The Official Game Status Update Thread

[Seperallis]

If you can't see what's going on, click the pictures. I resized them to not stretch things.

So I was playing Superpower 2 as Afghanistan. The Taliban were in charge, so I'm obviously playing at them. It took me maybe 20 years to get Afghanistan to a place where it wouldn't be considered a backwater, with a functioning military. We had free demonstrations, a free press, a multi-party democracy, good relations with "the West"...things were kind of alright. The Taliban are a legitimate regime that serves the good of the people, after all.

Of course, if I wanted a "legit" game, I'd continue my campaign for world peace as China. No, I had a different purpose for Afghanistan, one that would be much more dangerous and difficult. You see, over the course of several decades, I'd been preparing for this day. Nations didn't like me for it at first, but eventually they forgot, they grew comfortable with our stable, amicable regime. In time, everything returned to normal.

Then, sometime around mid-year, 2058 AD, the Valkyries rode forth.



I call this next one, "The Hubris of Man."



Afghanistan struck first, with no warning and seemingly with no real purpose to their action. Nearly two thousand nuclear-tipped intercontinental warheads streaked from their tubes deep in the Afghan mountains, striking indiscriminately around the world at all the major powers, targeting both key military assets as well as civilian centers...but mostly the latter, as once bustling cities were reduced to corpse-strewn graveyards.



The creeping barrage of death swept entire continents. Hundreds of millions, maybe even close to a billion, lost their lives throughout the world in the fiery carnage. Afghanistan wasn't spared, itself; though its missile shield kept most incoming strikes at bay, Kabul was still hit, and known military positions were decimated. Luckily for me, I kept all my new and highly trained troops hidden and undeployed, ready to come into action after the dust and danger settled. With the citizens panicked, martial law was declared, all government functions handed over to the Mujahedeen.



It's only fitting that my conquests so far (in orange - Afghanistan shown in green) resemble the shape of the great poisonous clouds that paved the way for their march across central Asia. While great alliances oppose me - indeed, nearly the entire world did in the beginning - few have the strength to muster a resistance to the great Afghan corpse-grinder.

The Taliban march ever onward. The Great Caliphate shall rise.

One interesting thing of note, though, is that, in all this carnage and death, the entire old world order of alliances and treaties collapsed completely. NATO collapsed; the UN charter was torn to shreds. International organizations saw themselves ignored and made obsolete in the new post-nuclear world. Their economic, political, and military power obliterated, the great powers of the world struggled to keep hold of the tenuous world peace. The ecosystem had been disrupted; World War 3 began as once lesser powers sought to exert their influences in this dangerous new landscape, though nearly all the conflicts were resolved a year and a half later.

Most of all, with this grave new threat to humanity, old grudges and enemies fell by the wayside, as the world shared a bond forged in nuclear fire. Russia and the United States, and what few friends of theirs that remained, struggling to hold onto relevancy and attempting to lead the world in defense of such an abominable foe, forged an alliance that put paid to more than a century of rivalry. As the Afghan military marched steadily onward, the world slowly grew more united. New pacts were founded as a new world order was formed.

East and West no longer existed. In this new world, you were either with the Caliphate, or against it.

Who new something resembling world peace could be forged through the fires of nuclear hell?