About how long do we expect this game to last? The game lasts about 5-6 months typically. The UN voting starts in year 10, so it's a minimum of 18 weeks, with 2-4 weeks afterwards if nobody succeeds on the first chance of UN voting.

Rules question: do Nukes disband the same as armies? That is, do they just retreat to an empty adjacent province? No, Nuke units cannot retreat. If they do not fire and are dislodged by a conventional unit, they are destroyed. Keep in mind that while nukes have a movement/holding strength of 0, they can be supported.

One question I do have is I want to double check that the only way of winning is by UN vote where all three voted on countries win equally.This is correct, that is the only way to win. You cannot win a solo victory. 3/44 is a lower % than 1/7 anyways :)

Are the grey dots that start off colored in a country’s colors neutral SCs? Yes, all grey dots are neutral SC’s, the coloring in of spaces represents present-day borders and is purely for aesthetics’ sake. Additionally, all votes count as a SC unless that SC is destroyed by nukes, in which case they keep the Vote but no longer count as an SC (white Star)

Is this public press/private press? Does press occur via email or on redscape? Private press - each players' email address will be posted once the game starts. You are welcome to post public press in the forum or as a mass email if you would like as well though.

I have a question about this code of conduct thing. I take it this is just intended to prevent anybody from repeating any of the egregious scandals that went on rather than a blanket ban on discussing other players and their playstyle/personality quirks ? I don't have a problem playing with any of the other players no matter what our history may have been. As you may recall, I had a pretty spectacular falling out with [REDACTED] a couple of games back but then or the next game we ended up being fairly close allies and forgot all about it. With that said though, it's sort of inevitable when you're talking to other players to share what you know about some of the other guys in the game(this guy is a great player, this guy isn't trustworthy, this guy can be an @#$! but can be worth working with etc). Would this fall under your policy, because if so it's going to be tricky to police and quite restrictive.
It's a blanket ban on discussing player styles. However, in the example you gave, you are discussing something that happened in the game ([Redacted] being an @#$! to someone in THIS GAME). If someone does something that's in line with their style, you can make a passing comment like "yeah he's like that" or "yeah that's his style." However, basically my stance is that other players' styles and demeanor are not your information to give away. If they decide to do a different style, comments that gossip about what they were like in past games can rob them of that opportunity. If you were stab-happy in the past, it would be an extremely frustrating if in this game you decide to go with a style that is extremely loyal, but you can't because other players have been informed by 2-3 powers across the board that you love the stab and nobody trusts you now. So yeah, it's a blanket ban that's tricky to enforce. I don't think it's that restrictive though, there should be enough information about the way they are acting in THIS game for you to discuss. So if they act in their traditional way and someone mentions it to you, you can make a passing comment about it being their style or whatever, that is fine. However, that's not your information to give away - you shouldn't be actively gossiping about other players' styles, sending "scouting reports" in the first few seasons to their neighbors, or bringing up past scandals. It's just a benefit of the doubt thing. As long as you giving other people the benefit of the doubt and discussing things that have happened IN THIS GAME, you should be fine.