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1856; The Era of Nationalism Playtest, Part 2 Welcome to 1856. Pennsylvania Democrat James Buchanan, the former Ambassador to the United Kingdom, has just been elected the 15th President of the United States, but by a closer margin that some political observers had been expecting. He garnered 174 electoral votes, winning 19 states, and receiving about 1,836,000 votes. His main rival was General John C. Fremont of California, the first Republican nominee for President of the United States. Fremont had gained 114 electoral votes, winning 14 states, and 1,342,000 votes. Also on the ballot was former President Millard Fillmore who ran on the Know-Nothing ticket. Fillmore received only 8 electoral votes, winning in Maryland, but also received 873,000 votes. The Democrats also retained the US Senate, and won back the House of Representatives, at least for now. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1856_United_States_presidential_election. It is clear that, politically, the nation is very fractured. The once strong Democratic party is now threatening to become more of a regional party for the Southern states than a true national party. The Whig party is now almost completely gone, with the fledgling Republican party stepping up into their place, along with the American, or Know-Nothing Party. Politically, these two parties are very far apart, but what they are becoming, slowly, is united against the Democratic Party. The country faces many challenges in the near future; westward expansion, the growth of the Federal government, internal improvements, taxation, and the growth of big business. But perhaps no issue is as big as the issue of slavery. Southern plantation owners and politicians argue that they need the cheap labor in order to make their plantations profitable, and to continue brining revenue to the government. The three "richest" states in the 1850's are the deep South states of Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. They also argue over the superiority of the white race. Abolitionists, on the other hand, want to free all the slaves and educate them to become productive members of society. Most of the rest of the nation is somewhere in between these two positions. As for party platforms, Democrats don't want to do anything about the slavery issue other than guarantee it can continue where it is already, and perhaps extend it into the territories. They support Kansas being admitted as a slave state. In his inauguration address, President Buchanan predicted that the slavery question would be resolved soon (he had fore knowledge of the impending Dred Scott case from fellow Pennsylvanian Supreme Court Associate Justice John Catron), and that he would only serve one term in office. However, the Republicans have adopted a position not to interfere with slavery where it exists, but they hope to contain it there and forbid it from expanding westward. They ran in 1856 on an anti-slavery platform that called for congressional sovereignty in the territories, an end to polygamy in Mormon settlements, and federal assistance for a transcontinental railroad. Currently there are 31 states; 16 free, and 15 slave. President Buchanan already has his cabinet in place, Congressional leaders have already been selected (House Speaker, Senate Pro Tempore, and Committee Chairs) based on history. The Supreme Court is full, led by Chief Justice Roger B Taney of Maryland. The military is also historically accurate with the aging Winfield Scott being the General in Chief and Matthew Perry, recently returned from the Orient, as the head Admiral. The four HUMAN players for this endeavor are @Euri, who is taking control of the Conservative Democrats led by President Buchanan. @theFreezerFlame is taking the Popular Sovereignty Democrats, led by Senator Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois. On the other side, @10centjimmy will take the Crittenden Republican faction, led by Kentucky Senator John J. Crittenden. This faction has, among others, Abraham Lincoln, Winfield Scott, and Alfonso Taft. Also on the Republican side is @Willthescout7 who will take control of the Liberal Republicans led by Governor Salmon P. Chase of Ohio. The Democratic Party leader is President Buchanan, and the Red Party leader is Governor William H. Seward of New York, who is in the RedLib faction being CPU'd by @Blockmon. Also helping out by CPU'ing other factions is @Arkansas Progressive, @ConservativeElector2, and @Bloot911. I will also be CPU'ing a faction and one of the human players may also CPU a faction. First up will be the 1856 draft. There are a few important names on the draft list including James G Blaine, Carl Schurz, and Roscoe Conkling for the Red team and James Bayard, John A J Creswell, and John M Stone for the Democrats. So if you are a human player, please message me your draft list in the next 24 hours. I will just use CPU rules for drafting for CPU factions. The order of the draft is on the MAIN tab to the right just beyond the column for Supreme Court Justices.

ANNOUNCING A NEW PLAYTEST- A House Divided: 1856 Era of Nationalism The goal for this test is three fold. First, we have only really run the Civil War once. Considering how important it is to American history, and the political history of the nation, we really need to run it again. Secondly, I'd like to see how V's new rules for reconstruction play out. With a human player as the Southern Democrats, and a human player as what will become the Radical Republicans, we have two human players who each want to end reconstruction as fast as possible, or prolong it as much as possible. Finally, it will be another opportunity to test the "newish" war system that was put in place. I already have two players for this test, one on Blue Right Wing, the other on Red Left Wing. Ideally, what I would also like is for a few people to come and help me run the test by agreeing to be CPU players. That is, they will follow the CPU's for the other factions. I am also open to having two more human player factions as well, but the players would need to be dedicated and responsible, and may occasionally have to run CPU's for other factions. They would play Blue 2 (which is led by President Buchanan, Conservative Democrats) and Red 3 (which has Abraham Lincoln, Moderate Republicans). If you are interested, in a CPU role or a player role, please PM myself, @ebrk85, and @10centjimmy who have agreed to play as CPU's for factions. That would leave us with 4 human players and the GA's playing CPU on 6 factions. I come into this test having run one before, a 1772 test where I wanted to try out a new idea for warfare. Both Eric and Jimmy are running tests too, so I would like some more people to run CPU on factions. Note that I work two jobs already, and I consider the tests I'm in, and this one, to be my 3rd job. But it's a job I love! INTRODUCTION TO THE PLAYTEST- "A house divided against itself, cannot stand." - Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858. It is March, 1857 and it is a time of great uncertainty for the Union. There is some hope that the newly elected President, Democrat James Buchanan, can keep the nation from splitting apart. His recent election was only possible because of the fracturing of the Whigs, Know-Nothings/American Party, Free Soilers, and the newly established Republican party. Buchanan, while from Pennsylvania, was seen as friendly towards the slave holding and Democratically dominated South, and was an acceptable candidate over the main alternatives in Republican John C Fremont and Know-Nothing candidate, former President, Millard Fillmore. President Buchanan also had the advantage of being out of the country over the last few years, serving as Minister to the United Kingdom, so he hasn't had to take a public stand on several key issues plaguing the nation. The President has quickly assembled his cabinet and his foreign ministers, though he has yet to appoint anyone to be the minister to China and the minister to Japan. (GA note- we will start with the Buchanan cabinet as he had it, but the men he had as ministers to Japan and China aren't in the game, so the Buchanan faction can appoint who it wants). Overall, party preference is currently at +1 Blue, with the recent victory of Buchanan. Buchanan also attracts Right Wing Populists, Traditionalists, and some Conservatives. Moderates are largely dissatisfied with both parties, and it's not hard to think that a 3rd party challenger could emerge in the next Presidential election. The Reds seem to have the support of Left Wing Populists, Progressives, and most Liberals. There are currently 31 states in the Union, 16 free, and 15 slave, with Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Oregon, and Nevada all in the wings awaiting admission. Will Kansas be admitted as a free state or a slave state? What will happen with the doctrine of Popular Sovereignty? Will the relative balance of free/slave states remain, or will the free states continue to outnumber the slave states? There are still great vast territories out West that have yet to be explored, and there are always issues with the natives in those unsettled lands and with the Mormons in Utah. Red Governors have a numerical advantage over their Blue counterparts, holding 18 states as opposed to Blue holding 13 Governorships. However, the Red Party itself is splintered between Whigs, Know-Nothings, Free Soilers, and Republicans while the Democrats can't seem to quite find their identity either, risking becoming a regional party in the South in the future. In Congress, the Blue Party controls the House, 130 to 107, but the Reds have a clear and growing majority in the North and in the West. Only a few Red Representatives come from the South, most of them hold overs from the quickly dissolving Whig Party. There are Blue Representatives from almost all states outside of New England, however, their majority continues to shrink. In the Senate, the Blues hold the majority 37 to 24, with one seat from Vermont open, likely to go to the Reds once the new Vermont governor assumes office. (GA note- the actual Governor of VT in 1857 doesn't seem to be in the game, nor are the Senators, so the Red faction that controls the Gov of VT gets to make an appointment). The Supreme Court is led by Traditionalist and longtime Chief Justice, Roger B. Taney of Maryland. The Blue appointments on the court outnumber the Reds 7 to 2. However, many of the Blues are reaching retirement age, or are certainly past their prime. The future of the court is uncertain. A case is looming before them known as Dred Scott v. Sandford which could play a large role in the future of the nation. There have already been some violent protests, mainly in the border states and in the Kansas Territory. It could turn bloody if not properly handled. The economy of the US is stable, but somewhat stagnant, and there seems to be about the same amount of money coming into Washington that's going out. Relations with foreign powers are all about neutral, but a diplomatic incident could quickly change that. The military currently stands somewhat unprepared. The existing US Army is small, having less than 25,000 men on active duty, most of them scattered in isolated Western forts or garrisoned along the Atlantic and Gulf coasts in masonry forts. The Navy is also small, but professional. The establishment of the US Naval Academy in 1845, combined with the War against Mexico, has led to some innovations in Naval warfare. Ultimately, the future of the nation is now in your hands. Are you up to the challenge? "A house divided against itself, cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing or all the other. Either the opponents of slavery will arrest the further spread of it, and place it where the public mind shall rest in the belief that it is in the course of ultimate extinction; or its advocates will push it forward, till it shall become lawful in all the States, old as well as new – North as well as South." - Abraham Lincoln, June 16, 1858. MAP OF THE 1856 ELECTION-

Game Breaking Enjoyers, Chads, Sigma Grindsets Only Starting at the Constitutional Convention, those involved are here to do one thing - STRESS TEST. The rules (as they stand now) are the codified extent of what we are testing, meaning no "House Rules" (even if it means clarification on ambiguousness). Testing will entertain sections of rules as we work through the eras. If you cannot be willing to Rules Lawyer and debate the literalist definition of "office" or deal with semantic constructions such as "Reconstruction is automatically triggered when the Union is victorious in a Civil War", this this test is NOT FOR YOU. @pman @theFreezerFlame @matthewyoung123 @Ich_bin_Tyler @ShortKing @OrangeP47 @Connor @saka8623 @Entrecampos @MrPotatoTed @DJBillyShakes @10centjimmy Please reply (or mention me) if interested.

AMPU State Bias REDUX | Flourish I've basically synthesized all of the Census sheet state biases into a more visual format. Helps to know what we're looking at going into different years.

Done by @Lars, @Rezi, and I. We developed python scripts to simplify the minute details. Post will be updated with more links. Death and Retirements: Lars' script is still private, so you can PM him for info. Committee Gains - Rezi Leader Gains - Arkansas Current work: I'm currently working on a faction/party leader attributes script to eventually be lumped into Leader Gains.

Welcome to another AMPU Playtest - The Era of Ideologies The Era of Ideologies marked an international constitutional battle. Who would prevail? Republicanism? Fascism? or Communism? All forms of these governments proliferated as the monarchies of the world collapsed in the 1910s and 1920s. Every form of government seemed to seek a sort of long-lasting strongman to reform government and proliferate their theory of constitutional order. In a way, this era marked a return of the progressive era from its nap in the 1920s. Finance and trade became even more international, making it much more likely that the collapse of one major economy would collapse all major economies. Nationalism is also on the rise and as the population is growing at an expanded rate, the quest for resources and land becomes more and more desirable. War--possibly a World War--seems likely. 1928 begins with the Herbert Hoover and the Republicans (Red Party) absolutely dominating the Al Smith-led Democratic Party (Blue Party) in the Presidential Election, and maintaining a strong hold on statehouses, the Senate, the House, and even the Supreme Court. Will they be able to maintain their dominance? It seems likely with the economic boom of the Roaring Twenties running strong and fearless isolationism keeping the United States out of foreign complications. President Hoover will be looking at a comfortable re-election in 1932 as long as he puts his faith in the invisible hand of the free market and a blind eye towards global affairs. Surely nothing is coming around the corner... Teams are set, ready to roll!

@Lars and I are starting a 2 v 8 CPU run in 1772, though we're playing as Populists in Blue. I'm on the left, he's on the right. Inaugural Draft Blue 3 - Richard Henry Lee Red 3 - Benjamin Franklin Red 4 - George Washington Ark - Samuel Adams Red 5 - Samuel Huntington Red 1 - Oliver Ellsworth Blue 4 - Patrick Henry Blue 2 - John Hancock (+1 gov, now 4) Lars - Alexander Martin (+1 command, now 1)

Background- I am going to ATTEMPT to take this on all by myself but may need some assistance. In the words of Benjamin Franklin, "We must all hang together, or we will surely hang separately." I am a relative rookie to this game, having only started being an actual play-tester in late June. My Google Sheet skills are very basic and still in development. I will likely have to reach out to others to help me process phases (when we go from, say 1772 to 1774), and will also need assistance importing the rookie draft. All that being said, I have a great interest in seeing the game thrive and a real fascination with the American Revolution. I wanted to see if a "rookie" could do a single player test and keep up with all the factions. So, what I have done with factions is selected 10 leaders from the draft pool by ideology. MOST of them already had the leadership trait and they became the 1st picks for their respective factions and the factions are names for them. For example, Thomas Jefferson is the only RW Populist ideology politician with Leadership, so he was selected as the faction leader for the RW Pop/Trad Blue team. In the case of more than 1 leader having the same ideology and the leadership trait, I rolled a die to see who would be the leader or moved them to another faction that most closely aligned with their ideology. For example, Pickering and Huntington are both Red Conservatives with Leadership, so they each lead their own faction. One is Cons/Trads, the other is Cons/Mods. There were two Red factions that had no politicians with those ideologies and the leadership quality on each end of the spectrum. In that case, the politician with the highest value that had that ideology became the faction leader. For example, Henry Laurens, a Traditional Red politician, became the leader of the RW Pop/Trad/Cons Red faction since he had the highest PV or Political Value score. There are actually no Red RW Populists in the 1772 draft, so by default as a Trad politician, he actually became the leader of the first Trad/Cons Red faction. On the other side of the spectrum, Oliver Ellsworth was the highest PV with a Liberal ideology, so he became the leader of the Red Libs/Prog Reds even though he didn't have the leadership trait and there are no LW Pop Red politicians. I hope this makes sense, it made sense to me in my mind. Red Factions- Henry Laurens of SC leads a Trad/Cons faction (no Red RW Pops). Timothy Pickering of MA leads a Trad/Cons faction. Samuel Huntington of CT leads a Cons/Mod faction. Thomas Mifflin of PA leads a Mod/Lib faction. Oliver Ellsworth of CT leads a Lib/Prog faction (no Red LW Pops). Blue Factions- Thomas Jefferson of VA leads a RW Pop/Trad faction. Richard Henry Lee of VA leads a Trad/Cons faction. Peyton Randolph of VA leads a Cons/Mod faction. John Hancock of MA leads a Mod/Lib faction. Samuel Adams of MA leads a Lib/Prog/LW Pop faction. Rolled dice to find out the Red and Blue draft order. Only politicians with the matching faction ideology can be drafted, and in most cases, the politician with the highest PV score with the matching ideology for the faction was selected. Red draft order is Mifflin, Laurens, Ellsworth, Pickering, Huntington. Blue draft order is Adams, Jefferson, Lee, Hancock, Randolph. Red Draft Through Five Rounds- Mifflin PA, Benjamin Franklin PA, John Jay NY, Roger Sherman CT, Charles Wilson Peale PA. (3 of 5 are PA) Laurens SC, Benjamin Lincoln MA, Charles Coatesworth Pinckney SC, John Rutledge SC, Alexander Martin NC. (3 of 5 are SC) Ellsworth CT, Thomas McKean DE, George Wythe VA, Robert Treat Paine MA, Benjamin Rush PA. Pickering MA, Jonathan Trumbull Jr CT, Robert H Harrison MD, John Lowell MA, Henry Middleton SC. Huntington CT, George Washington VA, John Adams MA, Henry Wilson PA, Caesar Rodney DE. Blue Draft Through Five Rounds- S Adams MA, James Sullivan MA, Hugh Williamson NC, Elias Boudinot NJ, James Warren MA. (3 of 5 are MA) Jefferson VA, Patrick Henry VA, Charles Scott KY, John Tyler Sr VA, George Mason VA. (4 of 5 are VA) R.H. Lee VA, John Dickinson PA, Josiah Bartlett NH, Thomas Tudor Tucker SC, Edward Telfair GA. Hancock MA, George Clinton NY, Thomas Crittenden CT, Moses Robinson VT, Meshech Weare NH. Randolph VA, Elbridge Gerry MA, Richard Caswell NC, John Sevier NC, Richard Bassett DE.