National Focus

How it works

Time and money

There's no upfront cost to start a focus — but every day it runs, it costs 1 political capital, and it simply pauses if you can't afford that. A short administrative measure might finish in a month; a major legislative push can take four. Once it resolves, it can shift your political direction, change how other countries see you, move relations with a whole ideological bloc, unlock technology, sway a faction, or reveal focuses that weren't visible before — and which of those happens can depend on your country's exact situation the moment it finishes.

How it works

Not every tree is always available

Hidden trees

Some trees aren't shown at all until the right moment — a defense-of-Formosa tree only appears once the Taiwan Strait is actually under threat.

Locked focuses

A tree can be visible but not yet usable, waiting on an earlier focus or event to open it up.

Closing windows

Trees tied to a specific historical moment close once that window has passed.

Content

What opens over time

The United States is pulled in five directions at once — domestic politics, civil rights, covert intelligence work, the alliance system, and the military-and-space race — with separate trees for the Fair Deal, the mid-fifties, postwar recovery, European alliances, containment in Asia, the New Look defense doctrine, and a dedicated Korean War tree.

The Soviet Union starts inside a one-party state pulled between its own competing centers of power — the party apparatus, party hardliners, the security services, the military, industrial planners, and reformers — with trees for postwar reconstruction, the thaw of the mid-fifties, the socialist bloc, the nuclear and space race, and a fast-moving Warsaw Pact tree that only opens once NATO admits West Germany.

Other national trees and shared nuclear-age content become available on their historical schedule as the campaign advances.

Design choices

Episodes, not a full board on day one

Rather than handing you every possible path from the start, trees open and close on their historical timing — you live through moments rather than picking from an always-open menu. The Korean War, which begins in 1950, is the clearest example: for the United States it's a dedicated, time-limited tree with real branches — accept an early ceasefire, push to the Yalu and try to unify Korea, or escalate after China intervenes — and whichever you choose leaves a lasting mark on your country's politics and strategy.