Bay 12 Games Forum

End of the Third World War

It is June 23, 1998 and I am pleased to report that World War III has finally ended after roughly a year and a half without further nuclear escalation. The United States successfully securing its borders by occupying Canada, Bahamas, Solomon Islands, Cuba, and Mexico. The People's Republic of China capitulated to the Soviet Union around the same time and the United States sees no point in further risk of escalation to liberate another enemy state. Due to both sides being able to legitimately declare victory because of the United States effectively becoming the United States of North America and the Soviet Union occupying China, the Third World War has technically ended with a strategic draw and a state of cold conflict has resumed. The United States has restored its ethic ratings back to "honest" now that there is no longer any need to risk sentiment with our friends and allies in order to prosecute a global conflict. Martial law is set to be lifted and the United States shall now focus on post-war recovery and restoring peace levels of our allies. America's spending deficit has also been greatly reduced thanks to its expansion throughout North America. Soviet ambition has been reduced thanks to China imposing a trade embargo thereby significantly reducing the likelihood of further Soviet aggression. Vietnam and Laos are now the only remaining Communist countries left in the world.

Final Battles of World War III

Post-War Key Maps & Status

Moving Break

Okay I have packed up my desktop computer so further Let's Play Shadow President will be impossible until after I have moved and I got settled in. I'd like to say a week but for safety we should assume it could be a month. I think I left off the LP at a reasonable point anyways. The United States is effectively under siege and potentially faces an existential threat from the Imperialist Soviet Union and its allies in the ongoing Third World War. I might end up writing a scenario based on that particular saved game with a few small adjustments possible. Meanwhile anyone should feel free to start up a new Let's Play of their own to keep this thread going and so I am not the only one contributing playthrough updates.

World War III - Barbarians At The Gates

We have now reached 1998 and while it appeared America would soon be poised to invade the Soviet Union to force their unconditional surrender and end the Third World War, there have been some last minute complications. The Russian KGB has successfully sponsored a coup d'état resulting in pro-Soviet Imperialist government seizing power in Canada the day after Christmas. Furthermore the Soviet Union and some of their allies have deployed troops to Canada and Mexico effectively surrounding the United States. At the end of 1997 it appeared America was vulnerable to invasion due to all active duty personnel being deployed overseas with only a few thousand being stationed in island territories "adjacent" to the United States being available for defense. This however changed at the start of 1998 when United States military manpower nearly doubled. While it may be tempting to send most of those troops overseas as well, Mexico too had a manpower boost and now has over two million troops which augmented by Soviet forces already deployed in the region presents a clear and present danger to the United States. There is a possibility the planned invasion of the Soviet Union may need to be postponed until the Soviet foothold in North America can be dealt with which unfortunately means this war will be continuing longer then expected and any form of status quo ante bellum remains unacceptable. Japan's economy is still suffering from the invasion the previous year and now the Soviets appear to have their sights on France. America remains in debt though it is still slowly shrinking. Unfortunately I was forced to slash Social and Investment spending by $50 billion each to allow additional Defense spending without having current GNP growth exceed projected. Despite having switched to Developing Capitalist, Saddam Hussein's Iraq did not join the United States Team Alliance most likely due to their ambition level and because of that they remain a state sponsor for terrorism. On the bright side, Taiwan is now in a much better position to challenge China as they now have regional nuclear capabilities. Nationalist India also has regional nuclear capabilities and while they aren't really my ally per say and kinda rated as competition, they do present another challenge for China. Oh and with China's defeat in Hong Kong and still being under a U.S. economic embargo, they have once again lost Great Power status and less of a military threat. Their ambition remains topped off however so they could very easily still cause problems.

Key Primary Status

Primary World Maps

Key Regional Maps

U.S.A. and Soviet Troop Deployments

Manpower Updates For 1998

Primary Wartime Troop Availability for 1998

Canadian Coup and America Surrounded (just before 1998 manpower update

"Let us build our billion-dollar machine, and we will save America from the barbarians at the gate." Senator Robert Kinsey, Stargate SG-1 episode "Politics"

World War III - Invasion of Hong Kong

The scheduled handover of Hong Kong to the People's Republic of China was postponed with the British Prime Minister declaring that as long as China continued its aggressive actions against allied nations that the British people could not in good faith leave the fates of millions of British Overseas Territories citizens in the hand of the morally questionable Chinese Communist Party whose General Secretary had essentially already chosen to disregard the Sino-British Joint Declaration of 1984 and not abide by the One Party, Two Systems policy while declaring that the British were obligated unconditionally to return their territory. Correctly anticipating military action from the People's Liberation Army, the United Kingdom deployed reinforcements with Commonwealth realms members Australia, Canada, and New Zealand also dispatching troops. Also immediately following the time the handover was to happen, the Red Chinese began pouring troops into the city intending to take it by force since the British refused to return it voluntarily. Initially the Chinese appeared to have the upper hand in the fighting and seemed poised to take the city within a matter of days however the arrival of British and Commonwealth reinforcements as well as U.S. military intervention on behalf of the British has prevented an easy victory for China. Despite being outnumbered nearly 6 to 1, British-Commonwealth-American forces clearly have the edge in battle due to having higher defense budgets and more money spent per soldier then the Red Chinese. Within a month of fighting, the overall death toll was in the hundreds of thousands with an overwhelming majority of casualties being among Chinese invasion forces. The Battle of Hong Kong is considered to be a part of World War III which had not concluded despite a decisive victory when U.S. forces had driven the Russians from Japanese soil. To pronounce on this, the United States has conducted a number of surgical strikes against the Soviet Union. The President of the United States confirmed the continuation of war while declaring that status quo ante bellum was an unacceptable outcome for the war due to the fact the initial Soviet nuclear strikes against Dallas and New York had killed millions of innocent American civilians.

Chinese Invasion of Hong Kong

June 1, 1997 - Seven Years Later

It is now mid-1997 (exactly 7 in-game years since the start of the current LP). The Third World War is ongoing with the Soviet Union still in the process of invading Japan. The United States has managed to slow the Russian onslaught however the enemy is still gradually gaining ground and both sides are suffering heavy losses with twice as many U.S. service members dying after only six months of war then during the entire Vietnam War. Soviet losses are also heavy though their military doctrine allows for heavy casualties in order to achieve military goals. On a positive note, Poland and Czechoslovakia are now both Democratic Capitalist meaning they will be joining the United States World Team Alliance at the start of 1998. As such U.S. leadership has decided to hold off until at least that time before launching an invasion of the Soviet Union assuming peace has not been restored by then. A majority of U.S. citizens now call for the utter destruction of the Soviet Union as retribution for the nuclear strikes on New York City and Dallas at the start of the war. While a massive nuclear assault would do just that in an instant, doing so would mean a certain full-scale nuclear strikes worse then the initial attack which would destroy America in turn. So the other option would be a military occupation. The Selective Service is now preparing a full military draft in order to call up sufficient personnel for prosecuting the war against Soviet forces and potentially their allies in all corners of the globe. The United States remains in a state of martial law with police state levels now "restricted". So far there have been no major combat with Mexico however one for their assassins did try to take me out but failed miserably and the U.S. retaliated with a surgical strike. As the Soviet Union has been focused on the invasion of Japan they have not yet deployed troops overseas to their new allies including Mexico which combined with the fallout wiping out a third of Mexico's military back in December '96 means that the U.S. can afford to deploy most its force overseas. An invasion of Mexico is still being considered. China has also been causing trouble again and has recently launched a surgical strike against Italy and while it failed I still retaliated by restricting trade and hitting back with a surgical strike. Also trade has been restricted with ALL Soviet allies because well their allies of the enemy  regardless if we're at war or not. As a result America's debt is now several hundred billion dollars however fortunately it is shrinking due to "Projected GNP Growth" being significantly larger then "Current GNP Growth". Unfortunately that could change should Russia successfully occupy Japan which would force me to restrict or close trade and drop my projected GNP to near current levels. This gives another reason why Japan must not fall. Military spending will in all likelihood be increased further in 1998 in order to increase capabilities of U.S. forces as well as provide enough military aid money to send to all allies adjacent to the Soviet Union. In an interesting turn of events, Iraq has shifted from Developing Centralism to Developing Capitalism - this happened in the aftermath of an assassination attempt against Saddam Hussein. This came as a surprise to many in the West who had assumed that a bad guy like Saddam would have certainly allied himself with the Russians instead of the United States. Iraq is also the first member of the Arab League to assume a pro-West ideology. Iraqi ambition and ethnics remain very bad and they will probably remain a formal rival until at least 1998 during which sanctions will remain in place, No-Fly Zones enforced, and U.N weapons inspectors will continue their work. Another surgical strike or two remains possible through the remainder of 1997.

Key Status and Maps

World War III

Saddam Hussein's Iraq Changes

Dang that's the first time the US has been nuked in one of these LPs, and with that WWIII has started.


Also what happens when an advisor dies, do you get a replacement eventually or are they just dead forever?

I really not sure. I do know there is a way to bring them back with universal game editor though not sure I should use that exploit at least not until next election which would be in 2000 or at least wait til the war is over.

Oh and heads-up. I'm fixing to move so there's a chance I will very soon have to put the current LP on hold. I've already backed up the saves and key screen captures onto a USB so we won't lose this LP. Of course don't let that stop you from starting up another RP or voicing suggestions for when I can resume.

Update: Furthermore I have the saved game just before Russia's initial attack which means at a later date after I win (hopefully) World War III, I could revert to that save and endeavor to get through the 90s to the millennium without a world war. For now though even I'm interested to see how far this conflict will go.

Guide for changing U.S. Popularity, Ethics, and Ambition

Not an update just a quick guide showing how the player can easily change their popularity, ethics, and ambition without the aid of the UGE.

Popularity
To easily increase popularity in-game, pause the timer then select a staunch ally, go into war room, and request to deploy troops without changing the number. A good balance to the insane popularity decreases from running a war. Depending on ethics it can increase or decrease popularity - useful during a major crisis such as a world war. If you want to avoid getting spammed with lots of Diplomatic talks, best to select a country occupied by an ally - note this won't work on U.S. controlled countries in CD version cause they don't get a choice on whether or not to accept your troops which is realistic. Below is a list on how ethics impacts troop deployment impact on popularity.

5.0-6.0: Once you feel you made enough troop deployment requests, starting up the timer will move the popularity up.
4.0-4.9: The poll level raises instantly when deployment request is made, even while the timer is frozen.
3.0-3.9: Troop deployment requests have no effect on the polls.
1.0-2.9: Polls DROP with each deployment request!
Note: If polls are at zero percent, don't bother with deployments as they will have no effect in this case.

Ethics
To increase or decrease ethics with ease, pause the timer then select a random country. Increasing economic and humanitarian aid increases ethics while decreasing the same aid decreases ethic. Oh by the way the dollar value of the aid changes do not impact how much ethics are changed. For example increasing economic aid to Somalia by $1 million OR $100 million or even $1 billion will not change how much ethics are increased. So best to increase only $1 million at a time to have a noticable impact on ethics.

Ambition
Somewhat simple - get a country with weak leadership to condemn you because a failed condemnation against you increases your ambition. Best way to do this is a condemnation argument with a bad guy state not in the best leadership while yours is higher then average. This only works until ambition gets up to 3.0 - 3.1 then after that failed condemnations have no further impact. Also condemnations won't affect target country leadership if it's down to 29% - 30%.