Apocalypse (1983): Terrible UI and stale gameplay packaged in one successful game!
Crack underground troops, forged by the deadly urban warfare in Texas, are quickly redeployed through undersea tunnels in Central America. The local Scribe presence has apparently been obliterated, but the ferocious assault by the 67th Cave Proletarians manages to stabilize the frontline for now. Heavy casualties against crazed Neo-Mayans make difficult to completely pacify the country, however.
Turn 8.
One turn of peace with the Underground menace while the few empty squares still under reach for both of us - because after that it's all Mayan or Genar. The Scribes are busy at a conference in Yucatan. Looks like all the other territories are out of reach.
Surprised by the huge number of communists pouring out from underground brings the realization that our maps from the year 500 are badly outdated and there exists now many more tunnels than back then. So neo-Mayans have to take a pause and rethink how to locate and seal all these tunnels before the liberation of Central America may continue. Meanwhile we continue filling the map in the Amazon rain forest.
As the defending forces in many cities swell to unprecedented proportions, the glorious Genar conquests are scaled back to smaller skirmishes here and there, taking over a village or a town with heavy losses, similar to the situations on some of the fabled war-torn battlefields of old.
Of course, this time, everybody has nuclear weapons, which the glorious nation of Genar only builds if in danger of being attacked itself!
Five out of seven attacks against single divisions (not that the number of defenders matters...) on green tiles failed this turn. At least everybody can be sure that I ain't cheating, I guess?
Considerable forces are expended to clean up the countryside both in Central America and in Texas. The Scribes however resist furiously and claim many Revolutionary Battalions.
Also, why is everyone building nukes, guys.... guys!
Turn 9
Grabbing a good territory in Texas and fortifying my cities so no one steals my ink - not much to report it's between the Neo-Mayans and Genar at the moment.
More and more reports were coming in that people had been getting ill and died after visiting local food markets in southern Colombia and Ecuador. Neo-Mayans of course got worried that this mysterious virus would become a world-wide pandemic, and remembering the history books from the beginning of the 21st century, it became clear that we had to act quickly. Despite the strained relationship we have with the Kingdom of Genar, we decided to send humanitarian aid (medicine and disinfectants) to our neighbours and promised to make the first delivery by an air drop...
(Note the chain reaction because Genar was housing nuclear weapons in Quito.)
We also sent medical teams to the area to make sure that all the possible disease carriers were treated...
(A miracle happened and for the first time I had an attack without casualties of my own.)
Based on the evidence collected so far we are confident that we can declare the virus being stopped before it had a chance to spread out and the world saved for now. Considering that there were only minor collateral damage among the local population, our humanitarian aid operation can be called a success. Maybe we should continue doing aid projects also in the future.
Ouch! I suppose the territory yields 0 now after a double nuke?
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 19 May 2024, 22h58Ouch! I suppose the territory yields 0 now after a double nuke?
It seems that the minimum value for territory is 1, so all those double nuked territories now give me 1 resource point each. Thus one negative aspect of using nukes is that the affected area loses value, like here, even though many territories joined the Neo-Mayan empire, my resource points increased only a little.
And it seems I have misunderstood the instructions (and/or they are purposefuly misleading?), since I expected that nuking a city with a nuke will cause retaliatory strike, and not a chain reaction devastating my back areas. Oh well, it's not the first time we misread the rules, and I'm guessing it doesn't really make sense to have the nukes and not use them them?
EDIT: But they are also knife-fight range, apparently? Eh, that's on me, I should've played the game more before jumping into the fray, but man, are the instructions unclear. 😀
As the neo-Mayan empire shows it's true colors as war-criminals, in addition to all their other sins, and launch devastating nuclear strikes against the defenseless people in South American cities, the Genar are left with no recourse but to strike where the enemy is the weakest and take over some rural territory, in order to weaken the rising power of murderous heathens.
In Yucatan, the Scribes build a hard resistance and stop the efforts to remove them from Mexico with heavy losses on the Genar side. We are besieged at every corner!
The range of nukes is the number you have in the region, hence their "knife-fight" range in your case.
Note that even if you end up sending it at knife-fight range, you lose the full nuke.
Our seismometers are reading insane spikes all around South America. Our spies report that the Neo-Mayans have built an impossible weapon of war in.... in....what's the name of that one....
San Jose?
Sadly, the city is almost impossible to conquer. A single battleship can defend against an infinite number of armies, and even the strength of our Proletarian Battalions is not enough. A choice needs to be made. We'll swarm them.
A warship fleet is quickly assembled at great cost: hundreds die in the attempt to devise something that can float and fire at the same time. The fleet is ready, but the cost is staggering.... and a great army is needed for storming San Jose. A solution is quickly found: the enthusiastic Central American peasants and workers are quickly trained and equipped, and they prove deliriously happy to storm San Jose. Those who fail to show appropriate happiness become dinner for the survivors, as Marx intended.
Yes, I did empty all my countryside and play relay to keep throwing forces at San Jose until it fell. No you don't want to know how many troops I lost. Yes, I had to build an entire battlefleet to kill a single warship because this ruleset is pure insanity and you can't conquer a city with a ship inside. Yes, I'm actually weaker now because I had to abandon territories to keep throwing troops at the Neo-Mayans. No it wasn't even a smart move now that I think about it rationally.
Cons: You probably lot the game there.
Pro: It was fun to read and you have a nuke.
2 pros for one con, so worth it.
Also, this is the one and only use for warships, as far as I can tell - there is literally no reason to use them otherwise, as they are significantly more expensive than armies, not any more powerful or faster, and they can't move on land - while armies move on sea with no penalty to speed! It can technically sink any number of armies it finds at sea, but this only means that there's no way anybody leaves the armies at sea at the end of their turn. Actually I'm pretty sure there are warships in play since the very first turn (Haiti has two ports), and not one of them moved so far as far as I can tell.
I also realized that I hold Panama, which seems to be the only place where ships can transition from east to west portion of the map. Perhaps the most useless special place on the map, right there.
I will resist the urge to start the third paragraph with one more "also" and just note that I bear no ill will towards, uh, self organization in a capital-less society and, uhhhh, creative solutions to the food shortages, so for the time being, we can agree to an, eh, let's call it truce? I have bigger fish to fry anyway. We eat them over here, after frying, just FYI.
The nuke range - with the armies being range 6 from _almost anywhere on the map_ and nukes with that range costing (checks calculator) like 72, so I'd say they feel pretty knifey in all cases. Certainly more like a nuclear hand grenade than ICBM.
Turn 10:
More turns documenting nuclear fissions and Texas flora. Also, thanks to the Commies for leaving Central America to me ^^.
That was an unexpected development.
Quote from The Wargaming Scribe on 20 May 2024, 19h20Cons: You probably lost the game there
Yes, but I lost the game from turn 1 IMHO. I've been a rabid dog since turn 2, not going to start playing it smart now.
Also, I got a nuke! Weeee! Weeeee!
That was quite a turn of events, I didn't expect the commies of Central America were capable of showing such a commitment. Have to congratulate communist leader Dayyalu, you must have used methods to whip them to such a frenzy that would have won even the approval of comrade Stalin himself.
The unexpected fall of San Jose put a halt to neo-Mayan plans in Central America and we had to return to square one, namely after a long break continue the liberation of Haiti.
Although Port-au-Prince was liberated, rest of the Haiti campaign wasn't so succesful. After that we focused on pushing the Genarian invasion back and strengthening our position in South America. After numerous battles with manageable losses:
We were not in position to retaliate the actions of the commies so let them enjoy their stolen nuke for now. The question is, can the peasants even operate a nuke without blowing themselves up?
It is quite understandable to misunderstand the intstructions because the manual paints a picture that nuclear weapons are used like in real world as in creating a deterrant with ICBMs. But when you learn the actual rules of nukes in the game you realise it's the opposite and the only use for them is as tactical weapons on a battlefield. Just like heavy artillery in some other games.
Same thing with warships, manual gives the impression that they are important on the Caribbean map. So I built some early thinking that they would be ready when the need arises, but so far haven't found any reason to put them out to the sea.
Quote from Operative Lynx on 20 May 2024, 23h28It is quite understandable to misunderstand the intstructions because the manual paints a picture that nuclear weapons are used like in real world as in creating a deterrant with ICBMs. But when you learn the actual rules of nukes in the game you realise it's the opposite and the only use for them is as tactical weapons on a battlefield. Just like heavy artillery in some other games.
Same thing with warships, manual gives the impression that they are important on the Caribbean map. So I built some early thinking that they would be ready when the need arises, but so far haven't found any reason to put them out to the sea.
Wait! Wait! You guys are not deterred by all my nukes?
The glorious kingdom of Genar have dug in an prepared for a war of attrition[1], just like that one almost 800 years ago in Europe, with the trenches and stuff. I wonder if we have something to break the stalemate this time...
[1] Of course, in a game like this, the only attrition is damage caused to the terrain by the nukes, since we have apparently unlimited manpower?
One thing I just realized - the armies on the islands without ports (like that small mountainous one near Haiti, or one in the north-east corner of the map, or that one near Jamaica) are stuck there forever, since armies can't embark without a port. I hope nobody was building up a major force for a comeback from there!