4 supply trucks tanked my economy

[M1911]

Central American economies are fragile things. I was playing as Panama and had made progress in turning the economy around. My inflation rate was almost 0 (from a starting deflation of around -5%) and my unemployment had fallen from 15% to 11%. My treasury secretary had kept me afloat with bonds, but a falling credit rating meant the economy would have to stand on its own two feet soon.

About this time, the wonderful people at the WM offered me four free supply trucks. I figured why not, they're free. Of course, the trucks were shipped empty. One of my cost-cutting measures had been to decrease military goods production, so my stocks were low. My defense minister couldn't abide having empty trucks sitting around, so he went out and bought 768 tons of military goods @ $44,000 a ton--$33,792,000.

That put me in the red and brought my economy to a screeching halt because I couldn't afford to buy oil. The oil shortage meant I had to import consumer and industrial goods and started a downward spiral from which the economy never recovered. I slashed social spending, issued bonds, and sold all the trucks and some reserve garrisons, but it wasn't enough.

Anyone looking to learn the economic system better should try one of these small countries. The numbers are much smaller (my industrial goods plant at full capacity produced 799 tons a day) and you can see the effects of any changes you make much quicker. It was an eye-opener for me. Having mostly played US scenarios prior to this, where a few supply trucks filling up would have caused only a tiny bump in demand, I didn't think twice about accepting some "free" equipment.

[november]

Couldn't agree more. They play a lot differently than some of the straight wargame ones do.

[Decimatus]

That is pretty funny.

[lordrune]

Yeah... I've been waiting to see if SR 2010 would ever make it to store shelves into Australia, but when I read this post, I decided that I'm going to order the game and see if I can turn a banana republic into a world power.

[Decimatus]

I would have to say that taking central america to world domination would be a rather tough situation. I mean, that large mil base near seatle has nearly twice the unit production capacity of all of Central America.

Not to mention, starting the N. America scenario as central america starts with this sentence:

"Our only hope to survive will be choosing the right alliance."

[Viperace]

4 supply trucks brought down ur economy, a nice lesson err story for us to learn.

[Fordson]

Ahah! Food for thought here. Maybe there IS something behind a big country giving "aid" to small ones in the real world!

hmmmm. could this game actually be considered edutainment?

[Decimatus]

So, build 5000 supply trucks and give them to your enemies? Ruin their economies....

Though, I am sure the AI is better at managing the supply running to the trucks.

[Legend]

you can put your supply trucks into reserve... and you'll get the stuff mil.goods back then.

[dust off]

I seem to be having a similar scenario as SW Texas (demo). I'm at war with everybody, except eliminated Texas.

My economy was going down so I reduced defcon, military wages and maintenance. I am making small amount of profit each day until some of Houston's or Dallas' trickle into range of two Arty stacks and then all that spent ammo sends me into the red.

[Il Duce]

That is an amazing tale - Numerical models are funny things.

Then again, we play these games for entertainment, and that certainly had to be entertaining.