Grand Strategy Secret Government - you essentially play the Illuminati.

[Forest Dweller]

I saw this on Steam and didn't find a thread about it here. I'm curious if anyone's played it.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/946990/Secret_Government/

ABOUT THIS GAME​

Secret Government is a global strategy game about secret societies where you won’t rule countries as a king but as a kingmaker. You’ll lead the Brotherhood - an organization that juggles the whole world. The key feature of the game is the manipulation of powers. Instead of giving direct orders, the Brotherhood provokes countries into doing what the Brothers want.

Secret Government is a global strategy game about a secret society that has been discreetly ruling humanity for hundreds of years. You won’t lead any particular country, but the Brotherhood - an organization that manipulates the whole world.

The ultimate goal of the Brotherhood is a new world order. At the start of the game, you’ll choose the image of the world that you want to create as a Grand Master.

You will be sending your agents to various countries, looking for a way to recruit public servants and infiltrate power institutions.

You can manipulate one country or several at the same time using different combinations. You will be able to change the ruling power of the countries, their ideology, the well-being of estates, push countries to start wars or stop them.

All masters have their own unique features and abilities. You can choose what traits to develop, the way you want to develop them, and select the best brothers for a particular task.

Besides you, there is another global brotherhood that wants to change the world their way. This brotherhood recruits members of the government and manipulates countries too. You’ll often run into brothers in red robes, but don’t rush to attack them. Sometimes their actions can come in handy depending on the situation.

Act discreetly and carefully, otherwise, the government or another brotherhood will expose you.

You can’t attack a country in the game, but you can provoke war, peace, or alliance.

The well-being of the population and how wealthy the country can be depend on the economy. You can influence production, resource consumption by different estates or industries, and trade between countries.

Countries and people are alike. They are divided by estates, they have their own role in society, their own values and needs. They can be born, die, migrate and move from estate to estate. As long as you influence people, you’ll affect the country and its role in the world.

Everything is all connected in the game. For example, the shortage of steel for the production of weapons affects the combat power of the country. An attempt to increase the army to compensate for the decrease in combat power leads to the mobilization of peasants. A decrease in the number of peasants reduces the volume of food production, and this affects the extinction or migration of other estates, such as artisans. Artisans work in industries and produce luxury goods for export that replenish the country's treasury. As a result, any decision made triggers a chain of consequences. The art of the Grand Master lies in his ability to change the world in the right direction, balancing on the edge and taking into account all the connections.

You won’t be playing for a country, but juggling the whole world. There are two historical periods available in the game: 1685 and 1775, including the political and territorial division of those years.

If you’re still not ready to build your new world order in a free play, then you can try on the role of the Grand Master in story campaigns. There are two campaigns in the game at the moment: the glorious revolution in England and the struggle of the thirteen colonies for independence in the New World. In each game mission, you’ll interfere in the main conflict of the period and move the world in the same direction as it happened in real life or change the story in your own way.

You can carry out a cunning plan in the game​

You won’t be playing for a country, but juggling the whole world. Define the role of different countries in the new world order, infiltrate their governments and start changing laws. Like puppets, countries will fulfill your will.

​

indirect Impact On the Countries​

Countries act depending on the laws adopted in the country, the ideology of the ruling political party, its form of government, as well as military, public and economic policies. By manipulating them you will change the behavior of the country.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Has no one played this?

 

[Forest Dweller]

Faggots.

 

[Tigranes]

Looks cool. Did you? How was it?

 

[Forest Dweller]

I have not.

 

[Malakal]

I saw some stream or video review of this (don't exactly remember) and it was quite tedious and not very good honestly. Information may be not up to date tho.

 

[Raghar]

Well, I didn't like they didn't research society modifiers properly, and were not able to create proper simulation of world economies like Victoria 2 mixed with Crusader Kings 2. Basically the underlying engine isn't there.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I saw some stream or video review of this (don't exactly remember) and it was quite tedious and not very good honestly. Information may be not up to date tho.

Yeah, there doesn't seem to really be any good reviews of this game out. Everything labelled as "review" on Youtube is actually more a Let's Play where a guy starts a game. I made sure to dislike them for that.

There's also a wiki, but there's barely anything on it.

This obviously isn't as popular as Paradox games, or there'd be a lot more info out there.

 

[FriendlyMerchant]

This was the best game I ever torrented. Except I don't need a computer to play it.

 

[Forest Dweller]

This is on sale for $5 right now, fyi.

On Epic's store.

 

[Forest Dweller]

Alright, so I splurged and purchased it on Epic. I'm gonna turn this into a pseudo-Let's Play, but no promises on how much I update it.

Anyway, when starting a new game, there's two scenarios you can pick from what I assume are more guided experiences, and than a "free play" option for a more custom game. I went with the free play.

There are four parameters you get to choose from.



I decided to go with the objective of promoting global capitalism.




Some difficulty settings. Tried to make it as much "normal" as I could.



Country options:

Decided to start right in the heart of things. Wurzburg it shall be!


There's a bit of a tutorial when you start a game. Fairly brief though.



What I need to do in each country to achieve my goal of global capitalism. And then I'm assuming do this for enough countries to equal 50% of the world's population...

Does the rest of the world open up later? So far I'm confined just to Europe.

Okay, now that the tutorial is over, it's time to make my starting save.



FUCK. Apparently this game only uses an autosave feature. So glad to know that if I fuck up due to lack of experience I can't roll that back. Will it even create an exit save? I don't know.

Anyway...

Each country has classes, which each have wants and needs. Reminds me of Victoria.

The overall progress map mode. Apparently Poland-Lithuania, Austria, and England already have some more progress on that goal than Central Germany.



It looks like I'll gain passive income from a country's progress, but only if I have a lodge there. So maybe I should prioritize getting lodges in those countries?

On that note, the "expansion" map mode:



Looks like I can't get to them immediately. I'll need to work my way up to it somehow.

The country ideologies window:



Absolutism and Feudalism are dominant here. I'll have to change that somehow.

It looks like to get capitalism growing, I'll need to increase wealth and luxury for everyone, meet the condition of Security for all estates, and make sure the government doesn't own any industries. And I think I'll have the government too, to either a republic or a more restrictive monarchy.

There's also more in-depth tutorials I can pull up. I'll probably be referring to these as the game goes on.