japan manages to consolidate itself in Manchuria. It also faces a front in Persia and the Caucasus, where it will have to protect its ally the Gilan Soviet. It will also face a front in the Baltics against Livonia, Finland, Lithuania, etc, and has to defend its allies in Hungary and Slovakia against Romania (presuming it doesn't take the highly rare communist route), Czechia, Austria, and any existing right-wing Balkan states. This situation can be alleviated if Italy turns communist, but they will be fresh out of their own civil war by the time the war hits and could by no means sustain a front against France and the UK without substantial direct support from the other Comintern members.

While it is true that Italy, France and the UK all face domestic issues, Italy is the only country out of those that faces a guaranteed collapse (but, of course, is not guaranteed to become communist), while there is no possibility of an internal collapse for the United Kingdom. The worst case scenario for the UK is pro-Comintern militias rising during the war, which only happens in an extremely rare occultist route and won't be present in basically 99% of games. Beyond that, all it will face is economic issues, strikes, etc, which generally will be alleviated by the time the war comes around. For France, a civil war/collapse would be quite rare as the military government in power there is actually quite competent at achieving their goals, unlike Italy as you may have guessed. Actually, on the complete contrary to Italy, France only has a (slim) chance of a civil war if Pétain and his government resign under the current plans, or if Pétain attempts a restoration of the monarchy. Including these routes is still something being debated however so its quite possible it won't be present in the first release.

The chances of the Comintern actually invading the UK are extremely slim for a number of critical reasons, while on the flip side if the UK somehow manages to fuck up enough to let all its allies in the mainland be occupied, it'll be difficult for them to recover from that without support from the United States. It would also be extremely difficult for the Comintern to invade Japan, and basically impossible for them to reach the United States. If the situation breaks down into a seemingly indefinite stalemate, there will most certainly be the ability to seek an uti possidetis-esque peace.

So it's basically a theoretically democratic but de facto authoritarian regime where local elections are rigged by government paras and that makes it easy for the government to run things as a de facto one-party state?
I suppose it depends on your definition of what is democratic and what is authoritarian. Is the leadership of the KPD over this system in any serious internal danger? No. Does the KPD go without any sort of real opposition like the OTL Stalinist states? No. The USPD is quite influential within the councils and, especially under the leadership of Arthur Crispien, has been quite critical about a number of communist policies. There is also the anarchist FAUD, which has been under the leadership of Rudolf Rocker since the resignation of the pro-Marxist leader Fritz Kater in 1930. Rocker was very critical of collaborating with the KPD in OTL and that doesn't change here, though obviously the circumstances are different. The political system itself is very similar to what OTL council communists wanted, though admittedly with more party influence. That is why there is no KAPD, nor the KPD(O) without the Stalinists being in power, but rather various tendencies within the KPD. Its far from being some sort of parliamentary liberal democracy or whatever (which can be good or bad depending on your perspective), but its pretty close to what Rosa Luxemburg had described in her speech Our Program and the Political Situation and her writing What Does the Spartacus League Want?. Personally, I would argue that independence of the workers, peasants and soldiers councils from being directly involved in the electoral hierarchy of this system complicates any attempts at bureaucratization and one-party consolidation, but there are most certainly elements within the KPD and elsewhere that would like to see this change.

Any thoughts on when you'll release?
We have been aiming for late 2019, but that is not definitive. When we feel confident that we are coming close to having a release version, a release date or at the very least a narrowed release timeframe will be announced.
 
Last edited:
Here are some of the recent teasers that were shown on the Discord and elsewhere this month:

First up is reworked states in Southern Central Europe//Greater Hungary + Czechia/Whatever The Hell You Want To Call This:

6FHu56T.png

Next is some reworked GFX for the focus trees:

OzFFUJG.png


There is a new portrait for the German socialist leader Rosa Luxemburg:

b8tQ3GF.png


There was also a teaser of "super events" or "major events", partially inspired by another alternative history mod The New Order. These are used to highlight major points of tension that are more important than global news events:

3FeDn27.png


There is also French Indochina, which is properly "balkanized" into its historical administrative divisions:

9nM5lGP.png


And finally, there are the communist leader trees for the Portuguese Republic:

kZr46kf.png
 
Top