Oswin Humwald took a long drag from his cigarette before throwing it still lit to the floor. The 32 year old shivered as it fell to the ground. He could hear them inside as they counted the thousands of ballots that arrived two hours ago. Oswin had been pacing back and forth throughout the large school hall when one of his close friends told him to go outside, calm himself and have a smoke. When the Free Liberals had nominated him for the Witenagemot seat in Blaecshire a year ago no one expected him to mount a serious challenge. Edith Naefre had represented the seat for twenty four years. A veteran of the left wing Commonwealth Progress Party, the Blaecshire Daily had given her a 87% chance of victory only six weeks ago.

Captain Oswin Humwald had expected to return to his regiment in the next few days, but now there was a real chance he was going to become a Witan. The Liberal surge had changed everything. It had come after what Humwald considered a masterstroke. For decades left wing economic thinking had been the orthodoxy in Saeard. Even the Free Liberals had succumbed and they had been a largely centre-left party until recently, when the next generation had wrestled control of the party, and returned it to its truly liberal roots. Now they were offering a real alternative. And when Oswin had left the hall he was neck and neck.

'Okay.' Oswin turned and pushed the door. He waved to his fellows, those wearing yellow ties and rosettes, and walked towards Edgar Waegnwyrtha, the man who had run his campaign. Edgar was an old friend from University. He was a short man, probably the shortest man in the room, with medium length ginger hair. They had been roomates at University, and remained friends ever since. He was furiously scrolling through his phone as he saw Oswin arrive.

'We just took the CCP seat in Eashire. And we're up eighty seats in the Folkmoot! It's fucking amazing. We could be up 150 seats by the end of the night.' Others around him were giddy with excitement, but Edgar was as cool as ever. ''Oh, yeah, I almost forgot. We think you're in the lead.'' Edgar smiled slightly.

Oswin nodded. He wouldn't, couldn't, get his hopes up. He had done well though, and he was now guaranteed a safe seat in the Folkmoot or the Witenagemot next time round. That had been his goal from the outset. Time continued to tick by. One minute he would be in the lead, another his opponent. They were gaining certified reports from the hundreds. With 85 reporting he was six thousand votes ahead. His own count was won by him. Oswin gathered his team around him and grabbed an empty classroom. Someone made a pot of tea as they watched Blaecshire TV for up to date numbers.

It was two more hours before the announcement that would change Oswin's life forever. 'Here at Blaecshire, in an unpredicted turn of events,' his team began to cheer, 'we are ready to call the election for Oswin Humwald and the Free Liberals.'

Saeard Election 1587



Saeard went to the polls today to elect the 545 members of the Folkmoot, and a third of the Witenagemot. The elections are of monumental importance with the Saeardwalda (Head of State and Government) elections next year. The elections are also forecasted to be the most interesting for decades, with the traditional left wing parties increasingly under threat after further economic stagnation. The Commonwealth Party of Progress[i] and the [i]Worker's Party of Saeard have dominated Saeardish politics for almost three decades. No Saeardwalda has been elected without the endorsement of one of the parties for twenty three years, and together they have a super majority in the Folkmoot. On economic issues the two parties are hand in glove, they differ slightly on foreign policy, and there are significant differences on social issues. The Worker's Party being significantly more conservative.

The last elections were largely foregone conclusions, but over the last couple of years shire elections have witnessed the so called Liberal surge. The Free Liberals advocate privatisation, tax and spending cuts, and a drastically smaller government. The Free Liberals have tended to downplay their chances in the last week.  Edmund Fordstansson, a Free Liberal spokesman, said yesterday 'We're offering the Commonwealth a new way. The era of national owned unproductive industry, subsidies for failing businesses, and rampant inflation must end. And we will end it. But tomorrow is only the beginning. Talk of us winning the election is premature.'' When pressed by the Cyneford Reporter to state how many seats won would be a success in the parties eyes Mr. Fordstansson was cautious ''We are hoping to double, perhaps even more than double, our current number of seats (23), but again it will take a long time to unseat the old parties.'' Aldwyn Alberht, is credited by some as being the key reason for the upswing in support for the Free Liberals. A forty-seven year old former Lieutenant Colonel was elected Witan for Eashire two years ago, and since then has emerged as de facto leader of the party and their likely Saeardwalda candidate next year. He championed the stark move away from Saeard economic orthodoxy, advocating for reforms to implement the freest market possible.
The Greens and the Moderates are polling at comparable levels to the last election. A new party looks likely to enter the Folkmoot. The Saeard Alliance, a far right anti-immigration party has gained support in the eastern Shires. Interestingly Saeardwalda Torr Durwin (CPP) has said very little during the campaign season. His historically low approval ratings are likely the reason for this.
In the Witanegamot ten seat are up for grabs. Three belonging to the Worker’s Party, five the CPP, one for the Moderates, and one Independent.


Results

A shocking turn of events! The Free Liberals exceeded all predictions to finish second in the Folkmoot election.

Folkmoot


Worker’s Party – 212 (-20)
The Commonwealth Party of Progress – 96 (-67)
Greens- 20 (-22)
Moderates- 55 (-30)
Free Liberals- 158 (+134)
The Saeard Alliance- 4 (+4)

The Witenagemot

Worker’s Party – 9 (-1)
CCP – 9 (-4)
Moderate 4 (+2)
Free Liberals- 7 (+4)
Cyneford First – 1 (+1)

Commenting after the stark victory the Free Liberals enjoyed last night Witan Albehrt was visibly surprised. He thanked the people of the Commonwealth for their support, and promised the Free Liberals would continue to go from strength to strength. The CCP suffered a dramatic loss of support in the Folkmoot, and there were calls from some former Folkmoot Members for the Saeardwalda to resign. The Worker's Party lost twenty of their seats, but remained the largest party in the Folkmoot. Working together the Worker’s Party and their CCP allies should have little trouble passing the Saeardwalda’s budget in the Folkmoot, but could face trouble in the Witenagemot if they face rebellions from some of their Witans.[/i][/i]

I've half-assedly updated many of the smtrp scripts we have to hopefully close some funky stuff. But since I halfassed it, I have no idea if the lines I added broke something or not. So if you try to use a script, and it doesn't work as it's supposed to, lemme know in this thread so I can take a look at it.

This thread has been moved to the Directorate from the Bulletin Board. If you have any technical issues with the scripts, post here. This thread is /not/ for issues like "I DONT LIKE THE UPDATE" or "I WANT MOAR". That might be in another thread, it might not--doesn't really matter either way, really.

Kaaren, W. Kaljurand
0100 Hours - 12 Vintyr 1587

Hi,

We should play a Stellaris campaign. It'll be great. Let's set up a day and time to do it. Tell me when you're all free. Whee!

Oh yeah I have all the DLC. Except the Plantoids one.

Interested Peoples:

• Alvino- Weekends are best; generally free though.
  
• Blacaria- Off next week Tuesday and Friday
  
• Hahklallah- Weekends are best
  
• Mestra- Generally free in the evenings and weekends
  

8-11th of Alvan 1588
Kosorion, A town near the border of Achia

Residents were awoken for their peaceful sleeping to the sound of an explosion rocking the town. A ball of fire fell from the sky into the forest below. Soon after another explosion rocked the town. This time it took the train bridge. A frightened populace hid in their basement with no idea what goes on outside. Soldiers began arriving in the town to calm the populace and the set up defensive positions outside the town. Airforce jets launched from their airfields to patrol the skies, and the navy set its course towards Achia. The Arkianian's took one of their own and risked the lives of civilians to give the illusion that Arkiania was attacked by Achia. 3 Days later, Arkiania declared war.

The Royal Arkianian Airforce began launching aircraft to strike military targets in the mountains and in eastern Achia. Alongside the airforce, The Royal Arkianian Navy began striking naval and coastal military targets. The aim was the soften the Achian defense and give Arkianian aircraft free roam in the skies. After this, 2 Army Groups would begin pushing into Achian territory with the aim of occupying Eastern Achia and the Mountains, thus pushing the Achian forces toward the coast where they would be forced to submit.

Clan:
Clan Football:

Strategic bombing is a military strategy used in a total war with the goal of defeating the enemy by destroying its morale or its economic ability to produce and transport materiel to the theatres of military operations, or both. It is a systematically organized and executed attack from the air which can utilize strategic bombers, long- or medium-range missiles, or nuclear-armed fighter-bomber aircraft to attack targets deemed vital to the enemy's war-making capability. - wikipedia.

We need to have a serious discussion about strategic bombing in Siora, particularly given the absence of nuclear weapons and the ways this affects military doctrine.

Some would say that strategic bombing is obsolete, citing as an example the fact that it has not been employed in recent wars. I say that this is not true, that strategic bombing remains a viable and indeed, central element of a successful military campaign on the modern battlefield.

The argument that strategic bombing is obsolete, comes from some people's lack of understanding of the primary purpose of employing it and subsequently the lack of understanding in regards to the reasons it has not been used recently.

Strategic bombing in the modern sense is meant to take out enemy infrastructure and ability to produce new military equipment, as well as potentially destroy an enemy's economy by crippling trade routes and access to basic utilities such as running water, electricity, gas, etc. Its absence from the modern day RL battlefield is caused by the fact that most wars are either waged between 2nd and 3rd world countries, which do not have this military capability, or between 1st world nations and the latter categories. Since most 2nd and 3rd world nations do not have extensive military production capabilities and almost always rely on imported hardware, strategic bombing becomes unnecessary.

But if a war were to break out between two 1st world nations with extensive military industries, strategic bombing would once again be one of the most important (if not THE most important) elements of any military strategy.

In a modern war, strategic bombing would consist of a mixture of classic use of bombers, as well as cruise and ballistic missile barrages of varying scale. For example, Carpathia's doctrine regarding its use of a large arsenal of missiles, is part of the strategic bombing doctrine that I am using.

I am trying to make the case that strategic bombing should be something that 1st rate powers should take very seriously. What are your opinions on the matter?

1588 SIFA Women's World Cup Qualifying

The 1587-1588 SIFA World Cup Qualifying will decide the 23 teams which will be compete, along hosting nation Oslanburgan, for the title in the 1588 Oslanburg World Cup.

12 Brigidnan, 6 Ostaran, 2 Kvaennan, 1 Avidnan, and 2 Skathian teams will qualify directly.


HOST:
Oslanburg

BRIGIDNA:
Aurentine
Carpathia and Moldova
Eskkya
Florinthus
Gehenna
Kave
Keszaria
Kyrland
Lanlania
North Strathae
Ostland
Saratov

OSTARA:
Akitsu
Drubang
Jandrea
Kyrzbekistan
Svarna Surya
Zargistan

KVAENNA:
Arrenland
Hylis

SKATHIA:
Maurnnia
Nyland

AVIDNA:
Khibland