1928 Moderate Democrats - A More Perfect Union [alpha version] dynasty thread.

[Umbrella]

Primaries are done for the house.

Oscar Underwood - AL1 - Barely lost to the incumbent.
William B Bankhead - AL2 - Another very close loss to the incumbent.
Otis Wingo (i) - AR1 - Won the primary. No republican opponent, so will reatin his seat.
John R Murdock - AZ1 - Got destroyed.
Jerry Voorhis - CA1 - Finished last.
William Gibbs McAdoo - CA2 - Lost, and this one is a bummer. He's such a good politician, but I can't find a spot for him.
Clarence Lea (i) - CA3 - Unopposed in the primary. He's in a red district, so this will be a tough general election.
Edwin C Johnson - CO1 - Distant second.
Allen Frear Jr - DE1 - Got crushed.
Nathan P Bryan - FL1 - Nowhere close to winning.
Robert Ramspeck - GA2 - Barely lost.
William C Adamson - GA3 - Finished third in a two man race.
William Dieterich - IL3 - Beat Richard Daley to advance.
Stanely H Kuntz (i) - IL5 - Unopposed in the primary.
Scott W Lucas - IL6 - Also unopposed in the primary.
Sherman Minton - IN1 - Won the primary to get the honor of being destroyed in the general.
Arthur H Greenwood - IN2 - Finished last.
Henry Schricker - IN3 - Easy win, but Indiana is red, so not a lot of hope.
Rene L De Rouen (i) - LA1 - Fought off the Long machine to eke out a win.
Riley J Wilson (i) - LA2 - See above, but won easily.
William P Connery Jr - MA2 - Unopposed in the primary.
A S J Carnahan - MO1 - Unopposed in the primary.
Harry S Truman - MO2 - Won a very close election, and with no republican candidate for this seat, will begin his political career as a representative from Missouri.
A S J Carnahan - MO3 - Ran unopposed in the primary.
John C B Ehringhaus - NC1 - Lost easily to the incumbent.
Robert L Doughton - NC2 - Finished last in a very crowded primary.
Raymond B Stevens - NH1 - Ran unopposed in a very red district.
A Harry Moore - NJ1 - Almost unseated the incumbent, but barely lost.
William H Smathers - NJ2 - Ran unopposed in the primary.
George Silzer - NJ3 - Ran unopposed in the primary.
John E Miles - NM1 - Ran unopposed in the primary.
Key Pittman - NV1 - Lost a very close race to McCarren, who the airport is named after.
Frazier Reams - OH2 - Lost in a tightly contested primary.
Frank Lausche - OH4 - One of the many candidates to get beaten soundly.
Francis J Myers - PA2 - Snuck out a win in a hotly contested seat.
John J O'Connor - RI1 - Got absolutely destroyed. I thought he would do a lot better.
John J McSwain (i) - SC1 - My first incumbent to lose. And just barely.
Olin D Johnston - SC2 - Lost easily.
Cordell Hull (i) - TN1 - Won soundly.
Finis J Garrett - TN2 - The top two candidates were neck and neck. He was a distant third.
James Allred - TX1 - Almost pulled off the upset against the incumbent, but came up just short.
Sam Rayburn (i) - TX2 - Easy win
Lee O'Daniel - TX3 - The most contested seat in this election. Finished a very close second. The incumbent finished fourth.
Elbert D Thomas - UT1 - I really thought he had a good chance, but finished a distant second.

We had some good results, but losing as an incumbent hurts. Moderates in the south right now are going to struggle, so I need to decide if I want to try and shift some ideologies more conservative next time around. I do have 19 candidates advance to the general election, so we'll see how many of them can win.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

On a side note, in another one of the playtests, something interesting happened. Richard Taylor, father of president Zachary Taylor, died during a battle in the Revolutionary War. As a result, Zachary Taylor was never born, and will not be in their game. I didn't realize there is a dynasty rule, where if someone dies young, any of their children born after the date of death don't exist, and then their children won't exist, and so on. I thought that was pretty cool.

Cool mechanic, nice for replayability and alt-history but it prompts a question:
Is there a mechcanism (even as a future feature) to work the same way in reverse? For example, Tad Lincoln lives, has children, grandchildren, etc.

Otherwise there's wouldn't there besomething reducing the political family dynasty chances but nothing augmenting them, creating a net reduction of those?

[Young Drachma]

ooh interesting! I love President Forever, et. al. so this is rad.

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Cool mechanic, nice for replayability and alt-history but it prompts a question:
Is there a mechcanism (even as a future feature) to work the same way in reverse? For example, Tad Lincoln lives, has children, grandchildren, etc.

Otherwise there's wouldn't there besomething reducing the political family dynasty chances but nothing augmenting them, creating a net reduction of those?

I had the same question, though my mind jumped to Bobby Kennedy as the first example

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Cool mechanic, nice for replayability and alt-history but it prompts a question:
Is there a mechcanism (even as a future feature) to work the same way in reverse? For example, Tad Lincoln lives, has children, grandchildren, etc.

Otherwise there's wouldn't there besomething reducing the political family dynasty chances but nothing augmenting them, creating a net reduction of those?

I don't know about Tad Lincoln, but I do know there are some alt-history candidates in the game. To be honest, I'm not sure how the dynasty rules work, as I just realized it not long ago. I'll ask the designer and see. But I suspect that would be an awful lot of work. I do think it's an interesting question though.

ETA: About Bobby Kennedy, he was a real candidate, so I'm pretty certain he is in the game. One of the traits a politician can have is frail. This trait is associated with politicians that historically died young. When the death and retirement phase comes around, candidates with frail have a higher chance of dying. One thing I don't agree with is that politicians that were killed, as opposed to dying naturally, seem the frail trait. I don't know if this is 100% true since I don't have access to the master file with all politicians, but I just looked at Huey Long, who was shot and killed in his 40's, and he does have the frail trait. But it's not my game, so not my decision to make.

[Umbrella]

Our game is on a (hopefully very short) pause due to a discussion that I brought up. The game is broken into different historical eras. Each of these eras have different biases. For example, Arizona in its early years was slightly liberal, became a conservative hotbed in the 60's, and now is shifting more purple. The game takes these historical trends into account.

In our specific case, for our era, the trends were definitely very blue, and the game reflects that. However, the reason for these trends was the great depression and tanking of the economy. Republicans controlled everything when that happened, and ended up paying for it politically. So far, so good. But in our playtest, the depression hasn't happened yet. The economy is solid, quality of life is good. So it doesn't make sense that the republicans are getting killed in this midterm.

For our playtest, I don't think we're going to change anything, but it has opened up a discussion about how the historical era biases should be implemented.

[Umbrella]

House elections are complete! Here are my results:

Otis Wingo (AR-i) - Won unopposed.
Clarence Lea (CA-i) - Ended up winning easily.
William Dieterich (IL) - Barely lost to the incumbent.
Stanley H Kunz (IL-i) - Barely won.
Scott W Lucas (IL) - Wins, unseating an incumbent.
Sherman Minton (IN) - Eked out a urprising win, unseating the incumbent.
Henry Schricker (IN) - Another surprise win in Indiana, and another incumbent gone.
Rene L De Rouoen (LA-i) - No opponent in general.
Riley J Wilson (LA-i) - Another unopposed victory.
William P Connery Jr (MA) - Almost unseated the incumbent, but fell short by the thinnest of margins.
Harry S Truman (MO) - Won unopposed.
A S J Carnahan (MO) - Won easily.
Raymond B Stevens (NH) - Not surprising, lost easily.
William H Smathers (NJ) - Barely lost to the incumbent.
George Silzer (NJ) - Won easily.
John E Miles (NM) - Won easily.
Francis J Myers (PA) - Unseated the incumbent with a surprisingly easy win.
Cordell Hull (TN-i) - Won in a tighter than expected race.
Sam Rayburn (TX-i) - Won unopposed.

Another set of good results. I picked up eight seats. In this game, 1 seat does not equal one vote. As I mentioned earlier, there is a ratio of seats so we don't have hundreds of politicians and elections every 2 years. There's a formula that calculates how many votes you have. It hasn't been updated yet, and I'm too lazy right now to manually go calculate it. Once that's done, I'll tell you how many votes I picked up.

I need to figure out what to do about Hull. He's an absolute stud, but his politics are not in line with what Tennessee likes, so his election results are always tight. In real life, he was a long term secretary of state, and so if the Democrats can win the 1932 presidency, I think I need to work on getting him in the cabinet.

I did end up getting bonus points because I have the Senate Minority Leader (Hayden) and House Minority Leader (Hull), and we did better in the elections than the Republicans. I don't know yet if we have taken control of the house. The scores for the house elections haven't been updated yet either, so I don't know the final scores yet for this half term. I do know our party will be the leading scoring party quite easily. There is a mechanic that if the party with the highest score also has the faction with the lowest score, then there is a score penalty to that party. It's an interesting rule, designed to force the factions to try to work together when they are in charge. This shouldn't come into play for us this turn though.

Next step is the end of the half term. We'll have to see if Kenneth McKeller retires from politics after losing his senate seat. Also, Woodbridge Ferris, who lost the governors race in Michigan, is old enough that he has a high chance of retiring. I think everyone else is safe.

[Izulde]

Can you have Hull move to another state that's more friendly to his politics?

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Izulde

Can you have Hull move to another state that's more friendly to his politics?

Unfortunately no, for a couple of reasons. First, he's holding office as a rep from Tennessee, so he couldn't go to another state because of that. Second, he doesn't have an alternate state. And finally, the last method would be if he was in an "overpopulated" state. This mechanic is in there in case of weird situations, probably due to deaths or retirements, where a state loses so many politicians that all the offices can't be filled, and other states have so many that the politicians there can't do as much. So an overpopulated state isn't referring the the population of the state, it's referring to the amount of politicians for that state. At this point, the only states that qualify as overpopulated are New York and Pennsylvania.

A different possibility is to try and shift his ideology more conservative. But that comes with its own risks of getting the flip-flopper trait. Also, right now, conservatives are a strong lean red, so while this would help tremendously in the primaries, it would hurt in the general. Still, I'm considering taking the chance, since the Republicans don't have many candidates in Tennessee.

[Umbrella]

The final counts are in. I was mistaken in the senate, we ended up having a 48-48 tie, so we didn't get control. In the house, we ended up with a dominant 301-138 tally. For governors, it is also tied 24-24.

For the final score of this round, the Democrats dominated the Republicans 14,550-1,125. I'm currently tied for third.

After aging and retirements, we start the next two-year term. The draft is only held every four years, so we'll start with politician relocations. I don't think I'm going to move any, but I'm definitely doing ideology shifts, which will be the next decision I have to make.

[Umbrella]

I was going through the election results to see if there were any other interesting tidbits. First thing I noticed was the Speaker of the House, Fiorella La Guardia, didn't run for re-election. We were getting a new speaker anyways since we now control the house.

And speaking of which, I was looking into the rules for the Speaker election, and if I'm interpreting the rules correctly, I have the only two candidates eligible to run for both Speaker and House Majority Leader. If so, I've decided Sam Rayburn will be Speaker, and Cordell Hull will be House Majority Leader. My reasons are that the Speaker has a chance of getting the coveted kingmaker trait, which Hull already has. Also, Rayburn's seat is safer than Hull's, and having a Speaker lose an election is an absolute killer on the score.

Unfortunately, the Republicans still control the senate. This one will be trickier to keep Hayden in the Senate Minority Leader position. There are only three eligible candidates; Hayden, Senate Minority Whip Robert Wagner, and my nemesis Huey Long. Long is definitely positioning himself for a presidential run, and will pull out all the stops to win. Since I should control the house, I plan on offering juicy committee leadership positions to the other factions in exchange for their votes for Senate Minority leader. All's fair in love, war, and politics.

[Umbrella]

Kenneth McKeller did indeed retire from politics after losing his senate seat. Woodbridge N Ferris also retired due to old age.

For ideology shifts, I am taking a gamble. I can try and shift four politicians, and I decided to do it with three that are already holding office. We'll see if this blows up in my face. All shifts are from moderate to liberal.

Henry F Ashurst, senator from Arizona
John R Murdock
George Silzer, representative from New Jersey
John E Miles, representative from New Mexico

I want Silzer and Miles to run for governor next election, as long as they don't get a flip flopper penalty. The country is very pro-liberal right now, and I'm hoping it doesn't change much.

[Umbrella]

Ashurst and Silzer both succeeded with their conversions and are now liberals. In addition, Silzer gained the pliable trait. Nobody got flip-flopper though.

In hindsight, this might have been a mistake. As part of politician conversions, a faction leader who is liberal can try and convert any liberal politician in the same party to their faction, as long as that politician is pliable. Silzer now has pliable, and Ashurst already did, so I might have screwed myself and end up losing one or both of them to the liberal faction. We'll see if he goes after these guys. I'm still learning the game as well, so mistakes will be made.

In addition, last politician conversion phase, Hoover's faction tried to convert a couple of my guys to republican. Only party leaders can do that, and the politician in question has to be marked for "party flip". I have four politicians that meet that criteria, and they are all pretty good. They are Admiral Chester Nimitz, George Marshall (WW2 general of Marshall plan fame), James Forrestall (IRL the first secretary of defense) and Wendell Wilkie, one of the few guys I have who is a potential presidential candidate. Last turn he tried to take Marshall and Wilkie, but was unsuccessful. I'm guessing he will make a run at a couple of my guys again.

There are only 3 politicians eligible for me to try and convert to my party, and none of them are particularly useful to me. There is a small chance of the politician gaining some traits if the conversion is unsuccessful, so I haven't decided yet if I want to take that chance. Honestly, I'm more worried about my guys leaving than getting someone else.

[Umbrella]

For the conversion phase, I am attempting to convert Hattie Wyatt Caraway (AR) from the AI faction. In real life she was the first woman to be elected and serve a full term as senator. If successful, I will have two potentially powerful women from Arkansas.

Two of my guys are getting being attempted to switch factions: William Gibbs McAdoo, and NM Rep John E Miles. McAdoo is a pretty good politician, but I just can't find the right spot for him in my faction. If I lose Miles, I'm not going to be happy.

Also, since Cordell Hull gained the kingmaker trait last term, I can assign a protégé for him now. I chose Gordon Browning. In real life, Browning was governor of Tennessee for several terms, and also served as a US Rep, and later was a civil affairs advisor for Eisenhower.

[Umbrella]

I've been asked to participate in another playtest, this one happening during reconstruction, to help test the newly revamped reconstruction rules. Would anyone be interested in me doing another thread for that one?

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I've been asked to participate in another playtest, this one happening during reconstruction, to help test the newly revamped reconstruction rules. Would anyone be interested in me doing another thread for that one?

Absolutely

[Chas in Cinti]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I've been asked to participate in another playtest, this one happening during reconstruction, to help test the newly revamped reconstruction rules. Would anyone be interested in me doing another thread for that one?

For sure!

[Umbrella]

The conversions stage was a good news/bad news situation. I was able to successfully convert Hattie Wyatt Caraway to my faction, but William Gibbs McAdoo left to join the liberal faction.

I didn't initially realize what happened. The guy who is in charge of the liberal faction is probably the #2 guy (behind the lead designer) in terms of the game development, and he made a rather interesting move. During the ideology shift, he changed his faction leader from liberal to moderate. During the conversion phase, you can only target politicians whose ideology match your faction leader. With that move, suddenly I had several politicians that could be targeted. It's a strategy I would have never considered, and even though it hurt me, I have to admit it is pretty genius. I was worried about losing Ashurst, but with his successful switch to liberal, he was now safe because of this. The down side to what he did is now he will have to select a new faction leader that matches his faction's ideology in the next phase.

My new protégé, Gordon Browning, increased his admin skill, and gained foreign affairs expertise and efficient. Efficient is one of the better traits to have, so I'm pretty happy about that. He's kind of a jack of all trades, master of none guy right now, so I still don't know what I should do with him.

The last part of this phase is getting the faction cards assigned. I was a little confused by the rules last time we did this, and I still don't feel I fully understand. That being said, I don't expect my cards to change much, if at all. I'm still the moderates by a mile and I'm still the expansionists by a tiny bit. For the lobbies, I'm getting close to getting Military-Industrial, but I'm not sure if I'm quite there yet. That's one of the lobbies I'm working towards, so I'm glad to see I'm making progress there. I'll definitely keep public education and free trade. Welfare, I'm unsure if I'll keep.

[Umbrella]

The cards were assigned to our factions, and mine hasn't changed. I'm still moderate ideology, expansionist interest, and the lobbies I have are public education, free trade, and welfare. I barely missed getting Military-Industrial, and that is something that will be part of my focus for the next draft.

We're now in the congressional leadership phase. This phase has turned a little contentious within our party. But after the dust has settled, the only two candidates eligible for Speaker of the House, House Majority Leader, and House Majority Whip are Cordell Hull and Sam Rayburn, and they are both mine. Therefore, I named Sam Rayburn Speaker, and Cordell Hull Majority Leader, for reasons I discussed in an earlier post. Since there are no other eligible candidates for Majority Whip, anyone can run. I'm going to go for a sweep and am running Harry Truman. I don't think there's any chance the other players will let me control all three positions, so it's a long shot, but I am trying to sweeten the deal by offering committee chair positions in exchange for votes. We'll see how this plays out.

In the Senate is where the contention started. There are three candidates eligible, Carl Hayden (my guy), Robert Wagner (liberal faction, and Senate Minority Whip) and Huey Long (LW faction). There are also only two spots, Senate Minority Leader, and Senate Minority Whip. Other players in our party didn't want me in control of both the House and Senate, while I'm doing everything I can to make Carl Hayden a superstar. After some back and forth, and threats with voting, I realized there was a rule that for incumbent congressional leadership positions, the incumbent can only be challenged by factions whose ideology is worse than neutral. Both the liberals and LW factions have very high enthusiasm, so they aren't allowed to challenge me. So Carl Hayden will remain Senate Minority Leader, and Robert Wagner will remain Senate Minority Whip.

The Republican side is a mess right now, since almost all of their leaders didn't get re-elected. And on the Democrat side, the only race still to be determined is House Majority Whip. We'll see how the election plays out.

In addition, things have slowed down a little bit while we attend to some administrative issues. These are small things like subtle database errors that need to be corrected. While we are playing for fun, part of our responsibilities are finding these issues.

[Umbrella]

Truman was one of four candidates for House Majority Whip. He survived all the way down to the final round, but was finally defeated. Still, I hold positions of power in the house, and plan to use it to reward the loyalty of the factions who voted for Truman.

I only had one candidate eligible to chair a committee in the house, and of course I chose him. Stanley H Kunz (IL) will be the chair of the domestic committee. I stacked the committee in hopes to get some legislation passed for education.

Here are my members of various committees:

House Domestic
Stanley H Kunz (IL) - Chairman
Scott W Lucas (IL)
Sherman Minton (IN)
Henry Schricker (IN)
George Silzer (NJ)
Francis J Myers (PA)
Harry S Truman (MO)

House Economic
A S J Carnahan (MO)
Otis Wingo (AR)

House Foreign/Military
Clarence Lea (CA)
Rene L De Rouen (LA)
Riley J Wilson (LA)

House Judicial
John E Miles (NM)

Senate Domestic
Hugo Black (AL) - Ranking Member
Harvey Kilgore (WV)
Lawrence D Tyson (TN)

Senate Economic
Tom Connally (TX)
Elmer Thomas (OK)

Senate Foreign/Military
Henry F Ashurst (AZ) - Ranking Member
Leo Kocialkowski (IL)
Charles Sumner Hamlin (MA)
Elmer Thomas (OK)
Vail Pittman (NV)

Senate Judicial
None! I hope this doesn't bite me.

ETA: I forgot to mention that for being selected as congressional leaders, Sam Rayburn gained Leadership, Cordell Hull loses Obscure, and Carl Hayden got nothing. My best laid plans to make him a superstar are failing miserably.

[Umbrella]

In the previous step, Cordell Hull losing obscure kind of messed up my plans. Carl Hayden had several chances to lose obscure, but the RNG gods were not in his favor. Therefore, as my only non-obscure candidate, Cordell Hull is now my faction leader.

Normally, this wouldn't be terrible, as he is a really good politician. However, he has the passive trait, and that's a bad trait to have as faction leader. For being selected as the new faction leader, he gained a couple of traits, debater (good) and puritan (weird). The puritan trait is a strange one, and we haven't seen a politician with this trait hold any kind of power yet, so I don't know if it is good or bad.

[Umbrella]

The next part is choosing cabinet members. At first, I got all excited because Daniel Roper was chosen to be the Secretary of the Treasury, a very high ranking cabinet member. But after a rules review, we found that too many Democrats were selected for positions, and Roper was one of the ones removed. Too bad, because he would have been really good at it. So once again, I have nobody in these positions. Maybe once we take over the White House.

Confirmation votes are now happening in the Senate committees. I've voted for approval on all candidates except Postmaster General Fiorella La Guardia. He would be really good for the Republicans, and really bad for the Democrats next election. Luckily, he is controversial, so is up for a vote. Four of the five Democrat factions have already voted no (the fifth we're still waiting for his decision), so there's a good chance he won't get confirmed.

If he doesn't get confirmed, a bunch of things could happen. There's a chance party enthusiasm for the Republicans will go down. There's also a chance that the senators that voted against confirmation could gain integrity, but also a chance they could gain controversial instead. Finally, it will put a giant dent in La Guardia's career for the rest of the game. Getting controversial on my senators would suck, but I think it is a chance worth taking.

[Umbrella]

Confirmation was anti-climatic, as the last democrat faction votes in favor. They control the most votes so that was a bummer.

Next up is the events phase. Death, retirements, general events, and scripted events will are fire. I'm currently in first place, and some of the general events target the current leader. The game has a slight method to penalize the leader and help the last place person during this phase in the form of potentially helping/hurting politicians from one of the factions. I personally don't like this rule. I would like the help/hurt to be completely random. The factions already get a little leveling out due to the draft. If it does hit, I hope it will hit a politician that I don't have plans for. Knowing Hayden's luck with the rolls, it will probably get him.

[Umbrella]

I survived the death and retirement phase without major carnage. William Cabell Bruce retired. Unfortunately, he's been removed from my sheet already, so I don't remember who he was. I'm guessing I didn't have any major plans for him.

A little more painful is Colorado governor Billy Adams will retire after his term is complete. That's not the end of the world though. He's in a state that's unfriendly to moderates, so trying to get him elected every two years is a chore.

I didn't have any deaths from my faction, but the rest of the country wasn't so lucky. All in all, we lost two senators, a rep, the ambassador to France, and a Supreme Court justice. Luckily for us, both senators were Republican.
Unfortunately for us, they were from states with a Republican governor, so the senate stays tied at 48-48. Assuming a Republican will go on the court, that makes it a 7-2 split right now for the Republicans. In this era, the ideology of the justices is more important than the party, but it is still pretty one sided.

[Umbrella]

Game is in a temporary pause. We broke it.

We had an incredibly rare random event come up in the events phase. There was an option to impeach a Supreme Court justice. For the lolz, and also because we wanted to see how impeachment works, we decided to vote for it. And it turns out, the impeachment rules are pretty messed up, and don't work correctly. Yea playtesting!

So now we wait while this gets figured out. As the first playtest that had an impeachment happen, we're the lucky ones who have to try and work on a solution. I don't know how long this will take.

[Umbrella]

We're back. Without going into all the gory details, the way impeachment works was completely redone, and long story short, this event didn't fire.

Next up is my favorite phase, scripted events. I won't include the flavor events that didn't affect me personally, but I am including major ones even if they don't directly affect me...yet.

Blue Cross opened, got me points since I have politicians serving from Texas. Also improves quality of life. I guess nobody has tried filing insurance claims yet.

The big one, Wall Street crash. Economic stability tanks to recession, and crisis level. Revenue/Budget also drops into crisis level. Quality of Life and Military Prep also drop a little. Party preference would have swung hard to the Democrats, but it is already maxed out. President Hoover chose the option to let the markets recover on their own. His actions had no effect.

Lausanne Conference, agreeing to suspend payments for the Great War. Hoover chose to NOT forgive the payments, demanding Germany continue to pay. This hurt our relation with Germany, but moderates liked it and shifted further red.

A bunch of states repealed poll tax, which should help my moderates.

Japan invaded Manchuria. Our relationship with Japan decreases. Hoover chose to punish them with a retaliatory embargo. Relations dropped even further. Japan is now hostile towards us. We are pushing closer to WW2.

The dust bowl also hit. Hoover is pushing for agricultural relief legislation. No effect yet, but I think it gives bonuses to certain bills during the legislation phase.

One of the side effects of the economy tanking is that the industries are affected. Somehow, this worked out in my favor. Colorado, who I have the governor for, is now the nation's leader in natural gas. I've been trying to make this happen all game, and it happened for me. Also, the nation would have moved further blue as a whole due to these events, but as mentioned before, we're maxed out.

[Umbrella]

Lingering effects phase came and went. This phase is always complicated, and doesn't involve any player action, it just affects the meters based on current laws and other things. Long story short, the budget is still balanced, we're in a recession, military is OK, a lot of government corruption, and domestic stability isn't great, due to the recession. With foreign relations, Russia and Japan are hostile towards us, but everyone is around neutral.

For my governor actions, CO gov Billy Adams tried unsuccessfully to weaken labor unions, MT gov John E Erickson successfully emphasized public education (my focus), and OH gov Stephan M Young successfully got 4 year governor terms passed. He's a strong governor, and I want him in there as long as possible.

We only had one Supreme Court case, Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire. This case asks does a criminal conviction for causing a breach of peace through the use of "fighting words" violate the free speech guarantee of the first amendment? We currently only have eight justices right now, but they voted 5-3 NAY. For reference, the real court was a unanimous NAY.

We're now on the legislation phase. Our new young congressman Harry Truman was the only one from my faction who proposed anything. I was late in my response, so some of the things I wanted to propose were already taken. I ended up proposing "Give Federal Farm Board the authority to purchase surplus crops to raise prices. I know, not real sexy, but moderates like this, and I have a lot of politicians from agricultural states who also like this.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

I ended up proposing "Give Federal Farm Board the authority to purchase surplus crops to raise prices. I know, not real sexy, but moderates like this, and I have a lot of politicians from agricultural states who also like this.

Turns out this was ineligible since the Farm Board hasn't been created yet. I replaced it with Bailout for Low Income Workers during Economic Crisis.

[Umbrella]

I'm not going to break down every bill in committee, but here are my votes for everything that got out of committee. Also, as chairman of the House Domestic committee, I was able to override one of the proposals and replace it with my own. I chose to package the two educational bill together in H2, keeping up with my Schoolbook Liberal faction reputation.

S 1: AYE
Create the Tennessee Valley Authority to Modernize the Poorest Rural Societies (Fess)
Purchase Damaged Farm Land to Rehabilitate It (Capper)
REPEAL Make Exemptions to Civil Service Examinations (Baxter)

Senate 2 AYE
Donate Agricultural Surpluses Overseas to Friendly Countries (CHAIR, Passed)

S 3 AYE
Restrict unfair labor practices, including most kinds of strikes (Trammell)

S 4 AYE
Bailout for Middle-income Workers during Economic Crisis (Johnson)

S 5 AYE
*Legalization of Alcohol Amendment (Metcalf)*

S 6 AYE
Increase Salary of Judicial Branch Members (Bridges)

H 1 AYE
*Move Inauguration Day Amendment (Sabath)*

H 2 AYE
Provide federal funds to decrease illiteracy (CHAIR, passed)
Federal Aid for Primary and Secondary Schools in the South for Blacks and Poor Whites (Casey)

H 3 AYE
Institute a Peacetime Military Draft (Graham)

H 4 AYE
US Airforce (Young)

H 5 NAY
Abolish the Shooting of Deserters in the Military (Bloom)

H 6 AYE
Allow Federal Reserve to Generate Currency during economic crises (Taylor)

H 7 AYE
Bailout for Low-Income Workers during Economic Crisis (Truman)

We're still waiting on the final votes. We have a lot of playtesters on vacation right now, so it's going slow.

[Umbrella]

Here is the update on all the bills after vote swaying shenanigans. S1, S2, S4, S6, H1, H3, H4, H5, H6 all passed and will go to the president. H2 and H7 were filibustered, which means they will get voted on again next session. That's a drag because those were my bills. S3 and S5 failed. The president signed all of them except H3, which was vetoed. We failed to override the veto, so I lost points as speaker of the house. Even with that, most of the legislation was favorable to me, so I still scored well for this section.

Our ambassadors were solely committed to improving relations with their respective countries.

In an interesting twist, Earl Warren was named to the vacant Supreme Court position.

Next up is the 1932 elections, and it will start with the Presidential election.

[Umbrella]

Sorry for the late updates. For the presidential election, I decided to run Wendall Willkie as a minor candidate. FDR was run as a major candidate, as was Huey Long for the Democrats. It was a tough primary, but FDR came out on top. It was a two man race, and Willkie dropped out pretty early.

In the general presidential election, it was an absolute bloodbath. Hoover only carried Maine and Vermont, and FDR took everything else.

The rest of the elections (governor, senate, rep) are going on right now. Here's who I ran:

Governor
Edwin C Johnson - CO
Francis T Maloney - CT
Ruffin G Pleasant - LA
James Michael Curley - MA
Charles Fletcher Johnson - ME
Sam V Stewart - MT
John C B Ehringhaus - NC
John J O'Connor - RI
Albert Schmedemann - WI

Senator
William B Bankhead - AL
Henry F Ashurst (i) - AZ
Teller Ammons - CO
Nathan P Bryan - FL
William C Adamson - GA
Bert H Miller - ID
William Dieterich - IL
Arthur H Greenwood - IN
M M Logan - KY
Raymond B Stevens - NH
Key Pittman - NV
Frazier Reams - OH
Elmer Thomas (i) - OK
John J McSwain - SC
William Bulow - SD
Elbert D Thomas - UT

Representatives
John Sparkman - AL1
Oscar Underwood - AL2
Otis Wingo (i) - AR1
Hattie Wyatt Caraway - AR2
John R Murdock - AZ1
Jerry Voorhis - CA2
Clarence Lea (i) - CA3
Alva B Adams - CO1
Francis T Maloney - CT2
Robert A Green - FL1
Robert Ramspeck - GA1
Stanley H Kunz (i) - IL5
Scott W Lucas (i) - IL6
Sherman Minton (i) - IN1
Rene L De Rouen (i) - LA1
Riley J Wilson (i) - LA2
William P Connery Jr - MA2
Harry S Truman (i) - MO2
A S J Carnahan (i) - MO3
Robert L Doughton - NC1
Edwin Y Webb - NC2
William H Smathers - NJ1
A Harry Moore - NJ2
George Silzer (i) - NJ3
John E Miles (i) - NM1
Frank Lausche - OH1
Francis J Myers (i) - PA2
John M O-Connell - RI1
Daniel Roper - SC1
Olin D Johnston - SC2
Cordell Hull (i) - TN1
Finis J Garrett - TN2
James Allred - TX1
Sam Rayburn (i) - TX2
Lee O'Daniel - TX3

[Umbrella]

Governor elections are complete: Let's check out the results:

Edwin C Johnson - CO - Lost in the primary.
Francis T Maloney - CT - Lost in the primary.
Ruffin G Pleasant - LA - Lost in the primary.
James Michael Curley - MA - Lost in the primary.
Charles Fletcher Johnson - ME - Won the primary, but lost the general election
Sam V Stewart - MT - Winner!
John C B Ehringhaus - NC - Lost in the primary.
John J O'Connor - RI - Lost in the primary.
Albert Schmedemann - WI - Lost in the primary.

Terrible results, but to be fair, other than Edwin Johnson and Stewart, these were not good candidates. I hope to do better in the congressional elections.

[Umbrella]

The elections were a mixed bag. Senate was ok, House was...not.

Senator
William B Bankhead - AL - Win!
Henry F Ashurst (i) - AZ - Win, retains his seat.
Teller Ammons - CO - Another victory.
Nathan P Bryan - FL - Lost in the primaries.
William C Adamson - GA - Lost in the primaries.
Bert H Miller - ID - Lost in the primaries.
William Dieterich - IL - Lost in the primaries.
Arthur H Greenwood - IN - Lost in the primaries.
M M Logan - KY - Lost in the primaries.
Raymond B Stevens - NH -Lost in the general. His opponent was the Senate PPT, so that would have been an upset.
Key Pittman - NV - Lost in the primaries. He's really good, but I can't get him to win.
Frazier Reams - OH - Lost in the primaries.
Elmer Thomas (i) - OK - Lost in the primaries. Losing an incumbent hurts.
John J McSwain - SC - Lost in the primaries.
William Bulow - SD - Finally, a victory.
Elbert D Thomas - UT - Lost in the primaries. Another really good candidate I can't get to win.

I ended up picking up two seats, so not bad.

Representatives
John Sparkman - AL1 - Lost in the primaries.
Oscar Underwood - AL2 - Lost in the primaries.
Otis Wingo (i) - AR1 - Held his seat.
Hattie Wyatt Caraway - AR2 - Lost in the primaries.
John R Murdock - AZ1 - Lost in the primaries.
Jerry Voorhis - CA2 - Lost in the primaries.
Clarence Lea (i) - CA3 - Held his seat. He's in a really red district, so I don't know how he keeps winning.
Alva B Adams - CO1 - Winner! I do well in Colorado for some reason.
Francis T Maloney - CT2 - Lost in the general.
Robert A Green - FL1 - Lost in the primaries.
Robert Ramspeck - GA1 - Lost in the primaries.
Stanley H Kunz (i) - IL5 - Held his seat.
Scott W Lucas (i) - IL6 - Held his seat.
Sherman Minton (i) - IN1 - Held his seat.
Rene L De Rouen (i) - LA1 - Held his seat.
Riley J Wilson (i) - LA2 - Held his seat.
William P Connery Jr - MA2 - Lost in the primaries.
Harry S Truman (i) - MO2 - Lost in the primaries. This really hurts my long term strategy.
A S J Carnahan (i) - MO3 - Held his seat.
Robert L Doughton - NC1 - Lost in the primaries.
Edwin Y Webb - NC2 - A surprise victory. He's one of my few far right politicians.
William H Smathers - NJ1 - Lost in the primaries.
A Harry Moore - NJ2 - Another surprise victory.
George Silzer (i) - NJ3 - Held his seat.
John E Miles (i) - NM1 - Lost in the primaries. He's not great, but I still hate losing incumbents.
Frank Lausche - OH1 - Lost in the primaries.
Francis J Myers (i) - PA2 - Initially lost in the primaries, but I called out a rules violation since the challenger who beat him had the same ideology, which isn't allowed. On the do over, he won, then held his seat.
John M O'Connell - RI1 - Lost in the primaries.
Daniel Roper - SC1 - Lost in the primaries.
Olin D Johnston - SC2 - Another surprise win. It's hard for moderates to win primaries in the south, but somehow he did.
Cordell Hull (i) - TN1 - Still keeps winning. I don't know how long it will last though.
Finis J Garrett - TN2 - Lost in the primaries.
James Allred - TX1 - Lost in the primaries.
Sam Rayburn (i) - TX2 - Lost in the primaries. An absolute gut punch. He was Speaker of the House, and didn't even get out of the primaries. By political value points, he's my third best politician, so I'm devastated by this one.
Lee O'Daniel - TX3 - Lost in the primaries.

So even though I picked up a seat in the house, I lost 2 of my top 4 guys, and Cordell Hull is on thin ice. I may have to think about bringing Adlai Stevenson off of the career track path to help out.

[Umbrella]

Ugh, I just realized something even more problematic. With Rayburn losing an election as speaker, there is a 40% chance he will retire after the election. Also, Elmer Thomas, for losing as an incumbent senator, has a 25% chance of retiring. Let's hope the RNG gods are on my side.

Also, my faction has the lowest score for the Democrats, which means I will have the first pick in the upcoming draft. Yea, I guess.

[Umbrella]

I got lucky and avoided all retirements this phase.

The draft was not great. With my first pick, I took William Fulbright. Donald S Russell was my second pick, and S I Hayakawa was third. I won't list everyone else that I picked.

For the career track, here are where my rookies ended up:
Private - Donald S Russell
Military - Wesley E Brown
Judicial - Lewis F Powell Jr
Governing - Buford Ellington
Legislative - William Fulbright
Admin - John J McIntyre
Backroom - Augustus Hawkins

I had two guys come off the career tracks since they hit their 20 years. William P Cole Jr was on the judicial track, gained +2 judicial, expansionist, and unlikeable. Carl Hatch came off the admin track, gained +2 admin, housing expertise, egghead, expansionist, and +1 legislative. He could become a powerhouse in New Mexico. No relation to the chile.

I chose not to relocate any of my politicians, but I did try and shift John R Murdock, Carl Hatch, and Elbert D Thomas from moderate to liberal. They all need it to compete in their states. Only Thomas was successful, and to add insult to injury, Murdock gained flip flopper, and Hatch gained the dreaded pliable. So much for him becoming a powerhouse.

Because my faction leader, Cordell Hull, is passive, I can't attempt any conversions. My fellow players have no such problems, and failed presidential candidate Wendell Wilkie jumps ship to the Republican party.

All of my kingmakers already have proteges, so I can't do anything during this section.

Next up will be the faction cards. I think I will end up losing reformists and gaining expansionists, but everything else will stay the same.

My faction is really faltering right now. I hope Carl Hayden will become senate majority leader and finally lose obscure so I can return him as faction leader. Cordell Hull is the frontrunner to win Speaker, but I'm putting some feelers out to make him the key advisor to the President. This is his true calling, but it would be hard to pass up being Speaker. I'm still licking my wounds from the election fallout. The country is leaning liberal right now, and my moderate/conservative faction is struggling to remain relevant.

[JonInMiddleGA]

Originally Posted by Umbrella

Carl Hatch came off the admin track, gained +2 admin, housing expertise, egghead, expansionist, and +1 legislative. He could become a powerhouse in New Mexico. No relation to the chile.

Fun fact, as I continue to check on a random name in these threads to see if they're who I think they are.

Yep, he's "The Hatch Act" Hatch but the fun fact is that, born in Kansas and initially practiced law in Oklahoma, he attended the Cumberland School of Law in Tennessee ... now part of Samford University in Alabama (they sold the law school as a separate entity)

Another Cumberland alum? Cordell Hull, though separated by 21 years.

[Umbrella]

Originally Posted by JonInMiddleGA

Fun fact, as I continue to check on a random name in these threads to see if they're who I think they are.

Yep, he's "The Hatch Act" Hatch

Nice catch. I saw Hatch from New Mexico, and immediately went to hatch green chiles.

[Izulde]

I finally found where the main playtest forum is and got approved after a week (I sent an email and they approved it same day).

Hoping I can join a playtest myself and start a dynasty here. It's been fun reading through the playtest threads on there.

[Umbrella]

Leadership didn't go well for me either. Long story short, I didn't have the votes necessary to get my way, so I had to make concessions. Cordell Hull ended up winning House Majority Leader instead of Speaker. And Carl Hayden ended up as Senate Majority Whip. Hayden gained manipulative and kingmaker (woohoo!), but still hasn't lost obscure. As part of my deal, if we retain control of the senate next session, my party is supposed to vote Hayden as Majority Leader if he still hasn't lost obscure. We'll see if that happens. One good thing about not getting either of those positions is that I don't have to assign committees, which is a chore.

Speaking of committees, Senator Henry F Ashurst was selected as the chairman of the Military/Foreign Affairs committee.

For my faction leader, Cordell Hull is still the only eligible candidate, so he remains. He gains leadership, expansionist, and everyman. If he wasn't passive, he would be about as ideal politician as ever lived. Since FDR is the president, he is automatically the party leader.

Speaking of FDR, he now gets to choose his cabinet. Daniel Roper was selected for Secretary of Treasury, James Forrrestal as Secretary of Commerce, George Marshall as ambassador to France, and Jesse Donaldson as ambassador to Germany. What could go wrong with having ambassadors to those countries in the 1930's? In real life, Donaldson was a mailman who rose all the way to Postmaster General under Truman. I'm imagining in this alternate reality he pulled some favors to the the ambassador job. Also, Adlai Stevenson was selected as Secretary of the Navy, but I declined that position, as I want to keep him on the career path for now. Because of that, George Marshall was instead nominated for Secretary of the Navy instead of an ambassador, which I accepted. All of them got through the Senate confirmation.

Next up is the events phase. Should be interesting.