Looking at ICBM Escalation got me brooding over Millennium Dawn. The Outlook system made sense but I never could quite buy into it, particularly because it went TDS mode about Populism (yeah, Trump - a saber-rattler on behalf of Taiwan and Israel - is totes in the same geopolitical alignment as Hussein). I walked through the logic of it and I came to this: all it needs, really, is just another two Alignments.
Alignments:
Globalism: Globohomo. Western, but the institutional kind of Western: cosmopolitan values, loyalty to globalist institutions, values and a sense of a common civilizational identity that is wholly Western of origin but is self-denying. The System of the World.
Western: Trumpian populism and similar movements elsewhere. Also wholly Western, not even always blood and soil (Trump isn't), but rooted in old nationalism. Here's the thing: Western nationalist movements are not predatory (who has Trump actually tried to conquer, besides dumb joking?) and usually sympathize with each other immensely. Ideologies don't always stop nations from preying on each other; Fascist Germany devoured Fascist Poland, Fascist Japan Fascist China, Communist Russia fought Communist Yugoslavia and China, China Vietnam, Vietnam Cambodia. Globalism as an Alignment is united, because it's institutional. Western is united because Viktor Orban is not going to invade Bolsonaro's Brazil. But Western is distinct from Globalist: it seeks to liberate from Globalism while also protecting against encroachment. It CAN go authoritarian but is usually sincerely democratic. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea, Singapore and company are Western in all practical sense.
Islamist: This is a broad category that can span anything from the more moderate, democratic Islamism of Erdogan to the hardest ISIS lunacy. What it has in common is that, like Western, it is a shared civilizational identity that is very aggressive. Not all politically Islamist governments fall within this Alignment; Iran is Russo-Revisionist, Saudi Arabia is a Western puppet even if its masses are Islamist and it actively promotes Islamist ideologies.
Russo-Revisionist and Sino-Revisionist: There's no inherent affinity between Russia and China, and I'm not convinced, given that, that they need to share an Alignment. Like how the orthodox world is a house divided between Western and Globalism, the revisionist world is a house divided between Russian and Chinese blocs. The Russian bloc traditionally held nations like Ukraine, Belarus, Cuba, an African Communist state here and there, Iran and Syria. The Chinese bloc is smaller - what, North Korea? - but promises to grow heavily at Globalism's expense in Africa.
Rogue State: Nations that do not fall into the Western-Islamist civilizational framework or a power bloc, but are still rabid dogs biting someone. Independent Revisionists, essentially. Hindutva promises to be this in India, Hussein was this in Iraq, Qaddafi I think could be said to have been this more than Islamist (more postcolonial than religious, prince of terror). They can chaotically swap coalitions; Hussein was once backed by America and then found himself an enemy of it.
Any of these Alignments could come into conflict. As is, there's a broad Globalist-Western bloc against Russo-Sino-Revisionism, and Islamism was once a third party that was strangled in the cradle. It's not unimaginable, though, that there could be civil war within; European/American Civil War between Globalism and Western, or a quarrel within Revisionism like the Sino-Soviet split playing out again, or these different coalitions combining. It's easy for me to imagine Globohomo bringing Chinese shock troops over as new Hessian mercenaries. Look at the streets of England today and you see that Globohomo already uses Muslim janissaries against Westerners. Big thing is there being more of a footing of institutional/great power blocs (Globalism and the two Revisionisms), Huntingdon-like civilizational clashes (Islamism and Western) and then these predatory wildcard powers. The rise of populism isn't new fascism like the fags that made Millennium Dawn think it is; it's the Springtime of Nations come again.
My condolences. I did that same mistake one time, but the game barely advanced and all that satellite bullshit put me off really fast.
On a completely unrelated note, what's the difference between ICBM and Command: Modern Air Naval Operations? Both appear to be spreadsheet simulators on top of Google Maps; but I'm curious about their gameplay. There is an irritating lack of Cold War strategy games that don't devolve into nukes and global domination - shit like small-scale confrontations, african shitholes flinging Migs against each other, the Iran-Iraq War...
ICBM is just DEFCON with a few more units, a tech tree and the bare minimum of an economy. If you've played Company of Heroes or Steel Division you're already familiar with RTS games that have fixed-force economies, like you come in with a budget, or you get a trickle, but you can't build an economy, you can only decide how you manage that. I didn't see anything in ICBM allowing for growing the GDP, just destroying it. But it plays like DEFCON with bells and whistles. It's fast and arcadey but its arcadiness, little diorama planes zooming around and destroyers having duels like the ocean is just a lake, makes it accessible.
ICBM Escalation went and blew that up with more complexity. The old version of the game is included as a "Blitz" mode - classic ICBM - but now it has way more detailed tech trees, a million more units, conventional land warfare so you can conquer provinces, etc. Historical campaigns. Most of which revolves around the conventional side; you can have tactical nukes and such. But the main game, that IS intended to end in a spectacular nuclear total war. You're not going to send MiGs out, you'll send "Fighter Planes" out.
I never played the others but they sound to me like completely different games. Actual war simulators. There is no spreadsheeting in ICBM. Just like how in Age of Empires your dudes just swing swords at each other until one falls over, it's not like Total War.
