This simulation is the most detailed and realistic model of a country that has ever been commercially produced. It does that not by showing roads and cities on a map, or giving you different military units to build, but by having you run what makes a country work - its economy.

Pick up the newspaper. Right now, (early 2005) the U.S. President’s fighting a war, maybe more than one. The deficit’s going up like a squirrel on speed. Infrastructure needs to be maintained, social programs need support, and the American military’s stretched to the limit. Think this won’t happen to you, bunkie?

Go to page two, past the big news. There’s a new trade deal. Somebody’s complaining about the low funding for education. An article talks about closing military bases. These are all things that you will have direct control over, with the immediate goal of improving your country’s economic health. Your longterm goal is to dominate the planet, and you can’t do that unless everything’s running smoothly back home.

Your job, which you have accepted by laying out your hard-earned krøner for this game, is to find the resources that will support your economy, boost your GDP per capita, and finally, to provide for the security of your borders by building and maintaining a military force.

The good news about a military force is that if you do it right, the AI in this game will think twice before attacking you. This (somewhat) resembles what actually happens in the real world.

The bad news is that, also like the real world, the military does nothing for your economy. It’s a drain, a dead weight. It produces nothing. You can’t eat a tank.

Worse still, you can’t just create a military and let it sit. It has to be improved, upgraded, and constantly adjusted to make sure that you’re zigging when your potential opponent(s) are. He builds a couple of cruise missiles, and all of a sudden you’ve got to spend billions on an air defense network. And you had your heart set on that armored division...

But the only way you can afford that vital military capability is to stay focused on the economy. Keep your immigration numbers up, to grow your workforce. Create jobs by building industry, including consumer goods. Industry needs power plants. Everything needs resources, which means more mines and water works, and probably trade with other countries.

Nothing is more frustrating than building a factory and finding out the money is wasted because you don’t have enough power or water or ore or whatever to operate it. If you can, build the mines and power plants the factory needs as well as the factory. If you have to build things one at a time, get the resources
first. You can sell the excess resources abroad until your demand increases, which is also good for your bottom line.

Don’t be afraid to interact with your neighbors. It’s a rare scenario where you will have enough of all the resources you need for the length of the game. And trade is a lot cheaper than war. Other countries can become important sources of resources, technology, weapons, and consumer goods, as well as military security.

And you don’t have to use money to make your purchases. You can offer a non-aggression pact, or excess resources of your own. You can offer scientific designs, or even goods like weapons. This seems foolhardy, but the US government’s been selling weapons to the Saudis and to other oil-producing states. The trick is to figure out who your friends will be later on, then make sure they stay your friends. It can be hard, but you will be making a lot of hard choices.