Hello, it’s me again. Not to long ago I made a post proposing what a GO4 TNO2 path sould look like, you can read it here. I recommend it because you will need it if you want to understand what will be going on in this post.

So, what will I be doing now? Well the truth is that I cannot leave my project behind just yet. The reasons behind that are all the little mock-ups I made for the different endings. The site I used to make them is utterly fascinating and amazing. Here it is, it is also wonderful for visualising the political changes. And to answer the question I asked myself in the beginning of this paragraph: I will be making some mock-ups on how the endings of my previous post could turn out, good and bad. I will also be classifying them on plausibility.

The Democratic Coalition Endings

The Base '82 election from my previous post.

So one of the possible outcomes of the election of ’82 was that the coalition/electoral agreement/partnership/friendship consisting of Christian conservatives, middle-class interests, liberals and left-of-center neocorporatists win. So what happens if they fullfill their mandate succcessfully and the people are happy with their steawardship over the country? Well, they get rewarded of course! But most of the praise will go to the leader of the coalition and that will be the CVP.

A truly christian Germany... And democratic too.

So, the German people are happy with Barzel and have found a renewed interest in religion and acceptance of democracy. Following this result, the Democratic Coalition will no longer be needed in the eyes of the CVP and Barzel is ready to cut some dead weight. The SPD-like party is first to go, who needs those whiners anyway? Next up is the question of the liberals, Will Barzel kick them out in favour of the REP to complete his vision of a true Christian Germany, or will he put up with them for the sake of stability?

On the other side the nazis have shrunk again, they’re still dangerous, but they are slowly approaching the fringe of German politics and not an immediate threat.

only a momentary setback... right?

But what if the years between ’82 and ’86 don’t go as planned? Maybe a mismanaged crisis, a slump in the economy or even an international embarrassment could make the Democratic Coalition’s popularity fall sharply, resulting in renewed successes for the nazis. But that doesn’t mean that the nazi’s get into the government, the Democratic Coalition does just barely have a majority, so they stay at the helm. The defeat does mean that Barzel failed so someone new gets the post at the head of the Coalition, which is Helmut Kohl. Let’s hope he can revers Germany’s misfortunes.

Still destined to accept a coaliton with the CVP...

And now the first implausible ending^(2)! A Liberal win with no other then Helmut Schmidt at the helm. Why Schmidt? Because he is a national liberal in TNO, maybe that will change but for now I take what is in the game now as a basis. Sadly for the RB they still need to work with the CVP to get a majority, which means secular reforms are off the table.

Long live neocorporatism?

Cue implausible ending^(2) 2. An SPD victory! Who could imagine that? A leftist party in control of a country that was far-right for 40 years with only a slight moderation in the last 10? On a serious note, the German left would be nothing more then slightly irrelevant for decades with no other role then a minor partner in coalitions if they’re really needed. But on a positive note, finally a portrait in colour! Isn’t that a little poetic?

Also June 1933 was the month that the enabling act was passed and the SPD banned so I was referencing that. Now that I think about it I could also have done “June 22^(nd) Avenged”, that does sound better. Or maybe just “1933 avenged”, Tell me what sounds better.

The Populists Endings

Populist base in '82

Another potential winner of the ’82 elections are the populists of the REP. So, how will they do? In my humble and totally-not-biased-opinion I expect that they do not do well… If politicians promise big things, they rarely satisfy the populace, but that could also open the door to new opportunities…

Moderation in all things

In this ending, Schönhuber fails most of his agenda and loses the trust of the German people. What does that lead to? Well to Handlos apparently. Handlos was one of the founders of REP but wanted it to be the federal version of the CSU irl. He was generally more moderate than Schönhuber and I think he fills the role for getting the party back on track.

The REP does lose some influence but due to the moderation a coalition with the CVP is likely.

I do not know what to put here

But what if Schönhuber was successful? Well… more of the same, mostly. Perhaps (or definitely, depending on your level of cynicism) Schönhuber will do an Orban and firmly entrench his party in the new German democratic framework.

I didn’t say it in the main post, but by god this election poster is the perfect template for a portrait. Just look at the way he stares at you.

Does this make you uncomfortable? It makes me uncomfortable.

(Please note that everything depicted and imagined here is in the context of the TNO universe and not a representation of my beliefs)

So… I have chosen to be safe here because I think the focus I’ve depicted here can be taken in a certain non-flattering context…

That power corrupts and increases the want for more power is a well-known belief and/or fact. So what if it proves right for Schönhuber and his REP? Like many megalomaniacs before him, he will construct a personality cult around him and thoroughly coil himself and his lackeys around the organs of state. Resulting in something that can be considered fascist if your standards are low.

But What About Pape?

Nazi win in '82

A few years or months later...

This one is fairly straightforward. If the nazis win the ’82 elections they will waste no time reestablishing their chokehold over Germany. Of course with the popularity, prestige, and political capital that Pape has collected with his victory ha can weasel himself right through the Reich Senate and be appointed as the New Fürher.

Interestedly this opens the door for Pape to implement his vison, and his alone. The time for the National Socialist Revolution has come! (Please note that I do not condone this rhetoric and ideology). I find it a little funny that an obscure faction of the NSDAP can get into power with only a tiny litte detour of 14 years. But alas, Germany is once again chained to its past pretending to look into the future, perhaps forever…

Or does it have to? I got this idea from a guy/gal/neither on the discord so thank you. What if Pape fucks up so incredibly much that a revolution breaks out? And not just a revolution but a socialist one?

It even has a new flag!

This is so incredibly implausible and unrealistic that I don’t even know what to say about it. Except that it’s perhaps a little funny?

Anyhow, thank you once more for reading this. And have a good spring or autumn, again...

The Big Flowchart! With 6 endings

Hello, it's me once more. Long, long ago I made a post about what kind of paths would exist in TNO2, I was young and an idiot so they were quite underdeveloped. But now after thinking about this stuff and listening to some smart people, I have remade a proposal for a TNO2 GO4 path! Now, I tried to get into the shoes of a TNO designer and envision something that fits modern TNO. That means plausible or even realistic (the dreaded word) paths and something behind those paths than just wholesome 100 or cheap shock content.

Let’s first sketch the end of a GO4 playthrough in TNO1. The slave uprising is over, Europe is recovering from the oil crisis and the Fürher has been swept aside, the real but still fragile power lies in the hands of the GO4. So what now? The soft coup of Speer isn’t a complete victory, it’s just one step on a very dangerous journey. Just because the Fürher and the NSDAP are less powerful doesn’t mean that elections can be held tomorrow and a fully functional democracy can be set up.

Democratisation is a difficult process, and one that doesn’t always succeed. And I think that should be the focus of a GO4 TNO2 path. Free and fair elections (the nazi’s technically had elections but that’s not important) should be a late game thing and the goal to strive towards, not the set-up to a wholesome 100 democracy playthrough. The German people have been under a (semi-) successful dictatorship and filled with its propaganda for 40 years, and that can’t be fixed instantly. The democratisation of Germany isn’t just tearing down old institutions and building up others, it’s about changing minds, convincing the German people that democracy is worth it.

Or is that really necessary, all that democracy stuff? The military can handle things just fine, if not better right? Now this is a big part of my proposal/thought experiment. Because the GO4 is not united, Erhard(the economist), Kiesinger(the silver tong) and Helmut Schmidt(the diplomat) are all in favour of democracy. But the military guy in the GO4, Trescow, doesn’t WANT democracy, he wants the power in the hands of the military. And this will be the great choice. The choice between trying to establish a democracy, and setting up another form of dictatorship.

1972-1975

Germany is still recovering from the oil crisis, the nazi’s are still decently entrenched in government and the rest of the EEC/Einheitspakt is reassessing its unequal relationship with Germany. At this point the common enemy (nazis) is still strong enough to keep the GO4 together, but not strong enough to keep scheming from happening. In this period the goal is the same for the two camps: to further dislodge the nazis from power while introducing further reforms. But, disagreements will arise and here the player will slowly further the cause of their preferred faction. What would be on the table? Social liberties reform, budget allocation, diplomatic manouvers, rewriting treaties… All these things will have choices to benefit to camp that you have want. Another thing that I want to include is that these choices should have big buffs and debuffs. As example the budget of 1973 should be a choice between Erhard’s(or at this moment someone else because he’s old) investment plans and Trescow’s military investment plans, the first would give buffs to GDP stuffs/research but debuffs to division org stuffs. Why? Because that money has to come from somewhere. These decisions should be dilemma’s that you think about and have far(or mid)-reaching consequences. Couple that with the nazis still trying to work against you and the looming threat of Russia

1976 2WRW

I’m going to be honest with you, when I started this whole thing I had completely forgotten the Second West Russian War. Only later it had ocurred to me that the 2WRW would have big consequences. However I have chosen to only include the option of winning the 2WRW in my proposal/thought experiment. Why you may ask? Because losing the war would be a one-way street to a nazi restoration fail-state or a complete military takeover, and that is just boring, so that should also be a fail-state. Another thing is that I kind off don’t like the whole ‘extra path if you lose’ thing. Anyhow, the war with Russia is the tipping point, here the player will be choosing what path to take, and with good reasons. The invasion of German territories by the old Slavic foe is the perfect time to empower the military ofcourse! They couldn’t dream of a better excuse. So while you are fighting the Russians the player (and Trescow) are busy working on increasing the political power of the military. Now I know that Trescow’s entire thing in TNO1 is depoliticising the military but I don’t think he’s above doing it if it benefits him. Another thing he’s (and the player) is going to do is try to exalt the military as the only force that can save them from the Slavic Russian horde (please note that I’m not condoning this rhetoric) as a propaganda tool. I would guess this would be the easier path.

As for the Democrats, things are more difficult. The 2WRW is a huge pain in the ass that can become fatal if they don’t act fast enough. A big ‘criticism’ of democracy was/is by nazis/fascists that it’s weak and unable to act quickly and efficiently. So now the Democrats have to prove that they can fight efficiently against the Russian threat (to their eastern colonies). I figure that there should be a timer on the 2WRW to decide if the democrats succeed or not at subverting the 40-year-old propaganda ‘criticism’, the faster you win the more buffs/completion-of-deprogramming-the people you should get.

Another thing is that in the chaos of the 2WRW the Democrats could force through a big reform package under the guise of ‘crisis measures’. It should be difficult to do but immensely rewarding.

1977-1982

With the 2WRW done and Russia not being a threat anymore, for at least another 20 years. The GO4 splits permanently, with one side of the two being weakened enough, or controlled, to not be to much of a problem. Now the focus is on the consolidation of your chosen (shadow)regime and recovering from the war, and using that to further your own interests. I’ll start with the Militarists.

So the army has won the 2WRW, they now enjoy immense popularity and an even more powerful position in Germany. So what now? Further consolidation of course! But, there is still an NSDAP and a fürher in Germany and the military/Trescow need some kind of basis to shove them aside for good. Co-opting some democratic elements might be a way to do that? Perhaps stuffing the Reichstag and civil service with loyalists will do the trick(I’m paraphrasing what a friend of mine suggested).

When 1980 arrives Germany is stable enough and the Militarists are powerful enough to undergo the next big step. And once again there are 2 choices, will we be ambitious or pragmatic? At the end of the day it is between the easy and effective(for a time) choice, or the difficult and bold choice. For a little bit of extra context for the next bit I need to explain a little about German institutions in TNO. For the ones that don’t know yet, there exists a ‘Reich Senate’. The Reich Senate is a body of fürher appointed senators who advise the fürher and appoint a new one if needed. Now while brainstorming for what the end-game would be for the Militarist path I thought that Trescow(or another high-ranking general) would want to be appointed as fürher. When going over that idea with my very knowledgeable friend he told me that it wouldn’t be possible. Why? Because the Reich Senate is a purely nazi body with very strong ties to the (now old) regime, or with strong political convictions in favour of nazism. So after that idea went out of the window i came up with two others. Either the Militarists do away with the Fürhership and affiliated institutions and install a new dictatorship, this is the bold choice. Or they put up with the nazi leftovers and use them as a facade, the pragmatic option. I figure that with the bold option the Militarists would use a false flag operation to get an excuse to wipe away the last nazis.

The Ambitious Option. At this point someone else then Trescow would be leader I think.

The Pragmatic Option. The Fürher is still the head of state

The end result is still the same. Just another dictatorship, but this time less dogmatic, less racialist, more flexible and with the military on top. Whatever social reforms were passed before this point are kept as token concessions at best, or rescinded at worst. The people remain apathetic to their government except a small group of people loyal to the remnants of nazism or democrats who wallow in their defeat. (Alright, that sounds too depressing, might be due to the music I’m listening to right now). The Militarist path should feel a little saddening, with a hint of false hope that it gets better, the player realising that while they have put hours into this playthrough they just have painted the facade a different colour. And maybe trimmed of a corner here and there.

Alright now the Democrats. In my opinion this is the more ‘interesting’ path, it is also the path where I started this mad journey. The Militarist stuff was really just an add-on to diversify this thing. Anyhow in this path you will have actual elections! If you don’t screw up that is. So to sketch the context again. Germany has won the 2WRW, the Democrats have proven that they are competent to the German people. Now if the player was fast enough (the previous 2WRW mechanic I talked about earlier) they will receive buffs in the new mechanic! And what is that you may ask? It’s about propaganda, of course! People need to not only believe in democracy but also in the right candidates.

(So in the 12 hours between this and the previous paragraph I’ve thought about this ‘propaganda’ mechanic, and I think it can be expanded to be the democratisation/election mechanic from 1977-1982. and now I’m afraid I have to illustrate what the mechanic is, god help me.)

The amateur msPaint session in question:

So after that amateur msPaint session I suppose it’s time to explain what this all means. The idea is that the player has to construct a ‘democratic consciousness’ and build-up your chosen coalition (except the nazis) to win the eventual elections. I shall step-by-step explain the different elements of the “Long road to democracy” GUI.

So the first element is the GUI, the electoral coalitions, those coalitions being the democratic coalition, a coalition under a Poujade-style populist and a coalition for the nazi’s. Why no SPD or liberals? Because I am a firm believer that only three types of people/parties can win in (hopefully) post-nazi elections. Namely, a Christian Democrat with a heavy focus on religion/conservatism with an entourage of liberal/leftist parties behind them, a populist who focuses on middle-class (perceived) grievances and paints the nazi’s as elites, and finally, the nazis themselves, they are still quite popular and will remain a threat to democracy for many decades if not forever.

So how the coalitions work is that you click on the face of the leading guy of the coalition and decisions spring up allowing you to pull in parties/factions/interest groups to your coalition making it stronger. However, the larger the political differences between a party in your coalition and a party your trying to pull in it’s going to be harder, it should be a mammoth task to get the industrialists and an SPD-like party in your coalition. And forget about pulling in nazi elements. It would also contain generic and coalition-specific actions to boost your popularity. The second element is the chosen election system where you put your morals on the line. This is relatively simple: you can channel your inner Orban and make sure the system benefits you (with the chance it bites you in the ass) or you can be nice and be as fair as possible (but this choice should make the election harder). I think the choosing of choices would be best handled with a handful of focuses and events, kind of like Guangdong Sony-path ordinances. With one ‘main choice’ where different ‘amendments’ can be added.

And now for the most recognizable part of any TNO GUI, the colourful bars! Starting with the nationalism or ‘Germany First’ bar. So this bar that I have coloured red measures the amount of ‘unhealthy pride’ that Germans have in themselves and their country. Having high ‘pride’ has a positive effect on populist and nazi popularity so it can be handy but also be a pain in the ass. So you generally want to keep it low with propaganda campaigns but if German pride gets too low the people will see you as a ‘sellout’ and ‘not patriotic’ and ‘against Germans’ which causes your popularity to go down, German ‘pride’ go back up and will increase ‘apathy’ (I will explain this later) drastically, so not very good. Another part of the ‘pride’ meter is that other parts of your political agenda and gameplay will effect it. Things like reforming the Eastern policy and the EEC will be seen as ‘giving up German influence’ (which it kinda is) and make ‘pride’ go up in response, and if you win a proxy war people will be proud of ‘their’ victory causing ‘pride’ to also go up.

Now for the yellow bar. This is ‘apathy’, it represents how engaged the German people are with your attempt at restoring democracy. The gist is that if apathy is low people are more interested and (generally) supportive of your plans, resulting in a popularity boost and scaled buffs because people care more about what you do. However, it goes both ways. If apathy is low and you have a success, you have a better buff, but if you suffer a defeat the debuffs that you will get are also scaled and will be worse, you will also be hit with an increase in apathy. Apathy declines if you win proxy wars, solve or avoid scandals, complete reforms and have a good economy. It increases if you lose proxy wars, mess up reforms, suffer scandals or mismanage the economy.

High apathy is your worst enemy, if you mismanage it, you will lose the election, likely to the nazis because what do people do when they’re unsure of something? They fall back on the past, and that past is nazism. But what if that didn’t have to happen? What if you could perhaps, maybe, perchance ‘buy’ more time? If stuff is not going well the player shouldn’t be hurling towards the inevitable nazi failstate. They should have a way out, not a good way out but a way out nonetheless. And that way out is breaking everyone’s trust and dooming Germany to a forever anocracy by delaying the elections until further notice. Because delaying the elections will cause apathy to skyrocket, your popularity to plummet and the worst of all prove the nazis right, that democracy can’t work and that they are the only hope to restore Germany to its former glory.

A decade wasted...

(So I’ve been talking about these elections for a while now, but what are the elections actually? What are they for? Well they’re Reichstag elections of course, the Nazis already had them but only one list (theirs) was allowed, now multiple lists are allowed to participate. Couple that with some extra reforms empowering the Reichstag.)

But who are the main candidates? And what do they stand for? I’ll start with the Democratic Coalition. I have chosen Rainer Barzel, who was an important figure in the CDU in the 70’s and the early 80’s. Later, he was forced to resign his position because of suspected corruption but that won’t be important right? I shall be once honest with you once more, dear reader. When I was searching for candidates I just looked at the wikipedia page of the CDU and picked whoever was the party leader, which happens to be Barzel. After looking a little more into the guy, he’s the perfect pick for an anti-nazi democratic coalition. He was viewed as a pragmatic politician, and that is exactly the trait needed to be the head of a diverse coalition. Another thing about him was that Rainer wanted to focus more on the Christian aspect of the CDU. And that focus on Christianity is also what’s needed. The German people need another ‘anchorpoint’ to believe in that’s not ‘German Greatness’ and the personality cult of the Fürher. Christianity is that anchor point. That’s why, if Barzel wins, the ideology will be Christian conservatism. Or now that I think about it, the subideology could also be big tent since it’s a coalition of parties. And what are those other parties? Of course, the CVP is the largest and most popular but they can’t bring democracy back on their own (or so the smaller parties think). The second most powerful democratic party is the liberals, and I do not have a name for them yet. So I think I’m going to call them ‘Reformistische Bewegung’ or RB for short. So what are their goals? Finishing up some liberal economic reforms, strengthening German democracy and of course, being a pain in the ass for the church reforms the CVP wants to push through. On a smaller note their should be a liberal conservatism party, maybe moderate Christian democrats or something like the Weimar-era economic party.

Democratic Coalition victory

But what about the German left? Well in a nutshell, it doesn’t exist. Or just very tiny. The SPD-like party will be a part of the Democratic Coalition but only fulfill a minor role. And most likely their subideology will be something like ‘neocorporatism’ rather than reformist socialism. As for the rest of the left, I don’t think they will even get any parties. They should probably be classified as ‘socialist/communist opposition’ or something like that.

So what about the Populists? Well they are a pain in the ass. I’ve searched and searched and there are just no good candidates(I think). So I have settled on Franz schönhuber leading the REP. Now the REP was a real party irl. It styled itself as nationalist and anti-immigration and a few other standard right-wing stuff. Now Franz himself would absolutely be in the NSDAP in TNO, since he was in the damn SS. But I simply could not find anyone else who could fill the role of a right-wing populist leader. So what would be on their agenda? I imagine the first thing would be getting a workable majority in the first place. Kinda like the PSP situation in Brazil, large ambitions but slim plurality in the Reichstag. They should have the choice of (limited- cooperation with the nazis or to leave the Fürher as a ceremonial position as to not rock the boat too much (or just preserve their popularity).

(barely) A Populist Victory

And now for the most depressing outcome, a nazi victory. Here I have chosen, Martin Pape. Now who is Pape? Martin Pape is someone who doesn’t even have an english wikipedia page. That aside in TNO he sits at the head of the Speer-aligned social revolutionary faction of the NSDAP. Why have I chosen him you may ask? Because the nazis need someone with youthful vigour to replicate their victories in the 30’s and not old geriatic men. So what happens if the nazis win (again)? Pretty simple, restore the party-state, the power of the Fürher and destroy the Democrats for once and for all. (On a small note at this point the Fürher would not be Speer because he would be dead.)

The Worst Outcome

At the end of ’82, Germany exists in a new state, regardless what path you have taken it will be different than what came before it. But not everything has changed, the cold war is still ongoing, people are still dying in foreign lands for the interests of superpowers, Germany is still the undisputed hegemon and leader of Europe with all other nations under the fatherland and the Slavs still live with the jackboot on their necks, even if the pressure is reduced. I’m going to be honest with you people, this is the largest thing I have ever done for something I’m a fan off, and this has been an incredibly fun thought experiment or whatever you want to call it. And I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I have.

So have a good spring people, or autumn. Depends on which side of the world you live on.

PS. I do not envy the reddit mod who has to read through this entire thing to approve it.