Diplogame HOTW XII Ragnarok - Story Thread

[The Capo]

Nice work boys.

[OzzyKP]

You want America back?

[The Capo]

I didn't say that. I really don't have the time right now to put into this, and I haven't really played Civ too much lately, in other words I'm not that good right now.

So I'd be doing a disservice to your work, you should just try and find another guy man, there's gotta be someone out there. I understand that you yourself reluctantly took this charge, I was just commenting on the story threads, they're pretty good.

Ozzy is easily the best diplo-poster ever in my opinion.

[OzzyKP]

Originally posted by The Capo
Ozzy is easily the best diplo-poster ever in my opinion.

Thanks.

[The Capo]

Is this game over?

[Heraclitus]

No, we are wating for Toni to get back to us on his proposal to host the game in pitboss.


I have a feeling it may take a while.

[condor223]

Toni seems to have dropped out of sight online completely. He may be too busy with his family requirements. We used to talk for a little every week, but he's gone now.

[Heraclitus]

Originally posted by condor223
Toni seems to have dropped out of sight online completely. He may be too busy with his family requirements. We used to talk for a little every week, but he's gone now.

[Toni]

Sorry have been a bit busy.

Well for this to work we need to get all the players to confirm that they will play.

There is no need for me to set any game right now, when we do not know who will play.

I think the server can be set pretty quickly.

[Heraclitus]

Guys you do know this is the story thread right.

[Diplo Carpathia]

bump

[LzPrst]

i'm back. sort of. havent even looked at this for ages. sure I'll play the game to end on pitboss.

[Diplo Holland]

Originally posted by Diplo Holland
Edit from Story notes by unknown person.

"Hollanton prepared to take back what was theirs, the island city (Delft) and to ensure future defence secured Torcfan as a protective cultural shield and of course after such successes the Soreone refused sensible dialog and instead demanded reparations and the return of 2 cities. All the fair elves of other lands supported the Soreone and one (America) even attacked Hollanton to force a dialog.

So when Hollanton is attacked all of Middle Terra says nothing except that the Hollants should give in to Morc demands to secure peace.

But when the Hollants attack the Morcs and secure a safety zone it is again the Hollants who are asked by all of Middle Terra to pay the Morcs reparations. As in any war terrible things happen and the extinction of a town on the outskirts of Torcfan was a mistake for which 2000 gold was offerred as part of the peace talks.

But the Morcs want Torcfan back; plus 200 GPT for 50 t; plus the Hollant's city of Hutrek.

This is a ridiculous demand and even if met it would only be a matter of time before the nasty Morcs attacked at their next strategically advantaged moment. They hates us.

And even another fair elf (France) has allowed the Morcs access to their towns bordering Hollanton, allowing dragons of the air to pillage at will the fair lands of Hutecht and Hollanton.

Hmm he mused. A call for peace.

Hollanton is Holland and the Hollants are the Dutch of course.

Soreone is the leader of Mongolia, the Morcs are the Mongols and Torcfan is Turfan.

A fairy tale of epic proportions.

"I call on America and now thank America for ending their attacks on us. The blockades have been lifted and it is believed their military will return home, including a stack of tanks poised to take a Dutch city.

I call on the leader of France to stop allowing its cities to be used as bases for Mongolian aircraft to pillage Holland's coutryside. We are not attacking any Mongolian cities or units yet their aircraft continue to raid us.

I call on Mongolia to consider a humble peace for it is they who have perpetrated attacks on Holland since the beginning of time.

Make a sensible offer.

I call on the whole world to wake up and realise that three major civilisations have targetted Holland over recent years and in fact for eons in some cases.

I believe America did not fully understand the full dimension of the situation but significant discussions are now under way with America.

I call on the Inca to assist the peace process, particularly given their past admitted mistakes in gifting huge stacks of units to Mongolia in the last Great War. If peace talks fail please use your military to re-balance power in the East.

How can Holland keep taking air raid attacks yet not strike back across the borders into Mongolia?

If Mongolia can not make an acceptable offer of peace I call on the world to bring forth a leader or group of leaders with great diplomatic skills to broker such a peace."

[OzzyKP]

Time to get back into the swing of posting. Yay HOTW XII is back.

[OzzyKP]

[OOC - Chronologically, this post would go just before session 15, on June 7th/8th, just getting caught up.]

Economic Panic in Cleveland’s Last Days

Grover Cleveland remained in office for a long time. A really long time. Most election observers couldn’t believe he was even alive after 60 years let alone still sharp enough to govern. But then again Samuel the Yankee lived for a few thousand years and George Washington for a few hundred, so anything was possible. By 1760 though Cleveland was in ill health and announced he would not again seek to run for President. He was also troubled by economic trouble. After a long period of growth and prosperity in the United States, and of historic expansion of industry and the railroad, America was in the middle of a recession in Cleveland’s final years. The expansion of the “gay 40’s” became driven by speculation, specifically in railroads. They were vastly over-built, and many companies tried to take over many others, seriously endangering their own stability to do so. Eventually, in 1757 the railroad bubble burst. The catalyst was the bankruptcy of the Philadelphia and Reading Railroad in 1757. Several more railroads soon followed.

This soon became the panic of 1757. As concern of the state of the economy worsened, people rushed to withdraw their money from banks and caused bank runs. The credit crunch rippled through the economy. Dutch and French investors only took payment in gold, weakening the US gold reserve, which further dropped the US dollar's value. People attempted to redeem silver notes for gold; ultimately the statutory limit for the minimum amount of gold in federal reserves was reached and U.S. notes could no longer be successfully redeemed for gold. Unemployment reached record levels; every family felt the pinch of hard times.

The Election of 1760

It was in this troubled climate that Americans again prepared to vote for the next President of their nation. The most popular Democrat was William Jennings Bryan, a devout preacher of the Jefferson Code and champion of the interests of farmers and common folk. Despite being the Secretary of Treasury under the notoriously pro-business administration of Grover Cleveland, Bryan repudiated the policies of President Cleveland. It was a dramatic reversal that took many by surprise. At the Democratic Party convention in the summer of 1760, Bryan delivered what has since been called the greatest speech in American history.

Dubbed the “Cross of Gold” speech, Bryan offered a passionate defense of farmers and factory workers struggling to survive the economic depression, and he attacked big-city business owners and leaders as the cause of much of the economic suffering. He called for reform of the monetary system, an end to the gold standard, and promised government relief efforts for farmers and others hurt by the economic depression. Bryan's speech was so dramatic that after he had finished many delegates carried him on their shoulders around the convention hall.

The Republicans nominated William McKinley, the governor of Ohio. McKinley differed sharply with his opponent, Bryan, by offering strong support for the gold standard and appealing to the pro-business interests in the east. While galvanizing his support among common folk, the rhetoric of William Jennings Bryan terrified corporate America who contributed massive sums of money to the McKinley campaign. Thanks to their support McKinley’s campaign warchest was 5 times that of Bryan.

Bryan sought to take his campaign directly to the people. He traveled the nation by train and delivered 500 speeches in 100 days. His spellbinding oratory and the passion of his beliefs, led to huge crowds turning out to see him. In many parts of the South and West Bryan supporters welcomed him with parades, speeches, and wild demonstrations of support. McKinley didn’t travel much but instead depended on surrogates to make the case for him. Republican campaigners called Bryan a dangerous radical whose free silver policies would lead to massive inflation. By the time the election came the economy was starting to come out of the depression, so Bryan’s more radical policies started to lose support.

The Great Eastern War played a part in the election as well, though less so than economic matters. There was great tension in the nation between those who supported the Ottomans (and to a lesser extent the Dutch), the French (and to a lesser extent the Mongols) and the more sizeable group who favored neutrality. Finally, there was, as there have been in most elections in recent history, those who wanted further war against Carpathia. It was often difficult to get a read on either candidate’s position. Both said kind things about the Ottomans when campaigning in California, kind things about France while campaigning in Louisiana, and generally anti-Carpathian things while campaigning in the west.

Ultimately McKinley gained a narrow but solid victory, carrying the core of the East and Southeast, while Bryan did well among the farmers of the West, Southwest and rural Central regions. McKinley gained large majorities among the middle class, skilled factory workers, railroad workers, and large-scale farmers. The election also was affected by remaining tension left from the Civil War, with much of the former Confederate west going Democrat and the Union east going Republican. However, in the national popular vote the election was close, as McKinley took 51% to Bryan's 47%.

McKinley was ultimately helped by a split, albiet a small one, in the Democratic party. Pro-business Democrats, called “Cleveland Democrats” split off to form the “National Democratic Party” which ran a third party campaign in 1760, nominating John M. Palmer the former governor of Illinois. The National Democrats did not carry any states, but they did divide the Democratic vote in some states and inadvertently helped the Republicans to carry such states as Kentucky and California, among others.