Thoughts by Mr Creosote (22 Jul 2023) – PC (Windows)
If you’ve been reading a bit on this website, you won’t be surprised that in my teenage years, I used to be quite a tabletop wargaming nerd. I spent countless afternoons, evenings and weekends staring at abstract maps, some detailed and highly tactical small battlefields, others representing the complete world, or large parts of it. The need to keep in mind so many different rulesets, so many specificities, didn’t bother me. It was just great, trying out all those different approaches, knowing what great role real life psychology between the participants played. Even if, admittedly, we rarely played a game to the end. At some point, it was usually clear who would win, which was a good time to call it a day.
One relatively lightweight, but nevertheless enjoyable game of those times was Supremacy . Updated just enough from the basic Risk formula to be taken seriously by the hardcore nerds, this one remained accessible enough to always find people to play with. Its (physically) huge map made it impossible to keep playing in university days with its cramped living conditions. Ever since then, I had been looking for a computer game version. Which I sort of found in Proliferation. This shareware game – later released as freeware – did not have a licence, and it is not a straight adaptation, but it may very well have been inspired by the aforementioned tabletop. Just putting a bit more focus on the nuclear war aspect.
The 1980s, the decade which had given birth to the Supremacy tabletop, had been a decade of nuclear fear. Glasnost and Perestroika lowered those fears and in the midst of the western enthusiasm of the Soviet Union falling apart, it was almost forgotten that this wasn’t so much “the end of history”, but rather just the beginning of the next age in possible nuclear holocaust scenarios. All of sudden, a large number of smaller, newly independent and somewhat unstable states found themselves as owners of a atomic missile arsenal. Making the 1968 treaty of non-proliferation of nuclear weapons sort of obsolete.
In the world of Proliferation, nuclear weapons are everywhere. Each player starting out from one territory on the Risk style map, all neutral zones are soon conquered by one of the acting powers. Only to then turn against each other, until one rules supreme. Usually over a highly radiated wasteland.
The baseline of those military struggles is a simple economy system. Production of food and oil per province goes into the global national reserve. A surplus of food enabling population growth (if other conditions are met), oil being necessary to launch military operations. Trading these commodities on the world market is possible as well, to balance out shortages or earn additional funds to invest. The nice thing here is that Proliferation considers balancing factors. A strategy of controlled growth proves to be much more successful than simply trying to become the biggest fast.
Investment largely goes into military means, roughly split into offensive and defensive capabilities. The latter always being more expensive than the former, audacity is generally rewarded by the game. Though, again, not in the one-dimensional Risk way of simply sending the biggest imaginable army.
That is because a so-called conventional army will not win this war alone. Nuclear weapons are a must. Split into two types, strategic missiles take a whole turn to get ready, do a large amount of damage, but also cause major increase in the global radiation level. Tactical nukes, on the other hand, mostly just kill enemy soldiers. At the minor cost of increasing regional radiation level temporarily. That local radiation dissipating fairly quickly. Just that part of it will also go into the global atmosphere. Which is where it all comes full circle: radiation kills people. It is therefore the counteracting force of the nicely planned population growth through food surplus.
Further details enhance this big system where one gear wheel interlocks with another. The designers managed to keep everything in a great balance so that strategic and tactical decisions never become obvious, never easy. There are trade-offs to be considered, constantly. Which is why Proliferation has stood the test of time on my harddrive. Even if usually, admittedly, I don’t play to the end. At some point, I reach the stage where it is clear whether I will win or lose and from that point on, it would be simple busywork. So I stop, just like in the old days. Just that now, I keep it running to listen to the amazing music. Just three different tracks, one of them a lovely MIDI rendition of Jean-Michel Jarre’s Equinoxe 4, but those fit the scenario perfectly, with missile launch sounds becoming part of the melody and spelling doom. Even if you “win”.
