Written by: Toerana V
Edited by Islonia

Across December and January, a lot has happened in the land of Culture. We started off the month strong, with The Ambis starting off the month by taking us on a journey in our Gameside Choose your Own Adventure.

We decided to get into the Holiday Spirit over Christmas, giving the WFE a Christmassy makeover just in time for NationStates to go down, saving us all the pain of having to see the interesting makeover. Praise be the Administrative Team.

On New Years Eve was hosted a party with people from The East Pacific, The Free Nations Region and individual members from other regions who had nothing planned. Notable events include Libertanny/Serge getting drunk, Among Us taking over the drawings in Gartic Phone, accidentally playing the uncensored version of Cards Against Humanity, and more.

As for the Paradox Games; in Hearts of Iron IV, Cydoni’s Ethiopia held out against the Italian onslaught, eventually rolling them back into the Ocean, the British, lead by Altys took back the 13 Colonies (and a bit more) while Santa Marana’s Australia canibalised the navies of the nations conquered by Britain, ending the game with the second largest navy. Over in Europe, a dominant Snalland in France rolled the recovering German Empire, while in Asia the Guangxi Clique plotted to take over China (and badly lag the game with over 1500 Divisions deployed).

Heading into the Stars, these months also had their fair share of Stellaris Games, most notably the one hosted on December 17th for the NS Christmas Charity event which saw over 230 $US of donations. In January, we also saw newcomers to the Game Snalland and Obalostan destroyed by fanatical warmongering Aliens that host Toerana V accidentally force spawned. All in all, a good first game.

Time travelling back to the Middle Ages, we also saw Islonia's first Crusader Kings III Campain where his character was slightly past the regular points limit. While he united Ireland and Brittany into one realm with a hybrid culture, over in Britain Brototh (England) and Toerana V (Alba/Scotland) formed the Empire of Brittania, who then tried to woo the Irish into joining. Meanwhile, over in mainland Europe Creckelenney's Bohemia found itself annexed by a renewed Frankish Empire which collapsed not even a decade after.

Moving on to the ages of discovery in Europea Universalis IV, we saw Islonia's Britain and Creckelenney's Spain competing for colonial heemony while newcomer to the game Sma Cyrillic's Savoy went on to unify Italy. Naturally all collectively dunked on the French which played musical chairs with their personal unions. Over in Eastern Europe the Commonwealth ended up eating Muscovy and Hungary, becoming n°1 Great Power and scaring everyone else with their massive army.