Brasidas said:
For multiplayer, I don't know about 4. If Germany's doing a decent job with containing its belligerance (eg. not DoWing Sweden or Spain, or at least throwing up puppets here and there), I don't know that the USA should get a DoW opportunity right after Sealion. At the least, I'd suggest a belligerance check. Otherwise, maybe a middling-long offset? A random event with a twelve day offset checking if Ireland and Germany are at war? Germany would be taking a risk in an invasion, but it wouldn't lead to a certain opportunity for the USA to intervene. If the invasion is already a fait accompli when the game checks the triggers, it will be too late.
The difference here is that in SP, the player is taking a risk. In multiplayer, if the USA ever has an option to enter the war in an event series, a human player is going to go to war, unless he's simply roleplaying. I'd suggest throwing an ai-check in with two versions of the event. It brings things back to being a gamble rather than "I will secure Ireland in exchange for US war entry.
This is sort of what I had in mind actually. Let me give you a breakdown of how the US could enter the war due to the "Irish Situation"
1. After securing Scotland, Wales, and southern England, Germany looks toward Ireland as the last remaining democratic stronghold in the West from which any serious American counterattack would originate. Germany makes a policy choice for Ireland, giving them 30 days to decide. This would be triggered by the events that finalize Scotland and Wales' status, and offset 14 days, say a 25% chance. It wouldn't take Hitler long to realize the significance of Ireland. Note one of Germany's choices is to leave Ireland alone, resulting in some dissent for the German player, but otherwise totally avoiding what is to follow. However, leaving Ireland alone should cause the German player some worry, and I think there is room there for the US to begin making overtures to Ireland if Germany makes no move against them.
2. If Germany has demanded more than just Irish neutrality, the US has the option to deliver a formal protest to Germany, something like a "Hands Off Ireland" warning, backed by public protests, warning Germany to respect Ireland's neutrality. The US takes a dissent hit of 2-5% if they refuse to deliver the warning, a hit of 1-3% if they deliver it (interventionists and isolationists are going to be annoyed either way).
3. If the US delivers the warning & Germany has demanded more than just Irish neutrality, Germany is given the option to re-evaluate its policy towards Ireland. They can back down to demanding only neutrality, or they can stand up to the upstart Americans and tell them where to stick it. Backing down results in a dissent hit of 2-5%, while sticking to your guns will makes some people nervous, resulting in a dissent hit of 1-3%.
4. If Germany sticks to its guns, they will have shown the American people they cannot be reasoned with. The Isolationists lose support yet again, and the US moves a step toward interventionism, or perhaps hawk lobby.
5. If Germany alters its demands, they will have shown the American people they can be reasoned with. Isolationists point out that military action was not necessary after all, and the US moves a step toward a dove lobby.
Finally, Ireland is given a chance to decide only after the above events have fired if they're going to fire at all. Triggers would be: the German demand, the US protest or lack thereof, the German second offer or lack thereof, the reaction in the US to a German second offer or lack thereof, all offset by 14 days, or whatever number is necessary to fit into the 30 day timeframe.
6. If Germany sticks to its guns, and Ireland
accepts they're demands, the situation is defused, and essentially Germany wins. Relations between the two countries plummets to near bottom (say -150 to -175), and the US takes another dissent hit (2-5%) while Germany loses a similar amount (war with the US has been averted). Down the road, once the US
does enter the war and Ireland is not part of the Axis, there should be some issue of the US trying to woo Ireland into the Allies.
7. If Germany sticks to its guns and its demands (whatever they are) are
refused, then Germany has no choice but to declare war on Ireland. As this is likely to bring America into the war, a nervous population becomes even more so with yet another dissent hit of 1-3%. Also, since there will be no option
not to declare war, this will hopefully keep the German player from delaying war until they are 100% ready, although admittedly by this time they may well be ready anyway.
8. The US has now an immediate opportunity to declare war on Germany, interventionists screaming to save America's last European platform for liberation, a staunchly neutral democratic country that dared resist Hitler's outrageous demands. Isolationists, no longer the majority after Germany's laundry list of aggression, remain a vocal minority and fight Roosevelts push for a declaration of war. If the US enters the war, it will do so with a major dissent hit (10-20%), but has the opportunity to move quickly to save Ireland. If the US backs down, it will face a larger dissent (15-25%) hit to go along with the humiliation of being stared down by Germany and failing to follow through. The Isolationists will have regained much of their support, and the US will move 2 steps toward dove, and 2 steps toward isolationism. A variant of this event for the AI could check for the existence of certain units and, if war is chosen, deploy them quickly to Ireland.
This should give human players of both Germany and the US something to think about, making the choice much more difficult. Both will likely have large amounts of dissent by the time its over, making it harder for each player to continue pressing the issue. A German player would be much more cautious about choosing war with Ireland if they knew certain and swift American intervention was forthcoming. An American player would be similarly cautious as their dissent grows. Note, this event would fire immediately after a German declaration of war on Ireland, which would itself occur by event, and hopefully the German player will not be in position to invade and conquer Ireland before the arrival of American troops, particularly if the Kriegsmarine remains weak.
Well there it is. It's going to be a complicated bit of scripting but I think I can pull it off. Also, I think it will add some much needed suspense to that part of the game.
