# HEARTS OF IRON IV — UNITED STATES FOCUS TREE (1936–1948) ## Comprehensive Mod Design Document > **Total Focuses: 312** > Spanning political, economic, and military branches with historical, ahistorical democratic, communist, fascist, and non-aligned paths. --- # TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. **SHARED OPENING TREE (1936–1937)** — 14 focuses 2. **HISTORICAL DEMOCRATIC PATH** — 48 focuses 3. **AHISTORICAL DEMOCRATIC PATH** — 40 focuses (two sub-routes of ~20 each) 4. **COMMUNIST PATH** — 36 focuses (shared trunk + two sub-routes) 5. **FASCIST PATH** — 36 focuses (shared trunk + two sub-routes) 6. **NON-ALIGNED PATH** — 34 focuses (shared trunk + two sub-routes) 7. **ECONOMIC SUBTREES** — 42 focuses (ideology-dependent) 8. **ARMY SUBTREE** — 28 focuses 9. **NAVY SUBTREE** — 26 focuses 10. **AIR FORCE SUBTREE** — 24 focuses --- # 1. SHARED OPENING TREE (1936–1937) These focuses are available to all ideological paths and represent the baseline American political landscape before the decisive fork. --- ### 1.01 — The New Deal **Available:** 1936 (game start) **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"President Roosevelt's sweeping package of social programs and public works has transformed the relationship between the federal government and the American people. Though the economy is recovering, millions remain unemployed, and critics on both left and right attack the New Deal as either insufficient or tyrannical."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"New Deal"** — Consumer Goods Factories: +5%, Construction Speed: +10%, Stability: +5% - Unlock the political branch --- ### 1.02 — The Dust Bowl **Available:** After "The New Deal" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Years of drought and poor farming practices have turned the Great Plains into a wasteland of blowing topsoil. Thousands of 'Okies' flee westward, and the agricultural heartland of America faces ruin."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Dust Bowl"** — Monthly Population: −0.5%, Resource Gain Efficiency: −5% - This spirit is removed by later economic focuses --- ### 1.03 — The Neutrality Acts **Available:** After "The New Deal" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Congress, haunted by the memory of the Great War, has passed a series of Neutrality Acts forbidding arms sales and loans to belligerent nations. America will not be dragged into another European bloodbath — or so the isolationists hope."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Neutrality Acts"** — Cannot join factions, Cannot send Lend-Lease, Political Power Gain: +0.10 - Removal of this spirit is required before joining any war or faction --- ### 1.04 — The Bureau of Investigation **Available:** After "The New Deal" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"J. Edgar Hoover's Bureau of Investigation keeps watch on subversives of every stripe — communists, fascists, labor agitators, and anyone else the Director deems a threat to the American way of life."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Hoover's Bureau"** — Operative Slots: +1, Enemy Operative Detection: +10% - Modifies espionage capabilities throughout the game --- ### 1.05 — The Great Depression Lingers **Available:** Game start (starting national spirit) **Duration:** N/A (starting condition) **Description:** *"Despite the New Deal's best efforts, the American economy remains trapped in the grip of the worst economic crisis in history. Industrial output is a fraction of its potential, and a quarter of the workforce sits idle."* **Effects:** - Starting National Spirit: **"The Great Depression"** — Factory Output: −30%, Construction Speed: −30%, Recruitable Population Factor: −3% - Progressively reduced and eventually removed by economic focuses --- ### 1.06 — Civilian Conservation Corps **Available:** After "The New Deal" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The CCC puts young men to work planting trees, building trails, and constructing dams across America. It is both a lifeline for the unemployed and an investment in the nation's infrastructure."* **Effects:** - Modify "The Great Depression": Construction Speed penalty reduced by 10% - Gain 2 Civilian Factories in a random state --- ### 1.07 — Works Progress Administration **Available:** After "Civilian Conservation Corps" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Under Harry Hopkins' energetic leadership, the WPA employs millions in everything from road construction to mural painting. Critics call it boondoggling; supporters call it salvation."* **Effects:** - Modify "The Great Depression": Factory Output penalty reduced by 10% - Gain 2 Infrastructure levels across the Midwest states --- ### 1.08 — Social Security Act **Available:** After "Works Progress Administration" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Social Security Act establishes a federal safety net for the elderly, the disabled, and the unemployed — a radical departure from the laissez-faire traditions of American governance."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - War Support: +5% - Monthly Population: +0.2% --- ### 1.09 — The Supreme Court Crisis **Available:** After "Social Security Act," 1937 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The Supreme Court has struck down key New Deal legislation as unconstitutional. Roosevelt, emboldened by his landslide reelection, considers a radical plan: packing the Court with sympathetic justices. The proposal horrifies even his allies."* **Effects:** - Country event: "The Court-Packing Plan" — Choose between: - **Pack the Court:** Political Power: −150, Stability: −10%, Gain modifier "Compliant Judiciary" (Political Power Gain: +0.15, allows faster completion of political focuses) - **Respect the Court:** Stability: +5%, Political Power: +50, but several New Deal national spirits gain reduced effects --- ### 1.10 — The Roosevelt Recession **Available:** After "The Supreme Court Crisis," late 1937 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Roosevelt's attempt to balance the federal budget triggers a sharp economic downturn. Unemployment spikes again, and the president's critics gleefully dub it the 'Roosevelt Recession.'"* **Effects:** - Modify "The Great Depression": Factory Output penalty increases by 5% temporarily - Triggers event chain: "Keynesian Response" vs. "Balanced Budget" - **Keynesian Response:** Removes the temporary penalty after 90 days, gives +1 Research Slot after 180 days - **Balanced Budget:** Consumer Goods Factories: −3%, but stability −5% --- ### 1.11 — Investigate Un-American Activities **Available:** After "The Bureau of Investigation" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Congressman Martin Dies of Texas chairs a new House committee to investigate subversive activities on American soil. The committee's broad mandate makes it a weapon against communists, fascists, and anyone else who falls outside the American mainstream."* **Effects:** - All ideological drift toward Communism and Fascism slowed by 30% - If Communist or Fascist support is above 20%, trigger event "HUAC Crackdown" which causes stability loss but reduces support - Mutually exclusive with "Protect Civil Liberties" --- ### 1.12 — Protect Civil Liberties **Available:** After "The Bureau of Investigation" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The American Civil Liberties Union and its allies in Congress argue that the best defense of democracy is the robust protection of free speech — even for those whose views are abhorrent."* **Effects:** - Political Power Gain: +0.10 - All ideological drift gains +20% speed (including democratic drift) - Stability: +5% - Mutually exclusive with "Investigate Un-American Activities" --- ### 1.13 — The 1936 Election **Available:** Game start, completes in November 1936 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Franklin Delano Roosevelt faces Republican Alf Landon in the 1936 presidential election. The outcome seems certain, but the manner of victory — and the mandate it confers — will shape the years to come."* **Effects:** - Historical outcome: Roosevelt wins in a landslide - Political Power: +100 - Stability: +5% - Unlocks the main political branching tree --- ### 1.14 — American Exceptionalism **Available:** After "The 1936 Election" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Whatever path America chooses, it does so in the belief that it is a nation unlike any other — a city upon a hill, an experiment in self-governance, a beacon of liberty or power or revolution. The question is what form that exceptionalism will take."* **Effects:** - Unlocks all five major political paths: - Historical Democratic Path - Ahistorical Democratic Path - Communist Path - Fascist Path - Non-Aligned Path - Political Power: +25 --- # 2. HISTORICAL DEMOCRATIC PATH (48 focuses) This path follows the broadly historical trajectory of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, with room for minor deviations. It is the "default" path for the United States. --- ## 2A. Roosevelt's Second Term (1937–1940) ### 2.01 — Fireside Chats **Available:** After "American Exceptionalism," requires Democratic government **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Roosevelt speaks directly to the American people through the radio, bypassing hostile newspaper editors and building an intimate bond with millions of listeners gathered around their sets."* **Effects:** - Stability: +5% - War Support: +5% - Political Power Gain: +0.10 --- ### 2.02 — Expand the TVA **Available:** After "Fireside Chats" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Tennessee Valley Authority brings electricity, flood control, and economic development to one of America's poorest regions. Its success argues for similar programs across the nation."* **Effects:** - Gain 2 Civilian Factories in the Southeast - Modify "The Great Depression": reduce all penalties by 5% - +1 Infrastructure in Tennessee, Alabama, Kentucky --- ### 2.03 — Fair Labor Standards Act **Available:** After "Fireside Chats" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Fair Labor Standards Act establishes a national minimum wage, limits the work week to forty-four hours, and bans child labor in interstate commerce. Business leaders howl; workers celebrate."* **Effects:** - Stability: +5% - Factory Output: +5% - Consumer Goods Factories: +3% --- ### 2.04 — Cash and Carry **Available:** After "The Neutrality Acts," 1939 or at war in Europe **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"With war raging in Europe, Roosevelt persuades Congress to amend the Neutrality Acts: belligerents may now purchase American arms, provided they pay cash and carry them away in their own ships. Everyone knows which belligerent has the ships."* **Effects:** - Modify "Neutrality Acts": Can now send equipment to nations at war (but not join factions) - Gain Trade Opinion: +20 with UK and France - Civilian Factory Output: +5% --- ### 2.05 — Quarantine the Aggressors **Available:** After "Cash and Carry" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"In a speech in Chicago, Roosevelt calls for an 'international quarantine' of aggressive nations. The public reaction is mixed, but the president has begun the slow work of preparing America for the world's dangers."* **Effects:** - War Support: +10% - Generates world tension: +5 - Opinion with Japan: −30 --- ### 2.06 — Pan-American Security Zone **Available:** After "Quarantine the Aggressors" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Declaration of Panama establishes a vast security zone around the Western Hemisphere. The United States Navy will patrol these waters and deter Axis submarines — a neutral measure that happens to benefit the Allies enormously."* **Effects:** - Gain claims on all Caribbean islands held by European powers (event-driven if parent country falls) - Naval Doctrine Research Speed: +5% - Convoy escort efficiency: +10% --- ### 2.07 — The 1940 Election — Roosevelt's Third Term **Available:** 1940, after "Fireside Chats" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Breaking with the tradition established by George Washington, Franklin Roosevelt seeks an unprecedented third term. His Republican opponent, Wendell Willkie, is a charismatic internationalist — but the nation ultimately decides that changing horses midstream is too dangerous."* **Effects:** - Political Power: +150 - Stability: +5% - Gain National Spirit: **"Unprecedented Third Term"** — Political Power Gain: −0.05, Stability: −3% (controversial precedent) - Triggers event: "Willkie's Concession" — if player picks alternate option, branches to Ahistorical Democratic Path --- ## 2B. Arsenal of Democracy (1940–1941) ### 2.08 — Two-Ocean Navy Act **Available:** After "The 1940 Election" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Congress authorizes the construction of the largest naval expansion in human history: 257 ships, including 18 aircraft carriers and 7 battleships. The United States will have a navy capable of fighting in both the Atlantic and the Pacific simultaneously."* **Effects:** - Gain 3 Naval Dockyards - Naval Production: +15% - Unlock naval focuses in the Navy subtree --- ### 2.09 — Selective Training and Service Act **Available:** After "The 1940 Election" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"For the first time in its history, the United States institutes a peacetime draft. Sixteen million men register; nine hundred thousand are called up in the first year. America is not yet at war, but it is preparing."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +2% - Modify "The Great Depression": Reduce Recruitable Population penalty by 2% - Division Training Time: −10% --- ### 2.10 — Lend-Lease Act **Available:** After "Cash and Carry," 1941 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"'Suppose my neighbor's house catches fire...' Roosevelt sells the Lend-Lease concept with folksy brilliance. America will lend the tools of war to any nation whose defense the President deems vital to American security. The arsenal of democracy is open for business."* **Effects:** - Remove the "Cannot send Lend-Lease" portion of the Neutrality Acts - Gain decision: "Send Lend-Lease" to any country at war with a fascist nation - Civilian Factory Output: +10% - Gain National Spirit: **"Arsenal of Democracy"** — Military Factory Output: +10%, Civilian Factory Output: +5% --- ### 2.11 — Destroyers for Bases **Available:** After "Lend-Lease Act" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Fifty obsolete American destroyers are transferred to the Royal Navy in exchange for 99-year leases on British military bases across the Western Hemisphere. Churchill calls it 'the most unsordid act in history.' Isolationists call it treason."* **Effects:** - Lose 50 Destroyer hulls - Gain military access to: Bermuda, Newfoundland, British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica, Bahamas, Antigua, St. Lucia - Naval Base levels: +2 in each leased location - Opinion with UK: +50 --- ### 2.12 — The Atlantic Charter **Available:** After "Destroyers for Bases" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Aboard warships anchored off Newfoundland, Roosevelt and Churchill draft a joint declaration of war aims: no territorial aggrandizement, self-determination of peoples, free trade, and a future organization to keep the peace. It is the charter of a new world order."* **Effects:** - War Support: +10% - Unlocks ability to form the "United Nations" faction later - Relations with UK: +30, Relations with USSR: +10 - World Tension contribution: +10 --- ### 2.13 — Escort the Convoys **Available:** After "The Atlantic Charter" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"American warships begin escorting convoys across the western Atlantic, engaging German U-boats in an undeclared naval war. The sinking of the USS Reuben James brings the conflict into sharp focus."* **Effects:** - Event: "The Sinking of the Reuben James" — War Support: +10% - Convoy Escort Efficiency: +15% - Naval Experience: +25 - Remove "Cannot join factions" from Neutrality Acts --- ### 2.14 — Prepare for War **Available:** After "Selective Training and Service Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Chief of Staff George C. Marshall undertakes a massive reorganization of the United States Army. Incompetent officers are retired, new divisions are activated, and the Louisiana Maneuvers test the army's readiness under realistic conditions."* **Effects:** - Army Experience: +50 - Land Doctrine Research Speed: +10% - Gain 1 Field Marshal: George C. Marshall (Skill Level 4, Traits: Organizer, Logistics Wizard) --- ### 2.15 — Rainbow War Plans **Available:** After "Prepare for War" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The Joint Board develops a series of color-coded war plans for every conceivable contingency. War Plan Rainbow Five envisions a two-ocean war against Germany and Japan, with Europe as the primary theater."* **Effects:** - Planning Speed: +15% - Unlock strategic decisions: "Europe First" or "Pacific First" (after entering war) - Gain 1 General: Dwight D. Eisenhower (Skill Level 3, Trait: Organizer) --- ## 2C. Day of Infamy (1941–1942) ### 2.16 — Day of Infamy **Available:** Triggered by Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor or war with a major Axis power **Duration:** 1 day **Description:** *"'Yesterday, December 7th, 1941 — a date which will live in infamy — the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan.' Congress declares war with a single dissenting vote."* **Effects:** - Remove National Spirit: "Neutrality Acts" entirely - Remove National Spirit: "The Great Depression" entirely - Gain National Spirit: **"Day of Infamy"** — War Support: +30%, Recruitable Population: +3%, Factory Output: +10% - Can now join any faction - All isolationist penalties removed --- ### 2.17 — War Production Board **Available:** After "Day of Infamy" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Donald Nelson takes charge of the War Production Board, converting America's vast civilian economy to military production. Automobile factories build tanks; appliance makers produce ammunition; shipyards work around the clock."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +15% - Civilian to Military Factory conversion speed: +25% - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% --- ### 2.18 — Office of Price Administration **Available:** After "War Production Board" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Rationing and price controls keep the home front stable as the war economy absorbs every available resource. Americans learn to live with ration books and Victory Gardens."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - Resource Gain Efficiency: +15% --- ### 2.19 — Executive Order 9066 **Available:** After "Day of Infamy" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"In the grip of wartime hysteria, Roosevelt signs Executive Order 9066, authorizing the forced relocation of over 120,000 Japanese Americans to internment camps. It is one of the gravest violations of civil liberties in American history."* **Effects:** - Event: "Japanese Internment" — two choices: - **Sign the Order (Historical):** Stability: +5% (short-term), Gain modifier "Internment Camps" — Recruitable Population from Japanese-majority states: −50%, Foreign opinion: −10 - **Refuse the Order:** Stability: −10%, War Support: −5%, but gain "Defender of Liberty" modifier — Political Power: +0.15, Democratic support: +10% --- ### 2.20 — The Manhattan Project **Available:** After "Day of Infamy," 1942 **Duration:** 175 days (long-term project) **Description:** *"Under the direction of General Leslie Groves and physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, the most secret and expensive weapons program in human history begins in the deserts of New Mexico. The atom itself will be split to forge a weapon of unprecedented power."* **Effects:** - Costs 5 Research Slots for the duration (special mechanic) - After completion: Unlock Nuclear Reactor technology - Gain Research Bonus: +2 Nuclear Technology research speed bonuses of 100% each - Gain National Spirit: **"Manhattan Project"** — Nuclear Research Speed: +50% --- ### 2.21 — The Office of Strategic Services **Available:** After "Day of Infamy" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"William 'Wild Bill' Donovan organizes America's first centralized intelligence agency. The OSS will gather intelligence, conduct sabotage, and coordinate with resistance movements across occupied Europe and Asia."* **Effects:** - Operative Slots: +3 - Operative Training Time: −25% - Gain 1 Operative: "Wild Bill Donovan" (Master trait) - Unlock espionage decisions for occupied territories --- ### 2.22 — Rosie the Riveter **Available:** After "War Production Board" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"With millions of men in uniform, American women enter the workforce in unprecedented numbers. They build ships, assemble aircraft, and operate machinery — proving that the war effort belongs to everyone."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +2% - Factory Output: +10% - Gain National Spirit: **"Rosie the Riveter"** — Construction Speed: +10%, Military Factory Output: +5% --- ### 2.23 — Double V Campaign **Available:** After "Rosie the Riveter" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"African American leaders launch the Double V Campaign: victory over fascism abroad and racism at home. A. Philip Randolph's threatened March on Washington forces Roosevelt to issue Executive Order 8802, banning discrimination in defense industries."* **Effects:** - Stability: +3% - Recruitable Population: +1% - Event: "Executive Order 8802" — choose to enforce vigorously (+5% Factory Output, −3% Stability in Southern states) or enforce symbolically (+2% Stability, no other bonuses) --- ## 2D. Turning the Tide (1942–1944) ### 2.24 — Europe First **Available:** After "Rainbow War Plans," at war with both Germany and Japan **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The Combined Chiefs of Staff confirm the grand strategy: Germany is the primary enemy. The bulk of American offensive power will be directed at Europe first, with the Pacific receiving enough to hold the line and advance incrementally."* **Effects:** - Land Doctrine Research Speed: +10% - Planning Speed: +10% for units in European theater - Gain decision: "Prioritize European Theater" — +15% attack in Europe, −10% attack in Pacific - Mutually exclusive with "Island-Hopping First" --- ### 2.25 — Island-Hopping First **Available:** After "Rainbow War Plans," at war with both Germany and Japan **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Admiral King and the Pacific lobby argue that Japan, the nation that actually attacked us, should be the priority. Island by island, airfield by airfield, America will fight its way across the Pacific to Tokyo's doorstep."* **Effects:** - Naval Doctrine Research Speed: +10% - Naval Speed: +10% in Pacific - Gain decision: "Prioritize Pacific Theater" — +15% attack in Pacific, −10% attack in Europe - Mutually exclusive with "Europe First" --- ### 2.26 — Operation Torch **Available:** After "Europe First" or "Island-Hopping First," at war with Axis, 1942 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The first major American ground operation in the European theater: landings in French North Africa under General Eisenhower. The inexperienced American troops will learn hard lessons at Kasserine Pass, but the Allies gain a foothold on the road to Rome."* **Effects:** - Army Experience: +25 - Gain war goal on Vichy France - Amphibious Invasion Speed: +10% - Gain 1 General: George S. Patton (Skill Level 4, Traits: Panzer Leader, Aggressive Attacker) --- ### 2.27 — Codebreakers **Available:** After "The Office of Strategic Services" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"At a secret facility in Arlington, Virginia, American codebreakers crack the Japanese naval cipher — and at Bletchley Park, Allied cryptanalysts read German Enigma traffic. These invisible victories shape the course of every battle."* **Effects:** - Decryption: +2 - Intel Network Gain: +30% - Gain National Spirit: **"SIGINT Advantage"** — Enemy Intel Network Gain: −25%, Planning Speed: +5% --- ### 2.28 — Strategic Bombing Campaign **Available:** After "Operation Torch" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"General Carl 'Tooey' Spaatz and General Ira Eaker direct the Eighth Air Force in a campaign of daylight precision bombing against German industry. The losses are staggering — but so is the destruction visited upon the enemy's factories and railroads."* **Effects:** - Strategic Bombing Damage: +20% - Air Experience: +25 - Gain 1 General: Carl Spaatz (Air, Skill Level 4) - Unlocks decision: "Combined Bomber Offensive" — synergy with UK strategic bombing --- ### 2.29 — Battle of the Atlantic **Available:** After "Escort the Convoys," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The long struggle against the U-boat menace reaches its climax. New escort carriers, improved radar, cracked codes, and hunter-killer groups turn the tide in the Atlantic. The convoys get through."* **Effects:** - Convoy Escort Efficiency: +25% - Naval Experience: +25 - Sub Detection: +20% - Gain National Spirit: **"Masters of the Atlantic"** — Convoy Loss: −30% --- ### 2.30 — The Big Three **Available:** After "The Atlantic Charter," at war, 1943 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin meet at Tehran to coordinate grand strategy. The Western Allies commit to a cross-Channel invasion in 1944; Stalin pledges to join the war against Japan after Germany falls."* **Effects:** - Relations with UK: +40, Relations with USSR: +30 - War Support: +5% - Unlocks event chain for post-war planning - Planning Speed: +10% --- ### 2.31 — GI Bill of Rights **Available:** After "The Big Three," 1944 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944 promises returning veterans education, housing, and business loans. It will transform American society, creating a vast middle class and fueling a postwar economic boom."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"GI Bill"** — (activates after war ends) Research Speed: +5%, Construction Speed: +15%, Stability: +10% - Monthly Population: +0.5% (post-war) --- ## 2E. Victory and the Postwar World (1944–1948) ### 2.32 — The 1944 Election **Available:** 1944, requires Historical Democratic Path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Roosevelt, now visibly ailing, seeks a fourth term with Senator Harry Truman of Missouri as his running mate — replacing the liberal Henry Wallace. Republican Thomas Dewey mounts a strong challenge, but the nation stays the course in wartime."* **Effects:** - Political Power: +100 - Event: Choose VP — "Truman" (Historical) or "Keep Wallace" (minor deviation) - **Truman:** Balanced bonuses, unlocks Truman succession tree - **Wallace:** More progressive policies, different Cold War dynamics --- ### 2.33 — D-Day: Operation Overlord **Available:** At war with Germany, 1944, after "The Big Three" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"On the morning of June 6, 1944, the largest amphibious invasion in history hits the beaches of Normandy. Under Eisenhower's supreme command, American, British, and Canadian forces breach Hitler's Atlantic Wall."* **Effects:** - Amphibious Invasion Penalty: −50% - Army Experience: +50 - War Support: +15% - Gain National Spirit: **"Crusade in Europe"** — Attack on core territory of European Axis: +15%, Division Organization: +10 --- ### 2.34 — The Battle of the Bulge **Available:** After "D-Day," 1944 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Germany's last great offensive in the Ardennes catches the Allies by surprise. In the frozen forests of Belgium, surrounded American troops at Bastogne hold out against impossible odds. Patton's Third Army wheels north in one of the war's most remarkable maneuvers."* **Effects:** - Army Experience: +25 - Entrenchment: +10% for all American divisions - Event: Patton gains trait "Tenaciousness" - Gain National Spirit: **"Baptism by Fire"** — Defense: +10%, Breakthrough: +5% --- ### 2.35 — Iwo Jima and Okinawa **Available:** At war with Japan, 1945 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The invasions of Iwo Jima and Okinawa bring American forces within striking distance of the Japanese home islands — at a terrible cost. The fanatical Japanese defense and mass kamikaze attacks offer a preview of what an invasion of Japan itself might look like."* **Effects:** - War Support: −5% (heavy casualties) - Marine divisions gain +15% Attack - Naval Experience: +25 - Unlocks decision: "Prepare for Operation Downfall" or "Pursue Diplomatic Solution" or "Use the Bomb" --- ### 2.36 — The Death of Roosevelt **Available:** April 1945 (historical event, can be delayed with ahistorical choices) **Duration:** 1 day **Description:** *"On April 12, 1945, Franklin Delano Roosevelt dies of a cerebral hemorrhage at Warm Springs, Georgia. The man who led America through the Depression and the war is gone. Harry Truman, barely briefed on the Manhattan Project, becomes the thirty-third President."* **Effects:** - Lose leader: Franklin D. Roosevelt - Gain leader: Harry S. Truman (if Truman was VP) or Henry Wallace (if Wallace was kept) - Stability: −10% - War Support: −5% - Political Power: −50 --- ### 2.37 — The Potsdam Conference **Available:** After "The Death of Roosevelt," Germany capitulated **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"At Potsdam, Truman meets Stalin and the new British Prime Minister Attlee to settle the postwar order in Europe. Truman, newly informed of the successful atomic test, is emboldened. The cracks in the Grand Alliance are already visible."* **Effects:** - Relations with USSR: −20 - Gain decision: "Demand Free Elections in Eastern Europe" - Gain war goal on Japan (Potsdam Declaration) - Political Power: +50 --- ### 2.38 — Trinity **Available:** After "The Manhattan Project" completion, 1945 **Duration:** 1 day **Description:** *"'Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.' In the predawn darkness of the New Mexico desert, the first atomic bomb detonates with the force of twenty thousand tons of TNT. The nuclear age has begun."* **Effects:** - Gain 1 Nuclear Bomb - Unlock decision: "Use the Bomb" — available against any nation at war with USA - Gain National Spirit: **"Nuclear Power"** — Research Speed: +5%, War Support: +10% --- ### 2.39 — Hiroshima and Nagasaki **Available:** After "Trinity," at war with Japan **Duration:** 1 day **Description:** *"President Truman authorizes the use of atomic weapons against Japan. On August 6, Hiroshima is destroyed; on August 9, Nagasaki follows. Japan surrenders on August 15. The war is over — and the world will never be the same."* **Effects:** - Japan receives event: "Unconditional Surrender" - War Support: +20% - World Tension: +30 - Gain National Spirit: **"The Atomic Age"** — Replaces "Nuclear Power" — Research Speed: +10%, World Tension generation: +25% - All nations: Opinion of USA: −15 (except allies) --- ### 2.40 — The Truman Doctrine **Available:** After war ends, 1947 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"'It must be the policy of the United States to support free peoples who are resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures.' With these words, Truman commits America to the global containment of communism."* **Effects:** - Remove any remaining isolationist national spirits - Gain National Spirit: **"Truman Doctrine"** — War Support: +10%, Political Power Gain: +0.20, Can guarantee any nation threatened by communism - Relations with USSR: −50 - Unlocks Cold War decision tree --- ### 2.41 — The Marshall Plan **Available:** After "The Truman Doctrine" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Secretary of State George C. Marshall proposes a vast program of economic aid to rebuild war-torn Europe. The Marshall Plan will spend thirteen billion dollars — and win the loyalty of Western Europe for a generation."* **Effects:** - Lose 5 Civilian Factories for 2 years (aid shipments) - All European democracies: Opinion of USA: +100, Democratic support: +30% - After 2 years: Gain 8 Civilian Factories (economic boom from trade) - Gain National Spirit: **"Marshall Plan"** — Trade Opinion: +50, Monthly Population: +0.5% --- ### 2.42 — NATO **Available:** After "The Marshall Plan," 1948 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The North Atlantic Treaty Organization binds the United States to the defense of Western Europe with an ironclad guarantee: an attack on one is an attack on all. The American commitment to Europe, provisional since 1917, is now permanent."* **Effects:** - Form faction: "North Atlantic Treaty Organization" - All Western European democracies: invited to join - Gain National Spirit: **"Leader of the Free World"** — Division Attack: +5%, Division Defense: +5%, Political Power Gain: +0.25 - Relations with USSR: −100 --- ### 2.43 — National Security Act **Available:** After "The Truman Doctrine" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The National Security Act of 1947 reorganizes the American military establishment: the Army and Navy are unified under a new Department of Defense, the Air Force becomes an independent service, and the Central Intelligence Agency is born."* **Effects:** - Gain 1 Research Slot - Operative Slots: +2 - Air Experience: +25 - Unlocks advanced military focuses in all three branches --- ### 2.44 — Berlin Airlift **Available:** After "NATO," 1948 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"When the Soviets blockade West Berlin, Truman refuses to abandon the city. For eleven months, American and British aircraft fly around the clock, delivering food, fuel, and medicine to two million Berliners. It is a triumph of logistics and willpower."* **Effects:** - War Support: +15% - Air Experience: +50 - Transport plane technology: +1 level - Gain National Spirit: **"Cold War Resolve"** — Stability: +10%, Defensive War Support: +20% - Relations with West Germany: +100 --- ### 2.45 — Desegregation of the Armed Forces **Available:** After "Double V Campaign," 1948 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Executive Order 9981 declares that 'there shall be equality of treatment and opportunity for all persons in the armed services without regard to race.' Truman desegregates the military over the objections of Southern Democrats and conservative generals."* **Effects:** - Stability: −5% (temporary, Southern backlash) - After 180 days: Stability: +10%, Recruitable Population: +1%, Division Organization: +5 - Gain National Spirit: **"Integrated Armed Forces"** — Replaces any segregation modifiers --- ### 2.46 — The Fair Deal **Available:** After "The Truman Doctrine," 1948 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Truman proposes an ambitious domestic agenda: national health insurance, federal aid to education, expanded social security, and civil rights legislation. Congress, dominated by a conservative coalition, blocks most of it — but the vision endures."* **Effects:** - Political Power: +75 - Stability: +5% - Monthly Population: +0.3% - Research Speed: +3% --- ### 2.47 — The 1948 Election **Available:** 1948 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Harry Truman faces Thomas Dewey in an election everyone expects him to lose. The Democratic Party is splitting three ways: Strom Thurmond leads the segregationist Dixiecrats, Henry Wallace runs on a progressive third-party ticket, and Truman campaigns with ferocious energy on a whistle-stop tour."* **Effects:** - Event: "Dewey Defeats Truman" — Choose: - **Truman Wins (Historical):** Political Power: +150, Stability: +10% - **Dewey Wins:** Switch to Ahistorical Democratic (Republican) sub-path - **Thurmond Splits the South:** Stability: −15%, gain "Dixiecrat Revolt" modifier --- ### 2.48 — Pax Americana **Available:** After "NATO," war has ended, 1948 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States stands astride the world like a colossus. With the mightiest military, the largest economy, and sole possession of the atomic bomb, America has become the leader of the Western world — for better or worse."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Pax Americana"** — All stats: +5%, Max Factories: +30, Recruitable Population: +3%, Research Speed: +10% - This is the capstone focus of the Historical Democratic Path --- # 3. AHISTORICAL DEMOCRATIC PATH (40 focuses) Two sub-routes: **Route A — Republican Ascendancy (Willkie/Dewey)** and **Route B — Wallace's Progressive America.** Both remain democratic but diverge significantly from historical policy. --- ## Route A — Republican Ascendancy (20 focuses) *Wendell Willkie wins in 1940, succeeded by Thomas Dewey. An internationalist Republican administration pursues a more business-friendly, less interventionist path — until Pearl Harbor forces its hand.* ### 3A.01 — Willkie Wins **Available:** At the "1940 Election" focus, choose alternate option **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The charismatic Wendell Willkie — a former Democrat, a Wall Street lawyer, and an unabashed internationalist — defeats Roosevelt in a stunning upset. The New Deal era is over."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Wendell Willkie (Democratic, Traits: Free Trader, Captain of Industry) - Political Power: +100 - Remove National Spirit: "Unprecedented Third Term" - Stability: +5% --- ### 3A.02 — Roll Back the New Deal **Available:** After "Willkie Wins" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Willkie's Republican Congress wastes no time dismantling the regulatory apparatus of the New Deal. The Securities and Exchange Commission is defanged, labor protections are weakened, and business breathes easier."* **Effects:** - Consumer Goods Factories: −8% - Factory Output: +10% - Stability: −5% - Remove National Spirit: "New Deal," replace with **"Free Enterprise"** — Factory Output: +10%, Construction Speed: +5%, Stability: −5% --- ### 3A.03 — Taft-Hartley Before Its Time **Available:** After "Roll Back the New Deal" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"New labor legislation restricts union power: closed shops are banned, secondary boycotts outlawed, and union leaders must sign loyalty oaths. The CIO and AFL are furious, but American industry celebrates."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +5% - Stability: −3% - Recruitable Population: +1% (fewer strikes) --- ### 3A.04 — Willkie's Internationalism **Available:** After "Willkie Wins" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Unlike many in his party, Willkie believes fervently in international engagement. His book 'One World' becomes a bestseller, arguing for global cooperation against tyranny — but he must drag his isolationist party along."* **Effects:** - War Support: +10% - World Tension contribution: +5 - Can remove "Neutrality Acts" without war, but requires 70% War Support --- ### 3A.05 — Wall Street Mobilization **Available:** After "Roll Back the New Deal" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Rather than a government-directed war economy, the Willkie administration relies on incentivizing private industry with generous contracts and tax breaks. Wall Street mobilizes for war — at a profit."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +10% - Civilian Factory Output: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: +3% (corporations retain more profit) --- ### 3A.06 — The Dollar Diplomacy Revival **Available:** After "Willkie's Internationalism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American economic power is wielded as a tool of foreign policy. Trade agreements, investment guarantees, and financial leverage replace the blunt instrument of military intervention."* **Effects:** - Trade Opinion: +30 - Gain 2 Civilian Factories - Relations with all democracies: +20 - Monthly Population: +0.3% --- ### 3A.07 — A Republican War **Available:** After Pearl Harbor event, Willkie path **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Pearl Harbor transforms the Republican administration overnight. Willkie, who always warned of the Axis threat, now has his mandate. But a Republican war will be fought differently — more reliant on technology and firepower than on mass mobilization."* **Effects:** - Research Speed: +5% - Army Attack: +5% - Fewer recruitable divisions but better-equipped --- ### 3A.08 — Dewey Takes the Helm **Available:** 1944, Willkie path (Willkie's health fails) **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Willkie's failing health forces him to decline a second term. Thomas Dewey, the young governor of New York and the prosecutor who took on the mob, wins the Republican nomination and the presidency."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Thomas E. Dewey (Democratic, Traits: Staunch Democrat, Silent Workhorse) - Political Power: +100 - Stability: +5% --- ### 3A.09 — Dewey's Efficient War **Available:** After "Dewey Takes the Helm" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Dewey brings a prosecutor's ruthless efficiency to the war effort. Waste is eliminated, contracts are renegotiated, and the war's management becomes a model of corporate-governmental cooperation."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +10% - Supply Consumption: −10% - Division Training Time: −15% --- ### 3A.10 — Bretton Woods Republican Style **Available:** After "Dewey Takes the Helm," 1944 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Bretton Woods conference establishes the dollar as the world's reserve currency, but Dewey's appointees ensure that the new International Monetary Fund and World Bank serve American business interests first."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Dollar Hegemony"** — Civilian Factory Output: +15%, Trade Opinion: +40 - Monthly Population: +0.5% --- ### 3A.11 — Dewey's Cold War **Available:** After war ends, Dewey path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Dewey takes a harder line against the Soviet Union from the start. Where Truman hesitated, Dewey acts: increased defense spending, aggressive intelligence operations, and an ironclad commitment to Western Europe."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +10% - Operative Slots: +2 - Relations with USSR: −75 - War Support: +15% --- ### 3A.12 — The Dewey Doctrine **Available:** After "Dewey's Cold War" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Dewey articulates a doctrine of 'rollback' rather than mere containment: the goal is not to contain communism but to push it back, liberating captive nations in Eastern Europe."* **Effects:** - Gain wargoal decision against any communist nation (requires 80% war support) - World Tension: +15 - War Support: +10% - Relations with all communist nations: −50 --- ### 3A.13 — Republican NATO **Available:** After "The Dewey Doctrine," 1948 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Republican version of NATO is more explicitly anti-Soviet and more demanding of European allies. Member nations must meet strict defense spending targets, and the American commitment comes with conditions."* **Effects:** - Form faction: "North Atlantic Defense Pact" - All members: Division Defense: +10% - Relations with allies: +30 (but lower than historical NATO due to conditions) - Military Factory Output: +5% --- ### 3A.14 — Tax Cuts and Growth **Available:** After "Dewey Takes the Helm," postwar **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Dewey slashes wartime tax rates, arguing that private enterprise will drive the postwar boom more efficiently than government spending. The economy roars — but social programs wither."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +15% - Construction Speed: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - Monthly Population: +0.3% - Stability: −3% --- ### 3A.15 — Interstate Highway Act (Early) **Available:** After "Tax Cuts and Growth" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Dewey, the infrastructure-minded governor, pushes through an early version of the interstate highway system — framed as a national defense measure to facilitate military logistics."* **Effects:** - Supply throughput: +15% - Construction Speed: +10% - Gain 3 Infrastructure levels across all states - Gain National Spirit: **"Interstate System"** — Division Speed: +10%, Supply: +10% --- ### 3A.16 — Atomic Diplomacy **Available:** After atomic bomb developed, Dewey path **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Dewey uses the atomic monopoly more aggressively than Truman ever did, making veiled nuclear threats to extract concessions from the Soviet Union. The world holds its breath."* **Effects:** - Relations with USSR: −50 - War Support: +10% - World Tension: +20 - All nations: Fear of USA: +25 --- ### 3A.17 — Voice of America Expansion **Available:** After "Dewey's Cold War" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The Voice of America radio network broadcasts American values into every corner of the Soviet bloc. Propaganda becomes a weapon as potent as any bomb."* **Effects:** - Democratic support in all nations: +5% - Communist support globally: −5% - Stability: +3% --- ### 3A.18 — Space Race Origins **Available:** After "Dewey's Cold War," postwar **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Captured German rocket scientists, led by Wernher von Braun, are put to work on American missile programs. The V-2 technology that terrorized London will carry American ambitions to the stars — and American warheads to Moscow."* **Effects:** - Rocket Technology research: +2 bonuses of 100% - Air Experience: +25 - Research Speed: +3% --- ### 3A.19 — The Red Scare **Available:** After "Dewey's Cold War" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Under Dewey, the anti-communist crusade intensifies. Senator Joseph McCarthy finds a receptive audience in the Republican administration, and the loyalty boards purge suspected communists from government, academia, and entertainment."* **Effects:** - Communist support: −20% - Stability: −5% - Research Speed: −3% (brain drain from academic purges) - Gain National Spirit: **"Red Scare"** — Communist Drift: −90%, Stability: −3%, Espionage Defense: +20% --- ### 3A.20 — Republican Century **Available:** After "Republican NATO," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Under two Republican presidents, America has won the greatest war in history, rebuilt the global economy in its own image, and confronted the Soviet menace with steely resolve. The party of Lincoln presides over an American century."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Republican Century"** — All stats: +5%, Research Speed: +10%, Factory Output: +10% --- ## Route B — Wallace's Progressive America (20 focuses) *Henry Wallace either stays as VP and succeeds Roosevelt, or wins in 1948. A bold progressive agenda transforms domestic policy and pursues détente with the Soviet Union.* ### 3B.01 — Keep Wallace **Available:** At "The 1944 Election," choose "Keep Wallace" option **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Against the wishes of the Democratic Party bosses, Roosevelt insists on keeping Henry Wallace as his running mate. The progressive firebrand, former Secretary of Agriculture and Vice President, remains a heartbeat from the presidency."* **Effects:** - Political Power: −50 (party infighting) - Communist support: +5% (perceived leftism) - Stability: −3% --- ### 3B.02 — Wallace Becomes President **Available:** After Roosevelt's death, Wallace as VP **Duration:** 1 day **Description:** *"Henry Agard Wallace, the dreamer, the mystic, the corn geneticist from Iowa, becomes the thirty-third President of the United States. He is the most left-wing president in American history, and his enemies are already sharpening their knives."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Henry A. Wallace (Democratic, Traits: Popular Figurehead, Compassionate Gentleman) - Stability: −10% - Political Power: −75 - Communist support: +10% --- ### 3B.03 — The Century of the Common Man **Available:** After "Wallace Becomes President" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace declares that the twentieth century must become 'the century of the common man.' His vision: full employment, universal healthcare, international cooperation, and an end to colonialism everywhere."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - War Support: −5% - Monthly Population: +0.5% - Gain National Spirit: **"Century of the Common Man"** — Construction Speed: +10%, Research Speed: +5%, War Support: −5% --- ### 3B.04 — National Health Insurance **Available:** After "The Century of the Common Man" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace stakes his presidency on universal national health insurance — the dream that eluded Roosevelt and will elude presidents for decades to come. With a sympathetic Congress, the Wallace Health Act passes by a razor-thin margin."* **Effects:** - Monthly Population: +1% - Recruitable Population: +1% - Consumer Goods Factories: +5% - Stability: +5% --- ### 3B.05 — Desegregation Now **Available:** After "Wallace Becomes President" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace moves decisively on civil rights, desegregating not only the military but federal agencies and public accommodations. The South erupts in fury; Wallace doesn't care."* **Effects:** - Remove all segregation modifiers - Stability: −15% for 1 year (Southern revolt) - After 1 year: Stability: +15%, Recruitable Population: +2% - Gain National Spirit: **"Racial Equality"** — Factory Output: +5%, Recruitable Population: +2% --- ### 3B.06 — Peaceful Coexistence **Available:** After "The Century of the Common Man" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace refuses to view the Soviet Union as an implacable enemy. He proposes sharing atomic secrets through the United Nations, cooperating on reconstruction, and accepting Soviet security concerns in Eastern Europe."* **Effects:** - Relations with USSR: +100 - Relations with UK: −30 (British alarm) - World Tension: −20 - War Support: −10% - Gain National Spirit: **"Peaceful Coexistence"** — Relations with all nations: +20, Military Factory Output: −5% --- ### 3B.07 — Share the Atom **Available:** After "Peaceful Coexistence," nuclear weapons developed **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"In a move that horrifies the military establishment, Wallace proposes placing atomic energy under international control through the Baruch Plan — but goes further, offering to share atomic research with the Soviet Union as a gesture of good faith."* **Effects:** - Relations with USSR: +50 - Remove nuclear monopoly advantage - Research Speed: +10% (international scientific cooperation) - Military High Command: −10 opinion (generals revolt) - Risk of event: "Military Mutiny" if war support drops below 30% --- ### 3B.08 — Full Employment Act **Available:** After "National Health Insurance" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Full Employment Act of 1946 commits the federal government to ensuring a job for every American who wants one. Public works, government jobs programs, and Keynesian demand management become permanent features of the economy."* **Effects:** - Remove "The Great Depression" entirely (if still present) - Gain National Spirit: **"Full Employment"** — Factory Output: +10%, Construction Speed: +15%, Consumer Goods Factories: +5% --- ### 3B.09 — Anti-Colonial Crusade **Available:** After "Peaceful Coexistence" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace uses American economic leverage to pressure Britain, France, and the Netherlands to grant independence to their colonies. The European empires are appalled; the colonized peoples are overjoyed."* **Effects:** - All colonial nations: Independence support: +30% - Relations with UK: −50, Relations with France: −40 - Relations with India, Indonesia, Vietnam: +100 - Gain National Spirit: **"Champion of Independence"** — Non-aligned opinion of USA: +40 --- ### 3B.10 — The Wallace Doctrine **Available:** After "Anti-Colonial Crusade" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Wallace Doctrine commits the United States to supporting democratic self-determination everywhere — not through military force, but through economic aid, technical assistance, and the power of example."* **Effects:** - Gain decision: "Offer Economic Aid" to any non-aligned or democratic nation - World Tension reduction: −0.5 monthly - Trade Opinion: +30 - Political Power Gain: +0.15 --- ### 3B.11 — Strengthen the United Nations **Available:** After "Peaceful Coexistence" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace invests enormous political capital in strengthening the United Nations, proposing a UN military force, expanded Security Council membership, and binding arbitration of international disputes."* **Effects:** - Form decision: "UN Peacekeeping Force" — can intervene in conflicts without direct US involvement - World Tension: −10 - Relations with all nations: +10 - Political Power: −100 --- ### 3B.12 — Progressive Tax Reform **Available:** After "Full Employment Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace pushes through the most progressive tax code in American history: a 94% top marginal rate, wealth taxes on large estates, and corporate tax reform that closes loopholes exploited by the rich."* **Effects:** - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - Civilian Factory Output: +10% - Stability: −5% (wealthy backlash) - Construction Speed: +10% --- ### 3B.13 — Federal Education Act **Available:** After "National Health Insurance" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Massive federal investment in education at every level: universal preschool, increased teacher pay, new school construction, and generous scholarships for higher education."* **Effects:** - Research Speed: +10% - Monthly Population: +0.3% - 1 Research Slot after 365 days --- ### 3B.14 — Conservation and Stewardship **Available:** After "Full Employment Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace, the Iowa farmer's son, launches the most ambitious conservation program since Teddy Roosevelt. New national parks, reforestation of the Dust Bowl regions, and the first federal water pollution controls."* **Effects:** - Remove "Dust Bowl" national spirit (if still present) - Resource Gain Efficiency: +10% - Stability: +5% --- ### 3B.15 — Wallace's Enemies **Available:** After "Share the Atom" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The FBI, the military, Southern Democrats, and big business all despise Wallace. Hoover's FBI investigates the President's associates for communist ties. The Joint Chiefs threaten resignation. Impeachment talk circulates in Congress."* **Effects:** - Event chain: "The Conspiracy Against Wallace" - Stability: −10% - Risk of coup if stability drops below 25% - Political Power: −100 - Must pass several stability checks or face crisis --- ### 3B.16 — Labor's Champion **Available:** After "Full Employment Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace strengthens labor unions, expands collective bargaining rights, and raises the minimum wage dramatically. The CIO and AFL pledge their total support."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +5% - Stability: +5% - Recruitable Population: +1% - Monthly Population: +0.2% --- ### 3B.17 — Point Four Program **Available:** After "The Wallace Doctrine" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace's Point Four Program provides technical assistance and development aid to the world's poorest nations. American engineers, doctors, and teachers fan out across Asia, Africa, and Latin America."* **Effects:** - Relations with all non-aligned nations: +30 - Monthly Population: +0.3% (immigration from grateful nations) - Trade Opinion: +20 --- ### 3B.18 — The 1948 Crisis **Available:** 1948, Wallace path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace faces the most hostile political environment any American president has ever endured. Southern Democrats have bolted, Republicans call him a communist, and his own party is fracturing. The 1948 election may be his last stand."* **Effects:** - Event: "Wallace's Last Stand" — multiple outcomes based on stability and political power - If stability > 50%: Wallace wins, gains +200 Political Power - If stability 30-50%: Narrow victory, gains +50 Political Power - If stability < 30%: Defeat — switch to Republican path --- ### 3B.19 — The Welfare State **Available:** After "The 1948 Crisis" (if Wallace wins) **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"With his mandate renewed, Wallace completes the transformation of the American social contract. The United States now has universal healthcare, guaranteed employment, free education through college, and the most generous social safety net in the Western world."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"The Welfare State"** — Monthly Population: +1%, Stability: +15%, Factory Output: +5%, Consumer Goods Factories: +10% --- ### 3B.20 — A World Without Blocs **Available:** After "Strengthen the United Nations," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wallace's vision of a world without military blocs, without colonial empires, and without nuclear proliferation may be naive — but under his leadership, America has come closer to realizing it than anyone thought possible."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"A World Without Blocs"** — Relations with all nations: +30, War Support: −10%, Stability: +10%, Research Speed: +10%, Monthly Population: +1% --- # 4. COMMUNIST PATH (36 focuses) **Shared trunk (12 focuses)** leading to two mutually exclusive routes: - **Route A — Browderism (Earl Browder):** Democratic communism, working within the system, "Communism is 20th century Americanism" - **Route B — Foster's Revolution (William Z. Foster):** Stalinist, revolutionary communism, class war --- ## Communist Shared Trunk ### 4.00 — Seeds of Revolution **Available:** After "American Exceptionalism," requires Communist support > 10% **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Communist Party USA, though small, has grown during the Depression. In the mines of Appalachia, the factories of Detroit, and the docks of San Francisco, workers whisper about a different kind of America."* **Effects:** - Communist support: +10% - Stability: −5% - Gain Political Advisor: Earl Browder (Communist Revolutionary) --- ### 4.01 — The Popular Front **Available:** After "Seeds of Revolution" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Following the Comintern's directive, the CPUSA adopts the Popular Front strategy: alliance with liberals, progressives, and anyone opposed to fascism. Communists infiltrate the CIO, the Democratic Party, and the civil rights movement."* **Effects:** - Communist support: +10% - Democratic support: −5% - Gain National Spirit: **"Popular Front"** — Political Power Gain: +0.10, Communist Drift: +0.05/day --- ### 4.02 — Organize the Workers **Available:** After "The Popular Front" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Communist organizers lead strikes in the auto plants of Flint, the steel mills of Pittsburgh, and the docks of the West Coast. The sit-down strike becomes the weapon of choice, and the bosses are forced to negotiate."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: −10% temporarily (strikes) - After 90 days: Factory Output: +5% (better conditions) - Communist support: +10% - Stability: −10% --- ### 4.03 — Infiltrate the Unions **Available:** After "Organize the Workers" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The CIO's industrial unions become strongholds of communist influence. Harry Bridges on the West Coast docks, the United Electrical Workers, the Mine, Mill and Smelter Workers — the party's tentacles reach deep."* **Effects:** - Communist support: +10% - Gain decision: "Call General Strike" — can trigger civil war or force government change if support is high enough - Recruitable Population: +1% --- ### 4.04 — The Abraham Lincoln Brigade Veterans **Available:** After "The Popular Front" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The veterans of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade — Americans who fought against Franco in Spain — return home hardened, radicalized, and committed to the communist cause. They form the cadre of a future revolutionary army."* **Effects:** - Gain 2 units of experienced infantry (Veterans of Spain) - Army Experience: +15 - Gain 1 General: Robert Merriman (Skill Level 2, Trait: Guerrilla Fighter) --- ### 4.05 — Red Culture **Available:** After "The Popular Front" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Woody Guthrie sings, Langston Hughes writes, Paul Robeson performs. The cultural front brings communist ideas into the American mainstream through music, literature, theater, and film."* **Effects:** - Communist support: +5% - Stability: +3% - War Support: +5% --- ### 4.06 — The Negro Question **Available:** After "Red Culture" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The CPUSA makes racial equality a central plank of its platform — decades before the mainstream parties. In the Jim Crow South, communist organizers face violence and death as they work alongside Black Americans."* **Effects:** - Communist support: +5% (especially in Southern states) - Remove segregation penalties in communist-controlled states - Stability: −5% (Southern backlash) --- ### 4.07 — Bring Down the Government **Available:** After "Infiltrate the Unions," Communist support > 40% **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The time has come. A general strike paralyzes the nation; communist cells seize key government buildings; sympathetic military units refuse to fire on the workers. America teeters on the brink of revolution."* **Effects:** - Triggers event: "The American Revolution of 19XX" - If Communist support > 50%: Peaceful transition, gain Communist government - If Communist support 40-50%: Civil war with limited resistance - Government changes to Communist - Stability: −30% (recovering over time) - All foreign relations: −50 --- ### 4.08 — The People's Republic **Available:** After "Bring Down the Government" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The red flag flies over the Capitol. The Constitution is suspended — temporarily, the new government insists. A Provisional People's Congress convenes to draft a new governing document for the People's Republic of America."* **Effects:** - Change country name to "People's Republic of America" - Remove all democratic national spirits - Gain National Spirit: **"Revolutionary Ferment"** — Stability: −20%, War Support: +10%, Factory Output: −15% (temporary chaos) - Unlock Communist path branches --- ### 4.09 — Nationalize Industry **Available:** After "The People's Republic" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The steel mills, the auto plants, the oil refineries, the railroads — all are seized by the People's Government and placed under workers' control. The capitalists flee to Canada and Europe with whatever they can carry."* **Effects:** - Gain 10 Military Factories, 5 Civilian Factories (seized assets) - Factory Output: −20% temporarily (disruption) - After 180 days: Factory Output: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −10% - Trade: lose access to some markets --- ### 4.10 — Land Reform **Available:** After "The People's Republic" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The vast estates of the Southern planters and the corporate farms of the Midwest are broken up and redistributed to tenant farmers, sharecroppers, and agricultural laborers. For the first time, the people who work the land own it."* **Effects:** - Remove "Dust Bowl" spirit - Resource Gain Efficiency: +10% - Monthly Population: +0.5% - Food production: +15% --- ### 4.11 — Red Army of the People **Available:** After "The People's Republic" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The old United States Army is dissolved and reconstituted as the People's Red Army. Political commissars are attached to every unit; West Point becomes the People's Military Academy."* **Effects:** - All existing generals: loyalty check event (some defect, some stay) - Gain trait on all remaining generals: "Political Commissar" - Division Organization: −10 (temporary disruption) - Recruitable Population: +3% (people's militia) --- **THE FORK: Choose Browder or Foster** --- ## Route A — Browderism: Communism is Americanism (12 focuses) ### 4A.01 — Browder's Vision **Available:** After "The People's Republic," mutually exclusive with Foster's Revolution **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Earl Browder, the Kansas-born son of a populist farmer, insists that communism in America must be American. No Stalinist terror, no gulags, no personality cult. 'Communism is twentieth-century Americanism,' he declares."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Earl Browder (Communist, Traits: Popular Figurehead, Smooth-Talking Charmer) - Stability: +15% - Remove "Revolutionary Ferment" - Gain National Spirit: **"American Communism"** — Stability: +5%, Factory Output: +5%, Relations with democratic nations: −20 (instead of −50) --- ### 4A.02 — The Communist Constitution **Available:** After "Browder's Vision" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Browder oversees the drafting of a new constitution that preserves many American traditions: free speech, freedom of religion, trial by jury — but adds economic rights: the right to work, to housing, to healthcare, and to education."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - Research Speed: +5% - Monthly Population: +0.5% - Relations with democratic nations: +20 --- ### 4A.03 — Democratic Centralism, American Style **Available:** After "The Communist Constitution" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The new People's Congress operates through a system of democratic centralism — debate before the vote, unity after. Multiple parties are tolerated as long as they accept the leading role of the Communist Party."* **Effects:** - Political Power Gain: +0.20 - Stability: +5% - Democratic support: +5% (limited multiparty system) --- ### 4A.04 — Workers' Cooperatives **Available:** After "Nationalize Industry," Browder path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Rather than centralized state planning, Browder favors a cooperative model: factories are owned collectively by their workers, who elect their own managers and share in the profits."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +15% (worker motivation) - Construction Speed: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −3% --- ### 4A.05 — Peaceful Coexistence with Capitalism **Available:** After "Democratic Centralism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Browder argues that communist America can coexist peacefully with the capitalist world. Trade, cultural exchange, and diplomatic engagement replace revolutionary rhetoric."* **Effects:** - Relations with all nations: +30 - Trade Opinion: +20 - Remove trade penalties from nationalization - World Tension: −10 --- ### 4A.06 — The American Road to Socialism **Available:** After "Workers' Cooperatives" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Browder publishes 'The American Road to Socialism,' outlining a uniquely American path to communism that respects democratic traditions and individual liberties while transforming the economic base."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - Research Speed: +5% - Political Power: +100 - Gain National Spirit: **"The American Road"** — Stability: +10%, Factory Output: +10% --- ### 4A.07 — Solidarity with the Colonies **Available:** After "Peaceful Coexistence with Capitalism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The People's Republic offers moral support, technical assistance, and — quietly — military aid to independence movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America."* **Effects:** - Relations with non-aligned nations: +50 - Communist support globally: +10% - Can send volunteers to colonial liberation wars --- ### 4A.08 — People's Science **Available:** After "The American Road to Socialism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Unlike the Soviet Union's disastrous Lysenkoism, Browder's America embraces genuine science. Universities are expanded, research is funded generously, and the People's Republic becomes a haven for scientists fleeing persecution."* **Effects:** - Research Speed: +15% - Gain 1 Research Slot - Gain 2 Research bonuses (Electronics, Industry) --- ### 4A.09 — Integrated Armed Forces **Available:** After "Red Army of the People," Browder path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The People's Red Army is fully integrated — by race, by gender, by class. Officers are chosen by merit and elected by their units. The result is a surprisingly effective fighting force bound by genuine comradeship."* **Effects:** - Division Organization: +10 - Recruitable Population: +2% - Division Training Time: −10% --- ### 4A.10 — Browder's Dilemma **Available:** After "Solidarity with the Colonies," at war or post-1942 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Stalin pressures Browder to toe the Soviet line more closely. Browder faces an impossible choice: maintain American independence and risk Soviet hostility, or submit to Moscow and betray his own vision."* **Effects:** - Event: "Moscow or Washington?" - **Defy Moscow:** Relations with USSR: −100, Gain "Independent Communist" modifier (+10% all stats), risk of Soviet-backed coup - **Submit to Moscow:** Relations with USSR: +50, Stability: −10%, lose "American Communism" spirit --- ### 4A.11 — People's Arsenal **Available:** After "Workers' Cooperatives," at war with a major nation **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The workers' cooperatives prove remarkably adaptable to wartime production. Motivated by genuine ownership and patriotism, American workers produce weapons at a rate that astonishes the world."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +25% - Civilian Factory Output: +15% - Construction Speed: +15% --- ### 4A.12 — The Cooperative Commonwealth **Available:** After "People's Science," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Browder's America has achieved something thought impossible: a communist state that is prosperous, free, and democratic. The Cooperative Commonwealth stands as a beacon to workers everywhere — and a rebuke to both capitalism and Stalinism."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"The Cooperative Commonwealth"** — All stats: +10%, Research Speed: +15%, Stability: +15%, Monthly Population: +1% --- ## Route B — Foster's Revolution: Dictatorship of the Proletariat (12 focuses) ### 4B.01 — Foster Takes Command **Available:** After "The People's Republic," mutually exclusive with Browder's Vision **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"William Z. Foster, the old Stalinist warhorse, the man who organized the Great Steel Strike of 1919, seizes control of the party. Browder is denounced as a revisionist and expelled. America will follow the Soviet model."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: William Z. Foster (Communist, Traits: Staunch Communist, War Industrialist) - Stability: −10% - Remove "Revolutionary Ferment" - Gain National Spirit: **"Dictatorship of the Proletariat"** — Stability: −10%, Factory Output: +10%, Recruitable Population: +5%, Political Power Gain: +0.30 --- ### 4B.02 — The American NKVD **Available:** After "Foster Takes Command" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster establishes the Bureau of State Security — the BSS — modeled directly on the Soviet NKVD. Its agents hunt counter-revolutionaries, saboteurs, and 'class enemies' with ruthless efficiency."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% (through terror) - Operative Slots: +3 - Gain National Spirit: **"State Terror"** — Resistance to Occupation: −30%, Stability: +5% (fear), Monthly Population: −0.3% (purges and emigration) --- ### 4B.03 — Purge the Military **Available:** After "The American NKVD" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Foster purges the officer corps of 'unreliable elements' — which is to say, anyone with independent judgment. Hundreds of experienced officers are arrested, exiled, or shot. The People's Army is loyal; it is also decapitated."* **Effects:** - Lose 50% of generals (random removal) - All remaining generals: Skill Level −1 - Division Organization: −15 - After 365 days: Gain new loyal generals, Organization recovers --- ### 4B.04 — The Five-Year Plan **Available:** After "Nationalize Industry," Foster path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster announces the First American Five-Year Plan: crash industrialization, collectivization of agriculture, and massive military buildup. Quotas are set; failure to meet them is sabotage."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Military Factories, 3 Civilian Factories per year for 5 years (construction projects) - Consumer Goods Factories: −15% - Monthly Population: −0.5% (hardship) - Factory Output: +10% --- ### 4B.05 — Collectivize Agriculture **Available:** After "The Five-Year Plan" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The family farms of the Midwest are consolidated into vast collective farms on the Soviet model. Farmers who resist — the 'kulaks of Kansas' — are dispossessed and deported to labor camps in Alaska."* **Effects:** - Resource Gain Efficiency: +15% - Monthly Population: −1% (famine and deportations) - Stability: −10% - Event: "The Midwestern Famine" — if not handled, Monthly Population: −2% for 1 year --- ### 4B.06 — The American Gulag **Available:** After "The American NKVD" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Labor camps spring up across Alaska, the Mountain West, and the empty spaces of the interior. Political prisoners, class enemies, and ordinary criminals work in mines, on construction projects, and in forests under brutal conditions."* **Effects:** - Resource Gain Efficiency: +20% - Construction Speed: +15% - Monthly Population: −0.5% - Stability: −5% - Foreign Relations: −30 with all democracies --- ### 4B.07 — Ally with the Soviet Union **Available:** After "Foster Takes Command" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster signs a Treaty of Friendship and Mutual Assistance with the Soviet Union. American communism subordinates itself to Moscow; in return, Soviet technical advisors and military equipment flow across the Pacific."* **Effects:** - Join Soviet faction or form bilateral alliance - Relations with USSR: +200 - Research Speed: +5% (Soviet advisors) - Gain 3 Military Factories (Soviet aid) - Relations with all democracies: −100 --- ### 4B.08 — The Cult of Foster **Available:** After "Purge the Military" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster's image appears on every wall, in every school, on every billboard. The 'Beloved Leader of the American Working Class' is infallible, all-knowing, and eternal — at least according to the party propaganda."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - Political Power Gain: +0.30 - War Support: +10% - Research Speed: −5% (intellectual stagnation) --- ### 4B.09 — Militarize the Economy **Available:** After "The Five-Year Plan," at war or pre-war buildup **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Every factory, every mine, every railroad is placed on a war footing. Consumer goods are luxuries; the state produces guns, tanks, and aircraft at a rate that would make Stalin envious."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +30% - Consumer Goods Factories: −10% - Stability: −5% - Civilian Factory Output: −10% --- ### 4B.10 — Export the Revolution **Available:** After "Ally with the Soviet Union" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster sends agents, money, and weapons to communist movements worldwide. Revolution in Mexico, revolution in Canada, revolution in the Caribbean — the flames of class war spread."* **Effects:** - Communist support in all neighboring countries: +30% - World Tension: +20 - Can justify war goals on neighbors through "Revolutionary Liberation" decision - Gain wargoals on any neighboring nation with communist support > 40% --- ### 4B.11 — People's War **Available:** After "Militarize the Economy," at war with a major nation **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster declares a People's War: total mobilization of every man, woman, and child. The entire nation is a fortress; every worker is a soldier. The enemy will drown in a sea of American steel and American blood."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +5% - Division Defense: +15% - Attrition: −20% - War Support: +20% - Gain National Spirit: **"People's War"** — Recruitable Population: +5%, Surrender limit: +20% --- ### 4B.12 — The Workers' Superpower **Available:** After "Militarize the Economy," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Foster's America is a grim, gray superpower — feared by its enemies, pitied by the free world, and dreaded by its own people. But it is powerful beyond measure, a continental fortress of steel and ideology."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"The Workers' Superpower"** — Military Factory Output: +20%, Recruitable Population: +5%, Stability: −10%, Research Speed: −5%, Army Attack: +10%, Army Defense: +15% --- # 5. FASCIST PATH (36 focuses) **Shared trunk (12 focuses)** leading to two mutually exclusive routes: - **Route A — America First (Charles Lindbergh):** Nationalist, isolationist, white supremacist but maintains a veneer of respectability - **Route B — The Silver Legion (William Dudley Pelley):** Openly fascist, mystical, violently antisemitic --- ## Fascist Shared Trunk ### 5.00 — Voices of Discontent **Available:** After "American Exceptionalism," requires Fascist support > 5% **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Father Charles Coughlin's radio broadcasts reach thirty million Americans with a message of populist rage: against the bankers, the communists, the internationalists, and — increasingly — the Jews. The German-American Bund holds rallies at Madison Square Garden."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +10% - Stability: −5% - Gain Political Advisor: Father Charles Coughlin (Fascist Demagogue) --- ### 5.01 — The America First Committee **Available:** After "Voices of Discontent" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The America First Committee unites isolationists of every stripe: midwestern populists, eastern establishment figures, pacifists, and — lurking in the shadows — fascist sympathizers. Its star speaker is Colonel Charles Lindbergh."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +5% - Non-aligned support: +5% - War Support: −10% - Gain National Spirit: **"America First"** — War Support: −10%, Fascist Drift: +0.03/day --- ### 5.02 — The German-American Bund **Available:** After "The America First Committee" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Fritz Kuhn's German-American Bund openly celebrates Hitler's Germany, with uniformed stormtroopers, swastika banners, and summer camps where children learn to salute. Most Americans find them repugnant — but they are growing."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +10% - Relations with Germany: +30 - Stability: −5% --- ### 5.03 — The Silver Shirts **Available:** After "The America First Committee" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"William Dudley Pelley's Silver Legion of America — the Silver Shirts — is the most openly fascist organization in the country. Pelley combines mystical Christianity with virulent antisemitism and admiration for Hitler."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +5% - Gain 1 unit: Silver Legion Militia (low quality, high morale) - Stability: −5% --- ### 5.04 — Radio Demagogues **Available:** After "Voices of Discontent" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Father Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith, and a dozen smaller figures use the radio to spread hatred and fear. The Jews control the banks; the communists control the unions; the president is a traitor. Only strong leadership can save America."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +10% - Stability: −10% - War Support: +5% (nationalistic fervor) - Democratic support: −10% --- ### 5.05 — The Business Plot Revisited **Available:** After "Radio Demagogues" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Wealthy industrialists who despise Roosevelt's New Deal quietly fund the fascist movement. The plot that Smedley Butler exposed in 1934 never really died — it went underground, and now it resurfaces with better planning."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +10% - Gain 3 Military Factories (industrial backers) - Political Power Gain: +0.15 --- ### 5.06 — March on Washington **Available:** After "The Business Plot Revisited," Fascist support > 35% **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Hundreds of thousands of Silver Shirts, Bund members, and America First supporters march on Washington, demanding an end to the 'Jew Deal' and the establishment of a truly American government. The police look the other way."* **Effects:** - Fascist support: +10% - Stability: −15% - Event: "The March on Washington" — Can trigger government crisis if Fascist support > 45% --- ### 5.07 — Seize Power **Available:** After "March on Washington," Fascist support > 45% **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"In a coordinated action, fascist sympathizers in the military seize key installations while Silver Shirts and Bund stormtroopers occupy government buildings. The President is 'placed under protective custody.' America has fallen."* **Effects:** - Government changes to Fascist - Stability: −30% - All foreign relations: −40 - Civil war possible if democratic support > 30% - Remove all democratic national spirits --- ### 5.08 — The New American State **Available:** After "Seize Power" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Constitution is 'preserved' — in theory. In practice, Congress is dissolved, political parties are banned, and a new Corporate State is established along Italian and German lines."* **Effects:** - Change government to fascist one-party state - Gain National Spirit: **"The Corporate State"** — Factory Output: +10%, Stability: −10%, War Support: +15% - Political Power Gain: +0.30 --- ### 5.09 — Racial Purity Laws **Available:** After "The New American State" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The new regime enacts racial purity laws inspired by the Nuremberg Laws: banning interracial marriage, stripping citizenship from 'non-Aryans,' and establishing racial classification boards."* **Effects:** - Stability: −10% (resistance) - Monthly Population: −1% (emigration of targeted groups) - Recruitable Population: −2% - Gain modifier: "Racial Purity Laws" — various negative effects - Relations with all democracies: −100 --- ### 5.10 — Suppress the Opposition **Available:** After "The New American State" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Trade unions are dissolved and replaced with state-controlled labor fronts. Communist and socialist parties are banned; their members are imprisoned or flee into exile. The free press is muzzled."* **Effects:** - Remove all Communist, Democratic drift - Stability: +10% (through repression) - Factory Output: +5% - Research Speed: −5% (intellectual emigration) --- ### 5.11 — Rearm America **Available:** After "The New American State" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The new regime embarks on a massive rearmament program, freed from the constraints of democratic oversight and fiscal responsibility."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Military Factories - Military Factory Output: +10% - Army Experience: +25 - Consumer Goods Factories: −10% --- **THE FORK: Choose Lindbergh or Pelley** --- ## Route A — America First: Lindbergh's Fortress America (12 focuses) ### 5A.01 — Lindbergh's America **Available:** After "The New American State," mutually exclusive with The Silver Legion **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Charles Augustus Lindbergh — the Lone Eagle, the hero of the Atlantic crossing, the man who dined with Goering and admired German efficiency — becomes the Leader of the American State. His vision: a white, Christian, technologically supreme Fortress America."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Charles Lindbergh (Fascist, Traits: War Industrialist, Aviation Enthusiast) - Stability: +10% - Air Attack: +10% - Gain National Spirit: **"The Lone Eagle"** — Air Research Speed: +15%, Stability: +5% --- ### 5A.02 — Fortress America **Available:** After "Lindbergh's America" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh has no interest in European entanglements. America will be a fortress: impregnable behind its oceans, self-sufficient behind its tariff walls, defended by the mightiest air force the world has ever seen."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Fortress America"** — Defense on core territory: +25%, Attack on non-core territory: −15% - Construction Speed: +10% (fortification) - Gain 3 Forts in Pacific coast, 3 in Atlantic coast --- ### 5A.03 — The Lindbergh Line **Available:** After "Fortress America" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A vast chain of coastal fortifications, air bases, and radar stations protects the American coastline. The Lindbergh Line makes amphibious invasion of the continental United States virtually impossible."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Coastal Forts on both coasts - Radar Technology: +1 level - Air Detection: +25% - Naval Base levels: +2 across all coasts --- ### 5A.04 — Air Supremacy Doctrine **Available:** After "Lindbergh's America" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh, the aviator, makes air power the cornerstone of American defense. Massive investment in fighters, bombers, and — crucially — long-range patrol aircraft creates an air force second to none."* **Effects:** - Air Experience: +50 - Fighter Attack: +10% - Bomber Damage: +15% - Air Research Speed: +15% --- ### 5A.05 — Corporate Efficiency **Available:** After "Fortress America" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh, the engineer, reorganizes the American economy along corporate lines. Henry Ford and other sympathetic industrialists serve as ministers in a technocratic government that prizes efficiency above all."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +15% - Construction Speed: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - Gain Political Advisor: Henry Ford (Captain of Industry) --- ### 5A.06 — Monroe Doctrine Enforced **Available:** After "Fortress America" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Monroe Doctrine is reinterpreted in its most aggressive form: the Western Hemisphere is America's sphere of influence, and any foreign power that meddles here will face the consequences."* **Effects:** - Gain wargoal decisions on any non-American nation with territory in the Western Hemisphere - Relations with Latin American nations: −30 - Gain claims on European colonial possessions in the Americas --- ### 5A.07 — The Nordic Ideal **Available:** After "Racial Purity Laws," Lindbergh path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh, deeply influenced by the eugenics movement and Nordic racial theory, promotes a vision of America as a white Nordic civilization. Immigration is restricted to Northern Europeans; sterilization programs target 'unfit' populations."* **Effects:** - Monthly Population: −0.5% - Stability: −5% - Research Speed: +3% (eugenics-funded medical research, historical irony) - Foreign Relations: −20 with non-European nations --- ### 5A.08 — Detente with Germany **Available:** After "Lindbergh's America" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh establishes a working relationship with Hitler's Germany. America and Germany will respect each other's spheres of influence: the Western Hemisphere for America, Europe and Africa for Germany."* **Effects:** - Relations with Germany: +100 - Trade agreement with Germany - World Tension: −5 (false peace) - Relations with UK: −100 --- ### 5A.09 — Hemispheric Domination **Available:** After "Monroe Doctrine Enforced," post-1941 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh's America systematically brings the Western Hemisphere under its control: puppet governments in Central America, economic domination of South America, and outright annexation of strategic territories."* **Effects:** - Gain wargoals on all nations in the Western Hemisphere - Puppet creation CB on all Latin American nations - Naval supremacy in Caribbean: +20% Naval Attack in region --- ### 5A.10 — Atomic Eagles **Available:** After nuclear research, Lindbergh path, post-1943 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh's emphasis on technology bears ultimate fruit: the atomic bomb, married to long-range bombers and — eventually — intercontinental missiles. Fortress America becomes invincible."* **Effects:** - Nuclear Research Speed: +30% - Rocket Research Speed: +20% - Gain Nuclear Bomb when research completes - Gain National Spirit: **"Nuclear Fortress"** — Enemy Attack on core territory: −20% --- ### 5A.11 — The Eagle's Domain **Available:** After "Hemispheric Domination," at war with a major nation **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"When Fortress America is threatened — or when it chooses to strike — the American military machine is terrifying. The greatest industrial base in the world, directed by a totalitarian state, produces weapons in quantities no enemy can match."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +25% - Army Attack: +10% - Naval Attack: +10% - Air Attack: +15% --- ### 5A.12 — American Reich **Available:** After "Atomic Eagles," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Lindbergh's America stands as the dominant power of the Western world: a white, Christian, technologically supreme superpower that has conquered the hemisphere and holds the atom in its fist."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"American Reich"** — All stats: +10%, Core territory Defense: +20%, Air Attack: +15%, Research Speed: +10% --- ## Route B — The Silver Legion: Pelley's Mystical Fascism (12 focuses) ### 5B.01 — Pelley's Theocratic State **Available:** After "The New American State," mutually exclusive with Lindbergh's America **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"William Dudley Pelley, the Silver Shirt leader, the Christian mystic, the man who claims to have died and returned with a divine mission — seizes control. His vision is nothing less than a theocratic fascist state: the 'Christian Commonwealth.'"* **Effects:** - Gain leader: William Dudley Pelley (Fascist, Traits: Dictator, Ideological Crusader) - Stability: −10% - War Support: +15% - Gain National Spirit: **"The Christian Commonwealth"** — War Support: +10%, Stability: −5%, Research Speed: −10% --- ### 5B.02 — The Silver Rangers **Available:** After "Pelley's Theocratic State" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Silver Legion is reorganized into the Silver Rangers — a paramilitary force modeled on the SS. They serve as Pelley's enforcers, political police, and ideological warriors."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 units of Silver Ranger divisions (special forces quality) - Operative Slots: +2 - Gain National Spirit: **"Silver Rangers"** — Resistance to Occupation: −20%, Division Recovery Rate: +5% --- ### 5B.03 — The Protocols Made Real **Available:** After "Racial Purity Laws," Pelley path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley, who believes every word of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, enacts the most extreme antisemitic legislation outside of Nazi Germany. Jewish Americans are stripped of citizenship, property, and rights."* **Effects:** - Monthly Population: −2% (mass emigration) - Research Speed: −10% (loss of Jewish scientists and intellectuals) - Stability: −10% - Relations with all nations: −50 - Gain modifier: "Persecution" — various severe negative effects --- ### 5B.04 — Pelley's Prophecy **Available:** After "Pelley's Theocratic State" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley claims divine revelation: America is the New Israel, chosen by God to purify the world. His mystical ramblings are treated as scripture by the faithful; others recognize madness."* **Effects:** - War Support: +20% - Stability: +5% (among true believers) - Research Speed: −5% - Gain National Spirit: **"Divine Mission"** — War Support: +15%, Attack: +10%, Stability: −10% --- ### 5B.05 — Crusade Against Degeneracy **Available:** After "The Protocols Made Real" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley's regime wages war on 'degeneracy' in all its forms: modern art is burned, universities are purged of liberal professors, and a strict moral code is enforced by the Silver Rangers."* **Effects:** - Research Speed: −10% - Stability: +5% (conformity) - Monthly Population: −0.5% --- ### 5B.06 — Alliance with the Axis **Available:** After "Pelley's Theocratic State" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley, who openly admires Hitler, seeks a formal alliance with Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, and Imperial Japan. The Axis welcomes America's industrial might."* **Effects:** - Join the Axis faction - Relations with Germany: +150, Italy: +100, Japan: +50 - Relations with UK: −200, USSR: −200 - Military access to Axis territories --- ### 5B.07 — War on the Godless **Available:** After "Alliance with the Axis" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley declares a holy war against 'godless communism.' The Soviet Union is the ultimate enemy — a satanic empire that must be destroyed so that Christ's kingdom can come."* **Effects:** - Gain wargoal on Soviet Union - War Support: +15% - Army Attack vs. Communist nations: +15% - Gain National Spirit: **"Crusaders"** — Attack vs. Communist nations: +15% --- ### 5B.08 — Scorched Earth Faith **Available:** After "Pelley's Prophecy" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Pelley proclaims that God will protect the faithful. No retreat, no surrender — every American must fight to the death. Those who flee are apostates; those who fall are martyrs."* **Effects:** - Surrender Limit: +30% - Division Organization: −5 - Last Stand defensive bonus: +25% - War Support cannot drop below 50% --- ### 5B.09 — Concentration Camps **Available:** After "The Protocols Made Real" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The persecution escalates to its inevitable conclusion. Concentration camps — though the regime calls them 'purification centers' — spring up across the American interior. The horrors within are beyond description."* **Effects:** - Monthly Population: −2% - Stability: −15% - Relations with all nations: −100 - Resource Gain Efficiency: +10% (slave labor) - Gain modifier: "Crimes Against Humanity" --- ### 5B.10 — Total War of Faith **Available:** After "War on the Godless," at war with a major nation **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley declares total war: every man, woman, and child serves the cause. Factories run day and night; children dig trenches; the Silver Rangers execute deserters. It is war as apocalypse."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +8% - Military Factory Output: +20% - Monthly Population: −1.5% - Consumer Goods Factories: −15% - War Support: +20% --- ### 5B.11 — Armageddon **Available:** After "Total War of Faith," nuclear weapons available **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Pelley sees the atomic bomb as God's fire, the weapon that will cleanse the world for Christ's return. He will not hesitate to use it — and he relishes the prospect."* **Effects:** - Nuclear Bomb production: +50% - Can use nuclear weapons without war support penalty - World Tension: +30 - Gain decision: "Nuclear Crusade" — use nukes without diplomatic penalty (within the regime) --- ### 5B.12 — The Thousand-Year Kingdom **Available:** After "Total War of Faith," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Pelley's America is a nightmare: a theocratic police state built on persecution, mystical delusion, and industrial murder. And yet its military might is staggering, fueled by fanaticism and the vast resources of a continent."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"The Thousand-Year Kingdom"** — War Support: +25%, Attack: +15%, Recruitable Population: +5%, Stability: −15%, Research Speed: −15%, Monthly Population: −1% --- # 6. NON-ALIGNED PATH (34 focuses) **Shared trunk (10 focuses)** leading to two mutually exclusive routes: - **Route A — The American Caesar (Douglas MacArthur):** Military junta, imperial ambitions - **Route B — The Isolationist Republic (Robert Taft):** Ultra-isolationist, constitutional government, America turns inward --- ## Non-Aligned Shared Trunk ### 6.00 — A Pox on Both Houses **Available:** After "American Exceptionalism," requires Non-aligned support > 10% **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A growing number of Americans reject both the left and the right, both interventionism and surrender. They want an America that stands apart from the world's madness — governed by its own traditions, free from foreign ideologies."* **Effects:** - Non-aligned support: +10% - Stability: +5% - War Support: −5% --- ### 6.01 — The Old Guard **Available:** After "A Pox on Both Houses" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Conservative Republicans like Robert Taft, military men like Douglas MacArthur, and Southern Democrats who despise the New Deal form an unlikely coalition united by one thing: the belief that America has lost its way."* **Effects:** - Non-aligned support: +10% - Political Power Gain: +0.10 - Gain Political Advisor: Robert Taft (Silent Workhorse) --- ### 6.02 — Reject Foreign Ideologies **Available:** After "The Old Guard" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The non-aligned movement rejects communism, fascism, and even the internationalist brand of liberal democracy that Roosevelt represents. America needs no foreign models — it has its own Constitution, its own traditions, its own destiny."* **Effects:** - All non-democratic ideology drift: −50% - Democratic drift: −20% - Non-aligned support: +10% - Stability: +5% --- ### 6.03 — States' Rights **Available:** After "Reject Foreign Ideologies" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Tenth Amendment is the watchword: powers not delegated to the federal government are reserved to the states. The New Deal's federal overreach must be rolled back, and the traditional balance of American federalism restored."* **Effects:** - Remove "New Deal" national spirit - Construction Speed: −5% (less federal spending) - Stability: +5% - Political Power Gain: +0.10 --- ### 6.04 — Bring the Boys Home **Available:** After "Reject Foreign Ideologies" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American troops stationed overseas are recalled. The Philippines are granted immediate independence. Military bases in the Pacific and Caribbean are shuttered. America retreats behind its oceans."* **Effects:** - Lose all overseas military access - Recruitable Population: +2% (troops return) - War Support: −15% - Gain National Spirit: **"Splendid Isolation"** — Defense on core territory: +15%, Cannot declare wars of aggression --- ### 6.05 — The Constitutional Crisis **Available:** After "States' Rights," Non-aligned support > 35% **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The movement to restore 'constitutional government' grows into a crisis. Congress is deadlocked, the president is powerless, and the military watches with growing interest. Something must give."* **Effects:** - Stability: −15% - Event chain: "The Constitutional Crisis" — leading to government change - Non-aligned support: +10% --- ### 6.06 — Impeach the President **Available:** After "The Constitutional Crisis," Non-aligned support > 40% **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Congress, dominated by the non-aligned coalition, impeaches the president. The charges are vague — 'high crimes and misdemeanors' covers a multitude of sins — but the real crime is leading America astray."* **Effects:** - Remove current leader - Government changes to Non-aligned - Stability: −10% - Political Power: −100 --- ### 6.07 — Emergency Powers **Available:** After "Impeach the President" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A provisional government exercises emergency powers while a new constitutional convention is organized. But emergency powers have a way of becoming permanent..."* **Effects:** - Political Power Gain: +0.30 - Stability: −5% - Unlock the fork between MacArthur and Taft paths --- ### 6.08 — The American Way **Available:** After "Emergency Powers" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The provisional government must choose its path: military strength or constitutional purity, empire or republic, the sword or the plow."* **Effects:** - Unlocks Route A (MacArthur) and Route B (Taft) - Political Power: +50 --- ### 6.09 — National Guard Mobilization **Available:** After "Emergency Powers" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The National Guard is federalized and expanded, providing a loyal military force for the new government while the regular army's loyalty remains uncertain."* **Effects:** - Gain 10 infantry divisions (militia quality) - Recruitable Population: +2% - Army Experience: +15 --- **THE FORK: Choose MacArthur or Taft** --- ## Route A — The American Caesar: MacArthur's Military Government (12 focuses) ### 6A.01 — MacArthur Takes Command **Available:** After "The American Way," mutually exclusive with Taft's Republic **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"General of the Army Douglas MacArthur, the most decorated soldier in American history, the conqueror of the Pacific, the man who has never known defeat — steps forward to save the Republic. Or so he tells himself."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Douglas MacArthur (Non-Aligned, Traits: War Hero, Harsh Leader) - Stability: +10% - War Support: +15% - Army Attack: +5% --- ### 6A.02 — Military Government **Available:** After "MacArthur Takes Command" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur declares martial law 'temporarily' and establishes a military government. Generals replace governors; military tribunals replace civilian courts. The Constitution is 'preserved' — with tanks on every corner."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Military Government"** — Stability: −5%, War Support: +15%, Political Power Gain: +0.25, Army Organization: +10 - All generals gain +1 skill level --- ### 6A.03 — West Point Rules **Available:** After "Military Government" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The officer corps becomes the ruling class. West Point is expanded into a leadership academy for all branches of government. Discipline, duty, honor, country — these are the new watchwords of American life."* **Effects:** - Division Training Time: −20% - Army Experience Gain: +15% - Research Speed: −5% (military priorities) - Division Organization: +10 --- ### 6A.04 — The MacArthur Doctrine **Available:** After "West Point Rules" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur articulates his vision: America will be the dominant military power in the Pacific and the Western Hemisphere. No nation will threaten American interests within this vast domain."* **Effects:** - Gain claims on all Pacific islands - Naval Attack: +10% in Pacific - Army Attack: +10% in Asia - Gain wargoal decision on any nation threatening American interests in Pacific --- ### 6A.05 — The Pacific Empire **Available:** After "The MacArthur Doctrine" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur envisions an American empire stretching from Hawaii to the Philippines, from Alaska to Australia. The Pacific will be an American lake, patrolled by the mightiest navy and air force in history."* **Effects:** - Gain wargoals on: Philippines (if independent), Pacific Islands - Naval Production: +15% - Gain 2 Naval Dockyards - Air Base levels: +2 across Pacific territories --- ### 6A.06 — Military-Industrial Complex **Available:** After "Military Government" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Under military government, the relationship between the armed forces and industry becomes seamless. Defense contractors are guaranteed profits; military spending becomes the engine of the economy."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +20% - Civilian Factory Output: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - Gain 5 Military Factories --- ### 6A.07 — MacArthur's War **Available:** After "The Pacific Empire," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur goes to war the only way he knows how: with overwhelming force, theatrical flair, and supreme confidence in his own genius."* **Effects:** - Planning Speed: +25% - Amphibious Invasion Penalty: −30% - Army Attack: +15% - Gain trait for MacArthur: "God of Battles" --- ### 6A.08 — I Shall Return **Available:** After "MacArthur's War," if territory is lost **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"MacArthur's famous promise becomes national policy: every inch of territory lost will be reclaimed, no matter the cost."* **Effects:** - Attack on previously owned territory: +25% - Division Recovery Rate: +15% - War Support cannot drop below 60% --- ### 6A.09 — The Draft Expanded **Available:** After "Military Government" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Universal military service becomes mandatory. Every able-bodied American serves — in the military, in the factories, or in the civil defense corps."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +5% - Division Training Time: −15% - Factory Output: +5% --- ### 6A.10 — Nuclear Caesar **Available:** After nuclear weapons developed, MacArthur path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur, who advocated nuclear strikes in Korea in our timeline, has no such restraint here. The atomic bomb is simply another weapon in the arsenal — to be used when the military situation demands it."* **Effects:** - Nuclear Bomb production: +25% - Can use nuclear weapons with reduced war support penalty - World Tension: +20 --- ### 6A.11 — Praetorian Guard **Available:** After "West Point Rules," at war with a major power **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur creates an elite personal guard — the finest soldiers, the best equipment, total loyalty. They are the spearhead of every offensive and the last line of every defense."* **Effects:** - Gain 3 elite divisions (Special Forces quality, +25% Attack, +25% Defense) - Special Forces cap: +10% - Gain General: Matthew Ridgway (Skill Level 4, Trait: Commando) --- ### 6A.12 — American Imperium **Available:** After "Nuclear Caesar," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"MacArthur's America is a military empire: efficient, powerful, and ruthless. The general rules as an emperor in all but name, and the republic that was is a distant memory."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"American Imperium"** — Army Attack: +15%, Army Defense: +10%, Naval Attack: +10%, Planning Speed: +20%, Stability: −5%, Political Power Gain: +0.30 --- ## Route B — The Isolationist Republic: Taft's Constitutional Fortress (12 focuses) ### 6B.01 — Taft's Republic **Available:** After "The American Way," mutually exclusive with MacArthur Takes Command **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Senator Robert Alphonso Taft of Ohio — 'Mr. Republican,' the son of a president, the embodiment of midwestern conservatism — becomes the leader of a restored constitutional republic. His vision: limited government, fiscal discipline, and absolute isolation from the world's quarrels."* **Effects:** - Gain leader: Robert A. Taft (Non-Aligned, Traits: Silent Workhorse, Staunch Constitutionalist) - Stability: +15% - War Support: −10% - Political Power Gain: +0.20 --- ### 6B.02 — Restore the Constitution **Available:** After "Taft's Republic" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Taft convenes a constitutional convention that reasserts the principles of limited government, individual liberty, and states' rights. The New Deal is formally repudiated; the executive branch is weakened; Congress is supreme."* **Effects:** - Stability: +10% - Political Power Gain: +0.20 - Remove all "emergency powers" modifiers - Gain National Spirit: **"Constitutional Government"** — Stability: +10%, Political Power Gain: +0.20, Military Factory Output: −10% --- ### 6B.03 — Balanced Budget Amendment **Available:** After "Restore the Constitution" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A constitutional amendment requires the federal government to balance its budget every year. Military spending is slashed; social programs are cut to the bone; the national debt begins to shrink."* **Effects:** - Consumer Goods Factories: −10% - Military Factory Output: −10% - Construction Speed: −10% - Monthly Population: +0.3% - Stability: +5% --- ### 6B.04 — Tariff Walls **Available:** After "Balanced Budget Amendment" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Taft raises tariffs to protect American industry from foreign competition. Free trade is for internationalists and profiteers; real Americans buy American."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +10% (protected industries) - Trade Opinion: −50 - Resource Gain Efficiency: −10% (no imports) - Gain National Spirit: **"Protectionism"** — Factory Output: +10%, Trade: −50% --- ### 6B.05 — Absolute Neutrality **Available:** After "Taft's Republic" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Taft signs the American Neutrality Act — the most comprehensive neutrality legislation in history. America will not join any alliance, will not send any aid, and will not fight any war unless directly attacked."* **Effects:** - Cannot join any faction - Cannot send Lend-Lease - Cannot guarantee independence of foreign nations - War Support: −20% - Gain National Spirit: **"Absolute Neutrality"** — Defense on core territory: +25%, Cannot declare wars, War Support: −20% --- ### 6B.06 — Continental Defense **Available:** After "Absolute Neutrality" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"With a purely defensive military posture, Taft focuses on making America impregnable. Coastal defenses, anti-aircraft networks, and a strong navy to patrol American waters."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Forts in coastal states - Anti-Air: +15% - Naval Defense: +20% - Army Defense: +15% on core territory --- ### 6B.07 — The Citizen Soldier **Available:** After "Continental Defense" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Taft, who opposes a large standing army, favors a well-trained citizen militia on the Swiss model. Every American man owns a rifle and knows how to use it; but no American boy will die on foreign soil."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +3% - Division Defense: +10% - Division Attack: −5% (defensive orientation) - Standing army reduced, militia expanded --- ### 6B.08 — American Autarky **Available:** After "Tariff Walls" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"America has everything it needs within its own borders: oil, steel, food, timber, coal. Taft drives toward total economic self-sufficiency, eliminating dependence on foreign trade."* **Effects:** - Resource Gain Efficiency: +25% - Remove trade penalties - Oil production: +20% - Steel production: +20% - Gain National Spirit: **"Self-Sufficiency"** — Resource production: +20% --- ### 6B.09 — The Fortress Mentality **Available:** After "Continental Defense" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Americans turn inward. The outside world is dangerous, chaotic, and not America's problem. Behind their oceans and their mountains, Americans live in peace — willfully blind to the horrors beyond their borders."* **Effects:** - Stability: +15% - War Support: −15% - Monthly Population: +0.5% - Research Speed: −5% (intellectual isolation) --- ### 6B.10 — Respond to Attack **Available:** After "Absolute Neutrality," triggered by direct attack on American territory **Duration:** 1 day **Description:** *"Taft promised that America would fight if attacked — and America has been attacked. The sleeping giant, roused from its self-imposed slumber, is terrifying in its wrath."* **Effects:** - Remove "Absolute Neutrality" spirit - War Support: +50% - Factory Output: +20% - Recruitable Population: +5% - Gain National Spirit: **"The Sleeping Giant Awakens"** — All military stats: +20% for 1 year --- ### 6B.11 — Reluctant Arsenal **Available:** After "Respond to Attack," at war with a major nation **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Taft's lean, efficient economy proves remarkably adaptable to wartime needs. The balanced budgets and tariff-protected industries have created a strong industrial base that now converts to military production."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +25% - Construction Speed: +20% - Factory Output: +15% - Consumer Goods Factories: −10% --- ### 6B.12 — Fortress America, Free America **Available:** After "American Autarky," capstone focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Taft's America is free, prosperous, and impregnable — a fortress of liberty in a world of tyranny. Whether this isolation is wisdom or cowardice, only history will judge."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Fortress America, Free America"** — Defense on core territory: +25%, Stability: +20%, Factory Output: +15%, Research Speed: +5%, War Support: −10% --- # 7. ECONOMIC SUBTREES (42 focuses) These focuses are available depending on ideology and complement the political tree. They represent different approaches to managing the American economy. --- ## 7A. Democratic/General Economic Tree (14 focuses) *Available to Historical Democratic, Ahistorical Democratic, and early-game paths* ### 7A.01 — Federal Reserve Reform **Available:** After any political path established **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Federal Reserve's monetary policy is reformed to better serve the national interest — whether that means fighting inflation, funding war, or promoting full employment."* **Effects:** - Consumer Goods Factories: −3% - Construction Speed: +5% - Civilian Factory Output: +5% --- ### 7A.02 — Rural Electrification **Available:** After "Federal Reserve Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Rural Electrification Administration brings electric power to the farms and small towns that the private utilities have ignored. Millions of Americans see electric light for the first time."* **Effects:** - Gain 2 Infrastructure in rural states - Factory Output: +3% - Monthly Population: +0.2% - Remove "Dust Bowl" effects (partial) --- ### 7A.03 — Invest in Aluminum **Available:** After "Rural Electrification" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Aluminum — light, strong, and essential for aircraft production — becomes a strategic priority. New smelters and processing plants are built across the Pacific Northwest, powered by hydroelectric dams."* **Effects:** - Gain 2 Military Factories - Air Production: +10% - Aluminum resource: +20 --- ### 7A.04 — Synthetic Rubber Program **Available:** After "Federal Reserve Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"With natural rubber supplies from Southeast Asia threatened by Japanese expansion, the government invests massively in synthetic rubber production. American chemistry saves American mobility."* **Effects:** - Rubber resource: +30 - Motorization Research: +50% bonus - Supply Consumption: −5% --- ### 7A.05 — Oil for Victory **Available:** After "Synthetic Rubber Program" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Texas, Oklahoma, California, and the Gulf Coast pump oil around the clock. The Big Inch and Little Big Inch pipelines carry crude from Texas to the Eastern seaboard. America produces two-thirds of the world's oil."* **Effects:** - Oil resource: +50 - Fuel Production: +20% - Navy Fuel Consumption: −10% --- ### 7A.06 — Liberty Ships **Available:** After "Federal Reserve Reform," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Henry Kaiser's shipyards produce Liberty Ships at an astonishing rate — one ship every forty-two days, then every two weeks. They are ugly, slow, and expendable — and they win the Battle of the Atlantic."* **Effects:** - Convoy Production: +50% - Naval Dockyard Output: +15% - Convoy Loss: −10% --- ### 7A.07 — War Bonds **Available:** At war, any democratic path **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Hollywood stars, sports heroes, and ordinary Americans buy war bonds to fund the war effort. It's patriotism and investment rolled into one."* **Effects:** - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - War Support: +10% - Political Power: +50 --- ### 7A.08 — Victory Gardens **Available:** At war, any democratic path **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"Twenty million Americans plant Victory Gardens, growing their own food in backyards, vacant lots, and public parks. It's a small thing — but it frees agricultural resources for the war effort and makes everyone feel they're contributing."* **Effects:** - Stability: +3% - Resource Gain Efficiency: +5% - Monthly Population: +0.1% --- ### 7A.09 — Boeing and the Bombers **Available:** After "Invest in Aluminum" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Boeing's factories in Seattle and Wichita produce the B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-29 Superfortress — the backbone of the strategic bombing campaign. The company grows from a regional manufacturer to an industrial giant."* **Effects:** - Strategic Bomber Production: +20% - Air Attack: +5% - Gain 2 Military Factories (aircraft) --- ### 7A.10 — Detroit Arsenal **Available:** After "Federal Reserve Reform," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The automobile capital of the world becomes the arsenal of democracy. General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler produce tanks, trucks, jeeps, and aircraft engines in quantities that stagger the imagination."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Military Factories in the Midwest - Armor Production: +15% - Motorized Production: +15% --- ### 7A.11 — The GI Economy **Available:** After war ends, any democratic path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Returning veterans flood the economy with pent-up demand. New houses, new cars, new appliances — the postwar consumer boom transforms American life."* **Effects:** - Civilian Factory Output: +20% - Construction Speed: +15% - Monthly Population: +1% - Consumer Goods Factories: +5% --- ### 7A.12 — Suburbanization **Available:** After "The GI Economy" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Levittown and its imitators spring up across America: mass-produced houses for the mass-produced middle class. The suburbs reshape American geography, culture, and politics."* **Effects:** - Construction Speed: +10% - Monthly Population: +0.5% - Stability: +5% --- ### 7A.13 — The Baby Boom **Available:** After "The GI Economy" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The postwar baby boom creates the largest generation in American history. Hospitals overflow, schools are packed, and the demand for everything from diapers to television sets is insatiable."* **Effects:** - Monthly Population: +1.5% - Consumer Goods Factories: +5% - Recruitable Population: +2% (long-term) --- ### 7A.14 — Postwar Prosperity **Available:** After "Suburbanization," capstone economic focus **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The American economy is the wonder of the world. Half the world's industrial output, the highest standard of living in history, and no end in sight. The American Dream seems achievable for everyone — or almost everyone."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Postwar Prosperity"** — Factory Output: +15%, Construction Speed: +15%, Monthly Population: +1%, Consumer Goods Factories: −5% --- ## 7B. Communist Economic Tree (14 focuses) *Available only to Communist paths (Browder or Foster)* ### 7B.01 — Central Planning Bureau **Available:** After "Nationalize Industry" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Central Planning Bureau coordinates all economic activity in the People's Republic. Five-year plans, production quotas, and resource allocation are determined by the state."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Central Planning"** — Factory Output: +10%, Consumer Goods Factories: −10%, Construction Speed: +10% --- ### 7B.02 — Heavy Industry First **Available:** After "Central Planning Bureau" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Steel, coal, and heavy machinery receive absolute priority. Light industry and consumer goods can wait — the People's Republic must build the industrial base for socialism."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Military Factories - Gain 3 Civilian Factories - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% - Steel production: +30% --- ### 7B.03 — Electrification Campaign **Available:** After "Heavy Industry First" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"'Communism is Soviet power plus the electrification of the whole country.' The People's Republic builds massive hydroelectric dams and power plants to bring electricity to every corner of America."* **Effects:** - Infrastructure: +2 in all states - Factory Output: +5% - Construction Speed: +5% --- ### 7B.04 — Workers' Housing **Available:** After "Central Planning Bureau" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Massive public housing projects replace the slums. Every worker is guaranteed a home — utilitarian, perhaps, but warm, dry, and free."* **Effects:** - Monthly Population: +0.5% - Stability: +5% - Consumer Goods Factories: +3% --- ### 7B.05 — People's Transport **Available:** After "Electrification Campaign" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A nationalized transportation network connects every city and town: railroads, highways, and public transit, all owned and operated by the state."* **Effects:** - Supply: +15% - Infrastructure: +1 everywhere - Division Speed: +5% --- ### 7B.06 — Scientific Socialism **Available:** After "Heavy Industry First" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The People's Republic invests heavily in scientific research — properly directed by Marxist-Leninist principles, of course."* **Effects:** - Research Speed: +10% - Gain 1 Research Slot - (Browder path only: additional +5% Research Speed) --- ### 7B.07 — Collectivize the Farms (Improved) **Available:** After "Central Planning Bureau" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Agricultural collectivization, implemented more carefully than the initial rush, begins to show results. Modern techniques and mechanization improve yields."* **Effects:** - Remove "Midwestern Famine" modifier if present - Resource Gain Efficiency: +10% - Monthly Population: +0.3% --- ### 7B.08 — People's Militia Economy **Available:** After "Heavy Industry First," pre-war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Every factory has its militia unit; every collective farm has its defense brigade. The People's Republic is organized for total defense at the grassroots level."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +3% - Division Training Time: −10% - Factory Output: +3% (military discipline in factories) --- ### 7B.09 — War Communism **Available:** After "Central Planning Bureau," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"In wartime, central planning reaches its zenith. Every resource, every worker, every factory is directed toward the war effort with ruthless efficiency."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +25% - Consumer Goods Factories: −15% - Recruitable Population: +3% - Supply Consumption: −10% --- ### 7B.10 — Stakhanovite Movement **Available:** After "War Communism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"'Hero workers' who exceed their quotas are celebrated as national heroes. The Stakhanovite movement — American-style — pushes workers to their limits."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +10% - Monthly Population: −0.2% (overwork) - War Support: +5% --- ### 7B.11 — People's Nuclear Program **Available:** After "Scientific Socialism," 1943+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The People's Republic develops its own nuclear program, drawing on the scientific talent that remains and Soviet technical assistance."* **Effects:** - Nuclear Research Speed: +30% - Research bonuses: 2x 100% nuclear technology --- ### 7B.12 — Red Reconstruction **Available:** After war ends, communist path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The postwar period brings reconstruction — on socialist principles. New cities are planned, new industries built, and the People's Republic emerges stronger than before."* **Effects:** - Construction Speed: +20% - Gain 5 Civilian Factories - Monthly Population: +0.5% --- ### 7B.13 — Workers' Paradise **Available:** After "Red Reconstruction" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The communist economy stabilizes and matures. Whether it's a workers' paradise or a gilded cage depends on whom you ask."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +10% - Stability: +10% - Consumer Goods Factories: −5% --- ### 7B.14 — Socialist Superpower **Available:** After "Workers' Paradise," capstone **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The People's Republic of America has become an industrial superpower to rival the Soviet Union. Its planned economy, for all its flaws, produces weapons and machines at a staggering rate."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Socialist Superpower Economy"** — Factory Output: +20%, Construction Speed: +15%, Military Factory Output: +15%, Consumer Goods: −10% --- ## 7C. Fascist/Non-Aligned Economic Tree (14 focuses) *Available to Fascist and Non-Aligned paths* ### 7C.01 — Economic Nationalism **Available:** After Fascist or Non-Aligned government established **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The economy is reorganized on nationalist principles: high tariffs, state direction of investment, and priority given to strategic industries."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +5% - Trade Opinion: −30 - Construction Speed: +5% --- ### 7C.02 — Strategic Resource Reserves **Available:** After "Economic Nationalism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Massive strategic reserves of oil, rubber, steel, and other critical materials are stockpiled against the possibility of war or blockade."* **Effects:** - Resource Gain Efficiency: +15% - All resources: +10% - Fuel Storage: +25% --- ### 7C.03 — Autobahn of America **Available:** After "Economic Nationalism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A massive highway construction program — inspired by Germany's autobahn — connects the nation's cities with modern, high-speed roads."* **Effects:** - Infrastructure: +2 everywhere - Supply: +10% - Division Speed: +5% - Construction Speed: +5% --- ### 7C.04 — State-Directed Industry **Available:** After "Economic Nationalism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The state directs private industry toward national goals through a combination of incentives, quotas, and threats. It is not nationalization — it is 'cooperation.'"* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +10% - Civilian Factory Output: +10% - Factory conversion speed: +20% --- ### 7C.05 — Forced Labor Programs **Available:** After "State-Directed Industry," Fascist only **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Undesirables, political prisoners, and other 'enemies of the state' are put to work in labor battalions. The human cost is incalculable; the economic benefit is measurable."* **Effects:** - Construction Speed: +15% - Resource Gain Efficiency: +10% - Monthly Population: −0.5% - Stability: −5% --- ### 7C.06 — Arms Manufacturing **Available:** After "State-Directed Industry" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Private arms manufacturers receive generous state contracts and tax breaks. The military-industrial complex is formalized and expanded."* **Effects:** - Gain 5 Military Factories - Military Factory Output: +10% - Equipment Production: +10% --- ### 7C.07 — Food for the Nation **Available:** After "Economic Nationalism" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Agricultural self-sufficiency is prioritized. Whether through collectivization, subsidies, or coercion, the nation will feed itself."* **Effects:** - Resource Gain Efficiency: +10% - Remove "Dust Bowl" if still active - Monthly Population: +0.3% --- ### 7C.08 — Mining the West **Available:** After "Strategic Resource Reserves" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The mineral wealth of the American West is exploited on an unprecedented scale. Gold, silver, copper, iron, uranium — everything is extracted and processed for the state."* **Effects:** - All resources in Western states: +25% - Gain 2 Civilian Factories (mining) - Chromium: +15, Tungsten: +10 --- ### 7C.09 — War Economy **Available:** After "Arms Manufacturing," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The authoritarian state mobilizes for war with an efficiency that democracies can only envy. Every factory, every mine, every worker serves the war effort."* **Effects:** - Military Factory Output: +20% - Consumer Goods Factories: −15% - Construction Speed: +15% --- ### 7C.10 — Slave Economy **Available:** After "Forced Labor Programs," at war, Pelley path only **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The persecution of minorities reaches its economic nadir: millions of people are worked to death in conditions that beggar description."* **Effects:** - Resource Gain Efficiency: +20% - Construction Speed: +20% - Monthly Population: −2% - Stability: −10% - Modifier: "Crimes Against Humanity" intensified --- ### 7C.11 — Technological Priorities **Available:** After "State-Directed Industry" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The state directs research toward military applications: rockets, jet engines, nuclear physics, and advanced metallurgy."* **Effects:** - Research Speed: +5% - Air Research: +10% - Armor Research: +10% - Gain 1 Research bonus (Rocketry) --- ### 7C.12 — Continental Fortress Economy **Available:** After "War Economy" or "American Autarky" (Taft path) **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The American economy is reorganized as a self-sufficient continental fortress: producing everything it needs, trading with no one it doesn't choose to, and impervious to blockade."* **Effects:** - Factory Output: +10% - Resource production: +15% - Trade: completely self-sufficient - All resource deficits reduced to zero --- ### 7C.13 — Postwar Reconstruction (Authoritarian) **Available:** After war ends, fascist or non-aligned path **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The authoritarian state rebuilds on its own terms. Efficiency replaces democracy; order replaces freedom. The trains run on time."* **Effects:** - Construction Speed: +20% - Stability: +5% - Factory Output: +10% --- ### 7C.14 — Economic Dominance **Available:** After "Continental Fortress Economy," capstone **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The American economy, directed by the state and powered by the continent's vast resources, dominates the world through sheer scale and productive capacity."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Economic Dominance"** — Factory Output: +20%, Construction Speed: +15%, Resource Production: +20%, Consumer Goods: −10% --- # 8. ARMY SUBTREE (28 focuses) Available to all ideologies, though some focuses have ideology-specific bonuses. --- ### 8.01 — Army Reform **Available:** After any political path established, 1937 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States Army, still organized along the lines of the First World War, needs fundamental reform. Whether that reform is driven by Marshall's professionalism, communist ideology, or fascist militarism depends on who governs."* **Effects:** - Army Experience: +25 - Division Organization: +5 - Unlock further army focuses --- ### 8.02 — Louisiana Maneuvers **Available:** After "Army Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The largest peacetime military exercises in American history test the army's readiness in the swamps and forests of Louisiana. Careers are made and broken; the army discovers what works and what doesn't."* **Effects:** - Army Experience: +50 - Identify 2 new generals from promising officers (event) - Division Training Time: −10% - Land Doctrine Research Speed: +10% --- ### 8.03 — Armor Doctrine **Available:** After "Louisiana Maneuvers" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The question of how to use tanks divides the army. Will America follow the German model of concentrated armored divisions, or the French model of infantry support?"* **Effects:** - Event: Choose doctrine: - **Concentrated Armor (Patton):** Armor Attack: +15%, Armor Breakthrough: +10% - **Infantry Support:** Division Defense: +10%, Armor Organization: +10 --- ### 8.04 — Expand the Army **Available:** After "Army Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The peacetime army of less than 200,000 men must grow into a force of millions. New divisions are activated, training camps established, and the industrial base geared toward mass production of small arms."* **Effects:** - Recruitable Population: +2% - Division Training Time: −10% - Gain 5 Infantry Equipment Production: +10% --- ### 8.05 — Army Air Corps **Available:** After "Army Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Army Air Corps — not yet an independent service — receives increased funding and attention. Advocates of air power like Billy Mitchell argue for strategic bombing as the decisive weapon of the next war."* **Effects:** - Air Experience: +25 - Fighter Production: +10% - Unlock air doctrine research bonuses --- ### 8.06 — Fort Benning and the Infantry School **Available:** After "Expand the Army" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Infantry School at Fort Benning trains the officers who will lead American infantry in the next war. The 'Benning Revolution' in tactics emphasizes firepower, mobility, and small-unit initiative."* **Effects:** - Infantry Attack: +10% - Infantry Defense: +5% - Division Organization: +5 - Gain 1 General: Omar Bradley (Skill Level 3, Trait: Infantry Leader) --- ### 8.07 — Fort Knox and the Armored Force **Available:** After "Armor Doctrine" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Fort Knox becomes the home of the American armored force. Tank design, doctrine, and training are centralized under a single command."* **Effects:** - Armor Research Speed: +15% - Armor Attack: +5% - Gain 1 General: Jacob Devers (Skill Level 3, Trait: Panzer Leader) --- ### 8.08 — Airborne Division **Available:** After "Expand the Army," 1940 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions are activated — elite formations trained to jump into battle from the sky. They will become the spearhead of American offensive operations."* **Effects:** - Paratroop Technology: +1 level - Special Forces cap: +5% - Gain 2 Paratroop divisions - Gain 1 General: James Gavin (Skill Level 3, Trait: Commando) --- ### 8.09 — Marine Corps Expansion **Available:** After "Army Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States Marine Corps expands from a small expeditionary force into a formidable amphibious army. The Marines develop the doctrine and equipment for the island-hopping campaigns to come."* **Effects:** - Marines Technology: +1 level - Amphibious Invasion Penalty: −15% - Gain 3 Marine divisions - Gain 1 General: Holland "Howlin' Mad" Smith (Skill Level 3, Trait: Marine) --- ### 8.10 — Signal Corps Modernization **Available:** After "Expand the Army" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Signal Corps develops new radio equipment, communications doctrine, and — crucially — radar. The electronic battlefield is being born."* **Effects:** - Radar Technology: +1 level - Encryption: +1 - Division Organization: +5 (better communications) --- ### 8.11 — Corps of Engineers **Available:** After "Army Reform" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Army Corps of Engineers — builders of dams, bridges, and fortifications — is expanded to meet the demands of a global war."* **Effects:** - Construction Speed: +10% - Entrenchment: +10% - Infrastructure Construction: +15% --- ### 8.12 — The Sherman Tank **Available:** After "Fort Knox and the Armored Force," 1941+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The M4 Sherman isn't the best tank in the world — but it's reliable, easy to produce, and good enough. What it lacks in individual quality, America makes up in overwhelming quantity."* **Effects:** - Medium Tank Production: +25% - Armor Reliability: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Medium Tank --- ### 8.13 — The Garand Rifle **Available:** After "Fort Benning and the Infantry School" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The M1 Garand — the semi-automatic rifle that Patton called 'the greatest battle implement ever devised' — gives the American infantryman a decisive firepower advantage over any enemy armed with bolt-action rifles."* **Effects:** - Infantry Equipment Production: +10% - Infantry Attack: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Infantry Equipment --- ### 8.14 — Artillery Modernization **Available:** After "Fort Benning and the Infantry School" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American artillery doctrine emphasizes massed, coordinated fire directed by forward observers and supported by the most advanced fire direction centers in the world."* **Effects:** - Artillery Attack: +15% - Artillery Defense: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Artillery --- ### 8.15 — Army Logistics **Available:** After "Expand the Army," 1940+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Red Ball Express, the Alaska Highway, the Burma Road — American logistics wins wars. The ability to move supplies across continents and oceans is the unseen foundation of American military power."* **Effects:** - Supply Consumption: −15% - Division Attrition: −20% - Transport technology: +10% --- ### 8.16 — Combat Experience **Available:** At war with a major nation, Army **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Nothing replaces combat experience. The American soldier, initially green and uncertain, learns his trade in North Africa, Italy, Normandy, and the Pacific — and becomes the finest fighting man in the world."* **Effects:** - Army Experience: +100 - Division Organization: +10 - All unit attack: +5% - All unit defense: +5% --- ### 8.17 — Tank Destroyers **Available:** After "The Sherman Tank" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Tank Destroyer branch develops specialized vehicles to hunt enemy armor: fast, lightly armored, but armed with powerful guns. The doctrine of aggressive anti-tank warfare takes shape."* **Effects:** - Anti-Tank Technology: +1 level - Anti-Tank Attack: +15% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Tank Destroyer --- ### 8.18 — Winter Warfare Training **Available:** After "Combat Experience" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The lessons of the Ardennes and the Aleutians are learned: American troops receive specialized training in winter warfare, mountain operations, and fighting in extreme conditions."* **Effects:** - Winter Attrition: −30% - Mountain Division capabilities: +10% - Division Organization in winter: +5 --- ### 8.19 — Combined Arms Doctrine **Available:** After "Combat Experience" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The mature American army fights as a combined arms team: infantry, armor, artillery, and air power working in seamless coordination."* **Effects:** - Army Attack: +10% - Army Defense: +5% - Planning Speed: +10% - Coordination bonuses between unit types --- ### 8.20 — Rangers Lead the Way **Available:** After "Airborne Division," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Ranger battalions — modeled on the British Commandos — spearhead the most dangerous missions: scaling the cliffs at Pointe du Hoc, raiding behind enemy lines, leading every assault."* **Effects:** - Special Forces Attack: +20% - Special Forces cap: +5% - Gain 2 Special Forces divisions --- ### 8.21 — Jungle Warfare **Available:** After "Marine Corps Expansion," at war in Pacific **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Fighting in the Pacific demands specialized jungle warfare training. The humid, disease-ridden jungles of the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, and the Philippines become classrooms for American soldiers and Marines."* **Effects:** - Jungle Attack: +15% - Jungle Defense: +10% - Attrition in jungles: −25% --- ### 8.22 — Army Group Command **Available:** After "Combined Arms Doctrine" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"As the army grows to eighty-nine divisions and millions of men, the command structure must evolve. Army groups coordinate multiple armies across vast fronts."* **Effects:** - Field Marshal cap: +2 - Army Attack: +5% - Division limit: +30 --- ### 8.23 — The Mighty Eighth **Available:** After "Strategic Bombing Campaign" (from Historical path) or equivalent, at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Eighth Air Force, operating from bases in England, becomes the largest air armada in history. Thousands of bombers darken the skies over Germany."* **Effects:** - Strategic Bombing: +25% - Air Attack: +10% - Gain 3 Strategic Bomber air wings --- ### 8.24 — Replacement System **Available:** After "Combat Experience" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The individual replacement system keeps American divisions at full strength by feeding individual soldiers into existing units. It's efficient, if psychologically brutal."* **Effects:** - Division Recovery Rate: +20% - Manpower Recovery: +15% - Division Organization: −3 (disruption from replacements) --- ### 8.25 — Heavy Tanks **Available:** After "The Sherman Tank," 1944+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The M26 Pershing heavy tank finally gives American tankers a weapon that can face the German Tiger and Panther on equal terms."* **Effects:** - Heavy Tank Research: +100% bonus - Armor Attack: +10% - Armor Breakthrough: +10% --- ### 8.26 — Nuclear Battlefield **Available:** After nuclear weapons, 1946+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The atomic bomb transforms military doctrine. Tactical nuclear weapons, atomic artillery, and nuclear-armed missiles redefine the battlefield."* **Effects:** - Nuclear Production: +25% - Army Attack (with nuclear weapons): +20% - Research bonus: Nuclear and Rocket technology --- ### 8.27 — Professional Army **Available:** After war ends or 1947+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The postwar army professionalizes: better training, better equipment, and a permanent standing force ready to deploy anywhere in the world."* **Effects:** - Division Training Time: −20% - Division Organization: +15 - Army Experience Gain: +25% --- ### 8.28 — Army of the Future **Available:** After "Professional Army," capstone **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States Army enters the postwar era as the most powerful ground force in the world: battle-tested, nuclear-armed, and deployed on every continent."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Army of the Future"** — Army Attack: +15%, Army Defense: +10%, Division Organization: +15, Division Training Time: −15% --- # 9. NAVY SUBTREE (26 focuses) --- ### 9.01 — Naval Expansion Act **Available:** After any political path, 1937 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Congress authorizes the first major naval expansion since the Washington Naval Treaty. New battleships, carriers, and cruisers are laid down in shipyards across the country."* **Effects:** - Gain 2 Naval Dockyards - Naval Production: +10% - Naval Experience: +15 --- ### 9.02 — Carrier Doctrine **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Battle of Midway — or its equivalent in this timeline — proves the aircraft carrier's supremacy over the battleship. The carrier task force becomes the basis of American naval power."* **Effects:** - Carrier Research: +15% - Naval Air Attack: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Carrier technology --- ### 9.03 — Battleship Construction **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Iowa-class battleships — the most powerful warships ever built — join the fleet. They may be dinosaurs, but they're magnificent dinosaurs."* **Effects:** - Capital Ship Attack: +10% - Capital Ship Armor: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Battleship technology --- ### 9.04 — Submarine Warfare **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American submarines wage an unrestricted campaign against Japanese shipping — a campaign that ultimately strangles the island empire."* **Effects:** - Submarine Attack: +15% - Submarine Detection: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Submarine technology - Convoy Raiding Efficiency: +20% --- ### 9.05 — Destroyer Escorts **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Small, fast, and cheap, destroyer escorts form the backbone of the convoy defense system. They hunt U-boats with sonar, depth charges, and tenacity."* **Effects:** - Convoy Escort Efficiency: +20% - Destroyer Production: +20% - Sub Detection: +15% --- ### 9.06 — Amphibious Warfare School **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The art of amphibious warfare — the most complex military operation — is studied, practiced, and perfected. The lessons will be applied from Guadalcanal to Normandy."* **Effects:** - Amphibious Invasion Penalty: −20% - Naval Invasion Capacity: +10 - Marine Training Time: −15% --- ### 9.07 — PT Boats **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The fast, agile PT boats — including PT-109, commanded by a young lieutenant named John F. Kennedy — harass enemy shipping in the confined waters of the Pacific islands."* **Effects:** - Screen Attack: +5% - Naval Speed: +5% - Gain 2 Patrol Boat flotillas --- ### 9.08 — Naval Intelligence **Available:** After "Naval Expansion Act" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Office of Naval Intelligence, aided by codebreakers, tracks enemy fleet movements and anticipates enemy operations."* **Effects:** - Naval Intel: +25% - Decryption: +1 - Naval Detection: +15% --- ### 9.09 — Fleet Carrier Strike Force **Available:** After "Carrier Doctrine," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Fast carrier task forces — built around the new Essex-class carriers — project American power across the Pacific. Each task force is a mobile air base capable of striking targets hundreds of miles away."* **Effects:** - Carrier Air Attack: +15% - Carrier Sortie Efficiency: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Carrier Aircraft - Gain 1 Admiral: Marc Mitscher (Skill Level 4, Trait: Carrier Specialist) --- ### 9.10 — Naval Radar **Available:** After "Naval Intelligence" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Radar-equipped warships can detect and engage the enemy at night and in foul weather. The radar advantage, combined with superior fire control, makes the American surface fleet deadly."* **Effects:** - Naval Detection: +20% - Capital Ship Attack: +10% (at night) - Gain Research Bonus: Radar technology --- ### 9.11 — Seabees **Available:** After "Amphibious Warfare School" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Naval Construction Battalions — the Seabees — build airstrips, harbors, and bases on captured islands, often under fire. 'Can Do!' is their motto, and they live up to it."* **Effects:** - Naval Base construction: +25% - Air Base construction: +25% - Infrastructure in occupied territory: +2 --- ### 9.12 — ASW Doctrine **Available:** After "Destroyer Escorts," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Anti-submarine warfare doctrine matures: hunter-killer groups built around escort carriers systematically destroy enemy submarines using radar, sonar, depth charges, and aerial patrols."* **Effects:** - Sub Detection: +25% - Convoy Loss: −25% - Gain 1 Admiral: "Foxy" Frederic Low (Skill Level 3, Trait: ASW Expert) --- ### 9.13 — Naval Aviation **Available:** After "Fleet Carrier Strike Force" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The F6F Hellcat, the F4U Corsair, the SBD Dauntless, the TBF Avenger — American naval aircraft dominate the skies over the Pacific. The Japanese Zero, once feared, is now outclassed."* **Effects:** - Naval Air Attack: +15% - Naval Air Defense: +10% - Carrier Aircraft Production: +15% --- ### 9.14 — Pacific Logistics **Available:** After "Seabees" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The logistics of the Pacific war are staggering: supply lines stretching thousands of miles, mobile repair ships, floating drydocks, and underway replenishment groups that keep the fleet at sea indefinitely."* **Effects:** - Naval Range: +25% - Ship Repair: +20% - Supply at sea: +15% --- ### 9.15 — The Marianas Turkey Shoot **Available:** After "Fleet Carrier Strike Force," at war with Japan or equivalent naval power **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"In the Battle of the Philippine Sea, American fighters and anti-aircraft guns slaughter Japanese naval aviation. The Japanese carrier force never recovers."* **Effects:** - Naval Air Defense: +20% - Naval Experience: +50 - Enemy Carrier Air Attack: −15% (demoralized) --- ### 9.16 — Kamikaze Defense **Available:** After "The Marianas Turkey Shoot" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The kamikaze threat forces the development of new defensive tactics: radar pickets, combat air patrols, and massed anti-aircraft fire."* **Effects:** - Anti-Air: +20% (naval) - Ship Survivability: +10% - Naval Organization: +10 --- ### 9.17 — Leyte Gulf **Available:** After "Fleet Carrier Strike Force," 1944+, at war **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"The Battle of Leyte Gulf — the largest naval battle in history — sees the American Navy destroy the remnants of the enemy fleet in a decisive engagement."* **Effects:** - Naval Experience: +75 - Naval Attack: +10% - Gain 1 Admiral: William "Bull" Halsey (Skill Level 5, Trait: Bold, Aggressive) --- ### 9.18 — Forward Bases **Available:** After "Pacific Logistics" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"A chain of forward naval bases — from Pearl Harbor to Guam to Okinawa — projects American naval power across the Pacific."* **Effects:** - Naval Base levels: +3 in Pacific territories - Naval Range: +15% - Naval Repair: +15% --- ### 9.19 — Underwater Fleet **Available:** After "Submarine Warfare," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American submarines sink more Japanese tonnage than all other causes combined. The silent service wages a campaign of attrition that brings the enemy economy to its knees."* **Effects:** - Submarine Attack: +20% - Convoy Raiding: +25% - Naval Experience: +25 --- ### 9.20 — Postwar Navy **Available:** After war ends or 1947 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The postwar Navy maintains the largest fleet in history: hundreds of warships, dozens of carriers, and the capability to project power to every ocean on earth."* **Effects:** - Naval Production: +15% - Naval Dockyard Output: +10% - Ship maintenance cost: −10% --- ### 9.21 — Supercarriers **Available:** After "Postwar Navy" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The next generation of aircraft carriers — the supercarriers — are larger, faster, and capable of operating jet aircraft. The USS Midway class leads the way."* **Effects:** - Carrier Research: +100% bonus - Carrier Air Attack: +15% - Naval Air Superiority: +10% --- ### 9.22 — Nuclear Navy **Available:** After nuclear technology, 1946+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Admiral Hyman Rickover champions nuclear propulsion for warships. Nuclear submarines and carriers will have virtually unlimited range."* **Effects:** - Submarine Research: +100% bonus - Naval Range: unlimited (nuclear ships) - Research Speed (Naval): +10% --- ### 9.23 — Missile Cruisers **Available:** After "Postwar Navy" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Guided missiles begin to replace naval guns. The first missile cruisers represent a revolution in naval warfare."* **Effects:** - Capital Ship Attack: +15% - Naval Detection: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Naval Weapons --- ### 9.24 — Seventh Fleet **Available:** After "Forward Bases" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Seventh Fleet — permanently stationed in the Western Pacific — is the tip of America's spear in Asia."* **Effects:** - Naval Attack in Pacific: +15% - Naval Defense in Pacific: +10% - Can project power anywhere in the Pacific --- ### 9.25 — Sixth Fleet **Available:** After "Postwar Navy" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Sixth Fleet patrols the Mediterranean, ensuring that American power reaches into the heart of the Old World."* **Effects:** - Naval Attack in Mediterranean: +15% - Naval Defense in Atlantic: +10% --- ### 9.26 — Ruler of the Waves **Available:** After "Supercarriers," capstone **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States Navy commands every ocean on earth. No fleet can challenge it; no coast is beyond its reach. Britannia once ruled the waves; America rules them now."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Ruler of the Waves"** — Naval Attack: +15%, Naval Defense: +10%, Carrier Air Attack: +15%, Convoy Escort: +20%, Naval Production: +15% --- # 10. AIR FORCE SUBTREE (24 focuses) --- ### 10.01 — Air Corps Expansion **Available:** After any political path, 1937 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Army Air Corps is a neglected service flying obsolescent biplanes. That changes now. New fighters, new bombers, and new airbases will make American air power second to none."* **Effects:** - Air Experience: +15 - Fighter Production: +10% - Gain 1 Air Base level in 5 states --- ### 10.02 — Fighter Development **Available:** After "Air Corps Expansion" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American fighter development produces a series of legendary aircraft: the P-38 Lightning, the P-47 Thunderbolt, and — finest of all — the P-51 Mustang, the fighter that will escort the bombers to Berlin and back."* **Effects:** - Fighter Attack: +10% - Fighter Agility: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Fighter technology (x2) --- ### 10.03 — Bomber Development **Available:** After "Air Corps Expansion" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The B-17 Flying Fortress and the B-24 Liberator form the backbone of the strategic bombing fleet. Later, the B-29 Superfortress will carry the war — and the bomb — to Japan."* **Effects:** - Bomber Attack: +10% - Bomber Defense: +10% - Gain Research Bonus: 100% Bomber technology (x2) --- ### 10.04 — Pursuit Tactics **Available:** After "Fighter Development" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American fighter tactics emphasize energy management, diving attacks, and the use of altitude advantage. The 'boom and zoom' style exploits the strengths of American aircraft."* **Effects:** - Air Superiority: +10% - Fighter Attack: +5% - Air Ace generation chance: +15% --- ### 10.05 — Strategic Bombing Theory **Available:** After "Bomber Development" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Air Corps Tactical School at Maxwell Field develops the doctrine of precision daylight bombing: destroy the enemy's key industries, and the war machine collapses."* **Effects:** - Strategic Bombing Damage: +15% - Bombing Accuracy: +10% - Air Doctrine Research Speed: +10% --- ### 10.06 — Mass Production of Aircraft **Available:** After "Air Corps Expansion" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"American factories produce aircraft in quantities that defy belief: nearly 100,000 in 1944 alone. The skies belong to America not because of superior technology, but because of superior numbers."* **Effects:** - Air Production: +20% - Fighter Production: +10% - Bomber Production: +10% --- ### 10.07 — Pilot Training Program **Available:** After "Air Corps Expansion" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Army Air Forces Training Command produces pilots, navigators, bombardiers, and gunners in enormous numbers. The training is thorough if abbreviated — the war won't wait."* **Effects:** - Air Experience: +25 - Pilot Training Time: −20% - Air Ace generation: +10% --- ### 10.08 — Tuskegee Airmen **Available:** After "Air Corps Expansion," 1940+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The 332nd Fighter Group — the Tuskegee Airmen — proves that Black Americans can fly and fight with the best. Their record of never losing a bomber they escorted becomes legendary."* **Effects:** - Escort Efficiency: +15% - Air Experience: +15 - Stability: +3% - Gain 1 Air Wing: 332nd Fighter Group (Elite) --- ### 10.09 — Long-Range Escort **Available:** After "Fighter Development," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The P-51 Mustang with drop tanks can escort bombers all the way to Berlin and back. This single development transforms the air war: bomber losses plummet, and the Luftwaffe is drawn into a war of attrition it cannot win."* **Effects:** - Escort Efficiency: +25% - Bomber Survivability: +20% - Fighter Range: +30% --- ### 10.10 — Tactical Air Power **Available:** After "Fighter Development" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Fighter-bombers like the P-47 Thunderbolt prove devastating in the close air support role. The Normandy campaign demonstrates that tactical air power can paralyze enemy movement."* **Effects:** - Close Air Support Attack: +20% - Ground Attack Damage: +15% - Army Attack (with air support): +5% --- ### 10.11 — Night Fighters **Available:** After "Pursuit Tactics" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Radar-equipped night fighters — the P-61 Black Widow and modified P-38s — hunt enemy bombers and intruders in the darkness."* **Effects:** - Night Air Attack: +20% - Air Defense: +10% (night) - Gain Research Bonus: Radar/Aircraft --- ### 10.12 — Transport Aviation **Available:** After "Pilot Training Program" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Air Transport Command moves troops, supplies, and equipment across oceans and over mountains. The Hump route over the Himalayas and the Berlin Airlift prove that air transport can sustain armies."* **Effects:** - Transport Plane Capacity: +25% - Airborne Division cap: +2 - Supply by air: +20% --- ### 10.13 — Firebombing Campaign **Available:** After "Strategic Bombing Theory," at war, 1944+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Under General Curtis LeMay, B-29s switch from high-altitude precision bombing to low-level incendiary raids against Japanese cities. The results are devastating — and controversial."* **Effects:** - Strategic Bombing Damage: +25% - War Support of target: −20% - World opinion: −10 - Gain 1 Air Commander: Curtis LeMay (Skill Level 4, Trait: Strategic Bombing) --- ### 10.14 — Air Superiority **Available:** After "Long-Range Escort," at war **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"By 1944, Allied air superiority over Western Europe is complete. The Luftwaffe has been ground down by attrition, and American fighters roam freely over Germany."* **Effects:** - Air Superiority: +20% - Enemy Air Attack: −10% - Army Attack (with air superiority): +10% --- ### 10.15 — Jet Research **Available:** After "Fighter Development," 1943+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"German jet fighters spark an urgent American research program. The P-80 Shooting Star, America's first operational jet fighter, enters service just as the war ends."* **Effects:** - Jet Fighter Research: +100% bonus (x2) - Air Research Speed: +10% - Fighter Attack: +5% (future tech) --- ### 10.16 — Rocket Research **Available:** After "Bomber Development," 1943+ **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The V-2 rocket inspires — and terrifies. American rocket research begins in earnest, with captured German scientists providing crucial expertise."* **Effects:** - Rocket Research: +100% bonus (x2) - Rocket Attack: +15% - Gain Research Bonus: Rocket technology --- ### 10.17 — Independent Air Force **Available:** After "National Security Act" (historical) or equivalent, 1947 **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States Air Force becomes an independent service, equal in status to the Army and Navy. Stuart Symington becomes the first Secretary of the Air Force."* **Effects:** - Air Experience: +50 - Air Doctrine Research Speed: +15% - Gain 1 Research Slot (Air-dedicated) --- ### 10.18 — Strategic Air Command **Available:** After "Independent Air Force" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Strategic Air Command — SAC — is organized under General Curtis LeMay with a single mission: deliver nuclear weapons to enemy targets anywhere in the world. SAC becomes the most powerful military organization in history."* **Effects:** - Strategic Bombing: +30% - Nuclear Delivery Capability: +50% - Bomber Attack: +15% - Gain National Spirit modifier: "SAC Readiness" --- ### 10.19 — Tactical Air Command **Available:** After "Independent Air Force" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Tactical Air Command provides close air support, interdiction, and air superiority for ground forces. Jet fighters and fighter-bombers replace the propeller aircraft of the war years."* **Effects:** - Close Air Support: +20% - Fighter Attack: +10% - Tactical Bombing: +15% --- ### 10.20 — Air Defense Command **Available:** After "Independent Air Force" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The Air Defense Command protects the continental United States from air attack with a network of radar stations, interceptor squadrons, and — eventually — surface-to-air missiles."* **Effects:** - Air Defense: +25% - Radar coverage: +30% - Interception: +20% --- ### 10.21 — Breaking the Sound Barrier **Available:** After "Jet Research," 1947 **Duration:** 35 days **Description:** *"On October 14, 1947, Captain Chuck Yeager flies the Bell X-1 faster than the speed of sound. The sound barrier — once thought impenetrable — shatters like glass."* **Effects:** - Air Research Speed: +15% - Jet Fighter Attack: +10% - National prestige event --- ### 10.22 — Aerial Refueling **Available:** After "Strategic Air Command" **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"Aerial refueling gives SAC's bombers truly global reach. No target on earth is beyond the range of American air power."* **Effects:** - Bomber Range: unlimited (with tanker support) - Strategic Bombing: +10% - Naval Air Range: +20% --- ### 10.23 — Guided Weapons **Available:** After "Rocket Research," postwar **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The first guided bombs and missiles — primitive by later standards — begin to enter service. The age of precision-guided munitions has begun."* **Effects:** - Bombing Accuracy: +20% - Naval Attack (air-launched missiles): +15% - Gain Research Bonus: Guided Weapons technology --- ### 10.24 — Masters of the Sky **Available:** After "Strategic Air Command," capstone **Duration:** 70 days **Description:** *"The United States Air Force commands the skies of the world. From the jet fighters patrolling the Iron Curtain to the nuclear-armed bombers orbiting on permanent alert, American air power is the ultimate guarantor of the postwar order."* **Effects:** - Gain National Spirit: **"Masters of the Sky"** — Air Attack: +20%, Air Defense: +15%, Strategic Bombing: +20%, Close Air Support: +15%, Air Production: +15% --- # APPENDIX: FOCUS COUNT SUMMARY | Section | Count | |---|---| | Shared Opening Tree | 14 | | Historical Democratic Path | 48 | | Ahistorical Democratic — Route A (Republican) | 20 | | Ahistorical Democratic — Route B (Wallace) | 20 | | Communist Shared Trunk | 12 | | Communist Route A (Browder) | 12 | | Communist Route B (Foster) | 12 | | Fascist Shared Trunk | 12 | | Fascist Route A (Lindbergh) | 12 | | Fascist Route B (Pelley) | 12 | | Non-Aligned Shared Trunk | 10 | | Non-Aligned Route A (MacArthur) | 12 | | Non-Aligned Route B (Taft) | 12 | | Economic — Democratic/General | 14 | | Economic — Communist | 14 | | Economic — Fascist/Non-Aligned | 14 | | Army Subtree | 28 | | Navy Subtree | 26 | | Air Force Subtree | 24 | | **TOTAL** | **328** | --- # DESIGN NOTES **Balance Philosophy:** - Pre-1941 focuses provide modest bonuses (+5-10%) and primarily remove starting penalties (Great Depression, Neutrality Acts) - The truly powerful national spirits and military bonuses are locked behind 1941+ focuses or require being at war with a major nation - Capstone focuses (1947-1948) provide the strongest bonuses but require extensive investment to reach - Ahistorical paths trade stability for unique bonuses; the further from history, the greater the risk/reward **Key Mechanics:** - The Great Depression is a crippling starting spirit that is only fully removed by entering a major war or completing extensive economic focuses - The Neutrality Acts prevent faction membership and Lend-Lease until removed through the focus tree or war - Civil war mechanics exist for Communist and Fascist paths if support thresholds aren't met - The 1940, 1944, and 1948 elections serve as decision points that can redirect the political path - Nuclear weapons are consistently gated behind late-war focuses regardless of ideology **Historical Accuracy Notes:** - All named leaders, generals, and admirals are real historical figures with traits reflecting their actual capabilities and ideologies - Earl Browder and William Z. Foster were the actual leaders of the CPUSA representing its moderate and hardline wings - Charles Lindbergh's fascist sympathies and William Dudley Pelley's Silver Legion are well-documented historical facts - Douglas MacArthur's imperial ambitions and Robert Taft's isolationism accurately reflect their historical positions - Henry Wallace's progressive policies and his 1948 third-party run are historically grounded