Level 2 · 1 March 1915
The Censor's Scissors
- Turns
- 12 turns, a week each
- Map
- 20 districts
Chapter 7: Home FiresSealed so it does not spoil the story for you.Break the seal
The Revolution
A new satirical weekly, its two cartoonists and one stubborn pacifist. Every Voices unit that prints out of the censors' reach moves Opinion toward you: win 15 Opinion from Voices before the twelfth week. A Censor Bureau blanks the Voices in its district and in one neighbour, the busiest; Satirists and the paper slip past it half the time.
Objective
Opinion +15 in total from Voices units, despite the Censor Bureaus
Stars
- Win the level
- Win within 9 turns
- No Satirist arrested
The game's hint Keep your writers moving away from the Bureaus: each office covers one neighbour, the one with most of your Voices. One paper, three Satirists and one Speaker at most: 1915 is not yet a movement.
- Won
- Paris reads the paper
- Lost
- Paris stays united
The Law
The censors decide what Paris reads. Keep the Sacred Union at 70 or more at week 12. Censor Bureaus blank the Revolution's Voices in their district and one neighbour; patriotic rallies (Sacred Union +4, once a turn) answer the casualty telegrams, which cost 3 to 10 each.
Objective
Sacred Union 70 or more at turn 12
Stars
- Win the level
- Already meet the objective by turn 9
- No paper closed
The game's hint Put Bureaus where the writers are; each office reads the busiest neighbouring presses, week by week. Arresting a Satirist costs the Revolution its clean win. Rally the city every turn: telegrams keep coming.
- Won
- Paris stays united
- Lost
- Paris reads the paper
Events
News that reaches both sides during the level. Each side answers for itself.
Blank columns
The censor's scissors leave white spaces in every newspaper. Readers have started guessing what was cut.
The Revolution
What happensThe press −5 toward the Law
The Law
What happensThe press −5 toward you
Gas at Ypres
A green cloud over the trenches in Flanders. A new kind of war.
The Revolution
What happensSacred Union −6
The Law
What happensSacred Union −6
A new weekly
A satirical weekly appears, with a duck on its masthead and nothing a censor can quite forbid.
The Revolution
What happensPacifists and satirists loyalty +5
The Law
What happensPacifists and satirists loyalty +5
After the level
After level 2 · 1 June 1915
The Blank Columns
The Revolution
The censor cut half of this week's issue. The printers ask what to set in the empty space.
- Print the blanks as protest artOpinion +5
- Go undergroundDeserters' networks loyalty +10
The Law
Every paper in Paris came out with white columns this morning. The minister asks whether the scissors are doing more harm than good.
- Loosen the censorshipLegitimacy +5A lasting change for the Revolution
- Tighten itPolice and censors loyalty +10
This level's booklet page
The Censor's Scissors
By 1915 the newspapers came out with white columns where the censor had cut. Paris learned to read the blanks.
If the Revolution won
The satirical weekly got through, and the city laughed at things it was not allowed to mourn.
Otherwise
The censors held the line, and the Sacred Union held with them.
If the Revolution chose “Print the blanks as protest art”
The paper printed its blank columns as protest art, and collectors framed them.
If the Revolution chose “Go underground”
The paper went underground and printed in cellars.
If the Law chose “Loosen the censorship”
The government loosened the scissors a little, and gained some credit for it.
Otherwise
The government tightened the censorship, and the police were glad of it.