A Small Republic Between Two Superpowers

In 1945, the United States and Soviet Union already dominate the world. Your newly established republic has little industry, few trained people and no claim to power. Third Bloc is a text-based political and state-management sandbox about closing that gap. Build factories and research facilities, recruit scientists, obtain technology abroad and bargain with governments far stronger than yours. Over 90 turns, the republic can develop a space program, build nuclear weapons and stop living on terms set in Washington or Moscow. You begin as an irrelevant poor state and can finish as a third power. Major launches, landings, weapons tests and failures play out in detailed animated ASCII.

Build the Republic

Your budget is small, trained staff are scarce, and the country needs almost everything. You decide where the money goes, assign people to facilities and choose one major national project each turn. Facilities support industry, research and the programs that come later, but they all draw from the same pool of state capacity.

Building an observatory can delay a factory. Preparing a launch can leave the power grid waiting. Staff tied to one facility are unavailable elsewhere, and a failed project can cost both trained people and time. The republic cannot develop every branch at once. You decide what it can afford now and what has to wait.

Send Agents Abroad

Your republic does not begin with a catalogue containing every modern technology. Recruit named agents, each with individual stats, and send them into countries that already have what you need. Each agent can carry out one operation per turn. They can build contacts, investigate foreign programs, find and recruit scientists or specialists, or pursue opportunities to acquire technology and technical knowledge. Some knowledge can be obtained openly. Some has to be stolen.

Many advanced facilities only become available after an agent finds the right expertise, plans or personnel abroad. Securing that knowledge makes construction possible. The state still needs money and trained staff to build the facility. With one action per agent each turn, the opportunity you pursue abroad can decide which part of the republic develops next.

Play Both Sides

The United States and Soviet Union are larger, richer and years ahead in technology. Both can offer aid, and both expect something in return. You may accept a demand, reject it, negotiate for better terms or use the rivalry between them to solve an immediate problem. Moving closer to one side can bring useful support. Pulling away later may be much harder.

Official diplomacy is only one part of your dealings abroad. Agents search the same countries for people and knowledge, while defectors, disputes and new opportunities arrive through events. Non-aligned states provide other partners, and a republic with enough capacity can eventually leave its patrons behind and establish a bloc of its own. Many of these exchanges reach your desk by telegram.

Race Into Space

The space program grows through 23 missions and capabilities. Early work begins with probes and basic flights, then moves into orbit, landings and crewed missions. The Moon and Mars are major steps, with farther destinations available as the republic develops the facilities and knowledge needed to reach them.

Space uses the same budget, experts and one-project-per-turn capacity as industry and nuclear development. Spending a turn on a probe can delay a power station. Assigning scientists to a mission leaves fewer people elsewhere. The United States and Soviet Union continue their own programs while you prepare yours, so waiting can extend their lead.

Build the Bomb

Nuclear development is a long, expensive program with several stages. Research, testing and delivery capability consume turns and tie up personnel needed elsewhere. Each advance also changes how foreign governments deal with you, bringing demands and warnings as the program becomes harder to ignore.

Once the weapon and its delivery system are complete, you can issue a nuclear order. There is no combat minigame after that choice. There is an order, a target and an ending.

Your Decisions Come Back

The State Telegraph Office carries the written side of the campaign. Defectors request asylum. Scientists ask for support. Foreign governments answer negotiations, ministries report accidents, and an agent operation may create a problem that needs a decision.

Some matters are settled with one reply. Others return several turns later. A government can refer to an old agreement, a delayed answer can arrive after your plans have changed, and a decision that looked minor can alter a later event. Hundreds of telegrams cover reports, demands, decisions and follow-ups across the 45-year campaign. Together, they leave a dated record of how the republic was run.

45 Years in 90 Turns

Reach 1990 and the final report records what the republic built, how far its programs reached and which powers it still depended on. Bankruptcy can end the campaign earlier. A nuclear order can end it much faster.

• A 90-turn campaign running from 1945 to 1990
• 40 development facilities
• 23 space missions
• A multi-stage nuclear program with major end-state consequences
• Named agents and foreign intelligence operations
• Hundreds of telegrams and events with decisions, consequences and delayed callbacks
• Relations with the United States, Soviet Union and non-aligned states
• Detailed animated ASCII success and failure cinematics