Note: This thread is only for those individuals currently participating in the AAR.
***Approved by Qorten***
This AAR will cover an alt-history version of the Soviet Union. For the gory details, check the actual update thread. This thread is mostly concerned with the seedy underbelly of the AAR; i.e., the actual decisions made by players. I'll take parts of our conversations here and parts of the actual game, as well as my own imagination, to build the actual narrative.
As a reminder, per HOI3 AARland rules, there are certain topics which may not be discussed. Before posting, please check here.
The most senior player left in the Politburo (as a voting member) at the end of the AAR will receive the right to choose my next AAR. Here is the current roster, listed by seniority (* denotes TFH required for position, # denotes member of SGO):
Complete roster of active players
Full members of the Politburo (i.e. voting)
Chief of the General Staff -- Davout*# (Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin)
People's Commissar of Defense -- Dadarian# (Andrei Grigoryevich Zverev)
People's Commissar for Foreign Intelligence -- Gen. Marshall# (Feodor Vasilievich Sokolov)
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs -- Sakura_F*# (Anastasia Ivanovna Petrova)
People's Commissar for Trade and Industry -- SovietAmerika (Milena Vladimirovna Kamensky)
People's Commissar for Communication -- Plutonium95 (Viktor Ivanovich Glazkov)
People's Commissar for Education -- red_KLG# (Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Yakushev)
People's Commissar for Agriculture -- ZebraMinge (Ivan Stepanovich Konev)
People's Commissar for Finance -- Jack LEagle Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov
People's Commissar for Justice -- DensleyBlair (Oleksandr Kyrylovych Smilyvyўenko)
People's Commissar for State Security (NKGB) -- Andre Massena (Leonid Rokossofsky)
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Candidate members of the Politburo (i.e. non-voting)
oskar-kar (Dmitri Dmitriyevich Koychev) - Partisan, unofficial agent of NKVD
Belgiumruler (Vasily Gregorovich Zaytsev) - Commissar, Vladivostok
Cataphractoi (Aleksandr Grigorevich Chervyakov) - First Secretary, Byelorussian SSR
Novatheorem (Sergei Petrovich Soldatov) - Former Commissar for Education, on medical leave
Greek HOI3 (Vladislav Geramovich Sarigov) - Former Commissar for Agriculture
Darui (Mikhail Alekseyevich Suvorov) - Chief of Operations for Stavka
son of liberty (Jekabs Alksnis) -- Chief of the Red Air Force
Syriana (Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev) -- unemployed
RikD (Yegor Bodilovich Skovgaard) -- Leningrad Urban Planning Committee
shierholzer (Julia Wjatscheslawowna Rakobolskaja) -- former People's Commissar for Defense
Vrael_1492 (Vladimir Mehmetovich Sakharov) -- former Narkomfin
Ab Ovo Constantin Mihailescu Cojocaru -- President of the Presidium of the Romanian Soviet Socialist Republic
jeeshadow (Alik Fyodorovich Pasternak) -- ex-Head of NKVR
------------------------------------------------------------------
Roster of Deputy People's Commissars (may serve as proxy in absence of primary)
Finance: Dverev (Dadarian)
NKVD: Pasternak (jeeshadow)
Justice: Smilyvyўenko (DensleyBlair)
NGSh: Suvorov (Darui)
NPCs (parts played by me or just reserved)
Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Nikolaeyevich Tukhachevsky, Commander-in-Chief, Red Army
Sergei Mironovich Kirov, Leningrad Party Chief
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, People's Commissar of the Navy
The roles and responsibilities in detail (these may change based on the working relationship between individuals and as the AAR progresses):
Foreign Affairs -- This person is responsible for all dealings with foreign nations apart from war and peace, which must be voted on collectively. Includes inviting people to Comintern Faction, proclaiming guarantees, etc.
Defense -- This person is responsible for all administrative matters involving the Red Army, Navy, and Air Force. Primarily budgetary (what IC gets spent on what), can include elements of grand strategy and/or OOB editing, depending on arrangements with Stavka.
NKVD -- This person is responsible for spending the Espionage portion of the leadership budget. Determines which countries we target, what we do with them, etc.
Trade and Industry -- Combined with Foreign Affairs, may make manual trades when necessary.
Education -- This person sets the leadership budget between research, diplomacy, espionage, and officers, as well as the technology research schedule
Justice -- This person is responsible for setting domestic laws.
Agriculture -- Currently no specific duties.
Communication -- Currently no specific duties.
Finance -- This person sets the distribution of IC between upgrades, reinforcements, supply, production, and consumer goods.
Chief of the General Staff -- Handles warfighting. Sets AI goals (army level), deals with elements independent of command (marines, paratroopers), plans invasion. May set OOB and/or appoint sub-commanders as he sees fit and in conjunction with Defense.
Ideological Purity -- Currently no specific duties.
All full members of the Politburo: All members must meet deadlines as set within the AAR, or, failing that, inform me when they cannot. Missing deadlines is grounds for demotion to candidate status. I understand stuff (to be polite) happens, but if you disappear for two weeks and are holding up the AAR, I will do what is necessary to move along. Each person is expected to keep up with the state of the game and, of course, vote. All votes are handled by simple majority wins; I settle all ties.
Candidate members of the Politburo: Be prepared to pick up a position. As the AAR develops, we'll set portfolios that each player feels comfortable with for the candidate members too. There is no theoretical maximum for candidate members; all a person must do is PM me with a request to join the AAR and, based on the current activity, I will either approve or reject the request.
Moving from candidate to full and vice versa: A simple majority vote can promote an individual from candidate to full member of the Politburo, although only if there is a clear position for him (Theater Commanders are one possibility, a deputy for one of the other positions, etc.). The "seniority clock" starts after the promotion. For demotions, it requires at least two-third of the voters (so 7 in the early stages). I reserve the right to demote people for missing deadlines, abusing other members verbally in the thread (over a reasonable degree for any political simulation ), and general lack of participation.
Loss of seniority: If any vote is defeated by a measure of 2:1 (excluding abstentions), the person proposing the measure will lose their seniority (i.e., bumped to the end of the full Politburo list), as it is a clear lack of confidence in that person. Also, any Politburo member can request a vote of censure (loss of seniority), which requires a simple majority.
Trials: The Narkom of Justice can, with at least two more full members of the Politburo's support, indict a third for some sort of crime. ((Make it up, I don't care what the charges are.)) I would be judge ((sentencing)), Narkom of Justice is prosecution, and the victim can either defend himself/herself or appoint somebody to do so on their behalf. The Politburo votes guilty or innocent by a simpler majority, and I will issue the appropriate sentence. ((In this scenario, everybody would vote, although presumably the victim votes innocent and Narkom Justice votes guilty.)) The possible sentences are:
-- Censure ((loss of seniority))
-- Demotion ((stripped of full member status))
-- Expulsion from the party ((the above and must create a brand new character))
To avoid possible misconduct, this is as high as punishments go. More... permanent punishments will be saved for areas in which the storyline matters. However, to keep the Narkom of Justice from going mad with power, if the person is found innocent by a large enough majority (+3 votes), the Narkom of Justice loses their position and is demoted to candidate status in the Politburo.
Proposals: Apart from the following circumstances, any Politburo member, candidate or full, may put forward a proposal:
-- Creation of a new full voting member of the Politburo (requires full member support)
-- Any proposal which falls under a full member's bailiwick must be proposed or supported by that full member
Calling for a vote: Only the individual which proposed something may call for a vote on that proposal, unless that person is not a full member of the Politburo.
Counter-proposals:
1. Counter-proposals go into effect after a vote is finished.
2. If the counter-proposal passes, the NK that put the original draft to a vote loses his seniority. If it doesn't, vice versa.
3. Timing of the counter-proposal is controlled by the person making the counter-proposal; i.e. they will officially call for the vote.
4. A counter-proposal works like a legislative override, so there should be a 2/3rds majority to pass it. This will also reduce counter-proposal spam.
5. I will never vote for or against a counter-proposal. If there is a tie, that means an exact 2/3rd majority, the original plan passes and nobody loses seniority.
6. Only one full NK is needed for a counter-proposal, and he will be responsible for the consequences.
7. Only full NKs can submit (counter-)proposals.
8. Any full NK can submit a proposal on general issues at any time.
9. The respective NKs have to be the first to issue a draft in their field of responsibility.
Wartime procedures
1. During wartime, all updates are two months in length.
2. In addition to the business conducted during the biannual meetings, the SGO (Council for State Defense) will meet and conduct business during the other updates.
3. The SGO is comprised of five individuals -- the Chief of the General State, the NKO, and three other individuals. Two are nominated by the permanent members, and a third chosen by Politburo nominations.
4. The SGO decides all military matters which occur outside of the two biannual updates and work with any and all other tasks given by me.
5. The SGO may appoint and remove Front Commanders freely. Front Commanders must resign from the Politburo prior to accepting an assignment.
6. SGO members automatically fill the top five spots in seniority.
The "celerity" rule: In order to keep the AAR moving, all ministers have a maximum of 72 hours to complete any assigned tasks (including making proposals and calling for a vote) unless I am notified in advance that a person will be unavailable. Consequences for breaking this rule include:
First offense: warning
Second offense: censure
Third offense: removal from post.
General rules of etiquette: Please use (( )) when speaking out of character. Include, either in your forum signature or just at the end of each post, your character's name and position. All names should include a first name, patronymic, and last name. The polite form of address is usually "Comrade People's Commissar [last name]." "Comrade" First name and patronymic is also acceptable. First name only is extremely informal and very, very rare. If you need help creating a patronymic, let me know. For men, it's either the father's name + -evich or -ovich (i.e. Ivanovich or Dmitriyevich). For women, it's the father's name and -ovna or -evna (Ivanovna or Andreyevna). A woman's last name, if it ends in a consonant, always has an "a" at the end. (So Stalin's daughter, who took her mother's maiden name, was Alilyueva, not Alilyuev.) Please ask me about names if you have any questions.
Glossary of important terms
Direction - Multiple fronts
Front - Soviet equivalent of army group
NGSh - Chief of the General Staff
Patronymic - A Russian's "middle name", designates his or her father's name
People's Commissar (NK or Narkom for short) - The western equivalent of a minister
SGO - Council for State Defense
Edit history
2/27/13 - Added glossary of key terms.
2/28/13 - Added list of NPCs.
3/4/13 - Uploaded save and added links to list of characters.
3/8/13 - Corrected duties of Education and Defense
3/19/13 - Added trial mechanic and new responsibilities for NK of Trade and Industry
3/28/13 - Added information on proposals and calling for votes, clarified addition of new candidate members, added Commissar for Ideological Purity
5/7/13 - Added roster for deputies
6/13/13 - Added wartime procedures and SGO
***Approved by Qorten***
This AAR will cover an alt-history version of the Soviet Union. For the gory details, check the actual update thread. This thread is mostly concerned with the seedy underbelly of the AAR; i.e., the actual decisions made by players. I'll take parts of our conversations here and parts of the actual game, as well as my own imagination, to build the actual narrative.
As a reminder, per HOI3 AARland rules, there are certain topics which may not be discussed. Before posting, please check here.
The most senior player left in the Politburo (as a voting member) at the end of the AAR will receive the right to choose my next AAR. Here is the current roster, listed by seniority (* denotes TFH required for position, # denotes member of SGO):
Complete roster of active players
Full members of the Politburo (i.e. voting)
Chief of the General Staff -- Davout*# (Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin)
People's Commissar of Defense -- Dadarian# (Andrei Grigoryevich Zverev)
People's Commissar for Foreign Intelligence -- Gen. Marshall# (Feodor Vasilievich Sokolov)
People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs -- Sakura_F*# (Anastasia Ivanovna Petrova)
People's Commissar for Trade and Industry -- SovietAmerika (Milena Vladimirovna Kamensky)
People's Commissar for Communication -- Plutonium95 (Viktor Ivanovich Glazkov)
People's Commissar for Education -- red_KLG# (Aleksandr Aleksandrovich Yakushev)
People's Commissar for Agriculture -- ZebraMinge (Ivan Stepanovich Konev)
People's Commissar for Finance -- Jack LEagle Georgy Maximilianovich Malenkov
People's Commissar for Justice -- DensleyBlair (Oleksandr Kyrylovych Smilyvyўenko)
People's Commissar for State Security (NKGB) -- Andre Massena (Leonid Rokossofsky)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Candidate members of the Politburo (i.e. non-voting)
oskar-kar (Dmitri Dmitriyevich Koychev) - Partisan, unofficial agent of NKVD
Belgiumruler (Vasily Gregorovich Zaytsev) - Commissar, Vladivostok
Cataphractoi (Aleksandr Grigorevich Chervyakov) - First Secretary, Byelorussian SSR
Novatheorem (Sergei Petrovich Soldatov) - Former Commissar for Education, on medical leave
Greek HOI3 (Vladislav Geramovich Sarigov) - Former Commissar for Agriculture
Darui (Mikhail Alekseyevich Suvorov) - Chief of Operations for Stavka
son of liberty (Jekabs Alksnis) -- Chief of the Red Air Force
Syriana (Nikita Sergeyevich Khrushchev) -- unemployed
RikD (Yegor Bodilovich Skovgaard) -- Leningrad Urban Planning Committee
shierholzer (Julia Wjatscheslawowna Rakobolskaja) -- former People's Commissar for Defense
Vrael_1492 (Vladimir Mehmetovich Sakharov) -- former Narkomfin
Ab Ovo Constantin Mihailescu Cojocaru -- President of the Presidium of the Romanian Soviet Socialist Republic
jeeshadow (Alik Fyodorovich Pasternak) -- ex-Head of NKVR
------------------------------------------------------------------
Roster of Deputy People's Commissars (may serve as proxy in absence of primary)
Finance: Dverev (Dadarian)
NKVD: Pasternak (jeeshadow)
Justice: Smilyvyўenko (DensleyBlair)
NGSh: Suvorov (Darui)
NPCs (parts played by me or just reserved)
Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union
Mikhail Nikolaeyevich Tukhachevsky, Commander-in-Chief, Red Army
Sergei Mironovich Kirov, Leningrad Party Chief
Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars
Nikolai Gerasimovich Kuznetsov, People's Commissar of the Navy
The roles and responsibilities in detail (these may change based on the working relationship between individuals and as the AAR progresses):
Foreign Affairs -- This person is responsible for all dealings with foreign nations apart from war and peace, which must be voted on collectively. Includes inviting people to Comintern Faction, proclaiming guarantees, etc.
Defense -- This person is responsible for all administrative matters involving the Red Army, Navy, and Air Force. Primarily budgetary (what IC gets spent on what), can include elements of grand strategy and/or OOB editing, depending on arrangements with Stavka.
NKVD -- This person is responsible for spending the Espionage portion of the leadership budget. Determines which countries we target, what we do with them, etc.
Trade and Industry -- Combined with Foreign Affairs, may make manual trades when necessary.
Education -- This person sets the leadership budget between research, diplomacy, espionage, and officers, as well as the technology research schedule
Justice -- This person is responsible for setting domestic laws.
Agriculture -- Currently no specific duties.
Communication -- Currently no specific duties.
Finance -- This person sets the distribution of IC between upgrades, reinforcements, supply, production, and consumer goods.
Chief of the General Staff -- Handles warfighting. Sets AI goals (army level), deals with elements independent of command (marines, paratroopers), plans invasion. May set OOB and/or appoint sub-commanders as he sees fit and in conjunction with Defense.
Ideological Purity -- Currently no specific duties.
All full members of the Politburo: All members must meet deadlines as set within the AAR, or, failing that, inform me when they cannot. Missing deadlines is grounds for demotion to candidate status. I understand stuff (to be polite) happens, but if you disappear for two weeks and are holding up the AAR, I will do what is necessary to move along. Each person is expected to keep up with the state of the game and, of course, vote. All votes are handled by simple majority wins; I settle all ties.
Candidate members of the Politburo: Be prepared to pick up a position. As the AAR develops, we'll set portfolios that each player feels comfortable with for the candidate members too. There is no theoretical maximum for candidate members; all a person must do is PM me with a request to join the AAR and, based on the current activity, I will either approve or reject the request.
Moving from candidate to full and vice versa: A simple majority vote can promote an individual from candidate to full member of the Politburo, although only if there is a clear position for him (Theater Commanders are one possibility, a deputy for one of the other positions, etc.). The "seniority clock" starts after the promotion. For demotions, it requires at least two-third of the voters (so 7 in the early stages). I reserve the right to demote people for missing deadlines, abusing other members verbally in the thread (over a reasonable degree for any political simulation ), and general lack of participation.
Loss of seniority: If any vote is defeated by a measure of 2:1 (excluding abstentions), the person proposing the measure will lose their seniority (i.e., bumped to the end of the full Politburo list), as it is a clear lack of confidence in that person. Also, any Politburo member can request a vote of censure (loss of seniority), which requires a simple majority.
Trials: The Narkom of Justice can, with at least two more full members of the Politburo's support, indict a third for some sort of crime. ((Make it up, I don't care what the charges are.)) I would be judge ((sentencing)), Narkom of Justice is prosecution, and the victim can either defend himself/herself or appoint somebody to do so on their behalf. The Politburo votes guilty or innocent by a simpler majority, and I will issue the appropriate sentence. ((In this scenario, everybody would vote, although presumably the victim votes innocent and Narkom Justice votes guilty.)) The possible sentences are:
-- Censure ((loss of seniority))
-- Demotion ((stripped of full member status))
-- Expulsion from the party ((the above and must create a brand new character))
To avoid possible misconduct, this is as high as punishments go. More... permanent punishments will be saved for areas in which the storyline matters. However, to keep the Narkom of Justice from going mad with power, if the person is found innocent by a large enough majority (+3 votes), the Narkom of Justice loses their position and is demoted to candidate status in the Politburo.
Proposals: Apart from the following circumstances, any Politburo member, candidate or full, may put forward a proposal:
-- Creation of a new full voting member of the Politburo (requires full member support)
-- Any proposal which falls under a full member's bailiwick must be proposed or supported by that full member
Calling for a vote: Only the individual which proposed something may call for a vote on that proposal, unless that person is not a full member of the Politburo.
Counter-proposals:
1. Counter-proposals go into effect after a vote is finished.
2. If the counter-proposal passes, the NK that put the original draft to a vote loses his seniority. If it doesn't, vice versa.
3. Timing of the counter-proposal is controlled by the person making the counter-proposal; i.e. they will officially call for the vote.
4. A counter-proposal works like a legislative override, so there should be a 2/3rds majority to pass it. This will also reduce counter-proposal spam.
5. I will never vote for or against a counter-proposal. If there is a tie, that means an exact 2/3rd majority, the original plan passes and nobody loses seniority.
6. Only one full NK is needed for a counter-proposal, and he will be responsible for the consequences.
7. Only full NKs can submit (counter-)proposals.
8. Any full NK can submit a proposal on general issues at any time.
9. The respective NKs have to be the first to issue a draft in their field of responsibility.
Wartime procedures
1. During wartime, all updates are two months in length.
2. In addition to the business conducted during the biannual meetings, the SGO (Council for State Defense) will meet and conduct business during the other updates.
3. The SGO is comprised of five individuals -- the Chief of the General State, the NKO, and three other individuals. Two are nominated by the permanent members, and a third chosen by Politburo nominations.
4. The SGO decides all military matters which occur outside of the two biannual updates and work with any and all other tasks given by me.
5. The SGO may appoint and remove Front Commanders freely. Front Commanders must resign from the Politburo prior to accepting an assignment.
6. SGO members automatically fill the top five spots in seniority.
The "celerity" rule: In order to keep the AAR moving, all ministers have a maximum of 72 hours to complete any assigned tasks (including making proposals and calling for a vote) unless I am notified in advance that a person will be unavailable. Consequences for breaking this rule include:
First offense: warning
Second offense: censure
Third offense: removal from post.
General rules of etiquette: Please use (( )) when speaking out of character. Include, either in your forum signature or just at the end of each post, your character's name and position. All names should include a first name, patronymic, and last name. The polite form of address is usually "Comrade People's Commissar [last name]." "Comrade" First name and patronymic is also acceptable. First name only is extremely informal and very, very rare. If you need help creating a patronymic, let me know. For men, it's either the father's name + -evich or -ovich (i.e. Ivanovich or Dmitriyevich). For women, it's the father's name and -ovna or -evna (Ivanovna or Andreyevna). A woman's last name, if it ends in a consonant, always has an "a" at the end. (So Stalin's daughter, who took her mother's maiden name, was Alilyueva, not Alilyuev.) Please ask me about names if you have any questions.
Glossary of important terms
Direction - Multiple fronts
Front - Soviet equivalent of army group
NGSh - Chief of the General Staff
Patronymic - A Russian's "middle name", designates his or her father's name
People's Commissar (NK or Narkom for short) - The western equivalent of a minister
SGO - Council for State Defense
Edit history
2/27/13 - Added glossary of key terms.
2/28/13 - Added list of NPCs.
3/4/13 - Uploaded save and added links to list of characters.
3/8/13 - Corrected duties of Education and Defense
3/19/13 - Added trial mechanic and new responsibilities for NK of Trade and Industry
3/28/13 - Added information on proposals and calling for votes, clarified addition of new candidate members, added Commissar for Ideological Purity
5/7/13 - Added roster for deputies
6/13/13 - Added wartime procedures and SGO
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