I had a fever dream in which I imagined the USA lead up to the American Civil War being reworked to this concept. I admit fully I cannot program it, nor did I particularly re-write the lore, and it may not be very good besides.

Note I use USA instead of FEDs throughout this.

Here is my idea:

ACW: The premise isn't that there isn't four parties. It's that the CSA has infiltrated the Republicans, and Huey Long's every man a king cult has created problems for the democrats, and they are trying to initiate a hostile take-over of the Democrats.

Choose Party at Start: Democrats or Republicans.

Repubs have Theo. Roosevelt Jr set up to run as president 1936.

He has a huge scandal. Republicans are doomed if they run him. And they may be doomed anyway. This is the equivalent of the Teapot Dome scandal, only pushed back to 1936 at the worst possible time.

They must choose a new candidate, Olson, Alf Landon, or Herbert Hoover, for an unprecedented third term.

1. If Hoover is picked, the syndicalists revolt. They have enough support from fed up republicans to put forth their own candidate: John Jack Reed. His VP will be Quentin Roosevelt as a show of a nod toward the old order. (He makes a good show of tearing down his brother in public and still has a good image, not being involved in the scandal at all, similar to FDR, though in a quicker time frame.)
2. If Olson is picked, he will attempt to approach the Democrats for a combined run ticket, with John Nance Garner as VP. If selected, the election is only Republican Olson vs. Democrat Huey Long.
3. If Landon is picked, he chooses unassuming Norman Thomas as his VP to satisfy the syndicalist republicans. There is acceptance from the syndicalists, but some nervousness from the others.

Democrats always run John Nance Garner as a Business Southerner with the best chance against Long, but Long has a trick up his sleeve. Garner will have to play a minigame against Long, or Long will steal control of the democrat party and votes for the democrats go to Long instead. There is no way to play as 'Long,' in this game the player has to choose to play as Long in the civil war start. Or there's a 'secret path' where Huey Long can become the HoS of the USA.

The election campaign begins: a little minigame.

It rotates between campaigning, heading off other campaigns, and attempting to stop Huey Long from accomplishing dirty tricks. Huey Long is treated like the 'fail state' guy in the German run for the conservatives. If he gets too much power, watch out.

In the end, it comes down to several outcomes and percentage points represented as regions in the minigame, as well as a percentage point for Huey Long's influence. Here are the possible results:

1. If Huey Long's is forced out of the party (his influence reaches negative or 0%) or his dirty tricks are under a particular threshold while the democrats control enough regions, the Democrats win.

2. If the Republicans get more control than the democrats, then they win. The republicans don't need to worry about Huey Long as long as he doesn't take over the Democrat party outright, though they can spend PP to help the democrats fend him off if they're feeling generous, because they can see the "Huey Long's infiltration of the Democrat party," minigame bar, too. The republicans must take more regions but don't have to concentrate so much on Huey Long's infiltration. Therefore, it's easiest to play as Olson, since then they don't need to worry about a Long fail-state at all. Long is the Democrat candidate and the minigame is only about campaigning and undermining influence. (This can lead to a 'secret path'.)

3. If Huey Long gets too much power over the democrats, he will create mass confusion by declaring himself the leader of the Democrat party and its true candidate. He will set up and pressure democrat electors to vote for him instead of Garner. This will cause so much confusion that the 12th amendment kicks in when the election is done. If this happens, the player can pick if the Democrats or Republicans win, but at a huge stability/political power hit that will hit the USA during the war. "Huey Long undermined the constitution," or something. (This can potentially be advantageous if you want to play a CSA though.

Whatever party gets in power, the ACW will occur. The only thing that matters is which party got into the White House. That determines who has the advantage and can get the advantages.

1. If the Democrats win, they will try to suppress Long and compromise with the Republicans. They'll deal with a series of choices that can hold off disaster. Meanwhile, focuses for planning militarily for the war can be taken. Since Garner is the only choice, this is the most straight-forward, contrasting with the Republican game. They have a timer that indicates "Both Syndicalists and Longists are fed up."

If the Republicans win, it depends on which faction won:

1. If the Olson-ites won, they can make decisions to try to undermine Huey Long's influence, while dealing with a gauge called "Huey Long's impatience" which can only be dealt with by passing legislation he likes. Eventually this will fail because he will draw a line in the sand and say "Pass Every Man a King, or it's over!" There's no way to stop the clock from running out.

2. If Landon won, they have a minigame about how to pacify Huey and the Democrats while maintaining the alliance between the syndicalists and the rank and file republicans. Due to Landon and Thomas's conciliatory nature, there is no military planning focuses. They can instead lower Huey Long's influence and the military's influence by attracting his followers that 'Every Man a King' is basically a syndicalist plan, and Long wants a militaristic coup that will destroy American lives. The timer is: "Kick out the syndicalists, or we riot!"

3. If Reed's faction won, they have a minigame which is set between "campaign for Syndicalist values and programs" that can be set in various states. Or they can actively sabotage the US military, removing mils and stockpiles the USA will get later. The "campaigning" choices will make sure that states flip to Syndicalist. The army choices weaken the USA military. They have two 'time down clocks', either 'hard liners demand we pass syndicalist legislation!' or 'the military is catching on to our sabotage!' The war will be faster for them as there's two time-limit bars to monitor.

Then there's the Kingfish, which is sort of a 'secret path' because it involves Olson losing.

If Huey Long won via getting him as the democrat candidate via Olson's grand bargain, and then the republicans losing to him, Huey Long has the simplest minigame. He has one timer. He has 'purge disloyal democrats' on one side, and 'subvert gridlock' on the other. Each press lowers democrat control, meaning more states will flip to him at war start. These presses do not cost political power, they lower the time clock. When the time clock is zero, he gets the event "Disloyal democrats are gone! The supreme court is subverted! Pass every man a King!" He has focuses to persuade/bully the military into joining him (Get southern generals like Patton, who will otherwise go to another faction), scale back the clock a little, and use the justice department to purge syndicalist influence, hurting the CSA.

So, here are the results:

1. Huey Long won: A four-way war. Huey Long attempts to pass his bill but an entire revolt breaks up, with even his 'loyal' democrats revolting. He orders the military to step in, and depending on how many generals he got on his side, they either take Washington DC and Virginia or force Long to flee back to just his usual states. The most potential to make the AUS into a powerhouse from day one by getting the military and taking territory on the AUS's side, while also weakening the USA and CSA.

2. John Nancer Garner won: A three way war. Democrats, vs CSA and AUS. If Garner passed enough focuses and decision that allowed them to prepare militarily: Douglas MacArthur becomes the HoS. The idea is ostensibly Garner is the Commander-in-Chief, but he is going into an undisclosed location and delegated all power to MacArthur to defend the Union. MacArthur's orders are Garner's orders in absententia. At the end of the war, Douglas MacArthur will ALWAYS step down and bring back Garner, who is very much alive. USA starts militarily the strongest.

3. Olson won: Two way war. USA vs. AUS. The more they undermined the AUS, the less states flip. But the AUS gets military bonuses and generals, leaving the USA weak militarily at first.

4. Landon and Thomas won: Three way war. CSA vs USA and AUS. However, in a switch, the CSA faction has rallied around Landon and Thomas as the 'true presidents', with the notion that Landon and Thomas have proven that worker and capitalist can work together in calm, pacifistic, conciliatory unity. They have the best capacity to sandwich in the USA and then destroy a weak AUS, but the trade off is the USA and AUS are stronger militarily, so they're hoping the USA and AUS fight each other first. If this is the result, Douglas MacArthur will become the HoS of the USA. If the USA wins, MacArthur will take power as a dictator, disillusioned with American democracy and outright betrayal of the president. When the CSA wins, the CSA becomes the USA again, and the Midwest starts out cored and pacified. (If you lost to the Long Failstate, it follows you to the CSA in this path.)

5. Reed and Quentin Roosevelt win: Four way war. The CSA has the most capacity to weaken the USA and spread to acquire the most core states to start. This has the trade off that they can be overextended. Quentin Roosevelt will flee and become HoS of the USA, with the rather stupid justification that John Jack Reed 'died' when he betrayed America, making Roosevelt who was the VP now the President. His rallying cry is "Where's Reed now? I don't see him anywhere. He must be dead, so I'm president. ...And if, in fact, Reed is not dead now, he sure soon will be!" - (From what we know about Quentin's personality, he was reckless and sorta acted on impulse, though jovial. So this makes a lot more sense than partnering him with Olson.)

Disclaimer that the NE can develop normally.

And here we have the basis for a new way the ACW can develop. Rather convoluted, and I can't say I'm qualified at programming any of this, but I wanted to present it as a 'brainstorm'. Especially with keeping the general 'feel' or 'vibe' of the current ACW as still true in a rework. MacArthur can still be HoS, but it requires real effort, and you have to decide if you want him as a civilian HoS or as a dictator HoS before the fact. No weird "he just chooses one."

I'll admit, there's nothing about the PSA or NE, but they're more an afterthought and should only exist as something for the CSA or AUS to mop up or for Canada to support.

I have played a fair few runs of Ukraine, from authoritarian to socialist, and every single one of them feels frustrating to the point of not being a lot of fun.

That isn't to say there is no fun in it to be had, figuring out the best way to revolt, the best methods of keeping your coalition together, balancing things like idealism with the practicality of what is facing you. It's all great in it's own way. But then you add it all together and it just feels like getting kicked in the nuts for 4 hours straight.

I think part of the issue is the extra long periods of some of the events, and how sometimes certain events just won't fire when you require them to. You require so much political power through almost all of the early and into the mid that you can't do anything but select events. hundreds and hundreds of points to try and keep your party from splitting, to keep the coalition together, to get your reforms, that by the end you are well below any of your surrounding nations.

Which I think is really my main issue. Doing well at these little political games... doesn't really make you stronger if you do them well. Sure you get some buffs here and there to your economy, but because you have been forced to focus on those events, you are only just barely keeping stride with other majors. Your military is still a backwater, which means you have a few months, maybe half a year to get cracking on that part of the focus tree to even have a hope at standing up to Russia. It all feels so intensive that by the time you are finally able to look outside of just your mission tree... the world has kinda passed you by.

Am I missing something? Am I getting lost in all the minor systems that I have been blind to the best way to do things? Or is it actually as unrewarding and frustrating as I think it is? I am fully open to the idea that I am just an idiot and wrong.

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