Ever since I played Nobunaga's Ambition on my Uncle's NES, I have been hooked on strategy games. Sadly, most of the genre revolves around World War 2. Then there is Battlegoat Studios, who specialize in more modern games. Their latest release focuses on 1949 onward and the cold war.
SRCW is a very deep sandbox type game. You take over all aspects of a countries government, from military to social spending. Don't worry too much about micro-management as there are AI ministers you can use for pretty much every task. It's hard to describe a game of this scope, so I'll post a little AAR (After Action Report) with pictures.
In this game I took control of Egypt. They are in an interesting location and have the resources to make an impact. My goal is to become the major power in Africa and kick out all external influences. In SRCW, the 2 major spheres (NATO and the Warsaw Pact) are competing for countries all over the world.
My first duty was to get my economy in working order. Exploiting my countries oil resources would be necessary. As you can see by the red circles, I have quite a bit to develop. There are 7 natural resources which can be found all over the world.
Next up, I took a look at my military. To start, Egypt lacked the capability to manufacture modern equipment. I don't really want to count on gifts from other nations or wait for my own technology to catch up. I ended up making a deal with the US for the design of the M4 A1 Sherman tank. It's an older tank, but one that I can mass produce. SRCW has an enormous amount of real world units, below is a sample.
Speaking of units, Supreme Rules Cold War allows for a huge amount to be in play. The screenshot below was taken of Korea. In my game, North Korea was conquered by the South, with the help of the US. China never came to their aid. Conversely, North Vietnam completely conquered their country with the help of China.
To the south of Egypt, Ethiopia and Eritrea went to war. Eritrea was still a colony of the United Kingdom, so they joined the war as well. I can't have the British interfering so I send several of my newly produced Sherman tanks to Ethiopia. They in turn halted the enemy advance and pushed into their territory.
Speaking of war, I wanted to get in on the fun. My neighbor, Libya, recently won their independence. Sadly, they had also started to fall under the influence of the Soviet Union, which I just cannot allow. I declared war and quickly made my way to their capital. Resistance was light since they had not much time to develop their own army.
Fight a war in SRCW is not just a matter of sending your units into their territory. Supplies are crucial and in the desert it can be a challenge. I built a number of Heavy Truck units to support my forces, but I still had to slow my advance so supplies from Egypt proper could catch up. In the end, despite putting up a tough defense in their capital, Libya was annexed.
My scientists are busy at work on a number of fronts. I am close to developing my own helicopter technology, and of course we are looking into the nuclear club. Nukes play a big part of this game, although they should not be used lightly. No one really wins in a nuclear war, as we learned from 80's movies.
I really only covered a small part of the game. The economy is very involved and there is also more to diplomacy and intelligence. The game is not without its flaws though. The AI is not quite up to speed yet, but Battlegoat has release a couple of patches already. In the coming weeks/months the game should just keep getting better.
