We are the people!
We played Wir sind das Volk! for the second time on Sunday as a learning round (this time two decades). I am still enthusiastic, Juliana is still a bit hesitant, but she likes it too. The second time went much better for the East, the economy there was struggling but functioning and sustainable for the two decades - whether it would have survived the next decade is rather doubtful, because Juliana was able to drastically boost the economy in the West and I couldn't keep a federal state at a low economic level this time. It's exciting when you see the board with all the economic connections and the clear difference between East and West becomes apparent - for example, in my case a socialist stronghold in Mecklenburg-Pomerania because mass unrest kept breaking out there, central economic concentrations in Brandenburg, Berlin, and Saxony. The West is definitely easier to play, as you can primarily focus on economic development there and only occasionally throw a spanner in the works (economically) with suitable events, while the East constantly has to fight against collapse and scrap together its economy from the strangest corners, fighting growing unrest in the population with ideology and suppression. We probably only made minor mistakes in the first decade with the republic flight (there, it is alternately decided which economy disappears), otherwise the two decades ran very smoothly - which speaks for a clear rule system. The decade-end phase also went more smoothly, even though this part really seems a bit fiddly - but since you go through a checklist there, you can hardly forget anything. However, it is a small lull in the flow of the game, especially because you go through the checklist according to the instructions at the beginning (there are practical graphic checklists on BGG, which are - if you know the whole thing quite well - probably much faster than going through the text).