The situation in 2000
Heydar Aliyev rules Baku on the Contract of the Century: Caspian oil, pipelines west and a fund that grows every month. Karabakh, with its Armenian majority, is still Azerbaijan's, and Yerevan still wants it.
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8.0m
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10
Resources
Air force
30 aircraft
- Fighters30
Ideologies and leaders
In power on 1 January 2000: Heydar Aliyev (New Azerbaijan Party). Every leader below can come to power in TND, through the elections, coups and roads of its focus tree.
Democratic
Isa Gambar
Liberalism
Musavat
Ali Karimli
Liberalism
Ilgar Ibrahimoglu
Conservatism
Communist
Ramiz Ahmadov
Marxism
Azerbaijan Communist Party
Fascist
Isgandar Hamidov
Fascism
Grey Wolves / Bozkurt Party
Movsum Samadov
Khomeinism
Non-Aligned
In power, 2000 Heydar Aliyev
Despotism
New Azerbaijan Party
Ilham Aliyev
Despotism
Mehriban Aliyeva
Despotism
Rasul Guliyev
Neutrality
Safar Abiyev
Despotism
Shah Ismail III
Absolute Monarchy
The focus tree
Azerbaijan's own tree has 268 focuses. It opens with The Autonomous Region, The Contract of the Century, The Crash Comes to Baku, The Azerbaijani Armed Forces, The Balanced Policy, The Azerbaijani People and more. By kind: political (155), historical (123), industry (74), army xp (39). Taking every focus, one after another, would take about 39 years - the roads are exclusive, so a playthrough sees only part of it.
Drag to pan, Ctrl + scroll to zoom, click a focus for its description and rewards. Focus names in the guides below jump to it.
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Path guides
How to reach each of Azerbaijan's roads. The same guides are in game, as free decisions in the Azerbaijan Path Guide category.
The Election of 2003
How Azerbaijan's politics begin:
- Play Heydar Aliyev's last years from : the parliamentary election of 2000, the Council of Europe, Elchibey's death and the Popular Front's split, Nardaran, the Nakhchivan men and , and Heydar's heart. No focus is tied to a date.
- needs every line of these years finished.
- Then choose the road: Ilham Aliyev (historical), the Popular Front returns, the colour revolution, Rasul Guliyev's exile, the Karabakh war government, or the Islamic Party. The first focus of each changes the government and the President. The other roads disappear.
opens the colour revolution's road; opens the Islamists'. Elections are called by focus, never by the calendar. With historical focuses on, the AI follows Ilham Aliyev.
The Oil Fund
The petrostate:
Oil money is a resource, shown in the Oil Fund decisions: the fund (in billions of dollars) fills every month by the oil income, which the oil branch raises - the Contract of the Century, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, , the boom - and the crash of 2008 cuts.
The family spends it: the army (the Oil Army, Israeli drones, Ukrainian tanks, the army budget), the elections and loyalty (buying the opposition, the parliament of 2005, the referendum of 2009), the Flame Towers and the building programme, and every prestige project of the Land of Fire each cost oil money and need the fund to hold it. Five decisions spend it too: Buy Loyalty, Buy the Vote, Arms Purchases (towards War on the Karabakh front), , and Invest the Fund Abroad (more income).
The Karabakh Front
The signature mechanic, shared with Armenia:
No war was fought: Karabakh is ours, an autonomous region with an Armenian majority, and Armenia claims it. One bar between War and Peace, the same on both sides, in the Karabakh Front decisions. Armenia's choices move it too.
At 70 towards Peace, offers Yerevan a settlement (refused offers can be made again); Armenia may offer its own. A settlement closes the front for both and opens the Meghri railway.
At 40 or less the autonomy can be abolished; at 25 or less, the Zangezur Ultimatum gives a war goal on Armenia, once the world is tense enough.
Azerbaijan in the World
Foreign policy:
The balanced policy: one nation, two states with Turkey (and Baku's willingness to hear Turkey's Turan), GUAM and Georgia, Washington, Russia's radar, the Caspian's status, Iran and Israel.
When Russia's Gathering of the Lands reaches Georgia, Azerbaijan can send gas and rifles.
Ilham Aliyev
The historical road:
The oil flows, the family business, the opposition crushed, the army bought with oil money and the referendum of 2009.
needs every line: Ilham's third term (historical) or Mehriban Aliyeva.
Three towers on the hill above the bay may give the President an idea.
The Islamists
The Islamic Party's road:
Open it with : Movsum Samadov wins in 2003. The mosques and the sharia courts, Tehran's friendship, Nardaran's guard and the oil for the poor.
needs every line: Samadov's Islamic Republic or Ilgar Ibrahimoglu's Islamic democrats.
A pilgrimage to Ardabil may meet someone unexpected.
The Popular Front Returns
Elchibey's nationalists:
Open it by choosing the road at the election of 2003. Isa Gambar leads the Front back to the palace: Elchibey's books, the Latin script, one Turkic nation, the Atlantic door and the Karabakh pledge.
The contested election needs every line of the Front's years; then Gambar's re-election or the dissidents' republic.
The Colour Revolution
The street, not the votes:
This road is shown from the start and opens when the regime is weak (an event fires when stability falls under half) or when unite the democrats. Then Ali Karimli leads the Azadliq bloc into the palace on the square's count.
The coalition needs every line; then a liberal majority or a split coalition.
Rasul Guliyev's Oil Exile
The exile returns:
Open it by choosing the road at the election of 2003. Rasul Guliyev comes home from Washington with the Shirvan clan and Western oil money: the ministries, the press, the Caspian and the gas.
The managed election needs every line; then the exile as President or his clan's regent.
The Karabakh War Government
The generals rule:
Shown from the start, but available only once the Karabakh front has turned towards war (30 or less). Safar Abiyev's committee takes the palace: the front, the officers, the barracks economy and non-alignment.
The plebiscite needs every line; then Abiyev as President or the Council of Generals.
Something Hidden
Some roads are hidden:
Inside Ilham Aliyev's road, the Flame Towers; inside the Islamists', the shrine at Ardabil. Each opens from inside one road and replaces it. Only one hidden road can open. The AI never takes one when historical focuses are on.
Mechanics
How Azerbaijan's own systems work. In game: the Azerbaijan: Mechanic Guide decisions.
The Oil Fund
Oil money is a resource: the State Oil Fund, in billions of dollars, shown in decisions. It starts almost empty and fills every month by the oil income.
The oil branch raises the income - the Contract of the Century, Azeri-Chirag-Guneshli, Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan, , the boom - and the crash of 2008 cuts it.
The family spends it: the big focuses of the army, of buying elections and loyalty and of the Land of Fire's prestige each cost oil money and need the fund to hold it. Decisions spend it too: Buy Loyalty, Buy the Vote, Arms Purchases (towards War on the Karabakh front), , and Invest the Fund Abroad (more income later).
How to play it: build the income first; the expensive focuses wait for a full fund.
The Karabakh Front
In this world there was no Karabakh war: the Caucasus left the Soviet Union peacefully in 1987, and Nagorno-Karabakh is still an autonomous region of Azerbaijan with an Armenian majority, which Armenia claims. The quarrel is a front of a colder kind - committees, militias, blockaded roads and talks without end.
Where it is: the Karabakh Front decisions. Armenia and Azerbaijan each have a bar between War and Peace, and every change made by either country moves both bars by the same amount, so they always read the same.
What moves it: towards Peace, the Minsk Group's talks, open roads and money for Stepanakert's schools (Armenia) or oil money for Stepanakert (Azerbaijan); towards War, rallies and parades, closing the Lachin road, arms purchases and the militias of both trees' focuses.
What it does: at 70 towards Peace either side can offer a settlement (Armenia's Key West Principles, Azerbaijan's ). A refused offer can be made again by decision. A settlement closes the front for both countries for good, and opens the Meghri railway.
Towards War: at 40 or less Azerbaijan can abolish the autonomy; at 25 or less Armenia's Miatsum gives a war goal for Karabakh and Azerbaijan's Zangezur Ultimatum a war goal on Armenia - but only once the world is tense enough. Armenia, holding Karabakh, can then proclaim the Republic of Artsakh or unite it with Armenia.
How to play it: Peace pays slowly and safely; War is a gamble on world tension and on who has the bigger army. Watch what the other side's decisions are doing to the shared bar.