Iteration 1

Iterations: Alpha 1 (not documented) · [[Beta 1]] (concluded) · [[Beta 2]] (concluded) · Iteration 1 (ongoing)

[[Beta 1]] and [[Beta 2]] are preserved snapshots of the two public betas. Iteration 1 is the current chronicle, following the live world from its 1953 opening into 1979.

"1953 became 1979. America crossed the Atlantic, lost Germany, elected a Republican, and removed her. East Germany won reunification, left its old bloc, defeated its former Soviet ally, and chose Russia's next form of government. Britain changed governments and sides. Meanwhile, private companies grew larger than whole stock exchanges. This is the world they made."

Iteration 1 began on 2026-08-08 with an in-game starting year of 1953. It opened four countries to players: the United States, United Kingdom, East Germany, and the Soviet Union. Twenty-one other nations run elections, pass laws, trade, and react through autonomous governments, turning what began as a four-capital Cold War into a genuinely crowded international system.

By turn 1,302, the calendar had reached 1979. The world had produced seven distinct American presidents and its first presidential conviction, five successful no-confidence votes, a German reunification decided by war, a Soviet reversal from East Germany's indispensable ally to its defeated invader, six player-founded international organizations, and a private American fortune larger than every public exchange combined.

This is a snapshot of a running world. It is not a complete transcript of 1,302 turns. The Wire, election archive, country histories, battle reports, and market ledgers are much larger than any one article, so what follows is the story they tell most clearly.

At a glance: Iteration 1 in numbers#

🇺🇸 United States#

America spent its first quarter-century under Democratic dominance, fought and lost the largest war of the iteration, rebuilt through a long postwar recovery, and then broke sharply right in 1976. Seven people reached the White House, but they did not inherit the same America. Each presidency changed the terms on which the next one had to govern.

Seven elections and seven presidents#

Hochburger won the founding election and a second term by large margins. Johnson followed with the closest thing this world has seen to an electoral coronation: 530 electoral votes in 1960. The system then fragmented. Todoroki won two four-way contests with pluralities, Oppenheimer survived a 1972 race separated by only 1.6 percentage points, and Ariane Yeong turned 39.7% of the popular vote into 481 electoral votes in 1976. The table records seven elections, not seven direct mandates: Egg became the sixth president by constitutional succession after Yeong's removal, and Speaker Richard Nixon became the seventh after Egg resigned.

The party membership ledger makes that victory stranger. The Democrats remain the largest organization with 512 members, followed by Farmer-Labor with 447. Yeong's Republican Party has only 62, behind the Constitutional Union Party's 89. Iteration 1 produced a Republican presidency before it produced a Republican mass party.

Lukas Hochburger: building the federal state#

Lukas Hochburger, in office from turns 49 through 431, did more than win twice. His era built much of the federal state that later presidents inherited. Its enacted program included industrial revival, public schools, child investment, housing, infrastructure, vocational and veterans training, anti-corruption rules, voting administration, defense production, and repeated attempts to stabilize the budget. His government also imposed a federal sales and excise tax and raised several existing rates to finance the larger state.

The founding expansion was extraordinary. The NYSE grew from about 116.6 million at his inauguration to 64.2 billion near the end of his presidency. The fiscal record was less simple. At the 1955 snapshot, GDP was 431.9 billion, the federal deficit was 35.4 billion, debt stood at 73.2% of GDP, and the country held an AAA rating. By the 1962 snapshot, GDP had reached 525.0 billion, but the deficit was still 31.6 billion and debt had climbed to 78.2% of GDP, even as AAA survived. Hochburger built capacity and prosperity, but he also built the mobilized state that took America into war. The declaration against East Germany arrived at turn 415, in his final months.

Lyndon B. Johnson: inheriting the war#

Lyndon B. Johnson governed from turns 432 through 623. His 530-vote victory looked overwhelming, but his presidency inherited a conflict that electoral arithmetic could not control. Johnson's domestic record was restrained: Budget Stabilization Act III, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, and the Cut Spending Act entered the statute book, while he vetoed both a wartime spending package and an international-assistance measure.

The War for Germany ended in defeat on his watch. By the 1966 budget, GDP was 564.9 billion, the annual deficit 46.8 billion, and federal debt 137.6% of GDP. The credit rating fell from AAA before the war to A. Over the same presidential window, NYSE capitalization fell from about 64.9 billion to 8.1 billion, while total public-market capitalization fell from 74.2 billion to 19.3 billion. Johnson tried to restrain spending inside a war economy, but the period ended with military defeat, a much weaker balance sheet, and a shattered market.

Ren Todoroki: the strong-center recovery#

Ren Todoroki won in 1964 with 42.8% and again in 1968 with only 39.8%, making his presidency a long exercise in governing without a popular majority. From turns 624 through 1,007, his program favored central authority and reconstruction: the Central Intelligence Appropriations Act, Streamlined Command: Executive Organization Act, Strong Center: Federal Supremacy and Enforcement Act, Patriotic Economic Tax Act, American Business Initiative, and a fourth budget-stabilization package all entered the record. An international-assistance bill also became law after Johnson had vetoed an earlier version.

The recovery was visible but incomplete. NYSE value rose from roughly 8.0 billion at Todoroki's inauguration to 27.0 billion at his departure, and global public markets rose from 19.1 billion to 50.2 billion. Federal debt fell from 145.1% of GDP in the 1967 snapshot to 122.9% in 1973. Yet the credit rating slipped from A to BB, and deficits remained above 57 billion by the end of the period. Todoroki restored scale and confidence, but not fiscal normality.

Sean Oppenheimer: rights, records, and social investment#

Sean Oppenheimer, president from turns 1,008 through 1,199, redirected the postwar state toward civil institutions. He signed the Public Records and Information Act and the Civil Rights Act. His term also produced Healthcare Expansion Act Pt1 and an industrial-modernization law, while Roe v. Wade entered the constitutional record. Unlike the three elected presidents before him, Oppenheimer recorded no veto.

His economy grew without producing another market boom. Between the 1974 and 1977 fiscal snapshots, GDP rose from 686.9 billion to 767.2 billion, the deficit narrowed from 55.8 billion to 42.4 billion, and debt fell from 118.7% to 107.6% of GDP. Inflation peaked at 12.55% in the 1975 snapshot before easing to 4.76% in 1977. The NYSE moved only from about 26.9 billion to 28.1 billion, while global public-market value contracted. Oppenheimer's legacy was less a speculative expansion than a more transparent and rights-conscious state with a slowly improving fiscal ratio.

Ariane Yeong: a broader record than the coalition#

Ariane Yeong became president at turn 1,200, ending twenty-three in-game years of Democratic control. Her four-party cabinet was historically unusual, but it was not her only accomplishment. Healthcare Expansion Act Pt2, the Professional Service: Foreign Service and Negotiations Act, and the Poverty Reduction Act entered law during her presidency. Through executive action, her administration established a federal role in election standards and statistics, created a Women's Bureau, replaced industrial modernization with a national investment drive, and streamlined federal land-development permits. She also vetoed the Connecting America Act and a wage-support bill, giving the program a distinctly pro-investment, limited-support balance.

The aggregate economy improved during most of her presidency. From the first available macro snapshot of her term at turn 1,208 to the last before removal at turn 1,293, poverty fell from 5.88% to 4.03%, unemployment from 13.79% to 12.92%, measured GDP growth rose from 3.67% to 9.59%, small-business formation from 59.8 to 62.9, consumer confidence from 30.1 to 32.4, and investor confidence reached 100. The NYSE rose about 39%, from 27.8 billion to 38.6 billion, and global public markets gained about 30%, even as the dollar's local-per-reference rate rose from 1.069 to 1.185, meaning the currency weakened. The 1979 budget still showed a 40.9 billion deficit, but debt had declined to 103.6% of GDP, its lowest level since 1962. The rating remained BBB and inflation was 9.08%, so this was improvement, not resolution. National government approval, which measures the administration as a whole rather than the president alone, rose from 49.8% at turn 1,284 to 51.5% on Yeong's final complete turn despite a dip between those points.

These are national outcomes, not a personal presidential score. War recovery, Congress, private investment, Federal Reserve policy, and inherited conditions all contributed. Even so, they show that Yeong's presidency was not merely a cabinet arrangement followed by impeachment. It enacted a recognizable social and diplomatic program while presiding over lower poverty, stronger markets, better confidence, and a falling debt burden.

Coalition, impeachment, and two successors#

Yeong governed through a cabinet drawn from four parties. Former President Ren Todoroki served as Secretary of Defense. Richard Nixon was Treasury Secretary and Speaker of the House. Joseph McCarthy was Energy Secretary and House Majority Leader. Constitutional Union senator James Estes Kefauver was Attorney General, while Farmer-Labor figures Deprince and Low Thia Khiang held Commerce and Housing.

The administration looked less like a party government than a peace conference among the country's political survivors. It also linked government directly to the corporate economy: Todoroki runs one of the world's most valuable public companies, McCarthy runs Dubois Mining, and Agriculture Secretary Winston LS Churchill controls the iteration's largest private firm and its largest personal fortune.

Speaker Richard Nixon filed articles of impeachment at turn 1,282. The House advanced them 213 to 97, with 90 abstentions. At turn 1,294, the Senate convicted Yeong by 85 to 0, with eight abstentions, and removed her from office. Vice President Egg succeeded her immediately. Nixon then filed against Egg on the same turn, but that second case was dismissed in the House at turn 1,300. Egg resigned shortly afterward. Following a brief vacancy at turn 1,302, Speaker Nixon was appointed President under the line of succession.

The political-business overlap became concrete during Yeong's final hours. The national Wire recorded Defense Secretary Ren Todoroki awarding his own Todoroki Systems 15 defense lots worth about 3.77 billion. The award sits on the public order book, turning the administration's network into a matter of public record.

Egg's presidency lasted only from turn 1,294 into turn 1,302. It was a caretaker interlude dominated by his own failed impeachment and resignation, with no enacted law or veto attached to it. Richard Nixon, who had already been Speaker, Treasury Secretary, and the author of both impeachment drives, then took office by appointment rather than election. National government approval stood at 52.5% at turn 1,302. Nixon's first address put the economy and education at the center of the new administration, but at this snapshot his presidential record had only just begun.

The latest national returns#

The next election wave arrived as the calendar turned to 1979. Democrats won 35 of the 61 reported Senate races, ahead of Farmer-Labor on 14. In 162 House contests, Democrats won 54, Farmer-Labor 46, Republicans 32, the Constitutional Union Party 18, Conservatives 11, and the Federalists one. Republicans held the presidency while finishing third in the House returns, another sign that the coalition which elected Yeong is not yet a conventional governing majority.

The War for Germany#

The United States entered the German conflict at turn 415 seeking regime change in East Germany. The opening engagement was technically a Pyrrhic American victory. It did not last. The Soviet Union joined East Germany, NATO widened the western coalition, and the front consumed 85 recorded battles and roughly 1.24 million recorded personnel losses across both sides.

The Wire became a second front. Supporters called it The Great War Of Freedom and declared that NATO was winning. Opponents answered with STOP THE WAR - OH, BEHAVE! and STALEMATE AT THE FRONT, BLOODBATH AT HOME! At turn 539 the East German and Soviet coalition won a decisive final engagement. The conflict closed at turn 545 with East Germany in control of both German states and the American regime-change project defeated.

The political system survived, but the war followed every later election. Todoroki's centralization, Oppenheimer's civil reforms, and Yeong's Republican breakthrough were three different answers to the same postwar question: what should replace the mobilized Democratic state that had lost Germany?

Laws, courts, and a changing republic#

Across all seven presidencies, the American statute book moved between social reform, military mobilization, centralization, civil rights, and repeated fiscal repair:

• Full Mobilization Base: Defense Production and Research Act
• The Anti-Corruption Act
• The Vietnam Preparedness Act
• Central Intelligence Appropriations Act
• The Civil Rights Act
• Healthcare Expansion Act Pt1 and Pt2
• The Poverty Reduction Act
• four differently titled budget stabilization packages

The Supreme Court also wrote itself into the timeline. Watkins v. United States, Furman v. Georgia, and Roe v. Wade sit beside procedurally generated cases involving tavern licenses, bottling companies, ferries, and county sheriffs. Constitutional history and local absurdity share the same docket.

🇬🇧 United Kingdom#

Britain's story is the story of confidence in both meanings of the word. Governments rose, fell, returned, and fell again. Investors built an enormous exchange and then watched much of it contract. The state reduced its debt burden while moving from helping the United States attack East Germany to helping East Germany defeat the Soviet Union.

Sarah Spencer: the state builder who kept returning#

Sarah Spencer first entered Downing Street at turn 71. She was removed by no confidence at turn 217, returned, was removed again at turn 686, returned again, and finally lost a third successful challenge at turn 917. Two other challenges failed. Spencer's repeated premierships made her both the most durable and the most frequently dismissed British leader of the iteration.

Her governments built the basic postwar settlement. Rail nationalization, public health and vaccination, national service, housing, postsecondary education, civil-service reform, industrial investment, public order, and the Open Society Act 1960 all belong to the Spencer era. The same Parliament repealed the union ban, repeatedly rewrote budgets, and entered the War for Germany through NATO.

The fiscal transformation outlasted the confidence votes. Near the opening, the 1954 budget showed GDP of 14.7 billion, a 309.7 million deficit, and debt equal to 179.0% of GDP. By the 1972 snapshot, taken shortly before Spencer's final removal, GDP was 25.1 billion, the budget ran a 577.7 million surplus, and the debt ratio had fallen to 122.2%. The credit rating nevertheless fell from AAA to BB as borrowing costs and political risk changed. Across her first appointment to final exit, the FTSE ledger grew from about 110 million to 25.3 billion. Spencer's Britain was unstable in office but expansive in institutions, fiscal capacity, and capital formation.

Anastas Mikoyan: social reform amid market contraction#

Anastas Mikoyan took over after Spencer's final fall and governed from roughly turn 917 until a 384 to 241 no-confidence vote removed him at turn 1,155. His period produced the NHS For All Act 1971, civil-service equal pay, renewed education and patient-protection measures, court-capacity legislation, and another Whitehall reform. Parliament also passed fiscal restructuring and the 1971 budget.

The balance sheet improved while prices and markets sent the opposite signal. Between the 1973 and 1976 fiscal snapshots, GDP rose from 26.5 billion to 29.7 billion, debt fell from 115.8% to 96.0% of GDP, and the credit rating recovered from BBB to A. Inflation, however, rose from 9.60% to 12.94%. Over the wider Mikoyan window, raw FTSE capitalization fell from about 25.3 billion to 7.1 billion. The record therefore looks less like simple decline than a state repairing its public finances while its listed-company universe contracted sharply.

Callum MacLeod: minority government and wartime reversal#

Callum MacLeod took office at turn 1,162 and was reconfirmed after later elections at turns 1,204 and 1,251. He now leads a Labour minority government with 304 of 625 seats. The Conservatives hold 166, the Liberal Democrats 111, and the Workers' Party of Great Britain 26. An active challenge opened at turn 1,281; at this snapshot it stands at 154 votes for removal and 424 against, with the vote not yet formally closed. Unless the balance changes before turn 1,305, MacLeod will survive it comfortably.

The formal government is Labour, but its cabinet is broader. Aether P. Strickler is Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Secretary as well as NATO Secretary-General. David Brown is Chancellor. Liberal Democrats hold Agriculture, Home, Justice, Transport, and the Chief Whip's office. Reinhard Horvath of the Workers' Party serves as Work Secretary and runs Aurivia Group, the largest British corporation by normalized value. That mixture is the practical answer to a chamber in which no party commands 313 seats.

MacLeod's enacted program joined the Commonwealth Defense Pact, reformed defense, broadened national assistance, expanded the NHS again, passed the 1978 budget, and authorized war against the Soviet Union. From the 1977 to 1979 fiscal snapshots, debt fell from 92.1% to 82.0% of GDP and the A rating held, but the annual surplus narrowed from 509.9 million to only 29.3 million while inflation remained above 11%. From turn 1,208 to 1,302, unemployment eased from 13.28% to 12.78% and investor confidence rose from 65.0 to 80.5, but poverty and consumer confidence were essentially unchanged. Government approval fell from 60.2% at turn 1,284 to 51.0% at turn 1,302 as war exhaustion and international condemnations offset the victory message.

From NATO's war to Germany's defense#

Britain joined the War for Germany at turn 465 through NATO. Thirteen in-game years later, the alignment had inverted. East Germany had left the Warsaw Pact, built new organizations around itself, and faced invasion by its former Soviet ally. Britain entered the Russia-East Germany War on East Germany's side at turn 1,261.

The War against the USSR Act made the choice explicit. British and East German forces won four of the last five battles, reached the decisive pole at turn 1,297, and ended the war two turns later. The FTSE fell from 3.95 billion shortly before entry to 3.51 billion at turn 1,261, then recovered to 4.81 billion by victory at turn 1,299. Britain had entered to defend Germany; East Germany used the victory to impose a parliamentary republic on Russia.

The British legislative personality#

Britain signed 73 bills by the snapshot, ranging from state-building to pure Westminster theatre. The consequential list includes the British Railway Act 1955, National Service Establishment, Open Society Act 1960, Repeal Union Ban Act 1962, NHS For All Act 1971, and the 1978 defense reforms. The unforgettable list includes the Answer Your Phone Act 1953, POON CHOI EAT THE RICH ACT, LORD HALIFAX (IMPRISONMENT) ACT, and a budget bill titled simply tax.

The country also turned company-building into policy. The FTSE grew from about 90 million at turn 2 to 4.80 billion at turn 1,302, while Aurivia Group alone reached roughly ₳2.70 billion in normalized value. The endpoint still represents growth of more than fifty times, but the leadership chronology matters: the exchange peaked above 29 billion near the Spencer-Mikoyan transition before contracting to its current level.

🇩🇪 East Germany and the German settlement#

East Germany began as the smaller German state and became the country around which the entire iteration turned. Its political continuity is the opposite of Britain's churn: Ivanka Trump became General Secretary at turn 73 and has remained in command through state-building, reunification, diplomatic realignment, and two wars with the Soviet Union.

Ivankaism and the first socialist settlement#

Early Wire dispatches announced Ivankaism as state doctrine and demanded Western withdrawal from Berlin. The first domestic settlement was comprehensive. State-bank controls, a control commission, housing construction, a universal price shield, land transformation, health inspection, education reform, defense-industry direction, public-order law, tariffs, pensions, nationalization, and repeated infrastructure programs all entered the statute book. The government did not merely defend an existing East German system. It wrote one in real time.

The governing formation records 599 of 693 Volkskammer seats behind the SED-led government. Yet the political directory contains eleven parties, including eastern bloc parties and western German parties inherited through reunification. The result is a one-party state governing a newly enlarged and unexpectedly plural institutional shell.

Before the war, the plan showed strain beneath its social ambition. East German GDP rose from 50.0 billion at the opening to 63.3 billion in the 1962 snapshot, but the budget moved from a 2.16 billion surplus to a 153.7 million deficit. Debt climbed from 6.0% to 29.4% of GDP, and the rating fell from A to CCC. The shortage index reached 13.27 and the black-market premium 25.4% on the eve of the conflict.

Victory and reunification#

The War for Germany was the gamble that paid off. East Germany survived the American offensive, drew in the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, reversed the front, and dictated a reunification settlement at turn 539. The final record states that East Germany took full control of both DD and DE.

Reunification transformed the balance sheet as dramatically as the map. By the 1966 fiscal snapshot, combined GDP was 290.5 billion, the budget showed an 11.7 billion surplus, federal debt was zero, and the rating was AAA. By 1973, GDP had reached 376.2 billion and the surplus 16.4 billion. Debt had returned at 27.2% of GDP, but the state still held AAA. These figures describe the reunited government's larger tax base and inherited western economy, not organic East German growth alone.

The victory changed the diplomatic map more than the territorial one. East Germany later withdrew from the Warsaw Pact and COMECON, joined the Commonwealth, and became the center of a new network:

• Third Way, a non-aligned bloc outside both Cold War spheres
• Council for European Cooperation, built around European unity and mutual aid
• Commonwealth Defense Pact, now linking East Germany and the United Kingdom

Foreign Minister Cecelia Starburn has led all three organizations at different points. East Germany did not merely leave its old alliance. It tried to replace the alliance system around itself.

The ally becomes the invader, then loses#

The Soviet Union first saved East Germany, then attacked it. A war opened at turn 1,136 and ended one turn later in white peace without a battle. A second invasion began at turn 1,256. Britain joined East Germany five turns later. The war produced 25 battles and 171,171 recorded personnel losses across both sides.

Its closing sequence settled the argument. The German-British coalition won decisive or costly victories at turns 1,288 and 1,289, absorbed a Russian success at turn 1,291, routed the next Russian attack, and won again at turn 1,297. At turn 1,299, East Germany dictated regime change: Russia's government collapsed and the settlement ordered a parliamentary republic. The conflict was not a replay of the first German war. It was a civil war inside the old winning coalition, won by the state that coalition had once saved.

A strong state with a strained household economy#

The 1979 budget still looked formidable: GDP of 474.6 billion, a 3.43 billion surplus, debt at 19.6% of GDP, and an AAA rating. The VVB exchange grew from roughly 45.7 million after reunification to 594.8 million at turn 1,302. The mark remains fixed at 4.2 per reference unit.

Household indicators tell the cost of the final war more clearly. From turn 1,208 to 1,302, unemployment rose from 1.22% to 5.08%, poverty from 19.82% to 21.72%, consumer confidence fell from 70.6 to 59.8, and measured GDP growth moved from 2.63% to negative 0.53%. The planned-economy shortage index improved from its 1977 peak but remained 15.61 in the 1979 fiscal snapshot, with a black-market premium of 28.6% and a physical demand-supply gap above 200%. Government approval also fell from 58.7% at turn 1,284 to 54.8% at turn 1,302 despite military victory. Warsaw Pact and Communist International condemnations account for six negative points in the live modifier ledger. East Germany won the geopolitical argument while its domestic economy absorbed the shock.

☭ Soviet Union#

The Soviet Union has been the iteration's great military guarantor, its most disciplined legislature, and now the defeated author of the war that undid its old political order. Its two premiers represent different phases of the same one-party system.

Cassius MacInnis: construction, discipline, and early reform#

Кассиус Макиннис became the founding Premier at turn 72. His period established state-bank controls, election security, housing reform, rail maintenance, worker protection, military readiness, and a major science program. It also opened the first cracks in orthodox planning: Market Liberalism I, licensed producer cooperatives, and SSR financial autonomy all entered law before the leadership handoff.

The founding fiscal record was strong. From 1953 to the final full snapshot before MacInnis left office in 1961, Soviet GDP rose from 1.029 trillion to 1.267 trillion, the annual surplus from 17.1 billion to 95.6 billion, and federal debt fell from 15 billion to zero. The rating rose from AA to AAA. At the same time, the 1961 shortage index was 10.66 and the black-market premium 20.4%, early evidence that a solvent treasury did not mean a fully supplied household economy.

Vladimir Makarov: reform, military power, and overreach#

After a succession of parliamentary appointment votes and a successful no-confidence motion, Vladimir Makarov took office at turn 414. The government formation gave the Communist Party all 526 recorded supporting seats. Makarov's cabinet includes Beria at Defence, Iosif Bidenko at Finance, Petar Vilson at Foreign Affairs, Georgy Malenkov as First Deputy Premier, and Comrade Boris as chairman of Gosplan.

The 55-bill Soviet record is less monolithic than its frequent unanimous votes suggest. Under Makarov, Market Liberalism II and Economic Reform III sat beside state security, military appropriations, tariff reduction, environmental restructuring, anti-corruption law, resource security, budget reorganization, and a personal-property program. The plan did not move in a straight line toward markets. It alternated controlled openings with new instruments of state power.

Headline growth continued. Between the 1961 and 1979 snapshots, GDP rose from 1.267 trillion to 2.353 trillion. The 1979 budget still posted a 1.72 billion surplus, debt remained below 1% of GDP, and the AAA rating held. Gosplan's public market ledger grew from only 2.5 million near Makarov's accession to about 271.7 million at turn 1,302. Yet shortages worsened: the shortage index rose to 15.15, the black-market premium to 27.3%, and the physical demand-supply gap to roughly 280%. The ruble remained fixed at 9 per reference unit. Soviet power accumulated in the treasury, plan, and military more reliably than on store shelves.

From victory to rupture#

Soviet forces were decisive in the War for Germany. They helped turn an American offensive into an East German victory, funded the Warsaw Pact, and carried much of the coalition's military weight. By 1978, Moscow had declared war on the state it helped reunify, made peace immediately, and declared war again.

The second war ended at turn 1,299 with a forced conversion recorded in Russia's national history: Russia regime collapses into a parliamentary republic. Government approval fell from 54.3% at the settlement to 49.7% one turn later and stood at 49.8% at turn 1,302; the live ledger assigns a 4.9-point penalty to the recent defeat. Late economic measures were more favorable, with unemployment falling from 11.00% to 6.62% and poverty from 29.92% to 27.29% between turns 1,208 and 1,302, but they did not prevent the political collapse.

Makarov and the old 526-seat formation still appear in the live administrative record while the transition moves toward elections. The settlement is historically decisive but institutionally unfinished.

That reversal is the clearest summary of the iteration's international politics: the Cold War blocs grew large enough to win, fractured under the weight of the victory, and finally let a former client dictate the political system of its former patron.

🌍 The wider world#

Twenty-five political nations#

Although only four countries are open to players, 25 countries have recorded elections. Autonomous governments in Austria, Brazil, China, Czechoslovakia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Nigeria, Sweden, Turkey, Yugoslavia, and across the eastern bloc pass laws and produce political turnover without waiting for a player to arrive.

The scale is visible in the bill ledger. Sweden has signed 58 bills, Ireland 58, Austria 53, Yugoslavia 62, and Japan only 12 after 125 failed proposals. Nigeria has signed 8 and failed 124. These are not decorative flags. They are very different governing records.

Blocs at maximum size#

The established organizations are enormous:

Six custom organizations were founded: the Communist International, OECD, Development Assistance Committee, Council for European Cooperation, Commonwealth Defense Pact, and Third Way. The last three reflect East Germany's search for a post-Warsaw diplomatic home. At turn 1,288, Guyana joined Third Way, giving the new non-aligned project its first member beyond East Germany.

The sanctions map is almost as important as the membership map. NATO sanctions much of the eastern bloc, while the Warsaw Pact sanctions the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, Greece, and Nigeria. Both blocs have activated Article 5 postures. The United Nations issues aid and condemnations into the space between them.

A world permanently in crisis#

The crisis engine has fired 780 events. Some are ordinary disasters and recessions. Others are the social shadow of militarization:

• 198 episodes of Civil Defense Fever
• 49 episodes of Wartime Panic Buying
• 41 episodes of War Scare Protests
• 35 episodes of Wartime Bank Runs
• 69 recessions and 69 inflation spikes

Nine global shocks have crossed the whole map: three energy crises, two pandemics, two trade wars, and two supply-chain disruptions. The second supply disruption ended at turn 1,291, but its wartime aftermath remained visible in active bank runs, panic buying, protests, and civil-defense campaigns across Europe, Asia, and North America.

The scripted Cold War also came alive. Suez, Berlin, Vietnam, Congo, nuclear alerts, oil disruption, and civil-rights marches all entered the event record. History supplied the crises; players decided which of them became wars.

💹 Corporations, markets, and currencies#

Nearly thirteen times larger#

The public market grew from roughly ₳3.56 billion at turn 2 to ₳45.24 billion at turn 1,302, an expansion of about 12.7 times. It did so through 95,197 share trades, 6,579 bond issues, 47 active index funds, and 78 energy plants.

The United States dominates. The NYSE accounts for about ₳34.42 billion of current public capitalization. The FTSE follows at 4.80 billion. Every other exchange is below 1 billion in its local market ledger.

The public and private giants#

Normalized values below use the live exchange-rate table and include both listed and privately held firms.

The headline is not merely American dominance. It is private American dominance. Three of the top four firms are privately held and together normalize to about ₳56 billion, more than the entire public market snapshot. No exchange investor can buy a share in any of them.

Politics and ownership remain fused. Advanced Advertising is run by Agriculture Secretary and senator Winston LS Churchill. Todoroki Systems is run by former President and current Defense Secretary Ren Todoroki. Greenbaum Industries is run by California Governor Moshe Greenbaum. Aurivia Group, the largest British firm at about ₳2.70 billion, is run by Work Secretary Reinhard Horvath.

The currency map#

A rising local-per-reference rate means a weaker currency. The major moves since 1953 are:

The market story and currency story therefore still point in opposite directions, but less dramatically than they did fourteen turns earlier. American companies and personal fortunes dominate global rankings while the dollar remains about one tenth weaker than at opening. Britain shows the same pattern on a smaller scale: a booming FTSE under a weaker pound.

🏆 Standings at turn 1,302#

Most influential#

The list captures the political structure better than any office chart. The first four places belong to the leaders or former leaders of all four playable nations. Neither former President Ariane Yeong nor her successor Egg is in the top ten; the White House changed hands faster than the influence hierarchy did.

Wealth#

The global wealth list is even less balanced:

All ten are American. The first non-American is Viktoriya Streibl of the United Kingdom at rank 13. The Churchill fortune is in a category of its own: mostly cash, larger than the public market, and more than thirty times the second-place total.

Where things stand#

At turn 1,302, Iteration 1 has already delivered:

• Seven distinct American presidents, including a Republican elected with 481 electoral votes on 39.7% of the popular vote, removed by an 85 to 0 Senate conviction, succeeded by a vice president who soon resigned, and followed by Speaker Richard Nixon.
• Three removals of Sarah Spencer, followed by the fall of Anastas Mikoyan and a still-pending challenge to Callum MacLeod.
• An American-led war for German regime change that ended in East German victory and reunification after 85 battles.
• A Soviet Union that saved East Germany, invaded it twice, lost the second war, and was ordered into a parliamentary republic.
• A United Kingdom that changed sides across the two German wars and helped East Germany defeat Russia.
• An East German exit from the Warsaw Pact and COMECON, followed by three new organizations built around a Third Way.
• A public market nearly thirteen times its opening size, still overshadowed by three private American corporations.
• A wealth leaderboard whose top ten are all American, led by one ₳441 billion outlier.
• A crisis system that has made air-raid shelters, panic buying, bank runs, pandemics, energy shocks, and supply disruption part of ordinary government.

All three recorded wars are now resolved, and the latest supply-chain disruption has ended. Richard Nixon now holds the American presidency, the British government still faces a confidence vote, Russia has only begun the transition imposed by its defeat, and the social and financial crises generated by wartime tension remain active. This article stops because the snapshot does, not because the story has reached a conclusion.

Drafted and updated from read-only live database snapshots through turn 1,302 on 2026-10-02, in-game year 1979. Iteration 1 is ongoing; figures and officeholders will continue to change.