This is my first attempt at tracking and narrating any game I've played. Since BG is based in Ontario, and I live in Ontario, I felt a world hegemony by Ontario would be a fitting goal.
The game is set to very hard, with high approval effects. Resources were set to normal.
I am ten years in already, saving you all the build up time. Summary to date: Keep the peace at all cost, and maintain no military. Turn war into peace whenever it is declared on me (once by a neighbor). I've managed to do both. Some screen shots follow with the details so far:
This one shows you the overall layout. I am running a surplus of 300 billion, while working to tank GDP before bringing my armies out of reserve. Its getting harder and harder to drop my GDP to under 60k, and I doubt Ill make it this time, though I still plan to tinker for awhile. I may even build more troops before I begin. I was too busy trying to figure out how to get my pictures up on this thread to figure out where I left off at last night.....
Bit more of a close up of the south. I have a huge export economy. There are more consumer, industrial, and military fab places crammed into those pixels than their is left in the whole of Ontario after NAFTA sent them to Mexico...My land fabs are to the north, the three military complexes by themselves are where my strategic bombers are based, and the rest is self explanatory.
Anyway, I find an export economy works very well, but you need to constantly be tweaking it. You have to control the crashes, and use them to crush GDP and create conditions for another boom. I am still looking for a balance, although this does work, provided I have the time to manage the economy. Before setting out on this war, I plan to spend a bit more time playing with it to see if I cna come up with something relatively maintenance free while the Great Imperial Power of Ontario lays waste to all who would oppose...
This is just a shot of Northern Ontario where all my mines, and coal generating stations are....
...And this one shows the first challenges. I've always been big on treachery in video games, as in rl Im far to honorable a man. In games I'm ruthless. The knife will slip into the back of Michigan first. Though we've had good relations, what I need right now is a poorer population base to temper the recent economic success. There is also that neighboring army of Abrams tanks to deal with....
The great nation of Ontario has decreed that forward units begin assembling for active duty...
First the Wings....
And we can't forget to load up the great Ontarian Air Forces favorite Phallic symbols, Comag Senators!!! The very name makes me want to climb a mountain in the far north during the coldest of winters, where fire freezes instead of going out, and head bang to the most viciously dirgy viking metal that man has ever conceived....
(from here on out captions will pertain the pictures below them, not to the ones above)
The Red Army of Ontario shall fertilize the land with the blood of our southern enemies.
This is army group south, tasked with striking into the heart of Michigan, and taking it out as fast as possible. Air support will be totally devoted to the south.
In the north-east a few army groups have been tasked with the conquest of Quebec. Intelligence reports indicate that the "French" in Quebec have too much cultural identity to be trusted. Besides that, they talk about freedom, human rights, the NWO, and that can only mean one thing: Their Al Qaeda!!
The assault will begin when the troops are ready...
The first absolutely crushing, and decimating air attack of World War III...or IV...or whatever the hell number it thinks it is these days....
Boom!!!!
Boom!!!!
For the moment, the troops will sit tight. The Leader has ordered Detroit to be leveled. The Hair Rock it spawned will leave a bad mark on Metal for centuries to come...
Re-enforcements coming from north and west...
After a few more sorties; The Land Invasion...
Another wave of re-enforcements comes in from the west, even as Ontarian forces move to encircle Detroit...
Ontario's encirclement plans we're rendered redundant by the sheer destruction rendered on the battlefield...
Ontario is faring well, though casualties are a little higher than expected. A large majority of the initial invasion force is banged up, and back in reserve repairing. Pennsylvania has entered the war with a significant force. My goal now is to finish off Michigan and Ohio ASAP, while beating back any new contenders. I want to entrench, repair, take stock, then resume territorial conquest...
Ontario is hammering the opposition pretty bad, but it hasn't been without cost...
Michigan was able to post net land gains still because they conquered Illinois early on, so their wont be a quick fall for them. Ontario commits to defeating Ohio...
After the glorious armies of Ontario decimated Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, it became time to consolidate. Building facilities here, destroying facilities there, and disconnecting still others. Repairs are done, and missiles are rebuilt. Money is coming in, and the armies of Ontario are again massing....
Army group West will strike through Indiana to finish off Michigan, in what was once Illinois. It is highly unfortunate that Indiana didn't opt for a Formal Alliance. Pity so many innocent lives will be vainly sacrificed....
Army group South will be tasked with the heart of Indiana, and its primary duty will be to meet any unexpectected involvment from other states....
And army group East, tasked with the final destruction of pennsylvania, and the launching of a southern offensive through Maryland...
All that's left now are the final preparations....stay tuned.
After long meetings into the night, The Leader heeded the word of his generals and launches his attack in the West first, while making overtures in the East before the final treachery....
The calm in the East will not last....
Defeat will be absolutely total. Within four hours, a third of Indiana is in Ontario's grasp...
The Capital fell after another four hours....
Indiana is routed after a day...
Ontario's moment of formal triumph approaches with Indiana, even as the treacherous, vile French of Quebec launch a surprise attack, threatening the heartland of the Empire...
Reserves are called up to meet the French offensive, even as the offensive gains speed in the West, until finally....
With that, Ontarian forces focus all available western forces, merging former army groups south and west into one devastating force whose sole purpose is the final destruction of Michigan...
The Quebecois offensive was stronger than Ontario had expected. The leader has ordered all units allocated to the East against Pennsylvania to be rerouted to the north. Pennsylvania once again is spared the wrath of The Leader....
Even as What remains of Michigan is cleaved in two in a matter of hours....
....and the leader totally changed his mind on a whim about those Eastern forces. Pennsylvania is going down at the SAME time as Quebec. So it is written, and so it shall be done!
Meanwhile, Chicago will soon be cut off and destroyed....
Michigan has been overcome by the mighty imperial power of the royal Imperical Empire of Empiric Epic Imperial Ontario. Even as the blood is still wet upon the faces of Ontarian Men and Women, they are ordered East with all haste, to join in the fight against the French, and the drive to the Eastern coast...
