We picked up at round 4 and played through to the end of round 6 (which is the game's maximum duration). No sudden victories.
In a blow for the Government (which is a coalition of SDP and Zentrum - my party) Gustav Stresemann died along with Ebert (the President). This led to voting for a new president. KPD had 9 seats in the Reichstag, Zentrum 3, DNVP 10 and SPD 3. After a few machinations KPD won the vote, and Ernst Thalmann was installed as president - a communist!
A successful demonstration was conducted in Essen and a counter coup in Leipzig all aimed at reducing the strengthen of the DNVP.
At the end of round 4 the SPD and KPD formed government. Zentrum was in opposition.
Black Friday struck (twice) and all that lovely prosperity that Zentrum had worked so hard to create started to evaporate. Worse the KPD forced Zentrum into supporting the brown shirts.
Then there was another change of government, this time DNVP and Zentrum with a right-wing chancellor.
A counter coup was tried in Berlin to supress the communists (there were a lot of them), but it failed.
The brown shirts take two seats in the Reichstag.
The communists establish a council in Hamburg, but a second counter coup in Berlin succeeds this time.
More brown shirts creep into the Reichstag (there are now four) and the government is deemed unstable.
The communists establish a council in Essen. At least Berlin is secure.
Deflation! Three more brown shirts occupy seats in the Reichstag bringing their number to seven. It is fair to say at this stage other members might be wearing brown pants.
The government crisis are devastating for Zentrum. There were three. The first one rolled a six, no effect. The next roll was a double one and the third roll a double one. Loss of VPs, seats and party bases.
The game ended with
In the above image red looks more pink and orange more red.
Now for a completely unbiased report from Richard (who played the SPD)
Turn 4
After a short recess, the Reichstag resumed. The Republic was in great shape with but a single poverty marker in the DR threat box and the shoots of prosperity were beginning to bear fruit. The difficult economic decisions of the Von Richard Government came at the cost of reduced party resources in the cities, which would soon reap a bitter harvest for the government parties.
The turn got off to a rocky start with the death of DVP leader Gustav Stresemann and with it the valuable re-roll ability.
With mourners still at the funeral, the news of the death of President Ebert sent alarm bells ringing through the government parties. A Presidential Election was afoot.
SPD and Zentrum were very exposed due to the low numbers of their Party bases which had been gutted in turns 1-3 due to multiple threat markers in the cities. This meant that it came down to 2 horse race between Ernst Thälmann of the KPD and Paul von Hindenburg of the DNVP. With both candidates having equal votes in the second round of ballots, the SPD and Zentrum would be the king makers. The rival candidates were offered the opportunity to make their pitch to the SPD and Zentrum who would decide the outcome. The DNVP mounted a negative attack campaign without any policy substance which did not impress the king making duo. A discussion ensued and a consensus was reached to support the KPD candidate, with the DNVP's higher VP tally and their propensity for chasing deals involving the NSDAP counting against them.
History is made with a Communist President!
With the excitement of the Presidential Election over, the SPD/Zentrum coalition settled into the difficult business of government.
A tightly focussed legislative agenda, picking up only key issues, the SPD was able to win the poverty issue and remove the last threat marker in the DR. It had never looked this good, bearing in mind the Republic had been teetering on the edge of anarchy a mere 2 turns previous. With the Reich in the best possible shape, it was hoped that this would be enough to weather the storms, political and economic brewing on the horizon.
With great inter departmental government co-ordination involving both Police and Reichswehr units, the Government parties were able to suppress unrest through Beer Halls which was followed up with counter coups removing the 2 DNVP Regime markers. That put a dent in the DNVP VP gravy train of the last few turns.
Now that the low hanging VPs was gone. the DNVP was mesmerized by the possibility of an easy 5 VPs if they won the Flag Dispute Issue with some NSDAP consequences. They chased it very hard and expended quite a few precious card plays, but a combined effort saw the KPD win the issue and they righteously took the single VP to avoid placing a base on the NSDAP track.
By the end of the turn the economy was on a high, with prosperity in multiple cites and zero regimes/councils.
Turn 5
The Wall Street Crash ushered in a new era. Would the Republic survive the winds of economic buffeting? A series of blows saw the economy retreat to immediate post war levels of activity and multiple threats appearing in the Deutsche Reich box. Luckily the cities were spared the brunt of the downturn with previously placed prosperity absorbing any drops to poverty.
All parties went about rebuilding their party bases and there was once again a flurry of activity on issues up for debate in the Reichstag.
In a surprise move the Reichspresident, controlled by the KPD, dissolved the government and a new left-wing government is formed with a KPD/SPD coalition. The SPD's von Richard was replaced as Reichskanzler by Herr Peter from the KPD, The Communists were now in control of the Presidency and Government! The Reichstag was now their only obstacle.
Von Richard, the former Reichskanzler could only look on bitterly as his life's work stood on the brink of collapse, with the Communists holding the two most important posts in the Reich and his power diminished with a junior coalition role in the government. Could it get any worse...?
Following elections, the make-up of the new Reichstag sees the DNVP and Zentrum as the largest possible coalition. Reichspresident Peter has to offer the possibility of forming a new government to the right wingers.
In a surprise move, Mark's Zentrum agrees to a coalition with the DNVP, with Herr Poskitt as Chancellor. Von Richard is aghast at his amazing fall from grace, with a vastly reduced presence in the Reichstag and now sitting on the opposition benches. Having worked so selflessly to steer the Republic would he now be tempted to sow the bitter seeds of recrimination using his commanding VP lead as a buffer to all comers? Short answer, JA!
Turn 6
The disaster of the Poskitt Government started to unfold immediately. They knew what was coming and still took up the reins of government. Before long there were KPD uprisings and councils sprouting up in the cities, unrest was fermenting in the cities, the economy retreated to crisis levels not seen since the armistice.
Speaking at a doorstop press conference at the Hotel Trumpf, former Chancellor Von Richard commenting on the lamentable performance of the Poskitt Government was heard to say, " that WOULD NEVER HAVE BEEN ALLOWED TO HAPPEN if I had still been chancellor.
Several cynical decisions allowed the NSDAP to gain a strong hold in the Reichstag, but in game terms these were easily absorbed as everyone had an eye on the looming end of the game and final scoring. Only Zentrum was truly innocent having his marker placed there by the KPD in a communist ruse, proving once again that you should never trust the communists. Exacting revenge on the new Government the SPD calculated on being able to manage the NSDAP and unleashed a series of crisis rolls on the government. This would ultimately cost Zentrum outright second place in the VP total.
Somehow the Poskitt government survived until the end of the turn and final politics phase was undertaken along with final scoring. With a Communist as President and the NSDAP as the largest party in the Reichstag democracy was on a knife-edge, but the Weimar Republic had survived!
What a roller coaster ride.
