A Chess Game
-Trent Affair goes wrong, Britain supports CSA
-USA masses an army and plunges into Canada
-US Army encounters more resistance than thought but takes most of Canada outside of Quebec, PEI, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia within 3 months. Vancouver results in a slaughter for both sides.
-France watches its main rival launch attacks against USA and makes plans for carving up the UK
-CSA gets reinforced by the Royal Navy and smashes many of the US ships but ironclads take a disproportionate toll, the USN survives enough to defend its own waters but the blockade does not
-Halifax falls before reinforcements arrive, US effectively controls most of Canada
-US Army moves most of its forces south to cut the CSA in half, western theater becomes area of critical importance
-UK forces battle with CSA forces at Vicksburg to a stalemate
-France moves against British possessions in India and northern Africa with invasions of Egypt, Pondicherry, and Tamil-Nadu. They encourage local revolutions while American gunrunners bring Spencer Carbines to Ireland and India.
-CS forces score a victory at Fredericksburgh but are unable to follow it up, RN lands at Halifax and begins massive siege with 30,000 troops and land/sea artillery
-US uses land-based artillery to subdue Vicksburg and takes both Indian Territory and Arkansas. Last connections along Mississippi are at New Orleans and it is under siege.
-UK has to pull back forces after Paris shells Dover in near-suicidal run. North German Federation believes that the UK is vulnerable and joins France, Russia decides to join the UK in exchange for recognition of conquests to come in Persia and Ottoman Empire.
-North German Federation liberates Poland but then the Russians bog them down while France defends her coast from a UK reprisal at Brest and La Rochelle. UK can not support the CSA at New Orleans and it falls to the USA, which decides to move inland along Jackson-Montgomery-Miledgeville-Charleston
-France takes much of Southern India thanks to local support. North German Federation reaches Brest Litovsk and Vilna, but Russian winter is again their best defense. France raids Cornwall in a raid but more as a shock tactic, they leave one flag near Tintagel at the very tip of the coast. Ireland is in full revolt.
-Halifax falls to the UK but without naval artillery and a resurgent US army of conscripts Nova Scotia becomes a killing field, but UK will win at a heavy cost
-CSA loses Montgomery and parts of Texas along with the whole of Louisiana, the land-based conquests are untenable and the goverment tries to negotiate as its soldiers are leaving in droves. With Georgia and South Carolina under threat it surrenders in 1863, the "stab in the back" myth becoming popular among Army of Northern Virginia veterans who are not actually beaten in the field. USA forces reconstruction on all states but Louisiana and Tennessee which are already under Union control. US gains most of Canada in exchange for serious reparations, Nova Scotia, PEI, Newfoundland, and Quebec remain in UK hands
-UK realizes that the US has a lot more of its army free to move about and offers peace, they are also tied up across their colonies as Hyderabad is now under pro-French control
-North German Federation unites Germany as the rest of the nation sees them as the focus of Russian aggression, and if one is threatened they are all at risk, or so a distorted quote from one of their diplomats makes it seem. Germany and Russia come to peace as Poland becomes a German Satellite and Lithuania becomes a German kingdom/state but otherwise nothing changes. France and Germany improve their relations dramatically though they will remain wary of each other as German nationalists view everything east of the Meuse, along with Franche-Comte, as theirs.
-France becomes the sole focus of UK aggression and are almost tossed out of Africa as Morocco and Senegal fall to UK forces. US leaders decide a modern navy is a linchpin for a global presence. Ironically US cotton becomes a staple for third party nations selling it to the UK for triple the prices as India is no longer able to supply BRitish textile mills
-UK forces rally and land at Calais, Cherbourg, and Bayonne. Germany, France, and UK make peace, the only territory changing hands being France gaining certain trade rights in India, Germany gets guarantees on its new conquests, and UK is amenable to a future conference to divide Africa up amongst themselves.
-US buys Alaska from Russia for $10 million.
-Overall results: US controls most of the continent north of the Rio Grande, UK loses some influence in India, Germany forms earlier with eastward expansion instead of a westward one, and France become better friends with Germany. Russia is in a tough spot but the fun of no freedom in journalism is that this will remain unknown for decades.
The CSA "wins" by not being totally destroyed and becoming part of a Greater USA.